Friday, November 12, 2010

Daily Report: Fighting Weight

I checked my weight for the first time in years. Amazingly, I have neither lost nor gained a pound in almost 6 years. I'm surprised primarily because I really judge my weight based on how well my clothes fit... and they have fit better over the last year. I have a 38-inch waist and am 5-foot-7, but according to my BMI I'm supposed to be obese. Whatever. Uncle Bob says I've reached my "fighting weight." That sounds about right. Maybe a little more walking and the wide availability of diet versions of everything here in America will bring the weight down a little. Probably not.

Another walk today, this time with my mother. We stopped at my Aunt Alice's house (my mother's first cousin) and got caught up on her family. Then Uncle Bob came over to the back porch for our usual 5 o'clock cocktails. (Vodka martini for me, wine for Paul, and my mother has scotch and soda.) Conversations at cocktail hour in my family tend to oscillate between home improvement and family matters, while the two papillion puppies (my Uncle Bob has Papillion Martini, while my mother has Papillion Gracie) frolic and amuse us.

I'm being fed stupendously. Tonight Mom and Paul served up big thick pork steaks with a sesame ginger glaze, along with "mushed" potatoes (with the peel still on them when they are mashed) and peas.

I went out to the liquor store. It seems like the new "in" thing is fancy tequilas... high end $50 to $80 bottles like Patron (even flavored). I had a bottle of that about 5 or 6 years ago. I have a feeling that the popularity came about because pretty much every travel show host on Discovery TV that I've seen has taken a trip to Jalisco to sample the finer distilleries.

Oh: A bit of good news. My company offered me a new account (I've been scheduled to lose the old one for 3 or 4 months now, and that loss was the precipitating factor for having to return to America) that does not use speech recognition at all. That's a big benefit and should lead to a healthy pay increase. I had been making about 100,000 pisos per month, and hopefully that will go up now about 25%. Good thing too: We're behind on the bills because of this sudden move. It cost Epril and me about 200,000 pisos ($5,000) to get me here to Florida. (Apologies to Maggie... we haven't forgotten you.)

I've got a netbook computer now and Epril and I are connected pretty much 24 hours per day. We're having fun: I took her on a webcam tour of the house, sat down and played some music on the piano for her, and she just loved seeing Gracie come up and snuffle the webcam. We're not happy to be apart, but thanks to the internet, it doesn't sting as much as it would have otherwise.

Yeah... it all seems a little boring, I know. But it depends on your point of view: now instead of Americans reading about my uneventful life in The Philippines with great interest, it is Filipinos (or, at least the one Filipina who matters most) reading about my uneventful life in America with great interest. And that's what this is all about.

8 comments:

WillyJ said...

I guess from a standard weight-height medical chart you are supposed to be overweight, what with your girth. But as they say the ideal weight is one where you are comfortable with, as long as you feel fit as a fiddle. You better watch out on the American food which is a lot caloric (and more likely cholesterol-laden) than Filipino food.

Jil Wrinkle said...

Actually, Filipino food can be very fattening: There are the dishes where the meat is almost pure pig fat, and when it comes to starches and carbohydrates, well you only have to see the common sight of a Filipino putting spaghetti on top of white rice to know how crazy that can get.

WillyJ said...

haha. true enough, but you have to think metabolism too. I guess you have to factor-in the climate, protein levels, and the tendency of Filipinos to burn calories faster. And then of course with age your metabolism gets slower. Stay fit man.
health is wealth.

Tom N said...

If you don't mind my asking, why was it so expensive to get to Florida?

Jil Wrinkle said...

Yeah, sorry Tom, there were some unexpected expenses related to the trip that popped up and needed to be taken care of in an emergent fashion. It was bad timing, but isn't that always the way of things?

Anonymous said...

filipino's burn calories faster,WHAT?
If you do not have some sort of guaranteed income(pension,Social Security)S E A could not be a worse choice for a place to live.You married a lady and didn't immediately process her visa,just in case?You had to know that what has happened could happen at anytime,just like it did.You failed her big time and will be lucky if she doesn't get on the first ship she can find to get herself out of the hell-hole that is S E A,seriously.Florida,the Southern USA?You can do better: NEW MEXICO,Austin TEXAS.Opportunities MON!!!

Jil Wrinkle said...

Well, we didn't process Epril's visa because getting a visa and not using it means it just would have expired, been wasted, and might have hurt chances of a future visa.

Well, it was always a possibility that what has happened would happen... but the fact is I had assurances from my supervisors that it was not an issue as of this past February/March. Then, of course, it was an issue... in October, suddenly and without warning.

I don't see how I failed Epril in all of this. She lives in a big house, her family is taken care of, her sister's school is being paid for, and other than me being stuck in America, all is well over there.

Yeah: Florida. I know. It's a family thing. If Epril and I ever move to the U.S. permanently, we will obviously look further afield.

Anonymous said...

Wasted visa?for a wife?U r sure of that?IR-130 visas(K-1,if dept.of state issued quota visa)r 4 immediate relatives,do they expire?They are not like IR-131(K-2 dept.of state quota visa),where-in the fiance has 6 months to use the visa(enter the USA) and must marry with-in 90 days of entry into the USA.
IR-130 visas may not have expirations,you have to check the web-site constantly.
unlike IR-131 visas,a family relative is actually allowed multiple entries/exits to the USA,unlike IR-130's where the person may not leave for the first two years(check on that)and then for not more than a year(that is a certainty!).I am not a lawyer(and you do not need one),but the differences aren't always spelled out and alot of figuring of exactly what you are trying to accomplish and how,where you want to accomplish it MUST be done.
Do not believe any of what you hear.U.S.immigration requirements change,you MUST look at the web-site and KNOW which changes affect YOU and then act accordingly.