06/28/10: Catch me if you can....

Good Morning.  Happy Monday.

Yeah yeah.  I woke up..got dressed...got on the road...and promptly got a speeding ticket.  Yay me!

Happy Monday!

Oh well.  On with life.  So I've been missing, is that the rumor? 

Well...I'd love to say I'm back...cause I am...for today...and tomorrow...and wednesday...and then I'm leaving again.  I've sure got a lot of catching up to do.  836 blogs as I type - and counting, I'm sure.  I'll be back for sure for sure for realz next week.  I'll be around this week...catching up....reading and reading and reading...

Dangit you people sure do blog a lot!

So what's the story with me, you ask?  Ok.  Well...this is long.

I'm down to my lowest of lows.  221 to be exact.  I had to give up all exercise and even healthy eating last week so was happy/surprised to still see the scale moving downward.  I'll get to the why's for that in a minute.

I had my third fill on June 15th.  Whoooo-Nelly did that change everything!!!  I really was doing it all alone before this fill.  I really was using will-power and control to limit my intake and push my exercise!  By golly, this fill is the first fill that has done anything for me!

Yeah, the first two, the first 3.7cc's...yeah...that was different than pre-banded life.  But it was in no way anything near restriction.  It was in no way anything near a banded "diet".  It was ME.  I was saying I can have 1200 calories and I was having to account for snacks because snacks were the only way I could get from meal to meal without being famished between said meals.  I could do 1200 calories...but I was struggling to do so because I wanted and could eat more!

Yeah...nowadays...if I pull off 900 calories I've eaten a ton and I can feel that ton!

So...I went in...got said fill #3 and proceeded to eat normally the rest of that day.  That was the last of that.  Now...if I don't literally drink my first meal, I won't be able to eat the next two.  Lucky for me I want to and do drink a smoothie for breakfast.  But I have to.  If, say on a weekend when I sleep 18 hours (ok, not true, but it's always a goal), and I sleep past breakfast straight through to lunch since I was up til 2am...well...lunch has got to be a smoothie.  My belly can be growling all it wants and starving as all get out...but if I eat, it will not go down without a major fight.  If I drink that first meal...then meal number 2 and 3 will go down with a lot of patience on my part.

I am not complaining.  I even understand the why's behind this.  I'm documenting my story. 

I am still not getting stuck.  I am still not pb'ing or sliming or anything along those lines.  But if I eat too fast - I know it.  If I eat too much - I know it.  If I eat dried out beef (read overcooked) or pork - I know it.

In fact, while breakfast absolutely has to be a "mushy" like a smoothie, lunch needs to be pretty darned saucey - good thing I like my chicken salad for that.  I'm making my chicken salad with 1 can of chicken, 2-3oz of plain Greek yogurt, 1oz craisins and 1/2 can of water chestnuts.  YUMMY!  And it's "saucey"...

If I do that for breakfast and lunch, then I can eat dinner...very slowly...and not very much.  Gone are the snacks between lunch and dinner and after dinner. 

Like I said, I'm lucky if I get to 900 calories nowadays.  I serve myself 4oz of chicken salad and I rarely finish it.

I weigh my food...on a scale...I don't do the measuring cup thing...cause measuring cups...that's by volume...and that's not indicative of what the food's consistency really is.  4oz of chicken salad is A LOT different than 1/2 a cup.

I can say...with this fill...I no longer need to weigh my food.  Cause I can't eat it all.  I do weigh my food more often than not, still, cause I want to know what it is so I can track the calories.  And I want to track the calories more so I can track the protein.  Also for GoBe.  He likes info!

This fill has changed everything.  I can barely eat!  I LOVE IT! 

I still haven't come across much of anything I can't eat.  But I have to be very careful with things.  A pork dumpling from a Chinese restaurant, for example.  Went down...but with a fight...  A piece of a sirloin steak.  Not pleasant - not tender enough.  Beef rib, on the other hand, fine, with teeny tiny bites - member that "nickel-sized" they talked about in bandster rules?  Forget that.  My size is half of that chewed to smithereens.

And there's a key point, too.  Chewing to smithereens really really really changes the taste of things.  You have to REALLY want to taste the completely broken down food to deal with that taste that results from smithereens.  I am finding a lot of my faves don't taste so good at the smithereen stage.  That smithereen stage seems to be dictating my willingness to eat something again.

What else.  When my calories aren't enough at the end of the day my good ol' stand-by of Greek yogurt, vanilla, 0% fat, is my favorite go-to for getting protein and calories.  A true slider...so I can get in what I need without fighting for it.  I also top that with granola...the extra crunchy stuff makes you chew...and coupled with sliding yogurt, goes down well enough.  I feel that going down, too, though.  The granola...didn't used to....but I do now...

I LOVE IT!  This is what I thought banded life was going to be.  And it sure wasn't before the most recent fill.

I have another fill scheduled on July 6th but I'm not going to get another fill.  This fill still hasn't "relaxed" and more is just going to set me up to not eat at all.  And I'm not into that starvation thing.  I do want to go to that appt, though, cause I have this sore at my largest incision.  And there's something rather hard on the inside.  And this is about 2 inches higher than my port.  So I'm afraid something is rubbing on the inside and this sore is a result.  I've been peroxiding and Hibiclensing the bejesus out of this sore and it looks better than it has...but if I let it go at all, it gets all red and puffy and irritated again.  I would show a pic but my camera (phone cam) doesn't get it well enough...

What else about the band?  I got nothin...  Ok...on to life...

Story #1.  I went in to AT&T on the 15th to pre-order my new iPhone.  My order was made right alongside my husband.  On the 21st when the phones were shipped and we were charged, AT&T called me.  Said something happened with my order, could be my credit card was declined, could be my address was invalid, could be my contract wasn't signed...but my order had to be canceled.  I KNOW it wasn't the credit card cause they took the danged money out.  But the end result was no new phone for Lori while my sweet hubby's arrived safe and sound on the 24th.  Their solution was "come in on the 29th and stand in line with everyone else...eventually you'll get one".  I HATE that.  THEY screwed up...and I get to pay the price.  I said something about that being a fabulous business model and hung up.  I hope hope hope I can get a phone tomorrow.  We - or rather just me, now - are, no...were...no am... I AM using a first generation iPhone.  I want to join the real world of 3G PLUS more!  It didn't make sense to upgrade when our contract was up because we knew the iPhone 4's were coming this summer....I HOPE I GET ONE TOMORROW! 
I at least got to set my hubby's up for him over the weekend...so I got a little bit of play time with a new phone.  I WANT ONE!

Ok....

Story #2.  My "Turkey Shoot" class.

What is a "Turkey Shoot"?  Best I can do is describe the process...so...  We started this 2 week class on June 21.  I call it a "class" but it so is not a class.  Monday, 6/21, I went in to my "classroom" I'd been in for the class the week before, which was more on what I do.  It was a class.  I went straight back to my desk and I locked and loaded my laptop.  I had done what I could at home on 6/20 to get ready to hit the ground running on 6/21.  On 6/21, we were presented with data and information on the acquisition of the data which is important for processing, or manipulating, either way, the data.  We were told to be ready for a client meeting - I was going first at 1pm - that afternoon.  And we were told to "get set....go".

So...in real life, we do, in my field, these things called "Turkey Shoots".  When a client is bidding out new business, they will give a "line" to all the possible bidders.  Each bidder is told to process that "line" and turn it in 2 weeks later.  The client then decides who gets the business based on who had the best result.  The processing algorithm can make or break the results.  So we are mimicking this real life process.  We had a fake client who we ultimately kept in contact with and who we ultimately turned this data into.  He graded it.  And after 2 weeks of busting our bums, we found out, after our presentation, whether our data was even passable.  We were "graded" on our contact with the fake client, our contact with our fake supervisor, our contact with our fake "AG" (Area Geophysicist), our presentation, our questions that we asked (or did not ask), our status reports, our test plans, our everything.

So...Sunday, the 20th, I put together all my test plans as well as a Gantt Chart.  I started a template for my project report and sorted our test logs and qc logs.  When I got to my "classroom" on Monday, I finished up the Gantt Chart and copied over the data.

I then proceeded to start testing my chosen algorithms.  This class is pass or fail.  And fail can mean termination.  Isn't guaranteed that it will...but it can.

And I'm pretty sure failure for me would mean termination.  I'm not usually a pessimist so when the "negative view" wins with me, there's usually credance.

I tested and tested and worked my bum off to get my algorithms to even work.  I worked 50 hours that first mon-fri.  And then I came in on Sat and worked 6.  And then I came in on Sunday and worked 12.  And then it went downhill.

Monday I realized I had created an error, courtesy of the "instructor" that made my new data not match up with my old data.  (i.e. data that already had certain processes applied in comparison to the data input to those processes.)  And this screw-up could mean failure.  My data "looked good" but it had innacurate geometry applied.  So on Monday night...at 7pm...I had to start over.  This is monday of week 2.

I managed to stay 12 hours on Monday...and Tues...another 12....and weds...when it looked like failure was imminent...I stayed for 19...to get it fixed and done.  Our data was due on Thurs at 10am.

I had the data done...but I did not have a "final stack" which has display settings stored in the data - and can make or break a dataset.  I had my project report mostly finished and my presentation started.  I had my test powerpoints done...and I had to walk away, Weds night, at 12:30am (yes, AM) and say "it is what it is".

I came back Thurs at 8...after a mere 3 hours sleep (I live an hour away from work)...and managed to get my data and final test powerpoint turned in at 9:59am.  In that last two hours I got my final stack highly improved.  When my instructor saw it...he said...."this is wonderful!"

Ok...but am I going to pass?

Thurs at 2:30pm (the time this was due) I had turned in my project report with half an hour to spare.

Thurs at 6pm, I had turned in my final presentation.  It was due by 8am on Friday but I was last to present (at 2:45pm on Friday) and so was planning on sleeping in and relaxing Friday morning.

I went out to dinner with my sweet hubby and a friend that evening.  I couldn't relax cause "fail or not to fail" was still on my mind.  But at least I wasn't sitting in the classroom I had moved into anymore.

Some people stayed all night - straight through 36 hours...the night I stayed 21.  It was insane.  I wished, later, that I had not gone home because I could have gone up to my desk, here, where I sit now, and slept in my actually pretty comfy chair that reclines pretty well.  I would have had 5 instead of 3....hours...of sleep...when I was already...pretty...exhausted....

This "class" was insane!!!

I gave my presentation at 2:45 and was done at 3:15 and had to wait around until sometime after 4 to hear pass or fail...

And the answer was....

I PASSED!!!!

My hubby popped a bottle of champagne for me Friday night!  And I DRANK IT!  And I enjoyed all of my glasses (two).

I have no more classes standing in the way of me and my next promotion.  I still have a lot of work to do to get the promotion but no more "classes".

But as you can see...with two 12 hour days and a 21 hour day last week...working out was not to be done.  I couldn't even get home to eat dinner...and I certainly didn't want to cook...so it was fast food or take out all week last week.

Couldn't eat much of it, though...so I DON'T CARE!  And I lost weight anyway.  So I REALLY don't care!

This week things will get back on track.  Maybe not so much on the eating front - hard to go grocery shopping and restock the fridge when we are on our way to Las Vegas.  I'll be curious, in Vegas, if I can show my little lap-band card and get a kids meal at the buffets.  Cause otherwise...they are gonna make their money on me!!!  I'd rather give 'em that money elsewhere!

And that's all I got.  The "Turkey Shoot" is done...the lap-band is a wonderful fabulous marvelous TOOL, and the speeding ticket sits in my purse...waiting...for it's turn....as I pray...for a new iPhone.

Happy Monday, y'all!