Tonight. Tonight. Tonight.

Well, I've made progress, however minimal, in many of the areas I've been wanting to pay attention.


On the weight control front, I've begun journaling all that I eat again. When I first started doing that (Jan 1, 2004), it had an enormous impact. 18 months later, I was still doing it, but I was pretty much eating anything I wanted and just writing it down. It had lost its ability to keep me from pigging out too much. I officially stopped doing it half-way through August 27, 2005.


In the short time that has passed since then, the DOING of it has regained its power. I started again on October 1. Snacking has gone way down. Now, if I snack at all, it's very controlled. If I eat gummy spiders (my most recent gummy acquisition!), I'll eat two now and maybe two later and that's it. Previously, I WOULD count them, but I'd have 10 and if I wasn't satisfied, I'd make it an even 20.

I'm thinking that the food journaling might be something that I do every other month. Hopefully a month of doing it will give me the momentum I need to get through the next month and, after that, the power of the journaling will be stronger when I start again.

Ah yes, and I made a conscious effort to up my water-intake today as well. It meant going to the bathroom a lot, but each time I went just made me feel like "Yes! I'm drinking a lot of water!"

Exercise: I've been doing 5 miles on this out-and-back route I've found right near my house. I do this 2 or 3 times a week. My pace is consistently at 9 minutes per (on average), but I'd like to see that improve. I'm trying to work in two Spinning classes this week as well. Now, when am I going to get to the strength exercises?


Love life: Was this on my list of things to concentrate on!?! After a few days of resentment, I am completely "over" my ex. This could make for good "couch" material, but it probably comes mostly down to: she's not settled down yet and I'm sort of fixed where I am for now. My goals are localized and hers were broad and she's probably not going to stick around here for long anyway (a few years max).

So, back on Match, then, I'm searching and searching. It seemed there were a lot of possibilities for me out there BEFORE breaking up with my ex-. I e-mailed a few, but mostly they haven't been active in 'over 3 weeks,' so I don't know if they even got it or are still available, etc.

Of the other women, I have discovered some patterns in profiles and, given how many people there are in my area listed on Match, I have developed a few criteria that will cause me to 'Remove from searches' someone's profile right away...

• If they desire a house full of kids, they're gone. I like my one kid. I could see myself with another. That's got to be it.


• If they're looking for their 'knight in shining armor,' they're gone. Too much responsibility.


• If the faiths they list in the 'About my Date' section are all the Catholic ones, even if they've added 'Spiritual but not religious,' I nix 'em. Hello? Why not write 'Any' if you really don't care?


• I've been knocking out almost everyone from south across the river (too far away, I'm thinking) Gotta draw the line somewhere.


• I am suspicious of anyone who is seeking matches over some really large age range. I see it as a sign of desperation. You can be desperate, but don't flaunt it!


• 
  I will (for the MOST part) only look at profiles of people that have pictures. You show me yours, I'll show you mine.

...and by the way, all you women out there: everyone knows you just read the Da Vinci Code. Find another way to stand out! [P.S., go ahead and tell me what all the guys write! I can take it! :)]

So I recently updated my own profile. I changed my 'About Me' section to some really off-the-cuff, dry comedy. More conversational, with a bit of a "whatever" attitude. Stuff like "I just canceled HBO and immediately wished I hadn't."


I've been getting some e-mails and winks since then and there was one from a woman whose profile sounded really great, but who I pegged as too far away (North, not South across the river). Well, she wrote first and I wrote back and we continued on... probably several e-mails in one day when I finally suggested a phone call.

So last night I made the call and we talked for almost an hour and a half. She was great. We laughed a lot and she's totally easy to get along with. We're going out for sushi on Sunday. I am looking forward to meeting her.


Sound design: it's taking me a lot longer to get through this Shakespeare play I've been looking at, but I'm almost done. I've done a little each day and I've got very little left to take notes on. Then I will turn my attention back to the first play of this season that I'm doing. Now that the date where I really need to be going on that is nearing, I'm getting pretty revved up about the work!


Master's Project: I forced myself to sit down and work on it for an hour the other night. It went very well. I have tried to do it again, but just couldn't get to it. I have several links I want to follow and read on the Internet, but every time I sit down at my computer, I'm surfing blogs and reading articles and checking out some cool sites, etc. Then I go upstairs and look at my list of things I want to do and realize I haven't followed a single link for my thesis and I just feel too tired to read, etc. Ugh.

Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. My new mantra. 'hopefully I'll make good on this.

I'll let you know.