There be Peacocks here!

Believe it or not, there are peacocks in Indiana. It's true, I've seen them. Both male and female and in large numbers. Just walk around downtown Indianapolis on Meridian Street on a Friday or Saturday night and you'll see them swarming the area. It was rather neat seeing people walking on the street past 8pm for a change, though; it brought back fond memories of Chicago. It also brought back fond memories of high school, as well.

I don't think I've ever seen a more pervasive "hey!-look-at-me!" mentality or attitude in an adult population than I've seen here. I mean, guys (mostly guys) are riding their motorcycles up and down the same street repeatedly for hours and hours for the soul purpose of.....? What exactly? Now, I know I'm no Don Juan, but fellas, that's no way to make girls swoon. Even I figured that one out in high school. And these are adults we're talking about.

High Fives

-5 cd's in my cd Player:

1. Wait, I don't understand the question. CD Player? I only have radio in the car and the other music are all MP3's.

-5 movies I've seen recently:
The same 5 movies Richel saw recently.

1. Batman Begins
2. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
3. Unleashed
4. Star Wars Episode 3 (I want my money back! Damn you, George!)
5. Incredibles

-5 Nice things that happened to you lately:

Nice?....I don't understand the question.

-Things I enjoy doing when no one else is around:

1. Curse out loud
2. Lie on the floor and sleep
3. Go exploring, either in the car or on foot.
4. Sing
5. Kung fu

-What lowers my blood pressure/anxiety/stress:

1. Calming music
2. Richel (although, #2 can also raise the above parameters as well)
3. Talking with my friends and family
4. Sleep
5. Kung fu

Those Damn Treadmills

Today was the first day that I ever tried running on a treadmill. I think it may be the last, too.

Richel and I decided to go down to the exercise room and actually exercise, as we've been eating out for the past month due to the move. All of our cooking and eating utensils have been packed away or lost for the past month, and so cooking at home has been rather difficult, especially when you have to eat soup noodles with your fingers. So today was the day that we would burn some of those extra calories off, finally.

Upon entering, she immediately got on the eliptical machine and started working out on that. I milled around a bit, checking out the different machines the workout room had to offer. There were 2 more elipticals, a bike, and a treadmill. There were also some dumbells and pulley machine, but those would wait. Of all the cardio/conditioning machines, I chose the treadmill. Why? I don't really know. Maybe it's because I've never tried one before, and I'm always up for something new.

So I hopped on and.....looked at the panel. "On", "Off", "Pause", "Up", "Down", "Incline Up", "Incline down". Hmm...that seemed easy enough, as I turned the power on and started pushing the "Up" button. The treadmill started moving and I began walking, slowly. It wasn't fast enough, so I kept pushing the "Up" button more and more until I was running at a good pace. 10 minutes in to running, I became curiuos as to what the guy behind me was doing with the pulley machine. Foolishly, I took my eyes off of the TV situated right in front of me, and turned my head to the side to look. When I did that, though, I didn't pay attention to my foot placement, which is KEY when you're running on a treadmill. Needless to say, I stumbled on the machine and almost got whisked off the treadmill. It would have been okay if only Richel and I were in there, but there was another person working out there as well. Even if he didn't see me stumble, he could hear it. Normally, it should sound like,
"Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump" nice and regular. In my case, it was

"Thump, thump, thump, thump, thumpthump, thumpthumpthumpthump,whrreeeee (shoe rubber skidding on the moving treadmill) thumpthumpthumpthump, thump, thump, thump. Hey, at least I didn't totally scrub!

Talk about embarassing. At that point, I think Richel was trying to hide behind a magazine, pretending not to know me. But that's not the worst of it. After I slowed down and finished on the treadmill, I began walking around on the floor and I almost threw up. My whole vestibular-cochlear system was screwed up. For the past 20 minutes, I had been running but not moving anywhere. Suddenly, I was walking and moving all over the place and my brain didn't like it. I thought I was going to hurl, but thank God I didn't.

Needless to say, I'm done with treadmills.