The Other Side
2005-12-29, 2:32 p.m.

Day 494 Made it to the Other Side of Christmas

The title about sums up the entire month of December actually. Presents bought & wrapped. Tree bought & decorated. House turned upside down & redecorated for a month. Kids home from college, girlfriends in & out, buddies over to visit.

Ate way too much. Did I mention the Oatmeal Craisin cookies with the white chocolate? Lordy, lordy, don�t ever make them. They are like the crack I tell ya. Pick one up, take a bite, get hooked. Looked easy to make, sounded tasty, so I doubled the recipe. That created 4 times the temptation. If the kids & FIL don�t get them eaten up soon I�m going to chuck them outside and let the squirrels have them. Those and the regular old xmas cut out cookies too. And the chocolate covered peanut butter balls, fudge, yogurt coated pretzels, hard candies, tins of mixed nuts, just the whole mess. We are going to have us some FAT squirrels. Better them than me.

In spite of hitting up the gym no less than every other day, getting to aerobics 3 of 4 weeks, and churning up at least 500 calories on the elliptical machine every trip to the gym, I�ve still managed to barely hold my weight steady for the month. The week before Christmas I actually made it down to a new all time (well, post age 30) weight of 204.5 Didn�t last long. Couple of meals out, eating slightly richer meals with the kids home, all those damn cookies, they all added up. Ah well. Back in November (11/21) Dr. B said it�d be fine to just try and maintain over the holidays. So far, that�s about what I�ve managed to do. Now, if I can just manage to re-locate my scarce discipline resources and get them back on line, I can get back on track in time for the new year.

The gym is going to be a pain in the neck for a month or two. The Y has a membership drive every January � they waive the one time start up fees as an incentive. Add to that all the �New Years Resolutions� and you have the makings of long waits to even get on an elliptical in the evenings, provided you could even get a parking spot. Early mornings shouldn�t be too bad, but you can forget trying to get anything accomplished in the evenings. Come March or so, the vast majority of the �resolution� folks have burned up or out and will stop coming. Then things will get back to their normally busy but somewhat efficient pace.

Cindy has been very well behaved on the drinking front � but that�s been only while her Dad is with us. She was pretty well toasted the night he flew in, but since then she�s been pretty good. Don�t know if it�s something that�s going to stick, or if she�ll revert to her old ways once her dad heads back to sunny Florida. Either way, we�ll find out next week. My bet is in already.

Truthfully, I�m almost at the point where I don�t care anymore. She�ll do what she wants, I�ll do what I want. She can bitch about me going to the gym all the time, I�ll bitch about her being drunk all the time. If she has any desire to repair what�s left of our relationship, my first stipulation is that she quit drinking & smoking, period, forever, amen. If she wants to know how to do it, or wants to know what will happen when you DO do it, she has to look no further than the other side of the bed.

It�s that lovely time of year at work where we�re all supposed to be digging through our notes, listing our accomplishments for the year. Truth be told, I had a horrible year at work. Couldn�t focus. Got jerked from one task to another, couldn�t manage to try and do more than two things at a time. Somehow, in my head, when another task came along, all the others I was working on seemed to have faded into the distance. Not supposed to happen like that.

Can�t make excuses. I need to do a better job of multi-tasking. I�ve never been a list making kind of person, but it appears to be high time I learned to make and use task lists. I�ve tried in the past, but only stayed with it for a week or so. I need to find what ever it is that motivates me to get my ass to the gym and bottle it, then whip it out at work and chug a gallon or two.

We have an on-line self education system where I work. Maybe I can find some classes on self organization, task prioritization, list making for dummies, something, to help me get a better grip on the work life. We work in a performance based culture, and I fear my own performance wasn�t up to par this past year.

That leads up quite nicely to what many folks do this time of year � reflect on the recent past and decide what to do to make the near future better. Resolution time. Think I started a list up there a ways, mostly work based. I�m going to go wander off, contemplate my navel or something (but not at work - no sir.), and come up with a more complete list of things I�d like to work on next year to improve myself and my relationships with other people. Yes, even with my wife. Maybe that will spur her to do something similar. I�ll worry about stick-to-it-iveness and longevity later. Maybe I�ll even compile a list of what I perceive to be my own shortcomings and what I resolve to do to address them, or not, as the case may be. I�m afraid the list might become rather long,, which is why a few might not get the attention they need or deserve.

Anyhow, that�s the plan.

494 days down. Resolutions coming up.

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