Me, Backwards

When I got back from my last training camp, I decided to go back to the future … back to eating a way that I’d had the greatest success with - low carb.  I had been pissing and moaning to Noah for a while about how I was having trouble eating well, how I’d been eating too much and too much junk, and how annoyed I was about it.  He pushed me to - even though he understands my issues with being too restrictive on myself (it’s crazy-making in the other direction) - to give a more disciplined food plan a try for a couple of weeks. (more…)

This weekend marks a year since Daisy passed away.  I was reflecting on just how much of Franklin’s personality has come out since then.  Though I was sad to lose Daisy, it’s almost as if he’s decided his personality needs to be twice as big to make up for it.  After wondering for a bit if he’d be better off with another cat in the house, he’s made it abundantly clear that his world is happiest when he commands 100% of the attention from the humans in the apartment.  Of course, he’s invariably a bit clingy when I first come back from traveling, but other than that, he seems to be thriving and blissfully happy being an only cat.  Although I don’t know the precise date, Mr. Franklin has also recently passed his 3rd birthday and shows very little sign of slowing down from his occasionally still-manic energy.  He enjoys time in the windows checking out all the activity in the building’s courtyard, including my neighbor Mel’s three cats, all of whom have free reign of the courtyard. (more…)

It’s been way too long since I’ve written - another Blue Ice camp has come and gone, along with lots of other stuff.  Summer is, as always, wonderfully busy.  In early June, my parents came out to visit - we kept busy with a trip to the DeYoung Museum, exploring and wine tasting in Sonoma, and a Giants game, among much catching up and hanging out in Oakland. (more…)

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I blogged?  Just been way too busy with work, life, and spending much of my work time “under the bus.”  Today was another such instance … it get exhausting fighting battles with no backup from the people who should have my back on my project.  Fortunately, my manager does, but I feel like all I do sometimes is put out fires and try to stay out ahead of trouble…

I write this when I really should be crawling into bed … a bed that is not my own, the second bed not my own that I am sleeping in this week.  I have, since Sunday night, gone to sleep, woken back up at 130 Monday morning to pick up Sean from a delayed flight, gone back to sleep, woken up groggy a few hours later, gone to my doctor’s office for a blood pressure check, then driven to Oakland airport, flown to Burbank, attended 4 hours of meetings, worked for two more hours, then driven to San Diego, slept a few hours, woken up in San Diego, worked out, sat in a conference room for 8 hours, attending one meeting and multitasking on a bunch of other things that there’s never enough time to do, met with friends for dinner and driven back from San Diego to Burbank. (more…)

This morning, thanks to a rare weekday morning (other than Fridays) at home, I had a great workout with Noah.  I was updating him on the visit I had with my new doctor last week, and let him know that I was feeling pretty good this week, knowing that I was working with her to get my thyroid at the right place.  I said “and if I can get myself back on track with good eating and exercise, maybe I can finally break this stall.”  He said yep, and hopefully the thyroid meds will help with the attitude adjustment because “in the back of your mind you were probably thinking ‘why bother?’” (more…)

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful - I did wind up getting three more jumps in on Sunday, culminating in a sunset load that turned out (with clouds and wind rolling in on Monday) to be the last load of the boogie.  The Otter did a spectacular fly-by of the landing area, and our group opened a little high to enjoy the sunset and the views on what turned out to be our last canopy ride. (more…)

Between already feeling like I need to clone myself to get all my work done, and getting set for vacation (Belize in just over a week!) and making sure I have coverage, and having a lot of cool new things brewing in life … it feels BUSY.  Some good busy, some just busy busy, but not so bad.

I’m set for my skydiving team this year, which is exciting, but there’s a lot I need to learn (like all the 8-way competition formations!) before our first training camp in April.  But that’s fun learning.  In other fun, I started boot camp class at the Burbank gym yesterday … and it’s a wonderful ass-kicker!  Tuesdays/Thursdays for a month, though because of vacation and training, I only signed up for the first two weeks.  They seem to run sessions every month, so I’ll re-join for the session after I’m back, as well.  It’s nice to have someone to kick my butt down here since self-motivation can be hard.

Having dinner here in Burbank with a friend from graduate school - will be nice to get together and talk about something other than work for a change!

… is back in town this weekend.  Despite an iffy forecast, yesterday’s weather turned out to be pretty good, so I headed up to Skydance.  I got 4 jumps in fairly quickly, and spent the last couple hours just hanging out and chatting in the (not-too-cold) sun, drinking a tasty adult beverage (Captain Morgan Silver and Diet Coke) in a nondescript blue cup (since it was still before the “beer light” went on).  At the end of the day, I got measured for, and ordered, a new jumpsuit.  I’d been hoping to hold off till I reach my goal weight (whatever that may be) but I seem to be in an extended holding pattern at or near this weight, and I’m getting to the point where I’m fighting my old suits since they’re a bit baggier than I need right now. (more…)

I think with all the other forms of mass communication available, I find my way to my blog less and less these days.  But still, the brevity of Twitter & Facebook doesn’t always do it for me - sometimes I really need to write.

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