30 pounds down, and feeling Giddy.

Mood:: Giddy. Music: Liz Phair
Image Left: where do we get our fat from?
It's just 2-1/2 weeks now until finals (at work, that is) and finals are next week at school. I'm pretty happy, because it's been a long year. I sold my prep last week, meaning that now instead of a planning period I'm teaching another class - 8th-grade science. It makes for a long day, 7:10 to 2:45, with a 20-minute break in the middle. Also, I took 27 credits during 2004 and 15 this spring, and I'm just about done. This summer, I'll take a couple art classes at the rec center, but mostly I'm just going to work part-time at the counseling center, bike, and swim.
I'm crazy with impatience because my wrist is healing SO SSLLLOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLYY!!!!We joined a great gym, Riverpoint, and I'm going for one of my first personal trainer appointments soon. Brian, my husband, is training for a triatholon that he's going to be in next weekend. He's lost almost 30 pounds as well. Hey, how come since I turned 40 I have these weird bruises on my leg? Can anyone tell me that? I had an end of semester get-together and it was fun. Wine and munchies.

Weight: 167 pounds.
I like this picture. It's from one of my favorite moview, "Supersize me". If you haven't seen this, run, or waddle, over to get the DVD.

Mood: Restless. Music: Craig ChaquicoWe went to see Craig Chaquico last week. Right now I'm listening to "sacred ground". It's very nice stuffMy students (Gosh, I do have the best job in the world, I have to admit that) ask me, "Hey, Mrs. Pilgrim, what are you doing this summer?" Well, Virgina, there is a summer, and there is life outside of school.
I'm going to take one class on sand tray and art expressive therapy, and work p/t at the community counseling center downtown, seeing clients. I'll be taking on my third client this week. My goal is the ride the bike downtown as often as possible, after parking at the gym, and either lift or swim in the afternoon. I'm also hoping to get a counseling job this summer. I've become less concerned about how I look now and more concerned with strength and agility. I remember how strong I was when I lifted weights about 3 years ago. When I was doing leg lifts and squats I would bound up the stairs, and that's a pretty powerful feeling. I think lifting weights is something every woman out to do - it's very empowering. I'ts hard to feel like the "weaker" sex when you feel that strong. I'm pretty happy wearing a size 12 (I'm now a minority: More than half adult Americans are overweight, and of these, nearly a third are obese (that works out to nearly a fifth of all Americans who are at least 50% over their body weight.)At 169 pounds, I'm no longer obsese, just overweight. But I'm healthy. Most of my clothes are this size, and summer's a-comin'.

Like having my own wife.

I almost forgot, here's a recommendation: "The Vegetarian Slow-cooker" a cookbook by Robin Robertson. Run, don't walk, to the nearest bookstore and get it. I started using this last week, after not having used my crock pot since giving up meat in 2000.
Do you know, can you know, how fabulous it is to come home and have a slow-cooked juicy meal waiting for you and smelling up the house? It's like having a wife. Oops, I guess that's sexist. Okay, now I know what it's like for people who have partners who cook for them.

<-- GEEK ALERT: At left, see the chemical structure of fat.