In the 6 days since I last posted we've welcomed at least 4 new people. That's great!
Friday night with my car packed solid with artwork, I drove from our South Jersey house to the beach. DH didn't make it down until 11 pm from his North Jersey apartment. Saturday started off hot with little wind so I put my two piece bathing suit on and walked the 2 blocks from our sailboat that we live on during the weekend up to my MIL's house. DH's S & BIL were visiting and I figured it be cooler if we'd go the extra block up to the beach.
Instead, SIL wanted to take our 5-year-old niece (not her DD) to the water park. In the 17 years I've been coming to Long Beach Island, I've never gone. So I went with them and had an absolute blast. Jillian was at the perfect age to enjoy it for the first time. She didn't have to be encouraged very much to go down the slides. There were a lot of other things the kids could do to make water showers go on and off around the park. It was also very accommodating for any adults who didn't want to get wet. I jumped right in and did the slides.
Later, after lunch, I took my 13 foot Hobie catamaran out for a sail to watch DH race on his friend's 18 foot Hobie cat. The wind was moderate when I started, but it built up to a nice breeze so that I could go fast. I just love skimming along the water, hiking out to balance out the boat. It feels like you are flying.
We then took SIL, BIL, and our niece our for a pizza dinner cruise down the bay on our 36' sailboat. I was as 'good' as I could be and limited myself to 3 slices of pie instead of my usual 4. We only motored because we had to get back in time to change for the club's dance.
It was a great band and we danced several West Coast Swings, East Coast Swings, a Rumba, a Cha Cha, and a Foxtrot. I wore my new dress with the tulle under it to make it flair out when I twirled. I got a lot of compliments on it, but one guy told me I can't lose another ounce.
I've been thinking about his comment this week and it might be because my friend Pat who was a club member died a few years ago from complications of anorexia. She'd gotten down to the 80's and was a few inches taller then me. She had been in recovery for a while and had gone to a famous clinic in NYC. She was beginning to gain the weight back when her heart gave out.
Anorexia often starts out as an issue of control. For Pat, she had gone through a bad marriage and divorce and was going to school so that she could have a job to support her 13-year-old son. She felt her life was out of control and the only thing she could control was what she ate.
Intellectually, I understand this point of view, but physiologically, I know I could never do it, because when I’m hungry, I have to eat. There’s no stopping me. In college, I had a roommate who became anorexia. It was very hard to watch her waste away. We would get into fights over it. Nothing I said was right. Once I found her passed out on the floor because she hadn’t eaten in days. That was 25 years ago. I know she’s ok because I can google her name and her picture and information of the research program she runs as a doctor comes up.
So I understand people’s concern that I might get too skinny. I’ve been holding steady at 5 pounds below my goal weight for 2.5 months now and have not seen the scale dip lower. I’ve have slacked back on the exercise and only am active on the weekends and when I go dancing.
Sunday, DH went home to work on some projects but I stayed on the boat because I needed to go up to the other side of the island on Tuesday to hang all the artwork in the car. LBI is divided in half by the causeway. Depending on what side your beach house is, you rarely drive to the other side. There’s only one main road on the 16 mile island and it has lots of traffic lights and summer vacationers on it.
We had a big thunderstorm come through in the afternoon while I was reading a novel. I decided to get off the 57 foot high metal mast lightening rod on a sailboat and go up to my MIL’s beach house. My 5-year-old niece asked me to read out loud my book and I ended up reading 40 pages to her. We had quite the book discussion about it. It was one of Lisa See’s early books called The Interior about multiple murder mysteries. So Jillian and I talked a lot about death and heaven and good guys and bad guys. I was reading this book because I had just finished her Snow Flower and the Secret Fan that was terrific. I really liked how she wrote it. She’s really improved her character development and story skills since the early book.
That night after dinner at MIL’s, Jillian came back to the boat for her first sleep over. She’d been looking forward to it for a year now. Fortunately, she didn’t get over excited and was able to get to sleep right at bedtime. I went to bed very early for me and was wide awake at 6 in the morning. I accidentally woke her up getting out of the Vbunk where we were both sleeping. It’s the berth (bed) in the bow of the boat and shaped like a V. Since we were up so early and Nana wasn’t coming till 8:30 to take her to school, we decided to go to the 24 hour diner for pancakes. I had way to much syrup on mine and didn’t feel 100% the rest of the day.
On Monday afternoon, I had plans to take my friend Marie out on the Hobie Wave, but the wind didn’t cooperate. Usually it’s pretty dead in the morning and then picks up after lunch. But there wasn’t a breath of air. So we hung out in the cockpit of Fandango and got caught up.
Tuesday morning I got up and drove north to the LBI Foundation of Arts and Sciences to hang my art group Fiber Revolution’s show. You can see our artwork on our site at
www.FiberRevolution.com We’ve been exhibiting for four years now and usually have about 10 shows a year. We came together on the Internet and have members in MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, and now AZ since one member moved. We’ve found it’s much easier to market our artwork as a group than individually.
The show will run for 3 weeks and is hung in converted airplane hanger. It’s very light and airy. 3 of my Techno Jam quilts are hung suspended from the rafters. After the reception on Sunday night, I will send photos to the member who posts them on our web site so you can see what I’m talking about.
My F.R. friends Cindy, Kevan (a woman) and Debbie helped me hang the show and then went we went to Debbie’s beach house for a pasta primavera dinner. Her mother made chocolate chip cookies and my mind talked me into trying one. I wish I had resisted because my medicine made it taste bad and the sugar in it actually stung my mouth! I felt bad about eating only one bite since she had made the cookies from scratch, so I ate the whole thing which worsened the problem in my mouth.
Tuesday night I headed back to our house for an overnight to go through the mail, mow the lawn, and pick up our cat. Wednesday afternoon, I drove up to our North Jersey apartment so that I could meet DH in NYC. We had tickets to go on a cruise of NY Harbor and hear a band. DH told me to take the Path train to the 33rd street station and meet him at the Victoria Secret’s by Herald Square. I went to the one on 34th and Herald Square and he went to the one on 32nd and Greely Square. Both were on 6th Avenue two blocks apart. I waited an extra 15 minutes before calling him. When he came up to met me, he yelled at me for not calling sooner. That’s something he never does. I was so mad he yelled at me. We almost had our first fight in 17 years. We tried to get to the boat but it was too late.
We ended up taking the Path back to Hoboken and walking around till we found the Asian Fusion restaurant again. I had vegetable tempura and a mango salmon roll and he had battered chicken with a lemon-pineapple sauce. Delicious. But we hardly talked.
On the walk back to the apartment, we stopped at the local A&P so I could get my staple Dannon Plain Yogurt, oranges, and two bags of salad. I’ve gotten like Tara this summer where I eat the same thing for lunch and sometimes for dinner when I’m alone. Yogurt and salad is all I seem to want to eat. Sometimes tuna fish.
Today, I’m just catching up on email and reading a week’s worth of Maintainers’ posts. Boy has everyone been busy.
Tomorrow, I’m planning on going into the city and navigating the subway system so I can get to the American Museum of Natural History. They have a special exhibition on frogs including my favorite Poison Dart frogs. When we were in Costa Rica, I actually got to hold one teeny, tiny red and black one in the wild. Had to wash my hands right after so I wouldn’t be poisoned.
Friday night, DH, our cat, and I will head down to the beach together for once. After the reception on Sunday night, we’ll come back to the apartment and I’ll stay up here because we have a private dance lesson on Tuesday night.
Okay, I’m all caught up since my last post. Sorry to be so long winded.
Hi Kim and welcome! We're delighted to have you de-lurk with us! Please stick around -- we'd love to have you and anyone join us, no matter where you are in your weight loss journey. Congratulations on the 16 pounds gone!! 
Count it and move on...
on being glad your DH didn't have a hand in it. We're on a well, so we don't get a water bill, but a leak would definitely make our pump run more and put up our electric bill. 
