Just In Time For...Sweater Season?

Many snails and some hyper-aware forms of mold that appreciate the update-rate of this blog may recall an earlier post about weight.

It bemoaned my inability to break away from the halfway point of my weightloss, the inauspicious point where you aren't as bad as you were, but neither do you look...well...good. That magical place where, if you complain, others around you fix you with a look that speaks volumes, and in that volume level says "Complaining about that? How self-centered. It's no where near as bad as --" (Feel free to fill in blank with "my weight", "our mutual friend So-and-so's weight," "some of the people you see around" or "the actual terrible shit that's going on in the world" or really any other combo you like.)

This lack of support and willpower can get a person stuck in a slightly chubby, just generally ungainly rut. You're not in crisis-mode, so you get ignored. Well, I busted out of it. With help.

My friend Lit peer-pressured me into joinging a weight loss site called LoseIt with her -- it's a lot like Facebook for dieters, so imagine whomsoever pressured you into first starting your FB account to really "bring the scene to life" -- and a couple other friends, including my HunBun, an unexpected move on his part. If it doesn't explode with gore or gold coin points, he usually won't use it -- computers are for gaming, silly rabbits -- but he acquiesced, and is still using it faithfully 3 months later. This is further evidence of Lit's magical charisma. No mere mortal could have done that.



It's like a rollercoaster ride where your

fat flies off instead of your hat or sunglasses!



With this close approximation of actual support, my progress blossomed. Re-blossomed? No that sounds like a Blossom rerun. Feh. You know what I mean. Progress was made!



 

In fact, try a LOT of progress. Way more than any of my friends, including the one that had already been on LoseIt and got the rest of us started. 25 pounds worth as of yesterday. It's like 100 quarter-pounders made of Kana-fat that aren't here anymore BECAUSE THEY GOT THROWN AWAY BECAUSE EWW WHO WOULD WANT THAT.

That's not even close!





 It's actually kind of strange -- they all exercise and eat real things that grew in the dirt, and I'm still outstripping them by living on diet soda and processed cheese singles. Don't know what that is. I'm the obnoxious one it's all so easy for, for once -- don't know how I feel about being on the other side of that line. Disoriented, I guess.

I passed my original goal weight, and am now exploring even lower levels recommended to me by Lit and Bunny. Since they're not vapid fatuous (ha!) fools unwarrantedly affected by the opinions of fashion magazines, I'm giving it a shot. My mother's having kittens over it, as she is of the "eat something, and put on a sweater, I worry," school of motherhood. I.E., the good kind.

It's a weird feeling -- I'm lighter than I've been for many years, and that's a little like time travel. Old clothes come out, and old fashion tastes resurface. I'm not to miniskirt levels of fitness yet, but once I am -- well, Sweetie doesn't even know how grateful he is it's getting so cold. Once we finally move to a more moderate climate, he will find out all about it. *evil smile*

Shoes: The Effect Of A Blog, The Topic Of A Blog

And also something to wear on your feet!



 So I got Linlah's box right away...har har har, I know, "that's what she said". Geez, you guys are so immature.

However, moving, and then procrastinating on unpacking, had to come first.

 I opened it eventually...and yes, I totally used my own blog as a backdrop to their photo op. Let no one say I let self-promotion opportunities go to waste.

Click to enlarge for at-home forensic creepering

By my super-nifty crime lab detection methods of looking-with-eyes, I deduced that Linlah, or someone in her life, has dark curly hair. Can you spot the evidence, boys and girls? You too can be a stalker-creeper,  if you eat all your vegetables and listen to ca-razy Auntie Kana!

 She also sent a card. It was sweet, humorous, featured a sandwich, and had money in. It was a LOT of money. This is my favorite kind of card.

Thus inspired, I then proceeded to get a little...carried away. BUAHAHA.

When the dust settled, there were seedy pics taken of seed-themed shoes. Well, nuts/seeds.

I don't mind telling you, I had a devil of a time coming up with the cartoon, line-drawing representation of a pine cone. SRSLY. Real devils came to persecute for my sins in life, and were all like, "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you had already been helped."

 Lola-Pants really enjoyed the interesting niffs the packing material provided her -- and the crinkly wonder that is a plastic shopping bag is always appreciated.





Through further stalker-forensics, I detected NOT ONLY what chain store outlets are in Linlah's general area, but which ones she's made purchases at. I am good, guys -- at being a skeezy creeper, at least!

Alaskan Summer: The OTHER White Fluff

Ahhh, Alaska -- home of the 8-month Winter. Where weather becomes, if not a matter of life and death, at the very least a factor in how you're going to be leading your life. Like, whether or not you're going to get to see your friends, or go outside today. Or if your power will be staying on.

As a Hawaii-girl by birth, I'm not accustomed to such a proactive meteorological scheme. I do admit to a flash-flood or two, but that's in a 20+ years time-frame. Every semester at UAA there was at least one emergency shut-down of campus, where students were encouraged to remain safely at home and indoors. And funnily enough, it wasn't because of snow; believe me, Alaskans know how to deal with snow. It was the wind; not a frequent phenomenon, but instantly noticeable when it appears...something about how it tries to eat your skin off through all 4 layers of clothing, including that expensive heavy winter coat.



The void of space; almost as cold as our car in the morning





No, snow is largely the icing (ha!) on an already icy cake. It comes down in flurries of tiny snowflakes, little points of white that stream past the car windshield like stars past the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Thank goodness for Summer-- the Alaskan skies switch their game up with sunshine, rain, and these beautiful white flurries that stream past the windshield like -- hold on, wait a minute! What the fluff?

Just lather, rinse, repeat...every year.

No, you didn't reread -- and I didn't mistype. Here, in the depths of August, white specks float silently in the air, and collect in drifts along the ground. But it isn't snow; thank the gods for that. It's dandelion fluff.

Disregard that my work building is in the background; I do.

Yes, dandelions are one of the many types of wildflower Alaskan hills sport in nigh-on every available color, and it is certainly the most proactive in getting its action in before the Summer fades. Ever accidentally biked through a cloud of gnats? Try having that experience every yard of the way. It is a unique sensation, to say the least, and inspires post-cycling dental hygiene like you wouldn't believe. But it is a sign of Summer, and I'm willing to take that as glass-half-full. Unlike every other white person I seem to meet, I'm not allergic to dander or pollen, and am familiar -- nay, even comfortable -- with the reality of insects. I guess I have my tropical upbringing to thank there. However, in semi-urban Anchorage, the outside world is treated with a strange, hesitant sort of hopeful suspicion. They're used to it trying to kill them, and at least Winter is a familiar concept to them. Summer is full of bugs and burrs, and Kana prances quite alone, barefoot in the backyard.

That speck? Way in the distance? That's her.

I tempted Miss Pants to a dandelion-festooned impromptu picnic last year, however, to great success; exactly why she had picnic supplies and an old shower curtain to spread out in her car at that particular time is just one of the wonderful mysteries that surround her.

And while the brilliant sunshine phase of the brief Alaskan Summer has largely passed us by since last I wrote, this newest of sky-occupants waiting for me to bike through it is none other than glorious, miraculous rain. With my (relatively) new flora-inspired bumbershoot, I look for excuses to go out in the wet. It didn't work so well against the dandelion fluff, so while it means our Summer is fading, I bid a blithe farewell to Alaska's Other Fluff, in favor of a sub-season I can really accessorize with.

You may tease shallowness in the "Comments" section below. :)