I realized when I was on the phone with Mom that instead of taking advantage of the complex's offered discount to a local fitness center, I'll be close enough that I can pop in and use the office workout room on the weekends, and after I lose enough weight that I feel okay about appearing in public in a swimsuit (next summer, I hope), I'll be using the complex's pool to get some laps in (there's also a sauna in the clubhouse, which is nice!).

OK. Got my mom that Julie/Julia book, paid too much for 2-day shipping, but whatever.

Makes me sad (weird identity issues-I don't feel completely normal unless the majority of people around me are hispanic despite being very very not hispanic. ) that Hispanic residents would cause concern. Of course, I just vacated my balcony because of not-resident, well-dressed-for-this-area black guys staring up at me which pisses me off on so many levels. 1) that they were freaking me out on my own balcony, staring and more importantly which had nothing to do with who they were but the STARING 2) that they raised my hackles because of all sorts of stereotypes, my neighborhood, and all that shit. It's just a sad statement about me. Maybe they were waiting for gramma, but I'll never know and had a kneejerk that is uncomfy to me.

Us and Them is such a fucked up wiring.

Jesse, call mom and tell her the bestest thing about her that you've never mentioned before for fear of being mushy weird. And then tell her the present is in the mail.

I've decided the thing about The Unit I really really like is the family thing. The wives. I'm not sure if it comes from growing up in a military and post-military community, having friends who were military wives, or my own brother's experience in the Army and relationships. But that community is one that I really empathize with and am fascinated by, and it's just such a strange thing. What's portrayed is familiar because of the stories I've heard, and they aren't soopersekret stories. Just... one member of a couple is military, on base, hard for the other member to not be, unofficially.

Jesse, call mom and tell her the bestest thing about her that you've never mentioned before for fear of being mushy weird. And then tell her the present is in the mail.

Hee! That's not a bad plan. The good news is, her bday isn't until Sunday, so it will be there in plenty of time.

Oh, here's a question: The woman in front of me in the 10-items-or-less line at the grocery store had 13 items. A bunch of them were duplicates (she had 2 of several things), so I'm sure that's why she thinks she was fine being in the express lane. But she's wrong, right???

I only count duplicates as one item if they come in one bag.

2 cans of soup = 2 items

4 apples in one bag = 1 item

Yeah she was wrong. Duplicate items don't save any time in bagging. And unless the cashier is sharp and altert enough to scan one, then press the "quantity N" or whatever button, they get rung seperately too.

They were not in one bag. It was so annoying!

I don't do that. Each fall-on-floor-separate-thing counts. But, I'm all rule follower and that.

I'm regularly late with presents. It's a bad habit of mine. But I do tend to do the terribly intimate confessions , not out of guilt over the lateness, but out of "oh mom/dad, I love you and you never know how much you've done." I get terribly sentimental.

I regularly make my parents cry with cards.