Oh My Abs!

When Frankie said that we would shred some abs this week, I did not know that he meant it literally. I could barely drag myself out of the gym after doing an abbreviated ab work out with him, Gizmo, and Peter-Peter. Holy cow, those boys are no joke. My body is still abuzz from the shock. I keep this up and I might be worthy of my new bathing suit.

I had lunch today with Red at Pei Wei. Not only is white rice my favorite food in the whole world, but Red may be my favorite lunch date, so it was a guaranteed good time. We spent the first half of lunch plotting and scheming about Friday night's festivities and how to make it amazing. The second half was spent by Red doing her best to be a one woman marketing campaign for Dexter. All my objections fell on deaf ears. I love when she gets on a roll and does her best mom voice. It always starts, "Listen, all I'm saying is..." It is quite endearing.

Tonight I taught my music appreciation lesson at mutual. My lesson was well thought out, organized, and apparently boring as all get out. As I got further and further into the lesson, I could see that the last thing that the girls wanted to do when they came to mutual was sit and listen to me drone on. Other nights we paint, talk about books, and next week we are making mocktails. I can see how my lesson could be the low point of mutual. I am going to have to do something to keep the every diminishing attention span of a room of teenagers.

The lesson did make me reflect on how many lessons I have sat through and not heard one word of, how many lessons I have passed notes, how many lessons I played solitaire on my phone. All the while the teacher, who has spend hours preparing the lesson, continues in hopes that their lesson will touch my heart or invite the Spirit into the room. I have a new appreciation for all those teachers I didn't listen to, but for everyone that I sat back and criticized, secretly made-fun of the object lesson, or derailed their lesson with questions that changed the topic to something I found more interesting. I am sure karma has a whole heap of bored class members waiting in my future.

After mutual, I went to the gym and in case you missed it...Oh My Abs! Over two years ago, after recovering from several rounds of steroids, I joined Weight Watcher and shed 30 lbs that I had packed on. Steroids does just make you hungry, it makes you insatiable. I can remember sitting in Tacodeli and literally drinking a cup of queso. No wonder that by the time I was back on my feet, I was wearing a size 10. I lost 30 pounds on the program, and cannot tell you how much I love by body..

But loving your body does not always mean that you make good food choices. Once you are at your goal weight you are still supposed to eat within you points everyday. Easier said than done. When you have no goal in mind, it is easier to get off track. Chips turn into burgers, which turns into pizza, which into ice cream. You see where I am going with this.

Of all the parts of my body, my stomach is the hardest to keep trim. It is the first place I put on weight. I can go from beautiful and flat to a cresting rise of fat in a week of eating out. Two weeks of eating out can lead to pinchable fat. Three weeks and I cannot fit into my jeans. It is a slippery slope and summer is not the best time to hide in elastic banded bottoms or my scrubs.

I read somewhere that strong abs not only help you with posture and such, but they will also make you look thinner, even when you are carrying a bit of extra fat. This is why I am subjecting myself to such torture. Their workout made me feel like I just go to the gym to watch TV. They make me feel like I might as well be mall walking. It is nice to have someone pushing you. I am going to try to remember than when it takes a forklift to help me get out of bed tomorrow.

Well, it is off to bed I go, with a song in my heart, and my abs decimated. Tomorrow I will report the aftermath of my zeal, till then...

Autobots, Clean It Up

I am freshly back from seeing Transformers 2 and have to say that I am fairly disappointed. Let me back up and give you some background...

Yesterday's post about me wanting more spiritually, lent itself into an amazing FHE lesson. A month or two ago, I asked Frankie about The Tree of Life and how it related to Adam and Eve and Lehi's vision. With the question long forgotten, he surprised me two weeks ago with an answer that could have honestly been the basis of a dissertation. It was so well thought out, organized, scripturaly reference, and not only held the answer I was seeking, but also opened my eyes to other revelations that I had not even thought to ask for. I urged him to share the answer in FHE. This not only allowed others the benefit of the knowledge, but allowed me to hear it again and hopefully cement it in my memory.

With a 10 pm showtime, I had to rush from FHE straight to the movie. I met Gizmo in line and we got amazing seats. When the lights lowered, and the music swelled, so did my excitement. Two and a half hours later I walked out of the theater simply crestfallen. The movie was everything I had hoped for in the heart-thumping, gun wielding, explosion crazy, saturated film that you expect from Micheal Bay.

What I did not like, however, was the unnecessary crudeness. It was just plain vulgar. His mother used profanity for profanity's sake, jokes were not witty but raunchy for no reason, and is there any functional reason that the ultimate machine would need a pair of testes? I can accept many things in a movie; blood, gore, no plot, incongruencies. I am fine with it all. I am not even going to claim that I do not watch vulgar movies from time to time. But it feels so tasteless when the movie could have been just the same without it.

It reminds me of when we went to see Hancock. The language was totally unnecessary to the plot of the movie. I can understand language if it is a frat movie, or if the climax of the film needs to express extreme frustration and the writers are not the most creative. But to ruin a film that would have been just fine with a kinder line, it just irks me.

Tonight, every joke and reference from this PG-13 movie stung like the lash of a willow branch. My hard earned spiritual high was crushed by the entertainment that I had chosen. All of the intense labor that someone else put into assisting me with my quest for knowledge was wasted. It makes me wonder, if I had not gotten so much from the lesson tonight, would I have even noticed the content of the movie? That thought gives me pause because I have never really been a stickler for self-censorship. It might be a though worth pursuing.

Sixteen Days To Go

I just painted my toes Plugged In Plum, so have plenty of time to blog while I am in my forced repose, less I smear the paint. OPI has the best color names. I just took off I'm Not Really A Waitress, but there are other classic colors like Pinking Of You, Aphrodite's Pink Nightie, Miami Beat, Light My Sapphire, and Chocolate Shake-spear. I think that I am in the wrong field. Wouldn't it be great if your job was to come up with punny OPI names all day? As Bill from True Blood informs us, "puns used to be the highest form of humor".

I had lunch with Gizmo today and it was a much needed reconnection for the two of us. All friendships wax and wane, and sometimes you just need that one hangout to get everything back to where you would like it to be. I can't even really remember what we talked about, but perhaps it was just the relaxed time we spent together that heals all rifts. The white rice was just an added bonus.

This evening was all about what I wanted to do. Tired of the sulky, glum me, I decided to just do what ever struck my fancy. I came home from work and laid down for an hour and a half. I woke up wholly refreshed and headed up to the Arboretum where, surprise, surprise, I had crab bisque for dinner. I cannot get enough of that stuff. If the recipe didn't involve words like sherry, reduce, and something called surimi, I would make it by the bucket full. I then found an amazing skirt at The Banana. It is bordering on to fancy to wear to church, but I thought that I might wear it to Wicked. I stopped into the Apple store and seriously considered buying a case for my iPhone. If I wasn't so enamored with the aesthetics of the thing, it would be easier for me to hide it's light under a bushel. The small scratches and dings on the back don't bother me, but the screen has got it's first nick and it has made me finally consider a case. After leaving the Arboretum, I stopped into Target and finished buying all the tiny toiletries that my trip requires. I can hear Red laughing in my head right now that I have sixteen days until vacation and am already considering things like tiny saline bottles, and how many Q-Tips to take.

I am greatly looking forward to my trip. The first stop on my multi-leg tour will be in Vegas where I will spend five days with my parents. I fly in on a Friday after my dad gets off , but before my step-mom goes in. We will all have dinner together before she leaves. Due to my step-mom's odd work schedule, Saturday, my dad and I will spend together, Sunday will be all three of us, and then Monday she and I will hang. Tuesday, while the whole world is at work, I plan on doing nothing but laying by their pool, eating what ever I want, and watching old episodes of The O.C. on TV. Who could ask for anything more?

Wednesday I fly out to Portland to spend some time with my brother and his family. While I am there I will to go to work with my brother for a day, see the new Harry Potter movie, and soak up as much time as I can with my niece. Now many people will try to tell you that their nieces and nephews are the cutest thing they have ever seen. They will show you pictures and expect you to "ooooo" at them like they do, while you stand there and wonder if you two are looking at the same kid. I know, I have done it. That was until I was an aunt.

Something inside of you changes when the tiny face you look down into looks so strikingly like your own. It will melt your heart, change your feelings about kids, and fundamentally change the way you look at things like tiny Converse or Dora the Explorer. It must be just a glimpse of what it is like to be their parent. I did not know I could love a kid so much until I knew her soft curls, and brilliant blue eyes that are the exact shade as my brothers. Five days there with her will just not be enough. If my brother didn't live in the Arctic Tundra, I would move in a heart beat to be near her. You think that I am exaggerating, but to let you know that it was 51 degrees there today. His house does not even have air conditioning.

Just one more day of drudgery until...until I get to get up and work on Saturday. Boo! Sixteen days until vacation. Good night and a happy birthday goes out to APO.