Cherry Valance and other things I want to be when I grow up...

The dishwasher is whirring its quiet and rhythmic war against its lunch dishes, and I am enjoying a cup of green tea sweetened with peace. I made lamb chops and a spinach salad for the noontime meal, and it's nice to be the friend of the late Dr. Atkins once again. I lost 55 lbs. with his diet after my baby was born, and I'm hoping I'll be successful with it again, although I don't plan to eat a lot of red meat or bacon, as is allowed on Atkins. I'm aiming for large quantities of chicken (if the bird flu doesn't take me out) and fish. It stops working after a few months, perhaps because you just can't stand to be without bread for that long and begin to fudge a little. At least that's what happened in my case. I ate oatmeal for a straight week after I finally decided that Atkins was over the first time. And I'm not even a great fan of oatmeal! I'm a cream of wheat kind of girl.

The reason for such a diet, you ask? I'm going to visit a friend in Dallas in a couple of months, and I always get inspired by vacations. No one wants to appear dowdy if one's plane crashes. Furthermore, she and I have always been excellent motivators of the other one. Even in high school, when we were on the school paper together, she wrote articles about the necessity of counting fat grams as well as calories. Years later, she still does this for the newspaper she writes for. She's always so good-natured and upbeat about the whole thing.

****

I saw the film Must Love Dogs last night, and it was nice to have a lighthearted laugh. I'm a such a bloody fool for John-Cusackian dialog anyway. There was another of his movies that I saw the other night in which he was hanged at the end--it was his only film I didn't enjoy. Who would hang John Cusack? Detestable! Oh, and did I mention Diane Lane? Ever since I saw her Cherry Valance character in The Outsiders, I've cursed fate that I didn't emerge from the womb with red hair. My mom was a red-haired, green-eyed beauty when I was born, however. I guess that will have to do.