After one week of doing 25 to 50 push-ups every single day I’m beginning to notice that I can do more push-ups at one time and it feels a lot easier. I’ve been trying to get back in shape since I tried to put on a size 8 pair of jeans the other day and they were a wee bit snug. I’ve decided not to let myself go even the slightest bit, so I’ve started out easy, trying to make it a habit of wanting to exercise while watching TV. My brother the psychology major told me a while ago that we develop habits quickly in relation to watching television. I noticed this at age 8 when I unknowingly made a habit of sitting down every afternoon with a roll of Sweetart candies to watch Animaniacs and Batman. It was only just recently that I’ve noticed I don’t get the munchies when I watch TV anymore. If I can make the munchies a habit, I can make exercising a habit. Now I’m all fidgety when I watch TV - I have to be doing something. I don’t think that’s entirely too bad, though. It’s certainly healthier than just sitting there. And, I’m beginning to feel the difference. After one hundred leg lifts on each side, my legs didn’t burn at all when I ran up two flights of stairs to get from the basement to my room. After all those push-ups, I was able to go through 15 straight push-ups without feeling strained, and it was nice and even movement all the way through.
I’ve never really been too keen on constant exercise. You know, where people get fanatical about it, where they’re literally addicted to double-checking their size in the mirror, shaking if they haven’t gone on their daily jog before noon. That sort of thing. I think that sacrifices a lot and leads to narcissistic behavior. I’m not into that. I knew a lady once who was obviously so proud of her body and her workout regime; she couldn’t go five minutes without rubbing her stomach or outlining her waist, to prove just how tiny she was. That’s just sick. I’m just seriously tired of feeling crappy, and if exercise will help then dang it, I’m going to be more dedicated about it. I’m tired of it being so hard for nurses to draw blood from my arms - they said if I build up more muscle mass on my arms it might make it easier. So I’m going for it, hence the push-ups. And my legs, they ache a lot, I don’t think they’re getting enough exercise. I tried walking every day, but the heat and the bright light of the sun gets to me too much. My eyes don’t react well to really bright sunlight, but my sun glasses always make my head hurt. But, that doesn’t mean I have to quit. Leg lifts while watching a movie, for now, is a good substitute. Pretty soon I may graduate to jumping jacks, if my four-toed foot can handle it.
Good news on the cooking front; I actually remembered to make dinner tonight. I was planning on creating shishkabobs and rice, so I cut up an onion, prepared a marinade, thawed strip steak, and had everything all ready to go. Then I realized sauté would not only be easier, but the only thing possible, since we were out of propane for the grill. As for the rice, well, I didn’t make it in time. The only stuff we had was brown rice, and the package said it was going to take 45 minutes. Whoops.
Anyway, I marinaded the meat for only an hour and a half but it was really flavorful. I sautéd it perfectly and served it with pasta. Little did I know at the time, but I’ve mastered Chinese food. I made perfect Mongolian Beef. I used the Po-Dang Kick-Butt Pork marinade recipe as a base, but added a few twists. A bit more curry here, a touch of tumeric there, a hint of secret ingredients, and voila, a delightful Chinese feast for dinner. Who knew? I think I want to master something new next. My friend Pauline sent me an interesting recipe involving goat cheese and vine leaves, I may just have to try it. :) I also want to attempt to master some form of French cuisine. Not sure what yet, though. I’ve done Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and I’ve helped with Indian food before. On to something new! Ooo, how about weinerschnitzel? (Yes, yes, I know that’s not French. Just a random thought.) That’d be fun. Maybe I’ll just stick to French pastrie-making. I want to learn how to make eclairs and those cute little white meringue cookies. Mmmm. :)
I was very good and didn’t forget John’s party tonight. I arrived right on time, presents in hand, everything was great. He liked everything I got for him. I can’t remember if I mentioned the gifts or not in detail, so I’ll repeat myself. There were two ties, one nice one and one semi-joke tie. The serious one was gorgeous, a black, 100% silk, slightly detailed DKNY. The semi-joke tie was on sale for only $2.50, so I had to get it. Again, 100% silk, but this time it was all satiny… and bright royal purple. It was just too funny not to get. I also made him three CDs of classical music. He’s going on a two year mission for his church, so I couldn’t get him really exciting presents. But, these worked perfectly, and both he and his mother were really impressed with the covers I made. He’s going to Finland for his mission, so I got really amazing pictures from Helsinki off the Internet, turned them all black and white, then did all sorts of complicated stuff to them. Suffice it to say, they looked lovely, and he liked them. Birthday party was a success.
At the party we all played the board game Risk. There were three other teenagers there, Garth, Devon, and Kelsey. The three of them, my brother Steven, John, John’s sister Lis, and I all played against each other trying to take over the world. I quickly conquered Africa and spent several turns just building up in Egypt and North Africa. It was very impressive. We took a break half-way through the game for cake, but while the unsuspecting others were eating their ice cream, I talked to Steve and John (they were a team) about world domination. We formed an alliance that they could keep their somewhat weak hold on North America and I would allowed them to move to South America as long as I wouldn’t have to worry about defending Iceland or North Africa from their attacks. We agreed to sweep into Asia and defeat the two remaining players there. It worked perfectly. At the end of the game, I moved 350 armies from the Ukraine to Afghanistan, whilst Steven and John were advancing 280 armies on Siam, at which point the two remaining parties gave up. Our plan worked, and it was the first time I’d ever won a game of Risk. Mostly because I’ve only ever played against my brothers and my dad, and since both Kevin and Tim were the only French-speaking members of the family, they’d form the infamous French Alliance and wipe us all out. That, and I was under the age of 12 most of the time. What chance did I really have?
Risk is such a wonderful game. Teaches such great morales and it’s very educational… tee hee.
I absolutely love my new TV Capture Card. I have a week’s worth of episodes of my favorite shows - about 15 episodes - and thanks to my new harddrive, I still have 29gigs left to record on before a lovely package from Sujit arrives. He’s being ever so sweet and sending me video editing software, so I can cut out commercials and things. Cool, eh? As soon as that arrives I’ll learn how to handle video editing, cut out commercials, and burn, baby, burn! VCDs, that is. :)
But as for right now, considering how incredibly late it is, I’ll be heading to bed. Probably shouldn’t have had so much sugar at the party… :)