Editor's note: This journal entry was actually written Nov. 21 at 11:30 p.m., but the author was too lazy to get online and post it until today.
What is it about being on the road that makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do?
Before you ask, no – I did not have a romp with some dashing young Houstonian or flash my breasts in the hotel bar. I ate. And it wasn’t Balance bars. The whole eating thing got off to a bad start this morning, but out of necessity – the company had arranged for little breakfast pastry thingies to be in the conference rooms, so of course I had to eat that. Seriously. How could I put the hotel restaurant’s $7 fresh fruit plate on my company card when the pastries were free?
Then came lunch. That was totally my fault. I ordered the crabcake sandwich and fries, all of which were greasy – but I didn’t eat all of it. Then came dinner. The company had a cold-cuts-cheese-and-fruit spread at an early evening reception, but I decided to catch the hotel shuttle to the Galleria instead. After walking around the mall for a while – and blowing $44 on new shoes at Macy’s – I sat down for some dinner. At Sbarro. And we all know what happened after that.
Granted, I did get some exercise walking around the Galleria and trudging from conference room to conference room today. But I didn’t do the sweating thing, and that’s what I like. That’s what helps me feel fit.
After I got back from the mall I went to the adjoining movie theater and saw Comedian, the new movie with Jerry Seinfeld. I was going to see Frida, but after walking around the Galleria so much I just wasn’t in the mood for anything painful and dramatic. I don’t even like Frida Kahlo's work all that much. Comedian was okay. I guess it would be more enjoyable if you’re really into standup comedy. It mostly just follows Jerry and this other loser comic named Orny around New York City as they go from gig to gig. Apparently, since Seinfeld has been out of the business so long, he’s less confident as to his standup abilities. After all, you can’t retape a flubbed joke if you’re at a comedy club. But despite his fears he was really good. And then this Orny guy is, like, the most conceited comic ever. He thinks he’s the next big thing. And while he’s okay, he’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Yet he acts as if people should be beating down the door to see him. So, to make it short, if you’re not a standup comic or a comedy-club maven, wait for the video.
Okay, enough movie reviews. I’m off to dry my hair and get to bed. They came in and did a turndown service while I was gone, so now there’s a little matty thing where you get in the bed and there’s a chocolate on the nightstand. It’s calling my name…must resist…
Live from a hotel room in Houston, it's ... Jen! No, folks, the arduous drive from Austin did not kill me, despite the fact that I was scrunched into one corner of an otherwise roomy Suburban, competing with a bucket of flowers and other assorted conference materials for space. Neither did being forced to sit in one of those hotel conference rooms with the fake walls listening to people go on about the merits of callable certificates of deposit. I am currently taking a break from the conference and planning my evening. I'm going to take the hotel shuttle to the Galleria tonight to do a little shoppin' ... then from there it's on to the movie theater adjoining this hotel to take in a late showing of Frida. Mark would never in a million years go to see this movie. In fact, he would probably not go to see most of the movies at this theater (which specializes in independent films). So I am going by myself. This is a landmark event for me - I have NEVER gone to a movie alone.
I did work out last night. It killed me to go, but I did, at 9 p.m. The treadmills sucked and the stairstepper was noisy, but I persevered. I watched the end of The Bachelor at the gym - and this was the first time I'd seen this show, EVER - and then came back to my room and watched TV. Even though I desperately needed to go to sleep, I was glued to this documentary about people who try to cheat casinos. I finally had to turn it off, and as a result I'm bleary-eyed today. I woke up about 5 minutes before the conference sessions started today.
Anyhow, I'd better get back downstairs before I miss something important. I need to have something to show for this experience when I get back tomorrow.
Got to go to Houston on business today, so I'll make this short. I didn't exercise last night. I had an SPJ meeting last night, and that ran pretty late, so I had to get home to pack. Oh, well.
Hopefully I'll be able to do some working out at my hotel today and tomorrow. Traveling for work really sucks. I used to think I wanted a job where I could travel, but now I know that it's a serious pain in the ass. You fall behind on your regular work at the office, your house gets messy (Mark is not as fastidious as I am) and you have to spend your nights in a hotel, watching some dumb skin flick on Showtime and knowing that the maid is going to knock on your door very insistently at 6 a.m. tomorrow, no matter what.
I'll post a little from the hotel room. In the meantime, stay safe and have a happy Wednesday.
I just wrote this incredibly insightful journal entry that had to do with Oprah and facing up to your fears, but Blogger ate it. If it burps it back up I'll post again. But I don't have the energy right now.
Utter and total freak out. Yesterday the computer guy came in to do something trivial to my workstation. It was late in the day, so I didn't bother doing much work afterwards. Today - I go into Word to find a file and they're gone. All of them. Empty. This is the second time that files have been lost after they've worked on my computer and I'm sick of it.
And to top things off, my right front tire is dangerously low ... which means I'll have to drive to the gas station on a wing and a prayer, and get some air, then hope that it doesn't leak any more until I can get to the service center and see just what's wrong with it. Replace it if need be, I guess.
Well, short update...the computer girl e-mailed me and told me to look in X folder. The only problem is that the stupid computer won't let me look in X folder. For some reason, I have been deemed unworthy of access to that folder. I hate this computer so much. The weird thing is that it's brand-new.
Last night I did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I didn't bother with weights because the area was already overrun with iron-pumpers. I usually do weights one night a week and then both Saturday and Sunday, but this past weekend I didn't go at all. So much for the weight training. I did get a nice surprise today, though. As I was walking away from my car (I had just checked out the tire), our janitor told me "You've lost weight." I personally think it was the head-to-toe black I'm wearing today, but it was nice anyway. And I have lost weight, but not a lot. I checked the scale last night and it read 129.5. That is amazing to me. I haven't been in the 120s since my first few years of college. My weight gain began after high school graduation, when I began eating WHATEVER I felt like, WHENEVER I felt like having it. Arby's, hamburgers, Dairy Queen, you name it. And I didn't see the effects until right around the time I went into college, when I began noticing that hey, those size-6 jeans feel a little tight, and is that stomach fat I see building up around my middle?
But I ignored it until I graduated from college, at around 135. Then I desperately wanted to get rid of the extra pounds. I entered a high-stress job as a newspaper reporter, which left me little time during weekdays to eat anything but fast food or vending machine fare. The pounds continued to add up, until I passed the 140 mark. It was then that I knew something had to be done, but what? I had no energy in the evenings to work out. I briefly started a running program with a friend, but that fell by the wayside as soon as he went to study in Costa Rica for a semester.
Enter the move to Texas. All of a sudden, I had more time to do stuff. Since I left at 5 p.m. like clockwork every day, I had ample time in the evenings to work out, fix salads and generally take care of myself. The fact that my company offered discounted gym memberships helped as well. As soon as I began working out, I felt better about myself. And I continue to feel better with each workout that I do. Though some small fat rolls still hang on around my stomach, I know that with time and patience they'll be gone. And the best part is that I'm not giving up the foods I love. Yes, eating beef and cheese and indulging in cookies will slow my weight loss. But I don't care. If I ate plain chicken breasts and steamed vegetables every day, I'd be miserable. Skinnier, yes, but miserable. And what's the point of losing weight if you just end up feeling deprived and heartachy over the fact that eating is no longer pleasurable? You won't be happy enough to go out and have fun with that skinny bod of yours. So I'm eating the foods I like in moderation. I don't pig out anymore, and I've stopped cleaning my plate when I go out to eat. While this habit may add a few months or even a year to my weight loss program, I don't care. I'm not sacrificing my quality of life for anything.
Blah. Not feeling so well since the lunch. I couldn't bear the thought of eating leftover jambalaya (I have an aversion to those sausages), so I went to 7-11 and got a turkey sandwich, pretzel mix and a Diet Coke. I know I haven't eaten that much today - just a few small oatmeal cookies and some milk, plus the lunch - but I just feel bad. Probably because I haven't exercised in 2 days. Two days off in a row is starting to make me feel like a big sausage. As soon as I finish my 2 interviews today I am going to head out of here and beat the 5 p.m. traffic.
I just got a call from the woman at the newspaper, wanting to set up a day for me to fly out there and interview. I am mucho excited at the prospect of coming back to newspapers, but also sad, because it means that Mark and I will be apart for at least a year and a half. That's a long time to live across the state from each other. We've really grown close in the 7 months we've lived together. It's the first time I've actually enjoyed not living alone. We discussed the possibility of him just coming with me, wherever I go, and bumming off me until he finds a job in chemical engineering. But he's not really comfortable with doing that; he thinks it would be shameful or something, since he's "the man" and he should be the breadwinner. Then we discussed me following him to wherever he gets a job, but I don't want to be a housewife. It would be fun for, like, a month. Then it would suck.
So we decided the best thing for him to do would be to go to grad school at our alma mater and then try to find a job in the city I'd be working in. A graduate degree would make him more attractive to employers and it would give him time to make contacts and be picky about the job he takes. It is really going to suck not having him around. But we have decided to see each other every weekend possible and then to talk every night on the phone. I look at it this way: I will have more time to devote to my work. I won't be rushing to get out the door like I was in Tuscaloosa, because essentially there will be no one home waiting for me. I can work into the evening and do some overtime if I need or want to.
This business is so unfair. The people who get the big breaks are the ones without significant others, the ones who aren't tied down and can come up to the newsroom at a moment's notice to cover a breaking story. The ones who can drop everything and move on to that bigger, more prestigious paper. The reporters that have families and other obligations aren't as mobile; many of them end up stagnating at a mid-size paper, reluctant to uproot their spouses and kids for a better job. I'm afraid that's what I'll become one day. I don't have a spouse or a kid yet, but I can see Mark and I getting married and (maybe) having children one day. And since he's the one that's going to be making the big bucks, I see me giving up the advancement of my career to further his. Argh. Love is so hard, especially when you're a grown-up.
OK, so I didn't work out yesterday. I know that's bad. And I'm going to pay for it today by having to go on a super-crowded Monday. I will definitely have to leave work early if I want to have any chance of getting a machine.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I fixed jambalaya for us with TONS of Elgin sausage (I will never eat so much sausage ever again) and then did oatmeal cookies, so I was busy. I also went to The Body Shop and picked up those Body Butters. If you have really dry skin, this is the thing to get. They smell SO good (especially the Nut and Sesame scents) and they're super-moisturizing. I bought Grapeseed for Stephanie and Honey for Katherine. Yay. That's three recipients on my Christmas list down. Only a million to go.
I also ordered this book from Amazon with this Web gift certificate that I got. (I got it through the My Points program. You get points just for reading e-mail and you can cash them in for gift certificates. I don't know why more people don't do this.) Anyway, I figured that I could use some help learning how to be thrifty. I try, God knows, but little expensive things always sneak in, like Starbucks or shoes. And the author of this book saved a BUNCH of money, enough to pay off her debt and put some money down on her dream house. I'm all about getting out of debt. Though I don't owe tons like Karyn did, I owe some, and about a third of that is high-interest credit-card debt. The rest is a student loan. So I'd like to get that paid off as soon as possible.
I don't usually post on weekends, but boredom and reluctance to get up and do something constructive have gotten the better of me.
I went to the mall yesterday with my aunt, where I didn't buy anything, but realized how much it sucks to be on a self-imposed budget. We've got more money than we've ever had, but the possibility of a cross-country move has caused us to be pretty tight with our finances. We went to dinner at Hula Hut last night, and that was our one and only meal out for the week. I had their Hawaiian fajitas, which are great, let me tell you. If you are ever in Austin go and have them. They serve "Mexinesian" cuisine, a pretty original idea. It also helps that the restaurant is right there on Lake Austin.
Yesterday was my day off of exercise, so I'm trying to work up the energy to go today. I was hoping to do a yoga class, but it seems like all the group exercise classes end around 11 a.m. on Sundays. So it looks like I will be slaving away on the treadmill and doing some weights, like usual.
Right now I hear Cocktail on the TV in the living room. It's sad that I know so much of the dialogue from this movie. The only good part is when Elizabeth Shue pours all the food on Tom Cruise's head.
Oh, yes, for those of you who are wondering: I called the editor. We have tentatively set up the Thursday after Thanksgiving to interview. It's so funny that, right after leaving from visiting my parents, I'll be back.
Name: Jen Location: DFW, TX Occupation: Journalist WHY this stupid blog?: To lose the 20 pounds I've packed on since high school and to entertain you with stories about my fabulous life. Current Weight: 138 My Goal Weight: 115 Pounds to Go: 23
