Adventures in Hedonism

It’s day 5 of my weight loss/sleep experiment and I can tell you already that I am liking the results. Though I have not yet weighed, I can tell you that I have been feeling better than I have in a long, long time.

I missed my Advil PM last night because I was out late with friends and thought it would be too late to take them when I got home.  I paid for it, too.  I didn’t sleep well and I woke up feeling yucky today.

All the other days though, I have had energy all day and have felt nice and ready to wake up in the mornings.  I won’t forget to take the Advil tonight! I’m exhausted! 

The weigh in comes Sunday.  Check back to see the results!

Today is the third day of my December Sleep/Weight Loss Experiment.   I have to say that I’m feeling pretty good, too.  If you want to read the details of the experiment, you can click on the link above.

I can tell that I’m getting deeper sleep and more sleep, which is awesome.  I’ve been feeling super refreshed when I wake up in the mornings and am better able to start my day off in  the right way instead of feeling grouchy like I usually do.   I have more energy during the day and have been able to fall asleep a little quicker at night.

I have not weighed myself yet.  I intend to do that 7 days into the experiment.  That’s when we’ll find out if all this new energy = a better metabolism and therefore a little weight loss.

Anyone care to join me in trying this?

2008 has left many of us broke and yearning for a new year and a new beginning.  Finances have collapsed and there is no end in sight.

Personally, my washing machine is broken and cannot be fixed, my 17 year old son totaled our car (he’s fine, thank goodness!) and we only have liability insurance, my grocery bill has doubled even though I’m still buying the same things and since I work in the hospitality industry, my income has been cut in half.  No one else has any money either.

I had a complete breakdown after the car accident and I was left wondering what advice I would give to others to handle this kind of situation.  I’m great at giving advice, but horrible at following my own.

I’ve been in tougher spots than this.  I’ve lived without heat or hot water and barely scraped by.  I am in a much better place and I know that this, too, shall pass.

I wrote down the advice I thought that I would give to others and have decided to follow it myself.  I will not have a pity party.  I will be thankful that I have hot water, a warm home and bike that I can ride to work.  I will work hard to pull myself out of this pit and I will become a better person because of it.

We’ve all read the recent studies on how getting a good night’s sleep prevents weight gain and I’m ready to put it to the test.

I could stand to lose about 50 pounds and I’m going to do a little experiment of my own over the month of December.  I am already taking Advil daily for arthritis in my hand, so instead of taking the regular kind, I’m going to try taking the Advil PM every night for the month of December.

I think that I am ideal for this kind of experiment because I have a lot of trouble falling asleep and usually wake up many times throughout the night.  I am interested to see how I feel in the mornings after getting a good night’s sleep…assuming the pills do their job.

Aside from feeling better during the day, I hope that I will also get the added benefit of a little weight loss.  I have a very active day job where I get lots of exercise and I’m not planning on changing my eating habits during the next month.  I will up date here on a weekly basis and we’ll see how it goes.

A worthy way of celebrating Thanksgiving this year is to donate your used cameras to the Skid Row Club project.

They are collecting cameras and handing them out to participants at Skid Row who are using them to create beautiful art.

Their first show was last Thursday and hundreds of people turned up for the show.  The photographs went for $100 per print unframed and $290 framed. Half the proceeds goes to buy more cameras and the other half goes to the artist.

If you would like to donate a camera, simply email eecue@eecue.com. The website even has a way that you can simply donate money to the project via paypal.  This is a great way to get your whole family involved in a wonderful project for the holidays.  I urge everyone to participate.

The Raging Rev has awarded me with the Rock Star Award! Thanks Raging Rev!

It’s true.  I AM a rock star.

Annnnyyywayyy…I’m supposed to list 8 things about myself and nominate a few other folks for this award.  Let’s see…

1. I was a youth minister at a southern baptist church for 5 years.
2. I was married to a music minister for 10 years.
3. I am now agnostic.
4. I am happier now than I have ever been in my entire life.
5. I am marrying fellow agnostic in April on the beach in Alabama.
6. I am addicted to my computer.
7. I am a massage therapist by day.
8. I used to be a high school teacher…and after that I was a nuclear lab tech.

Yep…believe it or not.

So, here are my nominations for this award:

Mike at Waxing Poetically

Cliterature

Leslie at PixiePine Palace

and

Katy over at Trapped in the Office …she’s had a rough week!

This video of Sarah Palin makes my Thanksgiving Day! I am unsure as to what happened here.  I know that with a little effort, the camera man could have shifted his position so that the disturbing, yet ironic image in the background was off-camera.  So….was there a discussion before hand where he was told to be sure and get the turkey slaughtering in the background?

If that’s the case, why?  Did Sarah Palin make this decision?  Was it to be funny (which is what I would have done)? I doubt it.  Was it to send some sort of message to the liberals who might be watching?  Maybe.  Was it to generate publicity such as this blog post?  Hm….is she that smart?

If she didn’t make the decision, was it just a sadistic camera guy who thought it might be good for a laugh? Or was it completely arbitraray? Something that no one in the situation gave a second thought to?

I think it might have been the producers from the local station that did the interview to drum up some publicity.  What do you think?

Aside from drinking my way toward alcohol poisoning this month at different events, I have had the opportunity to attend several potluck dinners with friends.

At a wine tasting recently, I tasted an awesome cheese snap concoction that my mouth fell in love with.  I found out that the recipe was from a fundraiser cookbook for our local NPR station, so I bought one.  Those damn things are awesome! Everyone I’ve tried them on so far has wanted the recipe.  Even my mother, southern cook extraordinarie called and wanted the recipe.

So, in the interest of the betterment of society, I’ll share the cheese snap recipe with my today.com readers.  Enjoy!

1. Cream 1 cup of butter.

2. Add in 2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and cayenne pepper.

3. Add 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.

4. Add 1/2 pound of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

5. Roll into teaspoon sized balls and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 350.

Let me know if you try them. They’re fantastic!

I know that I want more tattoos.  They are inevitably addictive!  I do have a few ideas, but none of them as clever as this young lady. (for a better look at this image, right click and hit view image) I stumbled across this photo on the internet and have no idea who she is, but this is one of the most unusual and fantastic tattoo designs I have ever seen.

As of right now, I have three tattoos and I want more.  I am fortunate to be in a profession that I can be a professional and still have visable tattoos.  The only really visible one that I have right now is on my right forearm…it’s a red insert disc to a 45 record and I love it.  I got it as a memorial when my friend shut down his indie punk rock record store in this dismal conservative town where we both live.  It was sad, but it was time to move on.  Any votes on what the next tattoo should be?  My awesome financee has a fantastic idea of getting an extremely old death tarot card tattoo on his back.  It’s gonna be beautiful!

I had an amazing trip to New Orleans last weekend for my birthday.  I am happy to say that I turned 36.  We ate good food, drank and sang in the Piano Bar at Pat O’Briens and, of course, went to the strip club.

The next morning was Cafe du Monde and the French Market.  I struck gold at the French Market this trip. I even found a cake topper for the wedding.  However, the best thing that I saw the whole weekend was this basket full of Obama pan flutes.  I don’t know why in the world I opted to take a photo of these instead of buying one.

I’ll chalk that one up to having a serious sort of hangover.  Oh well, if any of you are travelling down to NO any time soon, pick one of these up for me.