I've Got a Girlfriend That's Better Than That...

Bear and Dog Tracks

I decided I'd better get back on the program this morning and started the day with a jog with Falcom.

Did I take a picture of the snow that had fallen in the morning? No. Should I have? Yes.

I plodded along in my usual way. I caught up with Falcom, who was having a meltdown because 'You Left Me!' I said, "Honey, don't we do this everyday? Don't you know where we go?" He got it together and we were finally able to continue on. That is until our neighbor drove up (no not Terri) and said, "We had a grizzly bear with two cubs in our yard this morning. I know they were heading west, but you'd better turn around." Falcom and I turned around and as we did the snow started again, and the rain, and the wind was in our faces. Falcom had another meltdown and screamed: "I HATE THIS MOTHER NATURE!"

Yes, I might be doomed to fatness. It is nice to see though how this fatness started in the first place: through my unwillingness to participate in this awful weather. It is hard to motivate when you are confronted with the ultimate dysfunctional mother...NATURE! I'm so glad Falcom was here to help me see it so clearly.

As I predicted in my last post; the house did not have a Mother's Day Miracle. When I got in from the attempted jog, Vince was walking around half mumbling about the mess around here. "Oh, Gross." He'd say or "Arg!" Then I opened my email and received this bit of good news from Mindy Hunter

Hi Girlfriend,
So, did anyone tell you that I called Sat morning about having coffee together this weekend? Just wondering... We have appointments for our “side-by-side 60 minute Couples Massage (we can hear each other’s moans of pleasure and shrieks of pain),” on Sunday, May 25. We can have our pedicures after lunch that day (like around 2:00, I was thinking), but only one lady works that day, so one of us would have to wait and be witty and entertaining for us all. OR, we could do our pedicures at the same time, “side-by-side pedicures...” on the day before, Saturday, May 24, any time after 11:00. What do you prefer?

There were other, finer points, in the email that I won't go into here, but the entire document was a well written reminder that I am not the only mother in town who is feeling a pinch of depression accentuated by screaming children, disastrously messy houses, and this unusually cold weather.

Luckily, I am able to grasp to the good news: Mindy Hunter and I will be having Massages and Pedicures on May 25!

Vince took the kids away when he saw that I was feeling motivated to clean. What happened next? The phone started ringing... I spent an hour and a half on the phone discovering that:

• N.R. had sex this weekend! (Few of you will understand the importance of this, but it is remarkable and I need to mark it for posterity. )
  
• Suzanne wanted to know if I had taken a picture of the snow from this morning.


• Suzanne drank to much and then ate too much and thought about ditching on WW, but I said, "If we don't go tonight, then we'll never go again!" She admitted I was right.
  
• S.R. thinks I've made great strives this winter in the various aspects of my life and needed to pick up the phone to tell me that.
  
• J.M. is dying to move somewhere warm and dry and was seriously shopping for property in New Mexico after driving for a field trip to Mud Bay where no kid wanted to participate because it was so cold and wet out there!
  
• Valda's pictures are still not downloading from her camera properly and she is coming over to check it out.
  
• Jeanne wants to do the celebration mobiles on Wednesday after the school camping trip meeting.
  
• K.F. wants to know if Vince and I will be attending the employee banquet on Saturday. Yes we are.
  
• R.S. said, "I'll have the ADD test done before Wed. I've already picked up the tests from his teachers. I'm thinking that you should make the appointment now, because sometimes it can be hard to get in..." I had to laugh.

I was relieved when Suzanne picked me up for the WW. I was ready to be away from this mess. Her dog Pit came with us. Pit is an enormous version of Scratch. Very sweet dog, Very huge!

In the new WW location there is a lovely group counseling area that Suzanne and I took full advantage of. Some people might think of this as 'the line to be weighed', oh no! It's the therapy line.

And boy did I need it! It was so nice to feel supported and loved when I learned that I'd GAINED 2.2 POUNDS! Look at these lovely and supportive women... Neither of them groaned at me or scolded me... They were so sweet and quickly pulled out the week three booklet and referenced the quiz that enables a person to see some potential problem areas.

I left the meeting feeling loved and so Suzanne and I immediately left to go out to eat. Suzanne had something to celebrate: all of her 10th graders passed the High School Equivalency test. I needed to go out to the spit to take pictures of my beloved Zac's Flat Stanley. I was going to make a quiz that said, "Which of these plates did I eat after learning about my significant weight gain this week?" In looking at the shot, I think it's pretty clear who wanted cheese for dinner.

I must mention here that for the money, if you want to have a salad and chicken on the Spit this summer, Boardwalk Fish and Chips is not the place to go. Go there for fish and chips, or burgers and fries. This ice burg lettuce salad with large chunks of onion and regular old dressing is far out shined by the salads at Fat Olives.

Suzanne told me I could share her fries. (oops! Did that give it away who ate what?)

We were talking about her success, and the stresses in my life. I think I will be able to go into more detail about that tomorrow, but, I realized that when I started talking about Vince I reached out to nab my first french fry.

Immediately, I got into my purse and yanked out the week three booklet that I got from the meeting: I quickly went over the quiz... I eat for comfort... If I overeat, I feel guilty, which leads me to overeat more... But the biggie...I eat more when I'm unhappy, angry, or stressed...

That french fry grab made it painfully obvious that I am an Emotional Eater! Today I will study pages 39-45 and find out ways to manage this situation.

When I got home there was a note from Irene who took time to write from her fun trip which said, among other things:

Chin up, old girl. I love the Virgin Mary logos on your blog, where ever did you find them? And thanks for putting pictures of my boys on your blog. I don't have any of my old photo files on the laptop, only new ones. I updated my profile,check me out! I love having a friend that is totally into me. I love you! You're better than a husband or a boyfriend!

I swear, I am the luckiest woman around, because I have the best coolest girlfriends ever!

Thank you all for everything!