A New Man

Let me begin by saying how I truly despise the months of January and February. There is absolutely nothing good to say about the months, but loads and loads of criticisms and bad things. Poor weather, resulting a depression that is hard to get out of when March rolls around.

After football season had concluded from me back in October, I made the decision to do something about it. Usually during the winter months, I really have nothing to do. I have no coaching assignments and once in a while, I have to supervise the boy's basketball games when they play in town. I got out of most my refereeing duties for the middle school games (since I absolutely suck at officiating and I don't take shit too well), so I had to find something to do. I was determined not to sit on my ass like I had been doing for the previous two years. I had decided to get back into the weight room and make something of myself.

I hadn't seriously lifted weights since 1999-2000 when I was still back in college. The previous summer I had seriously considered running again, but that didn't last long due to a poor decision in running shoes. Now, just this last October, I done my research in what exercises I should do, when I should do them, sets/reps, and even went so far into researching which protein shakes I should look into.

I had finalized my workout and I began to hit it up. Starting at 185 lbs., I'm now down to 175 lbs., visibly noticing a loss in body fat -- which is "hell yeah!" I gave up on McDonald's and started to watch what I'm eating. There would be days in which I would just eat bowls of cereal (along with a daily vitamin and a fish oil capsule) and drink four whey protein shakes.

Here's the current workout:

Monday (chest and triceps):

• 4 sets of barbell bench presses (12, 10, 8 & 6), increasing the weight each set. After I had plateaued with a certain weight, now I'm using dumbbells.
• Triceps (10, 8, & 6). I usually do three different exercises, like skull crushers, kickbacks, and cable press downs.
• Incline dumbbell bench presses (10, 8, 6). Again, increasing weights each set.
• Dumbbell flies (10 & 8). These are a bitch and I'm considering dropping this workout. I just feel like I'm not getting anything out of it.
• If I still have energy left, I'll do dips.

Tuesday (back and biceps):

• Bent-Over barbell rows (10, 8, & 6). These suck also, worrying about proper form. I'm considering dropping this exercise as well.
• Dumbbell biceps curls (10, 8 & 6). Single-arm and simple.
• Sit-down cable rows (10, 8, & 6). I simple love these.
• Barbell bicep curls (10, 8 & 6). I just wish we had a "preacher's bench" to do these on, so I'm standing to do these.
• Lat-Pulls (10, 8, & 6). Love 'em! Pull the bar in front of you, hold the pull, and release slowly.
• Some other bicep exercise.
• Dumbbell rows. Love 'em again!

Wednesday (cardio):

• 2.5 miles on the treadmill, 2.5 miles on the elliptical.

Thursday (shoulders and abs):

• Arnold presses (10, 8, & 6). Keep the elbows bent to keep pressure on shoulders.
• Lateral raises (10, 8, & 6). Love 'em. Grunt if you have to.
• Reverse dumbbell flies (or some other variation).
• Shoulder shrugs (20, 20 & 15). Talk about hurting after these.
• Other shoulder exercises.

Friday (cardio or chest):

• Same routine as Wednesday or Friday.

Weekends I rest. As far as protein intake, I usually take in 75+ grams on protein as far as the shakes are concerned, mixed with L-Gluatmine to prevent muscle breakdown. One shake when I wake up, one right before and after my workouts, and one before I go to bed. Obviously, I will intake other forms of protein during my meals or snacks (mainly peanut butter and/or granola bars).

With all that, I've obviously and can feel that I'm stronger. I've put on some muscle mass, but it's not like I'm the new Arnold. I've surprised myself that I've actually LOST weight, but that's all body fat and I've got some noticeably new muscles popping out. Even my students are stunned by the size of my chest and shoulders, but it's no where I want them yet. I don't think my chest has actually increased in size (I've never measured), but I'll take the students word for it.

On the downside, I've done no leg workouts. This sucks, as I mainly blame the lack of leg exercises available in the weight room. I can do squats or calf raises, but then there's nothing to do with the hamstrings (no leg curl machines ... a person just has to get creative). I did a few weeks of legs on Fridays, but I would get so burned out at the end of the week that I simply had no will-power to pull all that off.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm in the best shape of my life and for the past few weeks, I've never felt better. I'm physically and mentally sharp and I've rarely slipped into my normal depressed states that the winter months usually bring out of me. But with baseball season around the corner, I've got to find some way to keep this up. I'm already planning on continuing my workouts after practice is over, committing more time at the school -- which is fine by me since there's nothing to come home to anyway!

Not Much

Just to fill in the last couple of days...

I was surprised to hear from my folks on Thursday. My brother Dan was heading back to the HomeTown to visit, since he hadn't been there since we were all together at Christmas. But in light of recent events, my parents had asked me if I could come home also. It is a rare treat to see Dan again, but with the recent bus accident claiming 4 lives, I had the feeling that as a family, we all should spend time together.

Being busy Friday night (and not in the best of moods all together), I left for the HomeTown on Saturday morning. I had already started thinking that I would be driving through the intersection of where the bus accident happened, curious to see if anything had changed. As I approached the intersection, it was like it always was, normal to the average passer-by on the highway. But once my truck went through the crossing, green-and-white spray paint outlined the accident scene, accompanied by dried engine fluids. My stomach churned as I drove past, just thinking that although I did not personally know those students who were killed, I felt a sorrow just knowing that they only attended school 7 miles from my HomeTown.

Saturday was just a day for relaxation as my body was physically and mentally drained. My Dad and Dan were already there, getting ready to fire off some guns since the weather was almost beautiful on February afternoon. But with the awful Friday and the drive up from P-Town, I was simply too tired to comply.

The Farm has always been a sanctuary of sorts for me, the place that has been kept in the family for nearly a century. I feel a sense of pride now always returning to the place where my grandfather and father have been raised, knowing that someday it will get passed on to my brother and I. I just think it's the peacefulness, the quaintness, the rural setting that separates me from my "other" life in P-Town. No worries or troubles could ever reach me there.

Later that evening, we took out our grandfather to eat that night and spend the rest of the night watching movies and sipping on the occasional cold beverage. Life is bliss!

Monday was a big day, in terms of my professional career. That day was the monthly Board of Education meeting in which they would discuss my resignation from teaching in the district. I had pondered whether or not to attend the meeting, but with doing some research into if other teachers who have resigned in the past had actually attended the meetings, they had not. I made the decision to not attend the meeting, avoiding more attention brought upon myself if I had attended.

As of today, I still do not know the result of the meeting. I can safely assume that they have accepted my resignation, but hopefully tomorrow I will get some sort of correspondence stating that it has all been finalized.

Sinking In

Today, it just wasn't the best day-of-days for me some reason. Maybe it was the fact that I had "one too many" at the bowling alley last night and struggled for some sleep.

Early this morning, I was taken aback from all the unexpected attention regarding my resignation. I thinking that it wasn't a sudden action on my part and it really was no secret of my leaving the district at the conclusion of the school year. Turning in my resignation on Tuesday, it was already in the local newspaper on Thursday. My, how news moves quickly!

A couple of faculty approached me and expressed their concern over the fact that I'm leaving, including a few students who had noticed it in the paper. "Why this .... why that...," I'm hearing. It's tough to explain the story in a few short sentences and all I could say was that it is a licensing issue.

It's nice to hear that people are actually acknowledging the fact that I won't be there for the next school year, saying "good luck" and so on, but I just wished it wasn't such a big deal. I was just kind of hoping of "riding off into the sunset," so to speak, leaving on my own terms without all the attention.

Now, with it being in the newspaper, it's setting itself up for more attention and soon I'm just going to get wore out from all of it. When I get wore out, I get a little ornery, but I figured if I've made it this far, I can make it just a little bit further.

More Tragedy

This has got to be one of the worst years on record.

The past 12 months have absolutely been tragic: people passing on unexpectedly and dealing with the after-effects of such events. One only wonders when it'll all end ... just for a little while.

We lost Lincoln, my grandmother, an acquiantance from high school who was killed in the war (in Afghanistan), and now the terrible school bus accident that claimed 4 youths from an area school. Yesterday was also something to think about: Jason's 3-year anniversary of his death in Iraq. Thinking about all that tragedy and the people that we have lost is almost too much to bear.

Tuesday's news regarding the bus accident was surreal, only to find out later that 4 students had lost their lives. It was far more devastating than the bus accident that my own school district lived through a couple of years ago, in which a speeding car collided with a bus on a rural, gravel road. There were only just a few students left on the bus, but they walked away banged up. The driver of the speeding car was lucky to be alive.

In this most recent case, it seems that a young woman is at fault for running a stop sign and drove out into the main highway, colliding broadside with the bus, sending it spinning into a pick-up truck. The young woman has been arrested and charged with the four deaths -- including the fact that she does not hold a valid Minnesota driver's license.

It's tough "not to hate" the one to blame in this situation. It was a stupid act, a person with no regard to the rules. Never mind the fact that she is an illegal immigrant and is currently using a false name, this person should know better. I personally do not know what to feel in this situation, except for the sorrow that I feel for the families affected by the students who were killed and those who are still in the hospital recovering.

My head is just spinning from the events of the past year. Law enforcement officials may call this an "accident," but I call this plain ignorance on the young woman's part.

A New Direction

Today, I took the first step in ending my employment as I handed in my official resignation at my school district.

Now, all I have to wait for is whether or not the Board of Education will accept my resignation, which is expected that they will accept it. The rumor of my departure has long been the talk amongst the students and the other faculty members at the school and I'll admit, it has been a decision that I had made long ago during a meeting with the current principal last June.

Sometimes it's tough to think about, again packing up and moving on to new employment, only just a few months away. It's also tough to think about what I went through at college to get to this point, only to find out that it all wasn't good enough.

To lay it on the line, I absolutely loved my job. Obviously, it has it's up-and-down with the profession and there are days that I'm so absolutely stressed out that I want to strangle myself, but there are the days in which I really just enjoy talking with the students. That will probably be the most difficult to deal with: just the absence of my students. I've grown to become pretty good friends with a select few and in return, it's a great feeling to know that I can be turned to in times of need.

If I could, I could have stayed on if things would have worked out. But differences in the educational standards (graduated from a South Dakota college and working in Minnesota, the standards are quite different) hampered me ever since I received my Minnesota license. It was expected by my own school district to return to college to receive yet another undergraduate degree without compensation from my employer. That, I could not do. I simply just do not have the time or the money to complete such a feat.

Looking ahead, I now have professional experience -- something that will look great on my resume as I prepare to look for a new career. My goal: something in the computer/network/security industry, something in which I hope my future employer will pay for most, if not all, my training. Already with whom I've spoken to, that would not be a problem.

I just wish that smaller school districts could do the same, but with rising educational costs and the tax burden placed on the smaller communities, it's a difficult situation. It's all understood, but I had always hoped to retire from a teaching/coaching capacity because it is my first, true love.

I won't go into the specifics into which companies I'm looking forward to, but all I can say that it's private sector. I'm going to take a break from teaching for a while, but I hope to continue coaching in some sort of way. It's been a great supplement to my income these past couple of years, but just the fact that I'm getting students involved in an extra-curricular activity and having them compete, that's the rewarding thing.

Tears of Joy: Newman Wins the Daytona 500

Who would've thought that Sunday -- the running of the 50th Annual Daytona 500 -- would've probably been one of the most exciting times of my life?

People will probably think that I'm a little psycho regarding that I'm holding the winner of this year's Daytona 500 in high regard. It's just that the driver of the #12 alltel wireless Dodge Charger, Ryan Newman, finally pulled off the victory-of-victories at Daytona.

It's been long documented of my fan-dom of Newman since 2003, coming off his Rookie of the Year season of 2002. It was a good year to become a fan of Newman's since he ripped off 8 wins that season, 2 wins in 2004, and 1 more in 2005. Then, nothing.

The team was doomed to mediocrity. Despite successful runs in the Busch Grand National Series in 2006 with crew chief Roy McCauley (winning 6 out of the 9 races he entered), his Cup crew chief Matt Borland left the Penske organization and I immediately thought that he was going to be let go. It's just the way the industry works -- things were not falling into place with the alltel team and I myself was beginning to lose all hope.

Sure, people have their favorite drivers, like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, or Tony Stewart; but I was determined to pick up on a guy like Newman and become loyal to him and his team. That's just the way NASCAR works. Newman isn't flashy, isn't the biggest fan favorite, but the guy is simply a "down-to-earth" fella, somebody who could be considered to be a role model.

My own viewership of NASCAR waned during the later part of the 2007 season, since Newman didn't make the "Chase for the Cup." With Speedweeks going in full-force prior to Daytona this year, no mention was made of the Dodge teams, such as Penske Racing, to be a factor in the 500.

Newman had a respectable starting position in the Daytona 500, starting 7th. The Penske "plate" program was finally starting to show (Newman's teammate Kurt Busch had strong runs in the past) and I was expecting a Top 10 finish for Ryan.

He slipped back early in the race due to an ill handling car, while most of the race was made of the Joe Gibbs Toyotas of Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. To be honest, the first 150 laps were damn boring. The "new" cars were so strung out and it didn't take until after the sun set that cars were beginning to form their typical "packs" to create some exciting racing.

And wouldn't you know it, Newman was making his way up through the field. Caution flag after caution flag flew through the air until the final restart with 3 laps to go. Jeff Burton took the green flag, but was quickly shuffled back through the field. Tony Stewart, along with teammate Kyle Busch made strong re-starts, but all the while, Newman snuck up on Stewart's rear bumper and didn't let go.

The final laps were a chess match: one car could've easily wrecked and took out most of the field, but everybody stayed in line. When the white flag waved (one lap to go), Stewart had the lead with Newman and Kurt Busch directly behind. The backstretch run was one for the ages, as Stewart decided to take the inside lane to attempt to hook up with teammate Kyle Busch, but Newman stayed high and his teammate Kurt Busch locked together in drafting bliss and the Miller Lite Dodge Charger pushed his teammate ahead of Stewart and into Turns 3 & 4.

I, for one, was off the couch and positioned myself hunched over in the front of the television. I just couldn't believe what I was experiencing ... Newman in the lead in the biggest race of the year.

I still remember Newman's last win, his 12th of his career -- at New Hampshire in September of 2005. Newman overtook Stewart on the last lap, last turn for the win. 81 races later, the blue-and-white alltel Dodge Charger was leading a pack of cars towards the gold-and-white finish line at Daytona. Teammate Kurt Busch followed, giving the "Captain" Roger Penske a one-two finish and his first Daytona 500 win. Simply unreal.

I couldn't help but get slightly emotional after seeing that. I wasn't gushing or anything, but there were a few tears welling up in my eyes. Maybe it was all the beer that I had consumed during the race, but who knows -- I was just so damn happy and proud that my driver ... my boy since his horrific wreck during the 2003 Daytona 500 won the race of races.

Arms in the air, trembling all over, probably jumping up and down, just feeling like I was there with the rest of the alltel crew. I was receiving text messages, phone calls, messages on my wall on Facebook, the whole ten yards ... and everyone of my friends congratulated me like I was the guy driving the car.

Simply surreal. Tears of Joy. Great job, big guy.