COMING CLEAN: This Will Cheer Me Up…

Today I’m focused on the good moments.

The fact that I still have Sidney, a.k.a. Sids, who, at 11 years old, has overcome his asthma and arthritis and gets in a solid run down the hallway once or twice a day, despite his plump 21-pound figure.

He’s been particularly loving since Biz died last week. And, although he can’t squeeze next to me on the seat of my blue office chair, he did make an attempt, but instead found a home on the backrest.

Or the fact that Chloe, our Lab, lets me sleep in when I’m sick. Like her momma, she almost seems perturbed by the early mornings. As I’ve attempted these 5 to 6 a.m. wake-up calls in the past week to shift my schedule, she takes a slow, dragging pace into my office and groans as she lies down.

Or how Kyle has been making dinners and keeping the house tidy when all I can really handle right now is the laundry.

And in my own personal goals, while the needle on the scale has stalled, I’m winning the Great Jeans Challenge. I’ve been saving my old wardrobe from smaller sizes (more on the pros and cons of doing this in a later post), and this morning, I slid on size 10 pair of jeans. Dudes! Size 10! For those of you who haven’t followed my story, I began this work at a size 22.

I’ve been able to fit into a size-10 dress, but pants have been harder to fit. Many women would agree: A size-10 pant from one brand may fit while another may not. Or jeans may stretch to fit but structured pants may not. Alas. The frustration continues. This is why I stopped shopping for clothes with friends: Who wants to wait around while I try on 10 pairs of pants in three different sizes? Boo!

(Tip I learned from my years working at the Gap: Grab three or four pairs of jeans in the same size. Big manufacturers often have jeans cut in stacks on the machine, and they may shift slightly making each cut a smidge different. I’d always hand customers at least three pairs of the same size to find the right fit.)

Another bonus to today’s snug-but-shapely jeans discovery: I found a $20 bill in the pocket! Come on! How cool is that?!

I proceeded to shake my booty around the bedroom, but sadly (or luckily?) there is no photographic evidence of that. I can assure you, though, it was a most magnificent booty shake.