Wow! I'm an Assistant Organizer!

I belong to a local scrapbooking MeetUp group and while I was at our all day crop last Saturday (National Scrapbooking Day), the Organizer came over and said they were thinking of offering me that position. Now it doesn't require a lot of work; if MB can't make an event that I'm attending, I'd "be in charge of" paying for the room, making sure we all leave the room in the condition we found it, baby stuff like that. But how nice to be a "part" of that group! And how flattering that they want me to be the Assistant Organizer!

I've met the nicest women in that group, wound up back in touch with a friend from high school, and have learned that I am, indeed, creative in my own way. I do okay making my pages - they may not be publishing-quality, but I'm proud of them. (Yes, there are a few I think could definitely use some tweaking, but for the most part, I like 'em!) I would never have described myself as artistic; I think I mentioned that in an earlier post, but I am! And I get a lot of satisfaction from it!

And now this brings up the issue of group activities. I belong to Weight Watchers. Again, I've met a great group of people, especially in the Ledgewood, NJ, group. They've extended their WW relationship into their personal lives - they cruise together, they have movie nights together, they attend cookie swaps and purse sales together... And they've invited me along but so far I haven't been able to attend; with the work at the lake and the fact that we're only up there 2 days a week, my time is a bit full. But when we relocate, I hope I can spend more time with these ladies. They're a FUNNY bunch of coconuts!

WW, scrapping. What an easy way to find new friends and experience new things. So far I haven't been disappointed!

But I have a friend who "doesn't do groups." She won't attend WW 'cause she "doesn't like that rah-rah mentality." It's not a rah-rah group. Sure, we clap for each other and sometimes I feel a bit silly being on the receiving end of applause for losing a 1/2-pound when there are women in there who have lost over 100 pounds. But the value of the support I get from these strangers-turned-friends is immeasurable. How nice to know that I matter to these people. They really do care that I lost rather than gained, or that I stayed the same rather than gained. And if I gain, they have ideas to help me lose. Of course, we talk about food, and eating, and weight. But we've also talked about children, and in-laws, and holidays, and family, and work...

This friend of mine won't come to my scrapping group, even though she's very artistic and would do extremely well. Why? Because she "doesn't do groups" and because she "can't afford to scrap." Now THAT I can relate to! It IS a very expensive hobby if you get addicted to it! But I've offered her the use of my materials for a day, or even for a few hours, just to see if she'd like it, and as well-read and well-informed and brilliant as she is, "No. I don't do groups." If she just doesn't want to scrap, okay. But she did it for a shower she organized and said she had a lot of fun doing it. She's just, well, rigid, in a lot of ways. She doesn't embrace change. Now, me? I hate change. But I acknowledge the fact that it's inevitable and I sort of have to adapt, whether I like it or not. Sometimes I think she "doesn't do groups" just 'cause she said, a long time ago, that she "doesn't do groups."

And she spends paragraphs and paragraphs on her blog lamenting the fact that she has only a few close friends and too much free time...

17-14

In honor of the Giants, who BEAT THE PATRIOTS IN SUPERBOWL XLII 17-14, I'm typing today's blog entry in blue. I went to my closet this morning to pick out something in Giants blue, only to find out I own nothing in Giants blue. So I'm wearing blue jeans and a turquoise sweater in honor of the NJ Giants! (I refuse to call them the NY Giants - they play in NJ, I paid for their stadium, I'm paying for their new stadium - NY can claim them when they pay for them!)

It was an exciting game! I was SO excited when we scored first, when we had possession for most of the 1st quarter, then I started to not be so excited when New England scored. But the 2nd half? Well worth the price of admission! Oh, wait, I didn't pay to watch the game. How's this instead? Well worth my time watching a football game! (I'm not a huge sports fan to begin with, but I must admit I feel all tingly when the local guys do well!)

Jack and I stayed home. Instead of a sit down dinner (when was the last time I cooked one of those?!?!), I made a bunch of appetizers: extra spicy Jamaican jerk beef patties, potato puffs, buffalo chicken wraps, spicy beef turnovers, and pigs in a blanket. Mmm, good!

Today I'm back to WW with a vengeance. I lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks, and Jack has been telling me how noticeable it is, so when I went on Saturday, the week before my "friend" (hi, Mom!) arrives, I'm back up 1.2 pounds! Yuk!

So, with 2 weeks to go before our Vegas trip, I'm going to try to stick to it really closely, eat well, drink my water, pay attention to the 8 healthy guidelines, and do my darndest to lose some weight. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Happy Memorial Day (one day late)!

After a few days off, away from the computer, I'm back, baked and breathless to catch you up on the weekend...

First and foremost - we had weather. Good weather. Great weather! Weather that no one could complain about. Three days of it. Sun, warmth, more sun. I'm sunburned (not as badly as DH but good enough that I don't look like a beached whale) but not so burned that it will all begin peeling the night before the family wedding we have to attend in two weeks... Our mini weather station (a holiday gift for DH a couple of years ago) said "rain" all weekend, and we never got a drop! I've never been so happy for it to be wrong!

We took the rowboat out a few times. We really do need to buy ourselves a little motor. Even though I'm dieting and losing some weight, it's tough on DH to have to row us everywhere. (The motorboat will not go into the lake this year either; the dock isn't ready for it, and frankly, between the construction and the cost of gas these days...)

We had some surprise guests at the lake on Friday night. C, J and Mom came up. C was rather insistent that they come, even though the trip was two hours long instead of the 45 minutes it should take thanks to traffic and two horses loose on Route 80! J spent some quality man-to-man time with DH. They talked cars, of course, but J confessed to a D in chemistry. DH gave him the talk about how smart his family is, on both sides, that there's no excuse for him to be anything but an A student, that he should be in the top 25 of the school, with his brains... They talked about the need for J to get a job doing something, anything, and saving his money for a car. They talked about how C is under no obligation to buy him one, that the Honda was intended for him but that the decision to sell it was the right one. You sell it when it's saleable. You don't throw good money into it when you won't get it back when it's time to sell. I hope that it all sunk in, since it wasn't coming from his mom, his aunt or his grandmother... DH also mentioned that insurance companies aren't under any obligation to give him insurance and will justifiably say "no" if he, as a new 17 year old male drive buys a $5000 Porsche. DH put it to him this way: If they insure you and you have an accident that costs the insurance company $50000, was that a good business decision for them? No? Then you get it. You understand that they have to insure you for what they're willing to risk, and they have to charge you enough to be able to pay it out when (not if) they have to...

Some more news... At my WW meeting on Saturday morning, she said I gained .4 pounds. But I weighed in at .4 pounds LESS. I spent a few days a bit depressed 'cause I had been sticking to the program. Today I noticed my actual weigh-in number was lower than the week before. That means I lost weight, weigher-inner! So take that!!! (In case you hadn't noticed - not depressed any more!!!)

Had a BBQ last night with Mom and DH. We had corn on the cob, baked beans, homemade (by Mom) macaroni salad, sausage patties on potato rolls, potato salad (not homemade by me, but bought all by my lonesome at the local Shop Rite!), blueberry pie, two SR muffins (a banana nut muffin and a burstin' with blueberries muffin), and some Swiss Chocolate Almond coffee. Mmm, mmm, good!

I'm back in the office for a short week - today, tomorrow and Thursday here, Friday in NYC for BEA. We're sponsoring the big balloon drop at the opening of the convention, and I have to be there to distribute some company bags (bags are always a big take-home item at our shows) and then I can walk around, see people I haven't seen in years, then go home early and shop 'til I drop.

DH is away this weekend for the Special Olympics' state event and won't be home 'til Sunday afternoon. So on Sunday morning, I'll go to SR and buy something really good for dinner and when he comes home, I'll have it ready so he can go right to bed. This will be a weekend of No-Doze for him... And I'm going to be twenty times as worried as usual since he'll be driving himself home from Trenton after a long weekend without any sleep... G won't be there this year so she won't force him to "phone home" using her cell phone... I already want him home safe and sound...

On Saturday it's our family picnic. I'll be the only one attending. I'm just going to stop by to see all the aunts, say hi, see who showed up, take some notes for next year's event (that our family is sponsoring then!) and then I'll go on to my own weekend. If I can, E and I will be shopping; if not, what a GREAT weekend to clean up, throw some things out, and organize the rest!

It was a nice weekend... it rained a little, but we got to sit on the dock on Sunday for an hour or two, just soaking up the sun...

Happy B'day (one day late!), SIL! You are the best!! Hope it's the best b'day ever!!! See you tonight!!!

I LOST 1.8 POUNDS THIS WEEK. WW really does work, when you follow the plan. I journaled, drank my water, and I think the walking finally caught up with me and, to quote another favorite blogger, "that glorious time of the month" has passed (sorry, T.M.I.). That 1.8 pound loss, though, no matter how I got it, has fired up all my cylinders! I'm eager again to stay on plan, to lose more, to exercise more, to try harder, to succeed at my weight loss plan. And I will do this. (With, most likely, a few more setbacks, but still...)

Mom has bees. Either wasps or yellowjackets or hornets - DH and I have to stop at HD and pick up some spray of some kind. Mom was going to purchase some yesterday at the SR and spray it herself, but I pointed out that she'd have to run like h-e-double-hockeysticks back around the front door... Could she? No. So it's back to being our job, most likely for tomorrow.

I went to the dr. on Friday. I'm going to get an x-ray of my knee today, pick up a prescription for some heavy-duty anti-inflammatory, and find out when I can have some blood work done to rule out rheumatoid arthritis, gout, etc. I guess then they'll check the osteo-stuff. When I wake up in the morning, my hands are sore, they just ache. They're not physically swollen, but the joints feel like they are. And when I sit for a 1/2 hour, blogging, or working (ha!), and I try to get up - whoa! My hips are so sore that it takes the distance of 2 cubicles for me to be upright and homo sapiens again. And let's not forget to mention the first of these special aches and pains - the clicking knee. If I walk a certain way, rotate a teeny bit, there's an audible click. Not real "pain," per se, but if I lean on my right knee in just the right spot, there's some point tenderness and if I hyperextend my right leg, there's significant tightness in my hamstring.

This is what comes from being 46 and on the slippery slope of the downhill side of "over the hill."