a plea

Dear Geico:

For the love of all things not incredibly annoying....this new commercial campaign with the paintings makes me want to deafen myself and gouge out my eyes.  Whoever decided that this whole thing was a go, has lost their mind and should be fired immediately.  These ads decidedly do NOT make me want to purchase auto insurance from your company, but rather they make me want to drive a car over your ad agency.  

Please, I beg you, just stop.  Stop, stop, stop.  I can't take the onslaught of insanely annoying material cropping up virtually everywhere.  Surely those ad dollars could have been better spent.  Surely.  Definitely.  

Sincerely, 

Someone who will most likely never patronize your services.

sieve

Well sitting around crying doesn't do any good, I suppose, but then again, sometimes it's best to just get it all out when there is so much on the line, you're exhausted and everything is completely out of your hands.  Why is it that fatigue makes people cry?  I've never understood it, but it is the primary circumstance for when my face starts to leak. 

I suppose the next handful of days will tell me a lot about how circumstances will play out for both my immediate and long-term future, but I could really, really do without all the stress.  It would be so nice to have a feeling of security again.  To be able to finish what I have started, to have things fall into place, as they seemed to have been just a short year ago.  Why, universe, why do you fuck with me so?

Kind of reminds me of this:

 

At least I've still got my sense of humor. 

cards comma house of

Why do people fart in libraries?  I will never understand this, because it is the least forgiving location I can think of, for such a thing.  There is no opportunity to overwhelm the other senses, no draft to carry it away, nothing.  Just the lingering stench for all of us to deal with.  I mean, at least have the decency to go between the books or get to the bathroom.  But I digress.  

I've been watching House of Cards, lately.  Actually I binge-watched the entire season in a few days and I have to say, I love it.  Living in DC for a couple of years now and having met so very many people involved in the government from the military to hill staffers, the ever elusively defined "consultants", lobbyists and non-profit workers from multiple sectors, pretty much nothing contained in that show surprises me.  What the general public does not know about so very many things that are almost common knowledge to people in DC is staggering.  Almost as staggering as how much people don't know about finance, outside of New York.  The masses love to pop off about this and that and act like they have any idea about anything, when in fact, what our government and financial systems have become is not even a reasonable facsimile of what people think they are.  

I think it's a well-established fact that now that everyone has a mic, it is blatantly obvious that the state of our nation is in the bin.  People can't be bothered to educate themselves on anything they can't get in soundbytes or snippets and can't be bothered to express themselves at above a 4th grade level.  But really people, if you think all of these manipulative, conspiracy-esque, back room deal type things are far-fetched....well you're even dumber than is already obvious.  

I am becoming ever more convinced that a country of 300 million people cannot possibly be run efficiently.

lil guys

First things first.....  It's a family feud today with the 9ers playing the Packers and I must be victorious.  My 9ers must prevail in this crazy sub-zero, tundra-esque weather. 

So then. 

I have been cat-sitting for the last 10 days, in a luxury apartment building with a pretty nice gym.  We have had quite a few really good workouts in this gym, while doing our best to assimilate with the locals.  It's really hard not to correct form or wince when watching some people try to lift, but we managed to stay centered on our own training, which, by the way, has resulted in me having substantial difficulty standing and sitting for the last several days. 

One day, we were doing upper body stuff mixed in with some pretty aggressive treadmill work.  This upper body work involved running the rack of dumbells on various exercises.  Running the rack (or the ladder, as the bookie calls it), means you do an exercise for a set number of reps with one set of dumbells and then move up in weight until you either run out of weight to do, or cannot do the next weight up.  Then you go back down the rack to where you started.  This is exhausting and effective. 

I am pretty strong.  Even in the out of shape iteration of myself, I am still stronger than most women and a lot of men. I'd rather my midsection looked a little more bikini-ready than be super strong right now, but whatever.  Now that my right side is starting to fire again, it's all good.  Anyway.  At the same time we were running the rack, there came in a pair of small, concave-chested gents, bent on pumping some iron and getting their fit on.

 They hopped on the treadmills and began their chatty warm up and then came over to the dumbell section.  In between sets of those really wide-armed pushups and some crunches, the lads muscled up 20lb dumbells for sets of overhead presses and curls.  And o how they strained and winced as they plodded through their workout.  I felt really bad when I skipped over that section, as one of them was standing about 3 feet away from me, and did double reps on the 25's and then continued my ascent.  He stared at me with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.  Sorry 'lil fella.  

It's is kind of assholey for me to make fun of them, because in truth, it makes me happy to see anyone of any body type or fitness level working out.  We don't all have to be giants and titans of fitness.  But still.  I know pecking at a keyboard takes more dexterity than strength, but maybe consider taking the stairs now and then and just go to Costco and carry around heavy shit once in a while....put them guns to use, son.

And with that, I will resume my regularly scheduled PT routine of endless one-leg focused exercises, in the hope that I will be able to outrun these munchkins if they ever read this.

clean

Ah the obligatory end of the year / beginning of the year post.  Later 2013.  

I feel the last year, when I look back at it all, is about perspective and effort.  Every year holds challenges, some greater than others, but how you move through those and what you take from them is what matters and defines you.  

The beauty of a new year is the metaphor of a new page.  With this new page I can work toward all of the continuing goals I have set for myself and hopefully contribute positively to the lives of others.  So very much ahead of me....of us all.  

And that's all I've got for today.