Wow, four days in a row, hold yourselves back!

Me time, alone time, giving me space, whatever you call it, we all want it, face it, we all need it at some point. Some people get it, some don’t and some don’t even understand what it means exactly. I was with someone who thought giving me space meant going upstairs, no, it means alone, not in the same house and yes, it’s the thought that counts, but…

You have kids? There might never be something called alone time for you, lol. A mom of young children… Time in the bathroom is alone time, a bath, soak in the tub? What’s that? Going potty alone is a luxury!

You live in a small space; apartment, condo, house? Not many places to get away…have to go out, or maybe send the other person to the store… Wink wink.

Do you have pets like I do? Even though you might live alone, they are right there. I sit at my desk to work, someone is on my lap and someone else is on the back of the chair. I go potty…someone follows me and if I dare to close the door, there is a paw underneath the door “mom, what’s going on in there, something is happening without me! Mom!!!”

I have some friends who travel for work, we agreed that it can be a treat; you get the remote, keep the room the temperature you want, covers are all yours and what/who are you responsible for? You you and you or me me me! All I have to do is go to work, come back to my room, feed myself and collapse, then do it all again the next day and the next until you go home.

But… The coming home can also be the most wonderful feeling..”mommy/daddy you’re home, I missed you so much” little fingers wrapped around your neck, little kisses, the tucking in, bedtime stories, goodnight kisses, angels when they sleep. Then we get up and do it all over again.

When’s my next trip?

I’m sure you knew it was coming at some point, lol. The battle of the bulge is the closest I have come to a battle, well besides rolling 20 sided dice when I played D&D, yes, I said D&D and I was an adult, well, quasi adult when I played, but I’ll save that story for another day. Ok, then there the battle of the bands and the warrior dash, does that count? Stop laughing at me!

Back to the battle of the bulge… I, like so many I know and so many I don’t, have fought or are fighting..said battle… I’ve battled this particular foe since I was a teenager, I went up, I went down, I went sideways. I didn’t realize how heavy I had gotten by the end of my marriage, but it was a lot, for someone with my frame and then I lost about 30 pounds, I don’t recommend the method, but I looked fabulous! I started volunteering to be in photos, I felt great, 30 pounds and 2 dress sizes, what???

Since that major loss (the weight goofballs), I haven’t totally maintained that weight, haven’t gone back up in dress size, but I’m kind of back in the battle again. I go up a little, I go down a little, par for the course.There are a lot of motivations out there, I want to wear a bikini for my next Bahamas trip or at least feel better in a bathing suit. Then, yesterday, when I was walking, i could see my shadow and it was lumpier than I want it to be, so one of my new motivations is to keep working at it until things smooth out, in my shadow! totally dorky, but it works for me. My friend said “you’re going to write about that?” Why not! Lol
I also have a dress that I wore years ago on a weekend trip to NYC with the boy I was mad for right out of college, I remember the look on his face when I wore it. It’s from Lord N Taylor, 1950s and I got it at a consignment shop and someday…

Aside from the dress and the bathing suit, I want to be healthy and fully comfortable in my own skin. I like who I am, but there are those days I look in the mirror and I’m like, really? And I know I’m the only one…yeah right!

So…here’s to my journey of getting healthier, running (maybe even liking it, that’s another blog for another day), looking in the mirror and saying “wow!”, the dress and the bikini. Maybe I’ll see you on my walk through my neighborhood, around the mountain, at a race somewhere or event the gym!

There are a lot of motivators out there… What’s yours?

The time honored tradition of Girl’s Night… How far back does it go? I’m sure farther than we can imagine. How did it start? Was it all the men went out together, so the women were left together to fend for themselves, entertain themselves?

Book clubs, movie clubs, just plain ole girls night; girls night out, girls night in, it’s a wonderful thing. It’s funny, not sure if you’ve thought of this, but isn’t it more common to see a group of women out to dinner than a group of men? You don’t normally think of a group of guys going to a nice sit down dinner, sometimes look at them and think, work thing, you look at a group of women, think girls night or ladies dinner, but don’t give it second glance.

So… Girls night. It’s a nice thing, no pressure, other than figuring out where to go and when, but who thought when you start out with that group that as we get older, it gets harder and harder to get together. It’s one night a month, if you’re really lucky, once a quarter is more common.

I have a few different groups of friends who try to get together for girls night dinner, most of them know or know of each other, and there is one person who crosses over into two of the groups I am
friends with, we worked with someone in each of the groups, but it seems odd to think about joining the groups on a regular basis.

For me, there are four groups I try to get together with as often as i can and once in a while, try to get everyone together, but that can get crowded. The thing I love is that each group is so unique, each person brings something different and special to each group and even the cross overs bring something particular to that group that we are with at that time.

One group is women I used to work with, we started out with five, 3 of us had been let go, the other 2 left on their own, lucky girls. We lost one, she’s still around, just stopped coming to girls night, then sometimes it’s the 4 of us, then sometimes it’s 3, sometimes, it’s just two. One of the women and I became thick a thieves, we like going out just the two of us.

Then there’s the group that was brought together by someone that doesn’t participate in any of the girls activities anymore, but I worked with one of the group and my friend who is the crossover did as well, we have some history there. This group has been expanded by some more wonderful women. We’ve grown into quite a tight knit group.

Then… Another group of women that I try to get together with, we worked together at another company, imagine that! That’s even harder to plan as travel schedules get crazy, but we try and I actually got to spend time with them tonight, that only took 3 months to coordinate!

There used to be a ladies dinner in my neighborhood once a month, not sure what happened there, but I do miss it, it was really special, getting to see neighbors that we may only see in passing and want to spend more time together, I miss that group…

I realize that I am rambling, but what I want to say is that girls nights are so important. It gives us a chance to catch up, spend time with dear friends, laugh, cry, advise, just be ourselves, we know we don’t have to impress anyone in the group, we’ve seen each other at our best and our worst, lift each other, maybe even knock each other down a few pegs, that’s what friends are for.

I am looking forward to my next girls night, let me know if you’re interested, I’ll include you in the email.

Hello world! It’s a new day, well a new year to be exact and what a wonderful thing that is, to make it to another year.

A lot of people have started some wonderful campaigns: 365 photos: one photo per day for a year, maybe taken with just their iPhone’s, during November, the things they are thankful for each day.

Well, why not me? Why should I be any different? There is something I started a few years ago and dropped the ball on. Something people seemed to enjoy and ask me about from time to time, this blog.

Someone told me not to start a diet on a Monday so, I decided not to start my new endeavor on this blog on January 1st, so here it is Sunday, January 6th and I’m blogging. The goal? To blog about something every day…could be a one sentence entry, could be a paragraph, could be a novel, but the goal is to write something for 365 days. I’m going to pick back up with movie reviews, running stories, weight loss, book reviews, restaurant reviews, every day musings and possibly more.

Ok, so there we have it, it’s 2013, can you believe it? I can’t but here it is and here we go!

Hope you join me on my adventure and enjoy what I have to say. Thanks for remembering me, supporting me and hopefully enjoying my blog. Happy 2013!