fancy dress

this weekend marks the beginning of the major party season for me. we have my grandmother's 80th birthday brunch, a bachelorette weekend in june, a bachelorette party in june, a bridal shower in june, a wedding in july, a baby shower in july, a wedding in august, a bridal shower in august, an anniversary party in august, a MOTHERFUCKINGOVERSEASVACSATION in september, an important anniversary in september (five years. this many ::holds up hand, fingers spread::) and a bachelor/ette do in november and then a rehearsal & wedding in november. that's something like 14 parties requiring me to look nice. and i had a (LOVELY!) shower last weekend, but since it's MAY i was able to cover my upper arms.

which, btw, look... like that. and that's actually a pretty flattering shot.

so, this is what i know about my arm skin:

1. my arms were not fat my whole life! not until i hit 200 at the earliest.
2. they are still that fat in the 150s though...
3. it's not floppy skin; there's only maybe 1/2 and inch of slack there. it's FAT.
   
4. i have no idea what my arms are going to look like for real until i lose the fat...
5. ...which is not going easily.
6. but there are stretch marks at the front of my armpits that cause this really nasty ripple thing to happy, like on my stomach when i flip my head t scrunch my hair. only, always.
   
7. an arm lift costs about $3k.
   
8. but you can't do things like pick up babies for 8-12 weeks.
   
9. so this is the sort of thing i need to get done by next june or july.
   
10. which means... i should lose the fat so i can know if i'll need it by then.

so, what are your arm lifting thoughts? as i mentioned, my over-the-naval tummy could use some work, my boobs could stand a lift (and a cup or two) and the whole "belt lift" thing sounds great, but it's my arms that are keeping me from being comfortable, like, EVER.

anyway.

i got new running shoes! they're brooks ravenna and i wore them to run THREEEEEEEEEEEEE MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES yesterday. so the rest of our training plan is for me & my husband to walk the 5k route tonight with a gps (some of the streets aren't marked...), then tomorrow and saturday we work out on our own (i have spinning and weight training) and sunday k comes up here early to jog/walk the route with me before my grandma's party. next week, we'll do a run together on wednesday, then i'll do something on thursday, then walk the course on friday, rest saturday and sunday and... run my first 5k on monday!!

(ps, did i mention we booked an overseas vacation for september??)