I guess since I asked for trouble, I found it.
After waking up extremely late today, I managed to sprain my ankle rather severely this afternoon. After a trip to the hospital and the RX, I’m pretty doped up on pain meds.
I’m recuperating overnight at the ex-inlaws – but it looks like I’ll be off my feet for a while.
I’ve never broken any bones, and the last sprain I got was when I was 12 or 13.
This sure is some interesting pain. Wish I had my camera.
Ow.
One thing that I really like about changing workout routines is the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that occurs the day after. After (over?) performing in the yoga class yesterday, I’m feeling some weird soreness around my lower quadriceps and my back muscles feel a lot like when I used to roll out pizzas with a rolling pin.
Much like any soreness, it reminds me that it’s doing something to my muscles, which is nice. (Also that I skipped my normal workout to go to this yoga class, so I don’t feel bad about skipping.)
I’ve tried to adequately describe how interesting pain (I think) is to people, and they always look at me like I’m nuts. Or a Sado-masochist.
But really, how often in life do people embrace pain? Most people spend a lot of time avoiding pain. Which is understandable. I myself do it – pain isn’t something I enjoy, but when it happens, I take the time to appreciate the feelings that it produces.
I’ve got a slight sunburn from going swimming at my brother’s house on Saturday with my nephews. The sunburn pain is a little irritating. Unfortunately I had a horrendous sunburn experience one summer in Houston as a result of being at Waterworld all day without any sunscreen. I fear sunburns for the type of skin cancer that I suspect it produces.
However, around the pool flew yellowjackets and bees, that often stopped to drink some of the puddled water. I often wondered (even aloud) what it would be like to be stung – in comparison to being tattooed. I haven’t been stung by anything other than ants since I was a young lad. After sitting in the tattoo chair for two and a half hours, I cant imagine that a wasp sting would hurt that much.
Is that weird?
As an illustration of how “off” I’ve been, I’ve only been working out three times a week…..and then wondering why I’m not losing any weight/gaining any muscle.
Well, DUH.
All those Men’s Health issues that I’ve read CLEARLY have said that if you want to MAINTAIN your body weight/physique you only have to work out three times a week.
So, as of today, I’m going back to my 4 day/45 min workout.
D’OH! I feel so slow sometimes.
We have entered the culture of lowered expectations – please raise your tray tables and fasten your seat belts, this will be a bumpy ride…..
I managed to get a “B” on my Texas Politics test. I was a little disappointed that it was an “on the edge” B – it was an 80. Although, for the time I put in, I deserved exactly what I got. So, I went to class today and the professor was astonished that our class did so poorly. The class average was 53. FIFTY-THREE. This is a class where we were allowed to use an index card (both sides) with notes for the test!
As it turns out, there were two A’s, two B’s, about 6 C’s, 12 D’s, and the rest were F’s. Freaking amazing. I too was astonished. Just think if I had put some time in on it!
Piano class, I managed to underwhelm myself when I volunteered (too early) for something that I wasn’t really ready for. I thought I was going to get away with not-really-practicing-at-home, but I’m not going to be comfortable doing that. Many of the playing elements are solid, but other parts are not.
For golf class, we went to Mansfield National and hit some balls at the driving range. Now that was fun. Although, I didn’t realize that I was supposed to use my almost-full-stroke yet, so when the coach was saying, “Bring it back more” I’m like, “Huh?”. So I think I’ll be heading to Top Golf this weekend with Rod and hit some balls. Stretch out my aching triceps anyway. Monday was a snowy/wet day so we hit the cardio room. I also hit the weight room and REALLY pushed myself. Ouch.
A student got smart with the RnR History/Appreciation class professor. I couldn’t believe it. He looked like he loved Nickelback and was like, “Duuuude! Why are you talkin’ smack to me?” to the professor. A hush fell over the class.
Stupid kids.
In other news, when in a funk I managed to mangle one of my rims, and I’m in the process of buying another one. Also, got some windshield wiper blades which are Honda year/model specific which is crazy. At least they were easy to install.
The amp showed up – somehow I thought it would be bigger. LOL.
I would say it’s been a pretty eventful week.
Saw the Dex Romweber Duo on Thursday at the House of Blues. Exene Cervenka opened. I wanted to see Dex Romweber live so Terry and I booked it over there and saw a rather intimate show in the Cambridge room. It was a cool show – I enjoyed it. Approached the weekend having hit some golf balls and plenty of homework assigned. My piano teacher is now including me in his Piano II class – which is fine. Guitar has taught me enough eye/hand co-ordination that I can pretty much keep up. I’ll only get credit for Piano I, but at least I won’t be playing beginner stuff. Also applied for my associates degree – I graduate this semester.
Friday saw the Young One get ill – (pharyngitis again AND an upper respiratory infection). Her trip to H-town was put on hold and she’s attempting to burn out the sickness in my bedroom. Been alternately writing papers and taking care of her (and slacking – of course).
Somehow this week I believe I managed to fracture my big toe (doing jumping jacks barefoot – silly boy). I’ve got it taped up and it feels okay now. Thanks for asking.
Set my PS3 to run Folding@home so that I’ve got another PC running it. Again, if you ever have had someone you love get cancer, this program uses your computer to compute protein molecules and how they react – researching cures for cancer. Power of collaborative computing. Go team 169588!
Okay – it’s finally time for a Sunday post.
What’s going on?
Well, I needed an intermission….to take some time off the internets. Spending more time IRL (as it were). By not spending time on the internet all the time, I’ve found plenty of time to paint my bedroom, paint my breakfast area, practice plenty of guitar, read about four different books, watch about six or seven different movies…..the list goes on and on. Rather than going cold turkey on the whole thing – I decided that Sunday should be my day to “cheat”. Depriving yourself of anything entirely is not usually a good plan.
My first guitar lesson was last week – I’ve been going through minor scales and getting the key signatures down by memory. Next lesson tomorrow. I’ve got a week or two before school starts again.
I’ve got a new nephew.
Yes, it is a surprise, but only because they waited until the birth to find out what sex the baby was (which apparently is pretty rare these days). The instant-gratification society we live in can’t wait nine months for anything. LOL. Apparently all the nurses were shocked. Spent some time with the family this morning (first in – which is pretty unusual) and got to get some alone time with my first nephew. He’s now the “older brother” and I guess he and I can relate.
Not much else to report – I guess I still got a lot done. I think my daughter has bronchitis, so I’m taking her to the doctor tomorrow. Took some airborne and took a three hour nap to combat these feelings of fatigue I have. *crossing fingers*
Time to work out, then maybe do some reading. I have a lot of unread books right now.
*did forget to mention*
I have a really cool trip booked for September, but right now linkage to the site where I’m going is worthless, so I’ll wait to update with more detail.
Okay, okay. I admit it.
I’ve been slacking……a LOT.
My weight has ballooned up, and now that I’m out of school for a while, I guess it’s something I should take care of.
Granted, I give myself a “pass” for last weekend – a friend came in from out of town and we managed to indulge in some culinary delights.
However! That being said, it’s time to crack the whip, and make things happen.
Here we go…….
Mmmm.
DOMS – or as I learned in my “Concepts of Physical Education”, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
Tiny tears in muscle fiber that start getting sore hours after working out. (Typically 24+). In a weird way, it’s good to feel the pain of working out. It reminds me that I did something…..
I worked out yesterday – a promise I made to myself…
Although I followed it up with some deep dish pizza (D’OH!), it was worth it.
I need to get back into the routine – since this weekly cardio work at school seems to be doing nothing for me.
I’m being a good boy. I’m sticking around the house rather than going out. I need to plow through a few Netflix discs and practice some guitar…..I already finished most of my homework, enough that I’m satisfied.
I had to update because it’s been a pretty roller-coaster couple of days. While those closest to me have been riding the front and back cars, and I myself have been solidly in the middle, the days have definitely spun me for a loop (or loop-de-loop or loop-loop-de-loop). There have been a few things that have struck me recently (much like an epiphany) but that I have not quite yet acted on yet.
I’ve heard recently something that resonated with me, it was said, “I’d rather regret the things I did do, rather than the things I didn’t do”. Which of course I think is totally applicable except for that incident of public nudity on a baseball diamond and possibly the charge of illegal animal husbandry. Regardless, life is short. Extremely short when you look at the long term survival rate of any one human being. (At some point, EVERYONE has a zero survival rate)
A lot of decisions in my life have been so logic based that I ended up not doing whatever it was because the end result wasn’t something I was entirely comfortable with. These days, I’m finding that to be a pretty limiting decision making process. Always the “what ifs?” held me back. What if? What if? What if?
Henceforth (yes – I said “henceforth”), I’m going to attempt to head into directions that I haven’t been, do some things I haven’t done, try something I haven’t tried, talk like I haven’t talked, act like I haven’t acted. I’ve come a long way, but there’s a long way to go (and a short time to get there, I’m eastbound just to watch ole bandit run)
In reality based news, the probate hearing was yesterday. Long story short, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t have some oddly colored hair – because it could have been disastrous. It’s good to act like a completely sane responsible human – some of the time. Ha! Tequila (again) is not my friend – but I’ll know better next time. I still managed to get up, go to school – unfortunately dehydration meant my calves were cramping up so I couldn’t do much. My hair has freedom now – I’m not sure where I should go with it. Most sane people say, “Do what YOU want to with it”. I was going to waffle on it, but I know what I’m going to do now.
Life is short – remember?
Ow. Ow. Ow.
I’m not really in that much pain, but my lower legs are definitely sore. Yesterday, in my “Concepts of Physical Fitness” class, we were baselining our VO2max and had to walk (1mile) or run (1.5miles) to get this baseline. Of the thirty person class, two of us chose to run. I was supposed to only run around the building about five and a half times, but I think I ran six and a half. Oops. Lost track. Even so, with the time I ran, my fitness is considered “good” – of which I’m pretty glad. I haven’t been running at all, so to be able to complete this I felt good about my physical fitness (for my age *cough* *cough*).
That being said, I was more or less stoned from exhaustion yesterday. I didn’t realize it until I made it over to Guitar Center to buy more strings. When I had gotten home, I had immediately tried to complete stringing up the J. I quickly realized that I had cut three of the strings wrong, and that is what was causing my intonation problems. But, I had no strings left. So, to Guitar Center I went. One of the GC guys attempted to strike up a conversation about Reverend Horton Heat (I was wearing a RHH shirt) but I was so exhausted that I could barely do more than nod and shrug my shoulders. From there I went to Whole Foods around the corner and found this:
Came home and finished stringing up the J. Around seven thirty, I laid down and attempted to sleep. So I slept until about eight forty five this morning. That’s a lot of sleep for me.
Oddly, this will be the first true holiday weekend that I’ve had in about five years. My Saturday class is cancelled, and so are my Monday classes. Time for more coffee. Need to read some Chemistry – maybe later.
Forgot – I’m supposed to be getting a *free* treadmill tomorrow from my ex-mother-in-law.
Alright – my first class dropped.
I was able to sneak into a Saturday Chemistry class (one of my core requirements) and drop the logic class. The logic class was probably going to be interesting, but I could tell that from the first two chapters that I would be pretty buried. It didn’t help at all that the teacher was not tremendously orgainized. Quote, “I’m not going to be a teacher, but more of a coach…..well, I’ll teach also but….” Nothing was really laid out too well (at least not to my liking) so that I could expect relatively what was going to happen. After experiencing this, my history and government classes seem very easy. So, I did manage to find the Chemistry class – while I’m not super excited about it being on a Saturday, it just means that I only have to take four more classes for my Associate’s degree – then I can transfer into University of Texas Arlington.
Having had the previous experience of bombing classes, I know better now when to cut and run. There’s a difference between sighing because of the workload, and having a horrendous sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake. Last night was one of those nights in the Logic class. Since I was taking it to fill an elective spot (foolish me), I did visit with the academic counselor yesterday so that I could fully understand what I was doing. I pretty much just jumped into it all without looking too closely, but that logic class was a little too close to the edge.
Maybe if I had been in school more recently, I could have handled it, but having not been in school in about thirteen years, overwhelming myself is not a good plan.
All in all, I’m very happy with the choice I made – I did it before it was too late, and I’m still on my way.
The music class should be fun.
SO – How was the first day at school?
Not as nerve wracking as I expected it to be. While it is assumed that I’m some punk “kid” because of my green hair (which did go over very well by the way) I know that I’m a little less than twice the age of most of these kids. It’s definitely nice to have this kind of perspective – every single class had a “get to meet you” and the majority of the kids in there sounded just like me when I was their age: “I don’t know what I want to do/be”
[UNDECIDED]
So it’s nice to at least kind of know what it is I’m going to do.
Current plan: Xfer to UTA and get a degree in music production/recording. Couldn’t hurt.
My classes seem pretty straight forward. The “Concepts of Physical Education” I’m kind of looking forward to. It’s being taught by a track teacher and he said we can work out however we want to. I’m already working out four times a week – so this should bump it up a bit. Not sure how the information is being graded though in his class. The other two classes are pretty self explanatory.
Sooooo…..I probably need to be practicing guitar right now, but unfortunately, I’m not. I made a semi-mistake on eBay and ended up snagging a J Yuenger sig model Ibanez…..that will be pretty much like the guitar that I’m having custom painted right now….to look like a sig model J Yuenger guitar. My “custom” won’t have a floyd rose, but the sig model probably needs to be repainted anyway. Apparently it was damaged when being shipped to the current owner and he had it airbrushed. You can see it in the photo which looks a little blue/green right by the knobs and the stars are a little more shiny – which is probably why I got such a good deal on it. Depending on how well my “custom” is coming out, I may send the sig model to him to redo the entire front. We’ll see when it comes in.
*sigh*
I wish I had something interesting to report.
Things are kind of slow when my daughter isn’t around, and my green hair only entertains me so much. I hear from my lawyer that I will need to go back to blonde before the probate hearing. Yay me. Then it’s back to green.
Being unemployed is a little surreal. It will be good to go back to school, giving me a daily goal (wake up, go to school, repeat).
I’m using a book that teaches fretboard logic – and it’s working very well for me. I’m really happy with it.
Picked up a ton of $2 bills at the bank today. I wiped them out. Why? Why not? It’s legal US currency – it’s time to reintroduce it into circulation. C’mon people! Do your part!
Going to have a parent/teacher conference tamale. Little one made “student of the hour” last week – of which I am extremely proud. The things you do for your kids…..
She’s enjoying the whole process which is awesome. This is exactly what she needed. I can enthusiastically endorse Sylvan Learning Center.
Am considering doing the P90X program – my insurance agent/guitar teacher does it and he loves it.
I’m trying to use every Category that I have…..here we go – I’m close.
Installed a new toilet the other day – life is so much better with a new toilet. Don’t underestimate the power of a new toilet.
Speaking of humor….just kidding. I honestly have had more conversations with this hair than I can count. People say the oddest things. Which is great, because it’s sharpening my response skills.
“Which came first, the chicken? Or the egg?”
I’ve been a pretty busy dude.
Obviously.
Friday was my last day at work (have already covered that).
Didn’t really feel like doing anything, but drove out to Houston on Saturday. Monica and I stopped at Mai’s for food – and picked up some for Tam and Chelsea. My daughter ate steak at the Hilton – where I managed to get them a room for the night after the Green Day concert. I think I tried to eat fish the entire weekend. Went to the show –
which was obviously cool. They blew ticker tape all over the place – it had skulls on it. I think I just washed the few pieces I had. Or I dropped them – I don’t remember. my kid got some, which is really what matters. I got Terry a Green Day sticker (per request) and got a shirt for the kiddo. She loved it.
Drove to Galveston on Sunday – had a lot of fun. We went to Seawolf Park which was pretty much decimated by the last hurricane. It was all dirt. I got pretty pink in the 20 or 30 minutes we were out uncovered. Got some great pictures in the submarine – but didn’t get to go into the conning tower. Used to be able to look through the periscope when I was a kid. 
Walked on the beach (2 miles) at night which was really, really cool. Got a lot of exercise walking, but picked up about four pounds over the weekend. Since it’s mostly beer, I suspect I’ll lose it by the end of next week. Time to start drinking a lot of water – and quit eating food after seven pm!
Great news! On the way back from H-town, I decided to tempt fate and contact my GI guy (not the GI Joe guy, the General Internist or whatever he is) and they said that I had “allergic espohatitis“. That’s good – it’s not cancerous. I now have an inhaler that I have to use for the next 6 or 8 weeks – and then we’ll go from there. I will surely laugh at the prospect that it may be coffee that I’m allergic to.
Got back and then I REALLY got busy. I shipped the IC300 out to be painted, and got some hair bleach at Hot Topic, went to Sally’s Beauty Supply and picked up some Green Manic Panic. Stage One:
Being unemployed is so freaking cool. (Until the bills roll in……)
I also picked up some music books and a music stand – getting ready for LESSON # 1!
LOL.
So true, so true.
For some reason, I continue to have conversations regarding workout motivation with people I know. Seems odd……or at least it seems odd if you’ve happened to have known me most of my life.
Physical fitness was never at the top of my “important things to do before I die” list.
However, since fitness apparently keeps my perpetual clock ticking by reducing my blood pressure, at this point it’s something I’m kind of required to do.
Sure, I could stop and just kill myself the long, slow, and hard way – until I die of a heart attack. Or stroke. Or both.
But……
I do find that I actually enjoy working out.
REALLY!
Not sure why. It could be the endorphins, it could be the challenge, it could be the desire to appear attractive to others, it could be lots of things.
I find that changing my motivation helps me keep focus. I read some books on “making things happen in your life” and I also find that this could be applied (in my case) to working out:
Give yourself a goal. A tangible, specific goal. Not the “I want to lose weight – just because I want to lose weight” goal. That goal never helped anyone. It’s too easy to backslide.
My first goal (last year) was to weigh what I weighed in high school, by my next birthday. At the time I think it was February, and my birthday was in December, so that gave me a good enough span of time to make the goal – even with some backsliding. I weighed 165 through the majority of high school.
Did I make it? *Everyone is holding their breath*
Yes – at the time, I did. As vain as I am, I’m very surprised that I didn’t take any pictures of my bulging biceps. While I weighed what I did in high school, I was considerably more muscled. But then, with my father getting progressively worse, and moving up here in February, and then eventually passing away – I lost all desire to work out. Depression and anxiety screwed up it all up (understandably). Now, five months later, I find myself working back into it. I swore to myself that I would never get as big as I did (and I’ve already downsized my wardrobe into smaller sizes than I’ve ever worn so I HAVE to fit into them or else buy a whole new wardrobe again)
Let’s cycle through some (not all) of my goals (rotating):
* Be fit enough not to be the “fat rockabilly guitar player”
* Fit enough that both ladies and dudes totally are impressed with my manly physique
* Fit enough that I don’t have the tummy bulge poking out of the size shirt that I should be wearing when I’m walking past the freezer case and unconsciously suck in my gut each time to hide it
* Fit enough that I don’t gasp for air when performing any laborious activity (not limited to hide and seek, wrestling with my daughter, changing the oil in my car, climbing on the roof, etc, etc, etc)
* Fit enough that I could hold my own in a bar fight
* Fit enough that I can eat garbage and junk food (occasionally) and not feel bad about it truly deep down because I’m busting my ass working out.
* Fit enough that if Sabina Kelley got divorced and made an appearance in my town, I would totally sweep her off her feet (with my muscles – and my charm – but my muscles would do the heavy lifting).
That’s but a few.
This whole process was made easier because I’ve essentially got a trainer. One of my best friends works out pretty much five days a week. He’s told me his goals – and I kid you not – they are no more or less as plain as mine. It’s the desire and motivation that will get you there. When I have questions, I ask him. If he doesn’t know, we go look it up. Granted, he hasn’t designed workout plans for me, but he just suggests places to look and things to try. It’s my desire that makes me go and try whatever it is I find.
I hope in some way I can inspire someone to help themselves out – like the way my friend did.
Starting slow and easy, and then worked my way into doing more.
I always remember the saying, “Doing a little of something is better than doing nothing at all”.
I suppose I should give a tip of the hat to the GOOD things that happened this last week. As it has been pointed out, nothing is necessarily bad or good – it’s just a matter of perspective….
* Purchased a Super Automatic –
* Made my ex-wife blush (which was pretty damn funny)
* Turned off my work phone all weekend and felt fine about it
* Resumed my workout routine – my favorite routine that managed to knock me on my ass for two days after resuming it
* Played a LOT of guitar. That automatically should fall into “Great things I did last week”, but I’ll just go with it.
* Transferred a lot of the old VHS tape to Youtube and managed to Rickroll a bunch of people (c’mon, it was too easy)
I think there may have been some others, but I’ll go with that for now.
Wobbly and topsy-turvey.
That’s pretty much life right now.
My house is considerably cleaner after yesterday – and I finally made it out to Fish Creek (Linear) Trail for some walkin’.
The blisters on my feet say five miles, but I suspect it’s closer to three. The paths are very nice, although once you hit the trail on the Grand Prairie side, there are no mile markers to tell you how far you’ve gone (beyond the border). Hence, on the Arlington side, I walked one and a half miles, it’s an unknown as to how much I covered on the GP side. I just kept walking until it looked like the trail ended at a bridge, then I turned around.
During the walk, I saw a hawk, swoop down and catch a mouse, a rodent or a rat. It carried it off in flight. Pretty cool to watch nature in action.
Got the battery charger, so I’ll take the camera on the next trip out.
Going to the Dr tomorrow, it has been “suggested” that I might “need” some “medication” so that I don’t burn a bridge down to the hollow timbers at work.
Life…..
is complicated sometimes.
I got up about a half an hour ago, I’m a little fuzzy. The show was pretty rockin’ last night – Responsible Johnny did kick some real ass – despite their own protests that they sucked. I liked the humility.
There was also another band called The Mumps – the only reason I mention this is that the guitar player/singer didn’t have a hand on his picking…uh….hand – he had a flying V and a picking stump. And he played the shit outta that V.
Had a lot of fun hanging out and it was a good night.
Gonna run to Ross’ today – I think he’s a little weirded out about everything.
(And in case you’re wondering, it was 60 prisoner squats that made my ass hurt – I’m going through a different cycle of exercises now)
Well, is it the end of the era? Or the end of the Monte Cristo?
I’ll miss the Monte Cristo. Although…..when was the last time I went to Bennigans and ate an artery clogging Monte Cristo? Probably….uh……10 years ago?
Like many other people, I remember Bennigans as the place to get the Monte Cristo, and everything else was secondary….except maybe Death By Chocolate.
So…I’m to blame really.
My fitness regime would have killed me had I walked into a Bennigans willingly.
