Countdown to movie time

I'm on my way to see John James Preston. But you can call him Mr. Big.

Woo-hoo! Can't wait!

Thursday update

Those of you who were worried about me (Dad, Kelly) will be glad to know that I ate real food today. I had fruit for breakfast, but salmon and bread for lunch (yum) and an Arby's roast beef sandwich for dinner. But still no Diet Coke. Hooray! And the detox resulted in an 8-pound weight loss overall. Not too shabby.

I left my house at 7:30 a.m. and drove to Little Rock for lunch and three job interviews, then I drove back home. And now I'm tired. The bone-weary kind of tired. Poor Lola got a $53 fill-up and 420 miles on her today.

Tomorrow's another vacay day, although I do have to do a lunch interview and have a meeting with my boss. But other than that, no work. Really. Well, probably. And then Kelly and I are off to T-town to meet Sorne and Amanda. I am so excited! I'm really craving Cheesecake Factory, so that's my dinner vote. And then it's the premiere of SATC at 10:30. I hope I'm still awake by then. I'll probably have to take a disco nap tomorrow afternoon.

Grass is always greener

It starts at a very young age. We want whatever toy someone else has. The grass is always greener, her boyfriend's always cuter, her handbag more desirable. Psychologists know it; that's the reason for reverse psychology. The easiest way to get most of us to want something is to tell us we can't have it. Then it's all we think about.

The weird thing about this whole detox process is that I'm not craving the food I expected. When I open the freezer, I don't want the Heath bar ice cream, I want the grilled salmon. When I go to the pantry, the chips don't even look good, but boy, that jar of peanut butter makes me salivate. I guess it's true that our bodies really know what we need. And sometimes, when we stop long enough to listen, what we really want is stuff that's good for us.

After my brisk two-mile stroll and a dinner of strawberries and grapes, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow I get regular food. But no caffeine. That's one change I hope to continue.

Progress!

While I hate to brag too soon, I'm happy to report that yesterday's little detox experiment resulted in a five-pound weight loss. In 24 hours. Yeah, I know I can't sustain it forever and that my head hurt so bad I had to go to bed at 9 p.m., but I did have a ton of more energy last night and I've been able to concentrate more this morning on my writing project.

I'm not counting my chickens, but it's a great start!

Time to "ooh" and "ahh"

While I was cleaning some files out of my computer, I found this pic I took of P & E the last time I was in the Fort. Aren't they just precious?



Oh, and I caught my first episode of "Jon & Kate + Eight" this afternoon. Wowzers. Whenever I think my life is stressful and unmanageable, I'm turning on that show.

Depression: A diet diary

So it's been 24 hours since I had a Diet Coke and I managed to live. More importantly, so did everyone else. I do have a slight headache, but all in all, it hasn't been too bad today. I'm sure tomorrow will be a nightmare.

Here's what I've consumed today:

7 a.m. 1 bottle of water
8 a.m. 1 bottle of orange juice
9 a.m. 1 bottle of water
10 a.m. 1 apple, 1 banana
12 p.m. 1 cup of tomatoes, 1 bottle of water
1:30 p.m. 1/2 cup of tomatoes, 1 bottle of water
2 p.m. 1 bottle of water (at the coffee place... I am strong)
5 p.m. 1 bottle of water (after walk on treadmill)
6 p.m. 1 cup of tomatoes, 1 cup of carrots, 1 orange, 1 cup of grapes, 1 bottle of water

Now I need to go to bed because I'm about to gnaw my arm off. I'm craving tuna out of the can... help! And I really have to go to the bathroom.

No caffeine, no meat, no dairy, no carbs!

Food detox

Desperate times call for desperate measures. So, in keeping with my belief that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, I'm offically on a food detox.

I had my last Diet Coke at 8 p.m. last night., my last meal at 6 p.m., and my last Oreo just after that. I'm so tired of feeling sluggish and stressed and using food for comfort.

For three days I'm drinking nothing but water and fruit juice. I'm eating only raw fruits and vegetables.

Please pray for me and, more importantly, anyone who has to be around me during this trying time. But I shall persevere and no longer be a slave to food. Even if I have a headache and can't stop thinking about cheeseburgers.

Big time

Those of you who are faithful readers of the Drivel will recall last summer, when I came home from San Francisco, I made a vow to lose some weight. So I joined Weight Watchers, lost 20 pounds, and began to work out faithfully. I had every intention of losing 20 more and running in a 5K this spring. I was on the right path until I started the moving process and began to reverse the progress.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. Three pounds here, four pounds there, but suddenly I find myself as fat as I was last summer in CA. I've been in denial. I haven't stepped on a scale in months, but my clothes are suddenly too tight.

Soon after I moved to Siloam I bought a treadmill. At that point it was too cold to walk outside, so I bought the treadmill in good faith, sure that I would use it daily. It took me six weeks to put the thing together. Last week I plugged it in for the first time. This weekend I turned it on. Yesterday I actually walked on it.

I can't figure out why I'm not more motivated. There are stories in every magazine about people who are losing weight, working out, and feeling great. Real people, not just celebrities, who lost weight with willpower and determination instead of plastic surgery.

I've eaten an entire package of Oreos in two days.

So now I've started reading "What the Bible Says About Healthy Living." Perhaps I'll find some spiritual guidance to help me on my quest to actually wear shorts this summer, never mind a bathing suit. I need divine intervention.

This afternoon I rearranged some furniture in order to move the treadmill into my bedroom. I'm hoping that staring at it daily will shame me into getting on the thing. It will probably become a clothes rack. But at least I have to look at it now, instead of just closing the door to that extra room.

Ugh. Why does food taste so good? Why is it so much easier to eat junk than to eat healthy? Why am I obsessed with eating?

All grown up

Hope's other aunt, Missie, sent me these pics that she took this weekend. It's hard to believe that she's nearly four-and-a-half. But isn't she precious? She's been such a breath of fresh air.

Much ado about nothing

Boy, I've really been neglecting the ol' blog. I'm not quite sure why I never make the time to update this thing anymore, except that my life is really dull and there's not much to say.

I am excited about the three-day weekend, although I was under the weather yesterday, so I played hooky from a wedding I was supposed to attend. I have enjoyed multiple does of Nyquil, three naps, eight romantic comedies, five episodes of "Friends" and two magazines in the past 48 hours. This afternoon I started feeling better, so I managed to complete some tasks I've been avoiding, like polishing my silver and taking stuff up in the attic. I also cleaned my bathroom (ick) and washed my sheets and rugs.

See... told you my life was dull. But at least I've been a little productive. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish cleaning the casa and get some more rest. Only three days of work, then it's another three-day weekend. Woo-hoo! Amanda, Sorne, Kelly and I are headed to Tulsa on Friday to catch the SATC premiere and dinner and celebrate Sorne's birthday.

Further proof that my dad really needs a hobby

So my dad retired last year and he really has too much time on his hands. Proof? Consider the following email that I received this morning.

As you know, I have noticed the excessive number of meetings you attend with your new job;"{I send him my schedule so that he doesn't ask excessive questions}. It got me to thinking...what is the greatest number of meetings attended by someone during their lifetime? I checked in Guinness Book of Records and found out that some guy by the name of Homer Snodgrass has the record with 11,782 meetings attended.

Do you realize you have a chance to break this record? If you work at your present job for 20 more years, work an average of 235 days per year and attend 3 meetings per day, you will have attended 14,100 meetings, which would smash Mr. Snodgrass' present record!!!

Two thoughts: (a) yes, my dad really needs something to do in his spare time; and (b) if I do attend 14,100 meetings in the next 20 years, and the average meeting is an hour, I will have wasted approximately 14,000 hours of my life sitting in meetings. Scary!

Good news

Two pieces of good news... (1) the video is done; and (2) I'm on vacation tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Yeah, I'm a lucky little brat who gets 20 days of paid vacation a year, and even prorated from the end of January, I still have four days to take before the end of June. It's hard to find a good time to take a day off, but I had zero meetings scheduled for tomorrow so viola, a day of R&R for Lori. The most energetic thing I plan to do tomorrow is get a pedicure.

I'm sure I'll be awake at 6 a.m. tomorrow like usual. But at least I can nap the rest of the day and watch movies. Oh, and I need to clean my house.

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Graduation, v2.0

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been working on a video project for a friend during every spare moment. Plus, I'm trying to catch up on some sleep. In the interim, enjoy some more pics from Jen's graduation.

Happy birthday!

Birthday wishes go out to my pal, Amy, in the big city of Russ-vegas, and my friend Karla here in the NWA.

Have a great one!

Dr. Jen, Medicine Woman

Congratulations to the incomparable and amazing Jen, who received her hood tonight in preparation for medical school graduation tomorrow, which makes her irrevocably Dr. Jen from now 'til eternity. She even took the hypocritic oath, or whatever that's called. I was bored by that point.

The cookie cake; it looked better before a semi cut me off in Conway and it slid into the floor. That's why the "o" and "n" are missing. But it was still yummy!



For some reason, someone thought it would be smart to send three small boys and an 84-year-old with me by myself. In a parking garage. In downtown Little Rock. Yikes!



Jennifer being hooded. The red and white's for UofA. The green for medicine. The blurry photo is because I was too far away.



Jen with her most influential person. Really, she owes it all to me.



Dr. and Mr. Hester. Hahahaha.



The perfect pic of the whole family. Brady's wearing her cap, Peyton's pulling her honor cords, and Avery's actually being good.



More tomorrow; I've been up since 4:30 a.m. and am too tired to write any more.

Please grant me rest

So yesterday, I had my weekly meeting with my boss and my colleague on the undergraduate side, and both of them told me that they hadn't slept the night before because they couldn't stop thinking about work. I slept like a baby Monday night. I did feel bad for them, so I spent extra time in prayer last night, asking God to give both of them a restful night of peace and uninterrupted sleep.

Guess I wasn't specific enough. Because last night I woke up at 3 a.m. thinking about work (the first time that's happened in over a year) and couldn't go back to sleep. The good news was that I had to get up at 5 a.m. anyway, because I had to drop off Lola at the dealership for her 5,000 mile service (that's right... I said 5,000 miles in six weeks) and hitch a ride to the office for an 8 a.m. HR conference.

Keep in mind that I slept about five hours last night. Then I got to spend the day listening to lawyers talk about legal issues for supervisors. For nine hours. In 75 minute increments. Thank goodness for my Blackberry!

Tomorrow I have a pretty normal day with only three meetings (knock on wood), then I have to pack for my weekend trip to Central Arkansas.

Friday morning I must arise early enough to finish packing and be in Springdale for a meeting at 6:45, then I have a conference call in Rogers, and a meeting in NLR at 3 p.m. (after I stop in the Fort to pick up my grandmother). Jen has her hooding ceremony on Friday night, then she officially becomes an M.D. on Saturday. Can you believe it? It's funny to think back to when she and Lon first started dating... she was a high school cheerleader, he was a high school football coach. Oh, not at the same school, but it was pretty scandalous nonetheless. And now she's a doctor! Wowzers.

I need to get up the energy to color my hair. Can't have gray showing lest I see any eligible doctors or pharmacists this weekend.

Photo album

My pal LiLar has been asking to see some old pageant pics. And since I'm working on a belated Mother's Day present, I thought I'd share some fun photos I found tonight.

This is my grandfather with my cousins, Lonnie and Woody. I'm sure Lon still has this shirt (he rescued it from a garage sale).



This is my senior Homecoming. I'm not sure what was bigger, my hair or my sleeves. Scary!



Mom and me, at Miss Tech (a pageant pic, Lindsay!)

Mundane Monday

So many words. So little to say.

There are days when this blog seems quite the burden. Oh, it's not that you all put much pressure on me to be witty and/or interesting, but when I see that 70 poor souls have logged onto the Drivel to see what boring thing has happened to me today, I feel compelled to write something.

And so I string words together and feel sorry for whomever has to read them. I really am humbled by your loyalty. Or whatever affliction of boredom that has you reading this blog so often.

Oh, I could tell you about the 90 minutes of conference call that I endured this morning, pretending to pay attention all the while praying that someone would send me an interesting e-mail, or really any e-mail at all, so that I could amuse myself with my evermore addictive Blackberry. I could share that I should have been working on research for a grant proposal this evening instead of spending three solid hours glued to the television, thanking my lucky stars for DVR so that I don't miss a single season finale (all the while realizing that I did, indeed, spend eight-and-a-half hours happily working today, which should be enough).

I'm not quite sure when my life became so dull. It's become so mundane that even I, oh one of such imagination, can't make it interesting prose.

My apologies. Hopefully Tuesday will bring some excitement. If not, I may have to rent someone else's life for a few days.

Bleh

I have a confession to make: I'm not a fan of Mother's Day. I mean, I'm not a mother and I don't have a mother, so what's there to celebrate? Yesterday a guy with a greasy comb over ran into me with his cart at Sam's; he was holding a half-dozen wilting carnations and asking the lady behind the counter, "You ain't got nothin' cheaper do you?" Wow. Whoever he made a mother is a lucky, lucky gal.

{Note to men: better to buy small quantities of great flowers than great quantities of bad flowers. Carnations are never a good choice.}

So I'm sitting at church this morning, feeling very anti-mother since we had a baby dedication this a.m. and the sanctuary was filled with screaming kids and flashing cameras. Why do I need to hear a Mother's Day sermon? I am childless. Then the pastor said that people who have no kids aren't off the hook, since we influence children by the way we live our lives.. how often we go to church... what we say and how we show them Christ.

Ouch. So now I'm cranky and guilty.

Pomp and circumstance

There are two songs that always make me cry: "Pomp and Circumstance" and "The Star Spangled Banner." Play them in succession, and I can't stop the tears. Play them in succession and in conjunction with a big American flag and a gym full of adults who finished college degrees while working full time and taking care of their families, and I'm toast.

This is how I ruined my mascara this morning.

I'm officially tired. I'm not sure if it's the stress from work, allergies, or traveling so much (probably a combination of all of those things), but I'm just weary. I feel exhausted and lethargic.

Thankfully I was in Fayetteville when the alleged tornado hit Siloam today. All is well with me and my possessions.

There you go, Dad. I finally updated my blog.

Momentous occasion

Well, it's a big moment at the Drivel. As of this afternoon, this modest little blog surpassed 10,000 page views. Since November. Wow, you people really need to get a life.

Thanks for reading! I'm truly honored. And baffled.

Put me in, coach

I apologize for not posting last night, but since I was staying with my grandmother and there aren't many wireless connections in the retirement village, I'm just now back online. I came down to the Fort last night to watch my niece, Hope, play t-ball. They lost, but when my dad asked one of the kids who won, he laughed and said, "I dunno." So I guess they weren't too upset. Hope doesn't like playing defense, however, and was mad that she had to leave the dugout. She's such a social butterfly.

Hope loves playing catcher, but only because she likes talking to the fans and looking for caterpillers.



Killer swing



Yeah, she got tagged out (she's about as fast as me.. think molasses)



In outfield with her mom



She's losing interest



Hope's really tired

Out of the mouths of babes

Yesterday, I went to a funeral for the great grandmother of my niece and nephews. Hope, who's only four, sat between my brother and me during the service. She was really good during the entire thing; but she did say a few funny things. Here's a recount of the conversation.

{During the closing prayer}
Hope: Arney (what the kids call me), why is Daddy sleeping? Daddy, wake up. (Looks behind her) Arney, everyone's sleeping. Why is everyone sleeping?
Arney: They're not sleeping. They're talking to Jesus.
H: Where is Jesus?
A: He's in Heaven.
H: With my sister?
A: Yes, with your sister. And with Orr (her great grandmother).
H: Why are we whispering? That guy (points to preacher) isn't whispering.
(As everyone is filing past for the viewing}
H: Where's everybody going?
A: They're going to say goodbye to Orr.
H: Where is Orr?
A: She's up there in the front.
H: I thought you said she was in heaven. How can she be both places?

{Sigh.} I don't know. I really don't. But it's a good question.

Happy birthday, Chance and Ashley!

Wishing a very happy birthday to two of my very favorite people.

Straight-line winds

This morning, I was awakened at 4:12 a.m. by tornado sirens. I turned on the TV to the local news, turned up the volume, and grabbed my pillow and blanket to lay in the floor of my guest bath. I prayed for safety while I was in there, and was grateful when I woke up again at 6:30 to discover no damage at my house.

When I turned the TV back on, I heard the local weather guy say that Siloam Springs had some major damage. I drove to work, seeing little damage in town. However, when I got to my office, this is what I saw.





That is, literally, my office under that tree. Thank goodness I wasn't here. Granted, I seldom work at 4 a.m., but good grief, that would have scared the you-know-what out of me.

And the sneezing continues...

Not much to report. I've been in bed all day, doped up on Nyquil. Hope tomorrow is better!