I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates... (or, Hallelujah, I can feel my toes!)

Here they are:

Aren't they beautiful????

If you will remember back to my blog about my 5k, you will remember that almost immediately my ankles started to feel like they were breaking, and around the 20 minute mark I could literally no longer feel my toes. My 5k angel informed me that it was not normal foot behavior and that I really needed new shoes.

Problem being, new shoes are very expensive - at least good ones are. I had resigned myself to saving up for a few months and eventually getting them when I received a message from the Carolinas that threw me for a loop! It was my cousin (by marriage) miss Debbie Cockrell Brewer and she was offering to buy me a new pair of shoes!! At first I deferred. It was odd, being offered shoes out of the blue by somebody I had only actually met in person once! Yes, we talk a fair bit back and forth on facebook, but still, it seemed awkward. Pride, also, reared it's ugly head for a few brief moments... I can't accept that..surely we can afford a pair of shoes without having to resort to kind offers from relatives in far flung states....

Then a day or two passed and I, still wearing my foot murdering shoes, came to my senses. Here I was, suffering, and on the table was a pefectly good offer of Debbie Brewer's favorite running shoe! I told my husband he needed to make Miss Debbie a really nice bowl on his lathe, because I was about to get some new shoes!

A few days later my shoes arrived in the mail.When I opened the box, that song started going through my head... "I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates!" They were silver and gray and pretty darn sleek looking. I put them on my feet and...OH! it was cushy! There were little gel pad things in the soles somehow. They felt like heaven! I wore them around about 20 minutes in the house and then... ouch. They hurt. Bad. On the side. Turns out my feet were too wide for the regular Asics Gel shoes. I had a blister. BOO!

However, in the wonderful tradition of Amazon.com,  they were super easy to return and also came in wide size. Debbie had made sure of it before ordering them. I got my wider replacement shoes back two days ago. Today I walked 1.5 miles uphill (treadmill hill setting) in these shoes and at the end, I could still feel my toes. My feet don't ache. Normally after a treadmill workout my feet hurt all day, top and bottom. Not today. They feel like happy feet!

Debbie and Graham Brewer, oh how I love you two! What an encouraging and long lasting gift of love and support you have given me. With all this love and support around me (and my ankles!), how can I fail?

I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates, and that's gonna be the key! 200 miles by the new year. That's my goal. I'm gonna give these shoes a workout!

In other news, lookie, lookie, lookie what I made!!!

There's 100 rocks all together, each one represents a pound. From my starting weight of 242, 100 pounds lost will be 142, which is smack dab in the middle of where I'm supposed to be, according to Weight Watchers. I've already got to move 28 rocks from the "to be" jar to the "I have" jar. 28 ugly rocks. Almost a third of the way there. I'm hoping by next year this time my first jar will be near empty, or empty, and the second jar will be full to the brim. I have such a LONG LONG way to go, but I've also come pretty far.

You may have noticed that my long list of adjectives describing what I want to do to the weight does not include the word LOSE. Losing something implies you want to find it again. I don't ever want to find this weight again. I can destroy it, obliterate it, shed it,defeat it, even transform it (to muscle), but to hell with ever finding it again! I'm through with losing pounds and then finding them again. Not only do I usually find the ones I lost, but I pick up a few extra homeless pounds found camping in a van down by the river. Lost pounds usually find friends while they are lost!!! Then they want to bring everybody over for a party. yeah, my pounds are not going to be lost. They are going to be gone, moved on, and passed over. finis.

I see you smiling at me, holding out those chubby little dimpled hands in supplication. Sorry, pounds. I have no pity for you. You have pretended all these years to be my friend, protecting me and comforting me, but you aren't. So wipe that smile off your face, and make tracks.  Call your friends a cab. You don't have to go home, but you all can't stay here. That's my final word.