Things that are good.

Back in November I made the decision to stop eating fast food. Maybe not everything. I still rock the occasional D'Angelos. But the big bads. The McDonalds. The Burger Kings. The Taco Bells and and KFCs and Wendys. All gone from the diet. (The recent exception being on my trip down to South Carolina where I let myself have Bojangles because....well, it's Bojangles.) The decision was made based upon a couple of factors all occuring in close proximity to each other. One was I read Fast Food Nation and watched Supersize Me in the span of a week. Then shortly afterwards, after coming home from a show, I stopped for the usual late night McSnack, which a few hours later I promptly McRegurgitated.

The next day I decide to cut all that junk out of my diet. I don't really miss it much. Occasionally I'll get a craving for something, but it goes away quickly when I ignore it.

So, the good....

I believe that's party the reason that my weight is down about 15 pounds from last year at this time. There are other factors at work, as well, I'm sure. I am exercising a bit more and trying to be a bit more responsible in general about what I eat. But I'm gueeing the lack of fast food probably has a lot to do with it.
...
A couple of years ago I made another conscious decision. To start whittling away at the mountain of debt I managed to acquire for myself in my....umm, less than judiciously spending 20s. I had credit card bills, a loan, car payments. Basically stuff I just didn't want to be spending money on. So, being that I was living with the folks at the time, and my rent was minimal, I made up some payment plans to start tackling the debt. First off, the loan. I doubled up payment on that and got it paid off a year early. That was a couple of years back. Next challenge the credit cards. Paid off the Discover first. I then called and asked if they'd be willing to lower my APR to a rate of my choosing. They declined, so I cancelled the card. One down. That left me with two. I started plugging away on the next one, and got it paid off by the time I moved to Medford in July. One to go. That balance wasn't too outrageous, so as of my payment this weekend, I'm down to approximately $200 total debt on my credit cards. Whee!

That's the good right there, let me tell you.

Of course, I promptly celebrated by putting $400 back on the card when I bought a TV off Amazon. You have to understand though that this is a 32 LCD flat-panel HD TV, that usually goes for about $2,000. A $2,000 TV for $400, you say? Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical, too. But I couldn't find any snags or tripwires or loopholes when I was researching it, (and I looked a lot), and the seller had a very good rating, so I decided to take the chance. And besides, Amazon appears to have good coverage if I'm being hoodwinked by the seller, so it's probably not that much of a risk at all. Hopefully. We'll find out soon. And as for that $400 on my credit card?....well if the TV is legit, I'll just sell my Sony HD I'm keeping at my folks house and that should cover it plus a little extra for me

So, hopefully that will also be added to the good, and I can get the apartment ready for proper football watching soon. Sorry, but that little 27 non-HD wenis of a TV we currently have just ain't gonna cut it when those magic, wonderful words caress my ears. "Are you ready for some football?!?!?"