Tuesday, January 7, 2014

tuesday fighter!!!!!!!



body combat, noon at celebration, i'm there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (stay tuned,wait for iiiiiiiiiiiiitttt!!!!) :D

ok this is weird.  for the past two days i've felt exactly like a freshman on the first day of school. lost in new surroundings. new people. new patterns.   2 new gyms, 2 new starbucks.  2 new driving patterns, parking lots, sets of strangers, new, new, new.  even the barista at this place commented when i gave her my partner numbers, "oh, you're a newbie".  guess you can tell by my high millionth partner number that i haven't even been with starbucks long.  and i feel like i'm sticking out like a sore thumb. but that's ok.  it's an adventure to try new things.  even if i feel like everyone's staring at me at this right-by-the-window, right by the barista bar table, eating my brown bag lunch with a cheap discounted black dark roast while they wait for their expensive latte drinks.  no worries.  i'm here to write, not compare. right?

 so i drifted across the miles to attend a different location of robb's body combat class. what can i say, i'm a drifter.  I actually enjoyed the half-hour drive to get there, driving gives me time to think, plus there were good tunes on the radio... (eminem/rihanna, colbie caillat, sara bareilles...) and the sunshine was warm and inspiring despite the cold temps.  walked in the wrong door, (forgot to read the sign that it was a back door only) and stood there like an idiot for like forever, waiting for someone to tell me where to go, while a few people on treadmills looked at me with curiosity but didn't bother to help me out.  thanks, guys.  finally a lady with a gym staff shirt on comes to this lonely desk and tells me in her nasal, new yaaawwwwk accent that i came in the wrong door and needed to go downstairs to the real front desk.  ok, thanks.

great class. review stuff. my favorites: pirates of the carribean, pink's hand song, and some others.  one good squat track involved a lower right hook in the ribs, then the head, lower left hook in the ribs, then the head, over and over, phasing in a series of jabs and back kicks, emphasizing the time spent in the squat position.  Pirates of the Caribbean, best sequence there was the sword circle and stab when everyone yells "Gurgle!" on the stab part.  lots of back kicks, too, when robb yells "fire!!!" and we all fire our cannons to the back.  fun. i just love this stuff.   here's a few videos i found....

the pirates of the caribbean:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgt3Ny0tROnIb_-OWdv9U_ELCZyWRxVsnPXIG6woAt9dKYomEmy2nvCr7v_Zyl_sLXG_AgDz5tLWceXFK8I-5K8ORElOhFZ7NY2a7xpLDDKFiiWPQHBlXNgiaM0dBVE_1YIzdgpRY4cN0NjEqIShEuN=s0-d-e1-ft

karate track to pink's "you and your hand"
(this one's funny, it's a bride and her bridesmaids doing the work-out at her wedding reception! good idea!)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhUEyZHxFsxkNplOtwowJIyk_QqydtFKwBqFuaNvKivpdSfnTW683LZdUOVnT8kyWDRul2Yl5LYJVnkbI03izTqzxI-W546QIcgEmQz1DSLYWGpQoD_xkZWxJoM2typM_tzrqTugW7OL0uPtvH8vlRl=s0-d-e1-ft

aaaaand.. here's that same pink track done in class..(more technically correct) forgive me, i think i've already shared this one before..
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjp4Ghiu471YKlyHaCnH3p8MRl2T1CKJXdmLF005_wfPLGhLwUzYOev4oewS5JV4IcUdeYzVvkguWPvN3QBmM8oTBS2pg_n261skH52o_SXk3aYaw-P2ekEfJMaECIggVzk8FufJCPrsbuN2aLcKIOj=s0-d-e1-ft

afterwards i go downstairs to check out the pool, swim a few laps. I walk in and O....M....G.... I am the only one in there, and the water is like glass. or jello.  completely flat.  sort of dark and eerie in there, too.  I'm strolling up and down the length of the pool, gauging its depth and perceiving its coldness when i hear a creepy-sounding whistling coming down the hall from the men's locker room. Then suddenly the whistling stops.  He has stopped dead in his tracks, taking in the mutual surprise of someone else on his turf.  I freeze.  Defenses up.  thinking, ok, i may be alone in here with a raving lunatic (besides myself).  I recall taking lifeguard training years ago.  I bet if I could still do a "cross-chest carry" lifesaving manuever like i did back then, i could also do a cross-chest dunk-and-drown, eh?  and that lifesaving test i had to take, taking on a pretend panicky victim who quite nearly and realistically tried to drown me as i was supposed to be saving him... ( to this day i think he really had it in for me, he never acted quite as  violently towards the other victims-er, test-takers...)  So I'm thinking this and then suddenly remember, wait a minute, i was just in body combat class!!  I can take him out with a couple punches BEFORE he hits the water!  yes! I am invincible! titanium!!!  Some days are like that.  And other days I'm just the opposite.

but no worries, this weirdo may have looked like a frogman from space with his goggles on and swam like one, too, but he was harmless.  nevertheless i finished up my laps pretty quickly and sailed out of there.




p.s. you know what really sucks?  forgetting to bring clean dry socks to the gym on a sub-freezing winter day and having to spend the rest of the day with bare feet in boots. ick. 




Monday, January 6, 2014

creepy moment


Creepiest moment of my day:  relaxing in the co-ed hot tub at my gym...stretching my legs out beneath the warm, cloudy, swirling waters...
and accidentally touching with my foot-
some strange icky old man's leg!!!!
EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!! 
to the millionth power!!!
gross/sick/wrong/puke/that's it, i'm outta here!!!!


Friday, December 27, 2013

Flying back home




in the air, on our way back home.  too sleepy to think much.  but feeling like i’m slipping back into that sad cloud again.  not the one up here at 30,000 feet, but the one around my heart.  that cloud of sadness, disillusionment, guilt.  

on a lighter note, we saw santa claus on his time off, a few people ahead of us in the line for security.  he even had the words “north pole” something-or-other embroidered on his red vest, and a sticker on his briefcase thingy also said NP, North Pole.   weird.  wonder if his reindeer were sent to the cargo cages with large sedated dogs.


always sad leaving my folks, especially as they get so old and seem older each time i see them.  and i’m sad that at the same time i’m not sad to leave their house, because they also drive me crazy in old ways and new ways.  sigh.  it is what it is.   one day sam & colby may be saying the same things about me.


enough sad talk. i am thankful for this trip.  it was good to see family, get some new perspectives, enjoy the beauty of a white Christmas.  time to return to the green South.






Question:  how many non-English-speaking taxi drivers does it take to shove 5 pieces of luggage into the trunk of an RDU taxi cab?
Answer: 6
(go figure..)


89i

random thought at 2:47 a.m.

isn't it ironic....i was born on BOXING day!! (i LOVE boxing!!)  ;-)

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Highlights of my birthday

Grandma & Sam prepare my birthday cake (poppyseed cake, not chocolate,  but it's the thought that counts, thanks, Mom)
More to come ... :-D

more outdoor fun...Colby builds an igloo, too!!





BONK! that's gotta hurt...



back inside..just hangin with the fam.

Gettin' crazy with Uncle Brad, who..
..for too many years tormented me, his younger sister, but it taught me to be tough.
And so, I am proud to say, I am teaching my children well: time for PAYBACK!!!!
Let the fights begin!!!!!





And Uncle Brad is down!!! Ding!!! 
ah,  revenge is sweet...even with dollar store inflatable boxing mitts!  ;-)
(don't worry, he brought this on himself, it's in our blood)



christmas eve


Off to church for the Christmas Eve service.  At my parents' church, where they've been members since I was in 2nd grade.  Always a bit odd to go back there, feels so stiff & impersonal, walls up.  oh well. Still a nice tradition for Christmas Eve.

Photo







Photo

When we get out of the service, it's snowing!! (yes, it really is, those non-moving dots on the screen are the real thing, flakes caught in mid-air!)



snowflakes through the windshield...



  On the way home, I spot something funny, one of those "leg" lamps like in "A Christmas Story", sitting right by the window in a small, otherwise dark house along the snowy street.  I insist on backing up, driving into the driveway and attempting this photo shoot, which fails. But you get the idea.
Photo

The above photo is MY original, here's a little help from Google Images:



Back at Grandma's.  I just love love love snow on Christmas Eve!!!






Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Playing in the snow at Grandma's

Backyard fun,
Christmas Day.
Deep snow.
Uncle Dean with the snowblower...Sam's igloo..
i rest on a snowbank..
Path to the crow feeder..and back.
Icy images.
Time for warm cocoa & cookies.
Inside.