friday random eleven: “lots of big stuff” edition
Lots of big stuff happening this past week…Obviously, the *biggest* news was what happened in the last post. So far, the kid tells me she doesn’t feel all that different, which is understandable; this big event, to be honest, probably has a lot more to do with how other people see you than how you see yourself; at least that’s the way it was for me (assuming I have an accurate memory of life twenty-five years ago) – I was ready to get it over with and on to the next part of my life. I think she’s kind of just taking a breather for a couple of days, and playing with the fancy hot-rodded laptop we got her as a graduation present.
The other big “event” (I guess you’d call it that) was my hitting my first system-generated weight loss goal; based on the tracker and data from the scale, there is a little more than ten percent less of me than when I began this process back in mid-April, a total of about 35.3 pounds gone, if you use the starting point as the average between those first couple of days in order to shake out the signal-to-noise ratio:
I’m feeling much better than I did before I started, I’m back to cycling an average of 40 miles a week, and thanks to the chemical assistance of this program, I’m not really feeling like I’m missing anything in terms of food or indulgence (brain chemistry is a strange and fascinating thing). The next goal it’s setting for me is maybe a little ambitious (and really feels like it might be too low -I haven’t weighed under 230 since high school!), but I’m going to aim for it for now, and I’m due for a follow-up with the doc in a week or so, so I’ll get her opinion then and adjust accordingly. In any case, I’m rather proud of myself.
I’m also feeling better about the work setback I alluded to the other day. We’ve got a plan to get the delay sorted out reasonably, and some more of that awesome I was talking about got waved around Wednesday while I was gone, so some of the sting came out of the situation. Gotta admit, it was a pretty stressful couple of days. The other bit of good work news is that the organization found me another chunk of budget that’ll let me throw some more resources at some lingering problems in the next fiscal year, so that’s a load off of my shoulders.
As for the weekend, I don’t know what’s up, really. My usual Saturdays this time of year involve some biking and the farmers’ market, so that’ll probably happen. A friend and band-mate of mine is having a birthday get-together on Sunday afternoon I’ll probably pop in for, and I’ve had an unopened copy of Logan on blu-ray sitting next to my center-channel speaker since Monday morning that I’d like to get around to watching some day.
Anyway, here are some tunes, which is just reminding me I have a CD or two to rip into the digital library, including a copy of “Scary Songs to Play in the Dark” from The Long Losts, who played on the bill in Charlotte with us last weekend, and were really awesome. Check ’em out!
- “Don’t You Want Me” – Human League
- “Separate Ways (World’s Apart)” – Journey
- “Take On Me” – A-ha
- “TKO” – Le Tigre
- “Take Me To The Backseat” – The Donnas
- “The Whistler” -Jethro Tull
- “Ditmas” – Mumford & Sons
- “Guten Tag” – Varg
- “The Torture Never Stops (live)” – Frank Zappa
- “Celebrity Skin” – Hole
- “Float On” – Modest Mouse
Edited a few hours later because this is awesome: Finally, in today’s Stranger Things/Eleven news – the soundtrack is getting a release on cassette (a cassette that’s packaged to look like a VHS tape!?!) this summer. Honestly, that’s just about perfect.
