bitter disappointment

Ever since the "coming soon" signs went up, I've been excited about the new AJ Wright store opening in my neck of the woods. "Oh," I thought, "it'll be nice to have a conveniently located craft store." It wasn't until this week when they actually opened and I heard a couple of my fellow Prison Bus riders discussing it, that I realized AJ Wright and AC Moore aren't the same place. Goddammit. Anyway, according to them, AJ Wright was just like a Marshalls, only better. Well, you see my first mistake. Never listen to people on the Prison Bus when it comes to matters of taste.

Nevertheless, this afternoon after the gym, I needed to go to that shopping area to visit the pet store (new flavor of Greenies for EK) and Shaws (the sour cream and 4-Cheese Mexican blend I forgot when I was buying the other ingredients for tacos yesterday, sigh), and I figured I would go in there and see if it was just like a Marshalls. Or even better! Okay, first of all, I was in there for no more than five minutes before I wanted to kill someone. People blocking the aisles with their carts, most of which contained two or more ill-behaved, illegitimate children in or hanging off them. It was immediately apparent that this is where the ghetto Market Basket shoppers are now going on Sundays after picking up groceries. Then, secondly, while the merchandise was certainly inexpensive ($5 shirts, etc), it was incredibly shoddy cheap crap that looks like it was made just for them. There were only a few things that I saw that were recognisable brand names (Nine West purses, a couple NY&Co shirts, some Rocawear and Dereon hoodies.) Even though I refuse to give up hoodies, a woman of my advanced years should stay far away from gold-embossed Dereon ones no matter how cute in a ghetto-fabulous kind of way they are, and so it was that I left completely empty-handed and not liable to be back. BITTER disappointment. My cheap disposable clothing will just have to continue coming from the Tarzhay.

Which, to prove the point, I then marched into and bought a new pair of sweatpants. But, no, really, I needed them, I swear. I have a couple pairs of drawstring waist sweatpants that I wear to the gym when I don't feel like wearing yoga pants, and even with the drawstring pulled as tight as it can go, they really don't stay up anymore. It's time to face the fact that they need to be relegated to sleepwear only. So new sweatpants were a completely reasonable purchase. Really.

In lesser disappointment? A couple weeks ago when D and I were in the supermarket, we happened to walk past the Muscle Milk Light, and with his encouragement, I bought one. I've been afraid to try it, frankly, but since I had all those errands to do after the Y and I didn't want to eat an Organic Food Bar (protein flavor)*** today because I had a carby breakfast pre weights, I bit the bullet and threw it in my bag this morning. My first impression was that it was too sweet. Then about a third of the way through it, I got a mouthful of something lumpy and oily. Oh, disgusting. There's the essential fatty acids! It was then that I realized that I was supposed to shake the damn thing before drinking. After shaking it vigorously, the remaining, properly blended shake was less sweet and non-lump containing. It still was not what I would term "good." So, no more Muscle Milk for me.

In no disappointment whatsoever, I have somewhat convinced myself that I can see some delt development now. This is very good since, when I first lost weight, it was suggested to me that my shoulders (and upper chest) were looking a little bony. Which is how it goes. I get really lean there before the lower body fat budges much. Now I think I'm getting a little meat back on there, and it's muscle, not fat. Too bad it's seven more months till spaghetti-strap weather again. I'll just admire my possible delts in the mirror like a dork till then.

Okay. Hope you all were totally free of disappointment this weekend. Namaste!

xoxo

Addendum: Holy shit, I forgot to put in the footnote. Scandalous!

***Protein Organic Food Bars are *awesome*. Their main ingredients are almond butter and dates. And rice protein. Did I tell you this already? If so, just let me reiterate: delish and not full of any chemical crap (though they do contain agave syrup which is the grunchy granola equivalent of HFCS, hehe!)