Friday, January 9, 2009

Raging against the machine

Last night was a strange one. I picked my husband up from the gym, traffic was horrible and took an hour and a half to get home. Thursday is the new Friday in Atlanta for some reason traffic wise. We are both feeling under the weather and fighting this cold only to get home and find they've shut off our water for me forgetting to pay the December bill. I just flat out forgot due to Christmas but the bastards shut off our water anyway. Just a little over a month late. I guess what really sent me over the edge is that our water meter is mere feet away from one in front of an empty house that has been leaking water and gushing down the street for 2 months. So they can be bothered to come shut off my water for a slightly late bill but can't be bothered to fix the one that's losing hundreds of gallons a day. I love it when they say "thank you for being a valued customer". Like I have a choice. I'll just go sign up for Florida water or something? BAH!

So this sparks some pent up anger in both my husband and I over the state of this city. On Tuesday night, a bartender in one of the pubs nearby was shot 9 times and killed. 4 guys broke in at closing, they gave them all of the money but they shot him anyway. We didn't know him personally but we know the owners well and loads of friends of his. It's really turned more into an outcry from the neighborhood about police cutbacks. Suddenly the thugs seem to be winning again. I love my neighborhood so much and I want us to win this war. I really really do.

So my husband is raging on about America and guns and how can people in this country just cut you off of life's essentials like water at the drop of hat and not care if you die etc. etc. I'm balling on the couch for forgetting to pay a stupid bill as they are telling me it will be 24-48 hours before we have water again. It was not a good night.

Finally we settled down to eat our dinner which I fortunately had already planned on bringing home from the rotisserie chicken place. He had chicken and green beans and I had an awesome salad. We watched the Daily Show and Thursday night tv and went to bed.

Since I didn't work out yesterday, I was planning on going to the gym this morning, mostly to shower, but somehow I forgot to set the alarm clock. I boiled the water that was left in the kettle and at least managed to wash my face. My husband stayed home from work which means he is REALLY not feeling well but was happy to report the water was back on a half hour after I left.

Isn't it funny how one stupid thing can snowball into a giant crisis? My husband and I always talk about our feelings (Scottish men are SO sweet and sensitive!) but I don't think we properly addressed all the rage building up in both of this over the shooting. I think we were too busy working out this week! Must remember to vent as well as exercise : )

Whew that feels good to get that all out!!

In all the chaos I forgot to weigh in this morning but I've been perfect so I'm not worried about it. I'm treating myself to a grilled chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A for lunch and we are having oven fried buffalo chicken and sweet potato and zucchini fries for dinner. I thought that would be a great substitute for the 2 pounds of chicken wings we usually consume on a Friday night. That's part of my eating strategy right now - healthy versions of our favorite things. In fack I'm going to look up some Juan Carlos Cruz recipes for that very thang.

One more quick story before I bore you to tears. I had a coupon for $2 off Tums (antacid) that I wanted to use before it expired. I was about to go buy some until I realized that I haven't had to take one since cutting out the crap. Immediately, my heartburn went away. It was so bad it was waking me up in the middle of the night. It stopped after 1 day of eating better. ONE DAY!

I'm really feelin' it people. I'm proud of myself for the good choices I've made this week. I didn't die, I didn't go hungry, and this 5+ pounds I've lost has already made a huge difference. I'm going to water aerobics tonight. People actually go to the gym on a Friday night. Who knew? : )

5 comments:

  1. I'm glad you've got water again! The municipality once cut off our electricity on the eve of a long weekend due to an error on their part, not mine! I was like a person possessed, but I managed to get them to turn it on again that same night after threatening to drag the mayor out of a cocktail party!

    Enjoy your water aerobics! I may go to the Saturday morning class...

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  2. Sounds like you're in the zone....good work.

    I can relate to one stupid thing forcing you off the tracks. An idiot roofing contractor told us our 3 yr old roof was done improperly and would cost $32,000 to replace (and no, we don't live in the Taj Mahal). Not having that kind of money and not yet knowing that this guy was smoking dope, I then called our mortgage bank about drawing on our home equity line. Nope - they shut us off claiming the value of our house had fallen too much. They didn't care that our equity in the house is still over 65% and we've been a good customer of theirs for over 10 years with an excellent credit rating. They won't be seeing our business again. We've stepped back from the ledge some since then but whew...I was pretty hot for over a week and all good habits were dropped.

    Hope it helps to know you're not alone.

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  3. Tina, I'm just catching up on several posts. Sounds like you are ROCKING right now! I'm really proud of you.

    So sorry to hear about the city-ills that are surrounding you. I love my neighborhood and my city, but sometimes it can be a bit much (like my latest tax assessment!).

    Keep up the GREAT work.

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  4. Wooohooo! I found someone on the same page as me! It is SO great to read all of the dieting blogs out there but it feels like I keep running into ones where the person has already lost all of the weight. I need someone to ride the boat with and throw the fat overboard! :)

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  5. Tina, I am so sorry you and the hubby arent feeling good...I am sick as well. CONGRATS on doing so well in the middle of chaos. Thats usually (or use to be) when we would all fall apart and you made great choices, exercised and kicked butt!

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