I was pretty busy this week for a change. I had four dinky articles to research and write, plus two personal essays (one of which is up now). I finished everything yesterday so today actually does feel like Friday to me, instead of just a random day.
Yesterday one of my SF pals and I went to the Botanical Gardens. Beautiful of course! There weren’t as many flowers as weird plants and trees, which in a way was more interesting. Also, I kept spotting cool birds, like these two that were like pheasants dart across a walkway behind a bush, and this teeny tiny bright red and orange hummingbird sitting on top of a tall cactus.
“Look at that tiny bird,” I said. Then it went shooting off, hovering so high above us. Suddenly it did a dive bomb into a grassy area, so fast we actually heard its wings whirring. Then back up, hover, and ZOOOOM! back down. It was pretty fucking cool.
I was telling MB that the animals in NJ/NY are far less interesting. Pigeons, gross (though of course there are plenty of pigeons here as well). While weird and interesting birds frequent Central Park sometimes, they’re not easy to spot. Except for cardinals and blue jays, all the animals in NJ are brown and gray – deer, rabbits, gophers, squirrels, chipmunks – as woodland creatures tend to be.
Afterward my friend and I headed over to the Japanese Tea Garden, like we did last time, and like last time, I totally got a spam musubi. Yum!
In other writing news, I got a notice yesterday that I’m a finalist in this nonfiction contest I entered a few months ago. Yippee! I’ll find out the results early next month.
Today I need to work on my next post for The Nervous Breakdown, which I’ve been neglecting for this past couple of weeks.
Yesterday I was looking for pictures of myself for an upcoming article. Damn was I skinny a few years ago! I mean, I knew I was thin, but compared to now: totally skinny.
I know I’ve gained some weight over the past couple of years. Last week I got on the scale for the first time in a while: ten pounds. I suspected as such.
While I was heartened by a recent WSJ article that said being 10 to 15 pounds overweight isn’t bad, and in fact may help stave off osteoporosis and make you look younger, I still miss skinny me. I want to lose if not all ten extra pounds, then five. It’s so tough nowadays, between getting older and eating more to catch up with MB. When I was single, I ate much less. Plus I was doing more long runs.
Congrats on being a finalist.
I guess it depends on where the 10 pounds go if it’s bad or not.
I would love to put on weight, but I find it kind of hard. I don’t like skinny, I think women look great when they’re a little bit curvy. It’s flattering, don’t fight it!