A Little Bit Of Me You Didn't Need To Know

I have been wanting to write a new blog post for a couple of weeks but have been debating over topics. While I still haven't decided which of those topics is going to be the first to beat out the others, I was recently tagged in my friend Shelli's blog post of random questions (at least, I'm assuming I am the only Melissa she was tagging), so I have a simple way of pacifying my blogging needs for the moment. I'm supposed to post rules before I answer the questions and then tag other people with a set of my own questions afterward, but we'll see how ambitious I'm feeling by the end of this...


1. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I love traveling. I want to go practically everywhere, but the top of my list is currently the Mediterranean. I'd love to see Greece, Morocco, Egypt, and Spain. And maybe a few of the other countries in between.


2. What one in-vogue style would you get rid of, if you could?
Wearing belts over top of a sweater. I think it's hideous. Or the thick framed glasses with false lenses. Stupid.


3. What song describes your love life at the moment?
Dancing On My Own by Robyn. Haha.


4. How many books (physical copies) do you own?
I have no idea. I have about 50 on the shelves in my bedroom, probably 10-15 more on the shelf in the living room, and a couple of boxes in storage at my parent's house in Colorado. Lately I've been checking out books from the library to fuel my reading habit, rather than spending the money to purchase more.


5. How old were you when you had your first kiss?
I think this question has two answers. If you count the incredibly innocent peck - I was 10; first make out - I was 18.


6. Peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese?
Grilled cheese! The cheesier the better.


7. What do you daydream about?
Joining the circus. Starting my own business. Having enough money to never have to work again. Traveling. Eating good food. Having a personal masseuse. Meeting Cher.


8. Within your dating life, what's one dating faux pas you made?
I once asked a guy if I was a good kisser. I think that's frowned upon.


9. Is there a place that you go to quite often, but seem to get lost getting there every time?
It took me a while to remember where exactly the library I go to is. I knew the main street, but could never remember the cross streets and would end up driving more than I needed to. I'm better at it now though.


10. Where was your first job?
I know I worked for a temp agency for a few years doing office work in places like American Family Insurance and a Universalist Unitarian church... but I'm not 100% sure that was my first real job.


11. Who was your out-of-your-league, not-going-to-happen, crush? 
What's my time frame on this question? I feel like there have been several. It's usually someone I know rather than aa celebrity crush - I think those are mostly a waste of time.


Well, there goes my ambition. I don't feel like writing 11 more questions for someone else to answer. Instead, I'm off to bed to rest my body and dream about flying trapeze in the morning. I love Saturdays!

Skinny Me

Well I did it! I made it all the way through March without cheating on my no candy/desserts/soda goal! I'm not going to say it was really hard, but it wasn't easy either - sometimes I would forget about my goal, and once I was even in line to buy a bottle of soda at the movie theater before I remembered and turned around to put it back in the fridge.

About two weeks ago people started commenting that I was looking skinny. At first I thought it was because I had picked a good outfit, or they were just being nice, but the compliments kept coming in unexpectedly. Even today the accountant who comes to our office once a week said "Gosh Melissa, you are just looking so skinny!" I thanked her and told her about my recently completed goal.

It turns out I did benefit from the goal - I lost at least 4lbs! I know 4lbs doesn't seem like much, but it was a nice surprise. I had been holding constant at the same weight for a while and had not been below that weight since....well, I'm not really sure, but I think it was before I left for South America (which was in May '06). Better yet, I am now 13lbs lighter than the heaviest I ever weighed!

I really think my skinnier appearance is due to more than just avoiding sugar. Doing aerial acrobatics has helped me tone up a lot, but I hadn't really lost weight due to the muscle I was gaining. My jeans were already feeling too big on me before abstaining from desserts for a month, but now I for sure can't wear them without using a belt, and even my smallest belt is too big for me.I'm thinking I may have to reward myself with some new clothes this month!

Everything Breaks In March

I've had a case of bad luck this month so far... hopefully it was just leading up to the "Ides of March" and is now over with! Things that have broken:

1. The heater in our apartment. I really think the pilot light went out, but I have no idea how to light it myself, and honestly, I'm afraid of blowing something up, so I contacted our apartment manager (who is the daughter of the owner). She's always had her cousins or someone else she knows do all the repairs around here, so contacting her was my obvious solution to the problem. Except this time she didn't help me. She told me to call the gas company because they can light pilot lights for free. I called them a week ago, and still have to wait another week for the first available appointment time they had. My apartment is FREEZING!!
2. My phone (Blackberry). It refused to fully boot up after installing an update for an app. Every time I tried to turn it on it would try to boot up, but click off and try again. And again. And again. Instead of getting a new Blackberry or HTC Evo through my company's plan (which I had been on for nearly a year), I decided to branch out on my own and get an iPhone. It's pretty. But I don't have all my numbers imported, so if you text me and I don't know who you are, don't be offended.
3. My right front tire. Went flat while driving to a friend's house after dinner on Wednesday evening. No big deal - I pulled over and replaced my tire with my full sized spare in my trunk. Did it all by myself and was back in the driver's seat only 14 minutes later!
4. My left front tire. Yep. Happened only hours after the right front tire went flat, but this one decided to go out with flare by blowing out while I was going 70mph on the highway on my way home from my friend's house. I ended up having friends rescue me with their AAA membership and was towed to the parking lot of a tire place where I had to leave my car overnight and return this morning when they opened. I now have one new tire and am still driving on my spare until the shop can get a second tire in from their warehouse.

I REALLY hope that's the last of it... I can't even eat junk food to make myself feel better. =)

Catcher's Trapeze Reel

Most often when I go to trapeze I work with the same catcher. His name is Matt. Over the past couple of months he has had people film him catching, and he put together this reel. I make three appearances: I'm the first flier on video, and then show up again at minute 2:22, and 2:41. Well, to be completely honest I'm in the video more than those three times, but those are the only times where I am doing the flying; the other times I'm standing up on the board (the place where we take off). Enjoy!

And So It Begins

Several weeks ago I became aware of how much sugar in the form of candy and desserts I was putting into my body. I have a serious sweet tooth!! While I have been subconsciously justifying my sugar consumption because of the frequency in which I exercise (three times a week minimum - thanks to my aerial acrobatics addiction) I decided it was time to put a stop to it, and see just how much better, healthier, and stronger I felt without it. Today is March 1st - the first day of my one-month aversion to candy and desserts. I'm not eliminating ALL sugar - I realize there is natural sugar in fruit, and I like to use juice cocktails in my home-made smoothies; stuff like that can stay. What doesn't stay is the chocolate, cookies, cakes, etc, etc. that I usually go hunting for after dinner. This means:

• No indulging in the Easter candy that is ALREADY in every grocery store (even though the holiday isn't until April 8th!!).
• No partaking in the oh-so-common Mormon "dessert parties" where there's nothing to do but talk and eat junk food (the talking is okay, clearly).
• NO GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!! I am sad about this one. I ordered 4 boxes of cookies that haven't come in yet - they will have to find a corner of my freezer to sit in until April. Sigh...
• No soda. This wasn't a part of my original plan (because I really don't drink soda all that often) but as I was sipping a coke during lunch today I realized that I could easily fall back into that bad habit as a substitute.

So there it is. Dessert/candy/soda free for a month. I got this.