White Gold . . . Texas Tea . . . Sweetener!

I've been exercising at least 1/2 hour per day (on average) for two months and have not lost even ONE pound, despite the fact that this amount of exercise represents a huge increase in the amount that I was getting before January 1. I know the rules of the weight-loss game--I know the numbers. So not losing any weight is strange. Freakish. And believe me, I have it to lose. This is not one of those "the last 5 pounds is so hard to shake" situations. It should be melting off.

So why does it stick around (like the bank of clouds hanging in a dreary Midwestern late-winter sky ;)? Because I'm still eating too much and, in particular, I eat way too much sugar.

So I'm giving it up until the first of April. There are three exceptions: I will allow a piece of honey toast no more than once per day. I will still sprinkle a tablespoon or so of straight-up sugar into my weekday breakfast smoothie. If the Cake Lady here at works makes a cake from the Cake Bible, I get a piece.

But all other "manufactured" simple sugars--Sweettart bunnies, Dove eggs, bad store-bought cookies, brownies, all of the things that I love and, while eating, fantasize about living in a magical land where they are good for you and fill you with vigor, all will be banished for one month. Treat me as if I were a smoker or a heroin addict who must go cold turkey. An addiction to sugar is nothing to sneer at.

"I've learned my lesson: a mountain of sugar is too much for one (wo)man. It's clear now why God portions it out in those tiny packets, and why he lives of a plantation in Hawaii."

In My Life: Prologue and Episode 1

So I've decided to start a series of blogs highlighting the past and present, if I can remember/find it, of some of my old boyfriends and flings. A "boyfriend" is hereby defined as someone that I dated exclusively for a time period of at least one earth season. A "fling" is a guy I hung out with. This could be short term (yes, even one night), or a guy that I bumped into now and then, over a longer period of time, with more or less good results.

I'm going to preface this amusing-to-me but likely short-lived series with two statements:

1. I am very happily married to the coolest guy of all time, who had his own adventures, by the way.
2. Most of these guys were great guys, and none were real full-blown jackasses, despite isolated episodes that would suggest otherwise.

What inspired me, curious reader? Ha, ha, curiosity is a good thing! I was inspired by my lunchtime conversation with select members of Millard Fillmore's Japanese Friends, who with the exception of one woman and one almost-23-year-old, have compiled a considerable deficit in the sheer number of other people that they have grooved on.

The first subject is "Nob" (names have been reversed to protect these guys from consumer fraud). Nob, who legally changed his name from Kram for some odd reason, was a hybrid fling-boyfriend that I encountered while living in Moab.

I must admit that I was attracted to him right away. He's a big guy--at least 6'4", not thin but far from fat, just big. And brunette (an anomaly, as you will see, but a subconscious one). Pretty cute, too, in a conventional, high-schoolish sort of way. But he was very confident, and guys, that is huge. Right after we had met, we were sitting in a tiny room together, very close, me making an audition tape for a DJ position on the local public radio station, he helping me figure out the equipment. Don't think I wasn't thinking about it, or that I wouldn't have done it if we had been alone. That would be a mistake.

Soon after, we went out, I forget where, and started a rather torrid affair. Despite his dumb name, he was very manly and had some of those old-school secrets of seduction going on. You know, fear is actually keeping me from writing the next sentence, because I know my mother and coworkers read this. It's pathetic, really. I think I may have to start another blog, a top-secret blog, so that I can tell you the girly things, like the thing that kept me interested even though he had mostly good taste in music but some really lame taste, and that he never said anything hilarious, and that he had a tendency to take my company for granted, and that he was all hyped up about, yes, Y2K, and once butted in on MY show to warn people about it. NOT cool. Also, when Kevin (my husband, ya'll, don't forget about him!) saw that I was semi-dating him, his interest in me nearly waned! This despite his professed first thought when he first saw me walking across the dusty parking lot of KZMU, in a red halter top and white miniskirt (Giiiirl! She was a TRAMP!), "I will have her." Yes, I'm laughing. But he was right. And Nob almost ruined it.

So anyway, he had a tendency to ignore me. So I went out on a hiking date with Mij, this totally cute and cool guy that worked at the record store (the owner of which I also went on a couple of dates with, inexplicably, at a later time), who happened to sport a "biohazard" symbol tattoo on the back of his neck. I asked him why, like duh, and he said that humans were biohazards, but that he did what he could to minimize his own impact. Apparently, his tattooist used only organically-grown vegetable dyes.

Shortly after, I get a call from Nob, dinner at the best restaurant in town, a confession of past stupidity (his), and an invitation to an exclusive relationship. As he's making his case, I am catching glimpses of the music store, which is across the street from the restaurant, and which contains Mij. Although my date with Mij did not lead to another, it did reopen the realm of possibilities. With this on my mind, I told Nob that dating would be fun, but going from "eh, maybe I'll call Lulu" to "Lulu is my one-and-only girlfriend" needed to proceed at a slower pace.

A chill settled over the half-empty wine glasses . . . and he stood me up on our next, and last, date.

So what's he doing now? I couldn't find his picture on the Internet, which was surprising, but my little search confirmed that Nob is still a mover and shaker in the little pond of Moab, as evidenced by the following activities, documented in the Moab Times Independent:

1. A peace rally:

A crowd gathered on the lawn of the Grand County Courthouse on Monday evening to protest President Bush’s stand on possible war with Iraq. About 130 people attended the quiet rally - the largest turnout per capita of the eight rallies held around the state. . . . The demonstration was one of many "Stand for Peace" gatherings statewide to protest the prospective war between Iraq and the United States. Nob X, one of the local organizers of the protest said, "If enough Americans make their feelings known to Congress now, especially with an election coming up, maybe Congress will listen." . . . A brief verse of the chant "all we are saying, give peace a chance" rose from the crowd and transported the assembly into a scene from the 1960s and 1970s.

2. A City Council meeting concerning the crucial "Moab Response" to the Patriot Act:

After hearing input from various outspoken citizens on both sides of the issue, the Moab City Council Tuesday night decided not to take action on a proposed resolution in response to the federal government’s Patriot Act. . . . "The Patriot Act and other executive orders are designed to protect U.S. citizens," added Rod P., a local resident and a military veteran who cited the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. "I would go the extra mile for anyone here, to see that their house doesn’t get blown up," he said. . . . But Nob X said, "Just because the Patriot Act was passed by those numbers, to me does not make it a wise decision." Nob X cited a number of historical figures during his earlier speech to the council in favor of the resolution, and at one point read a selection from John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. . . ."This is not about what’s going on in Iraq," Nob X added. "It’s about our governance and our Constitution … Our liberty is most hallowed."

I give our time together a C. It was cool when his weathered old Bronco-type vehicle, the roof of which had witnessed unspeakable things, was featured in a photo shoot in "Women's Sports and Fitness" magazine, but the Y2K thing, eh, not so cool. And, in general, Texans are nobs.

PBS: Still worth saving?

Hey! Sometimes letters work! Check out the following letter from PBS regarding the notorious "Postcards from Buster" episode:

Greetings,

During the week of February 7, "your local PBS station" was able to screen the Postcards from Buster episode entitled "Sugartime" and decided the program is consistent with our mission and appropriate to broadcast. At the same time, we respect the right of parents to make viewing choices for their own families and we encourage them to do so. The main goal of our children's schedule is to serve as a trusted partner to parents and caregivers, providing educational experiences that prepare children for school and their lives ahead. The care that we take in our daily block of children's programs is particularly important, since parents consider it a safe harbor and many children watch without adult supervision.

After thoughtful consideration, "your local PBS station" is scheduling a special broadcast of the Postcards from Buster "Sugartime" episode in primetime at 7 pm on Friday, March 25th, providing viewers the opportunity to see the program that has been the subject of recent controversy. The program will be followed by a special edition of the locally produced Viewpoint, which will study the issues raised by the controversy. The primetime airing allows you the occasion to tape the production to view with your children.

After we firm up the details of this special broadcast, we will send you additional information. As always, thank you for your comments and concerns regarding The PBS Stations.

Best wishes,
Your PBS station

More babies!

I'm really not trying to prolong this conversation (though it was a good one), but I heard this on NPR this morning and thought ya'll might be interested.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4495248

Earnest Questions About Baby Facts

On NPR this morning, they had a story about Kansas once again trying to misinform their kids by eliminating evolution from science classrooms. Instead of creationism--which won and then failed in Kansas, this time it's "Intelligent Design." ID says that there is too much order and complexity for it all to be one big "accident," and there must've been a creator, read "God"--the Christian God to be exact.

They interviewed a Harvard astronomer who has room for both evolution and "lower-case" intelligent design in his head. He seemed reasonable, but his last statement was telling. He said that there must've been a creator because he just couldn't believe that all this was a "macabre (random) joke." I forgot one word in there, but he did say "macabre" and "joke." (You can check it out for yourself on npr.org, morning edition.)

That's my first question: If evolution is just a big "accident," why describe it in terms like "macabre" and "joke?" Who's pulling this joke? To me, nature is not "cruel" or "peaceful" or possessing of any other humanish emotion. It just IS. It's telling that some people, like me, consider the WHOLE thing a source of wonder and joy--a phenomenon too big for our monkey brains to get around, at least right now. For others, and especially, I've noticed, for those grim believers, the idea is that we're being punished by some cosmic joker or, worse, evildoer.

My second question is: How do you, as a believer in some manifestation of God(s), deal with evolution? I am surrounded by highly intelligent people who believe in God and even go to church on a regular basis, and I'm curious as to how they reconcile these seemingly disparate beliefs that, to my mind, really aren't. Do you make the link between the current, bewildering battle over evolution and the past battle over heliocentrism? If fundamentalists manage to get rid of evolution in our schools, how long before we backpedal and get rid of all scientific knowledge that runs counter to some version of one religion's book?

Finally, I'll explain the "baby facts" title. Not long ago I heard a scientist say that the theory of evolution wasn't a "baby fact" that, in time, would grow up to be a Fact. Theories, he said, EXPLAIN facts. The theory of evolution is one way of explaining the FACT of evolution. I'm with that fella. If proponents of intelligent design, creationism, etc. want to teach their theory of evolution in our public science classrooms, then they need to submit their theories to scientific scrutiny. If they hold up, then fine! It's telling, though, that so many would claim "science" to dismiss a theory that, while it's not "complete," has held up for decades while dismissing science to get their so-far only faith-based theories in our science classrooms. If you submitted ID or creationism to the same scrutiny that they save for the theory of evolution, they would've been pounded into dust and blown back into the cosmic soup. Except for one thing . . . they have faith on their side.

But faith, while valid, is not exactly scientific. Is there no middle ground here?

New Truck!

Yep, Kev picked up his new truck yesterday--"Now I'm excited!" he says. It's a Toyota Tundra, 2000, 4X4, 8-cylinder, 58,000 miles, 15,000 dollars. I looked up the blue book value and we got a great deal.

We put a couple thousand down on it, so now we have a 13,000 dollar truck to pay off! And we JUST got out of credit card debt! AND I had to spend $700 this week on my car (new brakes, tune-up stuff). However, I'm not really looking at this as "slipping back." Without those nagging, interest-pummeling credit cards, we can direct money to other things and pay them off more quickly. Plus, Kevin really needed a truck.