Happy Holidays!

(Disclaimer for the following post: It is a long one! But I have been busy since my last post, and so there's lots to write about to catch you up on all of it.)

My weekly weight change info and progress is on hiatus until at least January 6th, since my WW is closed until after New Year's, so I can't go weigh in (that will be my next weigh in). I do weigh myself on my home scale weekly to help keep on track, and to track my body fat % and BMI, but that's just to give me other things to keep track of. I consider my WW weigh in number to be the official number so that is what I am sharing with you all and so will have to wait to share until I get my next official number.

I'm really starting to feel like myself again lately. Having a little money coming in and being "forced" to get out of the house to go to work helped some I'm sure. A lot of it is the passing of time. I no longer constantly feel like a victim, but more like a survivor. I no longer feel trapped living here, and feel as though I'm settled and this is just another stop over in my journey through life.

Friends:
Got to visit with a friend last Thursday. She stopped by on her drive across the state after doing her holiday cookie baking. Yay for being part of her cross state travel itinerary. I got to give her her Christmas gifts, and I got gifts from her. I think our waitress was amused by us opening gifts with food on the table and then sitting around for close to two hours talking after we were done eating.

Yesterday I met up with a friend and his wife and their two kids at his parents' house. I also got to see his brother and his wife, his sister and her daughter, and of course his parents. I tend to end up at their family gatherings as those end up being the days that it is easiest to get together. One day I hope to be able to go visit with them in Georgia, but it is nice that they come up to NY every so often and I am able to see them then.

Tomorrow I'm going to get together with another friend to swap gifts, catch up in person, and just hang out together. We're meeting up by a mall so she can spend her holiday gift cards on the items she's been wanting.

It is always a bit funny how I will go for long periods of time without being able to visit with my friends and then I get to visit with several of them in a really short period of time. It is what happens though when your group of friends is spread out geographically.

Job stuff and other things:
As of Christmas Eve I worked my last shift at Five Below. I'll miss some of the people I worked with but it feels good to know that at least until the end of June I am done with working in retail, and hopefully for much longer than that. In general it was a good experience, and I learned a lot about what goes into setting up a new store and getting it going.

The Board of Trustees met early next week and I have officially been approved to start my new job on January 3rd! We assumed that I would be approved, but it makes me feel much better to know that at least in regards to the school's process I am hired. Only things left to do will be to fill out all the HR department paperwork, which from what I can tell will happen my first day.

I am super excited about starting my new job.

In preparation I've been doing a lot of organizing and cleaning in my room to get ready for having a full-time professional job. I need access to different things, and am figuring out where to put those things so that my room still feels right.
 - I mounted my old full-length mirror on the wall. (I tried buying one with hardware to hang over the door [my door isn't a flat surface so I can't mount a mirror on the door] but the one I bought the mirror was warped so that it was like looking into a fun house mirror. Not very helpful!) I then decided that since I was going to be using the 3M Command tabs to put the mirror on the wall, I would try it with the old mirror that is in my room that we think my mom has had since college. The silvering on it is a bit spotty in places, but the image isn't distorted at all which is what is really important. (I didn't want to use the mirror I bought in Ohio just in case the tabs didn't hold the weight of the mirror and it broke. This way I'd still have my good mirror). It has been holding to the wall without any issues for a few days now so I'm hopeful that it will stay up indefinitely.
 - I reorganized the clothes in my closet to make it easier to find my work-appropriate stuff. I had to buy a couple more multi-tiered pants hangers, but that wasn't a big deal.
 - While sorting my closet, I decided I needed a little more space in there, and to get it I needed some more dresser type storage. So, I purchased one of those plastic three-drawer storage things. I already have one in my room so I just stacked the second one on top of it.
 - I purchased new planner pages for my paper planner for 2011. They are the one page per day kind. I used two page per day ones while in grad school for a bit, but I thought that would be overkill as I did not use much of the space. I think these have just enough space for me to keep track of everything I want and need to.
 - I ordered new ice packs to use with my large "lunch" bag. They are large sheets with small square pouches of water. It allows you to wrap it around things, or it can also be cut to a custom size to fit the container of your choice.
 - I found one of my wall clocks and put it up in the bathroom. I like knowing how much time I have until I have to leave when I'm trying to do my hair, etc. in the morning. I meant to do this after I started working my retail job, but I just never got around to it. At least it is done now and I will have it ready for the new job.
 - I went through my stored clothing in the basement of the school building (finding the clock) and brought back a bunch of clothing to try on. I've added three more pairs of pants and a couple sweaters to my closet ready to be worn. I have a pair of pants and a pair of jeans are very close to wearable, I should be able to add them to my rotation by February.

After going through my clothing, I've realized that it will be a while until I have many jeans to wear that fit well. As I won't be wearing jeans very often I am not too concerned, but I may end up having to buy a new pair soon.
I'm caught between being excited about all my new clothes (and new to my closet from storage) and being frustrated at some of my previously favorite pairs of jeans are too baggy, mainly because I bought one pair just under two months ago. I'll get over that frustration I'm sure, especially as I'm trying to focus on it being a sign of my progress that I need new/different pants.



I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a very Happy New Year!