easin into it!?

this post will be short as its 22:23 as I write this (23 minutes past my bedtime) and I'm feelin kinda under the weather. haha thats rather funny considering how it's raining outside? get it, under the weather, pressure changes... anyway. Where to begin? I've been extremely tired these past three days.

This week was supposed to be R&R for my training. I succeeded Mon-Wed and was feeling great. Then Thursday happened. It was my first day at EMS from 11-4 and I had strength training scheduled that day too. So I hit the gym at 9:30, did three sets of squats, push-ups, seated rows, and abdominals (crunches) with twist. Got home, showered, realized I got to the gym late and my wonderfully planned schedule for making it into work really early was unraveling and made it to work 3 minutes early. phew.

I sat in front of the computer pretty much all day. frikken computer-based training. important stuff but not a very exciting method of transmitting the information. I ended up working only 5 hours so they wouldn't have to send me to a lunch break. ouch. but I understand, managers have to keep the schedule trim sometimes and it was only my first day. then I went home and Thursday night is trash night so I spent the next hour in our backyard picking up after that little furry four-legged monster that is also part of our family.
And I was ready to go to sleep at 6:30 that night.

Friday I worked 10-4, then came home and had a whirlwind cleaning session after I drove to Hannafords for 2lbs Frozen-at-sea, wild caught Sockeye Salmon. Then I proceeded to make dinner for my girlfriend Jess who was going to have dinner with me and my parents. I baked the salmon with some olive oil, oregano and thyme and it came out amazing! Trader Joe's Basmati rice medly (the one with dried veggies and wild rice) gave us some good carbs and then we had green beans. excellent. some ice cream for desert leftover from when two people in my family had cavities filled last week (I know this may seem counter-productive but we did it anyway...) and it was a great meal.

Now its raining. Does anyone else out in the blogworld have problems with their parents freaking out at them when they try to ride in rain like this? I mean light rain isn't a big deal but driving rain with the winds we've had? I might as well be a recently turned 18 year-old girl asking my dad if I can get a tattoo. Dad won't have any of it. I'm sure some of you have run into this and after sliding out in a wet 120 degree, off camber, downhill turn four hours after rain stopped one summer day three years ago I know the danger of riding in the wet. I guess I can just ride less and inside since I haven't done bike workouts inside in about three weeks so I've been good about minimizing the time on the rollers. only thing that sucks is I'm trying to get used to the Mountain bike position and I don't have slick tires so I end up throwing the road bike on. oh, the things I have to put up with right?

anyway I'm gonna go to bed. Things at EMS are going really well and the crew there is great and loves working for the company. I saw my good friend Josh Weinstein tonight, he's finishing up his B.S. in physics at UVM and I need to go visit him sometime soon. what a guy. a day of rest tomorrow, maybe I'll go to church and see if our music director who had to call off men's choir rehearsal this morning because of his flu is feeling better/can play the organ.

so why do I need a job...

I had one of those compilation CDs when I was in early High School (like NOW but it was kinda indy stuff so it was cool...) WAIT I just found it on my CD rack at home. It's called "Check It Out Now" and was an EMI promo CD. Circa 2000. There was a song by an artist called 'Bare Jr' called "why do i need a job" that talked about how his girlfriend was a stripper and that the hours he "worked" hangin at home were great and he was never late so why did he need a job? Not that I condone that lifestyle or anything but I thought it was an awesome song at the time.

On a lighter note, I was at a meeting in the Nashua Public Library for The Nashua Green Bikes Project which will be like a Bike Recycle VT (for those of you who have been to Burlington and/or are familiar with it. Very exciting opportunity to improve our community. Of course I showed up late. After the presentation was done I introduced myself and the facilitator for the Project asked me what I raced in College. I was like road, then XC and said I hoped to do the EFTA NECS series if I could stay in Nashua and get a job. A guy sitting next to me was from EMS and he turned to me and said "Do you need a job?" I'm like UH, YES so after the meeting adjourned he asked me if I was interested in working Pt time for EMS Nashua, potentially to full time taking over Shipping/Receiving. I was so into it. Went to the store the next Monday and sat down with him, the guy is great and had an interview with him and an assistant manager on Wednesday of last week. I'm hoping I get it!

Also, the Environmental Assistant (Fisheries) position I applied for with VT Fish & Wildlife for March-Sep (ish) called me back and I'm having an interview with one of the state's Fisheries Biologists on Tuesday the 9th! So pumped! We shall see what happens with these two opportunities.

No training whatsoever for me last week. I noticed an ingrown hair that became infected with inflammation that grew to the diameter of a golf ball by the 20th of February. Went to my doctor on the 21st and I was on 500mg Cephalexin 2x daily for 7 days! What passed was a very trying week as it upset my stomach and I lost my ability to eat so much at one time but my body still was cranking full tilt. So I had a lot of inbetween snacks. BUT I had a weight room circuit Monday March 1st with only 1 set of each exercise instead of 2 and rode for an hour and 10 minutes today working on getting "the spin of meat" (see "Bike" magazine from this summer) going. My knee hurt by the end but I'm gonna do my exercises every night this week if I didn't lift that day and every day after that. Let's hope that works. This recurring right knee pain of "unknown etiology" (a.k.a. no diagnosis besides just "pain) lead to me being denied health insurance in May of 2009. DENIED!!! This is why I feel we DESPERATELY need an overhaul of health care in the US as a very healthy, nonsmoking male of 23 years is denied health insurance because the carrier felt I would be making money off them and they wouldn't be making money off me if they offered me coverage.

My mom keeps saying all senators and representatives should be made to apply for 'standard' health insurance like all of us proletariat (my word choice, not hers) pay through the nose for monthly and THEN we'll see how freakin speedy this reform comes.

And there is a new romance in my life. My friend Jess Harris from High School and I are officially dating. I'm very excited about this, just wanted to keep you all in the know.

Now it's 21:14. That's 9:14 P.M. for all you lameos still on 12-hr time. I got up at 03:30 to drive my dad to Manchester Airport so he could fly to Salt Lake City for his company's yearly trade show. J.R. 's Professional Chauffeur Service. I should probably stretch and do my exercises, shower and hit the sack. Thanks for keeping with me for another long update, will hopefully have some photos from my PIMP new camera once I get around to taking up the last 1% of space left on my hard drive with the new pics.

PS: I broke the 17 mpg barrier in my V6 highlander this week~! (shout out to Vanessa Burke with the extra symbol) I gassed up before picking my dad up at the Exit 6 welcome center on the F.E. Turnpike last Wednesday and was so pumped. 17.1 mpg or something like that. I'm gonna try to keep it up. My new car (which I am paying off monthly once I get a job, thanks Mom & Dad) is so nice, but I'm still getting used to an engine that has as much jump in it for so little accelerator pressure from my foot.