Mike Wazowski: When to Try HARD, and when to chillll

[Mad Hatter]

14 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

she used me as an example of good butt shaking during her group class (technically it was for good musicality, but I was shaking my butt so...good butt shaking it is!)

Video or it didn’t happen.  

[CourtnieMarie]

15 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

• Tonight, I figured out that my dryer wasn't actually fully hooked up, exhaust wise, so the dusty hot air was going into my apartment - I did some taping of the pipe to the dryer and the wall exhaust and now it's much quieter and throwing off much less heat. For sure awarding myself an unplanned Harry point

 

3 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Week 2, Day 2: Work, which included way too many interruptions and a late, unproductive feeling meeting. Would not recommend either to anyone who doesn't want more pain in their lives. But still got to the studio in time to teach one of my two classes, which ended up being a one-on-one going deep on mechanics of swing and sway with one of my 15-year-olds. Easily the highlight, because then it was time to head home and do laundry and work on grad school projects, during which I discovered that my dryer's air vent pipe thing had become disconnected from the wall. I had to be a bit of a clever monkey to get in there and reattach it, complete with climbing on top of my washer to slide into the small gap I could make and using some foil tape from an old dryer install to try and seal the foil pipe thing up to both the machine and the wall exhaust. Thankfully, once it was done, the dryer ran much quieter and with way less hot, dusty air being dumped into the apartment. And that was pretty much it for the day, because by then I was poooooped.

 

eep! venting the dryer air back into the house is not what you want at all. i know you're just renting right? but it could cause mold or other health issues. glad you were able to macgyver! might be worth a call to the landlord to make sure there are no leaks remaining?

[scalyfreak]

14 hours ago, Raxie said:

I honestly think everyone everywhere could benefit from therapy - I think a large part of it really is just what you said, having the space and freedom to talk things out with yourself with a little (or a lot) of guidance.

 

...with a near stranger who has no personal stake in the issue whatsoever, except to help you figure things out.

13 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Week 2, Day 2: Work, which included way too many interruptions and a late, unproductive feeling meeting. Would not recommend either to anyone who doesn't want more pain in their lives.

 

You do not recommend work?  But then how would I pay for my play time?

[Raxie]

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

XD I'm sure it's excellent. And that you'll hate how you danced it in 5 years, regardless of how good it is now.

 

Hahah considering I'm still making what I guess are fast-ish newb gains and hate what I did less than a month ago... I am super certain 5 years from now I'll be cringing XD

 

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

++++++++1 (or a billion). Truly wish I could talk my parents into trying it, but I know that'll be a long, long process of wearing them down.

 

I wish this for a lot of my family as well. There really still is so much stigma around seeking out professional help and it's such a shame.  It's the same as going to PT for a messed up hamstring or something.  Brains need work and and healing attention just as much as any other part of the body. I've decided the best I can do is portray it in an open and positive light and hope it helps alter people's perceptions even just a little bit.

 

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

LMAO! I love 'em, but for the leads they're legit just a series of cucarachas, sooooo *shrug*. I guess we help you with the spins, in theory.

 

Yeah it's definitely that second turn that does me in.  I used to fall over but now that I've learned how to turn better I keep overturning and wanting to step forward instead of back afterwards and facing the completely wrong way.  I do love watching other people do them well though, such a cool figure.

 

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Barbara McColl! First time meeting her, and I ADORE her. She was really, really excellent at working with all our teen and pre-teen girls that I saw taking lessons with her, too.

 

Oooh very cool! Did a quick google - she runs the Paris Worlds? That's pretty sweet. I bet she had some awesome pointers for everyone.

 

I feel like everyone I've met in ballroom has been SO NICE no matter how prestigious they are it's pretty great. It's weird I feel like dance is both simultaneously the friendliest/most loving and snarkiest/pettiest community (adding in my ballet roots to that observation as well).

 

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

That's the plan! I think it honestly works better with how I've traditionally done stuff - some lazy days and some high effort days, rather than trying to do little chunks of stuff each day and never really finishing a project.

 

Yeah I have SERIOUS issues actually getting myself "in the zone", so I work this way as well.  Good luck!

 

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

I discovered that my dryer's air vent pipe thing had become disconnected from the wall. I had to be a bit of a clever monkey to get in there and reattach it, complete with climbing on top of my washer to slide into the small gap I could make and using some foil tape from an old dryer install to try and seal the foil pipe thing up to both the machine and the wall exhaust. Thankfully, once it was done, the dryer ran much quieter and with way less hot, dusty air being dumped into the apartment.

 

Wow good job.  That is a lot more work than it sounds like would be wanted at the end of such a long day.  Yay for working and quiet dryers though!

[Mike Wazowski]

9 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

...with a near stranger who has no personal stake in the issue whatsoever, except to help you figure things out.

+1 for this!

 

9 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

You do not recommend work?  But then how would I pay for my play time?

Hahaha I meant the interruptions and the late meetings. I actually like work, it adds structure to my day and philosophically / theologically I believe there's an inherent dignity to work, in whatever way that manifests in our lives (e.g. it need not be a job job to be work).

 

21 hours ago, Harriet said:

I am impressed by your handiness. I wouldn't dare attempt to repair a machine for fear of making it worse. 

This sadly wasn't my first rodeo with this type of dryer issue - happened waaaay back at my old place about 5 years ago, which is why I already had the tape I used.

 

21 hours ago, raptron said:

AWESOMEEEE.  

 

Safe ankles are a dream. <3 

 for real!!! Safe and slowly getting stronger / more mobile, all I can ask and more of my ankles (sitting at over a year without any sort of ankle sprain making me miss dance practice, which is truly a dream come true).

 

21 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Video or it didn’t happen.  

 sadly, the nest cam videos from the weekend are already purged from memory so I can't get them, but I'll be sure to drop a video of my booty-shaking in a couple months when partner and I have our next competition!

 

19 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

eep! venting the dryer air back into the house is not what you want at all. i know you're just renting right? but it could cause mold or other health issues. glad you were able to macgyver! might be worth a call to the landlord to make sure there are no leaks remaining?

Ehh probably not a need to call the landlord in my case - I'm hooking the vent tube from my dryer into a metal pipe in the wall, which should then merge with dryer exhaust from other units in the (very large) building. I think once there's no discernible trace of dryer vent air in my apartment I'll call it good enough.

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

Hahah considering I'm still making what I guess are fast-ish newb gains and hate what I did less than a month ago... I am super certain 5 years from now I'll be cringing XD

XD fair!! It happens even at my stage - partner and I cringe at some of the stuff we thought was a good idea like 3-4 months ago (doesn't help that with same-sex, we're still clarifying what our concept is, though I think we've finally figured it out).

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

I wish this for a lot of my family as well. There really still is so much stigma around seeking out professional help and it's such a shame.  It's the same as going to PT for a messed up hamstring or something.  Brains need work and and healing attention just as much as any other part of the body. I've decided the best I can do is portray it in an open and positive light and hope it helps alter people's perceptions even just a little bit.

Same - all I can do is speak candidly about my experience and my philosophy, and know that slowly it may chip away at my family's resistance.

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

Yeah it's definitely that second turn that does me in.  I used to fall over but now that I've learned how to turn better I keep overturning and wanting to step forward instead of back afterwards and facing the completely wrong way.  I do love watching other people do them well though, such a cool figure.

Hehe good to know - I'm sure we'll see some of that when our kiddos start learning gold in a couple months - I think they start the second weekend of October.

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

Oooh very cool! Did a quick google - she runs the Paris Worlds? That's pretty sweet. I bet she had some awesome pointers for everyone.

Maybe? I mainly know her as a Blackpool champion - she's also known for doing a strictly syllabus rumba in the final at Blackpool one year and *winning*, which is kind of a big deal.

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

I feel like everyone I've met in ballroom has been SO NICE no matter how prestigious they are it's pretty great. It's weird I feel like dance is both simultaneously the friendliest/most loving and snarkiest/pettiest community (adding in my ballet roots to that observation as well).

FOR SURE - and also so intimidating for a l

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

Yeah I have SERIOUS issues actually getting myself "in the zone", so I work this way as well.  Good luck!

Yup - I have no trouble getting in the zone, but I can't do it big multiple days in a row. And I think there's maybe something to be said for me not trying to - just let myself go really hard something like 3-4 days a week on work / grad school stuff, and let the others be a lot more chill. As long as I produce lots of results, nothing for people to complain about!

 

1 hour ago, Raxie said:

Wow good job.  That is a lot more work than it sounds like would be wanted at the end of such a long day.  Yay for working and quiet dryers though!

Ya, it was roughhhhh. But I already had a load of towels in there and another load of clothes in the wash...so I didn't have much of a choice haha.

 

Week 2, Day 3: I promise I'll get around to posting on other people's threads, but it's a crazy season for me. I had a pretty solid day at work, rolled in after doing some morning Pilates and Got. Shit. Done! (Boss even commented on how I was cranking through things at around 11). Grad school on my lunch break was a lot rougher - I got hung up trying to figure out what the sigma notation for a programming problem even meant in plain english. I'm still not sure I got it, but at least I got a little closer, I think. Then the afternoon was basically all meetings, and then it was teaching time - always a bright spot! I had a super full ballroom class because one of the other teachers couldn't make it - it was fun, but also a bit chaotic. Then went home and just sort of vegged out for a couple hours, I think I needed the downtime after the past couple days.

 

Running point total: 55.5 (still on track)

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 3/5
• Lesson Planning: 0/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 3/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 3/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 1/1

Harry: 12

Spoiler

• Hang blackboard in room
• Wall mount TV
• Get floor lamp for living room
• Assemble living room floor lamp
• Move art panels over to make room for lamp
• Put slide pads on living room furniture
• Hook up dryer pipe
• Program thermostat for the summer
• Car trunk of stuff to friend
• Update voter registration
• Label pantry containers
• Drive to faraway gym and cancel membership
• Set up smart lights (4 bulbs and a light strip - plus maybe a bonus lightstrip TBD)
• Get allergist receipt and save for long term
• Doctor 7/5
• Haircut 7/15-ish
• Get watch repaired
• Make dessert bars for a friend's birthday party
• Have friends over for a housewarming and/or pool party
• Make appointment for stuff pick up
• Make second doctor's appointment for STD testing
• Go to second doctor's appointment?
• Take stuff to salvation army myself
• Take old phone to Apple for recycling
• Recycle rest of old electronics kicking around unused
• Write strength training program for friends
• Write collegiate coaching bio
• Edit collegiate coaching bio and send
• Pick collegiate coaching picture and send

 

[scalyfreak]

4 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Hahaha I meant the interruptions and the late meetings. I actually like work, it adds structure to my day and philosophically / theologically I believe there's an inherent dignity to work, in whatever way that manifests in our lives (e.g. it need not be a job job to be work).

 

Late meetings suck.

 

But there is definitely a quiet pride and honor in doing something to the best of our ability, for no other reason than to be able to look back at it and tell ourselves that we did a good job. If someone wants to pay me for the time it took, all the better.

 

Adding to what you and @Raxie have already said about talking to family about mental health issues... what happens in brains happens due to chemical balance or imbalance and how the neurons are wired and interacting. That in turn is controlled by one DNA, and while I can't remember regarding either of you right now, I have two siblings who share a portion of my DNA with me, and they both have children. I tell them about the physical health I have, that I could pass to a child of mine (like my asthma), in case they passed something similar to a child of theirs. As I see it, this applies in full to mental health issues as well - my siblings need to know, so they can help their children with any anxiety they might have.

[Mike Wazowski]

19 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

Late meetings suck.

Yuuuup.

 

19 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

But there is definitely a quiet pride and honor in doing something to the best of our ability, for no other reason than to be able to look back at it and tell ourselves that we did a good job. If someone wants to pay me for the time it took, all the better.

 for sure agree.

 

19 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

Adding to what you and @Raxie have already said about talking to family about mental health issues... what happens in brains happens due to chemical balance or imbalance and how the neurons are wired and interacting. That in turn is controlled by one DNA, and while I can't remember regarding either of you right now, I have two siblings who share a portion of my DNA with me, and they both have children. I tell them about the physical health I have, that I could pass to a child of mine (like my asthma), in case they passed something similar to a child of theirs. As I see it, this applies in full to mental health issues as well - my siblings need to know, so they can help their children with any anxiety they might have.

No children or siblings, so nothing specific to talk about there. Mostly just cousins who may be dealing with the same, or my parents who probably share at least some of my genetic and environmental predispositions.

 

Week 2, Day 4: Basically spent most of the day working hard to wrap up my grad school project for the week and melting my brain with linear algebra and translating between sigma notation with vectors and matrix multiplaction / addition etc. (to make my code run nice and fast). I got it done enough (over 95% of the points, but there were two questions I left unanswered at the end of the project). Ron managed to talk Hermione into not stressing too much on that and refocusing efforts on more important things, like wrapping up the work week strongly today and enjoying dance practice last night. Wasn't the most productive practice ever (possibly due to an ear / sinus infection I may be coming down with) but we still got quite a bit done. And that was basically the day!

 

Running point total: 62.5 (more than just on track, hitting 100 points is looking realistic!)

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 4/5
• Lesson Planning: 0/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 4/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 2/1

Harry: 13

Spoiler

• Hang blackboard in room
• Wall mount TV
• Get floor lamp for living room
• Assemble living room floor lamp
• Move art panels over to make room for lamp
• Put slide pads on living room furniture
• Hook up dryer pipe
• Program thermostat for the summer
• Car trunk of stuff to friend
• Update voter registration
• Label pantry containers
• Drive to faraway gym and cancel membership
• Set up smart lights (4 bulbs and a light strip - plus maybe a bonus lightstrip TBD)
• Get allergist receipt and save for long term
• Doctor 7/5
• Haircut 7/15-ish
• Get watch repaired
• Make dessert bars for a friend's birthday party
• Have friends over for a housewarming and/or pool party
• Make appointment for stuff pick up
• Make second doctor's appointment for STD testing
• Go to second doctor's appointment?
• Take stuff to salvation army myself
• Take old phone to Apple for recycling
• Recycle rest of old electronics kicking around unused
• Write strength training program for friends
• Write collegiate coaching bio
• Edit collegiate coaching bio and send
• Pick collegiate coaching picture and send

 

[Harriet]

8 minutes ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Running point total: 62.5 (more than just on track, hitting 100 points is looking realistic!)

Are you relaxing hard enough, though????? Relax harder!!! 

Yay for sigma notation vectors and matrix multiplication. I assume you're building a laser gun prototype. 

[Mike Wazowski]

On 7/12/2019 at 9:57 AM, Harriet said:

Are you relaxing hard enough, though????? Relax harder!!! 

Hahahahaha don't you go getting me started on that!

 

On 7/12/2019 at 9:57 AM, Harriet said:

Yay for sigma notation vectors and matrix multiplication. I assume you're building a laser gun prototype. 

If only - just teaching a computer how to recognize digits (most of the heavy lifting had been done for me, I was just writing a multivariate regression gradient descent algorithm - which sounds fancier and more complex than it is.

 

Week 2, Wrap up: Weekend was pretty solid - lots of dance training and pushing myself hard in the studio, plus I did the planning for my youth and college kid classes for the farthest foreseeable time period - and met with my co-teacher for the college kids and got on broadly the same page on how we were going to approach it. All in all, felt really good to just go deep down that rabbit hole. Didn't allocate quite enough time for sleep last night - had trouble quieting down after putting the finishing touches on my ballroom curriculum rough draft and ended up reading about 100 pages in a library book I had checked out.

 

Big focuses this week will be continuing to experiment with big push, project-based approaches to working on stuff; PLUS getting back into the gym to work out, cause I miss it (even though I know the DOMS will show up with a VENGEANCE). And, if I can wrap up the lectures and homework for this unit of grad school, I'll treat myself to a Saturday morning book date, I think.

 

Running point total: 76.5 (second reward hit!)

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1

Harry: 13

Spoiler

• Hang blackboard in room
• Wall mount TV
• Get floor lamp for living room
• Assemble living room floor lamp
• Move art panels over to make room for lamp
• Put slide pads on living room furniture
• Hook up dryer pipe
• Program thermostat for the summer
• Car trunk of stuff to friend
• Update voter registration
• Label pantry containers
• Drive to faraway gym and cancel membership
• Set up smart lights (4 bulbs and a light strip - plus maybe a bonus lightstrip TBD)
• Get allergist receipt and save for long term
• Doctor 7/5
• Haircut 7/15-ish
• Get watch repaired
• Make dessert bars for a friend's birthday party
• Have friends over for a housewarming and/or pool party
• Make appointment for stuff pick up
• Make second doctor's appointment for STD testing
• Go to second doctor's appointment?
• Take stuff to salvation army myself
• Take old phone to Apple for recycling
• Recycle rest of old electronics kicking around unused
• Write strength training program for friends
• Write collegiate coaching bio
• Edit collegiate coaching bio and send
• Pick collegiate coaching picture and send

 

[CourtnieMarie]

nice work! hope you can catch up on sleep this week  

[Mike Wazowski]

20 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

nice work! hope you can catch up on sleep this week  

Welp, it didn't happen last night (it never does after a late dance night, which is ok-ish).

 

Week 3, Day 1: For some reason, just COULD NOT focus at work yesterday - I think it was maybe overdoing it on caffeine, maybe a mindset thing. Either way, I'm OK with it, but I need to make sure it's not too frequent an occurrence - especially since it looks like my portfolio of stuff at work is about to blow up for a bit, and the month of August will be crazy there (thankfully, my dance stuff will wind down a bit in August before getting more intense). Practice last night was good, and it still feels like dance partner and I are growing in a really cool direction (and in it for the long haul).

 

Running point total: 78.5 (second reward hit!)

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5, 1/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 0/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7, 0/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1, 1/1

Harry: 13

[CourtnieMarie]

sleep tonight?!

[Mike Wazowski]

41 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

sleep tonight?!

That's the plan!

[CourtnieMarie]

1 hour ago, Mike Wazowski said:

That's the plan!

[Mike Wazowski]

Week 3, Day 2: Work focus struggles continue, unfortunately - but I still got at least one thing done, so good enough, I guess. After work, taught some dance and checked some choreo for the college kids. I now have stuff that fits into the space I want it to, but it may all be in the realm of holy-shit-that's-hard instead of just pretty challenging for their level (my goal level of difficulty). It's hard for me to gauge though, so I'm in limbo on that until I get input from some other teachers - and there's no rush, I have until early September to get it sorted out.

 

Running point total: 81.5

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5, 2/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 0/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7, 1/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1, 2/1

Harry: 13

[Raxie]

On 7/11/2019 at 10:16 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

XD fair!! It happens even at my stage - partner and I cringe at some of the stuff we thought was a good idea like 3-4 months ago (doesn't help that with same-sex, we're still clarifying what our concept is, though I think we've finally figured it out).

 

Can't wait to see some videos of the fruits of your labor!!

 

On 7/11/2019 at 10:16 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

Maybe? I mainly know her as a Blackpool champion - she's also known for doing a strictly syllabus rumba in the final at Blackpool one year and *winning*, which is kind of a big deal.

 

Uhm holy cow I can totally understand that being a big deal! That's utterly insane. I need to go find a video of that stat.  Internet don't fail me now.

 

On 7/11/2019 at 10:16 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

Yup - I have no trouble getting in the zone, but I can't do it big multiple days in a row. And I think there's maybe something to be said for me not trying to - just let myself go really hard something like 3-4 days a week on work / grad school stuff, and let the others be a lot more chill. As long as I produce lots of results, nothing for people to complain about!

 

I feel you! It's so hard to sit down and make yourself do something, but once you do it it's like zone time! It can be so draining though - I hope this method works out better for you!

 

On 7/11/2019 at 10:16 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

FOR SURE - and also so intimidating

 

The intimidating portion is part of the reason I'm afraid to do workshops and stuff they have in the city sometimes - I'm like ah! What if xyz person sees me be bad?! I should get over that.

 

On 7/11/2019 at 3:07 PM, scalyfreak said:

what happens in brains happens due to chemical balance or imbalance and how the neurons are wired and interacting. That in turn is controlled by one DNA, and while I can't remember regarding either of you right now, I have two siblings who share a portion of my DNA with me, and they both have children. I tell them about the physical health I have, that I could pass to a child of mine (like my asthma), in case they passed something similar to a child of theirs. As I see it, this applies in full to mental health issues as well - my siblings need to know, so they can help their children with any anxiety they might have.

 

This is a really good point. It is important to be extra candid with family members since genetics say it is more likely for all of us to have the same problems =/

 

On 7/12/2019 at 10:47 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

(more than just on track, hitting 100 points is looking realistic!)

 

Yeesssss dance shoes!!! I can almost taste them.

 

 

[Mike Wazowski]

On 7/17/2019 at 10:23 AM, Raxie said:

Can't wait to see some videos of the fruits of your labor!!

Haha thanks for the reminder that I need to actually post videos now and again - partner and I are so bad about that - but slowly maybe getting better.

 

Quote

Uhm holy cow I can totally understand that being a big deal! That's utterly insane. I need to go find a video of that stat.  Internet don't fail me now.

If you find it, let me know!! I tried and couldn't - but I did find an old school blog post where someone interviewed her about it - apparently her and Sammy changed it on the fly because their planned choreo didn't fit the music that was playing AT ALL - really shows how she lives her 

 

Quote

I feel you! It's so hard to sit down and make yourself do something, but once you do it it's like zone time! It can be so draining though - I hope this method works out better for you!

That's the hope!! I seem to thrive a little bit on obsessing over a problem til it's solved or I feel good putting in on a shelf, then moving on to the next one - here's hoping this works out.

 

Quote

The intimidating portion is part of the reason I'm afraid to do workshops and stuff they have in the city sometimes - I'm like ah! What if xyz person sees me be bad?! I should get over that.

For sure! I shook my ass in front of a room full of people for the most recent workshop we had in the studio and got a lot of compliments on it - so I think I finally have 

 

Quote

Yeesssss dance shoes!!! I can almost taste them.

Hehe I'm not sure they taste very good.  And given where my points are trending, I placed my order with the hopes that they arrive before I start teaching my college kids in the fall - I'd *love* to be *that* teacher with the loud shoes from day one, haha.

 

Week 3, Day 3: Still kind of a swirling anxieties day thanks to lots of upheaval at work - my workload just increased by a lot and a piece of my support network had to leave the company and I'm a little excited about one and sad about the other. And on top of that, some other stuff shifted in my dating life that had me feeling inconvenient butterflies in my stomach. But around lunchtime, I took a break, went to a coffee shop and journaled like mad, putting all the swirl on paper and getting to a place where I could at least carry on with my day. Had to stay a bit late to wrap things up and missed one dance class, but made it for my second one with all the nuttiness of subbing for my co-teacher and teaching a giant class with basically all our experienced students. Thankfully, I was able to uncork some technique topics with them that are both really useful and that were bothering me from watching their warmups - and thread it in and build upon things the advanced class were already working on. Really, really excellent reinforcement that I know my crap, even in the style I don't compete in (and can figure out a lot of info by feel as well) - like I know it, but the validation felt good! And after that, had a pretty good practice with the partner - we're slowly chugging along and improving and it feels good. Kinda late bedtime but let myself wake up without an alarm today because I didn't have any early meetings to make it to at work.

 

Oh! And I forgot to add, I finally wrote and sent my coaching bio for the college kids, along with a picture from a recent competition where I have my "squirrel found a cocaine stash" face on. Highlights from the bio:

• Mentioned that I can explain the quantum physics behind non-incandescent light bulbs
• Declared that I'm trying to be a bigger nerd than two of the other coaches
• Mentioning my obsession with Trader Joe's - seems like a relevant personality quirk

 

Running point total: 86.5

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5, 3/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 0/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7, 2/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1, 2/1

Harry: 16

Spoiler

• Hang blackboard in room
• Wall mount TV
• Get floor lamp for living room
• Assemble living room floor lamp
• Move art panels over to make room for lamp
• Put slide pads on living room furniture
• Hook up dryer pipe
• Program thermostat for the summer
• Car trunk of stuff to friend
• Update voter registration
• Label pantry containers
• Drive to faraway gym and cancel membership
• Set up smart lights (4 bulbs and a light strip - plus maybe a bonus lightstrip TBD)
• Get allergist receipt and save for long term
• Doctor 7/5
• Haircut 7/15-ish
• Get watch repaired
• Make dessert bars for a friend's birthday party
• Have friends over for a housewarming and/or pool party
• Make appointment for stuff pick up
• Make second doctor's appointment for STD testing
• Go to second doctor's appointment?
• Make a counseling appointment
• Take stuff to salvation army myself
• Take old phone to Apple for recycling
• Recycle rest of old electronics kicking around unused
• Write strength training program for friends
• Write collegiate coaching bio
• Edit collegiate coaching bio and send
• Pick collegiate coaching picture and send

 

[JustCallMeAmber]

1 hour ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Hehe I'm not sure they taste very good.  And given where my points are trending, I placed my order with the hopes that they arrive before I start teaching my college kids in the fall - I'd *love* to be *that* teacher with the loud shoes from day one, haha.

1 hour ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Oh! And I forgot to add, I finally wrote and sent my coaching bio for the college kids, along with a picture from a recent competition where I have my "squirrel found a cocaine stash" face on. Highlights from the bio:

• Mentioned that I can explain the quantum physics behind non-incandescent light bulbs
• Declared that I'm trying to be a bigger nerd than two of the other coaches
• Mentioning my obsession with Trader Joe's - seems like a relevant personality quirk

<3 all of this, but especially the photo descriptor!

[Mike Wazowski]

20 hours ago, JustCallMeAmber said:

Oh gosh - am I Andy Dwyer??

 

20 hours ago, JustCallMeAmber said:

<3 all of this, but especially the photo descriptor!

Hehe I think it was actually a little muted, but the past guest coaching included some talk about my face and eyes being too "penetrating" when I dance (along with my partner's, and yes, the coach did not avoid making the expected dirty jokes) and as a result I've really landed on a face I visualize as "squirrel on cocaine" for cha cha and jive.  You'll hopefully notice it in videos I post in the future. 

 

Week 3, Day 4: Welp, yesterday was a superbly frustrating day at work - on the plus side, have fodder for my conversation with my boss today to figure out how we can avoid me being quite as miserable when I leave the office in the future. Stopped by TJ's after work (gotta stay on brand) and, inspired by the one and only @raptron, picked up a loaf of bread and some goat cheese in addition to my usual groceries and proceeded to have a "deconstructed pizza" for dinner (oven crisped / warmed bread, marinara sauce for dipping, goat cheese to spread - usually just the cheese or the sauce on a particular hunk). Then got really into my most recent library book ("Tales of the City" - it's been turned into a netflix series) and proceeded to read 100 pages in rapid succession and finished it (I was utterly amazed at how tightly the author connected a buncha different characters' storylines and loved the over the top drama of it). And somewhere in there yesterday, I ordered the shoes for this challenge's top reward, so I better not slip up (but even if I do, I'll enjoy the heck outta the shoes!).

 

Oh and I made it to the gym this morning for a strength workout, finally - I was pleasantly surprised with how well handstands and chin ups went considering it's been two and a half weeks.

 

Running point total: 88.5

 

Hermione:

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5, 4/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 0/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7, 2/7

Ron:

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1, 1/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1, 2/1

Harry: 16

[raptron]

Oooh, yes. Love the saucy addition to the dinner.  

 

Nice strength workout! 

[JustCallMeAmber]

2 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Oh gosh - am I Andy Dwyer??

I mean.. if you want to be, go for it.  But the gif was my reaction that 1) you were getting the shoes and 2) putting them to most excellent use

 

[Mike Wazowski]

4 hours ago, raptron said:

Oooh, yes. Love the saucy addition to the dinner.  

It was GREAT!! So excited to reprise it occasionally for a quick and delish spread (and the sauce is TOTALLY a veggie serving ).

 

4 hours ago, raptron said:

Nice strength workout! 

Hehe thanks - I pleasantly surprised myself on it - especially handstands, all that core work the past couple weeks plus focusing on alignment at dance clearly paid off!

 

1 hour ago, JustCallMeAmber said:

I mean.. if you want to be, go for it.  But the gif was my reaction that 1) you were getting the shoes and 2) putting them to most excellent use

Fair enough - he's a bit oafish for me to want to be him, but his personality is charming in its own way. I absolutely am gonna carve out my lane as the bat**** cray teacher from day one, though.

[@mu]

On 7/19/2019 at 4:09 PM, Mike Wazowski said:

Oh and I made it to the gym this morning for a strength workout, finally - I was pleasantly surprised with how well handstands and chin ups went considering it's been two and a half weeks.

 

All those Warriors doing Assassins stuff  

 

On 7/19/2019 at 4:09 PM, Mike Wazowski said:

And somewhere in there yesterday, I ordered the shoes for this challenge's top reward, so I better not slip up (but even if I do, I'll enjoy the heck outta the shoes!).

 

YES, well, even assuming an unlikely last week a bit off, overall challenge came out as full on I'd say, well deserved !

[Mike Wazowski]

On 7/20/2019 at 3:03 PM, @mu said:

All those Warriors doing Assassins stuff  

 I've been called out!!

 

On 7/20/2019 at 3:03 PM, @mu said:

YES, well, even assuming an unlikely last week a bit off, overall challenge came out as full on I'd say, well deserved !

That's my thinking! Still pushed myself and made some growth, no matter how the final points shake out.

 

Week 3 Wrap Up: 

Friday: Could not be bothered to care very much about work - I literally focused only on doing the one thing I absolutely had to do, went to required meetings, and called it a week. Dance practice after work was good but exhausting (I'm leaving the studio most days feeling like everything hurts, but especially my adductors). I think I was a lump on my couch after that, but don't really remember.

 

Saturday: Dance practice all morning, then some errands (knocking out a couple Harry to do list items) and met up with one of my best friends for what I was planning to be only one drink. But we made some new friends at the bar, hung out for a bit, and then decided to head over to my neighborhood and check out another bar. We were there til about 2 am (bar close) and learned that 1) she and I have pretty similar taste in men (lol) and 2) I have a knack for picking guys who are already in relationships out of a crowd (haha). It was fun romping around with a best friend I haven't gotten a chance to spend much time with regardless.

 

Sunday: Dance practice, finally starting on grad school work for the week (only finished about half of what I wanted to - thankfully next week's an exam week so I'll have a chance to hit the reset button and get caught up again), laundry, and calling my parents ate up the day. Oh, and wallowing in hangover self-pity, because I'm a wimp.

 

This week's about to be cray at work with me leaving on Friday for vacation, so there's a very real chance of drive-by updates only for a bit.

 

Running point total: 96.5

 

Hermione: 64.5

• Work Day 1 Thing: 5/5, 4/4, 5/5, 5/5, 0/5
• Lesson Planning: 10/10
• Grad school work: 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 3/6, 0/6
• Sleeeeep: 3.5/7, 5/7, 6/7, 3/7, 0/7

Ron: 14

• Strength: 0/1, 1/1, 0/1, 1/1, 0/1
• Prehab / pilates: 2/1, 4/1, 3/1, 2/1, 1/1

Harry: 18

Spoiler

• Hang blackboard in room
• Wall mount TV
• Get floor lamp for living room
• Assemble living room floor lamp
• Move art panels over to make room for lamp
• Put slide pads on living room furniture
• Hook up dryer pipe
• Program thermostat for the summer
• Car trunk of stuff to friend
• Update voter registration
• Label pantry containers
• Drive to faraway gym and cancel membership
• Set up smart lights (4 bulbs and a light strip - plus maybe a bonus lightstrip TBD)
• Get allergist receipt and save for long term
• Doctor 7/5
• Haircut 7/15-ish
• Get watch repaired
• Make dessert bars for a friend's birthday party
• Have friends over for a housewarming and/or pool party
• Make appointment for stuff pick up
• Make second doctor's appointment for STD testing
• Go to second doctor's appointment?
• Make a counseling appointment
• Take stuff to salvation army myself
• Take old phone to Apple for recycling
• Recycle rest of old electronics kicking around unused
• Write strength training program for friends
• Write collegiate coaching bio
• Edit collegiate coaching bio and send
• Pick collegiate coaching picture and send

[Mad Hatter]

On 7/19/2019 at 9:52 PM, Mike Wazowski said:

Fair enough - he's a bit oafish for me to want to be him, but his personality is charming in its own way. I absolutely am gonna carve out my lane as the bat**** cray teacher from day one, though.

Can I take class with you?
 

33 minutes ago, Mike Wazowski said:

met up with one of my best friends for what I was planning to be only one drink.

Famous last words