Jaywalking

Yesterday I was walking to another department at work. I was standing at a stoplight at a fairly busy intersection. There are two intersections that I routinely walk through around work, where I think my life is possibly in jeopardy. I have had at least a dozen close calls at them combined. Of course, after the first time at each intersection, I was pretty careful, so I guess only the first couple times were seriously close calls. So yesterday, I was standing at the light, waiting for it to turn green, and there were a couple people standing there with me. After awhile, there weren't any cars coming in either direction, so I decided I'd just cross without waiting for the light, that way I'd be less likely to get hit by the left-turners who don't really like to yield to the pedestrians. I took one step off the curb, and noticed a cop across the street turning right. I immediately started to step back onto the curb, and as I was doing so, the cop looked over and flashed his lights. I looked over at the guy waiting with me, and he just sort of shrugged and chuckled, looking knowingly at me as if to say, yep, the cops here are crazy, it's a good thing you stepped back. The cop ended up driving away after that. It was strange. You might all think I'm crazy for worrying about a jaywalking ticket, but the cops here seriously hassled a guy that I used to work with over it, and he ended up with a moving violation. Who knew?

Liquor Balance

There are more oddities to the Cirque du soleil story. First, my roommate, we'll call her R, has actually lived in an apartment complex with Cirque du soleil performers before. They actually lived right below her at one point. Apparently they would do acrobatic moves on the balcony, and it was actually a bit frightening. R was also invited to play poker with them on more than one occasion. Second, she was at the grocery store the other day, and one of the Cirque du soleil guys was in front of her at the check out. He was buying a mammoth bottle of Canadian Mist. Who knew that Cirque du soleil and Canadian whisky went together? The man also tried to pay with a Canadian nickel, and then explained the entire charade by saying that he was "with Cirque du soleil," and that they were based in Quebec. I think it is most likely that there is some sort of cosmic connection between R and Cirque du soleil. What else could it be, when she's lived in the same complex with them more than once, and also runs into them at the grocery store?

Interference

One of my very best friends, we'll call her Inspirational Workout Buddy (IWB,) recently shared this little story with me. She often comes home from work with a lot of entertaining stories because she works with a great variety of people. In this particular story, she received a call from a concerned mother. You see, her son, was in need of some personal training, or at least some abs work, since he, was apparently working on a bit of a spare tire. Now at first, IWB believed that the son in question must be a young student, probably a freshman, just getting the hang of being on his own. But no, it was later revealed that said student was actually a graduate student who would be getting married soon, and his mother didn't want him to look at his wedding pictures later in life and think he just didn't measure up to his wife. The mother requested the IWB contact her son regarding his options for losing that belly. IWB was at a bit of a loss as to how to respond to the whole thing, but here is her best shot at it. I think it was as good as it could be--I only hope that Spare Tire was expecting it!

Dear Mr. Spare Tire,

I just got off the phone with your mom- congratulations on your upcoming wedding! She wanted me to let you know about the Lifetime Recreation Classes- and some of the fitness equipment we have to work your abs. Since I am not a personal trainer I can not tell you how much weight to do on the equipment BUT I can show you how to use it. I am in the office Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

I have also attached a copy of the fitness class schedule for the quarter. I am not sure with your job and class schedule which ones may work for you but we have some great express classes at noon- and a new one this quarter called Butts and Gutts! That should be a lot of fun- we also have many yoga and pilates classes that work the core as well.

Please let me know if you would like a walk through of the weight room or if you have any questions about the Campus Recreation program.

Acrobats and Vacations

I know it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything. It was partially because I was on vacation, and I've been really busy at work. And it was partially because I don't feel like anything blog-worthy has happened to me recently. Or if anything blog-worthy did happen, I didn't feel like it was completely appropriate to post. The E sent me something funny from a potential hotel guest, but I didn't feel like I could post it without possibly being attacked by members of some group that seems to center around a particular stone. And, of course, lots of fun things happened over my vacation, but none of it hit me quite right for the page.
The other night though, I was driving back to my apartment. After I pulled into the gate, I noticed a bunch of people, maybe 20-30 of them, walking down the road pulling suitcases. Most of them had two large suitcases. As I got closer, I noticed that they were all wearing Cirque du soleil jackets. They looked similar to lettermans coats, leather with a huge Cirque du soleil patch stictched onto the back. I wondered if the acrobats from Cirque du soleil were staying at my apartment complex. Or if it was a Cirque du soleil fan club or motorcycle gang. Many of them were bald, and I'm not sure if that was related.