One more thing I couldn't do without my iPhone: Lose It!

I didn't want an iPhone. When they came out, despite being a Mac fan, there was a certain amount of scoffing on my part. I had been excited when I bought my Razr when those were the hot new thing, and would supposedly be able to check email and get directions on my phone.  That. Never. Worked.

So I said of the iPhone, and I quote, "I will never buy another phone that supposedly does more than place calls again." (This kind of forward thinking is why I'm not making money in the stock market). 

But then I came home from overseas, and my T-mobile contract was up, and MJ talked me into an iPhone anyway, because he's good like that.  And because I have little to no self control, which brings me to the eightieth thing I now NEED my iPhone for, besides e-mail and directions and reading e-books and checking Facebook and Lemondrop and web-surfing:

Dieting.

I have long gone back and forth on the subject of dieting. I generally feel pretty good about my body (except for those third Tuesdays where I sit at my desk in the office and genuinely believe I can feel my butt squishing beneath me and spreading outwards).  But... I was 122 pounds when I graduated high school. I was 122 pounds when I graduated college. It is hard for me to believe that, five short years later, there's a reason why I need to be 144 pounds.  I was actually fine in my 130's, but then I made the mistake of stepping on a scale, and there was a panic attack about that number 144.  Not because 144 is inherently bad, but because I was picturing the panic attack that would come later if I kept doing whatever it is I've been doing.

Enter the iPhone Lose It! app.  I hear the calorie counters at The Daily Plate and SparkPeople are awesome, but, well, I always have my iPhone.  I enter my exercise for the day (a la my heart rate monitor, another essential gadget in my world) and my calories.  In order to lose a pound a week, I'm trying to stay at 1500 calories net for each day.  So far (i.e., the last week and a half), that's been quite easy to do.

The screen for it on my phone looks like this:

And I derive a childish (or perhaps OCD) pleasure from searching through each category and adding my foods and exercise.  Because honestly? If I'm getting no amusement from it, I'm probably not going to manage this whole "weight loss" thing.

Now I need another piece of high tech gear: a scale. That's one thing I think the iPhone can't do for me.

How to Get a Girlfriend

No, the title isn't advice for pubescent boys. It's the subject of a Lemondrop article I just read, about how difficult it is for adult women to find new gal pals when they move or their life circumstances change.  The lady who wrote the article even has a blog devoted to finding her new best friend - MWF Seeking BFF. If you've ever been in that situation - or, like me, you're in it now - you might want to check out her funny-but-oh-so-true writings on the subject.

I've been living in the DC suburbs for about a year, so I've made some friends, but I don't have the kind of bestie I've usually relied on. In college, I was almost always with one of my three girl BFF's (or with MJ, a different kind of BFF). Whether I was picking up my dry cleaning, studying in the library, or hitting up a frat party, one (or more) of them was always with me. After I graduated, my BGF (Best Guy Friend) and I used to carpool to work together, run 4-6 miles and hit the gym during our lunch break, then eat lunch together, than carpool home together before meeting up with our significant others for dinner and hot-tubbing or happy hour... it was a lot of togetherness. And that's before you add in long runs for marathon training and computer classes on the weekends.

I miss having the kind of deep friendships that are so comfortable you can hang out without needing to talk, where you always have a date for the latest cheesy movie, pedicure or gym trip, or just to watch Jersey Shore on TV and laugh at other people while you eat cookies.  Husbands are fantastic and I adore mine - he is, of course, my closest friend. But to me, a husband and a BFF are different things, and they're both important.

So far, my efforts have included making a work friend into a real friend. We went swimming together yesterday and I may - questionable as I find it - go watch SATC 2 with her. However, she refuses to go see Eclipse with me because she "isn't into vampires".  Yes, the fact that no one will go see Eclipse with me tells me that I need to work harder on developing new friendships (although I could go by myself, having discovered that a) attending the movies solo is strangely liberating and b) no one will eat all your Sno-Caps on you).

And I met a bunch of girls through my church, the problem being that I only see them once in a blue moon thanks to the fact that I seem to travel for work every other week. Part of a friendship is really just proximity and time in the early stages, IMO - you need to build the trust and the in-jokes and the memories of that friendly bond.

The Lemondrop article points to two resources for finding a new BFF on the interwebs: Girlfriend Circle, and Girlfriend Social. Both resemble dating sites to a rather eery degree (although they are quick to state that these are for women only, and for platonic friendships).  Girlfriend Circle is a pay site, although if there's no circle in your area yet, you can join for free.  Girlfriend Social is all free. You sign up, build a profile, and then begin looking for new friends that might make a good fit.

I have no qualms about turning to the internet to make friends. MJ and I have used Meetup in the past, when we moved to California, to make new couple friends. We had a couple of not so successful events we attended (80's party, I'm looking at you). But we also went kayaking, to a BBQ and played volleyball, which caused us to meet a small core group of people that became new friends. 

It's funny, though - I never needed internet dating. When you meet your husband in college, where boys are everywhere, internet dating just seems sort of unnecessary. But friends?  I'm hoping that my junior high BFF moves back to DC when she finishes her law degree, that my college BFF's and BGF and I stay close, and that I can turn work & church friends into anytime friends.

But if making new friends in real life doesn't quite pan out, I also just might hit the internet.

"Is that you?"

I stopped in a salon for a trim, and just because I have no faith, I brought along a photo of what my hair was supposed to look like. Not that it mattered. I offered the photo to the stylist, who didn't seem very interested.

"Is that you?" she asked, glancing at it but not taking it from me.

Well, now I know you're not paying attention.

"No, that's Mandy Moore. I wish."

Needless to say, it was not the best haircut of my life. It wasn't terrible, though.  If I don't end up staring at myself in the mirror the next day and feeling violated, then I think it's a good enough haircut.