Making room

Making room 1

I weighed myself this morning. On April 30, when I officially started my diet, I weighed 65.9 kilograms (145 pounds). This is on a body that measures officially 161 cm (5' 3.5"). I was into the "overweight" part of the body mass index as was also evidenced by my need to go up yet another pants (and panties) size. Nothing doing.

I have replaced some meals with one of those diet powders, one that mixes with milk. Tasty. Vanilla shake. The other things I have done are: Cut out bread (condensed carbs), start a meal with a glass of water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, and add a heaping tablespoon virgin coconut oil to my breakfast. Those last two were to speed up metabolism. No extra exercise, food as usual with a slight increase in salads, though I try to keep the meal itself a tad smaller than before. I've also been aware of the need to eat something between main meals, so I keep more healthy snack food around.

Today's weigh: 62.4 kilograms (137.5 pounds). Most of the inches lost are around my middle, though I am seeing some effect in face and boobs. New bra size: 80B, down from an 80C/85B.

My clothes fit better and I am fastening my belt one notch farther in. There is room for me in my own clothes.

Making room 2

Nothing like guests to speed up getting the house in order. I have gone on a bit about my decluttering efforts, to the point that some friends have wondered if I have a life. I do. And I don't want it distracted by a bunch of STUFF. So I have been pitching, packing to give away, reorganizing so things look neater - and with the space and the neatness has come more peace of mind. And encouragement.

I don't function well in clutter. I am one of those people who has to clear off her desk first before she can get any work done. My workspace at work suggests I have an empty head - that's how many bare surfaces you can see. 'Course, being neat at work was never a problem: Everything has its function or place, and if it doesn't, it gets filed, tossed or handed off to someone else.

But at home... At home where there isn't one function, one job to do, but a multitude of functions and rooms, it is hard to keep things neat and tidy. But now I'm seeing the light. Now I'm actually seeing that there is not only room for guests, but they don't have to stare at my piles of junk next to their bed (sorry, Mom).

I feel freer. I feel like I actually know what I'm doing, I have control, my stuff doesn't control me. I definitely want to continue making room for what really matters to me - and for my guests.

Making room 3

This week included a visit from the plumber. Which meant I had to be dressed and ready by 7 am to receive him. HA! Me dresssed and ready by 7...! Well, I did it.

I don't know what it'll cost yet, but I enjoy having a plumber I'm on a first-name basis with, even though he started off the job by saying, "Oh... shit..."

I took a deep breath and decided it wasn't my problem, and if it was, there was a solution, anyway, because I am a lucky girl. Then I prayed silently (just to make sure my luck holds, you know).

Problem(s): Non-draining drain, leaky pipes, leaky seal. He couldn't get the drain to drain. He tried to manually uncork the pipe, but his snake couldn't get past the J-bend in the pipe.

My upstairs neighbor was home, and I got to borrow the keys to his storage locker in the basement. Wisely, the stop valves for our side of the building and my plumbing are found in my neighbor's lockable storage locker (I guess his plumbing's in my locker). The plumber and I went downstairs to eye my plumbing. Old plumbing. Almost as old as me, and older than the plumber. It jutted out of the ceiling in my neighbor's locker, above a pile of my neighbor's stuff. Not an ideal place for a plumbing job or a leak.

We gave up trying to do anything from that end.

Back upstairs, my plumber tried the drain unclogging project again, but the water he had poured into the drain pipe stayed right where he'd poured it. He then deciding to assemble the multitude of plastic bits that make up modern plumbing to replace my leaking U-pipe under the kitchen sink and try to figure out the drain problem later.

In spite of the multitude of bits meant to be cut or not to fit any configuration of sink and plumbing, these bits did not fit my plumbing. My plumber said "Oh... shit..." again.

He leaned his head against the counter and pondered the situation.

I sat on the kitchen floor, leaning against the refridgerator (which was made roomier after I defrosted the freezer section), pondering whether or not I should interrupt his thinking. I didn't.

He thought of a solution, basically, "I'll hook this doohickey on here rather than there, move this bit around so, and then put that on this." Yes, as clear to me as the stuff he hauled out of my drain. He needed more parts, though, so at 8:50 am, my plumber drove to the plumber's supply store to get them.

He came back at 9:30 am and sawed off bits of my metal pipes. That opened up a second drain, and he stuck his snake in there and - the water went down! That little angle was enough to get the snake past the J-joint in my neighbor's locker, and get the water down! Oh, reliefandjoy, reliefandjoy!

He then assembled the lego, uh, PVC-pipe bits and I had, once again, a fully working kitchen sink that didn't have drains that blorp and burp. I did pour some liquid Plumbo down the drain, per my plumber's instructions, and now happily waste hot water to get things dissolved and moving farther along in the pipe system, hopefully far enough to make it the co-op's problem.

There is room in my drain for my dishwater and it is a delight to work in the kitchen now.