"Hey, It's My Birthday, Too!"

Tonight I finally met a number of lovely ladies who entertain me on a regular basis. In fact, some have been doing so for over a year now. Yes, more Internet friends. Call me lame, but what did you do tonight? I had a margarita, Mexican food, and laughs with friends, so there.

Upon seeing (and hearing) another patron being serenaded (I use the term "serenaded" loosely) by a mess of Mexican men, 10YearsTogether informed a waiter, "Hey, it's my birthday, too!" She gestured to the festive bag I'd brought her. This revelation to the waiter resulted in this:
And just what was in the festive bag that yielded a giant sombrero, singing, and free flan?

If you don't know why this is funny, you'll just have to remain in the dark. If I told you, it just wouldn't be as funny. Ok. Here's a clue. And 10Years was slightly more jazzed about the keyboard than the above photo would lead you to believe. See?
Kudos to Wan for the idea and being my partner in crime. Sorry I didn't have time to get a Barbie pink keyboard!

My e-pals were even prettier in real life than in photos I'd previously seen. I felt rather pudgy the whole time. It didn't help that laundry issues resulted in my having to don an oh-too-tight shell that I hadn't worn in nearly two years. Back fat and rolls galore. Ugh.

Alas, OC was too hot for me to keep my suit jacket on to cover up all the blubber, which was what I'd done all day at work. (I went to Moreno's directly from my client's office.)

This picture confirms that my fatty boombalatty feeling wasn't unfounded. Now I know why there was this beeping noise every time I backed up.
While at dinner, I didn't eat any chips, guacamole, or rice. I ordered chicken in mole sauce, and I scraped off most of the sauce, even though the mole was yummers. I boxed up about half of my meal. I also resisted sampling some of 10Years' unbirthday flan.

My usual practice would be to eat an entire of basket of chips by myself, accompanied by a vat of guac, followed by gorging on mountains of rice. Not to mention, in an ideal world in which calories didn't count, I'd eat four tacos in addition to lard-laden refried beans smothered with melted mounds of cheese.

Too bad I actually used to eat like this in our world, where calories do count.

When I got home, I rode my elliptical for an hour. And, to tell you the truth, I'm hungry again, but it's midnight, and I really shouldn't eat anything. Boo.

According to the L.A. Times, obesity is contagious. Apparently, if your friends are fat, you are three times as likely to get fat, too. I hope the converse is true, although the article says nothing about the effects of having thin friends.

In any event, this particular group of girls is very good at losing weight, and they do it in a non-crazy healthful manner, so, even if having thin friends may or may not make it more likely that I'll be thin, at least having these thin friends -- 10Years in particular -- will motivate me to lessen the wide load.