So close....AUGHHH!!!!

After weeks and weeks of ups and downs, I'm finally in the black again as far as pounds removed. At this week's weigh-in, I was down 1.6 pounds to give me a total weight removal of 49.4 pounds.

49.4......... 6/10 of a pound away from 50. Darn it all. I really am not complaining too much, really. I mean, I'm at my lowest weight since I started WW. I just really was hoping to catch up with Tal and Kate/Susan. I mean, especially since they both started a month or so after I did! :-)

It's been a busy week for me. There has not been a day that my hiney has not been in a waiting room chair at some sort of medical facility or another.

Monday and Tuesday, I was set up to have a thyroid scan. Monday morning I had to go into take a dose of radioactive iodine and then go back in later that afternoon for the first scan. After the dose, I went over to the allergy doc's (which was just across the parking lot from the imaging center) for my allergy shot. (I though, what the check...since I'm here already and needed it since I had not had one since the Wed. before Thanksgiving!).

Tuesday, it was back for the second scan.

Wednesday morning, it was a 6-month follow up with my sleep doc. Good news is I don't have to see her again for a year, things are going pretty well. But she did tell me that if, as I lose weight, I find myself not needing the pressure on the machine that it is set at then I can come in. Otherwise I don't need to see her again until next Dec. Hopefully one day I won't even need to use a CPAP! YAY! Although, I am kind of sad that I won't be seeing her for a whole year. I just really like her as a doctor. She's super-smart and very personable. I can talk to her about everything, because it seems like a lot of things that are going on with me can also affect my sleep. Her husband is also super-nice, too. He was a candidate for our VP of Business and Finance (the division I work under) at the college earlier this year. I was so hoping he would get the job, but alas he didn't. (The previous VP resigned after an audit revealed some questionable purchases on his university purchasing card - tsk tsk. And this is the same guy who wouldn't pay me an extra $10 a month for me to do the department's monthly employee birthday cakes. He preferred to save the $10 and have the cafeteria do the cakes. The employees weren't so happy about that - they LOVED my cakes and couldn't stand the cafeteria's frozen-slab-and-icing-from-a-bucket cakes. Hmph!!!) But I digress.......

And today, Thursday, it's back to the allergy doc to get back on schedule with my allergy shots!

Friday.....what? No appointments? Wow. And all next week, with the exception of Thursday and my "OWIE" as I put on the board when I leave work to get my shot, no doctor appointments.

Monday, the 22nd, is when I see the endocrinologist for the results of the thyroid scans. I'm a bit nervous but optimistic to find out what the deal is with the thyroid. Talking with my sleep doc yesterday she feels like the endocrinologist will probably put me on thyroxin, and she said that will help me lose weight and also might give me more energy. Boy, I sure hope so.

I'm surprised that Tal hasn't mentioned our activity on Sunday evening! Wonder how many points standing around on a beach and freezing your butt off for 4 hours is??? :-)

Anyway, we were asked to be extras in the movie that Tal's co-worker, Eric, Eric's brother Nate, and their pal, Jody, are currently filming for their company, Perpombellar Productions. The movie is titled "Trumpet My Return". The scene we were shooting was at the Back River on the back edge of Tybee Island.

We got there at 5:00 PM and while the crew was setting up we got to witness the most beautiful sunset. After dark we started shooting the scene which involved about a dozen or so of us extras lined up on the shoreline. There were several "candles" floating in the water before us (as if we had just launched them) and we were to shout out the name of someone we loved and missed, and just do this over and over. Tal shouted Tiger's name, "Tiger, I love you son." He thought Tiger would think it cool that his name would be in part of the movie. And I know he truly does miss getting to be with him every day.

For some reason, I just couldn't think of anyone who I missed quite like that. I mean, I miss my mom and dad, and other people, but I keep in close contact with them so I don't quite miss them as badly. But then I had an idea of what to do:

I have a friend through a stepparent's email group that I've been on for a few years now. Her bio-son, Lee, has been missing since October 2007. Seems like he just walked off the face of the earth. His mom has been sick since his disapearance. His friends have been frantic - many of them have graduated and are away at college now, still with Lee in the backs of their minds and wishing he was going off to college with them. They don't know if he committed suicide, or maybe just staged it to look like he did. They found a copy of "Into The Wild" in his car, and feel maybe he did just what Christopher McCandless did. Divers searched the river and no body was found, that's why many feel he may have staged it this way to give him some extra time to get away. His family and friends are just puzzled as to why he left. What's driving them craziest is just wanting answers and not getting any.

And so, my shout was, "Please come home, Lee. We miss you so much." For Beth, Lee, and any other parent with a missing child, or anyone who has a loved one missing out there somewhere. I can't imagine in my deepest fears how having a child missing - not knowing if they are dead or alive, sick, suffering, or in danger - must feel.

I can't wait to see this movie once it's finished. I hope it wins as many awards as their first one, "The Street Cleaner" did!

Well, I think that's it for now. Things have been pretty busy since I last posted over a month ago but I think I've covered most of it!

Toodle-loo for now!

Seraphim "SuperStar!!" Gleck