Saturday, August 6, 2011

Days 55 - 57: Speed Bumps

August 6, 2011

  3 days - Blue Band Officer Week
10 days - Blue Band Marching Auditions/Band Camp Begins
28 days - Penn State vs. Indiana State
35 days - Penn State vs. Alabama
42 days - Penn State vs. Temple


I firmly believe that events and occurrences in daily life are analogies of how we should handle things in our personal lives.  For example, speed bumps are in the distance and you're traveling at 45 MPH, so what do you do?  A smart person slows down until they're past, then goes back to normal speed.  But it's a sign.  They wouldn't be there unless their purpose was to avoid some other problem from happening (like taking out a pedestrian).  So, an "inconvenience" is put forth to avoid an even larger one.  As you can probably see, I tend to break everything down instead of taking things at face value - some sort of "everything happens for a reason" philosophy.  I've always said "everything happens", but the older I get, the more I'm buying into the other reasoning... like a snowball rolling down a hill, things in life can do the same until it's a full-blown avalanche.  Where am I going with this?  

The last two weeks or so have been equivalent to driving down Prospect Ave. in State College (pretty sure that's the correct road I'm thinking of) a dozen times.  Things just haven't gone as planned, and I'd like to say that I'm finally over all the speed bumps and I can get back to normal speed, just in time to head back to State College in just three (long) days.  My health is more important to me than just about anything.  To keep with the theme of analogies, I try to keep myself running like a Lamborghini, always keeping myself in showroom form, inside and out.  My diet is incredibly specific, my workout regimen is designed to have a perfect balance of strength, agility, endurance, flexibility, as well as a satisfying self-image.  To have an eye doctor say that I'm 20 years old and possibly have glaucoma made me question if I was working myself too hard, taking too many supplements, and not taking enough time to slow down and let my body have some extended recovery time.  Well after two weeks of caffeine/supplement detox, drinking more water than taking in food, doing an abbreviated Master Cleanse diet, and getting myself all worked up about it, I finally went to a specialist today.  After a gauntlet of tests, he basically said the original doctor made a huge deal out of nothing, and I have opposite qualities in pretty much every way than a glaucoma candidate would have.  Such a relief.  I never over-diagnose myself... I'm well in-tune with my body and I know when there's a problem and I usually know what it is, so when a doctor notices something that I don't, I panic a little bit.  I'd like to think I'm taking great care of myself, because I dedicate such a huge part of my life to my health, so that maybe if I live to see the 60s, 70s, or maybe even 80s, I'm still getting around and being active and not taking a handful of medications that I could have prevented with a healthy lifestyle.  I hope that through my life I can motivate others to live that lifestyle as well.  It's not always an easy change, but the positives outweigh the negatives no matter how the issue is looked it.

After I got home and my eyes un-dilated, I hit the gym and did two straight hours of cardio in the form of running four miles, doing 1-minute intervals of steps with 10lb ankle weights, and some light elliptical work, followed by some bicep/tricep work since my shoulder was feeling decent today, and then I wrapped up with some core exercises mixed in with a 20-minute stretch routine.  I felt the best I've felt all summer long today, which is making me feel really confident heading into officer week this week, and then the entire audition process/band camp next week. 

I got the chance to go golfing with my cousin again on Thursday. The first time we went the week before I shot 67 for nine holes, and he shot 36, on a par 35.  This time, I shot 54 and he was even par, so in just six days of hitting on the range and trying to fix my driving a bit I managed to take 13 strokes off my score, and I even managed to hit a couple great putts along the way.  I've gotten myself pretty hooked on golf... but it looks like that will have to wait until next year since I'll be too busy for it. After I left there I discovered a natural wonder only 20 minutes from home.  My two best friends from home wanted to go hiking, and once we found out it would be rather expensive to hike Bushkill Falls, we discovered Raymondskill Falls... which are only 4 feet shorter than Niagara (according to the website).  I'd believe it.  We wound up hiking off the main trails and explored some pretty neat areas around the creek... I'll post some pictures tomorrow when I'm awake.

All in all, it's been a pretty stressful period in my life, but better times are definitely ahead.  Blue Band is just around the corner, and I can't wait to bring it this year.

I probably won't be posting again until I'm back in State College, which will then start my daily posts about how we're preparing for the season.  It's finally go time!

That's all for now.
Thanks for reading.

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