Wait Watchers. November 23 2004
Just when I thought it was taking forever! I go to Weight Watchers tonight to find….
I lost 14.8 lbs! I lost 14.8 lbs!
Can I get an AMEN?
Appalled
A tale I shall share with you.
Yesterday Chris and I took Noah and we went to the nearby(ish) dollar store.
I was in search of much needed cheap shelf paper to line my newly moved but oldly
soiled cupboard (yes i know..three years and I am just NOW getting around to
lining that cupboard). We were at said store (everything for a dollar woohoo).
We had picked up about 5 dollars worth of merchandise and made our way to the cash.
There stood an elderly gentleman (hearing aid and all) who was confused about the
price of some of the items he had just purchased. (lots of items in the store are 2 or 2 for a dollar).
The cashier was telling him that the towels (three) that he had just bought were
actually $1 each and not 3/dollar. He said..”oh. ok..I don’t want them then”
Cashier”*HEAVY SIGH* well I’ll have to call my supervisor”
Lovely old man”ok”
So eventually some disgruntled woman shows up, crosses her arms and gives him a dismissive and clearly bothered by her career choice look.
The first cashier explains to her why the man did not want the towels.
He added “There was sign there that said 3 for a dollar”
Supervisor “no, there was no sign in front of those towels. The sign was for the face clothes beside them”
Oldman “well how am I supposed to know how much they cost if there is no sign?”
Supervisor (rolling her eyes)”Everything is the store is for a dollar unless there is a sign that says it’s 2 or 3 for a dollar”
and then turning to the cashier she says “what is it you want me to do?”
Cashier “well he’s already paid and left the store but came back in after he looked at his receipt in the car”
Supervisor “well then, he can’t have his money back. He left”
Oldman “I just bought them. Just a minute ago”
Supervisor “and then what did you do?”
Oldman “I walked to my car”
Supervisor “That’s right you left the store. Therefor you can’t have your money back”
Oldman - stunned silence and then “I don’t want the towels, I thought they were
3 for a dollar”
Supervisor “you can get three more items but that’s all I can do for you”
“come with me and I will show you there is no sign”
She was SO rude to him. I wish I Could properly convey her tone.
Anyway once she led him away to do whatever she was taking him, to prove I guess
that he was indeed confused about the price and the signs.
The cashier then looked at us, waiting to ring in our purchases.
I looked her straight in the eye and said “I can’t buy these things here
now. I can’t believe who rude you both were to that man. It was disgusting.
I can’t believe how disrespectful you were”
And I dropped my stuff on the counter, the the package of balls from Noah
(reassuring him we would find more balls at a nicer store).
And we left.
Can you believe this? These women were both in their 40’s at least one of them
may have been over 50 (hard to tell, the bitterness may have prematurely aged
her).
I wanted to slug them
Why Run? November 22 2004
Having had an unreasonably boring weekend. I find myself, this monday morning with NOTHING to blog. Nothing.
So instead, I will tell you how I started running…or maybe why.
while pregnant for my youngest (and final) baby, I gained 60lbs. SIXTY POUNDS. That’s a lot not matter how you slice it. And the breastfeeding was not making it magically disappear. I had gained 60 with my first baby but it pretty melted off soon after birth. I couldn’t figure out the difference. I was walking at least as much probably more considering our first was born in Canada’s Arctic in January (you don’t take a newborn for a walk in those temps). But still the weight was stuck. Then it hit me, I was suddenly over 30. And my metabolism had finally caught up with me. BLAST!
I saw an ad for a couch to 5k clinic at our local running store and I quickly called the number listed.
The woman assured me that I would NOT be the fattest person there and to come out in three weeks when the next clinic was to start.
My baby was 6 months old, I was still breastfeeding (a lot) and I hadn’t run since highschool. The clinic started with about 30 people, all shapes and sizes, some a lot bigger than me, some smaller. Oddly the majority of the other people were older than me. I was very surprised by this.
The first night, we had a little pep talk, learned about form (stay up right) and set off. We did 5 km that first night, 1 minute of running and 1.5 minutes of walking for the first 2.5k and then 2 minutes of running and 1.5 minutes of walking for the last 2.5km. Those were the longest minutes of my life. It was SO hard to run for a full minute! She even let us walk up the hills (that one night).
When we got back to the store, she assured us we did great, but that we could possibly hate her a lot come morning. She suggested a hot bath with epsom salts and some light stretching.
I followed both pieces of advice.
Holy mother of god. Labour was less painful than walking down the stairs the next day. I hobbled around for two days. Eye watering sore muscles. I walked our little person to and from school…sometimes he came home for lunch! It was agony.
And on wednesday, I did it all again.
For 8 weeks.
Over time the group got a lot smaller. And by the end we were a group of 6 that came out regularly. No one talked to us, the “REAL” runners were too used to beginners coming and going to notice us. We ran our 5k three nights a week for 6 months, until I suggested we take the 10km clinic.
what a snizzy that started.
We had dinner meetings. Email conversations and much debate. In the end they all agreed, we would take the clinic.
It was 8 weeks to add 5km…double our current distance. It seemed an impossible task. But somehow, it wasn’t. Somehow it was easy. Well not easy, but no where near as hard as it was to be a beginner. It was just runing and adding .5km. I mean that an extra 5 minutes (yes we were THAT slow).
Around the end of the clinic I started to make noise about a half marathon. I was poopooed at our monthly dinner meeting. And yet…not entirely.
Fast forward another 6 months, and our 1 year anniversary is marked with our very first “LONG RUN”, at 7 am on a summer Saturday. The “REAL RUNNERS” ran with us the whole time, telling us to not worry about stopping for extra water breaks…telling us how hard it was their first time.
And eventually that got easier. 12km no longer constitutes a long run. It’s just a run. 5km is a distance I rarely do anymore. It’s my least favourtie. By the time you start feeling good, it’s all over.
And now, I run because it feels good. I did lose weight with running, but then some of came back with all those cookies. (enter weight watchers)
Since starting a year and a half ago and I have done many things that amaze and surprise me.
I’ve run 2 10k races (meh) and 2 half marathons. I have run longer distances than I could ever fathom before. I’ve run with Doctors, Teachers, Nurses and one guy that is constantly travelling and is a little ambiguous as to what he does.
I no longer run just for weightloss, I guess I run for fitness but mostly I run cause I want to.
Prince William November 20 2004
Is it wrong that I would like to lick him all over ?
in other news my keyboard is dead so i’musing the on-screen keyboard. It sucks ass.
Saved my the email
No run today.
I slept in…til 8:30am! Late for me any day of the week.
A running friend asked me to run with her tomorrow instead since she has some shopping to get done early today and didn’t want to smell lik e …well…a runner while doing it.
So tomorrow (no rain) it is.
Feeling much better today…could;ve been the sleep. Could be PMS (dirty word). Could be all the “what’s up?” emails. 
Who knows.
My I feel as if my funk has been lifted.
But man I had some screwed up dreams.
Severed baby heads and headless adult bodies. Horrible dream.
I also dreamed of over crowded shops filled with discount christmas candy, opened toblerone bars, and misshapen chocolate bells.
Someone mistook the “I lost 10 pounds” WW ribbon I was wearing for a name tag and thouhgt I worked there. I was insulted (it was a hole).
Anyway, today I am going to leave the house for something other than running (a new trick I’ve had a hard mastering this week).
Thanks for you concern. It means a lot.
