MORE on Exerise and Weight

Y'all, I think this blog is a bad luck charm. Yesterday, after I posted that I had lost weight, I went to lunch and a guy asked me if I was pregnant. Actually, it was worse than that. He asked HOW FAR ALONG I WAS. I kind of coldly said, "I'm not pregnant." He hastily apologized. Then there was an awkward silence. Then he said, "I'm really sorry about that." Longer awkward silence. Finally, I directed the conversation back to the business we were discussing. Yeah. Hate that. I always think to myself, "...and when I get home, I'm going to burn this shirt."
In totally related news, I went to a dance/aerobics class at the gym last night. And I'm going again tonight. I've discovered something interesting about exercise, which will come as a revelation to exactly one person (that person being me). Each person has to find the type of exercise that they enjoy in order to stick with it. For so long, I just tagged along with any of my friends to whatever they wanted to go to, or took whatever class was offered at the apartment complex gym (when I was single and lived in an apartment). I figured that exercise sucked and I hated all of it, so what did it matter if I went to kickboxing or yoga or Pilate's. But then. One of my friends told me about Zumba, which is latin inspired dance/aerobics. I took tap and ballet when I was a kid and I've always really enjoyed dancing. So Zumba sounded like something I'd actually like. And I won't lie to you - the first class kicked my ass. And for the first few months, I seriously thought about leaving at the 30 minute mark. (And sometimes, I still do.) But it's such a great class, and it's structured so that there's a different routine to each song, so every 3 minutes or so, you're doing something different. And somehow, every time I want to leave, one of my favorite songs comes on and I think, "Oh, but I love this one. I'll get back out there." Then, somehow, ten minutes passes and there's only 20 minutes left to go, and well, I can make it through 20 more minutes, because the last 5 or so is the cool down, so it's really only 15 minutes and I can totally do that. And at the end, while I'm tired and sweaty and gross, I feel good. I feel like I've *gasp* had fun, which is a totally new and foreign concept to me when it comes to exercise. And I've tried to tell my workout buddy Carol about Zumba and how I think she would like it, but recently I realized that she wouldn't like it AT ALL. In fact, she would fucking hate Zumba. I figured this out because I often go to her house and take my The Firm dvd and we do the workout together. (It's way easier to work out WITHOUT small children dancing between your feet.) It's half dance-based aerobics and half strength training with weights. Carol HATES the dance sections, mainly because the routine keeps changing. Her comment was, "Just when I get it figured out, she's on to something else!" So yeah, she'd despise Zumba. But the funny part is? I hate the strength training/weights sections. It seems so repetitive and boring to me. So I help her through the dance parts and she helps me through the weight parts. And that's how I figured out that we each have to find the workout we don't hate. Some people are runners and some people are weightlifters and some people are yogis and that's the way things should be. Me, I'm a dancer. (And a swimmer. I went swimming last Friday, and it was awesome. Must. find. pool.) It feels really good to have found something I don't hate.

Time

Okay, I deleted that last post. I thought about how I would feel if my friend wrote that about me and it would make me want to put my head in the oven. So, thank you all for your advice and comments, but I'd feel really horrible if my friend ever found that, so I took it down.

On to happier topics! I have a weight loss milestone to share with you all. I've debating putting my weight out there, but I've decided that my happiness outweighs (HA!) my embarrassment. If you're horrified by how much I weigh, just don't tell me, 'k? Last Wednesday, I finally broke below the 200 mark! My weight begins with a 1! (Granted, I'm still at about 197, but that's still less than 200, damnit.) I need to step up my workouts and right now that's something I'm struggling with. I have such a hard time finding time to work out. I've mentioned that I commute a hour each way to work, so that lets out working out before work. There is no way I'm getting up any earlier than I already do. (Although, I have thought about getting up a couple minutes earlier and doing a 10 or 15 minute workout. If I can figure out how to do that without waking everyone else up, I may.) I've been going to the mall at lunch and walking a little bit a few days a week. Once a week, I go over to a friend's house and we work out to the The Firm dvds for about an hour. And I go to a Zumba class at the gym one night a week. I guess the real problem I struggle with is laziness. Even just typing all this, I think, "Oh, I don't want to do ANY of that." So tell me, how do you fit in workouts? How do you keep yourself motivated?

Audio Books

So I recently discovered audio books. Why hello, 20th century! What other marvels will you bring me? No, I don't have an ipod. Or a blackberry, why do you ask? Anyway, back to audio books. They have changed my life. I commute an hour each way to my office, so that's 10 hours in the car every week. Turning that into "reading" time is awesome. It's especially nice in the mornings, when there's no one to call and talk to. I'm on my third audio book and it's so nice to feel like I'm being told a story as I drive to work and home. Here the part where you come in. Please recommend books that you've read recently that I can listen to on my drives. Any suggestions welcome, but especially older books that I can find on cd at used book stores. Thanks!

Litmus Tests

HA! HAHAHAHA! So Swistle linked to me (YOU KNOW which post!) and suddenly I had tons of new people reading and commenting. I have 50 comments on that one post, which is 25 (!) from other people and 25 from me. Which is the most I've ever had. On a post that, while I thought the situation was very funny, I didn't really want more than my usual handful of people to read. Oh naivete, how fun you were! So! Ah, welcome, to anyone who came for the p0rn and stayed for everything else. Should you, by some horrible chance, know me in real life, or have figured out who my father is, how about you just keep that fact to yourself, mmmkay? I have delusions of anonymity on this blog, so let's don't blow that, 'kay?
Let's move on to less embarrassing facts about my life, shall we?
Last week, I loaned my copy of The Usual Suspects to a work friend. Today, I came in and the movie was on my desk with a post-it note saying, "LOVED it. Thanks!" While I'm thrilled that she liked it, I'm also relieved. Because if she hadn't, it would have damaged our friendship. See, The Usual Suspects is one of my litmus tests for friends. If you hate The Usual Suspects, you and I probably cannot be friends. Another big test is Monty Python. If you hate Monty Python, I will think you are stupid. Not in a mean way; just in a "Oh, you don't get it" way. My ex-BFF hated Monty Python, and for years I couldn't figure out why that made me think less of her. Finally, Rock pointed out that she probably didn't get most of the Monty Python jokes, because she's really not that bright. Mean, yes, but also true. Mike Myer's Austin Powers movies are another one. Yes, there is a lot of juvenile, bathroom type humor in them, and if you can't at least loosen up and laugh a little, I will think you are a tightass. I'm not a crude person, by anyone's standards, but I think the Austin Powers movies are brilliant (esp. Goldmember). I will also hold it against you if you like the really cheesy and awful chick flicks. If Maid in Manhattan or Must Like Dogs is your all-time favorite movie, please do not sit beside me. Okay, this is starting to make me feel like a real asshole, so please tell me I'm not the only one. What are your dealbreakers for friends?

If It Ain't Broke...

Subtitled: The Un-Brake Problem.
So, on Thursday, my car started making a horrible noise. It was coming from the front passenger tire and started as soon as I backed the car up to leave for work Thursday morning. Rock happened to be up and came out to the back porch when I stopped the car almost immediately and got out to look at the tires. I told him what was going on, he listened to the noise as I backed out of the drive, but since the car was driving fine, I decided to go on to work and deal with the noise later. I talked to Rock most of the way to work, trying to describe when the noise was louder, when it went away, etc. He thought it was probably a wheel bearing. He had me check the tire when I got to work to make sure it wasn't too hot. (I was supposed to check it at lunch, too, but I had the radio up too loud to hear anything then.) It did make the noise most of the way home Thursday night, though. Friday, Rock and I went to out to test the car and see if we could narrow down what the problem was and where we should take it for repairs. We put the car in reverse and it made the noise again, then we dropped it into neutral and let it roll forward. It made the noise again. This time, Rock decided that it must be the brakes. Since it was the brakes, we weren't willing to take the car just anywhere to be fixed. I don't know about where you live, but around here, brake jobs are the single biggest rip-off in car repairs. No matter what, if you take a car in for brake repairs, the mechanic is going to fix the brakes, then tell you that the brake pads were "worn clean through to the rotors" and "It was scraping metal on metal" and that they had to replace the rotors, too. (Please hear this in my best imitation of a redneck drawl.) After hearing this bullshit for three or four brake jobs, I am not interested in being ripped off again. The only place I will take my car for brake repair is the Best Mechanic on Earth. BME lives three houses up from my mom and I've known him since I was 14. His garage is behind his house and his dad lives next door to him. In bad weather or power outages, he rounds up the older neighbors and takes them to his dad's house, where they have a generator. In short, most honest mechanic ever. So, on Friday I called BME and asked him when he could take a look at my car. Yesterday was his earliest appointment, so we dropped the car off Sunday night and he worked on it yesterday. I called him about 5:00 last night to make sure the car was ready. His reply, "Yeah, I think I got ya ready to roll. Ya ain't gonna to believe what was makin that noise. Ya had ya a rock, stuck between the rotor and the brake guard, scraping against both of 'em. I flipped that outta there, and it was fine." We picked the car up last night. Total charge? $28, for the oil change he did.

Update

Well, the p0rn is no longer coming to my house. Thank God. Apparently, my dad decided to give it to a young, single guy he knows. So my dad will no longer be the king of p0rn. What a relief.

In other news, I have a three hour conference call today that starts at noon. Could this day suck any worse? Wait, don't answer that.