Senyar, congrats on the weight loss! That is fantastic. Furthermore, I am crushed that I won't be in the States when you come visit. If you came to Virginia or North Carolina, I would have come to meet up with you.

1. Rented/moved out of our house in Chapel Hill last weekend. Staying with my parent-in-laws for a while to visit with them before we make the big leap.

2. We will be heading back to Brazil later than we thought, since we've decided to stick around an extra week to see some friends who live in Dubai and never visit (and the hell if I am going to Dubai....)

3. Moving out of our house and staying with family has been surprisingly stress free. I am eager to get back to Brazil, sure, but staying with my in-laws is really relaxing.

Hope bunnies near and far have a good weekend!

1. Going to meet friends for an experimental music show tonight. Not really my scene, but I'm always interested in what people come up with.

2. Sleepover at said friends house tonight, since they live on the Other End of the Earth (i.e. Maryland).

3. Mr. Arkham comes home tomorrow. He's only been gone a week, but I'm always so scattered when he isn't here to anchor me. (He's been staying in a tipi camp!)

Sad for all wedding participants ...

1. Hope to get tractor tire back from repair today so I can mow this weekend.
2. Fell back asleep this morning and didn't get up till 7:15. I never sleep in like that and am having hard time getting my brain fully engaged.
3. Will be getting up Saturday at 3:30am to take nephew to airport. My brain/body may revolt.

1. Getting ready to go to Chicago this afternoon! Yay! Meeting up with youngergirl44 (+bf) and mullacc to see the White Sox game on Sunday. Can't wait -- I've never been to Chicago.

2. Finished working for the day, now have to run around doing errands, packing, compiling info for the trip and try and fit a run in. Argh.

3. Yay Senyar! That's really impressive. (my weight remains ridiculously stubborn at the moment, grar.)

1. Doing back to school shopping with hubby and the kidlets after work - yay, tax-free weekend.

2. I'm finally back in my own timezone - first I've been fully awake all week.

3. Hands hurt from driving and typing. I may have to put the braces back on. Boo

Congrats on the weight loss, Seynar!

1. I went to the new student orientation for business school last night and it was awesome. People seem nice and normal; I surprised myself with how confident I appear. It seems like the program is very well-run, except for how they handle online communication, but I'll get over that bit once I get used to things.

2. I have too many things to do, and it's hurting my brain. I should maybe take a day off next week just to get everything done, but I hate wasting vacation time on chores and boring things.

3. I'm going up to Lake Chautauqua with some friends (and my brother/his wife, who I miss enormously) next weekend and I'm so excited. Last year our trip was lovely. I spent one afternoon in a chair in the sun, watching the lake and dozing.

I am so jealous, gaspode - mullacc, youngergirl and bf are fabulous people. Make sure you eat some Chicago pizza, you'll be amazed, it is nothing like NY pizza.

1. I got married last weekend, which was absolutely lovely.

2. And then we went to Big Sur for a few days, which was also absolutely lovely.

3. And now I am home again with the next few days off, which is also absolutely lovely. Currently sitting in the back yard drinking lavender tea and watching the cat roll around in the sunshine. Lovely!

CONGRATULATIONS occhiblu and senyar!!!

1. Rode my bike to the train again today. Yay! I notice I am getting faster. Hoping to get out there on a longer but flatter bike ride with my husband this weekend.

2. Really thinking about quitting my guitar lessons. I never seem to find the time to practice.

3. Went to an excellent yoga class last night. It was like an hour and 15 minutes of meditation, plus stretching. Wish the studio were closer to where I live or where I work. (I am using a Living Social coupon good for 3 weeks.)

Pictures, or it didn't happen, occhi.

Congrats, occhiblu!

1. Things are feeling a little surreal for me these days - so happy at the way things are going with the SO, and so sad about the progression of my mother's disease. I have never had two such strong, conflicting emotions going on so consistently and for so long before.

2. Further to the above, I really hope that my mom is able to see me get married, and maybe even have a kid, and that she's able to take an active, participatory role in all of that. I'm just not sure how fast her ALS is progressing.

3. I'm having a lot of trouble getting motivated to do much of anything today. I just want the hours until my SO gets done work (at midnight!) and we head to the shore to pass quickly. I need to get away.

Pictures, or it didn't happen, occhi.

Professional pictures won't be back for weeks/months, and no one's sent me any of their own photos, so I'm awaiting them as eagerly as everyone else. :-)

Happiness to Senyar and occhi, hugs to amro and anyone else who wants them.

1. Packapalooza 2 begins tomorrow, where the boyfriend packs up his apartment and I go to have the cleaning service at the new one. Then, we're going out for dinner, and then sleep.

2. Sunday is the official moving day, and I have to be up and out of the apartment early so that the moving guys can pack up my storage unit first. Then, we all go back to the boyfriend's building, and then we go to the new apartment, and then we hopefully set up the computers (utilities are already on, no cantennas for us!) and we will be moved in!

3. To the MetaChat Ladies and Sig.Others of Ladies Who Have Had this Problem: Having polycystic ovary syndrome isn't nearly as scary as Wikipedia is making it sound, is it? Like, if being overweight is a factor and I already have high blood pressure, then if I lost weight, the polycystic and hbp thing would go away, right? Hope me, please? Or point me towards relevant Ask.Me threads?

Huh, don't know about pcos going away by losing weight. hbp, yes, losing weight helps.

What PCOS does is make it harder to lose weight. Otherwise, I've had it for decades and I'll get the occasional cyst burst, and I can feel it when I ovulate, but that's about it. I had it at 120lb, and at 180lb. It was actually worse when I was a stick figured teenager at 104 lb.

Congrats occhiblu!

lysdexic: Well, I won't know anything for certain till the blood tests come back, but it's something that the OBGYN I went to yesterday said could be a consideration. Which means I'm jumping the gun on worrying about it, but I'd like to know for certain what's going on and how I can fix it.

From what I understand of my anecdote-readings, weight gain is usually a side effect of PCOS, rather than a cause.

I'll take this opportunity to say a temporary goodbye to y'all. Starting Sunday I'll be off the grid, riding my motorcycle on the road to Colorado Springs, changing tires for fresh knobbies, riding dirt across Colorado to meet up with friends in Utah, ride lots more dirt, then ride home. I expect to return to East Tennessee on September 11. I'll be carrying a SPOT Tracker, so if you get bored you can watch my progress here.

So I won't be around for the next three weeks or so. I still love you, my MeCha, MeFit and MeFite peeps. See you soon!

1. Am still at work, an hour-plus late, but when I get out, I'm off for a week, so it all shakes out.

2. Leaving tomorrow for the mountains! We're going to Asheville! We're going to get see mygothlaundry plus some non-MeCha friends while we're there, and also, we're staying in a yurt out in the woods! So I'm excited about that.

3. I find I really like typing the word yurt. Yurt.

(((((((((amro))))))))

Good luck with the move, Trisha. Post some pics of the new place when you're settled in.

That's awesome, workerant. Have fun!

Sounds like an awesome vacation, BoPo. I'll try to reign in my jealousy and just wait for the pictures!

1) Classes start Monday. For those following at home, I'm knocking out Organic Chem I and Animal Genetics this semester. Shit's about to get real. Since these are upper-level courses, I'm having to commute to Stillwater for class and take them at Okie State (fortunately, there's a bus that runs between downtown and there). It's going to be weird walking around a campus that large (the university I got my bachelor's from was less than half the size of OSU), but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things, educationally.

2) Things with the new ladyfriend are going very well. Shockingly well, actually. Neither of us were really expecting to be on the cusp of a relationship, but roughly two months after meeting and things going swimmingly and completely drama-free, here we are, essentially. It's still fairly loose and casual and fun (both of us keep very busy schedules), but neither of us is seeing anyone else and, per a recent conversation, neither of us wants to, so yeah. Yay for that.

3) I don't really have a three. Off to go do laundry, I guess.

1- Senyar, VA Beach? By car? From Ohio? Richmond, VA?!?!?

2 - Congrats to Occhiblu and that cool guy.

3 - Moved my brother back home from the physical rehab yesterday, hopefully he can go back to work in a few weeks, that's a long way from an inexplicable coma, and also, I start my new job next Monday.

4 - Ok, I need embiggoned work clothes. Thank goodness I have the cash to get them. yes, it has been years, and yes, I was small for me five years ago, and some of the stuff was beat and cheap anyway, I'm ok with it all. My weight is stable, it's just like my shoulders, belleh, and butt expanded, oops.

Yes, VA Beach, it's only about 540 miles, as I'll be in Southern Ohio. But it's more likely we'll head to NC, to see Diane's daughter and grandson.

Congratulations occhiblu and ikkyu2!

TL, Helen Boyd (My Husband Betty) has pcos. I haven't read everything in her blog, but she might have discussed it there.

1. The optho told me to come back in 6 months to check the cataract. I can still drive.
2. There are several other owners who are having the same issues with the condo board, but the one most likely to back me up spends most of his time abroad.
3.Haven't got much sleep lately.

Yay senyar! Yay occhiblu! Yay rainbaby! Yay workerant and YAY ME because I get to see BoringPostcards tomorrow night!

1. Well, week 2 at the bookstore job and they haven't voted me off the island yet. I kinda like it. But I kinda don't. Hmmm. I had no idea there were so many people in the world who like to drag a giant armful of books up to the cash register and then sort through them with lengthy verbal accompaniment. "Well, this one looks okay but I don't know, do I really want it? I heard this one wasn't as good as the movie but it's only $3. How much money do I have anyway? Oh honey put that down. Stop kicking your sister. No, wait, did you ring that one up? I don't want that one." No, I had no idea.

2. Daughter is taking classes for her second try at the GRE and also prereqs for a masters in occupational therapy, planning to start next summer. Whoo! Go daughter!

3. New roommate, aka friend's college student son who moved in with us a month ago, has a lovely cat. Lovely cat and my cat and dogs are beginning to cautiously become friends. Nice to watch. Also, black cats are hard to photograph, so it's a big new challenge.

Mgl, are you working at the indie or one of the chains?

It's kind of a cross - it's a big used bookstore, an indie chain actually, with five stores, soon to be six.

Let me know, Senyar, we often go to VA Beach of a weekend in October, but enjoy your trip and family/friends whatever you do.

Hello and hurrah MGL!

Workerant, that trip sounds amaaaaazing!

1. Didn't hit any rain on the way to Terrapin Gardens yesterday. [my bike]

2. Weather is beautiful today for the party.

3. Supposed to rain tomorrow. Don't mind getting wet as badly if I'm headed home. Still, the rain and I are headed in opposite directions. I'm hoping to either pass through it pretty quickly or else find a place to camp out during the worst of it. I'll be checking the radar first thing tomorrow morning, that's for sure.

(wishing you good road mojo, workerant. So happy you came over here from MeFi!)

Yesterday I was unexpectedly productive and full of energy. I miss when I was having one good day in three. Now, it's ten.

I think by the end of September I will have a clearer picture of my future, that being getting the fuck out of Fresno. Ever have that stranded feeling?

Dieting is so much easier when you don't have a pair of rutting teenagers also requiring food storage space that they inevitably fill with high-calorie items.

Congratulations, occhiblu! Many years of happiness to you both!

Rainbaby, that's very encouraging news --- thanks so much for sharing it with us!

amro, I'm sending hugs your way... y'know, in case you want 'em.

1. I spent spent Friday lying on the couch with an ice pack and muscle relaxants, the direct and predictable result of walking a few miles Wednesday and Thursday. This is getting boring. Up with this I WILL NOT PUT. Cranking up my physical therapy even harder as soon as I can.

2. Went to a bridal shower today. The compulsory-femininity no-boys-allowed stuff makes me anxious, but it was really lovely: comfortable home, congenial people (including a few of my very dearest friends, which makes everything easier), and absolutely luscious food. We did have about an hour of enforced-female-stereotype antics, but everyone was really good-spirited about it, especially the bride, who was a spectacularly good sport.

3. Goodness, this place deteriorated while I was on the couch. Going to bustle around and clean a bit this evening, then collapse with a watercress salad and a movie.