Lately it's been just - quiet.

I'm okay with that, I think; we've gotten past the rumble and bluster of dragon*con and birthday season, and suddenly here we are staring another set of holidays square in the face. The trees turn slower here than they do in Colorado; the deciduous trees of north Alabama are just now starting to color, and are nowhere near the yellow blaze of aspen that decorated every Colorado street corner in September.

You know the funniest thing about making that silly weight goal? When it happened, when I first realized that the scale didn't have a sense of humor and was really saying what I thought it said, it didn't even matter.It had just been that crappy of a day.

All those years. Yikes. All those years of wondering what it would be like to step on the scale and finally see the magic number, imagining the quiet light of joy in my heart, the feeling of accomplishment and peace when I realized I'd done it -- well, it didn't quite happen that way. Instead, I stood on the scale, looked at the numbers, crossed my arms over my chest and laughed. Of course it would happen on the day that I skipped my swim due to exhaustion, on the day I considered figuring out how one could actually, physically, drag oneself to the gym, because I was too tired for anything other than ersatz enthusiasm.

199.75.That's all.

(Need an explanation?)

You'll have to excuse me. I've been waiting to celebrate this day for ten months.

More after I have my ice cream.

Filed under "Something ELSE I have to do while in Colorado in January":

For several months now, I've seen recommendations for a company called Title Nine Sports. I finally researched them tonight, and it turns out they're a woman-owned company whose sole intent & purpose is to design and sell sportswear for women — and NOT just women whose cup size is an A or B.

Yeah, that's right. Turns out I'm not the only woman doing serious exercise who wears greater than a C cup. Who knew? Not me!

As a country, we appear to have learned absolutely nothing from the débâcle that was the 2000 presidential election. As a group of friends, we have learned something. Never again will any of us be naïve enough to say the following:

"You know, we should just drink until the election's decided."

There are few things in life funnier than engrish.com, but I've been reading a site for a while now that may just qualify: Hanzi Smatter 一知半解

I quote: "Dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters (Hanzi or Kanji) in Western culture."

Today's phrase is "limitless source of comedy gold."