I knew the going out too much and not sleeping enough was going to catch up with me eventually. And it did, specifically at 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

Thursday
Straight from the office, I made my way to Ann-Marie and Jeremy’s to visit with them and see their baby. Oh my god, he is so cute and so sweet. He kept tugging on my finger, and when he was hungry, he tried to suck on my neck. It was quite funny.

Friday
When I got home from work, I felt a tickle in my throat and was beginning to lose my voice. Determined to not be sick for the weekend, I took some aspirin and convinced myself I felt fine.

FG picked me up and we went to The Woods. Since it was only 8:30, we were the only ones in the place for about 30 minutes, and we chatted with the bartender about the jukebox for a bit before settling into one of the round booths. The drinks there are huge and strong [side note: Instead of mixed nuts, they give you a glass of rice crackers, peanuts, and corn nuts; only in LA], and three plus hours and a few rounds later, we went back to my apartment and hung out. Around 2:00, I realized I couldn’t breath through my nose whatsoever and finally admitted that I was in fact sick. Before FG left, I apologized for possibly getting him sick; fortunately he didn’t seem too concerned about it.

It was a very lovely night, I had a lot of fun, he doesn’t have twelve toes, and there was non-specific talk of another date. Hopefully I didn’t jinx it by writing this and he will in fact call.

Saturday
I slept in until noon, took a shower, then ran one errand. I came home and felt horrible, so I got back into bed and slept pretty much the rest of the day, waking up to eat soup and watch Tivod stuff. Of course, this meant I did not make it to my friend’s birthday dinner, which sucked big time because I really wanted to be there. But I just couldn’t get my sneezing and coughing self out of bed long enough to brush my hair, let alone have a coherent conversation at a party.

Sunday
Woke up around 8:30 (which gave me about 12 hours of sleep) and threw some clothes on so I could go to WW. Expecting a huge gain from all the alcohol I consumed last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see I somehow managed to lose .8, which brings my total loss down to 10 pounds! Talk about ecstatic!

I then called NJM back and talked to him for about five minutes before my voice started cracking and disappearing. We talked about possibly getting together next weekend. I’m just not feeling it at all. The rest of the day was spent mostly in bed, save for a trip to the grocery store. I really want to kick this cold in the butt quickly and am doing everything I can to get rid of it!

Now I’m off to read and chill, (and will the phone to ring).

First, random stuff:

• Thursday night, this robbery turned murder happened about five minutes after I walked past the store. So horrible.
• Did you know you can click on Comments you’ve made on Flickr and see all of the comments you wrote as well as all of the comments others have written since you last commented? I really need to pay more attention to this stuff. So cool.
• Because ptwelve asked, (link only works in Firefox, anyone know why?) I have now used the Body Glide and synthetic socks twice and so far, no blisters! Once I figure out how to avoid calluses, I’ll be all set. I do have a pedicure scheduled for this coming weekend though.
• My birthday is Tuesday, in case you forgot.

And now on to the weekend.

Friday
I wore my smaller sized pants to work which was quite exciting for me. I then found out I was receiving not two, but four tickets to the OC Fair Guster show, then I read that Guster added an LA show to their fall tour. Yay, right? Well, not so much. I really don’t feel like driving down to OC after work on Wednesday, so I probably won’t go to that show. And so far, everyone I’ve asked about going to the fall show in LA won’t be around to go. So, now I may not be seeing them at all.

The day got considerably worse when I received an email from someone I love that said, among other things, “You are a terrible disappointment to me.” That sentence has continued to play nonstop in my head ever since, and every time it loops, there are tears that come along with it.

Saturday
Slept in, then went to WW. I am down 1.4 more, so my total weight loss is now 9.2 pounds. I asked about setting my goal weight and they said I can do it whenever, since I’m in the range for my height already. I’d like to lose 10 more pounds so I think I’ll set it at 10 less than where I’m at now. Julie and I are both now at the halfway point for the amount we’d like to lose so it looks like our spa weekend will be sometime in the winter. Yay!

During the day, I did regular weekend errands, then came home to catch up on emails, including two from Jdate guys with potential. Go figure. I log on to hide my profile, and I get two nice, normal emails. They both live in Orange County, although one is moving to LA in the next couple of months, and they are both creative types (yes, they are employed) and are into the arts.

That night, I attended Nanette and Brent’s joint 30th birthdays (ahh, to be 30 again) BBQ and party which was a lot of fun! I was really nervous about going by myself (I know, I need to get over this) and only knowing two other people there, but their friends were so nice and friendly (hi Jami!) that I ended up having a blast. And I finally got to meet Jenn as well!

Sunday
I again got to sleep in, then Marissa and I went to the Dodger game. I had free tickets and Dodger Dollars (courtesy of Big Brothers) and a free parking pass (offered to me by Mr. Chips’ friend Abigail, thanks Abigail!), so the game ended up costing me nothing. It was so damn hot in our seats that we actually moved up, into the shade because we were tired of sweating after only two innings.

Overall, a fabulous and social weekend, which was just what I needed given that my week, especially Friday, sucked like never before. Hopefully this coming week, birthday included, will be as wonderful as the weekend.

This weekend I:

• Was ready to smash my iPod because while I was walking, it kept looping through the same two songs, both somewhat slow Guster songs which aren’t really conducive to a brisk walk. I don’t know what was going on, but it appears to have fixed itself. Weird.
• Tried on about 17 pair of smaller size pants that have been folded in my closet for entirely too long. They button and zip!
• Heard a buzzing sound and noticed The World’s Largest Bee hanging out above a lamp in my living room. I freaked out, realized I had no bug spray, and noticed the bee had flown into the lamp. I promptly covered the lamp with posterboard, bakery boxes, and what else–a cookie sheet–hoping it would suffocate and die. About two buzzing hours later, I brought the lamp out to my balcony and took the layers off before quickly closing the doorwall. Of course, when I went outside the following morning to bring the lamp in, the bee was dead inside it.
• Went to WW and am down .8 more which brings my total loss to 7.8 pounds. I’m happy. Ten more and I’ll be back to my former goal weight.
• Finally had time to try a new recipe. I made white chocolate brownies. They’re ugly, but yummy.
• Had sushi and watched Alpha Dog with DG on Saturday night. I think I’ve seen him more since we stopped dating than I did when we were dating.
• Spent Sunday night hanging out with Mr Chips. (Hi Mr Chips! Hi Mr Chips’ friend Abigail!) We saw the ASSSSCAT show at UCB (Andy Richter was in the audience), went to Palms Thai (yes, complete with Thai Elvis) for a late dinner, then hung out at my apartment past my bedtime. Zzzz.

It was a fun weekend without enough sleep and I am so bummed it’s Monday.

And in other news, my birthday is a week from tomorrow. If you really want to buy me something, I’d love this in birch or this (in any color, I’m not picky really) and I’ll make you free baked goods for life.

Thursday
Went to the LA Film Festival screening of Hot Rod at the Ford Amphitheatre with Jen and her husband. The movie was really funny, and the cast was awesome and even included a Groundling alum that I used to see perform back in the day.

Friday
Came home from work with a really unhappy stomach. I put my PJs on and went to bed early, missing out on Marissa’s drinks on the patio get together. Not happy.

Saturday
Fortunately, I woke up feeling much better. I went to WW and learned I am down 2.2 (for a total of seven), but I think that is partly due to switching from evening to morning weigh-ins. Whatever the reason, I’m happy. In the afternoon, I ran errands, including a trip to Pavilions where they have a special buy two 12-packs of Coke products, and get three free. Crazy good deal. Also, I did my walk/run thing, and used my Shuffle for the first time. The headphones kept popping out when I was running, but stayed in OK while I was walking. How do you get them to stay in all the time? I’m wondering if my ears are shaped weird or something.

That night, DG came over and we saw Sicko at the Arclight, went for Hawaiian BBQ for dinner, then came back to my apartment and hung out, playing with the settings on my new camera and stuff. It was fun. Sicko was a great film, yet incredibly sad. It reminded me of years back when I had Cigna insurance (worst company ever), and had to fight like mad to get a doctor-recommended Pap paid for. Cigna repeatedly told me they only cover one Pap a year, regardless if my doctor recommended an additional one following an abnormal result. Yes, seriously. Fortunately, I won the fight and it was eventually paid for.

Sunday
So much for sleeping in. I picked up my Little and took her to Venice Beach for the day. It was fun, but really frustrating at times. She absorbs everything her mother tells her, and doesn’t know what is made up and what is true. It’s sad. I know that’s really vague, but I don’t want to get into specifics here. Anyway, the weather was absolutely perfect down by the beach, and there was not a cloud in the sky.

Frustrated from my outing, I decided to do a little damage at Target. Unfortunately, the place was so packed that I had to wait 15 minutes for a shopping cart. Come on Target, splurge a little on a few more carts. While shopping, I treated myself to the new Jane Green book which I hope won’t be as disappointing as her last few. I also got a pair of sport headphones to try out, which I hope will stay in better than the iPod ones.

Now I have two loads of laundry in the machines, my air conditioning on, and I’m going to unpack my purchases and read. I so wish tomorrow was the holiday because I could sure use an extended weekend right about now.

The car ended up costing me nothing aside from visits to two local repair shops. I’ll spare you the boring details, but there are conflicting reports as to the cause of the noise. Shop one (where the AAA guy towed my car, because we couldn’t get to my shop due to the parade street closures) said there was too much metallic in the front brakes causing something (I forgot what exactly) to build up on the rotor. Shop two (my regular shop) said that shop one is on drugs, and the the likely story is that a rock or something got lodged between the brake and um, something else (again, I have no clue) which caused the noise, and was probably dislodged when the tire was removed, thus, no noise. Either way, my brakes are fine and I spent no money. However, I will probably end up buying the CRV this fall.
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In WW news, Julie and I both lost weight! She dropped another pound, and I dropped another two. We will be hitting the spa in no time!

In related news, I have two new favorite foods: Smart Ones Cookie Dough Sundaes and Trader Joe’s Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas. Good stuff.
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Next week, Jen and I are going to see Armistead Maupin speak at the Central Library downtown. Any recommendations for inexpensive dinner places nearby?
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I had a Jdate last night. He was nice. If he asks me out again, I’d probably go. If he doesn’t, I won’t be bummed. Again, it was a nice reminder that Jdates can be fun and not painful.
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I bought this camera. A pretty good deal at $216. I love that you don’t have to pay tax or shipping on Amazon.
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In blog news, this blog has become really boring and my readership has tanked. Who knew chronic strep and cancelled tonsillectomies made for more page hits. Hopefully I’ll become inspired again soon so you can read about things other than what I did over the weekend and how my weight loss is going.
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This week’s question: If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what CD would it be? And mixed tapes ones don’t count.

So thanks to Knocked Up, I’ve been having earthquake nightmares for the past couple of nights. During the earthquake scene in the movie, I had to look away because I knew it would bother me–I still remember the Northridge earthquake like it was yesterday. I guess living at the epicenter during an earthquake can do that to you.
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I got my blood work back earlier this week–cholesterol is super super low, iron is back in the normal range (no more iron pills, woohoo!), but now…now we must deal with my high SED rate. It’s been high for a few years, ever since that horrible migraine from hell, and I had blood work done five million times for it, but then I got Mono and had my tonsillectomy and sorta forgot about it. Hah, no more. In the past week, I’ve had blood work done twice. Enough, enough, enough.
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It appears a Coffee Bean has opened (or is opening soon) at my Ralphs. Just what we need–three Coffee Beans within one mile.
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Does anyone know what the deal is with the Kathy Griffin profile on Jdate? She (well, her 27-year-old self?) shows up in my search. For men. I thought originally that Jdate had been hacked. But no, it’s some kind of lame marketing campaign.
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In TV news: I’ve been watching The Next Food Network Star and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get into it. The Top Chef special was kinda lame. And the Reunited: Real World Vegas show is really boring. On the other hand, I’ve also been watching Big Medicine on TLC which is quite interesting.
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Tuesday marked the completion of my first week counting points; I lost 2.8 pounds. I know the first week is always the biggest loss, so I’m really only expecting to lose one pound a week from now on. I want to lose 10-15 more total. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) 15 pounds is somewhat easy to hide when you’re 5′9″. And not wearing a bathing suit.

And congrats to my best friend and WW buddy Julie, who lost this week too!
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Yesterday at work sucked big time because it was five million degrees in my office. Then, I got home and my wireless Internet connection decided to not work. Then, my new DirecTV receiver decided to reboot. I hope the air is working when I get into the office this morning. Unfortunately, rumor has is that it won’t be. Ugh.
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This week’s question: What is your favorite word and why? I know some of you told me when I asked for your least favorite word, but feel free to share again.