Why, HI! Update de Status de la Steff

Yawn. Is it Friday yet? What?! No?!

I got sick as soon as I switched jobs, and it's been really hanging around on me. Not taking me out of the picture completely, right, but just nagging at me enough to keep my energy down at around 2 on the Richter scale.

Nonetheless, I'm trying. Work's a chore and is about all I can handle this week. Despite that, I'm back to doing my little free weights routine I'd started then stopped the weekend that the cold really kicked my ass -- only to find my whole upper body seizing up all last week. Partly due to the change in jobs and the sitting-still-slouching-badly pose one adopts when falling ruthlessly deep into captioning.

I have, however, managed to keep that at bay a little. I think it's completely overcomeable (hey, it works) by way of continuing to stretch, etc, for the next while. Like I say, the only way around the pain is through it. Best advice I ever got was from my personal trainer when I was rehabbing my massive whiplash incurred fall '03, when she said "If it ain't changing the nature of your pain, it isn't a concern. Fight through it."

And while I'm not in constant pain usually, the nature of the way this feels is anything but alien to me, and I know what's causing it -- poor posture, not stretching enough, etc.

So this is good-ish. Work, then, will be endured, and I suspect it's only a matter of weeks before I've overcome this little obstacle. I'm not concerned about it, actually, just exasperated to feel this way right now, is all.

I also had a moment last week when I got to the bottom of my pound of butter and I stared at it, stunned, realizing I'd only bought it about 10 or so days before. Yet there it was: Gone. Forever on my hips, I thought, but necessarily so? And it was a little epiphany: For the first time ever, I realized I could live without butter.

You have NO idea what a culinary crutch butter has been for me. I mean, what's missing? Why, butter! There's no coincidence that "butter" and "better" have almost all the same letters, you know.

Anyhow, it's been 10 days since I've used either butter or margarine on anything at home. Much to my surprise, I haven't curled up and died, or anything untoward. Hmm. Who knew? Dry toast isn't entirely freakish. WHO KNEW?

Butter's been the worst thing I've done to myself, and throughout my entire life. I love butter. It's a CRIME that it's so bad for us! They didn't eat an apple in the Garden of Eden -- they had a slab of butter! Wise, too! But, yeah. My whole life's been an Ode De Butter. Hell, my ASS is an ode de butter, man.

But that's okay. I'm officially older, wiser. Naturally, my triumphant decision to axe butter was trumped by my kind/evil employers who bought me the rockingest, bestest chocolate-death cake EVER last week. I managed to force one of them to take 1/4 of it home, so I was left with only a quarter of the cake... enough for a slice four nights in a row. That about undid any of the goodness in my butter moratorium... even though I restrained myself daily. That week is over, however, arrive derci, too, and I've been good, very good, for three days now... including turkey day! Yay me.

And now I'll have a banana for supper. Too late to cook.

Let's bow our heads for a moment... for butter. You were far too good to us, Butter. Far, far too good. And will be missed. But don't let the door hitcha.