BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 14

Whelp, in the tried and true tradition of me traveling anywhere, my face has decided to revolt. Just like my trip to Ireland, I awoke to my skin looking like I was having a particularly angry bout of puberty. However, unlike last time, I know it’s not an allergy! Apparently, when my diet changes, or the water is different, my skin does this. It’s gross, but what can I do? I have some makeup, so I’ll spackle that shit for as long as it lasts! Haha!

I’m so stupid...so stupid.  Last night, when Steve came back to the room, I was dead gone asleep, but he woke me up. Knowing we had a full day today, I took a melatonin pill to help me go back to sleep so that I wouldn’t be awake the rest of the night (seriously, when does the jet lag stop?) I didn’t look at the time, so I didn’t realize how late it was, and when I got up, I was in too much of a hurry to get ready to realize I was still affected by the pill. We jumped on our bus, and about halfway there, I started feeling weird. I was dizzy, faint, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I literally felt like I was going to pass out, which scared me enough to kick off an anxiety attack. It was scary! Steve managed to help me calm down long enough to remind me about that damn sleeping pill, so I got into the right frame of mind of deal with that and managed not to freak out in the middle of the tour!

Today we are is Sevilla, and we were taken on a tour of the city where we had to walk freaking everywhere. It wasn’t that bad, really, but geez. We had a tour guide that gave us these little personal radios that are tuned in to what she is saying, which are ingenious really, but you can't get away from her voice and that is a little annoying.  At one point, she said that she would take us to the old Jewish section of town, where we would see the crooked streets.  Why did it have crooked streets?  Well, because apparently it was to keep the Christians from easily raiding the neighborhood.  Yikes.  I know we have the Great Commission and all, but I never considered it to be a battle cry. On a lighter note, even if no one else did, at least the Jews of Sevilla expected the Spanish Inquisition and acted accordingly.

We walked through gardens and streets, around buildings and eventually through something called the Royal Alcazar.

Look. If you want to know details about the place, please read that link, because I don't remember anything that the tour guide said.  It wasn't because she was bad at her job, or that it wasn't interesting, but it is because I have heard SO MUCH INFORMATION about various churches and palaces and all of that in the past few days that all of it is running together.  I can tell you that it was beautiful, and that the moorish decor has been some of the most stunningly intricate stuff I've ever seen, and from an art standpoint it certainly is a treasure, but history wise...I got nothing but pictures.  Let's look at a few, shall we? Oh, one thing I did remember was that Game of Thrones had filmed at this place, but I've never seen it, so I don't know where it happened or in what context. Maybe you know.

Immediately after this, we were taken to the Seville Cathedral, which is, by far, the biggest church I've ever seen in my life.  That isn't really an impressive comparison, I guess, but it was bigger than at least two of the convention centers that I've been in before, and that is a whole lotta church.  It used to be a mosque (WTF is it about Christians back then taking over people's churches?  Dang.) and the main tower was once their minaret, but it had been added on to to make it a bell tower for the cathedral.  Lots of famous people are buried in there, including King Ferdinand (of Ferdinand and Isabella fame) and Christopher Columbus.  Well, most of Mr. Columbus is there. Apparently some bits of him are missing.  It was a lovely church, but a bit overwhelming. When I say it was a whole lot of church, I mean that I'm fairly certain that God would raise an eyebrow and say "Really, guys? This may be much, even for me!" 

 I don't know which saint has the bird on his head, but Mary seems amused.

 People for scale. A LOT OF CHURCH, I SAY!

Most of Christoper Columbus is in there.

Afterwards, we walked around the city a bit.  I like how everything is within walking distance and all of the restaurants and shops are so close.  We accidentally lost Anthony for a bit, but he found us.  Heh, he missed hearing the strange lady singing in the street.  I shouldn't laugh, because it is possible that the lady was mentally challenged, but she was standing outside of a cafe sort of monotonically singing "I Just Called To Say I Love You."  She was singing both in English and Spanish, which made it all the weirder to me.  I dunno, but it was funny.

Later that night was the last concert, and it was held in a place about an hour away called Cadiz.  It is a coastal town, and that's about all I know about it.  The concert was going to be held in a proper indoor auditorium, and it had been promoted by the city and everything.  After grabbing a soda at a local cafe (I have had more Coke on this trip than I care to admit, but I know how to pronounce it.) we went back to the theater to watch the show.  The concert was the best they've performed the entire time we've been in Spain, and it was well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Here they don't say "Otra! Otra!" to get an encore, they clap in a particular rhythm. That was neat.  There was a Spanish man sitting beside me the whole time, and I figured out how to ask him if he enjoyed the show in Spanish, and he completely ignored me.  Pffft.  Rude.  

The show went on until very late, and afterwards, two different restaurants stayed open long enough for us to have dinner.  Our place was a hotel restaurant, and the food was surprisingly great.  I'm not sure why the salad had fish on it, but I enjoyed it!  They still had the problem of having a little bit of water and a whole lot of wine, so in desperation, I drank some wine.  We were sitting with two people who really enjoy wine and go to vineyards a lot, so they were trying to teach me the proper way to drink wine to make it enjoyable.  You've got to swirl it around and sip it and get air into it, they said.  It kind of worked, I guess.  I didn't hate the red wine we were served, and it tasted like butter, which is a complement in case you were curious.  I still don't know if I'll ever be someone who just loves wine, but that wasn't bad at all.  Still...you know me and alcohol. I pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got back on the bus, and am so tired right now.  Seriously, don't give dehydrated people alcohol! GAH.

It has been a long day, but a good one.  Oof.  Let's go to sleep.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 13

What day is it? Where am I? I have no idea anymore.

We got back to the hotel after 1:00 am, which seems to be acceptable to some people. Not me. Not so much. Blerf.

The two cups of Sangria seem to have done me some damage, which is hilarious in a way. I’m beginning to think that it isn’t the wine as much as it is the sugar that was in it. Oh, well. It doesn’t matter. The end result is the same. Haha!

This morning we had to get up and leave the hotel for our next destination. On the way, though, we had two stops. One is in Córdoba to the Mosque-Cathedral, affectionately known as the Mezquita (which sounds like mosquito and was the subject of some jokes.) We saw a gorgeous Roman bridge, which was still being used, and spent about an hour of free time eating tapas-a thing of which I am in love with. The tapas was great!  It was me, Anthony, Steve, and a man named Rick that I didn't know, and we ordered a bunch of things to share. I ordered oxtail, because that sounded interesting. It was delicious, but even though I'm familiar with anatomy and animals and all that, I didn't expect to find a fully recognizable vertebrate inside the meat part.  Still, though, I ate two of them, so it didn't bother me that much.

If the Romans had built it, London Bridge would have never fallen down.

Tapas. Everything was delicious except for the paella. Fight me.

 We also did some more souvenir shopping. I’m honestly having trouble finding anything I want, because almost every single shop in these tourist areas has the same tacky crap. I am a discerning souvenir shopper, and I don’t want to buy stuff you can get anywhere in Spain, just with the name changed!  However, I did buy myself some candy. I'm tired of worrying about what I'm eating. It's too stressful.

This is the Gatlinburg Main Street of Spain.

 Afterwards, we went with our tour guide Angel, who looked like a member of a Spanish boy band, but who was a great guide all in all, into the mezquita.

The place was amazing. I mean that, it was huge and complicated, and it was amazing to know that even back then, without computers and whatnot, there were people who could create such beautiful, intricate things with mathematics and a compas that have lasted (and will last) thousands of years. We have all the technology available to mankind at the moment, and the buildings made today will fall apart in 100 years! Nuts, I tell you! NUTS!  These old cathedrals just blow my mind, with all of the art and altar pieces. If my church was like any of these we’ve visited, I’d never hear a word my pastor said. I’d be sitting with my mouth open staring at the walls the whole time I was there.

Afterwards, we got back on the bus and continued our long drive towards Sevilla, which is where the next concert would be held. I think I have some kind of Pavlov’s Dog relationship with our bus, because every time I get on it, I fall asleep. Only it isn’t a good, solid sleep. It’s one of those half dozing things that is neither restful or useful. I forgot to mention that before we got to Córdoba, I had been doing one of those half conscious dozing things when the bus stopped at a roadside stand to let us out to stretch our legs and whatnot, and I was still half asleep when I got off and was shuttled into this roadside stand where everyone was talking and yelling and I was so confused that I got a little scared. My contacts were dry and I couldn’t open my eyes, and Steve kept asking me questions that my brain wouldn’t process, so I had to go outside and collect myself. It would have been concerning if it hadn’t been funny. I didn’t know where I was or what was going on, but darn it, I shopped!  If I give you any weird, olive related items when I get home, this is where it came from.  Nice bathrooms, though.

It was a long ass drive. The area we are covering in Spain is much larger than the one we covered in Ireland, so we spend a lot of time on the bus. The bus is uncomfortable, too, but that’s fine. We get to see some beautiful scenery along the way, and so far we always end up somewhere interesting.

We finally made it to our hotel and had dinner. Steve wanted to go out, but I was too tired, so I went back to the room and he found some friends to have drinks with. So I’m currently sitting here relaxing and not wearing pants while that chump is out there enjoying the nightlife. I guess we all know who is winning tonight!

It’s me...not Steve. Just FYI.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: June 12

We had to get up at the butt crack of dawn for some reason this morning. I thought that we had a tour appointment of some kind, but no, we were just taken to the city center of Grenada and dropped off to look around. I mean, that’s fine, but that could have waited an hour, right?

We walked around the city and it is gorgeous!  Its so clean and interesting. Our tour guide led us through the historic Islamic section of town to see the houses and side streets, and we explored on our own and did some souvenir shopping. I got a few things for family/friends, but I haven’t found anything special for myself yet. I like souvenirs, but after the debacle of trying to get a snow globe on an airplane, I tend to look for something a little less...liquidy. Eh, I'll find something.

Although it might not seem like it, I’m trying very hard not to live through my phone this week, but every five minutes I’m pulling out my phone to take a picture of something!

 

 

Oh, and this might be my favorite one:

It means "Kissing Street." Squee.

One thing I didn't take a picture of, but really enjoyed, was that there was an open air spice and tea market in the middle of town.  It smelled so good!  It's a shame we couldn't get anything from there, but honestly, the last thing I want is to have a spice bomb detonate in my luggage on the way home. I mean, it would smell nice, but would probably ruin my clothes!

Two things as we were returning to our busses: We are probably going to be on the Spanish news today because there was some kind of protest being filmed and we had to walk in between them and the news cameras! I’m sure they appreciated that. Also, that lady who played the Ugly American last night at our hotel, fell and busted her face on the street. It was bad. She’s an older lady and apparently she missed the edge of a curb, and as she fell, she hit a light pole with her face and then face planted. Her face is badly bruised, but at least she didn’t break her teeth like we had thought. Ugh, something like that is a fear of mine. I honestly hope I don’t get sick or hurt while in another country. That’s just too vulnerable of a feeling.

Anyways, from the city center, we were taken to the Alhalambra, which is an old Arabic castle/fortification up in the mountains. It had absolutely gorgeous gardens that had once been only for food (we were told surviving was too difficult for people to bother with flower gardens in the twelfth century) but they had been converted in the 1930s into the flower gardens we saw today. It smelled gorgeous, too. Literally, it smelled like jasmine and honey! My sinuses have not appreciated it, but my eyes enjoyed it! The tour itself lasted for a couple of hours and, while interesting and definitely a thing you want to see, made my poor feet tired. So very tired. The decor was beautiful, though. The Arabic calligraphy script and Moorish design are quite lovely. The mosaic and woodwork are like nothing else I've ever seen!

We left there and headed back to the hotel for lunch. There is apparently a place across the street from us that is the equivalent of a US Wal-mart, so we went over there to pick up some necessities! It really was like a Wal-Mart, but no one was in their pajamas, so...Spain in winning on that account. Hehe.

The second concert was tonight in a little, out of the way town called Chouchina. (That page is in Spanish, so good luck.) Well, even calling it a town is being grand, it was a village, which is fine, but so out of the way and tiny that I was surprised that a concert was being held there, but they had a music pavilion and we were a part of some kind of music festival, so what do I know? The band was also playing with, what I believe was,  a community band from that town, which was fun! The concert itself lasted so long. So. Damn. Long.  I don’t know what the band director was thinking, but he just kept on playing. People were leaving! However, the people who stayed seemed to be having fun, so again, what do I know? I do know that by the end of the concert, I was tired, cold, and had been sitting on concrete bleachers for several hours. Oy.

Also, there was an uncomfortably handsome man in charge of this particular concert. I mean...I don't know how a person can look like that and be normal.  He was also very nice. I just looked at him a lot. So much so that I felt I had to apologize to Steve, but eh...even he said the guy was handsome. I didn't touch him or talk to him directly except to say thank you, so I'm sure I didn't make anything weird. But still... Damn, Javier!

Before the concert began, we were unexpectedly herded onto the bus shuttled to a bar and told to ask for a drink and tapas, which we got and had to bolt it down, because not 20 minutes later we were told to get back on the bus and go back to the amphitheater for the concert. It was weird. After the concert (already effing late) we were taken to the courtyard of the local high school and given drinks and food, and had some kind of party where none of us could talk to the people in the other band because of the language barrier, but it was still fun. I tried sangria for the first time. Well, not proper sangria, I was told, but still pretty tasty. I have now discovered that my tolerance for alcohol is even less than it used to be, so that was fun.  Yikes.

BTW, I am still disturbingly dehydrated on this trip. Kind of like Ireland, they want to give us booze and water, but not a lot of water. We never seem to have enough to drink and we are on the move so much that tying to get a bottle of water is difficult. I feel awful pretty much most of the time, but what can I do? Hopefully that will change the further along we get on this trip. Also, we don’t get a lot of choice in what we eat right now and I know I’ve already gained at least 5 pounds. I’m starting to get anxiety about going back to the weight loss center. They are going to be so disappointed and I don’t think they are going to believe that we pretty much only get to eat what we’re given. Most of it ready-made buffet food and lots of potatoes and bread. Eh, such is the life when on tour with a band, I guess. I’m still having fun, so that is the important thing!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 11

This morning we were awoken by some very cheerful, very loud Spanish gentlemen singing and dancing in the room next door. I’m not sure how we angered them, but I assume someone from Miraflora called and tattled on us for interrupting siesta yesterday and hoped to get us back.

I woke up early (GAH) and lounged a bit. I also didn’t go down to breakfast this time. To avoid temptation, and the bread, I stayed in the room and ate one of the meal replacement bars I brought with me. Was it as delicious as the egg and potato omelette and bread? Hell no, but I needed to do a little damage control after yesterday. Plus, and maybe even more to the point, going from mostly meal replacements and low carb everything to delicious Spanish food with no pause is playing heck with my body. Too much sugar and oil all at once is making me feel gross and slightly ill. Don’t worry, I’m still going to indulge, but maybe not all day every day. Damnit.

We checked out of our hotel in Madrid, and headed to our next destination, which was Toledo.

HOLY TOL...oh, never mind.

It was amazing! We had a local guide who walked us all over the city, telling us the history of the different religious sections and churches. There may be more churches in Toledo than there are in Athens, AL...maybe. It also seems to be the only place where you can literally say you walked uphill both ways, because it didn’t seem to matter which way you went, you were always walking up a hill! I'm still a little frustrated by the tour guide situation we have going on. It isn't that I don't appreciate the information, because I do, but they take us from the bus, run us through the city, we have no time to stop and see any of the local stuff except what they specifically want us to see, and then they dump us off at a place with things like McDonald's and Starbucks all around. We passed a ton of shops and restaurants that would have been so cool to visit, but no.  Anyway.

We saw the third most important painting in the art world at one of the chapels, and then we went inside one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen. It was called The Primate Cathedral of St. Mary and we got a great, in depth tour.

 
We even heard a little boys choir sing, and it sounded so beautiful! We walked around for quite a while, until we were told to go grab a bite to eat before we left the city. We actually left the American Fast Food Area that we got left at and found a local place called, I think, Yogi's.  I ate green peas and ham, and even though it sounds weird, it was delicious!

 My grandmother would have loved this.

I also fell getting out of the bus, which was embarrassing. Luckily I caught myself before really getting hurt, or hitting the stairs, but I pulled every muscle in my right arm and upper back, and it feels like I’ve been boxing! This'll be fun on a long bus ride!

We rode for four uncomfortable hours in our tour coach while listening to examples of flamenco music and saw literally hundreds of thousands of olive trees. Spain in the world’s main producer of olive oil, and I can see why. It was the largest agricultural operation that I’d ever seen in my life, and very impressive, if not a little monotonous!

 

I dozed on and off the whole time, but couldn’t get any quality rest. I still feel like a zombie. As much as I enjoy traveling overseas, my body does not adjust very well!

We finally made it to our next destination, which is Grenada. I can’t tell much about it yet, but our hotel is very nice at least. We had a buffet dinner that had that same “kids menu” vibe, so I'm wondering if that’s just how things are here. At least there were some vegetables this time! My stomach is confused. Some of the people in our group are going out tonight, but we didn’t join them. I feel kind of bad for not exploring more during our free time, but I’m just too tired.

Unfortunately, we had an “Ugly American” incident, where one of the ladies in our group got upset about something to do with her room and she caused quite a scene. I’m embarrassed, as there was absolutely no reason for her to behave the way she did. Oy.

We are finally back in our room and my old, tired bones are going to sleep. Goodnight!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 10

I feel like a zombie. Sleep and wakefulness make no sense. I’m unsure what day it is or where I am. Apparently I forgot to change one of my clocks and woke up in a panic thinking we were late, only to have a very annoyed Steve tell me it was only a bit after midnight Madrid time. Yikes.

This morning I looked up how to ask "Can I pet your dog?" in Spanish, and this is what it gave me:

"Puedo acariciar a tu perro?"

 

Even with the Google bot recording telling me how to say it, my mind wouldn't wrap around the pronunciation. I blame it on being tired.  So I asked our tour guide, Pedro, how to ask to pet someone's dog. Even with his excellent English, he didn't know what I was asking him.  I had to show him the words.  It seems like the word "pet" isn't one he was familiar with, so when he finally understood, he repeated that phrase above, and with some explaining, we finally understood that "acariciar" is like "caress."  So I'd basically be asking someone if I could caress their dog. I ain't doing that.  I'll just do hand motions and lunge directly at the dog. They'll either let me pet their dog, or I'll get maced.  

Oooh, and before we left the hotel, a marathon, or some kind of race at least, went past our front door.  We stood outside and cheered people on for a long time.  That was fun. For all we know it was just a jogging club, but they were wearing numbers and looked tired, so we cheered!

 

Hooray, running people! 

Today was our first full day in Madrid, and after breakfast (still with the bread, you guys) we were taken to the Prado Museum. There are loads of amazing and famous paintings and other artworks at the Prado, but we were only given a tour of those painted by Spanish artists. (We also weren't allowed to take pictures, so *sad trombone sound.*) As someone who loves art, and especially art painted my famous masters, I was annoyed at the very narrow theme we perused, but also as someone who loves art, I got to see a lot of beautiful works and I'm ok with that. We still saw a lot of stuff that I'd heard about. My favorite was one by Goya, called "The Nude/Clothed Maja" which was a set of two portraits of the same woman (but with her face changed because SCANDALOUS!) One of the portraits was actually nude and one was clothed, and the dude who they belonged to would change them out depending on who was going to see them.  People get so worked up about nudes today and that stuff has been going on since the dawn of man. Although, I guess getting painted nude took a lot longer than a Snapchat would. I bet she got cold!  :)  We had a local tour guide that seemed very passionate about what he was showing us, so I was still entertained, even if I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to.  I did get to see Las meninas, which I'd studied in college, and that was worth the price of admission alone!


We left there and returned to the hotel. I’d love to say that in our free time we explored the city, but Steve and I have napped every chance we have gotten to try and feel more human. I won’t apologize! Besides, the first concert is tonight and we don’t want to be exhausted for that.

The concert was held in a small, mountain village about an hour away called Miraflora de la Sierra and it was...well, it was effing charming. It looked like a place specifically designed to make you love tiny villages in Spain! It looked like something created for Epcot.

 
The place was hilly and surrounded by twisty streets and cafes. We arrived during siesta, and of course promptly shouted the place to the ground like true Americans (oops.) It was cold up there, and started to rain, but the rain sort of stopped just in time for the performance to begin and the people in the town came out to listen. The band sounded amazing and the spectators seemed to truly love the concert. People danced and clapped, and at one point they started chanting what we thought was “roll tide” but apparently was the Spanish word for encore*. Haha, that was confusing!  The concert lasted almost two hours because the conductor likes to keep going despite weather or exhaustion, and we were freezing and wet by the time it was all over.

We were supposed to have dinner in Miraflores, so we packed out this place called the Bohemia Cafe and had an amazing dinner, laughed a lot, and made a lot of noise. In fact, we closed the place down and had to be chased out by our tour guides. It was a great evening. I like traveling with this group of people (at least thus far) because we all have something in common and all want to have a great time.

 Try the lamb. Trust me. 

We’re back at the hotel now and getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow, or later today rather, we are moving south to our next destination! Goodnight!

PS: I am so dehydrated. There is so much wine and so little water. Help me.

*I found out later that they were saying "Otra! Otra! Otra!" but the way they said it really did sound like they were chanting "Roll Tide" with an accent. I wasn't the only one who thought so, so I know it wasn't just my lack of culture, thankyouverymuch.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 8-9

June 8-9, 2018: The Adventure Begins

This morning, Steve and I got up bright and early! Ok, Steve did. I was still dead asleep when the alarm rang and had to be shamed into getting out of bed. Shut up, I like sleeping!

Anyways, we both eventually got out of bed and finished up our last minute tasks, because today was the beginning of a new adventure! As we did in 2016, we are going on tour with one of the concert bands that Steve performs with, only this time we are headed to SPAIN! Woo-hoo! Also, as an interesting twist, we are also bringing along one of our best good friends, Anthony, who has learned how to play auxiliary percussion and will also be playing with the band. I’m the only one of the three of us who is just going along as a groupie and I’m perfectly ok with that!

We rented an SUV, picked up Anthony and headed to Atlanta to catch our flight.  Honestly, not much of note happened on the way there. We drove, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel, and we made our way to the airport without incident! It was pandelerium as usual at the Atlanta airport, but we managed to check in, find our group, and get on the flight with only one person in our party (a tuba player) to catch grief from the airlines. Apparently someone in the TSA thought the tuba was some type of dangerous weapon and needed to interrogate the poor guy before they’d let him and his instrument pass. Oy.

The flight, too, was fairly uneventful, in the sense that we were crammed like cattle into coach and expected to be able to sleep. I took upwards of two melatonin tablets in an attempt to head off the worst part of arrival jet lag, but even with that, I only barely dozed. Eventually, though, we made it to Spain, breezed through customs (thankfully) and headed out to our waiting tour busses.

Normally I’d separate the days into new entries, but y’all...with the time change and the lack of sleep, the 8th and 9th felt like one long ass day, so forgive me for blending them together.

Madrid is a beautiful city with a lot of graffiti on every damn thing, but still, it’s a big, bustling city full of trees, gorgeous architecture, and statues of things. That sounds like a rather simplistic way of describing a place like Madrid, but honestly, that was my first, and sleep deprived, impression. We were taken to the main bull fighting ring in the city and allowed to get out and look around a bit. We didn’t go in, but that was ok. It was huge and beautiful, and we’d been instructed to take pictures and get a coffee or something while our tour guides got coordinated.

Ole?

We decided that coffee sounded ideal, so we walked to the first cafe we saw and descended like locusts. I ended up getting hot chocolate, and it was one of the most delicious things I’ve put into my face in months! I swear, it wasn’t like anything I’d ever had before. It was more like hot, thick, delicious, melted brownies than a beverage. It was also almost too much for me and it made my whole head tingle. I still drank it all and licked the cup! Haha!

This evokes feelings very close to the same ones I felt about the Belgian Caramels.

Full disclosure, due to the experience of traveling to a new place and for convenience, we are going off of our very strict, very calorie controlled diet while we are on this trip. I’m very nervous about this, because I genuinely don’t want to gain back a lot of weight that I’ve lost, and I know I’m going to just due to the fact that we couldn’t possibly carry our meal replacements with us AND we had no idea what to expect from the food in Spain. I already know I’m going to lose a lot of ground, but hopefully we can regain it (re-lose it?) when we get home. I’ve worked too hard to lose this weight to eff it up for keeps. I’m just going to have to be ashamed of myself when I get home, because I'M IN SPAIN AND I’LL EAT WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT!

Ahem.

After we left that area, we were taken to a tourist area called Plaza Mayor, which...I’m still not 100% sure wasn’t a place straight out of The Twilight zone. It was a town square of sorts that had a strange little, steampunky children’s fair type thing in it.

Yes, those are toilets. Is this even real life?

I don’t know, I was punchy from the lack of sleep and confused at the crowd, but Steve, Anthony and I rallied and went out to find some lunch. We stopped at a little outdoor cafe, where they ordered paella (a dish both of them were interested in trying) and I ordered some grilled octopus! Woot! It was delicious, of not a little scary to look at, but I ate a whole tentacle myself!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

By then it was time to go to our hotel, thankfully, and we made our way to the Hotel Agumar. Nice place, tiny elevators.

We got settled in and hung out until dinner. The hotel has a buffet that we have already paid for, apparently, so we stayed in at dinner time. I know I'm talking about food a lot, but it’s practically a while new experience for me again, haha! The food was ok, but I had the feeling that the kitchen staff heard a bunch of Americans were coming and pulled up a kids menu from an American restaurant to acts as a guide. We had antipasto (I think...cheese and meat stuff anyway) and then chicken legs, spaghetti, and French fries. A strange combo, at least. Also, I think I’m going to overdose on the bread here. I can’t stop eating it!

DO NOT JUDGE ME

After dinner, we took a walk to a local, huge park, which was described as their “Central Park” and we looked around a bit. It was getting dark, but we could tell it was a beautiful place, and there are so many dogs that I want to pet! Madrid is a very dog friendly city, so I'm going to have to learn to ask if I can pet their dogs so that I don’t get in trouble!

We finally made it back and collapsed into bed. I literally have my own single bed. Perhaps they don't realize Steve and I are married, but you know what? I don't care in the least.  The jet lag still has me and my body is confused at the time, but hopefully it won’t last long. Goodnight!

OOPS

Years ago, when I still worked at the Sprocket (ptooey) one of the first non-science movies we showed at the IMAX was one of the Spider Man films.  It was also the first movie they let me decorate the theater lobby for, so I went all out and strung white string all over everything, created a big spider web in the center of the balcony, and I even opened the Darth Vader costume that we kept on a dummy in a sealed display case and tied its hands together and added a note that it was "Courtesy of your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man."  I was clever.  You know this.

Darth's hands were fisted on his hips, in a way I'm sure anyone would recognize from pictures of him from the movies.  He was in a total power stance, so I had to pull his hands off of his hips to tie them together.  No big deal.  I didn't unbend his arms or anything, just pulled them off of his hips and loosely tied them in front him.  Everyone thought it was funny.

The problem is that someone else cleaned up the lobby.  They opened up the case, removed the ties, and closed the case again without replacing his fists on his hips, so his hands remained bent, but slightly in front of him, as if he was flexing his biceps.  At the time, I kept meaning to reopen the case and fix him, but I got busy and completely forgot to do it.

I just saw a picture of the suit in the case and his fists are still off of his hips.  Ol' Darth is still flexing those biceps 11 years later.  I wish someone would fix it, but I don't know if anyone else notices.  It looks stupid like that. 

Oh, well.

via GIPHY

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Ok, I'm going to say it.  I think I'm getting paranoid.  Yesterday, after church, I drove from Huntsville to my mom's house to see her on Mother's Day.  While still in Huntsville, just as I'd turned from an access road to a highway, a white car got behind me.  I don't know why I noticed it, but I did, and it stayed close behind me. I didn't think much of it at first, because traffic was kind of heavy and I was behind a slow moving truck, but when traffic thinned out and I passed the truck, the car passed it too and stayed right on my bumper. I thought, "OK, this isn't weird yet, but I have to turn up here and the car probably won't be going the same direction."  I was wrong, I turned, the white car turned.  I thought again "OK, this probably isn't weird yet, I have to get into this turn lane. That car probably won't turn here."  Again, I was wrong.  The car followed me into the turn lane and onto the new road.  I thought that was odd, but once again, people live out that way, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that this person knew someone on the road we were on, but they didn't turn anywhere.  They stayed right behind me. 

Now, the road to my mom's place gets more and more rural and spread out the farther you go, and unless you know someone, or go to the high school, driving out that way doesn't make sense.  The white car was still behind me at what I realized was the last reasonable place that person could be going without actually going to my mom's house and the car didn't turn off.  I decided that if this person was actually following me, I wasn't going to go to my mom's house, I'd go someplace public. I actually floored it and squealed (accidentally, I wasn't channeling the Dukes of Hazzard on purpose) away from the white car and down the road as fast as I could.  The car was still behind me.  I did a no-signal "bat turn" onto the road that I used to live on, which literally no one drives down unless they live there or are visiting someone who lives there, and thank heaven, the car didn't turn.  I kept driving until I made it to a gas station where a lot of people were and got gas while scanning the street ahead of me, just in case.

I'm not completely unreasonable. I know that the person could very well have family out that way, but it seemed so strange to have the same car so doggedly behind me the whole freaking way, when that drive was so very specific to where I was going. I kept thinking I had pissed someone off in traffic and they were going to have a road rage incident or something.  I was unnerved, but ultimately unharmed.  Also, I was kind of embarrassed, because...I mean...I could have been someone I went to high school with going to visit their own mother.  Oy.

Oh, and this morning as I was leaving for work, a black car that didn't belong on our street parked in front of some houses just up from us and just sat there.  So I sat there and watched them.  The people inside eventually got out, but I didn't know them or what they were doing.  My best guess is they are garbage pickers or the like, but I don't know. I should have taken pictures of them just in case, but it felt rude to do that. I'm, like, a pair of binoculars away from becoming Gladys Kravits, aren't I?  :)

Seriously, though, I've got to get it together.  I don't want to be a paranoid person.  There's this man at our church who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and he drives me ape-poopy because he's constantly asking me if he's going to jail or thinking that people are wanting to steal from his family.  If I devolve into that kind of mess, I need someone to kill me.  Not even kidding. Poison me, shoot me, hit me with a car, I don't care.  That is not the kind of life I want to live.

2) Steve and I had a fun Saturday.  He got a wild hair and asked if I'd go to Six-Flags Over Georgia with him.  As you know, I do not enjoy theme parks, but I said I'd go because...well, you do that kind of thing for people you like, I guess.  Also, we had a new Doctor Who audio series that we needed a long drive to listen to and that sounded like a good opportunity to do that.

I unexpectedly enjoyed myself, though. I'm still not a huge fan of theme parks, but it wasn't that crowded. The longest we waited to ride anything was about 30 minutes, that was because the ride had closed for a bit and was reopened in the middle of the day, so everyone who wanted to ride it got there at the same time we did.  We didn't spend the whole day there, because Steve has a season pass and will inevitably go back with his buddy a couple of more times this summer, so he didn't feel it necessary to do everything.  We rode a few rollar coasters and such and left.  It was hot AF though, and I made the bad decision to wear jeans. I don't really have casual shorts that fit, and I didn't think linen ones would fare well at a dirty theme park (plus they would look terrible with my walking shoes.)  So I was sweaty, but not angry about it like I usually am! Haha!

Afterwards we drove down to Senoia, Georgia, which is this neat little place where movies and TV shows are filmed.  I mean, it's a legit town, but lots of stuff has been filmed there because it's quaint or something.  Currently, it's where the set of (and you'll have to forgive me if I misspeak, because I don't watch the show) the walled town in The Walking Dead is located. I assume they still film there, because the set is there and they sell TWD merch in the stores on main street.  It was a very cool place, though, even beyond the sets.  Where we were there was a main street lined with shops that you could wander down and go in and out of.  I love places like that.  We ate at a very good Irish pub and left there.  Steve wanted to show me Pinewood Studios, which is where a lot of movies have been shot, and so we drove forever until we found it.  It's out in the middle of nowhere, but I suppose if you're going to have a massive 18 or 20 sound stage complex, then you need lots of room. It was very cool though, and since I'm fairly sure Thor (my imaginary Marvel boyfriend) filmed some scenes there, I was practically hanging out with him.  :) 

It was a nice day.

3) We had some vandalism at church the other day, unfortunately.  During worship services, someone drove into the parking lot, busted the windows of a couple of vans and stole some stuff out of them.  The weird thing is that the people who's cars were vandalised were from the same family (who was here celebrating the dedication of their baby.)  It isn't clear if their cars were targeted or not, but we did get footage of the car and people (although you can't see the tag, and the people weren't clear) who were responsible, so hopefully the ass-hats who did this will get caught.  One of the things stolen was a wallet (and no, I don't know why the wallet was in the car to begin with) and the dumbest thing the theives did was to take one of the stolen debit or credit cards to a grocery store a mile away and try to spend $1000.00 on gift cards which triggered the protection on the card to tell where the money was being spent.  The police have seen the footage and hopefully will catch the jerks who would do a thing like that.

I spent that afternoon combing security footage so that we could make copies for the investigator, as I am one of the few people who know how it works.  Do you know how boring it is to watch security footage of a church parking lot?  No?  It's pretty darn boring.  Now I just hope they catch the people resposible and make them sorry they'd do a dickish thing like that.  I wish I could find out who they are and...make them feel very, very bad for their actions in a non-violent, certainly non-vigilante type of way. 

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) We went to see The Avengers: Infinity War a couple of days ago, and it was really good!  I was not expecting how it ended, and for once, most of the Internet decided against being jerkfaces and I didn't get spoiled before going (although I did avoid as much as I could online.)

I'm not going to spoil it here, because you may still go and see it (you really should) but I do want to mention something that has me a little befuddled.  I have been reading about the movie and people's reactions to it, and I'm wondering if I'm...weird.  Again, not going to spoil it here, but the ending had some unexpected, um, occurrences.  I've read a LOT of comments where people said they cried and I saw pictures of my niece with smeary mascara tracks after seeing the movie.  I was confused after the movie was over, but I certainly didn't think it was sad.  In fact, I didn't think it was sad at all, but the popular consensus is that people were basically in tears during the last 15 minutes or so.

I wonder if something is wrong with me. Should I have been sad?  Are my emotions malfunctioning?

Seriously, though, if you haven't seen it...go see it.  It's quite good and funnier than I expected.  You might cry, even.  You know, if you're into that kind of thing.

2) I get to eat food again!  Granted, I'm still limited as to how much and what kind, and it's only one meal a day, but actual FOOD! I'm so excited that I might cry.  I am also going to have to be careful, because I'm afraid I'm going to eat too much.  Even though I didn't hit the 60 pound loss mark they thought I would, I have still lost a (allegedly) noticeable amount of weight and I never, ever, ever, EVER want to have to do anything like this again. Ever. Please God no.

I'm still on the "transition" part of the program for a few more weeks, and I still have to attend classes, although they are on Wednesdays now, and I still have a few weeks left of those classes, but that's ok.  This has taken a heretofore unknown level of self control that I was unaware that I had.  Sure I slipped up a couple of times, although not enough to sabotage myself, but for the most part I stayed the course.  Now, let's see if I can just keep doing well for myself from here on out so that extreme solutions such as these will never be needed again.

Also...I still can't tell a difference as to what I look like, except that none of my pants are the right size anymore.  I look exactly the same to myself.  It's weird.

3) Speaking of what I look like...  The other day I posted a picture of myself on a thing.  It wasn't a good picture, and it really wasn't meant to be one, but a bunch of people liked it, even people who normally don't engage with me on the particular platform.  Did...did I get "Bless Your Heart" liked?  Good grief, social media can make you paranoid, can't it?

4) You guys, I think I'm almost ready to get another dog.  I'm not sure, because the loss of Butler and Bear still sting a lot, and I tend to hold on to feelings like that for an insane amount of time, but I think I might almost be ready to think about talking to Steve about perhaps getting another dog.  We can't do it anytime soon, due to traveling and whatnot, but maybe in the next year or so.  Maybe.

I don't know, though.  It's kind of like...oh, yes, let's get a dog so that I can be completely wrecked again in another few years when it dies.  Loving someone and then losing them is hard.  The heart can only take so much, and I don't know how much of mine is left.

5) We're still doing the virtual races and I'm still having fun with it.  If Steve ever says that he's finished more races than me (and he has, to be fair) it's because he chooses short ones, where I have chosen longer ones.  That's practically cheating, right?

Also, I think I actually want to do some real, live races as soon as I figure everything out.  Well, right now I feel that way, so who knows?  Probably stick to 5K ones, though, but that's nothing to sneeze at.  I'll leave the longer ones to people who know what they're doing! :)

(WHEEZE)

I know this isn't really something that warrants an entire blog entry, but I'm going to tell you anyway, because I thought it was funny and for just a second, I thought I was going to die.

I got cold.  I suppose it was the ice in my drink that did it, but I got really frigging cold while sitting at my desk and couldn't get warm.  I decided that I was going to do some laps around the lobby of the church to warm up a bit, which I did.  It's a boring thing to keep walking in circles, so I decided to take a turn down the classroom hallway for a change of scenery.  At the end of that hallway is a room that looks like a living room, and when I got into that and turned around, I saw a body lying on one of the couches.  It was covered from head to ankles with a blanket and it wasn't moving. 

Look, I'm always terrified I'm going to find a body in our church that isn't supposed to be there, either alive or dead. That sounds crazy, but I was just told that last year a homeless man got into our church and tried to stay overnight, and was only found before we locked the doors because the security guy didn't see him come out at the end of services.  So, yeah, people get into our church sometimes and personally, I don't want to be the one to roll up on them.  So I did the only thing I could think of: I silently screamed and took off down the hallway.

Y'all, I am not a good runner in the best of times, wearing workout clothes and shoes specifically designed for running, but damn it if I didn't Usain Bolt my flowery dress and dress shoe wearing ass down the hall and into the pastor's office. I just knew there was going to be an issue and that I may be called upon to defend myself with hornet spray and my baseball bat and I was NOT ready for that.  Only, when I got there, the pastor wasn't there. 

As it turned out, the pastor was the person asleep (thankfully) on the couch in that room.  He had gotten cold as well and went down there to cover up for a few minutes and he dozed off.  So I was running through the church like a crazy person, ready to lock myself in a closet and wait until everyone else in the building was dead so that I could make my escape, and all it was was my boss taking a nap in a weird place.  I almost wet my pants.  At least I got a good laugh out of it!

I sincerely hope that I am never in a situation with an intruder, because if today is any indication, I'm going to end up being the woman running up the stairs instead of out the back door.  This was not my finest moment, but it sure turned out to be a funny one!

HARRUMPH

I've written, like, three different things here and nothing was worth saving.  I could have just deleted everything and not published anything, but damnit, I came here to write a thing.  It isn't my fault that nothing interesting came of it!

Sorry.  I'm alone and bored and my friends live in different states than I do and I don't have time before church tomorrow to drive to see either of them because Indiana and Georgia are too far for impromptu drives.  Eh, well.  I don't mean to complain, I'm just restless.  Everything will revert back to normal tomorrow, everyone will be home, another week will start, and that is just full of possibilities, isn't it?

Anyway...I hope your day was marvelous, whatever it consisted of!  :)

PS: I found out that I might be slightly allergic to cayenne pepper.  What a weird thing to be allergic to.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Steve got offered a job in Charleston!  But in "of course he did" news, he turned it down without even considering it.  However, for one, bright, shining moment in my head, I had bought one of those cool old houses and was going to be near the coast, and have the ability to walk anywhere I needed to go, be in easy distance of some amazing food and work in one of the many museums out there.  That part was fun.

But Huntsville is good too.  I know people here.

2) I got a strange opportunity a couple of weeks ago from a cosmetic subscription service that found me on Instagram.  They were looking for "influencers" for their brand and they thought I was sassy, or some such thing.  At first I thought...WTF?  I mean, you know me (I guess you do, anyway) and you know that I'm 40 years old and maybe not the most attractive lady out there, I only have a very few people who follow me, and generally most of them don't pay much attention to anything I post. If you've ever seen most of the IG influencers, they are usually very young, very pretty, and have a LOT of followers watching what they do.  Maybe this company was going in a different direction, I dunno, but for them to reach out to me was kind of hilarious.  At first, I wasn't going to do it, because of everything I just mentioned, but the more I thought about it, the funnier I thought it would be if I did it.  Seriously, can you imagine me shilling for something like that?  So I asked some questions and agreed to do it.  Why not, right?  I'm not a Kardashian (OMG, I spelled that wrong and auto-correct fixed it for me.) but maybe I could have some fun with it.

HOWEVER...I did some looking around at different people who are considered "Influencers" for things online just to see how it worked, and...well, ultimately I just realized I didn't want to be that guy.  I mean, sure putting on makeup is fun, and taking pictures of it is fine, but I didn't want to be the person who is constantly hash tagging everything on my face and talking about how awesome this or that is because I get benefits from it.  I know people like that and they annoy me. The company was going to pay me, but only if people I knew bought this service, and it was such a low payment that it was really not worth it unless I somehow gathered tons of new followers and they all paid however much for the thing.  Ultimately I felt like it wouldn't be a thing I'd enjoy doing and I'm almost 100% certain none of my friends who follow me on those apps would have enjoyed it either.

There is only one thing that kind of bothers me, though, and that is that I tend to get excited about this kind of thing, tell people I'm going to do it, and then decide it isn't for me in the long run so it seems like I just flaked.  I feel like I punk out on things too much.  Granted, in this case, it wasn't because I got nervous about it, or thought that I couldn't do it, but still, I feel kind of like I failed at some new opportunity I was offered by not following through, but I really, really didn't want to have to take pictures of my face all of the time and push discount codes (link in bio!) on people who have very little interest in cosmetics. It just wasn't for me.  Still, though, I wish I didn't not do things so much.  It's not like I get a whole lot of offers!

Anyway, if you are a friend of mine on any of the social media apps, don't worry, you don't have to see my eyeliner 12 times a week! :)

3) OK, I know this is going to fall into "Kelly hears Robots" territory (and screw you guys, I totally did hear robots no matter what you think) but I'm fairly certain that someone tried spying on our house with a drone the other night.

To the left foot of our bed we have window that faces our neighbors house.  Where it is located, at night we get some light from the street lamp in front of our house, but it's partially blocked by something, so about a 1/4 of our window has light while the rest is dark.  The other night I was in bed, and I noticed that a light was flashing in the corner of the window that is usually dark.  It was flashing somewhat slowly, but consistently.  At first I thought maybe the wind was blowing and a branch was moving out of the way to let more light in, but that couldn't be it because the closest tree to our window isn't blocking the light.  Also, we have very deep eaves on the side of our house, so the corner of that window is in shadow all day except for about an hour after the sun rises.  I lay there and watched the light blink for a few minutes and asked Steve "What is that?"  He didn't know, but almost immediately the light stopped blinking and didn't come back.  So the only reasonable idea we could come up with is that someone was flying a drone near the top of our window and could hear us talking.  I even went outside and checked the next day, and the top of our window is too high for anything NOT flying to get to, unless whatever it was had a ladder.  So either Roof Critter is a robot or someone was up to shenanigans with a drone.  Bless their hearts for finding such a boring place to spy.  Heh.

No, I'm serious, it totally happened.

4) Ya know...I've lost some weight. Not the 60 pounds that I was told I would, but more than just a couple of pounds.  So...when people who haven't seen me in a while look at me, they always say "I can tell you've lost weight. How much have you lost?" Without fail, when I tell them, they always say "I can really tell it in your face." I never know how to respond.

Honestly, tell me, how damn fat was my face before?

A MEMORY

I may have written about this before.  I don't remember.  Leave me alone, I'm an old woman!

I remember watching a movie, or maybe a TV show (I'm not sure) about a woman who lived in an apartment building where a new tenant had just moved in upstairs from her.  The new guy was an artist, and he fell in love with the woman, but the woman just thought of him as a friend at first.

She invited him over for dinner one night and they sat and talked all night until she fell asleep. When she woke up the next morning, she realized how much she liked the guy and went upstairs to talk to him, only to find out his apartment was empty and all of his paintings were gone.  The landlord was showing potential tenants the place and he couldn't tell her anything about the guy who had lived there.

The lady didn't have any proof that the artist-man had ever lived there, so she thought maybe she had imagined him until one day she was coming home from work and she passed an art gallery with a big painting of herself sleeping, wearing the dress she had worn the night they'd had dinner (which sounds creepy, but it was a nice painting and not weird) with the guy's name in the corner.  It had been sold, and the gallery was closed, so she couldn't go in and ask anyone about it. She just smiled and went home.

I really don't know the point of the movie (show?) and I know that sounds like a creepy thing to happen, especially looking through the lens of modern thought, but I always thought that was the most romantic thing ever.  That someone would think she was so beautiful and that he loved her enough to create art based on her.  I know that sounds sappy, and you'll just have to give me a break because I am not very sappy about many things these days, but to my little girl self, that was just the best thing I could imagine.  I always wished that someone would like me enough to do something like that.  Granted, I have never looked like that lady from the movie, but still...I always thought that would be nice.

What is very ironic (at least I think it's ironic. Darn you, Alanis!) is that I married a man who doesn't even like to take pictures, much less make art, so I doubt there will be anything inspired by me on anyone's walls!  That's not a slight against him or anything, I promise, I just think it's funny. Life is weird that way sometimes.

So anyway, what I'm saying is that if you (whoever you are. I don't know who reads this!) love someone, I hope they inspire you to do great things.  If they do, then do those things for them.

EVEN MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) A while ago, I unexpectedly came across a man that I'd gone to school with years and years ago.  I didn't know him well at all, which is surprising due to the smallness of my school, but we ran in different circles.  I knew he existed, but I don't think we ever spoke.  As it turned out, he was working at one of the medical labs that our doctor was affiliated with at the time, and he was the nurse that I happened to get when I went in for my blood tests.

After realizing we knew each other, we spent the next 10 or 15 minutes talking about this and that (which I'm sure made the people in the waiting room just thrilled) but during that time he let me know that his life wasn't going well.  He wasn't looking for pity, I could see that, but I assume the life troubles that he was going through were bad enough that he needed to talk about them to someone with a familiar face.  I won't give details, as they are not mine to divulge, but needless to say, he was unhappy and didn't see a way to fix his troubles.

I was a bit caught off guard, but I did my best to listen and give him advice, hopefully good advice, or encouragement, or something that might help, but I didn't have much time before I had to leave.

Unfortunately, not long after that, I found out that he committed suicide.  His troubles had just gotten too hard to deal with, I guess.  I wish more than anything I could have said something that would have helped him, but I failed at that.  I realize that if he was to the point of depression that he was telling his life issues to a women he barely knew, it wasn't anything that a quick conversation could fix, but I still feel guilty about it.  This didn't happen recently, so I don't know why he has been on my mind so much lately. I just wish I could have helped him, even a little bit.

2) I had my last visit with the behaviorist!  Woo-Hoo!  Unfortunately, I did discover a thing about myself that is not so great.  Not terrible, but not great. We were talking about different types of support that we all have in our lives.  We have Listeners (who are people that listen to you when you need them to, but they aren't that invested in you personally and they don't really give advice.) Info Givers (who give you information about solutions to the issues that you face, and who are slightly more invested than the listeners.) Emotional Supporters (who are your cheerleaders, and who are highly invested in your life) and Challengers (who challenge you in lots of ways - to the point of sometimes being harsh, but who are also highly invested in your life.)  It was a neat little class.

It's important to have all of these kinds of support in your life, even if you don't particularly like some of them, and we had to figure out which category that we personally fall into.  I know that I play different roles to different people in my life, but I tend to be very much a challenger the majority of the time. Being a challenger is not...great.  I mean, the words "Metal Plated Bitch" were not spoken, but heavily implied.  I always thought I was nicer than that.  So I'm sorry if I've been a challenger when you needed something else!  I try to be a cheerleader as much as possible, and I don't mind listening (although I do tend to talk a little too much to be good at it) and I'll give you any information I can find to help you out of a tight spot if I can!  If it matters, when I am challenging, it's usually because I want you to do good things and make good decisions and be happy and successful, so it isn't a malicious challenging, I swear!

Finding out negative stuff about yourself sucks, but it does help to know about it so you can fix it!  Silver lining!

3) A weird side effect of the  program I've been in has been that I have absolutely no idea what I look like now.  I know that sounds crazy, because mirrors, but in my eyes, I look exactly the same as I did.  Other people say that they can tell I've lost weight, but I can't.  I see pictures of myself and I look just like I did before, and I see myself in the mirror and I only look slightly different.  It's very strange!  Another thing is that I have no idea what size clothes I wear anymore. I still have clothes from when I lost weight before, but they are a bit too small, but the clothes I have now are too big.  I'm sure there is some kind of temporary mental body-dysmorphia going on, but I wish that would go away so that I'm not so confused when I look in a mirror!

Update on the program: Doing OK, even though I haven't lost as much weight as they thought I would.  Personally, I think God won't let me lose too much because He knows that if I look too good I'll be naked ALL OF THE TIME.  I would, too. I'm not even ashamed of that. 

4) I have a feeling that I sound someone melancholy today, which I'm not, so I'll show you something fun.  Some of you have already seen it, but I'm kind of proud of it:

I made a medal holder for our race medals!  Yes, I know it's silly, but if I'm going to get them, I might as well put them somewhere where I can see them. Then when (if) I move on to real life races, I can put those medals there too.  If I don't get many medals, then it'll be a good place to hang lone socks until I can find the mates.  It's win-win!  :)

HEH...

Guess what?

I finished my virtual race in Sweden and Norway. It took me a very long time, but I still finished!  I got some good advice from a lovely friend about these races, so I've decided to have as much fun with them as possible. 

The best part is that I beat Steve by 11 miles! Yay!

Now I'm starting a new one in the Ring of Kerry.  It's about 104.5 miles, I think. 

I'll keep you updated!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Guess what?!  Actually, I may have mentioned this before, but I can't remember, so I'm mentioning it now.  Steve's band is going on tour again this summer in Spain and we are also taking an extension trip to France afterwards!  Woo-Hoo!  More world traveling!

It's still too early to do very much to get ready for the trip, but one thing we have done is check with our doctor about getting any vaccinations that we might need.  I know Spain and France are not third world countries where we'll get African Snow Giraffe Pox or anything like that, but apparently we were supposed to have gotten some kind of vaccinations before going to Ireland, so we checked and as it turns out, we needed vaccinations for Hep A and B. That is a series of three shots over several months.  Greeeeeeeeeeat.  When I called to make the appointment, they also discovered that I haven't had a tetanus/diptheria/whooping cough booster shot since I was 14, so I was going to have to get that as well.  Whee.

So I got my booster shot and my first Hepatitis shot (I didn't scream or faint, thankyouverymuch) and the next day my arm felt like the Incredible Hulk punched me.  It didn't help that I got the shots after a boot camp session where we did a lot of upper body work, so I feel like I have the flu on one side of my body.  This trip to Spain better be freaking worth it.

2) The behaviorist gave me a new task to do and I can't help but laugh about it.

One of the tricks that he has give the participants in our program is that we need to put ourselves on a points/award system. Actually, it isn't a bad idea, because it gives you something to work towards and it helps you get a tangible reward for doing the things that you need to do.  Classic carrot and stick kind of thing, right?  We pick a specific thing that we want, but can't justify spending the amount of money it costs to get it for no reason.  We then pick 4 activities that we have to do, assign each thing an amount of points, and keep track of what we are doing and at the end of each week, we pay ourselves (actual money, because this guy doesn't play around) and when we finally hit our goal, we can buy whatever it is we chose.

The reason it's funny to me is because I tried that before.  Well, sort of.  I did that, but instead of working on the points system, I put aside a certain amount of money into a savings account every week and told myself that when I lost my goal amount of weight, I'd use that money to buy something (I think it was a necklace or some other frivolous thing that maybe cost $150 dollars, but I can't remember exactly.)  So that's what I did.  Every week, I'd put the cash aside and save it.  As it turned out, I never lost my goal amount of weight.  In fact, I can't say I lost any weight at all.  I also didn't buy myself the necklace I wanted.

Instead, I ended up buying a car.  That's how much I didn't lose weight.  Haha, so I'm not sure this points system will work for me.  Silver lining, though, is that maybe I'll be able to buy a houseboat or something this time!  :)

3) I'm almost done with my first virtual race.  Whee!  I'm just going to start another one when I'm done, though.  You should do one with me!!!!  The app is called yes.fit.  Do eeeeeeeet.  I need people to compete against.  You'll probably win, but still...shiny medals and the knowledge that you kept me motivated!

4) I can't remember what was supposed to go here.  Please pretend I was witty and insightful, and maybe made you tear up with joy. :)  Oh, and if you can go ahead and add a random, life affirming quote after that, I'd appreciate it.