Weekend Update

A quick synopsis...

The highlights:

* shopping on Sunday at the outlet mall. The drive was great, the lake looked amazing all the way up and back.
* I managed to stick to my budget -- taking cash was the way to go so that I didn't overspend. I really thought about what I was buying, which included new t-shirts (size L almost too big) and capri's (new pants size) for spring and summer sassiness, and some yummy multi-grain tortilla chips from Harry & David
* spending the day with a dear friend whom I haven't seen since last summer -- it was something that was long overdue and I never looked at my watch once the whole day. It was good to catch up, and hopefully with some not-so-great things happening in her life right now, she was able to put them out of her mind for a little while.
* getting home in time to watch the last eight holes of the Masters, as anti-climatic as it ended up being. Tiger choked on his putts and it was all Lefty down the stretch.
* dinner on Saturday was fun -- my mother behaved for the most part and they didn't arrive until the original ETA of 12:30. I did have to laugh at how many times Fran used "awesome" -- it seems to be the only adjective she knows

the lowlights:

For this I need to recreate a conversation from a couple weeks ago regarding where we should eat for Easter dinner:
Fran: we can eat at my place
Ellie: your apartment is too small, and you don't want to have to cook for that many people. let's just go to a restaurant
Fran: where should we go?
Ellie: i don't know. maybe red lobster, uncle henry really enjoys that and then i can get a nice grilled chicken something or other for dinner
Fran: okay, sounds good

A week later, she told me that she had made reservations for an Italian restaurant. When I mentioned that Uncle Henry doesn't really like Italian, she said that they were also having a ham dinner.

This past Saturday, I told her I might not be staying for dinner on Sunday.
Fran: why not?
Ellie: i'm going to call the restaurant and find out what kind of grilled chicken options they have, but i really don't want pasta and i don't need fried stuff
Fran: they have chicken there
Ellie: grilled?
Fran: you got chicken at thanksgiving
Ellie: that was chicken parm, and it was totally fried
Fran: oh....are you dieting?

The only thing that she could have said to me that would have been worse: oh this one time won't hurt you.

Because I've finally -- FINALLY -- broken the post-holiday wall. I am finally under what I was before the holidays (yea, that holiday season that started with the chicken parm at Thanksgiving). Within ounces of 40 pounds. I will not yo-yo again. And I will not eat shit on Easter. And I'm sorry if it will hurt her feelings that I won't be at Easter dinner, but this is the way I have to be.