I'm a college student again.... kinda

Yesterday was my first college level dance class that I've taken in 15 years.  The class?  it was wonderful!

About an hour later I really started to feel it. By the time I got home I could hardly walk.

Of course, the puppy wanted walkies NOW.  I shuffled out to take her, then practically cried when thinking about dinner.  the Spousal Equivalent ordered pizza.  It was honestly the best tasting pizza ever.

Unfortunately we had to do some after dinner canine maintenance.  I won't go into details... but it involved dog butt and washing.   The dog was doing her best armadillo impression.  What I needed in my state.

I ended the night watching a few episodes of Switched at Birth.

I so want to learn Sign Language now!

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The wonders of comparison shopping!!

I stumbled upon this by accident, and I'm SO glad that I did!

I've been looking at the Circa Notebooks for a while.  I like to make my own planner pages, and well... with a hole punch and this notebook my planner would look classy.

So I read some reviews.  And I learned things!

Staples has the exact same thing, but cheaper!!!

I'd so rather pay under $20 for a book than the $50 that Circas run.  A hole lunch and a notebook (I'm thinking blue...) and I'll be a VERY happy camper!  Ordering is happening on Friday... pictures to follow!

Going it on my own

I cancelled my Weight Watchers membership today.  I'd  been thinking about it for a few weeks now.  The meetings have been pissing me off more than helping.  And honestly, I've been doing more tracking and weighing on my own than with Weight Watchers.

Besides, now that I'm paying back my loan, I could use the $45 a month.

Though, in celebration of quitting Weight Watchers I'm going to buy a FitBit (I have the money saved up)

Motivation.... I don't haz it...

According to my Wii training regimen, today was a rest day.  Which was good, because I couldn't find the motivation to do anything!

I got ready for work, and vowed to come home and do a long work out... in preparation for my dance class that starts a week from today.

What has been on my mind lately is Weight Watchers.  Do I need it?  Do I need the meetings?   It's quite the monthly expense, hence the pondering.  I can track the food on my own.  I was mainly going to the meetings for the.. well.. meetings and to track my weight.  The weight tracking has been frustrating at best.  When I weigh in first thing in the morning, I lose weight, but by the time I get to my meeting, it's gained back and the number there won't budge.

I was pondering forgoing my meetings and instead purchasing a FitBit and the scale.  I pay over $500 a year for Weight Watchers.  These two things would give me the weight and activity tracking I want for under $250.  The only thing I'd be missing out on would be meetings.

It's something to ponder.

Online window shopping

Sometimes it's dangerous to link surf.

For instance.. I found the FitBit.  It's a small device that will record your level of activity all day... so you can see how big of a couch potato you are, and try to fix it.  It's just shy of $100, and the size of a flash drive.  Weight Watchers is coming out with a similar product, which is half the price, but has a $5 monthly fee and syncs with your e-tools account.  I wonder which would be more cost effective.

The other thing that caught my eye.  We all know that I love paper planners, but the pre-printed ones never suit my needs.  I stumbled across Circa Notebooks yesterday.  I can print my own pages and use the special hole punch to add my own pages!




Am I going to buy any of this?  Probably not.

Bunheads: The final recap

My recaps have been largely absent of late.  It's mainly because I haven't been able to figure this show out.  But now, after last night's show... things make more sense.

The 4 girls in the cast have been growing, changing.  Ginny is becoming a young adult, and let go of her stable, childish relationship.  She falls for a bad boy and gets crushed.  The bad boy is Melanie's brother, and this simple realization rocks her world.  Boo goes from juvenile longing to finding her confidence, and telling a boy that she likes him.  She also does the adult thing and apologizes for hurting him.  Sasha is, quite understandably, adrift.  She rebels, and finds it isn't for her.


But the crux of the show is the relationship between Fanny and Michelle.  It's been a 10 episode building of a house of cards.  Their relationship never had a strong foundation.  It really didn't have a foundation at all.  Michelle was so genuine in her desire to help.  Help Fanny, help the girls, help the business.  I just don't think that she as a person had the tools to help.

So in the end, she drove off Fanny's man, and pepper sprayed the entire cast of the Nutcracker.

The show is chaos upon chaos, until the end.  Laying in the hospital, we're treated to another dream sequence.  Michelle sings "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret.  Instead of the director in the audience, this time it's Hubble.

Maybe this time, I'll be lucky
Maybe this time, he'll stay
Maybe this time
For the first time
Love won't hurry away

Michelle, who took a misstep years ago and derailed her life just wants a place to belong.  Hubble tells her that she's here to rock the boat.  She looks so relieved to see him.

He will hold me fast
I'll be home at last
Not a loser anymore
Like the last time
And the time before

In the dream she acknowledges that she's hurting her relationships with others, but doesn't know how to fix it.  Hubble again points out that everything is different.

Everybody loves a winner
So nobody loved me;
'Lady Peaceful,' 'Lady Happy,'
That's what I long to be
All the odds are in my favor
Something's bound to begin
It's got to happen, happen sometime
Maybe this time I'll win

Michelle wakes in the hospital, and confesses to Fanny.  Fanny points out that Michelle ruined her relationship, and most likely hurt her business.  Michelle slips out of the hospital, with the angry shouts of parents ringing in the distance.  Before she goes, her students (red eyes and all) stand on their chairs and proclaim: "Oh Captain  My  Captain."

How will they ever dig themselves out of this?  I'm dying to know.

(lyrics are from Kander and Ebb)

I need a day off to rest up from my weekend

Saturday was the local LGBT Pride day.  It was sunny, and right on the water.  it was perfect.  Unfortunately it was a tad too sunny.  I don't deal well with being in the sun all day, and by 4, I was fried.

BUT... not fried enough to Flamingo my BFF's house!

It could have been worse..... I wanted to find one of these to put in the yard!

Sunday, I felt like death warmed over.  I did manage to wash the puppy...

I also was bad and snacked.  It showed on the scale today.  Must be good for a few days!

This morning it was RAINING!  The pup hates going walkies in the rain (plus it was more of a downpour), so the big walk we do in the morning was cancelled.

This made her sad.

But I got to sleep in a bit and work out!  I'm loving this workout game!!  Seriously!!!  I feel better.  And up until this morning the scale agreed with me.  Now to keep the snacking to a minimum and keep the exercise up until my class starts next week!

The Saga of the Scale

Weight Watchers told me that I hadn't lost any weight this week.

Again, I call bullshit!  My Wii said I'm down to 170 (Weight watchers had me at 174.8)

Why is this?

1. We weight more at night
2. maybe my WiiFit is inaccurate..

Now, what shall I do about it?

1. Try a weight in at the WW Center on a Saturday or Sunday morning, first thing
2. Weight in on the Wii after a WW Center Weight in to see the difference
3. Get an actual scale and try that.

I'm still unsure what to do....  I might try the scale option first.  Driving all that way to weigh in and have nothing change would be embarrassing.

According to my Wii, I'm within spitting distance of my goal:  My 10% goal!

Mia Michaels and So You Think You Can Dance

Last night's show was a tribute to Mia Michaels.  the dancers recreated some of her iconic numbers.

All in all, many of the dancers didn't live up to the originals  .  I've already seen the complaints.  It's unfair.  How do you expect to them to do some else's dance?  It was too much pressure to learn those dances!

for example.... my favorite of the night!

The original:


the new version:


And now, I call bullshit.  For all of the whiners, it's not unfair to ask this of these dancers.  Dancers have been dancing pieces made on other dancers for centuries!  Yes, I said centuries.  Tweaks might be made here and there to compensate for height or build differences in partners, or to highlight a special skill that the new dancer has.  But seriously, if you can't do as good a job in someone else's role.. or better... you can't be in the industry.

It's as simple as that.

My new training regimen!

I got a new Wii game!  EA Active 2.0 for the Wii.  I know, it's an oldie.  But it's new to me.

The set is about $40, and comes with 2 motion monitors (one doubles as a heart rate monitor) and a resistance band.

I'm 2 days into a 3 week cardio program.  But it's not just cardio.  The included resistance band is used for strength training.

I'm going to stick it out the three weeks.  Hopefully this, plus my dnace class will give me the push I need to drop some pounds!

The Glee Project: The results!

(I know.. I'm weeks behinds in Bunheads recaps...  I'll be getting to it later..)

I am a HUGE Glee fan.  Have been from day one.  And because of that, I'm a big The Glee Project fan!

The three finalists were all talented, and so different!

 Ali-  She's small, and spunky and a broadway-style star.  And in a wheelchair.

I'm in awe of her.  The writers wanted to make her a mean girl.  I love it!

Blake is the every man.  He's handsome.  He's a great singer.  He's a trained actor.  He takes direction like a dream.

But we've done him!  It's called Finn Hudson!

My favorite is Aylin.  She's sassy.  She's also Muslim. That type of character simply ins't on TV these days.






Blake won.  Ugh!  The boring choice!!  The other two would have been AMAZING!

But I'm team Aylin all the way.

Come on Ryan Murphy!  It's not too late!  Cast the woman!

The results are in!

I was only down 2 tenths of a pound.... but it was a negative number.  Thank goodness.

Now, the focus is one keeping that trend of negative numbers.

Which is basically doing what I've been doing.

With less cookies....

Too quiet....

This is my dog.  Oh, yes, she looks all sweet and innocent now...

But like a toddler, if we can't see her... and it's quiet... she's up to something!

Over the weekend, I bought her some treats.  I gave her one.  The Spousal Equivalent gave her one too.

Fast forward to 8pm.  Where's Misty?  the kitchen?  I call to her to come back. I did this five or six time before I realized she was just sitting in the kitchen?

Why???

Begging for more treats!

Silly dog!

Usually if she's in the kitchen, she's trying to get into the garbage.  Thankfully this wasn't the case.

Tolerance.... again....

Frankly, I hate that I need to revisit this topic again and again.  But, until the rifts between different camps close, I'm going to have to.

A friend of mine posted a blog post by Bristol Palin that was actually rather thought provoking.  In it, she states that she doens't care the "sexual preference" of her dance partner.  (We all know that sexual orientation ins't a choice... but that's another show)

She then goes on to point out that there is just as much discrimination of devout Christians by liberals as the reverse.

So that got me thinking.... are we all practicing what we preach?

Well, yes and no.

If Christians are well.... Christians... they should be not judging (lest they be judged) and doing unto other and all.  Unfortunately the loud minority aren't doing that.

As for the other camp, they too should be not judging (lest they be judged) and doing unto other and all as well.

I think the ultimate problem here isn't the message.  It's the hate.

There.  I said it.

The Conservative camp may not like Team Gay, but it's the ones that are loud and hateful that get the press and all the attention.  Because there is no other voice in the dialogue, we assume that ALL Christians hate Team Gay.

You know about assuming and asses right?

Then Team Christian looks at Team Gay, and sees someone loudly wanting to taking their rights away.  And the whole mess starts over again.

But here are some facts and opinions that I've come to realize

• There are real issues that need to be addressed about the LGBT population and their civil rights.
• Marriage is LAW, and law has no place for religion.  If you don't want gays marrying at your church, you can say no.
• I believe that federal legislation won't fix the gay marriage problem,  it'll be a Loving v. Virginia kind of ruling that will fix it.
• It's not right to block Chick Fil A from opening new branches.  It's sets a bad precedent
• But it is perfectly acceptable to give your hard earned money to companies and causes that you support, and that hold the same beliefs that you do. 

I hate to have to remind people (including myself) that tolerance goes all ways.

And I shouldn't have to remind the Christians to follow the golden rule.  Come on guys!

Another Week....

Today is Tuesday.  Tomorrow is weigh in day.

I've hit a point where I'm going to try my hardest, and do everything that I can do, but not expect the scale to budge in the least bit.  I can't have expectations anymore.

This week I've been loading up on no-point healthy snacks.  With the exception of this morning, I've been exercising.  I noticed this morning that I need to drink more water, so that's being remedied.

We'll see if that helps with the scale.  Between the hormonal changes, and everything, I just have to keep plugging along and see when things right themselves.

In other news, I'm watching event finals, and working on quiet computer things today.

Wii Fitness Games

There was a buy 2 get one sale on the pre-owned games at GameStop this weekend.  Since my workouts were taken from me, I decided to pick some games up.  I ended up with 2.  Jillian Michaels 2009 and Biggest Loser.

Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 was cheap.  That's why I got it.  Notice the 3 star rating.  Yes, it was that bad.  It was almost unplayable.

I didn't make it 3 exercises in before turning it off and moving to ...

Biggest Loser Challenge.  I really liked it.  The workouts are challenging, and different and the game play is MUCH better than the other game.  I was sweating at the end!








I did do some online comparison shopping.  I decided that I needed this game next.  Maybe when I get my next Target extra 5% off!

It's Friday-Clean Day

Seriously, can I be this productive at home?

I work in the History department.  For some reason the people that worked before us never threw anything away.  There are guidelines for how long you need to keep stuff, and most of those guidelines say to throw the crap out!
 (Images from here)


Since the summer is very slow for us, and Fridays are even slower, we decided that it was time for some things to go.  We filled up 3 copy paper boxes, 4 trash cans and 3 recycle bins.  Seriously... that's a lot of stuff!  I moved things around, got rid of empty binders and generally tidied up.

Now... I need to go home and replicate this!  

After I shower... I feel like I'm covered in dust.

An Unexpected Phonecall

Back when my marriage ended in 2009, I leaned on a friend for support.  Things happened, and the support turned into a relationship.  If you can call it that.  I was lost and broken, and this person gave me peace and hope.  Unfortunately, the peace was shattered when the fledgling relationship, and the emotional support all but disappeared.  I made clear my abandonment issues.  I made clear that being forgotten and invisible was my greatest fear.

I was abandoned and forgotten.

Looking back, I should have said no.  I shouldn't have taken the comfort that was offered.  But I was hurting and lost.

Things happened.

I was angry.  For a long time I was angry.  I wanted to look this person in the eyes and scream about how much I was hurt.  About how everyone knew my issues, yet those issues were played upon.  I wanted to scream about how I was broke, and this person did it.

I wondered if there was remorse.  I wondered if the person even cared.

Eventually I decided that the anger wasn't healthy, so I let it go.  We lived in different parts of the state.  We'd never see each other again.  It was time to move on.  And I did.

Fast forward to last night.  My phone rang.  I didn't recognize the number.  A voice mail was left.  I didn't recognize the voice.

Apparently step 8 for those friends of Bill W is to made amends.  I got a call to make amends.  My hurt was acknowledged.  I know that there was remorse.

One messed up thing in my life has a resolution.

Thank you.

Thank you for not forgetting about me.

Ok.. kick me when I'm down....

So after making a plan, I get up this morning to work out.  Apparently sometime between 6am yesterday and this morning, all the Gaiam vids on Hulu are no longer streaming.  That means 57 workouts on my queue I can't use.

Apparently Gaiam's $10 a month Gaiam TV is now streaming on Roku.  It's a service that I know I'd use, and I know I'd use the $10 a month for... the issue is that we either buy other Roku box for the living room, or a computer.

I'll figure something out.

In other news, I watched the season finale of Meet the Hutterites this morning (when I wasn't working out...).  All I can say is... can we have more of this show?  I'm dying to know if Claudia went to college!  (Google isn't helping me find this answer)

Mother Fu---

So I go to weigh in... Gained weight. So after I burst into tears (not my finest moment), I talked to the lovely ladies that work in Weight Watchers.

What have I been doing differently?

~Well, I'm off birth control pills. My body might still be adjusting.

~I did a whole lot of exercise all at once... My body might not be liking it.

~I've only started keeping track of Activity Points before... That's the first thing I'm getting rid of.

The plan this week: cut back on the exercise a bit, measure and track more and stop tracking exercise

Boycotts and the 1st Amendment

Between the anti-marriage-equality boycotting Oreo, and the pro-marriage equality boycotting Chick-fil-a... boycotts have been in the news lately.

Both sides are angry, which happens.  And the first amendment is tossed around.  Here's my take.

You are free to talk about your beliefs.  It's your company.  It's also my right to chose where I give my money to. You can't force anyone to change their beliefs.  You are perfectly within your rights to not want to give them money.  You are also perfectly within your rights to give money to products and companies that have values similar to your own.

Which is why I'm going to buy Oreos.

Edited to add:  And as for Boston saying they didn't want a Chick-Fil-A around because of the owner's beliefs and where he contributes his money.  That's a nice thought, but I personally think it sets a bad precedent.  How long before that same thinking blocks the building of mosques or Middle Eastern restaurants?

And while I'm not a big protester... this protest idea seems fun.  A same-sex kiss in!

One Step Closer... in other words... I spent money

I finally heard back from the instructor for the dance class I'm trying to get into.  She's signing my paperwork next week.  What does this mean?  I need clothes!

I thought.. well, what do I need?  Leotard and tights?  Oh hell no!  I'm not taking ballet.  I feel most comfortable wearing something like this.  (What's Michelle is wearing, not the girls)  Form fitting tank and cropped pants.  So I went internet comparison shopping.  I checked out Champion (where I just got 2 lovely bras).  I checked out Target.  I even checked out the Gaiam sale.


Where did I find a deal so good that I had to pull out the card?  Walmart.com.  Seriously!  I got these for under $20 for both!

(Except I got purple instead of black.)  I also picked up a 2 pack of pants for $15.  For under $40 I now have everything I need.  Score!

Now I sit back and wait for everything to come in the mail.

And since it's Wednesday, and I've worked VERY hard this week... wish me luck with my weight in.