Booze may have been involved.

A fear I, and I assume most people who lose weight would, have is will I put the weight back on. I've lost weight before. And I've put it back on before. I know it is always possible, but this time has been different. Whatever reasons I had for losing weight before have all been muted by the thundering roar of DO THIS OR YOU WILL HAVE SURGERY AND YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. Losing weight hasn't been about vanity or a mild sense of needing to be more healthy. It's been imperative. My life will already never been the same. This thing with my back... it's NEVER going away. It is something I will always have to be conscious of no matter what I do. But, if it's a choice of being aware of limitations and actually having limitations, I'll take the former.

Wait, what does this have to do with t-shirts? Oh yeah. So as I've been losing weight, my clothes have become baggy. People at work have been very helpful in pointing this out. "Stop wearing those jeans. They look awful on you." This kind of bluntness only makes me want to wear the jeans more to spite them, until they are practically falling off me.

For a few weeks, I've been going through my closet and sorting out the ones that no longer fit. Mostly this is for practical reasons. If it doesn't fit why still have it around? But also I've followed Daniel's lead that if I can only wear what I own, I can't afford to put weight back on. (Which is of course bullshit because I have to buy new clothes to replace my old clothes, but you know what I mean.)

I'm a t-shirt & jeans kind of guy, therefore I have a ton of t-shirts. And while I've been happy to part with the super baggy ones or just plain worn-out ones, there are some I just can't quite part with.

Old School Blogger T-Shirt

This is old. WAY old. Back when one of the dudes who invented Twitter was one of the dudes who invented Blogger before he sold it to Google for a bazillion dollars. Before the rounded the corners of the logo and changed the typeface.

I actually have two of these and both have bleach stains on them. I usually wear them when I clean and do laundry.

Vote for Pedro T-Shirt

Someone gave this to me for my birthday. I wore it to be ironic. And on Cinco De Mayo.

Cowgirl T-Shirt

I love everything about this shirt. It's brown. It's got a cowgirl on it. A cowgirl in a short skirt and thigh high boots. She's flipping you off. Her belt buckle has a skull on it. PURE HOTNESS!

Eskimo Lisa

Back when the Purple Tape was a rarity, Lisa Loeb found a bunch and bundled them with a bunch of stuff from her website's store. I bought one of these packs for the tape. It came with a mouse pad, pens, postcards, stickers, keychains and this t-shirt.

WWJD for a Klondike Bar?

Or for that matter, what would you do?

Ze Frank T-Shirt

I have two Ze Frank shirts. I'm not sure what happened to the other one. It may be at Goodwill already. This one is based on his advice giving, confidence building character of yore.

7:23 AM

Morning stuff.

7:34 AM

Lunch & snacks (although I ended up eating out.)

8:41 AM

Today's sock.

9:28 AM

Hello there Valentine.

1:23 PM

Dudley Do-Right to the rescue.

1:30 PM

Another Valentine!

1:30 PM

A country girl.

1:37 PM

Valentine's ink.

3:19 PM

Silly stuff.

4:52 PM

Fake scrabble.

5:34 PM

Friday traffic.

8:36 PM

Really tired.

Dear Pita Jungle,

Please hurry up and open so I will never have to buy groceries again.

Me love you long time.

Sincerely,
Brian

This post is brought to you by the word AWESOME!

5:04 AM

I go to the gym really freakin' early to get it out of the way.

6:03 AM

I'm embarrassed how many times I've listened to this trashy song. ("Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk.")

6:13 AM

I saw this button this weekend and it demanded to be purchased for my coworker, Holly.

10:58 AM

Holly with said button. Holly is pure awesome.

12:45 PM

Meredith is a bit camera shy when eating beet salad.

12:53 PM

Homer gave me this Mr. Potato Head for my birthday. Mr. Potato Head's wardrobe has grown exponentially over the last several months.

3:19 PM

Jessica gave Mr. Potato Head a makeover.

5:10 PM

My car is filthy.

After work, I went to the 99 Cents Store.

5:48 PM

No comment.

5:56 PM

¡Las Totally Awesome!

6:54 PM

The whole reason I went to the 99 Cents Store.

Notice the font is the same as my logo?

6:59 PM

Me and my awesomely offensive new hat.

Sadly, Brad passed away recently at the age of 41. Very sad news indeed.

Brad blogged less and less, but his humor lived on via Twitter.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Graham. Thanks for all the LOLs.

So here's what I'll say. 2009 wasn't so bad. By all accounts, it should have been. My cat died. My body broke and now I have to deal with that for the rest of my life.

And yet as the year was closing out, all I could think about is how happy I've been lately. I started a job at the beginning of the year and hey guess what... I'm still there. I visited Gayle in Chicago and totally fell in love with that city. I made some new friends near and far. I learned to appreciate the ones I have even more.

Cobban said today that happiness is a choice. He is so right about that. Even in times of grief and great pain, light and joy can be found.

So here's to 2010, now matter how you want to say it.

Cheers.

Today was Ugly Christmas Sweater day at work. Unfortunately, we found this out on Monday and guess what... all the ugly Christmas sweaters have all been snatched up.

So I improvised with a hat.

Srsly... why does this Santa Hat have black trim instead of white? The tag said "Adult Santa Cap." I'm guessing the emphasis is on adult.

I feel the hat Aretha Franklin wore at the inauguration and this fetching cap bookend the year quite nicely.

Happy Holidays y'all!

I'm too tired to caption as well. Sowwy.

Last night was the All Souls Procession in Tucson. This was my fourth year going. It was also the twentieth year for the procession.

It. Was. Pure. Awesome.

I love, love, love this parade. The people. The costumes. The alters. The memorials. The community. Everything about it rocks.

John came with me this year. We had an impromptu photo shoot in Homer's back yard.

Usually Homer & I carry signs about current politics, but this year, I made a sign for Elliott to take.

I saw some friendly, familar faces.

And met some new ones. Meet Jessica.

After I took their picture she asked, "Are you cheap blue guitar?" I don't know why but that always throws me. She was lovely and their costumes were terrific.

I focused more on the people this year. The alters are beautiful and I love the stuff people make, but the people bring such a great energy to this event. People celebrating loved ones who have passed away. Celebrating their community. Celebrating each other. It is truly one of the most beautiful things I experience.

There are tons more pictures on Flickr, or you can see them below.

Let's take a look inside.

Look familiar?

A few months ago, the kind folks at This Is Why You're Fat emailed me asking me if they could use my photo for their book. I had no idea it was on their site.

When they asked me what I wanted my credit listed as, of course I used it as an opportunity for shameless self promotion.

Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas this year. :)