Local Spending in April

I hadn't done a survey of my local spending--or an accompanying map--since near the start of this blog two years ago, so I decided to do one in April. Here's where I spent my money locally in April:

If these places were sized on a map relative to how much money I spent, here's what the map would look like:

Etienne--great food, first time I'd eaten there. But it's a bit above my usual price range, so I doubt I'll return anytime soon. Credit an acquaintance with blowing my entertainment budget for the month.

Places Heather Has Been Sited

My friend Heather requested to be part of a chart on my blog, so here it is.

I live in what is in some ways a small town, even though well over one hundred thousand people live here. What I mean by that is that within certain circles, one tends to come across certain people with a degree of regularity. Hence, you'll meet someone who you might well have met many times in the past but never really registered as more than a face.

Back toward the end of March, I met a gal who I didn't recognize at first as someone I already sort of knew. The reason: She was wearing glasses, which I'd never known her to do before. She is someone who skates in similar circles. I'd seen her play in a band a friend of mine was in, and I'd seen her play one or two solo shows when she was playing among a list of other musicians I knew. Finally, I'd seen her a few times--and been introduced to her or vaguely hung out on the edge of shared conversations with her among shared acquaintances--at a bar I frequent. She struck me as an attractive woman I would likely not have much in common with. I don't know exactly how I came to that assessment, since we'd probably exchanged all of two sentences in the years I'd known (of) her. Perhaps, it's that I'm a personally very conservative person, while most of the people I have contact with in town trend pretty liberal (that said, most of my nonchurch friends are fairly liberal and many of them would say I'm liberal too--I guess much just depends on how one assesses these things; I tend to feel like an leftist oddball among religious people and a rightest oddball among the artistic crowd I often mix with).

So in March, I went to see a performance of Indonesian-like music at the college music hall, mostly because a band I like called Electrophoria was among the participants. Heather struck up a conversation with me as I walked into the hall. Should I sit with her? I wondered. Well, why not? Neither of us were with people, a friend of mine having turned me down for the event. I'm glad of that, since it meant I got to spend the evening getting to know her. It was only after she mentioned being a musician that I realized who I was talking with, that I already kind of knew her, and that we had a ton of friends in common. And it was only after talking with her--spending time with her, at a bar after the show--that I realized that we actually had more in common than I'd have imagined and that my assumptions about her had locked me out of what might have been an interesting friendship much earlier (though, fact is, I probably wouldn't have had the guts to talk with her anyway).

Anyway, since that evening in March, I've had several more occasions to run into Heather or hang out with her, and it's been a joy each time. Heather is this incredible combination of sweetness, cuteness, strong-headedness, quirkiness, and, well, funness (is that a word?). I'm glad I've gotten a chance to get to know her and to spend time with her. Below is a map of places at which Heather and I have been present at the same time:

Typical Weekday Meals by Food Group

I've been reading a bit about food habits lately. I need to incorporate more vegetables into my diet, as I've long known. I tend probably to overdo the carbs. Here's a typical breakdown of breakfast, lunch, and dinner:

By contrast, the breakdown should look like this:

That grain side should be even with the fruits and vegetables side, and the meat and dairy should be even with each other (although I do tend to think Americans generally overdo the eating of meat).

Approximate Weight over My Life

Unlike for some people, becoming overweight has not been a problem for me, but I do find that as I'm aging, my weight does increase, such that one day it could be a problem. During my early years, I basically gained ten pounds each year, but I hit a plateau around high school and stayed there until just after high school; after gaining ten pounds in my early adulthood, I lost it when I moved out on my own. One-twenty was way too thin, but I couldn't put weight on. Slowly, over the years, it moved back to 130 and then 135.

I hadn't weighed myself in years and had always been skinny, so when I discovered that, somehow, I'd gotten up to 150 pounds, I was shocked. I actually put myself on a diet for a while, counted calories, got down to about 140. These days, I don't really count; I just try to get enough exercise and to not eat too much sugar. My weight seems to hover around 145, which is about right for my height and body type. I do feel a bit nervous about that, though, knowing I could easily creep up beyond what I should be if I'm not careful enough. All weights below are approximate.