Category: Daily Life

It's not as if I didn't know I'd been gaining weight over the past couple of years. All of the signs were there:

• Three-quarters of a closet full of clothes that don't fit,
• Avoidance of any garment that reveals my arms or legs,
• Failure to purchase a new full-length mirror after the old one broke,
• Tendency to gravitate toward over-sized t-shirts, and
• Grimacing at the sight of myself in our vacation photos.

Still, I don't think it completely sank in until this morning when I needed to find an outfit to wear to a business-oriented event tonight.

I was pretty sure I had a couple of suits that I'd worn the last time my weight trended upward. Even with my current jeans size providing strong evidence to the contrary, I assumed that those suits would be close enough to my current size that I could wear one of them tonight. Oh, how wrong I was.

It turns out that all of my suits from that era are a size 8. As soon as I saw that number, I knew I was completely out of luck, but I still had to torture myself by trying on the skirts. Uh, yeah. Forget zipping them – I couldn't even pull them up all the way.

Okay, so obviously I'm not a size 8. Still, I figured I could fall back on one of the skirts my sister gave me after she smallified herself by becoming a yoga instructor. I tried it on – and keep it mind that it's only been four or five months since I wore it last – and although I could get it on, the zipper didn't want to go all the way up and the front of the skirt clung in a most unattractive manner.

I had no choice but to wear a somewhat stretchy, long-sleeved black dress with a random suit jacket (that's actually too small as well, but works okay unbuttoned). It'll get me by, but it's not what I would have preferred. Plus, I'll need to concentrate on sucking in my gut all evening long. Dammit.

It all boils down to the fact that I'm getting older, I get almost no exercise, and I don't exactly go out of my way to eat the healthiest food every day. There's nothing I can do about my age, but I can certainly get off my lazy butt and drag myself away from the computer more often.

Starting this weekend, my husband and I are joining our local community center and putting our workouts ON THE CALENDAR, which is the only way we can manage to keep up any kind of schedule.

My goal is to get back into those size 8 suits by next spring. Wish me luck – I'm going to need it!

This was a very fruitful and positive weekend in many ways. I had a great time at Chicks Who Click, and on Sunday I played at a party on the huge stage at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas for my cousin Travis' graduation from K-State.

Sadly, that was my band's last gig in its current form. I'd had the graduation party booked since late last year and actually said to my band members on several occasions, "Nobody can quit before this gig!"

The band had been struggling for months, but every guy hung in there until we could play the party, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

Now my husband and I are trying to decide what to do next. We're both tempted to start another original band, even though that would mean low or no pay for playing. We've also tossed around the idea of revamping the set list to remove all of the really old classic rock and add songs from contemporary hard rock bands we enjoy, such as Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Saliva, etc.

At this point, I don't know which way we'll go.

Next month, my goal of streamlining my activities will reach another milestone when I finally retire from two not-for-profit boards. As I've mentioned before, the overscheduling of my life has been taking a toll. I'm out of shape but can't find time to exercise. I've been neglecting tasks around the house for far too long. I'm very much looking forward to reframing my lifestyle to be slower and healthier.

I have a four-day weekend for Memorial Day, so it'll be nice to get a glimpse of what that can be like. On Saturday, I'll have the opportunity to recharge my batteries with some old-fashioned manual labor when I work my first farm shift for my CSA. My niece is spending the night on Friday and coming out to the farm with me.

My sister's neighborhood is having their annual Memorial Weekend block party on Sunday, so I'll definitely be there to hang out with everyone.

I have nothing planned on Memorial Day itself, but it seems like a perfect day to sleep in, hang around the house and relax.

So how was your weekend? Do you have any fun plans for the coming weekend?

I think one of the reasons I've stopped blogging as often is that I'm really rather disgustingly happy with my life. It's great for me, but it doesn't exactly make for scintillating blog fodder. To quote Tolstoy, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

My husband and I are coming up on our fifteenth anniversary late this year. Despite some minor chore imbalances around the house, we experience very few conflicts. He's considerate and thoughtful, loves the cats and worries when I'm over-scheduling myself. I am inspired by his ability to pick up interests and study them until he becomes a self-taught expert.

We've finally lived in our house long enough that it's almost the way I want it.

My job is wonderful. I get to do work suited to my talents and personality that I really enjoy, and see minute-by-minute results.

I'm mature enough to be comfortable in my own skin…even when it encloses a couple dozen extra pounds that I haven't gotten around to addressing. I know who I am and what I stand for.

I have an almost unbelievable number of friends. Not only do I keep in touch with old friends clear back to elementary school, I'm constantly meeting new people who enrich my life in ways I would never have anticipated.

I haven't even mentioned the little joys of life: cats, coffee, books, movies, favorite TV shows, yoga, ice cream and too many other things to enumerate.

When I don't post, it's largely because I'm spending my time living this life and appreciating every moment of it.

That said, I'm looking forward to having some fun posts next week, complete with photos. See you then!

I keep seeing this billboard along I-70 in Kansas City. I think Pepsi has mistaken Kansas City for St. Louis. The only person I know who pronounces "soda" as "sody" is my aunt in St. Louis. Even she, if I remember correctly, doesn't actually call it "sody pop." Very strange.

I just realized that I haven't been blogging often enough to tell this story without laying a bit of groundwork. I'll keep it as basic as possible.

We had band practice on Tuesday night and our new drummer did not show up. His wife called the next day with a drama-filled explanation, but obviously things were not going to work out with him. Thus, we had to prevail upon my husband to play our Friday night gig with us.

Friday was my husband's 52nd birthday. You'd never guess, would you?

I knew he really didn't want to spend his birthday working, so I stopped at Costco on the way home from work and bought him a huge chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. We packed up our music gear and took the cake with us to the bar.

On our first break, I invited all of the bar patrons to have cake with us. A few brave souls outside of our usual fan group took us up on it. When we got back onstage, everyone in the band and audience sang happy birthday and my husband looked pleased despite his avowed disinterest in celebrating.

I purposely left the weekend open so I could hang out with the hubby as much as possible. We slept late on Saturday, went out to breakfast at Einstein Bros. around 3 p.m., went to an art opening in the early evening and finished off our day's activities with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We were initially planning to go out and see a band play, but I ran out of steam and needed to get some sleep instead.

Today we're getting together with the guitarist from our defunct original project to grab an early dinner and go to a jam.

My husband's birthday gift from me is a trip to Nashville that we'll be taking this spring. He's planning on meeting up with his old buddies from the decade that he lived in Nashville and worked as a studio and touring drummer. I'm thinking of the trip mainly in terms of the delicious food we're going to have (Pancake Pantry, Corky's Barbecue, etc.).

It's a couple of days late now, but "Happy Birthday, Honey!"

I can feel the burnout approaching, although it has not yet reached its apex.

My evening and weekend calendars are just too full. I volunteer with three separate organizations, keep up with numerous social groups, and practice with my band once or twice a week.

I'm sure it started because I love being around people and staying busy, but the balance has tipped too far. I need time to get and stay healthier, which means scheduling regular exercise and opportunities to cook at home. There are household projects that have gone undone for too long. Heck, I'm even a couple of months overdue for a pedicure.

Fortunately, I have a plan.

Starting in June, I'll be finished with my terms on two non-profit boards. That'll be about a month after I start getting my CSA shares of vegetables and organic meat.

My new after-work schedule will include three evenings a week working out at one of our local community centers to supplement the yoga classes at work to which I'll be returning starting today. I'll then be cooking dinner and spending time with my husband and cats.

As important as the volunteer work may be, it's going to have to be cut back. It's also time I took a hard look at the stress-to-enjoyment ratio of the band.

My participation in social and networking events will probably continue at the current rate. They're the activities I enjoy the most, outside of hanging out with my husband and other family members.

My intention is that this will be a summer of self-improvement, laughter, long naps, reading, playing with cats, and other healthy choices that will extend for many seasons to come. Maybe I'll even get back into this "blogging" thing I've heard so much about…

As soon it decides to get serious about being spring, that is.

I was getting ready to make a cheesecake this morning and had to move one of my Crock-Pots out of the way to get to the Cuisinart in the pantry. It occurred to me that for any woman of the potluck persuasion, her Crock-Pot is a dead giveaway of her age.

You can tell I moved out on my own in the late 1980s because my first Crock-Pot was country blue and white (but for the record, the design did NOT include the geese with bonnets that were so popular at the time). The larger one I got as a wedding present in the early '90s has a vivid teal crockery liner and there's some nineties-tastic jewel-tone magenta in the design on the front of the appliance.

Now, of course, most Crock-Pots are brushed stainless steel on the outside. I know that seems all sleek and modern, but just wait ten years. They'll come up with some new appliance fashion and all our brushed stainless will look "so 2000s."

I noticed that Karen from Chookoloonks is celebrating her five-year blogging anniversary and it occurred to me, "Hey, wait a minute! My five-year blogging anniversary is in February, too!"

It turns out that it came and went on February 15th without my noticing. Oops.

So, five long years of blogging. I used to be great about blogging every weekday, but I've gotten out of the proper mindset over the past year or so. I don't know if that's necessarily all bad, but I do feel as though it's a mistake for me to take my blog for granted when it's contributed so much to my life.

In belated recognition of my half-decade of blogging, I'm resolving right now to go back to being a more consistent blogger. Yes, I might rely on memes and photos to get me through some weeks, but I think it's important for my blog to remain my primary headquarters in the social media world.

Look for new posts every day this week. I'm back, folks!

I just woke up at 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday with a completely unscheduled day ahead of me. Hooray!

My band played Friday night and it went quite well. I'd taken a half day off from work to run a few errands and just chill out beforehand, and I think that helped.

Thanks again to all of my friends who came out to the gig, including Rita, Greg, Code Rigger and PrincessofWorld, as well as two other friends without as much 'net presence.

I only got about five hours of sleep on Saturday morning before Trillian decided she was bored and needed to pounce on my hand. So I got up, washed the bar smoke out of my hair and surfed for a while until it was time for my Soroptimist Club's fundraiser luncheon.

As soon as I got home from the luncheon, I took a three-hour nap. (I'm reporting that just for you, Kim!)

Once I got up, I couldn't get motivated to do anything constructive for the rest of the day. My husband and I finally dragged ourselves out of the house for Thai food around 8:00 p.m., then immediately returned home and vegged in front of the TV until I got sleepy again.

Today I think I can muster the will to cook breakfast, get some grocery shopping done and perhaps continue the Quest for the Coffee Table that would complete the furnishing of the new TV room. Or maybe I'll just lie around and read all day. It's nice to have options.