Swimming, Drumming, & a Movie.

That was my day yesterday. Well, that was the most interesting parts of it anyways. I did some paperwork for the Mystery that I really needed to catch up on but there’s not really a whole lot to say about that. 

So, swimming. I burned, a lot, not surprisingly. I always burn when I go outside without clothes. It’s kind of a given for my pasty white skin. What’s surprising is that due to a prior engagement, I was only outside for like 40 minutes, tops, and I still burned. Fortunately, I was sore enough from other activities of the day that I didn’t actually notice the burn until I took my shirt off last night and was beet red. Then, once I knew about it, it hurt like hell. Figures. 

I also had the awesome opportunity to go jam, once again, with my good buddies in Arsenic Addiction. It was sooooo good to get behind a drum kit again. I was actually surprised that I was able to play fairly well. It definitely wasn’t my best performance ever, but considering I really haven’t spent any significant time behind a kit for the last two years, I did okay. It was a blast to go jam with those guys again. I’ve really missed playing with them. Since then I’ve been listening to their latest album  a lot. I actually haven’t heard the recording of it until now. I’ve heard it all live a couple times but hearing it on the CD is a little intimidating. Their last drummer did some cool stuff that I’m going to have a tough time learning. It will be a fun challenge though. :) I’m excited to go jam with them again.

Under normal circumstances, I don’t think that watching a movie at home would warrant a spot on the blog; however, last night was my first time watching The Green Mile. Okay that’s not exactly true. It was my first time watching the entire movie in one sitting in an unedited format. I think I had seen pretty much the entire movie over several different sittings on TV. I was amazed how much of the meaning was lost in just the little bits that were edited out for TV. Both the stuff that got trimmed to make it shorter and the parts edited to keep it PG13. Not that it isn’t a great movie, even edited, but it is MUCH better in its original format. Lesson learned, avoid edited for TV movies. :) 

I can't swim like I could when I was 16...

So this morning marked my first structured swimming workout in 6+ years. Holy crap, I am out of shape. I did a relatively short work out and I am sore as hell. 6x50 free on 1 min warm up, 5x100 kick (free, fly, breast, back, free,) 4x100 pull, 4x25 sprint (fly, back, breast, free) and 2x25 free cool down. All in all, not a huge work out but man am I beat. I am really excited that I am able to go do workouts like that in the morning before work. I never would have been able to do that when I was taking the bus. It will be really nice to get back into swimming shape. 

I’m planning on sticking to a pretty strict workout schedule from now on, we’ll see how it goes. I’m going to post it here just so it’s written down and I have at least something to hold myself too. 

Mon-Swimming 5:30 AM

Tue-Running 1 Mile before work (increase distance gradually)

Wed-Swimming 5:30 AM

Thurs-Running (see Tue)

Fri-Cycling, to and from work

Sat-Either swimming or long distance running (3+ miles), early morning. 

Sun-Hiking

I think that should make for a pretty damn good work out schedule. I may need to work in a day off in there somewhere but that is my tentative plan. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got one day under my belt so far and I did do some pre-work running last week so I’m at least off to a good start. 

I need to make sure I’m in shape for a triathlon at some point this year. As soon as I have the funds available I’m going to find a sprint distance tri and register for it. All the ones I have found are about $45 to register. Stupid registration fees… I’ll get registered for one though. :) Also, I plan to run the Murray Youth and Family Tri that I did last year. It’s just a short one but it was a pretty fun event and I’d like to do it again. Well, I think that’s all for now. I should probably get to work, I guess. 

Reason, Season, Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or
a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you
will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is
usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have
come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you
with guidance and support, to aid you physically,
emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a
godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason
you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an
inconvenient time, this person will say or do something
to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die.
Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realise is that our need has been met, our
desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you
sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .
Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount
of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things
you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional
foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the
person, and put what you have learned to use in all
other relationships and areas of your life. It is said
that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant."

Author-Unknown
http://www.yuni.com/library/docs/631.html

Just thinking...

As of late I have had some good reasons to think about my past and it has been quite an interesting ride. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on the subject and trying to figure out exactly what has had the biggest influence on where I am today. I know that every part of my life up until now has lead me here and without any part of it, things would be very different. Unfortunately, part of getting where I am was leaving some parts of my old life behind. Now I’m having trouble deciding which of those things I left behind were really necessary. Are there some things that I have given up or done with out that I could have as part of my life and still be where I am? It’s kind of an interesting concept to consider. I tend to think that a lot of things are not worth trying to incorporate back into my life.

I keep thinking about that saying that says something about people being in your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I’ll try and find the exact quote and post it later. I took a lot of stock in that quote and I usually try to analyze past events in my life in those terms. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the people we meet are probably only going to be in our lives for a reason or a season. Only a very select few of our closest friends and family can and will be around for our whole lives. Anyways, little sidetrack there. If we take that as being true, and apply it to things in our lives as well as people, then what? If someone/thing was in our life for a reason or a season, do they get another season? Or do we have to assume that everything/one that got a season had a season and that’s all they get? 

I know I tend to have a pattern of going back to things that I shouldn’t, repeating old relationships, I went back to smoking last winter, drinking more/drinking less, different jobs, different friends, different habits. It seems like 90% of the things in my life I was happier with before and I keep trying to reincorporate them into my life now. Most times, it ends up being a huge mistake and I end up having to bounce back from it. So how do you know when things are just bad for you or when they just happened at a bad time? Is this ever the case? The perpetual what if in the back of my mind is a powerful motivator for me and I think it’s something I need to try harder to repress. I have a hard time saying that everything past is past and to forget about it but I think I need to take a harder look at the past and evaluate things objectively. I act too frequently on a whim and get myself in trouble. Gotta stop that. 

Blogging

Well this is interesting. I’m not entirely sure how interested I am in blogging but I thought I would give it a shot. I don’t even know if this thing is public or much about it all. Just seems like everyone has a blog these days and maybe it would be a good idea to do the same. Plus I kind of miss the bulletin feature on Myspace which was kind of a blog. It would be nice to have a way to just get some thoughts out I guess. Maybe it will just end up being more of a diary kind of thing that is just for me. Either way, it gives me a place to just write stuff so I guess that’s good. 

So, what’s going on with me? Well, I’m working at Ultradent. I work in R&D Engineering group. I’ve been here for about 5 months right now and I love it. I’m considering actually changing my major to engineering. Not sure exactly right now but the course requirements are similar enough that I don’t really need to make a decision any time soon. Right now I’m working on a few actual design projects that so far have been a lot of fun. They can be challenging but it really feels good to work though something like that. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the 3D models and drawings and have had a lot of problems. It will be interesting to see what problems surface when I actually get the parts made. 

I’m currently in my second semester at SLCC. I was really starting to think I wouldn’t ever get back in to school. It’s so nice to be learning again. I put this off for way too long and I’m really happy to be working towards a degree. I’m currently declared as a chemistry major but, as I mentioned before, that might change. I love chemistry and have had a really good time working anything chem related that I have done in the past but the idea of having actual physical results and problems in engineering is really appealing to me. It’s been really cool to be doing work that is in the same genre (for lack of a better term) but actually have something that I can touch and hold to work on or to show for my efforts. I enjoy that aspect a lot. Anyways, back to talking about school. I’m only in two classes right now, English 2010 and math 1050. I’m really rather enjoying both of them. Math has been challenging and a pretty decent workload and I’ve done some really fun projects in English. I just finished writing a proposal on ridding the country of the duck face phenomenon. It turned out to be really funny. When we did the peer review in class the people in my group were actually arguing over who got to read my paper. That was a big ego boost. We are working now on a group project which will end up being a magazine and presentation regarding animal testing in the medical field. I’m kind of excited to learn more about that. I tend to feel that it is kind of a necessary evil in the medical field but it will be interesting to see how I feel after doing all of the research for it. 

My health efforts are going well. They started with a goal to quit smoking last summer and have blossomed since then. After quitting in July of 2010 I set a goal to participate in the Murray Youth and Family Triathlon in September of the same year. I was able to complete that and actually finished second in my division. It was very exciting. Unfortunately, come winter I really slipped with my goals and started smoking again and my workouts just went down the drain. I managed to quit again on April 12th of 2011 and have been completely smoke free since then. I just rode in my first Bike MS event a few weeks ago (June 25.) This was a 100 mile bike ride starting in Logan Utah, looping up into Idaho and returning to Logan. This was a great experience. The ride was fantastic and raising money to fight MS felt great. I was able to enlist the help of family friends and some coworkers to help raise $300 for the cause. I plan to ride again next year and hope to increase both the distance of my ride and the amount of my fundraising. I would like to participate in a sprint distance triathlon this year but have not, as of yet, been able to register for one. They are all at least $45 to register. I still hope I can get into one before the end of the season and will definitely be participating in the Murray tri again. I have set some weight loss goals and hope to get down to about 190. I don’t have a deadline for this goal but I am watching calories and running/swimming/biking everyday to try to reach my target. 

I am still writing/directing the mysteries at Castle. I’ve really been able to take some big steps in trying to make them successful. With Peter Allred as my assistant director and great group of actors we have tried to make a lot of positive changes lately. We just moved to the Nightmare Mansion in Taylorsville and hope to make that a good home for us. We also changed the name to Mystery Theatre so we are not entirely confined to murders as our mysteries and our free to present our guests with other mysteries to solve. I just recently ran an advertising campaign with Groupon that has shown some success. We sold a boatload of tickets but thus far have only seen a very limited number of them return. It’s unfortunate to see that people are not coming as much as I hoped. I am getting a little scared for next March when the vouchers expire. I think a lot of people are going to hold on to them until then and then realize at the last minute that they need to use them before they expire and I’m not going to be able to handle the kind of crowds that are going to show up. We will have to wait and see how that goes. 

Well, that seems like a pretty good summary of the major things going on in my life right now. Oh, well I just got a car. That’s pretty damn cool. I’ve been two years without and it is indescribably nice to have my own transportation again. Ok, now that’s everything major. I think. Even if it isn’t, it gives me a good base to build off of. Catch ya next time.