Hey

Early in the morning, I rise out of bed, wipe my bleary eyes, and let the puppies out. Thankfully, now that the construction workers are gone, and our house is completely sided, with new windows to boot, I can simply open the back door and let the dogs out instead of leashing them and dragging my unwilling body into the front yard as they dance around me in a "Yay, we're outside" dance.

Today, I'm trying something new. It's early morning, and Maria is up, taking the first shower of the day. While she does this, I'm going to go see if I can get up the gumption to use the stationary bike.

Does anyone else out there in lj-land have a good morning work out schedule? What do you do? How hard is it for you to do it every morning?

To Do:

( My To Do List has been updated to My Done List )

Who I Am: Heather Angel

My mother always said when I was younger, "Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are." I've found, over a long amount of time where I thought she was just batty, that my mother was at least partially right. You friends tell something very important about you, so I'm going to tell you about my friends that you will be better able to know me.

Heather treated me to one of the most flattering comments I have ever received, the first night we met. It was the night of a White Wolf vampire LARP, and we were all decked out for decadence. I remember she walked by, and grabbed my arm, spinning me in place. "You smell good," she said. The reason I remember this compliment so vividly is that, despite the impish grin, she was very obviously being simply truthful. Little did she know that that compliment made a very tough day much easier to handle, and made an odd situation (this was my first time playing in a vampire LARP, and I didn't know anyone there) that much more bearable.

We didn't talk much, but there was always a congenial air between us, show through smiles, nods, and ocassional chats between LARP scenes. It was always a refreshing breeze to talk with her as she always seemed to have good things to say about whatever might be going on.

More recently, she kept my spirits up while I tried to get healthy by commenting on my posts, telling me that I was an inspiration and encouraging me to keep up my efforts. I miss this, and it helps me get in the mood to work on my health again when I think that maybe I'll encourage her once again. I know it sounds odd, but that's simply what is, and it can't be helped.

Readers may note that I haven't mentioned much about what Heather looks like. This has a reason behind it that I will share right now: I want you to get to know that I like her company for who she is before I tell you that she is beautiful. It's as simple as that. She is slightly shorter than most women I know (sorry Heather, but it is true,) with a wonderful build, and the smooth features of her namesake.

Most recently, I have only been able to communicate with Heather through livejournal. I don't LARP at the college any more, and that was really the only place we hung out. Reading her livejournal makes me wish there was something I could do to help, as she seems to be experiencing hard times, but all I can do at this time is offer sympathies and positive vibes. If any of my friends appreciates positive vibes, I get the feeling she would. I don't know for a fact, but I would expect that she believes in all the odd things of the world, like sympathetic vibes, ghosts, and exciting things that are similar. She's one of the people I would love to have along on a ghost hunting tour, if only because I think she has some kind of latent psychic energy.

Yeah, sorry. That got a little weird because not everyone believes the odd things I do. I'll stick to this world.

Let me sum this up: Heather has a great sense of humor, a strong personality, and is rather nice looking. While there are some negative things going on in her life (it seems, from reading livejournal), I'm fairly certain that things will turn out okay for her, if only because her will will assert itself and bend reality to it.

That is Who I Am, because that is who my friend Heather is.

If you would like to be spotlighted in my "Who I Am" series, please let me know through comments, otherwise, I'm going to have to pull someone at random from my friends, and that just might not be good! (But it probably won't be bad.)

A Quick Aside....

Hey folks,

If you're interested in why I missed the "Zombie Apocalypse" post yesterday, it's quite simple: I forgot I had a Monday entry to do. If you notice something like this in the future, don't hesitate to write to me and say "Umm...what's up?" Or something.

I'll make next weeks a bit meatier than I normally would. Heheh. Hahahahah. HahahaHaHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Totally ignore that evil laugh. Thanks.

Amazing

For the first time in a very long time, I can honestly say that my To Do list is done! This is a milestone for me, honestly. I'm really bad with these things, normally.

Sure, a discerning eye will note that the first two items on my list are not finished in totality. Out of ten items, I completely finished eight, and the two that aren't done have been at least partially done. These items that are left over were difficult and optimistic items, and at least one will be finished by the end of tomorrow because it's something that I really want to get finished. Well, I want to get both of them finished, but the one is tough.

Anyways, I was thinking about my productive streak lately, and I'm not sure what fuels it. It started with the day that I decided to completely clean the kitchen, which was last Thursday, I think. I had gotten home early from work, and just started whipping myself into a cleaning rage.

Heh. Cleaning rage.

Ever since I did that, I've decided that I'm having trouble living with the mess that I've been in up until now. I mean this both figuratively and literally. See, the house is a mess where I'm in charge of cleaning, and my life is kind of a mess because I can't keep a job. Odd that the two things seem to go together, and so I'm going to see if changing one allows the other to be more mutable.

Along with the to do list that I completed, I'd like to note that I did get up early this morning, and I did do a ride on my stationary bike. Now, it wasn't much, I only went a mile. I know that doesn't sound like much, and as I said, it's not, but it's more activity than I normally get in the morning, and I think it helped me to wake up. What I'm thinking of trying to do is get up every morning and do a mile on the bike. I'll do the mile as fast as I can every morning, and when that becomes relatively easy, I'll move up to a mile and a half.

I think about this workout because I actually got serious and wrote down all my exersize goals today. I realized that one of the big things I want is to be able to move with some speed without having to stop for breath after ten seconds of movement. I know some would suggest that I go for a jog to fix this, but I'm not quite up to that "go outside" part yet. Plus? Buffalo = 8 out of 12 months bad weather.

So, here are my workout goals. I'm going to try and achieve them, but I don't have a time frame yet. Anyone out there that knows an achieveable time frame for these things (in a healthy manner) is welcome to comment to help me pin down when I should be reaching my mile posts.

1) Improve lung capacity and longevity.
2) Lose 100 lbs. (This would bring me down to around 200 lbs, which is at least near my healthy weight.)
3) I want to be a size 34 or less.
4) Stronger arms, specifically the biceps, are a large goal. I don't want huge muscles or anything, but I want to be able to pick up simple items without grunting. (Okay, so I'm not that bad, but I still feel like a weakling.)
5) Simply, my over-all health could use an improve. The working out should help this over time.

There they are. Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions?