WEEK 1 OF THE CHALLENGE...

...went well. I actually lost weight this week. It wasn't much (I only lost 0.4 lbs) but it still was a move in the right direction on the scale for a change!

Motivated by the challenge, I've actually gotten back to going to the gym. I went Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning this week. I plan on stepping it up next week and going Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well. No sense screwing with my sleep and changing the time I wake up every morning. If I'm going to commit to getting to the gym in the morning then I might as well wake up early every morning.

I've been going to the branch of The Fitness Factory in Latham that's, like, 3 seconds from work. It's really nice. There aren't a lot of people there in the morning and I have to be at work at a weird time (8:30) so there's no one else in the locker room when I'm in there getting ready, so it's like I have my own private locker room. It's nice. :) The only slightly irritating thing is that there's this Chatty-Cathy-Guy there every morning that I'm there and he always wants to chat. It's early, I'm in gym clothes, I'm sweaty, you're lucky if I brushed my teeth. Don't talk to me. I don't want to be rude so I always respond, but I don't want to encourage him either so my responses are always brief. I have to admit, though, that I was pleased this morning when he told me that he was surprised that I only go to the gym three times a week because I'm in "such good shape."

So yeah. Good stuff: lost weight, back to the gym, eating better... Pretty soon I'll be 15 lbs lighter and feeling fabulous!!

It's hot here. Like a cow on fire.

Anyway. So lately I've been listening to JR on 94.5 in the afternoons. I've never really been one for talk radio, but his show is pretty funny and seems very original. He just pretty much talks about stuff that's going on... national stuff, local stuff, random stuff. He's got a guy with him - Pi - who looks nothing like he sounds. Some of the funniest parts of the show are when a chick calls in and Pi starts hitting on her and is just failing miserably and JR starts busting on him. Oh, and JR does spoken commercials for his sponsors, and his commercials are really good. I mean, you don't want to turn the channel when he starts in on them and you really believe what he's saying. You really believe that he thinks that he thinks CRWireless is the best wireless carrier around. And he sort of talks the commercials the same way he talks about anything else, so even the commercials are interesting. Anyway, it's just good stuff.

So my new obsession is buying a house. I was really bored one night last month and I started watching this program on CNN OnDemand for first time investors and they suggested buying a two family home and the rent for the other could pretty much pay your mortgage. Sounds like a good deal to me. I know it's not that simple, so I'm researching (yeah, I'm a dork because researching crap is like my favorite thing to do) all the possibilities. I'm pretty excited. I hope I can make this happen...

Oh yeah, I found a digital phone service that seems like it's an excellent deal: Lingo. It works through your cable modem and allows you to make and receive calls. I’m on the $14.95/month plan which gives me 500 minutes of call time to anywhere within the US, Canada, or Western Europe and I get all the bells and whistles: caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, free unlimited in-network calling to anyone else who uses Lingo… etc. They also have a plan that’s $19.95 a month that gives you unlimited call time. So yeah, I hope it works as well as it sounds. I get the kit sometime this coming week. Anyway, I wanted to share my find because I’m excited about it. It’s going to save me money while allowing me more features and greater calling capacity. I’ve been on the basic Verizon plan for my area which gives me access to the phone line but I pay for every single call and I have no extra features… and so it still ends up costing me $20/month! The only drawback that I foresee is that you can only have one phone hooked up to it and it has to be next to the computer. That's not an issue for me because I live in a small apartment, but if you had one of those expandable cordless phone systems (like this one) where you only use one phone jack, then it would work great for a larger house. So yeah. I'm excited. I hope it works well...

This weekend should be pretty fun. I'll be at Revolution Hall in Troy tomorrow night for Seven Nations and at the Pepsi Arena (Knick) Sunday to see Hair of the Dog and the Glengarry Bhoys at the C.O.P.S. benefit concert. Very exciting to see 3 of my favorite bands all in one weekend. It'll be a very Celtic weekend with the music and the Guinness a-flowing. Yay!

Geez. TGIF. I better try and get something done here at work for the last 45 minutes I have left.

umm.... no.

I forgot that I'd wanted to post about this for a while, but can you believe that someone left a comment on my "on being a star" post below propositioning me to be a topless model? Um... no. But yeah, I am pretty cute. ;)

motivated by shallow thoughts...

I was at the mall the other day, allowing myself to shop for clothing for the first time in months - probably since I borrowed a very large chunk of change from my parents to pay off my enormous credit card debt. I realized while I was cruising the mall how much I missed shopping and how much I really wanted a whole new wardrobe. I also realized that not accumulating gobs of credit card debt was also high on my list of wants. So, pretty much on a whim, I applied for a PT job at one of my favorite clothing stores, NY&Co.

I was called for an interview the day after I dropped off my application, interviewed the day after that, and 4 days later was offered a position as a Part Time Sales Associate.

At first when I was thinking about this job, I was just excited to have extra money to buy new clothes. But then I realized that the holidays will be here quicker than I'll be ready for, and that it will be a nice bonus to have cash to pay for Christmas gifts and not have to worry about charging anything. The extra cash should also help me with my longer term goals... like putting money away for a down payment on a house.

I feel like I've grown up a little bit in the last week. By acting on an impulse spurred by a pretty shallow thought (I want new clothes!) I've acquired the means to help me on the way to a pretty grown up goal. It's amazing how little bits of maturity suddenly spring themselves on you.