Twilight - 4 Chapters In

I started Twilight yesterday! I'm 4 chapters in (about 80 pages). It's not terrible. Ok I'm not giving it enough credit. It's definitely engaging. Lots of aspects of the movie that made no sense to me make sense in the book. I appreciate the attention to detail. Fiction books are few and far between in my life. Enjoying the fantasy while I can. It's a busy week so pleasure reading is likely on hold until the weekend. I'll keep you all posted on my progress.

First they came...

One of my favorite quotes at the USHMM is German pastor Martin Niemöller's 'First they came..." I remember hearing this quote from my father or grandparents years ago, but it's been a while since I've heard/seen it. Reading it now I realize how true it is to all of mankind regardless of race, religion, sex, nationality, etc. The concept resonates no matter how big or small the scope or scale.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

                                                       ~Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

Visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

One of the first items I added to my '30 by 30' Project was to spend a day a day at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  I visited Yad Vashem during my Birthright trip to Israel in 2008, but I haven't been to the US Holocaust Memorial since, I believe, 1995 (year of my Bat Mitzvah). I wanted to make a USHMM visit an early list item. I've been meaning to go for quite some time. I had a feeling the experience at 29 would not be the same as the experience at 13.

We decided to "go green" yesterday (at least, sorta). Drove to New Carrollton and metro'd to the Smithsonian. Easy ride. Arrived to the Memorial (1 block from Metro) around 1pm.  It took us about 4 hours to get through the entire museum. I read as much as I could this time around. I think I skipped alot at 13. I also watched as many and as much of the films as time permitted, especially the films and audio recordings of Holocaust survivors. I do believe that it's the stories from witnesses and survivors that is the greatest gift and educational tool for future generations.

The USHMM is an excellent experience. It's so well managed and visitors are very respectful (no one is loud, running around, being obnoxious like you quite often find at other museum). I hate to sound cliche, but a visit to the Memorial absolutely puts life in perspective.

After the Memorial we metro'd over to Dupont and had dinner at the Palm.  I won a $100 gift card at our office holiday party. I'm not usually the fancy restaurant type.  It was absolutely delicious. We were back in the metro by 7:30pm and home by 9pm.

Week 2 Weigh In: 3 Lbs Down Amid Thundersnow

I'm down 3 lbs this week. I'm happy with that number, especially considering it was a rough week between car troubles, thunderstorm issues, and feeling under the weather (pun not intended). I was careful about the amount/calories of food I ate this week, but not so conscientious about what I was eating. Calories - Acceptable. Type of Food - Could be better. Let's put it this way... I ate a good share of grilled chicken, fish and veges this week. Really cut out all snacking and sugar/random carbs.  However, I also may have had some chicken parm with spaghetti twice, a couple slices of pizza, and a small slice of celebratory cake (see below). It was all in moderation though so I guess it just goes to show that yep, it's all about the calories, at least where the weight loss is concerned. That being said, I will monitor the health level of my foods more and more in the next week or so. I gave myself a pass this week because of the various unforeseen minor chaos factors. This week was basically a big wash with the '30 by 30'. Haven't even cracked open Twilight. Too bad I didn't put 'Watch an Entire Season of 24' on my list. That I did. 


Week 2: -3 lbs. Total: -4.6 lbs. To Go: 45.4 lbs.

Mmmm... Cake!

What I Learned In The Past 36 Hours

1. Parents are sometimes always right. You (as in, I) should keep an overnight/emergency bag with essentials in your car at all times. Especially if you live 38 miles from your office. And extra especially if there's a snowpocolypse in the forecast.

2. People in MD/DC/VA absolutely cannot drive in the snow. People are morons. I exclude myself from this because my 3 1/2 years at Syracuse obviously made me a snow driving expert. So says the girl who's car got stuck next to the Nissan dealership...

3. There are definitely worse places to be "stranded" overnight in a snowstorm than in a nice hotel next to your office, paid for by your generous employer, across the street from a 24 hour CVS.

4. If you've committed to reading Twilight as part of your '30 by 30' Project you should keep the book in your car, especially if the aforementioned snowpocolypse is in the forecast. An evening alone in a hotel room with the cable and power flickering would be a perfect time to read a book. Having the book on the coffee table at home... not as convenient.

As they say, I guess hindsight is 20-20.

The week I discovered Netflix & Blu-ray

Let's start with the bad and good of this week's '30 by 30' before we get to the titled business...

THE BAD: Weight loss (a day later than promised, sorry). I lost 1.6 lbs this week. BAD. No surprise because I got a bit off track. I wrote down everything I ate this week and when I went back and looked at it, I was like, ugh, really, 3 Clif bars in one day? Bad Manda! Usually during Week 1 of a diet (esp w/ major carb reduction) I'll be down 5 lbs. That 1.6 could easily be strictly water (or, more likely in my case, diet coke). At least I was down and not up, even if that's a trivial loss.

THE GOOD: I've teamed up with my cousin Mara (Opera Singer/Professor at NYU) and my Aunt Jackie (Pharmacist in Kansas) on a weight loss plan. Yep, this thing has gone national!  Basically they're doing the leg work and I'm following their awesome plan. Mostly diet related, a little exercise related. Got lots of great food ideas already from them and I'm ready to go (again). We're officially starting re-starting the diet this Monday (1st day of Mara's NYU semester). Their initial plan was to do a 28-day total body cleanse (I think it was similar to Oprah's 21-day Vegan Cleanse) then start Weight Watchers. I'm still waiting on details of the cleanse. I'm not thrilled about the idea of going Vegan (I love love love fish and chicken as protein) but I'd be willing to try it. Mara is aiming to meet her goal (she has lots less to lose than me) by the time her new Opera debuts in April. That should (hopefully) really help me stay on track the next couple months. We'll see, I'll keep ya posted.

As far as this week's '30 by 30' agenda item... I've decided on Twilight. I borrowed the book from my friend Terry at breakfast club this morning. (More on breakfast club in a future post, for those who don't know about my Saturday morning tradition). Terry opened her sealed 3-book set in order to give me the book so now even if I am kinda "blah" about reading it I'm sorta guilted into doing so ;-) Kidding, mostly! My mom and sister both warned that it'll take a good 50+ pages to get into. I'm hoping I have enough willpower to make it through that first 50 and enough willpower to tear me away from the TV, which, conveniently brings me to the root of the title...

This has nothing to do with the '30 by 30' other than that it may derail some of my plans. It all started with Redbox. I love Redbox! $1 for a brand new movie is fantastic. However, when you rent the movie over the weekend, then forget about it for the week, and before you know it you've spent $7 on the dumbest movies in recent history, Redbox isn't so awesome.  So I decided to sign up for the Netflix 30-Day Trial. I understand I'm really late to the party here, but I didn't realize that the instant streaming option streams HD quickly and it actually looks like HD. I thought since it looks just blah on my 4 year old Mac it would look just blah on my 50" Panasonic plasma.  After a little internet/friend research on streaming devices (I don't own a video game systems made after 1990) I decided to invest/ test out this whole instant streaming business on a Blu-ray player. $95 bucks later (HDMI cable included, I LOVE Costco) and... OH MY GAWD! I'm fairly certain that since I brought this baby home on Thursday either me or my sister (who lives with me) have been parked in front of the TV at all times. First I watched Amadeus. Now we're onto Season 2 of Dexter and Season 1 of 24 (which I've never seen). The videos load so quickly! And they're all just on the screen waiting for me to play. Knock on wood I haven't even noticed any jumps from internet connectivity. [Insert Shameless Employer Plug Here] Thanks Xfinity super fast connection! It's amazing. Yes, I realize this technology has been around for a while, but I'm giddy excited nonetheless at my new-to-me discovery. A few friends have mentioned that once you go through the instant catalog you run out of stuff, but for someone who barely watches TV (other than sports and news) it's gonna take a while for me to get bored. 

Now if only I can tear myself away from this Blu-ray and start Twilight...

Managing Goals... 30 of 'em...

If you know me at all, you know I'm a planner. I'm not opposed to spontaneity, I just enjoy order, organization and advanced planning. It alleviates alot of unnecessary stress down the road. While it's impossible to completely plan the '30 by 30', I did come up with a short term goal to make the somewhat massive list manageable. My goal is to complete 1 item every week. Seems easy enough, right? Easy-ish for now since I have the entire list (sans Snowboarding) left. Will get difficult once I'm down to Vegas, 5k, hiking Acadia and Syracuse football game ;-). Some weeks I'll get multiple done, some weeks I'll get nada, but I'll do my best to keep crusin'. For the next couple weeks I already have plans to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, learn to drive stick, go to Synagogue, read Twilight and paint a room of my house. Feelin good!