The Lessening Continues March 20, 2009

Today marks the start of Week 10 of Fat Club.  At the end of nine weeks, I sit here over 15 lbs lighter than I was at the beginning of the year.

I feel very lucky that I’ve steadily lost weight and haven’t yet had to deal with any of the emotional fallout that comes with gaining a few ounces instead of seeing that scale number drop.  I even said as much when I was complimented on my progress during my weigh-in yesterday.  And my leader, bless her, said, “It’s not luck.  You’ve been working hard and it shows.”

It took me a few minutes to think about it and realize that she’s right.  I have been working hard.  I’ve been tracking my food intake and my activity, and when I’ve made mistakes and miscalculated, or gone off track I’ve made efforts to account for those and counteract them with exercise and activity.  I’ve tried to take the program to heart, and I’m seeing good, steady results.  Even this week when I’ve been eating crap (I’ve had cherry pie, restaurant omlettes, Taco Bell, pizza, and sushi all within the last 7 days) I’m very aware of what crap I eat, and how much of it, and still work towards making better food choices even as I indulge.

The weight loss is showing.  My pants are all too big, to the point that even belting them looks bad from all the excess fabric bunching.  I’m hesitant to buy clothing since I know I’m aiming to lose more, and I don’t want to waste money on things I’ll be able to wear for just a few months.  I did, however, buy a pair of pants off eBay that are the same size and cut as my best-fitting pair currently, and hopefully those will tide me over until I get closer to my goal weight, whatever that may be.

Only 13 lbs away from being allowed to play with my new eee PC!

Henna Superstar March 11, 2009

Since I decided to grow my hair long for bellydance, coloring it has become more and more of a chore. My hair is very fine to begin with; the length makes it prone to breaking and monthly chemical coloring treatments only weakened it.  Since I’d been coloring my hair red anyway, the obvious alternative was henna.  This way I end up with stronger, shinier, healthier hair, and most people have no idea my hair isn’t naturally rusty.

I have been way overdue for a henna application, and since I had some free time last night I decided bite the bullet and get this thing done.   I usually do my whole head, but my roots were about 4 inches long and I wanted to try to blend the brown with the existing red, so I tried a root touch-up.  It worked surprisingly well for such a risky endeavor; I could have ended up with a striped Easter egg head, but the shades blended beautifully.  If I’m feeling sassy in a few weeks I’ll do a whole-head application just to bump up the color and intensity a bit.

One of the down sides of henna is the time it takes.  Last night saw me cooking dinner with my head wrapped in plastic wrap, which was then topped with a fleece winter hat (to keep all the heat in and keep that dye releasing).   The whole process from the mixing of the henna paste, the initial hair wash, through the application and the wrap, the waiting, and the final rinse and dry took about 7 hours.  Not counting the wait, total attention time was nearly 2 hours.  Total cost, not counting the raiding of the pantry items, was about $5.

The fun part, aside from knowing I’m not destroying my hair with chemicals, is how creative I can get with the paste mix.  I vary my paste ingredients by using different liquids as a base (herbal tea, black tea, coffee, etc.), using different ratios of spices for extra color (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.), adding molasses or honey to help keep the paste moist, and changing up the essential oils.  The result is a bowl of goo smelling–not unpleasantly–of dried vegetation, earth, patchouli, oranges, and spices.

It’s like a Turkish coffeehouse for my skull, and who doesn’t like that?

Thanks, But Not For Me March 9, 2009

I have a beef with the Catholic funeral rite.  Perhaps it’s specific to one local parish, since that’s the only exposure I’ve had to the Catholic dead lately, but I’m still not pleased.  It’s confirmation that my decision to distance myself from that particular organized religion was a good thing for me.

My issue this time is with the use of music that serves no other purpose than to make the funeral attendees cry.  As if there isn’t enough grief floating around in the air already.

The funeral I attended this past week was for a very loosely-related lady who passed away, somewhat expectedly, in her 93rd year.  Those attending her funeral were primarily family, and that family is mostly of 1st- and 2nd-generation Italian descent.  Dark suits, carnation on the lapel, musical Italian being whispered in the pews, the works.  Much of the funeral mass was typical Catholic depression: the old hymns that are played at every funeral, the incense, etc.  (The music was provided by wanna-be Christian rockstar-types, all breathy and soulfully wavering to the electronic piano, but that’s a whole ‘nother rant which I won’t get into now.)  Other than the rather incoherent rambling of the presiding priest who obviously didn’t know the deceased at all, it wasn’t too out of the ordinary. The service continued as gloomily as one might imagine, through the main funeral rite, and that’s when Bizarro Church World made an appearance.

I mentioned this was a funeral Mass for a 93-year-old Italian woman, yes?  A woman who never spoke English, and was about as Italian as Italian can be.  So when the rite was complete for this little ethnic grandmother, the Christain rockstar wanna-bees break into a song that reminded me of nothing more than an old Negro spiritual.

There is nothing wrong with spirituals.  I find them lovely, meaningful, and a pleasure to sing.  However, I can not imagine that the deceased would have thought so, or appreciated the song.  Not only that, but the words, which consisted mainly of I’m coming home, people who already died are waiting for me, isn’t it grand?  And despite the sheer incongruity of it all, people sobbed like babies.

To the people who planned the service and particularly the music: Seriously, did you really need to do that?  These people have been crying for days, did it give you a sense of accomplishment to tear down that barrier of strength they’d erected in preparation for these last few hours?  Are you so proud of yourselves for “moving” these mourners with your overused vibrato and inability to sing a true, solid, honest note?  Is this the way you serve your church, by tearing at the raw wounds until they bleed again and again and again?

Perhaps I’m just stinging, myself.  This funeral was in the same church where my brother’s service was held.  It was presided over by the same priest.  The same musicians played and sang the same way.  We went to the same cemetary afterwards, and returned to the same hall for a meal.  Maybe I’m still smarting from the repeat memory.  But to my mind, there has to be another way, and if that’s what you get when you die a Catholic, I’m glad I’m no longer a part of it.

Slacker March 4, 2009

The cursed project may, in fact, be cursed, but it sure as heck doesn’t take two months of dedicated time to run.  It has been just over a week and I’m nearly done with my tasks, and I have oodles of free time in which to pick up random incoming jobs.  My boss and I have come to the conclusion that the last several people to laugh in the face of danger and fail miserably work on this project padded their time by at least a few weeks and were probably playing solitaire.  It’s less stressful this way, although the first few days were wretched, and  I think overall I prefer it.

That being said, I’m finding it very difficult to concentrate at work. This is due, I think, to three things:

• I am in the feeble clutches of a not-very-robust, but still irritating headache
• My caffeine supply is dangerously low
• I hate what I do to make money

At the same time, I could be using my unproductive work hours for personal non-work productivity, but I’ve come to the realization that I’m a slacker at heart.  I am attempting to write an engaging article for the company newsletter about what the clueless customer service people need to know so I can do my job effectively, but I think that’s contributing to my first bullet point.

I’m amazed that I’ve managed to write this much.

In geeky news, I just ordered an ASUS eee PC 901 in Sweet Pea green.  I was going to wait and order it as my “Yay, me!” for making my mini-goal weight.  However, ASUS is currently offering a rebate which ends 3/8/09, and that changed my tactics a bit.  While this snappy little netbook will arrive well before I reach my mini-goal, I won’t have custody of it until I see those numbers on the scale.  By my calculations, that should be mid-May.  Delayed gratification!