The Queen's Rambles

It’s a Jewish holiday today, which meant Erik didn’t have school. Mike has a ton of unused vacation days that he has to burn off before the end of the year so he decided to take the day off, too. Fun family times! We had a Groupon for a touristy cruise along the Potomac, so we assessed the weather (beautiful), assessed our children (needed fresh air) and headed into DC.

The cruise was a lovely little jaunt along the river. I’ve lived in the DC area 8 years, but I think I learned more in 20 minutes than I have in the past 8 years combined. It was very interesting to see everything from the river. It truly is a beautiful city.

The only hitch in the plan was Little Miss Elsa, our water baby. She tried to jump ship several times, finally ordering Mike to “go away” so she could clamber over. He did not obey and she was indignant.

We almost felt like we were in an action flick with airplanes chasing us down. Planes going into Reagan National fly along the Potomac to land. They were barreling down at us, one right after the other, landing gear down. I think we could have waved at the passengers and they would have seen us.

We also saw three black helicopters coming in for a landing by the White House. The old people from Ohio didn’t believe me when I told Erik the president was probably in one of them. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve been told that when you see three black helicopters the president is travelling in one of them. The other two are decoys. You’d be surprised how often we see this happen. I just learned a few weeks ago that Camp David is just a little bit north of us. I thought it was far away on the East Coast. Ummmm. I forget where I live sometimes.

I started Weight Watchers yesterday and I have some hope that this program might work for me. Maybe I should have started it years ago. Every time I think of Weight Watchers, I think of this old lady who used to come into the Mexican restaurant I worked at. She had a really awful wig and scary, veiny hands. She always ordered half a taco salad with plain meat, no cheese, no sour cream. She would get hysterical if the cook did not prepare it EXACTLY to her specifications. I was just the dishwasher, so I don’t really know all the myriad ways he screwed it up.

I think I had a mental block about WW because of her.

But now I’m doing it. I’m hungry, but I’ve got lots of fruits and veggies to combat the hunger. In the age of the internet it is super easy to input recipes and foods and find out the point values. I am having some trouble thinking of things to eat, mainly because I never measure out my recipes. If I do it one meal at a time I will eventually build a meal library.

I didn’t realize just how much crap I was stuffing into my face when I fed the kids. Make some mac and cheese, eat a few spoonfuls. Dip out some ice cream for them, have a big tablespoon for myself. Cut up some cheese, have a few slices. And so on.

Accounting for every morsel that passes my lips is very eye opening and something I should have done years ago. My mom made me do it when I was a teenager and I hated it.

Maybe I need a therapist to get over all these old hurts that are keeping me from moving forward.

But I’m moving forward now. I hope like crazy this is the answer for me. I have been going to the gym every day, but I am still gaining weight (not muscle weight, either. I look more pregnant now than I ever did with either pregnancy).