As V-Day approaches...

As I can see by looking at my new phone, today is Monday, February 8. That means six days til Valentines Day. And once again, I don't have a Valentine. I don't feel so bad about it, really. I have lots of other stuff in my life. I am able to keep things in perspective and know that just because I'm romantically alone, I'm not alone inside myself. I have a rich inner life and good friends and family. My work with Dami and my work on my body have kept me busy. I will welcome someone into my life when the time comes.

We're supposed to get snow tonight. I haven't seen any evidence of it. Tomorrow maybe. I have glass doors looking out over the woods in the back of my apartment and every day I come out into the living room hoping to see snow. Now is the time for it, not mid-March.

I started this blog just about a year ago. I remember talking about Ash Wednesday. It's coming up soon. I am giving up fried food this year. It will really be hard to give up fried chicken. I don't eat a lot of KFC or anything, but a lot of the chicken I eat is fried, from the DD chicken parmesan flatbread to the tempura at Sushi Blue. I guess the fewer times I eat out the more likely I will be able to keep to this "fast."

Last year, oh dear...I think I resolved to get out of bed and get to church. I didn't do very well there. I really wanted to go this Sunday because the choir was singing a beautiful anthem and my friend Tom was doing the sermon. Well, Jeanne will be back next Sunday and I will hopefully see her then.

The weight loss is coming along OK. I have still been weighing myself too much. The lowest I weighed last week was 153, but today the scale said 158. I'm trying to be optimistic. I've had a few days of bad eating but if I stick to a better diet for the next week or so I should be in good shape. I wanted to get down to 150 by V-day but I think it'll be more like 152 at best. Oh well. Maybe 145 by St. Patrick's Day?

I've decided 145 is my goal rather than 140. I think with the muscle I've gained it would be really hard to get to 140, and I would be setting myself up for disappointment if I thought I should do that. I think I would look and feel really good at 145. I look at myself now and am very satisfied. I have started wearing some workout clothes that I haven't worn in years because I've been embarrassed to, but now I feel great in them. If I feel this good now, imagine how I'll feel at 145!

I have stopped giving Spot her pill. She got sick again and my vet said to leave it alone. I am still "Dawning her chin," as Mom puts it. She gets to have her chin wiped with a washcloth with Dawn on it every day. She LOVES that, of course. I've been able to catch her and do it every day. She doesn't understand that it's good for her or that it doesn't hurt; all she knows is that she's being manhandled. And she doesn't like that. But she's a good girl.

Last night was the Super Bowl and what a game! I was happy that the Saints won. Margaret and Doug live in NO so I was rooting for them because of that. This is going to be quite a week in NO--first the Super Bowl win and then Mardi Gras.

Mmm, packzi! I like packzi better than king cake because you can have only one packzi but you have to order a whole king cake. And king cake isn't really all that great--I mean, it basically tastes like coffee cake. I did enjoy it with chickory coffee when I was down there visiting for Mardi Gras one year.

I have been having really bad headaches lately. I wonder how you can tell if they're migranes or not. I've never had migraines before, so I have no idea how to tell what they are like. How do you diagnose something like that? I'll have to ask my doctor.

My New Year's resolution was to be the best teacher I can be. I feel like it's hard to do that with Dami because her mom is really the one structuring our time. I would like to be able to write my own lessons, but she is the one pulling the strings. I do get to work on the vocabulary lessons, and now the mom wants grammar too, so I can do that on my own. But she determines the bulk of the lesson. I think I did pick a good book in Paint the Wind, so that is another part of the lesson that is personal.

Well, that's all I have to write now. I feel like a lot of it is trite but it's what's going on. Perhaps I'll be deeper soon.

Hanging up now....