Wednesday, June 30, 2010

With the adventures

No, beautitious blog not forgotten yesterday, but yowza, the last day and a half got interesting!

It began with Monday's crazy noon workout in the swelter. It was warmer out than I'd realized when poking myself out the door. But, with crazyrace in Aug (remember the slogan: You May Die ... how I love that), figure I needed a little heat training....

Anyway, I didn't die. Case you were wondering. What I DID do, however, was park right in front of a sign that said something quaint like "street cleaning 2nd & 4th Mon, 12 p.m. -[something]." It also said something about towing. None of this did I notice. To my and GreyC's eventual dismay. Yep.

So, along with the swelter, tomato face (OK all skin tomato, I think), still-pouring sweat & chalk coating (for pullups, my hands, they sweat. a lot. & I was clearly the loser in the chalk battle.) ... I needed to deal with finding & recovering my car. And a job phone call an hour and a half later.

Bottom line, it all happened, but not without some ferrying around and major emotional support. You know the (trite? is it trite now?) Beatles' line about getting by with a little help from my friends? Never has this been so true. In the midst of the hot headache the day turned out to be, I was repeatedly overcome with gratitude for friends who were my support posts every step of the way. It would've been 1,000 times worse without them, especially without you, my coconut-milk-ice-cream-on-porch dear friend, in particular.

There were more details about not having the debit card I was sure I'd left in my car to pay for it all (see friend gratitude, above), the bad scraping noise in the middle of Mass Ave bridge, me stopping then rethinking leaping out to check on the bridge, so inching across the bridge. Then the awesome Shell Station mechanic on Magazine who concocted a quick fix and a more stable fix the next morning ... ahhhh.

It was a day, y'all.

There was also a job interview set up for the next day (now yesterday, c'mon, keep up!).

Interview was in the lovely Marblehead, and my head's spinning from that, so that's to get its own entry, perhaps tomorrow. Interview was followed by a lovely time in nearby lovely Salem (it's a contest, how many times can I fit "lovely" in one lovely paragraph??) with a lovely new friend. Five. Do I win? Oops, I meant six.

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Weekender: Squashed by the heat bug

Sad, but looking likely to be true. There's already a heat-something warning on the day -- that ball of light in the sky + humidity pushing us to 100s today.

House's long closed up, fans going, gatos passed out on bed. I see an air-conditioned library in my immediate future. But first, I think my crazy self is resolved to go through with a noon workout. Huh. I have no words, no explanation. I dunno. Heat insanity?

So, even tho heat has overtaken The Weekender, there isn't actually any giant actionpacked earthaltering update you're missing. Shocking, I know. Usually my weekends alter the orbit of the earth and the universe's plans. Did get to see my favorite Chicagoans on a last pass-thru the city before they headed out this morn, so that was lovely. Sucio tried to be brave for them ... and somewhat succeeded. He's also gained another nickname: Stay Puff. Puffy? Suce-Puff? Yielding a full formal name of Comandante Sucio "Puffy" Montoya? He's gonna be a rap-star kitty, just watch.

Just poked myself outside, and it's not actually as terrible a swelter as I thought. There is a bit of a breeze. So now I have high hopes of not dying in the noon workout.

All right, there's The Weekender, over & out.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sights of the Charles: Feeding swans, sunning turtles & joyriding bugs

OK, so "joyriding" is a tiny bit of a stretch since, technically, the bug wasn't rowing my boat, simply going for a ride atop it, but doesn't joyriding sound better? I'm pretty sure the bug had joy in his tiny soul. Pretty sure.

But yes, all that I viewed on my row yesterday. I was feeling fairly beat from the week, so no coached session/race pieces for me, just some paddling upstream, flat water, ahhhhhhhhhhh.

The feeding swan really freaked me at first. Rowing along, glancing behind me, I saw a bundle of floating white that I thought was maybe a discarded pillow (it was a fleeting thought!), then figured it was a white plastic trash bag. As I got closer, I realized it was a swan's body, but to my horror, only its body. I stopped rowing, beginning to freak about someone strangling or beheading a swan (although there was no gore or mangling), then was just sad about a dead swan's floating body. Then it raised it head from somewhere deep below the water and looked at me. Waves of relief. So that's how they hunt/feed.

The sunning turtle, cute little guy on a rock, right before the ... um ... brain still waking up ... Arsenal! The Arsenal bridge.

Willa sends y'all a meow. Sucio would but ... it's Scary.

The bug, I noticed atop Pepper maybe 3/4 of the way to my turnaround point, not sure if he was there from the launching. And he was there at least a lot of the way back. Forgot to look for him back at the dock.

Speaking of dock. There was an 8 launching when I got back, and I walked alongside it to get to my boat bay, and I marveled at how long it was ... these are big boats! Nine people sitting with room for stretched-out legs. Funny how unaccustomed I'm getting to big boats. Do miss them. Just not a big boat time in my life, I guess.

Anyway, other wildlife, there were also flocks? herds? somethings of floating ducks. Didn't see the cool ... crane? heron? OK, I am NOT a wildlife exert, but he's a cool blue-grey bird with long legs. Didn't see him.

Love that river.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Finesse (what a great word, too bad it was overtaken by a shampoo)

Ohmygosh!

It happened again! By day's end, as my brain was full & turning to much, I forgot my beautiful little blog! So sad. But you must admit, it happens rarely, right?

OK. So the really exciting thing about yesterday? (Wow, every word had a typo after I typed that sentence ... you know I was excited.)

I became Queen of the Wall Sit! Yes! The prize that eluded me last week. Very exciting. And, it followed my crowning as Queen of the Front-Raise Hold (it's not quite as catchy a title).

It went down at the end of former-Marine-(with the missing toes, remember that story?)-led Newton boxing class (not to be confused with the Original Allston class or the North Station Mixed-Martial-Arts-studio-inside-gym classes, both led by the original, the awesome, technique-king, punk-rock instructor).

Got all that? What was I saying?

Oh, how it went down. So, yeah. We now do King/Queen of [blank] challenge at the end of each class. After winning the front raise title, I was still stomping around and pouting about losing the wall sit one last week, demanding a rematch, and my key competitor heard and fell prey to my smack talk, so we had a wall-sit-off (as the instructor and most others in the class left, shaking their heads), and I won!

That was totally the day's highlight.

I was also frustrated by continuing phone/e-tag with the maybe-position HR person, now put off to Monday. grrr. argh.

And got a maybe glimmer from a maybe small-scale client with a website project, yay!

And there was the lovely & wonderful acupuncture. Apparently, my pattern is a chi deficiency. (Of course, maybe I just burn through it as soon as I generate it! :) Given my growing, um, income focus, my usual points were all much touchier/stronger than usual. Pretty fascinating stuff.

This morning, I took a step closer to learning/doing handstand pushups. Whoo-hoo!

Oh yeah, and the website.... Well. Not gonna say lots about this yet, but ... there is yes with the progressing somewhat. As in, there are pages and there are words on the pages. Not finished words! Not quite right words! But words. Who knew such a thing would make me want to throw up. Steps, steps. The words will be more finessed next week....

OK, I gots an ever-growing to-do list that needs gittin' to. And a certain someone who'll be askin' about it at day's end (blows a kiss)....

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The action

Today!

Early Walden, amazing as ever. Body remembering how to swim.

More with the job searching and sifting, as ever.

And, a job callback! ! This is good. The full-time one (that's f-t to you, Miss Sam) but with early schedule/telecommuting. Altho they mentioned a different job in the message. Hmmmmmmmmm. We shall see, hopefully shortly.

Also: running (then shuffling, then striding, then ... moving forward however possible) 400m x 3 carrying a 35-lb weightplate. This was unique. Quite hard. Cars were actually stopping to watch us. Pushups were interspersed. Yeah!

Next up, hopefully a job phone call, then skeedaddling out to this thing. You know, one of those things that's maybe sorta networking but with a point/purpose, entrepreneur stuff, some interesting speakers. If I can stay awake....

Maybe thunderstorms tomorrow morn ... please, no electrocution on the water!

And that's today.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's short, enjoy the respite

First things first. The crazy breakfast photo promised from this weekend (y'all've gotta remind me of such things, I forgets!)....

###

OK, you know what? A crazy leftover-from-weekend breakfast photo will have to be enough for today. Lots of little things cooking away, or trying to, and we all know I'm not much of a chef, so ... I seem to be full up. Plus, I'll be driving for Walden in 8 hours, yowza!

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Weekender: Surgeons & Chicagoans & storms, o my!

A weekend of busy and fun, now, the returning to the norm....

Those crazy surgeons
Friday offered a little change of pace, always a nice thing. Headed down to the lovely & lush Connecticut (it still surprises me how much green stuff you see from freeways here).

Why? For the annual "fancy-schmancy" surgical resident graduation dinner. Not its official name, but you get the point. I didn't quiz SurgeonSam (Pepper's mom) quite enough about the dress code, so I looked a little more like the wives of the higher-up surgeons -- a little more long and black and funeral -- than most of the women in colorful cocktail dresses, but it mattered precisely not at all.

The event featured a lovely locale, right along the water. No, I don't know which water. There were cocktails in the pretty steamy sun. Then there was dinner and speeches, some quite entertaining, some unheard because of the far more pressing tales of children's antfarms from the not-sober surgeon seated next to me. But I did get credit from her for knowing the things in the salad were hearts of palm. And we read a brief but fascinating hearts-of-palm history on her iPhone. Did you know Costa Rica is the biggest ... hm, think it was producer of them? Anyway, then it was on with the music and the dance floor. I had to take a detour to the lovely, quiet outdoors for a bit first, check out the adjacent water, get a mosquito bite, then joined in. Surgeons, some of them can truly get down, who knew?

The visiting! With the eating!
Then it was back-homing to see the lovely visiting Chicagoans. Oh wait, there was a ridiculous breakfast first. I even have a picture, let's see if I can get it on here....

Anyway, so much talking and laughing and catching up and raspberry eating and crepe eating and Christina's ice cream eating (Tazo chocolate! sundae!) and good all around.

Regattas & rain
Sunday brought my club's annual regatta, Cromwell Cup (twitter feed), so very early volunteering with setup for me, then I managed a dash to Walden for first swim of the season (divine, tho water still a little chilly), some yoga, followed by blessed downtime, then back to the boathouse for foodstand help, ice procuring and a short but impressive thunder- and lightning-infused downpour. Our regatta director called it with beautiful timing, got everyone off the water and indoors, and the sky opened. Watched the sheeting downpour from the upstairs porch, while one by one, others scooted inside. Then the skies cleared, racing continued, and I was done. It was off for more chatting, wandering and delicious eating with the Chicagoans, then happy collapsing into bed.

Today, back to the real world, ahhhhhhh.... You can decide all the undertones there.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The day? Trudging on

The day, it has fleeted.

So, sigh. I applied for a full-time position today. I know, I know! I know. It bums me out, but -- but. After the first 3 months, it's telecommute. And, for the first 3 months, it's a 6:30-3 schedule. Which I kinda dig, except, except ... it's gonna fuck up coached rowing :(((((( and noon boxing :(((((((((. Which would be a huge bummer.

And for anyone mayhap rolling your eyes right now -- just substitute those words for "quality of life" or "sanity." But, in a variant on the erg-test saying "you can do anything for 2 minutes" ... I can do anything for 3 months, right?

And, and, I'll stop acting like the offer's at my feet and oh dear, what will I do ... until the offer appears at my feet.

Anyway. Now is the time of the continued much focus toward income, which is quite appropriate. No under-bridge-living looming yet; I'll let you know if an address change is coming.

It's also just time for some things to happen; I'm antsy.

And the website ... is making me want to take up shooting as a hobby. But I'm striving to get something up tomorrow, as planned. The words are mostly ready but who knew "easy! it's so easy! wordpress is easy!" templates would be 1) so hard to find a decent one (there are, BTW, something like 12,000 of them ... or was it 1,200? doesn't matter) and 2) so not-quite easy.

So, you can tell I'm not super cheery & sunshiny here (much like our weather, which is just FINE by me), but I maintain that's OK, too. So it goes sometimes.

Sometimes, it's a slog. Sometimes you're trudging. Me, I'm trudging right now. I'm OK with that.

And ... say it with me: BEAT LA!

p.s. In boxing class tonight? We had a King/Queen of Wall Sit contest ... and I LOST! Damnit. Hate losing. Hate being mortal, really....

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Not so much from me, but someone else's interesting!

I had this thought about what to write about. I did. And then I forgot.

It would've been something profound and life-altering, right?

It rained again today.

Pretty sure that wasn't it, yet it is a factual statement. Luckily, I've wised up to Boston's June ways, so I now carry an umbrella when I make my library and cafe tours.

OK, I got nothin' here. But, in place of these doldrums, my editor friend just told me about her new blog, focused on the pains of commuting and workplace culture after working from home for so long, so check it!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The good

After a weird, somewhat bad night's sleep, today brought good.

Some kind of a vague, bad (terrifying) dream of something that went from pleasant or pleasurable to hunting, grasping had me gasping awake at 12:30 a.m., opening blinds for a little more (street)light and wishing it were morning.

But the morning row ... was actually good. It's been awhile! Hard workout, didn't hit the uppermost rating (a 30), but saw flickers and mostly ... just felt like I could actually row!

More resumes today and reaching out to folks who know folks at application spots. So, good. I'll take (happily) the moments where I feel calm and like it's all just gonna work out.

And a nice afternoon, a great new cafe find, some unexpected free cookies, warm late sun ... and hopefully a Celtics win tonight! Fun to wake up and dash for the paper to see morning's headline....

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Weekender: There was ...

There was grey.
There was rain.
There was humidity.
There was a brief boathouse porch BBQ.
There was kind of a lot of eating, including nutella-stuffed french toast (not at the BBQ, moving on, people, moving on).
There was a visit from the favorite surgeon-in-the making (Pepper's mommy!) who did some hand-destroying rowing.
There was a damp Pride parade with some half-or-more naked people. And some perfectly ordinary people.
There was eating of the delicious unfinishable Cheescake-place salad.
There was highly random painting of one hand's nails while killing time in Sephora awaiting table for said salad (alas, camera is in car, perhaps a picture tomorrow).
There was a politician's breakfast in Revere (wow), which entailed some fried potato and mini-muffin eating on my part.
There was continued resume working.
There was a trying of a new Harv Square restaurant, tasty beer, tasty sliver of a pizza.
Lastly, there was a plugging-onward Monday in which I almost forgot to finish The Weekender!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

A tea day

Just so we're all clear & on the same page here, it's ... well, fall, perhaps? Grey and drizzly and damp, 50s. A tea day.

Miraculously -- OK, with the help of a promise to pick up a friend who's temporarily carless -- I made it to rowing this morning. Not precisely prime motivation when the alarm rings through your exhausted surety it's the middle of the night, and you hear rain dripping down, feel the chill from the open window, and your body confirms it really needs more sleep. Yet, dredge up I did, and had a great row (we went upstream ... the basin & I are still in therapy, working thru our "issues" ... but let the record show I'm doing way more of the work because it's, you know, a basin). Aftermath was wet & chill. A tea day.

Now I've got a cozy gato next to me, fuzzy socks and a fleece sweathshirt, but I seem to have a small episode of the voices freaking out in my head. So that may mean it's time to leave the house, head down, get some work done -- there's a sudden university theme to the interesting part-time communications positions I'm applying to. Still a tea day.

Given that it's a tea day and all, and the nonfun voices in my head were chattering (oh, what? like you don't have those voices, too), I headed for a more full-immersion tea experience ... no, not a tea bath, altho that does sound lovely. No, the nearby Starbucks.

And while, yeah, teadrinking, and working on resume submittal, I realized something interesting. Naturally, I don't know quite what-all this is yet, but it's around some glimmer of understanding about the legions of folks mostly tapping away, some reading, most on their own (two groupings) who come here to work or study -- to do something productive, yet in a cafe environment. I like cafes, so I've always sorta gotten it, but from the now of being a solo-from-homer, suddenly it clicks there's something really nice about being in a place where you're going to work, there isn't really anything else to do, but you're around people -- you're in an odd bit of a community of sorts -- something many of us are wanting/lacking.

It's not sterile or too quiet, but there aren't really any other serious distractions -- lots of minor ones in the people watching, but you can only do so much of that. It's not the place for quiet, uninterrupted work of course, but a little music, humanity, hubbub can do wonders for the solo spirit.

It's a tea day.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The library world

I've made a good discovery here ... the library down the street.

Well, let's be clear, I've "discovered" this library before/already. But this is the first time I've headed here to work.

It's been long enough now in this new wonderful lifestyle of work-from-home, plus with nice weather, I start to get antsy to get out of my space for at least a little chunk of each day, and while I love cafes, there's the creeping guilt if you sit too long, there's the buying something as the fair price of taking up space ... thus, the finally-heading-out to explore my local libraries as alternate workspaces.

So far, so good. Except, the table is a little high for ergonomic correctness. We'll see what I can devise. Perhaps bring a pillow with me? Hm, perhaps not. Also, I think you aren't allowed/supposed to drink water inside the library. Suddenly, I'm overpoweringly thirsty. Blame the damn salty kale crisps at lunch.

The lights are a little fluorescent-y, but they're high up and are in little UFO light fixtures, so that's something. The molding around the ceiling is insane, amazing. And I'm in the room with big windows, lots of natural light. And a view of the courthouse across the street and the big main thoroughfare. Anything with sirens goes by, I'm all over it....

Oh, there's also the historical old dead white guy nicely peering at me across the bookshelves from his gold gilt frame. Let's call him John. I mean, odds are, right?

Now, if I just weren't so thirsty....

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What really matters in a day?

There was a wounded blue jay in my driveway/backyard today.

It greatly distressed & worried me. Generally, I tend to/like to think I'm not all *that* soft-hearted, but something about hurt & suffering, esp an animal, ack. But I simultaneously get the anxiety/frustration & annoyance surge of not wanting my day, my time disturbed ... and what the hell can I do anyway.

The little guy could fly some, but not far or high. I only saw him because his buddy jay was screeching up a storm, and I got cold (my house is a fine icebox) and got up to get a sweater and was walking back to the couch (my current work station, haven't been able to work in oficina for a week or more ... hmm), when I thought, what the hell, let's check out the racket, and glanced out the bedroom window.

I saw the orange neighbor cat lying on the driveway on his stomach and nearby was the blue jay, standing there. I instantly knew something was wrong w the scenario and ran outside. I scared the orange cat away, but the blue jay just stood there for a while.

I stood there watching him, not knowing what to do, but figuring I could at least keep the neighbor cat from hunting and eating him. After several minutes, it's like he woke up, tho his eyes had been open and his head turning a little, but he suddenly started cheeping and hopping around. Seemed like he was looking for/talking to his buddy, who was still screaming from the tree.

He hopped a little and kept trying to fly up onto the metal guardrail thing in the parking lot, but couldn't make it. It was really sad. Finally he did. And sat there for maybe an hour. Seemed like a better place than the ground, tho still within cat's reach.

I kept peering out to check on him, while trying to steadfastly work on my website. Then I saw he was back on the ground, hopping, flying a little, but getting nowhere good. Then he went hopping toward my garage spot and wound up under my car. Great.

That's the last I saw of him, but he didn't stay there. I really, really hope he made it somewhere safe, and that he makes it.

His little life and death struggle seems a lot more dramatic and important than any of my minor struggles today.

###

Oh, and while in Starbucks, I discovered a friendly local musician, check him out: Ryan LaPerle. Nice sound.

Monday, June 7, 2010

The gatos

If I'm periodically reporting on Sucio's It's Scary! list, then I am also dutybound to report on his great bravenesses. This weekend, he firmly and bravely held his ground on the corner of the couch for TWO different visitors! And there was great rejoicing throughout the land. True, they're visitors who're here a lot, but still. Great bravery. There was even some cautious petting. Willa, of course, played the queen as she always does for the people who come to pay homage to her. Woe to those who might be in the vicinity without putting any hands upon her. Woe.

Anyway, this is the gatos being adorable. Doing very good impersonations of being friends. But not to worry, Sucio shows a scratch above his eye today. sigh

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Weekender: Old friends & new deadlines

Let's see ... the weekend brought grand exciting weather, thunderstorms with steamy, sunny heat in between. Feels like summer!

Also brought some gatherings of friends and families for graduations and weddings (ceremony stuff, it abounds).

Also, with the kind, kind assistance of a dearly beloved, I have a website completion plan. Under which I shall try hard not to kick him. Because, in the end, anything would be his fault, right? Right. So, two Fridays, it should be live. That was either a groan or a retch you just heard. You decide. So yeah, feel free to ask ... I think....

And, crossed the first 100-mile mark with Pepper last week. Yay! 400 to go before the freeze....

And now, the yes-I-will/no-I-won't debate for coconut chocolate peanut butter ice cream just swung toward the go! go now! side....

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Rain + rituals

Yeah, I told you about those Fridays, right? They're getting to be too slippery to ever catch....

The rain is pitter-pattering down, I have my first cup o tea, some sweet cherries and Willa intently watching me from my side. Oh, turns out she dislikes my choice of laptop for my lap -- it could be a Willatop, you know!

Last night, another great thunder-with-the-lightening-and-the-pouring-rain storm. Yay! Have I mentioned liking those? And New England weather? No?

Yesterday was graduation day for a dear friend. We got a little time to muse over the importance of these public ceremonies and rituals to mark big passages -- graduations, funerals, weddings. I'm often not deeply excited about attending them beforehand, then once there or soon after, remember/realize our need for them and their key role. Speaking of communal events, I think want I want to go to is a barn raising. How come we don't do those anymore? Or, or ... a quilting bee! Never mind that I would likely stab myself and bleed out all over the quilt, I think it could be fun. Maybe. Maybe that interspersed with the barn raising, that sounds like a good combo. Anyway. Where was I? Ritual. Ceremony. Marking significant occasions. Important stuff.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

I'm all set on the mental toughness, thanks!

Letter to the Universe:

Dear Universe,

Hi! How's it goin'? I realize that's a pretty big question, given that you're the universe and all, so you can consider it rhetorical.

So, this morning, that was a pretty dear-god-bad, I'd-cry-if-it-would-help-and-maybe-I-slightly-did row, huh? Water conditions such that I'm still simultaneously trying to forget/put words on them/experiencing the surreal state they triggered.

You might counter that I've rowed in worse. I guess that might be true. Didn't particularly feel like it.

You might also have noticed that I had a harder time with it than others in the group. Yeah, I noticed that, too. I'm not sure what's up with that, if it's something super special about me, like a super-hero gene, or just that they have more experience or tougher wills or lower hands in crap water -- I can't quite say.

But, as I was doing my best impression of rowing this morning, contemplating why I'd chosen this sport, if the basin might just swallow me in its sloshing grey waters, and if perhaps I was only really meant to be a fair-water rower, I sensed there might be some giant 3-D every-sense-engaged! life message you were giving me. This would've been right about Mass Ave bridge on the way back when the water hadn't improved a smidgen, and right about there, I kinda thought -- you know, it's really great of the universe to pour all this character building into me, I probably have more character than anyone, except people going through true hardships, and I just felt very flattered that you would give me so much.

So, you know, thanks for all that! Big thanks!

You've probably also noticed things are a little uncertain (scary) and unknown as of yet about this income situation of mine (May was real quiet, you know), and that's where I felt there might be some good connecting-threads-of-my-life-together message going on there, so that's, you know, cool and all.

The thing is.

The thing is -- I'm feeling pretty set on all the mental toughness just now. Perhaps you could take some crap water and scary rowing to some other deserving soul now? I'll keep working away on the income deal (but any help, of the non-mental-toughness variety, would be great), I figure that's pretty clearly mine to solve, but perhaps in the meantime you could ease conditions or fix something in me that falls apart at them? That would be swell!

And, to be fully respectful, I get that you could could unleash a hell of a lot worse than any of this scary, I really get that. I'm really grateful you haven't. I mean, there are people fighting terrible illness, war, poverty, famine, violence -- so much that's genuine terrible. So I try to keep it all in scale - bad /terrible water? scary/miserable row? even if it feels it might eat me? pah!

But, maybe here's the thing -- I love this sport so much. It's in my blood and I want it to ever be. I want to rise to the occasion, I want to get better, I want to not fall apart just because it's hard and scary and some part of me somehow thinks I might die or something. I want to ever get better and tougher and stronger and faster and all that.

I'm just not quite so sure it's working as-is, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Perhaps keep slogging, perhaps take steps back as needed. Not sure. But, I just wanted you to know I was paying attention, I was thinking about all this, I was caring about it all, I was wanting betterment ... and I was just thinking I just might be all set with the mental-toughness lessons right at the moment, you know?

Anyway, thanks for listening. I know you're busy what with being the universe and all, so I'll let you get back to that. I'll just hold the trust and faith, keep going and see what develops.

Shana

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Puzzles

It's one of those days where I'm not quite sure what to say. Plenty on my mind, but not sure what to say.

No particularly entertaining stories, weather's being, well, San Diego-ishly nice. No crazy workouts (as of yet). Work stuff ... yeah ... that's what's on my mind, not so sure I really want to talk about it. Let's just say ... the next 6 weeks will be interesting.

Tied in in some remote way that I can't see yet is that I just finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Started reading them many years ago, what feels like, well, what was a different life ago. But I remained hooked. And I'm sorta fascinated by what he did with the last two books: He wrote himself in as a character. I was shocked. Not sure what I thought of it. Guess I'm still not sure, except it feels right. These books were like ... maybe not his life's work, but maybe. And it perhaps took his near-death from getting hit by a car a few years back to show or remind him of that. So he finished them.

And that piece in turn ties in with the amazing Mr. Pressfield who I'm currently pretty infatuated with. Except I say that in jest, because it goes deeper than infatuation. I think it's that I'm hooked on his truthtelling. He's talking about doing our life's work as well. About cutting the crap and excuses, not that he's not sympathetic, and doing it.

It all dovetails, but I'm still shuffling the puzzle pieces around on the coffee table (yes, the metaphorical one, someday I'll get a real one) as of yet. So that's me, today.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A STORM! A real, live storm, ohboy!

2:30 this morning, I wake up, groggily, trying to figure out what's that sound? Something banging? Then the flashes of light help me realize it's thunder. Pretty soon rain patters, then pours. And it's, like, for real -- loud thunder, big lightning, right next to each other, downpour. V coolcozyexciting. I drift back asleep to be awakened again by the same thing. Do a little window closing, happy to jump back in bed as the gatos carefully watch the storm whilst perched along the edges of the bed. Yay, summer storms!

Hope your Memorial Day was good, hope you were able to do a little memorializing of those many folks who so deserve it. I did a little unique memorializing of a fallen soldier I don't know through his favorite workout, now named in his honor: Murph. It went something like this: 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, 1-mile run. Yes, I did it. Yes, I still hurt. I should point out we were able to break up the middle exercises into any sequence we wanted, which I'm pretty sure was key to completing it. And, there are these giant rubber-band things that make a pull-up possible (well, for me ... one of these days, man, one of these days). Not to mention those modified drop-to-your-knees push-ups that I had to incorporate in. Given who the workout was for, I wasn't about to do any complaining....

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This afternoon -- grey, warm, humid, exciting! -- storm watch continues. Thunder's already reverberated loudly, twice. I'm never gonna live somewhere that doesn't have summer storms, hear me?

Oh! Guess what?? Check this out (!) (the all-caps, it's the all-caps! and the red danger!danger! heading! I get exclaimy -- I know, like I'm not already? -- in orange):

Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Middlesex County, MA

until 3:30 pm EDT, Tue., Jun. 1, 2010

Issued by The National Weather Service
Boston, MA
2:48 pm EDT, Tue., Jun. 1, 2010

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... SOUTHEASTERN WORCESTER COUNTY IN CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS... THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF... WORCESTER... MILFORD... SOUTH CENTRAL MIDDLESEX COUNTY IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS... WEST CENTRAL NORFOLK COUNTY IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS...

* UNTIL 330 PM EDT

* AT 246 PM EDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR LEICESTER... OR NEAR WORCESTER... Love how they're not quite sure which. AND WAS MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 40 MPH. Dang! That's fast!

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE... AUBURN... SUTTON... MILLBURY... GRAFTON... WESTBOROUGH... NORTHBRIDGE... WHITINSVILLE... UPTON... HOPKINTON... UXBRIDGE... HOPEDALE... MENDON... MILLVILLE... HOLLISTON AND BELLINGHAM.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL... AS WELL AS DEADLY LIGHTNING AND TORRENTIAL RAIN. GET TO SAFE SHELTER NOW... Tell me this isn't exciting! INSIDE A STURDY BUILDING OR IN A VEHICLE. DO NOT SEEK SHELTER UNDER TREES. IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER... YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. OK, that IS scary! DRIVERS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR PONDING (this is a cool new verb, use it today) OF WATER AND AVOID FLOODED ROADS (yeah, don't go driving through flooded roads!).

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Signing off, with two bundles of black-and-white plus orangey-beige-and-white fur next to me, butt to butt, asleep on the couch....