Week 8, Day 2 - The Proof is in the Statement!

Week 8, Day 2 Outfit: Ann Taylor Black Short-Sleeved Wrap Shirt, Lavender Rebecca Taylor pants, BCBG black slingbacks

Oh Joy! Finally some reinforcement for my toil! Today I got my credit card bill (through email, of course, who gets paper anymore?) and lo and behold, it was $500 less than it has been in the past couple of months! Can you believe it??? Okay, so perhaps the statement should have been less last month because it apparently takes 1.5 months for the benefits of rehab to kick in - at least for a shopaholic...but because of Mikey's birthday present and the camera which has been faithfully generating pictures for me on an almost daily basis (albeit at times very blurry pictures) - last month I used what normally would have been spent on clothes on other expenditures. But, HOLY COW! I knew I spent a lot of money on clothes...but $500 a month? Crazy! So...this now leaves me overwhelmed with thoughts about what I can do with the $500 that I would have normally squandered on clothing. The altruistic thing to do would be to donate it to a good cause - like Dress for Success...but part of me needs to enjoy having this surplus of cash in my account for awhile (I promise, at the end of this challenge, I will do something good for the world with what I end up saving). One thought is to start getting my "kicks" out of investing and completely replace the thrill of shopping with the thrill of gambling a bit on stocks. I know, many of you might be thinking - one addiction for another...but I can safely say that I am not prone to a gambling problem - ask my brother who scolds me everytime we go to Vegas for counting my chips each time I win or lose a hand at Blackjack. Hmmm...stocks...definitely a worthwhile hobby...Anyway...I can't write enough about my elation over what is finally some kind of reward for my restraint!

Speaking of restraints, I had no choice but to eat chicken for lunch today. I was delivering more training for another client in Knoxville and all that they had brought in for lunch was Chic-Fil-a chicken nuggets and chicken wraps...hmmm...do I want the chicken or chicken? Yes, yes, I could have been "one of those" and opened up the wrap and picked out the pieces of chicken, or I could have skipped over the chicken nuggets...but come on! These were Chic-Fil-a chicken nuggets! I must say that I did eat them with trepidation, afraid that I was either going to have a very bad gastrointestinal reaction to eating chicken after about a month of restraint...or afraid that the Vegetarian Heavens would open up and strike me down with some sharp skewered form of a celery stick. Obviously, neither happened, and I ate the chicken nuggets and sandwich wrap. What did happen, however, was a wave of guilt that washed over me, causing me to obsess over what I might have been able to eat instead...leftover bagels from breakfast? An orange or banana? A cup of yogurt? Oh well, I guess that's the "flex" part of the whole "flexitarian" thing that I'm trying...but honestly, I really did feel guilty (though I feel better knowing that Chic-Fil-a seems to treat their chickens better than other fast food restaurants - or maybe I just think this way because they close on Sundays to allow their employees to observe Sabbath).

Back to the clothes front...as I was folding my pair of lavendar pants to put in my "worn" bin, I noticed a huge hole in the crotch of my pants. Um....how long has that been there? Cue thoughts of me going over my day trying to determine if I had ever bent over to pick something up thereby exposing my underthings. I'm sure I must have - but let's just hope it wasn't during the 6 hours that I was training 12 people - standing at the front of the room with all eyes on me. Hmmm...perhaps that's why all the ratings I got for training today were 4's and 5's (out of a 5 point scale) - maybe I should try to decipher the male from female handwriting to see if the 5's came from the guys and the 4's came from the women (they would give above average ratings because my indescent exposure makes them feel more put together and better about themselves, of course)...one can only guess...anyone good at identifying man writing?

Week 8, Day 1 - Live from the Philadelphia Airport!

Week 8, Day 1 Outfit: Ann Taylor Loft Purple rouched sleeve sweater, Express Jeans, DSW black flats (not sure the brand, and given that someone is sitting next to me in the waiting area of my gate, probably not appropriate to take off my shoe to look)

I did it...one of my goals during this challenge was to post from an airport...and by golley, I'm doing it right now. My conditions were as such: 1) Wifi must be free (couldn't quite expense an internet fee for purely blog-posting purposes), 2) I have the time to do it...which I do...at least I think I do since everyone appears to still be waiting in the terminal. One of the things that I usually love about living near Detroit is the fact that we can find a direct flight to just about anywhere since we are a former-NWA hub (now known as Delta). Well, I could've done that today, but it would have cost my client an additional $600, so, being the good little consultant that I am, I went with the flight that requires me to fly from Detroit to Philadelphia, and then from Philly to Knoxville. So, my travel officially started at about 2:30 and will likely end around 11pm (by the time I get my car and roll into my hotel parking lot). So, those of you who think travel is oh so glamorous, know that it can really STINK - especially when weather is involved (I did have a delay leaving Detroit, but it did not impact my connection in Philly). Travel is cool, however, when you end up at a mountainous resort in Colorado (which was the case last week). Even though my flight out of Detroit was delayed, I still had an hour to spare between my connecting flights, so I stopped in at the airport-based wine bar called Vino Volo (there's one in Detroit as well) and snacked on a brie and prosciutto sandwich (minus the piggy) and drank a flight of white wines. Not too shabby...but I still would rather be at home eating and drinking with my 4 cats (yes, Mike counts as a cat - I think he used to be one in a previous life as is evident from the love for sardines and somewhat catlike unpredictableness).

In the Philly airport are several clothing stores - the Gap, Brooks Brothers, Swarovski, etc...that I used to stop at when flying in and out of Pittsburgh (that airport has the same stores). Well, it's funny how my natural inclination to go toward those stores had to be cognizantly stopped today as I remembered my challenge. In Psychology, there is a documented phenomenon discovered by Seligman where when you take an animal (in his case, rats) away from their natural environment when they are exposed to an addiction, they no longer receive the proper cues to prepare their bodies for the onslaught of the addictive substance thereby overdosing on the addictive substance when in a new environment. I would document my natural draw to the clothing stores in the airport today to be a watered down confirmation of such a theory...when taken out of the element of being at home and in an airport, an environment where you would not expect to see clothing stores, I naturally reverted back to my old thinking/addiction. But, I'd like to think of myself more intelligent than a rat, so therefore, I resisted!

Week 7, Day 7 - Lounging Around

Week 7, Day 7 Outfit: North Face Fleece, Old Navy Fleece Pants

After a healthy consumption of wine last night at dinner, I spent most of the day in recovery mode...which means, comfortable "errand" clothes. Mike and I finally caught up on some episodes of Project Runway, I succumbed to my guilty pleasure of watching Dancing with the Stars, and are ending the night with a viewing of Raging Bull (clearly more Mike's pick than mine - which is why I'm blogging as we watch it).

This week will be pretty action-packed work-wise as I'll be traveling to Knoxville tomorrow, coming back last Tuesday night, then heading to Pittsburgh on Wednesday for a client visit to our company headquarters. I'll be dining with the CEO and other senior leaders on Wednesday night at a rather exclusive restaurant...so I may have to use Wednesday as a "meat day." Speaking of which, I did give into eating seafood yesterday, even though this week was supposed to be a vegetarian week. It's hard to resist mussels at a four star restaurant! I have, however, stayed true to my week of no chocolate challenge - and it's certainly been a bit harder than I thought it'd be...my sweet cravings have instead been filled with girl scout cookies and rice krispie treats. Perhaps a more difficult week-long challenge would be to give up sweets altogether...wow, now we're talking!

Stay tuned for what I'm able to put together this week for all the different events...I'm thinking going through another black dress for Wednesday's dinner...we shall see!

Week 7, Day 6 - Dinner with the Boss

Week 7, Day 6 Outfit: BR purple sheath dress, Black Aldo Knee High pointy toed, kitten heeled boots (how's that for a description?)

Today began with a 1.5 hour hot yoga class - intense! I then came home to take a 2.5 hour nap to recover from the class (seems counterproductive if you ask me). We found out this morning that our middle cat, Martini, has a genetic heart disorder which has led to the bloated stomach that we mistakenly thought was weight gain due to the Prozac we forced on him. He now has to take pills twice a day and may need a biopsy if the swelling doesn't go down. Until I had cats, I was always one of "those" who used to think people who got all worked up about their pets' health were wack-jobs...but now being the owner of 3 cats, I can definitely understand how emotional it can be when you may lose one of them. Martini appears to be a bit more active today after getting his first dose of meds, so I'm hoping things are starting to look up.

Tonight we'll be dining with my boss - sans the other work couple that make up the last 3rd of our wine club. We're trying out a new restaurant owned by a chef I had read about a few years ago in a book that profiled this chef, Brian Polcyn, Michael Simon (now an Iron Chef), and Thomas Keller (owner of the renowned French Laundry). I LOVE fine dining - maybe almost too much...but now that I'm on this vegetarian kick, I think many of the menu items I would naturally gravitate toward (Fois Gras, Sweetbreads, Braised Beef) are definite no-no's. I did notice a few vegetarian menu items, so I'm very excited about that! For tonight, I figured I'd wear a sheath dress that is made of thick enough material to soon make it's way upstairs into the "off season" storage, so might as well churn through this one before it gets too hot outside to wear!

I finally moved and hung the clothes from my "worn" bin (which was already full and being covered with additional worn items) to the upstairs closet. I also spun through my "off season" closet (shouldn't this be a testament to how many clothes I really do own...to have an "off season" closet?) and grabbed a few items that can soon be worn as the temperature rises. The main closet has once again been filled to almost full capacity.

Mike and I got a massage today at one of those outdoor mall kind of establishments. Right across the street from the massage place was one of my favorite clothing stores - White House, Black Market. Normally, visions of the store displays would immediately get my heart racing - but, oddly, today, no such thing happened. Maybe it was because I didn't get a close look, or didn't like what they had on display...but something is definitely going on! Could I be (gasp) cured?

Week 7, Days 4 & 5 - Acts of God

Week 7, Day 4 Outfit: BR beige wool sheath dress and jacket, Nine West knee-high boots

Week 7, Day 5 Outfit: Forever 21 sweater dress, BR black tights, BR snakeskin wedges

So, I never did have a chance to indulge in my much anticipated 4 course meal for $50. The roads outside my chalet were so covered in snow, and flurries were blowing so multi-directionally, that I could barely see in front of me. I spent about 20 minutes driving in circles, going the wrong way on one-way streets around the resort, and trying to stay what seemed like road in order to find the restaurant at which I made a reservation. At one point, I just said "screw it" and headed back to the parking lot of the condo to get my bearings straight. I pulled out the map again and identified my second choice for a restaurant and found that there were enough landmarks around it in order for me to not miss it in the blizzard. I guess I could have also taken a shuttle, but there was no parking around the shuttle stops and the signs for the pick-up locations were buried underneath at least 2 inches of snow. I ended up at the Inn @ Keystone - a very nice little boutique-y lodge with a Seafood restaurant that boasts using local ingredients. Hmmm...when you're in the mountains, 1.5 hours from Denver, I highly doubt that seafood is all that local. Regardless, given that I still had a couple of fish-eating days in my week, I went with the Mahi Mahi...which was just okay. My room (as you can see from the Day 4 picture above), was nice and cozy - very ski resortish. It was clearly built a while back, as evidenced by the fact that it had a bidet and a jacuzzi tub. There was a gas fireplace in the living room which was so inviting, that I decided to sleep on the couch (a much easier feat for someone 5'1") than in the bedroom. The jacuzzi tub had a shower head installed on the ceiling (which makes for a nice 10 minute "hunt for the switch to turn on the shower" activity). The walls surrounding the tub were mirrored, with the last wall being a clear window that overlooked the sunken living area - which had 3 huge windows overlooking the majestic mountains outside. Very nice set-up, except for the fact that if you can see out, anyone outside can see in! Luckily, when you're showering at 5:45 AM at a ski resort, you can rest assured that no one will be out and about peering into windows - especially after a blizzard! During the training session that I facilitated, I mentioned to the client that I found it odd that I had a bidet in my room. She came back with "thanks a lot, that's my timeshare, you know." OOOPS! She seemed pretty unoffended by it though and did mention that she plans on getting rid of it - eventually. Good thing I didn't say something like "I feel like I'm in the Poconos mountains in the 70's given the cheesy jacuzzi tub and all" (you all know what I'm talking about, right? I'm sure you've seen the magazine ads for the Poconos resort that still boasts about having the only champagne glass shaped jacuzzi tub).

Travel back home from Denver was as uneventful as it could be...especially in light of the fact that many of the travelers at the Denver airport were carryovers from the day prior. Because Denver got 12 inches of snow on Tuesday night, everything was shut down that evening and Wednesday morning, which means that you are dealing with a lot of pissed off people desperately trying to catch the next flight out back to their original destination. They get even more pissed off by the fact that they get no remuneration for their travel woes because snowstorms fall into the "Acts of God" category...therefore, the airline is not responsible for putting you up in a hotel or feeding you. It's times like these that you can either see the best or worst in people. There are people who react to every little travel mishap (I must sadly admit that I likely fall in this category)...you know, the ones who snort or violently shake their head when the ticket counter person announces that the flight will be delayed (even if just for 5 minutes). Then, there are the positive people who head straight to the bar and get hammered...so regardless of what bad news they receive about their flight, they just order another shot. Now, these "happy" people, mind you, are also the ones that wreak of booze when they get on the plane, pass out, and snore loudly during red-eye flights thereby allowing no one peaceful rest except for themselves. Hmmm, not sure which type of traveler I'd rather be!

Last night was my last "fish" day before this upcoming week of being vegetarian...so I went out for sushi with Jen and Maggie. Given that there are few days left in winter, I decided to fish (no pun intended) for a sweater that I could churn through without starting to exhaust my spring/summer wear. Good thing I did, because after dinner, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, there was snow and ice on the outside of my car, and my flimsy raincoat did nothing in terms of keeping me warm. Yay, sweater!

My week-long challenge to not eat chocolate has been kept up - even to the extent that I was removing chocolate chips from the rice krispie treat that was packed in my lunch during my client meeting on Wednesday. I had the hugest craving for something sweet when I got home from dinner last night and knowing that chocolate was off limits, I got very jazzed about a fruit pizza I had leftover from my Sunday get together with the DUB club members. Imagine my reaction when I opened the fridge and discovered that the craved fruit pizza was MIA. Can we say - grrrrrrrrrrrrr? Such an event might have made me turn to chocolate - but because I knew I'd have to blog about it, I instead took a bath to help me forget. Since when is a bath as good as chocolate? NEVER!

Week 7, Day 3 - Ironic!

Week 7, Day 3 Outfit: North Face jacket, green BR turtleneck, BR skinny jeans, Black Ugg boots (yes, I know, I'm repeating 3 articles here, but these are the legit ones...the turtleneck will go in the "worn" bin when I return home)

Remember that song by Alanis Morsette "Well, isn't it ironic, don't you think?" Today is the day of irony! It began with me at the airport recognizing a face I have not seen for awhile. It was the face of Torie, the Banana Republic manager at the Toledo mall. I saw her in the security checkpoint line, and then when boarding my mid-size plane to Denver, CO, she was seated 2 rows behind my assigned seat. Sitting next to my assigned seat was a very large man that I really had no desire to spend a 4 hour flight betwixt, so I gave him the "no offense, but given that there are 4 rows on the other side that are empty, I'm going to do us both a favor and situate myself in one of them so as to give us more room." I first started in the next row down, but those seats ended up being assigned to others, so moving one more row back put me right across the aisle of Torie. She glanced at me with what I thought was a look of recognition, but I didn't try too hard to make eye contact in case she didn't want me blurting out "hey, don't you work at Banana Republic?" So, I rode the entire 4 hours keeping to my own business, meanwhile stealing glances at her thinking "how funny is this?" A Banana Republic manager, going to the same place I am, on this day and hour, and across the row from me? Part of me wanted to strike up conversation with her to see how much of a dent I've made in their sales by taking on this challenge...but then again, figured she'd think I was a totally crazy for thinking that one single person could make any kind of impact on their sales.

The second painful irony of today is that I am at a beautiful ski resort, it's coming down white fluffy snow, and I am spending it working! Well, I'm kind of done with the work part and am going to continue watching the rented iTunes movie (the Traveler's Wife, which I'm loving so far) before it expires (it self-destructs after 12 hours...and, okay, one more "doh!" moment, I forgot to fully charge my computer battery last night and therefore only got halfway through the movie on the plane before my computer shut itself down). Also, free night skiing lift passes are only available from Wednesday - Friday...double-doh (as today is Tuesday)! Half-price lift tickets begin at noon and end at 4:30...I rolled in around 3pm...triple-doh! The worst part about it is that I actually added 20 lbs. to my carry on by packing all my ski clothes...boy, would that have made for an interesting outfit or what?? So, sadly, I am staring outside of the window of my beautiful chateau, at the pine trees and lightly falling snow, and am going to enjoy ZERO of it. Well, I am going to treat myself to a nice dinner at the golf course restaurant that offers 4 courses for $50 (which, I might add, was a restaurant recommended to me by my client, so I'm guessing she's okay with the bill). Why not??? I made it all the way out here, didn't I??? I might as well make use of the beautiful surroundings and get gussied up a bit while I'm at it. Yes, Alanis, it is ironic, but I'm making lemonade out of my lemon!

Week 7, Day 1 - Hostess

Week 7, Day 1 Outfit: Red Susanna Monoco Wrap Dress

Last night I hosted our monthly DUB club get together with my fellow female wino's. Given that I was playing hostess, I figured I'd wear a comfortable dress that was also a bit festive. The red color was perfect for when I pulled out a hot vegetable lasagna from the oven and dropped it on the floor, splattering marinara sauce all over me - like I said, good thing the dress was red! True friends are those who rush to your aid when you are clearly a little too tipsy to be pulling hot lasagna out of the oven and come to sponge tomato sauce off of your arms and face! Thanks Ladies!

I've been receiving texts from some friends asking when my challenge ends as they have made plans to go to various stores. Sadly, I still have about 45 weeks to go! I don't have the urge, however, so I guess this challenge will prove to be easier than I thought. Then again, there's always vacations - which I would normally spend half of exploring boutique stores and buying items that I can't find in Toledo (which is a lot!). Regarding other challenges, however, the meat-free thing is going pretty well. I feel a lot better when I am able to avoid dairy and meat. I actually resisted eating pizza the other day, which gave me quite a feeling of satisfaction! I have failed to keep up (or even try) my meditation challenge. I figured that if I went to yoga, that would count toward my 30 minutes of meditation...but given my schedule this past week, it's been a bit hard. So, as I enter into the last full week of March, I'm going to need to re-think what my challenge will be. Hmmm...no chocolate for a week? I think that's fair and pretty easy to maintain (not to be confused with easy to do). Okay, starting today, I will not eat chocolate for a week. Done!

Today I'll be taking it easy as I mentally prepare for my business trip out to Colorado. The work itself won't be too difficult...but just flying halfway across the country, driving 1.5 hours from Denver to the ski resort, deliverying a full day of training the next day, and then heading back to the airport to fly home and arrive around midnight is going to be a bit exhausting. I mentioned to another co-worker who is a ski enthusiast that I would try to get myself to ski for the 1/2 day tomorrow that I'll have to spare. I checked out prices for lift tickets, however, and they are pricey...unless they offer a 1/2 day discount, I don't think I can rationalize spending $100 for 4 hours of skiing. Then again, I used to be able to rationalize spending $100 in 30 minutes of shopping...so perhaps I should adjust my thinking. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I blog about what I decided to do at the ski resort - maybe I should give the spa some thought - the funny part about this is I'd be spending as much at the spa for 1/2 the time of entertainment. Gosh, my priorities are really messed up!