February Vain Amy Recap

The Good:
So, after only losing 1 pound the whole month of January, I am happy to report that I lost 5 pounds in February. So, I'm now officially down 6 pounds.

Let's celebrate with beer and cheese and sugar and salt, shall we?

Oh, yeah. I guess not.

I am choosing to bask in the joy of actually losing weight, instead of realizing that after 2 months of diligent dieting, I still have like 20 pounds to lose. At this rate... the Year of Vain Amy, might indeed be a WHOLE FUCKING YEAR. But... That's okay. I am okay with that.

The Lame:
My other big project of the year is to up my reading. And so far I have failed pretty miserably at that. I TECHNICALLY didn't finish a book in February. But, I did finish one on March 1st, and since February is a short month and since this is my fucking blog and I do whatever I want, I'm counting it.

At the conclusion of the book, my daily page count for the year is a measly 16 pages. (My goal is to average 25 pages a day). This was the book:

13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi

by Mitchell Zuckoff

I had been wanting to read this book for a long time, because, if I'm being totally honest here... I kept hearing "Benghazi" in the news and I really didn't even know WHAT happened there, let alone what REALLY happened there as the book title implies. How sad is that? As an Human Being, I should really pay more attention to the National News, but, gosh.. the news is so brutally summarized, sterile, agenda-laden, and neatly packaged, that half the time, I don't even really get anything from it.

Now, since I came into this book pretty blindly... I found it absolutely riveting. Also sad. Also disgusting. And with a feeling of... the World can be a really fucked up place and there is so much god-damn red tape and secrecy and bureaucracy and chains of command that sometimes we have to just let ourselves be cut off at the knees and damn that sucks. The fact that sometimes sacrifices have to be made for what SOME people believe is the greater good is just heartbreaking and frustrating. I am not even going to broach the subject of what couldva, shouldva, or wouldva been done, because I have no idea.

But, damn, I have so much respect for our armed forces, contracted civilians, public servants, and just anyone who sticks their literal necks out to do what their bosses, superiors, President's, etc tell them to do. I cannot even fathom having that type of job and I am so thankful that other people are braver and smarter than me. I sit here in my cushy cubical and avoid listening to my voicemails and prepare taxes and do bookkeeping with no concerns about safety. I am so fucking lucky. 

Anyway, it was a really good read and a tragic story. The end of the book had photographs, including one of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead, being carried by a friendly Libyan to the hospital. I lost it. So sad.

There isn't really a good way to segway from that serious topic... So I apologize in advance for that.

Also Lame:
My Movie-making. I charged my Go Pro one day and that's all I did with it in February. I need to remember to take it with me to places, because when I got trapped at The KoB's during the ICE WEEKEND, it would have been fun to video various things (e.g. attempting to get my car our for the 14th time).


Things to work on in March:
So, obviously, I'm going to continue with the dieting... but, I'm also hoping to get into some kind of routine with some weights. I found out on Saturday that I am a weak, weak person while trying to move a sofa. And I'm kind of sick of that. So...I need to throw around some weights and tone up a bit.

Also, I don't know about you, but I was kinda inspired by Rhonda Rousey... Badass.

READING. The good news is that I finished Gossip Girl during the Ice Storm. (I actually miss it, is that sad?) But the bad news is that I've started watching Friday Night Lights. SO GOOD. AND, I've gotten addicted to a phone game called Covet Fashion.

OMG, it's like crack.

So, Reading is still taking a back seat to both of those distractions. I'm going to try to set a rule in March, that on my lunch breaks, I don't watch any television, I just read. And maybe I can try to not start ANOTHER episode of FNL at 8:45pm, and instead just go to bed and read for a bit. It's not like I have to FORCE myself to read. I love reading, it's just I get in these habits of binge watching television shows or paying money to play a game on my phone. (YES, I've spent $15 on upgrades for that stupid game. Yes, I'm embarrassed).

So, that's February and what's hopefully on tap in March!