I had a great weekend. I particularly liked how my Saturday turned out. I got up at around 8:45 that morning and took my shower. Then I decided to drive over to IHOP and have breakfast. I decided to go with the biscuits and eggs with sausage and sausage gravy. It was absolutely delicious. And it sounded good to me because it’s one of their few menu items that doesn’t come with pancakes. I was not in the mood for pancakes. I tend to get in moods where it’s very clear to me that I don’t want certain foods, and I try my best to listen to it. I often find there’s good reason for it after the fact.

After breakfast, I decided to run to Barnes and Noble. I love the store in Vestal. It’s quite huge. It’s not as impressive as the two story buildings that I’ve heard stories about. But it has a lot of books in stock. So I ended up doing some window shopping, which turned into a shopping spree of way too much money. I’m glad that I don’t go to the Vestal Barnes and Noble very often. If I did, I’d be broke. But I found some excellent reading material, including an unabridged copy of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked on tape. I started listening to it yesterday.

After that, I went back to my hotel room and read for a while. At around 1pm, I decided that it was time to think about food. I decided that Applebee’s was a block or so away, so I decided to walk there. As I went, I decided to walk some extra distance (around the entire plaza Applebee’s is in) in order to make a full twenty minute walk. Hey, I decided that I might as well get my exercise in, too. In fact, I did a lot of walking on Saturday. In all, I know for sure that I walked over forty minutes total that day. Go me!

When I got done with my walk, I decided I didn’t want to go to Applebee’s, though. Instead, I decided I was in the mood for Chinese, so I hit the buffet in the same plaza. I think I mainly wanted it because of the beef and broccoli. I’ve been wanting more vegetables again, and I’m tired of raw vegetables. I think I might look into having more stir fries for meals.

After lunch, I decided to go for a soak in the jacuzzi. That was highly enjoyable. And then after that, i decided to go for a drive around the Vestal and Binghamton areas. I’m trying to learn those areas better. I’d really like to know where I am and how to get where I want to go. I mean, usually, I just have Mike drive while we’re together. But it’d be nice if I could get around when I’m not with him. So I’m working on improving that.

Other than that, I just relaxed the rest of the day. It was quite nice. I had the curtains in the hotel room open for most of the day, too. I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m not getting enough sunlight. On Saturday, I was very energized and relaxed, and I think a lot of it has to do with how much time I spent in the sun. So I might have to make some lifestyle changes there. I’m also looking at seeing if putting those “full spectrum light bulbs” in my computer room would help a bit. I don’t think I can rely on that alone, but maybe it would at least help my motivation enough to get me out of the house to get some real sunlight.

I also think I gained a bit of insight into my struggle to exercise. For some stupid reason, my brain fights the idea because I feel like it’s an “obligation.” I know that’s stupid, but it’s true. So I need to find a way to make it an enjoyable thing. More than that, I need to make it something I want to do. I had absolutely no problem walking all that time in Vestal.

Of course, part of that is because I was walking someplace. I wasn’t just going for a twenty minute trek around a walking path, or weaving through the mall for twenty minutes. I was going for a stroll to eat lunch. Or I was walking over to the gas station to get a couple liters of water. Or I was walking to the drug store to get some odds and ends I forgot. I can handle that so much better. Too bad there’s no place to walk to here at home. Well, there’s the gas station, but that’s three miles away.

I’ll have to figure something out.