Sunday, September 11, 2011

There's a reason the word "Diet" contains the word "Die."

Doesn't 1200 calories seem like a very little amount of food? It does to me. Did you know that the beer I drink is 207 calories per bottle? So that's out. And those spicy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have all the ingredients for in my pantry? Yup, out too. So is practically everything else that is good. Okay, that's not fair. Laughing Cow Light Cheese wedges are pretty awesome. And I do always feel better after drinking copious amounts of water. But my dinner, for example. You'd think something like "Roasted Corn and Chicken Tostada" could potentially be healthy. It has corn! Useless corn! And lettuce! And beans! And somehow, almost 500 calories per serving. Wanna know why? Because of the tortilla. Not only is it evil in and of itself, but it's basted with approximately ONE TEASPOON of oil, which is basically the devil's sweat. Oh, and there's TWO TABLESPOONS of shredded cheddar on top, which is about the equivalent of eating straight lard. There was once a time where I could literally eat whatever I wanted. Age, you snotty bitch.

I still have no relevant pictures to offer you, with the exception of one, which I took on my phone's camera just to make facebook uploading easier. I took two rolls of film (Shall I link the definition or a picture for those that no longer remember what that is?) to Walgreens to have them developed this weekend. Did you know that most places no longer have the equipment to process film on-site? They had to send my shit out. They told me it would take around two weeks. TWO WEEKS!!!! By the time I get these pictures back, they will be entirely inappropriate to illustrate whatever nonsense I'm blogging about at that time. Sounds like I'm going to have to start pinching pennies for a digital version of the camera I've come to love.
Love this, cause it's all you get.
 Riley and I had Eye Doctor's appointments on Saturday. I was a little nervous for him. I didn't, and still don't, think he'd like wearing glasses. Judging, however, by what he's getting from his parents I assumed he'd at least eventually have to. I am absolutely useless without glasses or contacts, and though Russell's not nearly as awful, he's not well off either. He did well throughout the testing. I figured he'd have fun reading the letters on the eye chart, and I wasn't wrong there. The problem arose when it was my turn and Riley kept telling me what the letters were before I could get a chance to read them. I had to keep explaining that the nice lady needs to know what I'm able to see or the entire thing is pointless. In the end, he didn't end up needing glasses- this year. Sadly, his vision is not perfect even at five. He will likely need glasses sometime in the next few years. Hopefully by then he will have gotten over his weird aversion to things being near or on his ears. With any luck, he will not be given a hard time by his peers. As obsessed as he is with all things learning, the glasses aren't going to help him on the image front, and as much as I don't want him to care about that himself I can't keep myself from fretting about it on his behalf.

Riley at least has one friend now. Her name is Bailey, and his interest in her seems to be bordering on a frightening obsession. I hear about her constantly; how pretty she is, how cute her clothes are. Riley relayed to me precisely what her hair looks like (epic fail on the eye color though. He THINKS they're blue). He told me he cried on the bus on Friday because she sat with someone else and he thought she didn't want to be friends with him anymore. On our way to our appointments yesterday morning, "If you're happy and you know it" came on my Laurie Berkner Pandora station. After prompted to say "Hooray!" if you're beautiful, Riley informed me that had Bailey been present, she definitely would have to have said "Hooray!". Oh boy.

I had a very nice lunch with an old friend yesterday as well and she got to meet Zee for the first time. I expected Zoey to be her normal public personality- flash that big open-mouthed smile and do her best to wrap everyone around her finger, but she was quite stoic instead. She tolerated the lunch with a wary expression and leveled her gaze with appraisal at everyone in the restaurant as they complimented her. She did, however, find it in herself to toss her things on the floor every five seconds. What meal would be complete without six-thousand reps of what I'll call "Table crunches"- bending down to pick up Zoey's pacifier, cookie monster, blankie, sippy cup, etc. Towards the end, she even managed to steal my check card and hurl it under the table.

Today, as a whole, has been unremarkable besides my dieting woes and an unusually packed grocery store. I haven't forgotten that it's the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, so to end this blog I'll touch on that topic a little.

I'd slept over at Russell's house on September 10th (sorry, Mom). We'd undoubtedly been up until the wee hours of the morning, probably drinking, since people were always coming and going from that house. One of Russell's friends burst into his room to wake us and exclaimed "WE'RE GOING TO WAR!" and I remember thinking "What the fuck is wrong with the people in this damned house?". We all gathered in the living room to watch the news, where the videos of the World Trade Center crashes were shown over, and over, and over again. There were several people there that didn't live there. These were drug users, heavy drinkers. Some of them were probably jobless, some maybe homeless. At that point, though, I know we all felt vulnerable and personally offended on our country's behalf. I was so naive then. I had no idea what this meant, and too small an understanding for the lives that were personally affected by the losses that came as a result of that day. I regret that, now. I want to say that on this day, and every day, I am so sorry to those who suffered the loss of a loved one as a result of the terrorist attacks, whether it be directly or through our nation's efforts that followed.

I don't consider myself a hugely political person. I tend to shy away from political conversation, because frankly it depresses and agitates me. In remembering the events of September 11th, 2001 though, I can't help but reflect on the way it affected us as a nation in addition to how it affected the families and friends of those who gave their lives, their health or their service. There are many measures and standards that have been put into place since that day that I find to be completely repugnant. Although I am not always happy about the decisions made for and/or by our country or its leaders,  I am generally still proud to live here. I hope that if there's one thing that we can all remember, besides those who lost their lives and the families that remain behind, it's that we don't need to wait until something extraordinarily terrible happens to be united. We always have that choice. My hope is that another ten years from now, we will be able to reflect on the ways September 11th changed our nation positively.

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