Don't Stop Til You Get Enough

I gotta be honest.  I did not enjoy walking outside this morning and seeing this waiting for me.

I mean I know it's February and still winter and all, but the thing is, we're almost into March.  Can't we just be done with the snow?  I'm ready for spring and daffodils.  Last week we had a couple of days where I was able to crank open the sun roof and also finally get my post-winter car wash (psych!).  That was just enough of a teaser to remind me that I'M SO OVER WINTER!!  My fingers are crossed that this is the last of the white stuff for another 9-ish months.


And now, some thoughts from this week:

I saw Facebook status yesterday where a friend of mine announced that he had burned 924 calories in a 1-hour workout with a trainer. I'm quite inspired by this.  It's officially Work Out Week for me.  I had intentions of doing Bikram tonight but I managed to leave my mat and towel at home this morning, so my plan to go straight from work to yoga was foiled.  I'll start that another week sometime soon.  Instead, I'm hitting up the gym nightly and doing my best to reach, match, or exceed the 924 calorie mark.


I also recently discovered that I am now on the same workout schedule as a new guy (I'm assuming he's new because I've never seen him before and I haven't switched up my work out times) who will henceforth be known as Michigan State.  Michigan State is attempting to reach peak physical fitness by lifting weights.  You always know when Michigan State is lifting because he sounds like Monica Seles when she's out hitting balls on the court.  Total grunter.  Like, to the point where I can hear it THROUGH my almost-sound-proof headphones (I totally recommend Sony earbuds that come with multiple sized ear inserts).  It's ridiculous.  It's distracting.  It's annoying.  Seriously- who needs to grunt like that???  If it's that heavy, TAKE A FEW POUNDS OFF.  It's not impressive to see a guy with L's build grunting away on various weight machines.  Oh, that's a key plot point here.  He's not using a weight lifting bench or free weights or whatever.  He's using the same weight machines that I am, which makes it weirder.  Grunting is just never a good noise in pretty much any circumstance.

On the work out theme, I'm pretty sure that either there is something wrong with me and my heart rate or there is something wrong with most of the regular, traditional elliptical machines in my gym.  I used to just get on them and go! go! go!, but the last few times I've been, I decided to do the "fat burning" setting.  The idea is simple: you get on, start it up, enter your weight and age, and it gives you a target heart rate.  Then you start moving and it automatically knows when to stop the resistance to keep you heart rate at the target number, and if you exceed it, it tells you to slow down.  Every time, I hit the target heart rate within about a minute of starting up, and I'm not even going that fast.  So then I try and slow down to keep it at the target rate and I end up going so slow that the machine pauses.  Yeah, that means I'm going so slow that it thinks I'm stopping.  What the deuce??  It's surprisingly challenging to force yourself to go that slow and keep yourself controlled, but the goal here is to get a workout. Since every doctor I've seen in the last 2 months (not to mention my whole life) has told me that I have great blood pressure (very low, in a healthy way), I don't think high blood pressure is causing my heart to beat faster or anything.  I have no idea what the deal is.  Any thoughts out there??  Until I get it figured out, I'm either ignoring the flashing, "SLOW DOWN!" messages or using the other types of elliptical machines that work out other muscles, which I kind of like better, anyway.  Or maybe I just like that there's a fan by them.  It's honestly a toss up.

L joined FB.  Ask him to be your friend.

How do you not know when your breath is not fresh?  I find myself wondering this about one person in my life (not L or anyone in my family) quite often.  I can't escape it, either.  I find myself constantly trying to create as much space between us any time we interact.  I wonder how if this person notices (I'm guessing not, based on other observations of this person's general behavior and ability to read non-verbal cues).

I took a survey last week on my level of satisfaction with my sorority's alum group (with which I am not currently involved).  In it, there was a note about volunteering with Chapter Housing Corporations and how to get involved.  I decided I'd check it out in an effort to continue to try and get more plugged in and network etc. Now the current president of the CHC for my sorority's chapter at GWU is now trying to recruit me to be VP for the 2011-2012 school year and president the following year. All I can say is what the deuce??  I mean I was thinking it would be much less involved somehow than stepping in as president.  While I know it's not until Fall 2012, I don't care to be president, particularly when I don't know what the job entails.  I feel like there's got to be a reason why the current secretary and treasurer don't want to step into the VP or prez positions.  Plus, my contact was quite eager.  Almost... too eager.  I'd think she'd want to meet me before tossing out leadership positions, just to make sure I have the good sense God gave me.  I could be Crazy Pills, for all she knows!  Anyway, if anyone has any insight as to what CHC does and whether or not I should consider this, let me know ASAP.  I need to get back to this woman.

And on the sorority topic, I've decided that one of the girls on Teen Mom 2 slightly resembles a younger version of one of my pledge sisters.  I think she looks like she could be the younger, less attractive sister of the person I'm thinking of.  Also, I watch some really great TV, in case you haven't noticed.

And that's about it for a Tuesday evening.  Teen Mom is on and it's NEW!  And hooray for this week almost being half over!!