Drama

4 day weekend

Today is the last day of my 4 day weekend. I had been working Sunday to Thursday but I am beginning my regular schedule of Tuesday to Saturday. So I had Friday to Monday off this week. I don't yet accrue vacation time so I had to take full advantage of this minivacation.

Friday I went shopping for summer tops. I got a lot of good deals so it was lots of fun. And I got my dad his Father's Day present of a couple of weekend shirts.

Saturday, my parents and I went to Rehoboth Beach, DE. I had never been before and it was very nice; not too big and very cute. The weather was good but the water was still too cold so we just walked around. There are a lot of neat little shops near the boardwalk and I'll definitely go back sometime soon, probably when the water is warmer (and I'm with people who actually want to go into every little cute shop with me).

Did I mention that I had funnel cake and a hot dog and pie and greasy delicious pepperoni pizza? After being good and eating healthily for the past week and a half or so, I was totally nauseas from overeating.

So what did I do on Sunday? I had dim sum. Because, you know, I'm disgusting.

Thankfully, today, I got back on track and even made myself some baba ganoush. I'm a little worried about stepping on the scale on Wednesday, but oh well, such is life.

Today I also went to a bead shop in Rockville (Rockville's got everything, I tell ya). Oh SO NICE. It was a little weird at first because you aren't allowed to take your purse inside the store. You have to leave it in the front room in a locker. And since I've got the memory of a gnat, every five minutes I'd panic and think, "Oh my God, where's my purse?" But the selection and the prices are very good. I think I'll go to this Rockville store for my supplies that I don't buy online. You know, every time I go into a bead store I hate the bead store I worked at more and more. Ridiculous markup there, I tell you whut. But anyways, I bought some silver and other miscellanous supplies for the multiple projects I have waiting for me. I wish I had more time to just veg and make stuff. LOL, a 4 day weekend just isn't long enough!!!

Loser

Remember back in September of 2005, I started Jenny Craig? It was the first time I'd really made a sincere effort to lose weight. It worked. I lost nearly 30lbs.

But then I got lazy and gained 25lbs back.

The first 10lbs I wasn't too concerned with. Then the next 10lbs came on really fast. Too much Dessert Gallery! The last 5 came back on rather slowly and I've lost it again and gained it back again.

I kept telling myself that "when I get a job, I'll start a diet. I will be able to afford JC if I want to join back up again". Which is ridiculous. Why should I wait?

So I now have a job and no excuses. I joined Weight Watchers at work on Wednesday. I only found out about the meetings on Tuesday. It was much like how I joined JC. Just all of a sudden, I decide to go on a diet. I don't wait until Monday. I just sign up. Plus, the WW meetings at work started a new 18 week session on Wednesday and I assume I'd have to wait 18weeks if I wanted to join the next session, and that's way too long to wait.

Unfortunately, since I joined up on a whim, I am so ill prepared. While I do want to lose weight, I'm not all GUNG HO! (what the hell is a gung? I know what a ho is, but I don't think that applies here...) Perhaps it's because I don't have a diet buddy. The meeting at work is attended by a rather large number of people and I felt kinda lost. But I'm confident that will change. However, I totally have not done my homework on this whole Points system. It's math that is more complicated that adding. With JC, it was all about keeping it under a certain number of Calories. They made it super easy because they provide almost all of the food and you don't have to think. But with WW you have to think on Day 1.

So far, I'm just following a JC kind of diet. Salads with lunch and dinner, keeping the bulk of each meal under 300 Calories, lots of water, trying to get in some milk and remembering to take my vitamins and omega-3s. But the part I'm really working on is learning to stop eating when I'm satisfied. Not when the food is all gone. Not when I'm "Thanksgiving full". I'd really like to learn to eat and it's really why I didn't go back to JC, I think. But I'm going to take today and tomorrow to figure out the point value of everything, so hopefully I can follow WW how it's supposed to be done and see how well that works.

In any case, I think the thing I want to get most out of going to these WW meetings is getting weighed in every week. Shame is my motivation. LOL...*sigh*.

So far, after two days, even after not being too watchful of what I ate, I lost about pound. So what if it's just water?!?!?! It's still a pound!

Naked people and fire

Goo and I had a great time in Richmond yesterday. We arrived at Grace's in the afternoon and walked to Carytown. We visited the always amusing World of Mirth where Goo got some wind-up chinese food. We also stopped by the very hip yarn store, The Yarn Lounge. I loved that their knitted samples are wee little sweaters. And of course, we went to the bead store, Bangles and Beads. Oh My Goodness, what a fantastic store. They had lots of great stuff at really good prices and it was just awesome in there. I have a lot of beautiful projects to work on, which I'll post once they're made into something!

We met up with Andrew and Grace's friend Erin and Erin's friend Jennifer for dinner at the New York Deli. It's a fancy deli and I had a delicious plate of vegetable ravioli with a creamy walnut sauce. The desserts were good, too. Goo had a very dainty creme brulee that he ate as manly as he could.

After dinner we went to our main event for the day: NAKED PEOPLE! It was the Disrobed 2 event at Gallery 5. There were roughly 25 people painted and on display. There were a few performers? (they were just standing there) "dressed" in work clothes. They looked like they were wearing clothes so they didnt' seem naked to me. Actually all of the people fully painted gave the impression that they weren't really naked. Most of the performers were part of this huge living mural with industry represented on one side and nature on the other (I don't know why industry is always represented as evil; that sort of annoys me). It was strange to me that as soon as a performer wanted to take a break, they would immediately wrap a towel around themselves and scurry off stage. I suppose it is all relative to where you are. Like, you can wear a bikini at the beach, but not in the office. There was one woman who was completely painted, except for her left breast and that seemed very naked. One display that I found really interesting was where three women on a stage were also being projected live on a tv screen above them. It felt very taboo to watch them on T.V. but I was comfortable seeing them live in front of me. In real life it's art. On video, it's porn.

Either way, it was a really neat experience, I had a good time, and very glad I went. It was really nice to go to an art event and discuss it.

Outside the gallery fire dancers performed. The line to get inside Disrobed was somewhat long so it was nice to have entertainment. The coolest fire dancer was the girl with the flaming hula hoop.


While that was cool and all....

Today Goo and I went to the Southern Maryland Pow Wow in Waldorf, MD. We got there just in time to see the Samoan dancers. I was surprised but delighted to see that there weren't just area Native Americans performing. The Mosquito dance where the men slap themselves all over was pretty funny. But the BEST was the fire dancer. He had a 4ish foot stick lighted at one end and lit the other end WITH HIS HAND. He brought one end to his mouth and HIS TONGUE WAS ON FIRE!!!! He twirled that flaming stick so fast and threw it soooo high up in the air, it was unbelievable.

There were also other plenty of dancers in fantastic Native garb with feathers and bells and it was so fun to watch. There were also lots of vendors and I bought a hand painted sarong from the Samoans. I even helped make it! We ate fry bread tacos that are basically incredibly good Chalupas :)

So I had a great weekend. I think next weekend will be a lot quieter since Goo is going back to Cleveland tomorrow. Anyways, I have so much jewelry to work on...

So many events, it's as though I have a life.

Friday, Goo and I went to the Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall. We got there just in time to have lunch and join the 3pm tour.

I LOVE art and history and culture but in all honesty, usually the best part of any museum is the gift shop. Granted I liked the gift shop; I even bought a dream pillow filled with a lot of nice smelling herbs. But! at the Museum of the American Indian, the best part is the cafe! They have foods from all over the Americas. You can get a tamale from the south, a lobster roll from the northeast, buffalo from the plains, or even bass ceviche from...somewhere. Sure it's a bit pricey, but the museum and the tour are free, so it's fine. Goo and I both got tamales and soup and aqua fresca. Goo's chicken tamal was really good; the shredded chicken was so succulent, it was like pork. Goo also got the shrimp and coconut soup and that was really good and a combination of flavors we had anever really had before. I got a bean tamale and scarlet runner bean soup. I was really craving beans, I think. We don't eat many beans at home because they are high in potassium.

Anyways, the museum was really neat and it was nice to get a tour of a new museum. All the tour guides are American Indian/Native American/First Nations/etc. Our tour guide was from Arizona and is half Navajo and San Carlos Apache. It's strange to go to a new museum on the mall having grown up in the DC area and gone on a million field trips to the Mall as a child. I was particularly impressed at the bead exhibit and the insanely intricate beaded dresses. Having done a little bead work with small beads, I can't even imagine how long it would take to completely bead a shirt. One really interesting point is the name of the museum. The name was given by Congress in 1989 when the act for the museum was approved. Remember back in '89 when "American Indian" was the PC term?

My cousin Donna and her husband Vinnie came to visit and it was very good to see them. I didn't really spend much time with them because I had to work Sunday and on Memorial Day Monday I drove down to Richmond to spend it with my best friends Grace and Danyel. Danyel actually lives in Philadelphia but had an interview in Richmond on Tuesday.

I was a teensy bit worried about my friend worlds colliding, but it was all for naught because I think Grace and Danyel got along very well. Especially once they started talking about Lost. I was twiddled my thumbs at that point because I do not watch Lost. Yes, I am sure it is a good show. Somebody get me the DVDs. Seriously though, all y'all Lost fans iz cuh-razy.

We had a jammed pack day of crafty funness. We walked Carytown looking for all the stores that were open on Memorial Day. Luckily one bead shop was open and Bwahahahah!!! Grace got sucked into the world that is beading and jewelry making!!!! She bought a handful of strands and a really neat polished fossil for me to make something for her. Soon she will be making her own jewelry!!!!

Later that day we went to mall because it has air conditioning and the Olsen house does not. When we were in Carytown we though we might go to a paint your own pottery studio but it was closed. But there was one at the mall and it was open! So CRAFTY! And it is actually another craft that Danyel and I have done before but was new for Grace! Join the crafting cult! I mean, uh, movement? Hopefully our pieces will be finished and glazed by Friday because I am planning to go back to Richmond.

Grace keeps telling me I need to move to Richmond.

The plan for Friday is a trip to the Gallery 5 Disrobed 2 exhibit. Here's the link. NSfW!

I also plan to go to the 25th annual Southern Maryland Pow Wow on Saturday.

I'll post again soon and hopefully this time I'll have photos!