Staying Sane

Last Tuesday became the last day that I will probably ever do the INSANITY work out. I was doing the fit test with Josh and Derek and during the power jumps I did something to my back. I'm not sure what exactly, but I do know that I was practically immobile for the rest of the day and the next. Now here I am one week later and I still feel the twinges of pain in my lower back. So I have decided that it's not worth the pain in causes. It seemed like a fun thing to do and a great way to get in shape, but more often than not I walked away in more pain than feeling I accomplished something. So my Insanity days are no more. From now on I'm just going to stick to running and free weights.

On a happier note I get to see my best friend in 10 days. This excites me to no end. It has been one llllloooooonnnnnngggggg year since we've seen each other. I've gone a tad overboard when it comes to preparing for the trip. But hey, this is a once in a life time thing and I figured I deserved a chance to splurge. Granted I've been buying things I don't necessarily need but things that I no doubt will have numerous chances to use for the rest of my time here on earth. Plus, North Face stuff is just cool. In my opinion you can never have too much North Face stuff. (If you hadn't guessed that's what I've been splurging on.)

INSANITY is BACK!!!

That's right folks, INSANITY has returned thanks to Ben Taylor. He went on Craigslist and found someone willing to part with this grueling form of torture for a lower price than as sold on TV. So last night we laced up our trainers (sorry I decided to become English for a second) and decided to give this thing another go.

You know what's truly sad? It was harder this time than it was the very first time we tried it. Granted when you basically sit on your ass for 3 months it's no wonder that trying to get back into the groove of working out is going to be tough. We've switched from early mornings to working out in the evenings. We'll see if we can keep it up this time. I must say, I was very disappointed in myself last night. As I stood there trying to struggle through the stupid work out all I kept thinking was, "I used to run half marathons and work out everyday. Why did I stop working out on a regular basis?!?" I kept kicking myself the rest of the night. Not literally of course, that would hurt a lot.

I think my motivation is slowly returning though. In a way it has to. I need to be in an least some sort of my shape for my approaching trip. Granted we won't be doing anything super, super strenuous but I'd like to be able to go on a hike without getting winded in 5 minutes.

So, here's to hoping that we stick with it this go around.

29 days till Africa!

Snow Day 2010

LOST

Continues to blow my mind.

This season is going to be so good.

That is all.

TV is Running My Life

Now that I no longer have classes or homework to worry about TV has taken control of my life once again. Granted this started about six months ago but I just now felt compelled to write about it. For Christmas I received the greatest tool to help me keep track of everything, my wonderful Tivo. Oh how I love it so. No longer do I have to worry about setting tapes or keeping up with when new shows are on. My Tivo does it all for me and I love it.

I have always loved television. I do like reading every now and then but to me nothing beats discovering a new TV show and getting hooked. And thanks to the technological advances that brought us DVDs it's even possible to revisit old favorites, which I've been doing a lot of lately.

Will & Grace and Friends have always been two of my favorite sitcoms. I have the complete series of both (well almost, somehow I'm still missing season 2 of W&G). Sadly I had lost touch with these shows because their syndication schedules kept changing and I would always seem to miss episodes when they were on TV. Recently I've found myself randomly popping in a DVD here and there of each show and just letting a disc run at a time. I'm finding that the longer you go without watching them the funnier they are when you actually do. Granted, I remember every punch line but more often I find myself laughing out loud. It's been really fun watching W&G because I would always quote this show with Amy (my older sister) and Sarah (my best friend). Watching it this week has brought back various memories I share with each of them.


As I might have mentioned before, LOST is back. I really wish I would have followed through with watching it from the beginning. I intended on doing that this past summer but Bones sidetracked me. I'm up to speed since I've been watching the show since season 2 but there are so many little things I've forgotten. I guess I owe this realization to Ben. He just finished watching season 4 and 5 so everything is still really fresh in his mind. He keeps talking about things that I only kinda, sort of remember, and it's driving me nuts. Oh well. There's a new episode on tonight which will make for a great week of theorizing and discussing. I think that's what I love most about Lost. There's a good number of us that watch it and are able to talk about it. The other day, Ben, Eugene, and I started talking about it and before I knew it an hour had passed. I think I might purchase a water cooler for Eugene's office. We've also talked about mounting huge dry erase boards in his office that we can write our Lost theories and make huge flow charts.

The TV list could go on and on. There are tons of shows on my "to watch list." Dexter (keep hearing how amazing it is), House (because I want to know what all the House/Cuddy business is about), and Firefly (because I now love Nathan Fillion) to name a few. If only they made a chip that you could stick in your brain to download everything so you wouldn't have to actually take the time to watch it. How amazing would that be?

New Pic

Thought I'd add a pic to the top of my blog. Meet my mom, pop, and sister. This was taken when I graduated last May with my Master's in Higher Education.

New Look and a Little Rambling

So I decided to change my blog template a little. I got tired of the old one. Since my favorite color is blue I figured I'd just go with this layout. Hope you like it and that it's pleasing to the eye.

These past two weeks have been crazy busy. Lots of little things keep popping up and my days are spent going from meeting to meeting. I can't complain too much. It's nice being busy but lots of stress has been brought on lately. I hoping that next week things will start to settle down a little bit more.

It looks like I'll be traveling to the health department once more tomorrow to get my typhoid and polio shots. If anything this trip is helping me get over my fear of needles. Maybe I'll get a tattoo after all. Leave it to Sarah to force me into liking something I once hated.

This weekend I will be heading to Dallas to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. For those who might not be aware, this is Heath Ledger's last film. It should be a good time. It looks like an amazing movie and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Derek, Amanda, Zack, and a slew of others are joining me, so that should be lots of fun. After the movie I plan on stopping by REI to pick up some things for my Africa trip.

For those who are aware of my Bones obsession I might fall into a bit of a depression in the near future. Sadly, there will be no new episodes until April. Stupid Fox and American Idol and the Winter Olympics. Two months with no Bones. Whatever will I do? Luckily, Lost has started up again to help keep my mind off of it.

41 days to go!

2 More Shots, Really?!?!

So I ventured to the Lewisville Health Department yesterday to acquire two more shots that I needed. The place was packed but the whole trip ended up taking like half an hour. Hep A shot was awesome, didn't even feel it. Hep B hurt like a son of gun. And I get to get another one of those in a month. Yay!

I also found out that now I also need to get a typhoid shot and a polio booster. What the h? Luckily the Health Department is wonderful and offers these shots for somewhat low prices.

I figure I'll give my arms a week to rest before getting my next round.

Shots

Have I ever mentioned that I hate needles? Because I do. So much so that I don't even give blood. I know this probably makes me a terrible person, but I can't stand them. This is one of the many reasons I have never gotten a tattoo and why it took me 24 years to get my ears pierced.

So imagine how I felt when I realized that traveling to Africa would mean, you guessed it, getting shots. After checking with the CDC I realized that I would need 3 vaccinations for my journey. Yellow Fever, Hep A, and Hep B shots. I went for my yellow fever shot a little over two weeks ago. Sit back and let me tell you the tale.

As I mentioned above I hate needles and I get extremely nervous whenever I have to get a shot. Knowing this I asked my friend Paige to go with me to get my shot. So Paige and I set out to the Health Department to get my first shot. I was only able to get the yellow fever because they were out of the others I needed. So we're patiently waiting for my number to be call (24 in case you were wondering). As we're sitting I started to get more and more fidgety. Paige finally looked at me and asked what was wrong. It was at this time that I informed her of my hatred of needles. Finally one of the nurses came up to me and handed me the info sheet on yellow fever. I began reading over the sheet out loud to Paige. When I started reading the possible side effects section (you know this could cause fever, headache, severe nerve damage, etc.) she ripped the sheet from my hands and told me to calm down. A couple minutes later the called my number. Paige asked if she needed to go back with me and I told her that I think I could be strong and do it alone.

So the nurse escorted me back to what looked like a regular office and sat me in a chair. She looked at me and asked if I was in any way pregnant. I told her "no" to which she responded, "are you sure?" Yeah lady I'm positive. 10 seconds later I was back out the door. The shot hurt just a tad. It was quite a pinch if you ask me. Then of course my arm burned a little bit afterward. But the important thing is I survived and didn't suffer from any random side effects.

Yay me!

Tomorrow afternoon I will venturing to the Health Department in Lewisville to get the rest of my shots. I'm not sure what to expect though. I looked into getting these shots at a couple of places and it seems that Hep A could possibly be a 2 shot series and the Hep B a 3 shots series. Ask me how excited I am about that.

45 days to go.

Countdown to Africa!

For those of you who may not know, in 50 days I'll be winging my way to Africa. That's right, I'm crossing the big blue ocean and going on what's sure to be the vacation of a lifetime. Granted, I've already been to some amazing places across the globe but what makes this trip stand out is that I'm making the journey there and back solo. I'm not gonna lie, that makes me really nervous. Sure I've traveled many a times but always with my family or a large group. It's safe to say though that my excitement outweighs my nervousness.

Some might wonder why I'm traveling to The Dark Continent. But if you know me at all (which if you read this blog you must because I doubt that I have a secret following for this thing made up of strangers) then you know it's to go and visit my best friend Sarah and her amazing husband Matt (that's them down below). They've been working in Sudan for the last year doing amazing things for Samaritan's Purse. Since they moved over there we've always talked about me going for a visit and that time is finally here. So, I thought it'd be fun to use the ol' blog to document things I'm doing to get ready for the trip.

As you can probably tell, if you're a dedicated reader, Insanity didn't work out so well. I think we lasted all of two weeks with that little venture. Oh well, I guess you could say it's better to have started and failed then to have not started at all.

Anyways, from now on I plan on updating you with all the little tidbits I feel like sharing as I prep for the longest vacation I've taken in awhile. Some fun things have already happened so I'll share those is other little blurbs.

We Won!!!!

Last Thursday the Kickin' Friends took the Co-Rec Intramural Kickball Championship. We ended up playing the Rec team again. You remember the Rec team, I wrote of them in an earlier post. Turns out the guy with a the really poor attitude still has a really poor attitude about losing. We were playing like champs from the start. We were the first team to kick. In the first inning we scored 8 runs. Matt kicked a grand slam. It was awesome. Khaki Cap (that's what I call poor attitude guy) started out as pitcher but after we scored so many runs he decided his talents were being wasted so he moved to the outfield. It didn't really help the team much. We ended up winning 10-1 I think. Here we are below with our awesome t-shirts.

Needless to say the Kickin' Friends will be back to defend our title. It was a super fun season and well worth the rec fee to be able to play.

The Holidays Are Upon Us

And I couldn't be more excited. I am so ready to go home tomorrow for my most favoritist of holidays. I can't really say why, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas but there's just something about Thanksgiving that makes me love it more.

I'm very excited about this year because of my desire to try new things. I plan on trying everything that my mom makes this year. I'll report back with new likes and dislikes.

The RAs are currently shutting down the building. There's nothing I love more than an almost empty residence hall. Everything is so quite and peaceful. It makes me wish that it was already the end of the semester. That's the only bad thing about Thanksgiving, it's such a tease for the Christmas break.

I'm actually looking forward to my drive home tomorrow. I've got my iPod ready and am ready to sing until my little heart's content. Granted I can't carry a tune in a bucket but when I'm alone in my car I'm a pro. I'm so ready to see my family and spend time with them. I am also excited to see Amy's new house. Now I'll have two places to visit when I go home.

Tonight will probably be an early once since I'll be hitting the road bright and early in the a.m. But not before I get my fill of Glee for the evening.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We Just Can't Be Stopped

Last night the Kickin' Friends took the field yet again and walked away with wins in both our games. Sure the first game was won by forfeit but the second was a true competition. We played the Rec Sports team in our second game and it was by far the hardest game yet. It some ways it was also very sad. You would think that the Rec Sports team would be very friendly and set the example of good sportsmanship. Man was this the wrong assumption to have. Although I shouldn't pin their awful sportsmanship on the whole team, just one of their team members. There was one guy on their team who had a poor attitude from the start. He was questioning plays, rules, and calls. Come to find out at the end of the game he's the guys who actually wrote the kickball rules so I was surprised that he seemed to be so confused about the way the game worked. He was also such a spoil sport that after we beat them he didn't even shake anyones hand to say "Good Game!" In fact the whole team seemed in shock when we started approaching them to do this. I mean really people, it's kickball, not the World Series or the World Cup.

Anyway, everyone did an amazing job last night. I think the final score ended up being 2-0 or 3-0. Matt had an awesome homerun that really pissed off a couple of their players. I had the best game of the season last night. Granted it started off not so great. At my first two at kicks I had to try to beat the ball to first base. Instead of just throwing the ball to the baseman the jerk from above thought it more appropriate to try to peg me as hard as he could. The first time I'm not sure what happened I just know I ended up rolling on the ground. The second time I got pegged in the head after crossing the base but they still called me out. (Don't worry my memory is still in tact) Again this hit also resulted in me tumbling on the ground. But I brushed myself off and took my position in left field and ended up making two catches in the outfield. It's funny, and you wouldn't think it would, but catching a pop up kickball is kind of a rush. Especially since the balls were pretty high on both catches and the fact that both were kicked by guys who thought their "shit didn't stink." Pardon the expression.

I'm pretty sure that this secured us a place in the championships. Our next games won't be until December. I'm sure we'll be playing the Chi Alpha team or the Rec Sports team for the Championship game. Playing Rec Sports would be a more intense game but Chi Alpha is so much more fun to play with because they're competitive without being jerks, so we'll see.

That's all I got for now. As you can tell INSANITY was kinda put on the back burner this week. We're hoping to get a couple of days in next week then really hit it hard after Thanksgiving.

Trying New Things, In This Case Food

For those of you who know me well you know that I am somewhat of a picky eater. Granted my tastes have changed quite a bit over the past few years. I thought some might enjoy hearing about some of my most recent food adventures. (And just so you know what I find adventurous, 90% of the population finds ordinary.)

First on the list, vegetables. I used to hate pretty much any vegetable. Now I find myself craving and enjoying corn and various steamed vegetables. I have gone so far as to try green beans, asparagus, squash, and various other things. I don't get what the fuss is all about with the asparagus, can't say it really knocked my socks off. But corn is becoming a new favorite, especially when it's on the cob.

Next is desserts. I'm much more of a salty than sweet person but lately the sweet tooth has been kicking in. I now LOVE peach cobbler. I would say it's one of my new favorite things. I used to hate cooked fruit, mainly because of the texture. Now I find myself trying various fruity desserts. Still not a fan of cherries though. I've also branched out to various pies and puddings. Before I could always go without a dessert or something sweet but now it's a little bit harder to pass it up.

Now the next thing I'm about to talk about might upset a couple of people. Mainly Ben and Sarah because for years they have tried to get me to bend on this and I never would. I would always say NO! when they offered this as a lunch option so I want to apologize to them for always being so firm on that answer. This week I went to lunch with my friend Zack. Lately I've been choosing where we eat so when we were discussing where to go he mentioned wanting Panera. I have always been adamant in my stance against Panera because I've never been a huge soup, salad, sandwich person. Especially with Panera because I believe their sandwiches to be "too fancy," which if you know me you know what that means. Granted this has slowly been changing in current years thanks in large part to Sarah and only taking me to sandwich shops when we went to DC. Anyway back to the point I'm trying to make. So Zack suggests Panera and at first I tell him that I would prefer to go somewhere else, but he pleads his case for wanting soup and a sandwich. I realized as he was talking that almost every food suggestion Zack has made to me I always say no or say that I don't like something. Feeling bad about this I felt it was time to give in and finally go to Panera and give it a shot. I ended up enjoying my Panera lunch experience very much. (Don't get me wrong, I've always loved Panera for breakfast, I'm not that crazy.) Granted all I had was a turkey sandwich and some mac & cheese but it was quite tasty. I also tried Zack's Tomato Basil soup which I ended up liking very much. So, Panera can now officially be added to the places to go for lunch list. Again, Ben and Sarah, I'm sorry for always saying no. I should have been a good friend and sacrificed going so many years ago. Please forgive me.

Now on to coffee beverages. Just today I discovered that I might enjoy a latte from time to time. Paige and I went to Starbucks and their special holiday menu caught my eye, so I decided to order a Caramel Brulee Latte. Turns out it is quite a wonderful beverage. Although after awhile it got to be too sweet. Paige ordered the Gingerbread Latte which was also very tasty. Granted I don't plan on making Starbucks a habit because I still believe that paying $4 for a cup of coffee a day is ridiculous. But it is a nice treat from time to time.

So those are my food tales. I hope you enjoyed them. I'm very much looking forward to Thanksgiving and possibly adding more to my plate than just turkey, potatoes, and a roll.

Back On Track

So 4 days off is 4 days too many for INSANITY. Today we finally got back on track. Or should I say I got back on track. The group has met the last two days I think, but I haven't. It was supposed to be a straight cardio day today but one of the DVDs got misplaced. By straight cardio I mean that there's no stopping for breaks, you just go as much as you can and take breaks when needed. So today we ended up doing the plyometric cardio circuit again. This work out has water breaks, which are always much appreciated.

Today I felt like I mostly just went through the motions. To make it sound better I'll say that I focused more on form that speed. I'm finding it difficult to do some of the workouts in the push up position. My right wrist does not like this very much but I push through as best as I can. Not sure what tomorrow holds but I can gaurantee sweat will be involved.

Skipped Again

I'm a slacker and I have no problem admitting it. I once again failed to make it to INSANITY. Although in my defense I had good reason. Tomorrow I should be back on track and sweating my butt off again. Here's hoping anyway.

Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Had day 6 of INSANITY yesterday. The title of this entry explains in a tiny nutshell what we did. Essentially, it's the same workout we did on day 2. It's supposed to get easier to do as time goes on. We have yet to hit that point. Having another two day break made it tougher than when we did it the first time. Monday we'll do cardio power and resistance. I'm not sure what that means but it's a a routine we haven't done yet.

All I can say is, bring it!!

4-0...Is it too early to say CHAMPIONSHIP!?!?!?!

The Kickin' Friends would have loved to have taken the field last night but apparently word has spread about how amazingly awesome we are and both teams we were supposed to play forfeited last night. Ben thinks it's our red that keeps them away.

The first team just straight didn't show up. The other game that was supposed to be taking place at the same time only had one team show up. So we decided to play a friendly scrimmage. Not that we were keeping score, but we still won. So if you want to get technical our record is 5-0. But when it comes to rec sports we're 4-0.

Hopefully next week we'll actually get to play real games. At the start of the night we thought we'd have to forfeit because we didn't think we'd have enough girls. But Kayla, our awesome first baseman, was able to get two of her resident to come out and join us. So after another week of play we remain victorious. Here are some more pics from the night.

Ben is our fearless team captain and the reason we all join together on Thursday nights. Here he his working on the line up.

This is Matt being Matt.

And this is Bill and Scott being Bill and Scott.

I know I'm awesome at captions.
Don't be jealous.

Kickin' Friends

Tonight is our second week of kickball. Last Thursday we dominated both our games with wins of 11-2 and 10-0. We're hoping to continue our winning streak tonight. We've got two more games tonight which should be really fun. I'll be decked out in my red shirt and red, knee high socks. It's a sight to see, let me tell you. Mathis, wish you could be here to play with us.

Also tonight is another new episode of Bones (my obsession, in case you forgot). Last week I had to tape it because of kickball and will have to do the same this week. Hopefully this week it will actually tape. Last week I got home, sat down to watch it, and nothing. For some reason the recorder didn't kick on. I was very, very upset. But taping Glee last night went of without a hitch so hopefully taping Bones won't be a problem tonight. I've very excited because tonight sees the return of Gordon Gordon. If you don't watch the show this means nothing to you so you probably don't care, but his excites me to no end. I hear that this episode is full of lots of wonderful moments so I can't wait.

We all ended up taking the day off from INSANITY today so that's why no update there. Everyone had stuff to do super early today. But tomorrow we'll be back with a vengeance.

Day 6 here we come!!

I Hear Day 5 Was Pretty Intense

I don't actually know from personal experience because I didn't make it out of bed this morning. Apparently doing INSANITY in the morning and going for a run in the evening is physical overload. Today was definitely one of those days where my alarm went off and I could even force my eyes open long enough to turn in off. I haven't been so wiped out in a really long time. I even went to bed early so I was surprised when I couldn't wake up this morning. So hopefully I'll get back on track tomorrow.

As for today, it looks to be a pretty good day. I have two RA interviews, nerd lunch with the boys, dinner with Elsie, and a new episode of Glee!!! The only thing better is that if all of this happened on a Thursday and Bones took the place of Glee.

For those of you who may not know this, Bones is my obsession. I don't know why but I love this show more than any other show I've ever watched. Granted I love all TV but I think I caught Bones at just the right time where I was able to catch up on the series before the new season started. Granted it's pretty much the only thing I watched all summer, but it was well worth it. So if you don't watch Bones you should.

Well I must be off to Cluster breakfast.