Joe M.

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Hey!

So I'm down to 279.4.  Finally into the 270's, which is nice.  I thought 280 was it for a while, but I guess I always think that.

I'm going to be going back to Connecticut next week for a follow-up with Dr. Valin that's a few months overdue, but I think the proximity thing gets me off the hook...sort of.

In other news, I bought an iPhone yesterday  and as it turns out I really kind of dig it.  I tried not to but I finally broke down when Apple lowered the price by $200 and since I had AT&T anyway...  I only got the 4GB version because I am going to be upgrading my iPod anyway to the new 160GB version they announced yesterday, so I'm not really going to use the iPod features of the phone.  I'm such a tech whore...God I love it

So today it's official.  I'm down 150.somthing or other, but officially 150.  That's crazy.  I've lost the equivalent of friends I know.

So i went to the US National Whitewater Center this past Saturday.  It was a blast, lots of fun and Josh my instructor was very cool.  I will say that it was good to have taken a lesson first as I rolled my boat three times, only one of which was on purpose...it's the first thing they do to you when you get in the water to make sure you know how to get out if it happens.  I would have been mightily pissed had I bought my own kayak and managed to roll it three times on the first day without any help as to why and how to get out for that matter.  I would highly recommend the experience to anyone, esepecially as we didn't really hit ANY whitewater to speak of, the class was four to one and we were in the shallows of the facility.  Still, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

So I've posted a couple of times on the NC board about Kayaking.  As it turns out, someone (indigonova...cool screen name) shot me a link to the US National Whitewater Center.  that just happens to be the training location for the u s olympic team and its right in our (charlotte's) collective back yard. 

the link is www.usnwc.org and trust me when i say the website does not do it justice.  my wife and i went to check it out yesterday and were just blown away.  i don't know what i was thinking, but this wasn't it.  it was huge and just amazing.  it's not just kayaking, it's whitewater rafting, mountain biking, hiking...pretty much all things outdoor.  it's like a theme park for tree huggers...in the best possible way of course.

way back when, prior to my leaving CT for FL, i saw a documentary on kayaking in alaska and damn near fell in love at first sight.  i was amazed and also rather large.  i had the same response as some people posted to me, that i would sink the boat.  when i was in FL, i lost 80 lbs with weight watchers and started to have fantasies of kayaking, but never quite reached a suitable weight.

when we moved to charlotte, i hadn't really thought about it so much.  then one day we went into the great outdoor provision co. and met this great guy, who's name i really don't remember.  he actually let me sit in a kayak and talked to me at great length about them and where there was to go to use them in the area.  i felt that familiar buzz in my head again.

i guess losing weight makes you grow a pair, because i actually dared to post about something that i really, really wanted to do...and low and behold, real constructive answers came.  like i said previously, we went yesterday and i was just amazed. 

so, what's the point of all this?  well, i called them this morning and made a reservation for one of their beginners classes.  I paid my $55, and on the 14th, i get to squeeze my formerly fat ass into a rather small plastic boat and do something that i've wanted to do for quite a while...which  like so many other things, i had all but given up on. 

i realize that it could totally suck, and it may in fact do just that...but really, it doesn't matter.  i actually get to do it.  whether i end up loving it or hating it...i finally get to do it.  nothing is stopping me, and damn it that isn't just as good as doing it.

i'll keep you posted!

Completely off topic, but we just watched Monday's episode of Hell's Kitchen off our Tivo.  God I love that show.

For anybody who actually reads this, I finally got around to writing and posting "My Story" in the section at the end of this page.  If you've got an hour or two, please feel free to read it.  It will make you laugh, it will make you cry...ah, whatever.

It's 2:36 am on a very early Tuesday morning.  Boy, work today is going to suck.

So i just posted on the forum because I'm an attention whore I guess, but...

I broke 300 today.  The scale read 299 (OK, 299.8, but still 299).

I was talking to my wife at Caribou Coffee today and I realized that it's been at least 14 years since I've seen that number on a scale...much less on the way down the scale.

The realization that I spent 14 years over 300 lbs kind of makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking all those years.

Can I just say I had a great day.

For some reason I decided to try on this "Life is Good" shirt this morning.  I bought it because it had a little guy playing guitar on it even though it was an XL.  I figured that eventually It would fit.  This was maybe a month ago.  Well today was eventually.  I put it on and almost crapped myself when it fit just fine.  I know XL may not seem like much, but prior to my surgery I was wearing, oh I don't know, 6X.  What a great day.

In my other life, I'm the founding writer of Onthepod.net and I just posted a new piece.  If you would care to check it out, just head on over to www.onthepod.net!

Did you ever feel like when you showed up to oil the squeaky wheel that it happened to be on a car full of deaf people who looked at you like you were crazy to waste your time?