After this past weekend, I resolved to improve myself. I started this past Monday. It’s Wednesday, and I’m already feeling sorry for myself.

This is a wonderful sign, methinks.

Last week, I went to Oklahoma City to get our new location onto our company network. While there, I once again met up with Jeff and Malinda; on the Friday night, we picked up barbecue and went back to their house to play some Talisman. While at their house, Jeff fired up the VCR, and to my surprise, it was playing a recording Jeff once had done of a session we did of one of his LARP campaigns. The tape mostly showed Jeff, Malinda (who was shocked by the amount of makeup she had on), and our friend Mikey (who tended to make these sessions hysterically funny with his one-liners). I wasn’t in the tape for more than 60 seconds (as my character was off elsewhere doing something else… long story), but when I did appear I felt a bit shocked and humiliated.

I was relatively slim back then. I was a bit overweight, yes, but nothing like I was now. I saw a reflection of myself… and I felt terrible about it. So, I gave up and resolved to do something about it.

First thing Monday morning, I weighed myself. I was rather mortified to learn that I weighed 258 pounds. From there, I started on a regiment. My goal is to lose either 60 pounds or six inches off my waist by the end of the year, and try to keep at around that size from then on.

Monday through Friday, when I wake up in the morning, I spend ten minutes or so working out with a couple of handheld weights. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in the evening, I break out the Playstation 2, dance pad, and my copy of DDR Max 2, and spend about thirty minutes in workout mode. I can handle all of that with no problem.

My problem is that I love food, and I’m having to seriously change my eating habits. Normally when I go to lunch or dinner, I’d get something like a burger, or pasta, or pizza. Now I’m finding myself eating small sandwiches (like 6″ Subway subs), salads with minimal dressing, or just stuff like baked chicken with cabbage and green beans (my lunch today). Beer is right out, as are margaritas. I’ve also cut out most soda, limiting myself to one Diet Coke a day. As a result, I find myself just staring at my food for about half a minute, pining for a juicy burger or maybe a decent plate of pasta. I then dig in, knowing intellectually that this will make my body healthier, but still wishing I could have that damn burger.

About the only saving grace that I see coming is the fact that I’m allotting myself one splurge meal a week. I’ll have that burger, and maybe even a dessert. (No fries, though.) I know for a fact that if I stay on this regiment without ANY break, I’ll end up breaking it simply because I can’t take it anymore. My scheduled splurge night is Saturday; it’s Wednesday night, but Saturday still seems like a ways off. Here’s hoping time flies.

Ah, well… enough griping and moaning from me. I’m just hoping I do make my goal, and end up healthier for it. Ten months seems like a lot of time, but in a way, it’s like no time at all these days. I just hope it’s all worth it.

I admit, I allow myself a few personal quirks here and there to offset my relatively minimalist and “dark” preferences in terms of decor and the like. Then again, like everything else, I prefer such things to be functional more than anything else (with the occasional exception). This weekend, I took the time to deal with one of these quirks… namely, my piggy bank.

Yes, I have a piggy bank.

Back when I was working at Toys R Us, I was getting to the point where I was wanting somewhere to store my spare change, and I figured I might as well get a piggy bank. The problem was that when I looked at all of the piggy banks in the front of the store in the seasonal area (where they were typically kept), they were all flimsy, cheap plastic and ugly to boot. Then, one day, I happened to be doing some work in one of the preschooler areas when I noticed Little Tikes made a piggy bank. This one was cute, and VERY sturdy to boot. I went ahead and picked one up… and have been using it to this day.

What I do is every day when I come home from work, when I empty my pockets, I take the silver change from my pocket and dump it into Piggy. Then, every few years or so, Piggy gets so full that I end up emptying him and rolling up all of the change and using it towards a splurge purchase. Anything that doesn’t go into rolls goes back into Piggy for the next time.

So, what will I be using with the money I’ve gotten from Piggy? Well, this time… it’ll be an iPod Classic. My current iPod is okay, except for the fact that it won’t hold a charge. (Apple has said that whatever the issue is, it’s not the battery.) Also, I want an iPod that will play video for when I go on flights and the like. I might not have enough for the 160 GB model, but it’ll go a long way towards it. Ah, well… we’ll see what happens when I actually count it.

Though I do admit, I’m looking forward to taking the rolls in and depositing them, if only to see the looks on the bank tellers’ faces. :-)

Right now, I’m at a Landry’s off of Westheimer waiting on dinner. Well, more like we’re waiting to be seated. We had originally intended on eating at Bennihana, but when we met at Louie’s, Dave told us we would have to change plans. Apparently the location we normally go to is closed for remodelling. Ah, well…

When we get done here, we’ll go shoot some pool. But for now, our table is ready earlier than expected. Fun fun…

So, I’m home from Oklahoma City. We had just purchased a new facility out there, and my mission was to evaluate the building and see what would need to be done to get it onto our network. It was a routine trip reason, but I can’t say I enjoyed how it started. Thunderstorms caused our plane to leave an hour late, and when we got into Oklahoma City, it had already started snowing. Fortunately the roads were mostly clear, so I got to the facility with no problems. I got done what I needed to get done, and was able to leave before Oklahoma City’s equivalent of rush hour started.

I had plans to meet up with my old friends Jeff and Malinda (who live in Norman), so once I got to the hotel I called Malinda and we made arrangements. At 6:15 or so, I made my way down to the lobby and waited for them to arrive. Malinda eventually walked in… and damn. She had not changed a bit. (Keep in mind it had been eight years since I’d seen her or Jeff.) Jeff looked like he’d gained a little weight, but that’s not a bad thing considering he was really thin before. We all got in the car… and they decided to surprise me.

I’ve posted before how I loved the board game Talisman and had even recently wandered into a Games Workshop store looking for a copy. Well, I had forgotten that I had introduced Jeff and Malinda to it way back when, when it was out of print. So, imagine my shock when they handed me a bag that contained this:

Damn. I can probably get George to play, or maybe even Sean and his group. I don’t think Louie or Dave will ever be willing to give it a try, though. Hell, I can’t wait to introduce it to Misty… :-)

As you might imagine, I am very thankful and grateful. Thanks, guys! Now I just have to return the backpack I borrowed to take it home in, considering I had only brought a laptop backpack with me as an overnight bag.

Anyway, from the hotel we went to this GREAT Italian restaurant just off the campus of OU called Victoria’s. After a very satisfying meal there, we went to their house, where we continued to catch up, and took time to watch a hilarious Doctor Who parody called The Curse of Fatal Death. After a while, though, it was time to go home, as I had a flight back to the States in the morning and they had work. We did agree to meet up again when I go back up. :-)

Today was uneventful, though. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, which was used to get onto the company network and do some work. Once back in Houston, I met Dad for lunch at Denny’s, and from there went home and worked from there.

So, what’s going from here? Tomorrow evening I’ll be going to Sean’s birthday dinner and whatever they have planned afterwards. Next week looks like a standard week of work. The week after, though, looks more and more like I’ll be in Oklahoma City for a few days. I had thought that it would be a month before I returned for the network implementation, but instead the boss wants it sooner. I’ll have to email Jeff and Malinda to warn them ahead of time.

Either way, I don’t mind. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time to catch up… and play Talisman. :-)