Nancy H.
I am, at this moment, still a 53 year old high-school English teacher from Long Beach. My grandparents settled in Long beach when they were quite young, so I consider myself a third generation 'Go Beach'er. I am a soon-to-be-published-in-a-high-quality journal poet. I have been fat for half my life, but not the way most people claim it. I do what I have always called 'click on and off.' When I am clicked on, I want no food at all. When I was younger, I would live on 3-6 hundred calories a day and be just fine. I just don't want any foods that are bad for me. Once i stayed clicked on for 9 years and it was great. But usually the cycles last from 2-4 years. When I click off, I suddenly am starving all the time. It is immediate. I can click on just as fast. One day I can scarf down half a box a Cheese-its, and the next day I click on and the other half of the box is still there six months later. Or one day I am eating portabello mushrooms, all roasted and marinated and the next day I click off and want only french fries and tuna melts. I have tried evrything I can think of, but I really think it is something wierd in my body chemistry or brain. I have a very unstable chemical system, and maybe this is all part of it. All I know is I am tired of it and it must end or I will die.
Other than my food/weight issues, I am a pretty happy person. I stay pretty busy with teacher stuff. I think if I wasn't a teacher, I would be an event planner because I love planning conferences and conventions, so I serve on both the local and state boards. Then I have a large, very active community-service club at my school and I keep them out in the community fixing houses, doing crafts with preschoolers, baking cookies for the homeless and providing for the poor in Paramount where I teach. I also shepard a book club that began at my church but is open to anyone. We read a book a month and have compiled a very good list of good books - some thanks to Oprah who I am beginning to look at a bit differently these days.
I love all things arts and crafts - especially high quality - and my favorite thing to do is peruse art fairs like the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica. I am a big fan of wearable art and I can't wait to be skinny enough to buy a bunch of it. Compulsive shopping, here I come.
I love the beach and travel and I have never wanted to live anywhere but Long Beach (I grew up a valley girl). I am a total extrovert so I need/want people around me all the time. So if any of you want to join me at anything, let me know. Lori (I am her angelette) thinks I will be starting up all kinds of groups just as soon as I have my surgery. I want to walk and swim and roller skate. Anyone up for it...in six months maybe....
