Doughnuts, Movies, and Friends.

Maybe this would make more sense to be posted on The Adventures Of Us but I am here, so I will post it here. It isn't much of an adventure either. Like the title says, it was a great weekend. Next weekend, however, might be an adventure, or not. We are going out of town for a little get-away before the madness of the holiday season sets in. I get up for work during the week, ridiculously early, and consequently I look forward to sleeping in a little on the weekend. Sleeping in for me is about 7:00 AM. But, normally on Saturdays we go pick up our share from Bountiful Baskets, and our pick-up time is 7:15. I realize that I could probably just roll out of bed, hop in the car and head over looking like I just rolled out of bed, but I don't really have it in me to look like that in public. Call it a character flaw if you will, but that is how I am. It doesn't matter how trivial the task, or errand, I cannot go out into public looking anything less than put together. The only time I will even consider it, is when I go to the gym or Kung Fu, and even then, I go straight to the gym or Kung Fu, and then straight home. I don't make any stops on the way to, or from. But that's not the point. We actually got to sleep in on Saturday, because Lydia forgot to sign up for a share this week. I'm not complaining, I think I actually slept until about 7:30 on Saturday. The rest of the day was spent in a less than productive mode. I got up and went for our Saturday morning Banbury Cross run. I managed to get to the gym by about 11:00 I think and worked out for about 45 minutes. We then made a trip to the zoo, as Lydia wont go once the snow starts to fall, and after today, I don't know that I blame her. That evening we went over to my friend Matt's house for some UFC. We got home a little late for me, 11:30, considering I go to bed around 9:00 most days. Sunday, I again slept until about 7:30, which was made even better by the fact that we all came off daylight savings time. Sunday morning and early afternoon was spent cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. That afternoon we headed over to the Gateway for our semi-regular date activity of going to a movie. We saw Ender's Game. We are both fans of the book, and were looking forward to the movie. It didn't disappoint. After the movie we drove up to Farmington to visit Lydia's parents over dinner. And the food and conversation is always something to look forward to. When we got home we relaxed in front of a movie. I don't think I have anything to complain about all weekend, except that we had to get up this morning and go to work. Oh well, we still have next weekend. Thanks for playing.

Living the Dream

This might be the first post on this topic, as I have been thinking about it a lot lately. I am still formulating my thoughts on this, so this may be a little jumbled and or disjointed, but thanks for playing. I decided recently that 4:30 is way to early to be getting up in order to go answer to someone I don't want to. If I'm getting up that early, it better be because we are hiking some canyon or we're shooting for first tracks. I want to be able to get up when I want to get up, not because I'm trading my time for a little bit of money. My mom always says that work is life. And I don't really agree with that, and I'll tell you why. Why should I let my JOB define who I am? Shouldn't I be able to define who I am, not by what kind of a job I do, but by what I do outside of my job? Unless I find something that is in line with who I am. Here's the question. If money were not a factor. If, you could afford anything you could imaging, and didn't have to go to a JOB every day, what would you do? Who would you be then? That is how I want to define myself. When I meet someone new, or in any conversation really, when a person asks me what I do, I don't want to say "I work at Backcountry.com," or where ever it may be. I want to be able to say,"whatever I want, whenever I want." Whether is is climbing in Thailand, or volunteering in Peru, I want to enjoy what I am doing, and be able to help people in the process. Or, maybe I will take helicopter flying lessons, become a certified skydiver. It doesn't matter. That is what life is; not work. Unless your work is all of those things, and in that case, I'm looking, and I can do just about anything, so hire me.

A New Belt

I had Kung Fu last night. Well, every Monday and Thursday nights I have Kung Fu. Although I might not call it Kung Fu any more. It has kind of evolved into our own mixed martial arts. For new students starting in the class, it is more Karate, for those of us who have been studying with the same sensei for the last ten years, it is more Kung Fu. And over the last two to three years we have started learning Jui Jitsu as well. Anyway, I have been wearing a second degree blue belt for a couple of years now, trying to avoid testing for a green belt for as long as I could. But apparently I can't put it off any longer. Last night my sensei told me I would be testing at the end of this session. It's not that I don't think I am ready for the green belt, it is just that the tests are so brutal, physically, emotionally, and mentally. I am not saying I am going to come out of the test injured or beaten and bloodied. But I will probably be sore for a week following the test. I remember my test for orange belt. This is the first time I had to spar in a test, and I really didn't know what I was doing. I had bruises that covered the length of my forearms for probably two weeks or more. I got home that night, and in order to try and sleep, I surrounded myself with pillows and laid ice packs on top of them. Not to mention the ibuprofen I had to take. I know I am a better martial artist today than I was then, but it is still an ordeal. I look forward to it, and I dread it at the same time. I almost wish my sensei would not tell me I was testing until the night of the test. Then I wouldn't stress for weeks leading up to it wondering if my forms and techniques were solid or not. Maybe it sounds stupid, but these tests are some of the hardest things I have experienced, and I got mugged at knife point in Russia, but I always learn and grow from them as well. Good luck to me, and thanks for playing.

blog stats

So, since I decided that this was the best way to write regularly I was checking out my blog stats. I noticed that about three quarters of my traffic came from Russia. Now, granted, I did write a post called Mother Russia, bbut that isn't the post that had the most hits. I can't really explain it, as I'm pretty sure most of my friends in Russia aren't aware of the Belchingwalrus name or story, as that all came after I moved back to the States. But I'm not complaining either. Somebody is reading my musings. I just might have to start writing then in Russian.

In The Doctor's Office

So, Lydia's sister is pregnant, and due in December. As a result, she has asked that anyone who might be in regular contact with the baby get a pertussis vaccine. Which in and of itself isn't horrible or offensive, depending on your opinion of vaccines, but it meant we had to go to the doctor's office. Lydia has had some interesting health issues in the past and found it easier to keep the same doctor than to find a new one down here. Which is fine, it just means a bit of a drive any time we go. No one ever enjoys waiting in the doctors office. I think Jerry Seinfeld even did a sketch about the doctors office waiting room. Luckily we were in and out relatively quickly today, but if you actually need to see the doctor, plan on at least an hour and a half, of mostly waiting time. I mostly mention this because of one of the nurses there. She is a little older, probably pushing 60-ish. But I think she has been working at this office for to long, and is a little burned out. One of her apparent quirks is that if I go to see the doctor, after she takes all the vitals, she walks out of the room and tells me to take my shirt off. It doesn't matter if I have a twisted ankle or something, she still tells me to take off my shirt. Maybe it's a carry-over from a previous generation, but it seems a little odd to me. I suppose there is no real point to this, but that it gives me something do to while sitting in the waiting room. Thanks for playing.

A New Goal

I gave myself the goal of writing every day. Even if it is only a paragraph or so. I had Lydia set a reminder for her to call me and ask me if I was writing. Today was the first day, and when she called and asked, I had already forgotten. So here I am, writing. It may not be profound or poetic, or even grammatically correct, okay, scratch that. It most likely will be fairly accurate. But profound and or poetic, probably not. But at least I am writing, and it is out there for anyone to read. So if you have topics of interest, something you want to learn about maybe, but don't want to do the research yourself, I'm okay with that, hit me up. Shoot me an email, or leave a comment here and I will see what I can do. If you don't, most of what I write will probably be fitness, martial arts, and or music related. More likely the fitness and martial arts topics, as that is what interests me most these days. You might even call me a fitness fanatic, slightly obsessive, whatever. Thanks for playing.

Volunteering

I am unemployed. I have been since February of 2009. I have done some substitute teaching at a couple of the high schools here in Salt Lake in an effort to keep myself busy. And I had a temp job writing web copy for a couple of weeks.
You know what the worst part about being unemployed it? It is all the people who think you are depressed that you aren’t working and think they have the answer. I am tired of people telling me that I will land on my feet, that something better will come my way, that it was their loss and all the other things everyone says to you in an effort to make you feel better. I don’t need anyone to tell me that. This is America, the land of opportunity, right. I don’t want to hear it. If you really want to help me stay positive, introduce me to someone who is hiring. If you don’t know anyone, then say so, and commiserate with me. Please don’t try to tell me things will be okay. I don’t need to hear it. I know it already.
But the nice thing about being unemployed is that I have time to do things I normally probably wouldn’t have spent time doing had I had work to do. Make sense?
I spend a fair amount of time every day working through my network to see if people know people who are hiring and such. This is required of me by the state so I can get my unemployment, but I think I have a better chance finding a rewarding job through my volunteer efforts.
I have taken on the volunteer position of chair of the marketing committee for the Sugar House Farmers Market that will be starting this summer. July 9th on the corner of 2100 South and 1100 East, come check it out. The Sugar House Farmers Market has grown from an idea and four individuals to a Friday night market in the heart of Sugar House starting in July. There are eight or nine board members, a finance committee and a marketing committee that I am aware of, I have only been involved for a few weeks. We have space for twenty-five vendors, and have already had many more vendor applications than that. We haven’t even started, and we have already outgrown our space. It has been a great learning experience working with those involved. I have enjoyed my time spent working towards the market, and look forward to the coming market.
I have also given time to Wasatch Community Gardens. I spent some time with them a month ago or so consulting on their social media outlets. I have now taken on the task of creating a guide book, so to speak, for their social media efforts. I hope to improve the usefulness of their facebook and twitter pages, as well as updating and maintaining a current blog presence. The staff and volunteers at Wasatch Community Gardens are fantastic. I expect I will learn quite a bit about gardening and what it takes to run a non-profit from them.
When I am not working on research for either Sugar House Farmers Market or WCG I read a lot, and write for my own blog when I can. I have my Kung Fu class, and I am training for a marathon. I stay busy. If one of these activities were to turn into a paying gig, then great, but for the time being, I am satisfied with what I have to do.