Welcome to 2009

We are now more than one week into the new year. I have worked a full week in 2009, after being off for the last two weeks of 2008. It seems that much has happened and the year is barely begun. Upon returning to work last week, I was told by my supervisor that I am never allowed to take a day off again. Yes, she was kidding, sort of. My worthless, piece of shit co-worker is permanently out of my group (and will probably be terminated). I will not go into details of what happened, but it was a series of things (one of them being pretty serious). Now, considering the terms of endearment that I have used referring to him, one would think that I would be happy, but I am not. It is not that I miss working with him, it isn't even that I feel he shouldn't lose his job, I just hate to see anyone lose their job, especially in this economy. I parade around like a hard hearted bitch, but underneath that hard candy shell, I melt in your hands. Oh, sorry that is M&Ms, but anyway, I am a big softy when it comes down to it. I am just glad that I was not around to be caught in the fall-out.

I am feeling pretty good today, but the past week I have been exhausted. I could blame all sorts of things, staying up late, returning to work, and all of them probably contributed. The real reason is that I ran out of my medication (for nine days). Whoops. I have no thyroid, none at all, which means my metabolism is contained in, and regulated by, a little tiny pill that I take everyday (except for the past nine days). This predicament was not entirely my fault. I was out of refills, so I had to contact my doctor's office, which was closed on New Year's Day. The next day I forgot to call and then they were closed again for the weekend. Then, the pharmacy lost my refill request, not once, but twice (or at least their automated phone system did). So about half those days were my fault, the other half, not so much. I will just say that by Friday, my body was telling me that if I didn't medicate it tout de suite (or toot sweet, if your a Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang fan) it would not rise out of bed another day. Lucky for me, I got my pills that afternoon. I hate when my body gives me an ultimatum.

It was also on Friday when my friend Bonnie (and my ride to work) mentioned that we should join the gym and begin stopping on the way home from work. This is not an appealing prospect to someone who has NO metabolism, but I may tell her yes, tomorrow. I used to belong to a gym, I looked better, felt better (of course, I was much younger then too), but now I am lazy. I don't like to exercise. I hate to sweat for anything other than sex. I do know the benefits will outweigh the hassles, so maybe. The other reason that I should join the gym, is my new vice. Cooking blogs! I love to cook, but I don't so much anymore, because it is usually just me home for dinner. However, on my vacation more people were around, and even when they weren't I had more time, so I cooked. I tried new recipes, made old recipes, made stuff up. Then I ate it. As if Thanksgiving and Christmas weren't bad enough, I ate my way right up to the new year. The damage is somewhere between 7 and 10 pounds. I would be more accurate, but being off my medication has caused me to retain water (even more than just being a woman) and my weight has been fluctuating. That might not sound terrible (yes, it really does), but that is a pants size and now all of mine are tight. So, as tempting as it was to just spend the entire week in sweat pants, I did eat better and made myself move (which is what I call exercise, since I hate exercise).

Below is my tribe of wild indians. Certainly chasing them around will take some weight off. Forgive the slightly out of focus pictures. They are taken with my webcam (not the best to begin with and I am still getting the hang of it).



I hope you all are off to a fine start in 2009. Thank you for listening to me ramble and whine through an entire post.