Curse you Nicholas Sparks!

It took me 3 hours to clean my room, and within three days it was already a maze again. I know exactly what my problem is, too; clothes. I don’t take the time to hang up my work shirts, or fold my jeans and put them away. Instead, everything ends up draped over chair backs and from my bunk bed. When I come back with a basket of freshly laundered clothes, they end up sitting in the basket and I just dig through it to find my attire for the day. My shoes pile up because I don’t want to take the time to go into the closet to put them away, sorted nicely into running and dress shoes, strictly casual and multi purpose. Everything I wear ends up piling up, and then I don’t want to deal with it once it gets there, but I think it isn’t a problem before it piles up. In other words, and in a much shorter version, I am not overly organized.

A less stressful mess would be the papers and books that lay strewn around my room. I have old workouts, letters, brainstormed ideas for books or short stories, doodles, random notes I took about animal populations in 11^th century Scandinavia, a motley assortment of novels and series of books that I have yet to finish ranging from Jane Austin to Bernard Cornwell to Rahl Dahl, and then the ever present emails that I found to funny to get rid of. I just need to sort all this crap; the clothes and the papers. I need a system that works for me. As long as it works, I should be okay with it. It needs to be simple, straight forward, effective, and lazy. Or maybe I should just use my hangers and trash can more.

I am also doing a very dangerous thing for a 23 year old single male; I am reading Nicholas Sparks. Now before you point and laugh too hard, know that I am already dying of embarrassment as it is a little bit. But what makes it bad (instead of simply red face flushing humility) is that the characters seem to be so perfect for each other… and then I want that… and it just isn’t realistic! For a guy to expect a woman who is strong, yet caring and vulnerable, or a woman to hope beyond hope to find that sensitive yet manly individual is most likely setting them up for disappointment. I know it does happen, but most of the time it doesn’t. Now, since I is a Sparks novel someone is obviously going to die, and I haven’t gotten to that part quite yet, but I am sure I will bawl my eyes out when it does happen, and that I am not looking forward to. And regarding expectations, it not only sets unreasonably high requirements that I may hold for my future partner, but dang do I feel bad about myself. So far in this book, the guy has a perfectly trained dog (I can hardly get mine to sit), he walked across the country (I have only ever gone about 25 miles in one day), he served in the Marine Corps (pretty dang manly, if I do say so myself), fixed the brakes on a car (I know how to fill up the gas tank), plays EVERY FRIGGIN INSTRUMENT OUT THERE (can’t even read bloody music), and is caring, sweet, attentive, sensitive, loving, passionate, knowledgeable, and all around friggin awesome. It’s like being constantly up against Mr. Darcy, but without the character flaws or pride, or prejudice (haha, see what I did there?) that causes him to be a grumpy cat in the sight of others. I think I would rather be standing next to Homecoming and Prom King, the captain of the soccer team (we didn’t have a successful football team, so I left them out of this), and those two foreign exchange students that everyone thinks are, like, oh so dreamy. At least they are all fallible people and not these perfectly emotionally stable creatures that have bodies described as ‘a waist of nothing but muscle and skin,’ too… balls. And look at that, my self-esteem just called. It’s at the airport and wants to know if I want a post card from Sicily.

On a bright note, I was able to get a couple days of sun, mostly due to football practice, and my skin is maintaining that slightly reddish brown tint that I like so much. I keep thinking I am ahead of schedule with getting a good base for summer, but then two things come to mind. First, I work indoors all the time, and will only rarely get out, so having a tan is nowhere near important for me, in all reality. Second, it is June this weekend. I am not ahead of schedule, but it has been rainy and dreary so much I continue to think it is only April. Well, so much for ending on a good note.

Ender Excitement

The biggest portion of my life right now is class selection. That is right. I am going through the near arduous task of picking what subjects to suffer through after not being a student for more than two years. I have also added a Major to my course load, but really it is simply upping my History minor to a major.  If everything goes as planned, I will be able to finish up everything in a normal two semesters.

Now come the questions though; I need to know which natural science course to take (yeah, I still haven’t taken my GS4) as well as an Upper level Biennium 1. None of the upper religion classes seem exceptionally appealing to me, and only a few are even moderately appealing. Can people just start throwing me some suggestions on which courses are easy, profs to avoid, simple labs, inexpensive text books, etc. I don’t want to head back to school with an overly strict ‘be exactly obedient you simple students’ teacher. I know it is college, but I can still go through it relaxed and a bit laid back. It got me this far.

Some other news includes the graduation of my cousin Andrew. He finished up his senior year at Notre Dame academy in GB and looks forward to spending some time in Sheboygan this summer. I will be excited to have him around. I have some fun workouts that I want him to be a part of. We will be testing him out this next weekend when he joins our Saturday morning group. Last week for the Satruday workout, as I mentioned in my fitness blog, Mark and I started the workout alone, so we figured we would throw ourselves into the 300 workout. Mark made it to the end of the ab routine, took a minute break, then heaved up whatever he had put down so far that morning behind the barn. By the time he tossed, my legs were already shaking fairly uncontrollably. Most everything was tough to do, but I found that a static hold of the weight was particularly troublesome; it is something I never train at, so I am going to tray and lock out my arms for a couple team exercises this weekend, and see how tough and challenging that is. Also, the plain old deadlift. I have not done a great deal of dead lift recently for a few reasons, but between the floor wipers and deadlift, my back and abs, my whole friggin core, is still rather sore. But I completed the workout in 18:29 on my first try.

I am also reading Ender’s Game again. I found someone who would read it this summer, and I am hoping they like it so that they will go see the movie with me come November, but I decided I wanted to read it before I lend my book out, so I am trying to sneak reading time in wherever I can, and I’m doing a pretty good job of it, as long as I stay awake. I love this book so much.

this is last weeks. this weeks is coming soon!

What do you do when a Special Agent calls you? When he wants to set up a meeting? When he wants to go through a background check? Well, I got three Calls from a Special Agent this week asking me if I would be willing to meet him and go through a background check. Ummmmm, excuse me? I have thoughts fleeting through my mind that I am Keanu Reeves from Matrix, or James McAvoy in Wanted. I’m not even a pencil pusher in my office. I stand at my teller window and smile at everyone that walks past, cordially handling people’s transactions as they walk up or call in. A well trained monkey might very well be able to do my job. But a well trained monkey doesn’t get a call from Special Agents. What if I am being recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D.? Do I have super powers?!?! Oh, my gosh, I’M CHRIS EVANS!!! (looks down at slightly sagging belly and catch a glimpse of slender arms and frizzy, flyaway hair in the mirror) Nope, not Chris Evans. Green Lantern, maybe? No aliens means that is a no go. Maybe I got bit by a Spider! (reassess stomach) I’m no Peter Parker. I guess I’m just some guy Special Agent (name goes here) feels needs to be interviewed. Instead, I am simply a wannabe.

And since I am such a wannabe, I will have the world know; I wannabe a SPARTAN!!! So I freakin’ love history as it pertains to the human confrontation that shaped the world we live in. I appreciate stories of political intrigue, and really enjoy the economic concepts that drove so many of the changes, how religion impacted the immigration of masses influencing boundaries, changing world powers. But the lives of the warriors really has a draw for me. How did Viking berserkers live day-to-day, and train for the pressures of battle? What was the upbringing of Mongolian horseman under Ghengis Khan? Were Spartans of Immortals or Samurai simply cold and calculating men so ingrained in the duties and responsibilities of their calling that there was room for naught else? I am currently reading Gates of Fire, a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae, and I am loving it. It is the story of a single boy, a Greek whose home was destroyed by a false ally. As he departs his razed city, a man, delirious with fear and maddened by grief, screams out to  him that the city would have been saved by but a score of Spartan, by a single Spartan. After living as a cityless free born for two years, ravaging the farms he could, at one point being caught and nailed by his hands to a board, he eventually travels to Sparta, believing that in them he will gain the courage, bravery, and training he needs to avenge the loss of his family when he was 10. I am coming near the climax of the story, and it is engaging and informative. It is like The Saxons Tales was for Norse warriors, or Birth of an Empire was for Mongols. Or Ender’s Ga- oh wait, sorry, that one is futuristic fiction. Sorry. But I am currently on my Spartan draw, and I, at this time, want to be the elite warrior of the Greek city states of old.

I would also like to talk about SNC graduation. It was held this past Sunday (Mother’s Day), and I was able to make it up for a few parties, and I got to see some people I hadn’t seen since I left, and some I hadn’t seen since my freshman year (Kaleigh!). I got to hug my school mom, visit with my Zumba instructor, hang out with my old staff, re-visit with my old forensics competition, watch Harry Potter with future graduate mates, and spend some quality time with my family line. I definitely did not get to see everyone, but there is next year for that. I will be back, my friends, on the beautiful campus beside the (probably toxic and mutated) Fox River.

For Mother’s Day, my mommy got up too early for me to make her breakfast, so I simply poured her a bowl of cereal, and, in quoting a Gaelic Storm song, asked if she could get a spaceship in her cereal bowl. I laughed at her telling her I could not do that for her, but when she turned her back I grabbed the nearest bottle of carbonated flavored water and began to cut out fins and wings from a cereal box (I don’t think I have ever typed cereal this many times in my life!), and taped them all together and made a fun little spaceship for my mum. She loved it. The only problem was that the cap was the nose, so it would only be able to go backwards. Oh well! It is still sitting in the fridge, cardboard and all. Well, at Festival today, a man was checking out and dropped a bottle of Fanta. It landed on its tip. It exploded and shot across the floor, straight into our teller counter. Bloody orange spaceships…

Inspire me, my friends!!!

For the same reason that my workout blog was postponed, my regular blog was put on pause. I have not found that I have been very productive or proactive in any way. I have attempted to be rather lackadaisical. I started watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Amazon Instant Video. I have been going to bed rather early (previous to 10 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks). I am even lacking the drive to get up and eat some days because I have convinced myself that the couch is simply too comfy.

I believe this might have stemmed from finishing season 6 of Doctor Who. As with most any series that I obtain an appreciation for, I find myself wanting. When My mom and I finished Chuck, we simply looked at each other and physically connected “let’s just start over and pretend we never finished.” After I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, I looked at all the books I had arrayed on my shelves, and gave in to my refusal to admit the end. I re read the whole series. I am constantly watching movies again, re-reading books, going back through my favorite TV series, because I miss the stories, the excitement, the characters, their struggles. I want to be Neal Caffrey, or Charles Bartowski, sit through a Charms class with Professor Flitwick, or patrol Ahnk-Morpork with Carrot Ironfundersson, or, or, or, or.

I guess what this means is that I find my life too boring. FAAAAAARRRR too boring. So I ask the people who read this to give me ideas or inspiration for their favorite activity or best lifestyle choice, or whatever it is that brings the most joy and excitement into their daily life, cause work and exercise with food and sleep sprinkled in just isn’t doing it for me anymore.