I say this because for the past 2 days I’ve gone to the gym. Yesterday was a little rough on the treadmill. Today I was struggling to do some basic squats and lunges. Actually, I didn’t even do the lunges. But I did do about 20 modified squats (sit to stand).  It was harder than I was hoping it would be. I’m always a little stiffed legged but this seemed to help a little. I need to workout on almost a daily basis to keep the gains coming.

            So anyway, I work out at the DAHLC from 9:30 AM to 10:45 PM. I go downstairs to the locker room (they have a PC) to watch a couple of videos on new exercises that I wanted to do.  I should have done this earlier. Because when I sat down I didn’t get back up for an hour. Well that was the end of my time at the gym. On the way out (and coming into the gym) I chat with Kravitha; a native of India and one of the employees and the DAHLC. We chatted about India for a good 20 minutes total. I also bumped into Auggie D (one of my peer group at work) and Jennifer M. It’s always good to chat with friends.

            I needed to walk over to the Methodist Hospital (through the subway of course, it was too ridiculously hot to walk outside). When I get there mom is done with church and waiting for me. I decide to go to the movie but I drop her off first at home. Griffin picks us up in his cab. He and I love tormenting each other. I’m glad I work with him at Med City.

           I went and saw “Horrible Bosses”. Good show, lots of profanity but it wasn’t over-done. I enjoyed it. I catch a ride home and stop at Subway for lunch. I watch a couple hours of TV and then start blogging.

            I get there a little late and wait for Allison. I call her up and find out the W.O.W. had cancelled her membership. The reason why? According to Allison, W.O.W cancelled her membership because she was opening up a Curves. Allison wasn’t taking away from W.O.W., she was actually bringing people in. I thought that was really petty of them. I was also annoyed that they wasted my time and money (cab fare). I wish other fitness facilities understood that there are plenty of people to go around. If people wanted to build a truly healthy and fit community they would work together instead of just trying to safeguard there “piece of the pie”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for competition. The best organizations will survive because there are the best (hopefully), but this petty self-centered crap is ridiculous.

            Okay, I’m off my soapbox now. Anyway, Allison and I make arrangements to workout at the Rochester Area Family Y. I love the Y. They’re willing to work with people, they big into families and communities and they’ve stuck by Team Will Power through thick and then. We start by getting on the treadmill for a warm-up. My total time is about 20 minutes. I hated every minute of it. I hate walking. We then worked out on a bunch of free weights and the Free Motion Machines. I was sore when done.

            After the Y I decided to go to the Running Room to check out their products that help replenish electrolytes and other essentials. The clerk that helped me was cute. She was very, very cute. I just thought I should mention that. I picked up a packet of Power Bar Energy Gel (double cappuccino flavored), a Power Bar (Double Chocolate Chip), and CHOMPS (orange); a Gummi Bear like product made by the makers of Gu. I think they all gave me a little boost. I was sweating the entire day and spaced their use apart, The Gel worked the best but tasted horrible; I’ll have to try another flavor. I’ll need something to help me survive my trip.

            After that I went to the Peace Plaza to check out the 2^nd day of Pridefest. I missed the last 2 or three years completely (never knew it existed before that) so I was kind of excited to go. It was great to, at some level, be involved with the community again. Going to Pridefest felt good. I bumped into Jeffrey B., Jeffery A., Zack B., Sarah M., Jonathan T, Christopher K, and oh crap I forget Her name, and Steve H. A drag queen was the MC. Speaking of which there was going to be a drag show that night at the Wicked Moose. I thought about going buyt really there was something I needed to do. Oh yeah, Tracy M. (local media personality) said “Hi Will”. I didn’t think she knew who I was. I thought I wasn’t even on her radar. We’re not even Facebook friends. Apparently I’m …….infamous!

            After checking out Pridefest I headed to Barnes & Noble downtown to get a couple of books on India. I even found a book on New Dehli. Yeah, I’m excited. I can hardly wait. After the bookstore I head to Chester’s for lunch and have a great salad and some chicken. I had the opportunity to chat about diet and exercise with Nicholas B. (Rochester, MN’s strongest man) regarding nutrition and exercise. It was a talk that I needed. I feel a little more motivated now. I’m looking forward to working out with him.

            After that I head home. I’ve mentioned I’m going to India, in fact, in 17 weeks I’ll be in the air. The thought of flying, using the bathroom on the planes, or any bathroom in India, doing all that walking and climbing up all those steps scares the crap out of me. I need to commit to myself to making the most out of the next 17 weeks. I need to push myself harder and actually have more power of will than ever before. Not only do I want to survive the vacation, I want to really enjoy the time spent there with my travel mate and I sure as hell don’t want to bring her down. So I need to do this now more than ever.

            I get home and I revamp my diet and workout plan; I’ll post that later. For the next 17 weeks I need to do impossible. And I will do it.

            We get an 11^th hour project change request at 3:30 PM. This sucks because I was just got done with the original project. I work until 9:00 PM (ish). Oh well, time to roll-up my sleeves; that’s how I roll. By about 8:15 PM I’m starving, light headed and I feel a little week. I didn’t bring enough to eat; I head to the break room and hope there’s some food for me. Luckily I found some potato salad that was left over from the picnic. I’m so happy; I can survive the night now. It rained all day; it would have been cool to get out into it for a while, but I was too busy working. I wanted to go to the Pridefest block party. It was postponed until 9 PM (and I found out later lasted until midnight) but I just wanted to go home. I was just exhausted.

            I needed to get to the Mayo store to fill my prescription for my leg supplies. But I was hemming and hawing. It’s not really a long walk but I hate walking so much. I wasted 45 minutes thinking about it. Why do I do this to myself? If I had just gone in the first place when I was done with therapy I would have been done with it already and possibly on my way to work already. But now I was going to be really, really late if I took the shuttle. So I took a cab, again.

            Work wasn’t bad. I was done by 5:30. For lunch we had our company picnic. I ate way too much. I mean I really ate too much; it was so bad. At 5:30 my buddy Jared P picked me up from work. We drove to the Wicked Moose to meet up with Don M. and Kathleen H. for a creative meeting regarding the Jaycees. While we’re talking Kathleen H asks me about India.  She says she’s changed her mind about going to India. I ask her if she thought she could stand me for a week straight. She asked me the same of her. I’m pretty excited to have a travel buddy. This is going to be a great trip; a really great trip.