WEEKEND UPDATE

Wow, I haven't done a weekend update in a long time! 

Friday night I helped some of the people from Steve's band receive and sort the yard sale stuff.  I'm fairly certain that I breathed in enough dust mites to start a colony in my lungs, but a lot of stuff was donated at least.  As I was going through boxes, I realized that every yard sale I've ever been to has variations of the same kind of stuff I was seeing.  Where do people get this crap to begin with?  You know what I'm talking about, right?  The weird little figurines, candle holders, mugs and random odds and ends that I can't imagine ever being able to find outside of a yard sale or garage sale, but they had to come from someplace.  I don't know, it's just odd.  I finally gave out at around 9:00 that night and had to leave.  I was so tired that I'd almost fallen asleep behind one of the tables.

Saturday, Steve had volunteered us to be back at the church at 5:30 in the morning to help set up and work the sale.  Nice, right?  Bleh.  We got there and moved everything outside, and then started waiting.  I don't know if you've ever worked a yard sale before, but they are a study in patience.  The first customers came in and bought a ton of stuff that seemed fairly random, but who knows.  After that people trickled in and out.  I helped out as much as I could, and several times my old customer service voice popped out.  It's bad!  It's about an octave higher than my regular voice and it grates on my nerves, but it's second nature to me when I'm dealing with people I don't know.  Yuck.  Very few of the things we brought sold, at least while I was there, so I must have really bad taste in brick-a-brack.  :)  I met a lot of nice people who play in the band, so that was fun.  Oh, and luckily, I didn't end up buying much stuff to bring home with us.  All I got was a few books, and who can resist cheap books, amiright?  Oh, and also Phillip, the otter. He's very small, so he won't take up much room.

How could I say no to that face?

It was a gorgeous day, and a perfect one for having a yard sale, but I was tired of being outside by the time the "shift change" happened and was glad to go home.  We stopped and picked up lunch, and by the time I finished eating the late night and early morning had caught up with me.  I was exhausted.  I only meant to take a power nap, but it raged out of control.  I felt much better when I woke up, and Steve and I decided to go see "Dark Shadows."  I loved that show when I was a kid, which surprises me since I was such a scardey cat, and the movie had Johnny Depp in weird makeup and for whatever reason, that works for me.  The movie was weird, but pretty good.  It was a nice way to pass a couple of hours, at least.  After that we had dinner and watched some old episodes of the "Dick Van Dyke" show, which holds up pretty well after all these years.  It was a nice day.

Sunday we had church, and after we had lunch with Mr. Lee, Steve and I headed out towards the wilds of Limestone County to go to a graduation party for my nephew, Logan.  I can't believe he's graduating!  It seems way too soon for him to be 18! If I were my sister, I'd be a wreck. I don't think I could handle being a mom.  Eesh.  A lot of my aunts were there ( I swear they never seem to get old!) and it was great seeing them.  I also met quite a few of Logan's buddies, and they were a lot of fun to talk to, too.  Now we just have Logan's graduation this Friday and then he will officially be a grown up.  Well, grown-up-ish.  It makes me feel very old indeed.

That night we had church again, and I was so tired I fell asleep twice behind the sound board.  Luckily I didn't miss any cues!  I was so glad to get home and go to bed.  It had been a really long weekend.

EVEN MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) This morning I woke up convinced I was dying.  My stomach was hurting so much that I couldn't move, and I was also in Crazy Town, so my brain wasn't processing the idea of pain as well as it might if I were fully awake.  I even woke Steve up to let him know something was wrong, and that I might need some help if it didn't abate a little.  I managed to get up and walk around a little, which helped, but not very much.  I lay back down and eventually fell asleep again, and when I woke up I was feeling better, except that when I tried to stand up again I almost fell over.  All is well, though.  I finally managed to wake up enough to realize that I'd apparently pulled a muscle in my stomach (and arms, and legs, and side) while I was at the gym yesterday, and I had stiffened up while I was asleep.  What I had woken up to was basically like having a charlie horse in my abdomen, so that was a lot of fun.  I'm doing better now, except that I literally feel like I was in some kind of violent accident and bruised every part of my body.  I couldn't go to the gym today because I couldn't stand the thought of having to move my legs that much.  Why does trying to be healthy hurt so badly?  No wonder we have an obesity epidemic in this country. Working out sucks.

I may also be able to blame my initial over-reaction to my stomach pain on the fact that we watched Alien and Aliens last night.  Honestly, you see a couple of wormy aliens explode from someone's digestive tract and it can mess you up for life.

2) Speaking of going to the gym, I'm actually still at it. I didn't think I'd make it this long!  Things aren't going as well as I would like, weight loss wise, but I know it's mostly my fault.  I just like to eat, and there are days when that is all I want to do.  I manage it pretty well, normally, but sometimes it nearly drives me crazy.  I'm very sure that if I weren't seeing the dietician, this wouldn't be working for me at all, because the fact that I am accountable to someone keeps me from destroying the snack cabinet.  Also, this woman is so tiny and cute, and she seems so genuinely thrilled if I make any progress, that if I go in and show her my food journal and she sees something disappointing, it's like punching a kitten in the head.  She just looks so dang disappointed in me and it makes me feel terrible.  I have to go and see her next week, and the fact I haven't lost any weight plus the fact that I haven't been as careful with my meals as I had been before (usually out of convenience, really), is going to make her give me that sad kitten look.  I already dread it.

I have lost a couple of pounds, though, but not really enough for anyone to notice.  It's a slow and frustrating process!

3) Steve's band will be having a big, multi-family yard sale this weekend (weather permitting) so if you like to buy other people's old stuff, you should totally go!  We are putting in a bunch of clothes and kitchen stuff, for which I am grateful, because I think everything we own has been having babies.  I promise you, I went through my clothes not long ago and gave away a bunch of stuff I couldn't wear anymore, but when I went through it all again, I ended up finding three more huge garbage bags of stuff to give away and I still have a pile of clothes left!  I don't understand how that is happening.  I've also found things I didn't even remember we had!  It's insane the amount of things that can collect in a house.  So, anyway, the sale will be at United Methodist Church on Old Monrovia Rd. (or at least whatever road runs behind Providence).  Tell your friends. Buy our stuff. 

4) I was working on a decoration for Sara's wedding the other day, and the process included a lot of silver glitter.  I'd glued the glitter down, but had yet to spray it with acrylic sealant, so when I picked it up, some of the loose glitter got on my and went down my shirt.  I was oblivious of any of this until I got to church that night and looked down to see my chest covered in sparkles.  It was like I was trying to smuggle a couple of disco balls around in my shirt! 

5) I just finished reading Twilight this morning and I still hate it.  If anything, I hate it more now than I initially did.  Don't get me wrong, though...I think I finally understand why it became such a popular series, and why so many women love it, but I still hate it and I still want to punch Bella in the face until she dies. 

It actually made me angry to read it.  I don't consider myself to be a feminist, at least not one of the  militant and outspoken type, but to me that story is one of the most anti-feminist and misogynistic things I have EVER read, and the fact that so many women, young women mostly, love this book just blows my mind.  In fact, the knowledge that this book was actually written by a woman blows my mind even more!  The main character is supposedly a smart young lady, but at 16 she's willing to give up her life (quite literally) and everything else for a good looking guy who pushes he around, tells her what to do, puts her in terrible danger, is always on the verge of killing her, and who basically treats her like a child? Not to mention he's kind of an icky pedophile.  I don't care if he's an immortal, that's still disturbing.

No, no more...I can't talk about it anymore right now.  I might actually punch something, and I still have 3 more of these terrible books to go.  Could I stop reading them right now?  Of course, but I'm determined to finish this.