Just the Kick in the Butt I Needed

SO. I am planning on writing about the move and how smoothly it went and how much we LOVE our house, and I want to take pictures, but that’s going to have to wait until the weekend because it’s always dark when I get home, so outdoors pictures would be pretty pointless.

I might also write about MAH BIRTHDAY and how great that was and how mah feller really rose to the occasion and went above and so far beyond what I ever would have hoped for (though he has set the bar QUITE high for future birthdays).

But right now I have a much more pressing issue. My company holiday party is in a week and a half, and in an effort to save money, I asked my mom to send me some of my formal dresses from high school because they’re purty, and I would like to get more wear out of them. And OBVIOUSLY I realized that I’m not exactly the same size I was in high school, the later years of which were some of the skinniest of my life, but my body is still similarly sized, so it should be fine, and I’d have a couple of weeks to drop a couple of pounds to get the fit right. And this happened to coincide with Weight Watchers unveiling their ALL! NEW! AND IMPROVED! PROGRAM! so I figured now was a good time to join on up (especially since they now have a $40 monthly pass for meetings (which are usually $13 each, plus a registration fee) and e-tools).

And the dresses arrived, and my mom warned me that my sister could barely zip them up, and she, damn her, is just SLIGHTLY smaller than me. She does NOT have the Phipps childbearing Hips that I have. So I was prepared but hopeful. And you know? One of the dresses I definitely could not zip up, but the other? The one I really wanted to wear? The slinky hot one? It fit! Nevermind that I couldn’t ACTUALLY breath in it and could BARELY get the thing turned around properly after I had to zip it on backwards since I was home alone at the time. It fit! And after (at the time) two weeks of eating really healthily and exercising and shit, I’m SURE to have dropped just enough weight to make that shit work.

And so off to my first Weight Watchers meeting in three years I went! AND THEN. They weighed me. And I saw that number on the scale, and I just about DIED. It was the highest it’s ever been in my LIFE. (Though technically perhaps not EVER ever; before I lost all my baby fat in high school, I was SERIOUSLY chubby, and while I don’t know how much I weighed then, I was DEFINITELY wearing larger sized clothing than I am now.) And all of a sudden the 30 or so pounds I was hoping to be able to shed turned into 40 or 50 and OH MY GOD. I’M NEVER EATING ICE CREAM AGAIN.

And all that talk about loving my body and being happy at the weight I am just went RIGHT OUT the window because the weight I ACTUALLY am is AT LEAST 12 pounds more than the weight at which I THOUGHT I was, and I am NOT happy with being 12 pounds more than I thought I was. And SERIOUSLY, it’s like I turned 26 and ALL OF A SUDDEN (though possibly I just haven’t been paying attention) my body isn’t keeping itself at the weight it’s always defaulted to, and I started noticing that my body looks differently. My boobs are straining against the bras I’m wearing, and HOLY CRAP that picture of me standing up over the weekend? WOW. BAD NEWS BEARS.

So I’m all motivated and shit to get this weight off. Weight Watchers has changed their program so ALL fruits (even bananas!! they keep telling me) are free, which is why I was always previously against their points program, and I’ve been tracking all my foods, even the night of the party we had when I had TWO slices of AMAZING birthday cake (what?! It was MAH BIRTHDAY!) and LOTS OF BOOZE, and you know, I’m kind of surprised at how EASY the tracking is and how it really does help to keep me aware of what I’m eating and how much, and I’m glad I don’t totally hate it. Tomorrow night is my first weigh in, and I’m looking forward to seeing the result of my effort this week.

City Weekend

I really don’t get into San Francisco very often, despite living a 45 minute drive from the city. To be fair, a 45 minute drive is halfway to Phoenix in my mind, so it’s VERY DIFFICULT to convince myself to spend that much time traveling. Add in parking and other nonsense, and I just…no. Not to mention the fact that it’s ALWAYS COLD THERE WTF. But this past weekend, the feller had two birthday parties just a couple of miles apart (one a brunch and one an evening bar thing), and as it turned out, there was a Tweetup I wanted to attend hosted by two of my favorite bloggers, Nicole and Jamie, so we had a full day planned. And it was every bit as awesome as I wanted it to be.

The breakfast brunch was amazing; that group of the feller’s friends are fun and welcoming. There was good food and champagne for breakfast and holy crap, do you know how delicious Martinelli’s Prickly Passion Lemonade is? And even though it’s 120 calories for 10 ounces, and I try to avoid drinking juice because of all the sugar and such, I probably BARELY had 10 ounces of the stuff because my drinks were more like champagne with a splash of juice for color. Not that champagne is any better for me. And so it was 2 pm, and I had a nice buzz going and some good chats with awesome ladies, and the feller and I BOTH managed to pass out during the festivities. Though I, at least, had the decency to wait until the party was essentially over before snagging a quick nap. What? We’re not used to being up at 11 AM and not being able to nap on the weekends.

And then coffee and the Tweetup. Part of me was kind of nervous because what if in real life Nicole was all loud and attention-whorey and I ended up hating her because I’M kind of loud and attention-whorey and having another person like that around exhausts and frustrates me and then I wouldn’t be able to ever read her blog again because it would just remind me that she’s totally not that great in real life and then I would be a sad panda. BUT! She was awesome, though I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her or Jamie due to the noisy bar, the biggest round table I’ve ever seen and the next birthday event starting an hour-ish after the Tweetup. I look forward to hanging with these ladies again sometime.

I love LOVE LOVE my lazy weekends at home when I don’t have to do anything but sleep and sit on the couch watching bad but oh so entertaining television, and I’m so glad we had no Sunday plans, but Saturdays like this one are refreshing.

Awkward Turtle

I was a party Saturday night with a bunch of cool computer people. Unfortunately, that uncomfortable time at the beginning of every party led them all to shop talk. As I am most definitely NOT a computer person, I was completely out of the loop in a place where I knew all of two people, both of whom are ALSO computer people involved in computer talk. Everyone might as well have been speaking like freaking Russian or some shit. I don’t even know enough about whatever the hell they were talking about to ask questions. Awesome. Soooo….I’ll just stand here and look cute, then. Got it.

I HATE being that really awkward person no one knows who doesn’t bother to join in the conversations. That’s boring as fuck and SO not me. Also, I like being the center of attention, so being relegated to the sidelines irks. But because I’m awesome, I just work that much harder at (sometimes awkwardly) shoving myself into a conversation. It could have been worse, I suppose; a few people took pity on my awkwardness and changed the conversation.

Thank God once we all had a couple of drinks, the conversation turned to blow jobs and semen recipes, and I was able to properly exhibit just exactly how great I really am.

But I hereby swear by all the things I hold dear that never again will I engage in sorority talk around people who don’t know jack about it.

Also, WTF, my Meetup group just dumped me.

(This post brought to you by the word AWKWARD.)

Company Christmas Party

I work for an amazing company. And it amazes me, even now, the way it worked out. In July 2008, I was working for Starbucks, and I was crushing HARD on one of my regulars. One day he pulled me to the side, and I was SURE he was going to ask me out. Instead, he asked me if I wanted a job. About a month and a half after I started, he was gone, but my new bosses liked me enough and believed in me enough to keep me around and make sure I got the training I needed to succeed and be happy. And things have pretty much only gotten better from there. God really had my back when he brought my SBux crush into my store.

Our president is an amazing, generous man, who loves God and his company and the people who work for him, and every year, he throws a really wonderful, lavish Christmas party for all of us. The company pays for all the employees and their families to spend the night in the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa, provides an amazing 4 course dinner and open bar(I wish I had taken pictures of the food!), and has drawings for really awesome prizes (a 12 mega pixel camera! a laptop! a Wii! a $5000 vacation!), plus a dj and games for the kids. It’s awesome, and this year’s party was amazing. I took my very good friend, Mariam, and we had a blast. We danced all night with the guys I work with and played on the beach and enjoyed the most amazingly beautiful Southern California day.

I love being a part of this company, and I love when we all get together for manager’s meetings or the Christmas party because at those times, I am reminded of how blessed I am. My company is awesome. When the president calls us a Brotherhood, you know he means it. He cares about his employees and has integrity in the work we do, and the company is SUCCESSFUL. In these crappy economic times, the president is still able to throw a huge party and give out crazy bonuses. God loves my president and has blessed the work he put his hands to, and the blessings trickle down (thank you, Reaganomics!) to everyone in the company.

And with my bonus, I’m being WILDLY consumeristic (is that a word? Firefox tells me it isn’t) and buying myself fancy electronics. Surround sound! Blu Ray! HDTV! I CAN’T WAIT MOVIES ARE GOING TO BE SO AWESOME. TERMINATOR IN HD! Can life get any better than that? I THINK NOT. Well, a man to appreciate my sweet setup would be better, but that’ll come. For now? As good as it gets. :)