Welcome and Instigation

mnemonica

So, I put this group out there, and didn't say anything because there wasn't anyone to say it to. Well, now there is, so welcome! You're probably familiar with the new group rigamarole - introduce yourself, yada yada. We have profiles here, so we can scope each other out right? Please just say whatever's on your mind, as conventional or unconventional as it may be. I'll start by saying that even though I've only been using this site for a few days, so far it's been really helpful for me to become self-competitive about minding my exercise and calorie count. I tend to not follow through with things for too long, so that's where I'm hoping it will help to make friends. I happen to also be a point where there's big changes to be made, so I'm fighting the urge to binge until it stops hurting, which I had been doing in the past few weeks as I bottomed out emotionally leading up to my college graduation. I'm still in the "What's next?" stage and desperately uncertain of what to do, but at least I'm gaining control over my health as best I can. That I still have Starbucks tastes on a food stamps budget probably helps in that regard. I could be too much of a diner if I could afford it, if you know what I mean. Being single also means less eating out. I do hope to find a happy medium in that regard. And to keep from becoming a crazy cat lady in a bad way. So, that's what I have to open the discussion. Where would you like to start?

Buddhasmiracle

I have been on and off this site since the beginning of the year. It helps me to keep an electronic journal of food and exercise. I tried "Sparkle People," and was overwhelmed with the badges that seemingly pop up out of no where, not to mention the advertisements. The extent of my participation here is on the song thread, which I enjoy immensely.

I also like coffee. I used to make ad hoc drip coffee using a paper cone and plastic funnel over a thick new jersey diner cup. One Christmas, my stepdaughter and her husband gave me a Keurig machine. I drink "Dark Magic" with a touch of hot milk (so I imagine that I am sitting in a mom and pop corner restaurant in Union City drinking Cuban coffee, listening to debonair older men (I'm sixty so you can imagine how old THEY are), planning another invasion of Cuba.

I'm a Boomer. I was fortunate to see Stones' concerts for 3 bucks and the first Broadway production of Hair in NYC for 20. In the olden days you could go out and get a bite to eat without a television in sight or a surround sound cell phone conversation In spite of all the civil disobedience, civic virtue was still . . . a virtue. There are aspects of public things (including MFP) that have a free for all quality, much like a food fight in high school.


When I worked in a bookstore back in the day, the beach reading was "The Other Side of Midnight," by Sydney Shelton. So it was a real easy job. "What do you recommend?" "Oh, this one -- the other side of midnight." Except one morning a young woman about my age came in and asked, What do you recommend?, and I took her over to the Brit Lit section and pulled out Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." I figured she was in Ft. Lauderdale for the summer, or visiting her Grandma, I won't see her again. One morning soon after I saw her stomping across the mall parking lot, coming towards the bookstore. She swung open the door and said, "What a great book. I loved it. What else do YOU recommend?" I still like hard cover and paperback books and stale smelling libraries. I am not against tablets and kindle and all, but I prefer the former.

Be well in health and good spirits.
J