Off Liners

The day of leaving my crappy library job, I made sure to get emails of anyone I wanted to keep in touch with. Everyone said the usual like keep in touch and let's do lunch and we will miss you, so I figured I'd get their emails and just do that, keep in touch.

Of course, I'm on the net just about all day because that's where the majority of my work comes from. I write for three web networks and teach two English classes on the net. So, email is my way to connect to the outside world. I even turn off the ringer on my phone unless I'm expecting a call because I don't want to get interrupted to yap with a friend who doesn't understand working at home is, well, work, or some guy who wants to sell me a water softener.

I'm trying to load up skype now, in fact, so that would mean even fewer phone calls. If my stupid firewall would just chill, I'll be in business.

But there are some weird people in this world who don't use email. Some of them even have emails, but they never check them. Or, like one friend of mine from the library, she sets up free email accounts and then forgets to check them until months later, so they are gone by then and she has to start all over again.

Now, if I call any of my library buds on the phone or they call me, they feel free to talk for as long as they like, telling me the same old stuff: work sucks, nothing has changed there, they miss me, I'm so lucky I got out of there, and work sucks.

I reply with the usual as well: nothing is going to change there, get out while you can, did you check so-and-so is hiring, and nothing is going to change there.

This has been particularly frustrating lately because I'm trying to set up a time to meet them for lunch before school starts because I know then it will probably be close to impossible to do that since I'll be in the classroom 2-3 days a week and teaching on the web as well as still doing my writing gigs. I can't possibly call each individual person to schedule something like this, as they all work different schedules which change weekly, so I'm trying to do it via email.

A few have replied, but my friend with the continually new email hasn't (though she claims she emailed me already...poor thing), one email bounced back due to a spam filter, and the rest, nada. I just don't get why people ask you to email them, and then never check their email.

The whole off-line world is become more and more bizarre to me.
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Lettuce and Lemon Water Diet

While I was pretty good last week on the old WW diet, Saturday night had a slight issue with cheese...oh...and wine. It is our normal routine on that night to pop upon some nice wine and munch a little. My dh is low-carb and it works for him, so he gets some really yummy cheeses to eat with the wine. While I didn't have my normal amount and I did count it in my WW points book, still, as the weigh-in day neared I started feeling really guilty.

What if I don't lose anything!? What if I gained?! What if that cheese went directly to my *ss?

My scale was giving me all kinds of crazy readings. I actually took one day and weighed at different times and recorded it because I was curious at how differently I'd weigh depending on the time of day, and the range was anywhere from one to three pounds different.

So, a few days before the WW meeting, I resolved to purge myself and drink tons of lemon water and eat only salads with low-cal dressing. The first day was tough, but I managed to eat way under my points. The second day, I relaxed a little but still had points left by the end of the day, and considering the number of points I have (not much) that's saying a lot.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was the two days of lettuce and lemons or maybe the fact that I did stay within the points range for most of the week or that I had exercised a few more days than the week before, but I was rewarded with a three pound loss on weigh-in day. I was ready to be thrilled by one pound, so the relief I felt after getting the news, well, you can't imagine. I was seriously freaking out the day before.

That's a total of 5 1/2 lbs in my first few weeks back on the program. Go Weight Watchers!
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Curse Thee Isaac Newton!

About a week ago, I finally threw in the towel and returned to Weight Watchers. With school on the way, it was time to either do it or give up, and the thought of walking into the classroom wearing a moo-moo and flip flops was enough to get my big *ss back to WW.


Long story short - I figured out that my scale and the one at WW was weighing me the same after my first visit. So, I made the mistake of weighing myself during the week to see if I was making progress, and I was thrilled to see that I had lost 4 lbs. Of course, I knew this was water weight, and I wasn't even that thrilled at the idea of 4 since my past tries at WW had given me a 5lb loss on the first week. Still, I figured 4 was good.


When I went back the next week to weigh in, however, their scale said I'd only lost 2.5 lbs! What the? I mentioned to the WW staff member that my scale was previously weighing me the same at home, and my home scale at read a 4 lb loss. She asked me what time I'd weighed myself that day, first thing in the morning? Yes. Well, it's gravity she explained. That we all weigh less when we first wake up and as the day goes on we weigh more, up to 2 lbs more.

I know I should still be happy with my small weight loss, but still, gravity sucks!

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Free Pilates

Well, it's free to me at least...My sister is downsizing to a smaller house, and among the many items her and her family of six are having to find new homes for (which also includes a pool table and about 2 or 3 dozen - no lie - bikes) is her old Pilate machine, or reformer as I've just learned they are called.

She originally got it from QVC, but of course, some how lost the DVDs that went with it, so I'm winging it a little. I've seen it demoed on TV before and I went by YouTube and found a ton of videos, so I've getting a routine down. Like the mat work I've been doing, it's a butt kicker! I'll probably get a DVD for it eventually.

I'd love to take a class, and in fact, a new Pilates studio opened up around here recently, but talk about expensive! Dang! I got on its web site and was looking around thinking maybe I'd check them out. I saw something on the home page that said "$249 membership" and thought, "Hmm..$249 a year? That's not that bad." When I read on, I discovered it was $249 a month! not a year! Yeah, needless to say I'm back to my home DVDs!

I mean...honestly! Who can afford that? I grew up taking dance lessons until I hit about my late 20s, early 30s, and I've taken a lot of yoga, and neither of those are cheap because of the training involved for instructors and studio space you need, especially for dance, but come one! Is Pilates only meant for rich people?

On the Radio

Check it out! I'm going to be l-i-v-e on the radio...or at least the Internet radio...over at Chick Tech this Weds. 6pm est. I'll be talking with Jennifer Mattern about professional blogging. She's an indie blogger and I'm a network blogger, so we'll be covering both sides of how to make mulla by blogging.

So, So Busy!

After finally leaving my CLJ, I had visions of cleaning out and reorganizing my office, making jewelry - for fun actually, catching up on house work, that sort of thing.

Well, obviously, I was completely insane to even think that could happen - that I'd have "extra time!"

Instead, I'm busier than ever. Not but a few weeks before I was to leave the library, I received a wonderful opportunity to work on the management end of one of the networks I write for. Basically, I ended up replacing one job with another, but now, this job I get to do from home and I don't have to deal with "the public" like I did at the library.

I'm also on the brink of overload with the two summer classes I'm teaching on-line. I'm thinking..."How did I agree to do this?" By the time my summer classes end, one of my fall classes begins. Yes, summer is almost over so that means syllabi to write, handouts to copy, etc. Ugh!

So, this is just the long, rambling way to say that I haven't written over here - on my one blog for no other reason than to blog, blog - because I'm busy.