~Tuesday~ I had a good eating week this week, and I appreciated that my scale agreed with me on that this morning. Progress.
Since I’d made my breakfast and lunch sandwiches last night, and my coffee pot was set to automatically start brewing my coffee at 8:00, I was essentially ready to go when I got downstairs to the kitchen this morning. I wish I would be that organized every morning.
I arrived at the bus stop at 8:16, where the temperature was absolutely perfect at 69°. As a further gift, when the bus arrived at 8:22, Hot Mess Driver was not at the helm, which is to say two things:
- The air was actually circulating on the bus, and
- You could signal a stop with no consideration of arbitrary requirements or concerns about being reprimanded for not adhering to them.
An Asian lady who sat across from me, and who actually got on at my stop, wore a large floppy-brimmed pink hat, and her profile looked like something out of a painting. I resisted taking a picture of her, but I really wanted to.
I had my weekly staff meeting with my boss, to which she brought the best homemade banana pudding evah. OMG.
I asked her where she got the recipe from and when she responded, “Paula Dean,” I asked her, “How much butter is in it?”
Surprisingly, she said it didn’t have butter in it but the next best things—cream cheese and sour cream. How could that be bad, right?
At lunch time, I took the Wolfline #9 Greek Village bus down to the Bell Tower stop, from which I walked to the post office at Cameron Village. After mailing my package, and purchasing a book of love stamps, I walked back to my office enjoying today’s most temperate weather.
On the way, I saw the entrance to the Raleigh Rose Garden, which is virtually in the backyard of my work building, and I decided to take a moment to, well, stop and smell these:
After exiting the rose garden, I saw a cop car ahead with its blue lights flashing. As I drew closer, I saw that there was debris in the road:
Is that another one of those unstable, man-made Bradford Pear trees?
My final lunch walk stop was at the credit union, where I deposited a check and withdrew $60 in cash.
I was very pleased to find that my electric bill this month was $66.94. It averages in the $55 – $75 range, but does sometimes get higher in the summertime. I was just thinking the other day, as I set the overnight temperature to 68° (instead of my usual 70°) and which I’ve done a couple of times lately, “I wonder if this is going to make a difference in my bill this month.”
Speaking of average bills, I charge pretty much everything—whatever I can—to my credit card, as I get points for every purchase, and I pay it off every month. Here’s a snapshot of my monthly bills since January of 2010:
That’s an average of $1557.97 per month. Who’s counting?
I’m not proud of this, but I’m going to put it in here for posterity anyway. Today at work I reached into a trash can to retrieve a discarded Lean Cuisine box (at least it was on the top of the pile), which I promptly ripped open to get the Lean Cuisine Delicious Rewards number from its inside.
I just started participating in the program after this last grocery run, when I bought ten of their dinners, and thought, “Why not?” Your dieting strategy might be suspect if you’ve joined a frequent eating club.
On the city bus ride home, an older, heavy man using a cane got on at a stop on Method Road and took a seat next to a young guy. He sat down with a grunt, and as soon as he did said to that young guy next to him, “”I’m new in town. My daughter just had an operation. I haven’t seen her in five-and-a-half years.”
The young guy politely nodded.
“She had a hysterectomy. 27 years old. She has cancer and has had two breasts removed, too.”
The young guy said something to the effect of, “It’s good that you’re back in touch with her then,” and seemed a little relieved to be at his stop.
As the young guy exited, the older guy said, “God bless you,” and took advantage of the stopped bus to move to the back of the bus.
As soon as the bus started rolling again, he said to the new people nearby, “I’m new in town. My daughter just had an operation…”
I eventually got to the gym tonight, with a close call of reaching the point where I’d either lie down on the bed “for a minute” or just blow it off for it “now being too late.” Whew. Close call.
I did 300 (15 sets of 20) ab crunches, followed by 40 minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine.
The free weight area had some nice eye candy to keep things interesting, and I watched one of the really hot guys that work there, who always refers to me as “sir”—as in “Good evening, sir,” and “Have a good evening, sir”—as opposed to “Yes, sir, I’ll do anything you want me to do, sir.” But I digress…
Where was I? Oh yes. So, he was taking two potential customers around for a tour of the facility. They were a married couple who had clearly spent a lot of time enjoying each other’s company at buffets, and the man had virtually no chin. The lady seemed much more into the tour, as he mostly walked behind her and didn’t pay nearly as much attention to the tour guide as she did, which gave me the impression that she wore the stretch pants in that family.
When I walked out of there after my workout, my endorphins must have still been going strong, because I was thinking, “God, I feel good right now. I’m glad I got my butt here, and I’m glad I didn’t stop my cardio after 30 minutes, in spite of the raging conversation about doing so for the first 29 minutes of the workout.”
At home, I put in a load of laundry and then took care of a few things on my to-do list.
I created a poll for our July, August, and September Manbites Dog Theater Board of Directors meetings, and another one for our Mostly Social Book Club in order to reschedule our July meeting, which came under conflict with Suzanne going to Australia, Janet going to the west coast for a wedding, and my recent decision to meet Joe in Chicago over a weekend in July. I just love doodle.com.
And, finally, before hitting the sack, I put an airline reservation on a 24-hour hold for my Chicago trip, waiting first to verify something with Joe, before finalizing the reservation.
It’s amazing how the airlines keep—rather desperately it seems to me—trying to find more ways to up-sell to their customers. Of course, they now offer you the “opportunity” to pay more for seats with more leg rooms, most of which are the seats that already have more leg room by the exits.
During my transaction tonight, there were two additional opportunities to “upgrade” my purchase:
- I think it might have been $30 for their “Boarding and Flexibility Package,” which consisted of:
- Group 1 Boarding – Be among the first to board and store your luggage.
- Standby for an earlier flight – Departure day flexibility at no additional charge.
- Flight Change Discount – Save $75 off the service charge for confirmed itinerary changes.
- And then when I chose to put the reservation on hold, which is for 24 hours, they asked, “Would you like to extend the hold to seven days for an additional $5.00?”
I got one for the airlines, “Would you like to kiss my hairy ass for $5.00?”