diet or die?

I am going to save my own life. Andrew told me when I was a kid that I needed to take care of myself because no one else would. I had no idea that he was not being crass. I had no idea that our relatives on his side of the family were completely without worth and would never be there for anyone but them.

For my physical health I have started the zero-calorie Herbivorous Rex diet which consists of: fruit for breakfast, salads for lunch and dinner; milk, water, and orange juice to drink. I need to incorporate protein but I also need to start dropping ten pounds a month. I also need to avoid carbohydrates.

This diet is not just cutting out unhealthy food, but unhealthy people and attitudes. I started this morning by ditching the teacher�s lounge and with luck will be able to avoid it completely. The women I teach with are competent teachers, excellent teachers but they can be really negative. All teacher�s lounges are like toilets, people just go in there to expel waste and since I do not want to be waste deep in the waste of others I will avoid the room where they keep the waste. This goes for the break room at my part-time job. It says in the Bible, wherever two or more are gathered gossip is there also. Well, it does not say that in the Bible but it should.

I have to stop using foul language. I can describe things without language I do not accept in my classroom. I will make the exception for the occasional, �bitch, please,� because that is my signature obscenity or interjection.

I have to stop entertaining the conversations of people who cause me stress. I am going to stop responding to comments and emails from people who cause me stress. Why bother with internerds? I am enough of an internerd for a million people.

Tomorrow night I am starting the great weight loss challenge. Send in your start weight with a fake name you want to use (if you�re not into using your real name) and update us every month with your progress. We will see who is smaller (by percent) by May. I hope this works out.