Weight Watchers & Christmas Dinner

I joined Weight Watchers last Wednesday.  That's right.  Three days before Christmas, I decide to get serious about losing weight.

I just got home from Christmas dinner with Hubby's family, so I went to WW's website and added up all of the "points" that I "spent" eating whatever I wanted to eat.  I have points left over!  Points that must be spent today or they will vanish, disappear, flee...

I, who said to Hubby (read with pitiful whining tone) "Please don't put any candy in my stocking.  I'm trying sooooo hard to lose weight" am looking longingly at my son's Christmas goodies.  Hmmmm...No one else is  here.  Will he notice if something's missing from his stocking?  Did he count all of those wee little packages?  Can I live with the guilt if he asks what happened to his delicious 4 chocolate Necco waffers?

To be continued.......

Big Salaries, Big Houses, Pitiful Christmas Lights

Hubby and I drove around this evening looking at Christmas lights.  We went through some mighty swanky neighborhoods with pit-tee-full Christmas lights.  Seems to me that, if you're wealthy enough to live in "Windsor-on-the-James" you should be required to fork out a little cash for holiday decorations.  Seriously.  Even if you're Jewish, Hanukkah is the "festival of light".  Correct?

We don't even have our tree up yet, so maybe I should give these folks another few days.  Perhaps they have been plagued by three weeks of viruses, colds and injuries as have we.   But...couldn't they have paid someone to light up their house?

I know, I know.  Why should I expect the wealthy to provide me with holiday entertainment.  I guess I was raised to believe that, at Christmas time, they should lean out of their window...ask what day it is... and send a little crippled guy to my house with the largest turkey in the butcher's window.

Stomach Flu

Well, well, well.  Hubby stayed home yesterday because of a little stomach upset.  I thought, mostly to myself, that I wouldn't let a little upset stomach keep me home from school.  


When will I learn?


Today, after eating 2 (yes, two) bowls of "Fiber Plus" cereal, I realized that I had caught that little stomach upset.    Now, 8 hours later, I'm feeling better and feeling a little embarrassed.  When?  Oh when, when, when will I stop judging other people in light of what I perceive to be my own perfection?


 - I'll never let myself get that fat.
 - I'd never think of retiring early.
 - I'll never let my child do that.
 - I'll never get divorced.


On and on the list could go.  I'd like to think that this latest episode will be the last... Not likely.  But I've only begun to see this in myself this year, so maybe there's hope..

Welcome to the mean streets of Stratford Hills, Mr. President

A lot of folks had a lot to say about President Obama's dropping by our rec center today.  Several were fairly unkind.

When I was in the first grade, I SOOO wanted Nixon to beat Kennedy.  My mom  (nice person) was a Republican.  My dad (a not-so-nice person) was a Democrat.  This was just one way of trying to annoy him.

When Nixon lost, I was distraught.. I mean crying bitterly distraught.   My mother took me aside and said, "Mr Kennedy is our president now.  We have to respect him."  That was that.  Once you're the President, the politics are over - or should be.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if folks, politicians and normal people, lived like this nowadays?  No political affiliation until the 6 weeks before the election would be nice.

I'd vote for that.

The Loss of a Life

I found out today that one of my former students, Joseph Roberts, lost his battle with cystic fibrosis.  He'd finally gotten a match for the lung transplant, but pneumonia followed and his body just gave out.

I know that he's not suffering anymore, but I grieve the loss of what would have been an amazing husband and father - determined, intelligent, funny... He made my life and the world a better place just by being in it.

So amazing was this young man, that it never occurred to me that he wouldn't beat cf.  I know that God knows what he's doing.  I know that when life doesn't seem fair, that there must be something I don't know.  This is one of those times.

Migraine & Myasthenia

"Many young women with myasthenia gravis also suffer from migraine headaches."  Knowing that I'm still considered young under some circumstances, makes my head hurt a little less.

As I'm typing this, I can't really see my computer screen.  So I'm off to close my eyes and let the pharmaceuticals do their job.

Retirement.

Retirement.


I never thought I'd be here this soon. "Rather wear out than rust out"  Life, however, has its interesting little twists and turns.  A middle-aged woman with myasthenia gravis (google it) just can't manage a classroom full of energetic high school freshmen.


So, officially, I'm on disability retirement.  It took 2 years to convince the Virginia Retirement Service that I was, in fact, too disabled to wrangle 9th graders.  Now VRS is making me file for Social Security disability so that they won't have to pay out as much.  More papers to file... More waiting.


So, in the midst of my first year of retirement, I have....

1. started re-tiling the bathroom...
2. started 3 books
3. started reorganizing the house
4. started (apparently) a blog

Notice that I've not finished anything... except today's blog

There are two kinds of people in the world...

I've always thought of myself as being open.. nonjudgmental...accepting of all...
Hogwash.
I realize now that I divide the world into two groups of people:  those who know the difference between your and you're, and those who do not.

I just sent an e-mail to a group of folks.  I re-read it, AFTER I'd sent it.

There it was.
In black and white
 "...you're brain is functioning"

I immediately sent out a retraction.  Surely people wouldn't put me in the "don't know" group, but I had to be positive.

My fear told the tale.  I didn't want to be one of them.  


Now I feel like I need to send apologies to all the other people whom I've put in the "don't know" group.  Maybe.... just maybe.... they, too, had made a mistake.

I think that this lesson may have long-reaching consequences.  We'll see.