Adjusted Reality

Author: Quix Page 182 of 217

Set Adrift on the Sea of Anti-Bliss

On August 25, 2009

I’m feeling a bit adrift this week. The rants in my head aren’t going away so I’m gonna go ahead and post some negativity. If you’ve noticed it’s been “posting lite” around here lately it’s a combination of the new job having a lot more to do, wedding stuff taking over after work life, and the fact that I’ll write something, get frustrated, label it as bullshit, and then not post. I’ve rarely ever done that in the past year. Usually if something comes out of my fingers it gets slapped up here. Lately, I’ve just been a bit more self-censoring for some reason.

Weekly Recap:

So yet again, I’m posting increased calorie counts, but this week I’m also posting decreased activity. Without further ado, here we go:

Calories in = 1921 (adjusted to 2021 with my +100 per day for my nibbling habit)

Calories out = 458 (average of what spark says I burned and what the other website says I burned)

Total calorie average per day = 1563

Average deficit per day = 461, or 3227 total.

This should translate to about a pound loss on the scale. So why am I frightened to get on it? Today I got on and it said 154.0, which is a marked improvement, but I really had to force myself to not just skip it again.

Scale Woes:

The scale has become a big issue for me lately. I know daily (or at least multiple times a week) weighing is the key to keeping my weight under control. However, right now I just *cannot* detach the emotions from the number I see there, and I see the danger in that. If I don’t get on the scale because I’m afraid of a gain and that it will cause my mood to be foul again like it was a lot of last week, I’m prone to let my weight go without checks for longer, and that will lead to gains that will be harder to lose…

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy and neurotic, but case in point: I gained 5 lbs practically overnight the first week of this month. I’m barely holding onto my “oh shit” weight even now after losing 3 (and after 3 weeks). I have been eating and working out (beyond the 3-4 days I really let go on vacation) at a rate that I should be losing 1-2 lbs per week. Math-wise, I should be well on my way to the 140’s. But that 150 barrier is holding strong. I didn’t see one weight under 155 last week. The two times I was able to bring myself to get on the scale last week, I was 155.6 and 155.2. I guess that’s consistent and all, but still not good. And I can tell it’s not just scale weight. Pants are fitting differently and I definitely have more of a pooch than I did before and I think my jawline/muscles look less defined. No one else might be able to notice, but I CAN TELL AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.

Mental Madness:

I’m finding it hard to care, but not in a good way. I feel very teen antisocial behavior-like. “Well, if I can kill myself for six months and not lose weight but I let go for 3 days and gain, why should I care?” And the worst part – “If I can’t get myself to lose weight maybe I just don’t deserve to lose anymore.” That’s the one that bothers me the most. Of course I deserve to look as good as I want to. I exercise like crazy. I may not be a saintly eater all the time, but I’m definitely on the 80/20 plan. I should look like the lifestyle I lead, but I don’t. I think that’s what frustrates me. I’ve become this awesome athlete person, but I just look like some random person off the street who needs to lose 20 lbs. Of course the ability is more important to me, but the outside – that would really, really be nice too.

The good thing is that it hasn’t affected my workouts. I really know that it’s a part of my life that even though the scale hasn’t moved much in 6 months, I’m still up and at em at least 5 times a week doing something. And I have no desire to stop. It’s just the eating part. And most people say that’s where the majority of the weight loss is done.

It’s just killing me that what worked for so long just… isn’t anymore. I lost over 100 lbs with a very careful attention to portion size/calorie count, getting my veggies/fruits, and making sure I stuck to a regimented workout program to burn the right amount of calories each week to offset what I ate. It was something I could incorporate with my life long term. Then it just stopped working. The last 15 lbs has been a struggle and the last 5 has felt like banging my head against a brick wall repeatedly – not productive for me OR the wall.

I just can’t really get anyone IRL to support me on this, even though by doctor scales I’m still overweight for my height and 20 more lbs is a perfectly reasonable and sane weight for me. Everyone thinks I’m an idiot and ridiculous for wanting to lose more weight. I should just be happy to not be fat anymore, right? Well, it’s not good enough. I’m NOT happy at this weight. I don’t look in the mirror thinking that if I saw this for the rest of my life it would just be peachy. I’m ok being here temporarily, it’s not that I think I look like the thing with 3 chins again, but the point of project: deporkify was to finally lose all the weight I wanted and be somewhere I’d be happy for the rest of my life. And I’m not there yet.

The Plan:

This is the problem. I can wrap my head around “ok, I’m eating too much, need to eat less and move more”. I can even accept if it was that I’m lacking in motivation and perhaps it’s something I shelve and pick up later. The problem is I just need some direction because what worked before isn’t. And eat more and move less just seems like craziness. I feel like I’m flailing around trying to grab at something, anything that might work and then when it doesn’t right away I freak out and try something else. Maybe the answer is to go back to 20×3 times a week light cardio and 15×3 times a week weights and 1200-1500 calories a day. That, frankly, scares me more than any cabbage soup diet. And maybe that fact should scare me too. The point is-

I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO AND IT’S REALLY MAKING ME WANT TO SCREAM. ARGHHHH!

I think a sane plan is to cut out all this madness until after the wedding and reset upon my return. However, I am (not-so) secretly TERRIFIED of the next month and then not fitting in my wedding dress. I need to at least keep TRYING even if it means that I just maintain and/or lose the accumulated half/vacation 4 lbs.

So the plan going forward even if I don’t really know if it will do a goddamn thing-

1. Get on the scale every day. Ditch the google home page tracker that yells at me for fluctuations, as I DO NOT NEED THAT SHIT RIGHT NOW. Realize that fluctuations aren’t the end of the world. Practice seperating a number from an emotion again.

2. Keep trying for 1700 cal/average per day, and as close to 1700 each day as I can. Keep the workouts to about 400 cal/day avg. Mathmatically, this should work, as it’s about a 700 calorie deficit per day (so a little less than 1.5 lbs per week). Vacation probably just screwed things up and I need to give it more time. Bleh.

3. Lower my (unreasonable) expectations. If I can lose 1 lb per week going forward, I can be in the 140s for my wedding. I think that is a reasonable goal and something I can really be happy about.

4. Realize that it is MY responsibility to eat healthily, not anyone else’s. I’ve made baby steps here lately after a big lapse of judgement lately. I need to remembered that no one really cares what I order, just that I freak out when people suggest places where it’s either tricky to get a healthy meal or too tempting to get something else. I know that when it’s time to maintain, I can go back to an occasional indulgence and I know the meaning of occasional and am VERY comfortable eating that way, but for now, ordering the grilled shrimp instead of the fried is just fine. Fried shrimp will still exist later.

5. Try not to let any of this affect my mood. I’ve been a little touchy lately (Zliten might call that the understatement of the year). I know it’s counter productive because it all feeds itself into a vicious cycle. I’ve done pretty well at kicking the habit of eating because I’m upset or wanting to console myself, but the temptation is still there sometimes. I recognize that a workout is a WONDERFUL cure for a bad mood, but doesn’t mean that I don’t entertain thoughts of skipping it to go sulk on the couch when I’m having a bad day. My life is awesome overall, need to stop sweating the petty shit.

Hopefully I can come up with something a little less whiny to post upon later this week, but considering this was the THIRD post I wrote in the last week in this vein, it was time to post. Any advice, or words of encouragement, or commiseration, or even “suck it up, buttercup” comments are welcomed. icanhascheezburger images today for a good mixture of grumpy and cute. 🙂

Awesome Today!

By Quix

On August 21, 2009

In Uncategorized

I am about this happy today!

I wrote up a big long post yesterday pissing and moaning, and I decided to self censor and change my headspace. So that’s why posting has been light this week (besides being the busiest week ever). Instead, I’m going to talk about how awesome the last 24 hours has been.

Awesome Weights Workout!

So I just didn’t feel like doing weights last night. At all. When I feel like that I usually just bring out my ball and my weights and do some random strength while watching TV/in between cooking dinner/etc, and usually get a full weight workout. I decided to make it a “theme” night and do every exercise on the ball somehow. I highly recommend it! I got a great and different workout by doing silly things like lying abductors and scissor leg lifts on the ball and flinging my legs over my head almost to an assisted scorpion pose to work my back. It amused Zliten and me and it was over before I knew it.

Awesome Frozy Yogurt!

I pinched dietgirl’s amazing frozen yogurt recipe and tweaked it by somewhere between doubling/tripling the recipe. I used 0% greek yogurt, frozen tropical fruit, two tbsp powdered sugar, and 1 tbsp honey. It was both desert and breakfast today. I’d be disappointed in myself, but it’s totally (almost) healthy. I’m pretty sure the fruit at the bottom stuff of my normal greek yogurt is just about on par with a little sugar and honey, and the rest of it is just stuff I’d normally eat for breakfast. Considering trying the next batch with splenda and going to splurge on Fage or Oikos instead of Greek Gods because it has way less protein.

Awesome Run!

So I was still miffed about my close encounter with my best mile time ever, and even though it was technically my easy run day, I decided to give it another go. I ran the first mile at 5.5 (about 11 min/mile). I started the second mile at 7.5 instead of 7.0 and worked my way up 0.1 every fifteenth of a mile and it actually worked well until the end where I just went balls out the last 0.2 anyway. I finished with a time of 7:35! Best mile time ever! Wahooo! I wasn’t even completely spent and I ran my cooldown mile around 10 min/mile.

By the way – my second best time was in junior high school, I think I was about 13. I ran only one mile, at 7:50, and was between puking and passing out at the end of it. Next stop – under 7 minutes. I know I can do it. I’m not sure if I’m going to be running a 10 min/mile after it, but I think it’s possible.

Awesome in General!

I’m going to ignore that the scale said 155.2 this morning and that’s my low weight for the week so far. I’m going to ignore that our wedding is 40 some days away and there is still so much to do. I’m going to enjoy my happy day and the wonderful feeling of stress not bothering me one bit, thank you very much.

Rock on with your Fridays, and have a wonderful weekend. What do you have to feel awesome about today? I wanna hear about all the awesome!

Overcompensation?

By Quix

On August 18, 2009

In Uncategorized

Things are still about 85% cuh-ray-zee at work but wanted to check in and make sure y’all knew I wasn’t going off the grid here. Hopefully I can resume a semi-normal posting schedule soon but hey, what IS a normal posting schedule up in here? I was aiming for at least M/W/F. Oh well. I am here now, and should probably stop wasting precious words blathering about posting in my post. Oooh, recursive.

Anyhoo, a recap of last week, and what’s shaking in Quix-life this week.

Last Week Wrap Up:

Hello, dinner course on Sunday. Dont you look delicious. Hey, those are half taters and caliuflower, so dont judge me (too much).

Hey there, dinner course, you look delicious. Hey, those are half taters and caliuflower, don't judge (too much).

Last week, I ate an average of 1825 calories tracked per day. I’m going to go ahead and tack on an extra 100 per day with the nibble of this, sip of that habit I have and say 1925. This was not on accident. Iput things in my mouth such as an 800 calorie sandwich, 3 servings of potato/corn chips in ONE DAY (and with dip), a sugary alcoholic beverage or 2, and a 3 course filet and crab meal dripping with butter. So much for after-vacation repentantance, huh?

However, I increased my activity. Instead of my 417 per day I aimed to burn, I was all the way up at 742. I did 6 full workout days with at least 30 mins moderate/intense cardio on 5 of them. I did 3 full weights sessions. It was a good workout week.

1925 – 742 = 1183 calories. Oops. Considering I should be ingesting just over 2000 calories to sit on my butt all day, that might be a little too much of a deficit. 1000 calories is the absolute line, but 800 calories per day is pretty close. Before I added up the numbers, I was thinking “geez, why did I eat so much, I had a horrible week, I should have busted my butt in the gym more…etc”. It’s becoming apparent that I must have mistreated my body during half training if I feel like I’m eating too much NOW when I’m training way less. Next time I will track food but it will probably be a matter of making myself eat more healthy food than I feel like I should.

This week the goal is a little LESS food and a little LESS workouts. I’d like to bring the ratio to 750 or less also (that is, in theory, 1.5 lbs lost in a week).

The zone ratio this week – epic fail. Closest I got was 27/26/47 and the weirest ones were 6/19/63 or 12/50/38. I don’t think it’s in the cards anytime soon for me to eat 40/30/30 effortlessly, but it’s not a horrible idea to work towards it, the way I naturally eat is very carb heavy because I love my fruits and veggies and starches and think meat should be used in between bread/tortillas/etc or on top of salads, stir fries, curries, etc. I love beef jerky and turkey pepperoni as snacks, and it feels rather sinful to mow down almonds and pistachios, but I find that while I’m satisfied, I’m not satiated and want something carby with it as well. It’s all about finding a balance.

Last week’s high weight was 157.6 and last week’s lowest weight was 154.6. I’m going to start tracking both.

Non-Obsessive Fitness Related Stuff:

As for the other stuff in this here post, things have mostly resolved themselves. Zliten got his offer letter today and starts on August 31st. The salary, though not the ridiculous money he was making before, is better than expected so that’s a bonus! It is a relief and came just in time. It will suck a bit to have to wait about 1 month to get a second income coming in so the savings will take a small hit, but considering it’s temporary – I can’t complain. And we can finally work to replensh it after that!

The work stuff – while there are still fires burning, things are settling down well. Coming in at this stage of a project is actually nice because I’m more involved and can contribute to the direction, instead of just feeling like a secratary while the big boys get to play. It’s nice. It’s – as always- a work in progress I’ll have to keep vigilant about, but I think this is going to be a good learning experience here for me instead of a disaster, which my initial reaction was last week.

What Now?

This week, she is a busy one. I’m plowing through insane amounts of documents at work (trying to archive 3 years worth of stuff). I posted my second best mile time EVAR today at 8 minutes flat. I could have done it in less time (I wasn’t completely wasted after), but I miscalculated (I start slower at the beginning and then work up – so while I should have started around 8:15ish I started at 8:30 pace). Next time! Today we are going out after work for the August Yelp Elite party (organic BBQ and organic Vodka and live music? Yes plz!) and going to pop the champagne and celebrate Zliten’s jobiness.

Then – it’s all wedding all the time. 47 days until it. Yikes! We are working on registry stuff at Penney’s,

These shoes are the trifecta of awesome, just cross your fingers they work with the dress...

Target, and Amazon. You’d be surprised how hard it is to do this – I decide, “Ok, I want some luggage.” Then it takes me an hour to pick out the one piece I want and read reviews and such. Zliten during this time has added 40 things. So it’s been a long, slow process.

Sunday, I was fortunate enough to find shoes. They were cute, comfortable, and on sale. Now, I’m crossing my fingers that they match the dress and we’re solid. I also grabbed some silk flowers from the craft store and am trying to wrap my head around how I want them in my hair. I’m hoping to make them myself because they are so freaking expensive online. Clip+silk flower != 50 bucks in my world. I have a bracelet, I need a necklace and earrings, spanx, and am looking for a tropical-ish brooch possibly to go on the front of the dress. I think I’ve nixed the veil idea although I wouldn’t mind something similar/in place of it. Maybe a colored, super short veil? Maybe I go with a flower crown and do ribbons? Lots to think about, but it’s getting put together. Next month we start talking with the site and getting all that dealt with – though they assured us they do tropical themed weddings all the time so it wouldn’t be a problem. Hope that’s as easy breezy as they say it will be.

Beyond that, I’m just going to try to get through the week alive and enjoy the ride. I miss your blogs, and hope to catch up on them soon. Any wedding tips? Doing something cool this week?

It’s Been a Hell of a Week…

By Quix

On August 14, 2009

In Uncategorized

Earlier in the week, it totally would have been on notice...

Since I’ve gotten back, it’s been an emotional and mental rollercoaster over here. The three pronged attack on my psyche has been:

A) A MAJOR shakeup at work. It started Tuesday morning and didn’t involve me, but happened all around me. I have gone from pleased to pissed to disappointed to feeling lost to feeling like a part of the team and back again. As the dust settles, I think things are going to work out alright. I just really need to stay on top of myself and not retreat when I feel like I’m being ignored or I’m not needed. I have been given permission to butt in on anything I need to, and once you give me permission – hoo boy, you better hope you meant it.

B) Going, as of Monday, to a truly one income household that doesn’t take enough in to pay the bills. As of the time of penning this, Zliten is currently camping his email box waiting to hear back about a promising interview. This is making life very tense this week. Essentially, if this falls through, it’s take-whatever-he-can-get mode which is not optimal in any way. It’s a really sad sign of the market when someone that has 4+ years in their position and 8 years in the game industry that has shipped more titles than everyone in his last interview COMBINED is a year unemployed and on pins and needles for a contract job paying probably about half what his last position paid.

C) The ridiculous reason – those 5 lbs. I know I deserved it because of the way I ate through NOLA with reckless abandon, but it still weighed heavily on my mood. I wrote up a ton of crazy emo thoughts and decided NOT to post them here. I’m glad I didn’t because while it was not ultimately unproductive to think and go through the emotions (it rarely is), it’s not something I needed help with or to share. It might help that I’m down 2 lbs today from my 157.6!!! but it’s also just accepting my fate. I am NOT going to give into the temptation to do 2 hours of intense cardio per day and eat like a bird. I am going to go back to my normal workout schedule and my normal intake of healthy foods. It might take 2 weeks to get back to where I was instead of a few days like normal, but it’s probably better for me.

So, instead of the whining I was going to do, I am going to post the lessons I’ve learned this week:

-Even if it feels self-indulgent, speak up and state my opinion, intentions, and desires. I am a big champion of communication flow, but I was waiting for members of my team to read my mind instead of speaking up about what was grinding my gears.

-Not everyone is looking for a way to screw me over, so I shouldn’t be paranoid, but sometimes it does happen, so I should stay aware. I am this strange combination of naive and distrusting, and it does me a disservice sometimes.

-Be confident. No real qualifier here. I have this real bad tendency to retreat into my comfort zone when things get rough and no one is pushing me (very much unlike my workouts), I need to say screw it and go storm castles when I need to.

-Save when you can, even if it seems silly. We would be in a world of hurt right now without a savings account. Always save some for a rainy day, and just hope you don’t need it.

-The grass is always greener. Right when Zliten got laid off, I was extremely a little jealous. I was badly burnt out and thought I needed some extended time off. After a year, I am, even on stressful days, reasonably glad to be employed rather than sitting at home.

-Go crazy on vacations, but not so crazy. Going out of town does not empower you to eat fried foods at every meal and not gain weight (and not even scale related, I felt like CRAP this week, my body is working out all the ick). Moderately crazy is better.

-The actual losing weight thing that is the root of the problem? Still figuring it out. It is going to be a fucking long hard road to get from 150-something to 1-2/3/4-something that makes me content. I am going to get pissed and frustrated and lost and confused and want to cry about it but you know what? That is what it is. I am allowed to be upset and grumpy about things sometimes. I do not have to accept it. I can be dissatisfied with myself without losing my self worth. I have to remember that last part though. I may not be happy I gained weight, but I don’t lose the ability to call myself a fit and healthy person simply because the scale climbed over 155.

That is all, campers. Have a lovely weekend and I’ll see you bright and shiny Monday with more words about another topic. Funny how that works. What did you learn this week? Any tough times you want to vent about? Come lay down on the couch and I’ll get out the notepad…

New Orleans Vacation Part 2: Tour De Fried Foods

By Quix

On August 13, 2009

In Uncategorized

Here’s the continuation of my vacation stories!

Friday, later:

Oh, jester bar and your many, magical potions...

I had spent the last week reading up on things to do, places to go, places to avoid, what to eat and drink, etc. and I had made a list. Hand grenades are pretty much something that one must have at least once. The bar that sells them brings them in pre-mixed and they are a secret recipe. If any other bars are caught selling something called a hand grenade, they get in trouble (plus whoever reports it gets a 250 dollar bounty). I’m usually skeptical of fruity strong drinks but this one packed a g’ddam punch. One drink and I went from sober to a bit tipsy – which with my Russian tolerance just doesn’t happen. There was a dude playing guitar and singing, and he was really quite good!

Next, we made our way to the carousel bar in Hotel Montelione – which was pretty disorienting in a sweet way. You sit at the bar and it rotates around slowly. It took us about a revolution and a half to finish our 8 dollar vodka and cranberry drinks. That drink price was disconcerting in a not-so-sweet way, so we moved on, after I got my fill of the snack mix they had out. That was sweet and not disorienting!

Hurricane the size of my HEAD!

On the list after that was the jester bar, as Zliten had declared that we get our touristy, fruity drinks out of our system in one night. The jester bar was the next stop to get our namesake jester drink (Zliten is pretty much obsessed with jesters so it was a natural thing). We met a bartender dude there that had been up 30 hours straight and also was a sidekick owner. We talked phones a bunch while we drank our drinks. They were pretty much full of kiwi strawberry, love, and rocket fuel. After a bunch of brain freeze and the sun going down, we headed out.

Next was Pat O’Brien’s where the original hurricane drink, uh, originated. This drink was so the size of my head, even more than the drink was on the cruise. Somehow, this was the most serious drink of the night even though the others definitely contained a ridiculous amount of jet fuel. This place was super cool because there were fountains on FIRE! Also adding to the supercoolness was the hundreds of individuals dressed in red lingerie who were in town for a running/drinking event of some sort. I am totally going to have to look that up. Apparently the “race” (though they said they hated calling it that) had a beer stop every mile and they had 6 hours to hit up as many of them as they could or something. Sounds like a recipe for dehydration – but too fun.

Recursive Mirror is Recursive...

Next, Zliten decided on another hand grenade. If I would have had a little sense in me I might have protested. But I didn’t. Went back to the Tropical Isle and the same dude was singing and guitaring with a keyboardist this time. They were even better! We snagged two more seats at the bar and found a recursive mirror! It was quite a trip indeed.

After that one, I wasn’t doing so well. I needed food (note that it was encroaching upon midnight and I had only eaten a late lunch). We ended up hitting a Krystal because I was getting desperate (which is fast food… note that I have not eaten a fast food meal in about 3 years). While Zliten was standing in line I started feeling really rough and started towards the bathroom to pray to the porcelian god, and three sorrority sisters cut in front of me and ran in. I then decided it was time to go back to the hotel RIGHT THEN. I power walked back and made it to the room and removed the offending elements from my

Evil, evil little man-drink...

body. Food then came. I enjoyed the hell out of it, full fat mayonaise, nasty fast food beef-like burger, and greasy salty frozen-from a package fries and all.

I was done. I sat on the bed for quite a while. Zliten decided he was going back out and I decided that even though I was done drinking, I was on vacation and I was going to hang out. So I rose from the dead and we got him another jester (in a souvenier jester glass this time) and then some blue death drink which ended HIS night. Sleep was imminent.

Saturday:

Zliten, waiting for the trolley that never came...

We slept in pretty late. Combined with about 8 hours sleep in the last 2 days and the curious events of the night before, it was about 10:30 before I got out of bed and close to 11:30 before I got Zliten up. We decided it was the day to hit Emeril’s restaurant for lunch. We walked the 3 miles down there, and enjoyed seeing a different part of the city we hadn’t yet traversed. And… we got there and it was closed on the weekends until dinner. Boo! We were pretty hungry (and both were craving something including freaking VEGETABLES) and had wanted to hit the casino, so the buffet it was.

Pretty much the OPPOSITE of our plans for lunch – instead of gourmet, we were all about the big troughs. It did give us a chance to eat the biggest salad ever and then sample some regional fare (though I’m sure it was crappy regional faire, I got to taste jambalya and seafood gumbo). We ended up gambling for a while after – up, down, up, down…though we were only playing penny slots, so it was like wooo! up 3 dollars, noooo down 4 dollars. Just fun to play. I think we spent 10 bucks to be amused for 2 hours. Then, it was back to the hotel. I think it was to change shoes, but really… just to visit the comfy bed and tv for a bit.

One thing on my list was riding the trolley around to see the sights. Being that it was nearing late afternoon on our last

Me, waiting for Godot. Or the trolley. Both had the same outcome.

day, we decided it was time. On the way back to the hotel from lunch, it had passed by us. No one on it, no one waiting. Now, it was totally packed on the street waiting and after about 20 mins we gave up on it. I wasn’t sure we would make it on the trolley the first time, and I didn’t want to spend our last day of vacation waiting in line. So instead, we hoofed it.

We decided to head back down to the water and see if we could find somewhere to eat overlooking the river. We happened into a mall and walked through soaking up the AC. This thing was a freaking half a mile long. At the end, we found a place called the History of Food and Drink Museum. We were intrigued, it was only 5 bucks, so that’s how we spent our early evening. It was really cool to see the history of the regional food (like po boys, red beans and rice, crawfish, etc), and though we rushed through the bar exhibit, it was neat to see the first bar bottles of booze, stuff on prohibition (they showed a book with the title “Four Swallows”, and it had 4 test tube size shots inside) and some of the historic bars around the area, one of which was at the hotel where we were staying. We resolved to have at least ONE drink there that night.

After they shooed us out because they were closing, we were ready to eat

I give this museum 2 thumbs up!

inanimate objects, so we headed to a place we saw just outside the mall called the Crazy Lobster. It was on the water, had some fun live music playing, and sounded yummy. I know not what possessed me, but this was the place I got the crazy meal I talked about during the intro, sharing an appetizer of fried pickles (seriously, try this once in your life… it sounds gross but it’s AWESOME), and an entree of a crab cake po boy (which was HUGE, I could only eat half the sandwich, I ate the crab cake out of the other half and left the bread) and cajun fries (which I didn’t finish but could have finished a lot LESS). Our stomachs settled as we walked back and we hit the pool one more time, marvelling at the pretty lights and wishing we could take it home with us.

Then we got all swankified and headed down to the hotel bar. Unfortunately, it was WAY too crowded, so we walked up and down looking for some of the dive bars on my list. They were all either crowded or further than we wanted to go. The

At the Alibi.

last one we hit, called the Alibi, was perfect. Not too crowded, really close to the hotel, cheap drinks, and Mad TV playing! We hung out there for a while and talked to some of the red lingerie-clad runners, one who said he had been up and drinking since yesterday afternoon. He was looking pretty ragged.

After a bit, we headed back to the hotel, and success! We got seats. The rest of the night was summed up with my facebook status update from my phone:

Went back to the hotel bar and got a sauzerac which was <3 and is now enjoying the dive bar across the street. Do not want to go home tomorrow. Considering draining my savings taking up residence in the roosevelt hotel and drinking in nola. Will surely reconsider tomorrow.

So yeah. Also, there were cheese fries. We got to bed somewhere around 2-3ish and planned to be up bright and shiny to leave at 9am.

Sunday:

We bolted out of bed just after 10am. Oops. One more shower in the awesome bathroom, packed up our stuff, and

Just before the horizontal rain...

waved bye bye to the pretty pretty room. We checked out, got the car from valet, and then went in search of a gas station. Half of them were still closed. Just outside the French Quarter, things looked way different. Buildings collapsing, windows boarded up… very sad. We drove back through all the cool bridges and shared a turkey sandwich for lunch got stuck in a very SCARY rainstorm. Seriously, it was almost horizontal rain and we could barely see the car in front of us. I was so very happy I wasn’t driving.

After getting back under sunny skies, we decided to take a different route home and skipped Houston in favor of a more direct route through little towns and smaller roads. We had a BBQ pit stop for dinner and saw it fit to have more turkey. Was delicious! Had to convince Zliten to stop instead of driving straight through, but it was for the good of everyone involved as we were getting cranky.

We got through months of podcasts on the way there and back. Zliten drove the whole time so I let him pick what he wanted to listen to. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful (we attempted to stop at the Blue Bell factory about an

Hey there, bbq (to be)...

hour outside town and it was sadly closed), except we ran out of gas RIGHT as we were pulling into the gas station 7 miles from home. Yay for hybrids, as all it did was go into straight electric mode. If you’re curious, we made it there and (essentially) back on a 10 gallon tank of gas each way, and it was about 525 miles. Do I love my Prius? Yes I do!

We got home, hugged the couch, watched a movie, and then hit the bed. Great vacation, would definitely do it again. I’d probably consider flying instead of driving and maybe giving myself one more day either ON vacation or after I got home.

Damage done: gained about 5 lbs (as of this morning). I’m going to guess about 1.5 is actual calorie overage, and the rest is bloat due to weird eating. I got all huffy about it today but I will give myself another week before I panic. Miles walked – 15 (Zliten kept track). Different bars hit – 12. Number of different fried food items I ate – 12. Number of awesome vacations had: 1.

Adjusted Reality

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

Author: Quix Page 182 of 217

Set Adrift on the Sea of Anti-Bliss

Awesome Today!

Overcompensation?

It’s Been a Hell of a Week…

New Orleans Vacation Part 2: Tour De Fried Foods

Went back to the hotel bar and got a sauzerac which was <3 and is now enjoying the dive bar across the street. Do not want to go home tomorrow. Considering draining my savings taking up residence in the roosevelt hotel and drinking in nola. Will surely reconsider tomorrow.

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