Goodbye, Curves ...

An open letter to the staff of Curves for Women, in downtown Los Angeles (on Bunker Hill)

Dear Mickey, Lu, and Vicky (pictured):

I just went downstairs for my workout, and got the sad news that your location is closing as of this week!

I am really sorry to hear this. As you may remember, I have been an "on again off again" member since you first opened, but during the past year I have stuck to it, and really benefited.

As of last week's weigh-in at Weight Watchers, I've lost 42 pounds!

And it's not just the weight loss - I also feel much stronger and healthier overall - mentally as well as physically. I often tell my friends that your Curves is a "stressbuster" for me - whenever things are going badly at work, or I'm bored or upset, I take a break - and do a workout! And I ALWAYS feel better afterwards!

I have decided not to join another Curves location after you close. Some friends of mine own a club in Van Nuys called "It Figures". I've visited there as a guest, but told them I wouldn't join as long as my Curves was still available.

Well, now that you're closing, they'll be getting a new member at last!

But I will miss seeing you and Lu and Vicky, and having my workout so easy to get to - right downstairs from my office!

Thank you all for everything! I have really enjoyed and benefited from my membership at Curves in Downtown Los Angeles!

Christine Lehman - aka "The Curvy Catholic" :-)

(P.S. - last week I gained 0.6 pounds - but since I was expecting to gain at least two pounds from all the kielbasa, I consider that a win!)

Christ is Risen - Let's Eat!

Christos Voskrese, y'all!

Yes, it's Easter again and what a wonderful celebration we had! That's me and my beloved hubby Steve, up top there, on the patio outside our beloved St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church in Sherman Oaks, California.

And ... during the last week of Lent (aka "Great and Holy Week" in the Eastern tradition), I lost a whopping 4.2 pounds - yay for me! (I'm quite vainly pleased to report that the pretty flowered dress I'm wearing in the photo above is size "L" - no "x's" anywhere on my bod!)

Which is good, because in another Eastern Christian tradition, we're commanded to FEAST this week. So what with the kielbasa, the Pascha bread, various cheeses, Ukrainian eggs*, etc., I'll probably be gaining most of it back.

Not that there's anything wrong with that! After all, there's more to life than watching your weight, counting POINTS, curving, etc. - all of which I have every intention of going back to, next week.

But for today, I'm celebrating the fact that "Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!" in style - with a jalepeno hot dog from Famima! Mmmmmm!!!

* We didn't actually paint them ourselves - unfortunately, neither of us had the time. But thanks to modern technology:

--- we didn't have to! (nyuk nyuk!)

Great and Holy Week Begins!

Well, I was up 1.2 pounds last week - not so good.

But I should be able to make up for it this week.

It's Great and Holy Week - the days leading up to Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the great Easter Vigil of Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday - Pascha.

And now that the solemnity of that week is upon us - including a liturgical service of some kind EVERY SINGLE NIGHT between now and Saturday, which means no time for dinner - perhaps I'll manage to drop that 1.2 pounds again.

Just in time for -- the Pascha Kielbasa!!!

On Purgatory and swimming pools

Down half a pound, now at 185.4 - yay!

In my alternate Web persona as "theistgal", I have come across threads on two separate forums asking what Eastern Christians/Catholics believe about Purgatory. One thread is at Orthodox Christianity.net and the other at
Catholic Answers.

This is one of those arguments that will never end till we get there and find out for ourselves. Frankly, I am suspicious of anyone who says they know, for a fact, what happens to us after we die. I think we just have to make the best guess we can, based on the best information we can find, and hope God is merciful. (And that He has a really, really good sense of humor!)

But when I think of Purgatory, I think of ... Sunnyside Park, in what's now called the "Waldo" area of Kansas City, Missouri. Sunnyside is a really nice, big park, with walking trails, tennis courts, a playground ...



and it USED to have two small but wonderful swimming pools, which have been replaced now by "spraygrounds".

They weren't your standard rectangular pools. They were round. There were two of them. Both were concrete, painted sky blue. One was the "baby" pool - wading pool, no more than about 6 inches deep at the most. The other was the BIG pool - 3 feet deep and intended for us BIG kids (well ... bigger than the babies, anyway!).

But you couldn't get into EITHER pool till you walked through -

The Antiseptic Foot Bath!!!

Yes, that's right - you had to wash your filthy dirty feet before going into that clean, chorine-filled water.

To me, that's what Purgatory is - the place to wash off all the dirt you've accumulated before you enter Heaven. After all, it does say, somewhere in the Bible, that "nothing unclean may enter Heaven" - but it doesn't say there's no way to GET clean, before you get there.

And I'm relieved to find I'm not alone in this opinion. C.S. Lewis, an Anglican, also believed in Purgatory as a place to get clean. In his "Letters to Malcolm", he wrote:

Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, 'It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy'? Should we not reply, 'With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleaned first.' 'It may hurt, you know' - 'Even so, sir.'

Hence ... the Purgatorial Foot Bath! Enter into the joy, my friends - just wash your feet first!

(P.S. I'm sad to say that the pools at Sunnyside Park were dismantled a few years ago. I was fortunate enough to be in town, shortly after they'd been torn up, and found a few small pieces of concrete scattered around the area, still spattered with that sky-blue paint ... and still smelling of chlorine.

It's Spring! It's Spring! The Bird is on the Wing!

Absurd! Absurd! The Wing is on the Bird!

Tee hee! I read that a loonnnng time ago in an olllld Dennis the Menace comic book, and it always stuck with me.

But anyway, it's now officially Spring! Yahoo!

And I'm up this week, but only a little (+0.2, total 186). Not too bad, considering all the Italian food I've been scarfing down this week.

Hey - when your employer is economizing on catering, and then one day, out of the blue, you're told that there's leftover Italian food in the break room - well, what could I do? I'm only human! (nyuk nyuk!)

Anyway, I'm wrestling with a moral dilemma, so perhaps someone reading this has had a similar situation and can give me some advice.

I got an "email chain letter" which reads as follows:

I am supposed to pick 12 women (who have touched my life) and who I think would want to participate. I think that if this group of women were ever to be in a room together, there is nothing that would be impossible. I hope I chose the right twelve. Please send this back to me (You'll see why). In case anyone is not aware, Saint Theresa is known as the Saint of the Little Ways. Meaning she believed in doing the little things in life well and with great love. She is also the patron Saint of flower growers and florists. She is represented by roses.

REMEMBER to make a wish before you read the prayer. That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached. Just send this to twelve people and let me know what happens on the fourth day. Sorry you have to forward the message, but try not to break this, please .. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. Did you make a wish yet? If you don't make a wish, it won't come true. This is your last chance to make a wish!

St. Theresa's Prayer:
May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Now, send this to 12 women within the next 5 minutes. And remember to send this back. I count as 1...you'll see why. Suggestion: copy and paste rather than forwarding.

Now normally, when I receive something like this, I just hit "delete" as fast as my little fingers can pound. But here's where the "moral dilemma" part comes in:

It's from my boss.

Gulp!

So what would you do? I'm gonna set up a poll - please vote within the next 5 minutes or your wish won't come true! (Nyuk nyuk!)

Seven themes for a Monday morning

First: I lost 1.4 pounds, woo hoo! Official weight: 185.8! Yippee skip!

Second: I have gotten into what I think is an excellent habit: getting off the subway (L.A.'s world famous Metro Red Line, in case you didn't know) one stop before my "official" stop and WALKING. I walk every morning through the heart of downtown Los Angeles and it has really made a difference - not only in my fitness level but also in my morning mood. By the time I get to the office I feel awake, energetic, and - hungry!

Third: Which is why it's a good thing I've developed yet another healthy habit: Oatmeal for breakfast - every day! Usually it's the Weight Watchers brand (Maple sugar, 2 Points, with 8 grams of fiber, yum), but if they've made it by the time I get there, I really prefer the buckwheat oatmeal at Organic to Go at California Plaza (near my office). Only problem is, they recently changed their hours and don't open till 7:30 - and apparently don't even start cooking the oatmeal till then either! And since I get into town at 7:20 a.m. for my Big Morning Walk, that doesn't do me a whole lot of good. So, default Oatmeal Option: Starbucks!

Fourth: Still loving my eBook readers: the eBookwise and the Amazon Kindle 1.0. However, the eBookwise dropped dead this weekend, while I was right in the middle of my tenth rereading of "The Mists of Avalon" (that's right! I'm a Catholic and I read "The Mists of Avalon"! What can I say? I like good writing, no matter what viewpoint it comes from).

So anyway, I was just at the point where Igraine and Uther had gotten married and Morgaine took over the narration, and little Arthur was running towards her, crying, with a bump on her head, and WHOOPS! There goes the battery! I thought I'd be able to recharge it, but nope, it didn't seem to be taking a charge. So I've sent an email in to the trusty folks at eBookwise and will keep my fingers crossed that they'll exchange it, so I can find out what happens next.

Fifth: Yeah yeah, I already know what happens next! But I'm a rereader, OK? I like to pretend I haven't read it before, each time. My other favorite rereads: "David Copperfield", "Gone With the Wind", "Little Women" ... and yet I've never been able to read "Moby Dick" more than once, all the way through. I've tried. I get through the interminable list of quotations at the beginning, and the "Call me Ishmael" ... narration, and Ishmael's fun first night with Queequeg. But then, right around the time they're going to that church and that preacher starts in, I lose interest and go on to something else. ("Chapter One. I am born.")

Sixth: It's Monday and I'm happy. That's probably the biggest change in my life. After all the years of being alone, depressed and fat, I'm married to a wonderful guy who, with all his flaws (and he doesn't a whole lot, at least nothing I can't handle, nyuk nyuk), is the best thing that's ever happened to me. And being married is great - nothing like what I thought it was going to be. We're almost up to two years now and I can honestly say that it's better than it was at first - and it was pretty great at first, so that's saying something!

Seventh: We're planning to spend our second anniversary at the fabulous and reputedly haunted Queen Mary in Long Beach. Will let you know if we see any ghosts. I'll just be happy if I can see the ghostly screen of my eBookwise reader by then!

At Long Last Loss!

Yes, after a couple of weeks in the doldrums of "no change", I've finally lost 2.2 pounds, one again shocking the Weight Watchers computer into wagging its li'l finger at me and warning me about losing too quickly. For shame!

Oh well ... I'm doing my best, li'l computer, but you know, weight loss is an inexact science at best. And programming my body to lose in exact increments of two pounds at a time is a little tricky.

However, I'll upgrade my system to Chrissy 2.0 and see if that works. I've heard these newfangled computer programs can do wonderful things!

Still enjoying both my ebook readers! Today I decided to bring only the Kindle with me to work. Mainly because the eBookwise, while beloved, is also somewhat heavier. And I'm enjoying the experience of traveling light.

So how is your day going? Hope all is well. If you're experiencing the economic downturn in a personal way, let me offer my sympathies and, if you don't mind a little Catholic/Christian theology (this is, after all, the Curvy Catholic!), please remember Matthew 6:19-21:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Where is your treasure? Perhaps it's time for an "account transfer". ;-)