Going Public

255-180-165-200-190-220-180-230-200-200+

The numbers above unfortunately do not reflect a complex combination or a set of winning lottery numbers. They represent my weight over the past 5 years. It’s a sad depressing realization that I recognize over the past two years I have gained a lot of weight. I moved to Fargo and was 180 pounds; I am now well over 200 pounds. I have excuses but now is not the time for those.

So I am one of the many American’s that resolved to lose weight and get back in shape this New Year. I’d caution though that this is not a resolution made on the spur of the moment. I have been thinking about it during the entire holiday season – since Thanksgiving. . Christmas is my favorite holiday; and although there were some bright moments during my Christmas week this year was one of my least favorite.

Over these past months I have sincerely struggled to enjoy the basic things in life. My weight has overshadowed every thought and action I have had. But still I haven’t been able to put my feet to the pavement nor have I put the fork down!

I have many blessings in my life but during the past few months it’s been hard to even recognize them due to the mindset I have been in

This cannot continue. It will not continue.

I have to admit that I had hoped to hit the ground running on Monday, January 3 when I planned to be back in Fargo after my holiday vacation. Unfortunately on New Year’s Eve I was hit with a cold/fever combination that I have been battling ever since. I even had to delay my return to Fargo by a day. I know….another excuse.

I am focused on not letting this cold get me off tract.

That all said I need to go public with my goals.

So here is my plan of attack (some of which I have already done).

· Committed to Weight Watchers

o I began tracking my food today

· Will be meeting with my trainer Shannon on Thursday to lift weights

· Will be meeting with my trainer Molly on Saturday to lift weights

· I plan to get at least three cardio workouts in between Wednesday and Sunday

o The cough my limit my pace but I will get them done!

We Need a Boy

One of the joys of springtime is grilling outdoors. The smell of meat cooking on the grill can make my mouth water. Ribs, chicken, burgers, it doesn’t matter all smell great to me.

This past Friday I invited a friend over to grill out with me at my apartment. It was a beautiful night. Perfect for grilling out. She brought the burgers and I supplied the salad. We each had our drink of choice in hand; red wine for me and beer for her.

Shortly after she arrived I headed out onto my balcony to start up the gas grill. I opened the propane tank, turned the knob on the grill to the on position and clicked the igniter button. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened. I checked the connection from the grill to the tank. It was tight. I tried again and nothing happened. I closed the valve on the tank and opened it again. I pushed the igniter one more time. Nothing happened.

At this point my friend stepped in, she tried a few times and was also unsuccessful. She asked “Are you sure you have gas in the tank?” “Yes,” I replied “or at least I think I do.” I wondered to myself, wasn’t I hearing or smelling something coming out of the tank?

I tried to pick up the tank. It was heavy – perhaps it wasn’t empty. I recalled that when I first bought it the tank had seemed heavy to me. Hmmm. I tried to lessen my frustration and lighten the mood by joking that I wished a boy were around to help. I explained that a male friend had put the grill together last summer for me and that I wished he were there to help.

I undid the tank and dragged it from the balcony through my third floor apartment to the elevator and out to my friend’s truck. She and I hopped in and headed to the Petro Station.

I paid for my tank to be refilled and a male cashier came out to fill it up. He placed it on the scale and immediately called out to me. “Uh, ma’am it appears that you tank is almost completely full.” Ugh, I thought to myself. With laughter in my voice I explained our escapade. As he refunded my money he suggested that I buy a lighter, as perhaps the igniter was simply broken.

Pulling into my apartment complex my friend and I noticed a young man working in a garage and I joked that we could ask him to help us carry the tank back up and get it on the grill. As I walked to the back of the truck she asked “Do you think we should go ask him for help?” “Sure, but you get to do the flirting and the asking,” I answered.

My neighbor was kind enough to help us out. He carried it up to my balcony and even connected it back to the grill. After the tank was reconnected I turned the know and placed the lighter down into the grill. This time something happened. The grill started up without a problem. Yeah! I thanked my neighbor for his help and my friend handed him two beers for the road.

Lesson Learned: I guess sometimes you just need to have a boy around.

Rhetorical Questions?

I wonder....

...if I have iced my knee 3x today and it still hurts should I be concerned?

...if I have taken advil and my knee still hurts should I be worried?

...if after drinking 1/2 a bottle of wine my knee still hurts should I be seeking an alternative remedy?

Guess its a good thing I have a doctor appointment set for early May.

Although, I have my fingers crossed that in the meantime my home remedies will work.

I mean if red wine helps the heart shouldn't it be able to also help my knee?

I’m Not in Kansas (I mean North Dakota) Anymore

Today at work a co-worker jokingly asked me if I could say a few words to see if my accent changed. A smile quickly came to my face and I reassured him that there was nothing to worry about. I only spent 5 days in Boston and it would take many more days to change my midwest accent.

The 5 days I spent in Boston were great. I enjoyed getting out of Fargo for a much needed break.

I headed out to of town not just for vacation but to also to cheer on two friends (Pat and Bill) that qualified to run the Boston marathon.

I arrived on Thursday and was greeted by my friend Jerry at Logan International's baggage claim. As we put my bags in the trunk of his car Jerry asked if I was ready to get dinner. I was actually more interested in enjoying my first drink of my vacation but I also agreed to get dinner. Jerry brought me to RF O’Sullivans to have what he described as a “Great Fucking Burger.” I can confirm that his description was very apt. The beer I drank was equally as good!

Pat and Bill and their respective family members all arrived in town on Friday. The next 48 hours was full of activity. Including a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery, visiting the Race Expo, a trip to scope out the start line and some of the race route, a bbq at the Residence Inn, and a TON of laughs!

In the midst of the activity I also learned that my cousin Cheryl was in town to run the marathon.

On Sunday evening Jerry and his wife Michelle opened up their home to my strange grouping of friends and relatives and prepared for us a great pre-race Pasta dinner. I had a blast helping put the dinner together. I learned how to make Chicken Marsala and Alfredo. Butter is definitely the most important ingredient in both dishes.

The night was made complete with great conversation, amazing wine and a wonderful Tiramisu cake (YUM!).

Race day brought clear skies, cool temps and a bit of wind; great weather for a race. I drove our runners to the starting line and wished them luck. From there those of thus in town to cheer on the runners headed to downtown Boston to stake out a spot near the finish line.

At 10:00 on Monday Morning (Patriots Day) the race began. At 10:30 the second wave of runners took off. This wave included Bill, Pat and Cheryl. Roughly 3 hrs 49 minutes later Bill and Pat crossed the finish line. 10 minutes after that Cheryl crossed the line.

I joined Pat and his family for a post-race meal to celebrate his accomplishment. Along with celebrating I got to enjoy another great burger but this time from the Boston Burger Company.

On Monday evening I spent my last few hours in Boston with Jerry and his family. We laughed over both old memories and newly created memories. It was a great way to end my vacation.

(Special Note: I was reminded by both friends and family over this past weekend that I have to do better at maintaining my blog. Thanks for the reminders. I promise to try my best at updating on a more regular basis.)

Gender of Inanimate Objects

I classify the books I read into three categories 1) Books for Work 2) Fiction Bestsellers and 3) Trashy Romance Novels. The last is truthfully a guilty pleasure that I try to justify by explaining that my mom read them and so I am just keeping that memory of her alive.

Regardless of category I typically read books extremely fast. The only books that have slowed my normal reading pace down were my college textbooks. I simply never found a way to quickly read 100 pages on business accounting.

Reading for me is a way to escape. Using my imagination I can immerse myself in another world and get away for a few minutes or hours whenever I need it.

Since I read so many books each year and have a horrible memory I often forget the titles and authors I have read. There is one book for which this isn’t the case.

In the book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” author David Sedaris talks about his struggle with learning a foreign language. As a student of the Russian language I easily identified with him. In some foreign language all nouns have a gender. In the case of Sedaris he was learning French. In French a window may be male and a door female. This distinction comes into play when setting up your sentence structure, conjugating verbs, etc. The same is true in Russian; nouns have a gender.

Its odd to think of an inanimate object as having a gender but this week I put the concept to work. Most days at work I interact in some form or fashion with either Microsoft Excel or DII GRETL. The second is an internal system used for forecast modeling.

Earlier this week my references started easily enough. I asked a colleague. “Can you tell me when GRETL is done running? I need her output for my file.” From that simple question GRETL has begun to develop a personality. I even referenced her in a meeting and someone asked me. “So is GRETL something like the computer from the movie ‘War Games’?”

As for Excel I have determined that the instance I have installed on my computer is definitely male in gender. I try not to foster stereotypes but I couldn’t help it in this case. The thing is many times this week I have had to force Excel to quit after asking it to do multiple things at once. It’s as if Excel is in the driver’s seat of the car and instead of asking for directions opts to simply pull off the road, stop and declare, “Yep, this is exactly where I meant for us to go!”

Today the image of GRETL as a woman and Excel as a male become even more real as I started to compare them to people in real life. For me I see GRETL as this shorter, fireball of an Italian woman. A woman who won’t be easily fooled and isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions or stand her ground. I’m still working on what type of real-life person Excel would be equal to…Perhaps an eccentric old man with a bowtie.

Pinky Swear or Not

I recently spent 72 hours with a great group a ladies. The six of us (myself included) came together to complete the Twin Cities Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk (Aug 21-23). Through a serious of emails a few months back we eventually determined that our team name would be “The Underwires”….because we are supporting the search for a cure!

As the start of the event drew closer I must admit that I suffered all sorts of nerves.

I was worried if all of my teammates were going to be able reach their fundraising goal. Raising $2300 (per person) is tough to do in a recession.

I wondered how the lack of training would affect some of the team.

I feared that the others on the team would suffer due to over training.

I tried to come up with a “plan b” in case our team shirts weren’t ready on time or if they didn’t fit.

I suffered a panic attack as I thought about leaving my work email unanswered for a week.

I wrote and rewrote my packing list a million times


Eventually though I just took a deep breath and realized what happens will happen. I tried to be very Zen-like. I even went to yoga to ease the tension.

Those of you who know me well will not be surprised when I tell you that my Zen-Like state lasted all of half a day.

It was completely thrown out of the window when I realized the day before the event that I forgot my hydration pack (aka fanny pack) in Fargo and that the forecast was calling for rain. I mean seriously couldn’t Mother Nature have picked on another part of the country!?

I felt like a postman that first morning as my teammates and I huddled under cheap rain ponchos at the start of the event. I kept thinking to myself “Come rain, snow, sleet or hail…”

Thankfully as the opening ceremonies drew to a close it appeared as if the worst of the rain was over.

It’s hard to summarize 3 Days or 60 miles so let me just share a few highlights

Day 1:
· Started in rain but ended in sunshine
· LeAnn wore a pink cape, Kris and I wore pink “Cancer Sucks” tiaras
· Our team carried the “In memory of my mother” sign for all 20 miles
· The kids and the dads cheered us on near the Guthrie
· Kris had her blisters popped by Nurse Karla (one of our teammates)
· Katie and I spent a less than pleasant evening in camp. We were just too tall for the pink pup tents

Day 2:
· I woke up on the wrong side of the air mattress, made worse by painful blisters
· Karla walked the entire day in a pink tu-tu
· Jerry brought out the kids to cheer us on. He even brought Diet Cokes
· Katie had to have her ankle/leg tapped due to tendonitis
· 22.7 miles is a lot longer than 20 miles
· Erika broke a filling while eating a tootsie roll
· Kris spent the day “walking on needles”
· Bud (my brother-in-law) performed a Neil Diamond Tribute Concert at 3 Day Camp
· All of the team, except Karla, stayed at Hotel Roberts (aka my sister’s house)

Day 3:
· Katie walked the first mile and then using the Sag Wagon played “leap frog” from one pit stop to the next – she did walk across the finish line with the team
· We walked way too many hills through nature preserves in St. Paul
· Determined that the “One Mile to Next Pit Stop” signs lied
· Cried our eyes out at closing ceremonies
· Celebrated my accomplishment with a burger and fries and a Captain Diet
· Went to bed early and slept like a rock after 3 days of hard work

At the end of day 3 my sister and her two college roommates all “pinky swore” that they would never do the walk again. They would instead become “Walker Stalkers.” Meaning they would come out each year and cheer on all of the walkers.

As the three made this promise to one another I stood off to the side. The thing is…I couldn’t join in as I know I will do the 3 Day Walk again. Maybe not next year but I will do it again….anyone interested in joining me?

Two Months?!

As I logged into my blog this morning I realized that it has been over two months since I last put out an update. Seriously where has the time gone?

I wish I could say that in the last 60 days I have been busy traveling the world, searching for world peace, fighting hunger, spending the millions I won in the powerball or any other such exotic thing.

The reality though is that I lead a simple life. I'd welcome any of the above scenarios but they do not reflect my reality. Nope my reality includes a pile of laundry that has reached dangerous levels, an unmade bed, a messy kitchen and a to do list that seems to be a mile long. Ahh....its the good life.

Aside from working I have had some fun though in the past two months. I managed to finish both the Fargo Half Marathon (May) and Grandmas Half Marathon (June). I've made a few trips to the family cabin in northern MN. Oh, and I have started training for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk that I will be participating in.

This weekend if you need to find me I'd suggest you search 1) the mini golf course or 2) the sidewalks around fargo - due to my 15 mile training walk or 3) my laundry room.