I stepped on the scale this morning and I'm now 236.4. I am certain that most of my recent weight loss is water weight, but I think that some of it might be fat too. I have been walking, but not very fast. I do not even break a sweat or huff and puff. I have been watching what I eat. 236 was my goal weight for Christmas. But I think I'm going to try for 232. At Christmas, I'll re-evaluate my mini goals. When I began this journey in October, I wrote down where I wanted my weight to be by the holidays, with one big goal in mind. . . . lose 15% of my body weight before my next doctor's appointment in April. Getting the lab value of 7.3 for my Ac1 was a big push in the right direction. Then, I bought the bodybugg, which keeps me motivated to move.

I was worried that taking time off from my appendectomy would mean gaining my weight back. And with the water weight gain, I was very concerned. But I've stayed focused. Watched what I've eaten. I've kept busy with doing things around the house. I still have a few more projects to do before I go back to work.

I am going to the DMV today. When I went on Monday, it was the perfect place to observe people. I'm the kind of person that people come up to and just start talking. It started with two women looking for the bathroom (I think they had been drinking - that's what my nose told me). One of them had bright red hair that went in all different directions. Then I sit down, and some man comes up to me and asks me if I sign something so that he can have his car released to him. I approached the counter and asked the man behind the counter if I would be doing something wrong. He gave me one of those, not really answers. Then the man who approached me began to talk about moving here from Mississippi 20 years ago, gets married, has kids, etc.

Finally, my number is called. I have the wrong registration form, it's my husband's car. But the girl was really nice, she tells me that I need to get my car's safety and emmission inspection and that I can still pay for my tags and have a temporary registration in my car.

Then, on my way out, this older man (who's pants kept falling down) starts talking to me about how when he came into the DMV, it was very crowded and now it is practically empty.

All these people at the DMV come from different walks of life (just like in the hospital I work in), but these folks weren't there because they were sick or were visiting someone who was sick. It was interesting watching all of these people respond to the stress that this institution provides.