Yesterday at work, we celebrated the birthday of one of our top execs. A group of us usually orders in lunch from the restaurant of the birthday celebrant’s choice and we gather on the porch to share the meal. I’d volunteered to pick up a birthday cake on my way into the office.
It was a nice time. I ordered a roasted lamb sandwich with egg plant, feta and tsatsiki sauce. I ate the meat out of half of the sandwich with a couple of bites of eggplant and a little of the foccacia bread. Then I wrapped the rest of the sandwich back up and stuck it in my bag to bring home.
When it was time to cut the cake, some big pieces went around the table. Everyone to the left of the birthday guy was female. All of the guys were to his right. It was sort of comical because those plates of cake made a full circle as we women kept passing on the bigger pieces. When it was my turn I asked for a very thin slice. He cut it so thin that the top half fell off. He started to scoop it up to add it to my plate but I assured him that what was left was more than enough. It actually was. The piece I had was maybe two inches by one inch by half an inch thick — if that, but it gave me a good taste of deep chocolate with a little bit of buttercream frosting and I was completely satisfied. That was a big win for me — to be able to enjoy a bit of the celebration cake without overeating.
Since January started, my weight loss has been going well. I’ve done a good job of being vigilant about carbs. I identified when I was letting them creep a little too much into my daily plan and cut back. I woked up this morning an experienced a very encouraging number on the scale which started my day off in a great way. I had Tai Chi class and then went to get a facial. I love that sort of pampering. After that I drove down to Big Pine to the well known, popular “flea market” and saw a friend. Then I strolled down the rows of different merchandise.
I’ve been a little concerned about having enough clothes for Hawaii. The dresses I plan to take might be a bit too big by the time our cruise ship sails. I thought about getting them taken in before I go but then decided that they probably won’t hang like sacks, so I should be okay. I also stressed a bit about casual tops to go over my shorts or capri pants. The ones I have that I’ve bought over the last few months fit okay, but, again, at the rate I’m losing will they be too big in three weeks?
The cool thing about this flea market is that they have a pretty array of different styles of clothes, but most are great for tropical weather since we live in the Keys. In one “stall”, I found some hand-painted T-shirts and bought one for the wildly expensive price of $10. A few stalls after that displayed a colorful selection of batik dresses, tops and pants. I found a dress and then put together a top-pant set. Each piece was around $12. That quickly, I was able to round out my vacation wardrobe without busting my budget.
I could not have done this a year ago at the sizes I was wearing. It is so much fun to go wherever I want and find clothes that fit! Another win.
When I got home, a freak thing happened. I couldn’t get in the house. The lock and knob on my front door have been a wonky for months. This morning when I left, the door stuck. I was in a horror so I slammed it closed. In doing so, I completely messed up the inner mechanism. When I tried to unlock the door, the key moved back and forth but didn’t completely disengage the lock. As luck would have it, bad luck anyway, the only locksmith in town is on vacation and another locksmith from forty miles away was covering. He could come, he said, but it was going to take awhile.
I sat on my steps, griping to a friend, feeling like a dope, and, in general, aggravated. I also felt bad for my dogs who intermittently cried, whined and barked inside. Clearly they didn’t understand why they could hear me but I wasn’t coming inside. When I said to my friend that I couldn’t figure out how the locksmith was going to get in, she told me he could always pry or hammer the knob off the door.
It dawned on me that I’d probably need a new one. Rather than settle for whatever he might happen to have in his truck, I ran up to Home Depot to pick out a couple of options. Unfortunately, the check out line had a display of candy. Mentally, I really didn’t want that pack of M&Ms, but emotionally I craved them like they were going to save the day.
Honestly. The only way a package of multi-colored candy coated chocolate things could save the day was if they had power tools and knew how to use them on the door. Unfortunately, my common sense lost the skirmish with my compulsion. I ate the M&Ms on my ride home. Instead of enjoying the chocolate, the whole episode just pissed me off at myself.
The locksmith got to my house about half an hour after I got back and in less than an hour he’d gotten the door open and replaced the hardware with one of the sets I’d bought. It didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. The dogs didn’t pee in the house. The new set resolves the problems I’d had for months. Things were once more on a positive uptick, except that I was still annoyed that I’d eaten the chocolate.
I went out on the porch with the dogs and realized that we were experiencing a beautiful late afternoon. Rather than sit around feeling the calories congeal into fat, I decided to take Nat and Pyxi for a bridge walk. I’m so glad that I opted for exercise. The temperature was cool with a light breeze and the lowering sun painted colors across the sky. Not only was this good for my mood, it was good for my body, as well as for my dogs. I definitely walked off most of the M&M calories, too.
Definitely a win to put the cap on what was mostly a great day!
Here are a couple of images from the walk that I shot with my cell phone. That white dot in the photo to the right is the moon. Enjoy!
Weighty Matters 