cindy's world

I keep seeing Navy Girl Vanessa’s Cheesecake Factory take-home clear pastic container in the fridge with a small chunk of cheesecake in it. It’s from our take-home Cheesecake Factory dinner the first night Vanessa moved in. She bought us each a slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake, each in its own plastic container. The first week and a half or so, every time I opened the fridge I thought, “For someone who asked me how I could possibly only eat half of it and stop when it’s sooo good, she sure couldn’t bring herself to finish this.” Then the following week and a half, I just got used to seeing it there. Today in jujitsu, I brought it up to her and asked, “That cheesecake in the fridge isn’t from the first night, is it?” I know she’d taken her boyfriend to Cheesecake Factory after she’d gone with me and introduced him to the restaurant and to the Godiva chocolate cheesecake, so maybe it’s a slice from a later time. She looked at me and said, “That’s yours!” Huh?! “Yeah,” she continued, “I brought mine to work and finished it the next day at lunch!” I suddenly vaguely recalled eating the cheesecake the day after the dinner, and somehow finding the self-control to not finish the whole thing. And then it was my turn to carry Vanessa across the mat on my back, bounce her on my back and throw her.

When we got back home, she was hanging out in her room petting my cat and talking on the phone with her boyfriend. I walked in with the container in one hand and a fork in the other, and said with my mouth full, “It’s chewier, but still pretty good.”

So the moral of this story is, go to the Cheesecake Factory and get yourself a slice of Godiva chocolate cheesecake already! It’ll make you happy AND get you over your depression. I know I’ve written about this before.

I had talked to Navy Girl Vanessa on Friday morning when she was 80 miles away at her boyfriend’s house (her company closed for Good Friday) and the last thing she said to me was, “See you Sunday!” She did not come home on Sunday, so I figured she must’ve decided to spend another night with her boyfriend and she’d come home Monday morning to get ready for work, like she did last week. I didn’t see her before I left for work. So I figured she went straight to work from the boyfriend’s and I’d see her at jujitsu last nite. She didn’t show up to jujitsu. So I thought maybe she’s ditching jujitsu and I’d see her when I got home. Her car wasn’t in the garage then, either. Now that was weird. I called her and she picked up, and I said, “Not to sound like a mother, but are you okay?” She laughed and thought it was the cutest thing. Turned out she had dental surgery done and it was so painful she took some Vicodin prescribed to her and it knocked her out and made her sick to her stomach, so she took the day off of work. But since she was feeling better and coming back when I called her, we went out for a midnight Thai food run at a local trendy Thai restaurant. And I learned something else.

Spicy Thai + empty stomach + midnight after 2 hr workout = spewage.

I almost called in sick today. Owie. Yes, right now still.

But my point is, fun fun fun! *wince*

Today being the end of the second session of yoga, I am beginning to see why Mr. W wanted to take this class. He’s totally teacher’s pet!

The first class, when the instructor walked in and recognized him, she looked pleasantly surprised and said, “Oh! Nice to see you again!” He said, “Nice to see you, too. And this time I brought my girlfriend.” He introduced me to her. She said hello to me, and then said as she passed me to go to the other side of the room, “I just want you to know that you have a very good-looking man over there.” I smiled at her and I may have said, “Mm-hmm.” She continued, “I just wanna make sure you know that. He’s very good-looking.” This time I retorted, “Yeah, so he keeps telling me.” I heard Mr. W scoff in the back behind me.

Today, the class did a pose where you first kneel on both knees with your legs together, then sit back on your heels, thighs together. And then you fan your feet away from your body slightly so that your butt’s on the ground in between your upturned feet. And then you lean your upper body back so that your back’s on the ground and you’re looking at the bottoms of your feet on either side of your thighs if you look toward your knees. The instructor walked in front of Mr. W as he was in this compromising pose and announced that she was going to stand on his quads, and that he is going to enjoy it. So she stepped up. He said that it did feel good, and she said, “It’s delicious, isn’t it?” And then she looked down at him, smiled, and clarified, “For me.”

I can’t wait to see what she’s gonna do or say next week. I’ll keep you guys posted.

I miss jujitsu. Being thrown across the room by blackbelts and landing on my head was more comfortable than some of the stuff we did in this class. (Altho it’s not a beginning yoga class, as I found out after the last class. Mr. W had signed us up for the continuing class.) Did I tell you guys that she starts the class with a few reverberating “om”s, which the class joins in on, and then they sing some chant in Hindi?

Tonight marks the first night of a 1.5 hour yoga class I will be taking weekly with Mr. W. He recommends this woman’s class because he’d taken it before. I haven’t done yoga regularly in a long time, and I think it’ll be good to have a toning stretching exercise weekly to even out the cardio (running), strength training (weights at the gym), and dexterity training (jujitsu).

I really never thought, in my younger days, that I’d be taking so much on my plate as far as exercise variety goes. I figured I’d do tennis here and there, work out at the gym semi-regularly, maybe have a jog a couple of times a week if I’m lucky.

Maybe I should put this effort into improving my life or my mind instead of my body. After all, the body’s just temporary housing for the permanent soul, right? Who cares what it looks like.

Yeah, right. I’ll just sit here in the corner and keep telling myself that.

I am seriously considering ditching jujitsu today to watch the Bruins take the NCAA Championship crown. But Navy Chick Vanessa’s supposed to meet up with me at jujitsu so that she could follow me back to my place after class and move in with me. I’m actually looking forward to having her live with me for a month. I left her a voice mail saying that I’m gonna skip class, giving her the option to either way for me to “pick her up” after class there so she could follow me back, or to come on her own with my directions, or to ditch class and watch the game with me. I’m not sure how into basketball she is, but she’s definitely not a UCLA alumnus.

We ran late into lunch today, so I didn’t get to go work out. I’m not going tonite. Tomorrow at lunch is my trainee’s bday and a ton of people are gonna take her out to lunch to celebrate and she’s invited me as well. So that leaves being good the rest of the week, I guess.

I kinda wish I knew some Bruins near me that I can watch the game with. I am definitely not driving to LA to hang with my Bruin friends up there. That’d be suicide. In 1995, the last time we won, riots broke out all over Westwood and there were students stampeding in the streets and they tipped over a KIIS (local Top 40s radio station) newsvan. It was embarrassing.

I’m STARVING. I can’t wait to have sushi tonite after I pick up Diana. So far today I had a banana for breakfast, an apple and a few handfuls of roasted salted soybeans for lunch on my drive to the gym, more soybeans after my workout on the drive back to work from the gym. I can’t get a break in the day to eat the oranges that’ve been looking at me since we’re constantly in session on day 9 of a 6-day trial, the judge is cracking the whip and yelling “Mush!” at the attorneys to make more, faster, progress. It’s high-stress in here.

Hee hee hee. “Mush.” Alaskan sled dogs are so pretty.

Okay, I’m delirious.

Me: I’m gonna do the first annual Disneyland half-marathon in September!
Court reporter: That sounds fun! Do you get to run through the actual Disneyland park?
Me: Yeah! [reading aloud the description of where the run goes through] You guys want to do it?
Court reporter: Maybe! I’ll look up the information online when I get home.
Judge: Whoa. I think I’ll retire by then.
Me: But it’s The Happiest Race on Earth!
Judge: What race would that be?!
Me: … Good point.

But then, the two of them have already done multiple marathons (with really good times!) and the only races I’ve done are 5Ks. I was training for the Huntington Beach Half-Marathon as my first race when I got injured, and never got up that mileage again. Now’s a good time to kick up the dust again.

Last week in jujitsu, the instructor said, “What’s that guy’s name who did the round table for those knights?”
“King Arthur?” one of the students ventured.
“No, the carpenter. What’s his name again? I think he was a knight, too.”
Nobody knew. I briefly thought of Jesus.
“Sir Cumference,” he said. (say it out loud)
***
While hanging out with friends watching the UCLA/Alabama game on Saturday nite, Vicky called me and invited me to join her in the Inaugural Half-Marathon to be hosted at Disneyland in September. I guess Disneyland’s going to close down the park and we’re actually going to run through Disneyland. HOW COOL IS THAT?! We’re just doing a half-marathon, so training up to 14 miles by September is totally do-able. Spots are filling up very quickly, so I told her to sign me up. $85, which is even more expensive than a full marathon in Los Angeles. But, it’s Disneyland, for gosh sakes! And it’s the FIRST run there, ever! I’ll be a part of Disney history! Maybe we can play in the park after we’re done running.
***
Speaking of the Los Angeles Marathon, which took place in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, apparently 2 runners died and one is in critical condition in the hospital. I don’t know anything about the one in the hospital, but the two deaths are both Los Angeles Police Department officers. Ack! One had a heart attack on mile 3 of the 26-mile run, and the other had a heart attack just 2 miles shy of finishing the run. It’s an unfortunate loss to the department and to law enforcement in general, but one of the first things that went thru my mind when I heard about this on the news was that I can just hear the Compton or Los Angeles criminals now: “Okay, so you take this gun and stand by the door and keep watch and I’ll give all the commands to empty the cash register. If you see LAPD, just holler and we’ll run.” “Where do we run to, man?” “It don’t matter, just keep running until the cop has a heart attack and dies. Shouldn’t take long.” And it certainly doesn’t help with the stereotype that cops are out of shape and subsist entirely on free donuts.
***
Later: I did some research on the 2006 Inaugural Disneyland Half-Marathon Weekend. Here’s what it says about the route:

The course for this fantastic event will take runners from Disney’s California Adventureâ„¢ park, celebrating California’s storied past and exciting future, to the Disneyland® park, to explore the fantastic “lands” of nostalgia, color and delight. Then it is on to the scenic streets of Anaheim, past Arrowhead Pond, along the Santa Ana Trail, around Angel Stadium, and finally back through Disney’s California Adventureâ„¢ park for an exciting finish of the Happiest Race on Earth!

I had an IM conversation with Diana last nite about how things will play out if something or someone is meant to be. The conversation reminded me of a particular circumstance. This is how fate or yuan (Mandarin) works in relationships.

My ex was very audible about how he’s a “breast man.” “The bigger the better, I don’t care if they’re fake,” he used to say. Granted, the exes or people he used to like/date that I’ve seen/met are large people so every part of them were big, not just the boobs. But he didn’t seem to mind that as long as they were, like, 44DDs or whatever they were. He’d asked me early on, “Would you ever consider getting a boob job?” I was taken off-guard and had responded with a snappish question — would he get a penis enlargement? And he’d responded that he would if he were asked to. But I was made to feel so inadequate in the breast department in that relationship that I did consider breast augmentation surgery. (I didn’t get one.) Subsequently, after I’d been a few months into dating Mr. W, I brought up the topic of implants. He was avidly against them, cited all the health risks and expense and how they’re not worth the exchange for simple vanity, and added that my breasts are perfect the way they are (I’ll spare you guys the adjectives and descriptions he used in telling me how I’m fine the way I am). I told him I’d briefly considered getting them augmented in the past, and he said that if I had done that, he would not be dating me right now.

So let me review. If I had altered something unnecessarily to please my ex, then I would not have been with this great man who loves me as I am, who values my health above some appearance preference. But because I chose to keep my body parts as they are, that left the door open to be with this new guy. I love the way that works out.

Let me clarify…the issue is not that we don’t like people who have implants. There are justifications for having implants, like maybe someone had a breast removed due to cancer, or someone with actual problems in the breast area and need to even them out for their own self-esteem. But to augment for a GUY (or guys in general) is a different story. It tells you where someone’s priorities lie, and the kind of motivation from whence their major decisions stem.

I am frrreakin’ exhausted, man. I just came back from my third workout of the day, 7th of the week. My trainee and I did weights at lunch, then I had jujitsu after work, after which Navy Girl Vanessa and I headed to the gym for a 5K (3.12 mile) run, and then we hit the steam room for 2 cycles. There’s gonna be hell to pay on my body tomorrow. I’m full of fabric burn from the jujitsu grappling today, too. On our way from the treadmill to the locker room, Navy Girl said, “We are bad-ass, man! [giving me a high-five] Two hours of martial arts, then we did a full 5K without a break.” Yeah, I guess that’s pretty good. But then, she’s 4-5 years younger than me, and I’m feelin’ 30. 3 more months to enjoy being in my 20s. *freak*