Welcome.

I have wanted to start a blog for awhile. The problem was, I could never settle on a theme. What was my blog going to be about? I had a few ideas in my head...about my weight and losing it, about finding easy delicious healthy-ish recipes, about shopping, about bargains, about my blooming photography business, about adventures with my best friend who I fondly call my wife, about being a new mother, about the complicated feelings that come from being the daughter of a stage 4 lung cancer survivor/patient....so I finally decided today on the 4 hour drive home from "the island", which you will soon hear more about...it will be about all of these things. Why should I have to choose? I want the main gist of it to be about losing weight, sort of to track my process and keep me motivated, but the rest of the things I listed are my life, so why should they be excluded?

I am a little nervous...I plan to give this blog URL to only a few "real-life" people....but what if I'm found out? I plan to reveal my current weight and my current problems and my current fears....what if someone "finds" me? But you know what? Screw it. If they don't like it, they can suck it. (here's where I mention that there will be some obscenities on this blog. Just warning you.) I have always liked to write, and I find it therapeutic to write about whatever I'm going through at the time.

I chose the name of this blog because originally it was going to be about weight loss. "Lighten Up" can be about many things, though...weight, recipes, spending, feeling insecure or sad.

Eventually there will be product reviews and giveaways. Assuming I can get an Internet following that is more than my Wife. By the way, my Wife is having a baby girl on Thursday!!! That's right, she grew a wife for my 10 month old son. Very exciting stuff. I had a C-section with my son, and as far as we know, Wife is having an induced labor, so I am very nervous for her. Very different experience. I wish I could pass along some wisdom regarding going through labor, but all I can really say is "Dude, I went through 2 hours of it and it hurt a bit and then they cut him out of me." (also, I'm blunt. Get used to that, too.)

So, here are some things about me.

LIKES
 - bacon
 - casinos
 - gambling
 - binge eating
 - binge drinking
 - binge anything, really
 - writing
 - reading (faves include Wally Lamb, Douglas Coupland and Tawni O'Dell)
 - photography
 - travel
 -"Jersey Shore"
 - the internet
 - baseball
 - thrift shopping
 - true crime
 - crafts. But not scrapbooking. Or knitting. Or crocheting or sewing. OK, basically I glue things to other things.
 - antiquing/flea markets/rummage sales
 - my family
 - fireplaces
 - "Teen Mom"
 - being an aunt to three beautiful little girls
 - chili cheese dip
 - "Word Warp" on my iphone
 - light beer
 - owls
 - staying in crappy hotel rooms
 - mustard
 - STFU Parents

DISLIKES

 - mayonnaise
 - Dave Matthews Band
 - tequila
 - science fiction
 - capris
 - Crocs
 - Twilight
 - the word "moist"
 - beans
 - when you wake up and you think it's like 1am but it's actually 7am and you have to get up
 - the movie "Inception" and the hoopla surrounding it
 - snakes
 - Mexico
 - the smell of lavender
 - Minneapolis
 - Kindles
 - movies that involve time travel because I get so damned confused.
 - recycling (I'm really endearing myself to you, aren't I?)
 - Josh Groban
 - Lady Gaga
 - overdrafting my checking account

I think that's it for my first blog post. I hope you want to keep reading. Sorry if I offended you with that Mexico thing. It's nothing personal. It's not you, it's me.