Changes Part Two

Well, ironically I forgot this blog even existed until I decided to google easy blogs and came back to blogger and it immediately logged me into this one! hah!


Life has been quite interesting since I last wrote here four years ago, I'm engaged to a man with a daughter that we have shared custody of with his ex-wife and we're getting married this October in Jamaica! We've had a lot of ups and downs, most of them courtesy of his ex-wife and daughter but thankfully he's a great guy!


What spurred my deciding to join the blogging world again? Morbid obesity, that's what. In 30 days I'll be undergoing weight loss surgery, more specifically the vertical gastric sleeve. This surgery is where they remove about 80% of your stomach, leaving you with around a 2-4oz sized stomach. Thankfully at least so far everyone in my life that I have told I'm getting surgery has been supportive or at best not sharing their potential true feelings. I've heard a lot of horror stories about people bashing others for getting surgery and that it's "the easy way out".  The weight loss surgery is merely another tool to add to my repertoire. I've gotten a lot of my eating problems under control over the last few years since leaving my ex fiance, and now this tool will help me with the last problem, portion control.

I unfortunately hurt my back several months ago and haven't been able to workout since. I was so excited when we got engaged and started working out 5 days a week to get in shape for the wedding, but I hurt my back while using weights and doing squats. I've had what amounts to physical therapy and still no improvement. I'm hoping that by losing weight with the surgery it'll help me get my back into a usable state so I can go back to living a normal life.

Changes

Life seems to be going at lightning speed lately, I've been going nonstop since mid-August and frankly I just want to sit around and do nothing for a weekend. Since August 24th I have spent 24 hours on planes, 20 hours driving and have slept in 7 different hotels. All of this was for "pleasure", as of right now I only have more tentative travel plan in the future which will depend on someone else. 

I started a new job almost two weeks ago, changed departments and somewhat changed roles at the same company. I actually have a boss that I interact with now and it’s strange, we had our 1:1 today and when I walked into her office she handed me a typed one pager that listed all of my new responsibilities. It was refreshing to have a boss that has the time to sit down and go over these things with you and not having a boss that I have to stalk into the ladies room in order to get her to approve something. It’s still been an adjustment to leave everyone I knew in my old building and now to try and make new friends in my new location; it feels like the first week of school all over again, nerve wracking. 

In the midst of all my travel and work chaos, I’m also getting a dog next week. Tonight I went into my “do not look” folder and watched a video that contained my two dogs and ex-fiancé, pretty sure that was like emotional cutting but I couldn't help myself. Thankfully with being sick right now I’m surrounded by tissues, I miss the two of them (dogs, not ex) so much and regret leaving one of them with him every day. I can only hope that this new dog will fill the void that my first fur baby left. I’m already struggling to name him, I can’t get over the name I had for my previous dog and was finally allowing myself to name this new dog the same thing. Yet, when I picked him up and looked into his little eyes, I knew that the name didn't fit him. 

I’m excited and nervous for all these changes going on in my life, I only hope that these are going to help me stay in the positive and be motivated to step back into my life and take control, I think I’m finally getting tired of watching from the sidelines. 

Christmas Vacation!

Considering that 2011 was a very eventful year for me (good and bad), and that Christmas day was my anniversary with my ex fiancé, I decided that I didn't want to be home for it, because I knew I would spend it in an alcohol induced coma and let's face it that's no way to live. I originally wanted to take a trip abroad somewhere but just couldn't make the timing and finances work out with the tour groups I was looking at. 


I decided to do a combination trip of Las Vegas and San Francisco. Luckily I have friends in Las Vegas and was able to stay with them for almost the entire time I was there which really helped. To be honest, it was also really nice having people around 24/7 again, don't get me wrong living alone definitely has its perks, but going from having 2 rambunctious dogs and a man around all the time to no one, is quite an adjustment. I decided to do Las Vegas for Christmas weekend and San Francisco during the week, then returning back to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve, because let's face it...who doesn't want to spend New Year's Eve in Las Vegas???!! Fun fact, according to the guy that returned my rental car, Las Vegas is the #3 destination for NYE, behind #1- Orlando and #2- New York.  I can now say I've been to 2/3 on that list for NYE and it's on my bucket list to go to NY for NYE (someday). 




Since I was on my way to Vegas I just had to start my trip off the right way. 

The first night I arrived my friends took me out for some great dessert (my flight didn't get in until 10pm) and conversation. 


The next day we did some shopping and wandering around and I found this totally cute peacock headband and these awesome blue shoes!! 

Days 3 and 4 to be continued....