~ On the plus side, I’ve lost 15 lbs, which puts me where I was in high school. To most people, this would be wildly exciting news but, because I was always about 15-25 lbs overweight in my teenage years, this is just mediocre news to me. However, this still means I’m 1/3 of the way to my goal and I’m still making gradual progress, which is always motivating and exciting. My clothes are starting to get increasingly baggy, too. 

~ To take a break from my relentlessly whirring mind and neuroses, Greg and I have started indulging in completely mindless, asinine television. While ordinarily I would be appalled at myself for doing it (much less for admitting it publicly), we’ve somehow become devoted American Idol watchers for this season and have found it to be an amazing weekly bonding experience. It comes on in the middle of our busy week, on nights when we are home together, and we delight in clearing our minds and laughing at the pathetic drama that unfolds. It’s fun and although neither of us are actually invested in the contestants or the outcome, we both get excited to sit down together and ridicule everything about the show from the singers to the judges to that obnoxious host. It’s also been incredibly helpful in clearing my mind and lifting my spirits. On evenings that we sit and watch this painfully trite reality show, I smile more, I worry less and I feel lighter in general. I don’t care that it’s a waste of time, it’s helping me a lot and for that I’m grateful. 

~ I hate that Michael Phelps had to issue a public apology for hitting a bong at a college party. Being one of those people who can’t accomplish anything when she dabbled in weed-smokery (seriously, I once took a two-hour shower and didn’t realize it until I ran out of shampoo from washing my hair repeatedly), I think the man deserves an extra medal for being able to experiment with performance-hindering drugs and still kick everyone’s ass at the Olympics. 

But truthfully, everyone needs to just leave the boy alone. So he went to a party in his early twenties and did some silly social drug and got a little drunk. Who hasn’t? It’s not like he’s getting killing people in DUIs and carrying cocaine with him through airports. Give the man a break. 

However, between the Phelps incident and ‘Borat‘, the kids at USC are reeeeally making South Carolina look great. Thanks a lot for helping us break down stereotypes, guys. Hooray for the future. 

~ The only animated movie that Chloe has been mesmerized by so far is ‘Aladdin‘. Despite all the other movies we’ve tried on her, that was the one she sat still for the whole way through. 

~ I’m running into a lot of speedbumps with this sugar scrub project. So far, things have been on hold for a while. I hope to start changing this early next week. 

~ Two kids that I went to middle school with are getting married in a few weeks. This makes me happy because, shortly after I moved away from the small town where we were in school together, they left the area as well and hadn’t spoken in some 10 years until they “ran into” each other on Facebook and started talking over emails and then on the phone. They traveled back and forth from Nashville to somewhereinTexas for a while and fell madly in love and dammit, if that’s not the cutest, most estrogen-inducing modern-day reunion/love story you’ve ever heard then I quit.

~ While they’re on sale for 75%, I’m thinking about purchasing some amazing designer jeans in the size I’m working toward so that, when I finally reach my goal, I’ll have an inexpensive reward waiting for me. This being said, if my body type doesn’t work with the jean-style/cut/fit that I bought then I’ll have wasted $20 for nothing.  Hmmmm.