Getting old(er) is a bitch!

Not only does getting older bring you more to shave, but it also brings a variety of physical ailments that let you know that while you might have the maturity of a 15 year old, your body is wearing down. It sucks because when you're in your 20's, and somewhere near your physical peak, you lack the experience that you gain in your 30's to appreciate it. By the time you get into your 30's you're already struggling with gravity and those extra few lbs a year that creep onto your ass. Before you know it, you start looking up things on Web MD to find out what your latest sucky symptom is a sign of, and how to aleiviate it.
My particular problem today is back ache. And I'm not talking a slight dull pain that hurts when I walk. No, this one hurts when I sit. That's going to make the plane ride fun :-(
I'm not one to run to the doctor at the first sign of a sniffle, but yesterday, after about 2 hours in my office chair I couldn't handle the pain anymore and went to the doctor. She hooked me up with some vicodin and some muscle relaxers. I had THE best nights sleep EVER last night. I slept from 10pm to 8am, all the way through. Not even getting up to pee several times (another thing that age brings you).
Today, my back hurts still, and I'm hoping that resting will make it go away for the trip tomorrow. But if it doesn't, then I'll take a vicodin and pass out on the plane.

My timing on injuring myself is impeccable.

Ouch!!!

Today is my second day of pain! Damn you, Larry, and your correct form for squats! Yesterday I was rather uncomfortable when getting up after sitting for a while, and of course getting in and out of the car. Going down the stairs was also a challenge. Today, it's twice as bad. Today my legs feel *worse* than they did after all of the marathons I've done. Needless to say I skipped the gym yesterday, and I'm skipping again today. I'll go tomorrow when I might be back to yesterday's level of pain. Oh how I long for yesterday's level of pain!

We went to a new bar last night in Pflugerville. Can't remember the name of it, but we had fun. Andi, Barbie, Scott, Michelle, Renee, Sonny, Kitty, Nick were all there. There was a duo playing. Not particularly good. We're all hoping that Andi gets gigs there. It was a cool place and I wouldn't mind going there to see her play.

In other news, work's calming down. We've shipped the final big docs to translation and are now working on the minor details. We shipped on time, though, which nobody thought was possible. So big pat on the back to my entire team who are fricking awesome! And now I have only 2 work days left before it's HONEYMOON TIME! wooohooooooo! Good timing too. I hate to say it, but I did plan my holiday around the release schedule at work, which is majorly nerdy of me, but it is in keeping with my life goal, which is to have a happy and stress-free life.

This weekend will be all about preparing for the trip. Making lists, buying things we'll need, like... um... new shoes... no wait... I can get them cheaper over there. Ok, like... new... well crap! I don't have any excuse to spend my weekend shopping. The only thing we need, really, is a new suitcase for Brian. He borrowed one from the 70's from his parents for our Dominican Republic trip, and let me tell you, that thing is UUUUGLY. It's also not very easy to wheel around on account of it not having wheels ;-)

I do have a nice long run planned for Sunday with Andi. Let's hope that the muscle soreness goes away so I can enjoy it!

Leg work with Larry

So I was at the gym yesterday, just trying to get through my weights work out as fast as possible. I was almost done and was on the leg press machine when this guy in a weight belt came over and said "can I give you a tip?". I'm not one to refuse helpful hints so of course I welcomed the information. So this guy repositions me on the machine and makes me do 10 reps. Yea, that's more difficult. I'm gonna feel this tomorrow. So then this guy, who then introduces himself as Larry, offered to show me some other exercises that would maximize my limited time at the gym and help me get the sculpted ass that all women want. How can I refuse that??

So Larry takes me over to the squat machine. The one where you lift the dumb bell but it's on a track, so you can't drop it or get stuck under it. And he shows me the right way to use it. Positioning me just so, and boy! did I feel it! Then he showed me an exercise for my calfs, and then how to use the leg press machine properly, and then an exercise on the ball that is damn near impossible, that he made look super easy. Oh, and then that awful torture machine that does the hip abductors. Yea. I'd been doing that wrong this whole time. And 5 minutes doing those machines the right way is like spending 30 minutes doing it the way I had been!

So 30 minutes later, I was sweating like a hog, and had a fabulous work out with some random guy at the gym who used to be a personal trainer. It turns out he works for IBM now. Small world. Larry offered to show me any machine I liked whenever I was at the gym. How lucky is that? people pay lots of money for that kind of help at the gym!

So I know you're thinking that this guy was probably trying to get into my pants. That's the first thing Brian thought, too ;-) but actually he's married and mentioned his wife and kid on numerous occasions during our workout. He was genuinely just helping me because he was a nice person. How refreshing is that?

Party like a rock star!

Jeezus! I've been eating like crap over the last couple of days. I feel the need to confess all the bad food I've eaten, or booze I've drank. I'm embarassed, but I feel like if I confess, I can start today with a clean slate. On Thursday I ate a Wendy's chicken sandwich, fries, and a 1/4 of a vanilla frosty. And I had 2 glasses of wine. On Friday, I ate a molten chocolate lava cake and vanilla ice cream for dinner. On Saturday I ate a fried egg sandwich at Waterloo and on Saturday night I had vietnamese noodles, 1 wine, 2 beers, 2 cosmopolitans, and 1 dirty martini, followed by a slice of Roppolo's pizza at 1:30 in the morning, and THEN fries from Whataburger on the way home. I obviously need to go to the gym today!
Brian's in Houston this weekend, and I spent all day saturday with friends. I had a great day. It included a huge amount of greasy food, booze, and shopping. What more could a girl want? Fabulous ass jeans! that's what. I bought a pair of jeans from Buckle. There is nothing more satisfying than a pair of jeans that make a woman actually like her booty.

Pfft! I knew that!

So now I can tell people that my singing in the car is just my way of expressing how intelligent I am....

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

7 miles of fun

My run on Sunday was awesome. Andi and I did a 7 mile loop and it seemed quite effortless. When we were done, we both felt like we hadn't ran 7 miles. During our runs, we solve the world's problems. At least those problems in our world. Ok, maybe not solve them. But definately share them and the old saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" really seems to hold true. I always feel lighter after a good run. In both senses ;-)

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel at work now. And only 2 weeks until we leave for our honeymoon. A few days ago, the field guide for my new Nikon arrived. It's extremely helpful. I feel all the stuff I learned about photography so many years ago (thank you, Mark) flooding back when I read it. And today my new Nikon 70-300mm lens arrived! I've read great reviews about the lens, and the only negative is that it searches for a while in low light. Easily remedied by flipping it to manual control and focusing yourself.

It's not like me to be proactive and a planner when I take a trip. I usually like to just figure it out as I go, so it might suprise people to learn that for this trip I put together what is now a 12 page document, complete with all the embassy information in each country we will visit, and things to do based on my internet research on frommers.com, fodors.com, and lonelyplanet.com, and of course suggestions from people who've been there. The reason I'm putting so much effort into it is because I don't want to waste a moment of our time their trying to figure out how to get around or where to go, or what to do. One of the things I'm most excited about is the food. I love Asian food. At least America's rendition of it. I can't wait to sample the real thing, though.

14 days and counting down.....

White and Nerdy

Weird Al's version of Camillionaire's "Riding" is so funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

Random thoughts

Only 3 weeks until we go on our trip. In preparation, we ordered me a wedding ring. Just a plain band so that I don't have sparkly, come mug me and cut my finger off written on my forehead during our travels. It arrived yesterday and I like it a lot. I also ordered a new zoom lens for our new digital Nikon, which is totally badass, by the way! I ordered a 70-300mm Nikkor lens from Amazon.com. It got great reviews and I can't wait to try it out.
I used the camera and the 18-55mm that came with the camera last weekend when we went wake boarding. The autofocus is extremely fast! I got some awesome shots of Mike doing jumps at 2 frames per second! you do not miss a thing with this camera! Speaking of wakeboarding, I managed to face plant twice. The first one knocked the snot out of me and pulled me right out of my bindings. We captured some good footage of Brian so that we can see what he needs to change to make it all the way across the wake.
This weekend I finished up the floor tiling project in the upstairs loft closet. It looks a million times better and smells better, too.

This weekend has been full of friends, as always. Friday we did happy hour at Mesa Rosa, followed by Donn's Depot. Brian was pretty wasted from the two massive 'rita's at happy hour, which made for a very entertaining time. Saturday night we tried a new place for burgers - Casino El Camino on 6th. Don't recommend the burgers, but it's definately an interesting place for people watching. On Sunday we grilled with friends.

Brian's been playing a lot of football (soccer to you yankies). He's playing on 3 different teams. 2 indoor teams and one regular. Tara and I went to watch 2 of his indoor games on Sunday night.

I'm considering going back to martial arts and learning an internal form - Tai Chi. I noticed during my run on Sunday morning that Andi is way more flexible than me and I used to be way more flexible than I am now when I was going to Kung Fu. It's not good to be so stiff. So after we get back from our honeymoon, I plan to check out my old school's (Shaolin Do) Tai Chi program. I think it will also be good for me mentally as well as physically.

As for running, I've done a couple of 7 mile runs. I have absolutely no desire to run a marathon this year. I might consider the half marathon, though, because I love training for a half and there are some great races for that distance in Austin.

Tonight I have a hot date with Barbie to go see the new Jackass movie. I imagine we're going to be completely grossed out!

Tomorrow I'm volunteering at Goodwill, where I will be dismantling computers and salvaging parts. Sounds like a nerdy and fun time!