Halloween isn't a big deal in the UK - it's mainly for kids. And since we don't have kids in the house, we don't buy any sweets. As for trick or treater's, I've no idea if we're actually getting a bag of anything for them! My family got miserable as soon as we grew up!!

I've got the weekend off, and it has been a while since I've gotten it off!! So I'm going to fully concentrate on my health. My Mum offered me a bacon sandwich for breakfast, and I declined. Step 1 complete.

My plan is to drown myself in water, workout, re-visit my meal plan and make edits now that I've attempted it once (using the Insanity nutrition guide as a framework) and generally boost up my morale with some good reflection and pondering on my weight loss journey! I've come a long way, and although my friends and family all compliment me on how "skinny" I look I feel FAR from it!! But I'm not going to let the progress I've made get to my head and I'm going to keep moving forward.

---

nonnie - Sounds like you've got a great plan, good luck motivating yourself and stay positive!!

Alexis - Haha, well we just talk about anything! Films, games, people, work, random things - whatever pops into our heads! Which Britcoms do you watch? I'm planning on going on a walk today too to get outside, the weather is perfect - cold but bright blue skies! I do love this time of year =).

Jamie - Think of your body like a furnace. The fire is your body (metabolism), the wood is fuel (food) and the air around it is exercise. The more you exercise the more food you need to eat to keep the fire going. If you starve yourself of food then your body goes into survival mode and clings onto any food you do eat instead of burning it. I think your calorie limit is very low, just keep exercising, keep eating a healthy balanced diet and drink lots of water. It doesn't matter that you don't reach your goals, **** I wanted to be 164 lbs by Halloween and I'm now 170 lbs. Goals are good guidelines, but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Rie~ I love this time of year, too!!! Perfect walk weather (although I just hid myself in the basement and pounded out an hour ten on the treadmill... ) I love Britcoms and have been watching them since I was about 6 -- (our next door neighbors were from Hove.) I love the classics, of course: Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, Waiting for God, You Rang, M'Lord?, Fawlty Towers. Also like Vicar of Dibley, Thin Blue Line, Gavin and Stacey, Father Ted, Old Guys... What else? Gosh, just about anything. Got into Little Britain for awhile. Also like the IT Crowd. Miranda was on last night, too, only not so keen on that one. Gosh, I do love me some Brit TV. Just watched Supersize vs. Superskinny while I was on the treadmill. Dr. Christian Jessen is quite a dreamboat...

~~~
So walked out my 10,000 steps for the day. Still torn between going to that stupid zumbathon. It costs $25 and I don't especially want to go, but I don't have anything else in particular going on tonight. Trying to rustle up some friends to go do something. Blah.

Trying to motivate myself to get up and get cleaning. Already done two loads of laundry, but there's lots more to be done around the house. Brrrrr.

I weighed in today and ... drum roll... 149.8!! I was super excited, I made it into the 140's! And I have officially hit my 50 lbs mark! I can't believe I used to be 50 Lbs heavier. Whew. I know it is only by .2 pounds that I am below it, but I am still super pumped!

Besides just that, I am having an outstanding meal tonight with my friends using all kinds of in-season veggies: pumpkin and chicken chili, twice baked squash, veggie stuffed peppers, and low-fat, low sugar pumpkin muffins :) Yay fall! I'll have to work out extra hard in the gym tomorrow but hey, gotta have nice meals on occasion.

~~
Alexis- You know my first year in PhD I really struggled because I had no idea what I was getting into, I was overwhelmed with reading and papers, and I ended up gaining ten pounds :( ... but this year, now that I know my professors, know what is expected of me, and feel like although I have alot of work I know I will be able to accomplish it, I feel so much better about my decision. I am really excited now about finishing up my coursework and moving on to my dissertation
-As far as my program is concerned, it is very focused on pushing people toward going into academia, but my research is very practical. I was an overweight kid, overweight teen, and all my bad habits carried with me into adulthood. It took until I was 22 and my father had a heart attack to get me to realize I needed to learn to be healthy and change my food and exercise habits. And I did, and since then I can't say I have ever regretted it. But for that reason I want to study overweight adolescents and their food environments because I would like to help plan community and school programs that make healthier food available for all kids and help kids that are already stuggling with being overweight or obese (because adolescence is such a hard time already, and having to deal with weight issues on top of it can really affect a teen's identity development, self-esteem, and self-efficacy).. so I would say that some people focus on literature and theory but I focus on programs and looking for change...
-Thanks for the recipe by the way! I am definitely going to buy some apples from the farmers market so I can make that! Do you ever use these splenda mixes for sugars?
-Also, awesome job on that 1 hr 10 on the treadmill! I wish I had a treadmill in my basement :( Good luck with all your cleaning and organizing! :)

Rie- Yea I know I am really scared of pushing my body below where it should be and causing it to think it is starving... I just don't know what point that is for my body. It has been completely fine on 1350 for the past few weeks so maybe I should just lower by 50 calories or so if I want, I mean that is still 350 calories I would save a week if I stuck to it.. Let's see... I bet you are right and I should not push it... I wanna stay healthy and continue to get stronger, not starve.

-So no Halloween eh? I don't much like it either. I kinda hate the way costumes for women are made. I don't know how it is in England, but here in America they make most of the women's costumes very provocative and I don't really enjoy walking around the cold streets half-way naked so.. I never really dress up. I am definitely not having a bag of candy sitting around my house, lol, I will never lose any weight that way. I hope you enjoy your weekend though :) And BTW, take those compliments and run with them. I love compliments, they motivate me to keep shocking people!

I DID IT! I'M 169 LBS!!!
:carrot::cb::carrot::cb::carrot::cb:

Oh my goose, I cannot tell you how AMAZED I am by this!! Sunday is my official weigh in day where I write down my weight and measurements and record them on a chart I made. I figured I would measure first considering that's where I see the most loss, and sure enough I lost 0.4 inches from my pudge (stomach) and 0.1 inches from my boobage.

Then I headed over to the scale, 170 lbs. But not just 170 lbs, 170.0 lbs. That's when I thought "Why don't I take my clothes off?" I only had PJ bottoms on and a t-shirt, but when I whipped them off I weighed in at 169 lbs. I weighed myself 4 times to make sure it wasn't just a fluke, and sure enough I saw that BEAUTIFUL number staring back at me. So my words of advice to anyone now will be: WEIGH YOURSELF NAKED!!

Now I'm in the 160s I have 2 major milestones to achieve. The first is 165 lbs, which is the halfway point to the glorious Healthy BMI zone. The second is 164 lbs, which is the weight I was when I was 18 years old. Once I get past 164, it'll be the lightest I've been in 4 years and also when my boyfriend next sees me it'll be the thinnest he's ever seen me.

This really has been such a big confidence boost. I feel ready to blast through the 160s with all my strength and determination and get into those 150s. The 150s will be an even bigger accomplishment - because 150 lbs is the Healthy BMI borderline. I know it sounds silly that after so long I'm already thinking of those 150s, but now I'm through this barrier I just see the goal!!

Wheeee!!

Alexis - Wow, you watch a lot of Brit TV indeed! My favourite programme ever is Red Dwarf, have you ever seen it? It's a Sci-Fi comedy made in the late 80s early 90s. I've loved it all my life. I really liked Gavin and Stacey, didn't think I would! When you know you should be doing something, or you could be going somewhere, the hardest part is standing up and getting ready to do it. Once you're on your way, you just get on with it! You've got nothing to lose by going to the Zumbathon, other than $25 which isn't that much and considering it's charity it's a win win.

Jamie - Wheeee, we're both now in new weight zones(?! - not sure how else to describe it!) GO US! It's an amazing feeling isn't it?! Congratulations.
Well, if you are 'starving' yourself the more you eat the quicker you'll gain it back because your body will NEED it to function. I eat a lot of calories to fuel my body with exercise and before my stall at 170 I lost a lot of weight that way. Before Insanity I was running 4 times a week and spending 3 days at the gym, and I ate around 1800-1900 calories and was still losing a pound a week.
But the thing is, I was exercising a lot - how much do you exercise? And how much do you push yourself? Because that will affect how many calories you should eat. The more you push yourself the more you should eat. There are loads of formulas on the internet to calculate your recommended calorie intake, maybe you should look around and see what they say? Because age, weight and height factor in so maybe 1300 seems low to me but for you it's not as bad as I think!
Halloween is pretty much the same here - it's a big slut-fest!! I'm going to a house party and dressing up as a Katy Perry alien (from the E.T. video) which I'm looking forward to. Love doing my makeup all crazy like! You're right, I want to keep shocking people too, my family keep saying "You look so skinny" and my friend said "You look SO much better now" and I thank them but in my head I think "You ain't seen nothing yet!!" I'm 39 lbs away from my goal weight!!

Yay Rie! So happy for you! I love your new confidence to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back on your working out and eating plan. Are you still doing insanity? The katy perry costume sounds cute and like fabulous motivation to be super on plan until you put that bad boy on! You're going to look smokin'!

Jamie - Congrats!!! I loved breaking into the 140s, I'm kind of a numbers geek, so I loved thinking that now I rounded down! Your meal sounds delicious!! I love cooking and eating fresh, in season food with friends, and good for you for indulging in moderation. It is a lesson everybody really has to learn, otherwise our huge accomplishments will ultimately be unsustainable if we don't understand how to eat healthy and practice moderation after loosing.

Also, your research sounds fascinating. I teach at an inner city school, so we have a ton of minority, low-income and immigrant students. Many of them struggle with weight, and it breaks my heart to have them tell me about how they ate mcdonalds for all three meals yesterday. Even though I teach math, I'm very interested in supplementing their food education, so I brought in a potato, tomato, eggplant, zucchini, banana, sweet potato, etc. And showed them to a bunch of kids. It was really depressing that many of the kids honestly didn't know what any of them were except the banana. A few didn't even recognize the unprocessed potato, or not-on-their-burger tomato. :(

Alex - you're a beast (do people other than my crazy students use this word as a compliment!? If not - very sorry!) with that treadmill time! I am generally such a procrastinator on the cleaning/organizing front, and then suddenly I'll have had enough, and have to clean it all up NOW! haha, probably not the best system!

As for me this weekend has been a struggle. One of my best friends from college flew in for the weekend, so a bunch of us have been hanging out essentially around the clock which means eating out every freaking meal. I've been proud of myself for making good choices, and eating in moderation (I've been feeling sick which definitely helps curb my appetite) but am still a little afraid of weight in this Thursday. I hate giving away so much control over what I put in my mouth. It doesn't help that my friend who is actually putting up my friend from out of town is really heavy and has different taste in restaurants that I do. Yesterday I just couldn't take it anymore for lunch, so by SO and I came back to our apartment briefly for lunch and made some polenta with homemade chunky tomato, zucchini sauce and a spring mix salad, which allowed me to keep it to one slice of pizza and a few tater-toots when we went out for dinner. As much as I love seeing everybody again, I will be glad when tomorrow rolls around and I can get back to my regular routines.

Happy Sunday everybody (except Rie, hope you had a great sunday!)

Happy closing of the weekend all,

Only one more week til Halloween :) I don't like Halloween so much but I like that they play Tim Burton movies around Halloween, he is my favorite :)

Today was a low key day for me, went to the gym, ran a few miles, biked and read some articles, did an arm workout. Came home, cleaned the house, going to do some homework, and then cook some lunches for the week. On deck for Monday is some chicken casserole, Tuesday a curried butternut squash soup, and Wednesday a green lentil soup. I can't decide on Thursday or Friday... Suggestions?

As far as school goes, not much due this week. Small papers and reading... So that means if I really kick it up I can make that goal of 147 by Halloween :) I weighed in at 149 on the dot this morning... Still can't believe I am in the 140's.

Rie- YAY YAY I am so excited for you!!!! It feels awesome to break into a new number!!! Good job :) woot woot for naked weigh-ins, that is totally how I roll too... Lol. And you are that much closer to your goal!! Go for it girl!

As far as the calories go, I try to really listen to my body to understand how much it needs. Some days I eat 1300 or 1400 calories but I don't work out very hard and I don't feel hungry or like I need to eat. Other days I work out hard and I eat back some of the calories I burn. So basically I have tried to become more attuned to separating hunger from cravings and listening to my body when it says it is full, so when I feel as though my body is deprived I eat, but I try not to let myself eat out of boredom or cravings (although during TOM or when I am ultra stressed I fail at this)... So I will definitely be careful because I don't want to ruin my metabolism.

And as far as your costume goes, what a clever idea... Mine are always super lame so.. Go you for going for it, I bet you'll rock it out

Nonnie- You're right I can round down!! Lol ...

About your kids at school, wow yea that makes me really sad. I find it unacceptable that kids don't have the opportunities to encounter healthy foods. It's especially unfair to poor and minority students. Lately I have been studying policy surrounding farm to school movements in order to see how well they work because I think kids should walk into lunch rooms and see fresh fruits, real veggies, and it should not have been shipped from 1000 miles away. I admire that teachers like yourself try to make up for this disparity by going out of your way to do something about it within your classes. Go you for being proactive! I hope that soon school and districts will start stepping up more because teachers shouldn't have to foot the bill for teaching kids about veggies and fruits, the school, should make it a priority.

I hope you made it through your weekend with friends fairly unscathed. It is hard to say no to a good time, and even harder to make good choices while out. I am glad to hear you found ways to make things healthier.

And now back to the homework... Ugh.. I hope you all have a happy Monday! :)

Hey ladies. Sorry, I've been MIA these last few days. I just haven't been up to chatting lately. I guess it has to do with staying so busy lately. Just thinking about doing my school work makes me sleepy...not to mention all the cleaning my house needs...sigh...never ending! I have been reading though and trying to keep up with what's going on.

Rie - Congrats on finally getting out of the 170's!!! Woohoo!! :carrot:

Jamie - Way to go for getting that weight down!! You go girl! I know how hard it is dealing with school and trying to lose weight...keep going...you are my motivation! If you can work on a doctorate and lose it then I can definitely do it while working on a bachelors.

nonnie - What grade(s) do you teach? I'm in my senior year in elem. ed. We see a lot of low-income students too since I live in the poorest state (Mississippi).

Anyway, I have GOT to get my water in this week. I'm going to set a goal to get it in every day...at least 6 cups...I will definitely drink more if time allows. 6 is usually a good amount for me to get back in the habit....and then I seem to not be able to get enough and start drinking 10 and 11 in a day. Also, I think I can handle 6 while student teaching without having to go the bathroom too many times. Then, I can get my other 2 in after I get home from the school. Okay, I'm just rambling now, so I guess I better go. Hope everyone has a good Monday! Oh, I just realized that this Wednesday is supposed to be my measuring day...eeek! I'm going to do it anyway even though my eating hasn't been that great and I haven't really lost much weight this month...but oh well. It's a life-long process, right?

Jamie ~ HURRAY!!!! For breaking into the 140s. Re: gaining weight... I've heard horror stories like that from my friend who's doing her Ph.D in Medieval Studies. A few of her friends have gained 50+ while prepping for comps. Your area of concentration sounds amazing, too. So applicable and useful to the world at large.
I've never tried the Splenda mixes because I really can't tell the difference between straight Splenda and sugar at this point. Especially in a recipe.

Rie ~ lol... I LOVE Red Dwarf! (Even own the "smeg ups" VHS) Have an ongoing joke w. a friend: "What would you say to a glass of drinking chocolate?" "Drinking chocolate, get me out of here!" If it's British and been on TV, I've probably seen it, although I'm always on the lookout for recommendations!
Congrats on YOUR new weight decade, too! Post pics of your Halloween costume. It's sounds stellar.

Nonnie ~ Sounds like you managed to have fun AND keep your cals reasonable. It's always a challenge, but well done! And yes, I will take being called a "beast" like that any day. ;) Thought about it as I was on the treadmill today.

Shauna ~ That's the thing with cleaning... there's always something to be done. My own unofficial motto is: "It'll still be dirty tomorrow." Good luck with the water! That sounds like an achievable goal (and I find that it helps me drop weight, too...)

Shauna, Nonnie, Jamie ~ Re: Fresh food in low-income areas - I've even noticed (and I'm sure there have been several studies done on this) that produce is more expensive in lower income areas. I went grocery shopping in a more "urban" area near a temp job site and the produce and dairy was easily double what it would have been closer to where I live (not upper class, by any means, but more upper middle than lower...) Injustice at its height.

~~~

Been kind of a low-key weekend. Pretty much stayed in for most of it. Feeling a bit lazy and disconnected. Three good friends have recently moved away and I feel like I'm missing a bit of a support system. Trying to build a new one, but it's proving a challenge.

Start a new job tomorrow helping a friend's father with admin for his business. "Office infrastructure specialist" is what I'm calling myself. :rolleyes: But I'm a bit apprehensive because it's just going to be me alone in his home office. I'm a natural introvert, but I find that I do need some kind of human contact to keep from going batty! Will have to start making a concerted effort to get out there and build relationships.

Happy close of weekend, everyone!

*spams thread*
Just checking in here...
Feeling kinda down on myself. Saw a sudden jump from TOM water weight, but unfortunately used that as an excuse to eat whatever the heck I wanted b.c I'm just going to end up gaining anyway... Booo, self. You know better than that.

First day at work went fine, but am also having horrible allergy symptoms from the dust and pet dander in the home office. Trying to schedule coffee/lunch dates with friends, but even that is proving challenging... Grrr...

Just need to keep myself in line and accountable. At this point, would have to resort to extreme measures to get to 150 by the end of the month (in 5 days...) Time to kick it up, I guess...

Hi everybody! Good week here. Loved getting to hang out with old friends this weekend, and finally feel like I’ve beaten some bad habits (like grabbing sweats after dinner, after school, basically whenever I want!) so I’m feeling a little bit more like this weight loss thing is totally manageable. Made yummy cabbage, broccoli, ginger, cashew and mock duck stir fry for dinner. Planning on weighing in tomorrow morning so that I can get a sense for where I’m at after this weekend, but when there is still time to get in a few really good eating and exercising days before official weigh in on Thursday morning.

Jamie – a curried butternut squash soup sounds fabulous! My SO and I handmade whole wheat butternut squash ravioli with a sage browned butter sauce that was amazing. I can never get enough squash this time of year!
It must be very relieving to have a slower week after last week. I hope you can take plenty of time to relax and get ahead on cooking. I love freezing portioned leftovers for a delicious and nutritious lunch (plus it is always fun to introduce my kids to food that is not artificially colored, and yet manages to look colorful!) I totally agree about school lunch programs and education surrounding food. For an interdisciplinary project some other master’s students and I had to propose for a class, we designed a project on urban farming. I would love to actually do something like that with kids some day!

Sgregg – I teach math at a secondary alternative learning center. I have mostly 16-21 year olds, who have been unsuccessful in the traditional setting for whatever reason. We have a lot of student there because of often multiple previous expulsions, drug abuse problems, pregnancies, jail time, etc. Always something new every day! At least I’ll never be board at work ;) I totally admire elementary school teachers, as I’ve never been particularly good at managing masses of (or even 1) 5 year old(s)! Go you! When are you done student teaching then?
Good for you for setting a goal with the water consumption. I totally understand about how hard it is to drink as much water as you would like while being a teacher, I feel like I am always running around at school, but never more so when I essentially hobble/gallop frantically down the hall during passing time to pee (yet again!)

Alex – I totally agree about how it is criminal about how hard it is to find healthy and affordable in low income areas. Especially as our government subsidizes massive amounts of crap processed foods (corn and soy) while the price of vegetables just keeps going up. Grumble grumble.
Sorry to hear that your food this week isn’t panning out as you’d planned. It is really hard not to get discouraged by an upward movement in the scale. Around TOM I always prep myself mentally before stepping on it so that I don’t lose focus even though it usually registers several pounds of facetious gain.
Love the idea of trying to get out with friends for some non-food related activity to get your mind off of it, but I totally know how much it sucks to have friends move away. My undergrad university had less than 15% in state students and more than 20% international students, so while college was an amazing, exhilarating, eye-opening experience, many of us scattered after graduation which is a huge bummer. Try not to worry too much about your time frame. You’re here and you’re staying accountable and that’s what’s going to matter to take AND keep the weight off. Baby steps, my dear – you’re doing fabulously!

Sorry for yet another verbose post!

nonnie ~ Love your "verbose posts"! Lol! What'd you use for "mock duck" ? My mom's a big fan of TVP, but I can't stand the stuff.

~~~
Managed to get in 2 miles before work which jazzes me to no end (Of course, I'm really wondering why I couldn't have woken up earlier and gotten in a full 5 miles, but I'm trying to tell that critical voice to sit down and be quiet...)

Off to work!

I FEEL LIKE A CONQUEROR

So yesterday we had a reception for a professor who won an award and they had a delicious looking chocolate cake, cookies, and banana bread, and champagne, and I resisted the snacks!!! I watched people eat it and knew I was saying no because I wanted to meet my goal, and when I left I felt so much better. Not that I would not have had a small bit if it weren't trying to lose 2 lbs by Monday, but I just felt really strong knowing I could say no and my world would not end...

Other than that my life is pretty boring. Homework. Reading. Working out. I am thinking about if I will do anything for Halloween because I have two papers due at the beginning of the week next week, so... downer :(

I weighed in this morning, still holding strong at 149, so that is good. I will be excited when I see 148, even if it is 148.9... lol. So let's see. Gonna go do an awesome workout today, get my fitness on.

On another note though, I am feelling kinda self-conscious lately. I have lost 15 lbs or so since July and so I have started buying clothes that fit my new weight now, and I feel like I have been getting alot more attention from males, but not good attention. I mean I know some guys are idiots, but in just the past 3 days I have had random guys while I am leaving the gym or at the grocery store whistle at me from the car or cat call at me as they drive by. I was even dressed in professional clothes walking to an event and this guy across the street started yelling at me that I was beautiful and he just kept yelling he wanted to talk to me, and he liked my walk, and I felt awful. I felt unsafe, self-conscious. There is a difference between a compliment and complete objectification of someone. I mean, I am glad that I am toning up and losing fat, but I feel like going to hide in my big clothes so that I don't feel like a piece of meat while I walk around. Why is it that wearing jeans that fit me makes guys think I am inviting them to harass me. And they are not even tight, they are the same fit I always wore. Sorry for the long rant, but it was just making me feel frustrated.

~~~~

Shauna- I get sleepy thinking about my school work too! Ugh... and everything else on top of it... it never ends right?? Soon the semester will be over... soon... lol :) .
As far at trying to strike that balance between getting rid of water weight and knowing you have to plan your bathroom breaks around certain things, yea that is harsh. I have had to sit through classes thinking my bladder will burst... apparently school and work don't want us to lose our water weight!
Good luck with your upcoming measuring day :)

Alexis- First off, Thanks :). Second, awesome job on that 2 miles before work... lately I can't pull myself out of the bed because I don't wanna be cold, so go you!!
As far as the friends moving away and feeliing down, I am sorry. I felt that when I first moved away from home to Pennsylvania because I had left all my friends and I was all alone. I had to really seek out places where I could make friends, and it took a while,but once I did I met some really awesome people. And then I moved again, lol. It feels never ending... it is tough...but you are tougher.
For accountability and needing to keep in line to hit something by the end of the month, we are both in the same boat... lets power through! We can do this!! There is a light at the end of the tunnel... it is like that last few minutes of your workout where you wanna just end five minutes early and then you go nope, I am almost there, I can push through. Let's push through!

Nonnie- Yay for squash!! lol. I am big into cooking and saving for the rest of the week because weekdays there is just no time to cook big meals. As far as the relaxing goes, however, I usually use those times to try to get ahead on my end of semester projects.. so no relaxing, just planning and reading for December.. it is a never ending cycle. But I like what I study so it is good for me (at least I try to tell myself that when I am stressing out over huge papers :)
Your project sounds really interesting! I hope that more people continue to get interested in these types of things! Keep it up! I love farm-to-school, community gardens, school gardens, urban gardens. Gardens and fresh foods are so important! So I am glad to know that people are studying it in programs and thinking the same.
Good luck with your Thursday weigh in!
~~

Happy Tuesday Ladies :)

Hey guys! I'm going to be super lame today and not do any personals because I'm really REALLY tired, BUT I have read all of your posts and wanted to say hello I'm still alive =).

I weighed in at 168 lbs which was amazing, after stalling for so long I'm getting further and further into the 160s and towards my mini goal of reaching 165 lbs!

And finally, I exercised for the first time in a long time today. I'm sore (it's Insanity after all) but I feel gooood. Going to keep this up and leave October strong!

But as a quick leaving note, don't get bummed out by TOM, well done for resisting temptation and men are idiots and objectify women constantly (having giant boobs I've always received the disgusting kind of attention) - try and ignore it!

Jamie ~ *high five* WAY TO GO!!! For passing on all that recreational sugar/fat!!! Re: Cat calls... It's such a tough situation, no matter your weight. It's hard to know whether to address the cat-caller or just continue on your way. That guy sounded like he might have been mentally unstable so you definitely made the right choice, but easier said than done...

Rie ~ Yay for getting even closer to your mini-goal!!!

~~~

So I've been presented with a dilemma on the work front: Just got an offer from the company I temped with and they have a mat-leave position that's temp to perm, but it's a lot lower salary-wise than I would like to be making, plus it's very much an "admin" position and that's not really what I'm after at this stage in the game. The commute is also a bummer. The work situation now (doing contract work for my friend's father) would be fine now if not for the dust/pet dander in the house, which is throwing my allergies into overdrive. I really enjoy working with him, but the allergies are killing me. Grrrr....

Just wanted to poke my head in and say 'hi' after a long hiatus. Hope you're all well!!