diets and holidays

diets:at work, the 5 of us who work in the branch decided to go on a weight loss plan.  Don't ask me why i went along with this, because we all know that while i want to be skinny with a bangin body i will never actually put effort in to it.  i'm more of a 'spray tan abs' than a 'washboard abs' kind of girl.  even though these pictures all make me wish otherwise:

  

instead, this will always be me:

so we started using myfitnesspal.com to keep track of our food/calorie intake.  Its pretty disturbing to see how many calories are in everything that i eat.  im not really a fan of nutritional facts.  i try my very hardest to keep my hand covering them while scarfing down my box of pepper jack cheez-its.  im only allowed 1200 calories a day and don't you worry-- i eat every single one of them (even though i believe the point is to eat less). good news though: diet coke has zero calories. which is good, because i drink about 4 of them a day.

so i have to lose 7 lbs by January 3rd (the first day back to work in the new year).  i will do this, even if i have to resort to starving myself and taking laxatives. wish me luck?

holidays:its that time of year again, i can hardly believe that a week from this very second i will be celebrating my second favorite holiday of the year black friday (second only to mardi gras, of course)

i wasn't going to be able to go home to south carolina for thanksgiving this year, and i spent many-a-hour crying over it.  to the point where i made my entire family rearrange their holiday plans so that we could celebrate "fakesgiving" the weekend before.  its not missing thanksgiving that bothers me, its actually missing thanksgiving night and the friday after that upsets me so much.  Kristi, Mark and I have been camping out every thanksgiving night for the past few years.  we get to the base (the BX is our favorite place to start!) around 8:00 pm Thursday night and we camp out. in the cold. the freezing cold.  We always find ourselves scrounging through the kids scarves/gloves/beanies right as we're leaving the house and we layer upon layer upon layer clothes.  We sit in uncomfortable tailgating chairs while sleeping bags and blankets cover us.  we snuggle up next to each other for body heat and try to get at least 20 minutes of sleep in (never works).  We collect tickets for the big items (usually TVs and laptops) and we eat $1 burger king sausage biscuits that they BX workers sell and drink hot chocolate that starts off too hot to drink and within 3 minutes is freezing cold.  Then, once the doors open at 6 am, we run inside and grab everything that we dont have tickets for.  We lose each other in the store a couple times and about 3 hours later we submerge from the wreckage a few electronic items richer.  oh, and FYI- i never buy anything. i got for the hell of it. if you weren't sure of it before, i must be certifiably insane. 

i got the great news 2 weeks ago that i would be able to have black friday off, which means i get to go home and celebrate with my family.  not that i dont love atlanta, i just dont want to be here over a holiday without my favorite people. and so the countdown begins! i'll be in sumter Wednesday night.  And everyone whose ever graduated HS from a small town and went away to college knows that the night before thanksgiving is the biggest bar night of the year.  can't wait to see all of my friends again (and their husbands. because 79% of them are married now).

New Years is coming up!  Within the last 24 hours i have solidified my plans.  3 of my best girl friends from home are coming to visit!  Park Tavern better be fun for the amount of mula i had to spend on a ticket to get in.  i just keep rationalizing the cost with free alcohol and krispy kreme doughnuts.  more importantly are the doughnuts, but im sure to drink the $100 worth of free alcohol. plus, we'll be extra hot thanks to the Dry Bar!  Blowouts are my new obsession.  who wouldn't want to have someone else shampoo & style their hair?! and for only $35, sign me up as a frequent member ASAP.  plus they have these great things called "floaters" which are scalp massages.  and everyone knows there is nothing better than a good scalp massage.  Also, all of the styles are named after drinks which is probably the number 1 reason that this place appeals to me so much.  i do believe the Southern Comfort will be my NYE 'do!