This Week's Breakdown

I'm still working towards my goals. Here's my breakdown for this week:

• Chats with Chef this week: every day, multiple times a day. YAY!

• Pages of fiction read: 252

• Fiction read: One Day by David Nicholls- FINISHED; The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein(?)

• Fiction listened to via audiobook: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (about 15 hours in)

• Creative writing every day: done and DONE

• Five pages written: Yes! I've been so move to write this week that I've actually done it longhand. In meetings that bore me. Maybe not the best, but still very exciting.

• Calorie tracking: done and done honestly.Even though I've lost 1.6 lbs this week, I've had cheeseburgers for my last two meals. So what of it?

• Exercise: Yes every day. Not twice daily as some days I actually had to live (or go see Ann Patchett or have extra Chef time).

• Friends and family: two nice emails, two nice calls. All in all, not a bad week.

Doing better this week. And I'm happy. So I guess that's not too shabby.

I Didn't Do TOO Badly This Week

While it was only a few days ago that I posted my goals, I've actually been working off of them for over a week. So I decided to hold myself accountable. And because frankly, I'm not very good at just holding myself accountable on my own (I weighed 229 lbs at one point if you needed proof of that), I'm going to post my results each week for as long as I think it's interesting to post. I realize I'm dipping dangerously into the "Bridget Jones"-type of blog post, but I think you'll indulge me. So here goes for the first week:

• Chats with Chef this week: numerous and multi-times per day

• Pages of fiction read: 204

• Fiction read: One Day by David Nicholls

• Fiction listened to via audiobook: Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

• Creative writing every day: Complete

• Five pages written: Not so much. I got three pages done. Maybe I'll get the other two knocked out today.

• Calorie tracking: done and done honestly. It actually made me order a few things differently than I would've and eat less than I would've gorged.

• Exercise: Twice daily for a total of an hour. I actually had sore muscles this week for the first time in a while. I don't think I was honest with myself before about pushing myself.

• Friends and family: sent several emails this week out of the blue. If you didn't get one, you may soon.

I have to say that it's the reading that I'm enjoying most. And the writing that's leaving me the most to try and be honest with myself. It's challenging me most right now which is probably why I haven't finished my page quota for the week. I'm writing some non-fiction and it's hard to be as truthful as I want to be about others without revealing too much about myself.

Falling In Love Again . . With Reading

While I clearly didn't have the best time on my Canadian excursion (the company was lovely but the location-not so hot-although I'm willing to try Canada again--just maybe Vancouver,) there was one definite plus: I fell in love again with reading.

It's not like I ever truly fell out of love with reading, but you know how it goes. I hadn't had the best of luck reading the most captivating books lately, so I wasn't super excited to get through them and then I opt for a magazine instead. Not a good sign for a novel. I breezed through Bossypants because it is clearly awesome and then I picked up Water for Elephants right before I left for Canada. It had been sitting on my bookshelf since before the move. I remember buying it at McKay's in Nashville for $2.

It took me about 3 days of intermittent reading to get through it and it was a really entertaining book. But I left my Kindle at home on the charger, so I went to the Chapters store and bought two more books. I breezed through the first one in two days and started on the second one on my flight home.

Of course, books are something that I just love surrounding myself with PLUS I was working at frickin' Book Fair for 5 days, so I got even MORE tempted. Normally the Book Fairs I go to only have text books or academic writing (not the best for leisure time), but this one had FICTION! And good fiction. So I ended up buying four more books (hello? there was a conference discount!). So I left with two books read, six books bought and one more halfway through.

PLUS I just got two more audiobooks and finished the three I previously had. I've probably read or absorbed more literature in the last month than in the last 6 months combined. And I'm all the happier for it!