Leaner times

According to my vet's scales (I'm too cheap to buy my own scales, so I wander down to the veterinarian's office some four blocks away), I've lost 14 pounds in the last month without really trying. This is no less than a serious thrill.

My friends at work say wonderful things like "That dress is just HANGING off you,", "You look REALLY good,", etc. And they don't even have anything languishing in my In tray. I've been digging my smaller sizes out of the closet and hauling them to the dry cleaner. Kind of like Christmas in May.

Delightful Date has noticed, too, and is cautiously complimentary. Which is only fair, considering our relationship is in an early stage and both are treading carefully.

The real kicker is that the weight loss has been so easy. I consulted an endocrinologist a few years back who ran a ton of tests, only to report back to me that "You've got the slowest metabolism I've seen all year." Finally I lucked out on a way to speed it up. Or something.

No more Ms. Nice Guy

Maybe I just wasn't listening as hard as during the past few weeks, but lately I've been described as "nice" with annoying regularity. The N Word was applied when introducing me to office visitors - to my face, no less! - and when I was talking shop with a couple of realtors last week.

So I'm beginning to think that maybe that's what the general consensus around town is: Melina Is Nice. Blech.

The problem is that, although Nice rankles, it's a cut above Bitch on Wheels, Retard, or Fussy Cow (the last a colleague's favorite e-mail epithet; thankfully she's joking - I think). But how does one go from nice to something a bit more intriguing?

Perhaps Eartha Kitt can offer advice to those suffering under the Curse of Nice. I'll skip on the cruel and killing flies bits, but the circa-1962 performance is fun in a scenery-chewing fashion. Even though she does seem to be trapped inside a television or other box-like object.

My least favorite shopping method

Tonight I went to the grocery story and chose several food items. Each time I asked myself the question:

Will they taste any worse coming back up?

Not a fun way to choose your next meal.

Sea sickness

I took an enforced two-day break from work, blog, etc courtesy of a virulent gastric disturbance. Thankfully I hadn't had one of these in a long while. Usually we call this food poisoning: the sudden awakening at 5:00 a.m. to spend the next few hours in misery, either throwing up or camping out on the bathroom floor in a cold sweat.

The reason I find it hard to believe that this barfing streak was food-related was because I hadn't eaten much of anything the day/evening before. I had a salad for lunch, a single piece of fruit before shaolin class, and a single cup of tea while visiting the bookstore with DD (Delightful Date - need to change his nickname I guess) later in the evening.

So what made me sick? I can't see any potentially dangerous food in there anywhere. And DD checked in with me the next day and he felt fine, so he didn't pass any horrible date germ on to me. Unless he was/is immune.

Thankfully my friend was able to bring me the ultimate post-puking treatment last night: a Cola Slurpee. These seem to freeze up your stomach to where it will let you sleep.

I spent this morning sleeping and having various nightmares about shipwrecks. It was odd; the dreams began in the UK and morphed over to this side of the swamp. All shipwrecks happened in the 1800s to early 1900s. It was like a colorful, tragic book in chapters with no survivors in any of them. I can only surmise that rough gastric disturbances = rough seas in the dreaming subconscious.

Melina strikes it rich at Last Call

There's nothing like a new amour to entice the average female to indulge in some serious lingerie shopping. Being on a budget, but wanting the good stuff, I headed to the Neiman Marcus outlet at lunch today.

I lucked out major-league, as they had just put out some Elle Macpherson lingerie ... in my size. You wouldn't think that many women would be a 36C, but it's a size I can hardly ever find at Last Call.

Here's a photo of the collection. Only two items were in my size, but they'll do nicely.