FabPole

126/66 – The Push-Pull Experience

Shout out to Justin Timberlake, of course. He was here in concert last night but I couldn’t bring myself to drop the cash on that. That’s my yoga chair and it’ll be around long after JT blows town. Sorry, man. Maybe next time.

Chest and back day. There aren’t enough words to describe the level with which I do not like this. I would rather do legs for three straight days than this for one. Hubby is just the opposite. I wonder, again, if it’s a guy/girl thing. As much as I hate it, I still do it because strong arms are sexy arms and I use those arms a lot for aerial stuff. Got my numbers up again also. 126 pushups and 66 pullups in 30 minutes. Friggin Tony Horton. Your exercises work, but you need to stop telling those lies that your protein/energy drink tastes good. It does not. Just like any other protein shake, it tastes like poop. Except the Gatorade one and some Muscle Milk, but I don’t want to have to take a Lactaid every time I work out. Stupid system that won’t accept milk without making me hate my life. Ok, ok, enough complaining already!

Last night’s FabPole class was certainly more of a success than last week’s class. I managed to figure out how to get inverted without banging my ass on the pole (ha, that’s so dirty) and mostly figured out the new moves that were introduced. No video this week. I think there will be one after next week’s class though. I think that, while it doesn’t always feel the best (see screaming red marks on my back and in my armpits), staying tight looks so much better than a more relaxed pose even though it’s a flowy type of apparatus. I know myself well enough to realize that I will probably never look at a video of myself and say “holy crap, I’m awesome!”, but I’m at least at a point where I can watch my own videos and not just be totally disgusted by them. Progress!

In other news, my procrastinating ass did finally sign up for the writing lab. It runs for a couple months and it is certainly going to be a challenge. Every day has a writing assignment.  That’s in addition to my assignment to myself to get words down in this blog every day. I’m hoping that after a couple weeks, it will become as (almost) second nature to me as this daily writing. I’ll certainly have to get outside of my box to get this done successfully, but that *is* the whole point. The first assignment I thought up while I was in the shower. It wasn’t supposed to be deep or anything, just kind of a little something. After I wrote it,though, I looked at it with different eyes and saw the double meanings I had unintentionally put in there. Cool! I can do this! I want to give you something to read that sucks you in and makes you irritated when you have to put it down and sad that it’s over when it is. Lofty goals,eh?

My goodness, I think I’m going through snowboarding withdrawl symptoms. I’m itching to get out and ride, but although we got about 4 inches last night, I don’t think there’s any freshies up on the mountain. Kinda want to wait for some new snow after the last visit.  Hopefully that comes, oh, around January 31 since we’ll probably go up on February 1. 😀  I love my life.

What about you? Have an exercise day you love over one you hate? And no, none of them and all of them are not good answers. How about your trip planning? Days to weeks to months in advance or spur of the moment? While you’re thinking on it, go have yourself a great day. It is, after all, Thursday and one day closer to the weekend!

I Work Out (Girl, Look At That Body)

Oh yes. This morning, I feel accomplished. I upped my push-up/pull-up game just a touch from last week. Then: 45/95. Today: 57/115. I’m hoping to push that number up every week for the next three Thursdays. Pretty stoked on the P90X3. You should try it. Only 30 minutes a day! Message me for more info. Only down side here is that I’ll be done around the end of March and bikini vacation isn’t until June. I guess a second round won’t hurt.

Last night, I went to my second FabPole class. Did I mention that I’m taking this class from the woman that invented it? No? Well, there you go. Now you know. And since knowing is half the battle, GO JOE! Officially two hours in (two one hour classes) and we’re working out a routine. We’re about 2 minutes in and I love it. I know that there are things that I need to work on (the broken neck look, the WTF hands, and occasional toe points), but I’m actually able to look at this and say “hey, for two hours of practice, you’re not doing too badly.” Without further ado, here’s what we’re up to (it’ll take a minute to load and I’m not sure how this looks on mobile):

Weeeeeeeeeee! So much can get done with this apparatus. I’m excited to see what else we learn. I’m also excited to work out that straddle back at the end so I don’t just slam my ghetto booty on the pole. We did just learn that part last night, so I don’t feel too badly about it. I mean, yeah, it bangs against the pole, but why else am I doing all of these squats and lunges if not to lift that baby up? Booty, booty, booty, booty, rockin’ everywhere!

Thursday. I swear that not three weeks ago, I was saying how the weeks were going by uber-quickly and now, it seems that time has decided to push the slow motion button. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t have my entire week packed full of activities…yet, or what, but it’s crazy. Maybe because I just want to get to the weekend to get up to the mountains to tackle jumping. Maybe it’s because I’m taking the time to stop and smell the snow after I faceplant. The world may never know.

Did you ever want something to drink and opened up the fridge and there wasn’t a damn drop in sight? Did you close the door disgustedly and walk away? Did the light bulb over your head go on almost immediately after the fridge light went off? Did you run back there and grab a couple of Cuties?You know those little oranges/tangerines/tangelos/whatever the hell they are? No? Just me again? Damn. Well fine, I’m not gonna share then. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna take my Cuties and go try to get mentally prepared for my first “boss” meeting today. I don’t think they’ll be expecting much of me outside of my attendance, but you just never know. How much do you love an unexpected surprise?

Get on out there and have yourself a thumpin’ Thursday. If you get down, just remember, tomorrow is Friday!

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.

Under The Wire

Ohhhhh, it’s 9pm and I’m just now getting to today’s post. But making it, that’s the positive. Let’s keep it positive.

Since Lovey reminded me that I had money left on my gift card, I went out and bought a sandwich maker. You know, those ones where you put in an English muffin or a bagel, then some meat and/or veggies, cheese, an egg, and the bread top and it makes you like an Egg McMuffin in 5 minutes. I am so excited to have my salmon and egg white on muffin tomorrow!

I didn’t think that I was pushing my body very hard yesterday when I went to FabPole. However, today my body says differently. So many fun bumps and owwies. I’m sure that will make P90X feel absolutely wonderful tomorrow. Hopefully the stretch afterwards will make it better.

Again, I’m not going to make myself feel bad if I don’t put down 750 words in each post. I’m just getting started.

ROCO Friday – The Reverend Considers A Return

Hi. First, let me explain that title. Or better yet, use the search functionality to look for ROCO. If you aren’t going to, I’ll give you a brief explanation, but you’ll better get the gist if you look. ROCO (rock out with your cock out) Fridays are days in which, well, you’re just supposed to ROCO. They usually include music and an inspirational message. Our good Reverend MiamiShyner has been on quite the hiatus, but perhaps she’ll make some sort of grand return here in 2014.

Let the congregation say, ROCO!

While we await the Reverend’s return, let’s consider another topic: today’s writing prompt. It is a tough one today, asking what is number 11 on my bucket list. Well, since I’ve never created a bucket list, it’s pretty difficult to answer this one. I’ve been fortunate enough to have led a fairly interesting life, so what would I even put on a bucket list? I suppose I could put some places I want to visit, like this, but I don’t really know what else I would put on there. Maybe I should make a late NYR to create a bucket list. Ha! So does this make me a boring person because I don’t have a list of “one day”, only a list of “been there, done that”? Doubtful. Oh wait! I just remembered something else I want to do! I wouldn’t actually put it on a bucket list, but it is something I want to do and I’m going to take care of it in 2015. Lots and lots of ski/snowboard resorts offer camps that are usually a couple of days and are for women only. I’m going to do that next year. Probably at Winter Park. Maybe if I’m fortunate I’ll sneak one in over at Park City as well. I need to start saving immediately.

Speaking of saving, perhaps/probably you’ve seen that little savings plan floating around Facebook or the internet wherein you throw an amount in a jar (or your bank if you want to be more traditional) once a week that corresponds with the week of the year. At the end of the year, if you’ve stayed true to the savings, you should have nearly $1400. The 52 week savings challenge it’s called. It’s like paying income tax to yourself! One dollar and some Whiskey In A Jar for this week. Play along and buy yourself something nice at the end.

I have no segue back into professional related stuff. But I’ll be setting aside some time this weekend, between grocery shopping, possible snowboarding, and a FabPole workshop, to start looking into my SharePoint training and to start revisiting my old enemy, PHP. Many, many moons ago, I started learning PHP but it went along the wayside with learning HTML, CSS, and the like (man, am I stupid). But now, I think my brain is ready for it. Even though there’s a lot of junk up there, I know there’s space for more. Hello, smart me. I remember you. You used to hang out a lot. Then you quit using your brain. Welcome back.

I’ve not forgotten my Zero To Hero commitment. There just wasn’t really anything to actually blog about today, just an assignment on pretty-ing up the place. I did it. Did you notice? (if you’ve been here before, that is) Only way to tell me is in the comments. Ready, set, go!

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