Accomplishments

Well, I actually did it! I had a straight-A semester, my first since junior year of high school. Interestingly, I also haven't worked this hard since junior year of high school. Told you I was masochistic.

I've found that studying is a lot like losing weight. Everyone knows what to do: read the assigned reading, do as many NCLEX questions as you can, and don't ever get behind. Just like everyone knows to eat right and exercise to lose weight. The tricky part comes with actually investing the time and effort it takes to do what you know you need to do. This requires a whole load of self-discipline and willpower. You've got to be motivated to do well in school. Unfortunately, there's no way to induce yourself into being motivated, it's just something that happens. You have to just plain want it, and that's where I get tripped up sometimes with losing weight.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to be healthy and beautiful, but sometimes I just want a quarter pounder more. I've gotten much better at 'just saying NO' to those nasty things. Just like I've gotten better at just sitting down and studying. The tutoring I do in nursing school has really helped me stay on the ball and keep up with the readings a lot better because you never know when someone will ask you a question about it. Likewise, the meetings for WeightWatchers have also been a huge help in keeping me on task. Even if I don't speak much in the actual meeting, I like to have something to be proud of for that week - even if it's just that I still haven't had a quarter pounder (13 weeks now, and I used to have one every day).

I really wish I'd taken "before" pictures of the weight loss. Maybe that would help me be able to notice little changes that are bound to have happened since I've lost 23.4 lbs. I'll make sure to get one soon though - I mean to go all the way this time and want it documented!

On the knitting front (which is actually nothing like losing weight or studying, thank God), I finished Sock the Second!



Then I figured out I had nothing to knit.

After bothering the hubby until he got to the point where he'd let me do anything as long as I shut the hell up, I went to buy 2 hanks of Cascade 220 (reasonably priced, I'll add) and cast on for the Irish Hiking Scarf.



I decided I wanted to try cables, since I love their look and they look really hard to master. Unfortunately, they're butt easy (Completely Skippable Technical Explanation: All you do is take the stitches for the cable that winds in front, put them on a cable needle or DPN to chill for a minute, knit the stitches for the cable that goes behind, then go back and knit the stitches that are chilling on the cable needle/DPN. Duuuh). So the scarf is rocketing along and it needs to last me until I get some Christmas money! So I'm treating it like the fine wine I picked the color of the yarn to match: taking it a few rows at a time instead of having a 4 hour Buffy watching knitting marathon.

In other news, Ross and I have finally decided it's time for another dog. We put in an application with American Boston Terrier Rescue on Tuesday, and hopefully we'll hear something back soon. In the meantime, it's time to do some major cleaning since ABTR does a home visit to see what kind of conditions you live in, and I have to bleach everything that can be bleached of Sophie's just in case she had a virus or something. Then, Ross and I are going on a marathon shopping spree with his bonus from work and will replace what we had to throw out. It's going to be fun, but a little bittersweet as well. I haven't seen Sophie's stuff since Ross put it away after she died, and it's bound to trigger some memories for me. But, I'm ready to love and spoil a new dog, especially one from rescue and give it a second chance.