a week to reflect - ii

[... continued]

pg called last week and it was really nice speaking to her. she's decided she's done with england and resigned herself to being israeli... oh, well.

---dating:

i've been keeping an eye on the dating sites; i've so far seen a couple of profiles that were worth trying to communicate with. most of the girls online are either totally unattractive physically or entirely uninteresting.

last week at ju-jitsu i was paired up with a sexy, large girl with a great attitude and who's so naturally flexible that she's practically impossible to submit. i was almost too attracted to her to focus on the task at hand, with jiu-jitsu things get pretty intimate...

a really cute girl "claimed" me in boxing friday night, and i'm kicking myself for have missed two perfectly good opportunities to ask her out. dammit!

---training:

hayfever makes for difficult training.

our boxing instructor made me feel like shit last week, but this week he made it clear that the grief he was giving me was actually his way of saying i've established myself. when i realized that my enthusiasm returned even stronger than before. so much so that i've been happily working through my jump rope issues: my new rope needs to be whipped down on every stroke and it's an insanely tough workout. by the time we've warmed up my arms are already strained and then i add actual boxing... i'm already feeling a lot tougher after just a few days of that!

one of the guys was sweating profusely the other night and our instructor was giving him shit for it. i couldn't resist:
"oh my god, that's disgusting! i've never seen anyone sweat so much!"
as soon as everyone realized what i was referring to we all had a good laugh :)

i was surprised to learn that the beginner mats' jiu-jitsu instructor's jewish - i heard him talking about the birthright program with another guy and felt like i was in the twilight zone.

i'm gonna miss boxing with scrapper. there's a noticeable difference working with a friend who you know you can push and who knows can push you. one embarrassing incident, though - he was talking to the substitute instructor and i thought he was done. i made as if to strike him and then realized that all eyes were still on him...

...

friday night a couple of the guys invited me to spar with them after the class. the primary objective was for me to learn to defend myself. i didn't really get that far, but it was a bloody good start. i gotta say that it's terrifying to see or almost-see a punch coming for you and it's really hard for me to keep my eyes open and feet grounded. every moment is breathless anticipation of being tagged, and with these guys tags are pretty jarring.

even more upsetting was taking an opportunity to beat up on one of them and realizing too late that i'd thrown all my technique out the window and didn't have my hands up. shit!

...

i began today with an awesome sparring session; it was my first time in the octagon and while we started with boxing we ended up with muay thai.

i do not have what it takes to stare down a spinning backfist.
i do not have what it takes to stare down a spinning backfist.
i do not have what it takes to stare down a spinning backfist.

---last thursday (august 22^nd):

it appears that the metro braking system isn't automated. i witnessed a train stopping too late, and all the people waiting to get out got to watch us for a minute before continuing on to the next station. what a bummer!

...

how 'bout that? all it took to make a shitty day great was an early happy hour, great jiu-jitsu and killer kickboxing, and a stupidly delicious chinese meal out.

---friday:

waking up: muscles relaxed, brain relaxed, window fan whirring, the perfect combination to make me want to just lie in bed and slip in and out of consciousness. but alarms. and crunch time. and reality.

i left very late on friday night, picked up scrapper and took him for indian on the way to vfmp's with thunderstone. the meal was delicious, and thunderstone was brilliant. we played until 3 or 4am with vfmp and his buddies, great beer and games, fun attitude and non-stop funny commentary.

the pre-dawn air was wonderful! it was a little chilly, though, and i was ready to crash. on our way home the taxi driver tried to gas us (he closed the windows before letting rip with a most offensive fart) and drove so fast we were sure he was suicidal.

---saturday:

scrapper and i went to see kickass ii, which was especially cool because we'd seen the first one together. we both enjoyed it immensely, although it wasn't quite as wonderful as the first one. i was surprised by how great jim carrey was and it makes him even more of an asshole for hating on the film.

we went to sports experts so scrapper could pick up some things and i saw a lumogreen hoodie from under armor that was so brilliant i wasn't sure i could pull it off. it would take some mulling over later before i decided that i had to have it.

godmother told me that things were happening on monkland and we decided to check it out, very fortunately running into newk'd. we enjoyed the little street festival, then went to maz for a night of booze, awesome pool and air hockey, breaking to have dinner at shaika across the road (nice place!) and to catch the tail end of a pretty good hip hop performance.

newk'd's girlfriend was defeated in pool by a psychotic dude who took himself way to seriously, and they asked me to please avenge them. getting the rules sorted out was a negotiation, and at one point he became certain that newk'd had talked shit about him and i needed to calm him down. i kicked his ass in spite of large quantities of alcohol and my focus difficulties, and walked out feeling like a hero.

...

i'm not at liberty to share who scored the quote of the day:
"my ex-girlfriend, who was black - i mean she's still black but she was my girlfriend..."

---sunday:

waking up late and hitting starbucks to Get Shit Done without disturbing scrapper or being distracted by him. we did some major shopping at loblaws where i managed to piss him off (my reaction to his not hearing me wasn't particularly considerate), and we proceeded to saint laurent which was supposed to be like monkland the day before but it kind of sucked. i picked up dodgy indian food as we entered and i regretted it almost immediately - the experience of it, not after-effects. to make up for that we went to aux vivres which was awesome.

we walked through la fontaine, sitting down to chat for a while, and i was surprised to see it actually filled with water :P
on our way to piknic electronik scrapper had an epiphany relating to a philosophical point we've been discussing for years now, and he took that with to the party. piknic wasn't great, something about the crowd was a bit weird, but dj bliss was bloody amazing and we enjoyed that.

we got home late, watched devilman: the birth and then passed out. the movie was entertaining, but it's totally weird that the biggest action sequence was boring.

i went to bed feeling the purest exhaustion i've felt in a long time.

---monday:

morning: "beauty snooze" - i was very lucky to wake up on time without my alarm...

after training: it was great training and weather that made me feel good. the indian place was closed so we did chinese, i burned my mouth and was pretty upset with myself because it would have tasted even better otherwise.

we spent the evening discussing biological technological applications and capped it with a reading from ryan north - to be or not to be. it's genius!

---tuesday:
epic dreams of revolution. wearing wednesday socks threw my sense of what day it was out of whack.

there was a dinner fail, we didn't find anything to watch on netflix and closed the day playing a card game scrapper'd picked up that was pretty good.

---wednesday:

a sense over the whole night that i wasn't quite sleeping, just waiting. i woke up hurting badly and exhausted, and dragged myself to the office to meet with moonlighter and then escape. the meetings took longer than expected, but i returned home and napped for about forty five minutes and that made a world of difference.

even so, i attacked the code that i was supposed to be manipulating and after hours of struggling still couldn't figure out if i should write it from scratch or just keep trying. i was most unhappy.

boxing: sweaty yet relaxed, practicing defense. i need a lot more of that.

we just made it in time for a big and delicious indian dinner, then went downtown for an uninspiring beer before returning home. i was properly tired and even fell asleep on the metro...

---thursday:

scrapper's alarm failed so it's good i was planning on seeing him to the airport. i'd discovered a taxi iphone app and organizing the ride there was nice and easy. we had coffee, said goodbye and i went straight to the office.

three coffees and i was still feeling weak. i left late and was feeling wasted, i was on my way to kickboxing and i simply couldn't understand why i was still going... i must be seriously addicted. most of the lesson was disappointing, but some of it was useful and we had a good finish so we i left it was with a sense that it had been worth it. my evening disappeared in the internets and i went to bed relatively early.

---friday:

i woke up feeling pretty good.

happy hour: excellent lunch money game! i'd bought it based on a vague memory, the kinds of things that came out were a lot of fun.

there's something magical about walking in the rain all the way to get food at subway and finding it closed. i learned about twerking and hurriedly finished my application to mars one.

i watched the second episode of black mirror on scrapper's recommendation and was blown away by it.

---saturday:

i began the day realizing that nobody cares about my laundry problems. and i'm not the only one with them. and the dryer doesn't work again.

i posted the previous entry, took a slow meandre downtown with a decent cup of coffee, and bought the luminous green hoodie i'd seen with scrapper the week before. apparently retail therapy doesn't work if you don't like shopping. i'm glad i got what i needed, but that's as far as it goes...

i ate a crappy tofu meal, and between the ride downtown and back played plenty of penny arcade: gamers versus evil. i love that game.

vfmp and his boyfriend came over for thunderstone and lunch money, i made a quick salad dinner and we headed to the village to watch the ufc fights live at a sports bar. it was a pretty awesome night.


---today:

i'm now hurriedly finishing this before heading to godmother's for dinner. i woke up early for sparring, and walked out of the gym into the most beautiful, hot summery day of blue skies and pleasant breezes. i had a quick subway lunch and am proud of myself for not getting involved in the ridiculously uninformed bible debate between two women sitting near me, then took my snowboard to poubelle du ski for renewal.

in retrospect, i should have bought the board but it was too late by the time i realized it. in the meanwhile, i'll enjoy another year of any damage being their problem. i got groovy new boots - bright orange with "nitro" written across them. so my new boots tell me "memento mori". how appropriate...

weekend flash

back to the rest of thursday:

discovering that jock's "mixed" (i think "mulatto" isn't politically correct) was a bit of a surprise: he really does come across as the all-american (even though he's canadian) caucasian ideal. cool.

so, training was hardcore. i actually winded myself towards the end of the endurance / power training in the ring; my partner had already kicked me so hard during his turn that even with a giant pad between us it was the same as conditioning and i was hurting. the man's 49 and a tank, when he asked me my age he made me feel as if in reality our numbers were switched.

i don't think i'd agree to spar with him. not unless i level up a few more times. he told me, and he's right, that i need to learn to pace myself better.

instead of eating dinner, i went downtown to meet aota for drinks. we sat on a loud sidewalk nursing pints and fries, and aside from very loud drunks wandering out from the beer festival it was a cool evening.

nocence messaged me about a potential illustrator - i didn't want to get too excited, but it was certainly positive news :)

---friday:

i woke up feeling the previous evening: it was totally worth it. that *good* semi-hungover bright morning sunlight streaming in while slowly getting ready for work in a daze.

i had a very positive experience with amazon web services, not hurt by my demolishing a delicious vegan-friendly dessert aota had picked up from the bakery while i was working on them. the weather was fantastic, and my lunch break walk outside was highly enjoyable. i got all excited when i found a protein supplement called hemp pro 50, but learned very quickly that it's the foulest-tasting thing on the market! it tastes like licking a dirty handrail in a cowshed. i managed to get down half of it, and then spent the next hour trying to forget the taste.

happy hour: i read preacher to the group because jock's comments about lupe fiasco had inspired it, only megaman was there and i think he was shocked by my language. i usually don't curse in my poetry, but the voice in the poem isn't mine. only i didn't think to mention that.

newk'd, jock and i played pool for a while. really good pool, it was a lot of fun!

it was hot and i was sweaty when i got home, so i had a quick shower and couldn't figure out what i wanted to do. only, i knew that i wanted to be outside. so i put on my running shorts, strapped on my iphone and activated zombies, run! for the first time in ten months. my knee is still a little sensitive so i'm trying to improve my form. that's why i'm not going fast enough to be chased...

i watched the raid redemption (excellent! similar feel to dredd) and then got stuck into fitday. fitday freaked me out when it informed me that on average i'm consuming 1500 calories less than i should be. i don't know what made me think that posting that information on facebook was a good idea. it would take me until this morning to find a reliable source to make me feel like i'm doing alright.

---saturday:

urchin finally responded to my hails, and what she had to say blew me away. she's currently in the middle of a half a year of pretty severe cancer treatment and she's had nobody to talk to about it - she's even kept it a secret from her family. i kind of understand why, but oh my gods (O_o)
at least she's finally talking to me about it...

i didn't manage to stop thinking about that for most of the day, except during the two hours of magic that was to come. i met up with nocence at l'artere and we waited for mason, but due to a miscommunication he was waiting for us at cagibi. no matter, it was a short walk on a nice day. the introduction was comfortable and although my explanation was all over the place, he didn't just follow but actually participated in what became a discussion about where this is all going. he knows enough to follow what i'm doing, and his art style is detailed and dark which is absolutely perfect. we're meeting up tomorrow after work to see if we can produce something ^_^

i took a walk to fbdm (the montreal comic festival) stopping for a sandwich at la casa del popolo to try and get my head around the meeting that had taken place. i was so excited! but after i left i began to feel the oppressive heat and my stomache got irritable and my bag weighed down on me... even so, la fontaine park was a wonderful experience - it's my new favourite place in montreal! masses of all sorts of people doing such very different things, most just relaxing on towels as if it's a beach. very cool :)

the comics tent was too crowded for my state of discomfort and i returned home to crash on the couch, eventually waking up feeling like i had heatstroke. i definitely spent a lot longer in the sun than i'd intended... but i was feeling good, kind of, so i guess it was primarily dehydration which i sorted out quickly enough.

it was so hot that i had to shower twice, the second one being a shockingly cold one. hello, summer!

i watched star trek iii, which was a lot of fun, and then two hours of highlights from 2012's ufc fights.

by then it was very late. i'd done laundry and forgotten to replace my sheets, but now that it's summer and i've packed away the duvet that wasn't such a mission.

---sunday:

the thunderstorm that began the night before was still lingering in the morning, and that broke a few of the plans for the day. which worked out well, actually. i went to walmart to buy a fan, had lunch and slapped on sunscreen to return to fbdm. i was scheduled to meet with nocence and mason there, but when i arrived at the mont-royal metro station i received a message saying they weren't coming after all.

i didn't really feel like going alone, and nocence invited me to jean talon market to show me a couple of health stores she recommends. good call! i bought a whole box of clif builder bars and one of these. i probably won't buy those in bulk because they're not as good as the builders protein-wise, but my gods, it's an exquisitely delicious chocolate bar that's vegan and has a decent amount of protein in it. who needs mars bars or snickers?!

seriously, it's crazy good.

i went for another run when i got back home because i didn't have time to go to the gym as i'd planned, and i got back certain that my sunscreen had stopped working too early. i'm not burned, but i definitely got more colour than i wanted.

i headed to godmother's for dinner. it was perfect weather for a barbeque and to eat dinner outside! absolutely lovely. we ignored my uncle's bad behaviour and had a jolly good evening, the food was good and i ate *just* too much... and i've been invited to go over for cooking lessons if i can only figure out how to time such a thing.

when i left it was 9.15, twilight, and the weather had cooled down to "just right" - perfect for a stroll to the metro station. the walk was nothing short of grand! although... two cute girls rollerbladed past me and they looked like they were struggling. when i caught up to them a few minutes later (they'd stopped for a rest) i asked if they were beginners, and when they answered in the affirmative i explained to them that they need to bend their knees and lean forward: advice i give to anyone who doesn't do it. only, i think i should have sugar-coated it a little. like "you're doing well" or "you're looking good" before offering not-necessarily wanted advice. i hope they didn't feel as awkward about it afterwards as i did.

it's been a simple evening online, mostly posting this while being distracted by all sorts of other things (like fitday), and now i do believe it's high time that i get myself into bed.