Queen of Denial

In my family, we don't have uncomfortable conversations. Instead, we ignore the elephant in the room, pretend bad stuff isn't happening, and hope whatever makes us nervous simply goes away.

We're also obsessed with food. My grandmother, for example, talks about nothing except what she's eaten, what she's going to eat, or what she wants to eat.

So I suppose it should be no surprise that I've been avoiding the scale lately. Yes, I knew my clothes were tighter than they used to be. That muffin top at the KISS concert was no fluke. Even Brady asked me last weekend why I always wear my clothes too tight. Out of the mouths of babes, I guess.

But today the scale couldn't be avoided when I went to the doctor. I've been fighting a sinus infection for weeks, but I've been on antibiotics for a couple of weeks, so I assumed it would go away. It did not. This morning I woke up under the weather and went to the doctor to make sure it was not strep.

My blood pressure is fine. I had no fever. I did have, however, eight more pounds than I used to have.

The doctor's office called to ask if I could show up 30 minutes earlier, which I did, then they made me wait for 45 minutes. Granted, it's flu season and I'm sure they're busy, but I fumed the whole time. Turns out it was not strep, but rather a persistently annoying sinus infection that 10 days of antibiotics didn't cure. So now I have more.

Other than whining and feeling the need to make my mom's famous lime sherbet freezes when I have a sore throat, being sick somehow makes me feel like I have permission to eat junk I wouldn't normally eat. So I went to Walmart and bought a cart full of oreos, potato chips, and iced sugar cookies.

Hence the trip to the gym tonight for the treadmill and elliptical machine. I will NOT get fat again. Seriously. If I have to go to the gym three times a day in order to keep from going back up a size, that's what I'll do.

Kate Moss recently said that noting tastes as good as being skinny feels. I don't know about that, but I do agree with my pal Sorne, who says that she loves to eat more than she hates working out. So bring on the Christmas food, and schedule my cardio.

Rock and roll all nite

What a fun weekend! Lon, Jen and I had a great time at the KISS concert in Austin. They put on an awesome show. Lonnie was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning.



These were a couple of random guys who walked by and I asked if they'd have their pic taken with us. They obliged.





Rest of the pics are here.

I did shoot some video before the security guard had a discussion with me. The sound is bad (it was sooo loud) and there's a bit of movement (tip: you can't dance while video taping), but you get the gist.

Welcome to my office

I finally finished decorating the office tonight after returning my front legs today (I had two black ones and two cherry wood ones for my new chair). I think it turned out pretty well. I even like my $20 rug!

My house is not trashed for the first time in two weeks, and tomorrow is cleaning lady day. Wahoo!

Social media and the implosion of reality

Evidently some groom recently updated his Facebook status while still at the altar. On the one hand, that makes me feel much better about my social media addiction. On the other, it concerns me for the future of our society and our need to be constantly wired.

Granted, it did make sitting in traffic in Bentonville at 5 p.m. this afternoon a little more tolerable since I was able to tweet about it during my inching forward (yes, I know it's illegal... shut up). I suppose that's what most of this boils down to after all. Social media has become a venue for the narcissist in all of us to make ourselves heard. Let's face it, when 72 people are reading your 140-character updates 27 times a day, they care about your innermost thoughts, right? They want to know what I had for dinner. How I feel about work. What I think about Alex Tejada missing that field goal.

And so it validates us. Some of life's biggest weirdos have a lot of so-called friends on Facebook. Anyone can be cool in cyberspace I suppose.

But at the end of the day, all the tweets and status updates and text messages in the world don't make up for human interaction. Isn't that right, random person reading this whom I don't know?

Christmas countdown

I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. Luckily I only have 14 more days of work before 9 days off in a row. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have KISS in Austin this weekend, a party in Mountain Home the weekend after that, graduation, and multiple holiday gatherings. Let's hope I get through it all without a major crash. Today I had to take a 90 minute nap during my extended lunchtime. But I did manage to finish cleaning and decorating my office and am nearly done decking the halls and organizing the garage.

Today I found this pic of Alisa and me in Branson a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun!

Deck the halls

I'm still mired in the inability to complete a house project. Tonight I finally finished the mantle and tree decorations. These pics don't do it justice; it actually looks pretty good. I used the traditional Christmas colors of pink and lime green. :-)



Tomorrow's projects include finishing the home office cleanup/redecoration and finally cleaning up/out my garage. No laziness allowed!

Ode to a kicker

Bless your heart, Alex Tejada
Your OT kick got us nada
I have no idea how you missed that goal
And now we're going to a second-rate bowl

I gotta admit I wasn't surprised
Your right foot always brings tears to my eyes
Perhaps my brother can teach you how to play
'Cause in fourth grade he won the PPK

Here's hoping your Liberty Bowl kicks aren't rotten
Even though you robbed us of Capital One and Cotton