Up weight

I was 234.2 today. That is up 2 pounds from last week. I was slightly higher yesterday morning. I hadn't exercized in a week either - but I went last night. This is terrible. It was mostly based on the fact that I am listening to a HORRIBLE book. It is an Orson Scott Card - who I normally like - but it is SO a boy's book. It is a sci fi/fantasy - more fantasy than sci fi, and more the type that Charles or Brian would like rather than me. It has no story line. I can't get excited about any of the characters, and there are lots of really gross descriptions of things like people pooping or getting peed on or keeping their dead wives and daughters in pickle jars and using magic to animate them. Ugh. It is horrible. Katie tells me that I don't HAVE to finish listening to it, but I have already invested something like six hours in it - and only have about 2 or so to go. I have to finish it now. Anyway - the idea of having to exercise AND listen to this has been too much. So last night Katie suggested I listen to This American Life instead of my book. That is what I did. I didn't do a long workout - but at least I did SOMETHING.

I love This American Life. I kept catching myself laughing out loud on the treadmill at various parts of this episode. It was the one from March 23rd called Nice Work if You Can Get It. It was about dream jobs that were really just jobs in the long run. The first bit was about an astronaut (one of 95 in the country). The next one (which was making me laugh on the treadmill) was a monolouge with the "actor" who plays the PC on the Apple commercials. Then there was a guy who went around and "sold" lump sum payments to lottery winners. That story was mostly about how miserable most lottery winners are. They get themselves into dramatic finacial trouble because the anuities most of them get are generally the equivalent to an average middle class income, but they live their lives the way they think that a "millionaire" would live. Or - they are chronic gamblers anyway - or many of them just aren't very smart (no offense to lottery winners - but most people who PLAY the lottery aren't the brightest crayons in the box) and develop paranoid tendencies. There was a VERY funny story done by the woman who reminds me of the girl version of David Sederis - kind of a funny, dry sort of voice. She did a story about the expedition led by Fremont and Kit Carson to map the Oregon trail. It was mostly about the map maker they took with him. He kept a diary of his journey for his wife - and I don't know if he was a Woody Allen style comedian, or if he was truely miserable, but his writings were HYSTERICAL. The day that Fremont climed to the top of the highest point in the Rockies and planted the Americal Flag (in the whole iconic American way - but he was the first to do it) the map maker (I can't think of his name - Proist or something like that...) did a description of how he slipped on ice and slid down the mountain about 200 feet until the loose rock stopped him. He ripped his pants and got two bruises. The day they discovered Lake Tahoe he talked about what a great day it was because the finally had gotten some salt for their food. It was VERY funny.