the amazing adventures of jen14221

friday kid photo

Happy Thanksgiving!

I ate yesterday (for those of you wondering), lots of yummy turkey and gravy, some mashed potatoes and even some stuffing.  And then I was sick.  Oh well.  To much fat, I guess. 

It was still a lovely day.  Will and I decided to stay home this year and sent Peter onto Fall River, Mass on his own.  Last year was not the most successful Thanksgiving, as some of you may recall.  This year, to cut back on stress and road travel on the I-90 for twenty thousand fucking hours, I put Peter on a plane (Last minute ticket to Providence, RI - only $300!) and took it easy at home with the boy.

And here he is, in all his winter coat and hat glory...

 

I got that jacket at Macy's last year, marked down from $140 to something like 30 bucks.  Once again, I rock.

wednesday weigh-in

I can't believe it, but I only lost one pound this week.

 

I had a nervous stomach all week, hardly drank at all (like two glasses of wine as opposed to my usual 100 glasses of wine) and didn't even eat that much.

In other tremendous news, I have broken a new size barrier and am wearing a cute black skirt in a smaller size as I type this.

At my friend Lori's this past weekend, I raided her closet for all my very own 'skinny' clothes that I gave her a few years ago with the stipulation that they would come back to me if and when I ever lost weight.  Some of them do not quite fit yet, but I have three bags of skirts, pants and dresses to look forward to wearing in the near future.

I rock!

a weekend jaunt to michigan

So, Will and I went to Michigan on Friday, for a quick weekend visit to see my friend Lori.  Since I travel every week, I usually don't feel like even leaving my house on the weekends.  This week, holiday week means I don't have to go to Philly in the morning, so it seemed like a good time to visit.  I haven't seen her in almost two years, and we live pretty close to one another (215 miles) so it was high time to make the trek.

215 miles means we can get there in less then four hours, even if there is some light bridge-to-Canada traffic.  Well, the traffic going over the bridge leaving the US was terrible, so we were already behind.  Then we had to stop to pee about halfway there, and Will was hungry for Chicken McNuggets (of course), so that ate even more into our time.  Then we got back on the highway and hit the worst snowstorm I have ever driven in IN MY LIFE and I am from BUFFALO, NY people, so I have been in some bad snow, and you have to believe me when I tell you it was bad.  BAD.  TERRIBLE.

After my X-Terra nearly went under the tires of a giant 18-wheeler, swerving from side to side and I burst into quiet sobs, I knew it was time to pull off the road and find a place to spend the night.  If I was younger, or alone, I probably would have kept going.  I was less then 70 miles away!  But you know, now I have this kid, this little 5 year-old boy whose carseat was literally inches from a giant truck on our right hand-side and I was terrified.

So I inched along the 402 in Ontario and finally found this place, which had one room left (of course); it was a King suite for the low low cost of $209 a night.  The guy looked at my face as I was telling him about our near-death experience, a close call in a fiery but snowy crash and gave me the room for $149.  Thank you Best Western long-haired Canadian dude!

The next morning there were piles of snow along the side of the freeway but none falling from the sky and we fininshed our trip.  And everything was fine.  I'm 149 Canadian dollars poorer than I planned, but it's all okay.

wednesday weigh-in

I've lost one pound this week.

I've given away a number of my larger clothes; I have a friend who can certainly use the stuff, and it fits her (for now - she's on a weight loss quest as well) so at least someone will be able to wear some of these really nice, expensive items in 1x and 2x that I am now swimming in.

I did a bit of shopping - not too too much because I don't want to buy too many things that I'll just grow out of and have to get rid of, because I do not want to keep any 'fat clothes' around for long. 

I've had some success with shopping in my closet.  I did not get fat overnight, and as I gradually gained weight over the last 15 years or so, I would save my skinny clothes for the day that i would 'someday' lose weight.  Not all my skinny clothes, just the ones that I was really in love with or that I thought would still look good when that day finally came. 

Today, I am wearing a cardigan that I bought at Filene's Basement in something like 1999, and it's kind of big.  Last week, I wore a really cute wool skirt that still had the tags on it, bought way back when before I had Will.  Sad, really, that the skirt sat there for five or more years, but kind of awesome in a way too.  The unfortunate thing is that I've pulled on a pair of pants from the back of the closet more than once, found that it fits, and then go look in the mirror....and let me tell you that pleated, tapered dress trousers are NOT a good look...and they probably never were.  Those pants went to the Goodwill.

close encounters with the PPA

Do you watch Parking Wars?  if not, you should, especially if you ever lived in a big city where parking was a major fucking nightmare (Boston, NYC, etc.).

This show follows the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the offending parkers through the ticketing, booting and car reclaim process.  My favourite part is the ticketing, especially when the tickers get someone for being a total ass and 1)parking on the sidewalk 2)blocking a handicap ramp or 3)double-parking.  Anyone can get a meter-expired ticket, but it takes a real jerkoff to do 1, 2 or 3, as explained above.

I lived in Boston forever 1987 - 2004, but only had a car there from 1996 through 2004. And I almost NEVER got a parking ticket.  And parking would make me crazy and bitter only after we moved to South Boston, in 2002. 

So I kind of love this show.  I wish they would do a Boston version of it.

Today, in-between meetings at an offsite location, I strolled down South Street in Philly and lo and behold - witnessed a true PPA official doing his job:

And then this one giant douchebag came out of the Greek restaurant and started screaming at the PPA dude.  There was yelling. There was cursing.  There was photographic documentation (by me).

.

Guy totally deserved a ticket, by the way. 

But later on, as I was walking back to the office, I witnessed a little bit of rule-breaking by the PPA themselves:

This van was parked in a totally NO PARKING ANY TIME zone.

snowy outlook

I'm in Philadelphia, which is windy and nippy, but I hear there are mega-amounts falling in the Buffy and surrounding areas.

We had a dusting in the 14094 (Lockport) yesterday, but not a major biggie.

I'm sure there will be a hige pile of it on my car when I get back to the BUF airport on Thursday, and without a snow scraper or brush in my car.

sunday at home

I really partied it up quite a bit last night, for some reason I forgot that I am no longer in my 20's, and drank and danced IN A BAR, with the local Lockport residents looking on, probably looking at me with sad amusement at my antics.  The thing about my gastric bypass is that I get drunk pretty fast.  The alcohol enters my tiny stomach and whooshes out into my bloodstream in an instant.  But then, an hour later, I am stone-sober. 

Yesterday I dropped Will off with my parents in the 14221 and headed home to grab Peter and go to the DeSales Catholic School fundraiser event.  There were nibbly little things and boxed wine, cans of beer, etc, with about 50 tables set up in the gym.  We hung out with the parents of some of Will's little Pre-K friends, and when none of us had won the $5000, decided to go out to the aforementioned bar where I proceeded to do a tequila shot simply because one appeared before me.  Then, about 90 minutes later, I had to drive Peter home because while he was still drunk, my new-fangled digestive system had processed everything and I was fine.

I woke up late this morning, with no little feet kicking me under the covers, since Will had spent the night in Williamsville and did not sneak into our bed at 3am.  And I did not leave the house the whole day.

friday kid photo

You wouldn't know it by looking at his face:

but Will really really likes his new big boy bed.  There's a bookshelf and drawers attached to the left side, and a desk on the right.  Above his head is the top bunk, which is knows he is not allowed to sleep on until he is 10.  Once the chest of drawers is delivered (sometime in early 2009) we'll have to have Michelle Cef come over and paint his room.  Yellow stripes are so for babies.

wednesday weigh-in

I should maybe skip a week now and again.  The Heath bars seem to have not done too much damage to my fat ass; I'm now down another 2.5 pounds.

That makes 46 pounds in 22 weeks, or just over five months.

disgusting

I really think this city is wearing on me. Two weeks ago, I was awoken from a deep sleep at 11pm in my hotel room, and looked out the window, to the street 20 floors below.  Where I saw people running wild through the streets, setting fires, honking horns, climbing lightpoles after the Phillies won the World Series.  Literally, I would not have left my hotel room and gone down there if I was on fire.

Today, I took the train to work, minding my own business, trying not to touch anything, because everything here is DIRTY.  And I got off the train and saw a big pile of poo, probably human poo, right outside the train stop.  Then, a few moments later I saw a nice little group of birds feasting on what I soon realized was vomit.

That's what I get for taking the train, I guess.  I see taxicabs in my future.