The chair of awesomeness. And other stories

     My friend Angelique is awesome. We met a few years ago when we were assigned to proctor the MCAS together. She is amazing and awesome. And now she has a chair in her classroom that is also amazing and awesome. It has been named the chair of awesomeness. 

   It is a well-named chair. A bit of (very short) history on this chair. Angelique and her family were heading out somewhere and in her neighborhood they saw this chair with a sign on it saying free. She figured there had to be something wrong with it like it was horribly uncomfortable or smelled. Her husband saw this chair and said "I have to stop don't I" and she said "of course". And she, being the smart woman that she is, sat in the chair. And it was not uncomfortable. And she smelled it. And it did not smell. She figured the other option was the 3 girls that live in the house were fighting over the chair. So it had to go. And it has now gone to live in her classroom.
    This morning I got to sit in the chair of awesomeness. And I never wanted to leave it. It's like sitting in a cloud. Or a warm hug. It is an amazingly comfortable chair and I wanted to take a nap in it. It bet it would have been a good nap.

    
      I got yet another letter from the Ford dealership today. This was not a reminder to get my oil changed, they wanted me to buy a new warranty, but it jogged my memory that I do need to get my oil changed. And I should also get the car inspected because that expired last month. I keep forgetting about both of those things. The oil is not due by the mileage but by months and since I am making a long drive on Sunday it seems like a good idea to get that taken care of. I tried to call but there was a lot of holding so I went online to book the appointment. Then there was a computer glitch and I never got it to go past the book it page. So I got on the live chat to check and see if it went through and was just not showing on my end. No matter how much I know exactly what I need, live chat support always takes forever. So while I was waiting for the agent to figure things out on his end and actually respond to me I worked on Anna's vaulting doll. And I finished her. 
    She is not exactly like the reference because that was not possible, but I hope she is close enough. She was interesting to make. Now to finish the other dolls in the order.

    Today was officially the end of the Biggest Loser competition at school. And good. I had to pay again this week because the scale in the nurse's office said I was up .4 pounds from last week. I don't even think that is possible. I saw what I weighed, I saw what I weighed last week (when I had to pay) and the week before (when I had to pay). I feel like something is wonky. But whatever. I have not gained real weight, I am having some fluctuations because of birthday eating, too much salt on some days and yesterday I had cheese. Which always makes the scale go up for me. I have also decided that I don't really care what the scale says at the moment. I do want to lose more weight because I want to drop some more fat and get fitter. THAT is my goal. If I end up weighing exactly what I weigh now but am smaller and fitter, I am OK with that. I set a weight goal because I know what size I was at my smallest after Elecktra was born. I know I can physically be smaller and still healthy. So I will pay attention to the fit of my clothes and how I feel  and do measurements. I will weigh myself sometimes, but not all the time. And when people I work with or people I have not seen in awhile say I look like I have lost weight I will say that yes, I have been working really hard at it. The coach from the unified track team last year stopped by practice today (he retired last year) and he said that I am looking very svelte. I do love that word. 
     Anyway, with the competition being over, and the number on the scale not mattering, I had ice cream today. It was glorious. I also got an ice cream recommendation from a friend of mine the other day. I had never heard of Rebel ice cream but I looked it up and I can eat every flavor they make! They are all sweetened with erythritol and monk fruit and I am super excited. Especially since they are made with cream and not skim milk. As is usual with ice cream I can eat lately, they do not stock it super local to me. But they have it at a store about 35 minutes away, which yes, I get that that IS super local to a lot of people. But I have a grocery store 2.5 miles away and another just another 10 minutes further away. Anyway, back to happy thoughts. I had ice cream today. On Monday I will go and buy new ice cream and try it out. That is awesome.

     There was track practice again today and it was chilly but slightly warmer than yesterday. My knee was hurting a lot so I was really disappointed. I wanted to try the 400 again. So I did what I could of the warmups and then I took groups to different field event stations and did my track mom/assistant coach thing. At the end of practice we were going to do a cooldown lap. My knee was feeling better, and I had managed to run the 100m relay with Travis, so I decided I would at least try it. Meaghan decided we needed to run to Eye of the Tiger. So I put it on my phone and stuck it in my pocket (ALL workout pants should have pockets!) and we ran. I had to go slowly because I know 400 meters is a long way for me. But I kept on going. Meaghan is awesome and was encouraging Travis and I was just going. And I did it, I ran the whole thing! Not quickly, but I didn't stop at all. When I came to roughly where I had to take a break yesterday I said to myself, breath, keep going. And when I passed Meaghan who was still trying to get Travis to run, so she had stopped) I said I hadn't stopped yet. When I was halfway through the last quarter of the track it was very hard to keep on going. But I said to myself, you NEED to finish this. And I did. And I am ridiculously happy about it. Meaghan said to me that I should try for the 800 now. I said one thing at a time, lol! I did the 400 and now I will work on improving so I can do it a bit faster. And then, yeah, I will try for the 800. I'll keep you posted.