A Day In The Life…

Sorry about no post for the last two days.  On Sunday I didn’t get home until almost 3 a.m. and had to be back at work at 10 a.m. so I cut my losses and went straight to bed.  I had an entire post figured out in my head last night but the Internet connection at my house was completely fucked so I bagged it and went to bed.  Let’s hope it last for 30 minutes or so so I can get this posted.

Last night I was all prepared for ranting, but I think I’ll save it for a night when I’m a little more angry.  Tonight I’m about as chilled as I ever get.

I had a great day today.  I slept until almost 2 p.m.   I set my alarm to get up at 11 a.m. but slept through it.  I might still be asleep if my friend Jeff hadn’t called to say hi.  I didn’t take the call but it did wake me.  I got up and made coffee and started my day.   I spent the next two hours on the phone.  I called a bunch of people I owed phone calls to and actually got to speak to a couple of them.  And then my friend Kelly called.  She worked with me this summer in Oklahoma and was calling to tell me about her latest adventures.  We talked for exactly an hour, catching up and telling each other all about what had happened since we left in July.

After the phone calls I left to run some errands.  I needed to go to the bank, to Bed, Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, and to buy some jeans.

First stop the bank.  When did customer service people stop saying please and thank you.  I just started banking at Commerce Bank in New York.  I opened a savings account there because I’m trying to restock some of my retirement money that I’ve been living on for the past year.  It’s an account that I’ve put my change in and I’m dropping in 10% of everything I earn from here on out.  So I got to the bank, filled out the deposit slip and went to the counter.  I handed the girl my money and the slip and apologized for not having my account number.  She didn’t even look at me.  She just snapped at me to give her my ATM card.  I took a deep breath and explained to her that first of all demanding I do something was borderline rude.  And that she might try asking for the card next time.  I then explained that I didn’t have a card.  She then grunted at me to tell her my social security number.  I found this interesting, since we live in a time of identity theft and she wanted me to just say the number while I was standing three feet away from two other customers.  I finished the transaction, all the while thinking that I just might need to close the account and reopen the account in a different bank.  It’s not a lot of money but it’s enough that I don’t think I should have to put up with the attitude.

Next I was off to buy jeans.  I only have one pair of work pants and I’ve been wearing them everyday.  Which means they aren’t exactly clean when I have to open the restaurant after closing the night before.  I had put off buying them because I was hoping to be down a pants size before I did it.  I headed cross town to the Causal Male XL store which is the only place in Manhattan that I know that sells big boy clothes.  I got there, looked around while the sales guy was helping someone else.  He finally got  to me and I asked him for a pair of jeans in my size.  When I bought my last pair they were size 46.  I was guessing that I was down to a size 44.  He brought them out to me and I went in to try them on.  They were huge on me.  I was happy to say the least.  I gave them back to him and be brought me a pair of 42’s.  They fit perfectly.  Yippee.  Of course I bought them.  When I was checking out, the girl waiting on me asked if I would like to be on their mailing list.  I told her I didn’t plan on being fat long enough to take advantage of it.  Let’s hope that’s true.

While I’m on the subject of weight.  As of today I’ve lost 51.2 pounds.  I’m finally under the 250 mark.  It’s been a long time since I could say that.  I still have over 60 pounds to go, but I’m getting there one pound at a time.  I just have to keep my eye on the prize and keep up the work.

After the jeans I was off to Best Buy.  Yesterday on the way to work, I caught the head phone cable to my Ipod on the door walking into the restaurant and broke it.  The headphones, not the Ipod.  So I needed to get a headphones.  I found where they were kept and started looking.  While I was standing there and man walks up and without even blinking steps between me and the shelf and begins his own shopping.  And it’s not like I was 10 feet away from it.  There was just enough room for a person between me and the shelf.  I was somewhat taken aback.  I stood there for a moment, cleared my throat and said…”uh, excuse me.”  He turned and looked at me like I had three heads but at least moved aside.  I picked up the pair I’d been looking at and headed to the counter to buy them.

My question is, and I’ve been meaning to ask this of you guys for a while now.  When did we as a society stop saying excuse me.  I’ve been super aware of it for the last several months now and almost no one says excuse me any more.  People bump into you, push you, move you, and not one of them can say excuse me.  And it’s not one particular type of person.  It’s black, white, Hispanic, Asian.  Male, Female.  Gay, Straight.  It really makes me wonder what lies ahead in the world of courtesy.

After my adventures at Best Buy I was off to Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was indulging myself.  I bought a foot spa to soak my feet in after my long nights waiting table.  My friend Michelle suggested it today and I thought, what the fuck.  It certainly can’t hurt.  I got it home tonight and tried it out.  I don’t know if it will help the pain I have while I’m on my feet, but it certainly feels good in the moment.  So I’ll keep you posted as to how it works.

And that was my day.  How was yours?

And 85 more to go…

A quick post before bed.

It’s Monday so I had my official weigh in of the week.  I’m now down 28 pounds total since I started the South Beach Diet.  For the most part it hasn’t been too bad.  There have been a couple of times I’ve been tempted to cheat, but all I have to do is remind myself how tired I am of being fat and the desire to eat junk goes away.  Even with 28 pounds though, the final goal seems years away.  It still more than 85 pounds to go.  It’s when I think about the total number that I’m most tempted to say “Fuck it”.  It’s just too much.  I’ll never get there.  Why am I even bothering to try.

Of course I know none of that is true.  Of course it’s impossible, if I continue to think like that.  The real goal is to try to take one day at a time.  I haven’t given up ice cream forever.  Just for today.  I lost another 1.3 pounds yesterday.  So that’s something.  If I keep focused on the little wins then I soon lose sight of how big the big picture is.

It’s also been nice going back to the gym.  I hate that I can’t lift the weight what I could lift 4 years ago.  But lots of people talk about muscle memory and that it will take far less time to get back to where I was then it did the first time.  I don’t know if this is true, but I’m counting on it.  I hate bench pressing 5 pound dumb bells.  Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it’s how I feel when I’m there.  But as I said a couple of sentences ago.  It’s not forever.  If I keep going to the gym, then very soon I’ll be able to run 5 miles without walking any of it, and I’ll be able bench press a car.  A small car perhaps, but still a car.

Enough whining.  I have to get to bed.  I have a big day in front of me tomorrow.  Have a great week.

Hungry and Cranky

I get cranky when I’m dieting.  I always have.  I probably always will.  I just hate that I can’t have what I want, when I want it.  But of course it was this thinking that caused me to get fat in the first place.  I try to be sensible throughout the day.  I eat a decent breakfast and I usually have a salad or something light for lunch.  My one “good” meal of the day is dinner.  I plan it out.  I put if off.  I wait as long as I can to have it because I know it’s the one that counts.  Therefore I want it to be just right.  Of course it needs to be within the guidelines of my diet, but it needs to be good and it needs to be enough food to sustain me till the next morning.

When I’m cooking myself I tend to do the same things over and over.  I fall into a rut and I just live there.  I don’t mind this and it works for me.  It takes the guess work out of figuring out exactly what I’m going to have.  I break this up by going out to dinner.  I’d known all night that Michelle (she got home today) and I were going out for dinner tonight.  I looked forward to eating something different and more tasty (I’m not a very good cook) than what I get at home.  Unfortunately Michelle pulled her back yesterday and so wanted to stay close to home.  That was okay with me…The Front Room down the street is delicious and they have a couple of dishes that I can eat on my diet.

I say a couple of dishes, because I don’t like seafood.  Salmon is the closest I get and I don’t eat that very often.  I had a bad experience with both fish and shell fish as a child and it’s stuck with me.  So when I go out to eat, I’m limited to the meat choices that are not fried, or breaded, or covered in other high fat/high carb ingredients.  At The Front Room, the one thing on their menu that works for me is the pork chop.  I’ve had it now the last ten times I’ve been there.  So tonight as we walked down the street, I had my heart set on anything, anything at all other than the pork chop.

So we get to the restaurant and are seated right away.  It’s not a great location, but it’s okay.  The waiter finally comes by and takes our drink order.  I noticed at the time he wasn’t very friendly but attributed it to the fact they were busy as usual.  Eventually our drinks come and we are told the specials.  At the Front Room, 99% of the specials are seafood.  I tend to tune out while they are being described.  Tonight though, the first special was lamb.  I love lamb, and I have not had it in a long time.  So immediately I knew what I was having for dinner.

A few minutes later the waiter comes back to take our order.  Michelle goes first and is quite easy.  It becomes my turn and I start.  I wanted the Caesar Salad to start and then the lamb.  However, instead of the polenta could I please have the grilled vegetables you serve with several of your other dishes.  You would have thought that I’d asked to have deep fried cat.  The waiter immediately got indignant and stuffy and announced that they do not do substitutions on specials.  It’s the chef’s desire that the meal be served as he intended it or to get something else.  I was told that I could get a side of grilled vegetable for $3.50, but that I must get the polenta as well.  I was sort of taken aback.  I’ve been in some of the nicest NYC restaurants and it’s generally understood that the restaurant is there to make you happy.  I wasn’t asking for anything that wasn’t on the menu, in fact I was asking for something that probably cost them about 35 cents to buy at the market.  I know this because the last time I got a side of grilled vegetables it was all carrot and potatoes with a few string beans for color.  And all of this was made far worse by the waiter being such an ass.

I said fine.  Skip the lamb.  I’ll have the pork chop.

And this is where they really got me.  I’m sorry, we are out of the pork chop tonight.  Well Fuck.  I didn’t say this, but I thought it.  What I did say, was fine.  Then I guess I’ll skip dinner here tonight.  At this point, I would have been perfectly happy to come home and grill a chicken breast and call it an evening.  Michelle looked at me and then the waiter and said, never mind then, I guess I won’t eat here either.   At this point the waiter brought us our check for our drinks and we left.  I asked to speak to the manager on the way out and she was about as helpful as a rock.  At no point were they apologetic nor did they try to appease the situation.  It really was a case of….”we are too busy to worry about the likes of you.”

And with that we left and went up the street two blocks to The Blue Spoon.  There we were treated like royalty.  We were told substitutions wouldn’t be a problem and we were told that they’d be happy to accommodate me in anyway they could.  As it turns out, I was able to find something on the menu that needed no substitutions and was delicious.

So the question I ask.  Did I over react by not just ordering something else.  Michelle was supportive, but she thought I over reacted a little.  I don’t know.  I know that as I said I get cranky when I’m dieting and it’s multiplied ten times over when I’m hungry AND I’m dieting.  I’m still a little pissed at how unreasonable they were.  I have a hard time believing that I’m the first person to come into their restaurant on a low carb diet that had requests of the kitchen.  As I said this wouldn’t work in New York.  Everyone I know is on some form of low carb diet.

Now I just have to decide if I’m ever going back.

An Almost Boring Day

And that my friends is a wrap. I’ve spent the last 4.5 hours catching up on all my blog reads. It’s been several weeks since I’ve really gone through all of them and I felt like I was missing out. So tonight around 9:30 I started reading. I read all the posts that I had missed since the last time I read and I tried to leave comments on most of them. I even managed to take a look at four new blogs tonight that had been recommended this week by other people. A couple of them were excellent and I’ll probably continue to check them out.

It was a good first day back in Maine. I slept until almost 12:30. Well I did have a call from my psychiatrist at 10:00 but I barely remember talking to him. I do remember that I have an appointment at the end of the month but that’s about all I remember. My friend Michelle called just as I was waking up for good. It was a nice conversation. We chatted about her camping trip and my trip to New York. I did tell her that I was ready for her to be home. It gets lonely here by myself with no TV.

I did manage to convince her to tell me where she put the scale. I haven’t weighed myself in almost two weeks and I was anxious to find out if this diet was working. Most days I can tell that it is. I don’t feel as fat and my clothes are a little looser. But sometimes I think that’s all in my head. So today I was given my scale back. I weighed myself and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had lost 16 pounds since I started this little excursion. It’s right on par with what the book says you’ll lose in the first two weeks. Of course it also says that the loss will slow as I add some of the bad things back into my diet. I’m hoping that as long as I can keep up the walking and keep the carbs at bay the weight will continue to fall away. I really want to be thin enough to start running again. As much as I enjoy the walks I’ve been taking they don’t produce the same emotional state that a nice long five mile run does. I know, I know I just need patience. But as I told my friend Todd tonight. It’s a hell of a lot more fun to gain weight than lose it. It’s been 19 days since I’ve had ice cream, beer, or bread. Ugh…

After I got up today, I made breakfast for me and the dog. She’s funny whenever you are in the kitchen. The two things that make her happier than anything else in the world is dinnertime and walk time. She becomes giddy as a school girl spinning in circles and jumping up and down. You would think that we didn’t feed her at all. After she was fed, I played around on the internet and then ended up on the couch for a nap. You have to wonder how someone who just got out of bed could need a nap…but I’m not complaining.

After the nap I walked the girl. We were out for about 30 minutes and then it was off for my own walk. I went a little earlier than I usually do so there were fewer boys out than normal. What I lacked in quantity though, I surely made up for in quality. There were some beautiful boys running the path today. Yummy. After the walk I stopped by for some groceries. The place was a zoo. I found what I needed, spent more than I wanted and was soon on my way back home.

I’m about to delete this post. This shit is boring. Who wants to hear about my day in a moment by moment break down. It was a good day. I can’t complain. And since the rest of the post was so boring I will share this. There is a less than reputable place in town where gay boys can go to have fun. So tonight I dropped by just to see what was going on. I’m glad that I did. There was only one other guy in the place but he was VERY cute and seemed to think I was too. I went into the booth with him and then we ______________________________________

______________________________________
______________________________________

I’ll let you guys fill in the blanks. It was very fun and I had a good time. Hopefully, we’ll run into each other again.

So at least something interesting happened today.

Tune in tomorrow when I’ll have probably had an equally boring day.

Life changing decisions

My visit to New York was very short lived.  I got back to Portland about 7:45 this evening.  The drive back was fairly uneventful although there was a fair amount of back up entering Massachusetts.  Of course it was nothing compared to the traffic and back up going south.  I was very thankful I was headed in the right direction.

I got here and quickly let the puppy out and then headed down the street to my favorite Maine restaurant The Front Room.  It’s a very cozy neighborhood restaurant that has amazing food, for reasonable prices.  The service is always excellent and you couldn’t ask for a more casual place to drop by and have dinner.  It’s only a couple of blocks from Michelle’s house so as soon as Max’s business was taken care of I walked on down.  I was starving by the time I got there.  I woke up late today and decided to skip breakfast, which I know I’m not suppose to do.  But what can I say, I’m not perfect.  I ended up having a very nice Caesar salad, followed up by the grilled pork chop with grilled vegetables.  It hit the spot and the best part is that it’s all allowed on my diet.

Speaking of diets.  Today is day 18.  Most days it’s okay, but there have been a couple of times I’ve started to say fuck it and have some ice cream.  Especially in New York.  The city is filled with good food that’s bad for you and while I was there I was definitely tempted.  I managed to get by unscathed though, by the skin of my teeth.

So what’s in store for the week.  Well I guess the first thing I might talk about is that I think I’m going to stay in Maine for a while.  Yes,  I have an apartment in New York that I’m paying rent on, but although I love my apartment and I love my roommate, New York has not felt like home since I got back there last summer.  I feel like a stranger there and very alone.  Trust me when I say that’s there’s nothing worse than feeling lonely in a city of 8 million people.  I’ve sort of come to believe that I should have stayed in San Diego.  I had friends there that I loved a lot and I had pretty consistent theatre work.  In NYC the jobs have been few and far between and because the city is so inundated with actors, designers, and directors, it’s hard to get your foot in the door if you are not known.

So what will I do in Maine.  Well first and foremost, I want to continue losing weight.  As you can see in the side bar on my sight I have a ways to go.  I don’t like the fact that I haven’t taken care of myself in the last few years.  I have a whole list of reasons this occurred.  In just under a year my father died, I broke my foot, my appendix burst and my boyfriend dumped me.  By the time it was all over I was spent.  I had nothing left to give and just didn’t give a damn.  It didn’t help that the boyfriend dumped me because I had gained 20 pounds.  (I’m not making this shit up).  I went back to San Diego and said fuck it.  And for the past four years I haven’t even tried.  I have eaten what I wanted, when I wanted it with no concern about my weight or what it was doing to my body.  Oh, I noticed but when you are in the throws of depression it’s hard to do anything about it.

Now I have to.  In the past four years I’ve gained more than a hundred pounds.  I’m not proud of it and god knows it embarrasses me.  There’s hardly a day that I’m not embarrassed to walk into a room.  It doesn’t matter if I know the people or not.  This weekend working on the show that I did, I hated that I had to be around people who knew me when I weighed 180 pounds.  I feel judged and frowned upon.  Of course it’s just as bad meeting new people.  Before Michelle left she asked me if I wanted her to introduce me to some of her gay male friends.  I immediately said no.  I do not want to be known as the fat guy.  And yet there’s no getting around it.  It’s hard to pretend you are thin when you weigh 292 pounds.  But it’s what I do.  It’s the only way I can get by.  Of course I very rarely look anyone in the eye any more and I haven’t cruised someone on the street in years.  I mean, really, who would want to sleep with the fatty.

And the moral of this story.  I have to lose weight.  So that’s my first agenda here in Maine.  I have to continue to lose weight no matter how frustrated I get.  I can’t take another year of feeling the way that I do.  I just can’t.  I’ll try to keep you posted on my successes and failures.

Second of all, I have to get a job.  I need to find something to pay the bills while I continue to look for free lance work as well as a full time teaching gig.  Unfortunately right now the well is dry.  So I have to find something that will allow me to pay my rent in New York, keep my bills current and let me start working on my student loans.  The catch to all of this, is that it needs to be a job that I can ditch for a couple of days or even weeks if I get free lance work.  Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out what this job should be.  I could go back to waiting tables, but who wants to be the 42 year old waiter at Applebee’s?  I could get a temp job but my typing skills suck.  And there are other jobs available, I’m just not sure how open they’d be to me missing if I get real work.  That all being said, I do have a job interview on Thursday.  I’m not even quite sure what’s it for, but I took the action and now I have to let go of the result.  If it works out, great.  If it doesn’t then I’ll look for something else.  And as always I’ll keep you posted.

And third of all in Maine, I need to keep working on my real career.  I need to put myself out there.  I need to send out resumes and portfolios and stop by and see people and try to get my name out there.  All I need is the first 6 or 7 jobs here on the east coast and the rest should follow.  It’s just getting those first few jobs that’s difficult.

And thus begins a new chapter in my life.  Maybe I should change the name of my blog?  Who knows.  I’ll think about it.

A Boring Post.

I’ve been drawing blanks here as to what to write about.  My muse seems to have not come to Maine with me.  I’d stick with the usual and just tell you about my day but not much happened.

I got up.  I ate breakfast.  I watched Grey’s Anatomy.  I took a nap.  I walked the dog.  I walked around the cove.  I fed the dog.  I returned movies and rented new ones.  I came home.  I watched the Good Shepherd.  That’s my day in a nutshell.  Not very exciting huh.

I guess I should be grateful after all the interesting posts I had when I was in Oklahoma.  I am happy that my life for the moment is stressfree.  But my stressfree life doesn’t make for very intriguing writing.

Things to report on:   Hmmmm.

I might not have told you this but my roommate kicked out the sublettor last week.  Yes, she’s gone, which means that I was responsible for August’s rent.  Not very fun, but it made Chuck happy.  And when Chuck is happy, I’m happy.

Today is day 10 on my diet.  It’s going well so far, but I already see myself falling into one of my traps.  When I diet I tend to eat the same things over and over.  They are safe and I don’t have to think about them and it takes the guess work out of whether I can have them or not.  What it also does is make me tired of them so in another week or so I’ll have a McDonald’s cheeseburger to make up for it.  I need to go to the store tomorrow and try something of a different variety.

I’d take pictures of my life here but I loaned my camera to Michelle to take to Michigan with her so I wont be able to take pictures for a couple of more weeks.

I haven’t started on my list of things that I wanted to get accomplished while I am in Maine.  I promise next week I’ll start on at least some of them.

That’s it for now.  I’ll try and be more exciting tomorrow.

One kind of funny thing:

Last night I dreamed that Bette Davis and I were working on a project together and had to take the subway to get there.  Unfortunately her son, named Diet Coke (he was about 5 or 6) kept running off and so we never got to our destination.  And yes, I referred to her as Ms. Davis in my dream.  Is there a more appropriate way to address her?

A Wonderfully Wonderful Wednesday…

Okay, so maybe I over reacted a little yesterday. I’ve had the best day today and it was all without TV, air conditioning or a microwave.

I was awake before the alarm went off this morning to take my friend Michelle to the bus station. She was taking a bus to Boston to catch a plane to Michigan. I was up and ready to go way before she was ready. We got there and I dropped her off no problem. I then headed over to the bay thinking I would walk this morning instead of later in the afternoon. I was just about to start when I realized that if Michelle had any problems getting to Boston she’d have no way of getting in touch with me so I changed my mind and came home. When I got home I fed Max and then promptly went back to sleep. I was still in bed when my roommate called to chat. I lied to him about still being a sleep not wanting to seem like a slug. I don’t even remember why he called now.

After the phone call I got up and went downstairs. It was a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. I let the dog out and then came in and made breakfast. One of the things I’m having to learn how to do on the South Beach Diet is to eat breakfast. I’ve never been much of a breakfast person. I usually settled with a computer. My roommate turned me on to a Canadian TV show several months ago called Slings and Arrows. I watched season one while I was in Iowa. And have watched season two over the past couple of days. It’s a great show about a theatre company in Canada. It’s very funny, even if you don’t know theatre. If you do it’s even better.

After finishing season two, I got dressed and took Max for a walk. The above picture is of Max from last summer. She loves walks like there was nothing better in the world. In fact you have to spell the word if you are going to say it and aren’t actually doing it. The minute you mention the word “walk” she starts to bounce and prance like a two month old puppy. So off we went. The walk isn’t very long because she tires easily but it does take us down past the water, up by the shirtless construction workers, over by the shirtless landscapers and then back home. I’m sure you are getting the theme.

We got home and I was going to get ready for MY walk. But I looked in the front room and the window seat in the bay window and People Magazine were calling my name. I just had to find out how Lindsay got herself into trouble so soon after rehab. I probably read about 15 pages of the magazine sitting on the window seat with the cool ocean air blowing in with Max settled at the other end of the seat. Next thing I knew an hour had passed and both of us had been asleep. When I woke up the shirtless boy from across the street was talking on the phone. I was three for three today.

After the nap I dressed for my walk. Since I’ve been in Maine I walked the back bay everyday. To walk from home is about 5 miles and unfortunately takes you buy the water treatment plant. So most days I drive to the bay and walk from there. It’s 3.5 miles around and takes about an hour to do. It’s a beautiful walk with trees and homes on one side and a view of the city from the other. And the best part…you guessed it. Lots and lots of shirtless boys. My favorite today was about 6.3 with beautiful hairy well-defined pecs with a washboard tummy and legs that went on forever. He was perfectly tanned with a little goatee and smiled as he ran by. Luckily he passed me again on his way back. I went a little early today so there weren’t as many boys. If I go between 5 and 7 the place is packed with them. It’s definitely motivation to get back into shape.

It’s kind of like this around the bay.

After the walk, I came home and showered and shaved. For those who know me, you know I HATE to shave. I do it about once every two or three weeks. I felt like it was time today. So I shaved and then took a really long hot shower. The wonderful thing about the bathroom here. They have a HUGE claw foot tub that I plan to use in the next couple of days. I’m thinking a wine glass full of Diet Coke (I can’t drink wine on my diet) and a good book and Max lying by the tub. It’ll be heaven.

After the shower I headed off to the movies. I had looked up a theatre about 8 miles from here and Mapquested it so I was all ready to go. I left plenty early in case I got lost or there was a problem. Turned out the directions were exactly right. I got there about 6:30 and sat in the parking lot talking to my mom. She was on her way to senior citizen night at Kroger, her local grocery store. Seems the first Wednesday of the month anyone over the age of 60 gets 10% off their groceries. She waits and then buys everything she can for the month. I can hardly wait for such pleasures.

After the conversation I went in to the movie. I saw 1408. It was good. I’ve come to realize that I like scary movies less and less as I’ve gotten older. They aren’t as fun as they used to be. That being said it really was a well done movie and the lighting was perfect and I think John Cusack is great and cute so the scenery was nice. It has a surprise little ending and leaves you wondering a little at the end. It was a lot of fun.

After the movie I came home and did something I haven’t done in ages. I actually cooked dinner. Not just microwaved something. Or did something easy. I made dinner. I had grilled chicken that I cooked on the stove with spices and a marinade and then I sauteed spinach and had green beans. I finished it off with a tossed salad. It was nice. It would have only been better if I could have had a nice glass of wine with it, but that will come.

After dinner I started watching Casino Royale. I stopped to get a Diet Coke and ended up being side tracked by writing this post. I’m gonna go finish it now. After all Daniel Craig is shirtless and BEAUTIFUL. What’s not to like.

As for the diet. Today is day seven. I have been doing great so far. I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost because Michelle hid my scale. She told me I was being too obsessive about my weight each day. I know, I know I’m not supposed to weigh everyday bit it’s hard not to. So I won’t know about the weight for another two weeks. In the meantime I feel better than I’ve felt in weeks and I feel thinner. I don’t know if I really am, but I feel like I am.

Hope everyone else had just as wonderful a Wednesday.

Freaky Clowns, Scrambled Eggs, and an Evil Sublettor

I’m so tired I can hardly stand it.  I had caffeine way too late last night and at 4:30 this morning I was still awake, lying in bed, waiting for sleep to come.  There’s nothing worse.  I was so tired this morning that I don’t remember my alarm going off, I don’t remember turning it off, and I don’t remember going back to sleep.  I woke up around 9:00 or so to my friend Michelle asking if I wanted breakfast.  She was making scrambled eggs and thought I might like some.  And I did.  So that’s when I got up.

My roommate called me at around 9:30 to give me the latest in the on-going saga of the sublettor.  Last month she shorted him 125 bucks on the rent when it was due.  He was pissed but covered it and she gave him the balance about a week and a half later.  He explained to her that this was unacceptable and she couldn’t do it again.  Well on Wednesday, she did it again.  He wasn’t nearly as polite this time and actually dragged her ass out of bed to bitch her out on Wednesday morning.  Then he called me to tell me that the check that I wrote for September’s rent was going to have to be used to cover her missing portion of the August’s rent.  This was fine, but it pissed me off.  I told him to tell her that if it wasn’t paid on time she would have to cover the late charges the landlord will bill us.  When he told her this he said to her to either give him a check for the late fee, or be out by the first.  What do you know she suddenly had the rent available.

I just don’t get it.  Who rents an apartment and then doesn’t pay the rent.  I’ve never paid my rent late.  Never.  I might miss a car payment.  Or a cell phone payment.  Or an electric payment.  But never the rent.  The way I see it…you HAVE to have a place to live.   Have to.  Therefore the rent always gets paid.  I also find it amazing that she does this the first month she lives there.  If she can’t afford it (and it’s VERY cheap by NYC standards) then go some place else.  I was upfront about all the expenses when we made the arrangements.  And unlike other people I know, I’m not charging her more than I pay for the rent.  I just want her to cover my portion of the expenses while I’m not there.  Needless to say, I’m more than a little pissed about how she’s treated my roommate, me and the whole situation.  Anybody want to beat her up for me.

Tonight was the drag show.  It went well for the most part.  I say for the most part because the space they were performing in didn’t have air conditioning and the temperature was about 200 degrees.  They also didn’t have any fans so the air wasn’t moving at all.  It also annoyed me that the show started 30 minutes later than it was supposed.  How hard is it to start on time.  And the lighting was awful.  You couldn’t see half the performers that were on stage.  My friends were mostly in the dark for their performance.  The show was also a little weird.  It started out with a clown juggling.  It helped that he was cute.  But he was still a clown and that’s just freaky.  The next act was another clown.  This one more European and a woman.  But still a clown.  Still freaky.  Next was a guy playing some strange guitar like contraption singing Greek music.  Not fun.  Next was a LARGE black woman who did this performance art piece to poetry she had written.  It consisted of her walking back and forth on the stage with an umbrella responding to the things being said over the speakers.  Then she sang a song…and in a word.  She SHOULD NOT sing.  Last was my friends.  They were a welcome relief to the evening.  They were upbeat, sexy and fun.  At last we were at intermission.   We promptly picked up our things and left.  I was not willing to sit around for ACT 2 and see what strange performers were there.

And that brings me to now.  I’m home getting ready for bed.  I’ll brush my teeth and hopefully be asleep in the next 15 minutes or so.  Day two on my diet went well.  No complaints.  AND I walked 5 miles today around the bay.  I’m going to try and walk at least part of it everyday while I’m here.  I figure between walking and dieting I should get the weight to go away.  I’ve add a ticker to the right on my blog that tracks how much weight I’ve lost.  It’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing.

Drag Kings and Fat Queens

And still the people flock to my blog.  170+ today.  Still don’t know what the occasion is.  It doesn’t appear to be all spam although only my regulars are leaving messages.  Today they were mostly from the U.S. with about 25 or so from the international community.  I still don’t understand it but as I said yesterday I’m not complaining.

Life in Maine continues.

Today the high was 88.  Not exactly cool, but compared to two months in Oklahoma it was nothing.  You would have thought that global warming was at it’s worst and the end was near.  Every where we went today people were complaining about the heat.  And this started at 9:30 this morning when the locksmith came to put a new lock on my friends’ front door.  My friend Michelle was convinced that she was having a heat stroke at one point today.  For the most part I was actually comfortable.  I did suggest to Michelle that all of her suffering could be relieved by a trip to Best Buy to get an air conditioner.  She didn’t quite agree with me.  Really!  What do I know?

The best part of being here is getting up early.  (Comments to yourself, Chuck!)  I have been up around 8:00 a.m. both mornings so far.  We get up early, have coffee, walk the dog and just sit and enjoy the morning.  This morning we even went down the street to the little cafe and had $3.50 omelets.  It was a wonderful way to start the day.  The reason I don’t think I mind this schedule is that every afternoon involves a nap.  I love me some nap time.  We were going to see a movie today but I slept too long.  Whoops.  We ended up watching the first episode of the TV show Dexter that’s on Showtime.  I liked it.  I think I may try and see the other episodes while they are gone on their little trip.

At 5:30 this afternoon I had drag king rehearsal.  The Kings On the Hill have a performance on Friday night at this little space downtown.  It’s one number that’s about 10 minutes long.  It’s a medley of songs from Grease and it’s quite funny and quite good.  Being the theatre artists I am, I channelled my best musical theatre director and helped clean up some of the choreography.  By the time we finished they really had it down.  Now if they can only remember it for tomorrow night.  Jazz hands everyone.  Jazz hands.

Of course you’ll get a full update.

Today I started the South Beach Diet.  Several of Michelle’s friends are on it and they’ve lost significant weight.  I figure what can it hurt.  I need to lose around 100 pounds.  I figure if I work hard I can have it gone by Labor Day…don’t you think?  I’ll try and keep you posted on my progress.  Every time I’ve ever lost weight before it’s been on a low carb diet so I’m sure this will work.  I also feel that’s it’s healthier than the Atkin’s Diet because it doesn’t include so much fat.  Anyone have any pointers, or suggestions?  At this point I’ll listen to anything.

There’s also a path around the bay near Michelle’s house that I’m going to start walking.  It’s about 4.5 miles around.  I figure that I can pop my Ipod on, and take my time to start.  There are places to sit if it’s too much at first and I can do it at my own pace.  I’m smart enough to realize that I can’t lose weight just by dieting.  If I don’t exercise at least some the weight will never go away.  I’ll look at joining a gym when I get back to NYC.

Have a great weekend all.