neat gren things: environmental graffiti

I'm trying out for a position posting for Envintonmental Graffiti, and here's my first / sample post! It came out a little long, and perhaps a bit formal, but i'm pretty proud of it.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/energy/news-5-ways-algae-will-save-world

The website is pretty awesome, and I really hope they like my post-- I can think of several more weird and wonderful topics I can post on.

fat girl goes slim: i joined a gym

World Gym is having a tenth anniversary thing where they're only charging 10$ a month, and that's a steal. There's one not far from here, so J and I joined up.

We've been twice-- we're due to go back again, but I'm Girl Timeing, so I might hold off a few more days, or just go and stroll on the treadmill or something.

But already, I feel stronger. My muscles are sore, but not debilitating, and I've already lost another pound. And my hips are an inch smaller than the last time I measured them, but I don't think that's from working out. It was ages ago when I measured them last. It's not nice to see what 43" looks like when you unloop the measuring tape!

According to the Spark People App on my iPad, if I lose a pound a week consistently through the holidays, I can reach my goal weight somewhere around the end of January, which means I'll be almost there when I go to school at the beginning. If I can lose just a little more a week, I'll make it by New Years which would be awesome-- it'll be the first year I DON'T have to resolve to lose weight!

I've been trying to pay more attention to what I'm eating, trying to make better choices. According to the scale in my room, which is the one I can read easier, I hit 140 this week! It's amazing. That's officially half way there, 20llbs less than when I started, back down almost where I was when I graduated college, on my way to where I was when I started college.

So I'm hopeful again.

random thoughts: chairs

I love sitting in chairs. It makes me feel like human history has led to something tangible-- we no longer have to sit in the dirt or on a bare floor: we have chairs. I'm a cross-legger. Usually, no matter what seat I'm sitting in, I'll pull my legs up Indian-style and stay that way until my feet fall asleep. I used to be the sort to cross my legs one over the other-- in high school I could cross them at the knee and then loop my foot back around and cross at the ankle, too, and it was comfy. I'm too chubby for that now, but sometimes I still try.

I like deep chairs with a lot of space for my legs and somewhere to prop my feet. I like soft chairs that I can sleep in when I get nap-tired and need a little downtime. Which is pretty often when I don't have anything else to do, since I'm basically a cat on my own schedule. I like chairs with good back support and good arm-rests.

I like curling up with a book and settling in. I could live in a chair if it was comfy enough.

inspiration: piercings

I'm also craving piercings, specifically surface piercings:

I love facial-dots-- if I ever get my eyes lasered or suddenly don't need glasses or something, I'm getting something by my eye, and probably a nose piercing.

Shiny boobs!

When I have collarbones again (and if I stay on track with my plan, I should reach my goal weight by the end of december or beginning of january, if Holiday Eating doesn't do me in), I want these-- or maybe three under the left collarbone. Something. Haven't decided yet.

inspiration: tattoos 2

More pictures from all over the web that strike me as something I'd like to have permanently ingrained in my skin-- or make me think in the direction of something that I would... I think I want the previsouly mentioned tatt to have a paisley sort of thing going up over my collarbone, to match a spiral on the left shoulder. This is, of course, still all just conjecture. I need new stars and my wings first.

inspirations: tattoos

I'm contemplating something on my shoulder that would incorporate things representing all four elements: kelp for water, feathers for air, ferns for earth... and I don't know what for fire, other than fire, which doesn't seem right for me. Fireworks? Something.

Anyway, here's inspiration for that, borrowed gratefully from all over the webs:

And also, there's these:

penpals

In better news, I have new penpals! A girl in Brooklyn and a lady in Chicago, one from 16 Sparrows and one from SendSomething.net! It's just lovely. I get to hear all over the place about what's going on in the world and in the lives of these people I've never met. And there's such a niceness to it-- people who sign up with the purpose of sending letters really like to do it, and send nice letters on nice paper.

And two personal letters on a bad day-- that's just wonderful.

continuing drama: lost wallet

I talked to my friend who lost his wallet recently, and we decided that I should hold off slipping out and calling the whole world for a day or so. According to the scary things online, I've got two days before I'm liable for whatever losses anyone gives me, and since there's a weekend here, that gives me till monday-- since weekends don't count as business days. If I'm reading those articles right.

So I'm going to wait and see if it appears magically over the weekend while I'm doing other stuff, and then... well, if it doesn't, I'm going batshit crazy on all those calls.

new drama: lost wallet

Somewhere between signing up for a gym membership around 2 yesterday and going back around 6 to actually use my membership, I lost or someone stole my wallet. There was definitely enough stuff in there for someone to go all identity fraud on me, so now I have to call all the banks and get new cards, call the credit agecies and put a new-credit hold on all my scoresheets, maybe sign up for an identity theft watchdog service so if someone tries later, I'm protected, report it to the cops so there's a flag in the system, get a new ID card, get a new SS card (which I didn't carry for, like, 10 years and then put in there because I needed it for school, and then forgot to take out again), and on and on and on. It's such a hassle. I had my purse stolen once when I was in High School, but I didn't have a bank account or any credit cards at that point, and now it's both harder and more expensive to deal with this crap.

So that's my drama right now.

I'll make a clearer post about it all when I know how it all goes.

This is the sort of weekend we've had.

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