What a difference a week makes!

Definitely laid off the sauce this week. After last week's bout with the mayor of Margaritaville, I decided to take it easy -- giving myself a chance to catch up, physically, and to take care of my body a bit better than I have been these past few weeks.

The result:  I feel great. Well-rested and able to multi-task again. I've found that the more run-down I get, the harder it is to do three things at once. And no, updating my Facebook status isn't one of those three things (that's a given).

Gone are the Dark Circles of Death below my eyes. Finished are the blank stares I give people when I catch myself momentarily falling asleep. Back to the stretching in the morning and the long walks after work. It all feels so good.

Coming off a holiday week like Easter and Passover means many an entertaining story about the family. One disturbing part about Passover this year was watching my mom's hands negotiate everything she tried to lift/carry. Right down to the "seder plate" (a traditional plate, beautifully decorated to hold a shank bone) -- which she nearly dropped because her hands couldn't hold it upright.

This concerned me for two reasons:  because I have dibs on that really cool seder plate one day. But, more importantly, because it's sad when you see someone you love who has trouble doing everyday things -- like holding a plate.

The family rallied around her and kept my future seder plate safe. I jumped up to help her, as I always do, but I couldn't help but pause to reflect.

I can't imagine painting Easter eggs would have been any easier for her.

I always said that if I were to travel abroad, I'd want to do it as an ambassador. Well, I got my wish, kind of.

This December I took the plunge (as in the Ambien) and went to the Land Down Under -- Australia -- to visit a friend and experience life in another hemisphere. The toilets do flush in reverse, but besides that, everything is just as it is at home, only nicer. Including living with arthritis, which isn't so nice if you're dealt that card.

I had the opportunity to meet a new friend, Ainslie, who runs the Arthritis Foundation Australia (read: Arthritis Australia), and we sat and talked for hours about the similarities and differences facing our two distant, but similar worlds. While it wasn't exactly a sanctioned United Nations or State Department trip -- and though I didn't have chauffeured service in an armored car -- I still felt somewhat responsible for representing Americans with arthritis.

What I found fascinating was learning about some of the cultural issues facing a country like Australia, which is the exact same for us in America, but not as seemingly obvious.

For example, the really strong Greek community in Australia needs educating badly. I hadn't realized this was such a large demographic (I just assumed Australians liked Greek pastry shops), and could see how English-language materials might cause a problem.

And learning about the government and medical system here, with respect to all of the expensive drugs, has been fascinating. Everything I know about socialized medicine I learned from a pamphlet about Canada, so this was a good eye opener.

It has been exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I wake up every morning praying for the "all quiet on the western front" (no flares) and knock-on-wood.

So far, so good.

To listen to Seth's chat with Arthritis Australia CEO Ainslie Cahill, click here.

I'm not sure where all of the motivation has come from, but I have worked out (at the gym no less) the past four days in a row. That's like unprecedented. Especially since I didn't work out during the entire month of November.

Hey, life happens.

November came and went, there was a lot of mass consumption of food, some family thrown in there and unfortunately, no time for the gym.

Until this week that is.

Perhaps it's the looming holidays, or the stress or the reality that my belt just earned an additional hole (the least scientific way to measure, but the most depressing way to determine weight), but I have a bee-in-my-bonnet (as they say) to work out, sweat my tush off and get back into shape. This body looks like it's ready to be donated to science fiction.

So yeah, I'm an idiot for actually going to a shopping mall on Black Friday. Which should be renamed Crack Friday. The crowds weren't as bad as the distances I had to walk -- and shlep -- to get from one end to another. Granted, I was at a shopping mall in New Jersey (the shopping Mecca of North America), and to capitalize on Macy's great bargains I opted to park and walk. And walk. And walk.

Which didn't bother me that much until the end of the day, when every step felt like a giant leap into the arms of a 300-pound linebacker. Needless to say, no $5 coupon was worth the aggravation, agony and aches caused by Crack Friday.

Sadly, I let this dampen my weekend, after such a nice Thanksgiving (with such a nice family). But instead of focusing on the nonsense that is walking 3 miles in a crowded mall with a heavy shopping bag (of bedding, no less), I need to focus on the positives:  I got cheap bedding.