story - Obscure Journey

Rapidly gaining weight - a nightmare

Publié le 15 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life experience, #beauty, #health, #story, #advice, #life lesson

Some of you might remember one of my past entries in which I talked about losing weight, and you can read it here. At the time I promised I'd talk about how I also gained weight.

It wasn't very easy for me to talk about gaining weight, and the only reason I can find is that this is something a bit hard to think about. Right now, I passed through 2 periods of rapidly gaining weight.

First time of weight gain

The first time happened after we rehomed a puppy we found on the street. There's no secret that owning a dog makes you go out a lot, and sometimes walk a lot. Owning a dog is great if you need an excuse to go for a walk to either stay in shape or lose some weight. Best results are when you find a dog that needs long walks, that is full of energy.

Sadly, such a dog is not really happy in an apartment with other pets, or with people who are more lazy than active - such as myself.

As you know, Kali [the puppy] found herself a home with a dog-loving family [we're more of cat people], and this meant I had no reason to go out and walk as much. This lack of exercise translated into extra 7 kg for me [about 15 pounds].

I gained this much weight in about 2 months. Sadly, I can't remember my before or after weight. 14 pounds in 2 months seemed a lot to me, but it really can be worse, like the second time around.

Second time of weight gain

The second time when I gained weight happened at the beginning of 2017 after I gave up my job as a supermarket cashier. I haven't talked about this job because it needs a separate entry, and I'm not ready for that yet. You can read about other jobs I had though, if you're really curious.

A bit of background info

Working in a supermarket as a cashier is close to working for the devil himself. And giving up that job was both a good and a bad thing for my health. If you ever worked in a supermarket, you'd know what I'm talking about.

This place was opened from 7 am to 11pm and we were supposed to work only 2 shifts! i was very "lucky" [can you sniff the sarcasm there?] to work mostly the afternoon shift ... and this meant I'd get home at 1 am [because of random "duties" we were supposed to perform after the store closed].

This messed up my sleeping hours, that I tried hard to fix [I used to go to bed at about 3 or 4 am, and managed to make myself sleep quite early at midnight. with my new job, i'd go to bed at about 2 am]. A poor sleeping habit also means poor quality sleep, therefore not getting the rest I needed. Especially for the weekends I had to be there the whole day, from 7 am to about midnight. yes, you read that right - 2 days of 14 hours in a row, meaning on Saturday [make that Sunday morning] I'd sleep 2 or 3 hours?

Of course, this further led to stress and having a breakdown at work and almost fainting. I also started to feel my overall health impoverishing as my diet was all over the place, not getting enough nutrients from my food. The breakdown and near-fainting happened after a couple of months on the job [wow, that was fast]. At that point I decided my health is far more important, so I decided to quit.

The aftermath

As soon as I finished working there, on New Year's Eve, I went into a sort of coma for 2 weeks straight. I'd sleep for 22 or 23 hours of the day straight with whatever breaks for restroom and food. A lot of it. All of it. Can you imagine what food with no working out does to the body?

Before starting the job from hell, I was about 59 - 60 kg [so about 130 - 132 pounds]. While on the job [for some 3 months] I went down to 56 - 57 kg [123 - 125 pounds]. When I finally started to need less sleep I noticed i reached 70 kg! [154 pounds].

Gaining some 13 kg [28 pounds] in 2 weeks is insane if you're not pregnant! This happened in January of 2017. Only in October I managed to start losing a little bit of weight. Now, in April I'm about 67 kg [147 pounds]. I'm trying to work out as often as I can, and of course I'm eating much less.

some advice:

If your job is too demanding and you can barely get any rest, it might be better to give it up, unless it's your dream job. In my opinion, no job is worth risking one's health because health is something we take for granted, but it has no price when we have it. As soon as we get sick, we start shelling all the money we have and don't have, just to get better.

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Purple chokers

Publié le 7 Avril 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #fiction, #original story, #short story, #story

It was a long cold winter night. It started to snow for a couple of hours already - the first snow of the season, but it wasn't enough to cover the ground.

In the bus stop, a couple was sitting on the bench waiting for their bus. They were waiting already for 30 minutes but thankfully they weren't cold as they were dressed well. The girl was wearing a dark colored puffy jacket that reached her knees. The hood was pulled over her hair and she was resting her head on the guy's shoulder. His jacket was light in color and he was playing a game on his console. The hands that were closest were swirled together - a sign of their affection.

They were the only ones waiting for the bus that seemed to never come. They weren't in a hurry to reach their destination as they were comfortable there sitting like that. However things would change as soon as their ride arrived, but it was OK because they'd still be together.

After what seemed to be an eternity, an old bus arrived and stopped. The middle doors opened, the couple got on. In reality, just ten to fifteen minutes more passed and that bus wasn't even supposed to be there.

The couple went to the back of the moving box and sat on 2 chairs in the same pose as on the bench. Their ride was fast, faster than the human eye could see, but our couple didn't seem bothered - perhaps they didn't notice? Or maybe it wasn't that fast to begin with.

They were wearing identical purple leather chokers around their necks, but you couldn't see them due to their clothes. The girl felt chocked by hers, even after all the time she wore it and had it enlarged. The guy was also feeling choked, however they were bearing with the sensation for they were together. They knew that those who made them wear these accessories, knew better ... however the girl still didn't want any of it.

She started thinking of how she met her Partner several years back. It was at school. A school she didn't remember anything about, let alone how come she was attending it. One day she woke up in his bed with no recollection of anything from the previous night or anything else from the past. Since that morning till present day she tried really hard to recollect anything, but the few figments of broken images her brain showed her made no sense at all.

Those images were of her making clothes with a bunch of people she couldn't recognize, and she had the feeling that they were way behind with the project - or was it a custom order for the next day? The images showed her worried faces and everyone hurrying up to make patterns and to sew - but what was that all about?

Her Partner was a rather popular guy at school, even among the teachers for he was very skilled. This meant he could break or bend though rules here and there with no (bad) consequences. He could even save other students from severe punishments if he could benefit from it later on. But was she really attending that school? wasn't she too old for it? The reality of her life starting that morning showed her something else.

That morning she woke up because he was softly kissing her. She later learned that whenever he wanted her to wake up in the morning or after any nap, he would gently kiss her, or nibble on her fingers or ears. She quickly noticed that despite the kisses being very sensual, nothing more than that had happened - they were still dressed on.

She was feeling bloated, so she needed to find a restroom quite fast. She then heard herself saying "I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood when I get my period..." These words made him stop the kisses, and he moved away - he knew better than to continue with anything whenever any girl was experiencing those few days every month. He answered something, but her current state of mind prevented her from hearing or understanding his words. Yet, she replied: "I'll take care of it, just wait here - I'll return as fast as I can."

She went out of the tiny apartment only to see she was on some grounds that looked like a campus. It was very early in the morning and there was no person around to see her, as far as she could tell. "Good," she thought to herself. Her legs took her to what it looked like a public bathroom complete with showers, bath tubs, and toilets.

She checked herself in the mirror - a blond young looking girl with fair skin was looking back at her. She had big brown eyes and her hair was past her shoulders, no bangs, and needed to be brushed. She wasn't very tall but she wasn't short either, and she was thin. Her full lips looked chapped - she was dehydrated.

The bathroom had all sorts of instructions and rules plastered over its walls, and they were indicating the places with clean towels, new toothbrushes, as well as any other supply you could need. Instructions on what to do with the used items were also posted. She happily followed all of them to clean and arrange herself.

Having finished in the bathroom, she wanted to go back to the only location she currently knew in this place. However, she managed to get lost and to end up in the kitchen. This is when she did remember she was supposed to return to the apartment with a glass of water. She had no idea how would she accomplish this since everything seemed to belong to other people who she currently didn't know.

Luckily for her, some other girls showed up there, and they seemed both surprised and happy to see her there. She asked about the water and told them about her memory loss, and one of them was happy to show her around and to help her get some water. However she still had to figure out how to go back.

Except, HE appeared out of nowhere with a puzzled face, telling her “There you are! I was beginning to worry! Let’s go!” One of the girls in the group hearing this, became really annoyed, and also started to talk to her “Don’t even think about Kay - he’s mine as I saw him first!” Our girl was very shocked hearing this, and thought to herself <You can go ahead and have him, what do I care?!> however, before she could say these words out loud, she felt a pain in her chest, so she didn’t say anything anymore.

A group of guys also came, and they started to tease (or did they really mean it?) the guy called Kay “HAHA! You KNOW you’re not supposed to sleep together - they’ll kick you out for sure this time, if they find out! HAHA!”

“Kick us out? But he’s rich and he paid to have all the privileges!” our girl heard herself saying. Kay didn’t see this one coming, so he couldn’t stop her, even though she was quite right. He only decided to tell the new guys in a dry voice “Mind your own business!” and then to our girl “Anna, let’s go to class, I have your stuff.”

“So my name is Anna ... It’s a pretty name ...” she said to herself in a very low voice.

The next thing Anna knew was that she was in a classroom, trying to take notes. There were many students attending this first class, and the teacher was a middle aged lady. The teacher was pointing out the most important parts of today’s lesson. The classes ran one after the other, and each one seemed more and more weird for our amnesiac Anna.

After the last class of the day, everyone was preparing to leave. In the exit hall, there was a pretty long table covered with a perfectly white cloth. There were many students waiting, but very few were leaving. Some of them would place on the table what looked like a choker or some sort of jewelry. Another student, usually of the opposite gender, would pick it up and put it on and then they would leave with the person placing the item on the table. The one laying the item down was also wearing an identical piece.

Anna couldn’t see Kay anywhere, and she felt as if she had to wait for him. Or was it because he was the one bringing her here, she hoped he would take her back as well? She didn’t have to wait for too long to find out: Kay did come, and did place a choker on the table as well. He was now waiting for her to pick it up. She reluctantly did, and she tried putting it on, despite not having a clear idea of what it meant.

She couldn’t really operate the clasp on it. “Can you help me?” she turned to Kay, only to see him showing her that he only wrapped it around his fist. She copied him, and they were able to leave as well. On their way back, she started to look at the item on her fist: it was purple with some silver decors on it and she expected his to be the same. She heard him say “You know we can wear these things on our wrists too, right?”

Her reply was a short one “Oh...”

Anna was now thinking about her memory loss, about her current life, and what she should do from now on. In the end she decided that at least for now, this life was rather enjoyable, and she felt as if nothing could hurt her. In any case, it was far better than trying to make clothes at the very last minute.

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A gunshot in the night [short story]

Publié le 31 Mars 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #original story, #short story, #story, #fiction, #mystery

The incident happened shortly after 1AM, on a Monday. The noise was very loud, sharp and it scared the small and usually quiet community we're in.

The night was quiet as most residents were either seniors or needed their rest for another long week in the office, starting the morning. A very loud BANG! was heard in the night, similar to the sound of a gun getting shot in the movies. After that, everything went quiet again.

Here, nobody owned a gun, nor did people know if the others owned one. This also meant they had no idea where the sound came from. If you managed to get close enough to anyone in the community, you'd also learned they would even speak about such details because it wasn't in their nature to do so, especially since guns were taboo.

Mrs. and Mr. 月山 were also asleep at the time of the loud BANG! but the noise woke them up: it sounded so close to their house.

"What was that?!" they wondered looking confused one at the other. They knew that the occupants of the house nearest theirs, were not in town. Or at least they were supposed to have left some 2 days earlier. They were over the moon because apparently they had won a 5-night getaway, from a TV contest. They were heard saying the trip was to an area well known for their hot-springs, at a really nice but not overly expensive ryokan. According to their calculations, they had yet to return.

A young couple from abroad lived across the street, so technically still close enough to the 月山* house. They seemed like nice people, spoke little and broken Japanese. Some residents were scared of them simply because of the language barrier and other misunderstandings that came with it. Others feared the foreigners because of their cute tattoos, however they never gave the impression of being violent people or the kind to carry guns.

However that night Someone pulled the trigger of a gun and it was still Somebody who called the police.

At around 2AM the police lights and sirens started to fill this quiet neighborhood. An ambulance also arrived, though two more were on their way to the crime scene. When something like this happened, TV station crews usually appeared as well, but maybe this time they will stay away. Or will they?

The doorbell of the house where the 月山 lived rang sharply in that quiet darkness. Voices soon followed: "We're sorry to disturb you, we're the police..." Of course the couple expected them to come to their house. Mr. 月山 went to open the door, just like any other good citizen would.

"But was that really the sound of a gun being shot?" he wondered.

footnotes:

*月 [Japanese: tsuki; Chinese: yue4] =moon, month

山 [Japanese: yama; Chinese: shan1] =mountain

**written in December 2017, published in March 2018

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Being a hoarder

Publié le 18 Mars 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life experience, #life lesson, #advice, #tips, #story

Hello there!

My partner would label me a hoarder - at least in some regards. I totally fit the bill of "don't throw that away as you don't know when you might need it!" In recent years I started to tackle this and I generally stopped trying to keep every little thing.

As some of you might know, I recently changed the platform I blog on. I used the well known WordPress but I think over-blog might be a better option for me. The blog on WP is still there, but hidden from the public. [as a back up >.>]

During this move, I had to look at all the past entries and see if the images are still there, to check the links, and other stuff. To my shock, some pictures were completely gone! Luckily, I still had most of them on my computer, on tumblr, and even on a DVD.

However, one blog entry in particular still had some pictures while others were nowhere to be found! DISPAIR!

So I started to search for them everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The only place I didn't look until the end was a folder called "COPY." Lo and behold! The pictures I thought I lost forever, were there! The ONLY copy I still had of those pictures!

I was quite happy to discover them. I edited them as fast as I could and I put them in the blog entry.

This is not the only time I kept something "for later use" and it was actually useful. But I have a hard time recalling the other times, at this point. I really don't know if I could get similar pictures if I didn't find them, so I'm thankful for being a hoarder.

Piece of advice: You don't really need to keep 5 items of the same type, generally 1 is enough.

How about you: Are you a hoarder? Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you wish you kept something you threw away only to discover it would be useful for X situation? Or did you at some point need something you knew you kept and were happy you did keep that thing?

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Midnight crepes - a blog entry

Publié le 11 Octobre 2014 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #dessert, #food, #sweets, #story

Hello everyone.

Right now it's 1am over here. I just came from the kitchen where i prepared some crepes. I started them at something past midnight. This is the 3rd night I do this, granted, not in a row. I think I'm in the process of developing a new habit.

The midnight crepes are not all that special, they're regular, sweet crepes that you fill with anything you want that is sweet. In my case, these crepes seem to be better than the ones I make in the day-time. hmmm maybe my cravings determine me to cook better, or maybe i just like the food more.

In any case, the batter turned out exceptionally well, but of course i measured nothing. Water - 500 ml, 1 egg, 5 spoons sugar, pinch of salt, and several spoons of all purpose flour - 5 or maybe 6?

OOps, I should have cleaned the stove's top. Tonight the crepes are less burned, but I took no photos.

Well, this is all for now, bye~~

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