Personal Life Update, End of March

Frustration as a Source of Motivation

At work, our store has been two months in the process of a series of inspections to evaluate whether it should be elevated to "Training Store" status. This would bring along with it a number of perks, such as more attention paid by Corporate on the level of replacing damaged or missing equipment. It would also, supposedly, make the upper-level bosses more inclined to confirm promotion requests for crewmembers, which the General Manager would send. But according to the GM, Corporate has "put all evaluations on hold," pending the outcome of the store evaluation. My 6-month date was nearly 2 months ago, and I still haven't had that "6-month evaluation." I'm taking the GM at his word and waiting to see whether I and others get promotions--and for that matter, back-pay for the lost 2 month's raised pay--and will wait to take any action until afterwards. But I have many ideas for how to go from here. As always, it's a waiting game and a matter of time.

The Animals of Summer Are Arising

I saw a bat earlier this week when I took only my second outdoor run all winter. You've gotta have good eyes. They flap very much like small birds, and don't make any noise, but their flight-paths are very irregular. The typical sparrow will bob or dip in a sinusoidal wave pattern as it crosses a street, but bats move side to side as the presence of insects allows, so you can spot them that way, even if it's a bit too dim at twilight to see their wings against the lighter backdrop of the sky. 

Speaking of insects, that there are bats out means that it's getting warm enough for the flying crawlies to come out. It's been nice not having tons of fluttering creatures stuck to the front door on account of the light, at night, when coming home or after taking the dog for a walk. That's going to end by the end of May, I figure. Not that I know what this year's weather is going to be like. I've never seen so many individual snow days ever. It's been a very wet winter.

Yesterday, it rained all day and extremely hard at times. I walked the dog in the morning and must have passed by nearly 1,000 or more earthworms in the span of the mile distance I went out from home. They were all over the road, choked out of the wet ground by the moisture.

Allegra

I'm taking Allegra (and since 3 days ago, Allegra-D) for my springtime allergies, and I made sure to start very early, as soon as there was a mild week in March, anticipating the pollen spread. So far I've sneezed once a morning and that's been it. It's too early (too cool) to tell whether this means the drug is working to control my allergies, but by mid-April it should be more obvious. If Allegra does the job, I won't have to go back to the allergist specialist and beg for immunization shots. Something to pray about :)

YMCA

I'm closing out the second month of my Y activity, although only the first month of membership (got fortunate that the lady who handles applications got the flu for a week, and didn't get to mine for the rest of the month, so I got to use a guest pass all of February). It's been just as much fun to meet people from school as it's been to notice the improvement on my biceps. That's the only muscle I've really been pushing hard with increasing weights; the others I've been really careful to not stress too far, until I 'feel out' where my limits are, so I don't overwork myself and get taken out of commission for a week due to soreness. It happened once. You can lift beyond your threshold for soreness, I found when I went way too gung-ho on the back-situp machine at my college. One of the guys who has had the biggest body transformations since high school is in there frequently, and he spontaneously referred to himself with an accurate nickname I liked: Boulder Shoulders.

Upcoming

Going to take care of my taxes the next time I get to use internet in a non-public location. I also went to church today for the first time in 3(+?) weeks, and the youth pastor (28, and has been married for 7 years!!!) gave a sermon on 1 Peter 3. He made a pretty good point at the part where it says "don't let your adorning be in jewelry, or hair, or clothes," by saying that if this meant that women can't wear jewelry or 'do their hair,' then it would logically also require that they don't wear clothes. Probably a fun interpretation for the nonchristian, but it's plainly not the intent of the author. Instead, the point is that jewelry and hair and clothes are not WHERE your beauty should be found--it should come from the heart. Being outwardly beautiful is not evil, but it shouldn't be used to compensate for, or be at the expense of, an atrocious character.

If the warm weather stays, I'm going to be happy to pick up my running routine again. Perhaps by mid-July I can once again reclaim my former physique (my peak cardiovascular condition was in my 17s)

~ Rak Chazak