This will probably be the last journal entry for a few days. We're almost ready to start our 12-hour trip to Alabama, and we won't be returning till late Saturday. I will, however, make an effort to post on Sunday. It's going to be a busy week. I've got Mark's family's Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow, then I'm going with Mom to the divorce lawyer on Friday. Yep, she finally called and set up an appointment. Of course this is the third one she's made in the past year so it's not as big a deal as it seems.


Last night I did 10 minutes of cardio and 1 hour of yoga. I have got to find one yoga teacher and stick with her. I've been to like 3 different instructors' classes, and each one of them does it differently. I haven't carved out one class that I can get really good at.


Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving...I'm going to try not to eat too much.

Jen from nowhere @ 8:24 AM

More drama at home. I won't go too far into it, since this is supposed to be my diet journal, but anyway ...Hell, maybe I will. Mom wants to leave Dad, and for the past few days I've been telling her that it's the right thing to do. It's like deja vu all over again ... ever since I've been in high school Mom and Dad would get into this really bad fights and Mom would swear she was going to leave, and there were tears all around, but then everything would cool off and Mom would decide that she was going to stay. But during the past few episodes she's been telling me how miserable her life is and how badly she wants to divorce him. And last night it kinda sounded like she was vacillating, so I got a little mad at her and told her that she needs to gather up enough respect for herself to do what she KNOWS she should do (I really truly think both of them would be happier). And I told her that she can't keep putting me through this because it frays my nerves. So of course she took this as being somewhat "against her," so I had to assure her that no, I supported her, but that I can't keep listening to this crap if nothing is ever going to come of it.


Plus my sister - the one who moved out - is making Mom feel majorly guilty because she won't cosign for a $6,000 car loan so she and my brother-in-law can get a new car. I told my mom last night that she should not sign for the loan under any circumstances. My sister doesn't work and her husband makes like $7 or $8 an hour doing something. Not very much income. Plus, they just signed a 3-month lease for someplace and they're not even sure they can afford the $350 rent on that. Oh, and they've never lived on their own before and they have no idea how to manage their own money. I suspect that if they got the $6,000 car they wouldn't be able to make the payments (which would be about $330 a month if the loan lasted 18 months). So Mom's credit would be ruined because she can't possibly take on another car note. Teaching barely pays the bills. I think it is so funny how my sister is harping about needing to "be independent" and live on her own, and then in the next breath she asks Mom to help her get a car. Sometimes I think my sister has really ruined her life and is destined to be so-called "white trash." I know that's a terrible thing to say about your own sister, and I love her and don't want that for her, but that's what I think is going to happen. It's not easy to pick yourself up, get an education and start a career when you have a baby at 18. And she's not ambitious enough to do it. They're already on Medicaid and I suspect she's going to be pregnant again within a few years.


When I was her age, I was living in a dorm, halfway finished with my sophomore year at college and preparing to move to eastern Alabama for a summer internship at a newspaper. Not that my situation was necessarily any "better" or more desirable than hers ... but it sure was different.

All this, and I still want to move back to Alabama? I must be crazy. Kind of like my family.


Plans are still on to leave tomorrow for home. I was hoping to go at around 8 a.m. bu Mark has class till 10, so it looks like we'll be leaving closer to 11...and arriving home at 11 p.m. Bummer. But I guess the less time I have to spend at home, the better. It shouldn't be too crazy, though - Dad is supposedly leaving today to visit relatives in Mississippi and Texas during the Thanksgiving holiday, and then driving to Austin to see me for a while.


Last night I went and worked out - again. I did about 30 minutes (25 on treadmill, 5 on bike) and then hurried down to the group exercise room to do a 15-minute abs class. I usually am not satisfied unless I get at least 40 minutes of cardio in, but I figured I'd burn enough in the class to make up for the 10 minute shortage. The class was good. Sometimes when I go there's this woman there who is so tough that I swear she's from hell. Last time I had her for an instructor my back hurt for 2 weeks. No lie. But this woman wasn't as tough, and today my abs are a little sore so I guess she worked us hard enough.


Tomorrow, since I'm off work, I hope I can get to the gym around 8 a.m. and then rush home to shower and do some final packing. Tonight I am probably going to go to my not-normal gym location (the one way out west) and do about 30 minutes of cardio, then at 7:30 do a yoga class. I love yoga and I didn't do any last week, so I am really looking forward to it today. I'm going to pay close attention to the moves tonight so I can do it on my own at home...God knows I am going to need it.

Jen from nowhere @ 9:41 AM

Monday, Monday... at least I've only got a 2-day week this time. On Wednesday we pull out to go see my parents in Alabama. I am so not looking forward to going home. There's been some turmoil in my parents' house lately...my dad and my loser brother-in-law have been fighting again, and my mom is really upset because now my sister and brother-in-law are moving out of my parents' house and taking their daughter with them. I say good because the three of them had no business living there anyway...after all they were adult enough to have a baby, they should be adult enough to live on their own (they're both 19). Mom called me 3 times yesterday crying and asking me to come home today. Talk about stress. I've already reserved the right to stay with Mark and his parents if things become unbearable.
\

On Saturday night Mark and I went to Shady Grove for our weekly dinner. I had their Hippie Sandwich and it was so good, lots of veggies and great whole grain bread. Last night I went to the gym, did 40 minutes of cardio and some weight training, then went to HEB...I swear to God, do not go to HEB in Austin right now, unless you are willing to spend 45 minutes to an hour in the checkout line. It was like Thanksgiving Madness...everybody rushing around with shopping carts, trying to stock up on Stove Top and canned pumpkin. Of course, this pissed me off really bad since all I was buying was a loaf of bread and some milk. I ended up going through the self-service checkout line - the one where you scan your own groceries - to save time.


Today I plan to do the gym again, yes on a Monday, and then go home and cook dinner. I'd also like to contact the Salvation Army about adopting an angel for Christmas...every year since I graduated from college, I've been taking a kid's name off the Angel Tree and buying some of the things he/she wants. I always feel bad because I can't afford to get ALL of the things the kid wants; they usually want some pretty expensive toys and I can't possibly buy them all. So most of the time I end up buying like ONE expensive thing and then getting a lot of cheaper stuff. But I guess that's better than not doing anything at all. It just breaks my heart to know that there are kids getting nothing on Christmas Day...

Jen from nowhere @ 9:48 AM