Some Thoughts on a Friday Night

"Friday Night in the Big Town!"  Gary England always says.  Yeah, well, Moore isn't really a big town.  It's a nice little suburb, and full of great people, has a fabulous theater, a Harley Davidson dealership, and a wonderful library.  (And lots of other shops and parks and restaurants, but you get the idea.) 
Oklahoma City is considered "the Big Town" around here.  To  a girl who grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles County, it's not so big, either.  A few Friday nights when I was in high school, (in the late 70's when things were pretty wild), my friends and I used to gas up Kathy's old Delta 88 and head to Hollywood for "Hollywood Boulevard Safari."  That's what we called cruising Hollywood Boulevard.  We had rules.  All doors must remain locked and all windows rolled up for the entire cruise.  There was to be no interacting with the nightlife, we were only there to observe.  And observe we did.  Drag queens so fabulous, the women looked less like women than they did, generally funky people out ambling around, the odd cop or two questioning people.  We never told our parents where we were going.  We'd all still be grounded if we had.  We lived in a nice middle class suburb in the San Gabriel Valley called Hacienda Heights.  Our school's band and football team won all kinds of state titles the four years my friends and I were attending.  At least four of us were in the Shakespeare Club at school, and all of us were Honor Roll students.  Going out to cruise Hollywood Blvd. was our only real vice.  None of us had boyfriends that year, so we had fun being "just us girls."

The kids around here think cruising 12th Street in Moore is a big deal.  I don't get it.  Nothing interesting to see here, certainly nowhere near the entertainment value of our forays into Hollywood.  Yet, for YEARS the kids in this state would come from all over to cruise 12th Street.  The cops have pretty much put an end to it, well, their presence and the much higher price of gas these days.  Neighbors have told us of being unable to leave the subdivision for the traffic on cruise nights, and the NOISE was something awful.  Thankfully, the cruising had been pretty well shut down before we moved here.
These days, my Friday night is seldom more than a chance to really relax and not worry too much about how late I happen to stay up writing.  I do have to watch the clock tonight, though.  I have to get up and get the weeding and mowing done before it gets too stinking hot tomorrow.  The yard looks disgraceful.

On another tangent; our quest to lose weight and be healthier is going pretty well.   Matt is back in size 36 slacks, and I am back in my size 10 jeans.  It is hard to log everything we eat and all the exercise we do, but worth it.  Both of our recent blood tests have come back with excellent results.  Matt has even been taken off one of the heart medications they put him on since he has done so well losing weight and keeping his blood pressure in control.  I am proud to say that I take no prescription medications at this time.  My numbers were all really good, and the doctor knows my high blood pressure readings in the clinic are white coat hypertension.  (I had a very bad experience in an emergency room as a young child, and hospitals and doctor's offices have freaked me out, at least on a subconscious level, ever since. )  I have to really concentrate on my breathing and relaxing myself to get a near normal reading in a clinical setting.  My numbers here at home have been going down as my weight goes down.
It makes me feel good to be able to wear clothes I haven't fit in for a long time.  I also need to start my workout with free weights again, as I need to strengthen my muscles and prevent bone loss.  I know I will never recapture my lost youth, but I think I look pretty good, and I'll settle for looking good for my age and being healthy.  Very excited that Matt is starting to look like the man I married again instead of a much too heavy man.


To start yet another topic, I am so far behind on the books I want to read that it isn't even remotely amusing.  I have several things on my Nook that I really do want to read, but I keep getting distracted.  Maybe now that the weather is settling down, and life around here is settling back to something like normal, I'll be able to concentrate on my reading again.  I have been  reading, but have had to backtrack and re-read a lot because my mind wanders off in the middle of things.  Not that the books are not interesting and engrossing, just that my ability to concentrate hasn't been too great lately.  Have also been distracted by trying to catch up with some movies and TV shows that I have not been able to watch.  Netflix is a wonderful thing, but boy, you can sure overdose on it if you aren't careful.  I try to save stationary chores like ironing for the times I want to watch say, Sons of Anarchy,  so I won't be so inclined to watch more than I can absorb in one sitting.  There is a lot going on in that show that is not immediately apparent.  Layers upon layers.  My husband doesn't like it, says it glorifies outlaws, but he hasn't really watched it, I don't think.  I do know there used to be a motorcycle club that hung out across the street from where he bought his house in San Bernardino.  They were pretty small-time, and mostly pretty amusing, but I didn't hang out with them too much, only with Saundra, who ran the Star Trek fan club we belonged to.  (Yes, a biker chick who liked Star Trek, they DO exist.)  In fact, I think it was Saundra who told Matt he really ought to ask me out.  His Mom was in the club, too, and SHE actually introduced us to each other.  (Yeah, my mother in law wrote sci-fi stories and sometimes called herself "Granny Space".  She was a good writer, had a wonderful sense of humor, and I really miss her.)

Anyway, that and the dread of the hot, humid hours I must spent dealing with weeds and grass tomorrow are what has been rattling around in my brain this evening.  Hope everybody has a great weekend.
As Ever,
Katie