Before Alyssa goes to law school, we decided that we’d like to take a trip together somewhere. Camping in Canada? Too crowded, we decided. Mexico? Nah (I don’t remember why). Chicago? Maybe…maybe too expensive.

Then out of nowhere…North Dakota? Hell yes. We will vacation in North Dakota’s largest city, Fargo, population 90,599.

I am looking forward to going to the local yokel restaurants and bars. Also just seeing what life is like in such a sparsely populated state. Looking at the satellite view on Google Maps, that area is nothing but farms. And then if you look at the map view on Google Maps…the whole state is filled with a grid pattern of roads. Should be interesting.

At 169 pounds…I’ve only got 4 pounds left until I reach my goal.

As I was showering, I realized something weird. I have lost 14.9% of my original body mass.

So now on the way to work, I can sing that song, “I’m half the man I used to be!” Or maybe it should be “I’m 85.1% of the man I used to be!”

I am really looking forward to reaching my goal. So close!

Reached my next milestone…I am officially below my previous low weight.

Only 6.5 pounds to go!

I am looking forward to eating like a normal person.

Exactly one month ago, I weighed in at 175.5. Well after being up and down between that and 180, I’ve finally managed to shed another pound and get to within 10 pounds of my goal. The next milestone is 172, the low weight I was at when I was dieting and exercising the last time.

However…I look at my belly and I am thinking, “That looks like more than 9.5 pounds of belly fat.” Oh well, I’ll get to 165 and take it from there.

And somehow, during a weekend in which I exercised zero, and didn’t eat too badly but didn’t eat very well either, I lost a pound.

I decided I needed to come into work late today so I could make some “business hours” phone calls that have been piling up. I am so glad I did.

I called SFSU, and the admissions counselor said that if I take the two required general education courses this summer at CCSF (City College), I can still be admitted for the fall. Wow. I was totally not expecting that. Woo!

I don’t know what it is, but I don’t really know almost anyone my age out here, except for Alyssa.

I don’t think anyone in the Infrastructure group at the Chronicle, which I am a part of, is under 35. Maybe one guy, but no less than 30. And at the company that actually employs me, I think one person is in her mid-20’s. Other than that, probably about 30 and older.

In the Chomsky Book Club that I go to every two weeks, I don’t think there is anyone under 30 that has attended recently.

There isn’t anything wrong with this, I guess, it is just kind of peculiar. Furthermore, I think I am getting either increasingly bad at guessing people’s ages or I just don’t notice someone’s age as much as maybe I used to.

So after working night shift, I told myself that I would start getting more sleep, and start respecting the need for sleep in general. Well, two nights ago, that plan fell through. I had a ton of laundry to do and I wanted to get caught up on Chilling Effects. And watch 24. And do a couple other things. Well I did end up getting a lot done, but I stayed up until 2am to do it. That wasn’t very good.

For the first time since working night shift, I got my days seriously mixed up. I was thinking that I had walked to work from the train station yesterday morning, when in fact it was actually Monday morning that I did that. That kind of confusion would happen all the time when I worked night shift and it was really, really weird. Well today, I have one or two things I could do. I could (a) watch the Wizards game at the sports bar or (b) work on Chilling Effects. I’m not going to do both. I am totally hitting the hay by 10pm tonight and getting a full 9.5 hours of sleep, which is a full night for me. Man, that will be nice. Damn you, over-ambitious Stu from two nights ago!

OK, 24 has officially gotten really ridiculous. I’m going to finish watching the season anyway, but…yeah. Give me a break.