"Oh, simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on..."

(Keane, "Somewhere Only We Know").

Okay, so two-part post here, folks. Let's start with the weekend.

The BFF and Tonja and I had a girls' night planned, which worked out swimmingly with the fact that The Hubs was going up to his parents' house for the weekend to work on my much-anticipated, top-secret Valentine's Day gift, and I didn't want to go up there and spend the weekend simultaneously attempting to avoid The Hubs and The Mother-in-Law (The MIL, from now on). Not that I don't love her to pieces, and not that she's not an incredibly sweet, funny person, but she's just her. And sometimes that's a little too much for me.

Any-hoo. We had a girls' night planned for Saturday, that's the moral of the run-on sentence above. We went to a Pure Romance Warehouse Sale, because we're hip like that. If you're not from my neck of the woods, and don't know what Pure Romance is, basically, it's Avon or Pampered Chef, or PartyLite for, ahem, adult novelties. You can throw a Pure Romance party with all your girlfriends, or couples, and have a representative come to your house with all her goodies and she will tell you all about them, even demonstrate some products, etc. Basically, she wants you to buy them because she makes a commission. Anyway, every year before Valentine's Day, Pure Romance has a Warehouse Sale where they open their warehouse to the public and sell you all their stuff at supposedly discounted prices.

Let's just say I was less than impressed. First of all, it's a big honkin' warehouse, but there's only one little teeny tiny section of Rubbermaid bins on shelves for you to shop from. Secondly, it was packed in there, and there wasn't any sort of rhyme or reason to the flow of traffic. (See, there's that elusive OCD kicking in for your reading enjoyment...) Thirdly (is that a word?) I didn't really need anything there, so I was over it in about 5 minutes. The BFF and Tonja shopped around a bit, but I think the overall concensus was that it was disappointing. Oh well, I didn't need to spend any money anyway, and I'm sure Pure Romance will still be a thriving business without me.

Sidenote: for living in such a "conservative" mid-western city, there sure were lots of people at that warehouse sale...and the Hustler Hollywood in town is always booming. (Of course, for me to know that, I would have to have been there, and I never, ever would entertain the thought of entering such an establishment of ill repute. Uh huh. Never. ) But anyway, my point is, that people always say my city is soooo behind the times, and soooo conservative. And yes, I do live only one exit away from what is quite possibly the largest Jesus-coming-out-of-a-body-of-water-with-a-cross statue ever.

(Yeah, I'll bet you don't drive past one of these babies on your way too and from work every day) But my city really isn't that backwards. We have a very long way to go, but we do have a Pride Parade, and gay bars, and Pure Romance hasn't been outlawed...yet.

And, wow, did this post go somewhere I wasn't thinking it would go. Let's get back on track, shall we? We shopped, and then we went on to Girls' Night Phase Two...eating! What girls' night is complete without dinner, I ask you? So we had Red Robin (again, for those of you who are keeping track, that's my second trip to Red Robin in 8 days...and it's not even one of my favorite restaurants!) We had a yummy dinner, and Tonja had coctails (I just can't justify spending almost $8 on a drink!!!), and we had lots and lots of soul-cleansing, giggle-enducing, we-don't-do-this-often-enough, girl talk. My poor Hubs, Tonja's poor fiance, The BFF's poor BF. LOL. Good times, good times.

Then it was off to the movies! I love going to the movies...especially with the girls, since The Hubs absolutely refuses to go see a chick flick with me. Usually I have to bribe him, or make him feel guilty - I specifically remember having to do a trade-off to get him to see Enchanted with me, although for the life of me, I can't remember what it was that I had to do. Maybe I blocked it out. LOL. Anyway, the girls and I saw this:

And it. was. good.

The BFF and I have lived off of that book ever since Greg Behrendt (aka "Our Guru") wrote it, and it showed up on Sex and the City. Seriously. If you haven't read the book, and you're in a relationship that makes you sad more often than it makes you happy, leave, do not pass "Go", do not collect $200. Just go out and buy that book. I'm telling you, it all makes so much sense after that.

Anyway, the movie was good. Not amazing, not horrible. It was good. What made my day, however, was the end. I won't give it away, in case you plan to see it (which I recommend, btw), but in the last scene before the credits, they played my song. Which, coincidentally (not really) is the song that I quoted in the title of this post.

There was a while in my life where I was in one of the worst relationships imaginable that didn't involve actual physical abuse. Emotional abuse? Check! Cheating? Check! An immeasureable amount of lies? Check, check, check! And it went on for almost five years.

Well, technically, the first year was pretty good, but from there, it was just a slow, torturous, excruciating downward spiral of being so deep in this relationship that neither of us wanted to let it go, yet subconsciously and consciously doing anything we could to get out of it, and then getting back together and thinking we could make it work. Oh. My. God. was I so much work for The BFF during those years!

At any rate, just about the time when I pretty much knew I had to get out of this relationship, and everything that I was reading in Greg's book was pretty much corroborating that fact, and our relationship was just going through this agonizingly slow decaying process, Keane came along. British boys, yum. British boys in a band, even yummier. I fell in love with their aptly titled first album, Hopes and Fears. They spoke to me, and somehow even in the midst of one of the most torrential times in my life, hearing the music from that first album always takes me to a happy place. I don't even think happy is the right way to describe it...maybe calm, or content is a better way to put it. But it makes me happy. Always has, always will.

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when, you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go, somewhere only we know
Somewhere only we know.

So when the movie made from the book that changed my life ended with a song that was simultaneously changing my life, too - well, lets just say it was absolutely perfect. And I consider it as my own little present from Greg Behrendt. Yes, I'm dilusional like that. :)

We shopped. We ate. We chick-flicked. (that sounds dirty, doesn't it?) We saw a chick flick. It was the perfect girls' night out. And then the whole feminist, 'we don't need boys', 'chicks before dicks' thing flew right out the window as The BFF went home to wait on The BF to get off work, Tonja went home to her fiance, and I went home to an empty house wishing I could be where The Hubs was, even if it meant I had to hide from The MIL.

And so, continuing this exceedingly long post: The Diet.

Lucky for you, there is very little to report in this category. I've been sort of, kind of, maybe watching what I eat, with little regard for calories, and I haven't worked out. I did, however, manage not to gain any weight, and even managed to lose a little... a whole .2 pounds. I weighed in at exactly 255 this morning. I'll take it. TBL at work starts next Monday with a weigh-in and a health screening, so I'm planning on kicking it into gear then, but trying not to sabotage myself until we get there.

And finally, th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

Have a good week!