Big Girl Panties?

The weekend is progressing nicely. Although it's ridiculously hot outside. But that's why we have air conditioning - and lots of books and magazines, and a comfy chair in front of the computer for blogging, and a very light throw at the foot of the bed for keeping the draft from the air conditioning off one's legs while napping, and a rotisserie chicken in the fridge for dinner so I don't have to cook, and several different kinds of ice cream in the freezer. Ah . . . summertime!

Now, I have done the required laundry today, and I did clean the kitchen pretty thoroughly this morning, and even wiped down the windowsills in the kitchen and the dining room. I dusted in the dining room and my bedroom (still have a little bit left to do in there), and I have cleaned and organized my hobby room (aka the library, the office, the craft room). I managed to get outside to deep water the plants and tend to the birdcages, and I had to bandage up the bougainvilla that blew down off the arbor a few nights ago when it got very windy.

While I was outside watering, I gathered up some seed pods and skeleton leaves and things - even some moth wings - for a page in my WTJ (multitasking!) And I did take the time to glue and tape them into the journal because I didn't want to lose them once I brought them all into the house.

I've had coffee and iced tea, cut up kiwi fruit and strawberries and honeydew melon, a little cheese to go with the fruit, several bites of shrimp cocktail leftover from last night, half of a hamburger (shared with my husband), a handful of tortilla chips with guacamole, some chicken and rice, and (here's where it gets ugly) several "bites" of brownie, and i-don't-know-how-many powdered sugar donut holes that I bought for my Full Moon Dreamboard Circle tomorrow because they looked like little full moons.

And I feel horrible.

I am miserable.

In fact, I'm sitting here now in a pair of eleastic waist shorts (had my fave cargo shorts on earlier in the day but all those pockets and snaps and buttons make for uncomfortable napping), and my stomach feels so awful that the elastic is pulled way up underneath my rib cage to get it off my stomach. It's not pretty.

What has happened to me? I never used to be like this. I was always active - go, go, go; run, run, run; clean, clean, clean. Hustle and bustle! And I would never have even considered bringing powdered sugar donuts home, or if I did for some sort of occasion, they wouldn't have even been opened until just before the guests arrived. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

But I know what has happened to me. It's this. It's blogging. And Twitter. And Facebook (though not so much). And e-mail. And everything else that is a byproduct of one of the above, e.g., WTJ, collage art, links to interesting websites, etc. All such wonderful things! I'm not blaming them, however. You can't blame the pusher for an addict's addiction; you can't blame the pub for the alcoholic's fall from the wagon.

I have everything I need to right the situation. I have a trash can into which the donuts can go (actually I have the strength to just keep my hands off! The brownies too!). I have a yoga mat and yoga and pilates DVD's. I have an elliptical trainer and an iPod with some kick-ass tunes. So I figure I have options. I can:

• quit blogging altogether (yeah right)
• quit eating and only drink coffee and blog (hmmm . . .)
• hire a maid and a cook and buy more elastic waist shorts
• figure out a way to get my favorite bloggers to record themselves reading their blogs so I can listen while I work out (this might be my favorite)
• get a mini voice recorder and write/dictate my blog while on the eliptical trainer for posting later (if possible to understand with all the huffing and puffing and groaning)
• exercise for 30 minutes, blog for an hour; read (a book!) for an hour, blog for an hour;
• 15 minutes of meditation first, then 15 minutes of computer before work in the morning (in that order only!)

The key is really - though it sounds a bit (a lot) cliché - everything in moderation. And I can handle it. After all, I am a big girl - with big girl (elastic waisted) panties!

Happy weekend!