Scalyfreak is late to the party

[Scaly Freak]

It feels good to be on the road again. Now fully recovered from her battle against Stress Hydra, Scalyfreak is more than happy to put the ordeal behind her and go back to focusing what matters. She steps back onto the main path with a sense of optimism and relief, and resumes her journey.

 

For about five minutes.

 

Before too long it becomes obvious to Scalyfreak that someone is following her. Someone who is muttering and hissing, and judging by the uncomfortable itching between Scalyfreak’s shoulders, it’s someone who wishes her harm. A quick glance behind her confirms that the surviving demon twin has returned.

 

“Hello, Procrastination. What do you want?”

 

The demon smiles, and says nothing, and thin tendrils of blue mist float through the air towards Scalyfreak, and wrap themselves around her.

 

 

So after the business trip there were two very chaotic work weeks where lots of co-workers also traveled, and after that, I went on two weeks of vacation, which was great, and almost completely internet free, which was even greater and quite de-stressing.

 

And now I’m back, and should probably get back to doing challenges again. After a month and a half of routine upheaval, getting things back on track is going to be a little tricky, so for the remainder of this period that’s what we will focus on.

 

1. Get back to regular gym visits and lifting. I haven’t really had gym access during all the traveling, and as a result I found myself taking an unintentional break from barbell lifting. Any kinds of lifting, really. So now I need to get back to doing that three times a week again, so I can recover my lost progress.

 

2. Meditate every day. For some reason, traveling away from every stressful part of one’s day to day life, seems to remove the need for all the little coping mechanisms and survival strategies that one developed in order to not go crazy from the stress of said day to day life. And while having two weeks nearly entirely devoid of stress was very nice, I did drop my habit of daily meditation. Now that I’m back with the daily stress, I need to get back to meditating.

 

3. Start and finish at least one project I have been procrastinating on for way too long. I haven’t decided which project yet, so I will edit this challenge with more detail once I do.

 

And I’m not even going to try to get caught up with all the forum threads I am behind on. I’m just going to dive right in and improvise, and go from there.  

[Harriet]

HI

So, uh, do you have any strategies against the procrastination demon? There's one tailing me, too. 

[Scaly Freak]

20 minutes ago, Harriet said:

So, uh, do you have any strategies against the procrastination demon? There's one tailing me, too. 

 

Unfortunately not... but I am hoping that by coming back here I will be able to build up my resistance to her attacks.

[Scaly Freak]

I went to the gym yesterday, and meditated this morning (not yesterday though... forgot).

 

I'm starting to feel gradually unhappy and dissatisfied with my current gym. The floor by the power racks is all spongy and uneven from weights going back down on the floor after heavy deadlifts. It is annoying to try and brace for various lifts on an uneven floor. It annoys me that the floor was not reinforced better when they renovated the gym last year. But there are not a lot of options around here, so I will have to suck it up and put up with it for now.

[Jean]

I take putting up with it for now as a victory against the procrastination tendrils, though the gym situation does suck quite a bit.

 

Hope you'll still find your enjoyment despite the shaky floor (or develop dahu legs, dahus are fun too).

[Harriet]

6 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

I'm starting to feel gradually unhappy and dissatisfied with my current gym. The floor by the power racks is all spongy and uneven from weights going back down on the floor after heavy deadlifts. It is annoying to try and brace for various lifts on an uneven floor. It annoys me that the floor was not reinforced better when they renovated the gym last year. 

 

Why are the temple guardians not performing their maintenance duties adequately? Are they impious? Have they been infiltrated by light-stretching-and-treadmill cultists? Are they suffering a dark night of faithlessness/liftlessness? How can you pay tribute to the iron spirits if the floor is not stable????? Alas! 

[Scaly Freak]

12 hours ago, Jean said:

I take putting up with it for now as a victory against the procrastination tendrils, though the gym situation does suck quite a bit.

 

Excellent point about Procrastination, and to be fair the floor situation is only bad around the main power racks. The squat rack remains safe, thankfully.

 

8 hours ago, Harriet said:

Why are the temple guardians not performing their maintenance duties adequately? Are they impious? Have they been infiltrated by light-stretching-and-treadmill cultists? 

 

I suspect the cultists have gotten to them. Thankfully, I am able to pay proper tribute by moving away from the spongy floor for overhead press and barbell row, and bench press and squats are not in the affected area. The corruption is there, however, the temple's main structure remains pure. There is still a lot of barbells, and a lot of true faithful still flock to the racks.

[Mike Wazowski]

Grrr, that's annoying on the gym front - especially given limited options in the area! Are you the type of person that would eventually want / get good use out of a home gym?

[Scaly Freak]

35 minutes ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Grrr, that's annoying on the gym front - especially given limited options in the area! Are you the type of person that would eventually want / get good use out of a home gym?

 

I would love to have my own lifting setup at home.

[Scaly Freak]

No gym so far this week.

 

I have been meditating every day, so that is a plus and I can tell it is helping.

 

I think I have identified a project to work on, but before I really decided, stuff happened at work. All of a sudden, my career path is branching out in two different directions. I have been asked to pick one, and I have to give my decision by the end of this work week. I have a meeting with my current manager tomorrow morning, set up specifically to ask questions and get clarification on where one of the two paths might lead.

 

Because of the work thing described above, I told Procrastination to go eat filthy gym socks and I will see her again next week. 

[h3r0]

31 minutes ago, scalyfreak said:

No gym so far this week.

 

I have been meditating every day, so that is a plus and I can tell it is helping.

 

I think I have identified a project to work on, but before I really decided, stuff happened at work. All of a sudden, my career path is branching out in two different directions. I have been asked to pick one, and I have to give my decision by the end of this work week. I have a meeting with my current manager tomorrow morning, set up specifically to ask questions and get clarification on where one of the two paths might lead.

 

Because of the work thing described above, I told Procrastination to go eat filthy gym socks and I will see her again next week. 

 

Oh wow, good luck with that. I hope you are doing OK and have a good idea what you want to do. 

 

I would have a total anxiety attack if it were me. 

[Scaly Freak]

1 minute ago, h3r0 said:

 

Oh wow, good luck with that. I hope you are doing OK and have a good idea what you want to do. 

 

I would have a total anxiety attack if it were me. 

 

I have a good therapist.  

[Harriet]

44 minutes ago, scalyfreak said:

I think I have identified a project to work on, but before I really decided, stuff happened at work. All of a sudden, my career path is branching out in two different directions. I have been asked to pick one, and I have to give my decision by the end of this work week. I have a meeting with my current manager tomorrow morning, set up specifically to ask questions and get clarification on where one of the two paths might lead.

Oh, how interesting. I sense* that all will be well and you will make a good decision. I am sorry about the no gym, however. You need and deserve gym. 

*At least, there were no inauspicious signs when I looked at the dregs of my tea. Of course, I am using teabags, so signs in general have been rather thin on the ground, or rather, at the bottom of the cup. But no harbingers is good harbingers, as they say. 

[Jean]

1 hour ago, scalyfreak said:

I told Procrastination to go eat filthy gym socks and I will see her again next week.

Procrastinating meeting with procrastination is the best way of procrastinating. 

 

I hope the two paths are interesting. Also, you can go to the gym TODAY (or it's probably late right now, where you are, so just think about it right when you wake up?)

[Scaly Freak]

4 minutes ago, Jean said:

I hope the two paths are interesting. Also, you can go to the gym TODAY (or it's probably late right now, where you are, so just think about it right when you wake up?)

 

One of the paths is interesting. The other one, I fear may lead to a dead end.

 

And in theory I could go to the gym tonight, but I am too busy over-analyzing the branching paths. I will go Friday at the latest though. And now that I've posted it here, I practically have to.

[Jean]

4 minutes ago, scalyfreak said:

And now that I've posted it here, I practically have to.

Yay for that!

 

Also, hoping that the one interesting path will welcome you and that the transition will have its share of fun and excitement.

[miss_marissa]

Better late than never.

 

Oyyyy good luck on job front, that will be a tough decision, but I'm sure you will choose one that is right for you. What an exciting opportunity to be able to have that choice!

[Scaly Freak]

I have formally accepted the promotion I was offered.

 

This has already reduced a lot of my work stress, and has given me something fun to look forward to. (In addition to the workout tonight. I have not forgotten!)

[JustCallMeAmber]

Awesome! Congrats!

 

[Jean]

^Ditto.

 

 

1 hour ago, scalyfreak said:

(In addition to the workout tonight. I have not forgotten!)

 

[Harriet]

5 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

I have formally accepted the promotion I was offered.

 

This has already reduced a lot of my work stress, and has given me something fun to look forward to. (In addition to the workout tonight. I have not forgotten!)

 

Awesome! Super excellent. 

[h3r0]

9 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

I have formally accepted the promotion I was offered.

 

 

Big news. Congratulations! 

[Scaly Freak]

Thank you, everyone!

 

Also, attaching picture proof that I'm at the gym. 

[h3r0]

Way to go on hitting the gym! How has the meditation been going? 

[darkfoxx]

Congrats on the promotion and triumphant return to the gym!