The Diet: a reprise

I blew the diet over the holidays. And when I say holidays I mean from Thanksgiving until now I blew the diet. And since I was eating the occasional cookie or piece of candy or a helping of potato, I just went all out and blew it to hell.

Before Thanksgiving, I was at a loss of 35 pounds. Now really, I probably lost more but I fell off the dieting food truck (bwahahahahaha!) a few times and gained back a few pounds here and there and then lost that weigh again and then continued losing more.

But for now, I decided to forgo the diet and will go back on on Jan. 2, maybe tomorrow but probably Jan 2.

I don't mind doing the diet, actually. I really was doing well and losing. I was feeling pretty good and after the first week or two I wasn't really struggling. Oh, I had my moments at times, but I was doing pretty well at changing my food lifestyle. And the shakes were helping and guiding my loss,

Lots of people say having a shake diet can't be a lifestyle but as long as it's being produced then I don't see why. I was drinking a shake for breakfast, additionally I would drink a 24 ounce cup of coffee, black. Depending on my hunger level, I would put the shake mix powder in Greek yogurt and then pour that over fresh fruit salad, or I would stir it into a 1/2 cup of oatmeal.

At lunch I would have a salad with no dressing or fat free dressing. Sometimes I had chicken on it and other times not. And when I say a salad, I made a kickass salad with several kinds of lettuce, mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, yellow or orange peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe a tablespoon of low fat shredded cheese or an egg, and sometimes chicken or turkey (sometimes dressing, sometimes plain). This was not a small side salad. If I didn't have a salad I would have a Lean Cuisine but it had to be one that was 200 calories or less. I would also have a couple pieces of fruit with lunch.

Mid afternoon was a shake and then I would cook a healthy dinner. I kept some Special K or Weight Watchers snack stuffs, as well as cut up fresh veggies or fruit for snacks. If I was full I would skip my mid afternoon shake and have it in the evening as a snack.

Of course it's not easy and yes I do crave stuff like pasta, cheese, sweets and breads, which is what I've eaten a bunch of since Thanksgiving.

And I have to say I feel like crap most of the time since indulging in all the junk. I felt so much healthier and so much better when I was dieting. And it was so much easier to diet when Daddy-O was doing shakes and when TheSam was doing shakes because then we all ate the same. Neither of them are shake dieting so there's junk food everywhere! But alas, I will overcome it!

So on Jan. 2 (or maybe tomorrow) I'll weigh myself, add the new weight into my trackers and go back to shakes. I'm sure for a week I'll feel terrible and have to fight the cravings; I'll be hungry and probably cranky, but after the hump I'll be better and back on track.

The goal is to not be embarrassed to wear a swim suit this summer. It would be great, if by July 4th, I was at my target weight. We shall see. I'm going to start swimming a couple times a week- we have a pool at work and I'm welcome to use it when the kids aren't in it. I might even get a bicycle for this summer. Not sure about that, but it's a serious thought.

So within 24-48 hours the diet will commence. Yahoo me, right???

wanting to be a skinner
Mags


Dog Blog Here!

A Girl with Goals

I always blather this time of year about New Year Resolutions. I make 'em and break 'em.

I really thought, as I was sitting here typing this, about looking back in my archives to see what my 2012 resolutions were and how I did. Then I decided against it; why mess with my streak, right?

So I did go ahead and make resolutions for 2012. They are *drum roll please* as follows:

• Use my new camera to photograph something every single day
• Go back on my diet (which I strayed from during the holidays) and continue to lose weight
• Exercise
• Make something on my Pinterest each month (or more), whether it's a craft or food or DYI home stuff or quilting or sewing
• Find a full time job with health insurance (then use said insurance to go to the doctor for a check up!)
• Make more time for me to do fun and relaxing things (maybe this will happen when I have one full time job and not have to keep doing about 5 part time ones...)
• Read more
• Keep loving my new dog!!!

It's a start. It's good to have goals, right? Even if I do fail to achieve them, at least I have goals, which is better than I usually do.  I think I'm the only adult  in the world who doesn't have a 1 year plan, let alone a 5 year plan (I hate the question "where do you see yourself in 5 years?").

So, now I need to get down to work!
Mags

Same old, same old

Just bringing everyone up to speed here.

I still live in Daddy-O's attic and I'm still the librarian at Alcatraz. I still work as a part time receptionist on weekends. Mac is still delivering pizzas and has his own apartment, with a roommate. I still live in Civilization. I still hang out with XRay Girl, the Photographer, Curly, and Lilith. I'm still reading (though not as much as usual).

New stuff: I have a new car and a new dog, with whom my adventures are written about here. I'm in the capital of Civilization just about every weekend, when I'm not receptionist-ing. I see a Sam there. He and I are sharing the dog- more on that later. 

I got a really nice camera for Christmas and I've done some portrait shooting. I'm thinking of hanging a shingle out part-time. I'm working on a web site for a possible business. I'll see how I feel about it when I get done.

Otherwise, not much else new to report. I've been on and off the blogging grid for several months now and it's sad that I can offer an update and be the same in just a few paragraphs. Ugh!

Again, I'm not sure I want to give up blogging or not but as long as I'm here, I need to be HERE so I thought I'd let everyone know what's what while I sort it all out.

And that's it for now!
Mags

Winter wonderland, not a news story

I was in the path of the Blizzard 2012. Just typing that makes me laugh my butt off!!! Blizzard 2012 my foot!

First, it was a blizzard. It snowed like mad and we ended up with a foot of snow in less than 12 hours, right here in the capital of Civilization. That's a lot of snow really quickly. I'm not questioning the validness of calling it a Blizzard. I'm more tickled of how it's perceived by the media or by people outside of the state.

I recall storms on the East coast like this, just snow storms, and CNN and other news channels talk about it for days, practically, building it up, creating a logo and some heavy bassed, tragic music or something. Those of us in the Midwest must be made of sturdier stock because while we had closings of businesses and roads, large parts of the state were under a 'state of emergency' our Blizzard of 2012 was over and done with before CNN crews could get here let alone label us "SNOW DISASTER 2012" or some such other nonsense.

We as Midwesterners stay inside, and when given the all clear, we scoop snow, slap some plows on the front of trucks, haul out the salt and do our thing. Our city buses ran 30 minutes last and lot of businesses closed but for the most part, we were still functional. We didn't have to roll up the sidewalks and have a city wide panic. It was snow and a lot of it, not the Apocalypse.

Oh it was all over our statewide news and I did see footage of our city on CNN at the top of the hour so we rated some mention but not round the clock coverage, which is fine with me.

Though it's better than how snow is covered in the Wild West. I don't think anyone even acknowledges snow in the Wild West. We'd get a few feet, every few days, and I don't think it was even mentioned on our local news, other than in the traditional weather forecast.

It's all about perspective, I'm sure. If a foot of snow and gusting 60 mph winds happen in Boston or NYC it's NEWS but here in the Midwest... feh, we'll mention it and move on.

And that cracks me up. I'm always in need of a good giggle!

Maggie


If you'd like to read about my new dog, a greyhound, go here!

Can't Drive 55...

The car saga continues from yesterday...

So I have my new car, Ms. Hepburn, and Mac is driving the Malibu, aka 'The Blue Goose'.

At 3am my phone rang and it was Mac. In my 41 years on Earth, I've learned that no phone call at 3am is a good thing. And this time wasn't any different (though it could certainly be worse!).

Mac said a deer hit him and he wanted to know what he should do. After making sure everyone in the car was fine and that they were all sober in case we needed to call the police, I determined, from HIS description, that he should drive the car the 1 mile to his friend Nick's house. I offered to come get him and leave the car sit but he said it was drivable.

The next day I called the insurance company- State Farm- and told them what happened and they told me to drive it to the local Chevy garage to get an estimate. They said since it was drivable we could make an appointment and then they would give us a loaner car from the garage or a rental while the repairs were being done,

Meanwhile, it's daylight and Mac takes the car to Daddy-O's house and they determine it really isn't drivable. Mac takes it to the garage who confirms. I call the insurance office back who then orders a rental car, which gets dropped off at Daddy-O's in a few hours. So far I'm thrilled with State Farm.

Except the rental car company calls me and tells me that my child can't drive the rental car because he's not 25. Well shit. I am not going to let him drive Ms. Hepburn to deliver pizzas so I flat out broke the rules and let him drive the rental car, under penalty of his death if he so much as breathed crooked in it!

Three days pass and the garage calls and tells us that 'The Blue Goose' is officially totaled. Well, shit again. And I am not kidding, within 30 minutes of hearing from the garage, State Farm calls me to tell me that I have the rental car for 7 days. And they give me 2 price options for the car: one cost for giving them the car and a lower cost if I want to keep the car. I was told I didn't need the title if I went with the lower.

I didn't have the title. Okay, so the long story with the title is that I the woman I bought the car from... well, around the time I paid it off her husband died and then I moved back to Civilization and I just forgot about it. I wasn't sure I could even find the woman to get the title. And I didn't know anything about titles and cars so I thought "big deal" and took the lower price.

So then I had to worry about getting Mac a car in 7 days. But it wasn't that easy.

State Farm called me back and said I would have to give my agent a copy of the title to get the check. WTF? I told this person what I was told about not needing the title and was told that was a mistake. I said since I had to have the title, I wanted the higher amount and they could have the car- if I could find the title.

So, to make a long story longer, I did some research and found the woman. I called her and I explained the situation. She was willing to meet me at the DMV near her house, an hour from me.

But it's still not easy. She lost the title. Okay, though shouldn't be a big deal, right? We can just get a replacement. Then we discovered her dead husband's name is on the title so she had to have an original birth certificate. Okay, she has that. And then we discover a typo. I. am. not. kidding. Their last name is Jones and my name is O'Sullivan. The title had the lien holder's name as Pat and Sarah O'Sullivan. All Sarah's ID is Jones as is the death certificate of her dead husband- which is good since their last name is JONES. So we had to get the DMV to give a replacement title with the correct name. On the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Before the rental car is up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Of course it didn't happen. It took three trips to the DMV and a stack of paperwork and a million phone calls and a bunch of other shit. And the Thanksgiving holiday.

I begged State Farm for a few more days on the rental car and they refused because it's "policy" to only give 7 days. I argued that they should give me at least 2 more days since of my seven, one was a holiday and one was a Sunday- still the answer was no.

While I'm juggling all the crap with the DMV I found a used car in my price range at the same place I bought Ms. Hepburn. It was a '96 Lumina.  It had less miles and was in really good shape even though it was older. It was the best I could do. Thankfully, I explained to the dealership what was going on and they were more than happy to hold the car until I could straighten out the mess with the title.

Finally, I get everything straightened out with the DMV but I don't have the title because it will take 10 days to process. I get a SIGNED letter from the DMV saying the situation is taken care of and the title will be mailed. I arranged for the title to be mailed directly to my agent. I signed a legal release giving the car to State Farm. I did all this extra because I was told their total loss department would give me the check before receiving the paperwork. And of course they didn't.

So we had no money, no rental car, and no replacement car. Mac's roommate let him drive his car for a few days. Mac did some kitchen work for a few, and was lucky enough to have a couple days off so he didn't need a car. Ms. Hepburn didn't have to deliver a single pizza- thankfully.

And did I mention that while State Farm won't give me a check or more rental care time but they hauled 'The Blue Goose' away the day I accepted the higher price. That's right- they took possession of the car and gave me nothing for 2 weeks. Oh, I guess we could make the argument that State Farm had to pay lot rental to the junk yard, but gee, guess what? The Chevy garage- where I bought Ms Hepburn and was buying Mac's new car- agreed to let the Malibu sit as long as necessary since all this was going on. State farm could've let my car sit and used the money they were paying for lot rental on a rental car. Nice, huh? Very poor customer service, I fell.

The title comes, finally, and I get the paperwork taken care of, and finally sign the paperwork for Mac's new car. Mac gets the car.

All's well that ends well.

And I told Mac to stay away from those damn deer.

The Bureaucratic Paperwork Queen,
Mags

Round, round, get around, I get around

I had to get a new car. I don't have a bunch of money or anything to suddenly handle this but it was necessary.

Mac got a job delivering pizza, which I've mentioned before. He borrowed a car from X-Ray Girl and was trying to save money to buy one of his own. X-Ray Girl needed her car back sooner than she anticipated so now Mac had no car. Daddy-O and I had a discussion and decided to just make a few calls to see if I could find a car for Mac and we would help him make payments, thinking we could find a 'clunker' and between the three of us we could help him make a $100 a month payment, or something like that.

Well, after a few phone calls and driving through car lots, it came to pass that I could get a car!!!!! I could afford a payment! I was able to do a 2 year lease on a 2012 Chevy Cruze! Wow! Yay!

I love, love, love this car. It's the first new car I've ever had. I love driving it. It's so much fun and nice. I have power locks and doors that work. I have a keyless remote! AND I have a remote starter which is one of the coolest things ever. I also have a trial subscription to XM radio which I think I would sacrifice drinking Starbucks to pay for that each month- I swear that's a dream, a luxury. I love this car.

And since I have this great, fabulous, awesome new car, I thought it should have a name. The Malibu is/ was affectionately called "The Blue Goose." So I had to name this baby. But what? Ah the choices. A boy or a girl? And then it had to be perfect and befitting. It had to fit her and me. She's sleek and classy but fun and has a zippy personality. She runs quietly and gets the job done. She's popular and well loved. What better name than.... *drum roll please!*... Ms. Hepburn!

Yes, I call my car Ms. Hepburn: when she's being playful and sassy she could be Katherine and when she's quiet and classy she could be Audrey. My car, the Ms Hepburn. She and I will rule the world!

Oh yeah... then I gave Mac the Malibu, aka "The Blue Goose." He then had a car to drive. It seemed all issues were solved.

Until he was driving one night and was hit by a deer.

If you ever wondered if life can be easy, the answer to that would be no. So we have a new car, a totaled car and a kid who needs to deliver pizza.

I'm not going to finish this saga now; that way I'm forced to be back tomorrow to finish the rest of the story!

Crusin' around,
Mags



And you can read about my new Greyhound dog here!

Christmas Day movie

We saw The Guilt Trip today. Oh. my. goodness. It's me and Mac.... oh my....

Merry Christmas Eve!

For Christmas I have a dog! You can read all about him, and our adventures here!

I didn't want this blog to turn into an all about the dog blog. Though I guess it would be better than the 'there's nothing here' blog, but there's more to come regarding that, too.

But for now, Merry Christmas Eve to you all (and happy holidays to all my non- Christmasy readers, too!)! And I promise to be back before next year!

xoxo,
Mags

Will I be kicked out of the bibliophile club for this?

I can't believe it. I didn't read a single book in the entire month of November. I have no idea what happened. Well, I can fathom a guess...

In November I watched a LOT of TV. I mean, a LOT (I blame The Voice). I also watched more movies in November than I did in the entire year- 3 in the theater and about 10 DVDs. I also worked on 2 school extra curricular- our prom, which we do in the fall, and the art club. I worked my regular job. I also took a seasonal, part time job which took around 30 hours in November (there will be a post about this). AND I also took on a graphic design gig which was a bigger mess than the client realized so a quick 6 hour job turned into 22 hours. I was not happy about that.

My women's book club met this month and the selection was The Paris Wife, which I read earlier in the year so I did spend some time reviewing/ re-reading parts of it so I could possibly participate in the discussion.

November was also a high stress month. I bought a new car for myself (post coming soon with a picture of my new car and the BIG reveal about what I named the car). I gave my Malibu (aka The Blue Goose) to Mac and about 10 days later a deer ran into him so I spent 2 weeks straightening that out (post will be forthcoming...). Since Mac delivers pizzas a car is imperative so he was in high freak out mode which really stresses me out. And as always, there are the money worries associated with everything I do. Add the holiday in there and I was just a wreck.

I spent some time driving back and forth to see The Sam in the capital city.

 

I play LOTS of "Words with Friends" on my phone and I read Twitter.

By the time "free time" was available I usually had enough concentration left in me to gaze at the TV until I fell asleep. I could also skip the gazing step and lots of times just fell asleep. When I had enough energy to hold a book and look at the words and have some basic comprehension skills I couldn't settle on anything. Nothing was holding my interest. I started and abandoned the Tony Danza teaching book- though I do want to go back and read it all the way through. I've been reading a book about adopting a racing greyhound off and on this month, too, since I am adopting a retired racing greyhound on Dec 20 (yes a post about this is forthcoming). I downloaded 13 samples of books I thought I might want to read on my Nook. (Since getting the Nook I'm really selective in what I buy since I have to pay full ebook prices rather than waiting for it to be used at my local used bookstores). I know I read all the samples, one every few evenings. I also read some magazines. I just HAD NO FOCUS. Then about a week ago I started reading Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store. I plodded through it. It was interesting at first but my attention wained. I was determined to finish solely because the book glowed in the dark. I finished it last night, which is Dec. which makes it official...

I read no complete book the entire month of November.

That must change...

Mags