Well my friends. Today was the day. I’m coming out. Not in the way that you might think. Or, you might be thinking – I thought you already did that?

I’m coming out as an ashamed and embarrassed person.

It’s not been something I’ve been comfortable with. I, like many of the people in America, am obese.

I haven’t really wanted to talk about it. It’s a sore subject. I’ve talked about everything there is to talk about. “Really? That diet worked for you? Well thanks – yes, I’ll try that”. “Yes, I’m sure portion control is important. Thanks”. and “Thanks, I know maybe if I exercised more…”.

Most of my well meaning friends and family have offered solicited and unsolicited advice, recommendations and condolences over the years. I take these without any malice because I know they are never delivered with any. I feel wonderful to be loved and supported by so many folks who feel compelled to tell me that they have concern for me, and my health, and my long term ability to be around for the long haul if I don’t do something about my weight.

So, I’ve been working for about 5 years now to try and get Lap Band surgery. As might imagine it’s pretty expensive. I think about $25,000 for the procedure and anaesthesiologist. I’ve been trying to convince my HMO and now PPO that this is a medical necessity for me. It’s been a struggle. If I could harness as much energy as I’ve had to expend with the insurance companies to a tread mill – I might not have had the elevated blood pressure and everything else that is now starting to creep in with the weight I’ve now had for an extended period.

I don’t want this entry to become to wordy. I just wanted to let you know that today

the insurance company finally conceded that this problem has been going on since 1990 and 18 years later, after a pattern of weight that has taken me from 170lbs (from a low of 135) to now 285 lbs., it’s time to do something radical.

So, I’m having the lap band surgery May 20, 2008. I look forward to eating a new way, looking a new way, and hopefully a reversal of my overall health trend.

I’m glad that you’ll be there with me! It means so much! And, like everything else I’ve accomplished in my life – it’s always easier when I walk through it with you. I’ll keep you up to date. So check back in the coming weeks as I mark my progress! I’m so happy right now. I just found out a moment ago, and came here to tell you first! Take care, be well – and I’ll chart my progress so you’ll know how I’m doing!

I had a great time in California even if it was such a short visit.

I got to go by North Hall and say ‘hi’ to folks. I snapped this picture of the bathroom to show the folks in Austin, at Lambda, how fabulous a bathroom can be. See?!

My subcompact wasn’t available, so they upgraded me to a convertible PT Cruiser instead. Fine with me! I had a great time with the top down along the ocean. Although it was chilly.

Monterey was great (as usual). It was beautiful and I loved being at the ocean. I forgot how much I missed it. The greenery picture is right outside my room at the resort I stayed at in Monterey. It was a fun conference and I think my talk went well – or so folks said.

Traveling to California was super fun and I met some great folks. On my flicker site you can see pictures of crew I ran with while I was there. They were such a nice group of women and they went to some length to track me down to invite me to California. Gotta love those folks in Recovery. They are tenacious and willful when it can be a good thing!

There’s a picture here of Poodle who I stopped to have lunch with on my way out of town. And, a picture of one of my new friends Jon aka Selena when we were out at a Taqueria the other night. I didn’t get the name of that place but everything was uber cheap and it was so good! We’ll have to go back there, for sure.

Also pictured here is Jerold, aka Jeroldine. It was so nice seeing him and Rita Lynn who were cutting up during the meeting and I was practically forced to ”shoosh”them! Who knew folks were having so much fun in Sacramento in my absence. 🙂 I also got to see Marissa, and Willamina and a whole bunch of folks I love and miss. I stayed with the ever hospitable Bunny and Ginger. It was great!

Lastly, there’s a picture in here of Eric, aka Jessica. He’s in full laugh and it’s a great picture I think. This too was at the taqueria. What was the name of that place!!??

We were in Dallas this weekend.

This was the first time that either of us had been there. Of course, we’ve been through the airport many times as it seems like a hub to everywhere, but we’ve only seen it from the air.

We went to an 80s dance and it was great fun. There was a large group of us, and it was a very fun road trip!

I’m sure I’ll have more pictures on here next visit, but wanted to do a quick update to let you know we’re back.

The first picture though is of my Dad’s truck. He had an accident last week. He was rear ended and pushed across the lanes of incoming traffic. He was very fortunate and it could have been much worse. This is someone’s yard though, who received my dad’s truck through their hedge and nearly into their house. He’s recovering well and has some back-pain and his vertigo is bad, but he’s home and not in the hospital – and resting.

These are the shoes of Princess Lala, aka Steve. Steve has more shoes than Imelda Marcos and these were his pink striped converse-style sneakers. At the dance, we all wore pink carnations so that folks would know our group was from Austin. Thanks Stewart (it was his idea). Of course, Miss Lala couldn’t have a pin running through her blouse. So, he came up with the unique idea of wearing one on each shoe like cheerleader poms. Great fun.

And Sunday, I was so wiped out I just laid on the couch. All day. No, really. All day. We didn’t get home from Dallas until like 3am (It’s a 3 hour drive to Austin) and we were tired. Here’s a snapshot of Uno – doing all he does these days – sleeping with me on the couch. It was gray and a little drizzilly outside so it was the perfect day to wrap up with the comforter and Uno and watch Oprah.

Hope your weekend was as fulfilling and relaxing!

Well, we weren’t surprised to learn that Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. Or, that most of those transplants come from California. You can’t spit your skoal out around here without hitting a Californian.

Of course, I hope all these Californians only add to the diversity and flavor of Texas otherwise, it may just turn into another version of California – with home prices to boot.

But for now, prices remain purdy darn low thank goodness. Here’s some examples.

http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=451686&or=1&cp=1

http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=454384&or=1&cp=2#

http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=473655&or=1&cp=3#

So home prices are still reasonable by California standards. I’m just glad we moved when we did. I don’t know if they will hold out if everyone keeps coming.

Hope you’re doing well! We’ll hope to see you soon.

Well… who knew? The whole voting thing in Texas is different than California. It’s like a Texas Two-step. There’s the voting and the caucus, and they are the same day, which essentially means you vote – twice.

I know.

First you go down and stand for an hour and a half in a line. The only good thing about this is gives you a chance to catch up on your cell phone calls but of course with one finger in an ear, because everyone else is catching up too. Or, you can spend a minute to get acquainted with of your neighbors. That’s nice.

Voting was a new experience. Here they caucus and vote on the same day with the delegates that your candidate gets being divided up between vote cast in the voting booth, and vote cast at the caucus. So, if you want your vote to ‘really’ count – you need to attend both.

I have the sniffles. That’s ok, I’ll just go down to the H.E.B. and get me some cold medicine – not so fast.

You may be asking what does smog have to do with cold medicine!?
Well, I’ll tell you. You can’t buy cold medicine with out a Texas Drivers License. Yes, I’m over 18 (barely). And yes, I have a drivers license. BUT – I don’t have a Texas Drivers License. So, stuffed up head? – too bad.

And, I couldn’t get my drivers license until I had a registration on my truck. And, I couldn’t get my registration on my truck until I had my smog – and once you have that, and you go to two different offices (one for registration, one for drivers licenses – see?) THEN you can buy cold medicine.Sigh.

We got a new car, one that will get better gas mileage than that truck! So, now we have the truck smogged it can get covered and go in the garage until someday when gas is less than a month’s salary per gallon and drive it again.

There’s a picture here too of Rob sitting on the back porch. We (insert royal version here) cleaned up the backyard of leaves and now Rob loves sitting out there under the trees and watching the (grey) skies. Also here, a picture of Uno who at 17 years old, this week – still doesn’t like the vacuum. You’d think he’d have gotten used to it by now! 🙂

Also a picture here of roommate Johnny and I at the movies. He works nights so – like a vampire we never see him in the daylight. I thought I’d snap a picture to prove he’s a day-walker and not a creature soley of the night.

Well, I’m sure that the weather will improve soon – but lately just grey, grey, grey.

Uno is aging and seems to move around slower these days, unless there’s ice cream involved. Then he’s just a grey-striped flash of fur. He still is playful and likes to still attack from time to time, but more and more he’s just curled up asleep on the pillow with his nose tucked under his tail. Sometimes I think I want to come back in my next life as Uno. On grey days like this, curling up on the bed and occasionally someone to call me to the dining room for ice cream, doesn’t sound half bad!

Dear Mayor Kilpatrick,

This is an open letter requesting.. no – encouraging.. no – imploring you to resign. You have had a career of bringing disgrace on the City of Detroit and the people there deserve better. But, not only have you exercised poor character and judgement – now your lies and missteps are causing a financial hardship on the city.

Please consider the economic condition of the city, look yourself in the mirror and ask if you are contributing to the betterment of your constituency. Sure – you’ve been noted to bring new development and investment – but at what cost. Surely no one could take an honest assessment and believe your costs don’t outweigh your benefits.

For the sake of your employees, residents, friends – your family (especially your wife, hasn’t she been through enough?) please do the one RIGHT thing in your mayorship and step down. Leave the city in peace.

If there was a quicker path to socialized medicine it’s the medical industries latest push to formulate a method for determining a patient’s ability to pay.

The project, dubbed “MedFICO” in some early press reports, will aid hospitals in assessing a patient’s ability to pay their medical bills. But privacy advocates are worried that the notorious errors that have caused frequent criticism of the credit system will also cause trouble with any attempt to create a health-related risk score. They also fear that a low score might impact the quality of the health care that patients receive.

Is it that big a reach to think medical insurance companies won’t use this system to score a patient’s worthiness from a profit perspective. There’s so much wrong with our countries health system, one knows barely where to begin. I think the basic bones are there and I can’t say that I’m an advocate of socialized medicine. However, when I read stories like this (click the link in the title) on MSNBC it makes me wonder if it isn’t going to take something as radically as completely taking health care away from the insurance companies to put us back on track.

The whole notion of a Medical Fico score speaks to the industries concern with profits over providing quality health care. Something that should be a ‘right’ of every human being – not just the wealthy.