Time to go shopping

This is a good thing, I guess. I'm noticing that more and more of my clothes are loose on me. I think I hit the point in my weight loss where I have to start buying new, smaller clothes for them to fit better. The shirt im wearing now almost looks like th opposite of fat guy in skinny coat.

Good News/Bad News

I've started to lose weight again. In fact, I've lost everything I gained back during the holiday week and then a little more. I'm at 246 lbs as of this morning. I'd still like to lose another 30 or so, but we'll see what happens. It is most noticeable in my face still.

When I was washing my hands in the hotel today, I noticed that I have more and more gray hair. In fact, in that lighting in the mirror, I'd say I had more gray hair than not. Really, this doesn't bother me, just a statement of fact.

The bad news- My numbers are still trending higher than I'd like them to be. Yesterday morning I tested myself and I was 120. That's about 25 points higher than I'd like to be. I've been pretty good about getting to the gym in the past week, and even went on a 26 mile bike ride yesterday. Today after eating I was 105, which is pretty good, but I'd like to be able to keep that morning number down low too. I'm in Chicago for work now, and I SHOULD be able to get to the gym every morning, so we'll see how that does for me.

Numbers Update/Stupid people

So my numbers have been a bit higher than they had been the past week. I'm sure that my work schedule didn't help, and flying on a redeye really screwed my body up. I was pretty sedentary today. I Was 120 before dinner, then 102 after dinner. Very odd. I still haven't had a coke, but I was tempted to have just one today since I have 3 bottles sitting in my kitchen left over from my party as a mixer.

As I've mentioned before, I hate stupid people. Tonight, my father fell into that category. He's having to switch email accounts, and expects everything to be handed to him. He's going to comcast.net. He thought that I should know how to set up his email account for him. I told him if he just googled comcast.net set up email mac that it would return a page that would have the answers for him, probably with pictures. Sure enough it was the third one down. I sent him the link, and he didn't want to read it. He wanted me to tell him what to do. He ended up yelling at me thinking that would help me hear him better (he was on speaker phone, which I HATE). He made the comment "You must be difficult to work with." I don't think I am, so long as you don't expect me to do everything for you. I'll tell you how to find the answers, or how to figure it out, but I expect everyone to pull their own weight. Even my dad.

Maybe it is time for a change

Within 2 days, I had 2 weekends off taken away from me by my company. What pisses me off is that it's to make things easier for other people, but they don't really seem to give a shit about me. I had actually made plans for both those weekends, which now have to be canceled. I understand one of the weekends. My truck was added a show. I'm not happy about it, but it is my truck, so I should be there. There are plenty of other people who could have worked the one weekend (not on my truck), but since I live in the NYC metro, it was easy to make me work the day and not incur any travel costs. When I mentioned this, I was told that if I needed those days off I should have taken vacation. When I was told this on Monday (in the middle of working the only professional sporting event in 3 days) I nearly walked off the show right then and there.

Year to Date, I've had 4 weekends completely off. I had fewer weeks off during the NASCAR season this year because we were going to have more time off over the summer. I was OK with that because of the time promised off over the summer to catch up. So far, I haven't made up any days "owed" to me by company policy. Currently for the year I've worked 21 more days than I should have. I was "even" in June, and will get 2 of those days back in July, barring any additional shows. I'll be Even in August (again, barring any additional shows being added) and will start adding more additional days each month starting in September. I project to be owed 35 days by the end of the year. I will have 2-3 days off in January, and none in February of 2011.

I don't think I can take the company at it's word that it'll get me the time back next summer, do you?

I think it finally hit me...

As I'm sitting here cleaning my apartment, I think it finally hit me. This weekend is a real life changer for me. I was going to write this in my last entry about perfect timing, but thought better of it. Now I'm thinking better of that.

This weekend there are two life changing events in other peoples lives that are affecting me. I have two people that I would normally talk to about things like this. Unfortunately, each of these events are involving one of these two people.

First, my bff Kristen moved to Arkansas this weekend with her family. Her husband is getting transferred there for work. When she first mentioned to me that her husband was offered the job there, both of us thought that there wasn't a chance that she would actually go. Apparently they sweetened the pot enough. Over the years, Kristen and I have slowly grown apart as we've gotten older. She now lives very much an adult life -- married with a daughter. I'm very much a nomad, traveling for work all the time. When we were younger, we'd spend many a late night at the bar, talking about anything and everything. She is who I would always go to when I had a problem or needed to talk. I filled the same role for her. Even when she met her husband, we'd still hang out a lot and talk. Then i moved to Pittsburgh. Things wer diffeent, but with my travel schedule, I was still in NJ a lot. Then she got out of law school and married. Things started to change then as she was on a different schedule. Ironically, it was after Caroline and I got home from Kristen's wedding that we decided that we were never going to get married to each other. When Kristen had her daughter, that definitely changed things. She couldn't go out as much, and she became a mom. It was a nice change. Anytime that I needed to talk bout anything, Kristen was there. This is something that I cant talk to her about.

Second, Caroline is getting married. This really doesn't bother me, although as I've said before, everyone asking me if it bothers me bothers me. Normally, I would be able to call Caroline and talk to her about Kristen's move and how it is affecting me. I wouldn't dare call her this weekend with all of her wedding prep going on (and today's the big day). I went back and forth about sending a card to Caroline and her hubby. It was a difficult decision. I wanted to wish them well. At the same time I didn't want to screw anything up or cause anything to be akward. In the end, i sent her a simple email saying congratulations, and sent a card to them at their house that they'll get when they get home from their honeymoon. My usual wedding gift would be cash in the currency of country where they are honeymooning. I thought of doing the same thing with them, but decided it would be better to send just a card afterwards. That and i couldn't find out where they were going on their honeymoon without seeming like a stalker.

While I'm sitting here cleaning my apartment for my party tomorrow night, it all seemed to finally hit me. The two women (aside from my mom) who are most responsible for who I am are both essentially leaving today. That sounds a little dramatic, but its the best way I can put it. I know that they will both still be around, and the world is getting smaller every day, but things will be different after today. I won't be able to just call Kristen and plan for dinner next week. In all honesty, I don't know how shes going to survive in Arkansas. Actually, I don't know how Arkansas will survive her living there.

On a side note, it's dawned on me, if I were to get married in the next 6 months, i have no idea who would be my best man or who would be in my wedding party.

It's all about timing.

As you may know, I haven't driven my own car in close to 2 years now. I've been trying to donate my car since the end of March without much luck. The problem is where it is in the garage in my building. The company who the donation company uses to pick up the cars can't get to it with a tow truck. Since I haven't driven it in close to 2 years, it doesn't start. The battery is dead.

Last night, I had a friend over so we tried to jump start the car so that I could get it out of the garage and they could come and pick it up today. We tried and tried and tried to let it charge up and start the car, but it just wouldn't turnover. I had tried to push it previously, but that didn't work either. I couldn't even get it to budge. It was as if the brakes were locked on.

I went as far as to see if there were chains on the buildings mini bulldozer type thing so I could pull it out with the other car. At this point, is when timing comes into play. One of the maintenance guys is walking by and mentions they had been trying to figure out who's car it was because they were going to tow it. I jokingly said good, they can have it. I'm just trying to get it outside so I can donate it. He said he had a battery charger I could use, but unfortunately there really wasn't a place to plug it in. (we both looked)

Long and short of it, he actually needed a car. I needed to get rid of a car. He was willing to take it as is. He has the proper tools to get the battery out or tow it from where it is. It was a match made in heaven. I didn't want it any more, so I truly gave it to him. In the end, I'll end up selling it to him for $1.00.

Catching up, part 4: The Rest

So, I've been pretty good about going to the gym except for when I was out west. Working 20 hours days means you have to cut something out, and for me the gym was what got cut most days. Since I've been back home, I've done a good job at making sure that I get to the gym for at least 45 minutes a day. I've started developing shin splints again, but found that if I go to the stationary bike when that happens, I can usually get the muscles stretched out/warmed up enough that after 7 minutes I can go back to the treadmill.

I still haven't had a coke, although I think I mentioned that in Part 1 of Catching up. I'm drinking over 128 ounces of water a day.

I bought a Globe Carmel 3 700c bicycle. I plan on using that to do some more exercise to get outside and get fresh air. I'll put a back pack on with my camera and hopefully get some great pictures in and around the area.

I still love my iPad. I'm finding more and more to do with it for legitimate work purposes. I still need to find a good printing app for it.

I misplaced my drivers license on the trip back from the Open. I've called the airline and the lost and found at the three airports and no joy. Unfortunately I sent my passport out to get renewed from the Open. This means I have no legal photo id right now. I had to meet my father today to get my birth certificate and Social Security card. Hopefully I'll be able to get a drivers license with that and a utility bill. I don't have to get on a plane until July 9th, so I'm not in a huge rush, although it would be nice to be able to prove that I am me.

Kristen is essentially leaving on Saturday. I still don't think I'm going to get used to the thought that she won't be here.

I'm dropping mindspring as my email address and moving to just using my me.com address. This is part of the makeover and saving money. I'm so convinced about saving money and stopping wasteful spending that I'm thinking of dropping cable as well.

I think thats just about everything, although I'm sure I'm forgetting something.