Road Therapy & Random Thoughts

[tabbiewolf]

The road trip to Florida was amazing. Powered through the trip down (including getting pulled over for doing 20 miles over the speed limit in Georgia…whoops), relaxed in Florida for three days (well, two-and-a-half days).

In Florida, we met up with Crossbow & Hugmonster in Downtown Disney, as well as Kitch (who I haven't seen in years and unfortunately we didn't get a chance to spend more time with! Next time, assuming I'm not using the trip as therapy). SpotWeld and I are both Disney geeks so we spent a fair amount of time in Downtown Disney this trip, but we also did other things: we went orange picking and went to Kennedy Space Center, as well as a brief stop in Cocoa Beach (unfortunately it was raining that day, so no real beach time. NEXT TIME. Why is rain so much more pleasant when it's warm out?) where we hit Ron Jon Surf Shop and acquired ridiculous Hawaiian shirts and also found a really nice local seafood restaurant. I would've loved to spend more time in sunny Florida, but I also wanted to see things on the way back.

Stopped at the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina (the only tea plantation in America), then went to Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. Yes, we saw both the Atlantis space shuttle AND the site of the Wright Brothers' first flight on the same trip. We did a brief loop around Chincoteague — sadly, no pony sightings, but it really isn't too far from home so we should go back sometime — and then over to Maryland. We met up with my dad for a tour of his work (this may seem uninteresting, but he's a rocket scientist, so it's totally not), then after a lunch at a local brewery, headed back home. We ended up stopping in Philadelphia for buttercreams and learning that the little candy shop I'd discovered years ago had been redone to its original turn-of-the-century splendor. The chocolates are still just as good, too :)

The trip made me feel great, but I have to admit: watching the temperature drop and the sky grey over as we drove up the coast was depressing, and I've since fallen back into my "takes a lot of effort to want to do anything" mood of before I left. My mom notified me that when she was my age, seasonal depression really knocked her down every year…I seem to be suffering from something similar, since this trip very much proved my mood changes with the weather. Sigh. Time to get a sun lamp…or a second house in Florida or southern California ;)

~*~
I've gained 20-some pounds over the past year or so (especially during that last job I had), and though I'm still within a healthy weight range for my height, 20 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a diabetic (and for someone who'd maintained a steady weight since she was a teenager — I'm assuming hormonal changes that come with age, along with comfort eating, had something to do with the gain). So, since getting back, both Spot and I have been exercising each night on our treadmill and exercise bike, and I've been attempting to eat healthier meals with a lot more veggies. I know darn well changes take a while to stick, so we'll see what happens.

I suppose I'm trying to lose weight before I have to buy bigger jeans, though to be honest, I could probably use new jeans anyway. Even at my former weight — 135 pounds — I had to wear a size 12 thanks to my ultra wide hips of doom.

~*~
Dr. Nerd Love: Socially Awkward Isn't An Excuse - A really good article on how to tell the difference between socially awkward folks and creepers, and what to do in both situations. Highly recommended read, especially for those who socialize at conventions and the like.

~*~
An interview with the writer & the artist of the new Figment comic, courtesy of Newsarama.

Comments

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Cray-cray health issues and trying several different medications probably didn't help. a lot of the things meant to deal with depression also cause weight gain. LOVELY.

But spring coming around and getting back to the CSA boxes should probably help with the eating more veggies again. It gets hard in the winter to eat enough veggies when you're staring at incredibly lackluster produce at market.

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

Between health issues (change in hormones as I age), life issues (bizarre stressful job), and all that other crap, I'm sure multiple things were contributing to me being depressed. Adding seasonal affective disorder to the mix is just a capper. Blah!

We actually didn't sign up for the CSA this year! I'm going to go back to going to the farmers market and actually picking which veggies we get...so we don't end up with a freezer full of green beans (our local CSA does green beans as their main produce, and you can tell...we still have beans from last year!).

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Did you actual start seeds for garden, or going to get bigger prestarted stuff?

I honestly have NO IDEA what is going to come up in the garden this year. Other than kale. we had some kale that refused to die and lasted into december, so I stuck it on pots for the winter. It died back from frost but is just getting back to edible size again.

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

Considering the way winter has been dragging on, and that we don't have sun lamps, I haven't started any seeds OR prepped the soil in the garden. I suspect the soil outside is too cold for most produce to actually root (at least, in my experience with killing off an entire planter tray of tomatoes and lettuce because of temperature issues); that's going to have to wait till May or even June at this point.

I might just fling random seeds out there sometime in mid-April or early May and see what grows. That's more or less how we ended up with zombie tomatoes last year.

I normally love the cold, but six months or winter is TOO MUCH. I'm ready for it to be over.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was definitely full of suck. I really haven't tried to start veggies yet, just some marigolds for the store. which I roundly failed at with first package of seeds, but second batch is finally starting to sprout. I figure I'm not putting them in at store until May.

[dalesql.livejournal.com]

Sunlamp is probably a good idea. It may or may not work, but it is a relatively cheap experiment with no pharmacological complications.

Glad you had a good trip.

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

I've heard mixed reviews on sun lamps, ranging from "This is the best thing ever!" to "OMG it gave me cancer!" to "It's just a placebo effect, not worth the money." And sadly, the good sun lamps are EXPENSIVE -- some are over a hundred bucks. I need to look at the ones they use for plants, I suspect, and not the ones that are taking advantage of folks with seasonal affective disorder.

And I'm seriously hoping one of my parents retires to Florida so I have an excuse to go down there and get some sun in the winter =p

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

Not to oversimplify things, but is there any reason you two couldn't move down there yourselves some day? it sounds to me like you really prefer it.

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

Well, we'd need jobs! Not to mention we'd have to sell our house here in Connecticut. Kind of a huge thing to do for something that may be able to be treated with a sun lamp.

(I'd like to move, and have an orange tree in my backyard and annual passes to Disney World, but Spot's got a steady job [had it for 12 years] and the house, etc. Maybe if we won the lottery...)

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

I figured it would be something like that. Stupid practicality!

[mattdawolf.livejournal.com]

meh I've been back on insulin for almost a week, 50 mg, after being able to get it for free now. The weight gain side effect makes me nervous and paranoid. -.-

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

My weight gain is probably due to hormones other than insulin =p And the fact that I'm 30, female, and don't exercise nearly enough.

Consider this: any weight you gain is fat that your body would have basically gotten out of your system by processing in a really unhealthy fashion called keto acidosis, where your insides are basically digesting themselves to try to find sugar. So it's probably not a bad thing.