My grandmother's hearing aids do not work. They weren't working at all when they were resting peacefully in her dresser drawer, and they weren't working when they were nestled in her ears. I discovered this when I had to repeat myself three, four, even five times, each time getting slightly louder and a bit more insistent until practically the entire restaurant could hear us. It's not her fault, except that she spent two years denying her hearing problem. In fact, she constantly accuses me of not telling her bits of information when I personally think she never heard me in the first place. And now she actually has hearing aids, but they don't work. They just magnify the background noise, which detracts from the conversation being directed her way. So, she has an appointment with the doctor on July 1st and will be getting new ones. Those will be her third pair, so we shall see if they actually work.

Anyway, we saw Terminal with Tom Hanks. Cute movie, but very predictable. I'd say if you have a couple of hours to kill and five bucks to spend, then go for it. It's a peaceful movie with some great laughs, but if you want to wait and catch it on DVD, then don't rush out to the big screen.

Next on my list of movies? Shrek 2, Spiderman 2, and The Bourne Supremacy. I'm ready for some action!

Talk about action, my mouth had a ton of it. Now stop that and get your minds out of the gutter! I meant that my grandmother and I went to an Italian restaurant, Bravo. I actually chose from the menu quite quickly. I usually take five years and annoy everyone around me with trying to decide what everyone else would like and then figuring out what I want and then changing my mind a million times. I started with the artichoke and spinach dip, but I think I ate too much of it, considering that I finished almost the whole thing. My grandmother takes a blood thinning drug and cannot have any veggies with vitamin K in them, like spinach, asparagus, broccoli, etc. So I was forced to eat the entire appetizer all by myself. It was a chore, let me tell you. But I managed to muster up courage and get through it.

I then plowed my way through my main course, which was quite delicious. Parmesan crusted Chilean sea bass with crispy potatoes and fresh spinach. There was this lobster butter sauce that I should have had on the side because it was a bit too heavy. But I scraped off as much as I could and munched on everything else. I did examine the dessert menu and saw creme brulee, which I usually love to savor, but I had it in my mind that I desired ice cream, so I dragged my poor grandmother over to the Ben and Jerry's store and proceeded to get the biggest waffle cone and ask for it to be stuffed with three different flavors of ice cream. Did you say Piggy? That's Miss Piggy to you! What were the three flavors? I thought you'd never ask! Coconut Almond Fudge, Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, and Dublin Mudslide. Okay, those sound really wierd together, but they worked. Remember, before this week I hadn't had ice cream in about two months, so you could mix dirt and worms together and mash them up into ice cream, and I'd probably be grateful and salivating. Lol! Okay, maybe that's going a bit overboard.

Well, all this food as been good for the soul. I've been going back and forth about my decision of whether or not to compete in New York, and I'm leaning further and further towards not competing. I know I already said I wasn't, but women change their minds all the time. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I really do believe I need time off. My body will look tired on the stage if I step back up there in six weeks. And what would I be competing for? My pride? My ego? A chance to erase the "what if's" that invade my mind at night? Those aren't good enough reasons. I would rather take a year off, focus on making the appropriate changes, and step on stage again next year with a major bang, the type that fireworks produce in a midnight sky on a hot summer night. I want you to hear the pop and feel the sizzle when I hit my poses. And who knows what next year will bring in terms of the criteria for figure?

Either way, I did write to the head judge, Sandy Ranalli, and asked for her opinion. I have a feeling she will tell me to take a break. One of the national judges suggested it at the Emerald Cup, and Sandy did mention that it might take a year before the appropriate size changes occur in my shoulders.

I just received the photos from the shoot I did with David Kippen. Yowza!!!! David let me borrow this really tiny, tiny, tiny gold bikini. Now, I've never thought of gold as being a good color for me, but somehow it worked with the tan and the darker hair and the green shadow on my eyes. I can't wait to see the full gallery! I should receive the CD in a few weeks. We also did video work for every outfit (except the gold bikini because we ran out of time), and I previewed a video clip he did for Mari Kudla and was quite impressed, so I can't wait to see what he creates for me.

Well, my tummy is bigger than Pooh's and my eyes are drooping more than Eeyore's moods, so I'm going to head to bed. I'll write more tomorrow!

Jodi :)