Oh, here I am again. Still among the living. How about that? Oh, and listen…I started walking with blabbermouth Leslie again yesterday morning. Now I have TWO mornings under my belt (so to speak) and am feeling semi-virtuous again. Did better with my eating, too. Just my breakfast (either oatmeal w/a handful of raisins or a multi-grain bagel with FF cream cheese), lunch and dinner - and being careful what I eat at each meal. NO snacks in between, no M&M’s (My downfall), no nuttin’. Not ravenous, either. Doin’ okay so far. Wearin’ a skirt that was too tight awhile ago. It’s still snug, but not obviously snug, and it’s long - like lower mid-calf - and straight. It’s this nubbly tweed with dark brown and copper and rust and (wait, lemme look..) also a little beige-y nubble. It’s an amazing skirt that I paid a veritable fortune for, and feel that I should wear it once in a while, y’know? I have my sassy brown boots with the HEELS on, too. Hell, yes, I’m an old crone, but I can still have fun sometimes. What the hell? There’s a woman who works in the finance department who mustn’t be much older than I am, but she wears shapeless slacks to work every day with equally shapeless blouses or short-sleeved sweaters, and she has this bulging TIRE around her midsection…and….and…..omigawd. Talk about inspiration to stay on my diet, eh? So, anyway, it’s supposed to snow again tonight - 6 to 12 inches, probably. Can I tell you how much I’m looking forward to this? NOT, I mean? I have SO had enough with winter already. It’s making me lethargic and tired all the time. I know it is. But, like I said, I AM better now. Didn’t even work up much of a sweat walking with that rotten Leslie this morning. Sometimes her cheeriness really annoys me. Who can be cheerful at 5:00 AM? I retain my sanity by talking back to her. Sometimes not too pleasantly. Hah!

So I made up my mind to order some new wooden plantation blinds for my dining room. I have them in my living room - the 2 1/2″ slats in mahogany color - and that’s what I’ve been wanting to put in the dining room, as well. Of course they cost too damned much, so I’ve been putting it off for a while, now. But they’re on sale - 30% off - through TODAY, so I went ahead and placed the order. Hell with it. I work every day. I can have plantation blinds in my dining room if I want. Oh, we bought a new dining room table and chairs over this past weekend, too. More contemporary than what I had. Straighter lines, but in dark brown to match all the woodwork and built-in cabinets (and the blinds, of course). Hell, yes. The economy is down the toilet, but I don’t care. I may as well live a little while I still can, right? I’m going to get rid of a lot of clutter that has built up. I have too much stuff. I’ll see what my kids want, and anything they don’t want is going to the Salvation Army. I’m going to streamline my house - and myself. I have all these extra CHAIRS. I guess I went through a period when I loved having unique chairs around the house - a woven banana leaf one, a nice dark brown wicker one with a matching ottoman, a fancy Queen Anne style with ornate carving on the back & arms…who needs all these stupid chairs???? They’re taking up way too much space. I need some space. Room to walk around in. New Year, new outlook. That’s right. We have a big gathering of friends planned for Memorial Day weekend - up in our usual White Mountain getaway. By then, I plan to have achieved a number of five-pound weight loss goals, plan to have walked a few hundred miles with that big-mouthed Leslie Sansone, and plan to be really fit and ready to do some heavy-duty hiking and climbing.

Okay. Yeah. I know I’m rambling, here. Guess I’ll go heat up my chicken soup for lunch. It’s home-made. It has chicken broth, carrots, onions, celery, kale, brown rice and great big chunks of chicken breast, I season it with cumin and Mrs. Dash salt-free garlic & table seasoning mix. Oh, and a good shaker of dried parsley. Fresh ground black pepper. REALLY good, and I’ve never been much of a soup eater, but I love this stuff. I have a piece of multi-grain pita bread to eat with it. My virtuousness is beyond measure, eh?

So where’s Ruby Jean, for gawd sakes?

Hugs,

Z