Shiny and New

We escaped the alleged Mayan apocalypse, the days are going to get longer from here on out and I'm watching Lost from the very beginning once again. Must be a new year looming on the horizon.

Another year has past, whoopdee-damn-do. Every friggin' day I wake up is a new beginning, no point in making a huge deal out of yet another new calendar year, right? Plus I'm going totally against the grain by NOT posting this on New Year's Day! Suck it, Conformity!

That said, I do have somethings I need to work on and actually do this coming year, so here's my list of things I need to do in 2013:

1) Buy a new Vehicle

It saddens me to say this, but I truly believe this will the Lumina's last winter. My car is 16 years old, and it has served me very well in the last four and a half years. Little things that really aren't worth spending the money to fix are starting to go – like the automatic locks – and when you live this far north, you really need a car that actually defrosts the interior like it's supposed to. I can't even count how many times I've started driving around here in the winter only to have my wind shield ice up while I'm moving. Dangerous.

2) Buy new Glasses

I love my nerd glasses, but they are actually broken. I really shouldn't be wearing them, but I hate my backup pair and I'm out of contacts until the new ones arrive. But I need to make an eye appointment as it's been like two years and I have no idea if I've gotten blinder in that time. Most likely I have. The specially-made thinner lenses that I need in order to not look like I'm wearing coke bottle gogs are extra expensive, which has been part of the reason for my putting it off.

3) Make some Art

I haven't done anything overly creative in terms of art in something like two years. That REALLY needs to change. Taking photos for the paper doesn't count either. I need to pull out my art history textbooks and reconnect with my inner artist, as cheesy as that sounds. All my artistic knowledge has been seeping out of my brain to the point that I doubt I could answer any Jeopardy questions about modern art. That's bad for me. Make some stuff, see if it's good enough to submit somewhere, I don't know. That's Rene Magritte's The Son of Man, by the way. Surrealism, bitches!

4) Figure out my Budget

I don't live paycheck to paycheck like a lot of people, so for that I'm eternally grateful. However, I know I could be saving a lot more money and I really shouldn't have such a high balance on my credit card. That's going to involve curtailing my online shopping habit, which is going to suck balls. So my goal is to finally pay off that beast of a card and keep socking away a few dollars for important stuff. Like the inevitable car payments and derby road trips. Important shit, you know?

5) Adjust my Eating Habits

I say this every damn year, so why break that streak? Eat better, lose weight, yadda yadda yadda. Moving on!

6) Write stuff that's Not Work Related

I would like to work on my short prose skills, essay writing, that sort of thing. I'd like to try and get my work published somewhere else, although that may be a conflict of interest issue. Though, since my paper doesn't print short fiction, maybe it won't be? Gotta figure this out. I have a lot of stories in my head that I would really like to get down on paper, as it were. Also write more on here as well. I kind of fell off that wagon in the last few months.


I'm sure there's a lot more I could put down here, but let's not go batshit crazy. One baby step at a time.

Ginger.

Watch This Space

I have been a very bad blogger lately.

I have not been posting as regularly as I usually do. Perhaps you've noticed, perhaps you haven't. Either way.

I am going through another bout of insomnia. The last couple weeks I haven't been able to fall asleep much earlier than 3 a.m. Granted, some of those days were work related, and there was that one dude screaming his head off outside at 4 a.m., but regardless of the why, I noticed last week that no amount of makeup is going to fully cover the bags under my eyes.

Which made me very thankful that I had some vacation days that I needed to use. I needed this week off in the worst way.

See, I've been working longer hours that usual lately. This is due to the transition between old reporter and new reporter. There's always a period where I end up having to take one some of the reporter duties on top of my own, plus acting as a guide to the new reporter until they find their feet.

This time, and I don't know what's so different about this time, I was almost ready to tear my hair out. It's always a pain when this happens, but this time hit me harder than it has in the past.

I had at least three major meltdowns in 10 days. I was on the verge of tears for about 4 days before I started vacation time. It was basically work, try to sleep, work, try to sleep, work for about two weeks there. Nothing else. Just work, try to sleep. Maybe eat once in a while. That's it.

I think it all sort of culminated on Sunday night when I had a massive "stomach attack" as I call them. I've written about them before and have had several since that incident. I don't actually know what caused it, but I'm wondering if it isn't just all my stress catching up with me. I always had a "nervous stomach" growing up and popped Gaviscon all the time.

Took a couple days to recover from that, which made me somewhat useless when it came to helping my sister move, but we got them to their new house.

So once I got past all that, it was past time to start focusing on my living space.

Good lord, my apartment has looked like a shit hole lately.

Whenever I get into these stressed-out-so-depressed-I-could-cry-for-days-funks, the first thing that goes by the wayside is housework. I'm too damn tired after working 12-14 hour days to even bother picking stuff up or putting dishes in the dishwasher, so it's basically eat, leave all the dishes on the stove and counter, drop all the mail on the dining table and leave clothes all over the floor.

It's not a place anyone would want to come home to after a long stupid day.

So once I spent the first few days of vacay sleeping on and off, I finally started feeling like a human being again and decided to was time to clean up this mess.

The majority of my little bachelorette pad is now clean, with just the front entrance, storage room and my bedroom to take care of. I'd forgotten how nice it feels to be in a clean home. Make me actually want to be here.

So now that the seemingly endless nightmare of stress is supposedly over, hopefully I can get back to blogging about stuff. Helps keep me sane.

That's it for now, I think it's enough.

Ginger.

Thinking The Thinks

I went on an impromptu hiatus from blogging and found a new fandom. The two are not specifically related.

The drive to write hasn't really been there lately. I haven't been overly impressed my with how my column has turned out the past few weeks and haven't been able to bring myself to blog in what feels like ages.

Must be winter.

I thought about doing NaNoWriMo this year, but the start of the month just sorta passed me by. I've been a little distracted...

Oh, I've discovered Doctor Who. Little show on the uptake, as the revival was seven years ago, but better late than never. I've devoured the first five seasons, and now have nightmares about the Weeping Angels.

Scary as fuck. Don't blink.

I have no life, I know.

But that's alright. It's cheaper than going out and I'm trying like hell to save money for potential trips next year.

So I think I'll have a cup of tea and read a book.

G.

Lazy Kitties

Kittes were being lazy bums yesterday. They were so lazy that they didn't care that they were sharing the chair, which they almost never do.

Kitties!!

It's been an unbelievably dreary past couple of days, what with the 18cm of snow we had dumped on our heads. So I don't really blame them.

Ginger.

WLT: Rawr

Ever feel so angry that you ate a donut in three bites?

Anyone? Anyone at all?

Okay, so clearly that's just me.

I'm having a rage-filled day and I know exactly why, but that's not making it any easier. It just makes me want to punch my desk.

Plus I'm super pissed at myself for eating that fucking donut!

I've been super good for the last week or so. I finally went grocery shopping, which means I've been able to cook my meals and not spend money of one-off meals from the grocery store or some fast food place.

I always forget how much I enjoy actually cooking meals for myself.

Plus I've been back at the gym, and pushing myself to go faster on the elliptical and stationary bike at higher levels than zero. The end result has me actually sweating and burning and feeling like I'm gonna puke or have my heart pound out of my chest, but I figure if the people on The Biggest Loser can do it, then so can I.

Then I go and ruin that shit by eating the goddamn donut!

Okay, so the booze I'll be imbibing in tomorrow isn't going to help either, but that's for Painsley's going away party! Caloric intake doesn't count when your sending a derby sister off in style!

Anyhoo, I don't know if what I've been doing has helped much lately, since I haven't replaced Scale yet, but after trying on one of my old bras last week and seeing that my boobs were just swimming in it, clearly I've been doing something right. Or completely wrong, depending how you look at it... I don't wanna lose my rack!

Sigh. I want spaghetti for dinner.

Ginger.

Costumes

Watching my two and a half year old niece for a couple hours while her parents were out, we get to talking about many thing... her being on the big kid side at daycare, her dollhouse, Micky Mouse Clubhouse. The usual toddler fare.

Then I ask her what she's going to be for Halloween. I already know, as I've seen her unicorn costume, but I want to hear it from her.

"A pony!" She tells me.

"Okay, what's Daddy going to be?" I ask.

She thinks for a moment before saying "a horsey!"

Okay cool. They can match or whatever. "What's Mommy going to be?"

"A rabbit!" she says with little hesitation.

She's enjoying the line of conversation, so I take the leap and ask "what's Auntie going to be for Halloween?"

She looks me dead in the eye and with that evil little grin she has, proclaims...

"A cow!"

Well played, child. Well played. F my life indeed.

Ginger.

WLW: Placeholder.

I was gonna do some big long entertaining post that was full of clever witticisms (and possibly boobs), but I gradually developed a head cold over the course of the day and don't have the energy to write anything more than these few sentences right now. Boo!

Instead, I leave you with an amusing cat photo from I Can Haz Cheezeburger.

Yeah, that's usually the look on my face too...

Imma go chew on some zinc lozenges and stuff kleenex up my nose.

Ginger.

This Post is Garbage

I've been beaking off about this on Facebook and Twitter for at least a month now, but I think it's still worth writing about here. On Saturday, I finally got to see one of my most favouritest bands perform live.

Mrs. Dash and I, ready to rock!

That band, obviously, was Garbage.

Here's the setlist from that show:

Supervixen
I Think I'm Paranoid
Shut Your Mouth
Why Do You Love Me
Stupid Girl
Hammering In My Head
Control
#1 Crush
Cherry Lips
Blood For Poppies
Special
Man On A Wire
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing
Battle In Me
Only Happy When It Rains
Encore: I Hate Love
Encore: Vow

I have been a Garbage fan since 1995, when I first heard their single, Queer. It was on one of the few CD's I owned at the time, a compilation many of my generation will remember called Big Shiney Tunes. The original Big Shiney Tunes, which to me will remain the absolute best Big Shiney Tunes.

Queer was the fourth track on that CD. I'd never heard of half the bands on it, and while I liked them all, the track by this ironically named band was the one that stuck out the most.

It had a gothy undertone that really appealed to my semi-gothy nature at the time. Oh, who am I kidding, I still have a semi-gothy nature... but anyways, it led me to seek out more music by the alterna-goth band, which lead to my following their career and loving the shit out of pretty much everything they released.

Queer was the fifth song played at the concert. I can only recall one other time I got chills while listening to live music, which is how I can really tell it's an astounding show. My 13-year-old self was going ballistic and screaming the lyrics at the top of her lungs and dancing on the spot... it was kind of an epic little moment.

Same deal when they played #1 Crush, Push It and Only Happy When It Rains. I loved each and every song that was played, but those ones have a special place in my dark little heart. The guitar riff in Push It is one of my all time favourites.

The only thing that could have made it better was if they'd played Stroke Of Luck, which I knew wouldn't happen since it wasn't a single, but I don't even care. It was, now that I'm a few days removed from it, the best concert I've ever seen. The fact that I knew every song and the whole thing went by in the blink of an eye just clinches it for the top spot.

My other goal for the night was to get myself some Garbage swag. The line after the show was total insanity and the chick running the merch booth were really trying to hurry us along, so I was able to pick out one t-shirt after finding out they only had hoodies in 2XL. It's a super cute shirt, and I managed to grab the last XL they had.

Unfortunately, their idea of an XL is not really my idea of an XL. The shirt is too tight.

Really shoulda put on different pants...

In case you can't tell cuz it's backwards, the top says I Hate Love in bones, with the Garbage lower case G on the side and has a faux corset lace up the back. It's a fabulous top. And it's too small. I am sucking in as hard as I can in that shot.

Shirley Manson said something interesting at the concert. She told all us Darklings in her awesome Scottish accent that she was feeling fat. Which is funny because Mrs. Dash and I were talking about my focusing on my weight so much before we got to the show.

Ms. Manson continued that even though she was feeling fat, it doesn't really matter if you're fat or not fat. We're all beautiful and we should all love ourselves for who we are. Something to that effect.

No, Shirley Manson, you don't look fat. Just amazeballs!

It was actually a nice sentiment, coming from someone as cool as her. Granted, that's not going to get my awesome Garbage top to fit me, so I'm gonna have to do something about it!

My new goal in life (I seem to have a new one every time I turn around...) is to fit into that top properly.  I want to wear the shit out of that shirt, and I'm gonna work my ass off to ensure that I can.

Also super cool of her? She pointed out that their show wasn't the only act in town that night – both Madonna and Amanda Palmer were doing their own concerts – and promptly thanked all of us in the crowd for choosing their show to come to. Ha! Like there was really any other option!

Oh, and did I mention that once we got back from the show and were mellowing out at my hotel room and tweeting about the night, Garbage decided I was worthy of following on Twitter?!!?

Holy fuck, way to make my whole night complete! I flipped the fuck out, ask Mrs. Dash!

Garbage was one of my bucket-list concerts, which I am so happy to cross off the list. I look forward to seeing them again some day.

Ginger.

WLT: Sigh

Wow, I have really fallen off the wagon with my WLW posts....

Part of it is I've been so exhausted from work that I think my brain has been shutting down without my consent. The other part is with Scale being out of commission, I haven't been as strict with my weight-loss attempts as I should be.

So yeah. Weak ass excuse. But there you have it.

Although I will say, I recently saw a few photos of myself while participating in Ignite Peace Region, and I'm utterly horrified by how I look.

After this weekend, the slacking off will stop. I need to step it up for a number of reasons and it needs to start right away.

For now, I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow morning for a conference, and will finally be seeing one of my most favourite bands ever in life – Garbage.

This is a bucket list show for me, so I've extra extra excited for it.

So here's a song that was pretty much the soundtrack to my emo teenage existence.

See ya when I get back!

Songs and swag,

Ginger.

Thirty-something

So today is my 30th birthday.

I always thought I'd feel really old at 30. Maybe it was because I thought the portion of my life and existence as a "young adult" was essentially over. maybe it's because the older I get, the more aware I become of my own mortality.

But I don't feel old. I feel like me. I take that as a good sign. My life isn't anywhere near over. It's just ongoing.

Here are the flowers that my mum sent to my office from her, the Old Man, my brother, sister, her husband and daughter. I like stuffed animals, I will never feel too old for stuffies!

Yay for purple!! 

Then later on, my co-workers were acting all shifty, calling me out of the office so the boss could come in with some stuff. K-News and K-Sports were apparently on Gchat all day talking about it – I'm actually impressed they were able to keep a straight face all day.

I got a cupcake, a nice card and this lovely little memento:

I cannot put into words how awesome this is.

So all in all, it's been a good day. I welcome my Dirty Thirties, and I expect this will be a pretty good year!

Whiskey and Smokes,

Ginger.

WLW: Soda Pop Gods

Life is funny sometimes. Not "ha ha" funny, but like "fuck you" funny.

Okay, "fuck you" might be a little harsh, but still. it's like the universe decided to throw another temptation at me while I try and rid myself of my one true vice.

I love pop. I really do. I'd take a can of pop over chips or candy. But I've been trying to cut it out of my diet because it's so fucking bad for you.

Well guess what the Soda Pop Gods decided to do recently?

They brought back Wild Cherry Pepsi.

Fuck you and your amazingness, Pepsi!!!!

I abso-fucking-loutely loved Wild Cherry Pepsi way back when it first came out. And now it's even in diet form! Holy fuck!!

I bought a case. I have consumed it. I'm going to try and have the willpower to not buy another case.

It's going to be very difficult...

In other news, I'm completely convinced that Scale is broken, since I've weighed anything from 195 pounds to 232 pounds this week. If that's not a sign that Scale needs replacing, I don't know what is.

The gym has actually been going well. I must have strengthened up my knees sometime in the last year, because I don't get that horrible burning pain in them whenever I use the elliptical machine like I used to. So that's a bonus!

Plus we're back to bellydancing again, which is going to kick my ass for the next few weeks while my body remembers what it's like to use those dance muscles again.

So yeah. That's all I got right now.

Have a lovely day,
Ginger.

Baby Bunny Song

Just found this while scanning the interwebz. Made me squee a little.

Seriously, who doesn't love baby bunnies? Awful people, that's who!

Ginger.

WLW: Busted

I think Scale might be broken. Or possibly in need of an (attitude) adjustment.

See, I've been incredibly lazy since the Emperor's Challenge. I've done shit fuck all in terms of exercise, and my eating habits were less than subpar for the week and a half that followed it. So I naturally expected to be up a bit once I finally stepped on Scale's face again.

My first time stepping on Scale had me at 228. Holy fucksandwich, that was not good. So I started going back to eating better and the number went down to 226. Yay!

Twenty-four hours after weighing in at that 226, I stepped on Scale again, and some miracle happened. I magically lost 9 pounds overnight and weighed in at 217.

Okay, what the fuck?

That says to me that something is wrong with Scale, although I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if it wasn't just a fluke or if my fat just magically disappeared.

Wouldn't the latter be wonderful?!

Anyhoo, these early mornings are really fucking with my eating habits. I can't bring myself to eat oatmeal in the morning anymore because it looks like cat puke after I warm it up. I've now switched to Greek yogurt and fruit, which is much easier to handle at 6 a.m.

I did bad this week, twice, because my coffee shop reopened after a month and I was finally able to get a good second travle mug of coffee that I caved and got one of their amazing muffin both today and yesterday.

No more fucking muffins after this!!!

But we're so tasty, Ginger...

Bellydance is starting up again tonight, I believe. Either way, I am dedicated to going to the gym tomorrow as soon as I'm done work. An hour on the treadmill or stationary bike will do me some good.

For now, I'm going to have some soup and rest my weary brain.

Happy Hump Day,
Ginger.

Life as a Daywalker

So it's a week into my new life as a Daywalker... meaning my new shift of 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.

It's not like this is a new thing in my life – I've worked morning shifts since I started working at the age of 14. Housekeeping, prep cook, clerk, golf course maintenance; all of these jobs involved me starting work at 6 a.m. or earlier.

I must be getting old or something, because it's getting harder to adjust to the switch in schedule.

Coffee is no longer any help in this situation. One travel mug isn't enough; more than that and it feels like I have a stomach full of battery acid.

I had every intention of going to the gym this week, but that dream's been a little shattered since I only got four hours of sleep last night and I really needed a nap.

I would really like to get past this exhausted stage.

For now, here's a baby ocelot. Behold it's epic cuteness!

G'night folks.

ZzzZzzzzz.....
Ginger.

WLW: Whoop Whoop

Hah! Back on schedule!

Okay, it's day three of my new work shift and I am unbelievably fucking tired. I thought I wasn't doing too bad this morning, but by 10:30 I was starting to fade again.

I figured today I'd bring in two travel mugs full of coffee so I wouldn't have to go buy any. My regular coffee shop has been closed for the last few weeks so I've had to live with home brewing or going to another shop and drinking gross coffee.

I dunno what was different this morning, but I think my coffee tried to eat a hole through my stomach.

Oh coffee, why has thou forsaken me?!

I couldn't even finish my oatmeal. Granted, I'd added too much water last night so it was extremely slimy and mushy this morning and likely that was part of my not wanting to finish it, but still. Gross.

Breakfast is now the meal I eat at work, which I have at around 6:30 or 7. Since I'm done at 1 p.m., I don't really see a point in having lunch there too, so I've been waiting for when I get home.

This does lead me to wanting a snack around 11, which I should probably start bringing along. Otherwise I'll just walk to Mac's like I did on Monday and get a little bag of chips. Oh, and by the way, Zesty Nacho Arriba Tortilla chips do not mix well with coffee.

Maybe that's part of the whole burning a hole through my stomach thing? Muffins go with coffee, not chips.

Anyhoo, I'm giving myself this week to kind of adjust physically to the whole switch-up. Next week I'd like to start looking into going back to the gym maybe once I'm off at 1. Good use of an afternoon, dontcha think?

So I shall continue to slog my way through the mornings, hopefully adapting quickly so I don't need a two hour nap when I get home everyday.

On that note, I'm off to shower and prep for tomorrow morning.

Coffee and Oatmeal,
Ginger.

WLF: Seriously...

I've been trying to get my shit together to ensure I actually updated on time this week, but then it was Painsley's birthday on Wednesday and beer robbed me of my senses.

Beer is evil. And delicious.

Also I've been incredibly distracted with reading The Hunger Games trilogy. I bought the box set last week and I'm half way through Mockingjay. Damn work gets in the way of my reading time!

Speaking of work, I'm going to be changing my schedule around so I'm starting at 5 a.m. and working until 1 p.m.

Yeah, absorb that for a minute.

Done?

Kay, I haven't gone insane or anything, I'm willingly doing this. However, it's probably going to fuck with my eating schedule a bit while I get used to it. I can't bring myself to eat that early in the morning, so I'll likely be brining fruit to the office to eat at a more reasonable time.

I'm also thinking of getting a coffee maker to keep on my desk. I'm really really really going to need it because I am a right fucking bitch that early in the morning.

This all starts on Monday, so I have a couple days to not think about what 4:45 in the morning feels like. But it'll be nice to have the whole rest of the day to do whatever.

So yeah, I still haven't quite done a whole lot of exercise this week, although my eating has been better than it was last week. Still not stepping on the scale, though I may regret that later on.

That's all I got for now. Here's a photo of a cow I took at the fall far last weekend!

Mooooooo....

I like cows.

Beer and Books,
Ginger.

WLS(?): Oopsies

I dunno where the days went this week, but I had every intention of updating this on Wednesday!

Then Wednesday came and went. Then Thursday.... the Friday.

Now I wake up and think, maybe I should just skip it this week?

No! Accountability! I've had very little this week! I need it again!

So yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyhoo, in case you missed it, here's my recounting of the Emperor's Challenge it all it's painful glory.

I'm not going to rehash everything, instead I'm gonna share all the wonderful advice my mom's chiropractor gave her before the race, and how it pretty much saved my ass.

First of all, the man is wise in many ways. And a hell of a lot more supportive than most. I think he was the only person to tell my mom that she could definitely finish the EC. However, he did have some good tips to help her, and by proxy me, through it.

Firstly, and obviously, keep drinking water. Could not stress that enough. I felt like I'd drank gallons of water but still needed more. It's funny because normally if I drink that much water I'd have to pee every 10 minutes. Not the case here. Clearly all that water was being put to good use.

Also along that vein, he asked mom if she'd ever had gatorade or any sort of energy food before. She said no and he replied don't start. At least not during the race. If your body isn't used to it, you probably shouldn't try it. Get your heart racing and not in the good way, he said.

Secondly, don't forget to eat! I usually don't eat before the shorter 5 or 10k races, mostly because I do actually jog those distances and I don't like that feeling of food sloshing around while I do that. However, in this particular race, I was willing to make an exception. And it so totally helped. Every time I looked like I was going to faint, mom made me stop for water and some trail mix. Just a handful and some water to wash it down.

I actually couldn't believe how revitalized I felt after just a handful. It made all the difference and I'm so glad that we had it.

He also said that on race day, you could eat anything you wanted and because of the amount calories you'd burn, whatever you took in will essentially even out.

I heard that and the first thing I did was look at mom and say "I want pizza."

And oh, did we have pizza at the end of the day. It was far and beyond the best pizza I'd ever eaten. Nothing has ever tasted as good as that pizza did.

I pretty much took the last week off from doing any major exercise, just to give myself some time to relax and recover. I really need to get back on that horse and start going for long walks or maybe even start jogging again. Gotta exercise outside while I still can.

I am also back on the proper eating horse, which I graciously fell off this past week. I really need to go grocery shopping.

That's it for me this week, I'm off to take photos of the Fall Fair. Yes, the Fall Fair. In August.

Pizza and Water,
Ginger.

Rising To The Challenge

Who's dumbass idea was it to attempt the Emperor's Challenge?

Oh wait, it was mine. Dur.

Yes, mom and I did the Emperor's Challenge this weekend. How was it? It has insanely fucking hard, that's how it was!

Let me go back to the beginning....

A while back, mom and I decided we were going to attempt this mighty challenge. We've both done big long hikes before, and figured this would be a good thing to work towards.

At the start, before our realities were shattered.

The first couple kilometres are not too bad – they're going up a mining road until the first water station. They're fairly gradual inclines, switchbacking up the mountain until you see the people with the water.

From there, you go off onto some fairly easy trails for about three more kilometres. The path goes through grassy areas, muddy areas and slightly rocky areas. Again, not too bad.

Then we get to kilometre six, which is also going up a dirt road. By this point, I don't know what the elevation is, but I'm starting to get a little wheezy. I just chalk it up to going uphill. Uphills are not my friends.

Mom keeps asking if I'm okay, which I tell her I am, I'm just getting a little tired. We stop and have a water and trail mix break, then keep going.

Between kilometre six and seven, there's a steep section that takes us up and over a bunch of boulders and crevasses. It's here that I really start having trouble catching my breath.

We make it over that rise, and can see the next water station across the little valley. Now, I had it in my head that we had to make it to the 8.5 kilometre water station by 11 a.m. An official that was on the trail told us as we looked over that mini valley that it was 10:20 a.m. We had 40 minutes, surely we could make that...

Mom wanted me to rest again. Oh hells no, we have to make it over there or they won't let us continue!

So we trudged on.

We did in fact make it to the water station, where we got our water bottles refilled and ate some jellybeans. We also found out that we had until 11:30 to make it there, not 11, so we were doing fine and just kept going.

I will say, those six kilometres between water stations were probably the longest six kilometres of the whole race. I get why they were so far apart – there really was no good place for one during that stretch – but it would have helped me since my own water ran out long before we got there.

Okay, we're getting closer to the summit! Only a couple more kilometres, yay! Oh, and the air is getting thinner and I'm having trouble getting oxygen to my lungs! Booooooo! Thank fuck I brought my inhaler with me.

Did I mention that before the summit is the steepest part of the course that is practically straight up? Because it is.

After taking the teeniest little baby steps up the Slope of Doom, where more people were watching me huff and puff as I dragged myself up the slope with my poles, the water station was in sight... or not, because there were more rolling hills to drag my ass over.

Those poles saved my life on that mountain, I don't think I would have been able to finish without them.

Anyhoo, we made it to the 11 kilometre water station, which was just before the summit. Maybe 10 minutes prior to that, we saw some of the racers turning around on the road up ahead and coming back down, followed by a truck. We thought that they had been told by buddy in the truck that they missed a cutoff and wouldn't be allowed to continue, which likely meant we wouldn't be allowed to continue.

As tired as I was, I nearly cried. We were over halfway done, they couldn't make us quit now!!

Fortunately, truck guy informed us that those people coming down the hill weren't actually following the marked path, that's why they were sent back down.

Phew!

Once we finally made it to the summit, we stopped for another water and trail mix break. I have to say, the advice mom got from her genius chiropractor was pure gold. Normally I likely wouldn't have bothered eating anything, but every time I had a handful of the trail mix, I actually felt better.

The human body is a fascinating machine. A very worn out machine at this point:

I tried to smile for this, but kind of grimaced instead. Not attractive.

Now it was time for what I figured would be the easy part: going downhill!

As I said, uphill was hard for me. Going uphill was very hard on my lungs. Going downhill would prove to be hard on my knees.

I'd still take downhill any day of the week – being able to breathe is worth any leg pain.

I think I got a mini second wind once we got to the downhill portion, as I could move a bit faster since I wasn't exerting my lungs quite as much. As the kilometre signs got higher in value, and the end getting ever closer, mom and I resolved to plow on ahead because you know what? We were gonna finish this bitch if it killed us!

More likely kill me than her, but whatever.

Originally we had planned on jogging down the road for the last few kilometres, but honestly, my legs couldn't have handled it if I had wanted to. My feet were numb, the back of my legs under my kneecaps were tight and my hips and ass were burning.

The kilometre countdown at that point felt more like we were being mocked than something to look forward to. Whatdya mean there's still three kilometres to go!?!? Do you know how FAR that is!?!?

Even worse was the fact that you could see the finish line across the valley as you went down that road. It seemed like it never got any closer until you hit the last kilometre.

We arrived at the final water station to people clapping for us and giving us encouragement. They didn't say we were too late or anything, so we had some water and kept going.

The last two kilometres saw a bunch of trucks come down the road after us – water station volunteers. One even asked if we wanted a ride. I think she was kidding. I think.

Finally we pass the 19 kilometre sign and know this hell is almost over. We head up the towards the parking lot/campsite and what do we see? People getting into vehicles and leaving.

Neither of us had a watch throughout this whole thing – we'd asked volunteers what time it was – and started wondering if we were too late if people were leaving. Was it past 2 p.m.? Was the finish line taken down? Did we fail miserably!?!?

Only one way to find out.... Keep walking, bitches!

We must've found renewed strength or something, because we plowed through up to our original starting point... everything was still there! And what was that I saw, was that the time clock!?!

It read 4:47:34

We had about 12 minutes to spare as we crossed the finish line.

I almost started crying but realized I was too tired for that shit as the lady put the bronze medal around mine and mom's necks.

We did it. WE FUCKING DID IT!!!!!

Barely, but whatevs! We finished in under the five hour time limit, we got the medals to prove it, and now we could say we did a half marathon!

Would I do it again? Right now the answer is "holy fuckballs, not a chance in hell!" However, once I forget about the pain and the whole not breathing thing, I'm sure I'll change my tune in like six months.

Despite that, I'm proud of mom and I'm proud of me for setting out to do this and actually finishing. I now have bragging rights for something that a lot of people would never even consider attempting.

My medal, bitches. I'm so not lucid in this photo....

For now, I'm going to take a few days and not do anything more than short little walks and sleeping. I think I've earned it.

Just Keep Walking,
Ginger.

WLW: Post Wedding Aftermath

Wow.

Okay, for reals, wow. I haven't danced and drank that much in what feels like years.

Going down to Kelowna to watch Mr. and Mrs. Dash become Mr. and Mrs. Dash was one hell of a party. The next morning felt like I'd been at college night at Splash's and had to get up for my 8:30 a.m. Abnormal Psychology class.

One of these things is not like the others...

It's Lisa, cuz she's so tan.

Which I always did. I was paying for that fucking class, I was going hungover or not!

Anyways...

So yes, lots of food and candy and popcorn was consumed. Even more gin, which I'm pretty sure I was sweating out by the time I got home... I felt really really bad for the people that had to sit next to me on the planes. I fucking reeked.

It's hot as balls in the Okanagan too, which I knew, but clearly blocked from my memory.

Hot. As. Balls.

I haven't climbed on the scale at all, mostly because I'm terrified of the result. Plus, who the fuck cares right now!?!? I had a blast this weekend and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Plus I now have to turn my attention to the Emperor's Challenge in three days.

I'm trying to eat like they suggest on the website: no red meat, cut back on the dairy, eat some freakin' carbs cuz you're going to need the energy to drag your ass over the mountain, that sorta thing.

I'm still a little nervous about the EC, but my sports reporter told me that her roommate did it last year when she was 35 weeks pregnant and managed to finish it in under five hours, including rest and photo breaks.

Okay, if massively pregnant people can finish it, then so can I! So fuck you, Nerves!

Next week's edition will likely be all about the EC, so be prepared for that.

I'm thinking I should start shilling myself as a wedding photographer – I seem to be not half bad at it.

D'awwwwwww!

And on that note, I'm out.

Rings and Cake,
Ginger.

WLW: Propose a Toast...

... to the last wedding I'll be attending this year! Cheers!

The Busiest Summer Of Life is nearing an end, thank fuck for that. The last wedding this weekend and the Emperor's Challenge next weekend. The end is truly in sight now.

I'm starting to get nervous over the EC, mostly because I'm worried it's going to be a million times harder than I'm expecting it to be.

Even though I'm working on going up hills by going through the community forest in the mornings at least three times a week, I'm worried it won't be enough and Mom and I won't make the cutoff time to get it done in the allotted five hours.

Okay, deep breath. It's going to be fine. We're going to keep a good steady pace, jog when we feel the need and just keep moving. That's all. It'll be fine.

Won't it?

Sigh.

Better to think of the wedding! There'll be wine and dancing and all sorts of fun stuff! Yay!

Anyhoo, weight-wise, I'm still in the two-teens – 218 to be exact. I'm kosher with that for now. I'm going to have to rework my exercise plans now that roller derby season is over. Maybe I'll work Jazzercise in on a regular basis?

That's all I got for today. I've had some incredibly long days at work and I'm in desperate need of sleep. So Imma head to bed and see what the gang in Westeros is up to lately. I haven't picked up my book in almost a week, I miss it!

Tequila and Turpentine (Thanks, Porny!)
Ginger.

WLW: Mini-Milestone

I totally forgot to do a WLW post last week. I totally suck. I finally remembered on Friday, but by then I figured the week was a total wash and decided to just wait until this week. So Nyah.

I'm not gonna talk about weight numbers today, just because it was yet another roller derby weekend and we all know how it goes after one of those!

Instead, I'm going to share something that I think makes up for any gained poundage and frustration and other such nonsense.

While on this roller derby road trip, we stopped off in Edmonton to get a little shopping in and a couple of my derby sisters went to Lululemon. Having never been inside one, since I'd always heard they don't cater to the plus sized crowd, I was curious and followed.

Upon arrival at the store, I wandered around, not really expecting to find anything since everything there seemed pretty tiny and I'm the exact opposite of that. Then I had the brilliant idea to see what they had for running pants. I wanted a new pair for the Emperor's Challenge anyway, might as well try and squeeze into something.

Turns out, I didn't have to squeeze. I officially fit into Lululemon running pants.

Did you hear me? I said I FIT INTO LULULEMON CLOTHES!!!!!!!

So I'm going to take this week as a win, because holy shitballs, I never thought I'd ever be able to say the above sentence.

Here I am before the bout in my shiny new lululemon running pants:

For the record, I wasn't running on this trail.

It's a step in the right direction. And for that, I can be happy.

Peace and Love,
Ginger.

Teaser Trailers Everywhere!

Hey, guess what!?!? It's the one year anniversary of this blog! Yay! And to celebrate, I'm about to geek out all over the place!

After seeing all the amazing and wonderful stuff going on there, I would really like to make the trip to the San Diego Comic Con someday. Seriously, it's like a one-stop shop for all my pop culture geekiness! I decided to share some of the tidbits from my favourite TV shows, since SDCC is all about spoilers and teasers and other such awesome things!

The Walking Dead

Firstly, there was the trailer to Season 3 of The Walking Dead, which is still one of my fav shows even though the second season did drag quite a bit.

We have Michonne, we have The Governor, we have the prison. Hell, we even have Merle doing his best impression of Ash from The Evil Dead 2 (probably couldn't find an actual working chainsaw). This season looks like it's going to be an epic post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested, instalment as the two factions of Woodsbury and the Ricktatorship throw down amidst all the walkers.

I'm curious how much time has past since Rick woke up from his coma to the Great Escape from the farm. A week? A month? It can't have been all that long, can it? That's a lot of shit to go down in a short time span. Does the human body just get used to the constant output of adrenaline, or would it eventually just give up?

Spartacus

Next, we leave the zombie apocalypse and go back in time to ancient Rome for the final season of Spartacus! I loved the first season (Blood and Sand) of this essentially soft-core porn series (full frontal, male and female, lots of fucking in between the violence) – totally buff men running around in little loin clothes, hello!

Andy Whitfield was amazing as the title character, and I was very sad when he passed away shortly after that initial season. Gods of the Arena was actually pretty cool, using it as a prequel to tell the stories of how the House of Batiatus became what it was in Blood and Sand, but also as a space filler to try and let Whitfield recover from his cancer treatments.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be and the series moved on with Liam McIntyre taking the lead role. I was actually quite impressed with the job he did in Vengeance, and I look forward to more sex and violence in War of the Damned.

I am kind of bummed that so many of the characters I really liked are now dead, with the exception of maybe three. Granted, they might all be dead by the end of the season, as War of the Damned is to be the final season. Just kill everyone off and be done with it! But make sure they all get to fuck a few more times before they do.

Breaking Bad

Would I know or even care what Bryan Cranston did after Malcolm in the Middle if it wasn't for Breaking Bad? Probably not.

Watching Cranston's character, Walter White, evolve from a meek, mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to the drug cartel kingpin we see today has been some of the best character development and storytelling I have ever seen on television. Who Walter was when he discovered he had terminal lung cancer is not who he is today.

The beauty of it all is this story has to end. Walter needs to die, be it from his cancer or being taken out by his competition, it has to happen. With a bang or a whimper – though I hope it's the former, but could see AMC doing the latter quite well – the series is finite, which is actually really awesome.

Looks like Walter and Jesse are heading back to the fancy lab to get their cook on. Saul doesn't seem to want o be involved anymore and Mike, who really has become my favourite character, is ready to ice everyone. I really cannot wait to see how this series ends, I really do think it's going to be epic.

Season 5, which premieres tomorrow (yay!), is being douche-ly split into two parts – half this summer and half next summer. What the fuck, AMC? You did this with The Walking Dead too, and it sucked balls! I'm just thankful you've never tried it with Mad Men.

Sigh. Moving on!

Dexter

Dexter, you are a slick mother fucker, has anyone ever told you that?

Showtime didn't release a trailer for the upcoming season of Dexter, but rather gave us the first two minutes of the first episode, which picks up right where we left off in season 6. Seriously, if you haven't seen the end of season 6, which made the entirety of the season actually fucking worth it, then keep scrolling, because Immabout to get spolierific here.

Fucking finally! I'd been waiting six seasons for someone to find out about what Dexter does at night... to me, the above scene is the epitome of manipulation on Dexter's part. Never-ending stress, just trying to do is his job, bringing up Rita – he's playing Deb like a harp and will do just about anything to keep anyone else from finding out. Part of me kinda hopes he kills her.

That said, I didn't like the last season of Dexter. And I really wanted to like it, which makes the whole thing even more annoying. Maybe it's the never ending incompetence of the Miami Police Department that they've had yet to figure out there's a serial killer in their lab; maybe it's LaGuerta reverting back to her psycho-bitch self after making her an actually likeable character; maybe it's the fact that Quinn is probably getting written out and I actually liked him when he was introduced...

Oh, wait. I know what it was. it was the uber ickiness of making Deb in love with her adoptive (serial killer) brother!

Seriously, what is with all the incest on TV right now? Yes, I know he's adopted and therefore not blood related and yadda yadda yadda, but where would the series go if they actually acted on it?! They couldn't stay at the police force, let alone in Miami. They work together – EVERYONE in that building would know about it and I doubt they'd be very accepting. Maybe if Deb dropped the high and mighty spiel and became a serial killer too, they could go all Bonnie and Clyde or something.... still, it can't work, so please, for the love of fuck drop it already!

Game of Thrones

Hey, speaking in incest... since season 2 of Game of Thrones just ended, we don't get a teaser trailer for season 3 just yet. Boo!

However, they did release a clip of the newest cast members joining all the madness in Westeros next season! Yay!

I'm gonna start off by saying that the choice of actors to play the Reeds – Meera and Jojen – are damn near perfect. Like, holy shit, he actually looks like how I pictured Jojen in my head when I read the books. Awesome.

Many of these character are pretty minor, but when you're in a series when the major characters are constantly getting killed off (Red Wedding, anyone?) the minor players can move up pretty damn quick.

Other new characters will include Selyse Baratheon (Stannis' wife), Edmure Tully (Father of Catelyn Stark and Lysa Arryn), Tormund Giantsbane (hilarious wildling warrior), Anguy (archer, runs with Lord Beric) and Qyburn (former maester, stripped of his chain).

I really am madly in love with this series, both the book and the show. Season 2 had some much packed into it, but they told the story as best as they could with a 10 episode season. Pretty much everything that needed to happen, happened, just in a more compressed way. It worked for the series, and I can't wait for Season 3.

True Blood

Only took 150,000 tweets with the hashtag #SDCCTrubie to unlock this so we could see it... and it waspretty good... dunno if it was worth 150,000 tweets, but it was a nice little sneak peek into the rest of Season 5.

Eric is Sexy. Alcide is sexy. Roman is sexy. Do I really have to say anything else?

I do? Fine.

Russell Edgington is a psycho in the best possible way, goddamn I've missed him. The way he just chews the scenery is an art in and of itself. If he meets the true death this season, I'll be very sad.

I really don't care about Terry and Arlene – I've tried to care, really I have, but when that storyline about the Smoke Monster takes away from the vamps and weres, I just can't.

I'm enjoying The Authority, Chris Meloni brings all that intensity from Law and Order: SVU to True Blood and I am loving it.

I won't say much else until I've seen this week's episode, which looks like a good one!


And there you have it, not that anyone really wanted my opinion, but ya got it anyway!

Fangs and Walkers,
Ginger.

WLW: Back To The Real World

Well, after two weeks at Fat Camp, it's back to reality and everything that comes with it.

I need to find a way to incorporate everything I was doing at Mom's into life here, because it really did help.

For eight of the 10 days I was actually at the house, we got up before 6 a.m. to go climb The Stairs, which are wooden steps built into the side of a very steep hill. They are a bitch to climb, but they get your heart rate up and work those lower body muscles better than anything else.

There are three rest points going up The Stairs. Last year, I'd need at least a five minute break at each point to recover. This year I managed to catch my breath in less than a minute. Endurance, baby!

The it was back down The Stairs and home for oatmeal. Mom wonders if there isn't something in oatmeal that reduces facial fat, because she felt my face had thinned out considerably while I was home. Same thing started happening with the Old Man after he started eating it for breakfast. I dunno if it's true, but maybe there's something to it.

Bowl of mush or secret fat burner?

After oatmeal and tea, I usually took a very long nap, since that was awfully early for me (5 a.m. my time!) and that climb is exhausting.

Now I need to work that into my daily routine, minus the nap. Work and all, it gets in the way of everything.

Or maybe I need to start going for evening runs again... I hate getting up early.

Anyways, all that climbing and oatmeal eating must have helped, as I'm sitting at about the 216 lbs mark, which is good. The size 12 jeans I bought that were a little tight now fit much nicer and don't cut off my circulation, which is better.

So that's all I got this week.It's been hot as balls here since I got back and I'm not enjoying living in the sauna I call my apartment.  Hopefully I'll have more energy next week.

Oats and Tea,
Ginger.

WLW: Run Away!

I've decided that I'm not even going to talk about weight this week. Instead I'm gonna talk about shoes!

Running shoes, that is.

See, after the wedding this weekend – where I ate too much food and drank too much sparkling wine – we stopped off at CrossIron Mills in Calgary before dropping my brother off at the airport. Mom wanted to find a more breathable running jacket and possibly some new running shoes.

I have been long overdue for a new pair of runners myself, so we wandered off to the Running Room. That is a very fancy running store with lots of fancy running stuff in it.

The Little Sales Clerk came over and asked if she could help us. My mom, who has already had a Running Room employee do the assessment on her knew what kind of shoes she needed, but I haven't, so I didn't know. I just figured, hey, I've always bought Sauconys, I might as well keep using them, right?

Well, Little Sales Clerk had me do the barefoot walk across the store. After walking down the aisle and back, she determined that I am an overpronator and that I wear down my shoes on the outside of my heel and the inside edge of the ball of my feet.

It was like she'd known my feet my whole life!

I always noticed that I wore down the outside heel of pretty much every pair of shoes I've ever owned, but I never really thought that it would effect my running in any way. I'm a little slow sometimes.

So once we figured that out, Little Sales Clerk showed me the shoes that someone with my gait should be wearing. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the selection. The other types of shoes came in all sorts of pretty colours, while the shoes I get to wear were just boring white or grey with a single colour accent.

I wanna wear neon rainbow shoes, goddammit!

Sigh. Fine. I'll try those Sauconys on the wall. They have green and purple, that's almost as good.

Meanwhile, Mom had gone and found a pair on the bargain table that were last year's model of one of the store's top end shoes. Unfortunately, she's an 8.5, and they only had a 9 in those shoes.

Guess who wears a size 9 running shoe?

So I put the purple/green/grey Saucony one one foot and the white and turquoise Asics on the other and walked around the store. First off, holy shitballs I had no idea what a huge difference a proper running shoe would make it how it feels when I walk. Second, god-fucking-dammit, the Asics felt waaaaaay better than the Sauconys.

I am not destined to have pretty running shoes, it would seem.

Hello, shoes! Let's go for a walk!

That was on Saturday. It's now Wednesday and I've been wearing the shoes every morning when I go for my little hike/jog.

I never realized how wrong my old shoes were until I got these ones. Ever since I started running (by which I mean slow jogging) I have gotten pain in my calves that feels like a steel spike had been rammed up the back of my leg. I just figured that was my legs getting used to the running and eventually it would go away.

It never did. Until now.

I haven't had that pain since I started wearing these shoes. I don't know if that's because most of our jogging has been downhill or something, but I'm actually astounded.

So even though they aren't pretty, I'm very happy with my new shoes. We're going to go on many long walks and runs and hikes and everything this summer.

Besides, I managed to find a pretty green and purple water belt and a purple running jacket, so I guess that's an even trade.

Just Keep Running,
Ginger.

WLF: Hello Holidays

Okay, clearly this is not Weight Loss Wednesday, since Wednesday was like two days ago, but I do have a reason!

I've been getting up before 6 a.m. to go hike every morning, and then coming back to Mom's house, eating, showering, then passing out until 11.

I figured all that would throw off my weigh in, so I decided to wait until Friday when I wouldn't be getting up before 5 a.m. my time to attempt stepping on Mom's Scale. Which apparently according to her isn't all that accurate and likely older than her. I think that's a slight exaggeration.

So, I'm a week into my vacay and I've been hiking and eating properly and all that good stuff. I had three Molson Canadian 67 beers last night, which is probably why I'm still at 220 when I was actually at 217.3 the morning I left. Plus we had Israeli takeout last night for dinner, and falafel is deep fried, but that's okay because it was yummy!

I also decided it was time for another change, so I went to my old pal D and had her cut my hair off.

Good morning, world... can I go back to bed now?

Now we're about to embark on a trip to Alberta for my cousin's wedding, where alcohol will be imbibed in great amounts, because that's how it works when I'm with my extended family.

I'm in a much better frame of mind than I was last week, so that's a good thing. Seeing old friends, the babies of old friends and not having to be at work has calmed me down some.

But I gotta go get ready now, so I'm going to leave you with this uber inspirational image I took yesterday at 6 a.m.

Because Journey makes everything better.

Happy holidays!

Ginger.

WLW: One Year Later

Well peeps, here were are.

This post is a milestone. It was one year ago that I decided I was sick and tired of being a fatass and it was past time to do something about it.

At that time, I weighed in at a hefty 235.5 pounds. Goddamn, my head was fucking wide.... I'd finally gained fat on my face. That was insane.

Putting the "belly" in bellydancer... This is actually a freakishly good angle.

I decided to cut out sugar in all it's forms to start with, go on a schedule of eating properly for 12 days then getting two days off.

This worked well for a couple months. Then I realized that have no sugar in my system was almost as bad as having too much, so I started to incorporate complex carbs back in.

I think I did alright up until Thanksgiving. After that, things seems to go to shit. Maybe because it was winter, maybe I'd lost my drive. I don't know. But I had a bitch of a time trying to lose for something like 5 months. I wanted to cry almost every day, I'm actually astounded that I didn't.

Instead, I set a different goal. Instead of the main focus being weight loss, I was going to get in shape for derby season! Yeah, that'll keep me motivated!

It did, for the most part. I worked out every morning at 6 a.m., and then went to the walking track after work. I didn't lose a pound at this point, but I was starting to tighten up. That was a good sign, I thought.

I also redid the Learn to Run 10k with my sister, with the goal of doing a 10k in April. Which I did, along with my coach and derby wife and derby twin. We finished dead last – my fault, because I'm stupid slow – but we finished.

By that point we'd moved back into the big space for derby practices and started to get things going for the upcoming bouting season. Running fell by the wayside a bit... okay, a lot.

Then, I started recording everything I eat on My Fitness Pal, which made me realize I was eating not too bad, but way too much. That's been a pretty big help in curbing what and how much I eat.

Around that time I decided I was going to take a natural approach to eating, reduce my meat intake and not eat anything that had any unpronounceable ingredients.

Yeah, then we started bouting and that went right out the window.

So that's my year in a nutshell. In all that time I'm managed to take off a whopping..... are you ready for this?

15 pounds.

That's it.

Sigh.

I mean, I lost something. It's better than not losing anything, I guess. Kind of a downer though. When I started this whole mess I figured I'd be able to take off like 40 or 50 pounds. Most people would have! Not Ginger. Nope. I originally hit the 15 pound mark back in fucking October for fuck's sake!

I suck.

...

I'm sorry, that's the PMS talking. See, I've got this nasty little problem that I can't seem to recall if I've discussed here before and upon a (very) quick perusal of all my previous entries I don't see it anywhere.

I have a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This isn't a new development – I've known I've had it since I was 17. My doctor at the time discovered it through blood work and it's basically a hormone imbalance. While girls are supposed to have a certain amount of estrogen and testosterone, more of the former than the latter, I actually have more testosterone than I should and not enough estrogen.

Because of the weird imbalance, my body wants to weigh 300 pounds. I don't weigh 300 pounds, so I must be doing something right.

So I'm gonna hold a little pity party for the rest of the night, but when I get up tomorrow that's done. It's a brand new day, year and so on.

Question for anyone that reads this... should I continue these WLW posts? Does anyone care? Should I do something different? I don't know if it's helped beyond being an outlet for me to vent, but maybe that's enough? I don't know.

I'm gonna go crawl into bed with a book now. My holidays start in a couple days and like I said last year, going to Mom's is like going to a fat farm. Maybe it'll be the thing I need.

For now, here's my meh face for the day.

 Meh.

Reflections and Recollections,

Ginger.