I am feeling very meh tonight. I’m tired, stressed from work and school, and also PMS-ing. I am *really* missing comfort food. If I had not had this surgery, I’d most likely be stuffing my piehole with jelly bellys or something similar. Now I must actually identify and work through my feelings. Bah! What’s the fun in that?

It’s been 3 months since my surgery so of course I took photos. If you’re friends with me on MySpace or Crackbook, they’re posted there, but here is one where you can see a big difference. This surgery is the BEST thing I could have done for myself!

Yesterday I had my first session with Beth at JEM Photos. It was a BLAST. We met at a park and she took photos of me on a bridge, on some railroad tracks (thankfully there weren’t any trains, as she mentioned that awful scene from “Fried Green Tomatoes” and we were both freaked out LOL) and by a stone wall. Then we drove a short distance into downtown Noblesville, IN, where they have an old-timey town square. They were setting up for the fall festival and I swear, as soon as I got out of the car, one of the musicians was flirting with me about Starbucks. I was like, huh, maybe I need to get dressed up more often LOL.

Beth took more photos of me there … on a park bench, near a lamppost, by some pretty pink flowers and then in an alley (WAY cleaner than the alleys by me LOL). She’s sent me two samples so far and they both look great. I can’t wait to see the rest of them (probably in a week or 10 days).

I ended up taking today as a vacation day. I had — ok, still have — a to-do list a mile long. But what have I done? Instead of laundry, I’m rearranging furniture. AGAIN. I moved my desk, dining table, massive china cabinet and one bookcase. I need to get the other bookcase fro my bedroom and put it by the other one. The new arrangement opens up the space AND will hopefully deter me from dropping crap on the table as soon as I walk in, because it’s no longer right by the door.

I need to hop in the shower soon, as this afternoon is my first photography session with Beth of JEM Photo Studio. Now, I was super excited because I thought “JEM” was for the super cool cartoon character, but its her kids’ initials. Oh well. I let that go. We’re meeting at a park by my friend S’s house; afterwards, I’ll be heading over to S’s so she and I can grab some din-din. I have a black dress that I got for a steal on eBay that I’m definitely going to wear … and I *think* a bright pink t-shirt and jeans. Hopefully I’ll be able to change somewhere. LOL

I had SO MANY responses to the ad for a photographer that I put on CL that I didn’t know what to do with them all. A lot were creepy, some were too expensive, some were clueless. I did receive a reply yesterday from a guy who said he knew he was “late to the party” but said he’d be interested. His work is a bit … ummmm … avant garde. LOL He is actually based on Louisville but has a gig up here. If I do meet with him, I won’t be going alone, that’s for sure!!!!

Oh, I have been neglectful, my favorite little blog. Not that I’ve been off gallavanting around or anything … I’ve just been not writing. I’m finally feeling better, although I’m still having some issues. I have my 6-week follow-up appointment on Thursday so I’ll be bringing my long list of questions with me! Speaking of the surgery, I am considering having photos taken every 50 lbs or so. I put an ad on Craig’s List as well as did some research online and have found some photographers who have very reasonable rates, nice work online and are interested in my photos for their portfolio, which is cool. Nothing fancy, just something fun to document the journey. I wish Miss Jennifer didn’t live so far away; she takes the cutest photos!

It’s nearly 11:30 p.m. and I guess I should get to bed. It’s going to be a long week. I start AND end my workday with meetings tomorrow. At least I’m meeting a friend for lunch, which will break up the monotony …

I took Wednesday and today off from work. I’ve just been feeling punky. It’s 8 p.m. now and I’m ready to crawl into bed with a book and some Crystal Light.

No big weekend plans … in fact, I have no plans whatsoever! Stuff for school, and more closet-cleaning work, I suppose. Yee haw. I’ll also need to go buy more protein powder; after testing out chocolate marshmallow, mochachinno and chocolate peanut butter, mochachinno is the winner. Ok, I still have chocolate mint and cookies and cream to test as well, but I REALLY liked the mochachinno. I hopped on the scale this morning and was down a few more pounds … 33 in total. It’s such a gift to be able to stop eating now before I’m miserable and to really not have much of an appetite at all. Such a gift.

I did check my work e-mail today, after finding out that our benefits are being cut. Fantastic. Thank God I had my surgery this year, as my plan covers 90% … next year, it will be only 80% coverage. That would have been a substantial additional amount out of pocket. I don’t know if this will affect the cost of my meds too; most likely. Not that I take a lot, but birth control, sinthyroid and the antidepressants do add up (not to mention my OTC vitamins).

I ordered a lovely bracelet from the talented Miss Lisa and it arrived the other day. I am going to wear it to work tomorrow, assuming I still have something clean that matches. LOL (Yes, it’s nearly laundry time.) It’s an HIV/Heart Health bracelet, depending on what you view the red ribbon as being for. Her stuff is really quite lovely, you should check it out!!!!

So last night I made some soup. I felt okay after dinner, not super great, but okay. This morning I felt like crap and had a fever. For lunch, I ate more soup and ….. that’s all she wrote. Thank God for the super duper protein shakes I bought yesterday … Sci Fit 100% Whey Isolate. Fifty-two grams of protein per serving!!! And it tastes good! Last night was chocolate marshmallow (ok), tonight was mochachinno … it was like chocolate milk with a bit of coffee. Yummalicious. I have a few other flavors to try before I commit to buying a larger tub.

Where has this weekend gone? Srsly. It’s nearly midnight, today was a blur … I did an exercise DVD this morning, then ate lunch, got ready and went to The Vitamin Shoppe to shop for protein powder. I bought three different kinds: 2 ready-to-drink cans, one packet and a canister of cappuccino flavored powder. I mixed up the packet when I got home and it was actually good — and 31g of protein bc I mixed it up with 6 oz of skim milk. That’s about half of the protein I need in a day! By 10 p.m., I had eaten about 550 calories. While I’ve said before that I don’t have hunger, I can tell when I physically need to eat something. I was cranky and just felt “off” so I heated up a broth-based potato soup (it’s frozen and only has 100 calories in the entire thing!). I ate about 2 ounces of that with a bit of cheese and YUM. Feel better now.

This week is passing pretty well … tonight I worked out with the trainer for the first time since my surgery. We just did strength training for 30 minutes. Holy crap, it was hard work! She’s tough. I was dripping sweat when we were done … just from lifting weights! But I was happy to see her.

My Avon order (placed with Miss Sodapop, of course) arrived today! I bought some cleansing cloths, a night serum, Magix Face Perfector and STICK ON EYESHADOW!. I can’t wait to try those out tomorrow. Way cheaper than Sephora’s version, but there’s no version. LOL

Oh, if any of y’all want the password to yesterday’s post, just send me an e-mail. It’s nothing earth-shattering, I just didn’t want it all out there for the world to see, ya know?

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My 4-week sabbatical is ovah. Le sigh. It’s been a quick month. I can’t believe it’s been that long since I went into the hospital. Things are still hinky … like today, I could only eat about 1.5-2 oz of food at lunch and dinner … but the scale is moving in the right direction and that’s what counts. I’m sure I’ll be wiped out tomorrow but I’m still taking my gym clothes with me. I can do 30 minutes on the treadmill then collapse at home.

Ok, I started this post a few hours ago, then started IM’ing with Miss Laci. We got to talking about boys and that’s all she wrote. I’m sure I’ll eventually remember what I wanted to blog about!

My mom decided to head out this morning and I was a little bummed to be alone. She was here for nearly 3 weeks … I can’t believe how well we got along. I am very thankful that she stayed with me.

After she left — and I TOTALLY forgot to get my parking pass back from her, so I’m stuck parking way down the alley in the overflow lot until she mails the pass back to me — I came back upstairs, ate some yogurt (key lime pie, yum) then decided to get off my ass and go for a walk. I walked for 30 minutes and it felt good. My neighborhood still makes me kinda nervous but the more I’m out, the more at ease I feel. As long as I’m out during busier times of day, I think I’ll be fine … and of course I don’t go walking down any alleys or sketchy side streets.

Tomorrow, Miss Sodapop, Miss Laci, and Miss Sodapop’s girls are coming up here so we can go on a tour of the new football stadium. (The girls will stay behind for the tour lol) It is going to be a madhouse — 20,000 people per tour — and I have NO idea where to even begin looking for parking so that is my task for today. Our tour time is from 2-4 pm; it’s self-guided so that means even more of a madhouse lol. Afterwards we’ll probably hit the grocery (since I have no normal people food in the house) and I’m hoping that the “new” Lost Boys DVD comes in the mail tomorrow so we can watch that. I’m looking forward to seeing them!

My doctor wanted me to take next week off from work too and fuck, I’m not going to argue. Not sure what I’m going to do though. I may drive to Michigan for a few days; that might help ease my dad’s mind. Of course he could have driven his ass down here at any point over the past 3 weeks but oh well, I won’t hold that against him. Besides I need to buy my tickets home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I’d rather use their money.