When did I get so popular?

So after all last year of working hardly at all (I made less than $2500), I'm steadily working Tuesday and Thursday nights, with potential craft classes coming up, and I get a call from my friend Dawn at work yesterday. The charter school where I worked last spring is losing their computer teacher in a month. Guess who they requested replace her?

I'm flattered that they asked for me, and eager to get make some more cash, but I'm trying to figure out the logistics.

• The school is only half a mile away, so I could walk there. In fact, I would be walking there (until we get the second car back in the spring) so that we could avoid driving Jeff to work any more often than necessary.
• The pay is $18/hour. Good, not great. Part of that includes 1½ hour lunch duty, which usually only pays $6/hour, so this balances it out ok. It also includes a half hour prep time.
• I don't know if the hours (10:00 - 3:00, though I'd need some walking time on top of that, on Tuesdays & Fridays) will work for our regular babysitter. I'm going to call Jeff's mom and see if she'd be interested in coming once a week for some Grandma Time. If that works out, there's the added bonus that I will generally keep the house much cleaner, heh.
• Classes run until June 29, kinda long. Since we've already scheduled Florida vacation for the last week of May and first week of June, I'd have to see if they could work around that. Or we might cut it a little short. The other option is to go to Florida in July. Or August. Not an attractive option. I'm hoping that they'll want me to come back in the fall, so I wouldn't want to wait until September, as we've done in the past.

I hope it works out. The steady, reliable money would be welcome, and I enjoyed working there before. Still, when I'm teaching I'm much more prone to insomnia (can't get my brain to slow down enough to sleep), and this would be a big change.

I'm so excited!

Last time I was in the fabric store, I noticed they had a flyer up that they needed instructors for things like knitting, crochet, sewing, etc. The manager was the one that cut my fabric, so I asked her about it, and got the number. I called and left a message, and the woman in charge of this called me back this morning. I've got a meeting scheduled with her a week from Monday to talk about setting this up, yay!

I have to come up with a write up/flyer to get people to sign up, and take a couple examples of my work (they're also interested in cross stitch and scrapbooking classes, so I'll take those as well). Hee, I have no idea what I'm going to take, but I'm really excited!

It'll just be a basic sewing class, which is perfect for me. I may not have been sewing for very long, but I've been teaching for a long time, and I really think I'm going to ejoy this.

If I can get six students to a class, I'll be making $10 more per hour than I do right now teaching computers. If I only get four, the pay rate will end up abou the same. That doesn't account for my travel time, though. The store is only about five minutes from home, so I'll spend a lot less time in transit. This could finally be the thing that gets me out from under the thumb of my current job.

Eeee, I can't for March to get started on this!

Not Nerdy, but definitely not hip.

Humph. I'm much more nerdy than this indicates. I am not techno-nerdy, but my essential nerdiness remains.

Hey, I did it!

I actually woke up before 6 this morning, got out of bed, drove to Bally, did half an hour on the elliptical (a bit slower than Wednesday, but still faster than I go on the treadmill) and 15 minutes on the weight machines, all upper body. No ab work, which is probably what I need the most. I'll do lower body weights tomorrow. And abs, sigh.

By the way, getting there at 6:20 did not guarantee me a parking spot right by the front door, much to my disappointment. However, the number of people walking through the parking lot did make me feel pretty safe.

While I was on the elliptical, I had a direct sight line to the stair machines and treadmills. There were a few people on those machines, and I noticed that they were there when I started, and stayed on through most if not all of my time on the elliptical. Man, those people were like machines! They never slacked, and had a pretty good pace going. When the guy on the treadmill got off, he went and got on a bike behind me! The woman on the stair machine did it not only the regular way, but backwards, which is hard, at least for me.

I thought, "this is what fit people do. This is how they act. They are consistent and invest time in staying healthy." When the freebie pass is done in March, I think I'm going to miss it, even though I will be happy to get back to my evening walks again.

Elliptical Machine

Kicked. My. ASS.

Now I need to find some kind of motivation to get my ass up at 6AM so I can go in before Jeff goes to work. I don't know what kind of motivation will be that strong. Suggestions?

Bally

I went to Bally last night, after going to Target to buy a pair of sweat pants. I learned how to use the eliptical machine (cool!), but unfortunately, the child care deal is not included in this, in spite of what I was told on the phone yesterday. This annoys me, but not a lot, since I would have used it once a week at most.

The "best" time for me to go will be early in the morning, before Jeff goes to work. The problem with this is days like today, when it is -2 degrees. Let's see, get out of a warm bed to go sweat, or use the treadmill here at my leisure and never have to leave my cave? Not a tough call, nifty as the elliptical machine is.

Of course, the free membership only lasts through March, so if I'm going to take advantage of it, I'm going to have to bite the bullet. Yum.

And on we go

As of today:

Yesterday, I did have a fair number of Cheetos, but I counted them, and I stopped myself instead of eating the rest of the bag, so I consider that a snack, not a binge. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a victory for me!

That's a relief.

Turns out that the lock was messed up because of the cold after all. Jeff put the car in the garage (after shoving a bunch of stuff to the side & back), and after a few hours, checked it again. It was fine, and still ok when I went shopping last night. I hope being in a cold parking lot all day tomorrow while he's at work doesn't mess it up again.

Yesterday I got half an hour on the treadmill, but also had a binge again. Today, I'm going to try to get my exercise in the morning, because that does seem to make a difference with me. I already had Chex cereal for breakfast, but have no idea what I'm going to eat for the rest of the day.

National Discovery Health Challenge

Today is the first weigh in, and if I can get the car door to close properly (Jeff went out late last night for Taco Bell, and now the lock is either frozen or broken), I'm going to meet my sister there. I think that this kind of weekly accountability will help. Also, I'm going to try to get some information about the free trial Bally membership.

Yesterday: got the fruits & vegs, got the dairy, got the water, got the exercise (video at 7:30 PM). Also had a good sized binge. I'm determined to make that an isolated incident.

Edit: looks like I'm weighing in online. I really thought the lock was probably just frozen, but after looking at it, it does appear to be broken. Ducky. So we have to wait until Monday and somehow get it someplace to fix it and hope it doesn't cost a mint.

. . . and again today.

Yesterday was ok. I didn't get any exercise, but I didn't eat a half a loaf of Italian bread (buttered), either. I had reasonable snacks, and didn't binge. I got my fruits & veggies, and turned down the pizza that Jeff brought home for dinner (note to self: if you're going to give him the option of "I'm having soup, you and the girls can have what you want," don't be surprised when he acts on that).

So I'm going to do this again. TODAY, I will get my fruits & vegetables. I will drink my water. I will exercise in the morning, before the day gets away from me. I will stick to reasonable portions. These are my choices for today.

Just for today

I'm going to stick to the plan. Just for today, I'm going to get my damn fruits & vegetables and drink my water. Just for today, I'm not going to eat every freaking thing I can find. Just for today, I'm going to exercise, even if it's only a video. I'm just going to get through today. That's it.

Obsession

I realized that in regards to eating/exercise/my health in general, I have two speeds: Obsession, and To Hell With It All.

I know that "obsession" is not a healthy, balanced attitude. But I've realized that unless I spend a good part of my day thinking about what I'm going to eat, when I'm going to exercise, how I want to look in two months or five months or whatever, I spend that time compulsively eating. Maybe I need a new term. It's not "obsession," it's just "thinking about what I'm doing." Yeah, thinking about it pretty much non stop. Still sounds like obsession, doesn't it?

I used to believe that I could relax a little and stay on top of things without it being a major part of my life. That's not true. I need to devote a lot of energy, a lot of my attention, to this.

As Requested:
Cold Sesame Noodles (single serving)
Mix 1 Tablespoon peanut butter, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, and 1 clove of garlic, pressed. I add a few shakes of red pepper flakes and a tiny bit of powdered ginger. You can add some rice wine vinegar, too - about a Tablespoon. Then I add my cooked pasta (I use 2 oz uncooked spaghetti) and vegetables. I blanch some broccoli by throwing it in with the pasta for the last couple minutes of cooking, and I dice some red or yellow peppers and throw them in raw. You can use a little more peanut butter, and if the sauce is too thick, mix in a little water at a time. Soooooo good.