Obama in the Big House

I know Saturday is my fitness blog, and I will get there, but we are having a little local excitement, and I feel compelled to share a few stories. For the record... Obama IS in the Big House. Oh no, he hasn't been arrested. You see The Big House is what Michigan Stadium (for whatever reason) has been nicknamed. I'd like to hope it isn't an attribution of thuggishness...

I rather hope it is just because the largest college stadium IN THE WORLD is three blocks from my house. (this was taken before the renovations, which are STILL in progress)  Capacity during football season is 107,005 (or some such silly number) but that is because on the field they only allow players, coaches, and cheerleaders. For an event like this, where all the graduates will be seated on the floor (read: football field), I think capacity goes to 120,000. And you know what? When Barrack Obama speaks at a college graduation, THE BIG HOUSE IS FULL.  It's only the third time a sitting president has spoken for one here.



The drama started Thursday. I came home from work and my husband said, 'did you hear the helicopters?'



“Why no,” said his wife who works in a cave across town (you think I'm kidding. Sadly, I'm not—no window for me... door closed so I can listen to obnoxiousness and not disturb my coworker. We could be bombed and I would not know.)



Big FREAKING double rotor helicopters—like eight of them, circling MY YARD! Okay, so maybe my yard was just on the flight path around the stadium but Holy CRAP!

(This show the renovation stuff--big BOXES up the sides)  Now I don't know how much y'all know about Ann Arbor, but normally REALITY never makes an appearance... not that.. you know... the president visiting... is a very REAL experience. But we usually are all educated and civil and polite and shit. Like... academics. We are NOT snipers on roofs, FREAKING helicopters the size of tour bus prepared. Heck, it makes the paper when somebody EXPOSES THEMSELVES (though they never got my name, so I guess that's all right). The Ann Arbor Observer posts a map of all crime in the last month every month and there are like 30 crimes, mostly electronic thefts. Now and again there is something awful like a rape, but it's RARE.



AND NOW WE HAVE FREAKING SNIPERS ON ROOVES!!!!



So my neighbor... I'll call him Joe... works at a building near Michigan Stadium. His supervisor said, “if anyone needs to work this weekend, you'll need to get FBI clearance.” I'm DEAD FREAKING SERIOUS.



Then there was the morning thunderstorm that passed ON TOP OF our house... Thunder and lightning at EXACTLY the same time, but it has seemed to mellow a lot—the news says scattered showers the rest of the morning—I don't think I'd want to sit for 3 hours in it, but there you have it...



So if I am a little scatterbrained, you'll have to excuse me. I go back and forth between being giddy ObamaFanGirl and AnnoyedThisIsMyTown, YouPeopleGoHome. Because the town is PACKED. Granted, it is always busy graduation weekend, but BARRACK FREAKING OBAMA... HERE. AT MY HOUSE! Okay, not QUITE my house. But if he were a bomb I'd explode. He's pretty darned close!





And now... back to your regularly scheduled blog...



Here is the speech, if anyone is interested:





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcNXFz_QCVU





Downsizing

There are few things quite as sweet in the course of a PLAN... The pounds going down on the scale is nice. The tape measure having more length at the end (like ANY experience of more length on the end) is pretty sweet... but when I put on a pair of pants expecting one fit (snuggish) and even though the scale hasn't done much—for a whole month it's moved VERY little-- but the pants sort of... HANG... THAT feels GREAT. (WHOEVER thought pants would make me happy?)



That is where I was this week. I am actually up a pound, but my dark grey slacks that I was WEARING, but weren't quite FLATTERING, HUNG Thursday. And yesterday I braved the capris I've mentioned—they aren't as 'hangy' across the butt as I'd like, but they cling NOWHERE, which means they FIT. I am back in my size 14s—officially! (not just the fat 14s) WAHOO!





I don't know what the mechanism is, that you shrink at a different time than you lose the pounds... I am STILL sticking with a tissue memory theory (“oh, I might need this space again soon, so I'm not yielding just yet”), but this has not been that unusual an experience in my life of dieting, and I think it is one of my favorite things because it is just so unexpected. It is also FINALLY that reinforcement you need when you stick with it in spite of no reward for several more weeks.