Pre-Thanksgiving Post

I do not have much to report here this week.

This weekend, Chris and I went to his parent's to put up their Christmas tree, do some decorating, and some holiday baking.  We played pool for a bit, drove all the way home to bring back the correct type of walnuts (I wasn't aware there was a wrong type of walnut), and went out to dinner.  I like going out to dinner with the in-laws.  It's usually at a really nice place and we eat and have some wine and usually have a very serious conversation about whatever, which ultimately boils down to a hilarious relaxed conversation, but always only after we've paid the bill.  I don't understand why his parents suddenly get hilarious at the end of a meal, and we start having a good time, then it's time to go home.  Very odd.

I'm doing really good on the calorie counting this week.  I'm down a whole 3 pounds in one week.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  The goal is around 2 pounds per week or at least 5 pounds a month, which would put me at 50 pounds lost by the time our wedding rolls around in one year.  That leaves me with eating about 1500 calories a day, which is really not very much.  Granted, we were eating a ridiculous amount of calories before, but I'm in a bit of a cranky-hungry mood this week.  I'm thinking it will start to get better and pass altogether once I get my body used to it.  Also, I'm planning on joining a gym after Thanksgiving, so if I do any exercising I can up my calorie intake a bit that day and still reach my weight goal for the week.  I started this journey at 220 pounds.  I'm at 214 right now, and hopefully will continue to drop steadily from now on. 

Elise and Jason are coming for Thanksgiving!  I am so very excited to do all of our holiday baking.  I have so much fun when my sister comes to visit and we have a lot of wine and dance around the kitchen.  Our baking list for Thanksgiving is as follows:

• Apple Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• Pecan-Caramel Cheesecake
• Chocolate Mousse Cake
• Cinnabons for Friday morning breakfast

It should be majorly delicious.  Jason is planning on moving in with us when his lease is up at the end of the year, so we will be planning a trip down to Virginia to help him get his stuff and put most of it in storage.

I'm really feeling the Christmas spirit and have started listening to Christmas music already.  I know it's early, but I was in the mood. I'm dragging Chris with me to Target later so we can buy a tree and put up the ornaments that I brought from home. 

I checked out one of the local Roman Catholic churches on Sunday.  I need to become a parishioner somewhere around here so we would be eligible to sign up for our pre-cana or pre-marriage classes that are required for us to get married at my church back home.  It was epic and modern and so strange.  Much different from things at St. Raymond's.  There was preachy music played by a guy that sounded like John Denver, 2 jumbo trons and video cameras everywhere showing slide shows of the readings and whoever was talking at the time, inspirational videos shown before mass and as part of the homily.  There's a cafe that looks like a Starbucks in the lobby and a lounge with a fireplace, and they had so much staff.  There was a person like every 10 feet with a little ID badge on.   There was a street entrance that looked like the big stone facade thing of a country club.  You could tell that they had a lot of money to blow on updating and maintaining the place.  I e-mailed the info address to find out about becoming a parishioner and they said they already responded to me.  They have a program set up for you to hear about the church and have dinner before filling out your registration.  Seriously, it's intense.  I'm going to take Elise with me to mass on Sunday for moral support while I sign up for the program thingy.  It should be pretty interesting. 

Can it be Wednesday yet?  I miss my sister.

Julibean <3

Fill in the Blank Friday!

As always, questions complements of  The Little Things We Do

1.   My Thanksgiving plans this year will include       Baking a hell of a lot!  So excited about that.  Having dinner with the in-laws, the fiance's grandparents, my parents, my sister, and her fiance.  Then epic Black Friday of awesomeness.  Seeing Harry Potter in IMAX at the Science Center and then going to the Baltimore Aquarium and seeing the dolphin show!

2.  My favorite Thanksgiving was   Probably the one where Sebastian punched David in the balls under the table.  No other Thanksgiving really sticks out to me except the worst one.

3.  My signature Thanksgiving dish is      I don't have one yet, but maybe I'll start a tradition this year.

4.  My favorite Thanksgiving food is   The Mashed potatoes and the cranberry sauce from the can.  I don't think I really eat much else except the dessert.  Oh and my aunt's barley soup.  SO GOOD!

5.  Thanksgiving free association!      pie, movies, family, pictures, photoshopping said pictures, epic Sebastian debacles.

6.  Thansgiving is        Delicious!  And we always watch the parade and the dog show afterwards!

7.  I am thankful for   being so fortunate this holiday season when I know a lot of other people are much worse off.  Fuck unemployment.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Fill in the Blank Friday!

1.   My Halloween plans this year will include      going wedding dress shopping at Kleinfeld's on Saturday, then on Sunday going to church and driving home back to Maryland.

 
2.  My most memorable Halloween costume was   me dressed up as button candy.  I was wearing white felt with half Styrofoam circles spray painted different colors and one on my head like a hat.  Also, in the 5th grade we did a Halloween Biography project and I was Krista McAuliffe, my dad made me an astronaut suit out of a xxxl hasmat suit from work.  It was "fitted" to me with duct tape and had some mission badges on it.  I looked crazy ridiculous.

3.  For Halloween this year I'm going to be      umm... drunk perhaps?  We were going to go as Nattie Boh and the Utz Girl, but we're actually not going out this Halloween.  Next year I will make sure we have a drunken ridiculous time though.

4.  I've always wanted to dress up as  Sailor Moon... but then I was sailor moon.  I'd really like to get a legit sailor moon costume off eBay and just wear it every year for old time's sake.

5.  Halloween free association!  crash dummies, jasmine, unicorn... I guess I'm just recalling more Halloween costumes of years past.

6.  The worst thing about Halloween is   people think you're too old to go trick-or-treating and you just sit in your house and eat candy. 

7.  The best thing about Halloween is      Watching the little kids and their ridiculous costumes.  My favorite was one year when a kid came to our house dressed as Harry Potter and he had a broom.  Then he jumped off our porch and tried to fly.  Priceless.

You Out There

Dear Becky Johnson,

If you still/have ever read this, which I have absolutely no proof of either, I'd like to inform you that I was so bored at work that I read your entire published works.  That would include all 3 (4?) of your blogs in their entirety and I just wanted to let you know that I think we are secretly the same person.  You and I rant about the exact same things, hate the exact same things and have freakishly similar taste in music and quotes.  So, yea, I guess that's all,

Love Julie

So Much Talk

While perusing news headlines today I came across an article that is being debated all over the internet.  You can find this article from women's magazine Marie Clair,e here.  The link calls it "Overweight Couples on Television" whereas the actual title of the article is "Should Fatties Get a Room (Even on TV?)"  The author states how she finds overweight people disgusting and how they should not be displayed as having intimate relationships on television because they make her uncomfortable.  Now being an overweight woman myself who has clearly struggled with maintaining her weight her entire life, my opinion will be largely biased, but if we look beyond that simple fact, I really do have a few points to make. 

Yes, being overweight is unhealthy but it is extremely difficult on physical, emotional, and mental levels to come to grips with it, discover the underlying reasons behind it, and make any small sense of headway on the road to weight loss.  I do not believe that showing heavy people on popular television in any way promotes an unhealthy lifestyle.  We of course see all other sorts of unhealthy things being portrayed on television; eating disorders, drinking, drug use, violence, unsafe sex, etc.; and no one would ever say that they want people to go out and start shooting heroine just because someone on tv was doing it.  That being said, obesity is a hard and cold reality.  The majority of Americans are overweight.  The thin and beautiful ideal we see on television all the time is not real.  There are ridiculous standards set on young people in America to be perfect, and it is simply impossible.  No on is perfect.  No one is beautiful, and thin, and sweet, and funny, and polite all at once.  There should be overweight people on television.  I like that some shows are okay with showing characters that are real, that have real problems, and real relationships.  You think people who are overweight never have sex?  Please.  Just because it may not be pretty and you don't want to see it happening doesn't mean that it does not exist. I would be relieved to see some real life women like myself getting some ass on TV, just sayin.

What really bothers me about the whole debate is that there are so few overweight celebrities and people shown on television that when they are on television, the show must be centered around their weight.  Like the tv show Huge for example.  The actors were overweight, but we can't just have a show where the characters are overweight and just go on about their daily lives and don't discuss it 24/7.  Yes of course, when you're overweight things like food and exercise and weight to come up in conversation, but you also work, have relationships, families, hobbies, life drama, and everything else.  Why does the entire series have to revolve around the fact that you're overweight?  Can we not just cast a normal show, like let's take Friends for instance, and make half of the actors overweight?  That's how it would be in real life.  We all have overweight and thin friends, all mixed in together, that's how life works.  But television never shows us that.  I suppose we are to believe that people just don't want to think about it when they are turning their minds off and watching television, they just want things to be pretty and perfect.  I can appreciate the fact that watching a skinny and beautiful person on a sitcom would probably be more pleasant for most people than seeing the same scenes portrayed by fat people, especially considering what skimpy things they usually have the actors wearing, but I would honestly find it refreshing to see overweight people on television just living their lives and dealing with all of the issues that they would deal with on a normal television show if everyone were thin and attractive. 

For another thing.  What is the fucking obsession with Christina Hendricks' curves.  She's hot, she's beautiful, I love her, I would do her in a heartbeat and let her have my babies, but why do we have to discuss her body to death.  There are plenty of beautiful, curvy women out there who are just living their lives and are also good at their jobs, and have families.  We are completely incapable of leaving them alone.  Why is that all I hear about her is how banging her hips are.  Yes, they are pretty awesome, and I love to look at them as much as the next girl.  I am also, in fact, empowered by the way she is portrayed on television, using her curves, being proud of her body.  I'm proud of her, and every other woman who is not a size 2 that gets up on stage or on television and rocks men's socks off, but discussing it all day long is just unnecessary.  Eventually we are going to talk about it so much that even if she may have loved herself and been proud of her body, she'll hear so much talk about it that she will start to doubt herself, and look at herself only as her outward appearance, only as a sex icon or object.  This is just plain unacceptable.  She also acts.  Have you noticed?  She's a damn good actress, but all I ever hear or see on the news or tv is how she dresses and flaunts her curves.  Who gives a fuck.  I don't even know anything else about her, all anyone will ask her about or interview her about is her ass... That's really not helping me. 

So to make a long story short, fat people make up the majority in this country, so why do they not even get a quarter of the air time as ridiculously stupid people, ignorant people, or model thin elite idolized people, and regular people, let's not forget the all around regular people.  When you see two fat people kiss (ex: our wedding), say "aw isn't it sweet, they love each other", not "omg she looks so fat in that dress I'm going to vomit".  Embrace plus sized celebrities, but if you're going to say "Damnnnn gurl look at that ass", please follow it with, "did you see that awesome movie she was in? (with that fine ass)". 

Thank you and goodnight.

Julibean <3

p.s. you can also view a pretty awesome retort/response to the Marie Claire article here.

Moments You Wish You Could Do-Over...

For this week's fill in the blank Friday we're going to play a different kind of game.  Sometimes everyone gets a little pang of regret.  I've tried to live my life honestly so I would never have many regrets, but as always, a few slip through the cracks.  Here they are in chronological order:

1.  I wish I tried out for the stage musicals in high school.  I think I had a good enough voice but never really gave it all I had because of nerves.  Maybe acting would have been good for me.

2.  I wish I had done a better job of keeping a balance of boyfriend to girlfriends in high school.  I had some pretty great girlfriends in high school that I let slip away way too easily.  It is way too easy to choose sex over bitchy girl drama when you're 16.

3.  I am a huge over analyzer.  I've been trying to work on it lately, but I think if I just relaxed a bit more and let my relationships and feelings go with the flow, I'd have been a much happier lady.  It's times like these that I wish I had Morgan's ease of life.

4.  I wish I had the balls to break up with my first boyfriend when things started going downhill so I might have had a chance to date someone else who I really wanted to give a try.  But I've got to say, only one missed love opportunity for an entire lifetime is really not that bad of a record.

5.  I wish maybe Chris and I had taken things a little slower at first.  I'm really happy with how things have turned out for us, but I think there may have been more fun and less family drama and confusion if I had let things slow down a bit.  But you know me, full steam ahead or don't even bother.

6.  I wish I had played a sport or stayed more fit in college.  Period.

7.  I wish I didn't even attempt law school.  I could have had a much more badass Senior year at RPI and would have severely limited the stress-ors in my life that sent me "over the edge" so to speak.  Maybe I would have tried for a different master's program or maybe I would have gone in a completely different direction.  But we all take forever to really find out what we want to do with our lives, I don't think anyone ever really knows.

8.  I wish we hadn't pained the condo such ridiculous colors, or had at least maybe thought a little bit better about it or taken our time painting it.  Damn we suck at painting.  I'm definately considering getting professional painters the next time we have to attempt it.

What about you guys?  Anything you wish you could rewind and get a do-over?

Julibean <3

Where Are All the Freekin Girlscouts

I just want some goddamn samoas.  They are the perfect delicious cookie.  I do not like thin mints, don't even go there. I want some samoas and there are no Girl Scouts in site, and you can't even order the cookies off their website.  Do I have to get all stalker creep and start following little girls around and asking them for cookies?  It's like the reverse "get in my van".

In short....COOOOOOOOKIESSS!

Julibean <3