Same Old Same Old

Things are still as busy as ever.  I do not seem to be catching up or getting on top of things at all.  Fortunately one of my students today said "have a nice break!" on the way out and I remembered that I have next Monday and Tuesday off!  Woo!  (Columbus Day plus a day of "fall break.")  I am hoping to get on top of things then.  However, you know you are stressed when you don't even remember when your vacations are.

Last Friday we had our whole-school faculty meeting, and since it was the first one of the year all of the new faculty were introduced to everyone.  It was neat to think that that was me a year ago.  And for this one I was sitting with friends and recognized a good portion of the faculty all around the room.  Afterward there was a reception.  Again, last year I mostly talked to my two physics co-workers and whoever they happened to be talking to.  This year my friends and I mostly stayed in a corner and took advantage of the free alcohol.  (I did make attempts to find new people to talk to, but they were actually pretty busy it seemed.)  Afterward we went out to a new pizza place in town.  It is a branch of a place from Brooklyn that supposedly is often called the best pizza in New York.  It was really yummy, but really expensive; they make their own cheese and use fresh basil and stuff.  Pizza is definitely one of the culinary advantages of living in New York.  (However yesterday we all had a mutual craving for tacos for lunch and unfortunately it went unsated.)

Speaking of food, I have been trying a new diet for about two weeks now.  You may recall from a previous rant that I used to be a SlimFast regular, and would sometimes do the full SlimFast diet to counteract a few extra pounds.  Since SlimFast now sucks (see previous rant), it appears that Special K has totally moved in on their market.  They now have a diet that is pretty much exactly the same as SlimFast used to be.  So I've been giving it a try.  Basically I have a meal bar or cereal for two meals a day, and two snack bars between those meals.  I also can have as many fruits and vegetables as I want.  (Very nice with the New York apples in season, yum!)  Then for the third meal (generally dinner), I eat what I want.  Technically I am supposed to have a "sensible" dinner, but willpower only goes so far.  I don't really eat badly anyway.  The good part is that it is easy to eat at work, and I don't even leave my desk for food anymore (maybe a bad thing?).  The bad news is that it isn't working!  WTF?  It drastically cut my calorie count, yet somehow nothing is happening.  This also used to work for me.  Being old(er) sucks!  I am going to stick with it for a little while (it is nice not to have to pack a lunch), so hopefully things will turn around.  (To be totally honest, I completely cheat on Wednesdays, which is our regular lunch outing day and trivia night at the bar.  But I'm good the rest of the time!)

So now I think I shall stop procrastinating and prepare for my classes tomorrow.  Bleh.