Friday Five

No excuse needed!

The week:

I got to experience life from the other side of the "someone leaving for a better opportunity" experience. As excited as you are for the person that's leaving, and as much as you know that it's the best thing that's happened to them, the selfish side of you wants them to stay. I'm so very proud of Abram, and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes. He's going to do great things. But man if I don't miss him come Saturday morning when I give him a call to see if he wants to go out to breakfast.

On a less personal note, I was in San Jose this week. As a result I got to see some good friends who showed me some of the town. A good time was had by all, and I certainly appreciate the hospitality. It beats sitting in a hotel room by yourself let me tell you.

I also got a chance to play a little poker this week. It was nice getting back to the tables, something I haven't been able to do much. I finished about even on the week, which is good considering how little I've been playing.

The exercise:

The hotel had a terrible fitness room. There was an out of order treadmill, a busted up exercise bike, a couple of nautilus machines, and a stair master from the 1800's. So I finally broke down and bought a membership to 24 Hour Fitness. I had been putting it off as I wanted to make sure I was committed to the cause. I figure after 6 weeks I can say I'm committed to the cause.

The travel note:

I hadn't been to San Jose in about 7 years. The airport is still just as terrible as ever. The width of the area from the wall with the gates to the other wall is about that of your average living room. There is simply no room to move. To add insult to injury, the only airline you can realistically fly from San Diego to San Jose is Southwest, where you can have your flight be delayed while being treated like cattle. And sure enough, my flight out of San Diego was delayed by an hour.

The five:

I'm using a Sarah suggestion. The one I liked the most was 5 things I love about Abram, but I thought that might sound like I was eulogizing the kid. So instead I'm going with 5 things I'm doing to be healthier. Of course, all of these wind up with their exceptions. (For example - I'm stuck in the airport and about the only thing to eat is pizza.)

1. Working out. I had always thought I'd never be able to keep an exercise routine going. Well - so far so good as I close in on 2 months.
2. No cheese. Strange as it sounds, this has been one of the easiest things to cut out. Granted, I've never been a huge cheese fan, but it was still pretty easy.
3. Cutting way back on my drinking. I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but my routine often while on the road was to camp out in the hotel bar, have about 3-4, and then go to bed. And that was after 2 at dinner. Now I'm down to one, maybe two, at dinner and that's it. (Going away parties for Abram were excluded.)
4. Cut way back on coffee. I'm down to a small cup a day. And I plan on trying to cut that last cup out over the next couple of weeks.
5. Being very conscious of what I order. Down to ordering a turkey burger with no butter (for the bun), no mayo, side salad with Italian on the side. And of that it's a very quick stream over the salad and that's it.

It's kind of sick, really. But I'm down a belt hole, so something's working.