A "G-Rated Journal" That Even My Mother Can Read (because she does!)
Effervescence is a state of mind. It's about choosing to bring sunshine to the day.
Every person I meet matters.
If it's written down, I know it (If it's not written down, I don't know it)
If it's color-coded, I understand it (If it's not color-coded, I don't understand it)
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Daddy-do and me, 2010
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A Week of Highlights
So sorry for the long delay again, dearest friends and family. Here's the latest week in my life. Some highlights? My roomie and I threw a lovely tea party, the house is clean and gorgeous (see note: we threw a party, so we had to clean!), I got some successful sewing done, and I'm cooking again and losing weight again. So it must be a good thing that I'm sewing again, because I'm passed my personal best of having lost 15.6 lbs and now I've made it to 16.4 lbs lost. There are some pants in my closet that I can no longer wear into public without taking them in.... they are falling off me! Yay me!
Tue Mar 7 - Happy birthday, Sisto! First, a very big Happy Birthday to my darling little sis, who's 36 now. Wow. I can hardly believe it. You know, I found my first white hair the day before my sister turned 21, so that would be fifteen years ago. Now I'm quite salt-and-pepper, but only my hairdresser and I know this (and now the internet) … and I'm quite proud of the bright white hair that I leave out of the color each time we touch-up my roots. Anyways, I'm excessively thankful for having such a lovely sister, and for having gotten to spend time with her this past weekend at our step-brother's wedding.
Wed Mar 8 - Happy birthday to Erica, in Ohio More birthdays, this time my step-sister back in the hometown where I grew up. I called my Dad two days ago, thinking Erica's birthday was on the 6th, got the calendar correction, and got Erica's phone number so I could call on her birthday. One of my life goals is to get better at remembering my family and friends' birthdays, whether it's just a phone call, an email, or to think happy thoughts for them. But mostly, I try to actually call or write and let them know I'm wishing them well. Erica and I had a lovely chat this evening, and it was nice to remember her birthday for the first time.
Thu Mar 9 - Happy birthday to another friend, via email It's harder when friends divorce. Much harder. Several of you on this journal know who's birthday was on Thursday, and I agonized over how to remember him, how to wish him well, and yet how to love and care for my friends who've been hurt by him. This was not a pretty break-up, and it tears at my heart. But then again, everyone matters to me, so I dropped him a short line to tell him I remembered his birthday. He was really touched by my email, and we'll see how things go.
I'm saddened sometimes that my own ex- dropped off the face of the earth after our divorce, since we had so many mutual friends. Sometimes I understand why we burn bridges, other times I don't understand it at all. But I get up every morning and try to find how to be a blessing in my friends' lives, and not be caught up by anger that isn't rightly mine. Does that make sense? I hope so.
Fri Mar 10 - Go Help Bjo Day Ah, my darling Bjo. Theresa and I are doing her commercial/business website, and she was having some issues with her home computer. So I found it much easier to drive up to her place, check things out, and see if I can fix things. I'm not a computer technician, but sometimes I can spot a thing or two that can be improved. Looks like I helped, for which I'm grateful.
Also, before I went to her place, I stopped off at Deja's and bought some of her linen in her fabric stash. She's going shopping in the garment district next week, so she's going to look for additional dark blue or royal/cobalt blue for me, but for now I purchased a medium blue and a blue-ish grey linen. Part of sewing for other people is a kick-in-the-pants to get myself back into sewing for myself. This linen is going to be for dresses for me.
Sat Mar 11 - Tea Party day! Whee! The biggest effort for today was the house-cleaning, in addition to all the baking and shopping. I'm exceedingly proud of how nice my room looks now, and I've taken some pictures of my favorite new feature: the silk sari over my loft bed. But since I forgot to bring home my camera-card-reader, I'll have to load the photos over lunch today. But it does look decadent and lovely!
With all the errands last night, I didn't get the grocery shopping done, but I went out this morning to get supplies for our party. I had to dodge the rain a bit in the afternoon, for my second shopping trip, but I found some lovely cloth napkins and a couple more chairs for the house, plus a sugar/creamer set and sugar cubes to top off our table settings.
Mel did lots of cooking and baking and assembly in the kitchen, and she really did an amazing job with the food. We threw the tea party because we happen to own so many different tea pots that it seemed a waste not to have a chance to use them! We had a variety of finger sandwiches: cucumber, cheese & greens, cream cheese & lox, plus turkey and tomato. She baked tea cakes and scones, and whipped up some heavy cream by hand for a wonderful whipped cream. There was lemon curd, blackberry preserves, apricot, and plum jam. And for dessert she found an amazing chocolate layered mousse and made some apple tarts. Morgana and Brian made it down, plus Theresa and Adrienne. So we never even sat at the second table, but rather just all shared one table together, eating and enjoying one another's company.
Afterwards, the Dudley's were hosting a Purim Party, which they described as a Jewish festival that's somewhat like a cross between Halloween and St. Patrick's day. You dress up and you drink, at least that's the reputation. We didn't really drink all that much, but we did all dress up. Since one of the characters in the Esther story is named Mordecai, and we have a friend who's SCA name is Mordecai, I used this as my costume inspiration. One of my three new hair pieces resembles Mordecai (Alan)'s hair when he lets it grow out, so I wore my "Mordecai hair" with SCA garb. Both Adrienne and Mel wore belly-dancing outfits, which was a huge surprise and quite fun. The party was wonderful fun, and we got home very late, but it was well worth it.
Sun Mar 12 - The Day During Which We Clean Up After the Party, and Not Much Else We were just plain *exhausted* this morning, and Mel and I just took our time, cleaning slowly and not doing much else. The house looks incredible, and there are tea party left overs to keep us going.
One of the things I remembered to do, while shopping yesterday, was to buy some groceries for my personal cooking, too. So this evening I made up a crock pot of soup (loosely based on split pea and lentil, but with lots of veggies), a pan full of vegetarian curry, and a pot of rice. There's salad greens all boxed and ready for salads, and even some boxes of Girl Scout cookies for treats. Whee!
Mon Mar 13 - Migraine Day, Which Turned Into Sewing Later On I almost called my boss on Sunday, because I felt a minor migraine ghost lurking in my head, but I thought it would go away. Sadly at 2 am, I was crawling around looking for pain meds, and trying to call her voicemail at the office to call in sick. Even the light on my cell phone was too bright.
After a day of recovering from the migraine, I got all my sewing equipment out to try and finish JW's trews (pants) for this upcoming weekend event. I'm actually glad I took so long to work on them, because (1) the house is in better shape for sewing projects and (2) the points where I pinned the pattern pants creased neatly so it was easy to see where to take up the hem and fix the waistline. I finished the first pair, and since it was after rush-hour traffic, I went ahead and drove up to his place to see if they fit before making the next pair. They fit perfectly (yay me!), so I picked up my mail and headed back home.
Tue Mar 14 - A Very Successful Number on the Scale This Morning How can I tell you how nice it was to see the scale finally going down again? Going off to Estrella was healthy and good for me, to break up the routine of my eating and give me variety again. Coming home from Estrella, I just took it easy for two weeks and the numbers on the scale wobbled but mostly stayed the same.
But after the tea party, house-cleaning, and home-cooking, I'm finally back into weight-loss-eating, and it's showing again. I've hit 15.6 lbs lost total, which was my personal best right after Estrella. I took my cooler-full of food to work, and even though I was in a day-long meeting at work and they served lunch, I still ate just *my* food and enjoyed every moment of it. I definitely felt slightly hungry throughout the day, but it wasn't that burdensome.
Then rehearsal in the studio, where we only worked on new music. We had spent so long working on public shows, that it was nice to work on music that will be on the next CD. I love my band!
Wed Mar 15 - More Success and Journal Updates And now, this morning, the scale slides down another notch. There is nothing quite like success to motivate sticking to hard work. Again, there are pants that are too loose (good thing I've got my sewing machine out), and even on Monday I was able to wear a blouse that I had put away because it fit too tightly on the arms. It doesn't fit too tightly anymore. Yay me!
And on a different note, I finally gave in and ordered all the CDs that Beth Hart has put out. This woman can SING! A friend of mine gave me a mixed CD once with two songs from "Screamin' for my Supper" and I just cannot wait any longer to own the whole CD, and hey let's just get all three CDs. (I'm silly that way.)
So I hope you've enjoyed the recaps and the photos should be up over my lunch hour today or so. Take care, darlings!
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Jade. I'm so impressed with Michelle's graduation in the Marine Corps, and so thankful to be able to keep in touch with you and your family still. Congrats, sweetie.
* * * * *
Weight Loss This Week:
Tue 3/7 - 13.8 (down -1.2)
Wed 3/8 - 13.4 (up +0.4)
Thu 3/9 - 12.8 (up +0.6)
Fri 3/10 - 12.4 (up +0.4)
Sat 3/11 - 13.2 (down -0.8)
Mon 3/13 - 13.6 (down -0.4)
Tue 3/14 - 15.6 (down -2.0)
Wed 3/15 - 16.4 (down -0.8) -- So, a week of "plateau" between the 12-13 lb mark, and now I've passed my personal best. Yippee! Next: Finding a way to get up early enough to go in to the gym at work, and/or finding time to go on walks.
Tue Mar 7 - Happy birthday, Sisto! First, a very big Happy Birthday to my darling little sis, who's 36 now. Wow. I can hardly believe it. You know, I found my first white hair the day before my sister turned 21, so that would be fifteen years ago. Now I'm quite salt-and-pepper, but only my hairdresser and I know this (and now the internet) … and I'm quite proud of the bright white hair that I leave out of the color each time we touch-up my roots. Anyways, I'm excessively thankful for having such a lovely sister, and for having gotten to spend time with her this past weekend at our step-brother's wedding.
Wed Mar 8 - Happy birthday to Erica, in Ohio More birthdays, this time my step-sister back in the hometown where I grew up. I called my Dad two days ago, thinking Erica's birthday was on the 6th, got the calendar correction, and got Erica's phone number so I could call on her birthday. One of my life goals is to get better at remembering my family and friends' birthdays, whether it's just a phone call, an email, or to think happy thoughts for them. But mostly, I try to actually call or write and let them know I'm wishing them well. Erica and I had a lovely chat this evening, and it was nice to remember her birthday for the first time.
Thu Mar 9 - Happy birthday to another friend, via email It's harder when friends divorce. Much harder. Several of you on this journal know who's birthday was on Thursday, and I agonized over how to remember him, how to wish him well, and yet how to love and care for my friends who've been hurt by him. This was not a pretty break-up, and it tears at my heart. But then again, everyone matters to me, so I dropped him a short line to tell him I remembered his birthday. He was really touched by my email, and we'll see how things go.
I'm saddened sometimes that my own ex- dropped off the face of the earth after our divorce, since we had so many mutual friends. Sometimes I understand why we burn bridges, other times I don't understand it at all. But I get up every morning and try to find how to be a blessing in my friends' lives, and not be caught up by anger that isn't rightly mine. Does that make sense? I hope so.
Fri Mar 10 - Go Help Bjo Day Ah, my darling Bjo. Theresa and I are doing her commercial/business website, and she was having some issues with her home computer. So I found it much easier to drive up to her place, check things out, and see if I can fix things. I'm not a computer technician, but sometimes I can spot a thing or two that can be improved. Looks like I helped, for which I'm grateful.
Also, before I went to her place, I stopped off at Deja's and bought some of her linen in her fabric stash. She's going shopping in the garment district next week, so she's going to look for additional dark blue or royal/cobalt blue for me, but for now I purchased a medium blue and a blue-ish grey linen. Part of sewing for other people is a kick-in-the-pants to get myself back into sewing for myself. This linen is going to be for dresses for me.
Sat Mar 11 - Tea Party day! Whee! The biggest effort for today was the house-cleaning, in addition to all the baking and shopping. I'm exceedingly proud of how nice my room looks now, and I've taken some pictures of my favorite new feature: the silk sari over my loft bed. But since I forgot to bring home my camera-card-reader, I'll have to load the photos over lunch today. But it does look decadent and lovely!
With all the errands last night, I didn't get the grocery shopping done, but I went out this morning to get supplies for our party. I had to dodge the rain a bit in the afternoon, for my second shopping trip, but I found some lovely cloth napkins and a couple more chairs for the house, plus a sugar/creamer set and sugar cubes to top off our table settings.
Mel did lots of cooking and baking and assembly in the kitchen, and she really did an amazing job with the food. We threw the tea party because we happen to own so many different tea pots that it seemed a waste not to have a chance to use them! We had a variety of finger sandwiches: cucumber, cheese & greens, cream cheese & lox, plus turkey and tomato. She baked tea cakes and scones, and whipped up some heavy cream by hand for a wonderful whipped cream. There was lemon curd, blackberry preserves, apricot, and plum jam. And for dessert she found an amazing chocolate layered mousse and made some apple tarts. Morgana and Brian made it down, plus Theresa and Adrienne. So we never even sat at the second table, but rather just all shared one table together, eating and enjoying one another's company.
Afterwards, the Dudley's were hosting a Purim Party, which they described as a Jewish festival that's somewhat like a cross between Halloween and St. Patrick's day. You dress up and you drink, at least that's the reputation. We didn't really drink all that much, but we did all dress up. Since one of the characters in the Esther story is named Mordecai, and we have a friend who's SCA name is Mordecai, I used this as my costume inspiration. One of my three new hair pieces resembles Mordecai (Alan)'s hair when he lets it grow out, so I wore my "Mordecai hair" with SCA garb. Both Adrienne and Mel wore belly-dancing outfits, which was a huge surprise and quite fun. The party was wonderful fun, and we got home very late, but it was well worth it.
Sun Mar 12 - The Day During Which We Clean Up After the Party, and Not Much Else We were just plain *exhausted* this morning, and Mel and I just took our time, cleaning slowly and not doing much else. The house looks incredible, and there are tea party left overs to keep us going.
One of the things I remembered to do, while shopping yesterday, was to buy some groceries for my personal cooking, too. So this evening I made up a crock pot of soup (loosely based on split pea and lentil, but with lots of veggies), a pan full of vegetarian curry, and a pot of rice. There's salad greens all boxed and ready for salads, and even some boxes of Girl Scout cookies for treats. Whee!
Mon Mar 13 - Migraine Day, Which Turned Into Sewing Later On I almost called my boss on Sunday, because I felt a minor migraine ghost lurking in my head, but I thought it would go away. Sadly at 2 am, I was crawling around looking for pain meds, and trying to call her voicemail at the office to call in sick. Even the light on my cell phone was too bright.
After a day of recovering from the migraine, I got all my sewing equipment out to try and finish JW's trews (pants) for this upcoming weekend event. I'm actually glad I took so long to work on them, because (1) the house is in better shape for sewing projects and (2) the points where I pinned the pattern pants creased neatly so it was easy to see where to take up the hem and fix the waistline. I finished the first pair, and since it was after rush-hour traffic, I went ahead and drove up to his place to see if they fit before making the next pair. They fit perfectly (yay me!), so I picked up my mail and headed back home.
Tue Mar 14 - A Very Successful Number on the Scale This Morning How can I tell you how nice it was to see the scale finally going down again? Going off to Estrella was healthy and good for me, to break up the routine of my eating and give me variety again. Coming home from Estrella, I just took it easy for two weeks and the numbers on the scale wobbled but mostly stayed the same.
But after the tea party, house-cleaning, and home-cooking, I'm finally back into weight-loss-eating, and it's showing again. I've hit 15.6 lbs lost total, which was my personal best right after Estrella. I took my cooler-full of food to work, and even though I was in a day-long meeting at work and they served lunch, I still ate just *my* food and enjoyed every moment of it. I definitely felt slightly hungry throughout the day, but it wasn't that burdensome.
Then rehearsal in the studio, where we only worked on new music. We had spent so long working on public shows, that it was nice to work on music that will be on the next CD. I love my band!
Wed Mar 15 - More Success and Journal Updates And now, this morning, the scale slides down another notch. There is nothing quite like success to motivate sticking to hard work. Again, there are pants that are too loose (good thing I've got my sewing machine out), and even on Monday I was able to wear a blouse that I had put away because it fit too tightly on the arms. It doesn't fit too tightly anymore. Yay me!
And on a different note, I finally gave in and ordered all the CDs that Beth Hart has put out. This woman can SING! A friend of mine gave me a mixed CD once with two songs from "Screamin' for my Supper" and I just cannot wait any longer to own the whole CD, and hey let's just get all three CDs. (I'm silly that way.)
So I hope you've enjoyed the recaps and the photos should be up over my lunch hour today or so. Take care, darlings!
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Jade. I'm so impressed with Michelle's graduation in the Marine Corps, and so thankful to be able to keep in touch with you and your family still. Congrats, sweetie.
* * * * *
Weight Loss This Week:
Tue 3/7 - 13.8 (down -1.2)
Wed 3/8 - 13.4 (up +0.4)
Thu 3/9 - 12.8 (up +0.6)
Fri 3/10 - 12.4 (up +0.4)
Sat 3/11 - 13.2 (down -0.8)
Mon 3/13 - 13.6 (down -0.4)
Tue 3/14 - 15.6 (down -2.0)
Wed 3/15 - 16.4 (down -0.8) -- So, a week of "plateau" between the 12-13 lb mark, and now I've passed my personal best. Yippee! Next: Finding a way to get up early enough to go in to the gym at work, and/or finding time to go on walks.
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