Ramblings

ROCO Friday – Snow Makes Me Wet

Now before you go getting all up in arms about that title, know that it’s from a bumper sticker from Silverton Mountain here in Colorado. Also happens when I fall down in it or I’m making snow angels or a snowman, or possibly having a snowball fight. Unfortunately, it also makes me nervous AF when it’s on the roads and I’m scheduled to go to the mountains and there are 60 mph wind gusts. ABS/AWD/anti-skid take the wheel! T minus 9 hours till go time.

As Friday is now the official (and only) work from home day, first and foremost, ROCO! Secondly, I chose to not get up at 5 today and rather get up at 6. Not my brightest idea. I’m completely off schedule now. Late blog post, late breakfast, but I did manage to be logged in and ready for work on time. Let’s go with positive items: I can take care of the laundry while I’m working; I can shower in the total peace and quiet of my empty house (and think I hear people in the house while I’m in there); I can wear my comfy clothes – or nothing at all – for work; No listening to people coughing/sneezing/bringing up phlegm all day! Yeah, that last one is gross, but it’s painfully true. We do get time off folks, keep that at home!

Last night, we took my brother to pick up his wheels. After we got home, we were doing our usual evening stuff when the phone starts ringing. At 8:45. First of all, we don’t answer our house phone unless we are specifically expecting a call. Why? Because 99% of the time it is either solicitors or bill collectors trying to find someone that doesn’t live here. Playing games with those people got old so we just stopped answering. This caller left a message. Funny, it was a recruiter. That’s pretty late for a recruiter (who was in Colorado). Anywho, I’m going to need to update my info so they stop calling. I’m off the market (for at least a year). Sorry, too slow.

Obviously, I got a raise with this promotion – because who gets a promotion without a raise?- but I’m still Sergeant Stingy with that cash. I’m trying to pay off bills and all, but at the same time, still letting myself have some fun. That means I get to buy a couple things here and there. Prepare to giggle. But first let me preface this with I did, just a few weeks ago, get a new snowboard. A demo, so on the cheap,but still a decent ticket item. Other than that, my list of things to buy,probably in this order, is:

A day planner. I am getting this today. I am now pseudo-important and I need to write every single thing down so that I don’t forget any of them and later look like a tool.
New sneakers. I’ve been rocking out these Nikes for longer than I will mention and embarrass myself. Not to mention that this morning during the cardio + weights workout, I rolled my ankle a bit because there’s no damn support left in them. Please buy shoes before you hurt yourself. Thank you.
A yoga chair. Since I have to be in the office 4 days a week now, and I’m trying to work on my flexibility and such, I cannot continue to sit in a crappy office chair. Office chairs shorten my muscles or something. And then, when I need to get up from my desk, every time it’s like watching evolution. I start hunched over and I gradually get to full and upright walking human. When I’m at home, I sit on my stability ball so I don’t have this issue. Probably need a bicycle lock too for attaching said chair to desk so it doesn’t “disappear”.

Just little things. I do still have a car payment and a student loan payment to take care of, after all.

Well, my flock, go forward and ROCO on this wonderful Friday. Have a great weekend and be safe. Tomorrow we can talk about the awesome snowboarding that I did. Maybe even with a video! ROCO!

Ante Up!

Kidnap that fool! Because this platform isn’t friendly to embedding YouTube videos, there’s the link. Good Thursday morning anthem, but then again, I don’t start my days like most people. 🙂

How did I start my day, you didn’t ask because you don’t care but I’m going to tell you anyway? Why, in the way of us X-heads,of course. 95 pushups and 45 pullups over 30 minutes. The last 5 of each of those were absolute suckassishness, but push, push, push! Have I mentioned P90X3? Hahahahaha, of course I have. Dear body, thanks for bouncing back pretty quickly every time I fall off of the workout wagon.

Last night I had my first FabPole routine class. Loved it. It’s pretty yet it still takes strength and more grace than I have. I still have to keep the fabric lower on my back and not in my armpits, but hey, it’s the second time I’ve ever tried it so I think I’m on a good path. Three more weeks to keep learning and get it all down. I got this. When we’re all done, I’ll post a video…maybe.

Proud to announce that on only my fourth day using my sandwich maker, I have perfected the art. This morning, my whole sandwich was hot and none of my cheese melted off into the sunset. I think this has a little to do with me switching cheese, but more to do with my “sandwich making” skills. I can’t wait to see what else I can put in that little bugger and make deliciousness.

I didn’t forget about yesterday’s writing prompt. I just think that I’ve written that post previously. When I read today’s prompt, my initial thought was that it was another one I would throw by the wayside, but then I started thinking more about it. The prompt says: It’s 1984. You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room. Back then, I was 10 years old. Do you know what kind of irrational fears plague 10 year olds? For me, it wasn’t the dark or something fairly normal. At that age I had three major fears: our house burning down, tornadoes, and nuclear war (Reagan SMASH!).

The fear of the house burning down has basically followed me into my adult life and up to this day. It is probably slightly irrational, but I cannot help it. Every time we leave for more than two days, I get freaked out the moment we turn onto our street, and I’m deathly afraid that our (rented) house has burned down. Were I to psychoanalyze myself, I’d say that this issue stems from my (great?) grandmother dying in a house fire. Her house. It couldn’t have been too long before 1984. Follow that up with a nightmare about riding the bus home from school and coming around the corner to our house and everything goes into super slo-mo. I can, for some reason, hear my neighbors talking in their yard (yes, I’m still on the bus. Slo-mo obviously gives you hyper-sensitive hearing also) before the bus rounds the corner and I see our house burnt to the ground. I literally woke up screaming. Yikes. One of three nightmares I had as a child, or at least one of the three that I vividly remember.

I’m not entirely sure why I was so scared of tornadoes, but oh boy was I. I still don’t relish the thought, but I’m certainly better than I was. If it was stormy and windy, I wanted no part of anyone. At 10 I just KNEW that I knew how to survive the dreaded tornado. What’s crazy is that where I grew up, there were very few tornadoes. One did touch down about 2 miles from our house, but it was about the equivalent of the fart of the lactose intolerant after a bowl of ice cream. Oddly enough, the tornado fear didn’t translate into a hurricane fear when I lived in Miami. Don’t get me wrong, my first tropical storm I nearly shit my pants, but after that, I was cool.

So then why is a 10 year old so scared of nuclear war? Why does a 10 year old even know about this? Too much news at too young of an age. Too much listening to adults talk about the President. Too wild of an imagination. All of the above. I was quite a strange child, of this I am sure. Carried that into adulthood too. Being strange, not fearing WW3.

What about you? Any strange or irrational fears you’re harboring? It can’t be just me. Even us one-of-a-kind folks have similarities.

Most Depressing Week of the Year?

Seriously? This is what I saw on the news yesterday or the day before. I was only half-listening, so I’m going to go ahead and assume that they were saying that the first full work week of the year is the most depressing. Personally, I’d be hard pressed to try to figure out the most depressing week of the year for me because: a) they just all run together anyways, and b) my life is pretty decent.

I suppose I can understand not wanting to get back on the 5 days a week schedule, but since I had to work in the timeframe between Christmas and the New Year, back to work isn’t as big of a deal for me. Now, had they said that this week felt like the longest week of the year, I’d be first in line to jump on *that* bandwagon because somehow, IT’S ONLY WEDNESDAY!! Argh. Let’s just get to Friday so I can go snowboarding, ok?

Technically, snowboarding is on Saturday, and hopefully I’ll be moving around a little better by then. As per the norm after I start working out at a decent clip after a time off, I’m currently walking around like I got kicked down a flight of stairs. Not like I fell down a flight of stairs on a cruise ship, but like I got kicked at the top, kicked down the stairs, and kicked again at the bottom. I absolutely love the side eyes I get when I try to get up from my desk and get to the bathroom. I’m hoping that by this time next week, I’ll be back in the groove of things and back to my normal, patented (not really), Burkes walk. That’s what my Gram called it. Said she would know from afar if it was me just by the way I walk. Distinct is fun.

Fortunately, in the workout rotation, today was yoga. In 30 minutes. Which makes it a little tough, but still well on my side of being able to complete it. And because that 30 minutes couldn’t be nearly enough torture for one morning, I followed it up with a 45 minute stretching routine because, well, I’m partially off my rocker, but more so, I’m interested in being a bit more flexy. As I well know, strength alone does not an aerialist make. So I stretch and I stretch and I ache and I ache because my hips are absolute jerks, but one day, I will reach my goal of general flexiness. Flexiness by the standards of aerial/pole, not by the standards of general medicine these days. My chiropractor said that my current flexibility was way beyond the “normal” range because, get this, when laying on my back, I can bring either leg past 90 degrees. Ninety. Degrees. That makes flexibility?!?! Where the hell are we going as a society except straight down the crapper? So sad.

You know, today’s writing prompt is actually a pretty good one. I think I’ll write it up as a separate post…or I’ll save it for a day when there’s really just nothing going on. You’ll just have to tune in to find out.

Seven Whole Days

So we’re a week into the new year. Doesn’t it feel like the holidays were already forever ago? No? That’s just me? *Cartman voice* Screw you guys, I’m going home.

I really do feel like Christmas was forever ago. I suppose that could be because I more or less skipped it this year. I didn’t put up the tree or the village as I wasn’t feeling it (and we weren’t even home the entire week of Christmas, so whom exactly was going to see that work? No one.) Maybe I’ll get back into the swing of things this year, maybe. I guess I’m one of those Scrooge-type people that could seriously do without all the extra stuff, just let me have a couple days off of work.

Speaking of work, this is new for 2014: I got a promotion. While it isn’t official for another week, I’ll be leading my little team of 2 (and a half) engineers whilst shaking the hands and kissing the babies of other departments. Is it my lifelong dream? No, not exactly, but I can do it and I can do it well, so onward and upward after a rather interesting process of getting to this point. I swear I watched one person in particular do a complete 180 in regards to how said person was acting towards me and my interest in the position. Weirdos.

Anywho, work schmerk, let’s talk about my breakfast sandwich maker. I LOVE IT! Now that I’m in my healthy breakfast sandwich mode (egg whites, smoked salmon, slice of cheese on a whole wheat muffin) , it’s so much easier to just throw the stuff in the machine, walk away and come back to a sandwich. Gives me time to do things like start writing the daily blog post. 🙂 I know that healthy breakfast and slice of processed American cheese don’t go together, but man is it good. Although, I am considering finding a different cheese because my sandwiches get too hot and therefore cause more of the cheese to end up on my paper towel than ends up in my belly, but that’s probably not such a bad thing either.

Sidebar: My mom just sent me an email and a portion of it said: “Let your confidence be as an earthquake – a force to be reckoned with – crumbling all negativity that comes your way. BOOM!

So day 2 of P90X3 was a little rough. These workouts are only 30 minutes, but they’re still tough. Today was Agility X. (It’s athlete stuff says Tony,which explains why I had a heck of a time..no coordination.) Jumping around and squats and lunges and more squats and lunges. I’m sure my knees will be feeling this tomorrow, particularly after I tried to follow it up with some hip and hamstring opening yoga and Zumba tonight. Somewhere along the line, I probably lost my mind. Before I lost it, I might have thought that this continual stretching and exercise might get me in shape. We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the writing prompts (or Zero to Hero for that matter). Sometimes the writing prompts just don’t prompt me to do anything but shake my head. Sometimes the ZTH item doesn’t require an actual post. Today’s prompt is about a time you felt helpless. I don’t do helpless. I’m sickeningly self-sufficient. More than my husband would prefer I’m sure. Perhaps the one time I felt a fleeting case of helplessness was about 20 years ago when I was driving down a hill (going to Monongahela for those that know) that had just been oiled and it had just rained and my tires were none too grippy. I completely lost control of my car, sliding on the wonderful mixture of bald tires, oil and water. Took a cruise down the oncoming traffic lane much to the chagrin of the car coming towards me who was laying on the horn as though I wasn’t trying to get the hell out of their lane. Finally made it back into my own lane, only to overcorrect and start spinning, Fortunately, it ended up only being a 180, but it was a slow motion 180 as I watched the guard rail come closer to the side of my car and hoped against all hope that it held as there was a rather large downhill/cliff waiting for me if it didn’t. Fun! Obviously it held as I’m still here. I did get out of my (new at the time) car and I literally expected my car to be bleeding. Hey, what do you want? I was like 19 and it was my first brand new car. I was absolutely butthurt. Possibly feeling helpless that I broke my car. Poor thing. No sliding around in the Brown Bomber though! I TRY to make that thing spin out but the ABS and AWD and anti-slip/anti-skid kick in and all I get is a little noise. Safe? Extremely. Fun? Hardly.

Well then, I suppose the time is now for me to wrap this up and get on with the day. Enjoy your Tuesday. Stay warm wherever you might be. It’s cold out…you know, because it’s WINTER!

Soul Sellers

Welcome to the first Monday of 2014! The day in which NYRs really start. The day where we “really” start putting our best foot forward. The day in which I sell my soul. Yep, welcome to pseudo-management. But work, who wants to talk about that? Not me.

Up at 5 this morning, per the plan. First day of P90X3 went pretty well. To only be a half hour, I was surprised to have still broken a sweat. I don’t know what I was expecting. I mean, it is still a P90X product. Not as holy hell difficult as the first one, but hopefully I’ll still see results out of it. Followed that up with a little stretching for splits. I keep saying that I want to get these damned splits, but then I keep not stretching. 1 plus 1 does not equal splits here. But if I can stick with this plan for a while (and I should be able to), perhaps in a few months, I’ll be closer to getting there than I am now.

There’s the starting point. Pretty much the same place it’s been forever. *sigh* Time to get flat. (but not ass and titties…ass and titties).

The morning routine will be deemed a success. 5am isn’t so much worse than 5:30, especially when my body says “hey, wake up!” anyway. More years, less sleep. The fun never ends.

Fun week ahead! The morning routine continues, Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday, FabPole on Wednesday. Snowboarding on Saturday. Good times.

Well, the time is rapidly approaching for me to go shake hands and sign for my soul on the dotted line. I can do this. I can do anything! Have a great day.

Ramblings

ROCO Friday – Snow Makes Me Wet

Ante Up!

Most Depressing Week of the Year?

Seven Whole Days

Soul Sellers

You Missed

Nothing To See Here

Too Damn Slow

Ghosts (of Days Gone By)

Raunchy Activated