Strapping Young Math

Tomorrow, my dear husband and I are traveling to Hartford, CT to go spend the day at Ozzfest. He can not wait. He's going to have a great time. I will have an good time, provided that I get to sit down once in a while and count mullets. Maybe I'll count bad tats, too. Well, I guess that's subjective. One man's velvet Elvis might be another man's Mona Lisa, depending on what your idea of art happens to be.

It's going to be a glorious day of ear plugs, flailing young men, death metal music, and a ton of sweat. I'm reeling at the thought of being bumped into by sweaty, disgusting, badly tattooed men.

Just for your edification, my friends, I will let you in on a little secret of the origins of Devon Townsend, lead singer of the fabulous band, Strapping Young Lad. I'm pretty sure that he is the love child of John Malkovich and the Crypt Keeper. I can't be totally positive, however, you'll have to take a look for yourself:

+ =

So, tomorrow will be 8 hours in the sun, trying to avoid windmilling moshers, sweaty armpits and dehydration.

Did I mention that it's supposed to be 95 tomorrow? Ahhhhh, the fun of it all.

If I had only known....

If I had only know that I was going to be uninvited to my looney coworker's wedding maybe I would have actually gotten it together to train so that I could be doing my annual race with Amazon Hil! Well, it used to be my annual sprint tri with Amazon Hil. This is the first time I'm not going in about 8 years.

Alas, no, I had no idea any of this stuff was going to play out this way....so, there is no way that I'll be racing. I still can't find a race that suits my needs. There still is the fall...it's not to late to train for a sprint.

I'm going to finish this post later, or do another post later. I'm going to do some racing research in the hopes to motivate myself!

Can

This is such a touching video. I recommend turing the music off, as it might make ya cry like a baby

Why is it so rank?

My husband and I live on the second floor of a two family home. We live above our landlord who is a very sweet, old fashioned, directly from Italy, Italian gentleman. We've lived here for more than 2 years. We, including my nervous dog, love our landlord and his extended family. The only problem that we have with this apartment is that the entry way sometimes smells funny. Sometimes it smells like old, funky farts. Other times like old baby formula. On occasion it has had an odd garlicky smell. We could never figure it out.

Until now. Mystery solved. Now that it's summer vacation, I have Mondays and Fridays off. I was leaving the apartment last week to find my landlord prone on the stairs. I panicked. 'Are you okay?" I stammered. I was heading back up the stairs so I could call 911.

"Yes!" was the reply, "I'm doing my morning exercises. I always exercise in the hall. I like to do push-ups on the stairs. Sometimes, I walk up and down the stairs. Gives me a good sweat."

Blech! Good God, no wonder it smells out there so often. Stunning.

Couldn't I put some cream on it?

I posted this to my other blog....

I went to the dermatologist today for a little hanging thing on my eye lid that I was lid would probably be nothing and would just need a little cream or a little snip. I'm smart, I should have realized that a diagnosis over the phone from the receptionist probably wouldn't be accurate. Turns out that I had a small cyst on my eyelid and that if he didn't burn it off, it would keep growing and possible become infected.

That's right, he said those words: BURN IT OFF

I have a recommendation for all of you out there in blogland. If you can avoid having any sort of needle stuck into your eyelid, run away as fast as you can. It is incredibly painful, not to mention your natural reflex is to twitch out, and tear up. Also, when your doctor tells you to close your eyes as he's prepping the needle, do it. Long needles that are intended for you eyelid should be kept secret.The swelling has gone down significantly, plus the fact that I have to rinse my eye with an eye cup every 15 minutes, so there is less blood in the area.

21 days to make a habit

They say it takes 21 days to make a habit. It's been 2 days since I started running again...so that a total of what, 1 run? You have to understand, it's been over 95 degrees here. It's super humid in the morning and frightening in the afternoon. Fortunately for me, the heat wave is breaking, and I should be out in my sneaks by Friday at the latest. I have yet to check tomorrow's weather, but who knows, maybe I'll go for a run tomorrow! That would be brilliant.

Things at work are definitely weird. All my work friends are great, of course, but the weird-o who hates me has pulled a total 180 degree turn and is pretending to like me. Very scary. She is suddenly talking to me again, and is being really nice. There is something amiss, I fear. I'm not going to let my guard down because that woman is, for lack of a better term, psycho, and we all know what happened in that movie.

July 17

Well, this is what I gave myself for my birthday:



I did a short run, of about 16 minutes die to time constraints and the fact that I haven't run in 3 months. Oh, and by the time I was running, it was about 90 degrees out.

I'm not having the best birthday ever, but certainly one of the strangest. I ran, I had to run an errand because my baby brother forgot to do a work related item, I worked at the snack bar of a yacht club my mother is manager of. She's on vacation , along with some of the snackbar workers. At the pool, it was 103 degrees in the sun. Which means in the snack bar, it was at least 108. At least.
I think I have some heat issues going on as I've got a head ache I can't get rid of.

I'm waiting now for my husband to get home to see what kind of take out we should get for dinner. I'm not cooking and I've got 2 very good reasons.

1. It's my birthday.
2. It's 100 degrees out!

I'll check you all tomorrow. I'm not sure what Amazonian adventure I'm going to plan for myself tomorrow afternoon, but I'm going to do something. It's my birthday gift to myself, health. It takes work!

The Last Day!

It's the last day of being 32. Tomorrow I will be 33 years old.

This will probably be about the only picture you will ever see of me. I am no the most photogenic person around, I'm lucky this one turned out as well as it did. (Especially considering it's about 93 in my part of NY today...sheesh)

So, I think for my birthday, I am going to give myself the gift of running. I'm going to get up at a decent hour tomorrow, put on my favorite running shirt, bring my dog to see my brother and I'm going for a run. Not a long run, not a hard run, but a fun, enjoyable run. It will be the best gift I can give myself!

Happy birthday, me!

Falling to Pieces

I am currently falling apart a little bit. I am having such a stressful time at work with a co-worker who is slowly, but surely, unraveling. That alone is stressful to watch, but the kicker is...she blames me. She claims I'm making her look bad. I've done nothing. It's her over reactions in front of other co-workers (including administrators) that is making her look bad.

Personally, I don't care if she likes me or hates me. I get paid to teach reading, not to win teacher of the year. What's killing me is how horrible it must feel to believe that people are out to get you. That people are purposely trying to devastate your career. It has to hurt so much. I can't help but put myself into her shoes. Frankly, it's giving me unsettling dreams. I've got to stop caring so much. I have to stop being sympathetic because I'm her scapegoat and I have to move away from the whole situation. Leave it behind me and not look back.

Right?

It's official!

I am back from the world know as "NoGymland"....here is my heart rate monitor chart to prove it:



I am really beginning to love my computer....I think I'm just actually becoming better at manipulating it.

Ack, I've changed subjects!


As you can see, I tried to keep my heart level below 150 bpm, which was easy considering I was on an ellipical trainer at the gym and not actually running outside or anything.

The cool part of this is that my mom canceled out on me, we rescheduled back and biceps for tomorrow, but I actually made myself go to the gym on my own today. I feel like a deserve a gold star on the top of my gym membership card.

I am bushed!

You might be wondering if I finally made it back to the gym...nope, that's at 3pm today. I have an appointment with my mom. We're doing back and biceps, plus some cardio. I'm with ya'll on that, but that's not the minor miracle that occured in my apartment today.

It all started at my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. The topic of the week: The Food in our Cupboards. Basically, we discussed how we keep our cupboards and pantries. Are they overstocked? Are they bare a la Old Mother Hubbard? Are the cookies and naughty snack in the front? Are they there at all? All this talk got me going.......I cleaned out my pantry. It took me more than 2 and a half hours....sheesh.

Before:

As you can see, there is food every-which-place and I have not a clue as to what I have or don't have. I do know that my husband has a lot of suppliments, but that's a different story for a different day.













After:

Holy crow! I am the best. Not only did I purge things that we will not eat, but by organizing stuff I will have an easier time determining what to buy at the groceru store. And, I got more storage room for my baking goods which use to reside under my kitchen island. Plus, I found a place to keep my best friend, George Forman.

Who is that new ultimate athlete!

I'll tell you who...it's Reuben!











I took Reuben swimming this morning for the first time since last August. He's on a 30 foot extendable leash, but before I could get it on him, he took off like a shot after a big group of Canada Geese! It's a good thing I was able to catch him...he'd be halfway up the Hudson by now.


Many thanks to my mom who took these pictures for me this morning!

The Return of the Amazon Warrior

Yeah, I made it to the gym. I did a half hour of light cardio so that I could burn some calories while not messing much with my back. Very nice.

I'm not sure what tomorrow holds for me, but I'm willing to bet it's going to be exciting. Well, at the very least, not boring.....

Summer Plans

I'm back at work for summer school. I'm lucky as everyone in my department can work part time if they choose because we are support staff and not classroom teachers. Lucky me! I'm working 3 days a week. Tuesday-Thursday.

Summer school is different around here, it's not to "make up" academics, it's to keep our emotionally disturbed/psychologically fragile kids in the routine of getting up and getting on a bus everyday. It's really treated more as an academic summer camp than a summer school program. It's a ton of fun.

I did something horrible to my back yesterday. I bent over just right and got a gnarled up muscle over my left hip bone. Many Advils and thermal packs later, I'm fine, but I'm not risking weights today, or for the rest of the week for that matter! I will do some slow cardio on the elliptical machine, though. I also might some tomorrow, due to the stresslessness of the exercise.

My love of raw foods....

I have an actual, valid, and impossible to beat excuse for not doing a darn thing today...food poisoning. That's right, Amazon Alanna had to arise at 3:30 am to go and talk to her new porcelain best friend. Fun. I spent most of the day groggy and cranky. Oh, and thirsty, desperately thirsty!

I'm sure it was something I ate. I'm pretty darn sure I know what it was that I ate too! Chris, my hubby, played a gig with his band at a BBQ yesterday. That BBQ had a Raw Bar. I love raw stuff like that, and I'm so limited on the seafood things that I can eat, that I let myself have a few things at the raw bar. Unfortunately, it only takes one bad little guy to ruin a wonderful night's sleep!

Tomorrow is another day, and I'm hoping it'll be restful. I'll see what I can get done. I'm certainly going to be back on track when it comes to Weight Watchers....I've been slacking on a lot of things....