I Challenge you to a Challenge!

I do love a challenge.

I've had several challenges this past week. Surprisingly, I have come out victorious in all of them! Where's my epic music? And the wind machine to blow my cape back? And a muscular black cowboy to ride up on a white horse and offer me a plate of chocolates? Not coming, you say? Disappointing.

So the first challenge, as I alluded to in my previous post, was to prepare myself for a swift departure from my current unemployment status as a practically useless hausfrau to a highly productive quasi-employed responsible member of society. The timing couldn't be more perfect, too, as I'm finding- much to my absolute and resounding surprise- that I'm just not suited for unemployment. Apparently, I'm not as lazy as I thought. Did you hear that mom? Not as lazy as I thought. The world, it's a changing.

Looking exceedingly nerdy in my ID badge picture that I got to take myself. This was something like Take 37. I had to settle.

While I'm grateful for the job, it's probably not going to tax my mental or physical capabilities in the way I've experienced in previous employment situations. I'll be doing data entry. Part time. On call. But not like "Paging Dr. Strudel" on call. No, rather a far more desirable Monday through Friday, 8:30-5:00, "Bertha at the front desk has the plague, can you please work for her while she suffers horribly" on call. I'll be one of two PTOC employees in this office, and the other one has worked every single day since he was hired in February. So I'm looking forward to once again enjoying the delights of coworkers. Seriously. I do love me an office environment.

So that takes care of Challenge the First. On to round two! The lovely Kelly over at The Peanut Gallery issued forth a call to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone last week, and I'll be darned if I didn't participate just to win the cookbook she was giving away. I chose to uncomfort myself with what I thought would be group exercise, an activity I am most voraciously opposed to, with good friends Jennifer and Lisa, and new friend Lizzy, who I do hope will accept my embarrassingly awkward and frequent pleas of friendship. Lizzy is pretty cool. And she's a nurse, so you can just imagine the types of fun conversation a group of girls can get into.

Leave your horse-drawn carriage at home, folks. This path was made for walking.

Jennifer suggested we all go for a hike (ugh) on a particularly beautiful Thursday last week, and the only bit that gave me pause before my imminent decline was that the final proposed destination of the hike was to be a beer garden. With yummy drinkey German beer. I'm not much of a drinker, but I do love a social brew. I was really milking my response time kind of close to the limit when I came across the Comfort Zone challenge, so I thought, what's the worst that could happen? I mean, I guess it's unlikely that halfway through the hike I would break into a rapid and profuse sweat and keel over in exhaustion, and then be left panting for breath and begging for water on the dusty trail clutching my chest while my fit and active friends march on without me and ants eat my face? What are the odds. So I went.

And it was so fun! The hike was more like a leisurely stroll, sans the trip back which was more like scaling the Eiffel Tower, but at that point we were having such a good time, and Lisa was merrily chatting away, that my labored breathing was barely noticeable. Perfect. Oh, and we had had several drinks with no food, so that probably helped things along as well. So success on Challenge the Second!

See that light at the end of the trail...that's where the beer is.

And before we pack it in, Challenge Three. Husband and a few of his coworkers have been (presumably) porking up a bit lately (that's not some kind of sexual slang that I'm not familiar with, right? This is a PG blog, folks!), so they instituted a 2 week weight loss challenge. What good is a weight loss challenge that only lasts two weeks, I don't know. But nonetheless, Husband was participating, and he's nothing if not a winner, and I'm nothing if not his wife, so I decided to support him in the only way I knew how. Self deprivation. I voluntarily gave up all fried foods and (gasp!) chocolate in an act of supportive solidarity and resolutely made nutritious and low calorie meals just about every night. The result, you ask? I dropped 5 lbs. and Husband swept the competition with an impressive 8 lb. annihilation. And today I ate half a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. Half a one pound bag, that is.  Heh. I'll drink some water- that will flush it out.