Visitors

I never mentioned Day 2 with Cousin Joy, which provided us not nearly enough time to bond/catch-up/enjoy each other, but I was thankful for what I got. She & K came over to see my apartment, which they loved, and I stole her away to go shopping and have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, where she immediately got an eyeroll out of our server only to completely win him over a few minutes later. The last thing I remember him saying is, “I want one of her.” - a pretty common response on first-time encounters. She’s one of those people that you want to put in your pocket and take everywhere. There’s never a dull moment with her around. She ended up leaving him a great tip, plus a note that read, "WE LOVE YOU. BYE AHMED."















My workout plan has officially started this week. I’m giving myself 6 weeks and if I don’t notice a difference . . I’ll keep working out, I’ll probably just allow a little more chocolate back into my diet. I’m not going to be so strict as to not allow myself ice cream when Best Friend visits this weekend, but am trying to make an even more conscious effort to eat healthy and make the 3 floor trek to the workout room every day. Instead of getting breakfast with my officemates nearly every morning, I instead limit myself to a) my bowl of Wheaties (which fills me up for about 30 minutes) or b)a cup of strawberry/banana yogurt and an Odwalla bar. The second option isn’t much cheaper than buying breakfast at the bakery, but it’s definitely healthier. I told Joy about my plan and discussed how much power dessert has over me. Granted, I don’t ever buy sweets at the grocery store, but if someone offers me some, I just can’t say no. Joy offered me this suggestion, “The next time someone offers you dessert, just act irritated and say, ‘I don’t eat that *#$@’ and they’ll never offer it to you again.” She’s probably right. They probably won’t ever offer it to me again, but they also probably won’t be my friend anymore. I did try semi-implementation of this tactic. I was just nicer about it. Sure enough, New Girl now says before heading to the candy jar, “Well, I know YOU don’t want any, but Leigh, what about you?”

Best Friend, her brother, and her boy are in town. It's SO good to have her in "my" city. Her boy lives in NH (they're doing the long-distance thing) and has brought his whole family along to meet her. They have a family business and are all attending a leadership conference this weekend. Obviously, it's more important for her to spend some QT with her boy and his family since they never see each other, but fortunately it looks like I'll be invited along quite a bit. Last night, we hung out at the hotel and tonight we may all catch a movie. So excited!