Saturday, August 16, 2014

What we ate 08-15-14

Breakfast: protein bar, bananas foster flavored Greek yogurt
Lunch: leftover pasta with turkey sausage picante sauce and cheese, banana
Dinner: chicken, cabbage, carrots, and rice with teriyaki sauce
Snacks/desserts: oatmeal scotchies, See's candy
Beverages: water

I bought a few things as well:

Yoplait yogurt (free Friday download) $0.00
3 peach Greek yogurts (reduced for quick sale) $.49 each, $1.47
14 oz quinoa $6.99
Small bag of delivered almonds from the bulk section $.35

Total after 3% discount: $8.55

I had to throw out three bananas which I had been saving for banana bread, because they got besieged by fruit flies and the peels had split open which was gross and weird. They weren't even close to black yet. I guess I have to start freezing them as soon as they get some spots.

Jeremy has been watching youtube videos from some bodybuilder who demos recipes. There are a few he wants to make. I am dubious, but I told him if I didn't have to cook it then I would try it. That is what the quinoa is for. I don't think we'll be buying it often. It's crazy expensive.

Friday, August 15, 2014

What we ate, and grocery shopping 08-14-14

Breakfast: shredded wheat and milk
Lunch: leftover lentils with spinach and tomatoes, celery with crunchy PB
Dinner: penne with turkey sausage, picante sauce, and cheese sauce
Snacks/desserts: banana, oatmeal scotchies
Beverages: water, Crystal Light

What we bought yesterday:

Celery $1.89
Buttermilk bread: $2.50
8 oz mozzarella cheese $1.99
8 oz hot pepper cheese $1.99
Bananas foster flavored Greek Yogurt $1.00
3 bananas $.77
Sugar free cherry limeade soda $1.00

Total $11.14 (part of it was purchased on a discounted gift card bringing the actual total to $10.90)

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

What I ate: 08-13-14

I was out of the house for most of the day today. I left at 10:30 for a massage trade with a coworker and then went straight to work from there. I worked at a very small location in a hotel owned by the same company that has the spa in Bellevue I sometimes work at. There was no fridge or microwave there, so there wasn't a lot I could bring. I ate pretty light today. I was planning to have some leftovers when I got home around 10:30 tonight, but wasn't hungry at all. Jeremy fended for himself tonight.

Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: peanut butter sandwich
Dinner: garlic and herb goat cheese with celery and crackers
Snacks/desserts: See's candy
Beverages: water, Crystal Light

Busy few days

Monday was our 2 year anniversary. Jeremy met me after work on Sunday and we got frozen yogurt at Menchie's on our way home. We spent $12.23 on that. Jeremy bought me a new skillet and some candy from See's, which is exactly what I asked for. I got him an UP band from Jawbone. He's been walking a lot more, trying to get as many steps in as he can each day. On our anniversary he almost made it to 20,000 steps.


We picked up a few things here and there at QFC spread out over the last few days:

5 Lean Cuisines ($2.00 ea) $10.00
celery (lost the receipt) about $2.00
pint of half and half $1.49
Oatmeal Scotchie cookie dough $2.99
Morningstar Farms BBQ riblets and ground beef style (BOGO with a $1.00 coupon) $3.99
Sparkling water $.79
Cherry cream cheese danish $1.50

Total $22.76 (minus 3% from using gift card purchased on Raise) grand total $22.08

On Monday we took Joey to the walk in vet clinic because he has lost a couple of pounds. They ran some labs on him and our total for that visit was $152. They called yesterday and said that his thyroid is a little elevated so they want to do another test to determine if he needs treatment, which will cost around $80. We will have to figure out when we will both be free to take him in while they are open.

After that we went to IHOP for lunch. I had a buy one entree get one free coupon. I also bought a $10 gift card off of raise for $9.30. All together, including tax and tip, we spent $23.98. Jeremy got chicken fried steak and a bowl of baked potato soup. I got jelly donut pancakes.


That was the only real meal we had on Monday. It was pretty filling. We also went back to Menchie's that evening and spent around $11.50. Initially we intended to go to Yogurtland since I have coupons for there, but their machines were not functioning. I also ate a lot of the chocolates from See's.

Yesterday I worked from 6 am to 11:30 am at the airport. I bought a Pepsi from the vending machine for $1.65 because I had not slept well at all. I decided to go to JC Penney's on my way home to use two 10$ off of 10$ coupons I had gotten in the mail that were expiring. Unfortunately I got on the wrong bus and it took me forever to get there. I had to use them in two different transactions. I decided on getting some underwear for Winter, and socks for Jeremy. Two things they've been needing. After the coupon and tax I got four pairs of underwear for under $4.00. The mens socks were all buy one get one half off, so I was able to get 12 pairs for $17.00 plus tax. I also bought some dacquiri ice sherbet at Baskin Robbins while I was there. My breakfast and lunch had been pretty light, and it took me much longer than I expected to finish my shopping trip. I spent about $5 on that. Jeremy spent 75 cents on a Diet Coke while we did laundry as well.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: protein bar
Lunch: peanut butter and honey sandwich, nectarine
Dinner: scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese
Snacks/desserts: See's chocolates, oatmeal scotchies, dacquiri ice sherbet
Beverages: Pepsi, water

Unless I am missing something that means we spent $77.18 on food in the last few days. It's easy to see how this can get out of control quickly. I need to start planning better and reign this in.

Wherein I speak candidly on the subject of online sexual harrassment

I am going to go very off topic for this post. I just have some things I need to get off my chest. I have been following this story the last few days about the comment trolling on Jezebel. I have been reading quite a few articles about just how prolific internet sexual harrassment of women is. And I have a lot of thoughts about this.

When I was little I often heard the saying repeated that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Quite honestly I think this saying is a steaming pile of crap and the world would be a better place if it were never repeated again. Words can be profoundly damaging. Especially when faced with a constant barrage of verbal abuse on a regular basis. And we now know that women more than men are overwhelmingly targeted with things like threats of physical and sexual violence, and sexually predatory communications from other internet users.

One solution I have seen put out there is to ignore it. Don't let it affect you. Don't react. Allow me to explain why we can't:

As soon as you have read the comment, or viewed the image, whichever the case may be, it has already begun to do damage. You can't unsee it.  That was the intention behind the comment being made in the first place. It is my belief that some people, mostly men, post rape threats and stalkerish comments online for the same reason that some men rape and sexually assault women. As a means of control. They seek to control us with fear and shame. And in the majority of cases the men who hide behind a screen while doing this will never face any sort of consequences for their actions. So they have no reason to stop.

And as easy as it may seem to dismiss anonymous online rape threats as carrying no real weight, with very low likelihood of any kind of follow through, that just ignores the fact that the women they are targeting have already been assaulted. Whether or not these women are ever actually physically harmed by those who are posting creepy tweets, or rapey comments ultimately doesn't matter. The online attacks are harmful in and of themselves.

Because sexual assault isn't some sort of amorphous, and indistinct concept. A massive percentage of women have already experienced it. Those that haven't experienced it first hand probably know someone who has, or several someones who have. And 100% of women know what it means to have immediate fear for their safety. Living in a heightened state of fear for an extended period of time has demonstrable harmful effects on the human body.

I have heard that one in three women will be a victim of sexual assault in her lifetime. Honestly, I think that statistic is way too low, for a variety of reasons. But I would like to go on record as saying that I am included in these ranks. I was raped by an acquaintance. I said no. Multiple times. I pushed him off of me over and over again until I didn't have the strength to keep fighting back. He ignored my requests for him to stop. He physically overpowered me. After he was finished, he stood up without a word and walked out of my apartment. I never heard from him again.

I did not report it. I told myself it was a misunderstanding, and he thought somehow, some way, that that was what I wanted. I told myself that he just did it because he was lonely, that he wasn't really a rapist, and he wouldn't ever do that to anyone else. I erased all traces of him from my phone and my computer. And I forgot his name, almost consciously. I don't remember it to this day. By the time I allowed myself to admit what really happened, I had wiped away every last bit of tangible evidence, and scrubbed my memory of nearly every detail. But the damage was only getting started.

Even now I am terrified to write this. I am terrified to publish this. I am terrified of people who I know, people who I work with, people in my family, reading this and seeing me differently. And even though I am a nobody blogger, with very few readers, and basically no visibility, I am afraid of who or what is lurking out there. Even reading about other women getting threatened with rape is pretty damn triggering. I realize that by putting this out there I am taking a risk, even if it is a pretty small one. I realize I am inviting criticism. It scares me. A lot.

But if shame is one of the methods of control that some men use on women, then the only way to fight back is to no longer allow ourselves to be shamed into silence. As long as we keep our mouths shut, and as long as we behave as though we are the ones who did something wrong, the control by shame and fear will continue. It's time to fight back.