N as in "knife"

People will always remember the one mess up you make.

From small to large. Petty to major. Obviously there are all varying scales of the offense made.

…but to get into it. I make a lot of mistakes. I recently made a mistake at work regarding paper work . I was poor in decision making all throughout my young adulthood. I make faults in my personal life. Every time I blunder I feel terrible about it. It’s worse when it’s someone close to you. To disappoint the one you care about leaves a harsher mark.

It’s tough making good educated decisions. I’m not young anymore and making these choices have not been getting easier.

I respect the people who know what they want and then have the drive and courage to grab it. I must get to this mindset. I have to.

So, I stopped running on pavement for quite some time because of knee pains. I tried substituting it with basketball and yoga. I hoped the constant sprinting and side shuffling in basketball would strengthen my legs. Yoga allowed me to strengthen my leg muscles with the balancing poses and deep stretching. Now that summer is finally here in Chicago, I braved running on the city’s streets.

So far this week I’ve ran 2 one-milers at about 9 minutes and I hope to continue this pace. After each run my knee (left one specifically) has only felt minimal discomfort. I’m crossing my fingers for the least amount of injuries possible.

Fitness goals
- do some 5k races
- boot camp with some amigos (twice a week! Yikes)
- basketball once a week
- incorporate more body weight workouts into my routine (pull-ups, push-ups, squats and lunges)

Be like the tortoise, not the hare.

Day started with a surprise text from my friend Lisa. I was still groggy from waking up but the major details were concerning yoga and sushi. We quickly planned and then I decided to snooze for a few more minutes then I had a phone call from my friend J. We had a quick conversation about the days ahead and went on our separate ways. It was a good talk/

On the way to my friends place there was some extremely aggressive road rage happening behind me. Cursing, flippin birds and all sorts of action movie car swerving. I gladly pulled into the side streets. Fender benders are at the bottom of my to do list.

It’s still awkward to be in spring break. My whole rhythm/schedule feels clumsy.

Well off to class. I’m not sure what I’m getting into but namaste and sayonara!

So, the last week of January 2013 was jam packed. I haven’t had a week so constantly full of things to do.

Monday was a regular work day. The teacher I work with was out of town for vacation and It was just me and a sub. As a teacher’s assistant, its really difficult to be without your teacher and its even tougher since I’m at a Special Ed. high school. As expected I had to do a lot of the work. Thankfully my sub was awesome at keeping the students focused and engaged in the class.

The excitement for the day happened around lunch time. I was able to score some tickets to the Bulls game versus the Bobcats later that night. My friend Gene went with and it was a blast. My only regret was being late for the giveaway at the gate, a Luol Deng bobble head. We must of missed it by just a few minutes because all I saw as I entered was a sea of people all holding their great prize. It was a Bulls victory! No Big Mac for us United Center attendees, but the W is all that counted.

Afterwards, I rushed home and began to frantically pack for the 3 day trip for work. Some of our athletes received Gold Medals at the city-wide snow shoe tournament and now it was our time to complete on a State Level. I accompanied a group from our Physical Ed. department to Galena, IL for the next 3 days.

While at the tournament each day progressively became colder which made me appreciate my over packing. Over the next few days so many great things happened, but here are some highlights.

- The boys (3 male staff, myself included and about 12 male students) were all in one giant room with one…repeat, ONE BATHROOM! Good times with the guys …minus the B.O that accumulated over time. Mental note: pack Febreze

- so many awesome moments with the students and great opportunities. Things that some of our kids would of never been able to experience.

- FOOD! so much food. Our athletes and coaches were super fed. 3 meals and plenty of snacks to go around

- on our second day we woke up to a whole lot of snow and dropped temperature. Since that happened  the road conditions were terrible and prevented the volunteers and a good chunk of the other competitors unable to participate. The Huskies made the most of it and we went to play in the snow. I was only brutally tackled by 4 of my students and enough headlocks to make a WWE wrestler proud.

- our last day of competition was hectic and freezing! -15F wind chill made for a brutal day.

At the end of it all a bunch of our students received medals, ribbons and some cool Special Olympics gear. We went home that Thursday evening and it was hectic. I was just rushing to get back home so I could attend my evening church service. Even though I was exhausted I did what I could to clean myself up in the few minutes I had to prepare myself for it. I made it just in time and was overly thankful to have done so.

Friday at work was such a brain melter and patience tester. It was a professional development day and it moved incredibly snail paced. The content of the in-service was good and helpful, but sitting down for almost 8 hours was unbelievable. Some things to remember…

- CHAMPS
- Wedding Shower in the a.m.

After work I headed to band practice because we had a performance the next day. I should of went home to rest after that, but my smart self decided to hangout with my amigos all night. …not so wise

Saturday was another lengthy day, but full of fun things to do. It started 6am where I got ready and met some of my friends for a living social activity. A bunch of coworkers went took a coach bus up to Michigan to check out a firing range where I was able to handle my 1st firearm. I shot a .40 handgun and an AK-47. Other guns that were available that my friends tried out were a tommy gun (Chicago typewriter) and basic 9mm handgun. Truly a cool first time thing and owning a firearm would be nice, but I’d rather just rent a gun and shoot. Treat it similarly to a hobby like shooting pool or something. After the firing range visit we then went to a vineyard and then eventually back home.

Once back in Chicago it was a race back home to eat something and rest before the band gig. I thought I would of had an hour or so to sleep, but after everything else I had to do I was able to sleep for a really crappy 10 minutes. Before I knew it I was off to the gig.

I picked up my friend/bass player and we went to the venue. **Blood pressure raising moment** Old man who worked there was asking who we were. My bass player had his instruments, no questions asked and was allowed to go in. I on the other hand, as singer, had nothing (voice is my instrument, duh) and was given grief about entering. After unnecessarily speaking to this jerk I just walked past to meet my band mates.

The show was…OK! It will continue to be part of the greatest shows that no one saw. Besides the core band we had a guest guitarist, my friend Jay and for another one of our numbers we had a trumpet player hop on. Minus the lack of people, the freezing weather and the minor conflict I had it was a good night. THanks to the people who showed up and hopefully a better turnout next time.

Well, that was my week in review. Right now the Super Bowl is on and I really don’t care. However I will be meeting a few friends to watch the halftime show and finish the second half of the game. Will the Raven’s prevail to achieve Ray Lewis’ fairy tale career end or will the 49er’s (who i’m rooting for) go all the way? Which coach brother will have bragging rights back home?