Weight Loss Plan

Last Friday night, me, Stephen, and Hayley went on a diet. If you would like to easily cut 500 calories out of your evening, follow the procedure below:

1) Put 6 cups ice cream in blender.
2) Put 1 cup Nestle Quick mix in blender.
3) Mix up ice cream and Nestle Quick.
4) Taste-test ice cream. Mmmmmm.
5) Turn and lift out the blender/pitcher
6) Realize that you forgot to connect the bottom of the blender to the pitcher . . . the pitcher was just kind of sitting on top, tight enough to hold in the shake, but not actually connected . . .
7) Watch as your lovely milkshake flows through the bottom of the pitcher and all over your kitchen.

I really can't describe how I felt at that moment when I lifted off the pitcher. Time seemed to slow down. It was one of those moments when your eyes see something, but your brain can't quite grasp what's going on because it's so unexpected, because it's not something you realized was possible. WHAT? How is the ice cream coming out of the BOTTOM of the pitcher? AAAAHHHH . . . and then we burst into hysterical giggles. The irony of it all. I really wish I'd taken a picture . . . but who thinks to do that when there's ice cream spilling all over the kitchen? Come to think of it, though, it was quite an aesthetic experience. The chocolate smelled wonderful, and it flowed very uniformly out and down. The movement of the chocolate was like that of a gentle wave. Haha. What is that art called in the Humanities? A "happening," where the art comes from the process of creation, rather than from an actual finished product? That's what it was. See, we were actually getting in touch with our unconventional artistic sides . . .

And . . . we're back.

I wonder how many people start blogs, only to write a few posts on them and then forget about them . . . or get too busy to update them. I suppose if I had internet at my house I'd be a lot more likely to update a blog, but then again, maybe not. I usually blame my lack of blogging/scrapbooking/crafting on my lack of time. Sometimes I imagine how nice it would be to do some of those fun projects rather than grading multitudes of English papers and projects. Really, though, when I get home from work around 4:00 p.m. I only have time to do some essential things:

1. 4:00: Straighten up/dust/throw laundry in the washer/eat a small snack
   
2. 4:30: Sit down and catch my breath/take some "me" time . . . usually I am answering questions at school all day, and it's nice (not to mention essential!) to have a few minutes of quiet.
   
3. 4:45: Call Hayley and go exercising
   
4. 5:45: Take a shower after exercising
   
5. 6:00: Welcome Stephen home; cook dinner together; eat dinner; clean up dinner
   
6. 7:00: Go to meetings/work on gardens/take a walk with Stephen/do some catch-up grading/read a few chapters in a book/play the piano/clean the apartment
   
7. 9:00: Get ready for bed and go to sleep.

Hmmm. Based on this list, I guess I do have some free time--I have time to exercise, and I choose to use that hour for exercising rather than working on my other projects. And, I usually have an hour or two to spend with my husband or on one of my hobbies. It just seems that there are so many other projects that I'm always wanting to do. For now, I'll just have to prioritize the most important ones as best I can.

And yet--it will be so wonderful when I have the summer off from work. I'm excited to have time to clean my house, design my wedding book (I know, it's been three years . . . ), clean out our "junk" room, and spend more time working on my flower bed. I'm excited to have three months off of grading papers (the stack always seems to be looming over my head . . . ). And I'm excited to have more stress-free time to spend with Stephen.

Two more weeks!