Fat Summer/You Can't Go Home Again

Remember the summer of 2002? I remember working on campus and spending a lot of time at Stubrik's bar in Fullerton (and eventually 2Js, and the Continental when it first opened). It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I was out of luck in love and hadn't been in school for a year, but I was having a great time with my friends. Coincidentally, I gained 10 pounds, which I think I still have here somewhere beneath the other pounds I've gained since. I referred to it earlier today as my "Fat Summer." It's a slippery slope, and now that I'm over 30 (yikes), it's not like I can just spend a week without soda and slim down. This stuff is here for the long haul. I have become too sedentary and not at all good with food lately. I can tell because it has been two days since I spent about 45 minutes at the batting cages and I am still sore! And also because I got weighed on an honest-to-goodness doctor's scale last week and it wasn't pretty. Too much delivery food, too many fried foods. I basically had a mental breakdown about it yesterday. So I decided to change things a bit. I will still write about recipes, but let's just say there will be more veggies in my future.

Since I am horribly bad at any kind of fad diet, I went with Weight Watchers (I'm wincing too), which basically teaches you portion control and nutrition in the form of their "points" system. You can look up anything you want and find out how many points it has and then adjust your daily diet accordingly. My commitment to this is serious, but I have to admit, I looked up "coke" and "7&7" right off the bat. A 7&7 cocktail is 3 points! (to give you some context, you should have around 35 points in a day) Exercise gives you bonus points, so I am heading back to the gym. I decided to take a class so that I won't be inclined to leave when I get bored. I'm thinking something very "jazzercise-y" with songs and choreography (think "and kick, and right, and left, and back, you've got it!"). I hope I'm being realistic. I know that paying for my gym membership and not going is just dumb. Here's hoping for the best. FYI: my chocolate cherry cupcakes from yesterday are 2 points each.

Speaking of Stubrik's, I went back there with a friend last week and it's totally different. My little dive bar is all grown up, with a fancy paint job, framed photographs, expensive looking glass lamps above each booth, and a new sign out front in modern black and red font. The bartender mentioned that the upstairs was redone, with more room and less pool tables. There were flat screens all over the place. Sigh, I guess we all have to grow up sometime...

By the way, what is up with the person who took Obama's wailing wall prayer out of the friggin' wall and told the media? And what's up with the media for reporting his prayer word for word and yet making it seem like the person who took it was to blame? What's next, timing his trips to the bathroom?