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29 January 2009
POW! HOW YA LIKE ME NOW? What do you have to brag about today?
I issued a 9-page adjudication on an incredibly complex complaint where one of the parties lied through his teeth, but did not reckon with my spidey-powers of investigation to catch him out.
I left the house, had a few beers and made it home in one piece. Turns out that the guy next to me was an ankle and knee surgeon who knew my doctors re: the current situation. Freaky.
I'm bragging about getting my Virginia-baked ham to the gym for 45 minutes of cardio, followed by a full leg workout, followed by abs, followed by 3 sets of 60 lbs. of shrugs.
My shoulders will be so wide by this time next month I fully expect to see jets landing on them.
Hey LT, be careful with shrugs; you've probably worked up to the 60 lbs. (on each side? Yow!) but if you haven't, it's one of the easiest exercises to pinch a nerve on. Low weight, high reps for any muscles connecting to your neck. And if you roll your head around to stretch out, don't do a full 360º; lolling your head back is fine but when your chin hits your chest, roll back the other way. You can damage your neck if you roll all the way through. Hope this makes sense; I also hope I'm not accidentally condescending to someone who knows a hell of a lot more than me. It's about safety, though, and I pinched a nerve shrugging too much weight once, so I'm just on the lookout.
I'm going to be employed again in a week but I hate to even mention it since so many folks are either out of work or on shaky employment ground. Only about half of the twenty or so people who got laid off with me in Pittsburgh have found work and a few of them have had to move elsewhere.
Any day I make it to the office is reason to celebrate. There are soooo many other (more interesting) things to do. Don't tell the boss or he might suggest I do that instead.
While formally observing a lesson with my super-duper-advanced students, my boss asked an insightful question before he left and my students, happy to break the fourth wall of our little performance, took the time to eloquently answer it. I looked awesome, they looked awesome. Yay.
Hugh - I did work up to that point - I started with 20 lbs. a long time ago. And yes 60 on both sides, if by both sides you mean holding two 60 lbs. dumbbells whilst the shrug occurs.
I never do anything for exercise that feels forced, or pushed or that I have to yell like a marine to accomplish. I stretch a lot and also give myself plenty of days off between hard sets to let my body recover.
Or put another way, if it don't feel good, don't do it. I completely appreciate your advice, though - no condenscension felt or implied.
Weird and awesome things are converging on me, and it's freaking me out enough that I need to blurt it out in therapy. But what I don't need or want is a cigarette.
I went to the gym today, spent four hours cleaning the entire house, including changing the sheets on the bed (yay!), and I'm going to meet some ex-co-workers for drinks tonight. It's like a totally grown-up day!
I crossed everything off my work to-do list for today (ka-pow), I walked more than 5 miles (ka-pow-pow) and I have £3094 due to me from Amazon (ka-ka-POW!). And I have tomorrow off (KA-KA-POW-POW!!!).
I'm constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, as there's so much economy job-loss crap going on, but January was a record month for me (in terms of work + income). I work indirectly for several Big Pharma cos (translating clinical trial material) so I guess they're doing OK.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
