My bad…

I’m way overdue for a real update.  Kinda like the email I owe to the quilters.  Work is to the point that I really don’t want anything substantive to do with a computer when I am done with work at the end of the day.  I realize that there’s a race recap that is sorely over due… among other thoughts.

Paintball break down.

Those of you who know me know that I’m not particularly, shall we say, outdoorsy.  So whenever an invitation for something like going paint balling comes along it’s not the most logical extra curricular activity.  There is still  a streak in me that wants to attempt stuff at least once.  That and studying game theory/national security long enough gives you at least an appreciation for combat.

This began with Ashley’s coworkers who had been talking about getting a group of their collegues and their associates (read: me) together to go out for a day.  I knew I was getting myself in for an adventure based on the email correspondence that went back and forth before hand.  I realized that some of these people probably had “Paintball 4 Eva” tattoos across their lower backs.

After an hour long drive south through Virginia, we arrived to the woods.  I half expected the GPS to say, “turn right at the confederate flag and follow the banjo music to your final destination.”  No joke.  We pull up and see three v. experienced guys getting the gear in order on some work tables.  Since the office (read: trailer) didn’t open for another half an hour, we had to weight a bit before we were able to get our hands on our own equipment.  That gave us plenty of time to 1) learn basic safety 2) ask questions about what we could expect of the day/course and 3) get freaked out at the slightly rediculous guns/ammo tubes/firepower some of our compadres were packing.  Yeesh.

The awesome thing was, though, that there were 9 of us which meant that we had our own games the whole day.  We were also with a good group of people that were knowledgeable without being obnoxious.  It made for a great experience and a fun introduction.  I ended up getting over my apprehension quite quickly.  I never thought I would have as much fun shooting as I did.  However, the long run on Saturday plus the 5 hours of paintball on Sunday mean that I am feeling it now.  That’s what ibuprofen is for.

Here is some art from the afternoon:

The girls of paintball:

I love the pose Ash is hitting in this one. Amazing.

The non pros took on the pros.  Three guesses which team this is a picture of:

Here’s an action shot.  I’m the cat-like one on the far left.

pleasedonthitmepleasedonthitmepleasedonthitme.

We’ll see how long before I quit my day job so I can hit the circuit.

Weekend Warrior.

Operation Not Recluse is in progress.  It was a fantastic but too short weekend, and I’m feeling it now.  First, I finally saw “Rambo: First Blood.”  That had been a point of contention for awhile but I finally caved.  It was amazing in that wow, I can’t believe that just happened kinda way.  Saturday was a 9 mile run (the longest I’ve ever run in my life to date) and then some chill girl time.  A group of us made tamales which is a perfect low key yet time consuming activity.  It balanced out Friday night’s testosterone-fest.  Today marked my paintball debut.  Hopefully I can get photos of both the tamale making and some paintball action posted soon.      So many new things in one weekend.  Awesome.

Maybe I’ll also take some photos of the pretty welts I have all over my body.  Is it time for bed yet?

Future posts.

How’s this for a temporary solution: I’ll attempt to jog my memory for new entry topics by scanning news headlines.

-Immigration reform

-North Korea vs Somali Pirates

-Chicago 2016

-the foreign service exam

… Stay tuned.

Groundhog Day(s)

I have no real end game for this post. I find myself with both time and the inclination to play around on the internet. Those two things don’t seem to happen simultaneously much lately.

My life is a blur right now. I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy. Work is hectic at best, frenetic at worst. I like it better when it’s busy, though. I’ve also started working out consistently again. I can tell the difference I feel in my sleeping patterns. How working out makes you both exhausted and more awake at the same time is beyond me. Between work being what it is, and me making going to the gym a priority, I basically have no life right now. The only thing I can muster at the end of the day is dinner and showering and passing out.

It’s funny because my current schedule seemed ideal to me about a year ago. Staring down the barrel of my thesis in addition to the other work needed to finish out my Master’s, all I wanted was to have a life. So what the heck happened? I think the lesson learned here is that I need to make meeting up with friends or just plain getting out more of a priority. My default mode is normalcy and routine. It’s comforting to me. It’s also starting to become a bit boring. I realize this is by no means unique. And I also don’t feel unhappy per se. I do feel like something is missing, and I’m not sure how to remedy that.

Here goes nothing.

Well, here it is.  After scribbling nonsense in journals and using LiveJournal for years, I’ve finally broken down and started a proper blog.  Whatever that means.

I’ve always preferred writing to any other form of communication.  It gives me a chance to edit down the nonsense that would otherwise tumble out of my wildly flapping gums.  Lately I’ve been feeling a greater need to have a creative outlet.  It only took me about 7 months to recover from grad school enough to actually *want* to write again.

Being me, I of course played around to see what my options were.  I Google’d “free blog hosting.”  I’m not sure what is worse: the need to bore the masses with my inane observations or the fact that I actually researched blog sites.  I’m judging myself here.

As this is my inaugural entry, I also feel the need to make a couple qualifiers about what you will/won’t see here.

1.  I make no promises about how entertaining this will be– for the reader that is.  Read at your own discretion.  I assume that everyone has a need to procrastinate at some point.  I’m happy to enable.  I’m usuing this as a forum for whatever I feel like.  For me, that means foreign policy, clothes, reality tv, silly stories from nights out, personal rants, et al.

2. That being said, don’t expect anything too juicy.  Frankly, one’s online footprint is fodder for stalkers and background investigators.  Anyone who knows me knows that “crazy” in my world involves not paying my bills 3 full business days before they’re due .  That doesn’t mean that every aspect of my life needs to be memorialized.  Anything I post is my opinion alone and does not reflect the official position of my work, the Catholic Church or my stuffed animals.

How’s that for upselling?  Stay tuned.