Keep up the fight

Today Amber, Sara and I had an amazing opportunity to get up close to the person we want to lead our country. Hillary Clinton picked up the endorsement of North Carolina's governor today and did so at a last minute, quickly organized event. We received an email about 9:30 last night for the event that started at 7am today. I don't know how many people were there, maybe 150-200, but we were among the first to be in line and get a seat -- most people in attendance were standing.

At the end of her speech, she came off the stage to meet and greet the audience. Sara got her copy of a TIME magazine with Hillary on the cover signed (first picture) and Amber brought her copy of Hillary's autobiography to get it signed. Hillary came within a couple feet of me, I held out the book and she signed it (second picture).

I wasn't expecting to be star struck, but afterward we were all on cloud nine and I have to admit I was kind of shaking. I guess it was the adrenaline. It was awesome to not only see her, but also get so close to someone who is usually so untouchable. After all, she is the former First Lady, a US Senator AND she happens to be the first woman to run for President! How amazing is that? I loved every second of it.

I am gravely concerned about the outcome of this election. I don't like Barack, and I certainly don't like John. I guess I might consider writing Hillary in if she doesn't get the nomination, as I truly feel McCain and Obama are the wrong choice. It's an uphill battle for Hillary, and I can't believe I am saying that. Six months ago I would have thought she had it in the bag. Who is Barack, anyway, and why aren't more people asking? He has a George Bush-esque hold on people and I can't for the life of me figure it out. I think he's incredibly naive and his goals and promises are ones no politician, not even the President of the United States, can't achieve or keep.

Yes! I've reached my first goal!

The elusive 10% goal was finally obtained this week. I've been inching towards it for a couple of weeks, narrowly missing it by 0.2 pounds last week. I finally reached, and surpassed, that goal and am thrilled. The 10% goal is set by Weight Watchers as a first step goal toward your target weight. It's a great start and I am thrilled to have made it. Now, I have my own goals in mind as I move toward my target weight. For now, I am looking to fall below 200. It shouldn't take terribly long and I am looking forward to achieving that next milestone.

Yes! I've lost 25.8 pounds so far!

So close

I am ever so close to my 10% goal and nearing my 25 pound green star! I only need to lose 0.2 pounds to meet my 10% goal, and 0.8 pounds to get my 25 pound green star. Woohoo! The weight has come off very slowly these past few weeks, but I am surprised it has come off at all since I've had three blow-out weekends in a row. I am done with that pattern for a little while, and thank goodness. I am happy that I've still been able to record a weight loss each week, even as small as 0.2 pounds, but it is still a loss. I had to work really hard to maintain the losses, too, with all the eating and drinking that's been going on.

Hopefully, with a break in my social schedule I can get back to the business of real weight loss and redouble my efforts. Ten weeks, 24 pounds down. Here's to another 10 weeks of success and another 24 pounds of weight loss!

Yes! I've lost 24.2 pounds so far!

Dangerous times

I have been overloaded with parties as of late. I know that may not sound so bad to most, but for those on Weight Watchers, like me, these are very dangerous times. I have attended three parties in the past two weeks, one planned, the other two on a whim. The planned events make it a little easier to allocate points, but the ad-hoc ones are difficult. Fortunately, I am still on the losing side of the scale this week with a 0.8 pound weight loss.

Which is good and bad. I stepped on the scale a few days earlier and was happy to see I was down nearly two pounds. My partying ways added a pound of that back, but I thought I was going to gain last week. I am so glad I didn't. I have another party coming up this weekend, but plan to be good this week so that I don't have to be as good come Saturday. Damn... having weigh-ins on Monday is brutal.

Yes! I've lost 22.4 pounds so far!

No gain, no pain

This week it's necessary for me to adjust an old adage about building muscle: no pain, no gain. In my case, it's no gain, no pain. I only lost 0.2 pounds last week, but that certainly is better than gaining so I am, indeed, feeling no pain. My 10% goal weight remains elusive, but I keep knocking on its door. I'll get there, just not this week.

Yes! I've lost 21.6 pounds so far!

Ain't No April Fool

Ugh, when it rains, it poors... really. Not only has it rained here for two days non-stop (I love it!) my technical life seems to have gone down the shitter. Several months ago I knocked my iBook off the sofa arm and it landed on a hardwood floor smack on its noggin. I knew instantly I busted the frame of the monitor, but it continued to work (love those Macs!). I also knew, however, that it wouldn't work forever and something would eventually give. It finally did.

Last week I had tons of school work to do, some of which I finished at home and other stuff I was planning to do on my layovers. I pulled my laptop out of the bag on my first layover, turned it on, and got nothing but a heaven-like white screen and nothing else. Even when I closed the laptop lid, the screen stayed lit. Shit. I went to the hotel's business center to use their computer... huh! 60 bucks an hour. Screw that. I called Beth and asked her to draft an email about my computer woes and send it off to one class, I managed to email another the next day using a co-worker's laptop. All is fine there, I am still catching up from last week but there shouldn't be any damage due to a couple late assignments.

Fast forward to yesterday when I wander upstairs to use my desktop to catch up on my school work. I turned on the computer to hear a series of loud beeps, a racing fan (that slowly speed up to an explosion-like crescendo) and a monitor that refused to wake up. Fuck. Now what? So I turn the computer off, try again and get the same result. Three times. Shit. Time to call Dell. Thank god I have in home warranty service on this thing, it'll be the second time I've needed it. After a quick re-seating of the memory cards and power-up, only to have the same result as before, the Dell tech ordered two new memory cards and a mother board, "Just to be safe." Great.

About a month after we moved here, my desktop had a meltdown in which the entire hard drive had to be replaced. I still have the old one with dreams of trying to get info extracted from it. There's nothing really important on there but there are quite a few pictures that I'd like to have. Fortunately I had backed up my files about a year before that, so I only lost about a year's worth of info. Not insignificant by any means, but not as bad as it could have been either.

Dell should be here tomorrow or Thursday to fix the desktop and I have an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar today at 4:30 to send my laptop off for a new head. My laptop is still under warranty as well, but something tells me dropping it on its head isn't covered. Whatever. I can't imagine the monitor will be real expensive to replace, but then again, I can imagine a new Mac Book Air, too. :)