These are just stories of things that happen in life. ‘Cause life is funny, and someone should write things down because lots of people tend to forget.
Many of you know I run most days. Most of you know that I usually run around my neighborhood.
What you may not know, is that I never run with music. Music headphones were just something I would have to screw with before getting out, so I just don’t anymore.
The result is that I notice my environment. And I have fun with my environment. I’ll give you a couple examples of what I mean.
One odd thing that I do, is whenever I’m running, and there’s a dog that barks at me, I usually meow at it. You’d be surprised how often that actually shuts the dog up for a bit.
I’m sure I’ll meet my end when on a run and a dog I taunt gets loose.
Another thing I usually do is when kids draw a hopscotch, I usually do it. It’s silly, I know, but I do it. I’ve only been seen by anyone else once, and if course I still did it. He just laughed and exclaimed, “you gotta!”
This went to 57 and was uphill. I did not hop it.
Even though running during the day is so much more hot, you can’t see those things at night.
I decided to go to Kräftskiva! last weekend. I basically went because my calendar was open, plus it was at the Bachelor Farmer, a new restaurant that I’ve been wanting to visit.
I certainly didn’t go for the crayfish boil (I don’t like lobster, so I didn’t spend $18 to have that either). It was a pretty awesome concert, and it was a summer event, and I’ve been trying to do more than just work this summer.
It was interesting. I was standing on an elevated walkway (called ‘the top of the stairs’, but there was standing room to watch the show). Up there, I met a lass named Megan. We were talking for probably ten minutes or so. She was meeting her friends there.
We were talking to each other, and the beer came up. I mentioned how she could get $1 off the beer if she had a metal souvenir cup. She had one, plus a plastic cup.
Well, I was going to hold the spot for her, and apparently guard the plastic cup (I’m not really sure why), and she was going to get me a beer. Well I gave her my metal souvenir, for which I paid $15, so she could save a dollar.
As I was standing there, guarding a plastic blue cup, I started wondering, “did I just get conned out of my $15 cup?”
On the other hand, it was only a $15 cup. I just thought how random it was, and I felt silly, guarding a plastic cup, waiting for the person I just met to bring me a beer……
When Megan returned with my beer, I felt like it was silly to have worried. She agreed.
I’ll note, I wasn’t over trusting, either, because she was a young lady. She was married, and I’ve really stepped away from my well-known, over-zealous tendencies, give or take.
I think it was the environment. It was a great, positive place! Very cool local music, too.
I’ve always felt not included with the rest of my age group. Obviously, my accident and its timing in my life played a huge role in that.
No I’m still a little different, but that’s because we’re all different. I actually fit in.
This is a very good thing. I’m very happy to feel normal. Well, as normal as I can be. I’m still a goofy weirdo, but it’s because of who I am, not because of what happened to me.
Back in the day, I was known for my ability to do anything, to have endless energy and smarts. Four hours was enough sleep. I took 20 credits each semester and worked at Byerly’s 32 hours per week overnight.
I was in the St. Thomas College Republicans, holding two board positions and being way too involved for stupid politics. That was the year our chapter won Chapter of the Year Award at the National Convention.
I was involved in the accounting club, well, enough to get a job at the D.
That all changed after my accident. I needed my sleep, especially for the first few years. I had off times. Sometimes I just couldn’t get it.
That got better, probably fully intellectually, around 2011/2012.
Socially, well, you all know me…… but I’ve always been different.
I also couldn’t be a active as I wanted because I couldn’t breathe.
Now I run whenever I can. Sure, I do because I can breathe and therefore maintain my debonair composure, but I really run all the time because I don’t have time to walk. Travel takes up most of everyone’s time.
Go faster.
The side effect is that I have more energy and even though it’s tax season, I’m in decent shape. Also, because I have more energy, after I get home at 9, I can kill it in my basement lifting for ten minutes and make a decent dent.
Justin the Legend has returned.
I need more than four hours of sleep because life is a bit more challenging than undergrad, where all you have to do is go to class and listen (the profs just stand up in front each class and tell you the answers to the test. Could it get easier? Just pay attention, and get off your social media).
I’m kickin’ ass (in general), and takin’ names (networking).
I like to run outside. In the winter, I used to always go to the gym to use the treadmill. The treadmill is fine, but only if you have a lot of things to distract you from the fact that it is the worst thing in the world, a problem when your headphones break.
In a desperate attempt to avoid buying $5 headphones, and to enjoy my new ability to breathe, I started to run outside. Yes, in the snow and cold, which sounds like a bad idea, but it is awesome!
I have modified shoes, a paid of which I am making for Dennis this week that cost about $30. The shoes allow me to run on ice and snow with no problems whatsoever. Then, I bundle up.
I put on running pants (sweatpants) plus snowpants. I have two pairs of socks because, while the shoes are great on ice, they still have issues with the cold / are poorly insulated.
Besides a sweatshirt and jacket, I wear an old, tattered headband around my neck to serve as a scarf-type cloth. On top of that, I have a bigger man scarf that shields my neck to my nose. I also have a stocking hat, because just a headband leaves the whole top of your head bear. Headbands aren’t like hats, but are closer to earmuffs.
I then wear mittens, because gloves are simply inferior.
Then I do some pre-workout stretches, and go for a run. It’s awesome.
Today was negative 2 degrees. It was a pretty good run. Here are the results from the Map My Run App:
I’ll help you interpret the figures. It was only for a mile because I had a busy day today.
Ignore the big “Pace”, and go off the pace of the first mile. The reason the last 0.02 miles impacted my pace so much is because I had to stop, take off my mittens, unzip my pocket, get my phone, unlock my phone, and figure out how to turn off the dumb app.
In terms that people actually know, my pace of a 10:46 mile is 5.58 mph. Keep in mind that I’m just getting back to running after not running until December because of my surgery, and only running a few times in December.
Not too shabby. It’s still only 1 mile, though, and I could probably push it more. When it’s negative temps, I won’t run for more than 1.7 miles because my toes will freeze off. As for going to University like I did in the summer, well, I’m still working up to it, plus I won’t do that route at night.
Tonight I was thinking about going to the International Happy Hour at Clubhouse Jäger, but I was kind of tired, and I had work to do tonight.
Well, I took a 45 minute nap, and that charged me right up! My friend Allaina said she was going to go at 8:00, so I said I’d be there around 7 or 7:30. Even though it started at 5:30, the HH was still very busy when I got there. It was a huge crowd.
I met a few very nice people.
It’s weird when I go to events that are not my own. People all know me. I had so many dudes just walk up to me and say, “what’s up Justin?” It’s neat.
I met some cool gals, too, and since I enjoy this part of the story the most, I’ll describe it the most.
The first young lady I met was Stacey. Now Stacey travels all over the world for her job – way jealous. But she and I hit it off pretty well. I got her number, but she said FB is better nc she’s literally out of the country every other week. I thought that was prettu bad ass, so we connected on FB, too. After telling her about my flying for free, she suggested joining her on one of her trips. Cool.
The next young lady I spoke to was Lilly. Lilly was actually going to Mexico by herself for the next week, but she seemed really nice. Not in a dating kind of nice, but just in the “good person”kind of nice.
Eventually, around 9:15 (uggh… so late!), Allaina came. I was texting with her all night. So she and I chatted for a bit. Then we just kind of hung out by the music and has wines.
There were some people dancing, first in a dumb circle like people do, but then with partners.
Well naturally, there was a young lady not occupied but only because of a shortage of guys. I then led her in some salsa. She said she knew some other Latin dances, so I waited for a song that wasn’t just another spazzy salsa, then we did I cha cha. Apparently, I do “ballroom cha cha”, so I’ll have to learn what the other one is. But we had fun. Allaina took a picture, so I might add that later. But that was Courtney, and I got her number, too.
Then Allaina and I went to the Loop. The Loop is a pretty cool bar. We’ve gone there before, and we’ll probably go there in the future. It was fun.
We’re fun when we go out dancing. First of all, Allaina doesn’t dance with me. That’s not how she rolls. But when we’re out, we sometimes dance right by each other, but we often get separated. We actually got separated right after we came in. She went off with her Russian friends, and I got distracted. So right when I came in the Loop, there was a bunch of women.
Well I was dancing, just goofing around, but one of them was enjoying me and grinding with me. Definitely not something I’m used to, but that’s fine. I still goof around to make it fun. Then her friend joined in, and I had two women rubbing against me. Afterwards, a guy said I was going awesome because I was dancing with three women, and they were all nice-looking.
It was fun.
I also had a lady from that group take my hand when I offered it. I don’t remember if this was before or after the grinding gals. But the girl took my hand and we danced super well. It was some cool-lookijg West Coast Swing-ish. It looks really good, anyways, compared to the dancing you see in clubs.
Come to think of it, I dances with her right when I came in the door because I still had my jacket. The tri-partner dancing came after I checked my coat.
So I was dance-walking around the bar, looking for Allaina. I complimented a lady, and she liked it. I saw her standing by a table and asked her if she wanted to dance. She explained that her the husband was sitting at the table.
“Dude, can I dance with your wife?”
Obviously, I had already explained about my kind of dancing, ect., and he was fine with it.
Long story short(er), I recruited s couple more clients for my friends’ dance studio. If you didn’t know, I love supporting the people in my life, including my friends, and I do what I can.
Sometime after 1:00, it was time to go. I talked more to Allaina. She’s going on vacation for a bit over Christmas. She works for a hotel so gets free rooms.
We went to her dt place. She was working the next morning, so we didn’t have much time. I basically got some water then left. Overall, awesome night! Way more fun than working!
There’s also this:
An awesome movie and skit. it gets funnier at 1:30.
Life is great. I’ve significantly changed this year. I told you 2014 was going to be an awesome year!
For me, I was condoned my master’s degree, business is at unprecedented levels, I got a job, I got in the best shape of my life, and I’ve relaxed my personality quite a bit. I don’t worry about little problems that used to cause me a lot of stress. Combined with the fact that I had to buy all new business clothes because I am simply more broad, I would say that 2014 is the year I manned up. In more ways than will be mentored here.
On top of that (or building on the manning up thing), I decided to do the procedure I did on October 20 because it is going to give me better health, less illness, better old age, and is another big way I’ll help myself. This is the last side effect from my accident from 2006 that I will fix or that is a hindrance.
Overall, I am turning the page. I am putting all of the past behind me and entering in an all new chapter of unprecedented awesomeness!
