Long Overdue

This past Tuesday I decided to go to the mall! The mall is not really a place you would find me very often, and not surprisingly my wardrobe unfortunately reflects this. Some time, a few years ago, when I really started gaining a lot of weight I stopped going shopping for myself. It was too depressing to try on clothes that were a size I previously fit into and find that they were too small. Even more depressing was that the size I previously fit into was a much larger size than I really wanted to be in the first place. Not to mention, that most of the styles I like look a lot better on a size 6.

My husband says that no matter what size you are you should buy clothes that fit and that you feel good in. That way, you feel good about yourself and can be more confident. I think he is completely right. By the way he always looks nice and stylish!

So, I went to the mall armed with my Christmas money and made a few purchases. Two sweaters and a pair of slacks from J.Jill and two pairs of shoes from 9 West. Recently I've lost a little bit of weight and though I am far from my goal, I found that the shopping wasn't too terribly discouraging.

Now, in an effort to make sure I don't just wear these items to death I have made a promise to myself that every time I get paid I will purchase one outfit or piece of an outfit and at the same time donate something old to good will. I already have a bag full of items that I need to drop off so I added two pairs of shoes I never wear to the bag. This weekend I will drop everything off and consider it my first success.

My Nephew

Last month, my sister had a baby boy. We didn't expect him until January, but he decided to be born a little bit before Christmas and on our dad's birthday to boot! I don't think there is any beating being the first grandchild on our side of the family, being a grand son AND being born on grandpa's birthday!

I'm a little partial but I think my new nephew is the cutest baby in the world!

Here's the story about the day he was born:

It was the second day of our Christmas cookie baking extravaganza in the catering kitchen. Ironically, the day before she had made a comment that he could come out at any time and that it was okay with her. Little did we know, that on the following day, when I was trying to roll some Mexican wedding cookies into little balls she would hang up her cell phone and announce that the doctor had told her to come on into the hospital. Apparently her water had broken!

Let me tell you, it was actually one of the most exciting days of my life! I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that it would be me who drove my sister to the hospital when it was time for my nephew to be born. Even more exciting is that after she was all hooked up to the monitors at the hospital I got to hear my little nephew's heartbeat. I have to say, that was a pretty profound moment. I have never heard an unborn child's heart beat before and under any other circumstances I might not have had this opportunity.

He took a little over a day to actually be born (probably because he knew it would be his grandfather's birthday), and after the doctors had examined him, it was determined that he was a full term baby, which made everyone sigh with relief.

1200 Calories and Less than 20 Grams of Fat Per Day

I was talking to a co-worker recently about the weight she has lost over the past year. I'm not exactly sure how much weight she has lost but it is somewhere around 38 lbs or so. She told me that it was really simple and that she had been limiting herself to 1200 calories and less than 20 grams of fat per day. She has been exercising but she even lost weight before she started exercising.

This got me thinking. I'm pretty good about not eating too many calories, most of the time, but I never really pay attention to the grams of fat that are in the foods I eat. Perhaps that is one of the problems I have. After all, I have been plateaued at my present weight for longer than I would like to admit.

Since my co-worker imparted me with this tidbit of knowledge I have tried to keep track of my calories and fat intake so I could especially keep that fat intake less than 20 grams.

Well, it is seriously hard to do--eat less than 20 grams of fat per day! I put too much creamer in my coffee every morning and that blows quite a few grams right there--guess I better switch to the sugar free and fat free version. I have started really examining the nutrition labels on food before I commit to eating it lately.

So far, I have still managed to go over 20 grams of fat every day. However, I am not too far over the threshold--so maybe I can still improve on this.

So far, I have noticed that if I eat more like a vegetarian I may be able to accomplish this limited fat intake. I don't really have a problem eating vegetarian, I did so for several years in HS and college, albeit very unhealthily.

The problem I have is more cerebral. With all of the eco-green marketing that gets shoved down our throats every day, part of me feels annoyed to be picking up portobello garlic vegan burgers at the grocery store.-- Like I have finally succumbed to the green movement. I hope I don't line the back bumper of my car with eco-friendly slogans! Got Soy? I Brake for Local Produce!

Things Come Together

I am planning a trip to New York at the end of February. What started out as a trip to visit a friend for the weekend has blossomed into a week-long trip during which I can work in the New York office during the day and visit with friends during the evening.

At first I thought a week would be long enough, but soon I began to realize that there are actually a lot more people that I want to visit than I originally thought. Luckily I have a wedding to go to at the end of May so I hope to see a few more people when I travel up for that. Then there are two weddings during the same weekend in August--though I doubt there will be time for any extracurricular visiting then.

In my frenzy to see as many people as I can during this trip I have made plans to stay with a different person each night of the visit from Monday-Thursday. I will go from Jackson Heights to Astoria to the Bronx then back to Astoria then out to Long Island. Each time I will be working in Manhattan between each visit. The problem is I really don't want to be lugging my luggage (no pun intended) from Jackson Heights to Manhattan to Astoria to Manhattan to the Bronx to Manhattan and back to Astoria then out to Long Island. I woke up several times last night thinking about how to get my clothes from place to place without bringing my large suitcase with me all over the place.

A possible solution presented itself this morning which made me very excited. It turns out that my colleague, Bob, might be traveling to the NY office that same week! The best part is that he gets to use the company apartment which is just blocks away from the office! He and I were talking about it this morning and agreed that I could leave my larger suitcase at the company apartment and then just carry my essentials in a smaller overnight bag each night. How awesome is that? I really hope he is traveling to the NY office the same week I am! If not, I suppose I can do the same sort of thing and leave my larger suitcase at the office under the desk or something.

Nano Not So Much

Well, I didn't do so well with NaNoWriMo this year. I only wrote 11,328 words of the 50,000 word goal. The good thing is that I wrote more than I have in the past 10 years probably. Another good thing is that I plan to try it again next year.

Problems that I came across were that I wrote 11,328 words about two characters doing things but there was really no plot so it was pretty flat. I had ideas about what I ultimately wanted the end result to be but no real plan of how to get from point A to point B, so my characters kept getting up and going about doing the mundane tasks of their daily lives with nothing really happening.

The solution was that, for Christmas, I asked for and received a book called Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. I Have started to read it and so far I think it will be extremely helpful.

One thing that I really like about the book is that it has exercises in it. This is the sort of thing I need. I have to re-educate myself in the art of creative writing. Correction: I may have to actually educate myself in the art of creative writing. Even though I studied this in college, I really think that maybe I didn't really get it. I had ideas but they never really made it past the drawing board. I think the problem was that I didn't really map out about the plot very well. Instead I focused on a lot of description and emotions which really just resulted in a lot of literary snapshots of a scene but no real scene. Hopefully, all of that is going to change!