Gagarin and Vonnegut

I got an email on one of my homeschooling lists this morning saying something about how Google was celebrating Yuri Gagarin today and the woman sending it didn't know who that was. She's older than me and an RN, btw. I am frequently stunned by the lack of knowledge in the college educated public about people, events, history, geography, and even current news items that seem like basic knowledge to me. Don't people remember anything from school? Or have any intellectual curiosity at all? They aren't getting exceptionally stupid people for that "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" show, are they? Just regular folks who never think beyond their own little daily routines. Not that I know everything, by any means, but I know who Yuri Gagarin is.

In other news, Kurt Vonnegut died. That makes me really sad. His book of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House is one of my favorite books ever and I found Cat's Cradle deeply affecting when I read it as a teenager. Maybe I'll head down to the book store and pick up some Vonnegut I haven't read and start on it this week as my own little tribute.

Taking care of me

I'm down another pound this week, which makes 11 altogether, I believe. I didn't do so well on my diet while we were on vacation, but I got back to it the minute we got back. I think part of my success this time is getting straight back to it whenever I have a failure, rather than saying "Screw it, I already messed up, so why not get a sundae too. And some fries." I'm still hoping to lose 13 more pounds within a couple of months. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but maybe I can do it. It's something aim for anyway. I have a dress hanging up in the back of my closet that I thought was pretty hot on me when I weighed about 5 pounds less than I do now and I'd love to be able to wear it to an something again sometime.

I also re-dyed my hair this week (a medium auburn) and took care of those roots, which were getting bad. I'm getting a noticible amount of grey at my temples too and that's hidden now. Eventually, when it gets too bad I'll probably just dye it all silver and hope it looks striking, but I'm not quite ready for that yet. Tomorrow, on payday, I think I'll go get my hair trimmed too. It's growing pretty fast for some reason, which is good for the back (where I like it long) but causes my bangs to look kind of unkempt. I've toyed with getting a more updated trendy hairstyle like my friend Jill has, but I talked it over with the stylist last time and she said the way it's cut now is very flattering to my face and also easy maintenance, and I should probably just stick with that.

I think I need some jeans a size smaller, but for now I'm just cinching my belt up tight because I'm hopeful that I'll lose more and I don't want to buy a bunch of intermediate sizes. If I reach my goal (and have the $$) I'll treat myself to a few new things all at once. I'm glad both my motorcycle jackets (a summer one and a winter one) are more or less adjustable because I don't want to have to replace those at $100 apiece. And a lot of my hippie girl skirts have elastic waists, so I can still wear those.

Ok, enough about my narcissism...