Remembrance

I’ve been chewing on this post, I, Veteran by Adam Glass on and off all day. Though I can’t imagine he intended this, I was bawling by the fourth paragraph and didn’t stop for a long, long time. If rough language offends you for some reason you might want to skip it because he doesn’t mince words. On the other hand, his passionate and razor-sharp narration lays bare his heart and offers poignant insight as to what life for some of our service men and women is like. Besides, you can’t really describe experiences like his without it.

My life as a veteran was pretty far from his: I was in linguistics, not law enforcement. I was surrounded by mostly egg-heads, spooks and good-natured smart asses, not wretched human detritus, criminals and thugs. I suffered little trouble and enjoyed a lot of camaraderie, as well as some very interesting, non-life threatening work. We were in between wars, and I lived in an urban setting about as far from the front line as you can get. I’ve never been anywhere near a theater of war. Holy hell, in my early 20′s I was a walking disaster. I shudder to think how I would have fared in that environment.

One of my Army buddies and I were talking about how odd we feel whenever someone thanks us for our service on Veteran’s Day. I know I took an oath, made some sacrifices, but still. Okay I’ve tried to finish this paragraph like six times now and everything I’ve written just sounds lame. Go read Adam’s post.

And to all our service men and women, past, present and future, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to you and think about you a lot. Not just today either.

 

Enjoying the Journey

Wow, time flies.

I have this crazy desire to account for the weeks I’ve been AWOL from the blog, but I’m sure the three people who read it (hi Mom!) already know where I’ve been/how I’ve been doing anyway, so who cares? Mostly I’ve just been enjoying myself, is the short version:

• CrossFit: Good and steady.
• Diet: On and immensely enjoyable.
• Social Life: Fun.
• Art: Okay I seriously need my ass kicked about this because I haven’t been doing nearly enough of it (see above re: Social Life: Fun.)

But part of the reason I’ve been AWOL – behold my keen self-awareness! – is that a lot of my posts ended up taking so long to write. My goal is to write more often but shorter stuff. Good luck to me with all that.

Yesterday’s WOD was a fun AMRAP of 12:00 of

• 5 pushups
• 10 wallballs (10#)
• 15 kettleblell swings (16kg)

E and Julie play Indo Board Catch, not yesterday's WOD though.

I smashed that WOD with 8 rounds!  I was next to this guy and just kept pace with him. He’d zoom past me on pushups, but I’d catch up with him during the wallballs. Worked pretty well for both of us I think.

The strength portion was snatches, 3-3-2-2-1-1-1. I still am not entirely sure what I’m doing so I got myself up to 75# and worked on my form as best as I could, trying to follow my coach’s directions (butt down, chest up, lock arms, get under bar, etc.)  I guess I’m doing okay but it feels so awkward still. I figure I’m ahead of the curve ball just sticking to it and not getting too frustrated. As my Dear Husband says, I “suck at sucking.”

Pithy, no?

But he’s right; if I’m not really great at something right off the bat I have a tendency to just give up pretty quickly. The problem is, if never let yourself fail you never see where your limits are, or what you need to work on. It’s hard to get better if you only stick with things that come easily. True of a lot of things in life but it’s so evident in CrossFit workouts. So one of my goals recently is to “Embrace the Suck.”  Easier said than done, but nothing worth doing is easy. Hey, at least it’s enjoyable.

Links:

• Speaking of, “Embrace the Suck” and other rules that CrossFitters live by
• Amazing Artwork based on children’s drawings
• Twinkies: still not fit for human consumption. Sorry.
• Instead try these Primal Holiday Desserts that won’t mess with your gut. Best Chocolate Chip cookie recipe I’ve tried.