A week of gratitude: Day 1

Curiouser and curiouser

Well, after nearly three weeks since my last post. Sigh. Oh, well…I’m trying not to get all hung up on the guilt thing, so I’ll just move on.

In my last post, I wrote about the momentous developments during my visit to New York, North Carolina, and Virginia, and promised to talk about the following two weeks in my next post. Being that I’ve already been so very remiss in my posting duties, I will now attempt to do just that.

I got back from my unexpectedly extended trip to Virginia on Thursday, June 12th and was very glad to see San Diego. I then spent that weekend (Father’s Day weekend) at my folks’ house (about 100 miles north of here). Accompanied Mom to a cancer survivor’s ice cream social (fun) and then woke up very early on Sunday to wish Daddy a happy Father’s Day before he left for work. Not terribly taxing but also not a relaxing weekend at home.

The following Thursday, June 19th, I left for Virginia again, this time to attend C’s brother’s wedding. On Friday, C, his parents, and I took his girls (aged 7 and 4) to an amusement park for a day of fun before the rehearsal dinner in the evening. Well, you know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men, right? Sure enough, we ran into wretched traffic on the way back and were an hour late for the rehearsal and the bride to be’s family looked at us as though we were something the cat had dragged in. I must hasten to interject that we did look a little the worse for wear, having been sitting in cars for the better part of three hours, and we were dressed as though we were going to an amusement park for the day (I don’t usually wear shorts and a tank top into a place of worship). The hostility, however, was, in my opinion, way out of proportion. I won’t go into all of the gory details except to say that the rehearsal didn’t go well and that the wedding (the next day) went marginally better. Of course, if you’re going to use more fake flowers in your wedding than you normally find at Michael’s Craft Store, I don’t think you can be too upset with the fact that your four year old flower girl didn’t stand exactly where you wanted her to or that some of your guests didn’t want to go where you tried to herd them after the ceremony. (Yes, I’m using the word “herd” advisedly.) In the end, however, they were wed and, we all fervently hope, live happily ever after.

Once the wedding was over (none of the groom’s family attended the reception), we left for a few days at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. I’ve never been to this part of the country and I was just in awe at the majesty of the surroundings. It was C and I, his parents, his cousins (D1, B, and D2), plus D1’s wife J1, D2’s husband J2 and kids). Editor’s note: I honestly hadn’t noticed how many Ds and Bs there were on that trip…weird. The cabin that we stayed in was spectacular, as was the view. It was also nice being able to spend several days with C’s family; they seemed to like me. Of course, they gave me a new nickname, Dennis, but I think it was an affectionate thing. Really. By now you know better than to think that I got home without incident but I am just too tired to go through the whole “Hello, Delta? I’m stranded in an aerial tram and I’m going to miss my flight. Can you reschedule me?” thing here. I think Delta must have a file on me by now! Suffice it to say that I got back midday on Tuesday, June 24th and went immediately to work.

The following Saturday, June 28th, I picked my friend T up from the airport. You remember T? She’s the one with the world’s most pampered pooch and the one that I went to New York City with. Anyway, we spent all day Saturday at Disney’s California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, most of the day Sunday at Disneyland, and about half of the day Monday at Disneyland as well. Saturday wasn’t too bad but Sunday and Monday got progressively hotter and more crowded, neither of which sit well with me. Fortunately, we managed to get almost everything done on Sunday that we wanted to, leaving Monday pretty open for us just to wander aimlessly, which we did. We went to see the Angels play the Rangers on Monday night, which was fun unless you were hoping to see the Angels win (they didn’t). T went home Tuesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon, it was back up to Orange County to pick up C, who flew in up there because I had thought that T was staying until Wednesday when his flight was booked. Anyway, it was his first trip to California and I don’t think he was terribly impressed. It was hotter than usual (I’m sure he now thinks I was lying when I told him that it never got that hot out here!) and very crowded because of the 4th of July holiday. Nonetheless, I accomplished my two main objectives: C got to see me in my natural surroundings instead of being my “company” self (when I stay with his parents) and my parents got to meet C. In fact, the meeting between C and my parents went so much better than I’d even dared hope for. Both of my parents were most impressed with him and are wholly supportive of our relationship. Yes!!! Of course, how could they fail to see how wonderful he is? LOL. Well, honestly, I hoped that they would see that but I just wasn’t sure if they would be able to see past their own concerns about what this means for my future or not. I’m so glad that they did.

Well, that brings you up to date as of last Sunday, July 6th. I don’t think you really need to hear about how horrible it was to take C to the airport that day and watch him walk away while I sobbed, do you? No, I didn’t think so.

Not much has happened since then, honestly. I need to get back in the swing of my diet and fitness and, to that end, I’ve started with drinking more water. I’m up to 120oz a day again, although I’d forgotten how many visits to the bathroom that translates into! This week, I’m going to work on adding an hour of activity every day. Not just weekdays, but every day try to do something active. We’ll see how I do with that, won’t we? Once I have both of those components back under my belt, I’m going to add the food component back. Conveniently, if I let DietToGo know that I want to restart before this Friday, I’ll get my first delivery from them next Wednesday night, which works perfectly into my schedule.

Wow, this is truly the longest post I’ve ever done. Serves me right for not posting more regularly, doesn’t it? If anyone’s still reading this (if there is even anyone reading ever), drop me an email just to let me know you’re out there, OK? I promise to answer every message received.