April 2002

So we’re still plugging along with the bathroom. It’s not gnawing on my nerves as much as I thought it would, though it will be nice to have heat in the house once again. 🙂 Especially on these cold 30 degree nights! Thank goodness for my grandmother’s space heater I inherited.

I’ve been working out like a maniac. I did 25 minutes on the treadmill this morning (7 minutes of it running), and then I did a 50 minute workout this afternoon… 20 minutes on the stair stepper, 11 minutes on the bike and then 20 minutes on the treadmill. I’m still not jumping on a scale until mid May but I’m feeling great and that’s what’s important.

I got two more Sylvia Browne books – her newest one called “Prayers”, and “Past Lives, Future Healing”. I’m just starting “Past Lives…”, it’s about how our past lives affect our phobia and fears in this life. I was chatting with my friend Donna online and she shared a meditation with me on how to find out about your past life. I’m going to try it when the world isn’t running by in such a blur and the house is actually clean enough that I can take deep, cleansing breaths without inhaling plaster dust.

Earl and I are making an Earth-friendly move and decided to buy a new Energy Star washing machine from Sears. It’s a Kenmore front-loader. Uses a third of the water that our current top loader uses, and much less electricity. We got the matching dryer as well. We decided to give our old set to my sister, it’s only six years old and it should work fine for her for many years to come.

Had an odd dream about being on “Survivor” last night and getting voted off. I think I’m becoming obsessed with the show again. At least this one is worth being obsessed about I suppose.

Saturday night we went and saw “Murder by Numbers” with Sandra Bullock at Crossgates. It was o.k. I suppose. The theatre was crowded. Earl and Dennis and Vic liked it much better than I did. I thought it was a little predictible. Had a nice supper at Bugaboo Creek. I’m still counting the calories to match my efforts at the gym, but it’s not easy to count calories at Bugaboo Creek! 🙂

Just got off the phone with my Mom who sounded absolutely wonderful. She had a nice sunny disposition which was nice to hear.

Dare I say I’ve become addicted to working out? I’ve been going to the gym faithfully every morning before work. Not only am I feeling much better health wise, but I must say that I am really enjoying this! Today was a change though – I walked for 15 minutes on the treadmill and then ran the last five minutes. A pretty good pace too. Then I went back this afternoon after work! I swam for 15 minutes (mostly back stroke), then did the treadmill for another 20 minutes, running for 10 of it, and then did the stairstepper for 10. I am completely wiped out but I feel great. I have decided that I am not even getting on a scale until May 15, so I don’t care if I’m losing weight or not. I feel great.

I’ve been eating a little more sensibly too. Which is probably good for me as well.

I’ve gotten over the whole shy thing while at the gym. I now parade around in the locker rooms just like the other guys do. There’s one weirdo in there that I avoid (he seems to take showers and that’s it), but other than that things are going very well. I’m very pleased.

The bathroom is coming along slowly but surely. In fact, the guys are working on it as we speak. They’ve got the floor in and the new studs; hopefully we’ll see some sheetrock up tomorrow. They’ve run some plumbing too, which is nice. We’ve been without heat for the past week, but that’s o.k. because we’ve been enjoying record high temperatures (as I type it’s 81 degrees at 7:05 p.m. – in the middle of April!) I wonder if this means we’re going to have another sweltering summer.

I’m currently waiting for Earl to get home from the gym. I met up with him there – he’s on the company volleyball team so he plays volleyball ’til 8. I’m TiVoing Survivor for him. 🙂 I’m still routing for Kathy – I hope she goes all the way. I really don’t like anyone else on the show – Kathy’s it. I was routing for Hunter too, but they got rid of him so fast. You know, it’s funny because I always condemn these reality shows. But this Survivor is much better than the past two – much more like the first one. I don’t like the other reality shows, though I’ll probably get hooked on Big Brother when it starts up again in July.

I’ve been doing more meditating and reading about Sylvia Browne and Novus Spiritus. I’m feeling more and more spirituality “centered” everyday, and I think it’s showing in my demeanor.

Earl and I are getting together with Dennis and Vic this weekend and hitting the town Saturday night. That should be fun!

Well it’s been a while since I’ve done a journal entry. What a time we’ve been having. Our bathroom has been completely gutted. On purpose. We decided to go ahead and remodel the bathroom, so the guys were here on Tuesday and started ripping it out. Now for the fun part – we have NO hot water right now! They had to take the radiator out to replace the floor, and since the hot water and the heat are all on one furnace, that means no hot water while the radiator is missing. So this prompted me to do what I needed to do anyways – join the gym. I’ve been wanting to get more in shape anyways and now I have a place to take a shower. I did some swimming during the week and today Earl and I went and worked out together. I am so sore right now it’s not even funny, but as they say, no pain, no gain. Whoever says that is a fool, but I suppose they’re right. 🙂 On the bright side, I was able to do 15 minutes on the treadmill after working on the machines and I didn’t make an ass of myself, so I suppose I’m making progress. We went to the laundromat today too (our washer and dryer live in the gutted bathroom) – and the laundromat is always such an experience. Why do you suppose that a laundromat would have 26 washers but only 14 dryers? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Today is the six year anniversary of Earl and my first date. Can’t believe it. To celebrate, we went to O’Connor’s Alexander Hamilton Inn in the village of Clinton. Oh my goodness… it was the best meal we’ve had in years! 🙂 Afterwards, we went to see “Tim Miller’s Glory Box” at Hamilton College. It’s a one-man performance about the issues around gay couples and immigration. Tim’s lover is from Australia and can’t get a green card because the United States does not recognize their relationship as a “true” or legal relationship. Which sucks. Did you know that the United States is the ONLY western country to not recognize a gay relationship when it comes to immigration? That sucks too. I think we’re going to call our congressman on this one and let him know what we think.

I’ve been doing more reading on Novus Spiritus and such. It’s all making such sense to me. It’s really making me a stronger person. I’m feeling so good.

I’m finally recovering from the jump to daylight savings time. I’m trying to be more carefree about my schedule, but work doesn’t cooperate (be in at 9 blah blah blah). I guess I don’t understand the need for daylight savings time anymore. Granted, it’s nice to have it light later, but it wreaks havoc with everyone’s internal clock, and I know that there are a lot of unhappy animals because their food is delayed an hour. I say leave it here and don’t go back to standard time.

A new page in the journal section of the web site. How very nice. Like the Spring Equinox we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, it gives one a feeling of renewal, rebirth. A clean slate. Let’s see if I can appreciate this opportunity.

I haven’t really mentioned it to anyone besides Earl, but I have quietly gone back to being a vegetarian. I just feel like it’s the right thing to do, and I’m going to do my best to stick to it. Earl is very supportive of me whatever I decide to do.

We took a long weekend together last weekend by taking Good Friday off. Actually, Earl had the day off from work, and I took a personal day. Originally we were going to drive down to Bristol, Pa. and spend a couple of days with his family, but he worked late on Thursday night so the timing didn’t work out right, especially since we were going to be home for Easter dinner with my dad and his girlfriend Karen. So on Friday we took the opportunity to go to Syracuse. Started off with getting Earl’s haircut and then had a wonderful, wonderful lunch with my mother and sister (Mom was working – we met her for lunch hour.) She seems better. I hope she’s catching Spring Fever. She seems to be getting her fire back a little bit, and that makes me happy. I wish she would just sit back and realize what a special person she is. She has a lot to contribute to the world, she just needs to square up her shoulders and face it. I’m trying to get her to meditate and such, but I don’t think she’s really into that sort of thing. Jennifer and her have been spending quality time together, which is a very good thing, so I’m sure the family will just keep coaxing her along a little bit.

After lunch Earl and I went to Barnes and Noble to do some browsing. Of course I bought three books. “The Adventures of a Psychic” by Sylvia Browne, a book about psychic awareness and RedHat Linux 7.2 in 15 hours. I’m almost through Sylvia’s book, getting ready to read the psychic awareness book, plus I’ve been messing around with the newest version of RedHat Linux. I’m really getting more and more into my new found spirituality, and it feels really good. I haven’t felt this good about myself in a long time. And I think my new positive outlook on life is really giving Earl and my relationship an extra boost. We’ve always been very much in love, don’t get me wrong, but I just seem to have recently discovered his special qualities all over again. After spending the whole weekend together, it was hard for me to go back to work on Monday. I am certainly a lucky guy.

Sunday we had a wonderful dinner with my dad, his girlfriend Karen, her son Colin and my sister Jennifer. We haven’t had a family type dinner in Dad’s house since he and Mom split up several years ago. It was very nice. And Karen and Colin are very, very nice people. I am very happy for my Dad, he seems so very happy.

As I type this journal entry I am listening to my Native American Flute CD. You know, I really like this type of music. I find it really relaxing. I made an odd comment to Earl on the phone from work yesterday. I’m sometimes worried that my work has no meaning. It’s something that I meditated on this morning, and I am feeling better about it today. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy my job, but sometimes I feel I need to be making a more substantial contribution to the community. I am very lucky in the fact that I found very good friends in all my co-workers, and the couple that owns the radio station. We’ve become like a big extended family. I should just be happy to have that and find more ways to contribute I guess. I guess the Rosie O’Donnell interview a couple of weeks ago really touched both of us. I admire what Rosie is doing for the world, and we wish that we could make even 1% of the contribution that she is making.