tonight's game

Tonight at the gym I noticed someone had written on the chalkboard
The Hunger Games
Isn't that the truth?

The name of tonight's game is Pizza/No Pizza. 
I was working out at the gym tonight with a colleague and told her "tonight is pizza night."  She said "are you excited?"  I said "no, because we aren't having pizza and this is the fourth week of not having pizza."

I really love pizza.

This is week four.  Week four of being back at the "tough" gym.  I am stronger than I was but not nearly strong enough.  Yesterday morning I was at my lowest weight since I started back.  Then I blew it by going to Friday's with the girls after work. This is what I refer to as a "temporary gain."  Because it will come off, again. 
Today, I'm back on the horse.
I'm counting weight watcher's points- on my own.  In 2000 I did weight watchers and after a year I was at goal and then I became an instructor.  I'm very good at telling people how to lose weight.
I'm a lot better at telling people how to lose weight than actually losing the weight myself. 
Another thing I'm good at is losing the weight, but I'm not so good at keeping it off.
This time, I want to lose it and keep it off.  This is the third big push for me.  I did it in 2000 and I did it again in 2010.  I want to lose it and keep it off because I'm tired of being overweight.  I need to lose it for my self-esteem.  I love being fashionable and I would rather feel fashionable than matronly.  Yes, I'm a grandma, but I don't want to look/feel like one.  In fact, I'd love to have a t-shirt to wear when I'm kicking ass in the gym (throwing tires, punching the punching bag, climbing the prowler) that reads "just call me Grandma." 

Go Granny!

I became a Grandma one year ago.  And suddenly I am filled with a desire to be the best that I can be.  I want to be able to garden with my little Bee.  To walk in the woods and show her things.  To play in the floor.  To run through the airport to make a connection (which I recently had to do when I had gone out to see her).  There are times I think how many years will I have with her?  When she is thirty I will be eighty.  I want to be here for her.  I want her to know me.  I don't want to be a photograph that my daughter shows to her and says "this was your grandma, my mother.  She loved you very much."
My paternal grandma ended up on a walker.  My mother has had a number of surgeries to correct osteo issues- ankles straightened, knees replaced.  My hips ache from all of the years I ran when I was in my twenties.  Tonight in class, my knees, first one, then the other ached.  I gingerly stretched and continued with my work-out.
Today, Doug got on the horse.  He joined weight watchers.  He is doing points plus.  Which I have no idea of what that means.  I'm doing the old basic weight watchers.  I have my points counter.  The old points counter that counts fiber, calories and fat.  It worked before and it can work again.  Now they want to give you all of these extra bonus points.  I'm sorry, but I don't do extra bonus points.  And you can add points for exercise.  If I add points for exercise, I'll never lose.  Weight watchers should have a special program for post-menopausal women because it is so difficult to lose after menopause.  I keep trying to tell friends who haven't yet gone through menopause lose it now. 
Besides working out and eating smart, I'm getting pedis.
How are you being good to yourself?

Glenna

There's no place like home

I remember when I first moved here.  I moved here on November 17th.  I unloaded my 26 foot truck.  Then I proceeded to unpack and get ready to host twenty-seven of Doug's family for Thanksgiving.  Then the Monday following Thanksgiving, I started a new job.  My trainer was a bitter,older woman who kept saying "got it?" each time she showed me a procedure.  I went to my car at lunch, got in and started driving around town.  I was exhausted and overwhelmed and started crying.  I just wanted to go home.  But this was home. 
That was four years ago. One way I maintained my sense of self was every nine or ten weeks I would make the two plus hours trek (each way) back home to get my hair done by my hairdresser of several years, Glenna.  Remember in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy asks "are you a good witch or a bad witch?" and Glenna says "I'm not a witch at all."  For Dorothy, Glenna was her fairy god mother.  Helping her to remember "there's no place like home."
This is how my Glenna was for me.  She would greet me with a smile after my long drive and we would catch-up.  She knew the story of my life.  She was my hairdresser.  I was always excited to see her.  I always knew I would be happy when I left.  People would carry on about how didn't I know there were people right here in Bloomington who could do my hair?  But I wanted to drive back home to see Glenna.  I would always see a friend for dinner or stop in to see family.  I rarely drove back home just to get my hair done.  It was a long day, but always worth it.  Others upon seeing my hair or seeing a photo of me would say "I see why you drive back home to get your hair done." 
A couple of months ago, I got in with someone here.   Initially, I was happy.  Liked it when I came home.  Then I decided I would try someone else.  My hair is very curly.  Nappy if the truth be told.   
Last night I went to someone totally knew.  It was right in the heart of town.  A very posh shop.  The woman who did my hair had just shaved her own head- because she turned 26 today and "she isn't getting any younger."  I was tense.  When she washed my hair, she massaged and massaged.  It was very hard for me to relax.  She was great- chatting with me all the while.  I took my photo of what I'm thinking I want to do when I head to Paris.  "I'm not ready for that, yet, so maybe something between where I am now and what I think I'm going to do."  She cut it all and then asked how I would like it styled- curly or straight.  I looked at myself in the mirror and said "you can take a little bit more off."  When I went to pay, the receptionist rung me up and then I remembered I had a coupon.  We haggled and worked it out. 
I left, walked to my car, got in and cried.  It isn't that I wasn't happy with my hair- it is fine.  It isn't that I didn't like the woman who cut my hair, she was very nice.  It was being so tense throughout it all.  Missing home.  Missing familiarity.  Missing someone who knows my life story.  Missing someone who tells me about her family, too- the good and the bad. 
I got home and Doug buzzed about me like a bee..."do you like it?...it looks pretty...are you happy with it?"  I said "oh, yeah, it is fine.  I cried."   He said "oh, I know, I always cry after I get my hair cut, too."  (Doug cries because he barely has any hair left to cut.)
My shop back home was like my tree house.  I loved listening to everyone talk.  I belonged there.  I loved the magazines and listening to people yell over the blow dryers telling stories, complaining about men. 
I'm going to get my hair cut one more time before I go to Paris and I just may go back home to Glenna.  Why?  Because I can.  Because I miss my fairy god mother.

HUNGER GAMES

Have you read the book?  Have you seen the movie? I will try to give you a few of my thoughts about both without giving away too much.  I hate it when someone spoils it for me. 

 There were something like 97 people in front of me for the first book at the library, so I got on Amazon and ordered all three, together.  They arrived last Tuesday.  On Friday night, I went to bed at 8 p.m. and finished the book by 9:30 p.m.  (Going to bed to ready, really early on a Friday night is one of my favorite things to do.  I don't get to do this very often.)  First of all, I found the theme of young people killing young people to be a disturbing theme for a Y.A. (Young Adult) book.  But look at other controversial books that are popular with young adults- The Giver by Lois Lowry,  The Harry Potter books, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the list goes on and on.  As one who has a degree in English, if it gets young adults to read, I applaud it.  And I applaud a book with a strong female protagonist.  I would have totally been the girl with the bow and arrow scampering about in the woods.  I was a Girl Scout, back in the day I had archery in gym class.  I probably wouldn't have tipped the Tracker Jacker nest, because I'm allergic to bees and I probably would have done myself in.

 

 If you haven't read the book, read it.  Before you see the movie.  To me, the movie was a shell.  Framework.  I've read where people are raving at how wonderfully it captured the book.  I disagree.  The movie had snippets.  Flashes.  Literally flashes. Which was a cool way to cover the story.  I guess there is no way to truly capture an entire book on film. 
This movie will affect the world of fashion.  The Effie Trinket look:  (played by Elizabeth Banks)

 It already has.

 If you've seen the movie, did you notice the scene where Katniss has the red dress on and the gems are glued to her skin?  That will be the rage at prom this year. 
Was this beard a one take?  I doubt men will go for this look because it is too much trouble, but you may see more men wearing beards, or trimming them differently than before. 

And was this the best casting of all?  Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman?  Does he do an outstanding job with any role he plays?  (This will be a popular costume, come Halloween, among other Hunger Games costumes.)

 Now here is what I have to say about the love triangle-  I would never go for the quiet brooding boy.  Liam Hemsworth plays Gale Hawthorne and hates the Big Brother government and isn't afraid to say so but is more tight lipped when it comes to confessing his feelings for Katniss.
This is the way to catch this girl:  throw me a loaf of bread.   Along with some (real) butter and he would have me literally eating out of his hand.  I would much sooner go for the baker's son than a guy that runs around in the woods killing defenseless animals.

 And that is when I would want that first kiss, too.  The white t-shirt, the apron, flour dusted upon his skin. Smelling of the best cologne ever- the smell of bread.  Not in the woods after days without a toothbrush or a shower.  Ick.  And add a gaping leg wound?  I would faint at the sight of all of that blood and puss.  Someone asked me if I thought  Josh Hutcherson was cute as Peeta Mellark.  Those big brown eyes?  Yes. 

And Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen?  Yes.  With brown hair?  Yes.  I read they hired a special trainer to teach her how to shoot a bow and arrow and scamper about in the woods.  I read that the last day of her movie training she ran full force into a wall.  How blonde of her.  Maybe she hadn't colored her hair, yet.  O.k.  Enough tacky comments. 
The book grabs hold of you and keeps you.  In the end, you just want to find out what happens.  I thought it was a bit predictable.  Am I the only one?  While watching the movie, I was just tense.  Because I knew what was going to happen.  I do think if you see the movie without reading the book, you might not understand parts of it.  (For example, the coal mine accident scenes.)  Am I the only one? 
Oh, and may the odds be ever in your favor.