Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Introvert

It's not that I don't want to work out, but today I really just don't feel like teaching. I just don't want to be the center of attention. I know it's ironic to write that on a blog (since the point is to make people read things that are probably only important to me), but there's just this weird feeling lurking under the surface today. I'm anxious for no real reason, and I don't like being in front of a crowd (especially one I see regularly) when that happens. In moods like this I like to wander off by myself and just let my subconscious sort it out for me. Sort of like in Bag of Bones when he talks about "movers in the attic". I swear that's a quote, and I Googled it just now...the only thing that came up was this post from my other blog, which I wrote almost exactly a year ago. Weird. 

Found it: 

When I left the restaurant, I didn't go home but tramped over half of the damned town, the section 
of newspaper with the partly completed crossword puzzle in it clamped under one arm. I walked
until I was chilled in spite of the warming temperatures. I didn't think about anything, and yet I 
thought about everything. It was a special kind of thinking, the sort I'd always done when I was
getting close to writing a book, and although I hadn't thought that way in years, I fell into it easily
and naturally, as if I had never been away.
    It's  like some guys with a big truck have pulled up in your driveway and are moving things into 
your basement. I can't explain it any better than that. You can't see what these things are because 
they're all wrapped up in padded quilts, but you don't need to see them. It's furniture, everything
you need to make your house a home, make it just right, just the way you wanted it.
    When the guys have hopped back into their truck and driven away, you go down to the basement 
and walk around (the way I went walking around Derry that late morning, slopping up hill and
down dale in my old galoshes), touching a padded curve here, a padded angle there. Is this one a 
sofa? Is that' one a dresser? It doesn't matter. Everything is here, the movers didn't forget a thing, 
and although you'll have to get it all upstairs yourself (straining your poor old back in the process, 
more often than not), that's okay. The important thing is that the delivery was complete.

So not an attic, oops. 

Anyway. I think the major cause of this is anxiety. I still feel like the new kid in school with this group, and that makes me anxious. Not sure why, since I hold their fates in my hands, but whatever. I'm lame like that. This is what I feel like doing, every Wednesday: 


This is the shirt I need though: 

How do you cope with social anxiety? 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Go To Gal

So earlier today I was hemming and hawwing about how I kind of want to just go home and work on some homework and quilts tonight, and maybe I'd skip the gym except that Deb is teaching tonight and I love Deb's class, so maybe I'll go but I'm feeling really lazy...

Then Tony, the 6:30 spin guy emailed asking for a sub. I loved last week's ride so much I wanted to teach it again anyway, so I said yes and figured I'd just double the fun (go to FIT then spin) but leave FIT a little early.

Then, just now, Deb emailed saying she's super sick and needs coverage as well.

So suddenly, I'm teaching back to back classes on a night I was thinking about skipping all together.

Ha ha Universe, you're a riot.


So, if you're in the area and in the mood, come watch me flail around at FIT tonight. :-) 

Friday, September 9, 2011

Fess Up Friday

Rose started it, I'm following it.

I thought of this confession on Wednesday in strength class, when I realized what I was doing. I arrived slightly late to class, so I ended up in the back. I realized about halfway through that I'd spent the last 30 minutes checking out every other woman's butt.


Not in a creepy "dat ass" kind of way but more in a "wow, she really put the time in on that one" kind of way.

Now that I've probably flagged myself to HR for looking up "gym butt" repeatedly, I should probably knock that off.

On a completely unrelated note, apparently they now have pushup...underwear? I didn't know we were trying to add a cup size to our butts. That may change my workout routine - I'm already a double D in that area.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Hand Dominance

Quick favor to ask all you followers out there.

Clasp your hands together. Which thumb is on top? What's your dominant hand? Leave the results in a comment (and for those of you who are FB friends, please only reply if you haven't responded to the question on FB).

Thanks!!

Biology, Physics, a Classy Boat, and Girl Scouts

So I got my LabPaqs in the mail. The biology one is not screwing around.
Those beads are the "chromosome kit". There are razor blades under the scissors in the leather thingy. I also have a microscope (not pictured) that I spent a good half hour yelling at Nick to fix so I could "see science". Sometimes, I'm 5.
That skull and crossbones means death. Death, people!
And then there's my physics kit. This week's lab involves a straw and a protractor, to  estimate the height of a building using right triangles. I feel like I'm girl scouts again, but paying $1200 for my tryit.
Finally, this classymobile has been up for sale on my way to work for a few weeks now. It just screams "drink cheap beer and have people passed out with sharpie on their faces laying all over me!" to me. It's $800. I feel like the memories would make the ROI pretty quick, but the hangovers might last longer than I'd want. But seriously, if I were in college, this would be on top of my car right now.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Cannot Wait to Get My Spin On

Yup yup yup, cannot wait for tonight's class. If anyone in there tries to bring me down, I'm gonna crank the music up and stick my fingers in my ears until they knock it off. Then I'll crank up their resistance.

Here's the playlist:



The Likes of You Again - Flogging Molly
I Want You To Want Me (Live) - Cheap Trick
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen
Rain on Your Parade - Duffy
Beer - Reel Big Fish
What The Hell - Avril Lavigne
Ballroom Blitz - Misfits
Everybody & Ray Speak No Americano - (Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP vs. Backstreet Boys vs. Ray Charles vs. Phantom of the Opera vs. Benny Benassi) Mashup-Germany vs. Faroff
The Boys Of Summer - The Ataris
Set Fire to the Rain (House Remix) - Capt Kirk
Party on the Floor (Capital FM Summertime Ball Mashup) - DJ Earworm
Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy
Dressed To Kill - A New Found Glory
Io (This Time Around) - Helen Stellar

That first song is the song Flogging Molly played to open every concert of theirs that I went to see in college. Listening to it makes me want to mosh, just a little. Ok, a lot. My roommate and I met the band after a concert in Idaho once (I caught the drummer's stick!) and they recognized us as the chicks who kept starting the pits. Turns out Idahoans are too polite to shove girls, so it was harder than it sounds. Nimue, I miss you! :-D 

Anyway, I'm thinking I'm going to go full retard and hit FIT before spin again tonight, so I'm off. 

Strength Loops

Last Wednesday was a tribute to the fact that my subconscious mind knows that my conscious mind is a complete and utter spaz. I got this playlist put together and was psyched about it, so I decided to burn it to a disc to rock out in my car. I never do that. I went to the gym, went to Strength before spin, then went to set up to teach and realized...my iPod was on my desk. At work. 20 minutes away.

Fortunately, my subconscious knew this would happen, so the CD was in my car and saved the day. Hooray for small miracles.

Today's profile isn't done yet, and I haven't even started the playlist. It's likely it's going to be another rock/metal mix, since as I mentioned in the last post, work has been a little...frustrating. I don't really want to get into it on here, but suffice it to say that daily workouts have become a matter of survival rather than a luxury.



After letting this sit in Chrome for a couple hours, I found a profile I'm SUPER excited about on pedal-on.com:

This is one of those drills that starts off making the class think it's going to be easy, but the end they'll think differently & look forward to the recovery!
1:00 Intervals of Hard/Moderate; on the "Hard" they're to increase the cadence.
HARD :10 > Moderate :50
HARD :15 > Moderate :45
HARD :20 > Moderate :40
HARD :25 > Moderate :35
HARD :30 > Moderate :30
HARD :35 > Moderate :25
HARD :40 > Moderate :20
HARD :45 > Moderate :15
HARD :50 > Moderate :10
Next song must be a nice long recovery

I'm going to do a 5 minute warm up, then run through that 3 or 4 times with a 2 minute recovery at the end. I think I'll ask the class ahead of time if they mind going over time by 8 minutes or so, and if they don't mind then I'll run through it 4 times. Now, the playlist! 

Any song suggestions? It's cold, wet, and nasty out here. What kind of music does that make you want to hear?