Done

Well, my friend and I managed to complete the Master Cleanse challenge.  We had some really bad days and some days that weren’t so bad but I will be the first one to say I have never thought about food as much as I did over the course of the cleanse.  I was constantly thinking about how I would spend my first couple meals and carefully planning out how much I could eat when to keep from getting sick after my stomach had shrunk so much.

We had a midnight dinner on Friday morning to celebrate being done the cleanse and had about 12 people over to eat a lot of food and watch a movie.  After Kung Fu Panda, we ate pizza, lasagna, cheese and crackers (courtesy of Mom) and various other items of interest.  Because most people at dinner and weren’t looking to gorge right before going to bed, we have a lot of leftovers.  That will just make for better dinners than the macaroni and turkey dogs we’ve been having lately.

One of the guys I work with and I were in a class that offered us the privilege of attending class on Friday when we would have otherwise gotten the day off of work.  It worked out for us because the class on Friday only went about two hours total when it has been going eight hours for the rest of the week.  While the teacher wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, he did understand the need to let us out for breaks often and make sure we accomplished a little extra every day so we weren’t stuck in class into the late hours of a Friday afternoon.  I’m pretty sure if he had done that to us, we would not have been receptive to what he was saying anyway.

Soon I’ll be traveling again to another class and then it looks like I might finally be able to see some family!

Lemonade

I found out on Wednesday afternoon that I was expected in another state on Thursday morning to give a briefing.  This caused a huge scramble as we all tried to find a flight, hotel and rental car for the seven or so hours I would be on the ground.  It wound up working out and I was in the air an hour after I found out I was supposed to be leaving.  I just wore one outfit the whole time which seemed like a good idea at the time.  It turned out it wasn’t.

I was sleeping at the hotel in just a pair of boxers and a t-shirt when the fire alarm went off super early in the morning.  It was one of those industrial fire alarms where there is a blinking light and an ear-piercing sound in each room and all down every hallway.  I only had a pair of boots to wear and I didn’t feel like putting my work clothes back on, so I walked out in boxers, boots and an undershirt.  It was cold enough outside that I was kind of miserable for a while but at least I made it out of a building that was supposedly on fire.  It turns out it was a kitchen fire on the ground floor and the whole building was in peril, but at that moment all I wanted was more sleep and a full set of clothing to wear outside.

Despite that, the briefing went well and I made it back home safely.

On Saturday, we went to the waterpark near here and had an absolute blast!  It has been rated one of the top waterparks in the work time and time again and I think I would second that rating.  We all wore SPF 50 sunscreen because the last time we went in the sun, we all got fried.  I think it might have been expired or something to that effect because we all applied multiple times throughout the day on the beach and all of us got at least a little burned.

After a late night, we woke up late and went to the local homeless shelter to cook food and serve it to the residents.  It turns out cooking and service food when you aren’t eating anything is kind of rough on the will power.  I had to make some incredibly good looking turkey salad on croissants with lettuce and tomatoes and it smelled phenomenal.  On Friday of this coming week, our fast will be over and we’re going to throw a celebration with food and friends at midnight.  We’re watching a movie and making delicious food (to be consumed in small portions for our shrunken stomachs).  I’m thinking we should watch Kung Fu Panda; I really love that movie.

Camping Take Two

I was in class all week getting ready to take one of my certification exams.  It was a pretty rough experience.  My friend was sitting next to me and kept falling asleep each day; in a class of seven people, the instructor can usually tell when one of them falls asleep.  The material wasn’t new for most of us, so it was a week-long rehash of much of what we do every day.

Because we were pretty much brain dead after this week, we decided another camping trip was in order.  It was with a slightly different crowd which means they wanted certain luxuries that most of us are willing to forgo.  This meant beds and hot showers along with a stove and fridge.  When the rest of us asked if it was still camping, we were told that because we weren’t sleeping in our own beds that night, we were camping.  Apparently all it takes to go camping (and believe me, I use that term loosely) is a hotel room.  We ended up in a cabin not too far from where we live.  It was a great time even if I wouldn’t necessarily say we were roughing it.

Next week I go back to work and for the first time, the girl who uses my desk and I will be in the office at the same time.  We have been switching back and forth due to trips and various classes but now it’s going to be an issue.  She lost her desk when they did a renovation in the lab and so she just took to using mine while I was gone.  For the past two weeks we’ve both been in various locations because of class and trips, so it will be interesting to see who wins out this week.  I may just grab a seat in the lab and switch back and forth with her this week.  After that, we’re set again because we’ll both start traveling again to classes and other trips.

I’ve found that explaining my living situation to people is difficult at best.  Because I am really just a couch surfer at the moment, people don’t understand what I mean when I try to tell them.  I usually just leave the ‘no permanent address at the moment’ part out and tell them I live with two roommates.  That alleviates a lot of the questions and perplexed looks.

We’re starting marathon training again next week.  We’re all looking to run a marathon in September and another one in October so wish us luck!

Camping

A couple of my friends from the trip I just returned from were driving through town this week.  That was added to a large group of people from a few summers ago who were in town for a few days.  It was a lot of people to hang out with!  We were eating the first night at a large table at a local restaurant and I was sitting next to one of the guys I live with.  He was on the phone with people from NY who were in town and saying we should all get together on Thursday night for dinner.  I could plainly hear him say, “That sounds like a great idea, I’ll have the guy sitting next to me plan it.”  He was talking about me.  I was volunteered to organize a dinner for 18 at a local restaurant one day before it was supposed to happen.  It’s not easy to get reservations on the water when you don’t have a least two days lead time.

We managed to make it happen.  Dinner was great and we went down to a pub a couple doors over after we were done to have some drinks and talk for a while.  I’m glad it all worked out and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!

A while before I got back into town from my trip West, the group I hang out with decided they wanted to go camping when I got back.  We put it together and this past weekend we headed out to the beach with nine people.  We found out a couple interesting things while we were out there:

1.  Mosquitoes love our Asian friends.  They both got chewed to pieces while the rest of us were sitting there with no issues whatsoever.  It was kind of bizarre.

2.  Salt water and sand do not mix with glasses really well.  All the visually impaired just wore our contacts the entire time because otherwise you were trying to clean your glasses every ten minutes which gets real old real fast.

3.  Enormous amount of shore breeze and lighting fires do not mix.  We had a couple incidents with the paper we were using to light the fire flying away in the breeze (we were using paper because matches and lighters would immediately be extinguished once they were lit).  Copious amounts of lighter fluid were our friend in this endeavor.

4.  People who didn’t like camping with us last time still don’t really enjoy camping no matter how good a time the rest of us are having.  It seems camping really isn’t for everyone.

5.  Camping can be a relative term.  The place we stayed was basically a large parking lot where a lot of people parked and plugged in their RVs or campers.  We were the only group out there with tents.