109 minutes and 52 seconds

It is minute 84 on hold with unemployment. I was told it could be 120 minutes, so I'm over half way there. The good news is that I am on hold. I tried calling for 20 minutes on Wednesday and the 2 times I did get through, I got "We are experiencing high call volumes, please call back." So making it through to hold-with the worst hold music ever- is  step in the right direction.  I would also like to add that speakerphone is the best invention. While on hold I caught up on last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy,  I just tuned out the terrible hold music. 

In the age of the internet, you might be wondering why I am calling unemployment and not dealing with it online. With all of the websites I have signed up with,  I swore I had chosen my own pin for my unemployment account. So after 3 attempts at logging in,  I was locked out of  my account and the only way to get it fixed is to actually speak with a representative from unemployment. This has become a pressing issue because every 2 weeks I must request my payment and starting Sunday, I have 1 week to make my request (which can be done online.) 

I am on day 5 of the calorie counting. What I do like about it, is that I can see what I am eating and where my calories are coming from. What I hate is that I am always hungry and want ice cream more than ever. Plus, I want to see how tomorrow goes at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. I have a feeling that my 1550 calories will all be liquid. 

I have been pretty successful however. The hardest part is dinner. Trying to cook for the boyfriend-Mr. Meat and Potato- and myself is somewhat of a challenge. Just making tacos proved to be more work than I had imaged. I made everything the way I normally would, but before eating, I sat down to my computer and plugged in all the nutrition info. After 10 minutes I figured that I could eat what I call a taco bowl: 1.5 servings of black beans, 2 ounces of meat, 2 tablespoons of cheese (this is actually half a serving) 1 tortilla and some salsa. What I wanted to eat was 2 tacos with a cup of cheese. How I miss the cheese. 

I was also greeted by a 7:15 am text message from my trainer. Hello? I am unemployed. This is early. Even though I spoke of "not sleeping in" I'm not getting up early either. My goal has been 8 am, which I think is perfectly sensible. My trainer gave me encouragement in my calorie logging, but also suggested I eat 10 grams of fat and 30 grams of fiber per day. The fiber's pretty easy. More fruits and veggies, we all know this. The fat part is another story. In 2 tablespoon (1 serving) of peanut butter alone there is 16 grams of fat. Granted, a lot of this fat is the good kind-polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. If I eat peanut butter I've eaten 1.5 times my days allowance! This is crazy. 

And thankfully, I made it through to unemployment. The gentleman on the other line was kind and apologetic for the wait and I have a new pin being sent out. The title of this post indicates the amount of time I spent on hold. So I will definitely be going over my cell minutes this month.