I have lost 10 pounds since I started staying home with the girls a month ago. This is pretty amazing since I wasn't really trying. I am still fat and I need to remind myself of this when I see thinner Tina in the mirror. So, 244.5. This is an awesome number that I have been wishing and hoping to see for over a year. I think it is happening for one reason and that is that I am not eating out at all. This makes sense. I do crave it a bunch, but am not going crazy about it.

Today, I walked the girls to the U Street Post Office, which is just ridiculous. The tellers are all behind this bullet proof glass that isn't needed anymore. The place keeps all the supplies behind the desk, as if theives will steal all their priority mail tape. I was brave and brought my packages/orders there to get together since the girls are always taking things out of orders when i am not looking. I banked on them being asleep from the rock stroll rock of their stroller. I was lucky and they slept for 2 hours. I had funny adventures during those two hours, made a deal to help a used Jaguar salesman named Stephen. If I help him sell a car, I get $300. I asked him if he had any not so nice cars, because who the hell buys a used Jag and he pointed to the Toyota. We have a Toyota, I thought. Stephen was a huge black man in his early 20s. He was linebacker big or big like the men in my family. I enjoyed talking to him even if I am not going to help him sell a Jag from a crappy lot on U Street. His black suit looked like he was going to church.

After Stephen and the post office, some dirty punks sitting outside of the doggy daycare gave me nasty looks when I smiled at them. I thought, "Fuck you, dirty punks. I have pink and blue hair and you work at a damn doggy daycare taking care of rich gay guys' dogs for $50 an hour. I am the real punk here, pushing my babies in their expensive shoes. I don't even have a god damn job. Take a shower, tomorrow, you smell like dogs." I wanted to say all of this, but I didn't. It made me laugh, though.

Next, I looked in some pawn shop windows at some maracas. Two different pawn shops had 4 different sets. Who pawns maracas? I thought about the money in my pocket and wondered how much I could get a set for. The girls would love them. But then I thought of one of them hitting me in the face with one. On I went.

Near the Whole Foods, a panhandler tells me he needs a quarter to get some sardines. In my pocket, I have a quarter, a dime and a five dollar bill. I take out the quarter and the dime. He only takes the quarter telling me that is all he needs for the sardines and shakes my hand as my phone rings. It is my mother-in-law who has a question about this weekend. She also asks me where I am. I think, " I am helping a homeless man buy sardines while pushing your twin granddaughters in their expensive shoes. It is going to rain soon and I am far from home." Instead I say, " I am at Whole Foods, " because this sounds motherly.

After a visit to their old daycare, the girls and I settle in on the lawn of the university where Jeff works and is helping with some talk about Pakistan or something. It is chilly and the girls hang on me like monkeys. We are a sight on the school lawn. We watch the clouds roll in because the rain is coming. Anya tastes the grass and Rachel crinkles leaves and I am getting smaller and it is October. My favorite month of all.