A new perspective and wonderful surprises

Yesterday after work I stopped off in West Lebanon, NH to pick up broccoli and garlic for my younger daughter's awards banquet. As a potluck, I had decided to bring my always well received steamed broccoli with garlic (lots of it) and parmesan. Depositing enough broccoli for 50 people in my car, I decided to check out Fashion Bug for clearance items. Bingo! A beautiful and extremely comfortable dress on clearance that fit perfectly, is very flattering, comfortable, AND down two sizes! I headed right for the 20's and found that an 18/20 actually fit. I did a happy dance in the dressing room and tried on a few more things just for grins and giggles. I'm not yet quite into an extra large--they'll go on (dress wise and blouse wise), but they are too tight for comfort and aesthetics. Dress and vegetables in hand I was ready for the night's festivities.

After two and a half hours sleep I got dressed and had some sort of bizarre epiphany--yes, there was fat on my body--gobs of it, but for some reason, it no longer felt like part of my body. Instead, it felt like something foreign, draped over my body, something that could be removed and discarded. This was a very different perspective, and it seems to have persisted overnight--perhaps its some sort of turning point? My official weigh in today was 210, so I'm back where I was before the premenstrual binge-fest, and have indeed shed 3 pounds this week.

Returning to last night, I chopped scads of broccoli and made a large bowl of it, jumped in the car with my daughter and headed for her school. It was a good thing I brought veggies, because aside from a few salads and an amazing fruit salad, the rest was all heavy cheesy pasta dishes. I made up a plateful, with a little pasta and a lot of veggies, and enjoyed dinner with my daughter, a couple of her classmates and their parents--the pasta on my plate was too much, and my daughter ended up eating about half of it. She received her award for honours over the entire school year, we had some celebratory dessert (cake for her, a small piece of blueberry cheesecake for me), and we jumped in the car for my elder daughter's high school awards ceremony, which has started at the same time as the middle school obervances. Poor planning, that!

The bad news was that we missed about 1/3 of the awards, and missed seeing my kiddo walk across stage for her high honours pin--the good news was that we made it in time for two absolutely amazing awards. My eldest loves theatre--she's been in every stage production, usually getting sick after each one because she skimps on sleep and food to get her studies done and meet grueling rehearsal schedules. This year the drama coach has retired, after a 30 year career spanning at least 65 productions. She launched a scholarship, the "Reach for the Stars" Drama Scholarship, and my daughter was the very first recipient. The speech was beautiful, and we were all surprised, since we knew nothing of the award. Approximately a half hour later she was back on stage collecting the Reynolds scholarship, a scholarship established by Dr. Reynolds, a long time Barre resident physician, promoting hard work and civic duty. Again, we had no idea this one was coming--$20,000! This was a great honour for her, and a well deserved one as she works very hard at everything she does, academic or thespian. It was also a relief, as her already generous scholarship and financial aide package had not quite met her needs for the very expensive Dickinson education she has selected. Now she's a golden girl, my youngest is about to embark on her high school career, and I've been blessed with this wonderful new perspective about my body and surplus weight. The evening was a grand success on all fronts.