08 June 2008

A New Outlet


After viewing a number of lovely blogs over the last few days, I have decided that my first summer project should be to create one of my own where I can post pictures of all my treasures around my house (like this collage I made a while back on a big wooden H my mother bought me at a flea market) and journal about the goings-on in my life. I took a bunch of pictures today with my cute new pink Sony Cybershot I got for Mother's Day, but I have a lot to learn about getting everything where I want it on my page. Ryan, my husband, friend and tech-guru (he owns a computer business) is at a Springfield Cardinals baseball game right now, and I am pacing the floor waiting for him to get home so I can ask him a bunch of questions and get this thing going! But for now, I'll post a little writing I did earlier this week when I met with some of my English teacher friends at Kickapoo. We each brought a dish for a potluck lunch and had to do some writing about what we chose. I made brownies. I don't consider myself all that into nutrition or dieting, so don't get the wrong impression about me from this first post...I probably won't write much else about how fat or skinny I'm feeling at the moment, but I enjoyed sharing this little piece (and a delicious lunch) with my friends:

3 June 2008: Literary Lunch

Do I say this every summer? That this summer will be the one where I eat better and exercise more and return to school in August transformed, a beautiful, skinny butterfly emerging from the fat and happy chrysalis of the season before? Ah, for the days of never worrying about what I eat and what I weigh…

I’m not even one to talk or write about fitness or dieting much myself, and my husband makes both seem superfluous. He is naturally thin, with arms that bulk up just by doing a few pushups in the evenings. But after watching a video I taped Sunday of Macauley and his dad breaking in the new Slip n’ Slide in the backyard, Ryan declared he, too, is unsatisfied with the shape he’s in, so we invested in a large bag of frozen lean chicken breasts and planned a grilling menu for the week of veggies and protein. I even bought a pair of Fit Flops on ebay: miracle shoes that promise to tone my legs and glutes while I just walk around and do what I do. Sounds easy enough.

But on the way back from getting the charcoal last night, he looked at the clock in the car, noticed it was close to 8:00, and asked reluctantly, “Do we really want to drag the grill out this late?” I needed little convincing. Handling raw meat, especially chicken, makes me lose my appetite anyway (this could be a good thing in the long run, perhaps), and it seems like it takes forever to fire up the little portable grill we continue to use, with no place to store a larger gas version until I clean out the cluttered garage. So I answered mischievously, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” and pulled through the McDonalds drive-through that is walking distance from our house and ordered two of their new Southern-Style Chicken Sandwiches, which if we’re getting technical about it, have no mayonnaise, only pickles, so how bad can they be? Really bad, I know.

So we postponed the first day of the rest of our new, skinny lives enough to scarf down the sandwiches, washed ‘em down with a couple of super-size sweet teas, too. But afterwards I pulled out the last box of brownie mix and made them for our meeting today…driving the devil out of my house or something like that. They’d be better with a cold glass of milk, the way I’ve frequently been eating them over the last few months, in bed before going to sleep no less. But I’m hoping this is the end of those late-night trysts for a while. A butterfly can’t soar with brownie-filled wings…

2 comments:

Alicia said...

Oh, Hales! I completely forgot I was reading a piece of English teacher writing as I got lost in your dieting story. As always, you expertly meshed personal tidbits and pieces anyone in your audience could relate to...I miss you dearly and wonder how I could have missed this writing get together...alas--maybe some other time. Love the page!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging:) I've added you to my favorites! You must tell me how the "Fit Flops" work out for you. I fancy having shapely calves:)

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