from an old lady to the young ladies

On Valentine's day, Mr. Black and I went to see Mika in concert. I thought we were hip and cool. Turns out the show was an all ages show. So the place is crawling with teenagers, and younger. At first, I was a little irritated, we were having sexy cool night out! It is really hard to be sexy and cool with 8 year olds sitting on their Dad's shoulders and giggling packs of 12 year olds next to you. Although I totally wanted to giggle with them. But eventually, I got over it. His music is totally cotton candy fun, and so I just decided that we all deserve to enjoy it in person, even if only some of us can drive ourselves there. (On a side note, when I went to the rest room, someone had scrawled on the toilet paper dispenser "fuck all ages" hahahah! That made me laugh.) But by the end of the night, Mr. Black and I agreed how cool it was that the family next to us was having such a good time, singing along with their little girls, who were probably 8 and 10. We concede, all ages is okay.

There was a group of girls, at the most, they were 16, I think. (I am a horrible judge of age, did you know that Dakota Fanning isn't 25? Shocking!) And all of them were very tall, and very overweight. It hurt my heart in so many ways. First, I used to be that 16 year old girl who was overweight, and second, I think these girls were heavier than I was at that age - but again, they were very tall. I seriously had an urge to grab them and tell them to start exercising and stop eating junk, because you'll be so relieved when you're 30 and you realize that I am right, and aren't you glad you don't have a weight problem any more?

I was overweight my entire life, so I know that when and adult says do this and you'll thank me later, eye-rolling is involuntary. There were many times that I did try and change my weight, but the problem is that I didn't have tools to continue living a normal life. I didn't know about portion sizes, or how to manage a sweet craving and still maintain a weight loss. I also have a personality that leans toward "If you want it, get it, eat it, drink it, do it, whatever it is, go ahead and indulge." so that doesn't help. So even if I did shake these girls, they would still have to find a way to educate themselves to stay healthy. Oy, and I don't even think that these girls should diet, while their bodies are still developing. Mr. Black and I have discussed how when we do have children, that we don't want to pass on our food issues. I think that only now that I have taken charge of my health that I feel confident that I won't. I'm not perfect, see hamburger incident of yesterday, but I know that having fresh whole foods in the house, and teaching about portion sizes will be a big part of it.

I was just thinking about that today. I am continuing to rest and drink fluids and apply my Zicam every 4 hours like clockwork. I'm not taking any medicine yet. I haven't been plagued by a cough yet, so that's good. All I'm taking is NyQuil for sleeping. What do they put in there? I have to be in bed within 1 minute of taking it or I can't walk. I know it is 10% alcohol, but I'm the kind of girl who has had her own homemade cocktails that were probably 20% alcohol. Yeesh, that's powerful stuff. I love it for sleeping. Thanks for the well wishes!