I always remember being chubby. In middle school one of my friends lost weight over the summer and kept encouraging me to go on a diet. I never cared enough. I liked eating and I didn't see what the problem was. I'm pretty tall for a woman (5'8") and I have a body type that hides the weight well, so I don't look fat, but I always felt sort of guilty.

Throughout high school and college I slowly kept gaining weight and by 2007 I weighed over 200 pounds.
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Back when I first started my blog during sophomore year of high school (The State I Am In), I was pretty enthusiastic about writing there. Out of curiosity, I looked at my blog post frequency, and there's a pretty obvious decline in posting frequency. For instance, in November of 2002, I posted 68 entries. That's an average of more than 2 entries every day. And now, this is my first blog entry in almost a year.

I kept a diary when I was in Japan. I didn't write in it every day, but it was an outlet for the pain and frustration and loneliness of culture shock, of leaving my friends and family, of feeling so isolated and alone. After returning home, I considered typing up the entries and posting them on my blog, but I decided against it. There was heartbreak in those early entries. I had butted heads with my first roommate, and many of my desperate struggles were recorded in that diary. It was not meant for other eyes.
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NOTE: After many months of putting off publishing this entry, I've decided to heck with it, I'm just going to finish it up and post it. Please disregard use of the phrase "just got back from". And yes, my mother and I are still on speaking terms.



As many of you may know (since I wouldn't shut up about it) I just got back from a week long cruise to the Caribbean. Do I like the Caribbean? No! But when you fill the boat with nerds, it's hard to resist.

I didn't take many photos, but there's a picture of me and my mother wearing fake mustaches online, so I feel fulfilled anyway. I ate a dessert after EVERY MEAL, and I only gained two pounds. And my mother and I are still on speaking terms after being trapped in a 6'x6' box for 6 days! At least, I think we are. I haven't called her since I got back.

So here's a list of what I would do again, given the chance (yes, there should be more nerd cruises in the future), and what I would change. (...)

Cool stuff to do in Grand Junction, part one!

The Colorado National Monument is a good choice for you outdoorsy types. If the weather's nice you can rent a bike and ride up the mountain. If you're feeling extra adventurous it has a campground and you can spend the night there! (...)

From Nikki...

Bold those you've read, and italicize those you've started but didn't finish, or have read excerpts from.

(Many of these I have read, but don't remember. And many more I started but never finished.) (...)

As Becca said to me, "You're crazy."

In mid-July, I decided it would be a fun idea to create little crocheted pouches for my wedding. We could fill them with candy or dice! And I could get rid of my scrap yarn! I decided to make each bag using a different yarn so each would be unique and I wouldn't get bored with crocheting them. (...)

Since moving, I realize that we don't actually have enough space to store 3 boxes full of yarn and crochet projects. So, I've decided to rummage through the bins, grab all my current projects, and either unravel them and stuff them in my free-for-all yarn bin, or try to finish the project.

As a result I've come across a bunch of old projects and I decided to take some photographs. Pictures below the jump. (...)

This is part of my Blog-Your-Own-Adventure series of posts.

The story starts here: Blog-Your-Own-Adventure (...)