Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Author: Quix Page 177 of 218

Quix’s Guide to Surviving The Holidays

By

On October 20, 2009

In Uncategorized

So, I always hear that the holidays are the hardest part of the year to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  And by holidays, I mean the last quarter of the year being Hallo-anksgiv-mas.  Which might as well just be Christmas, since ALL THE FREAKING STORES have their Christmas decorations up already.  Some were up in August.  Does that just piss anyone else right the fuck off?  Christmas is a holiday on December 25th.  Christmas season is from black Friday to Jan 1.  I DO NOT WANT TO SEE CHRISTMAS SHIT IN OCTOBER!

Ok, grinchy rant over.  Anyhoo, I so don’t agree – I think summer is the hardest for me and I regularly LOSE weight during the holidays.  The first year, I took off 15 lbs between Thanksgiving and NYE.  Last year I took off 7.  I’m hoping to continue the trend although my track record hasn’t been that great this year.  Honestly, the holidays are only as big of a deal as you make it.  Here are how I’ve gotten through them.  As always, your mileage may vary.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #1: There will be candy, cookies, and other random non-healthy eatings around in abundance.  Yes, it would be nice if we gave out protein bars for Halloween and made Christmas Salad for santa, but sadly, it’s not the case.  There will be food all around that is not necessarily good and healthy for you.  It might even infiltrate your house via significant others picking up some sale Halloween candy or neighbors bringing over Christmas cookies (yes, people in our neighborhood still do that, isn’t it cute?).  How do you deal with sweets being shoved in your face 24/7 for the greater part of 3 whole months?

Tips:

  • Allow yourself an occasional treat.  Sure, Snickers aren’t the epitome of good healthy eating, but if see it and want it, you’ll go nuts about it if you’re like me.  If I see something like that, I’ll grab it and stick it in my desk drawer at work until I can work it in my calorie count for the day.  I still have a reese’s peanut butter egg from easter in there somewhere.
  • For baked goods others are offering, I have a guideline – if it’s from a store, skip it.  If it’s homemade, at least have a taste.  If someone took the time to make homemade cookies from scratch and is offering them directly to me, I’ll find the smallest one and eat half.
  • If something gets in your house, really think long and hard if you can be trusted around it.  If not, take it to work for others to enjoy, ask your significant other to keep it somewhere besides the house, or failing everything, just throw it away.  It is not the end of the world to put something you don’t want to eat in the garbage.  It is not doing the starving kids in China ANY GOOD to pad your own hips more.  This is probably the most freeing thing I learned during deporkifying.
  • If you find you can’t escape a situation, lie.  If your coworker Jeannie McPushypants is INSISTING you eat one of her storebought cookies because they are JUST SO CUTE, tell her you have a mild allergy to flour so you don’t indulge very often because it makes you feel ill (which is not TOO far from the truth, if you ate every cookie offered, you’d indeed feel ill).  For some reason, people seem to respect allergies where they don’t respect trying to be healthy.  Go figure.

Healthy Lifestyle Problem #2: Parties, parties, parties.  First there is the “let’s all get together and hit the haunted house and go out” this weekend and then the halloween party proper next weekend, and then the actual halloween weekend will have more parties.  Candy and sweets and witches brew in various forms (adult or not).  Let’s not even mention the multiple thanksgivings that most people have (work, friends, family, other family) as well as Christmas parties (again – work, friends, family, etc).  How do you cope with the “awww, we’re all celebrating – loosen up a little” being thrust in your face every freaking week?

  • Don’t participate.  It’s not an option I invoke very often (I like parties!) but if the party isn’t meaningful to you and is just going to set you off, find something else fun to do (so you don’t feel deprived).  Or if it’s a work potluck, just have some last minute lunch plans during that time you can’t cancel.
  • Some people say to eat a healthy meal before, but if you’re like me, I eat a healthy meal before, then munch and drink at the party too.  I compromise and make sure I eat a super healthy filling lo cal snack, but leave some room to taste the best of the best yummies.
  • My plan already allows for 1 or 2 higher calorie days on the weekend with lower calorie days during the week – I just make those the party days.  In that vein, if you make sure and be pretty much saintly the day before and after said party, you shouldn’t have problems.
  • Get an extra workout in or go extra hard to burn some extra calories.  Gonna have a few glasses of wine tonight?  Run a few miles.  Too much turkey?  Say hi to the elliptical.  Just make sure you’re not overtraining if you’re already on a pretty rigorous workout schedule.  I’m signing up for a race on Thanksgiving morning and already have half marathon training runs scheduled Christmas Eve Morning and the 26th.
  • If it’s the holiday proper, enjoy yourself and don’t think too hard.  Eat a nice, filling, healthy breakfast and then sit at the table enjoying the company instead of obsessing over how many calories each slice of turkey has, please.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are generally days where a lot of love and tradition goes into the preparation of a big meal – one day is not going to kill you.  Just make sure it’s that ONE day.  Again, if you’re saintly the day before and after, it’s not going to kill you.

Above all, my biggest tip would be…

YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW UP.  Yes, even you Ms. Perfect over there who is convinced your willpower will keep you on celery and hummus through the WHOLE holiday season.  Ok, maybe not this guy, but still.  Most of us mere mortals will have a day or two where we eat and drink more than we should.  Know this…

IT IS OK.  I promise.  You are not kicked out of the healthy lifestyle club for falling facefirst onto a stack of cupcakes or having a big two three helpings of mom’s famous mashed potatoes rife with butter and gravy at Thanksgiving, or having 6 glasses of wine at the company Christmas party instead of the 2 you had planned on.  Just don’t blame me if you get fired, tee hee.  You enjoy your moment of indulgence, wake up the next morning (or next meal or next moment or whatnot), and go back to the healthy living you know and love.  This means…

NO GUILT.  NONE.  No feeling bad because you screwed up so you’re going to mope around and you feel worthless so you might as well just eat a cookie because you’re never going to lose any weight with your lack of self control anyway.  Well, since they’re there, you might as well finish the bag so you can start again tomorrow… sound familiar?

The best aha moment I ever had was recognizing this (I still succumb to it but not nearly as often) and telling myself, “Self, we had a good time last night!  Those sweets sure were divine and it was certainly fun to get a little tipsy, huh?  Let’s make sure to be extra good today so it doesn’t put a damper in our week, right? Right.”  And be done with it. And dear fluffy lord – if you’re NOT enjoying the cookie or the wine SPIT IT OUT (preferably not on anyone nearby) and throw it away.

What are your tips for surviving the holidays?  Does anyone else think I’m crazy for thinking the holidays are easier than the summer?

Pick Myself Up, Dust Myself Off

By

On October 19, 2009

In Uncategorized

What is it about weekends?  You are a perfect little saint all week, and then Friday hits and BAM! it’s on like donkey kong.  It was like the sin trifecta – Staying up too late, eating and drinking too much, and not exercising come together to form the voltron of not sticking to my plan of awesome.

Thursday, there were a few drinks (but I totally budgeted for them so it barely counts).  Friday, we stayed up until 5am playing Uncharted 2 and watching How I Met Your Mother season 4 and about 2am started mowing down on pistachios and jerky because I was HUNGRY (to be fair, it HAD been about 6 hours since I ate dinner so it made sense).  Saturday was a WAY OVERBOARD drinking night and I think I might had tripped and fell face first into a handful or 2 of chips.  Sunday, we went out to Italian and let’s just say I didn’t order the pasta with red sauce.

There were some successes this weekend though.  Each choice, I actually evaluated in my head.  Is it worth eating/drinking this if it might possibly negate some of the work I put in this week?  Each instance, it was yes.  Pistachios and jerky might have sent me a little over 1500 calories that day, but they were actually a pretty healthy snack.  Saturday was a freaking blast and we found a great new hangout, and though I may have had a few chips, I turned down the 2am fast food run even though I was in the car and stayed up ’til almost sunrise again.  Sunday, I hadn’t had Italian in a loooooong time and I split the meal between lunch and half of dinner.  Spinach and chicken cannelloni in white sauce may not have been the best choice, but it was actually a pretty small portion.   Also, I may not have formally worked out, but we spent most of the weekend shopping, so I was up and about.

So, nothing to do but move forward.  No guilt, no regret.  I had fun this weekend, and I’m starting the week at 157.4, which is better than last week.  Onward and downward.

Today, I start the Shred.  After thinking about it, I think I’m going to try and do it daily (perhaps give myself one day off per week if I need).   I’m looking forward to it – I desperately need to try something different and ass kicking.  I’m going to take measurements and photos tonight too since a lot of people lose inches doing that and not lbs.  The full week plan is:

Monday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 30 mins DDR

Tuesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Lvl 1, 5k run

Wednesday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 1, 30 mins DDR

Thursday: under 1400 calories, Shred Level 1, 5 mile run (need to start getting used to medium distances again if I’m going to run it on Thanksgiving)

Friday: under 1500 calories, Shred Level 1

Saturday: healthy eating until the Halloween party, Shred Level 1

Sunday: under 1500 calories, rest

If shredding proves to be enough of an ass-kicking, I may omit some of the DDR, but I need to get at least 2 runs in.   Saturday night is a huge Halloween party which will have lots of yummy food and drink, so I’m going to just try to eat healthy up until then and be reasonable there.  I think as long as I can follow the rest of my plan this week some indulgence there won’t kill me.  I’ll let you know how it’s going next Monday (I think writing the wrap up on Friday made me feel somehow DONE with the week and then the weekend kinda went off into the weeds).

Shopping:

Sooo, I am loveloveloving the boots/tights/skirt or dress look this fall.  Like this.  I would so steal that entire outfit, I’m a sucker for plaid.  So, I went out in search of some new things to apply to the bottom half of my body (I do need to get some new cold weather tops too, but I also need to clean out my closet and see what is too big first).  I picked up two really cute dresses that are office appropriate and a good handful of skirts that are the same.  I’m pretty set on basic tights now and I have some fun patterned ones, but if that’s really going to be my fall/winter “look”, I’m going to need some fun colors – a red and a blue at least would provide me some non-nude/black options if patterned tights aren’t an option.

As for the boots – I have a great pair of brown ones that should last this season, but my three pairs of black boots aren’t really cutting it.  One I just need to throw out as the sole is split (but they are just so damn cute I haven’t yet), one are falling apart and need some shoe glue love (and I’m not sure if that will even save them), and my third pair is totally cute and WAY comfortable, but they are lace ups and take way too long to put on in the morning.  So, to that end, I ended up traipsing through a bunch of different stores and after trying on all sorts, I ended up with something like this, except mine has a fold over at the top and was only 25 bucks *grin*.

After I purge the shoe closet soon, I think I’d like to pick up a more casual black boot (unless these end up being super comfy after breaking in), and a pair of non-boot black semi-dressy shoes.  Something like maybe this or this.  That should probably get me through.  Now on the must have cold weather list is a black super warm jacket and I think I’m pretty set.  I am honestly kind of OVER shopping right now since I spent all weekend doing it and STILL have to pick up a halloween costume.  And eventually pick up some cold weather running gear.  It’s a hard life.

So, what’s up in your world?  Starting anything new and exciting like the shred today?  What is your must have clothing items this fall?  What are you going to be for Halloween?  Anyone want to tell me I *should* feel guilty for this weekend?  Ciao, lovelies, and I’ll see you mon-ya-nah.

Oh, and the pics are some pretty scary looking costumes from Costume Shopper.

The First Week Back to Reality

By

On October 16, 2009

In Uncategorized

Since I seem to be ahead on posts and this doesn’t get up on the blog until Friday, I’m just going to jot down my progress and what’s going through my head each day.  Overall it’s been sort of a “detox” week.  You never understand how inactivity and eating junk affects you until it’s no longer the norm.  A week and a half was long enough!  Here is my journey out of it…

Monday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, very bleary eyed.  30 mins DDR as planned in the morning and was too hungry to do yoga so I sank into the couch with dinner and didn’t get up instead.  Bad Quix!  Will make it up sometime this week.  Had a very healthy day of eating (ate a promax 20g protien bar for breakfast, a homemade tuna sandwich for lunch, carrots and snap peas with hummus for a snack, chicken masala, rice,half a tortilla, and peas for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple for desert) coming in right under 1500 calories. Weighed in at 159.0.

Felt – I am feeling very bleh.  I think a week and a half of no consistent exercise and not watching what gets in my cakehole has actually made me tired, almost a little depressed (I’m not my bouncy, energetic self), lethargic, and I have this little bit of nose/throat funk – had it for almost a week now but it hasn’t turned into anything.  I’m sure it’s not helping that it’s *greygloomyrainy* outside.  That always makes me in less than a happy mood if it lasts more than a day or 2.  So I am going to ignore the way I am thinking and feeling and dive back into healthy and hope this will all pass.  Looking forward to setting out for a run tomorrow, but just feel too exhausted right now to see how that will be any good.

Is this what I felt all the time before?  I seriously feel like I am slogging through molasses for the last week since the day after the wedding.  I feel like I am broken.  Someone needs to find the circuit that shorted and replace it please.  I can’t remember a time when my body has felt so… useless.   Not even after the half marathon – after one day off I was up and ready to go again.  At first I told myself that it was good to give myself a break before the wedding.  Then, after I just felt like I needed to sleep for days and it’s just not getting any better even though I AM getting plenty of sleep.  Hopefully just returning back to normal habits will right me, because this sucks.  I think this part is worse than the weight gain.

Yes, this too shall pass.  I just need to get through it and learn from it.

Tuesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, just about as bleary.  5k run and weights at the gym after work.  Ate another promax bar for breakfast (can’t beat 20 g protien for 200 calories even if they aren’t the tastiest), had snap peas and a plum for a snack, some leftover homemade lentil soup and a gigantic salad for lunch, a junior burger for dinner and then I realized I was WAY under my calorie range so I snacked on some raspberries, a 100 calorie bag of popcorn, some turkey pepperoni, a few rice chips, and a sugar free popsicle.  Came in at just under 1400 calories.  Weighed in at 156.8

Felt – Morning – still bleh.  It’s still grey and dreary, I’m still in this state of nose/throat thing being icky but not bad enough to call myself sick.  I feel tired but not tired enough to feel like I need rest, but tired enough to make workouts feel like WORKouts.  I still suspect this is just my body rebelling after taking more time off working out than I have in years WHILE eating junk.  I’m hoping that slogging through another workout or 2 and later in the week when the sun comes out, I’ll be back to my normal self.

Evening – WOW!  What a difference a little sun and a great workout makes.  My nose and throat feel better, my mood is back to happy, and the workout felt GREAT (even during).  This is totally encouraging!

Wednesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45 slightly less begrudgingly.  30 mins DDR in the morning, yoga session at night.  Ate another promax bar, a turkey sandwich for lunch, fish, brown rice and veggies (wedding present fresh fish from Alaska) for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple, snap peas, pita chips, and hummus for a snack.  I did splurge on half a serving of ice cream and a special k bar for desert but I had the calories for it. I came in just over 1400 calories.  Weighed in at 156.2.

Felt – It was still hard to get up this morning (I was hoping to get up a little earlier), but I think it was more because I was kinda sore from my workout and also was having weird dreams.  DDR was tougher that normal, but definitely a marked improvement over Monday.   My nose is still running, but my throat isn’t sore!  My mood is definitely in a better place.  I don’t feel like I’m about the grab the day by the huevos and storm castles, but I don’t feel like curling up into a little ball and hiding away either.  I’ll take it.

Thursday:

Did – Got up around 8:35, more alert than I have all week.  I could have gotten up earlier but I was having a cool dream, and when I did, I kinda sprung out of bed instead of being bleary eyed.  I did a full weights session (one set max reps with the ball), and after work I made up that yoga session I missed as well as ran a 5k!  I was totally workout woman today!  Ate yet another promax bar (I’ll have to change it up a little next week but they’ve been great this week) for breakfast, a cut up black bean burger, some corn/bean/pepper relish, and tortillas for veggie tacos for lunch (this was SUPERB), snap peas and some jerky for a snack, and grilled chicken, taterflowers (half mashed potato half cauliflower) and veggies for dinner.  I also splurged and had a few vodka drinks.  I came in just under 1500 calories.  I forgot to weigh in the morning, and at night after my run I weighed 156.4.

Felt – I am finally feeling emotionally like myself, and workout wise feeling close to normal – though I still have this freaking nose funk on and off.  While I still don’t feel 100% strong, I’m feeling like I can get there.  I’ll have to build my running up a little more next week because that seems to be doing wonders for me in terms of both mood and physical well being.

Today I’m weighing in at 154.8 (yay, under 155!) and feeling pretty darn good heading into the weekend.  If there is anyone out there who’s not on the workout train or off the wagon eating-wise, just climb back on!  Let me give you a proverbial hand.  Get through a week and you’ll feel SO GOOD.  I know I do.

The goal now is to get through the weekend as close to 1500 as possible, and next week… well, we’ll talk about it then.  What have you been up to this week?  Any awesome plans for the weekend to share?

Pictures from graph jam, because graph jam rocks!

What’s Next?

By

On October 14, 2009

In Uncategorized

So I love me some West Wing. Besides the amazing writing, the thing I love best about the show is that they get through some freaking huge crisis and save the world and then look at each other and say “what’s next”.  Because that’s so me.  Getting married to the love of my life and looking pretty much smokin’ hot doing it checked off the list.  What’s next?  I made myself take the rest of the week off last week because a) I deserved it, b) I was exhausted, and c) I felt a little bit of a cold possibly coming on so I wanted to stave it off.  I did a DDR workout one day simply because I thought it would rev up my immune system but that was it.

So Monday, I started anew at 159.0.  I knew I was up a bit (and thank goodness I did my 10 day calorie reduction before Vegas, I do believe my wedding dress would have been a wee bit uncomfortable if I had not lost and then gained that much on top of it), and I told myself I would not be upset with myself if it was under 160.  I wish it had been MORE under 160 but at this point, it’s all down from here.  By today, I’m at 156.2.  Not optimal, and still over my “oh shit” weight of 155.0, but the goal is to NEVER SEE THIS WEIGHT AGAIN.

However, I do not regret any indulgences I made.  I do not regret eating a full piece of yummy cake at my wedding.  I do not regret an indulgent steak and seafood dinner, bearnaise sauce and all.  I don’t regret the delicious fried seafood platter I nommed Saturday night celebrating a friends birthday.  I don’t regret ice cream, a slice of chocolate cake, and half a whoopie pie in one day.  I don’t regret MOST of the alcohol (though I wish I could have stopped JUST SHORT of being so ill on Thursday nite/Friday morning).  I just need to go back to making that the very occasional exception now instead of normal life.

So what’s next?   Well, this is the plan for the near future…

-Continue 1200ish calorie weekdays/1500-2000 weekends.  This week easing back into it with <1500 calorie weekdays and 1500-2000 calorie weekends.  Obviously, going along with that, go back to counting calories.  Eat a little more every few weeks if I’m feeling weak and play that by ear.  Start gradually increasing calories each week once I start training for the half once I begin to rack up the miles.  Try to make sure I’m eating at least 5 fruits and veggies, enough protein, enough good fat, and try to keep the sweet treats to a minimum per day, and certainly no sweets on days I plan to have a drink.

-I want to lose weight.  Consistently.  Each week, I want the low weight AND the high weight to be lower than the last weeks low and high weights, even if it is 0.2 lbs.  I loathe to set any goals because it’s been a long time since I’ve regularly lost.  I was starting to make good progress before the wedding so I’m pretty hopefully I can pick up where I left off and continue what I was doing.  I expect the first few weeks it will go quickly since it is going to be new and shiny for my body, but after that, each week I just want to weigh LESS.

– I’ve been essentially doing the same strength training for a year plus.  Sure, I have increased weights and changed up some exercises and all that, but it’s been 4x arm exercises, 4xcore exercises, and 4xleg exercises as fast as humanly possible.  For a while I was getting a kick out of going up really quick in weight and rocking the 25 lb dumbbells, but I have stagnated.  I don’t think I’ve gotten much stronger since I started concentrating on running more at the beginning of the year.  I keep meaning to do a real strength heavy month, and then I sign up for more races.

So I’m going to try something a million other bloggers got done doing and have shown fabulous results with – the 30 day shred.  I am going to do it every OTHER day since I don’t believe in doing the same thing 2 days in a row.  So that’s at least 3 days a week, 4 if I want extra credit on alternating weeks.  I want to see how I feel during/after it, but I’m considering doubling up sessions those days and see if I can just call it a full workout instead of adding more cardio too.  I am going to put it in the Netflix queue and give it a shot (before I spend the money on it).  If it sucks, I will be looking for more strength training recommendations.

-I want to try some run commuting, weather permitting – we have been grey and rainy on and off for the last month… I hate it.  I want the sun back.   I didn’t move to freaking Seattle.  Today is better but it should come back tomorrow.  Bleh.  Anyhoo… I live about 3 miles away from work.  We have showers here.  I have no excuse not to at least try it.  I figure what I’ll do is bring my bag o’ shower stuff/change of clothes the day before so I don’t have to bring anything but my key card/ID.  If it sucks, well, I tried.  If it’s cool – it’s an excuse to do a 6 mile run and get rid of a 5-10 minute commute each way (since I’d be working out anyway).

So here is the plan this week:

Monday: Eat under 1500 calories (easing myself into it), morning 30 mins DDR and evening yoga (missed it, will make it up later this week)

Tuesday: Eat under 1500 calories, evening 5k run and weights

Wednesday: Eat under 1500 calories,  morning 30 mins DDR and evening yoga

Thursday: Eat under 1500 calories, morning weights

Friday: Eat under 1500 calories, morning 5k run

Saturday: Eat under 2000 calories, sometime 30 mins DDR (or something equivalently active).

Sunday: Eat under 1500 calories, rest.

I am trying to ease back into it a bit – hence only 2 weight sessions and ONLY 30 mins cardio per day and only reducing calories to 1500.  Next week if I’m feeling froggy I might step it up and include run commuting one day, get into the shred, or find other ways to fight the fluff that has deposited itself into mah belly. So far, besides missing one session of yoga, I’m right on top of it.

What’s your plan this month?  Anyone have an opinion of shredding every day for 30 days?  Think I’m overdoing it?  Think I could do more?  I want to hear from YOU!

Wedded Bliss, And The Road Thereto… Part 2

By

On October 13, 2009

In Uncategorized

Oooh, you actually wanted to hear about my WEDDING, not just partying in Vegas?  Ok, ok, here we go…

Sunday: A Nice Day for a Tropical Wedding…

Zliten and I both had issues sleeping past about 7 am, but we made a go of it until at least 8, when I got up, looked at my mop of a head, and decided to wash my hair instead of trying to style my ratty 2 day old casino smoke smelling fro.  Oddly enough, given enough time, even my hair plays nice and does the straight thing well.  Then I touched up my nails/toes – so glad I did the polish coat earlier or I would have been in trouble here.  At about 9:30, the first of the girls showed up to get ready and Zliten took off for the reception area to make sure the sound system worked properly and to set up the decorations.  Yes, the BOYS ended up setting up the reception tables.  How cool is that?

We grabbed some breakfast and poured some champagne and my maid of honor started on one of the bridesmaid’s hair while I did my makeup.  It took me longer than I thought it would because I was trying to be SUPER careful that everything was perfect.  Then about an hour before I had to be down there we started on my hair.  Since it was freshly washed it was taking forever to hold a curl, so my poor MOH and one of my bridesmaids spent the whole time curling, spraying, and pinning to get through my entire head.  I ran down there about 10 minutes late with my dress in my arms (we were supposed to be there 30 mins early).

I got to the ready room and the wedding coordinator was NOT happy with me.  Apparently I was supposed to traipse through the entire length of the casino and dirty my dress, and she put her foot down and FORBADE us to wear the silk flower clips we had made for our hair citing that I had signed the contract saying no outside flowers.  What. the. fuck.  No outside real flowers I understand, but HAIR CLIPS?  And who seriously yells at a bride 10 minutes before the wedding starts?  After answering a few questions on how I wanted things to go (Yes, Dad walk me down the aisle.  No, bridesmaids can just stand up there.  Yes, you can say God, why not, it’s a special occasion.  Blah de blah) I got into my dress and waited for things to start.  Finally, at that point, I was starting to be a little nervous.  “Don’t trip” was my mantra.

It was suuuuper windy so my hair probably got a *little* windblown on the short walk from the ready room to the chapel, but then the doors opened and I saw everyone at it was pretty much surreal.  My dad walked me down the short aisle, and then Zliten and I got up to the podium and things started.  Apparently everyone but me was an emotional and nervous wreck (all my girls, half the guys, Zliten, and all the parents besides my dad were tearing/choking up).  I was a little shaky up there but it’s more like the culmination of SO MANY MONTHS of work for just this short moment finally hit me.  I wasn’t so much nervous as *overwhelmed* by everything.  I guess I get it from my dad, I’m just not a crier.

The ceremony was very short and very sweet, especially the speech that T gave – he was supposed to officiate but the casino had rules against it, so we compromised and they let him speak for us.  It felt like almost no time passed and it was over, we walked out and let out a sigh of relief.  Whew – we r married! 🙂  Then, it was picture time.  And more picture time.  And still more picture time.  They took about 130 pictures in all.  Finally, we got to come to the reception and be announced as Mr. and Mrs. Zliten McGnome*!

Things just flew by once we got there.  I remember visiting with family and friends, there was some wine, and I remember being told I had to eat so I ate.  The food was pretty much delicious!  Then, we visited with friends/family that weren’t sitting at our table for a while and then it was time to toast!  My MOH gave a very sweet, short toast, and then the BM got all emotional on us (it was very sweet), and then I got up and thanked and introduced the wedding party and family and the champagne got flowin’.

Then, we cut the cake.  We sorta fumbled it because we hadn’t discussed how to do it, but the maitre’ d stepped in and helped us.  We did *NOT* smear cake all over each other’s faces, but after being egged on, we gave each other a little streak on the cheek.  The cake too was delicious – it was vanilla and buttercream frosting with strawberries.  Very, very nummy.  I’m not a huge cake person, but I got down almost the entire huge slice they gave me.

Then, our first dance.  We had prepared a fairly elaborate east coast swing thing, but Zliten kinda lost it.  After everything that day, we barely had it in us to just keep triple step, triple step, rockstep and do the dip at the end.  However, I saw the video, and we still looked pretty cute doing it – so it worked out.  After that, a lot of the family had cleared out and we were left with mostly friends, so we collapsed all the people into one table and worked on polishing off more champagne and wine.  The zune kept playing the SLOW songs so we went ahead and DJ’d ourselves and got down to some Zoot Suit Riot and chatted and the rest of the time just flew by and we had to give up the reception room, so we moved the rest of the people and the booze up to our room.

We spent the next few hours just chillin’ and drinking a little more and piling onto the bed for pictures and I happily shed the dress for some jeans (as wedding dresses go, it was pretty casual and comfy, but it felt goooood to be out of it).  We got hungry and headed out for The Noodle House, which was delicious.  We have a BUNCH of Chinese/Vietnamese food snobs in our collection of friends and they all loved it.  We then meandered to the Luxor to hit the club…which was closed for the night.  We lost a few people on the way who were tired, then lost a few more when we couldn’t get in, so we walked back to the Excalibur and hit up Dick’s Last Resort for some drinks (as some of us weren’t dressed for the club yet), and then after some yummy drinkies, it was just Zliten and I.

So what does one do on their wedding night?  Quarter poker and whiskey until 5am of course… and talking to some crazy lady from Arizona who kept giving us martial advice.  Finally, we hit the room and CRASHED.  It was the first night we slept well all trip.

Monday: Still Recovering

I woke up around 11 and just couldn’t sleep anymore.  I did the read my book in the tub thing and sit at the pool thing again and then FINALLY Zliten got up and we walked around the casino for a bit and then went to our 1:45 appointment to check out the pictures.  We got a few prints for free, but decided to buy them all (since it came with the pictures on DVD, as well as the rights to enlarge/print/distribute them).   I joked that I was just too hungry to pick which ones I wanted, but it was sorta true.

We then meandered looking for food at the MGM and ended up passing Emeril’s restaurant.  If you’ll remember, we missed out on Emeril’s in NOLA, so we figured this was perfect.  To be quite honest, we weren’t that impressed with the food itself, but the atmosphere and pace of service was great.  We realized we hadn’t just sit down and had a leisurely meal with each other in…forever.  We played a bit more slots after lunch very leisurely (I think we started with 20 bucks and ended with 20 bucks and played for 3 hours) and then headed back to the room and changed to go out for the night.

We got free show tickets and a free dinner with the wedding package, so we hit the 7pm showing of Dirk Arthur’s Xtreme Magic.  Sure it was cheesy, and we ended up seated on the very side of the stage so we sorta kinda saw behind some of the illusions, but it had flashy costumes and good music and big kitties (lions and tigers and panthers, oh my).  After that we hit the steakhouse and had yummy bread, gigantical caesar salads, and awesome steak and seafood.  Another nice, leisurely meal with just us two.  We agreed we have to do that more often.  We wanted to try for desert since it was comped but just couldn’t do it.  After that we played roulette.  At first I was down, then I was up and Zliten was WAY up, and then we both came down some, and we finally left a bit up.  We hit the hot tub and then called it a night.

Tuesday: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Got up at 9am to pack and just barely fit everything into our suitcases (Zliten thought we’d need to buy another bag, but I knew our pack fu was strong).  We then took a cab over to In-N-Out and yep, it was just as good as I remembered.  Mooyah just cannot compare.  Since it was actually pretty close we walked back, tinkered around the casino with some money for a while, I ran over to MGM and turned in our last money voucher (machines don’t give money when you cash out, just vouchers) and then we waited for our airport shuttle.

The flight was totally uneventful EXCEPT getting through security.  So we had repacked quickly and changed which of the 4 bags we were carrying on at the room that morning, and I remembered in line that we had our toiletry bags in our carry on (so one round of repacking right there ensued).  Then, when we went through the x-ray machine, apparently we had forgotten one bottle of wine and some of my hair products in the carry on, so we decided to check it instead (what’s another 15 bucks, right?).  Zliten went to take it down to the terminal and when he tried to get back in, they had given him the wrong boarding pass.  The machines to print them out kept rebooting when he hit print, so he had to stand in line AGAIN for the ticket counter AND for the security check.

We got home, and our lovely friends had made dinner for us and fed us some drinks and then we went home and enjoyed the hell out of being in our own bed, and didn’t leave the house or our PJs until we had to for work Thursday morning.

Next Vegas trip (which, why lie, will probably be within the next year because it’s way too fun to go), my plan is to come up Thursday, do the nightclub thing that first night, spend Friday doing a straight casino night, take Saturday mellow and do a dinner and show, and then fly out Sunday morning.

Whew, I’m exhausted just reliving it in text.  If you want to see a few more pics have at it.  If you’re actually on FB and want to see more, add me as a friend and check out my tagged pictures, Zliten’s mom uploaded a bunch but I think they are only viewable by friends of friends.  Eventually I’ll have all the disposable cameras and digi pics and videos from everyone and upload that into one massive flickr or something, but I’ll wait to gather all that until everyone is less sick of hearing wedding, wedding, wedding.  So what’s the plan moving forward now that I can check a major milestone off my list?  Stay tuned to find out…

*Of course they didn’t actually announce us that way, but ya know…

Page 177 of 218

← Previous

Next →

About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

Search

Pages

Archives

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Login

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén