The first four months of the year I totally kicked ass in the fitness department. I was easily reaching my goal of physical activity on 50% of the days, and I was happily weighing myself on my Wii Fit every morning. While the weight wasn't going down as quickly as I would have liked, my body was shifting and my firming up again. I was in a pretty good place.
Then May hit, and I don't know what happened. Major malaise and being too busy to care set in, and I've only gone to the gym twice since. There was no riding of the bike either, which I do enjoy. Granted, for a while there it seemed like it was raining every single day, which really does just suck my will to live, but I really have no excuses for being such a schlub. The fact that I'm feeling bulbous again sucks, too (though I am rather thrilled that a friend who is visiting town and hasn't seen me since last year didn't comment on my weight...like he did everyone else. Yes, evil, I know).
Anyway, so yesterday I started to kick off the cobwebs. After coming home and plopping on the couch, I talked myself into going for a run, which is essentially punishment because I hate running with a purple passion. Plus, it was hot and humid yesterday, which really doesn't help anything at all. Now, I certainly didn't run that far, but I did better than I had planned. So, I think that did the trick to shaking off the lazy, and even though I went out last night and stayed out later than planned, I was up at 4:45 this morning to lift weights at my gym. It was great to be back, and while I don't know if I'll be there tomorrow morning, I do plan on keeping up the activity.
The way I see it is I have a month until Market Days in Chicago, and then another month until my trip to New Orleans. I might as well make an effort to not feel so bulbous. Then if I can just stick with it through dinner, I'll be in good shape for my *gulp* 35th birthday next May.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love to bake. The trouble with being so busy is that my will to bake anything (not to mention the time to do it) has been pretty damn low. Thankfully, today I've been able to dust off the cobwebs, and I am going whole hog on the baking.
The impetus for this is a 4 way birthday party I am going to tonight. I've made some things for it in the past, so I was asked again to do it. They wanted me to make my liquor balls, which would typically be fine. They're actually great finger desserts, which is always a good thing for a party, but dear lord, I've made so many balls in the last year, I just really don't want to even look at the recipe for a while.
For me, baking or cooking even is all about trying something new. Sure, I have old standbys that I will make on a whim, but I really want to do something new if I can. So, for this party (and the pool party tomorrow), I am making three different types of brownies, one old recipe and two new ones. The high wire act has been doubling the recipes (or quadrupling in one instance), which can always be sketchy especially in the baking departement. You never know just how they are going to bake. The good news is that the third recipe is about to come out of the oven, and I think I've dodged the baking bullet. I am modyfiying the recipes a bit because of the heat. We'll see how it goes! So, here's hoping everyone likes my White Chocolate Cranberry Bars, Strawberry Crunch Bars, and Cappucino Bars.
I know that the majority of the country is dealing with rain, but I'm going to add my rant to the blogosphere. I am so tired of rain. I literally think it is driving me crazy. The fact that we managed to have a mostly clear day on Saturday for Pride is a minor miracle in itself. Argh!
Between snow in the winter and rain in the spring and summer, I'm about ready to throw in the towel and move to Phoenix!
Not to mention the fact that the Chicken Little of the office was damn near suicidal because the copier nearest to her ran out of toner. Really?!
Ah well, thank you goes out to Puntabulous for pointing out Green Porno. It brightened my day a little. LOL
Well, *ahem* hello to all the two readers that are still coming to my never updated blog. :-)
It has truly been a crazy busy time for me, but with Circle City IN Pride finally behind me, I will definitely be able to blog more often, even though July is typically a crazy ass time for me at work.
All in all, Circle City IN Pride was pretty amazing. We had above average crowds throughout the week of events, and since Saturday ended up being an amazingly beautiful day (except for about 20 minutes of rain), we had around 55,000 come to the the parade and festival. Of course, for you big city folks, that is a drop in the bucket, but when you take into consideration the small town/big city nature of Indianapolis and the melting pot of people from all walks of life at the festival, I have to say we have a lot to be proud of.
For me personally, from designing billboards, doing radio interviews, to just dealing with the media in general, it was a tremendous learning experience. Sure, there are a lot of things I could have done better, but I think for a first timer, I did a pretty good job. I plan on doing publicity again next year. So, I can definitely learn from my mistakes.
I hope everyone has had a great summer thus far! :)
I know. I've been a horrible blogger lately, but between work, Circle City IN Pride planning, AND my cable not working at home, I just haven't had the time.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. When June 15th rolls around, I will finally be back to a semi-normal schedule. I promise to blog more after that :-)
If you want to check out what I've been working on, go to http://www.IndyPrideInc.org/
So this week has just been one of those weeks where I've not wanted to do anything, and indeed, I haven't. I've spent much of my non-working time on the couch, and considering that I've been without cable for over a week now, it is kind of surprising I haven't gone out of my freaking mind! Thankfully, I had some DVDs that I hadn't watched yet, namely Caprica, the new show in the Battlestar Galactica universe (it was great!), and I actually started watching the first season of Alias, which I hadn't realized I had seen. I guess I must have started watching in the second season when Lena Olin came in as Sydney's Big Bad Momma. Say what you will about the final seasons of that show, but wow, the first season was great from start to finish.
Tonight, I'm traveling to the gay mecca of Lafayette, Indiana to attend a Bag Ladies show. I'm really using it as an opportunity to promote Circle City IN Pride in another city. I have no idea what a gay bar in Lafayette will be like, but from what I've heard it is an older crowd in a pretty tiny bar. Ah well, it's an adventure, right?
Then on Saturday, I'm going to the Naptown Roller Girls bout to promote Pride as well. It should be pretty fun because we're planning on tailgating. Woot! :)
Actually, maybe we should weep for my lack of cable. Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I am a MAJOR TV junky. Last Wednesday, when I got home from work, I turned on my husband (my new 40in LCD), only to give me a blank stare. Unfortunately, the weekend was so packed with activities, I just couldn't make the time for the cable guy to come out. I could have had him out yesterday, but since the problem is more than likely not with the wiring in my apartment, I knew I wasn't going to get the emergency maintenance guy for my complex out there to open up the cable room. All in all, it hasn't been horrible because I have plenty of DVDs and haven't been home all that much, but it really sucked not being able to get my news on TV this morning before work. On top of all that, I get my internet through cable, too. So, I've been screwed!
With that out of the way, party season has begun, which only means I'm one year closer to cirrhosis of the liver. This weekend alone: Carb Day at the track (that's Indy 500 for you all), Party that night, Indy 500 Parade, Party that night, First Pool Party of the year, and then going out to see Halle Pino perform at the Metro. Saturday night, I actually updated my Facebook to say "I"m kinda ready to go back to work on Tuesday." Yeah, it was that type of weekend.
Now, this coming weekend, I am going out of town to promote Circle City IN Pride with the Bag Ladies AND hosting a tailgate at the NapTown Roller Girls bout on Saturday. Of course, there will be pool shenanigans on Sunday, as well, which only brings us to the following weekend which will mark the beginning of the week long even that is Circle City IN Pride. Oy!
Will someone please get me the paperwork for Betty Ford?
I was planning on writing this yesterday, but I got busy at work. Then I got home and my cable is out, which possibly means no internet or cable ALL weekend. I might die...
Anyway, so Kris Allen has won American Idol, and the wailing of the gays has begun. I really do not understand why, every time a gay loses something, it has to be because he's gay? Speaking as a gay guy, there were very few times in the whole season of American Idol that I could actually sit through an entire performance of Adam Lambert. Sure, I will agree 100% that he is a talented guy, but when he started his crazed forays into his upper register, grabbing hold of a song and strangling it like the song kicked his mother, well, I would have to either stop listening or change the channel.
I'll admit. From the first time I saw Kris, I had a crush, and I am happy to say he at least has a voice to back it up, but I didn't support him because I have some sort of latent, self-hating homophobic bent. No, I simply DIDN'T like Adam's style of singing. I really have no nostalgia for hair metal bands. If you do, then go enjoy Adam's record.
I had every intention of posting yesterday (just like I had every intention of working, too), but I woke up still exhausted from the weekend. I have to say I use the term exhaustion pretty interchangeably with sleepy, but yesterday, I think I truly knew what being exhausted meant.
This past weekend was very busy. Friday at work was crazy, and while I had fully intended to try to stay in on Friday night, since I had been lax in planning something for my birthday with my friends, I decided to head out to Olly's to kick off my birthday weekend. After a stop at 45 Degrees, I ended up heading over to Talbott Street for the 65th Birthday of a pillar in the Indianapolis Community, and it was a great night there.
On Saturday, I did the usual laundry and stuff, but then I met up with my best buds at my favorite restaurant in town, Santorini Greek Kitchen. Ahh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. If I actually ate there as many times as I'd like, I'd probably be pushing 300 pounds. After we finished eating, some of us went off to the Indiana Live Casino, where I promptly lost $60, but I still had a good time.
Now, Sunday was the big day. Not only was it my birthday, but it was also the Hooser 250 Tricycle Race, which I had been planning for a while. It is one of those events that needed some help, and while I don't think we raised as much money as previous years, I think I set the state to make it grow even bigger next year. The big change this year is that we shut down a portion of Mass Ave in Indy. I have to tell you, when the barricades when up, and we started to get the track and everything else together, I had such a sense of accomplishment. As you can imagine, it is not easy to get the city to shut down a street, but it was SO worth it. It made all the headaches worthwhile. Granted, I still screwed up the race bracket a few times, but everyone was just happy to have a great day outside doing something silly. I really can't think of a better way to spend my birthday! :)
Now, yesterday, when I woke up to go to work, I felt like I hadn't slept at all. It was like this heavy blanket was on me and I was moving in slow motion. So, I got up, checked my email at work, and then I went back to bed. I pretty much slept or watched TV all day, and it was actually a great way to spend my first day as a 34 year old. I then met up with my buds to see Star Trek, which totally lived up to the hype!
This is a three day week, with me taking Friday off to go to Carb Day at the Indy 500. More on that later ;)
I will be 34 years old at 7:17 pm on Sunday, May 17th. I don't really have much of an opinion about this birthday. Frankly, I find it funny that we spend much of our 20s worried about the big 3-0. I have to say I've been happier in my 30s than at any point in my life, and you'd really have to pay me a trillion dollars to even consider going back to my 20s.
I want to shout out to my readers. I know I haven't been the best blogger lately, but I do love you all. You're great, even if you don't comment. :-)
So anyway. As usual, I have a very busy day tomorrow, which has very little to do with me. I'm hosting the Hoosier 250 tricycle race here in town. It's a hot mess, that I would really like to make into a hotter mess. I've successfully made the gambit to close down a portion of a street in Indy. So, next year, it is so on. :)
Anyway, I hope you all have a great pre-Memorial Day weekend. I'm always looking for things to blog about, because I'd rather entertain you all then do work. :-)
In closing, I am currently watching Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical. So enjoy some clips!
Frequent visitors to this blog know that I complain about being busy. Well, I wouldn't exactly say complain, because I generally enjoy what I'm doing, but it certainly is a theme in most of my blog posts.
Anyway, this has been a crazy week on many levels. I've been busy at work with report deadlines, there have been two Pride meetings this week (one Board and one Organizational Committee), planning for the Hoosier 250 Tricycle Race on Sunday, AND it's my Birthday on Sunday.
Ahhhhhh!
If I survive the weekend, I promise to post on Monday.
I make no bones about the fact that I'm a control freak, which is pretty problematic when I am put in charge of something, especially when it has to do with create endeavors. This year, I am in charge of Publicity for Circle City IN Pride, which is the LGBT Pride celebration for Indianapolis and the surrounding areas. Since I've always felt I have a marketing and PR person buried deep in my psyche, I jumped at the chance to do this. The problem is that is is way too much work for me to do in addition to the real job -- the one that pays. It's a struggle, because I want total creative control, but the fact of the matter is that I'm not going to be able to design everything that needs to be designed, which means I actually have to use the talents of my committee.
We'll see how it goes :-)
This weekend is shaping up to be another crazy one, and I will try to twitter or update as much as possible. Frankly, the next month or so is going to out of control, but I really do plan on updating as much as humanly possible.
If nothing else, this whole process has been a tremendous learning experience, and while I may bitch about how time consuming it is, I am building knowledge and a portfolio to help me on that whole marketing thing. It may kill me, but it is actually better than a paycheck at this point.
So, in less than an hour, I get to go in front of 15-20 City of Indianapolis bureaucrats to talk about my plans to shut down a portion of Mass Ave so that Indy Pride can hold its annual tricycle race. The fact that I am doing this a little over a week and a half before the event is supposed to be held is only mildly irritating (okay, strike that, I'm trying to remain calm). Everyone says they usually don't reject much, but my main feeling is: how am I supposed to promote an event that I'm not sure will be utilizing the space I want to use? Sigh...
Anyway, just to show that I have my gay points in order, I can't get the scene from Big Business out of my mind when Bette Midler channels Alexis Carrington Colby from Dynasty. (and you thought I was going to say Joan Crawford at Pepsi)
Unfortunately, I can't find the Big Business clip, but here is the original Dynasty one.
To say this was a busy weekend is probably the understatement of the century. While I did spend a lot of the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday trying to just relax and enjoy the weather, which was finally not resembling the Amazon rain forest, post-work Friday and Saturday evening more than made up for any level of pseudo-relaxation.
I've been going to karaoke at the Metro for well over 12 years now, and while I'm not as religious about hitting it every Tuesday, we have been a presence there for quite some time. For many of those years, Metro has held an American Idol competition, that I, for the most part, never really paid attention, too, mainly because it took place on Thursday, and there only so much karaoke histrionics a guy can take. Three years ago, after a debacle the year before, my friend who runs both karaoke and Metro Idol, asked me if I would be interested in being the show runner for the Grand Finals, and seeing as I was going to get paid, I figured why not. I'd been a house manager at a theater in a former life, so I know what it means to run a staff, and how difficult can it be to get people on stage on time? It has had its ups and downs, but I generally enjoy the experience, but the Grand Finals, which were Friday and Saturday, are just a very long time to be in a bar. We're talking at least 8 hours both nights. So, you can see why I slept in until 11 both days.
It was a pretty smooth running affair thanks to the fact that a number of them were returning contestants, and since I'm given the power to disqualify on the spot, they pretty much follow my rules. Once the show starts, I pretty much just stand back and make sure everyone, including the drag queen entertainment is on schedule. I'm happy to say that the show has never run late because of me. It's typically what happens on stage that makes us late. All and all, it was a good time, and I'm happy to say that a friend of mine won the whole thing, which for the record is not a pittance. It's $3000 worth of cash and prizes. Now, if only I could sing!
Sunday afternoon, I was bound and determined to not do anything other than sit on my ass and plow through some of my backlog on the DVR. I did a pretty good job of that until I opened up the Best Buy ad. I've been bandying about the idea of buying a new television, though I don't really need one. I just feel like, me, a defiant techno nerd is missing out on the HD revolution. So, after Best Buy tempted me once with a 10% off coupon for my birthday month, they sealed the deal when they advertised 3 years same as cash. I'd like to introduce you to my new husband:
He's thin and 40 inches. I may never leave the house again...
I've started two blogs each morning of the last two days, and both days, I've been prevented finishing them. It is kind of ironic that both of them were about how busy I've been lately, and how I made my calendar out for May and almost wept. Ah well... I vow to finish this one today.
So, anyone who knows me knows I've been on a fitness kick lately, which is due mainly to the fact that I got into the best shape of my life a couple of years ago and wrecked it all in 2008. I've been using my Wii Fit to track my weight, though even though I've been hitting the gym hard since January, I've really only lost about 6 pounds, which still puts me in the obese section of the (stupid) BMI. Let me tell you, waking up every morning only to hear a child's voice say "That's Obese," well, there are worse motivators.
Anyway, I've done a lot of weight work in the past four months, and my arms and chest have firmed up pretty well. I'm still, agonizingly, bulbous in the belly area, but it is going down a bit. Since I've changed my workout every two months, I've decided I'm going to focus on cardio for the month of May. I'm still going to lift, but I'm not going to be doing it three times a week like I have been. Since I'm not really a big fan of running and you can only do so much stationary bike, I will be attempting to take a variety of classes that they have at the gym. First up, was BOSU Conditioning.
BOSU stands for "both sides utilized," and it mainly has to do with a lot of balancing on what is essentially a exercise ball with a base. It is apparently all the rage, but I looked at it wearily. My feet and ankles have always been a bother to me, so the thought of my balancing on this ball was a little intimidating, but I have to say I was pretty surprised at how well I took to it. I really do think some of the work I've done with the Wii Fit has helped me with my balance, and I'm using my experience in BOSU class to prove it. I think the instructor was pretty surprised, too, because I was able to do some stuff that she even professed she couldn't do yet. So, I felt pretty good. I also sweat like a whore in church. At one point, we had to lay on the ground, put our feed on the ball, and thrust our hips into the air (oh...dirty...). We were doing this on the track at the gym, and it was so funny that when got up after the set, there was a very defined outline of my head, back, and arms on the track from where my sweat soaked in. It was like a gym version of the Shroud of Turin.
I will definitely do BOSU again, and I think I'll be getting up early tomorrow to do the BodyPump class. I really wanted to go to BootCamp tonight, but unfortunately, I have a Pride meeting at 7.
I'm looking forward to this month, and I'm looking even more forward to hearing "That's Overweight" very soon!
