Coming home

Today, a few thoughts.  First, I experienced our return travel adventure (from San Jose, Costa Rica to DC with a stop in Atlanta) from a new perspective yesterday.  Because of my surgery, and in ancillary consideration to my torn meniscus, we requested wheelchair assistance from the airline for the duration of the trip.  It was humbling to realize that those who need the most assistance are sometimes the very people who have to wait the longest for things (such as having the wheelchair even arrive at the gate to greet you), and then, as I experienced, to suffer the blatant attention (sometimes pitying, sometimes outright rude) from other passengers traveling at the same time.  This was a revelation to me - I can't believe how..childish...a society we live in sometimes.  There's that old saying: you can never know a person's journey till you walk (or in my case, ride) a mile in their shoes.  That was never more true for me than during our excursion yesterday.  From now on, I'm pledging to be more considerate of those whose daily lives include some physical struggle that we can't even conceive of, whether that means allowing people in a wheelchair to see only compassionate interest in my face (not the prurient attempt at pity, or even hostility I saw yesterday) when they pass by in any situation, or simply helping them pick up their cell phone, should it drop to the floor, rather than ignoring their need or acting as if I'm some kind of savior for bending down to help them.  What a day.


Next, something a bit more to the point of this blog.  I was astonished when I weighed myself this morning.  (note: not every installment will include a weight update, because my doctor, nutritionist and MM all said if I weigh myself too often, it will become an obsession and could derail my success, for something as simple as not losing a pound in one week.  That said, I plan to weigh myself at the beginning of each week and will report on it at some point during that week's entries.)  I have officially lost 22 lbs - this since beginning the heinous pre-op diet two weeks before my surgery, of which several (most?) of you heard me complain, at some points more loudly than others - and I'm teetering on the brink of an achievement I haven't celebrated in nearly a year: exchanging the 3 at the beginning of my weight for a 2.  That's right - since my plan for this blog is to be completely honest, I'm going to tell each and every one of you right now that I weighed over 300 lbs as of this year.  People who knew this told me I 'carried it well,' which I take to mean that I should be happy I was still ambulatory.  In any case, my current weight - 301 lbs - is encouragement of the very best sort.  


How many of you have ever made the drive on I-81 (North or South) through Virginia to TN?  If you've ever done this drive, you know that it is awful.  It's the longest stretch of road in a trip that I have made a thousand times, and the stretch that I have always dreaded the most.  See the thing is, I-81 actually has a lot of beautiful scenery, and even more interesting things (such as the intermittent reminder -GUNS!!! - that you are never more than 10 miles from your favorite firearm for sale), along its route.  The thing that makes I-81 so terrible is that it is just freaking long.  The trip from my house to DC takes about 10 hours, if you're foolish enough to drive it, more than half of which takes place on I-81.  6 hours, to be exact.  Top to toe, it's 318 miles to the TN border, and for most of that time, I'm watching the mile markers go by, wistfully enduring the 200's (mostly when heading north) because I know how I will feel when I see that 300-mile mark.  I'm almost home!, I'll say to myself.  Almost there!  


Some of you may be wondering what the hell I'm talking about, which is a pretty normal state of being for me; however, I'm talking about the correlation between I-81 and my current weight - duh!  Hovering so close to the 300-mark (and, more importantly, what lies next!) is kind of like heading south on I-81: that 300 means that I have a long journey ahead, but at the end of that journey I'll be at a much happier place than I find myself in right now.  GUNS!!!  (sorry - I-81 reflex)  I'll be at a place where I can truly dominate in my softball league next summer, be the person I've always felt was hiding somewhere underneath all that insulation, and take control of my health for the first time since I walked into a Burger King with a button proclaiming I McDonald's when I was about 6 years old. (a long-standing family joke)


In any case, I'm writing this from my very own sofa at home, and while I do miss the beauty and quirkiness of Costa Rica, I'm really glad to be able to take some time to relax at home before heading back to work....then classes start again on 8/23 and I will be back in my normal routine of never seeing most of the people who read this. :)  I've gotten a bit spoiled this summer with my availability, but that too must pass.  To tell the truth, I'm actually ready for it - I miss the hectic craziness of my school/work schedule, and I'm ready to challenge my mind again.  I'd like to catch at least a little bit of it and save it from oozing steadily out of my ears for lack of activity. :)