We saw an ad for a fitness center that offers month-to-month memberships...Bally Fitness Center, maybe? Howie and I don't know why more gyms don't offer memberships like that. I guess they make more money by getting people to commit, and then not show up very often (guilty).

Yeah, in the best of all possible worlds, I'd say all the charity should be anonymous. At the same time, I do think people get inspired to give and do more when they see others do it, so hopefully in the end the good outweighs the bad.

Rob thought Dr. Phil was exploiting the Katrina situation when he spent two of his first shows down there, but I thought despite that he was putting a huge spotlight on it for people who might not tune into the news, or tune out the news. Lots and lots of Americans watch his show and value his opinion. (Rob feels basically the same way about Oprah that you do, she's constantly showing off who she knows and how much she has.)

I felt comforted to hear Oprah say how much she was giving. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose everything and not even have the hope of insurance or savings. A lot of people who might have been just on the edge when the storm hit too. It's heartbreaking.

Weird times we live in that we have to consider stuff like this, hunh.

Gym felt good this morning. It lifts my spirits to go, especially when the whole weight loss effort start to feel like it's stalling (which happens more often than it should). It can be tough to drag my rear out of bed some mornings, I admit.

I didn't want to sit around the apartment today, so afterwards Rob and I went to the park, had a sandwich on a bench and watched the soccer players. Then walking around more. We were so exhausted by the time we got home. Luckily we had leftovers of that Spanish food from yesterday (I forgot the turn the burner off of the yellow rice, can you believe that? we ended up having crispy rice yesterday, heh heh).

I think it is Balley's that does the month by month membership.

Rented Vanity Fair, so I'd better get off the computer.

The gym's around here don't offer a great month-to-month price, it's like 50+ to do that. So odd, eh?

I took some Nyquil, I'm going to go find my bed and lay there until I pass out.. hopefully I'll be better tomorrow!

-Aimee

Here I am! Bright and early (6:02am) on a Monday morning...:tired:

From what I understand, Bally's is expensive normally (with a contract), so I can't even imagine how much they charge to attend only monthly. I would maybe do that if I were interested in seeing how often I would go in a month before I signed a contract, but it's most likely not a realistic option for the long term. I signed a 2-year contract with my gym, and though I cannot say I ent EVERY month for the full 2 years (I thin kit ends in January or February), I can say that knowing I always had it as an option made me go more often than if I had only been paying month-to month, ya know? At month-to-month, I would have stopped going completely loooong ago :p but knowing that they are taking my money every month whether I want them to or not is just more incentive for me to go (and I only pay $29.99 a month right now).

So I keep hearing on the news and on the radio about how none of the major oil refineries were damaged by Rita and that even if they were, other countries are already sending us shipments to help cover the difference. Okay, so why did my gas go up 20 cents since Friday morning?! :?:

Bah, anonymous or not, at least the money is going to a good cause and not to another swimming pool for their mansion or whatever it is these people find to spend their millions on. I'd like to think that if I were a millionaire, I would still live in a normal-sized house, not these 15,000-square-foot places where you can never tell at any given time how many people are even in your house cuz it would take you a whole day just to walk through every room :dizzy:

As for me, my weekend was pretty good. Jeff came over, and we did pretty much nothing. I was going to start packing, but I couldn't find much that I know I'd be able to live without for the next 3 weeks, so I gave up on that idea. I'm good at doing things last-minute, so I'm not at all worried that all the packing won't get done on time.

I have not been sleeping well at ALL lately. Both Friday and Saturday night, we spent at least 13 hours in bed, but I can say I still woke up tired. I toss and turn all night long, have really weird dreams, and wake up just as tired as when I went to bed. Even last night, I went to bed around 10:30, but before my alarm went off at 4:30 this morning, I had probably already waken up 5 diferent times. I've even been making sure I don't eat anything too close to bed time, and I don't drink anything with caffeine or sugar before I go to bed, either. Maybe once the move is over in a few weeks, things will settle down in my head a bit and sleep will become a normal thing again. I sure hope that's all it is that my subconscious is stressing about.

Mine costs $50/month. I figure at my age to be this weight (or as high as I was) it's a bargain compared to the medical costs I could incur if I develop diabetes and/or other complications from being so heavy.

I don't think it would be out of line for you to ask your mom and/or brother to maybe co-pay temporarily. $10 or $20 a month to each of them could make it affordable to you. Something to think about. I know I'd be more than happy to do that for my daughter to help her out with her health. And if you do it month by month and end up not liking it, it's not a lot of money wasted.

To be honest, if I had millions I'd own a mansion. Not that I wouldn't give to good causes too, but I'd like to enjoy what I have and not just sock it away.
That said, I'd also rather see less money in the hands of fewer people, and have money more equally distributed. I wouldn't need millions to be comfortable. I also don't believe in telling people how to spend their money, or in forcibly redistributing wealth. Wow, am I making any sense??? I need a nap!

Better get some work done while I still have a couple of functioning brain cells left.

Ciao, bellas.

Goodmorning! I slept for almost 12 hours last night! Woohoo!! No more running eyes, my nose is a tiny bit stuffy, but it's something I can definitely handle. I am very excited about this :) I was a little unhappy with my Nyquil experience, I normally buy the red stuff, which literally knocks me out cold for 10 hours. Josh bought the green stuff (which tastes like Sambuca, ick), and I was awake every 2 hours last night! Moral of the story? Green = bad!

Marge - I hadn't though of asking my mom or brother to help out... I almost think that I'm unwilling to pay that much for a gym membership when I have no means to get there by myself. I would have to count on Josh or my friends for a ride there. There isn't a bus, and the walk alone would be enough! It would take about an hour to an hour and a half to get there. It would be nice is there was something a little closer to my house..

Jill - a customer was saying something about a full moon, black moon, something along those lines when I was telling her I wasn't sleeping very good the last few days, she said it would explain that. Whether that is true or not... who knows! It's amazing how much gas fluctuates here.. I went out one morning and it was 109.9/L and when I went out in the afternoon with my friend is was 119.9/L, and even STILL later it was 107.0/L... There is no logical reason for this to happen... I think it's time to hurt people. lol.

I think if I had millions of dollars I wouldn't necessarily live in a huge house, but I'd definitely have 5 or 6 different places. I'd chose 3-4 bedrooms in REALLY great locations, which of course can be expensive. For now I'd settle for thousands! ;)

Alrighty, this has taken me like 2 hours to write... with phone distractions, eating breakfast, laying down... lol... I'll talk to yah'll later!!

-Aimee

I don't get it... I did a whole huge post, it showed that it posted and now it's no where? I feel like I've gone crazy!! Grr!!

I've been busy looking up flights/hotels for Christmas... in Mexico!!! I don't know if it'll work out... but can you IMAGINE? Ohhh warmth...

I totally don't have the energy to try to redo my post.. so I'll try later.. heh..

-Aimee

I don't GET IT! It just showed up... maybe I am going crazy... lol.. I'm going to bed!

-Aimee

Going crazy? You've done caught the plane, baby! LOL!

Christmas somewhere warm sounds nice...And in the meantime, we're trying to convince our Cajun friends to move just a little farther north than their choice of Kentucky and come on up to Ohio.

I did go to the YMCA and swim tonight, but only did so for about 30 minutes total. There was a scuba class going on, and when we got there they were still sitting on the floor of the pool in the deep end. We could see their bubbles. :bubbles: When they got to the point of swimming the pool's perimeter, we decided to leave. Considering I do the backstroke, I didn't want to risk running into someone over in the shallow part of the pool!

:dunno: To tell the truth, I was pretty much wiped out after 20 minutes of doing laps fairly steadily with a few breaks here and there. Must be fighting off something, because my butt gets kicked easily this last three days or so!

Kimberley - but at least you still did it! Any type of body movement is better than none.. coming from the girl who skipped her walks 4 days in a row because of a cold...

I don't know what happened with those posts, I literally couldn't see my post for an hour... I considered re-typing it.. good thing I didn't! lol.

I am in need of some strength, I am working the next 3 days with someone who drives me up the wall, I just want to shove common sense down her throat! And she hovers, I hate people who follow me, ask me what I'm doing every two seconds... grr!!! Hopefully I can find SOMETHING deep within, otherwise I will quit and let her do the work she refuses to do!

-Aimee

Ahhhh, go to your happy place....Laaaaaa. You know, the one where you grab her by her ears and give her a swirley? ;)

Some unbelievably bad news on the homefront here. Robert's brother shot himself. We were up with the police until 3am last night. He'd been having serious problems for the last several years.

I hope he finds peace now. And I hope the family finds peace. It's such a terrible thing.

Wow, I am so sorry to hear about your BIL, Marge. Even if he had been having problems, something like this is never expected and never easy to deal with. Hugs to you and your family :grouphug:
I had a disasterous eating day yesterday. I'm talking half a jar of peanut butter...even though it was reduced-fat, that is like a million calories. All together, I had over 3200 calories yesterday :o So today, cutting waaaay back. Maybe I can pretend I am intentionally calorie-cycling? ;)

OH, and my new food addiction is a good one--instant oatmeal! I know steel-cut oats are healthier, but I only eat one packet at a time, and I find it very satisfying. I either have the fruit-and-cream flavored reduced-sugar oatmeal or the banana bread flavored Weight Control oatmeal--good stuff! Ironic, though, that the Weight Control one has more calories per serving, but it also has more fiber and I think more protein, so I guess it balances out :smug:

Marge - wowsers, sorry to hear about Robert, it's never nice when they have to resort to that. Were they close? This happened in my family as well, but at a younger age and the family has had a hard time recovering. I hope that he is at peace now as well.

Jill - calorie cycling sounds good to me ;) Actually... I once did have quite the little overdoing of the calories one day and it did work out in my favor.. I'll keep my skinny fingers crossed that it happens for you as well!

Alright, I'm feeling calm right now.. so I feel I can deal with this REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLY annoying girl for 7 hours today... eek 7 hours?!?!? With breaks it's really only 5.5 hours, I just have to find other excuses to get away from her... lol. I don't know how to pretend to like someone anymore!! K, shower time!

-Aimee

Marge, I'm so sorry to hear about Robert! Oh, man, that's rough. :( I pray God wraps your families in His peace and buffers you.

I'm one sore puppy today. The one time I tried to swim to the bottom of the pool, I didn't have my goggles on and just kind of floundered around without actually going down in the direction I wanted (still felt air on my feet, LOL). In one goofy move, I managed to strain muscles in my lower back and groin - my problem areas. I'm taking it easy today and when I swim tomorrow, it will be easier swimming.

Snuck on the scale last night and I was at 209 again - woo!