From 7/29/08:
You'd think a day that has a baby pooping all over your shirt during your lunch break had gotten as bad as it was going to get, right?
Wrong! After cleaning that mess up (thank heavens for baby wipes) I had to finish out the day with a mild stain on my shirt. I promise - it didn't smell!
Next on the plate, a long discussion with a team member that had absolutely nothing good come out of it. I'd like to say I was brilliant, but actually I was pathetic. What that person needs, I can't give.
Then on home where I settled down to write in my journal, but was distracted by TV. Law & Order - Special Victims Unit, to be precise.
I was already amused by how fast the crime investigation was being moved along when this over-used gem popped up in the dialogue:
"I used to feel that part of me was missing"....."and then I met X, and he filled that hole".
This show is so lame. I am absorbed in it, but I can predict everything before it happens. And I don't like the way that modern tv (the horrors!) has condensed these complicated cases down to a matter of minutes. Real police work and detective work takes time.
Example, they walk into the lab with a scrap of burned paper.
"There was writing on it, if only we can read it"
Up walks the perky lab assistant - "we can. Hit the lights".
She puts it under a special type of light in the darkened room, flips through about 15 different types of lights, and voila! Message now appears. Problem solved. Or rather another clue appears.
We all know lab work doesn't happen like that. Neither does "chain of custody". So yes, while highly entertaining, it BOTHERS the purist in me! Are we so desperate for entertainment that we have to see a complicated investigation boiled down to 6 different scenes and crime solved?
Ok, so the best part of the whole show was the end - it did redeem itself in the court scenes. Some good acting there, and a bitter twist perpetrated by the good guys on to the bad guys.
So truly, is ANY writing good writing? Cause I could see doing this on a daily basis. Can I be the next Carrie Bradshaw? What would be my shtick?
Oh, I owed you all my story about boot camp! I was supposed to go "try out" boot camp Thursday, Friday and Monday. Thursday didn't happen. Visited with my friend that is running it Thursday night, took TONS of abuse, and committed to being there Friday morning. Didn't. Rolled over in bed, said screw it. And was quite happy about it.
Monday came - I got up. I went - left my house at 5:15 a.m. Song on the radio? It was a sign "Go Rest High on that Mountain" - telling me to go back to bed. Not a very familiar song either, yet was playing. When it was done? Another sign sent to me via the radio waves - "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothing"! I looked down. Yeah, I'm thinking. I don't get dressed up to go to darned boot camp! Yet I still kept driving. In spite of the subliminal messages being sent. Those were the only two songs I heard - yes, I could see the ad now - "Boot Camp - Only Two Songs Away - Convenient for All".
And to prove small worlds get smaller, two neighbors were there, one from my very small reading group! Both sympathetic to my plight. We lined up, did a few stretches. Then right to it - run a lap. 1/4th of a mile. One time all the way around the football field. I jogged, and I made it 3/4th of the 1/4th of the lap. Which was much farther than I ever thought I would get, I was expecting to peter out by the 1/2 point. I was feeling GOOD! I RAN - ok jogged - 3/4 of one WHOLE lap! That was amazing for me, true progress, in my first boot camp.
From that point on I was an advocate. Nothing was too hard. Nothing too intense. I was going to do it all. And then, we "ran" the bleachers...........
Yes, I knew they did that. And yes, the drill sergeant plainly told me, in front of all, that I didn't have to do it. With motivation like that, how can you not? I ask, you - could you take that kind of peer pressure and not rise to the occasion? So UP the steps on the bleachers I went, turn at the top, right back down. "that's not too bad" I think to myself. One more time. Up to the top, turn, right back down. "still doing well". Again. Up to the top, turn, right back down. This time at the top I think I'm there when I'm not. Realize I have one more set of handholds to go. Darn. Back down is just a little bit tougher.
Next set. Up to the top - I seriously consider short cutting it - turn - walk back down.....
Last set. I'm huffing and puffing up. I drag myself, but I clear the pinnacle. I turn, I head back down. The drill sergeant is waiting for me. "Great job" she says - "you did it!. Now let's catch up with the others, we're going to RUN some more!" [go rest high on that mountain plays in my head]
Next challenge? Walk across the field on a diagonal to the other side of the track, then run back to where you started walking from around the track. Do that 3 times. I did it once, told the master sergeant I was walking a lap instead of the last 2. And did. Got my breath back.
Oh, AND THE LUNGES! How can I forget the lunges??? And ain't it GREAT that football fields have natural guidelines on them for master drill sergeants to work into their choreography? Do alternating lunges forward for 20 yards. Then do backwards lunges for another 20 yards. Then do a lunge and pick up your knee for 20 yards. Then do a lunge and kick out - for another 20 yards. (are we at the end of the field yet? If not, I forgot something). I think I walked out the last 30 yards or so, I was done with lunging.
She did let us lay down at the end once we got there. But so we could do situps! And somewhere on that field we did push-ups, but I couldn't tell you where, it became a big blur after awhile. I'm sure there was some more running, too, but that's wiped from my brain from the fun time lunging.
But you know what? An hour went by VERY fast. And I left on an adrenaline high that I loved. I could see craving that stuff. That was yesterday.
Today? Boy, it's been at the front of my mind every step. Every time I get up out of a chair or try to sit down in one. Every ache, every time I touch my shin to try to rub away the pain. Just lifting my legs a bare centimeter to spread out more comfortably on the bed while I'm typing this HURTS! See you all there on Friday?
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