Before and After

Music: Kelly Sweet - Raincoat


I posted a few weeks ago about how I'd put up before and after photos of my weight loss from the past year. I finally located an old photo and took a new one so here they are.

Me (in the pink) and the sibs at the end of the summer before my junior year of college, and at probably my heaviest (I was 5'7" and about 163 lbs)




And then me and my sister's boyfriend Adam, who came home from NYC to visit over Memorial Day weekend (me still 5'7", but now 136 lbs). I look a little ill in this picture because I still had a sinus infection and was getting over my second bout of pink eye in both eyes. Goo!

I hate Rosie O'Donnell, and I hope you do too

Music: Horses in My Dreams - PJ Harvey


Deep breath. Had to put some calming music on to quell my rage at the video clips I just viewed. I had caught a few minutes of The View yesterday, which I hate, particularly because of Rosie O'Donnell and there being a lack of support on the conservative side of any political discussion, which turns into everyone belittling and insulting Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But I was curious because I saw on the news later that the small bit I saw had turned into a 10 minute "cat fight" between Rosie and Elisabeth. I'm not going to go into the contents of their argument, since it was all over the place anyway and some stuff I think referred to other arguments that they've had that I haven't seen, but basically Rosie (and Joy for that fact) is a biatch. She even went as low as to complain about how the media would now say that Rosie, the "lesbian bully" had attacked "innocent pure Christian Elisabeth." Aw, poor Rosie. Seriously. For a woman who acts like she doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself, why would she even care about how she appears to the media? What exactly is her point here? Plus I'm sure that Elisabeth doesn't like being labeled anymore than Rosie does. Besides, even if you are perceived as innocent, pure, and Christian, it doesn't mean that you are naive to politics. It seems like liberals think conservatives have blinders on, and they don't. They just see things differently. I find it ironic that some of the most open minded people I know are politically conservative. I think there's definitely a fair share of both arrogant liberals and arrogant conservatives, but I know more conservative people who listen, truly listen to left-wing or opposing arguments and they never result in taking someone down a peg with their tone of voice or lack of genuine respect, arguing off of emotions, or throwing it in the other person's face that our president once choked on a pretzel. A pretzel. A goddamned pretzel. I choked on a clementine in 7th grade, are they gonna hold that against me if I'm ever president? Honestly, I don't know a ton about politics, and I never claimed to. But I know about respect, and it's gonna be a long time before anybody is pleased with anything if people feel forced to argue and defend themselves every time they want to share their opinions. There is a time to talk, and a time to listen. This is normally a skill people learn by elementary school, but I guess it doesn't translate when politcs are involved. And to clarify, it's not because of her political viewpoints that I strongly dislike Rosie O'Donnell, it's that her behavior defies sensibility. I could sit here and call her everything Trump called her, but namecalling doesn't address the issue of what I think is displeasing about her. It's not her sexuality, it's not her "comedy," it's not her political stance. It's her obnoxious and self-righteous way of asserting her agenda on other people who have different opinions. Something else that bothered me from the show was that Rosie called Elisabeth a "cherry picker", which I don't even think is the correct term but maybe I'm wrong, but she basically said that Elisabeth just picks and chooses which facts to pay attention to. Well come on now. If she does, then Rosie does too! Rosie just picks and chooses different facts from Elizabeth to pay attention too. Who is to say which "facts" are more important, and should decide which way you sway on the political spectrum when concerning the war? Maybe there really is an answer for that and I'm just an ignoramus, but it seems to make sense in my head. Anyway...apparently Alicia Silverstone, who was the guest after the commercial break that ended the cat fight, entered on stage and completely snubbed Elisabeth, walked right past her and hugged the other three hosts. What are we, in second grade? We cannot have this "peace" that liberals claim to be all for when they can't even suck up their own emotions and be polite to someone who has opposing viewpoints. Because of this, this human nature, I believe peace to be an impossible feat.

In other news, I went bowling today. I won. Too bad it was against a 4 year-old.

The week of maladies

Music: Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John


Two weeks ago I thought I had a cold...it was bad for a few days and then I felt about 75% recovered for about five days afterward. And then last weekend it spiked again...I went to work and the woman I nanny for is a nurse practitioner and she took one look at me and said, "You have a sinus infection." So she prescribed me a 3-day course of antibiotics. That afternoon while watching a documentary on stigmata, my right eye started oozing green slime. Gross, yeah? I thought I was going blind. It turned out that I had pink eye. It spread to the other eye the next day. I spent the week explaining to people that I hadn't been crying all day; my eyes were bloodshot from pink eye. That started to get better by the end of the week, but my sinus infection was still terrible - my head felt better but I had a fever and I literally had to brace my entire body for the ensuing pain that came with swallowing. So I called the doctor, they put me on hold for 15 minutes, but at least they put on hold to Simon and Garfunkel. I was able to get in and see a doctor that afternoon, who prescribed me a 10-day course of more antibiotics. The nurse there also complimented on my "amazing" blood pressure (80/60). I'm feeling a ton better now, and there's just a small remnant of my sinus infection left. But I'll still be popping pills for the next week.

It's been lovely weather this week, and I've enjoyed it. I bought a few pairs of shorts and some cute tennies. We went to Holland yesterday for Tulip Time; we watched the parade and then went out to dinner, where I had one of my favorite foods in the world: corn chowder. Amazing. After about a week hiatus, it's back to the gym today. I loaded more songs onto my mp3 player and I have a new issue of Glamour to peruse so it should be a good workout day.

Tired of looking at my previous entry

Music: It's Probably Me - Sting

Good news! I finally found my Keane cd...it was underneath the my passenger side seat, which I had already looked under, but the seat had been pushed forward recently, thus exposing the misplaced item. I was buckling Jake into his carseat last week when, gleaming in the sunlight, it caught my eye. This is good news, but my Michael Jackson Dangerous album and my Elton John disc two still remain at large.

I haven't subbed in like a month...pretty much since I got this nanny job. It's wonderful. We had a very thought provoking bible study this week. We read Galatians and then talked about transgendered people. Neither are directly related to each other, but somehow the topic came up. I had seen a show on it the night before and it was really interesting. Plus the idea of nature/nurture is always engrossing. I think it can probably be a little of both sometimes. Today for like the fifth time in 8 months, I'm going to clean out my closet. For some reason, my drawers are still buckling with clothes and my closet still runs out of hangers even after I clean it out. And it's not like I've shopped very much this year. But I bought a suit the other day. It has three pieces; a jacket, pants, and a pencil skirt. It was really cheap and I couldn't resist, even though I don't really have anything to wear it to anytime soon. Other good news is that it's a size 6. Hooray! I don't mean to gloat, but seriously this is a big deal for me. Going from a size 12 to a size 6 feels pretty amazing. I've had some big accomplishments in the past year with my health, including sticking to a regular exercise regimen for over a year. Every time I tried in college, it lasted no more than a month. My total weight loss as of yesterday is 25 pounds. I feel a million times better, physically and mentally, and I no longer have knee problems. I'm so glad that after four years of wanting to look and feel much different, I was finally able to, and that I was also able to spend my last semester of undergrad feeling this new way. I'll post some before and after pictures sometime.

Anywho...I'm feeling more at peace with the news I received last week. It's like I feel that some major things in my life are undecided and out of control and I have no choice but to surrender to it. Hopefully I will know some more options in the near future.