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Heading Phoenix way to hang out with family. Mom is back at my sister’s house, so will visit and possibly bring her dog back up here if Mom is going to stay there a while.
Hey, it’s also Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow. I can watch it on Sue and Larry’s big-screen TV. Fingers will be crossed, my Larry Fitgerald jersey will be on, and my hopes will be high. Please, oh Football Gods, do not let my hopes be dashed.
I’m spending my Wednesday night in front of the TV watching Eagle Eye. It’s rather silly, isn’t it?
Earlier I had my crossfit bootcamp class. I had to do 40 Burpees (movie). I found them incredibly difficult to do. There’s something about any jumping move with my feet that my body objects to. Anyway, I think I did close to 40 of the Burpees, but I kept losing my count.
I also tried something new today: a 24-hour fast. Let’s just say that I didn’t like it. It lasted from 4:00pm yesterday to 4:00 today. I’ve read about intermittent fasting and thought I’d give it a try. Ha! It’s embarrassing to have your stomach grumble during the staff meeting.
So, back to the big finale of Eagle Eye. Let’s hope it offers more excitement than my P.E. class.
My body must be adapting to my workouts. I only felt like jelly for about 20 minutes instead of all night. Of course, tonight’s class had me gasping for breath. I have to admit that even as I’m cursing the activities in the crossfit bootcamp class that I’m proud that I can plow my way through them.
Tonight we did a mini-Fran. Fran is the name of a Crossfit workout. It’s sets of Thrusters and pull-ups. We don’t have the equipment in the bootcamp class, so it’s thrusters with dumbells and pushups. Imagine little old me (old being the operative word) forcing myself through these expercises. We had to do three sets — the first one of 21 thrusters then 21 pushups. Next was 15 of each. We wrap it up with nine each. That makes 45 of each. Me, doing 45 squats and pushups! We’d already done at least 10 squats to work on our form, plus at least five pushups, so I did quite the muscle workout.
The thing is that you have to do these at a hard pace. Thus, I was gulping for breath by the third round. You would think I would hate this, but it really does feel empowering to get through it. Let’s just see if I’m sore tomorrow. The more I do this, the less achy muscles I struggle with the next day.
Hey, I can’t help but be excited. I’m pushing my body in new directions and I’m enjoying it.
When I wrote this review I didn’t expect the Academy (of Academy Awards fame) would nominate In Bruges for anything. The Golden Globes did give Colin Farrell a well-deserved Globe for his performance in this movie. And lo and behold! The Academy nominated Martin MacDonagh for Best Screenplay. So I am happily wrong about it not getting nominated at all. It did.
In Bruges is a good movie and out on DVD. Check it out. Here’s my review.
I liked it. Slumdog Millionaire isn’t an epic, nor a serious biography, and it’s certainly not a movie that takes on serious social subjects, but it still managed to earn an Oscar nomination. Whether it’s a deserved nomination I don’t know. I still haven’t seen any of the other nominated films. Hey, I live in a town with only one theater with 11 screens.
I really enjoyed the movie. Though it takes place in India I can image it cast in Charles Dickens’ England. Orphans taking care of each other, love everlasting, and finally some luck coming the way of one of the characters. It’s a sweet movie that also offers suspense, drama, humor, and some breathtaking views of India. I’m glad I finally got to see the movie.
The Arizona Cardinals winning the NFC Championship was phenomenal. Seeing Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president was great. Feeling healthy and active is exceptional. Unfortunately, the week hasn’t been made of just those things. Some things are sucking the big one.
My mom refuses to be active. Hearing that she is getting weaker and unable to do much is hard to accept. My poor sister is feeling so down as she is the sibling taking care of Mom. There’s still hope that Mom can discover the will to do what needs to be done to get herself active again. We’re hoping.
The other bad thing? Budget cuts. Arizona is hurting badly. As an employee of the state of Arizona and working at one of the state universities I don’t expect much from our state legislature, especially now that Janet Napolitano left to take charge of the Homeland Security. We now have a governor who is liking many of the other conservative yahoos in our legislature: a tax cut aficionado and higher-education hater. The announced budget cuts to the state universities total $600 million over the next 18 months. Lovely.
Our department could have possibly survived those cuts with lots of belt-tightening, but what really hurts us is how we are funded. Most of the funding is based on a program from state sales taxes. Arizona’s economy is spiraling downwards and the projected funds are disappearing fast. To make ends meet we are voluntarily cutting our hours. So instead of a 40-hour a week paycheck, I’m now getting a 38-hour paycheck. We’re now hearing that we may have to do something more drastic. It could end up as a non-voluntary eight hours a week cut. Goodbye discretionary funds for fun.
If we have to do it, I can go back to scrimping again. It just pisses me off. I’ve been working hard at getting some old nasty debt paid off and I’m not close, but I’ve made tons of progress. Now I’ll have to cut back on the debt payments, which means a longer time frame to pay them off, and living without a large amount of savings. That’s all I want — more than $1000 in my savings. I want to put more towards retirement too. Of course, I’m lucky. I have $1000 in savings, a regular paycheck, a financial plan, and I’ve seen that debt go from five figures to four. There are no debt collectors calling at all hours, no maxed out credit cards, no children to clothe and feed (though the way I keep losing weight I’m going to need some funds for clothes in smaller sizes!).
Anyway, good week; bad week. I like the good, hate the bad, but life is more than just a lifetime of average weeks.
Another Crossfit Bootcamp class tonight and I’m feeling it. Lots of squats, some lunges, and then doing Tabata squats (maximum number of squats for 20 seconds, then 10 seconds of rest repeated eight times) have my legs in jelly mode. Okay, not so bad as last week, but I’ll be sore tomorrow.
So, after cooking dinner (buffalo chili) and starting some chicken stock simmering on the stove, I put in a DVD. My local library has the DVDs to “Moonlighting,” one of my old TV favorite shows. Seeing a young Bruce Willis with hair makes it an interesting historical experience. I used to love this show. I’m still finding some of it funny.
I also have to say that back in the 1980s I wanted to dress like Maddie Hayes, Cybill Shepherd’s character. Watching the show now does kind of dim that desire, but I do love the pastel colors that she always wore.
Here’s a video from the season two opener:
President Obama. It sounds good, doesn’t it? A president who can speak in complete sentences will be refreshing.
By the way, I loved this moment at the Neighborhood Ball. How fitting to hear the Etta James’ song “At Last” as the Obamas dance.
Yes, quite the day.
After seeing the Arizona Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game I still couldn’t quite grasp the fact that the Cards are going to the Super Bowl. Hmmm…let me rephrase that: the CARDS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!! Whew, much better, thank you.
Who woulda thunk it? I, still in disbelief and with a tear in my eye, had to come home to check the ESPN and MSNBC site to make sure it wasn’t some kind of daydream. Hey, it could have been some kind of elaborate hoax, right? Nah, it was the real deal. Thank you, Football Gods.
I just want to know who is throwing the Super Bowl Party? I just got to watch that game.
I’m waiting to go over to Dan’s house for the game, but as they are heading back from Laughlin we’re going to watch the early part of the game that was Tivoed then watch the rest of it. Dan just called and said to head over in about 20 minutes.
The game plan was to not listen to the radio, surf the web, or learn anything about the game. I couldn’t help it. I’m listening. The Cards got a touchdown!
Of course, Phillie is moving down the field very nicely. Will they score also? Man, the suspense is getting to me.
All I’m thinking about is the NFC Championship game today. In an unbelievable turn of circumstances the Arizona Cardinals are going to play in the game. I still find it crazy that my hapless Cards are in this game. I don’t even want to jinx anything by thinking what happens if they actually win the game. Holy moly, this is too much for my brain to handle.
Some of you out there may not understand how this feels. The Cards have never gone this far in the playoffs before. While other franchises have been here before time and time again, I was just thrilled that the Cards won their weak division and did not expect much more than that. Then they beat the Atlanta Falcons, then the Carolina Panthers. Whoa, baby! It feels so good watching your team win.
As one of the few folks in this country who does not get cable, satellite, or broadcast television, I’m heading over to a co-worker’s house for the game. Actually, he’s my boss. I desperately needed to see the game and I think I kind of invited myself over. He did invite me, but that was after hearing me say I needed to find someone who would invite me to watch the game. Okay, I’ll bring snacks galore to make up for it.
May the universe look kindly on the Cards and let them continue their surprising run. I’d love to see what happens to my brain if they win.
Yep, I moved the furniture around. It sounds strenous, huh? Nope. I don’t have anything big to move, just a loveseat and end tables with my stereo, speakers (the old-fashioned behemoth ones), and my DVD cubes (old and ugly and I really need to get something better).
I live in a very small, awkwardly built place. There aren’t many options for moving furniture, but I tried something different. The thing is, I’m pretty lazy about this kind of stuff and even if it doesn’t really work out, it’s staying this way for at least six months.
I had to see My Bloody Valentine today. Trust me, I didn’t want to, but it was an assignment. I hate movies about mad killers slaughtering tons of folks. This one was pretty darn silly. I didn’t know there were that many creative ways to kill people with a pick-axe. Quite the disgusting movie.
I needed something to clean my brain and chose one of the sillier films out on DVD. Pineapple Express has lots of slaughter, but it all seems so funny…intentionally so. James Franco is hilarious as the stoned-out dealer while Seth Rogen is the usual funny guy.
Give me humor and silly action over dismemberment and screaming victims anyday.
In my last post I wrote about my workout of 50 sit-ups, push-ups, and squats. I’m feeling those push-ups today. The back of my upper arms are letting me know in rather unkind terms that I overdid it. Ouch.
The thighs hurt and I can even feel some ab twinges. My brain is telling me I should at least do a workout to keep working the muscles, but my body is screming “No!”
On this day off from work I have time to do an easy workout. Still, should I? At tis point I think I’ll just lay in bed a little longer and decide what to do later. Yeah, I’m not a driven, Type-A kind of gal.
I sit here shocked. I did something I never thought I could do. It was a feat of strength and endurance and I did it. In my Crossfit Bootcamp class I pulled off 50 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, and 50 squats. Whoo hoo!
We were doing an age-adjusted physical performance test as a baseline for the semester. When I heard what we had to do I groaned. There was no way I could do it. At least I had to only do 50 of each, but the other students, who are young whippersnappers, had to more (subtract your age from 100 — that’s what you had to do). I helped a sweet young student named Katy, who managed to get through 81 of each exercise. My mouth dropped at how well she did the test. Now it was my turn.
I flew through the sit-ups and only began to feel them during the last 15. Then came the push-ups. I could modify it and keep my knees on the floor, but I expected that I’d get about 12 done and then fall apart. Unbelievably, I whipped about 25 off before needing a break. Then it was a slow and steady process of doing a few and taking breaks to finish them up. As I’d been working on squats in my workouts I thought I’d be able to get through them and, yes, I did!
So when I get my time for completing them it was 9 minutes and 50 seconds. The teacher was near when I finished and he let me know that what I did was excellent — a sub ten-minute time for this is awesome.
My regular workout is based on the Crossfit warmup exercises, which took me the last several months to build up to. Push-ups and squats took some real work on my part. I found the Crossfit Ozone site incredibly helpful in working up to something more difficult.
A year ago this would have been impossible. Shoot, a year ago I would never have signed up for the PES class on campus. Now today I sit here with jellied arms and mushy legs feeling quite proud of myself.
