All this attention is sometimes overwhelming, but it never ceases to be FUN as well!

I am Facebook friends with Cathy Blythe, who has been on our local AM Radio station, KFOR, for 35 years. She is a regular morning show host and also has a daily program called "Problems and Solutions," that airs not only on KFOR, but on 6 other radio stations in the Midwest. She saw the article about me in the local newspaper and had watched the Today show when I was on, and even though I don't really know her, she became aware of everything through my Facebook posts. I love Facebook almost as much as Spark and spend way too much time on both sites! Cathy called me a week or so ago and asked if I would mind if she called me one day on her "Open Phone" day during "Problems and Solutions," and I could talk about my weight loss and Today Show experience. I said "Sure!" She said it would be a Friday, that is the usual 'Open Phone" day. I LOVE to talk about my weight loss and write about it (as you know, if you read my blog at all), so I was looking forward to the interview.

A while back my oldest son asked if I would take my 6-year old grandson, Duncan, to school Mon-Wed. this week. It is their first week back to school, after their Christmas break, and his regular daycare provider is on vacation and won't be back until Thursday. Once again, I said "Sure." It's nice to have the freedom to say "Sure" more often, now that I am retired! Of course, they live in extreme EAST Lincoln, while I am WEST of town on an acreage. At least we are both on the SOUTH side of Lincoln, but it's still quite a ways to drive. I SET MY ALARM CLOCK yesterday. How I hated to do that.

I was up at 6, and out of the house by 6:50, in order to be at son and daughter-in-law's house by 7:20 when they leave for work. I got Duncan to school by 9 a.m., then granddaughter and I headed out to my house and had a lovely quiet day together. I had offered to let Amber spend the day with me, even though HER daycare provider is NOT on vacation. She loves to spend time with me, as I do with her. Yesterday I asked her if she wanted to go back to daycare today, or come spend another day with me and she chose ME! Makes me feel good. Of course, the fact that I cater to her every whim and let her do and eat anything she wants probably had something to do with her decision.

Amber, giving her old dog Abby, a hug this morning at her house. Abby, was groaning, and Amber wanted to help make her feel better.

This morning, the alarm went off at 6, I shut it off as I always do, and it goes off again every 4 minutes until I drag myself out of bed. Only...this morning it didn't go off again. So hubby (who has an internal alarm clock) came back upstairs about 6:45 and asked if I had "gotten out of taking Duncan to school." "NO!" I replied and hopped out of bed. I was out of the house by 6:55--not bad for an old woman!

As I was buckling Amber in her carseat to head back to my house after dropping Duncan off at school, I got a call on my cell phone and it was Cathy from the radio station, asking if it would be okay if they called me today, since they had an unscheduled "Open Phone" day. Yet again, I said "Sure!" I hurried back home and as I was getting Amber back out of her carseat here in our garage, the radio station called back.

It was a great interview, and I got to talk about Spark! Cathy seemed genuinely impressed with our little website, and I know LITTLE is not the word to describe Spark, but you know what I mean! She asked me about it again and I spelled it, and then she even mentioned it again at the end of the interview. So I got Spark some free advertising.
http://www.kfor1240.com/Prob
lems-and-Solutions/5430870
(My interview starts about 17 minutes and 20 seconds into the tape.)

Cathy was fun to talk to, I have always been a fan of hers, that's why I "friended" her on Facebook. She is about my age, maybe a year or two older, but unlike me, she has not grown tired of getting up SUPER-early (much earlier than 6 a.m. I'm sure) to go to work, and continues to be a bright spot in the morning for many people in Lincoln! I told her in an e-mail that I thought the difference in us, and the reason I wanted to retire, and she does not, was that she has had a career to enjoy, while I always just had a job. My job involved meaningful work, but it was never something that fulfilled me or gave me pleasure.

I get creative pleasure now through writing this blog. Writing has always been a passion for me, and now that I am really retired, I think I may pursue writing that book I have always talked about. I have written quite a bit of it already. I have "pinned" a few articles about publishing an e-book, and maybe I can eventually go that route. I have no elevated opinions of my writing ability, and am pretty sure I could not write an eloquent enough book that any real publisher would be interested in. But, I think my story might inspire older women and men who think it is too late for them to make a change. That has become my niche now, concentrating on 60+ year-olds, who are overweight and find that their weight is limiting their lives, as it did mine. I was unhealthy and humiliated and couldn't do any of the things that I used to love to do, because of my obesity. As I told Cathy in my interview, sometimes I am embarrassed to be getting all this attention, because I am definitely NOT proud of being so FAT for so many years. But if I could inspire someone else, then I feel like it is important to tell (and re-tell) my story!