I told you!

I told you to come back and there'd be another entry! My job can just be really boring. Very left-brained work, so I have to take frequent breaks or I will melt.

Speaking of work, on our last day in Maui back in January, our office manager quit. Guess who took her job?! It's been nice because I get paid a lot more, but I am doing more work, and it's not fun work. I like doing all the website stuff, but I don't like all the contracts. Many of our contracts are with countries I won't name for fear of evil men coming for me in the night, but they are the biggest, most corrupt bureaucracies on Planet Earth and as such they require oogles of paperwork. It's so awful. Definitely not what I pictured myself doing, or what I even want to be doing, but it's a good job and I am lucky/blessed to have it. I mean, I work from 7 am to 3 pm! It's awesome! And I'm still teaching piano lessons a few days a week during the school year.

Sometimes I feel actual shame over my job. When I was in college, I really wanted to be a music critic and write for Pitchfork or some dumb blog, or be famous. I still wish I were a famous singer, preferably in a rad band. I miss playing in bands. Now I guess I don't care, and that's my problem. I'd love to be someone, not just an office manager for some oil and gas firm, but you know, life is about many other things. In some ways, I am so glad I have this job because it doesn't define me at all! My poor boss is such a workaholic I don't think he'll ever retire. And then he'll be this 95-year-old cute little Jewish man saying, 'I'm so glad I have so much money to die with.' Yeah, right. I feel liberated by the fact that I am me, independent of anything in my life. At the same time I spend 40 hours a week doing something I really don't like! But it's okay. If I really hated it, I would leave!!

Jeff is in the last semester of the first year of his Masters in Education Administration. One more year! Not sure what the year after that will bring, except that we are open to staying in Texas and moving away from Houston. We like Texas. Who knew? Jeff is a really good husband. He was stressed this year with school and work, and I was stressed suddenly picking up more of the load around the house, but we figured it out and now things are peachy. Now he gets to be Mr. Mom because he has summer break! Someday soon I'll tell you about the trips we've taken this year and the trips we're taking soon.

Back in the winter we quit going to our Crossfit gym and bought all the junk so now we work out in our garage. We were thinking about long-term affordability, and owning the equipment is definitely the way to go. I'll admit, we got out of shape there for awhile, ate what we wanted and didn't think much of it. Getting out of shape after being in such great shape was not fun. I don't think we will make that mistake again. We've been working out steadily the past month or two, so we're back on the wagon at least. Because Jeff is now out of school and has tons of time, we've started a strength training program. We're both looking to make some gains in our main lifts (squats, deadlifts, standing press, and bench press), so we started using the Wendler 5/3/1 system, as of this morning.

This is Jim Wendler. He is a former strong man competitor. 

At a weight of 275 pounds, he lifted a 1,000-pound squat (as shown in the picture), 675-pound bench press and a 700-pound deadlift. I just can't even fathom how his bench press and deadlift are so close in weight, as usually these two lifts differ greatly in max weight. Obviously, Jim Wendler is the man.

These lifts are something we're used to but haven't strictly focused on. We'll lift three days a week, conditioning on Tuesdays, yoga Thursdays, sprints on Saturdays. Since Jeff is ditching me for class every afternoon/evening, I'm going to work in some extra conditioning at night, rowing, kettlebell work, whatever. Just keeping it light and easy so I can save myself for lifting HEAVY. Now, before you go thinking Jeff and I are going to get a huge and nasty, don't worry! I have no interest in consuming the amount of food needed to get that big. But if you want to be strong, you've gotta lift heavy!

Jeff's birthday is Thursday, so everybody tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! IT'S THE BIG 2-8!!!