After my last post on Thursday I applied for a seasonal ranger position in Cape Cod because the opening closed on Friday. I then spent the rest of the night in bed feeling like I was fighting for air at some points…just lying in bed. I don’t know if it’s because I’m sick, not acclimated, or just psyching myself out but I downed another huge glass of water and took off my shirt which apparently helped because I fell right to sleep after that haha.
PT “Fun”
I woke up this morning with a dull pain in my groin muscle, everyday it’s a different body part hahaha. I stepped out of bed and let out a jokingly “OOOWWWWWWW” which I adopted back in high school that mocks Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket after the Blanket Party Scene.
I guess the pivoting during the shuttle run was a bit too much. To make matters worse, since the practice PEB was out of the way we were supposedly going to be having more “fun” in PT from now on. I’m sure most of you picked up on my sarcasm the same way I did when Mike told us that. Nick & I left 10 minutes earlier than we usually do, got into the building and I just sat there. I still felt these bad cold symptoms and my groin was killing me. At some points I’d just be staring off in the distance due to the hurricane I felt ripping through my face & head to which some of my classmates noted, “you look so focused.”
We moved on to the warm-ups and I actually made it through them easier than I’ve been but they still got my heart and breathing rates moving. After the warm-ups we had to run, not jog, two laps around the two tennis courts we were on; I gunned it for the second lap…there’s the breathing problem. Again, it corrected itself in a couple of seconds. Apparently “fun” wasn’t happening today…at least it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. Mike showed us posed running techniques that apparently helps your running form…basically you run on your toes and your heels don’t hit the ground which saves your knees; you’re supposed to look like you’re leaning forward and you kick yourself in the butt or something. We took turns with our lifting partners holding each other up. The spotter puts his hands on the runner’s chest and the runner leans hard into him. The spotter counts down and moves out of the way and the runner’s supposed to fall into the running form and run to the tennis net.
After that we practiced our agility run some more which we apparently did wrong the day before. In our practice PEB we ran straight up and straight back down along the cones, Mike said that’s not the way. We had to run almost at V along the cones, starting 5 meters out to the side. I was dreading doing this because of my groin but I was game. Wouldn’t ya know it, I knocked nearly a second off of my time already. When I was sprinting back into the cone weave portion I could hear Mike say “He’s big but he’s quick!”. If I could make a smoother turn at the pivot points I’m sure I’d make my 15 second goal. Going back to that goal, I said I think NFL RBs and WRs can do this in 15seconds…they’ve gotta do it much faster because some of my classmates are already at that mark. After the agility run we had more time for lifting. Stan and I worked on chest and triceps. As has been the case all week we couldn’t get on a flat bench so we opted to start off with the incline bench, I never do that. I went heavier on the incline than I normally do so when we finally did get on the flat bench I was putting up weak sauce.
Class ended and got held up at some lights once again during our little transition between PT and classroom. “I can’t wait for 5 o’clock,” I hollered when we got stuck at another light. Our first 2 days off after 11 straight on. We got home and I made some turkey sandwiches and moved some laundry. I’m not sure what happened but I got snagged up while getting ready and we left 4 minutes late and the journey back made us feel like the whole world was against us. Catching lights, not getting the green turn arrows EVER instead of letting the oncoming traffic go first, and being stuck behind slow moving trucks…what the crap? We did get a break once we made it to the parking lot; almost the entire place was empty so we got a “rockstar” parking spot and had less than 10 minutes to get to class. We made it.
Today’s lesson was on courtroom evidence and I just have to say that applying this stuff once we’re out in the field is going to be super tricky. During our first break I stopped by Kathy’s office to have her look over my resume while we were in class and she returned to me during our second break. Good thing I had her look it over because I made a couple verb tense mistakes. That probably won’t look good to the 4 parks I’ve applied to so far…whoops. After this break it seemed like the entire class shut down. Two more hours and then we had two days off! The slide show presentation ended at 4:30 and you could see how eager everybody was to leave, then our instructor read us some scenarios and we had to pick the type of evidence he was describing. Some students toughed it out and participated but almost all of us shut our brains off for the day.
When we got home I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tried taking a nap but couldn’t fall asleep so I read my Maxim magazine the re-watched the last episode of Spartacus since that show is very confusing at times and I think I was typing my last post when I watched it the first time and had no idea what happened. Good thing I did because that show is so freaking AWESOME! I might not be able to keep the character’s names straight but this is like the ultimate dude’s show. I won’t get into detail but watch for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. (WARNING: Graphic Violence and Nudity) Nick went out for the night so I did a little exploring on my own. There are 3 Chinese food places near our house but NONE of them do take-out, they are actual restaurants! There are two take out places by campus and a 3rd exists somewhere but I never heard of the street it’s on. We were out of paper towels so I volunteered to pick some up. The convenient stores here aren’t very convenient…just saying. No Chinese food in sight, Sonic grilled chicken on wheat it is.
I spent the rest of the night resting and recuperating. I watched some episodes of Lockdown on Netflix; one of the prisons was a tent city in Phoenix. That was pretty cool. I’d been talking with Laura about her coming out here for her birthday/my spring break in mid-March with the possibility of flying her into Vegas and crashing a night out there. Thanks to my time spent at the Harrah’s owned Casinos in AC I’ve earned some free/discounted rooms that I could use up in AC or Vegas. Laura and I have been out to Vegas twice before, the last time was around this same time of year and everybody else was on Spring Break and Vegas knows this…so no free rooms for us; but I do have a deal for $30! Sweet. So I spent some of the night looking up flight information and these hotel deals. I have a big day planned at The Plex tomorrow so I looked up different hamstring stretches online.
I checked my bank account and started getting nervous, what if I don’t get a job after this?, so I’m trying to figure out things to do that don’t involve a lot of money. Thanks to a former co-worker I won’t have to worry about going out to the movies anymore haha. I watched Paranormal Activity 2 and was totally let down. Considering my house back home is haunted I was absolutely in love with the first 1 because I could relate to a lot of the weird things happening, nothing really happened in the 2nd one…which was a prequel…so slow. Of course the ending was cool and there was one other cool happening and I loved the German Shepherd, Abbey, in it but other than that it sucked.
I finally fell asleep sometime around 3am.
NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!
Me-Day Saturday
I woke up around 10:30 feeling relieved, no school aaaaaahhhhhh. When I awoke, nobody was home but me. I farted around on the computer for a little bit then started thawing some chicken for lunch…not breakfast haha. I plugged my sweet ass iPod Touch in to charge it up for my workout and then took my sweet ass time in the bathroom and started up the shower. When I was in the shower I started doing some of the hamstring stretches I researched the night before, felt pretty awesome in the hot shower.
I started getting dressed and packing my stuff for the gym.
Dear Brian & Elena,
Thanks for the gym bag, it rules!
Love,
J~DuB
When packing I had to remember my agenda for the day: calisthenics workout that Instructor Bryan gave us, sprints, bball, hot tub, shower. I packed up my bathing suit, towel, and sandals for the hot tub, my new bball sneaks to break-in on the court, jump rope, change of clothes for afterwards, workout towel and I made some copies of the workout outline to take along with me. I unplugged my iPod and realized…I need some new songs to add to my 140 song gym playlist entitled “Flagstaff Prep” and I needed to delete some crappy ones that always come on when I’m near the end of my run and they totally screw up my flow because they aren’t best suited for running so I gotta skip them. That’s where my FB status came from, What’s your favorite pump up song? I got a couple responses but I wish I got a lot more…many of the suggestions are already enlisted on FP. My buddy from high school, Gabe, pointed out a good one that I had in my library but wasn’t on my list…Victory by P. Diddy & Notorious B.I.G.. That song was on one of the CDs we used to listen to before basketball games in the locker room and it plays once a game at Giants games when you’re at the stadium.
I brought my laptop out to the kitchen and began making my grilled chicken and wheat egg noodles. Whenever somebody suggested a song I previewed it on I-tunes and either downloaded it or ignored it. I just didn’t see some of the songs getting me going. I also downloaded a free watch and a stopwatch apps to use later today. While all of this was going on Laura reached out to me. We talked for a bit then I started looking at all of my Indy pictures on my computer, at which point Nick came home and I gushed over her to him about some of the priceless pics. I texted Laura “Puppy Indy pics bring happy tears to my eyes...I just showed a bunch to Nick and you couldn’t scrape the smile off my face or wipe the tears out of my eyes.” That made Laura sad but she then suggested I adopt a dog out here. I can’t do that and Indy’s the only dog I want, but Jane’s been talking about doing something similar even before I got here so I tried urging her along….
Food was done and it was delicious. I began eating when my first of from home reaching outs of the day came through…it was my sister Katie. She got the postcard I sent out on Tuesday. I sent one to everybody in my family, Laura’s parents, and Rath & LK since Rath is too cool for Facebook so they better be there! We chatted for awhile about stuff going on, my god son AJ’s 9th birthday is tomorrow, the health of a good friend of hers, and the crazy sale at Old Navy (through today, 90% off clearance items…30% off everything else but jeans).
When the phone rang for our call, Fiona jumped up into my lap on the stool and hung out for a long petting session and I thought she was going to fall asleep there…that was until Mama Jane came home.
Jane saw my note and actually called somebody about adopting a black lab (Bella) that survived Hurricane Katrina, was adopted by somebody in Arizona who then passed away….WE GOTTA SAVE HER!
Looking at the website, they also had a 10 week old German Shepherd puppy to rescue and despite my pleas, it was ruled that we couldn’t get a puppy because nobody’s home with it. Fair enough.
I sat on that kitchen stool for 3 hours today, totally delaying my gym appointment. I was there for the duration of load of dishes to be completed so I put them away while Jane read me a children’s book and then I was off to The Plex. As expected families overran the place with their kids wanting to frolic around in the pool but the locker room was so bad when I got there that I felt like I was in a night club. The pool was closed temporarily for maintenance so the kids were running all over the place. Up to the weight room…practically nobody there. I recognized a young girl who was running on that silly track the entire time I was there…same story the last time I saw her. If 15 laps equals a mile than this girl must’ve done 4 miles hahaha. I made my way over to the little stretching out cove and tried getting my hamstrings and my groin ready to rock.
For the calisthenics portion of the workout, the outline calls for doing 4 exercises, 20 seconds on..10 seconds off…move to the next exercise, 20 seconds on..10 seconds off…etc. There were 4 exercises listed and a bunch of alternatives. I did 5 exercises, pushups, flutter kicks, scissor kicks, squat jumps, and mountain climbers. I was in no mood for burpees hahaha. It was suggested to repeat the exercises for 16 minutes…I think I made it for 10. Sweating my ass off and breathing heavy, I switched it over to the abdominal routine. Not timed, 50 crunches, 30 flutter kicks, 30 scissor kicks, 20 side touches, 20 bicycles, and then you’re supposed to do a 2 minute plank…that’s 1 set. You’re supposed to do 3 sets; I did one plus an extra plank. I was able to hold each plank for 45 seconds before collapsing on my face. I then made my way over to the more desolate side of the track to practice some sprints. Starting with my chest on the floor and pushing up I exploded down the straight away which made a loud echoing sound and the people working out looked at me startled. I didn’t stop to catch my breath, got right back on my chest and sprinted down the other way, trying to remember the posed running Mike talked about. I needed to catch my breath after the second time around. At some point during my sprint I felt some pain in my right quadriceps…it was only a matter of time, everything else hurt. I was going to duck out but I decided to do one more set of down and backs…shit hurt. So I decided I’d make it up playing basketball.
I made my way to the locker room, changed shoes and grabbed my jump rope and headed to the court. The little office that loans out basketballs was closed so I had to go to the front desk to get one and usually you’re supposed to give them some sort of collateral…they didn’t ask for anything. Got to the bball court and the middle hoop was open, on the side hoop a little boy was chucking the ball over his head backwards to see if it’d go in and the other side had a boy and a girl (I think) playing 1 on 1 that just resulted in punting the ball a lot. My first shot, 3pter…swish…hardly even touched the net. I started shooting from some of signature spots…both elbows, the baseline, turnaround jumpers from the post…I either bricked horribly or swished beautifully…there was no middle ground. I ran to few spots for pull-up jumpers and tried different layups but my quad hurt so badly that I decided it was time to see if the pool was open so I could jump in the hot tub.
When I brought the ball back to the desk I saw something I’ve never seen before in my life, these two young Mexican children were eating Ramen noodles straight out of the packet like they were potato chips…what the hell? I got changed into my board shorts, threw on my Under Armour shirt, slipped on my sandals and headed out to the hot tub. The place was a zoo but at least the hot tub was somewhat empty. I think the dad who had his too young to be in the tub daughters with him got a creepy vibe from me because as soon as he saw I was heading in, he gathered them together and left. They weren’t in there that long because there was only one person in there when I checked to see if the pool was open before I got changed. Weirdo. Soon I was the only person in the hot tub and I looked around at all the families doing their thing and I couldn’t help but wonder what that’s like. What if I did some things differently? Would I be where they are? I wish I had the whole house, wife, kids, dog, 4Runner thing down but I obviously don’t. They say the grass is always greener but I can’t help but be curious…I’ve known what it’s like without those things long enough. I’m not sure what steps I could’ve taken to see these things through but I’m sure somewhere along the line it involved being more assertive.
At any rate, I spent about 20 minutes in the hot tub then showered and thought to myself…I could do this all the time. I would need more than pair of board shorts to do so since I can’t exactly hang mine out to dry in the winter and I can’t do laundry every day so I decided to check out Old Navy’s crazy deals Katie told me about. Wouldn’t you know it…I got 2 bathing suits for less than 4 dollars!!!! That store is awesome! Before heading home I drove through the Toyota dealership…they got 5 more 4Runners in! Freehold Toyota sucks…they don’t ever have any. When I got home I piled a bunch of peanut butter and added some jelly onto a wheat bun and gobbled it up. Mmmmmm. Nick wanted to go get something to eat, I said save money dog. He felt he didn’t have enough of his groceries left for a meal and I remembered that I picked up some stuff the other day. I want to learn how to cook so I wanted to start out with something simple…like hamburgers. Knowing that Laura doesn’t eat ground beef, I picked up a package of ground turkey for turkey burgers when I was shopping the other day. What better time to practice? Nick guided me through it but I was able to produce some pretty fine turkey burgers and he threw in our newest craze, Bird’s Eye Steamfresh veggies and the meal was quite good. I got a phone call and an e-mail from Travis saying the class got a room to practice our D-Tac tomorrow…SWEET! Arkansas stopped by and she had a bag from Cheesecake Factory. “Where the hell is there a Cheesecake Factory?” I demanded. “Phoenix”, she responded. She took the 2-hour trip by herself. That’s when I found out the Three Amigos separated and did their own things today; “Me-Day Saturday”. Nick shopped, got his oil changed, and napped hahaha.
I was wrapping up my meal when my brother Brian called. He was out to eat with my dad, Elena, and my neighbors “Cousin Lisa & Cousin Alex”. They went out to eat at his friend’s new restaurant. During the call I found out that Cousin Alex, who I’ve known since he was born, got accepted into Farleigh Dickinson University and would be playing football. He’s soooo grown upL. I couldn’t be prouder though. Good Luck Alex. I retired to my room and I got a text from my brother-in-law, Matt, with a picture of his Matt Cave. I wrote about the Matt Cave in their postcard so I assumed they got it just as Katie did, he said he didn’t…that’s weird. Then he remembered that he didn’t check the mail so when he did he discovered that it arrived. Maureen then wanted to try out her Skype on her phone so I could see the dog, Keaira, but we were greatly disappointed when we discovered that the video option doesn’t work on cell phones…yet. After I got off the “phone” with her I got a text from Rath…he was at his company’s after Christmas party. I talked with Laura briefly as she was continuing her celebratory weekend with her new housemate Stephanie…it’s like they’re back in college again. Good for her, she needs a break from all the madness.
Hearing from everybody was great but it made me miss home a whole lot. As of tomorrow, I’ll be out here in Flagstaff for a month…easily the longest I’ve ever been away from home. I feel like a turd not working and I miss everybody back east. I’m still doing my thing out here but it’s just a long strange transition. The not working thing is probably the biggest adjustment. I over think a lot of things way too much and it just might drive me crazy. I watched standup comedy specials on Netflix until I fell asleep. John Capaurola (sp?) was funny as hell, so was that Gabriel Iglesias or whatever but why the hell is Jamie Kennedy famous? He sucks at everything and he’s dating Jennifer Love Hewitt…I don’t get it.
Some weekend off ey? I know…I’m a party animal.
First thing I'm gonna do tomorrow is write this blog.
Good Night
Mount Up!!!
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