Thinking, work, and play

A lot of this stuff lately.

A few minutes have passed since I wrote that last sentence, as I just sat here thinking. I'll settle on saying that I'll do what I have to do to satisfy my ambition, and I'll have a good time the rest of the time.

A lot of Lake Calhoun fun today. A buddy joined me for rollerblading, we watched some fat sunfish under a pier, we threw around a football, and we played some stickball... literally! We found a tennis ball and grabbed a big fat stick and pitched to each other. Very fun, and all while getting a tan :)

Tonight, more fun. Tomorrow, likely going to people-watch at the Taste of MN, and then hockey.

Quiet tonight

I declined an offer to go out tonight. As I posted earlier this week, I'm a little behind on the fitness, so as soon as I click "publish post", I'll hit the weight room. I finally got a much needed haircut and my head feels a pound lighter. I'm already looking forward to a fun-packed weekend, and it should carry over into the week as the 4th falls on a Wednesday. That means I'm going out Tuesday, no question, and wow do I like going out on Tuesdays. Or any weekday, for that matter. But not tonight. After tomorrow, I hope I have something to celebrate.

Platinum

Holy shit is my hair white (!)

Yeah that's all, time to do laundry

Ummm...

The thing I need to happen, please happen, soon. I've been counting on it to happen, and if it doesn't happen, soon, well, I'll be mildly f-ed. And p-ed off. Once it happens (if it does), I'll blog all day about it, but until then, I'm shutting the f up. Arrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

In the meantime, I'm busy every night and am in quite the cycle of fitness and anti-fitness. Let's see the recent track record... last Thursday night, anti-fitness. Friday night, anti-fitness. Saturday morning, fitness. Saturday night, anti-fitness. Sunday afternoon, fitness. Sunday night, anti-fitness. Monday night (Twins game), anti-fitness. Tonight, fitness (softball and rollerblading at LC). Anti-fitness is winning a little bit and fitness needs to have a few-day streak to even out the, well, fat. Wow do I think I'm weird sometimes. Like now.

I think I'll shower and go to bed. Early. That's what I think. I'm guessing that won't happen, and I'll be in bed around 1 or so. I say that with 90% +/- 5% confidence. Wow am I a nerd sometimes. Like now.

When I woke up this morning

Something was different. Something was weird. It was 10:15, quiet, peaceful. I sat at the computer and wondered what was different. I thought about the fun day and night that yesterday brought. A few minutes passed. Then it struck me: I was at home! On a Sunday morning! Or a Saturday morning, for that matter... After four and a half weekends of waking up on a couch, chair, or floor, I found myself cozy and at home for once. Different and nice.

Now what to do with the rest of my day... about a half hour ago I was pondering a lazy day, as I have a number of borrowed movies that I "have to watch" according to those who thrust them upon me. I watched about 10 minutes of one, and I just had to stop. My blinds are closed, but I know (well weather.com tells me) that it's gonna be a blistering hot day (and not raining for once!). I'd slap myself if I let this go to waste. For the rest of the day, goodbye cozy apartment. To where I go I do not know.

A contest

Oh man I'm psyched. Tonight after hockey (we won by forfeit, but we still would have won), I was talking to my tall buddy about how fast we were on skates, and it got to us thinking we were faster than the other... now our skating strides are completely different as he has a super long stride compared to mine while I have an extremely quick start. The contest is end-to-end. He initially said he would lay me 10 to 1 that he could beat me. I offered to buy him a 12-pack to a bottle of Tanqueray, about a 2.5-1 lay, and he accepted. Maybe I don't realize something here (i.e. I'm not as fast as I think I am), but it will be fun. And I will be training for this. I don't like to lose... if I do happen to lose, it will all be in fun and I won't hold any sort of grudge or anything. But if I win... my friend will never, ever, hear the end of it. I can't wait. And training starts tomorrow.

A lost hobby found

I remember in fourth grade, there was a month long book-reading "contest" where you get a cutout of a scoop of ice cream for each book you read that month, then if you got 3 of these, any additional books read would become a cutout cherry. Then, at the end of the month, you actually got a real sundae with the ice cream and cherries. Well that month, reading became my obsession. I read a lot of Beverly Cleary, Matt Christopher, and Encyclopedia Brown books among others, and by the end of the month, I had 30+ cherries to go on top of my 3 scoops of ice cream, creaming everyone else in what I made out to be a "contest". When sundae time came, I gave everyone else in the class one of my cherries, and I was a proud little narcissistic bastard. Since then, then number of books I normally read declined, and for a while I didn't read books.

Then came poker books, and I read a few of those. When I was finished with them, I'd re-read them and once I'd finish them again, I'd be wanting more, but never really reached.

Now I think I've rediscovered my love for reading. Kitchen Confidential alone has, in a matter of days, slightly changed the way I am. And in a good way. Anthony Bourdain's description is of his life is so real and raw that it has genuinely inspired me a little bit. But that's just me. And now I want more. More books. More to inspire me and open my eyes to new perspectives I won't see from staring blankly at a TV screen. And this time not for the cherries. But for me.

What is a relaxing weekend?

I certainly don't know, or at least I can't remember.

4th weekend in a row where I didnt' sleep in my own bed on Friday or Saturday night. Starting to get a bit ridiculous.

Friday: took off from work early to meet up with the Madtown crew, a change from the usual trip where the MN people go to Madison. A quick stop at the big mall for a bite, then to the Twins game, where we got stomped, but had a great time. Then it was off to the bars for drinks, pool, fun... and no arrests! (Last 2 events where Wisco people came here there have been arrests...)

Saturday: ate Gyros for breakfast/lunch, then headed to Faribault to the birthday boy's parents' place where there was a pontoon on a lake on a beautiful day awaiting us. I don't know of many things I find more fun, being outside on a lake on a nice day with friends. There's something about it I just love. After the lake, there were sloppy joes waiting in the house, and wow, I don't know if anything could have hit the spot more spot-on. 8 quick showers later, my friends brought out that damn drinking game I wrote about in an earlier post, the Royal Rumble game. And man, did my team get the most punishment... in just over an hour, 8, yes 8 shots of Jameson and about 5 beers. That's just what happens with my friends from Madison. We hit the local bars and brought terror to the small town of Faribault... and I ran into some girls that also went to Madison who were friends of a mutual friend who got married in Faribault yesterday, random and fun getting to talk to them for a bit.

Today: woke up to my friend's parents cooking breakfast. I can't remember the last time I a nice fat homemade breakfast prepared by someone else (that wasn't me). I don't know why, but I truly believe that I enjoy food prepared by someone else more than food I prepare myself. There's just something about it... I'll take eggs and toast made by someone else over my eggs benedict with lobster bisque hollandaise any day. After breakfast and goodbyes, I found myself not wanting to miss the sun, so I finished Kitchen Confidential laying by the pool, and got to see, amazingly, that other people my age actually lived in my building. Myself being shy and likely not looking great from last night, I didn't actually meet anyone, but to see and be seen was a good enough start. I wonder if I'll notice all the sun I got this weekend... Finally, headed home to see Dad for Father's Day, and the card I got made noise when it opened, and I'm glad he liked it.

Another crazy weekend in the books.

This post is bananas

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

And this weekend should be too. May there be no arrests and no injuries. That is all.

The week of no sleep

I'm freakin' tired!

Hours of sleep by night beginning Sunday night... 4, 4, 4, 3. Busy and running around, enjoying summer and gettin' shit done. Strangely satisfying. 2 nights a week are now taken by hockey and softball, very good. Hopefully I'll never get tired of this work hard/play hard mentality thing. Yah, this is a weird post, must be a little loopy from lack of sleep...

Weekend? I'll take it

Friday: Met at buddy's place in downtown, went to Sawatdee on 4th St. to see a work buddy DJ and ate damn good Thai food (I wish more people knew about it, the house music was excellent, period), headed to Aqua to get our VIP passes before 11 and grabbed a drink, headed to Lodge, skipped line and cover and got a quick drink, then finished back at Aqua with dancing. Well kinda finished... afterwards a Pizza Luce slice satisfied, and then I decided to walk... back... to my buddy's place... on the other side of the river (!), which took me a good hour and half. It was actually very enjoyable, I got to see a few other late night wanderers and get a good look at the Mississippi, which I would describe as calming and pleasant. Finally, after a time-consuming wrong turn and passing by a bum sleeping on a bench, I found my way back to my buddy's couch.... at 4 am....

Saturday: I actually planned ahead and put workout duds in my car so I could go straight to Lake Calhoun for my new love of circling and people-watching on rollerblades. I actually saw a gf of a friend running which was my first time actually recognizing someone there. After that I headed home and found myself in a new book, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and wow am I glad I'm reading it. I won't make this post a book review, but basically he goes into his life as a chef and shares his stories of the not-so-glamourous parts of chefdom. It's awesome, and I'll probably be done with it by tomorrow. Anyways, I took a nap during the afternoon, woke up around 730, and wondered what to do... I ended up calling some friends to see if the wanted to go downtown (yeah, I've been doing a lot of that lately), and wow, they said yes! So we did. Lodge and Aqua again, no cover, many free drinks, dancing, fun. Crashed at a friend's place and for the third weekend in a row, didn't sleep in my bed (not counting Sunday night). Oh, and I did something very very stupid and embarrassing right before sleeping on Saturday... they had a mattress for me to sleep on so I put it on the floor, and decided to try to jump on onto my feet like they do in kung fu movies or whatever. Well, I forgot there was a table right above my head, and I whacked my face/nose. Hard. First bloody nose in quite awhile, and most embarrassing moment for me in quite awhile. Next time I decide to try to jump on my feet like that, I'll be sure to check for tables...

Today, woke up, bus to buddy's car, came home, cooked buffalo chicken and cheeseburger soup for friends, read more of Kitchen Confidential, and went to hockey. We frickin' tied. 0-0. And there was a fight at the end of the game. Super frustrating. Oh well. At least it was an early game and I'm home instead of finishing up my last shift in Blaine. So wow, I have an hour or two before normal bedtime. I think I'll read some more. Good weekend.

What to do...

No set plans for the weekend yet... I really want to blade around Lake Calhoun again, this time 4x. Hopefully it won't be raining. Might go to St. Cloud tomorrow, might just go Uptown or Downtown. Whatever happens, I'm ready for it. I've got a fever... and the only prescription is... well, whatever happens this weekend! 1-0 in summer hockey league, we'll see if we can take 1st in the standings again.

Ups and downs

Lately it's been up and down. I've been so happy I could cry at times, and two minutes later I might be pissed off and down in the dumps. Quickly glancing at the things that have made me happy lately, I come up with my friends, my health, my ambition, and summer fun. There has been one bad apple hanging from the downer tree, and it has a dollar sign on it. I would have thought that at this point, 18 months into working, that I would be erasing debt, or at least breaking even. When I figure out this one thing I've never been great at, some fruit with a different fruit will grow, and I will be relieved. To me, there absolutely have to be shitty times to fully appreciate the good ones or even just the okay ones. I had my euphoric summer after college before finding this job, and when it's nothing but fun and games, I forgot it was fun and games and it was the only okay then.

In the meantime, I can tell myself to take care in the moment I'm actually in rather than worrying about something that will only take time to repair.