i really should be getting ready to go to the gym.

i guess all it takes is putting my shoes and sock on. i think i can do that and be there 18 minutes.

push play on the ipod to the right. its gonna play my new favorite song for right now.

k, so, i know how much i talk about brandi carlile. but serious guys, she is UH-MAZING!

so, she came to Red Butte in july. then 3 weeks later announced that she would be at The State Room in September. the minute they went on sale, i got my ticket. i am glad. she sold out in a hour. now, there were only 300 tickets available, but still.

so, she was scheduled to come on tuesday the 14th. and she did.

but she came on the MONDAY and SUNDAY before!!!!

she was supposed to open for sheryl crow in vegas and reno, but SC got the poopies.

so, she canceled.

so brandi was like- " hey, lets go see our besties in the SLC."

i couldnt go to sunday, but I went to monday with nikki and joni. then AGAIN on tuesday with joni, nikki, nancy, nicole, jen and lindsay.

i knew that i was going to have to be all crazy and get in line at like 2. doors opened at 7. So that is what i did. and sure enough, there were like 9 chairs in front of me.

but that was cool. i knew that we would still get front left of the stage. yup, bellies to the stage.

that is my new favorite thing. going stupid early to concerts and waiting in line. i made lots of new friends. and i am sure that there were people that wanted to punch me in throat too. but whatev, i made friends with some pretty groovy people. however, they thought i was a lesbian. in all fairness, most people that see brandi ARE lesbians. cuz she is a freakin HOT lesbian herself. and she is an uhmazing singer/songwriter. oh, then, when we were starting to actually go in to the venue, like 7 little glammed out chics decide that they are going to butt in front of us. I wasnt having it. i was mouthy that night. i was pissed. so i took jonis hand and we made our way in front of them. i had one person (that wasnt with the glamm's) ask me if i was trying to butt in front of her. I said "no, im just taking my place back. you were 15 people behind me 20 minutes ago..." nothing she could say about that. she understood. but then i got some stink eyes and wispering from the glamms. so out loud, and a little passive aggresivley, i say to joni ***get ready for some real language*** "i want them to say something to me. i can break their skinny asses over my knee."

i thought that was original. and it shut them up. :)

i had one of my new friends ask me how i met a mutual friend of ours. i tried to explain, and her girlfriend said "wait, arent you her partner?" i said "na, my husband might feel weird about that....at first. but mostly he would get pissed cuz i wouldnt want to take pictures...and then there is my daughter....it might confuse her...."

she went bright red. she apologized.

i dont see a reason to apologize. i told her not to worry about it. would she apologize if she thought i was with another man? nope. please dont think that i would be embarassed if someone thought i was a lesbian. that would indicate that is something to be ashamed of. not in my world. besides, i have many people in my life that are gay, and i love them the mostest.

anywhoooo

brandi said happy birthday to joni cuz we screamed it to her.

she winked at nikki, AGAIN.

she winked at her on monday too when she asked for requests and nikki requested a new song that isnt on any albums yet. so she said ok, and winked at nikki.

oh.

be still my heart.

so after the concert on tuesday, they werent going to come sign autographs. but we knew that they go to the bayou after their shows. so we went there to get something to eat.

they werent there.

but when we were going back to the state room parking lot, we saw that the bus was still there...and there she was. there was brandi.

(they couldnt have left if they wanted to though. nikki was parked in front of the bus...bwahahahahaha)

so i had nothing for them to sign.

damn!

wait, i have my big wheel shirt on.

you know, white shirt with a blue neck and blue 3/4 sleeves.

they can sign my shirt!!

first i had allison (her drummer) sign my shirt. on my chest. (not boobs)

then i had josh, the cellist sign my back, then katie herzig (opening act) and her bass payer sign my back. then brandi signed the right side of my chest.

seriously, one of the BEST nights of my life.....as far as concerts go.

please check her out.

you will love her too.

and if you dont, thats ok, then i dont have to get all ninja on your ass when you are in front of me in line.

pssst... im listening to her now.

alisa

i just realized that i never did tell you about the biker that hit my car.

maybe tomorrow. between the party, massage, cleaning and yard work.

OH! AND i cant find my gym key card!!!

NOT COOL!

I'm not going to apologize this time for not blogging for so long.

Only because it seems that I apologize all the time.

Kinda like when you "love" everything, you "love" nothing.

If I apologize about the same thing all time, I really must not be sorry.

So I am not apologizing out of technicality.

That works.

I wish i had my camera with me, rather that in some random pocket of my husbands, as he is hunting. I wanted to post pictures of our Yellowstone trip.

It was grand!

I got some great pictures of Grace fly fishing for the first time. She LOVED it.

I also wanted to show you the little country cabin we stayed in while in Cooke City Montana. Cooke City is GORGEOUS! Such rugged country. I could post the pictures of all the bison we saw, but really, you see one buffalo, you've seen 'em all.....right?

I will save that post for sometime in October when I see my husband again.

(Hunting season)

So, I mentioned before that I started my 3rd(!!!) round of hell..er HCG. Maybe I didn't mention it.

Well, I did.

I was pumped. I knew that I could do it. The first time was such a success. The second time was, until I went to Oregon and put everything I saw in my mouth. YES! Everything!

"Hello Eggs benedict with crab on top"....in my mouth

"Hello anything sweet, salty, crunchy, gooey.."......in my mouth

"Hello pretzel on the floor of our rented cougar car (HHR)".....in my mouth

"Hello Pine smelling car freshener"...in my mouth

It was bad. Oh Lord, It was bad.

So, 3rd round. PUMPED! I can do this! My cousin was doing it with me. It always makes it easier for me when someone does it with me. Well, wait, not when my husband did it with me on my second round. No NOT EASIER. HARDER. PAINFUL!!! The protocol that we were following was stricter than a lot of them out there. No mixing veggies, and less veggies to choose from.

So he would ask "Can we have broccoli?"

Me:"No"

Husband:"Why?"

Me:"I don't know, it just says"

Husband:"So your just going to do what someone tells you to with out knowing why?"

Me:"Normally, NO. However, in this case, yes"

Husband:"Thats stupid we cant have broccoli. I don't understand why we cant have broccoli"

Me:"Go argue with the dead doctor if you want to then...GOSH!"

Never doing that with my husband again.

Anyway. A few things I learned this round:

1- Im stronger than I thought

2- I HATE CABBAGE! I thought we could reconcile from our nasty break up in round one. We tried it this time. Im sorry, but you just cant fake chemistry. It was awkward. It was uncomfortable. There will be no more cabbage for this girl.

3- It is possible to go out of town, and do HCG. It takes HOURS of prep and more control than anyone should ever have to muster up. I had to muster it up from every corner of my body. I drained it from my finger nails.

4- NEVER GO ON TRIPS WHILE ON HCG!!!! ( I went on two and never cheated)

5- Hcg has served me well. And it is time to bid farewell.

So, no, I didn't make it to 23 days. More like 18. I lost 12 lbs. Im cool with that. However, as I was on my last trip, I read The Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno. I have read her other book. And I really enjoyed this one. I enjoyed it so much! I was so inspired! I was so excited to get going on it. That is why I dumped HCG. Eating Clean is a lifestyle. Hcg is not. So I wanted to take advantage of my excitement to implement this right away.

Tosca talks about eating 6 times a day. This is not a new concept to most of us. However, I bet most of us don't do it. She talks about portions of protein, grains and complex carbs. She talks about how important all of those are. And, she says DONT COUNT CALORIES!! Holy scare the bejezus outta me!! Do you know how long I have been counting calories????? Its my wooby. It really is.

Oh yeah, and she tells you NOT TO WEIGHT YOURSELF?

WHHHHAAAAAA????? I am not familiar with the concept. I cant drop that cold turkey.

I cant.

I will weigh myself weekly. Then I will wean myself from that and weigh monthly. But, I am going to trust her on the calorie counting thing.

Since I AM on phase three of HCG. (This is where I have no sugar and no starches) I cant implement all of the foods she talks about. Ya know, most of the grains and some of the veggies. However, I am doing the rest of it.

Now, the gym is not a new concept to me either. In fact before Oregon, I was going almost every morning. but since Oregon, I just choose to let them take money out of my account on a monthly basis. Well, I went back this last week. I have a routine now though. That is what I was missing before. I go 3 days a week for now. I do 1/2 hour of cardio. (The elliptical) Then I do a half hour of strength training.

Mondays I work on my core.

Wednesdays I work my legs.

Fridays I work my upper body.

Then after every work out, I have a high protein smoothie to repair my muscle.

When building muscle, you do it as if your muscle is the new army recruit and you are the drill sergeant. You break it down, and then build it back up . That is what happens to your muscles when you work them. You are shredding them. That is why it is so important that you have a protein shake, or something of the sorts, after you work them out. That protein helps build them back up. That is why you are sore after a work out, Specifically strength training. So, sore is good. Just not debilitating sore.

Anywho, the reason why I am concentrating on strength training and not just cardio is that I want to flip metabolism.

Building muscle will get my metabolism working for me even more so (I would imagine its close to out of batteries right now) when I am not even working out. The more lean muscle mass you have, the better working metabolism you have.

So- I am diggin' this. It isn't a HUGE lifestyle change for me. Really, we eat pretty dang clean in my house. In fact, today, I am cleaning out my pantry. We RARELY eat out of cans and never out of boxes or bags. I will move all these things down to our food storage.

I am excited, because I will be able to use most of my pantry for storing other things for the kitchen that I seem to have run out of room for.

WAHOO!!

I am thinking that I will start another blog that is mainly about my eating and my working out.

I will see.

Obviously I have a hard enough time taking care of one blog. Why would I take on two?

Ya know how in high school for one of your classes they have you carry around a bag of flour and act like it is a baby for a week. This is a sorry attempt to get high school kids to have some sort of idea about how hard it is to be a parent.....TO A SACK OF FLOUR....??

Anyway, they should have that for people who are thinking of having blogs. Something to help you determine if you are adult enough, responsible enough and willing to put in the time to a blog.

Clearly I would have left my sack of flour on top of my car at least a dozen times by now.

I'll have to think about this.

Have some super days.

Alisa