And so it begins today. Pushing the envelope. Breaking new ground. Doing things my way. Being an only child, that concept seems to be intrinsic, but I'm about to apply it to my off season, photo shoot, and competition prep. Last night marked the end of freedom in terms of food but this morning marked a new beginning. With the refrigerator stocked full of steak, egg whites, potatoes, asparagus, squash, grapefruits, chicken, and broccoli and the pantry filled to the brim with oatmeal, tuna, and Splenda (I'm a Splenda junkie), my arsenal isn't lacking. I did have to grab some diet vanilla Cokes and a bottle of diet root beer (that was after my friend, Jen Kersten, mentioned drinking diet root beer one evening on Messenger, and I thought, "I miss that stuff!" Root beer used to be my absolute favorite soft drink, and I was hardly ever allowed to drink those, so they were truly a treat.). It's a little trick I've learned to curb the sweet tooth late at night. But those do get cut out one week before a photo shoot and a couple of weeks before a show. Remember, any carbonated beverage will dehydrate you, so up the water in equal amounts.

Several things are on the agenda for today: job hunting on www.monster.com, trekking over to Half Price books to clear my floor that is now being cluttered by boxes of books (would you believe, my shelves are still full?), getting under the bar and belting out some squats and doing a majorly difficult leg workout all in the name of not walking tomorrow, and heading over to the local animal shelter and seeing if there's a little kitten that meows my name. Yep...it's time for a pet. I haven't been able to decide between a dog or a cat, and my friend, Amanda Savell, has been trying to convince that a little puppy would be adorable for me. Maybe. But I would love to have a kitten, with the sandpaper tongue and fuzzy fur and little whiskers and pink nose and padded paws and tiny voice. Growing up, we had a German Shepard named Brandy, who was six months older than I and was my furry sister. We had to put her to sleep when I was 15, so she lived a long and good life, but my mom began collecting cats right about that time as well. And when I say collecting...I mean collecting! We ended up with eight cats at one point! Anyway, my mom is now down to one as the others passed away. But those pets were really my mother's babies, so I'm wanting one of my own. It would be wonderful to have something sit in my lap while I work at the computer (no...I'm not taking applications...lol!).

Okay...so you see, my day is quite full. So I'm off!

Jodi