the promised video

it took a lot longer to get it finished than i expected. new camera, new software, unexpected snafu's but it is finally up. so enjoy and see if you can find mr ab. shot.

a little help for my friends

sometimes i read over my posts and i think wow, if someone who didn't know me read my blog they would likely think i am part narcissist, part uber-bitch. but i think much like shrek tried to explain to donkey in the movie shrek i am like an onion because i have layers.

you may have noticed, if you check my blog regularly, that i have been posting daily. there is a reason behind my posting frequency, it was not because i felt i had that much to say but rather i posted to support a friend. who was working through a 30 day challenge.

i am proud to say that he knocked his challenge out of the park. i think that he was pleasantly surprised with his ability to finish his challenge, by calibre of work he was able to produce and mostly by the public reaction to his photographs.

i have known this man for years, i guess in some ways we have grown as adults together. i know that i have always thought he was talented. even as far back as when i was able to watch him progress as a bmx rider and later in life when he shared his painted works with me and finally most recently when his started to express himself in photographs. there is a big difference between being aware of how you are perceived by others and seeing what they see for yourself. i know this because i constantly struggle with that challenge.

if i could be granted one wish for him it would be the hope that he would soon master what i cannot.

today i took my camera to the gym and i recorded my workout. i did that for a couple of reasons. one because i really want to make sure that my technique is solid. the other reason was my main objective. the internet can be a wonderful place. one of the things it has afforded me is the ability to communicate with people who share my passion for the lady vols. one of the women that i know now is the journalist who covers the team.

she shared not too long ago that she has breast cancer and was facing surgery. well as you can imagine our little community was floored and we were moved to do something to show our support during this challenging time. a t-shirt was designed and many of us purchased the shirt. the proceeds from the sale went to her to help offset her costs. the plan was to wear the shirts during the last lady vol home game. those of us who were unable to be at the game were supposed to wear our shirts as well. my shirt was in transit and i did not receive it until the week after the game.

i still needed to show my support and since today was the day of her surgeries i wore my shirt to the gym. my plan is to edit my training video and i share it with her. i want her to know that even though i am far away i still have her back.

she successfully made it through both of her surgical procedures today which is the best possible news.

singles awareness day

last night while on twitter a fellow lady vol fan coined the greeting 'happy singles awareness' day. it was his response to the nonsense that is the 14th of february. now as someone who has only ever celebrated singles awareness day on february 14th i will go him one better.

i do not think that it is soley this day in february that is designed to remind people exactly how single they are. i think that the february observance signals the end of the season of singles awareness. the singles awareness season begins around the 25th of december. the 31st of december is another of the season's noted days then the month of january rolls around. by then you are reeling from the excesses of december and i think it lulls you into a false sense of security.

then suddenly february 14th hits you like a louisville slugger right across the bridge of your nose. suddenly everyone and their dog wants to wish you a happy valentine's day. my favourite valentine sentiments are from those coupled folks who don't want to alienate their single friends. they usually proceed to add footnotes to their valentine greetings.

"i want to wish all of my friends a happy valentine's day. even the single people who clearly are too stupid to find love, lust or even another sonofabitch willing to buy them a $5 hallmark card"*

*it is possible that my single's awareness day hostility has caused me to paraphrase the footnote somewhat. but for the record i emphatically state that i am not bitter... much.

i'm ready for my close-up mr demille

it is time, i think, to start taking a camera to the gym. it has been far too long since i've done a form check and without a training partner, a camera is necessary to ensure that i am not setting myself up for injury.

there are a couple concerns that come along with bringing a camera to the gym. for example i frequently end up with some one walking through the shot. the other is the strange looks i get while i'm filming my workouts. although i generally don't think that i intentionally do things that attract attention to myself. the fact is that i am a female who is generally lifting a lot more than people expect me to, so the reality is that i know that i generally have a lot more attention than i am comfortable with. busting out a camera is not going to make that change for the better.

the upside, i guess is for those who are interested, there soon will be new videos up on my youtube channel.

shorty shake that thang like a pro mann*

sometimes while doing cardio i glance around the gym and note some of the other training styles. for fun i sometimes even try to figure out what their training goals might be. as you can know some folks are at the gym specifically to gain basic health benefits and others clearly have sport specific or career specific goals.

which bring us to what i saw today. i think i shall nickname this woman 'nightclub neda'. this particular woman's training style suggests she has physique goals in mind. in fact i am fairly confident that she is a competitor however of late i have noticed a fairly peculiar behavioural pattern.

from time to time 'nightclub neda' positions herself in front of a mirror. she raises up onto the balls of her feet as though she were wearing heels and she proceeds to do a slow, hip-rolling, shoulder swaying two-step. if she were just dancing in front of the mirror i don't think i would find it as peculiar but she watches herself intently as she dances. it looks like she is trying to figure out what works best.

now before you accuse me of being mean i should add, in my defence, that i am giving the woman a hell of a lot of credit. truth be told she is a mere pelvic undulation away from earning the title of 'stripper stacey.'

you would think after thirteen years i'd stop being amazed by what i see on the gym floor.

*my apologies to 50 cent but his lyric really kinda fit this post... knawmean?

patience... i have none

you may have noticed that i haven't shared any updates on the basketball story that i had been working on. there is a reason for that. i wrote a game sequence as i felt that a basketball story without a scene on the courts would not be much of a basketball story. the problem is that i never played the game. so i relied heavily on my imagination and flavoured it with things that happened in games that i had watched.

'getting it right' is important to me and i felt it prudent to share that chapter with someone who played collegiate basketball competitively. sadly my story still seems to be loitering somewhere in her in-box. i have yet to hear her thoughts. if you know me well you know that i have pretty much convinced myself that she thinks that it is all garbage and she struggling to fine a polite way to suggest i take up knitting.

yes i confirmed she received the document. on one had it has been a little over a week. i am trying like hell to remain positive and to remain patient... but it is a struggle.

opinions are like assholes...

there are many things that are wonderful about the internet and there are some that are not. one of the downsides of the internet is that it allows people the opportunity to say pretty much whatever they feel like anonymously. some of it can be very hurtful and not accidentally hurtful but hurtful by intent.

i frequently talk about my lady vol basketball team. the lady vol nation, the fan base is an interesting animal. we the fans have our favourite players and many fans feel better qualified to coach the team than the four people who are being paid by the university of tennessee. the lady vol nation loves their lady vols to death  and yet they can viciously tear into these young women.

as a sport fan you have to be able to recognize that on any given sunday a team that shouldn't be beat can be beat. a player that usually hits shots can suddenly have trouble hitting the broad side of a barn. when the wheels fall of the proverbial bus the lady vol nation is almost collectively suicidal. the critique of players, their game, the coaches and coaching decisions can often be brutal. but you know what is most unusual? when the team still manages to secure the win and the critique is no less brutal.

we have a message board that we post on. what i think many people forget is that not only do the fans have access to the message board but so too do the friends and families of the players. two weeks ago a poster appeared on the message board. from the language in her posts two things were quite clear; one was that she was quite young and desperately trying not to sound young and two that she was quite close to meighan simmons the lady vol shooting guard.

for reasons that i have never been able to understand meighan, who is and always has been one of our more consistant players has been decimated on the boards. she is unfairly accused of being a ball hog and when she isn't having a good shooting night they tear her apart for not having a shot. there are many of us on the board who defend the player who, on many nights, is one of the only things keeping our team in the game. but as it often happens the squeaky wheel makes the most noise and sadly that seems to be the voice heard the loudest.

during the post game interview after meighan had been named player of the game for the sixth time this season, she said that she wanted to prove that she was a team player. she said that not once by twice. so clearly the message, as undeserved as it was, had made it's way to the player's ears.

this supposed ball hog is third on the team for assists sitting behind the two players who's primary role is point guard. for those unfamiliar with the game of basketball the point guard is the floor general who is most often responsible for dishing the ball off to those in position to score. it is usually the point guards with the highest number of assists.

meighan if fast, she it talented and she is a very passionate player. she is a freaking joy to watch. i mean she literally disappears she moves so fast with the ball. i am thrilled that she plays for my favourite team. i just wish people would remember if you can't say anything nice, shut your festering gob.

in case there is any doubt meighan simmons is my favourite player.

go meighan simmons, go lady vols!!!

what the hell did i just watch?

it was just another dull saturday and i thought i would entertain myself by checking out some of the on-demand offerings from the movie network. i struggled with my selections as my options really embodied the concept of slim pickings.

the first movie i am almost ashamed to say i sat through. it was 'goon' staring seann william scott. i generally enjoy sports movies and figured that even i would like a hockey movie. i was very, very wrong.

determined to salvage the night i thought i would try a movie starting stephen dorff, a very talented actor who's work i frequently enjoy. this picture was called 'somewhere'. after 98 minutes, i would really like to be able to tell you what the movie was about. and you would think after 98 minutes i would have some sort of an idea.

i think the problem was that i wandered too far off the reservation. i typically enjoy movies in the action genre. the kind of movie that would pit the hero or heroine against a battalion of terrorists. the hero or heroine would be armed with the equivalent of a starter's pistol while the terrorists would be armed to the teeth with every form of automatic weaponry known to man.

armed only with the starter's pistol, their cunning and an almost completely unrealistic amount of luck the hero or heroine would begin to systematically dispatch the terrorists one by one. the hero or heroine should only sustain minor injuries no matter how violent the scene. there should be hand-to-hand combat, explosions, fire fights and car chases.

the kind of movie that i enjoy is not likely to debut at a film festival nor is it likely to win a motion picture award. well unless it was for special effects.

so with that regard it does make sense that i didn't enjoy the stephen dorff movie. somewhere debuted at the venice international film festival and it won the golden lion award for best picture. all i can tell you about that movie is that it shot right over my head.

in other news 'a good day to die hard', starring bruce willis, opens thursday night!

snowmageddon 2013

they said it would come and i for one did not believe them. at least once every winter they predict a crippling snowstorm. one that is supposed to tie the handcuff the city. they would promise hip-high snow drifts, traffic snarls, freezing rain, locusts, skurvy and pestilence.

what usually happens is a flake or two and a half an inch of snow in lieu of the predicted twelve. so yesterday when the news of the storm to end all storms came down, my reaction was simply... yeah, whatev's.

it did start to snow last night and it kept at it all through the night. i woke up this morning and they reported white-out driving conditions. they recommended people stay home and stay off the roadways as there had already been accidents and several vehicles stuck in the ditch.

i sat at home and i tried to decide whether i'd brave the elements or going back to bed. suddenly i heard a cacophony of sirens. it didn't sound like a single vehicle, it sounded like it was a fleet. it was at that moment i decided to become one with my sealy posturepedic.

two hours later i once again toyed with the idea of going to work. one look out my bedroom window cured me of that thought. the street in front of my house had not been cleared and there was a substantial amount of snow piled onto it. my car with its low profile tires was buried in the driveway. it my dad and i two hours to clear the snow and free our vehicles. my father armed with his trusty snow thrower and me with a shovel.

there is something about large quantities of snow that increases the idiot factor. allow me to cite some examples from today:

as i mentioned my dad and i were trying to clear the snow from our driveway. the woman next door jumped into her suv and backed out onto the roadway and promptly got stuck. by the power of 'rock and roll' she was able to make her way back into her driveway. my father and i went over to provide neighbourly back-up. she was determined to leave and i was perplexed. if she couldn't get her car out onto the street how was she going drive on it? i asked her if she had four-wheel drive. apparently it did and i suggested she put the vehicle into four-wheel low. she asked me to show her how to do that. what is the point of having four-wheel drive in your suv if you don't know how to engage it? i pointed out the switch marked all-wheel drive. she started the vehicle pressed the button and slid out of the driveway like a greased pig. last i saw she was happily motoring up the street.

my dad got it into his head that he absolutely had to go shopping. my dad's vehicle does not have awd or 4wd and the street in front of the house had yet to be plowed. my dad was out of the house for three minutes when my mother called me. i looked out the window and my dad's car is on a 45 degree angle in front of the house. he isn't going anywhere. i got back into my wet snow clothes and i went out onto the street to give my dad a push. no dice.

i grabbed a shovel and i was out there shoveling the street in my effort to dig my dad's car out. i alternated between pushing the car, shoveling the snow and i may have said some unpleasant things about the car's mother. i definitely remembered making the suggestion that my father's car was a female dog.

eventually we got the car back into the driveway. the entire vehicle and all its windows were completely snow covered again. my dad couldn't see shit in any direction. once we had the car in the driveway i wanted him to turn off the engine and call it a day. my father in his infinite wisdom wanted to try to blindly back his car around mine. the experience ended when i stood in front of his car screaming and gesturing wildly with the shovel. suddenly he saw the light, parked the car and got out.

there is a rule on the iternet "pics or it didn't happen." so to that end:

contemplating the navel

sometimes while i sit at the lights i look around and check out the businesses in the area. if there are signs and i have the time i might peruse them. earlier this week i was looking at the sign that detailed all the services provided by a north york wellness centre. of all the signs i was most perplexed by the one that said "navel therapy." as i continued on my drive to work i couldn't help but wonder exactly what navel therapy might entail.

since i have a rather warped sense of humour i amused myself with the thought of a defeated sunkist orange on a couch telling a therapist all about its tree issues. "with 40 brothers and sisters i never felt like i had my mother's attention and then before i was truly mature i was yanked right out of her arms."

i eventually got curious and googled navel therapy. it turns out it has to do with mixing herbal medicine's into a paste. the paste is then wedged into the client's navel. another option is a navel massage which is supposed to increase circulation and fix a battalion of other issues.

if anyone of you has ever tried navel therapy you gotta tell me all about it.

free-range miche

well my work day started out a far more exciting than i would have liked. i drove to work just as i have been every day this week. i paid for parking and made my way inside the building. my first hint that something was amiss should have been that i could not get into the building. the front door was locked. what was amusing was the woman who walked up to the door with me who felt there was something wrong with my door opening techniques. after my attempts proved unsuccessful she attempted to push and pull at the doors in practically an identical sequence. i can't say that i was surprised that her attempts proved to be just as unsuccessful. she reached into her bag and produced a pass card that she placed in front of a card reader and the door miraculously slid open.

i entered the elevator with two other people. the door closed and the elevator rose two floors. it made a strange shudder and then nothing. i looked up at the other woman in the elevator who said, "well that's not good." have i ever mentioned how claustrophobic i am?

i closed my eyes put my hand up to my face and focused on not losing my shit. the other two seemed to stand there calmly although every so often i could hear the woman pushing the elevator buttons. i did not help, i was busy. keeping 170 lbs of miche calm took every available resource i had.

the elevator probably wasn't stalled out for long. i will admit that i did not time the experience and i am also willing to accept that the experience likely didn't last as long as i thought it did. but i will also admit that it lasted longer than i would have liked it to.

eventually the doors opened on the second floor and the woman and i stepped out. i asked her to direct me to the stairwell, my new very best friend, for the rest of the week i will be taking the stairs.

paging dr. miche

my dermatologist writes me a prescription for a moisturizer with a 20% glycerin solution. usually she gives me the prescription with several repeats and usually for a 450 g jar. for what ever reason last time she wrote 250 g in error. since i use the moisturizer at least a couple times a day the 250 g jar does not go very far. further if one suffers from eczema, as i do, you get flare ups from time to time. during a flare ups it is not uncommon for me to apply it more frequently.

i only mention that because of an interesting exchange i had while attempting to call my prescription into my local pharmacy. the young woman who answered the phone checked my r.x. number was alarmed that the prescription had been filled two weeks prior. i assured her that it had and that i still needed a refill. she was still very concerned by the two week time span.

now who am i to tell the woman how to do her job but as god is my witness i had never heard of anyone o.d.-ing on lotion. but i am not a member of the medical community so i could be wrong. i had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today and i got her to write a new prescription for the larger amount. i did share my experience with her and even the doctor replied with a baffled, "but it's just moisturizer!"

so perhaps i could have gone to med school after all.

and if for a second you believe that... could i interest you in a title to the peace bridge* that i just happen to have handy here in my back pocket?

*the peace bridge

me and my family

as i drove to work today i listened to the y108. the two radio hosts had been discussing the super bowl. one of the things that they mentioned was the exchange that occurred between the brothers harbaugh, the opposing coaches, after the game. the hosts were convinced that the older coach, the winning coach, told his brother that he loved him. the younger brother's response was supposedly an awkward congratulations.

you know i wonder sometimes what it might be like to be that much in the public eye. where people are watching and recording your every conversation.

i can tell you right now that if someone were ever to pay that kind of attention to me with my family, i would not come across well. not only am i generally non-demonstrative by nature but i am also reserved and not a fan of the p.d.a. my behaviour is not likely to be any different after a loss. but if the rest of the world doesn't know that about me then i can see where they might think that my reaction had to do with the outcome of the game.

i am reminded of a time when i was in the mall with a friend. i saw my brother and he and i spoke briefly. we arranged to meet outside of a store because i had offered to drive him home. we split and went our separate ways. my friend wanted to know who that 'man' was. she was shocked to learn that he was my brother. she felt that we should have interacted differently as family and that we almost appeared to be strangers. our reaction is how we are, the interaction would have been the same had it been either of my brothers.

my point and i do have one is that sometimes you shouldn't read too much into what you see.

back day fail

i had higher hopes for today's back workout. i really did. i think i realized early in this back training cycle that i wasn't training properly to get what i needed done. the fault is all mine, i own it. i will have to do a better job next back cycle. the sad part of it all is that it will be three months before i am back to... back.

the next cycle is chest and it starts on tuesday. what i haven't decided yet is flat bench, incline bench, incline db's? one of those three exercises has to be my strength goal. i need to figure it out by tomorrow night. before i step on the floor tuesday otherwise i am going to end up with another disappointment.

it is time to start lifting with my damn head.

it's so hard to say good-bye to yesterday... again

i am happy to report that you can once again navigate safely from the bedroom door to my desk without negotiating around the mountain that was my pre-purge staging area.

unfortunately that also means that my stuff is gone. earlier today i loaded up the car. the last time i went to the dump my father went along with me. this time had he been moved to accompany me his sole option would have been to jog alongside the car. sadly i am not lying the car was that full. it does boggle the mind how much stuff one can acquire through the years. stuff that is just so painful to get rid of yet i rarely, if ever, looked at or used them.

after i returned i was discussing this very phenomenon with the poor boy... hmm it has been years since he has used that moniker i wonder if he even acknowledges it? oh well i am sure he will let me know after he peruses this post. but alas i digress.

poor boy asked me how i felt after having completed the purge. i told him that on the one hand i was relieved that it was over, the staging pile was approaching dizzying heights and i seriously considered setting up scaffolds for safety. but there was still a side of me that was saddened by the loss of my things and another that fears i will wake up with a face full of regret.

anyway storm1 had asked that i share a memory with the class but unfortunately the skating magazines had long since been sent onto their final rest. however i still had my x-games credentials so perhaps that will be an acceptable substitute?

back to the grind?

seconds before the clock struck 9 a.m. i received a call from my freelance agency. they told me that my services were required, for the day, at a studio in east york. i was to report as soon as i could get there. at the time of the call leaving the house was the furthest thing from my mind but since i need the cash i plugged in the after burners and got ready for a day of work.

it was a nice friendly studio and the requirement was something that i haven't done before. that is one of the benefits of working as a freelance artist. you get to experience different studios, work on different accounts and learn new techniques. i am unsure how long this assignment will last and i suppose that is one of the disadvantages of working contractually. sometimes you get a long gig, sometimes a short one, sometimes your working steady and sometimes your sitting at home for extended periods watching your bank balance dip to dangerous levels.

i will be going back there on monday and with any luck i will be there for the balance of the week.

so keep your fingers crossed people!

thanks in advance.