At work, we share our break room with a group of real estate agents in the office next door. I generally bring my lunch to work, so almost always, I am sharing my lunch break with someone from their office.

There’s this guy over on their side that usually takes his lunch around the same time as I do. From the few brief conversations I’ve had with him he seems like a cool guy. His New Years resolution, just like most people, was to lose some weight, so he’s been bringing healthy foods like salads, fruits and vegetables to work everyday.

Until last week, he’s been obeying all of the rules of break room etiquette. You know the rules: clean the microwave, don’t leave the coffee pot empty, do your dishes. We need to add another rule to this list-don’t cook fish in the microwave. In fact, I think it should be the number one rule, even over doing your dishes.

I guess he added fish to his diet, and for the past 2 weeks he has cooked it in the microwave almost everyday. Since the only thing that separates our offices is the break room, the smell travels throughout our entire office building. Smelling microwaved fish for half the day doesn’t make for a pleasant work environment. We’ve tried to battle the smell with air fresheners and plug ins, but the fish is strong, so it ends up just smelling like vanilla fish.

Dude, I’m not trying to be an asshole, but seriously, please stop cooking fish in the microwave. You are breaking all the rules.

Tags: daily

Last week, I experienced such a huge personal victory that I can’t even believe I forgot to mention it.

Dave and I have been going to the gym for a few months now. Ya know, trying to get in shape and all. I’m far from in shape, even though my parents are health nut, personal trainers. We’d been going to the gym and average of 3x a week, just doing cardio and some light weight training. One night, as we were checking in, I happened to look at the class schedule and noticed that yoga was starting in 10 minutes. I jumped the gun and decided I would give it a shot.

I had really no clue what was going through my head. I had never taken a yoga class in my whole life. The only thing I knew about it was that Madonna did it and she could turn herself into a pretzel. But I’m half of Madonna’s age, so surely I could do this!  I walked into the class, took off my socks and shoes and grabbed a mat. And 10 minutes later I began the most difficult work out of my life.

Yoga is no walk in the park, and that first night was not a beginners class. The instructor had us walking our legs up the wall and was demonstrating poses I didn’t think a human body could get into. My shoulders were sore, my legs were shaking, but it felt great at the same time. It wasn’t like running on a treadmill or doing 45 minutes on the elipitical. It was the huge challenge that I was looking for.

The classes were Monday and Wednesday nights at 7:45 and I decided after that first class that I would continue to go on a regular basis. I asked for yoga gear for Christmas and received some yoga pants and mats. I felt like I was improving slightly each class. My balance was definitely getting better and I could do most of the poses fairly well.

Last week, at the end of class, I was packing up my mats and putting my shoes back on when my yoga instructor came up to me. She said she noticed that I was coming a lot and wanted to say that she could really see an improvement.

!!!

I’ve never considered myself exceptionally good at anything, especially when it came to fitness, so hearing this was exactly what I needed. Ever since then, I’ve been trying even harder to improve. I’ve never been more excited to go work out. This is coming from a person who sits at the computer for hours playing The Sims 3.

Sometimes, it’s just those simple acknowledgements that get your butt into gear…not that I was thinking of quitting or anything, but now I’m more motivated than ever to continue and get really good at this. I doubt you’ll read this Heidi, but thanks for all that you have done!

Tags: fitness, motivation, yoga

Dave’s old college friend Frank was in town this week to visit, so last night we headed to a beer bar up the street to hang out for a few hours. I invited my friend Bob to go with us too since I haven’t seen him in a few months and he’s in love with the place that we were going to.

We’re all sitting at the bar, drinking pints of  imported microbrews. Dave and Frank are talking about people they used to hang out with in college. “So and so is working here now, Did you know that he is going to be a Dad? Remember that one place we used to go to all the time?”

Bob and I start reminiscing about the days I like to refer to as “a 3 year blur”. For all of us, so much has changed. The crew we once all hung out with pretty much broke up.  I graduated, got a career, met Dave and realized I was in my mid 20′s and it was probably time to stop acting like a college kid. Bob met Kat, started really having to work, and just recently got married and became a stepdad. Our entire lives did a complete 180. We have things we care about now, people to take care of, bills to pay. We’re spending our extra money on furniture and appliances instead of on a 6 pack. Holy shit, we’re adults now.

There was a lot of “Remember the one time…” and “OMG, do you remember when we all went to…” and “God, that chick was crazy…” I will never forget those days. We did things we probably shouldn’t have. We said things that were probably out of line. In the end all of us went on different paths. I suppose it’s what happens when you grow up. You have less in common with some of the people you used to see everyday. You start seeing them less and less until eventually you just don’t see them at all. The people that stay around become your “real friends” and not just “those crazy people you used to hang out with back in the day”. I have a few of those people and it’s always great to get together every now and then and talk about the good ol’ days. Things have changed, we’ve grown up and we’ve gotten more responsibilities, but we’ll always have those crazy memories to share.

Tags: adulthood, friends, life