Yes, I'm still here

I know I haven't been posting regularly -- or at all for the past few months. Working nights and sleeping days works well for me, but since I share an internet connection with everyone else in the house (up to 5 of us, depending on who's home), my time on line isn't necessarily my creative time.

To catch y'all up (I presume someone's reading this from time to time):

When I went to work at Wal-Mart last October, I weighed 267 pounds. That's not something I'd admit to anyone besides my doctor, but in just getting off my butt and working 32 hours a week I started losing weight. By the beginning of March I was down to 244, and had stopped losing spontaneously. Inspired by a story on NBC's Today Show -- one of their Joy Fit Club stories -- I logged onto WeightWatchers.com and signed up. I had successfully lost weight (many years ago, before baby #3) with Weight Watchers, and I knew I could do it.

This week I weighed in at 218.

I've lost nearly 50 pounds (total) and have only 80 more to go!

More news:

Jeanie has graduated from NYU and come home for a while; James has finished his freshman year at Subiaco Academy. His quiz bowl team won their regional title, and was featured on our PBS station (AETN) for the state finals in their division. Though James (the only freshman on the team) didn't play, they were all introduced. They took second place -- a very good finish for such a small school. (In Arkansas, private schools "play up" a division in all competitons, so they were playing public schools a level larger than they.)

I just started a new position with Wal-Mart -- I now work in the accounting office 2 days of my 4 day-a-week schedule. It's a raise of 4 pay grades, and I love the work. maybe eventually I'll be able to work more in the office and less on the sales floor.

This weekend is the Arkansas Writers Conference, and I'll be there both days (though I don't know how long I'll be able to stay awake on Friday, coming off working all night). It's also the weekend for the Texas Scottish Festival at UT-Arlington, and Mom and Jeanie are off to spend three days with Men in Kilts.

I recently edited an anthology of horror stories for Spinetinglers. The book will be available 6 June 2008 from http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk/. I hope to edit more stories and books for them as they ramp up their fledgling publishing company.

That's about all for now -- I'll try to post more frequently -- at least keep y'all up on my weight loss. Coming up is my mother's 80th birthday, hubby's birthday, and our anniversary. June is such a busy month!

Empty Nest

It's official. I'm an empty-nester. This last Saturday we took our youngest child to Subiaco Academy for 9th grade. With my mom at my sister's, and being between cats, this house is WAY too quiet.

On the other hand, now we can go back to eating some OUR favorite foods that James didn't care for. There's always a silver lining.

Weekend at a Monastery

Subiaco Abbey and Academy is located in west-central Arkansas, just south of the Arkansas River, near Mount Magazine. It's a Benedictine monastery, and the monks produce peanut brittle to die for and an excellent hot sauce ("Monk Sauce"). The Academy is all boys, college prep, grades 9-12. There's also a retreat facility.

James and I arrived just before sunset, but missed dinner. He joined the other boys watching a movie while I drove to the nearest town (5 miles away) for Taco Bell for us both. While he ate and watched the movie I got settled in the Coury House (the retreat facility). My room was much like many hotel/motel rooms I've stayed in: twin beds, a sofa and easy chair, a built-in desk/vanity, a small bathroom (stall shower only), and wire coat hangers in a small open wardrobe. A lovely view of the athletic fields and the valley beyond, towards the Arkansas River. No telephone. No television. No clock. No radio. A Bible.

I met James as the movie let out and turned him over to one of the Blue Arrow boys, the students who were acting as hosts and guides for us. He took James to the dorm entrance and informed me I could not accompany them to the 4th floor. So I said good night and returned to the Coury House.

There I met another mother there on her own (her husband and daughter were to come on Saturday, as was my husband). We shared a cup of coffee and discovered that we both teach in public schools, and that we had much more in common. Helene teaches art at Hall High in Little Rock, and lives near the Governor's mansion.

Helene returned to her room (to work on her taxes, as she was seeing her accountant on Monday), and I went back to my room, washed my hair, and knit for a while. It was VERY QUIET.

Since I'm accustomed to sleeping 4 am to noon, it was difficult to sleep more regular hours, but I managed to doze on and off from about 2 until 7. Breakfast was simple, cereal, juice and coffee, then we met for a brief welcome and broke into groups for our tours. There were about 8 families there, some just one parent and son, some with both parents and siblings (one only 2 months old).

We toured the campus, including the athletic center we skipped on our brief visit in February, had mock classes in biology, literature, and geography before lunch. Then it was touring dorm rooms (dorms are all the same, no matter which school) and the Abbey museum before a wonderful concert from the Jazz Ensemble and an informal performance-cum-rehersal of the school chorus.

The boys were taken off on an excursion to see some of the outlying features -- some of the places they go for camping and hikes while the parents got some time off. I took my knitting to the Coury lounge and met another of the parents, Steve from Katy, Texas, a metalurgical engineer. Soon it was time for the parents' Q&A with the Dean of Men and the Academic Services Advisor (who was also the geography teacher we had met earlier). Having been through sending a son away to school, not much was new for me, though Subiaco seems to be much more proactive about keeping the boys on task academically. Stuart arrived just before the end of the session and we went right to dinner.

Delicious pork chops with mashed potatoes, broccoli and a salad bar, a slice of cheese pizza (an appetizer?) and yeast rolls to die for -- I threw away the too dry chocolate cake and had an extra roll for desert.

We talked with Ellen, a pharmacist from outside Tulsa, and Steve for about an hour in the lobby, then returned to our room. Stuart tried to access the wireless internet (not ok in the rooms, it seems, he would have to go back to the lounge), but he had music on the computer, so it wasn't so quiet as I knit before taking a shower and going to bed.

I slept a bit better Saturday night, but Stuart's alarm woke me up earlier than I would have liked. After breakfast the boys were taken off for the exam (more of a placement exam than an entrance exam; average or better grades are expected) and we had a formal interview with Mrs. Kiefer, the Academic Services Advisor/geography teacher.

It's been a long time since I attended a Catholic Mass, and I was welcomed by the first hymn -- "Amazing Grace." The school doesn not require that the students be Catholic, and quite a few of the boys didn't go up for communion, so I presume that's the non-RC contingent. As there is a fair number of international students (most of them Asian) there are non-Christian students as well. Though the boys all take religion class, it's presented more as a history/anthropology course than a catechism. After lunch (they do feed the boys well) we packed up, checked out, and drove home (Stuart did stick around for a while to take pictures, to no one's surprise).

James seems pretty positive about the school, and though he's not ready to make a commitment, he does want us to proceed with the application paperwork and all. I think it would be a good environment for him, and a better education than he could get at Vilonia (they offer a wider range of AP courses, if nothing else).

Now I need a couple days to recover after 2 days of walking and stair climbing... more time on my feet than I've spent in a long time.