With Big Feet!

Well.

Sorry for the delay in posts friends and fans, my internet doesn't work on my computer at my house. Good thing I pay for it :/ Fortunately, when Alex is in town I steal his computer at will, and if he's not, then Starbucks loves for me to use their internet.

I picked up my dry cleaning on the way to the bank after work today and damn if I didn't like I was playing wholeheartedly the role of The Responsible Adult.

Belt test maybe coming up soon! That should be exciting. Brown Black... one before Black. Eee. Also, State Fair demonstration is on Saturday. If we can wade through emotional sludge and pull off a good show I will be impressed. The drama is starting to feel gangrenous - better cut off the sources before the whole team is infected.

I also really need to find an extremely cheap yet also comfortable sofa bed for my guest room. I'll let you know as soon as I find it.

Aye.

-And under no circumstances is the wife allowed in my Cadillac car! Unless she's in a bag in the trunk.
-Yes, dad.

'Cause I'm Bad

Well. I rolled my ankle 4 times at practice last night, still have plantar fasciitis, a swollen knot on my knee from zombie dieing, and haven't felt attractive for at least a week. Particularly unattractive yesterday and right now. And my phone has vanished, sadly, sometime between arriving at practice and leaving practice.

So that's all kind of crummy.

I have an MJ demo tomorrow night and that should be pretty fun.

I dunno. I'm just really a debbie downer right now. A negative nancy. Maybe I can go to work and work it off.

wtf

'Afghan authorities passed a law allowing men to deny their wives food if they refuse to obey their husbands’ sexual demands.' Caption on a Reuters photo.

So, really, what the fuck.

Woot

Man I just had an excellent time at sparring class tonight. Was really in the mood for fighting and got to fight a lot of fun people. :) Yay. You should try it sometime.

Update overdue

Well with moving and everything I certainly got behind and haven't seen petewithfeet.blogspot.com in a while.

Moving went well and our house is homey and excellent :) Makes me feel like a grown-up sometimes. Alex gave me a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card for my birthday and I am excited to use and try to minimally decorate. Like a grownup.

Went on vacation to Seattle and had just an excellent few days. It was really what I needed. Especially so since this week at work has been ridiculous. Our most productive groomer is on vacation this week but my boss is determined to book just as many dogs so we have really been straining to pick up the slack. We did it though! And today my boss sent me a really nice email that she was happy with my progress and work ethic and stuff. That really made my week better. I'm glad the week is over.

Pete & Pete go to the vet tomorrow.. little Pete is getting snipped finally, and big Pete needs his vaccination update.

We have been commissioned to make a Michael Jackson demo for a Neiman Marcus fashion show at the beginning of September. It is of course really modern and if we pull it off it will be awesome. If not we will just look silly. We can hope for success. We get to wear whatever Jackson-ey outfits we can think of and I am having a hard time thinking of good pants.. that are 80s, flattering, and able to accommodate kung fu. I'll let you know when I have a moment of clarity on that issue.

Yep.

Decaffeination Station

I haven't had any caffeine in two days. I kind of want to die, but I also am in a really good mood. So that's good. And I survived a full work day and kung fu :) From 2 to 3 energy drinks plus countless diet cokes a day to 0 is tough.. but I will feel a lot better when I'm done detoxing. Woot.

We move into our new house tomorrow! Yay!

Work!

Well, I worked nine hours today and only made a sum of $9, before taxes, but I groomed a whole dog by myself! :) It was a little pomeranian girl and I gave her a lion cut and cute pink and white bows behind her ears. It took me two hours. Which is forever. But it was awesome! Yea!

:)

Word, G.

Tournament coming up on the 18th and 19th.

Moving into a house from the 15th to the 25th.

Need to get the kitty fixed and shots next month. Pete is behind on his shots, too. Money money money.

Lots of kung fu drama =/ Need to be focusing on getting better in general and getting ready for an ambiguously placed belt test. That makes my stomach hurt... agh. New demos in the making... that's always fun. Our team is a little divalicious though. Trying to find ways not to get burnt out and still put in the hard work.

Work is going pretty well... been training in the grooming stuff. Sometimes I have to do the mundane stuff, but I've also been learning some cool new things. Yep.

Ok. That was boring :P

Lame

I didn't go to work out this morning.

Sorry, sister :(

Boo.

The first step is the longest

Well I had just a delightful date with Alex yesterday - fairly unexpectedly, too. We hung out in the morning, met our real estate agent (because we found a house to rent!) to give her our applications, had a nice sushi lunch, went to Barnes & Noble whereupon I had a very weird and unsettling encounter with stranger danger, and then saw "Up" together, even though I just went and saw on Sunday with the fam. Awesome! And Up is worth seeing twice, aye.

Then real life happened and I had to go to kung fu and he went to school.

I have plantar fasciitis, and that is no fun, friends. It was in just one heel but now it's in both, just worse in the first heel. I'm trying to remember to take all of the necessary steps to make it better before it gets worse.

I am watching the show "Time Warp" right now and I have to say, everything is more interesting in slow motion. Wow. I wish I could watch us doing kung fu in slow-mo.

I really would like a cookie or piece of cake right now.

I didn't get to go to kung fu camp this year for the first time in 4 years due to work, but in hind sight I think it's best I didn't go. It would have been hell on my various ailments and my kung fu psyche has been a little unstable as of late. I took the time to zen and have good times by myself or with non-kung fu friends and am feeling better. Not fixed, but better. One step at a time.

I have some new demo ideas I'm excited about trying out.

I was dreading it but I went to boot camp work out again this morning for the first time in 2 weeks, and I had a blast! My sister was there because she's great and Kevin D was the instructor and he's always a blast. Yay!

Que será será.

Maggots and kitty, revisited

I wanted to clarify the maggot thing. Maybe I should have said larvae? It was definitely not one of those cute little rice shaped things you associated with common fly babies. Nor was it some botfly beast beneath the skin. It was a half in half out, large thing. Similar to what this lady found in her dog.



Kitty! Pictures from the previous post were from my computer's webcam.. these are actual pictures with an actual camera.











Sorry to combine gross and cute. At least I ended with cute :)

Vida. Old post farther down at 6/1/09

1. I pulled my second maggot out of a dog today.
- This is not only because the dog needed it, but because I didn't know it (or the first one I did a few weeks ago) were maggots. I see so many skin growths at work that these could totally pass. Many, many different naturally occurring (disgusting) things come out of or off of dogs.

Gross!

2. I think I may be buying a house.
-This is due to the fact that I can't find any I want to rent which have the right price tag, right qualities, and right location. So, instead it is possible to get the right location and qualities and make my own price tag. Scary + exciting + surprising. Mostly exciting.

3. Stressed out about money.
- This week at work has been complete balls for us all since for some reason there are just no dogs this week. I think I made $12 yesterday. Fuck. On regular busy days, I can average $80 to $100. I know in real life that isn't a super amount but goddam it's not twelve. Die.
- This is one of those times I am trying to find odd, high paying, short term, short hour jobs. Generally an unsuccessful endeavor without looking like a model. Interestingly, I did notice some ads for people wanting their dogs shaved down since they can't afford a grooming salon.

4. I've been a crappy friend. Haven't hung out with anyone in a couple weeks.

5. Not sure what to do about boot camp.
- It's $100 I don't have but it'll be $225 next time if I skip a month. I do know the workouts really benefit me but getting up at 5 is pretty tough. I should probably just suck it up and do it.

6. Kung fu is going well! :)

Onward and outward.

Antes de Trabajo

Well, I typed out a long neato post on Monday with pictures of the new kitty and all, but the pictures weren't doing what I wanted them to so I gave up. I think I still have it saved so maybe I'll fix it later.

Doin pretty good... been some drama at the Pete with Feet house but Pete is happy and kitty is happy and my life is good so that's good. Been makin' bucks at work for the first time this semester :D Always puts me in a good mood. A new exciting development now is that for the next 7 months I will be in grooming school in the a.m. four days a week, and working in the p.m. and Saturdays. So, makin' bucks will go away, but I will be learning to groom dogs for free (learning for free) and that's pretty great! Grooming school is around $5,000 so yay for saving on that, and when I'm done I will definitely be making more bucks than I do now. Woot. I start 'school' as soon as my equipment comes in the mail.. ordered it yesterday. All $800 of it :P

Today is the one year anniversary of Nina's parent's death in a car accident.. I think I'll be going over to her house tonight after work.

Finished another month of boot camp! More importantly, my sister did :D I think I only attended six or seven of the normal 12 sessions due to finals and Florida and a couple of needing rest days but she went every single day and of course is now more awesome for it. She gets some ginourmous props. And from what I hear she has no plans of stopping in the near future - an even better win.

Work time! Saturdays are always the hardest days - the most dogs, and as the low girl on the totem pole I have to spend around 2 or 3 hours deep cleaning the whole shinnannigan and that's just completely awful. Especially at the end of a heavy day. However, it does mean more money. And one day it (hopefully) won't be my job. So it's bittersweet - end of the week, ridiculously hard work.

This, too, shall pass.

Old Post!

Well we are approaching the end of my much anticipated 2-day weekend, and I have to say, it was everything I expected it to be. The kitty and I took 3 naps today, I still haven't showered, and the only thing I did today was run to The Dog Lofts in Flower Mound to get Pete some new, excellent, organic food. I had him on this food once as a puppy but it was so excellent that he grew too fast and developed Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy, so it was back to awful, corn-based, Science Diet. Yuck. Anyway we can hope that this round of Innova will go better than the last.

We also got Pete a toothbrush and toothpaste, and had a mini brushing today to see how it went. Of course, because he's Pete, it went well. I know to many, many people that sounds just totally ridiculous, but I have seen too many dogs suffer through unnecessary tooth decay for the last quarter of their lives, and there is no reason they should. So Pete won't.

We rescued a kitty that needed a home! He's a cool kitty. He and Pete kinda play in their own dysfunctional way, but they are not best friends yet. Pete likes him but the kitty is still mostly unsure of Pete's largeness.

Friday Morning

I am ditching my sister - again - at boot camp this morning. My body hurts and just can't take it. Even so, I feel like an ultimate douche. Sorry, sister.

My Boy Freddy

It is just astounding how immediately one's life, with all of it's monotony and crushingly depressing repetition without improvement, can resume when you return from some adventure. 

Fuck.

Got home on Wednesday, had a nice schmooz with mom when I went to pick up Pete and then had catch-up dinner with Henry and Suzie. And then it started all over again.. work out in the morning, work all day, go to kung fu and feel less than adequate, come home, dread doing it over again. I am, however, enjoying sitting on my couch and coexisting in normalcy with Alex. 

Read The Kite Runner on the way to Florida and The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs on the way back. The latter was a gift my sister gave me quite some time ago and I've just not gotten the time to read it. A little Irvine Welsh can spruce up anyone's day :) 

--- Angst warning ---

I had an epiphany or a melt down or a combination thereof today in class. I mean I didn't do anything about it but I just sort of sallowed in it while crankily participating. Kung Fu class for me has now become just dreadful. All it is is pressure. Everything you do is scrutinized. And since I'm never as good as I should be for the length of time I've been practicing, I feel that very rarely am I judged in a positive way. I feel like I can accurately assert when I do things well or don't and the things I don't do well just completely outweigh the things I do. It's awful. It makes me hate going. Hate. And Im just so tired all the time and work so hard, at kung fu and otherwise, and it is simply devastating to not be better. Or not be at least as good as my peers. I am so jealous of my several classmates who have nothing to do but kung fu - don't work, don't go to school - and are subsequently fairly good at it now. I should be at their level but I'm not. I am just not built for this and it's hard to overcome that. I've been on a plateau for like 3 years now. I am at a point where I don't know how to get better, have no mental energy left to try, but don't want to quit because, in the big picture, I still love doing it. I guess the word here would be exasperation. 

The tournament did go well and I guess my forms are better, but in reality my overall kung fu is pretty poor. There is a belt test coming up that I am sure will pass me by since I won't be ready. Won't ever be ready. We tested for our brown belts two years ago and I'm still not ready. And that test was mediocre at best. I don't know what to do. 

However, as they say runners hit a wall when marathoning, it is no secret that brown belt is a stereotypically consistent time for kung fu-ers to lose motivation, to plateau, and inevitably drop off. I won't let myself be that person but this shit makes me more angsty than anything and I hate it. No solution is apparent. 

I also don't want to be that person who pushes throught 'til their black belt test, squeaks by, and then quits. That would be lame. 

Ugh. Gay. 

---

Things I foresaw and am excited about: no more school, two day weekends for the first time in 18 weeks. 

Things I foresaw and dread: the monotony of no school, just toiling at work 5 days a week, week in, week out. Things that will break this monotony in the week include work outs in the morning three times a week, kung fu 1 classes versus kung fu 2 classes versus sparring, and the possibility of my not having to be at kung fu all the time everyday since Henry and Alex are off for the summer. Except Alex has has summer 1 classes. Oh well. 

Long run things to look forward to include making new demos, tournament in July, learning to groom at work, and vacation with the fam in August. 

This post was a lot longer than I intended it to be, but so is my dismal outlook on immediate life. Here's to upwards progress in the future and the patience to wait for it. 

El fin de las vacaciones

So we are beginning our trek home today, will be arriving tomorrow night.

The weekend was, for the most part, a success. Jillian and I won grand champion :) and Alex placed in most of his divisions. He always has at least 3x the competitors we (girls) do, so definite props to him. I wish I could post a video of the demo, but all the videos are on facebook. Our music didn't work right so it wasn't our best demo anyway. :(

Sunday was a lot of fluffing around, watched a couple of our teammates fight, had dinner, watched movies, generally hung out with people I like. Played charades. Monday was Eric's birthday so we hung out with him. A lot of the same of Sunday. Played cards. Didn't stay up too late. That brings us to today.

I miss my puppy Pete!

Slidell, LA

Been a while.

Friday: PT test in the morning (27 : 50 : 23.23 for pushups : situps : run time). Running was weird because I know I averaged around 5.30 for every 6 tenths which put me at like a 19 minute 2-mile run. I know the instructor made the track longer this time but I can't confirm if it was too short last time or too long this time. Anyway, the long run time was 23.23 which is shitty.

Completed finals, got my hur cut, cleaned the apartment, went out to dinner with kung fu friends, came back to the apartment with some of them and got smashed (I don't drink) with the help of banana rum. Pretty yummy. Went to bed whilst most of them were still partying downstairs.

Saturday: Had brunch with the fam (my most excellent Aunt Linsely and only surviving grandma in attendance), got my nails did, got ready to graduate, found poop in my closet. Human poop. Musta been a crazy party! Anyway, Alex drove me to graduation, graduated like a badass (in the Honors college and with Honors), headed home. Went to dinner with the family and some family friends at Saltgrass. Food was pretty good, service was less so. My sister made me a diploma cake which was extra yummy but was sad that it didn't looked like she wanted it to so she made me another one. Silly :)

Sunday: Got up early, did lion dance and dragon dance at the DFW Dragon Boat Festival, waited around for a bit while the boys rowed boats, did some kung fu while people marveled at our outrageousness, waited around for the boys to continue rowing boats, went home and ate the other diploma cake. It was definitely time for a nap. I think the boys took 3rd in the races.

(picture from previous event)

Monday: First day to fuck around in a long time. Fucked around. Eventually went to kung fu and practiced competition forms.

Tuesday: Boot Camp at 5:30am, work all day, practiced forms at kung fu, practiced demo at Master Lee's school, came home around 10:30pm and had a date with our soon-to-be kitty. My mom has encouraged me to get a kitty as a buddy for Pete since puppies are high maintenance. Coincidentally, she encouraged me to do so at essentially the same time a friend of ours is trying to find homes for a litter of kittens. They named the one we want Sanchez. Haha. I may have to modify it (Sancho, Pancho, etc.) but it will probably just be called kitty. Anyway the kitty and Pete had an entertaining time trying to figure eachother out. Pete = wants to play with it, knows it could fuck him up, keeps a distance while following it around and wishing they were playing. Kitty = fuck. hiss. Eventually it calmed downa and played with Alex but Pete was still scary enough not to introduce himself.

Wednesday: Work, leave for Florida! Alex and I are driving. Or, to clarify, Alex is driving whilst I passenge. He enjoys driving, I enjoy passenging. And we're taking his new car (Infiniti G37-S) which I assume we're both afraid of me driving. We drove about 8 hours yesterday and ended up in Slidell, LA. We tried to make it out of this godforsaken state but decided we were tired. Louisiana is really high on the creep meter. Really high.

I'm confident about 3 of my 4 forms for competition, since the 4th I just learned on Monday. Eee. Our demo will hopefully go well. It's not our most prepared, but I think it has a lot of potential.

Either way, the point is I will be staying in an incredibly posh hotel in Orlando, FL (thanks to Alex, since he always pays for this trip. What an excellent boy.) until Tuesday. Only a couple of those days will I be "working" and the rest of the time is for awesomeness. :) Pretty great!

Win.

There's no monster in the lake.

Guia del examen final

My last (and hardest) two finals of my undergraduate career are tomorrow. I will be pretty excited when they're over.

I skipped work out this morning because I just couldn't face it. I needed the sleep. So, sadly, I left my sister to be buff by herself at boot camp and I caught two or three more z's.

To only go to work is absolutely a luxury.

Anyway, I really want to go to work out in the morning so I will try to make that happen. The only hard part will be having to instantly go to my finals, as they're early. Sorry classmates! I will be sweaty.

I am under prepared for these exams. Ha. Oh well.

Pete got a bath and a nail trim and his ears cleaned. He's ready for a hot date.

I'm really tired.

Small Success

The Scale says I've lost 2.2 lbs.... :D! Woo. Yesterday was tremendously difficult towards the end. I think my allergies blew up which for Pete With Feet means asthmatic-ness and a severely decreased intake of oxygen. I did kung fu for 2 hours (:30 and then 1:30) and all of it was noticeably harder than usual. Lame. Anyway.. eating went well.. some little brownies spread throughout the day, a croissant-which, fiber/protein cereal w/ soymilk, string cheese and a couple of different types of yummy juice after kung fu. Didn't count calories, just ate when I was hungry and tried to eat good stuff.

Now, onto today. Pete had diarrhea downstairs and then peed in it so I've got some labor ahead of me before I can go to work.

Boot Camp, 1st day

Today was so fun! We had a new instructor who was hilarious and excellent and makes me do a lot of jumping and arm work - which I need. And my lovely sister was there :D So I had a workout buddy. The workout went a lot faster with someone else there to think about besides myself. I really couldn't believe it was time to go when the hour was up. Also possibly due to the new guy.

I have cute new slippers and flip-flops and a shirt for graduation. Yay. I need new running shoes though. I think they're 5 or 6 years old, which makes them ancient in running shoes years. And the primary reason I want to replace them is that they have a tremendous stench. Just tremendous. I can't leave them anywhere without them getting it stinky. My car is the current victim, even though they're in the trunk.

Demo practice tonight. Woo. I think I'll probably do kung fu class tonight, too, even though tonight is usually my night off. Alex was able to teach for me yesterday and I'm already taking Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, so I may as well go today and tomorrow.

Work time!

Ball.

So on, so forth

Boot camp semester stars tomorrow! That's good.

I haven't seen my watch in a few days and that makes me sad.

What a busy week with finals and graduation plans and big demos coming up this weekend. I can't believe they're this weekend. Ee.

Two easy finals down, two hard ones to go.

I am Jack's prideful completion of something difficult.

Well, today was the last day of the "semester" of boot camp. I thought the PT test would be today but I guess they only do them on the first fridays and not the last. Guess I'll have to sign up and see what happens next week! 

Today was hard. My legs from the knees down really hurt. And my arms are sore. Which is good. I'm eating recovery yogurt.

No school today! Yay. So it officially feels like summer today. I just have finals next week and then I'm done! Woo. Today is really pretty so far. Been nice to enjoy outside. 

So from the heaviest I've ever weighed at a doctor's office on their fancy electronic scale, to my electronic scale today, I guess I've lost six or seven pounds total. Which isn't very much but oh well. I think I went down about 3 percent in body fat. The best, though, is my improvement in pushups and situps and running and general fitness. I mean that's probably what I got out of this the most. I'd liked to have lost more fat (just like every girl in the world) but uh.. here's to next time. 

Anyway. Here's to more workouts and summer and doing all those fun summer things. Going to Orlando and Seattle and playing with Pete and Alex and my immediate family and doing some fun kung fu stuff and working. I mean working won't be the fun part but I do hope to make some dollars. Wee. 

Ok. Nap time in a bit :D 

Still fat!

In: around 2,000
Out: 3,889
Total: -1,889
(for Tuesday 5/5)

I wish that
A) I didn't feel fat
B) I didn't care about feeling fat
or
C) I wasn't fat.

Oh well. Still am.

a girl and her dog

Tuesdays are my night off from kung fu and, after lounging around the house, I just took Pete for a walk/run/romp. We are sweaty and happy :) He is extra extra droopy. It's a known fact that for some reason he is more of an idiot post-walk than pre, but I think I drooped the dumb out of him this time. Definitely a bonding moment :D

Valley Ranch is bustling at this time of night and we got a lot of attention.

I wish I had a yard.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is actually a funny holiday. Won the battle, lost the war.

Worked out this morning. Burned calories. That's always good. 1,123 out so far.

Pete just ate another pair of my sandals. Damn. I'm usually careful to put all my shoes in a shoe bucket. Oh well. My tennis shoes are extraordinarily stinky today. Like, stinking up the whole apartment. Good thing the shoe bucket has a lid.

My mom delivered my Pete cake to me yesterday :) I had forgotten it at her house on Sunday. It's still yummy! I think it melted in her car so it's a little droopy, but no less tasty for it.

So, and I'm amazed I didn't know this until Sunday afternoon, the Cowboys practice facility crashed in the big storm on Saturday afternoon. Videos make it look like a camping tent blowing over, except it's football field sized.

I mean, I drive by probably an average of 6 times a day, visible from several places on my normal route. Goodness. Of course, it's more interesting and "whoa" in real life now that it's a heap. Unfortunately there was a rookie team practicing in there so some people got injured. One coach is paralyzed =/ Sad.

That's Texas weather for ya.


Onward.

Also

My sister is great - she made a cake for Pete's birthday :)

You can find more fabulousness here. Isn't she talented!

Oh Kitty Kitty

So I just like... hate myself. I work my ass off and watch what I eat pretty closely at least 5 days a week (and the other days are no carnival) and, according to the scale, my weight just fluctuates. Up and down and up.

Godfuckingdammitisofuckingupset. I don't even want to think about it.
I dont want to be fat for graduation. Or dragon boat festival. Or Orlando. Or the summer. This is pictures and videos season and bathing suits season.

At least I feel good, I have no injuries or things holding me back from kung fu, I'm noticing an improvement muscularly and maybe aerobically. Last week was hard and humid so it's hard to say. This is the last week of the first month of boot camp so there will be a PT test this Friday. That should be fun. Even though I won't want to get up early I think I'll sign up for the rest of the summer to complete some fitness goals, like running and doing some kickass pushups.

Werd.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

Pete is one year old today :) What a great puppy! He's the best.

Also, the math didn't lie yesterday.. my fancy scale says I'm one pound lighter than 24 hours ago. That's a win for the good guys. I may or may not do sparring tonight. We'll see.

Overkill.

So I've decided not to go to work out in the morning for a few reasons but primarily because I've been progressively getting the feeling this week of working out too much. Ugh. Horrific shin splints, worse joint pain than usual, aerobic excellence decreasing instead of increasing, and most importantly just general exhaustion. Die.

Today was morning work out, 1 hour of hard & sweaty kung fu 2, and 1 hour of demo practice where wen-shin felt like running the demo continuously for the hour. I'm currently at 4,757 out. Holy cow! So I got some taco bell on the way home to help recuperate. Also worked today... in addition to hard workouts that's a tough day. But I did get a nap and a trip to the store with Alex :)

I'm also extremely tired of sweating today. With the humidity I have basically only had a couple hours of respite from sweat and the workouts have been.. just.. so.. sweaty. Like.. went swimming sweaty. Change every article of clothing between workouts sweaty. Ugh.

Ok.

In:1,930
Out: 5,384 (26 hours instead of 24)
Total: -3,454

Monsoon Cont.

Well, A) Pete's back end has been having a rainy season of it's own... he won't go outside when it's raining (just because he doesn't want to be wet) and he's had diarrhea for the past 24 hours. Thus, much mopping of the tile by the front door ensues.

And B) I thought today's workout wasn't anything special until the very last lap, last exercise of the day, 6 tenths of a mile. The weather's water broke at around 4 tenths left. At least I wasn't sweaty when I got home and none of my clothes stink. The inside of my car's a little damp though.

Speaking of which, I noticed that when I started I ran about a minute per tenth of a mile, so the laps were 6 minutes and our "mile" run (two laps) were twelve. But today I did one lap in just over 5 minutes (5:03 or something) and the last couple of times I had to do two laps it was just above ten minutes. :) So that's good. That means my mile is maybe around 8.5 or 9 minutes. Not good by regular standards but at least I am improving.

There weren't very many people there today. Maybe 10. And it was mostly the really good ones, an out of shape husband who gets dragged there, and a tenacious but overweight black lady. So, if I wasn't the last one on the running exercises, I was second to last. Oh well.

I do pretty well on anything not having to do with running... lunges, ab work, my pushups could be better but I do my best. I think I may be better at understanding what I'm supposed to do than the normal schmuck, like this hand here, that leg jumps left while I jump right or... whatever.

Still. Man my aerobicness with running exercises needs a big improvement. Glad I'm working on it :) And we did some length strengthening today which is also what I should be doing. One legged squats on stairs and such.

Work!

Pete and I may have to dust off our kayak and oars to get there today.

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Monsoon.

So I've decided más fibre y más agua quizas ser la respuesta a mi problema de peso esta semana.

I finally, after many years of looking at them in stores, bought a fancy electronic not-from-the-70s scale which also reads body fat and water percentage. Cool. I bought another water bottle, too. It's a neato Camelback one. So here's to that.

Also, I saw a commercial on tv this morning which totally wowed me.
I can't believe how awesomely suggestive it is. Dude Frosty can't even get on tv cuz he smokes a pipe. Bitches! How television has evolved.

Did fun workout today in kung fu 1 - mom joined us so that was nice.

In: 1,600 - highlights include a no-fat yogurt strawberry smoothie (154 cal), protein fiber cereal, and half of a whole grain veggie sandwich.
Out: 3,588
Total: -1,988

Peor.

So I gained a pound. My psyche might have just blown up. Bah.

Yesterday...
In: Probably 2,500
Out: 3,464
Total: - 964

Not that it matters.

Guess I'm gonna have to ramp up the nutrition.

El viento esta secando mis pantalones.

Stuff.

Umm so yesterday's total was probably between -500 to -1,000. Worked out a lot, ate a lot.

Dunno today yet.

Did the usual workout, work, lunch (low cal pizza with not so low cal dessert) with pals, nap. Thank god for naps. I fear the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday stretch. Thursday is the current longest, scariest, most dreadful of days for me and by Tuesday I spend my time wishing Thursday was over. What a waste of my mental capacities. At least this Thursday I have demo practice, which I generally find fun and interesting.

My cutest of sisters may join in my workouts next month :) That'll be nice to have a buddy.











My life makes me tired.

One day weekend quickly coming to a halt.

In: Donuts, fruit, Golden Corral.
Out: 4,500 even (5 hours of practice today).
Total: ?

Tengo hambre.

So according The Watch I burned 2,000 calories in the last 24 hours. How average! Ha. No workout, just work all day, stupor on my couch, dinner with friends.

I didn't lost any weight this week :( But I can hope that I've turned those pounds into muscle. Sigh.

And, speaking of dinner with friends, I thought I was going to a birthday dinner for one of Alex's cool friends last night. It turned out the girl is marrying of my friends. His friend is marrying my friend. Therefore, a bunch of my friends from high school were there. It was awesome! What a nice suprise :)

Pete is at my mom's house enjoying the yard and the poodle. I miss him.

Me duelen las rodillas

Coffe smoothie with protein: 340

Pastry: 500 (dang.)

Chik-fil-a: 270
Fish sandwich: 380
Pizza crusts and candy corn: 350

In: 1,840
Out: 3,562
Total: -1,722

The ants go marching on.

Friday 06:48am

New instructor again today. We did the dreaded indian run with like 30 of us running in a straight line. The deal is you all run and then the person in the back sprints to the front; repeat. At first I was in the "dial-up" group (versus the "dsl" group) but the instructor eventually just put us all together. MAN that shit was hard. One of my turns to sprint to the front was on the giant up hill. Die. But I did it.

We also did partner exercises where one person holds onto a giant rubber band around your waist (tries to pull you backwards) whilst you try to run up hill. That was also excessively hard. But hopefully I am now better for it.

I get more and more ideas of how to exercise (torture) my kung fu classes :) That, I am excited about.

My phone got wet mysteriously yesterday and didn't work but I took apart and let it dry and it pulled through. Yay.

I'm excited about getting a fruit and yogurt smoothie today (only 155 cal :D ). Maybe for breakfast. Maybe one for breakfast and one for lunch. Haha. We'll see.


My abs hurt today but I included a diagram of which ones were dying today as we did our usual 9023413476 ab exercises. Dunno why those ones, but that's the way it is.



Smoothie.

El Arpa y La Sombra

Donut: 300
Mints: 130
Eggs: 140
Veggie Pita: 300?
"Healthy" Chips: 150
Candy Corn: 140
Gatorade: 130
-
In: 1,290
Out: 3,900
Total: -2,610

Thursdays are hard. But kung fu went a lot better than I thought it would. Two exams tomorrow. Work out in the morning. I need more fruit.

--

Wednesday Still

I went swimming to relieve angst and it totally worked. The water was fucking freezing so I just swam until I had to pee and then went in. It was awesome.

So I still don't have my watch and just had a sandwich which I have no idea the calorie content of. I just know it was on wheat bread and had lots of veggies and some sea animals on it.

My goal is to not eat after kung fu in an attempt not to eat right before bed time. Also, I need to go to bed as soon as I get home today so as not to be completely miserable tomorrow.

In: No more than 2,000
Out: 3,000? 1 hr of kung fu, swam for a while.
Total: -1,000ish

Super duper.

Wednesday..

My music class is canceled today. That class has turned out to be highly interesting, despite there being a plethora of music freshmen in it.

I'm highly annoyed with a lot of aspects of my life right now and I'm not sure how to fix it. Some things I just have to wait out - like graduating and the kung fu schedule changing - and try not to do something drastic in the mean time. Some things like demo team I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel and have no win-win solutions in mind. And work.. work is a constantly amorphous subject which I suppose if I don't like it today or this week, will be a different story next. We hope. I need to make more money but that's not really anyone's fault. There were only 7 dogs yesterday.

I just ate a pastry that had like twice as many calories in it as I thought it did. Boo. Oh well.

Overall frustration.

Being stuck in situations I don't enjoy is not what I do. I'm a change-things-if-I-don't-like-them kinda girl.

At least the majority of the people around me are kickass. Good boyfriend, good dog, good family, many good kung fu people, good coworkers except one which is trying to find work elsewhere thank god, good lunch with Mary yesterday, good seeing Nina on Sunday.

On Saturday I did a dog that looked exactly like Coraline's scotty dogs and yesterday I did both a dog version of an ent and Ladybird. I have a few fizgigs that, as shitty as they are, I find hi-larious. :)

Tuesday 06:20pm

So I left my watch at work but am gonna go ahead and summarize my calorie output based on last Thursday, which was a lot like today. Today was boot camp, work for a while, demo practice with my group tonight.

Breakfast: 500
Delicious Neopolitan pizza with Mary: 800
Not Sure Yet: 300

In: 1,600
Out: 3,500
Total: -1,900

I love Tuesdays. I just spent the last 4 hours napping or lying in bed. I think Pete forgot I'm home.

Tuesday 06:55am

Getting out of bed today was exceptionally hard. It's the second week blues - the newness of the workout has worn off and now I'm just really tired. Haha. Anyway.

1 hour 51 minutes so far and 1,127 calories burned.

I sure do love that calorie part of these workouts. Speaking of which, is the singular of calories spelled "calory"? Kcals i guess they are. It is extremely rare to see one calorie... y... thing.

Stole another of Alex's chocolate egg things since I'll be on the hunt for some real ones for him anyway. He got almost a 100 on his big presentation last night :) Yay him. I have a successful boyfriend. :D I think I was rude to him when he came home though, which is for sad, but it was the equivalent of the middle of the night for me so I can't really be held accountable. Anyway. Congrats to that guy. This also signifies the near end of the semester. Yay!

Monday 09:09pm

Cereal: 250
Danish: 430
Lunch: 270
Chips: 200
Rest of the day:...? Snacking + Chinese for dinner

In: Maybe 2,000
Out: at 14 hours 34 minutes, 2,522. 24 hours: 3,242.
Total: -1,242

Did the kung fu 1 workout with the class and ran through my competition forms.

Boot camp in the morning! Whew.

Weekend

So the past couple of days have been only so-so eating wise. I have a hard time caring on the weekends. However, both days I got at least an hour workout in so that's good. Yesterday's calories out were around 2,900, don't remember Saturday's.

I'm really excited about my new fan form. I think I may get to use it for small demos where we all just go out and do solos. We'll see. Even better would be if it won at Orlando.

Yesterday was Nina's dad's birthday party (both of her parents died last June in a car accident) and it was fun. Relaxing. Her dad was a drummer so there was improv african drumming the whole time. There were a lot of people I didn't know but enough that I did. I'm glad I went.

I lost a few pounds last week. Here's to losing a few more :)

Friday 08:12pm

Breakfast: 630
Lunch: 270
Bread + Popcorn with Alex: 400?

So I find this kind of hard to believe, but I guess the math adds up.. maybe..
In: 1,300.
Out: 3,538. 24-hours: 4,293.
Total: -2,993.

Dude that's almost a pound in one day. Wtf?
If my heart rate watch hasn't fucked up then I'd attribute it to A) this is the first day that I've done both 1 hr of Boot Camp and 1 hr of sparring (which is ultra tiring) and B) hoofing across campus in the rain, which is harder than when it's dry.

Speaking of rain, today was mental. We know it can rain ridiculously hard in our grand ol' state - which it did - so of course all us little student people were waddling around campus post-haste with our umbrellas and backpacks sucked to our bodies in hopes they'd stay dry. The somewhat unreasonable part is that Denton (and my neighborhood of Irving, too) has horrific drainage. To the point that like standing still, you can watch a new wave of water rumble towards you if you're standing downhill. The vast majority of the precipitation today was ankle-deep. Good gracious!

I learned my sandals are very squeaky when they're wet. I also got myself a new pair of sweat pants on clearance since mine were quite damp. And I got my honors stole today :) Yay.

Also, on the sparring note, today was special. Even though I'm supposed to, I never wear a mouth guard. In the past, when I've worn one, I've gotten hit in the face and it ends up giving me a bloody mouth. Lame! So I don't wear it unless I'm at a tournament. And I never get hit in the face. Seriously it happens like once a year.

So tonight I'm fighting one of the only two guys who are considerably taller and have longer reach than I do and I swear it was like every hit he got on me was in the face. I know I wasn't purposely blocking with my face, I think it was just one of those combinations of the way I dodged his punch and his arc or whatever always added up to my face. He kept asking me where my mouth guard was, as if I'd gotten it in the time we were fighting. Haha. Anyway, my face and teeth hurt and I may consider wearing it next Friday.

Werd.

Squish squish.

Penny Lane

I'm annoyed that I'm at kung fu right now. I'm annoyed that I'm here basically all the time, mostly because no one else will or can be, and here I am again. By myself. Because no one else will.

Lame.

I work hard and play hard and how much is it to ask that I get to be a normal kid: go to school or work all day, enjoy the evening off. Or even, enjoy the evening, go to my one hour class, and leave. That'd be just super duper.

This is ridiculous. I think what I hate most is not having a choice - even if I chose to do it, at least it would be an option.

--

On a happier note, there are two houses here in Valley Ranch on Penny Ln that are for rent! (Basically, so far, there are no houses for rent and none under a billion square feet). Even better, they meet all of our specs! On paper, they're perfect. I haven't toured them yet. The other big hang up is that we don't move for another 3 months and who in their right mind would hold a house for that long for us. Maybe if we put a deposit on it? I can only hope.


They sat slumped in their chairs,
Too glum to complain.
And to make matters worse,
It started to rain

Friday 07:01am

Today was just a warm-up and the PT test, which took almost the whole hour. It was fun and Lord knows I like a competition. Also, our instructor was this cute little lady instructor who was fun. I'd hang out with her.

The test consists of 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. I felt pretty good about the first two - the only girl who got more than me has been doing these camps, and subsequently PT tests, for a little over a year. The running, as we know, was somewhat below average but not the worst I guess. My scores, respectively, were 25 : 45 : 21.14.

I'd like to state that my 25 push-ups were real manly ones! Not the stupid girly ones I usually do in Kung Fu because we have to do like 50 at a time. Woo.

To get a "perfect score" a woman in my age range has to do 42 : 78 : 15.36.

I know this is ridiculously high hopes, but it would be just excellent if I could shave my run time down to 16.00 (two miles). And of course I'd like to get my sit-ups and push-ups better but those are more within reach I think.

Timer: 1 hour 51 minutes.
Calories out: 976.
PT tests don't burn as many calories as work outs. But that's ok - not every day can be the same.

Colossus got a bath yesterday and smells like blueberries and has a cute boy bandana on :)

It is outstanding what a solid 8 hours can do for your quality of life the next day. Went to bed at 8:30pm - can't complain!

Thursday 07:36pm

Eclair: 300
Eggs: 140
Veggie Pita: 300?
Chips: 150
G2: 50
Starbucks: 500ish

In: 1500ish
Out: Day's not over but right now 2,782. 24 hour estimate: 3,700.
Total: -2,200

I are outstandingly tired. Man. Didn't make it to kung fu class today. I mean I was at the school, but I just couldn't make myself work out. Partly out of boredom, partly out of exhaustion. I'm updating a lot. Guess I'm excited about it.

Fluffy and Snowflake

Work was hard today. 3 standard poodles and a bunch of bichons amongst my pack of dogs to wash and dry today. And I still made chump change =/ Oh well. This too shall pass.

Thursday 06:49am

Ok. So my timer has been going since 5am.

1 hour 49 minutes = 1,272 calories.

Today we had a different instructor. He reminded me a lot of one of our old kung fu instructors I liked a lot so that was good. And he was barefoot - said that if you have the right form, you don't need shoes. Interesting.

Also, today was primarily running (the guy explained to us that he was primarily a runner) with a 5 minute break in the middle which consisted of various sit-ups. I am awful at running. Surprisingly awful. So while today was a good workout for me, it was also nauseating. I think maybe that will be one of the biggest things I take away from this Boot Camp - better running skillz. I think out of the group of people there (30 or so) I am in the middle to upper middle in terms of fitness and athleticism. Some people there have done these camps consistently for a while so they rule at it. But like.. even most of the fat girls run faster and longer than I do - go them! On that note, I don't know how they - the very out of shape, haven't worked out since jr. high people - do it. I'd be incredibly nervous if I were them. The experience is daunting enough for me as is. So huge props on their part. I definitely think that takes a lot more guts and will power than it would for the ladies who are genetically gifted or truly enjoy working out and have for the majority of their lives.

We also did a lot of crawling around on the ground (bear crawls pushing medicine balls, squat thrusts, cherry pickers, pushups, etc.) in between sprints and my face is dirty. Haha. I was always the clean one of the family. Not.

Also, even if no one else reads this thing, it will help keep my English skills in shape. They've been deteriorating over the past couple of years whilst I study Spanish.

Work time!

Tomorrow's Post Hoy

So I won't have time to post tomorrow until late at night when I won't be thinking about it (5:30am workout, 7:45am work, 5pm kung fu until late) so here's today's calories - estimated. So my timer is at 14 hours 32 minutes and I've burned 1,471 calories via going to school and sitting around. Therefore, without working out, I average 100 calories burned an hour. I have roughly 7 hours until my morning workout at which point I'll reset my timer so we'll say for April 15th:

In: Still not sure. 2200? I really ought to keep better track and less calories in.
Out: 2100
Total: 100? Damn.

As you may be able to tell, not every day is 24 hours calorie-wise. Depends on when I wake up. So some will be longer if I wake up earlier, and visa versa.

Mmkay. Work tomorrow! Yay. I still have a job and may even make a meager amount of money doing it. Win.

Bathrooms and Blogs

Well! Here we are. I used to have a kick ass website and now, do to laziness and lack of enthusiasm, I've returned. But only to the lowly blogger status. Who needs a website anyway.

I've just returned from Target, where I was shopping for a shower curtain for my boyfriend even though he says he likes the one I already got him. I want to find him, and me, something sensational. And so I've stumbled upon the fact that I really enjoy a well designed bathroom. Really! And, if I had the resources, I'd have complete sets of towels and curtains and such tucked away in my cabinets so I could change and enjoy them at will. It took great inner strength not to buy rugs, hand towels, matching tooth brush holders and soap dispensers, and toilet seat covers. I returned home with towels, a needless, but classy, fabric curtain, and some chicken flavored dog bones for Andre.

I've also embarked on a new work out regime. I signed up for this Boot Camp Fitness created by Jay Johnson (as seen on TV with Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and overweight brides-to-be trying to fit into dresses two sizes two small). Yesterday (at 5:30am) was my first class. It was awesome! And hard! And awesome. I go Tuesday, Thursday, Friday until the 9th of May. I can choose to go to more if I want, but that's the minimum. Anyway, I know I'll be more awesome at the end of it, but I'd really (really) like to look more awesome, too. This Friday is the PT test (situps, pushups, run a mile) and on the last Friday we will do another test to see our progress. I'm interested to see how I'll do, considering my usual level of fitness. I know I'll suck at the running, but I think I might be able to do 80 situps in 2 minutes, which is what girls have to do to score a 100 on that portion. To get a 100 on the pushups I think you have to do around 40 (girls, anyway). We'll see!

Ok! I'm off to play with Blog options. I think I'll also try to post calories in and out for every day while I do this Boot Camp thing; primarily because I find it extremely interesting. So, yesterday (April 14th)

In: around 2000. Didn't keep track very well.
Out: 3600. Boo ya, grandma.
Total: - 1600.