Packing Tape Works

The 16km run yesterday was wonderful. I learned a powerfully painful lesson last Sunday - packing tape is my new best friend! I can run forever now.

My MoH and her husband HAVE to fly first class and they went and upgraded their seats. I'm the Bride. I gotta fly first class to my wedding. COME ON. Now, how do we leave Mom and Dad and the Sis-in-law and Bro-in-laws to be in the cargo bay? there was a big sale - lucky for me! And I'll be upgrading everyone outta my pocket - how sweet of a surprise is that going to be? 

Attitude Problem? Moi?

I was so happy this weekend. What happened? PMS happened. This is crazy. I never used to get like this. The job is part of it.

So here I sit just a-HATIN' on the job, the scales, my skin, my social life ... it dawns on me that the time has come to count my blessings. The first two come in the form of incredibly good news:

1. My H2B has fixed the oven. We don't have to buy a new one and the man has fixed the first thing in our house since we've been together. Gotta be a huge boost to his DIY-Ego. (We have many egos, you know.)

2. I'm 5 and 1 in my fantasy NFL pool. That's fantabulous. I need to stay up there in the rankings as the only female in the league (Gridiron Maiden Uber Alles! GO CHICK!)

Some other blessings?

• Soon PMS will be over. That's good.
• I'm ahead of schedule on my list of  "Things to Do".
• Christmas is coming. Dangerous as it is to a diet, I love that time of year.
• in precisely 6 months, I'll be on a tropical beach.

OUT OF TIME AGAIN!

Wedding Details

To those who have requested Wedding deets, here goes:

17 April 2007 - Varadero, Cuba

Our wedding party will consist of 10 of our closest friends and family members. There may be two other couples joining us, but the 10 are the confirmed ones.

I really hope that I can reach 125lb before the dress arrives. Then I'll know where to go from there based on the way the dress fits. It should be here anytime after October 17th. (Weirdly, and by complete coincidence, I ordered my dress on April 17th 2006! It must be fate.)

We will be getting married on the beach, rather than in the gazebo area because the beach means so very much to me. I grew up on the coast and the beach was my refuge as a child, my summer haven with family and friends, and my lifelong happy place.

I am preparing a bag to send to everyone for Christmas to hype them up with a book about travel in Cuba, a bottle of each of our own wedding red and white wines, chocolates, sippy mugs for all that included booze (personalized with the guest's name on one side and our little beach-wedding logo that I created on the other side). The tote bags that this and a few other little things will be in will also be embroidered with the name of the couple receiving the gift at the top and then the logo with our names and wedding date on the bottom).

The 'logo' is a tropical beach scene with our names and the wedding date centred underneath the overhanging palm tree.

YAY!

take this job and ... well, never mind.

HOO! My self esteem is in the toilet. The job is killing me. I swear, I was cast in this role as a scapegoat. I'm nothing but something to beat and abuse. I'm hating this job. I have to suck it up and tell my boss that I need some support fast or I'm getting the hell out of there.

Or do I? Do I just wait until I've got the job down and I've managed to appease everyone? Then request a transfer? I'm in a job that leaves little where else to go but out. After this, I just have to get the hell out. Does this end NOW while I'm trying to plan a wedding and ... dog wants to play. ARGH!!!

I will blog! Someday...

Life upside down. Can't write. Need to so badly - going nuts. Dog staring at me - wants my oatmeal.

I will set aside an hour to collect my thoughts this weekend if it kills everyone around me.

I BOOKED my WEDDING VACATION! I booked 10 people on a trip!!! it was like HERDING CATS!!! And it's DONE!!! PRAISE JESUS!

I'm SO close to knowing what date to put on the wine bottles, it's wikit! I know I will be married on either April 17 or 18, pending survival. YAY!!!!

Dogs

Why do they NEED to be on me when I'm at the computer. My dogs absolutely hate it when I try to compute.

Perhaps I can post tomorrow evening.

Back to My Old Hopeful Self

Today I'm tired, but joyful. I am back to my usual self after some horrible trials with my plumbing. DAMN - I hate plumbing. Give me an electrical problem any day. And being a plumber - is that a licence to print money or WHAT?

My job is driving me right through the wringer. I'm so fried I don't know which end is up anymore. Everyone expects you to perform miracles with ZERO information. Are they afraid that sharing information makes it no longer useful to themselves? What is WRONG with management? spiteful knobs.

Soon, I'll be forced to do a 'tempo' run (read: fast enough to want to puke) in my old beaten down walkin' shoes because I've forgotten my new runners at home. BLEURGH! Get the masking tape! My poor little feet!

All of these things and physical ailments aside, I'm in a great mood. I consider myself an extremely lucky person to be able to go out there and blister myself up in the name of trimming my rearview.  I've got my health and the sun is shining. I have a lot to be happy for.

But what I'm most happy for is the fact that I've finally found my birth control prescription. I've been so out to lunch, that when I refilled my prescription in April, I forgot which pharmacy I did it at! So, I've been dealing with horrendous bouts of acne, bloating and mood swings out of season. My doc is on vacation, I have no time to get to an afterhours clinic for a new prescription and BAM! I finally called the right pharmacy ... when the pharmacist asked my date of birth I nearly screamed in his ear! JACKPOT!!! WOO HOO!!!

I'm proud to say that I am no longer in the mood to call off my wedding, quit the half-marathon and hit the booze!

And ... Back Up Again

Am I struggling? Losing ground? Or am I moving ahead? The scales are up and sticking, but I see abs and ribs. It's so very foggy on the weightloss battlefield. 

I'm feeling a little down right now. I'm waiting on a wedding dress that no one cares to deliver on time because "Hey! You're not getting married til April, right?" and I can't get someone to book me a good deal on a the vacation package. It's as if no one wants the business. There'll be 14 people on this trip! Surely to GAD there's a sizeable bonus for someone in that!

I am bloated and angry. It doesn't seem that I'm running enough to lose any weight yet. It's as if all of my plans have come to a grinding halt and I'm REALLY hating it. I gotta sit here in limbo until what? Will it be OCTOBER before I get a wedding date? I can't put a freakin' label on a wine bottle, can't order chocolates, can't embroider flippin' tote bags or hats. I'm JUST SO TICKED OFF!!!

Focus on the positive, Rho! You're going to increase your KMs this week. You have a dance camp to attend this weekend. You don't have the TIME to be frustrated about your wedding for at least two weeks!  The scales will bounce down, and maybe we'll use the next two weeks for a little detox/extra clean living. Let's just use this time! There are at least to positives to be made of every negative!

Last week, I did SO well on all of my runs. I really enjoyed all of the runs last week. (Which tells me I need to push a just a little harder this week.)

I've heard bad things about the half marathon event that our training event is scheduled to coincide with. I'll have to investigate. They say the trail conditions are 'nasty'.  I'll have to be the judge of that, I think.

Broke Through Last 10lb Mark!

9.5lbs to go to goal weight! This is starting to look more possible every day! I'm really gonna do it!

First Run with the Group

Last night I went for my first run with the Half Marathon Clinic.

This class may well be the end of my running career. I looked around at the marathoners that were 'kickin' back' with the 21K slacker set and they were SO PREMATURELY AGED! Is it forgetting sunscreen? Is it the jarring on the facial muscles? There was a group of women near the front of the pack that looked like a set of luggage, I kid you not.

I was also concerned with not pushing myself too hard. Being the genius that I am, I realized that the leather gazelles over there were to be avoided if I wanted to survive. I sneaked to the back of the pack with the more laid-back looking crew. Out stepped the instructor behind me and hollered "This way people!" and turned around and took off. I was RIGHT behind her. Once it hit me how screwed I was, there was no way to convince my pride to let me hang back. I FINISHED right behind her (by God!) and was fixin' to die when she high-fived me and said "Great run!"

I won't lie. It felt damned good. But I have no intention of repeating that glory.