coming out of the dark

 

It's been a rough time for me these past couple of weeks which is why I haven't been posting (also, the holidays are crazy-busy). It's been rough due to a number of things, primarily the weather, the dark days, and my busted ribs. 

My bike accident three weeks ago ended up hurting longer and more than I had anticipated and caused me to work shorter work days. I'm very lucky to be in a workplace where that's possible. Mostly, I would have to bail after 6-7 hrs and go home and medicate with pot. What's also been hard for me is not going to the gym. I was on such a good streak before this but any lifting was discouraged by Dr Google plus it hurt when I did minor lifting at home so I skipped the gym for three weeks. But I returned today!

Over the weekend, I felt better and at the last minute today, I decided to go in and see what I could do. I didn't bench and I couldn't do my inclined sit-ups but I managed to do all of my free-weights, albeit at a lower weight. Still, I feel good for going in and this way I'll be able to get in almost two weeks before I go back to Nebraska! My new thing was bussing (and then walking) to the gym.

What else?

Most of the days, my new thing was a new work contact but I'll touch on the highlights:

On Tuesday, 12/15, my office mate brought in her baby who is about 6 months old so I couldn't help but pick him up a few times (and parade him down the hallway).

On Wednesday, 12/16, I finally finished "A Tale for the Time Being." I really need to read more books and less comic books this next year.

On Friday 12/18, I DJ'ed the work party for Ashes. This is the first year in seven years that I haven't DJ'ed the client party for GW so it felt good to have one gig. It was nice and chill and I got to get better acquainted with people that I had only met briefly before. Plus there was a pug.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to Tim and Sophia's and we played a bunch of games. I tried Exploding Kittens and we also played 'werewolf' which I had played years ago as 'mafia.' I was originally only planning on being there for a few hours but I stayed all day because I liked the new people that I met.

On Sunday, 12/20, I spent most of the afternoon working on Hayleigh's x-mas present. I can't go into more detail because I haven't given it to her yet.

On Monday, 12/21, I tried two new-to-me dark beers at NWIPA's dark beer fest, one of which had coffee in it. I don't think I slept that night except for maybe two hours.

On Thursday, 12/24, I walked all of the way home from work which was only possible because A) we got out early for Xmas Eve, B) it wasn't raining, and C) Andrew worked from home that day so he was with Ava. It took me just over an hour which isn't too bad. Also, for dinner, we went out for Bejing Hot Pot. Neither of us had done Hot Pot before so it was quite an experience.

On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and made coffee in the house! Since we've been living together, we have never had the capability to make coffee in the house but Andrew bought a French press the day before so I made coffee (and pot chocolate chip cookies) first thing. He got me a bathrobe, underwear, and a new vape pipe. I got him a shirt, a sweater, and rain pants. It was nice just to have an easy Christmas morning. Afterwards, when we were both high on cookie dough, we walked around Tabor with Ava. We took her into the dog park quick and she did not attack another dog! It's a Christmas Miracle!

On Saturday, 12/26, we tried to go to the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight but it was sold out. I had to buy tickets on-line for almost a week later (New Years Eve) instead. However, we did go to the upper part of Sam's Billiards to have a drink.

On Sunday, 12/27, it snowed! Plus I went to Tim and Sophia's where we played Power Grid. It was fun but I don't have a strong inkling to play it again.

blackout workout

 

The heat finally broke AND we got a blackout! This, I love!

I have not been a fan of the weather this summer so far so I was overjoyed today when I woke up to clouds. There was a slight drizzle in the air but not quite the rain I was promised by the weather app. I skipped the gym yesterday so I went today and was pleased to find that the power was out. I was wondering why people were out in the streets on my walk over, talking to their neighbors. It was a peacefully quiet workout. Normally the TV is on and some radio is playing and the treadmills are running. Today, it was silent and wonderful. And, later on, we had a great downpour. I'm still wearing shorts but I am oh so grateful that the rain has returned.

from fireworks to bubble baths: memorial day weekend 2015

I planned to do a post every day and it's even easier for me to post since Andrew fixed my computer last weekend. However, time got away from me and I decided to do a wrap up of the weekend. Here we go:

On Friday, May 22nd, it was the start of the Rose Festival so that meant fireworks! Andrew and I bussed to the waterfront from our house and then met others there. The fireworks show was, as usual, awesome but that wasn't my new thing. My new thing was sitting in a bench I haven't sat in before at Nayar Taqueria. Nayar is one of my neighborhood joints and I've been there quite a bit. However, I've never sat on the bench. It wasn't life-changing but it was a different perspective and really, that's what this whole "one new thing a day" idea is all about. Change it up. It doesn't have to be earth-shattering, just different.

During my class of my graduate program, I wrote a paper on how I will avoid burnout and cited doing one new thing per day. I didn't mention the blog because I hadn't written that favorably about the class here but my professor liked the idea. He said that if I don't "run with the idea" and write a book around it, he may just steal it. I don't think that it's worth a book but I do think that it has validity. We get stuck in ruts and fall into familiar patterns way too easily. This is a way to shake things up, even if it just means finding a new seat.

On Saturday, Andrew wanted to plant our tomatoes and peppers in the garden and I felt like helping. I recently listened to a Joe Rogan podcast with Ron Finley about gardening and it made me want to get into it more. But I had another assignment. Since we have our bike shed in the backyard, we needed a good path to get from the back gate to the bike shed. Andrew had moved some flagstones there but wasn't happy with it so he bought some proper path stones (and moving them from Home Depot to the house was my new thing on Thursday). Being the Tetris fanatic I am, I instantly took to playing with them to derive a pattern that would meet our needs and came up with our path design. It came with its initial frustrations with the stones having to be under the swinging gate but not too low that it was a big drop-off at the start but I eventually found my groove. I didn't quite finish it on Saturday since we ran out of stones and we had friends coming over to visit so I had to clean up but I finished it on Sunday.

On Sunday, I also worked on our dingo-proof fence. My hammock rigging is on the front porch but I really want hang out with Ava while I'm in the hammock so I came up with the idea of a barricade on the porch. I was going to buy a bigger piece of lattice, trim it, and then frame it but Andrew suggested the smaller, pre-framed style which worked out perfectly. I was able to finish the path and get the fence installed all before heading over to Muffin HQ for some board games.

I love gaming on a three day weekend. I love gaming anyway but it can eat up most of a day and then I have guilt but when I've got three days, it's all good. We played Agricola which I love and did a fairly good job in this time. We also played Samurai which was new to me. It's a challenging and unique game which I will play again.

On Monday, I used the stain that was left with the house from the front porch and I stained the fence to match it. It may have well been my first time staining anything since shop class in high school. It looks so good now. We also went for a bike ride down the Springwater Corridor to Sellwood where we went to the Muddy Rudder for the first time. Andrew had been there before but for some reason, he just now introduced me to the place. It's right off the Corridor and I love it. I will definitely be more eager to go for a ride knowing that this place is there. At the Muddy Rudder, I won our first annual Memorial Day cribbage tournament although no drinks were won. Still, I have bragging rights now.

And then I ended the weekend with a bubble bath. I haven't been sleeping great. I will stay up later and then wake up pretty much as soon as it gets light out. Sometimes I can fall back asleep but not always. A combination of some manual labor, a bike ride, a few drinks, a light meal, and then a lavender salted bath had me so relaxed that I'm sure I'll be fine tonight. It was a fabulous weekend. There are things that I could have added on like dancing, a hike, shopping, etc. but right now, I'm completely content.

225

I don't know where long the way I became excited about how much weight I lift but today got me pretty pumped up. Normally we rep 185 pounds which is still really good considering neither of us weigh that much. He approached the idea of trying a max press a couple months ago and we've been waiting until we were consistently going to the gym and not skipping a day and also feeling injury free.

Jessie and I decided we would try a max press today and started out with 205 lbs. it was surprisingly easy so we decided to up it up a little bit. We went with 225 pounds because that's two plates on each side. It was considerably harder and a lot different than doing the regular reps. We didn't have to worry about endurance, we just had to push through this one press. And we did it! I thought I would be tired afterwards and wouldn't do any arm exercises but I was so stoked about it that I ended up having a really good upper body workout. I like that I'm pushing myself (and not injuring myself). And I'm enjoying it!

brunch walk

I feel fortunate to have found a man that doesn't mind walking because I'm all about the walk. Today, we walked 6.5 miles round-trip to brunch and then again at 1000 Acre Dog Park where we walked another 3 miles (and Ava did about 10). We took some new paths both at the dog park and on my way back to the house from brunch. Yay for exercise. I feel like I earned all those brunch carbs.

pooling moving resources

I've mentioned before how I'm not a good swimmer. However, that doesn't stop me from enjoying a pool, especially on a hot day like today.

Earlier this week, I told Jesse I'd help his mother Gail to her new place today. Despite how hot it was, Jesse, Bastard and I made for a very efficient moving machine and got her packed up within an hour. I was amazed by how smoothly it went.

Unpacking was a little tougher due to the fact that her new condo was three floors up and there wasn't an elevator. Still, we made easy work of most of it and XBox and Sophia came to finish the rest. Afterwards, we went for a dip in her pool. She lives in a 55 and over community now so there wasn't any kids in the pool and hardly any residents around. Every moving party should involve pools...and floaty noodle things.

waterfall diving

Tonight, I jumped off the side of a rock wall into a waterfall. It's been a goal to jump along a waterfall into the pool below for some time now. I can't imagine how awesome it must be when the water isn't glacial-cold! Still, it was pretty awesome!

As per our hot weekend tradition, I went to Oneonta Gorge with Ashes, Victory and Raven today. Andrew, Bastard and Emily also joined us. It wasn't as hot today as it was yesterday but the coolness of the Gorge was still worth the trip. After the log jam (pictured in the first picture above), we hiked to the waterfall through chest deep water. I love this trail because it's not for everyone. People with start the hike, see the log jam and give up. Then, if they make it past the log jam, they may not be prepared for the deep water and might turn back. However, if they make it to the end, they still might not approach the waterfall and jump in. But we did.

Ashes was the first person that we saw climb the rock face today next to the falls to jump in. I saw that he climbed it and then Andrew swim over that way. I knew that I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't do it too so I jumped in. The water was FREEZING and the falls pushed me towards the edge of the pool so I had to struggle just to get to the wall. Ashes had already made it up the cliff and into the pool by the time I started. Andrew tried and then swam back a ways to reevaluate how it was to be done. I got a hint from Ashes and then I went for it. At one point, I had to hoist myself up onto a ledge, using just my arms. It was a ways up out of the water but thankfully I go to the gym. :)

When I was on the rock wall, I began to lose my nerve. I don't like jumping a long ways into water but I was convinced that it was going to be okay and random strangers started coaxing me so I did it. It was pretty epic for me. I can't say that I do this every day but it's pretty damn wonderful to know that it is realistically an option for me.

What else?
As per usual, we headed down to where the falls spill into the river. I went to retrieve my phone at this time to capture some memories from this awesome day. Then I dropped my phone in the river. It was in there for a minute before Andrew spotted it and retrieved it. I was told by Victory, Ashes and Bastard to put it in a sack of rice which I did. I've tried this trick years ago with the droid which got we in my pocket after biking in the rain and it didn't work. Even if it doesn't work, it was still an awesome day!

cardio weekend

One of the many things that I enjoy about dating and specifically about dating Andrew is that he likes to get out and exercise. I can pretty much bank on at least one long bike ride during any given weekend. Yesterday, we biked up to Forest Park and then hiked up to Pittock Mansion for my first visit there. It costs to tour through and we weren't that interested in going inside but the view from the hill was wonderful.

On the way back down from the hike, I found out that Jen was going to see Wanderlust. I didn't know anything about the movie other than Jennifer Aniston was in it and I tend to like her in movies so we biked across town to Montavilla with enough time to grab some food at Ya Hala before meeting Jen and Donald at the movie. It was really good and funny. I enjoyed how it wonderfully illustrated my recurring nightmare about being forced to live in suburbs.

Today, for exercise, we biked 33 miles today in an effort to find the end of the I-205 bike path. It took us along the Clackamas River and we ended up biking back up river road. We stopped in at Duffy's Irish Pub for my first visit there and had a pint or two and then went into Sellwood. To reward ourselves for a lot of cardio exercise over the weekend, I made Andrew stop at Sock Dreams then and we each bought fun socks to reward ourselves for our adventurousness. (Pictured below. I got the Ape socks.)

 

What else?
On Friday, 4/27, my new thing was trying Herb's Mac & Cheese food cart which opened up not too long ago near me. It's a good thing that I'm exercising because I could see this being a habit. I had Mac & Cheese with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and Gorgonzola cheese sprinkled on top. Sooooo good. There goes my dream of getting abs before country fair.

frisbee fun follow-up

Last night/this morning was so much fun that I was sure that I would need most of today to recover. However, I hopped out of bed at 11am and was ready for more!

I met Andrew and his friend Mark at Wild Abandon for my first visit there. It's a really funky place, reminiscent of the Pub at the End of the Universe but it tries harder to be funky than PATEOTU does. The food was great though and so was the company.

Afterwards, Andrew and I headed to Freddies to buy a frisbee to take to Mt Tabor. At the store, I found a March bus pass on the ground. Score! Frisbee was perfect. The day was unbelievably beautiful and it was just the right amount of activity/inactivity to follow a J party.

maiden voyage

Back in November when Ashes and I hit the 24 hour fitness hot tub, we both looked at getting different swimsuits. The problem with men's swim trunks is that they bubble up in hot tubs and you either have to hold down the front so they don't fill with air or you have to let the bubbles escape which is akward and could be mistaken for farting. Victory asked me to use my credit card to order Ashes a pair for Christmas and I ordered myself a different pair as well, both from International Jock. The shorts I ordered are pictured above.

I was sort of surprised when I got the shorts and saw that there is a pouch in the front for the junk. I guess it makes sense but I was just...surprised and a tad embarrassed. However, we as a society expect women to wear skimpy and tight swim trunks which don't conceal the curves of their body so why should the guys be any different.

Today, I checked my modesty at the door and wore these shorts for the first time. Sophia's bikram yoga studio had a community class which is free so I decided to do it for the first time in 35 months. I can't say that I loved the Bikram, mainly because it was challenging, I was hungry and sweating is not fun for me. However, I do think that I looked damn fine. Not to be self-absorbed but my sweaty arms were looking sexy. :) Really, I don't think anyone was checking me out and nobody seemed put off by my shorts. And why should they be? They were practical for this purpose.

What else?
Yesterday was a easy day. At work, most of the people in my office were gone or in a meeting so I was able to listen to my music with ease and work with my shoes off. Casual Friday and all. My new thing was having the Company Sazerac at Sweet Hereafter with Ashes, Victory, Caroline, Ellie and later Jen. It wasn't too adventurous but it was nice just to hang out with friends.

hanging out with dungeon masters

Today my new thing was going to Guardian Games. Yesterday, it was going to Portal Games. I think that I may be crossing over the threshold from slightly curious about the gaming community to becoming one of them.

I've been looking for the game Battle Line that Andrew introduced me to on Sunday. In the process, I've had to step into stores that are normally not my scene. However, I've noticed the scene has been growing around me. Several of my friends are in a relationship with experienced dungeon masters of ceremonies. That's...odd. And it's not like any of these guys that my friends are seeing were playing D&D together. It's just a coincidence that many of my friends find dungeon masters hot. :)

I don't believe that Andrew has ever played D&D or Magic the Gathering. I wouldn't mind if he did but I would be surprised. Since he's not into it, my exposure to it will probably be limited to partners of friends. I think it takes a lot of imagination, dedication and time to really invest in these games. I only have the first of these qualities. I like my games to be a little simpler and quicker. Still, it's a slippery slope.

What else?
Besides looking for Battle Line at Portal, I also headed to the PSU gym for the first time in a while. I had a great workout and even did 30+ minutes of cardio afterwards. Then I rewarded myself with a slice of Waldorf pizza at Hot Lips. I think that I will try to schedule my classes in the future on Mondays because Monday is Waldorf slice day and I love this pizza!

2.5 mile morning

I've been meaning to walk to work since moving into Muffin HQ but I wasn't able to because either I had to use my bike/car to get to another work site, I had to get home at lunch to let Dean out or I had to get to the gym right after work. Busy busy busy. However, today all of the cards fell into place for the first time. It wasn't raining, I worked out yesterday, and my co-worker left for vacation and left me in charge of the work van so I can use it to go to the other sites and let Dean out at lunch.

On the way to work, I listened to an NPR interview with Aaron Paul on playing Jesse on Breaking Bad. t was a fabulous way to start a morning and a year.

What else?
I deleted the Twitter link on the side of the page. I only ever had one person follow the blog on twitter and it didn't update correctly so I lost the one follower and just ended up getting rid of it. I'm trying a new feature instead which is signing up via e-mail to receive notifications of new posts. I'm going to try to be timely about my posts so ideally interested people could check back daily. However, if one wanted to be notified whenever I post, the e-mail link should work...hopefully. I may also be reformatting the page in the near future.

totally addicted to weights

For years, Ashes and I have been hitting this neighborhood gym which is very sub-par in the equipment they have. Occasionally, I visited the PSU gym but I really like having a workout partner. This morning, my partner called me and said that he wanted to visit a 24 hour fitness. We just went to the gym yesterday and I normally only do every other day but, what the hell, why not?

It was weird but not bad. For one thing, it was nice to have working equipment. For another thing, it was nice to have a good selection of weights and available benches so I wasn't forced to increase my weight just because of the lack of 10 lb plates. Also, there was a good amount of hot guys here. :)

We're on a special three day trial pass. If it was closer to my house, I may consider it but I don't want to have to go even further out to work out and I really don't want to have to pay. Maybe I'll think about it when I don't have access to PSU any longer.

What else?

It's Harvest dinner day. Long Haus hosted again this year but it was a small event due to them potentially moving. Sophia and I spent the afternoon drinking mimosas and watching Jackass the Movie. Afterwards, I made my first Tofurky roast which turned out okay. Even though there wasn't that many people at dinner (maybe 14-16), I still ate a lot and enjoyed the company.

Speaking of good food, yesterday I tried Pacific Pie Company for the first time. The cafeteria at my work has been closed all this week due to renovations. After they reopen, they are mostly going to have convenience store food. Therefore, I will be eating out more often and I'm fortunate to have the PPC near my work. I foresee many slices of chocolate bourbon hazelnut pie in my future. Also, today, I had a pumpkin spice latte from Common Grounds for the first time. I think if I would have had these two treats together, I wouldn't have come down from that high for the whole day.

 

health concerns

On Saturday morning, I had brunch with Tim, XBox, and Sophia. Tim talked about how he and a friend have given up drinking for a week. While that sounds really easy, I thought it would provide enough of a challenge to make it interesting. Jennifer agreed to do it with me so we had our last drinks on Friday night and haven't drank since.

Today, I felt wonderful. Maybe I really needed to detox my system! It was a bit of a challenge on Sunday when I met up with Sophia and Justin at the Horse Brass pub. They have an excellent beer selection but I held strong and chose an orange soda instead. I know that when I started drinking in college, I had a drinking problem. However, I don't really like to drink that much anymore but it has become routine for me to have a beer in the evening or drink socially with friends. I'm glad Blowpony's not this weekend because I would pretty much have to drink then.

Along with stopping a negative, I added a positive, or five pounds to be more specific. I increased my bench press rep weight again. I now bench 185 lbs. That's me and a baby! With doing 4 sets of 7 reps, that comes to 5180 lbs I lift whenever I go to the gym!

What else?
On Sunday, as I was biking over to Long Haus to work out, I had a revelation about my work. I can't go into it here but it made me realize that I have got to start getting some things in order. That was my new thing yesterday.

This week, Dexter took place in Kearney, NE. Crazy! If that wasn't enough, he mentioned going to Portland from Kearney!

photo research

This is a very different school quarter for me. For one thing, I'm only taking one class. It's weird because I'm used to having my energies divided and now I can focus them on this one class. It's also different because it's so very specialized to one population and then there's the fact that I don't have any major papers due at all. My grades will be based upon simple one paragraph answers to questions about each of the readings and also upon photographs.

For this class, I'm going to be taking pictures that represent some aspect of aging. Tonight, we had our research instructor come to class for the first time and explain this project. I also selected Mental Health and aging. It's going to prove to be interesting and unique as well as refreshing. I love to take pictures anyway so the idea of getting graded on my photographic creativity is intriguing to me.

What else?
On Monday, I raised my bench press to a new high, 180 lbs!

On Tuesday, I tried Zach's Shack's new apple and sage veggie sausage. It was awesome. I talked to Zach himself about it for a while. He was never keen on the veggie dogs but he said he's addicted to the veggie sausages. Like I need another reason to keep coming back to this place. :)

doggy dinner date

I know that I go out to eat a lot.  The sad thing is that I would go out even more if I could take Dean to more eateries.  There's the Lucky Lab but it's a ways away.  I've taken him to Haven before but he inevitably gets pissed at patrons while I have my coffee.

Today, I had to pick up the clothing with a new Prius zipcar on Division.  When I went to drop the car back off, I picked up Dean so I could walk him back.  I got hungry so we dropped off at Caffe Pallino (for the first time) and we split a Foccacia outside.  I love this guy.

We watched a special yesterday called Dogs Decoded by Nova.  It was a great little special on why dogs are so awesome.  Dogs are the only species besides humans that read human facial expressions from right to left across the face just like people do.  They also significantly decrease a human's risk of heart attack and, if a person does have a heart attack, they're more likely to survive if they have a dog.  Guess what I'm getting my dad for his birthday!!!

What else?
I benched my weight for the first time today.  I did my regular workout and then I did four reps of my own body weight.  Boo-yah!

unrestrainedly

I've had the best of intentions to update my blog this week but it hasn't happened.  I'm not satisfied with writing half-ass crap just to get something out there so I'm gonna sum it up quick and then write about tonight.

On Tuesday, Jan 11, I ate at Sweet Pea Bakery for the 1st time.  I've been wearing a Sweet Pea shirt around for a while and I wanted tea so I figured I could check out the place.  It was okay.  It had some amazing looking gluten-free options.

On Wednesday, Jan 12, I used a new pull-up bar at the PSU gym.  I also think I tweaked my right arm funny.  I may need acupuncture for it.

On Thursday, Jan 13, I worked my internship.  I normally don't do Thursdays but it worked out better with everyone's schedule.  I also worked a late (and long) shift: 11am-8pm.  I haven't had to work an evening in years since I gave up my retail job.  I love doing new things but I like getting off when it's still light out.  I did get the opportunity to sit through a house meeting at the internship.  It was okay but I realized that, if I had to choose a focus between working with adults with DD or working with homeless youth, I'd definitely pick adults with DD.  Luckily, that's what I'm doing on a permanent basis.  It was good affirmation.

On Friday Jan 14, I also had one of the most disturbing encounters with one of my favorite clients.  This guy has been on an awesome streak and out of nowhere, he blows up.  He has never done this before and I had no clue what to do.  I'm used to working with a handful of folks that will freak out, throw things or get violent with others but this guy just had some serious issues with delusions that I was completely unequipped to handle.  Fortunately his mom happened to be there and was able to calm him down enough to get him home.  She also seemed thrown off by his behavior so I don't feel like such a novice but I'm still frightened for the guy.

Also on Friday, I went to a new Lebanese place Bete-Lukas for Bastard's last day in town until March.  I'm not big on spicy food so I really enjoyed the food here.  I could eat everything without having to worry about the payback in the morning.  We also checked out a different bar, North.  Yep, won't be going back. 

Tonight, though, tonight was something special.  It wasn't going to be.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I didn't expect this.  Sometime before 5, Justin called and said he could come pick me up if I wanted to go to Bunk Bar and Sandwiches with Sophia, Jennifer and him.  I abandoned all other intentions and decided to go along for the ride, wherever it would take me.

Bunk was okay.  The sandwich was pretty damn good but it was a little too pricey.  The place was also nice with a friendly atmosphere.  I'm pretty sure that it used to be the old Q Center though.

After Bunk, we went to the Star Bar.  It started off being really chill.  Emily joined us and we were able to just sit back and chill.  After an hour or so though, it turned into a hot spot and got loud and obnoxious.  I was ready to bail on the night there and then but that would have meant walking all the way back to my house or taking odd bus routes.

I decided to stick it out as Emily, Jennifer, Justin and I wandered around, looking for another acceptable watering hole.  We stumbled upon Ladd's Inn.  It's a tiny dive bar that I bike by a lot but never really think about visiting.  However, it's perfect.  I love this place.  The drinks were cheap, big and stiff and they had karaoke and a fun KJ.

After closing down Ladd's, we wandered over to Whiffies for some pies.  It was a blustery night but not cold.  Sitting on a picnic bench on a temperate January late night with good friends eating okay pies was just perfect.  I didn't expect this at all tonight and I'm really glad that I went in the first place and that I didn't bail early.  It was a great night.  So far, 2011 has produced some awesome Saturdays for me!

the yoga competition

Yoga and competition seems silly to put together but it was actually interesting to watch.  My friends don't do compete regularly.  I think the most competitive thing anyone of us has done in recent memory would be bar trivia.

Sophia competed today with 19 other women.  There were maybe ten or twelve guys but I didn't make it in time to see them.  I saw all of the ladies' competition though and it was pretty impressive.  Sophia didn't make it into the top three but everyone who did place did the wheel so I think that double-jointed contortionists had a leg up on the competition.  The lady who won stood up, bent her head backwards, ended up looking between her legs and I swear that her collarbone was touching the ground.  Like I said, impressive.

What else?
I went to Dick's for the first time.  It's another new place on Belmont.  I may go back there if they keep Hungarian Mushroom Soup on the menu.

water fun

When I was a little kid, I loved Aquaman.  When my friends and I would run around the yard and pick superheroes that we were pretending to be, I'd usually go with Aquaman.  This is odd because he doesn't have great superpowers and it's ironic because I'm not a good swimmer.

I can remember swimming lessons being a type of punishment for me.  I liked to go around and splash a bunch in the water but I did not like the structure of lessons.  There were stages that we would go through until the instructor thought we had graduated to the next level.  I didn't advance through these stages early.  The pool once lost my sister Jackie's swimming lessons card and she had to go through each stage again, which she did in a matter of minutes.  I remember being jealous and also thinking, "Take me with you so I don't have to go through this anymore!"

In community college, my friend Brian was a lifeguard at the Y.  I would go there occasionally and screw around in the pool but was constantly taking criticism from him and our friend Mick about how I didn't swim properly.  I guess it's the equivalent to me criticizing people with bad spelling.  It really doesn't matter unless you care, which I don't.  I know I can swim enough to survive.  I will never be a Baywatch lifeguard though.

Today, I mustered up the courage to go to the PSU Rec Center pool.  I have been to their hot tub many times (so many times that I have my favorite jets) but I have never gone in the pool.  People are always doing laps and with good form and speed.  I would look ridiculous trying, like a drunken seal with one flipper.  However, it was hot enough for me today to go for it.  I found out they have an open area which more closely resembles a community pool.  There was only a few other people in the open area so I had a lot of time to float around.  They have a bunch of water aerobic equipment there and I had already surpassed shame by getting into the pool so I gave some of the equipment a shot.  I tried the water gloves which webbed my fingers and gave me a good workout just treading water.  Since I paid for the membership to the Rec Center, I will definitely be going back.

What else?
I went to Vincente's pizza with Dom quick so we could have a drink before seeing Inception.  It was well worth the $4.75.  If you like Memento, go see this.  I've been loving Christopher Nolan's work since Memento so I was eager to see it and it lived up to my expectations.  Don't just go to see it expecting a FX extravaganza because it's a lot more story-driven than FX driven.

Dean vs the sprinklers...The other day on Infomania, they showed a clip of dogs vs sprinklers so I got out my droid today when Dean went to get some water or get sprayed trying...

 

happiness is...

chocolate.  I'm craving chocolate.  Must be Tuesday.

I've been in a slump for the past few days.  I blame this song and a lack of anything significant to look forward to after an exciting several weeks.  I even had a good weekend but these past couple of days have left me bored.

However, I fixed it today with chocolate.  I met Martin for drinks at Crush for their all day happy hour and two strong Chocolatinis.  Tim later joined us and we all hung out for a bit.  On the ride home, I swung by Whiffies and got a chocolate-peanut butter fried pie (for the first time) which was awesome.  I'm feeling better now.

What else?
I gave in to PSU and decided to pay for a summer membership to the gym.  I had a great workout today but it cost me $25 for a month membership.  I'm not sure if I'll renew in the middle of August or just start using the apartment complex's gym again.