Graduation Present

 

So for the past 8 weeks I've been taking Intro to Therapeutic Massage at the local community college. I toyed with the idea of becoming a licensed massage therapist, so I could work nights and weekends for fun money. Turns out enrolling in the program commits you to 6 hours every Saturday for a year. Not really what I had in mind. I wish I could keep going for 3 hours a night on Wednesday for 2 years, but, alas, that track does not exist. But I definitely want to be able to give friends and family one step up from a regular back rub and showcase my new edumacation, hence my "graduation" present to myself, a real table. I love, love, love it. It is portable, well as portable as a giant table can be for a 5'1" person. Mandi got to be the first Guinea pig and she really enjoyed it. She has never had a real massage, so she has nothing to compare it to, but it was relaxing and felt good so I'll call that a success. I find the process of massaging relaxing so it was a win win. I'm taking appointments now ;)

Blizzard!!! Yay!!!

So I've got a Snow Day today. Yay! Well yay for now until I have to try to drive in it tomorrow. I love walking in the snow. I can't wait until the weekend and I can go tromping through the woods. The drift in front of my front door is 33 inches. I loved busting through it. It was clear I was the first person out and about this morning and it was very eerie. I can see a main Peoria artery and the Interstate from my apartment and there weren't any cars on them. When I was scooping my car out a maintenance truck drove up and asked me if I was planning on going anywhere. I told him no, and he was like good, you won't make it past the stop light. Good to know. He thought they would have everything plowed by this afternoon. I remain skeptical.

Happy New Year

Another one bites the dust. 2010 included such fun times as getting an I-pass and heading up to the suburbs, getting back to geocaching, buying a swimsuit and sitting in a hot tub for the first time in decades. It is a wild and crazy life I live kids. I've also kind of fell in love with house plants. My one aloe has turned into a collection of succulents, growing herbs under a grow light and trying to force a bulb. I also have taken a liking to winter hiking. It is so much better than hiking in the summer. I like how cold and peaceful it is, the snowier the better. I think by the end of January there'll be enough sunlight to go regularly after work. I need to soak it up while I can; I know when it warms up it will lose its appeal.

Health and Wellness wise I did a couple of cycles of P90X and Insanity. Hardest things I've done fitness wise for sure. I was in a super intense 2 a day workout cycle for a couple of months, but that just made me tired and hungry. So I've quit cardio and settled into a strength training routine using the P90X discs. Sad to say I'm still a bit gigglier than I was a year ago, gluten is the devil man. And sugar, sugar is also the devil. But on a positive note, I am wicked strong. Seriously, I can kick your ass. I can do a really nice pull up and my arms and back are jacked. Here's to 2011 including way less junk food and 30lb dumbbells.

What else is in store for 2011? A class at the local community college in massage therapy, possibly volunteering as a non skating official for the local roller derby league, and the bittersweet return to Internet dating. Lots to look forward too!

Happy Birthday To Me (Almost)

So my birthday week is well underway, Wednesday I will be "almost 30" to quote my mother. Thanks a lot lady! Hey, you're almost 50. For the record, I'm turning 29 for the first time. My week started with a surprise trip from Xena from Singapore. Crazy, huh? We partied hardy at Bear and Yoshie's house Friday night and shopped till we dropped Saturday. It was super fun, a $1200 car repair bill was a bit of a mood killer, but I tried to shake it off as best I could.

I hate the dealership, those bastards. According to S I only got screwed out of $335, so that's good, I guess. Saturday night was ROLLER DERBY!!!!. I loved it so much. VIP tickets are the way to go. I would be willing to pay another couple of bucks per person if I could be guaranteed the seats that we had this time. They have try outs November 9, maybe Bear and I give it a go. Really, we just want to ride the bench in our Hot Topic costumes.

Sunday was a trip to Grandma's for a potluck and ice cream cake. S opted not to go, he had had enough of me and my family by then :)

Yesterday flowers from my mom arrived, they are purples, pinks, and blues. Gorgeous as usual. Becks does a great job. Then flowers from S arrived today. It is a very pretty fall bouquet. There are a couple of really interesting blooms and the vase is a lovely chotchkie :)I'm such a lucky gal. The fun keeps rolling on with a birthday lunch and shopping with mom and dad on tomorrow afternoon and a Here Come The Mummies concert in the evening.

Labor Day 2010

A great success. Let's see if this slideshow of my day is as successful. Thanks to Bear for photo documenting the day.

Success!

Sweat matted hair, no makeup, and uni-boob, one sexy look for a 4th date huh? Date 2 involved geocaching on a well-traveled walking trail. It was super successful. S is a natural and he requested doing harder ones in the future, “something more in the forest.” The fear of him raping and murdering me has passed, so into the forest we went. Geocaches are rated using a 1-5 scale for difficulty/terrain. I generally stick to 2/2s and below. Well Sunday morning we went after a 3/3. The notes online said if we came at it from the wrong direction it would be a 3/4.5.

Oh my God, we must have come at it from the wrong direction 4 times over. At one point I was on my hands and knees climbing up a muddy, basically vertical, creek bed. There were frogs. It was so hot and exhausting. We spent an hour climbing around within a tenth of a mile of the cache. We finally ended up on the right ridge and then the “distance to point” numbers on the GPS began dropping like a rock. I started squealing, “That fallen tree, that fallen tree, it has to be there,” I staggered over and collapsed on the tree. At this point I don’t really know my name, the date or the current president. I rolled over and sat up on the log , 5 seconds later he sits down next to me and puts the cache on my lap. It was stuck in the end of the log. It took us an hour and forty five minutes to trek to within 200ft and then 5 seconds to find it. We rested for 5 minutes, finished the Gatorade and then started the hike out. It was better going out, but still took another 30 minutes. I was dead, but it was a real sense of accomplishment. There is no way pre P90X and Insanity I would have been able to make it. There was so much climbing and balancing, my quads and lower back were on fire.

Post a 45 minute break to get cleaned up, we went to The Sterling Family Restaurant for breakfast. I celebrated with a gyro omelet, hash browns, rye toast, and a quarter of a sweet potato waffle. If they would have had a cinnamon roll I would have ordered that too (that was the only disappointment with Sterling Family). I’d go through it again to eat that breakfast guilt free :) Two thumbs up.

New Toys

When I first started The 30 Day Shred over a year ago, I didn't have shoes to wear in the house. So I just didn't wear any. Eventually I started developing callouses on the ends of my toes from doing push ups. I drug my feet (ha) on purchasing shoes because I can be really cheap if I just don't care about something. I finally bought shoes when every single toe was jacked up. I wish I hadn't waited so long, those callouses are taking forever to Ped Egg off. So when I started noticing callouses on my hands from weightlifting/pull ups, I knew not to dick around. I do not want my hands looking like my toes. Enter in these babies. The cheapest ones they had, and green, my favorite color, to boot.



Well I have come a long way from the days of The 30 Day Shred, because then I bought a heart rate monitor. I have started doing cardio interval training and apparently I need to be "in the zone." I think if I feel like I'm going to die, I must be "in the zone." But if knowing exactly how close to exploding my heart is will make this work better; I'm in. So I picked up a monitor. It has continuous monitoring. Basically that function allows me to sit on the couch and try to get my heart rate as low as possible. I feel I am not using the product as intended, but it is addictive. I hit 43 beats a minute at one point, hahaha, me and Lance Armstrong baby!