My phone rang at 6:44am. It was the prescription company again, but – again – there was no one there. At least this time my alarm was going off at 7:00am anyway! I finally found out that it’s an automatic message and I guess they keep calling you until you listen to the whole message.
Eric and I got up and got out early. We got on line at the DMV (the line was already out the door) at 8:23am. It wasn’t raining, but it looked like it might any second and it was really chilly. We got inside, continued waiting on line and got and filled out the form for the driver’s license. We each got a number (G137 and G138) and it moved so fast that we had just finished filling out the form when we were called. We also registered to vote (which means they’ll probably call me for Jury Duty very soon).
Eric was on one side of the big room at one window and I was at another. They processed our forms, checked our vision, took our pictures and photographed our thumbs (that’s new!). Then, we had to wait on another line to take the test, which consisted of 36 questions. You failed if you got more than 3 wrong. Now, Eric and I had both gone through the tutorial online, to get an idea of the questions they were going to ask, and we both did pretty well, but we never took the test online and we never studied the book.
As soon as we got the tests and started taking them we each had the same thought: “Maybe we should have looked at the book first!” Of course, we didn’t discuss this, as we were both in different “privacy stalls” taking the test, but when we conferred afterward, we laughed at the fact that we both forgot to look at the manual before getting tested!
The questions that involved common sense were pretty easy, but there were some that you just couldn’t know unless you studied the manual. For instance: At an uncontrolled intersection where you can’t see cross traffic until you are just about to enter the intersection, the speed limit is: 15 mph, 25 mph, 20 mph. I just figured you should go as slow as possible, so I guessed 15 mph. I was right!
Another confusing one: Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit in a residential area is: 35 mph, 30 mph, 25 mph. I didn’t know, so I guessed 35 mph. I was wrong! I also got another one wrong about a yellow sign with an arrow facing left, which I found out means “Sharp turn to the left.” Who knew?
I got two wrong; Eric got three wrong. We were REALLY lucky! We got out of there at 10:00am. Next, I had to go to the post office. After that, I had to return some curtains I had purchased. They just weren’t going to work.
Next, we went to PEARL VISION, because we both need new prescriptions. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the forms we needed (we forgot we have to get them from Eric’s union), so we didn’t get anything done.
We came home and there were two big boxes waiting for us (glad it wasn’t raining!). One was Eric’s 5-week supply of NUTRISYSTEM food. My box of NUTRISYSTEM didn’t arrive yet. I told Eric I thought the mailman probably had it in his truck, but didn’t feel like making THREE trips! I hope it comes tomorrow!
The other big box was his AB LOUNGE ULTRA, a chair that makes doing crunches easier (at least that’s what Eric thinks). He says, “It practically does them for you!” He’s been talking about and wanting to order the Ab Lounge for a few years already and he mentioned it again while we were in South Carolina. I figure anything that’s going to get him (and me) moving can’t be bad, so I ordered it online.
After looking through all the food in Eric’s plan, I called my friend, Susan, and got caught up with her. I miss her and her husband, Andrew!
I got all the laundry together and walked down to the laundry room. Unfortunately, all four machines were being used, so I came back up. I waited a half hour and went back down. Someone else beat me to it! I went back up and came back again in another half hour and this time I was able to use three machines.
I came up and did stuff around the apartment until it was time to put everything in the dryer.
When I came back up, Eric had gone into the bedroom to take a nap (he was practically sleeping in the massage chair while he was watching TV). Then, I made lunch for myself while he slept and I waited for the clothes to dry. I had two boca burgers (vegetarian) and three veggie bites – all from MORNINGSTAR FARMS. I enjoy their food, and it’s microwaveable, so it’s also fast and easy!
I will be eating vegetarian for a while, except when we eat out, since I had to order the Vegetarian Plan of NUTRISYSTEM, since I don’t eat meat or chicken. They don’t have any seafood on the plan, so I’ll definitely be eating fish when we go out.
I went back down again to get the laundry. I didn’t go for a walk today, because it looked like it was going to rain again and it was very damp and chilly out, but I certainly got a bit of exercise going up and down 2 flights of stairs and walking a few hundred feet eight times! I hope there’s some sun tomorrow!
I came upstairs, folded all the laundry, put everything away and then decided to take down all the Chanukah, Birthday, Christmas and New Apartment cards we had received. I looked at them all again and then I recycled most of them. I used to save cards forever, but when we moved from Whitestone I threw away about 500 old cards. It just didn’t make sense to ship them to San Diego! Now, I only keep the ones that are original artwork, or that contain photos. The regular cards are recycled! I am such a packrat and it was a real challenge to throw things away when we moved. I am determined to keep it to a minimum here, and I throw away, recycle, or give away anything I don’t really need.
I woke Eric up at 5:00pm. Tonight we had the frozen pizza I had mentioned last night. I told Eric that he can’t start his NUTRISYSTEM food until I get mine. We have to do this together!
While the pizza heated up, Eric read the instruction manual and put the Ab Lounge Ultra together. He’s so good at that kind of stuff! Then we both tried it out. You can feel it immediately. It’s just as easy to do crunches on the floor, but it DOES have two great features: (1) Unlike crunches, it supports your body, especially your head, neck and back, throughout the exercise, so you don’t strain your neck. It effectively works your muscles in the upper and lower abdominals, and obliques (the "love handles" area); and (2) You're up off the floor, so your muscles have a total range of motion for better results. Also, because you're up off the floor, it's much easier to watch TV! You can just sit in it comfortably and keep doing sets.
The only trick is – you have to use it! Now that we’re going on NUTRISYSTEM and have our new AB LOUNGE ULTRA, it seems like we can’t fail. Doesn’t it? Well, doesn’t it?
After dinner I went into the bedroom to watch DANCE WARS. It was not as good as AMERICAN IDOL, but better than SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Then, I watched MEDIUM, one of my favorite shows. It was about 10 minutes from the end when, all of a sudden, the picture froze. I couldn’t change the channel, I couldn’t rewind, I couldn’t fast forward, I couldn’t even turn the TV off. I had to get up and pull out the plug. Then, I had to let it reboot. I came into the living room and watched the last 10 minutes in there. It’s such a great show!
Then, I watched WILL & GRACE and I decided to sit in the AB Lounge Ultra and give it a whirl! I did two sets of 30 crunches. It’s hard. Very hard. But I’ll keep working on it! Maybe tomorrow it will be nice enough outside for me to take a walk. I’m going to go in the other direction next time – down by the water!