Devana

Green, I have on occasion bought those little bags of 80 to 100 cal Cookies of rice cakes or whatever, and munch on a couple when I feel peckish. I can make a bag last all day. However, my knucklehead son likes them too and can scarf a bag down in seconds flat. I have to hide my bag.

Karey, good work! You look wonderful! And you look really good for over 50, girl. Are you sure there wasn't some mistake on your birth certificate??????

I remember a few years ago a friend, who is about 10 years older than me, told me that she felt she was becoming invisible as she aged. She was single, by the way, and was definitely looking for love in her life. I'm determined not to become invisible by the shear force of my personality. Stroppy bitch that I am. However, as one who put on a huge amount of weight in a few short weeks, due to a drug reaction (thankyou asshole doctor) (who, by the way, patted me on the head and told my I was eating too much due to cabin fever! I had Cushings syndrome for frick's sake!).....anyway, I experienced an amazing difference in the way people treated me. I think that if my weight had just crept up it wouldn't have been so obvious to me. I have been in so many situations where I have been ignored. Then there would be surprise when I opened mouth and said something intelligent. I've actually had people say things to me like......ah never mind, you can tell this is a rant.

As I said in my earlier post, I'm pissed off at the moment. I will NOT be discounted. Just let someone try! I would insert some appropriate facey thing here if I knew how.

Right now I'm just generally pissed off and discouraged. I'm so busy at the moment that it's difficult for me to get the time to go over for a fill. And the last one I had scared the hell out of me. I was so tight that I woke several times that first night, choking on my own saliva. But fortunately or unfortunately it was only swelling. I feel like I'm wide open again. I can eat any bloody thing I want and I do. I have not one modicum of self control. I know the whole thing about the band being a tool, definitely, however, I was hoping it would be a tool for enforced control. It will be another month before I can get over to the mainland for a fill.

This may not be a bad thing, battleweary. It's my understanding that early aggressive fills sometimes lead to problems. And we're all in this for the long haul, right?

Congratulations! Welcome to band land. Hope all continues to go well for you.

Welcome Missy. I don't think it's too soon to start a September bandsters thread, if you want to do that.

Welcome, Angel!

Practically speaking, what do people think should be done? I don't feel like going back over the thread and finding out how illegals there are in the US, but I remember being astounded at the number. It was in the millions, I remember. Has any government body looked at the cost-benefit balance of this situation? I understand that non taxpayers put a huge stress on the system, but is there an economic advantage in having these people present? Do people just want them out or do they want them just to pay taxes? If you want them out, how much are you willing to pay to evict millions of people and patrol the borders? This would probably be a huge cost and likely have to put a strain on other funded services like health or the military. It would also cost a lot to register and make these people legal and get them into the system. However, they would then be paying taxes legitimately. Does anyone see any value in the cultural diversity that the illegals provide?

Welcome, Beckie. Congratulations on your decision to be banded. I'm so envious of you doing this while your children are so young. My son is 14 and I want to get this weight off in time to do things together. All the best to you!

I took a communications class many years ago, in the '70's and one of the exercises we did was this: The instructor removed two people, a man and a woman, from the class and showed them a photograph. They each then independently described the picture to the class. The man described an old and lonely woman, laden with groceries, trudging home in the snow. The woman then came in and described an old woman joyously getting out on the first warm day of spring, happily walking home in the sunshine through the melting snow. Two very different perceptions. Who was "right"? I know that there are several versions of what happened back then, that differ greatly from each other.

I know, it made me want to hurl. Green, the town was Nelson BC and I believe it was within the last couple of years.

Someone once said that Canada received the "creme of American youth". There is a town in this province that was a centre for their settlement that recently arranged to have a ceremony and some sort of commemorating plaque or statue. The town wanted to acknowledge both their courage their contribution. This was all cancelled at the last minute due to hawkish pressure from both Canadians and Americans.

Ha!!!! Too funny. Me too, actually.

Welcome to LBT. Congratulations on getting to goal. Good for you!

Welcome, and congratulations on your banding.

Welcome, and congratulations on your banding. It's still early days so don't be discouraged. Things really tend to go better after the first fill.

Holy smokes, congratulations! Let us know how it went when you're able. All the best.

Welcome! That's too cool that you've had the band for this long. You may want to check out the "Fills and fill doctor" threads as well as the US local band support threads to find someone close to you for fills. Good luck with it.

Please, guys, no. We don't want a resurrection of the cheese enforcers.

I think it's entirely appropriate to have some regrets over certain decisions, whether it be to have an abortion or to not follow your lover to Timbuktu or whatever. That does not necessarily mean that that was the wrong decision for you.

I'm so curious about this guy now. I'm going to have to hunt down a program of his.

Mark, I like you more and more. I know that this is a bit of thread crossing, but I was involved with helping out the draft evaders who came up here to Canada. These were, for the most part, highly principled young men who also happened to be illegal aliens. There was a fair amount of resentment from some quarters about how much they were costing, however, now it's generally agreed that they have enriched our country to a high degree. Although not obvious at first it has been a mutually beneficial situation.

Or a Google toolbar. It has spellcheck.