TMI Questions - Let Me See Your True Colors

This has been one of my most stressful weeks EVER! I'll be writing about it this weekend, but I am very grateful for a welcome diversion in the form of Sean's TMI Questions.


LET ME SEE YOUR TRUE COLORS

1. What is your favorite color?

I can't really say I have a favorite color, but I am drawn to bold, vibrant colors.

2. What color are your eyes?

A very nondescript hazel. The color is pretty muddled and I've never really been thrilled about them.

3. What color is your hair?

What's left is colored brown. It used to be much lighter when I was a kid, but as I aged it turned to a chestnut brown.

4. What color is your bedroom?

White, but we have a lot of photos and other artwork on the walls which add color to the room.

5. Which color do you look best in?

I look really good in royal or electric blue. I also think I look pretty good in black, but it's just too tricky to keep it looking good and not like a lint-roller.

6. Is there a color you never wear?

Yellow - the color just washes me out and I just don't like the way it looks on me.

7. How did you pick the color of your car?

I kinda let the color pick me. When I was first looking at a Chevy Malibu, the dealership allowed me to take home a white Malibu for an overnight test drive. I loved the car except for one thing, it was so white that it seemed to glow in the dark. It actually kinda hurt to look at directly. The next day I shared that with the dealership and they found me my current vehicle, a burgundy Malibu.  I love it.

8. Are your eyes ever green with envy?

Oh yeah. I'm constantly envious of the hot guys that I see at the gym. I always feel like I got the short end of the genetic grab bag that is my family lineage.

9. Do you have a signature color?

Blush and Bashful - 'nuff said.

10. How much do you love Cyndi Lauper!

Love her. We got to see her during Cher's first farewell tour. Her set was simply amazing. 

BONUS
Gray hair is sexy here_______, there_________ but never ________.

Love a man with salt and pepper hair and bear, but not crazy about gray hair, um, downstairs (if you know what I mean). 

Wasatch Mountain High

At the top of the Bobsled run

Back in 2000, Matt and I traveled to Orlando for my brother’s wedding. While in central Florida, we took time to go to Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure (current home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter). While Matt rode the Dueling Dragons roller coaster (over and over and over), I took the opportunity to meet with one of the resident psychics, Madame Pashmina (well, that’s what I called her).

I went in thinking it was gonna be a bunch of hooey, but I was stunned at how accurate she was – my relationship with Matt, my not-so-great relationship with my Dad, and so on. During the reading she began to focus on me moving somewhere I could see mountains. I found this pretty funny as in Iowa we really don’t have mountains, and I honestly couldn’t see myself living in a mountainous area.

Just a view from Main Street

That was until I discovered Park City, Utah.

In grad school my very best friend was Jenn. She was my first “Grace”. I didn’t come out until the end of grad school, but she was such a huge support for me. After graduation, I eventually moved to Iowa and she back to Utah. I was supposed to go to her wedding in 1998, but couldn’t because of the death of my grandmother.

Close to 20 years later, I took her up on her open invitation to visit her in Park City.

I flew out on Friday, but because of delays, didn’t actually arrive in Salt Lake City until Saturday morning.  The drive up to Park City was beautiful as you leave Salt Lake for a short drive up a canyon road (Interstate 80). There was still quite a bit of snow on the mountains and it was tricky to keep my eyes on the road with the spectacular scenery all around me.

Forced perspective, the ski jump
doesn't actually land on the Wal-Mart
Supercenter

Jenn’s house is on the outskirts of Park City and you can actually see Utah Olympic Park from her upstairs windows. U.O.P. hosted the ski jumping, skeleton, luge and bobsled events during the 2002 Winter Olympics. We had the opportunity to tour the park and I loved every minute of it. I’m a huge fan of the Olympics and the chance to stand at the top of the ski jump and see the sliding track was a thrill.

The Great Salt Lake. Sorry no photos
of hot cyclists. 

We also took time to see the Great Salt Lake. It was beautiful and I was amazed at nature’s beauty. Plus there were some hot cyclists out riding – nothing like beefy legs in spandex.

But I digress.

At the base of the mountain at PCMR
My favorite part of the trip

My favorite part of the trip was sitting at the lodge of Park City Mountain Resort. I was able to watch skiers and snowboarders coming down the mountain. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I was at peace. It was calmest that I had been in quite some time, and honestly, I didn’t want it to end.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and I returned to Ames on Thursday. School starts back on Monday and I feel my batteries have been recharged for the stretch run.

Love you awesome nerds.

Robert

Oh yeah, my new undergarments
are really itchy. ;-)

TMI Tuesday - Do You Wanna Play Doctor?

Hello from Park City, Utah.  I'm here enjoying a wonderful Spring Break (recap to come later this week). I'm having an amazing time, but thought I'd take a little time to answer Sean's TMI questions.

DO YOU WANNA PLAY DOCTOR?

1. Do you remember playing doctor when you were a kid?

I don't remember playing doctor as a kid. I recall playing superheroes, freeze tag, fort, etc, but not doctor.

2. When choosing a doctor, is their gender or sexual orientation a factor?

I do prefer a male doctor, and my current physician is gay.  I'll be honest, it does make a difference to me. I feel like I can tell him things that are understood. Plus, he's not bad looking and we "girl talk" about other guys.  

3. How do you feel about needles?

Hate em. Anytime I need to get a shot or have blood drawn, I have to look away. A few years ago I had surgery that required an I.V. and I couldn't wait to get it out of my hand.  

4. Mother's, especially Jewish ones, always seem to want doctor's for son-in-laws. How do you feel about dating/marrying a doctor? 

I would think it would be very difficult being in a relationship with a doctor, especially if they are in their first few years of practice. The long hours and stress would be hard on a relationship. I've always been the supportive type, but a relationship with a doctor would not be something I would seek out. 

5. Who do you take to the doctor faster, yourself or your pet?

Well, since I don't have a pet, that would be me. Usually I don't go to the doctor unless I really feel like I'm in a bad way. 

6. Do you consider yourself a good patient?

I think I am. I only go to the doctor when I truly feel I need to and try not to burden the doctor with a lot of unnecessary questions. I will say that I am an advocate for my health and if there's something that I feel is important that I don't understand or that the doctor should know, I'm a bit more direct with them. 

7. Have you been to a plastic surgeon? 


Nope. 

8. If money weren't an issue, what work would you have done?

I'd like to have my nose worked on - to me it's huge. If liposuction were safer, I'd have em suck out about 30 pounds of blubber. 

9. How do you feel about going to the dentist?

I used to HATE going to the dentist - then I started seeing my dentist of the last 12 years.  He's put all my fears at ease and I don't have any worries about going to see him.  Oh I've mentioned in the past that my dentist is really good looking. So that makes it MUCH easier to make an appointment and KEEP it. :-)

BONUS

Do you ever play Doctor now?

Oh there are certainly when "games" are played. ;-)

TMI Tuesday - Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Time for the weekly TMI Questions posted by Sean. 

It's March already?! Where has the year gone?!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

1. Do you have any Irish in you? Would you like some?

I don't think I have any Irish in my family heritage. Being a descendent of Plymouth Colony, I've got British and French, along with some Scottish.  But alas, no Irish. 

I wouldn't mind having a little Irish in me though. 

2. Do you wear green?

Not often, it's not a great color on me. But I do wear it on St. Patty's Day.

3. Green beer is...

Not my thing. I don't like beer, but I will partake in a good Irish whiskey. 

4. Irish coffee is...

Tasty. But I prefer an Irish Hot Chocolate. Mmmmm Bailey's.

5. Have you worn a kilt?

Nope. 

6. Have you gone to the NY St. Patrick's Day Parade?

No I have not. The two times I've been to New York have been during the summer months. 

7. St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland with a stick. How would you handle snakes?

Scream my head off and run the other direction. I HATE SNAKES!

BONUS

I'm 100% Irish. Would you kiss me?

AB-SO-LUTELY!

Monday Selfie - Spring Forward

Taken while getting my oil changed. 

OMFG!  Spring finally arrived today!!!  Temps here in central Iowa got into the upper 60s - and it felt AMAZING!!!! I got out of the building as soon as I could so that I could enjoy the sun and warm air.

Kyle, my trainer, needed to cancel our session (he is under the weather), so I took the opportunity to get the oil changed in my car. I drove with the windows down and the NPR up. Oh yeah, rockin out to the BBC World Service. LOL

Matt and I took the opportunity to go for a walk when he got home from work. We went up to the mall and walked a little over 2.5 miles. There were a lot of joggers out (none worth looking at) and lots of standing water where snow has melts.

Only four days of school until Spring Break. :-)

I've got a lot to get done before Friday - Stats homework, midterm and a paper, schoolwork, making time to exercise and getting ready to travel!

On Friday afternoon I leave for Utah. I'll be traveling to Park City to visit one of my best friends from grad school. I haven't seen her since grad school and am excited to see her and meet her family.

Off to work on my Statistics homework.  Yay.

Love you awesome nerds.
Robert

TMI Tuesday - Ohhh!....It's So Hard!

I've been struggling the past couple of days with something to blog about.  Thanks goodness for Sean's weekly TMI Questions.  

OHHH!....IT'S SO HARD!

1. Which class was the hardest in high school?

I would have to say that Biology was the hardest class I took in high school. I've never been good in sciences and Biology was the death of me. Add to the fact that I CHOSE to take Advanced Placement Biology. Yeah, um, Big Mistake, HUGE! I think I said the Krebs Cycle (still don't know what that is) was a bicycle built by Schwinn.

2. Which is harder - house work or yard work (pretend you have a yard if you have to)?

Easy - yard work. I don't mind mowing the lawn, in fact, I find it relaxing. But pulling weeds, gardening, etc. - Hate it. I will say, I do enjoy watching a beefy young man working shirtless in the hot sun doing yard work or landscaping. 

3. Which is the hardest household chore?

Cleaning the bathroom. Yet I love doing the dishes and ironing (so relaxing).

4. Which is harder, eating right or exercising?

Eating right, but it seems like both have been hard as of late. 

5. Which is harder, waking up early or staying up late?

Waking up early. I can stay up late naturally, but oh how it sucks waking up early. Of course I work in a profession where I have to be at work around 7:30. 

6. Do you have a hard time deciding what to wear?

Not really. I'm pretty basic when it comes to my wardrobe. 

7. Which is harder, your ass or your abs? Which would you rather?

Well if I could find my abs I guess I would say those, but they are buried under a whole lotta blubber. 

8. It is harder to wade slowly into a body of water or to just jump in? 

It's a lot harder to wade in slowly. I just jump in, take the shock, and get used to the water as quickly as possible. Of course, I'd rather just sit in the hot tub. 

9. How hard is it for you to make decisions?

I hate making decisions. I over-think things and often second-guess myself. Big decisions are like kryptonite for me. 

10. What's the hardest decision you ever had to make?

In 1996 I was working as an Assistant Manager at a Musicland (remember those?!). I got a call from a district manager about a managerial opening at an On-Cue store in Newton, Iowa (I was living in Iowa City). Matt and I drove over and I "interviewed" for the position. Pretty much the store was mine if I wanted it. 

It was a big move to consider and my stomach was in knots over the decision. I try to listen to my gut and it finally dawned on me that it just wasn't the right decision. As soon as I said it out loud, I knew I had made the right choice. 

BONUS  
Have you ever taken viagra or similar drug when you didn't need it? Details please.

Nope, I've not taken anything to "enhance" my sexual experiences. 

Thank You Jeep Guy!

My Monday Hero - Sean (aka Jeep Guy)

It has been a Monday.

I have a lot on my plate right now.

A LOT.

I knew this morning I needed to get to school early to get set up for the day. My plan was to arrive a little after 7 so that I could have everything done by 7:50. I left the house right on time.

And then my cell phone rang.

It was Mom.

I had just talked with her on Sunday, so I honestly had no idea why she would be calling.  Turned out she hadn't left her place at all on Sunday so the snow had blown the screen door shut and she couldn't get out of her mobile home (the steps from the back door are very dicey).

I headed over to her place and dug her out. I wasn't happy and she knew it.

I got to school much later than I had planned and scrambled to get things finished. Everything got done, but I was frazzled and kinda cranky.  Not exactly the best mood to be in for my first period class.

Then I opened up blogger, and there was there were two posts that made me smile....

MONDAY MORNING MUSIC: THE WAITING GAME - SWING OUT SISTER

WELCOME TO THE MIDDLE AGES: TMI ANSWERS - PLEASE READ ME A STORY

Sean, Just A Jeep Guy, posted a video from my favorite band, Swing Out Sister. I played the video and it almost instantly perked up my mood.

Then I noticed that Sean had posted TMI Questions that I had posted last week. It was a chance to get my blog out there a little more and reach a wider audience.

The rest of the day went well and I feel a little less stressed out.

Just a little bit.

Thank you Sean for helping to make my day a little bit brighter. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

Sunday Selfie - Technology Edition

It's yet ANOTHER bitterly cold day in central Iowa (as I type this it's already -3 at 5:45 pm). The low tonight should be somewhere around -15. 

But we'll probably start school on time tomorrow morning. 

Today's selfie is courtesy of a new app I found called CamMe.  It allows the user to set their phone down and take a selfie. You activate the camera by raising your hand and making a fist. That signals to the phone to start the countdown. It gives you three seconds and then snaps the photo.  

The app is great for getting a group shot or if you want to take a photo of an outfit (because I'm such the fashion plate).

Now obviously you don't wanna use this app in a place where a nefarious person could walk by and swipe your phone, but in the house it's pretty nifty.  

The other big techie thing that I've been excited about have been my Jaybird Earbuds.  I bought them as a Christmas present for myself and could not be happier about them.

I have them linked to my iPhone. During my workouts I'm able to listen to my music and have freedom of movement. The earbuds have a range of about 20 - 25 feet and the sound quality is great. An added bonus of having the earbuds is that I can use them while I'm shoveling. They make the task go a lot faster as I can listen to high-energy music whilst I'm throwing snow around. 

Goals Update - March

Following last night shoveling adventure,

A veritable "Midnight at the Snowasis" if you will,

I slept in a little longer than I should have, up at 9:30.

First thing it was off to the gym to get in a workout. I hadn't been since Tuesday night and even then it's been sporadic at best. I got in 40 minutes on the elliptical and then stepped in to the sauna for some warmth.

After about 10 minutes in the dry sauna, I switched to the steam room - what a difference!  I'm thinking during the winter the steam room is a better option. Wow did it feel amazing.

Plus, there was a pretty hot muscle daddy in the steam room. The man was built like a brick-shit house and it was a pleasure to watch him sweat. I wanted to do other things, but well, I am a gentleman (and I don't wanna lose my gym membership).

A quick shower and then it was time to step on the scale...

227.4 pounds

A 2 pound gain from last month.  sigh

But honestly, I'm not surprised. This month has truly sucked for me in terms of being consistent in my workouts and eating better. I'm still not making good choices in what I'm putting into my body. Until that changes along with exercising regularly, I shouldn't expect that the weight will come off.

I'm doing a little better on my reading goal. I'm presently reading House Odds and am enjoying it so far, but we'll see how it ends up.

Now it is time to get busy on the laundry and prepare to go out and shovel yet again because..... it's snowing.

Love you awesome nerds!
Robert

Shoveling At Midnight

Yes, the math teacher even shovels geometrically. 

This is what I was doing tonight - at midnight.

It's been a long week.

I would conference with him so hard. 

This week was parent-teacher conference week. Monday through Wednesday after school I met with parents until 7:30. Meeting with parents isn't all that bad, it's just exhausting. After a full day of teaching, another 4 hours of being "on" for parents takes a lot out of me. Each night I ended up going to bed not too long after getting home.

And once again I end up disappointed that I didn't have a conference with any DILFs.  lol

Thursday morning I finished up conferences and then had lunch with Frankenpaul. It felt good to have adult conversation about anything other than school. And to have time to eat a meal in under 20 minutes.

Today was our "day off" following conferences, but thanks to Mother Nature, I ended up taking students down to Des Moines for the math competition. There really wasn't a lot of me to do as the kids were the ones competing, so I doing a whole lotta nothing.

The kids were great and our school won the Regional Championship and advance to state!  Woohoo!

We returned to Ames about 3 and following a quick lunch (McDonalds, don't judge), I came home and crawled into bed. The long week had finally caught up with me and I needed a nap.  Well, that and a Xanax helped me relax. Ahhhhhhh.

Four hours later I woke up, looked out the window and saw..... more snow falling.

Yay..... snow, which finally stopped falling about about 11 tonight. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow (about 6 inches for the weekend). I figured since I was up, I might as well get out and shovel. 40 minutes later, I was finished. The wind was starting to pick up so I'm kinda glad I got it done before it got really bad out.

I felt a real feeling of accomplishment for getting everything shoveled before any of our neighbors (probably because they were all asleep.


In a few hours I'll probably head over to Mom's place and shovel her out.


So that's how I ended up shoveling the driveway at midnight on Friday night at midnight.

And you know what.

It was exactly what I needed.