For a couple of years now, the DH and I have bought ourselves some sort of art as our present to ourselves, but this year we were going to hold off, in light of the fact that in a couple of years we want to move to a new house. He just forwarded me some newly available illustrations from a children's illustrator we both like. He's evil.

A quick revisit from last night:

I physically cannot do most of the things I want to do, and even more than wanting to look good and be sexy and wear pretty clothes, I want to dance and hike and spend a leisurely couple hours walking around a mall or a museum, and join my thin little sister and nieces and friends on the fun things they do, and I just can't.

This, so much this. While I was in the hospital, I was watching an travel show on PBS (Globe Tracker, I think), and they were in Paris. I've only been to Canada once and that's been it for foreign countries, and I soooo want to go to Europe. Now, even with the weight loss, I'll have to wait until after I finish school due to financial reasons, but that's fine with me!

One of the great things from this week is that I found out that my pre-op weight was 450, not 480 like I was thinking, so I'm already about two months ahead of my weight loss schedule. I was hoping I'd be down to 300 by the end of 2011, but now it looks like I can be down to that weight by the end of the summer! And my mom and I are talking about me driving out to NJ for the break between summer and fall semesters and the two of us driving up to Maine for vacation, which would be terrific.

I'll be able to walk around the beaches and not have to sit down after less than five minutes. I'll be able to carry my luggage up to the hotel room and not have to lean over and catch my breath after 100 steps. Heck, I'll be in a size 24 instead of a size 36!

I'm glad things are going well, Kathy.

Thanks, tommyrot! And everyone else, too, of course. My mom is finally starting to understand why I like y'all so much.

My cat is having a bit of a freakout, and has been all week. Mom said she'd been looking for me while I was in the hospital and meowing at her because she wasn't me. Now that I'm home, she's meowing at both of us for reasons unknown. I think she'll settle down after Mom goes home on Monday--she's not used to me having a visitor for an extended time.

Yes, I need to lose weight so that I can do things I want to do. I used to walk to and from work everyday and now, I just don't think that is possible.

Anyway, I have already eaten too much this morning. People brought goodies from the office holiday party (it's the Division party - my department's party is next week.) Colleges always do these things early so that (in theory) student workers can cover the phones while full time staff are at the party and (possibly) so that grad assistants can also attend.

Meanwhile, much of my department is gone: 1 to a conference and 4 others chaperoning the bus trip to the MAC football championship game. I watched the main desk while the other office support staff were at the party and had zero walk-ins AND zero phone calls.

Oh noes! My bosses are breaking up!

It's an amicable breakup. Ken is tired of commuting from Highland Park, and Jeff wants to stay in Evanston (where he lives). So Ken's gonna get his own office closer to Highland Park, and I'm gonna commute up there. So I'll go back to riding on comfy Metra trains instead of CTA trains and/or buses. My train ride should be 35 minutes at the most, so that's not too bad. I like Evanston, but it kinda' sucks our current office is a ways from downtown. Hopefully our new place will be close to cool restaurants and stuff. (Ken says he's gonna try to find a place that has restaurants, etc.)

Also, I probably won't be riding my bike to work anymore.

My (excellent) GP told me that Weight Watchers is the best long-term weight management plan. But dining is a big source of enjoyment in my life, and doing all the point-calculating and management would turn it from a pleasure into an onerous chore. Since my preferences and instincts tend toward healthy food choices anyway (barring diet soda, which I will not be giving up until Hell freezes over), I'm just trying to get myself used to smaller portion sizes.

It's been interesting hearing the various approaches to diet people have been taking.

I'm wondering what would be the easiest way for me to be mindful about what I eat without getting into WW counting - which I know I'd never commit to.

If you could sum up a healthy eating philosophy in one sentence, something you could be mindful about without obsessing about each mouthful what would it be?

Eat whole grains, fruit and vegetables first?

Eat less meat and skip the treat?

Portion control and no snacking?

Protein in the morning? Oatmeal in the morning?

Lean protein and whole grains and snack on fruit?

(barring diet soda, which I will not be giving up until Hell freezes over)

Matt is me.

So our local conglomerate opted out of the recent Verizon/Alltel buyout. But the local company is upgrading to a 3G network so I get a new Blackberry free of charge. This just as I was eyeballing an HTC Desire touch screen phone for Christmas. I guess I can muddle through with a new, free Blackberry until my contract is up next fall and then decide what I want then when I'm not restricted to any one carrier.

(barring diet soda, which I will not be giving up until Hell freezes over)

Matt is me.

Do you guys really like the taste of diet soda? Because I don't know why it has Slurmlike addictive qualities.