Push-ups

So I was hanging out with my very lovely lady this weekend, and I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Not only was I having a great and relaxing weekend, but I was having a pretty good body image day.  Like most of us, there are days where I feel fat, even though I'm told I'm not.  My BMI is right where it should be and I run in the warm weather months, but I'm always looking for ways to improve my appearance (and since society frowns on people wearing brown paper bags on their heads all the time....)  One thing I've been doing quite a bit of lately is weightlifting, and I can start to tell a difference.  So I was hanging out with my gf, and I decided I would be all impressive.  She had to leave the room for a second and I wanted to make sure I was doing push-ups when she came back because in my simple mind, I would think this would look impressive.  I could tell she was "mildly" impressed, so I decided to up the ante.  I asked her if she would let me try doing a push-up with her on my back.  Now, I requested that if I was able to do a push-up with her on my back, I wanted her to brag to all her friends that I had done so.  If I was unable to do this, I pleaded she keep it a secret for the rest of her life.  With a rush of testosterone through my veins, I was able to do a push-up with all of her 114lbs on my back.  I believe her mild level of being impressed shot all the way up to moderate level.

I wonder if Jerry and Elaine were like this...

I found myself in an interesting quandary tonight. I was invited to a birthday party of a girl that I dated for a short time. Obviously, though we didn't work out romantically, we have been able to become friends. At the party there was at least one other guy she had dated along w/ the current guy she is seeing. At the beginning of the party, she asked me if it bothered me, and I said no and made a joke out of it. As the evening wore on and I saw her holding her current guy's hand, I have to say it was bothering me a little bit. Not a lot bit mind you, but a little bit. I had to go upstairs and kind of separate myself from the situation (and write this blog post). Since being up there, I've been thinking to myself why it was bothering me. On the surface, she is a great girl, and I guess it makes me a bit sad that yet another nice pretty girl and I didn't click on the level we needed to on one level or another. On a more cynical level, I hope I'm not becoming the type of person that can't stand to see someone else happy. I really don't think about that, but I am willing to face the possibility that it may be hard to see someone else in a relationship and happy that I was really close to, such as my long term girlfriend in St. Louis (those who know me know who she is). Why is this hard? Is it because I don't happen to be with someone at this moment and someone I used to be with is? Does this make them somehow better or more desirable than me? If I were with someone and I saw someone I used to be with with someone too, would I take my mind back to a time when that person and I were together and compare the good to any current bad or difficulty I would find in my current relationship? The title of my blog refers to Seinfeld and how Jerry and Elaine were a former romantic couple that were able to be friends after the fact and see each other in relationships, to the point they would give advice to each other. Was it ever hard for them? As a human, I need to remember that emotions are not something to be avoided, rather if I have them, I should try to understand them and deal with them as best as I can. For me, its writing about them, and I feel better already. Any thoughts from my blog readers would be appreciated in the form of comments.

Molested by a dog

After my Young Republicans meeting tonight (woot woot), I went to my bi-weekly Thursday night party called Gin Bucket hosted by a couple of my friends. One of my friends has a new roomate who has a very big, friendly dog name Routu (sp?). Routu looks to be an Alaskan Huskie or something of that general descritpion; just a beautiful dog! I really like big dogs (little ones freak me outsometimes), so I made sure to play with him, pet him, and all and all try to make friends with him. Apparently, he misread my intentions. I'm not sure he was picking up more than a friend vibe from me, but when I wasn't looking, he went straight for my "man junk" if you know what I'm saying. At first, I thought it may have been him just playing, but then he went for it again and again with a higher level of aggression. I tried to back him down by telling him he couldn't do that since he hadn't even bought me dinner, but he kept on trying to put moves on me. At one point when I was standing up, he stuck his nose right in my butt and somewhat goosed me. I guess the moral of this story is that I am, as I have noted in the past, only able to attract the gays, weather they be human or "man's best buddy"

Symphony Happy Hour

Tonight I went to St. Louis to attend a happy hour put on by the St. Louis symphony in order to meet and greet some of the musicians and staff members. There were several people there, and I enjoyed the conversation. I am looking for a way to get plugged into the classical music scene of the area, and I believe there will be some opportunities for me. I also saw and old friend, which was very nice and special.

Running, a puzzle, and bible gum

Today was a great day! This afternoon, I met a friend at Forrest Park, and we went on a 5 1/2 mile run. It was a very chili day, but we were both well dressed for the journey. While I'm not up to pace for long distances yet, I'm hoping I can continue to train and improve. After I got home from dinner, I started chatting with someone I'm going to go out with tomorrow, and through the conversation, we decided to meet up tonight for a "pre-date". I went over to her house and we watched "The Office" and worked on a jigsaw puzzle of Las Vegas. Through the puzzle process, I learned many things. I learned that I suck at putting skylines together, but I'm great at parking lots. I also learned that doing a puzzle is a great first date (or pre-date) activity because you get to work on something, yet you are able to talk and get to know each other too. On my way home, I knew I needed to pick up a few things from the store, amongst which was a new pack of "bible gum". Bible gum is gum that I keep in my bible because I know that my church has donut holes every Sunday, and I like to chew a piece of gum to get rid of the donut breath. When I was checking out, I struck up a conversation with the checkout lady where I had her guess my age. She guessed that I was 20 (boomshakalaka), where, in fact, I'm 29. Feeling pretty good about myself, I neglected to get the pack of bible gum out of the cart, and I walked out of the store without paying for it. Realizing what I had done when I made it to my car, I went back inside the store to pay for the gum. I think the checkout lady who thought I was 20 was surprised that I would do this, so I told her the story of what the gum was for and how I keep it in my bible. Of course, I have no idea if this person was a Christian, but as I was driving home, I thought to myself that I had just been a part of a special witnessing opportunity where I was able to share my faith and hopefully put forth a good example of why I was coming back in to pay for my gum. After all, I would never feel right had I shoplifted my bible gum...that's just wrong.

A good weekend, Bowling, and Wheel of Fortune

I have had a good weekend up to this point. I went home to see the rents on Friday. I dropped off the clothes I'm giving away to them because they are going to take them up to my Cousin's to give to some needing kids in her classroom. On Saturday night, I went to see my friends Adam and Suzie in Evansville. I went to college with them, and I also went to HS with Suzie. We ate dinner with another college friend Sara and her little son (Sarah's husband had to work), and another friend of Adam's named Dave. After we ate, we all went bowling. At the ally, we ran into another friend from college named Ermil.

Dave was an interesting character. First, he was a Minnesota Vikings fan (insert puking sound here). He was a pretty good bowler, and even had a Vikings bowling bag and a Vikings bowling ball used exclusively for spare attempts. I gave him a hard time all night for it of course since I am a big time Bears fan. At one point, I was facing an 8-10 split, and I asked him if I could borrow his Vikings spare ball. Knowing that I had no chance of picking up the split, I just took the Vikings ball and placed it in the gutter and slowly rolled it down to the end as a show of my protest to a sub-human football team.

It turns out that in 1987, Dave was on the show Wheel of Fortune. He had the taping with him of his appearance and we all watched it after we went bowling. HE COMPLETELY DOMINATED, WINNING ABOUT $37,000!!!! Despite his good fortune, there were plenty of laughs from the show. First, his outfit was, shall we say, interesting. Comprising of a white sweater vest, a tie, what could only be described as gray plaid pants, and gray Nikes. Next, when showing off a watch that was a prize, he kissed the hand of Vanna White (and he was quite eager to do so). But, and the end of the day, what can you say...he won $37,000 and will always have an interesting story to tell if he goes out to pick up women. As a side note, the commercials we saw on the tape were super funny. One featured Demi Moore in a Diet Coke commercial (Diet Coke used to have one calorie, now it has zero calories...big improvement). All I could think during the commercial is how her future husband was nine at the time of the commercial's shooting.

Invigorated

I feel more alive today than I have in a long time. I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact I'm eating again. I'm thinking a lot about last night and how much fun it is to get out and socialize with people. I want to thank Liz so much for hosting!

YR and the Gin Bucket

I marvel at how much my mood has changed since this morning. This morning, I was ready to bite someone's head off. Now, I find myself in a very good mood! I had a wonderful night in the Lou. It began with me going to a Young Republican's meeting. It was my first meeting, as I had only attended a Christmas party prior. It was interesting to see how the meeting worked and to see some people I met at the Christmas party.

It was also the Thursday for the Gin Bucket, so I made way over to Liz's house for that. Tonight's crowd was a lively bunch, and I had a really good time catching up with old friends and meeting some new people. All in all, it was a wonderful night (made possible by a power nap right after school and the re-introduction of caffeine into my diet :)