Orinoco Flow

It’s been a while, yeah?

Life has gotten kind of crazy, what with the search for a second job, a new place to live, being out of classes for the summer, studying my brains out for the FSOT that I take in 10 days.

Insanity at it’s finest.

- – -

Conditioning and whatnot has been sparse as of late. My shoulders always feel like they are getting stronger, then one day I will be spotting a girl on bars and they will just stop functioning. It has put a damper on my progress, which is incredibly frustrating.

I haven’t done any serious conditioning, stretching or anything in the past week or so. I know it is horrible and it is not the right step on the path to what I hope will be a trip to the Olympic Games in my future, but it was something that needed to be done. I am old enough and aware enough of my body that I know when I need to back off and when I can give 110%. It was time to back off. I need to get my shoulders healthy before I start anything else.

There has also been the issue of the urge to tumble. I haven’t started tumbling yet because I am nowhere near where I need to be (physically) to do so. But I often get the urge when I see others tumbling, or when I am coaching tumbling classes.

This, too, shall pass.

I’ve nominated June 6th as the day to make my push back in to conditioning and training. By then, it will have been three weeks out of regular conditioning. It is going to suck. A lot. It will hurt and I will probably complain about it quite a bit, but I want it more than anything.

Here goes nothing.

Rasputin

May 6, 2011.

I can’t believe it is May already! So crazy to think that term is over and summer vacation is here. It seems like just a few days ago I arrived in Salt Lake city to begin life anew with a new job, new school and new experiences.

Life is good.

On the training front, things have stagnated. I’ve not been able to participate in much conditioning or basics in the gym because my shoulders are in the process of being rehabbed and I tweaked my knee pretty badly spotting a few weeks back. Shoulders are making progress, knee is still a bit tender and unstable, but has improved a TON while I’ve been laying off. The break has been nice and has allowed me to focus on studying for my finals, put in applications for second jobs, and focus on studying for the FSOT.

For those of you completely out of the loop, the FSOT is the Foreign Service Officer Test, the test that begins the road to a career in the US Foreign Service, a long-time dream of mine. Passing the interview process would mean being stationed at a United States Embassy abroad, a different country every 3-4 years. How amazingly awesome would that be?!

There is so much going on in my future and it is all exciting, though sometimes a bit overwhelming. I’m still focused on my training, even in my down-time. I’ve been able to do a LOT of core exercises and conditioning, which is pretty rad, but I can’t wait until I can start working my arms and legs again without too much pain. Rio 2016 is still a goal of mine, one I plan to work very diligently to achieve.

More updates will come as I am able to post them. For now, life moves forward.

-Cam

Paperthin Hymn

12:41am

Sunday April 10, 2011.

For whatever reason, I am awake and aware at an unusually late hour for myself.

Life is going well, only 2.5 weeks of classes left until exam time, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to take the summer off from classes and focus on working and conditioning and things of that nature.

I’ve interviewed for a great overnight job at a Ski and Summer resort nearby, whose name will remain secret until I am notified of my acceptance or rejection for the position. I am pretty stoked about that, and I have applications out elsewhere.

Taxes are due April 18, but I got mine done already and am now awaiting my very first tax refund check! Hooray being an adult and actually making enough money in a year to earn a refund!!!

The whole conditioning and training thing has become stagnant as of late, resulting in my taking the past week mostly off to rejuvenate and re-structure my plans and renew my motivation. I look forward to the new routine my life will be molded to and can’t wait to let everyone know how it goes (all three of you readers).

All of that awesomeness aside, there is more awesomeness!

Two weeks ago, the optional level girls I coach (levels 7-10) competed at the Utah State Gymnastics Championships, with the Level 7 Team taking 4th as a team.

Elease won the Bars, Beam, Floor and All-Around in the Level 7, 8-9 year-old age group. Elease was also 6th on Vault.

Karley won Balance Beam, Floor and All-Around in the Level 7, 10-year-old age group. Karley also placed 3rd on Bars and tied for 2nd on Vault.

Also in the 10-year-old age group, Lexi was tied for 4th on Vault, 9th on Bars and Beam, 8th on Floor and 10th All-Around. Annie was 5th on Vault, 7th on Bars, 5th on Beam, 3rd on Floor and 6th All-Around. Shantelle was 8th on Vault and Bars, 4th on Beam and Floor, 7th All-Around.

In the 12-year-old age group, Dani was 9th on Vault, 8th on Bars, 4th on Beam, 6th on Floor and 9th All-Around. Kayla finished 15th on Vault, 5th on Bars, 11th on Beam, 7th on Floor and 10th All-Around.

For Level 8, Zoe was 3rd on all events and in the All-Around for the 11-year-olds, but, unfortunately, did not make the qualifying score to attend regionals. For 12-year olds, Britley was 11th on Vault and Beam, 8th on Bars, 3rd on Floor and 10th All-Around. in the 13-year-old age group, Ashlee was 9th on Vault and Bars, 15th on Beam, 13th on Floor and 12th All-Around. Britley and Ashley qualified to compete at regionals!

In level 9, Tee competed in the Senior B age group, finishing 4th on Vault, Bars and in the All-Around, 1st on Beam and 3rd on Floor. Stosh competed in the Senior D age group, placing 3rd on Vault and 1st on Bars, Beam, Floor and in the All-Around. Both Tee and Stosh will be competing at regionals!

Our lone Level 10, Charly, competed in the Junior C age group, winning the Vault, Floor and All-Around while placing 2nd on Bars and Beam. Charly will be competing at regionals with Stosh, Tee, Britley and Ashlee.

I am SO excited for the girls!

- -

That is my life so far.

Je Suis Jamais Alle

It has been quite a while, yes?

I feel it, too. It is the first Tuesday back after Spring Break, and I am already a bit overwhelmed with this whole being in class versus sleeping my life away in my nice comfy bed thing. I long to be back under the covers, wrapped up tight, sailing through dreamland…..

So much for that. Instead of being wrapped in down-filled bliss and dreaming of spending all of my money on unnecessarily long road trips to Canada for a certain coffee chain’s coffee and doughnuts…. No joke. I really did dream that I gathered all of the money I possibly could, filled my car with gas, and drove myself to Calgary just to sit inside a Tim Hortons shop all day long drinking double-doubles and noshing on TimBits.

Yet, I awoke to my bedroom in Salt Lake City, with my Thai flag hanging proudly over my bed, next to the wall that I painted a nice Greek blue a few months ago. Not that I am in anyway upset that I woke up in Salt Lake City, but I was mildly disappointed that my dream of Canadian coffee shop bliss was just that… a dream…

Anywho. Tennis class this morning rocked my socks, even though I couldn’t get any good shots today :/

I am now sitting, waiting for my African Politics class, writing this blog entry and contemplating abandoning campus for the comfort of my bed, which I only got to spend three hours with last night. Oh well. I do not work at the gym again until next Monday due to session-related gym closings. I am looking forward to the work break, but it also means I only have Saturday during open gym to go in and do conditioning and work on the apparatus. Lucky for me, the condo complex in which I reside has cardio equipment on-site, so at least I can do that a few times between now and then.

Conditioning and everything is going well. Every single day, I am making a bit of progress, each day I am one step closer to fulfilling my dream. This dream, however, is not without cost. I’ve endured sore muscles and joints, severe pain in my shoulders, culminating in lots of ice packs and awkward gaits in my attempts to walk around. But I feel it will all be worth it. Someday.

- – - -

Not much remains to be said. I am incredibly thirsty. I am very hateful of my mobile phone right now. It needs to me spring time and warmer than it currently is. Truth.

Stereo Love

It has been quite a while, hey?

I’ve been enjoying my Spring Break and taking some downtime from the rigors of academic life. I’m still conditioning and whatnot, but nothing too thrilling. I’ve started sprinting for vault and have moved from the pit to the actual floor (but with crash mats) for my front tucks and layouts. My shoulder isn’t quite in the place it needs to be to begin actually tumbling, but in due time it will be ready.

Spring Break has been marvelous. I’ve had two interview requests for additional jobs, which is incredibly thrilling. I hope one of them comes through. I can’t wait for the interviews!

That aside, life is pretty decent. Nothing too thrilling nor too devastating, just life.

Hope all is well for all three of you readers!

En Ville

First off, let me just say that Daylight Savings Time is a wretched beast.

Time changes are pointless in our modern era and need to be eliminated post-haste.

- – -

ANYWHO.

Class starts in six minutes. Five members of my class are here. What the eff-bomb?

Life is progressing.

I may or may not have passed the million mark on my job application submissions. I am desperate for a second job like woah.

Conditioning is going well. Every day I get a bit further and every day I get closer to reaching my goals.

I know its a short post, but it is still early in the day.

On a Monday.

After Daylight Savings Time.

Grawr.

Arizona (mini post)

In about an hour and a half, I will sit to write my Comparative Politics midterm exam.

Not a fan of these sorts of things, especially since the professor expects total failure from the entire class. Not too motivating.

Oh well. I am as prepared as I will ever be, so that is that and whatever happens will happen.

It’s a cloudy Monday in the Wasatch Front area (Salt Lake City and surrounding valley areas), but that is okay with me.

- – -

I don’t really have a whole lot more to say here.

I hope all three of my readers are having a FANTASTIC Monday!

Rain One

Another visit to the Marriott Library for studying.

I have an exam in my comparative politics class tomorrow, which, according to the professor, will be impossible to pass. That is comforting, aside from it isn’t comforting at all. Not even a little bit.

*sigh*

Such is life. I will press on with the studying and the monotony of higher education in hopes that the degree I will one day possess will lead me to happiness and success in the future.

- – -

Elsewhere in life, things are going well. I beat the plague that was making life miserable, I got back to work and back into conditioning and training and things are awesome. Yesterday, I had an amazing stretching/conditioning workout before working on freelance choreography on the floor. It is awesome to have a full floor area all the time that I can use.

Looking to the future of my gymnastics and my goals for getting back into the sport and getting in shape and competing, I have come to realize that as much as I absolutely love the atmosphere of the gym where I coach, I don’t foresee myself being able to reach my full potential there. It is heartbreaking, but we simply don’t have the equipment (no Horizontal Bar or full Parallel Bars) or the coaching staff to train me properly for higher level skills. For the time being, though, it is perfect. I can work on tumbling, vaulting, pommels (gross) and rings to a certain degree, which will definitely help me with my conditioning and strength.

In light of this realization, I’ve begun looking for gyms to train at elsewhere in the Salt Lake Valley, since I really love this part of the world quite a bit. Much to my dismay, however, there is only one gym in the entire state that offers a competitive boys program at the high level I am aiming for, and it is a 30 minute drive to the south, which means I would have an epic commute since the trains and busses don’t go all the way down to Lindon.

Other gyms I’ve looked into in the West/Northwest of the country:

US Gymnastics Academy – Eugene, Oregon
Multnomah Athletic Club – Portland, Oregon
OMEGA Gymanstics – Beaverton, Oregon
Old Pueblo Gymnastics Academy – Tucson, Arizona
Vitaly Scherbo School of Gymnastics – Las Vegas, Nevada
Seattle Gymnastics Academy – Seattle, Washington

I’ve also looked at a gym back home in Texas, Cypress Academy just outside of Houston.

In addition to the West/Northwest and Texas, I’ve also tossed around the idea of moving out of the USA to train. I’ve long wanted to move to Canada and have thus checked out gyms there as well, so far only in British Columbia:

Flip City Gymnastics in Walnut Grove
Langley Gymnastics Club in Langely
Marble Gymnastics in Surrey
Surrey Gymnastics Society in Surrey
Twisters Gymnastics Club in Abbotsford
Delta Gymnastics in Delta
Richmond Gymnastics Association in Richmond

All seven clubs are in the Vancouver metro area. I’m also planning to look into clubs in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

- – -

Those crazy things aside, life is good. Seriously. Life is good.

Chac Mool

It is Thursday.

Do you know what that means?! Probably not.

ANYWHO. It means that I can BREATHE! Finally. It only took five days, about $40 worth of anti-inflammatory tablets, cough syrups, doctor’s visits and a TON of sleep. Not to mention three days of work, endurance training and conditioning missed because my sinuses decided to be r-tards for no apparent reason.

But that is all over now, aside from some residual stuffiness in my nose that is easily taken care of with a tissue.

I am ready to go back to work and training today, even though I’m going to be taking the training and conditioning a bit easy to ease myself back into it.

I also started tennis classes at the U today, which went incredibly well. I have the strongest, fastest serve in my class, which is pretty sweet. I can also consistently hit my serve into the far corner of the service box. Go me!

All that craziness and illness aside, things are good. I’ve managed to set some new goals for myself academically, athletically and personally. Overall, life is good, it just hurts sometimes.

As Long As I Know I’m Getting Paid

So last night was the turning point in my illness. Hooray!

For those of you who are unaware, I have had a wicked chest and head cold that had made every-day functionality a distant mirage in the desert of painful sickness.

Last night it was time to get some cash and go buy myself some orange juice and some extra powerful sinus decongestant and brilliant headache medicine. I am now far more functional than I have been in quite a while. I might even survive picking up conditioning again tonight! Yay!

Conditioning is something I’ve not been able to do fully in about a week and a half, partly because my shoulders are only able to take so much hatred at a time, partly because I’ve not been able to breathe normally or bend over without intense cranial pressure. I’m glad that is all gone now so I can go back to trucking on toward my ultimate goal: Rio.

That’s about all I have to say for right now… It is 7:27 am on a Wednesday and I am not normally this functional at this point in the day.

Spotlight

I am sitting in the Union again (is anyone surprised by this?).

The music video to Patrick Stump’s song “Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia)” was released today and it is brilliant.

The song is great, the video is great, its all great.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Share it with friends and family.

It has become my new “pump-up” song.

Fast Car

10:49pm.

Sunday, February 27, 2011.

Marriott Library.

Again.

- – -

Studying again (sort of).

WRTG 2010 is like a longer, drawn-out version of EN211 from NMU. It makes my eyes bleed.

I am in the midst of gathering research articles for my evaluation paper. The statement I am evaluating: “Men’s collegiate gymnastics is an important sport to maintain and promote.”

We all know where this could lead, as I am a strong supporter of all types of gymnastics in all places and across all styles.

However, I have to take a fair and balanced (not the FOX News “fair and balanced,” but the real-deal “fair and balanced”) approach to the topic, looking at both positive and negative aspects of keeping men’s gymnastics in place at the collegiate level. I am prepared to do this.

- – -

Lame homework aside, life is good. I am recovering for extremely sore shoulders and will be able to do arm/upper body conditioning again tomorrow! Yay!

 

That is all for now. My life has been rather mundane as of late, but it is what it is.

 

Current song: “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman.

Porcelain

The thought processes of people absolutely astound me.

Not in the good way.

In the completely wretched, bass-ackwards, what the hell are you thinking (or, as the case may be, NOT thinking) way.

I waltzed up to my African Politics class today for my exam over the first few sections.

As I walk up, this girl in my class is ranting about how people on welfare are moochers (many are), people are inherently evil (some people) and that ALL PEOPLE IN WHEELCHAIRS ARE LAZY ASS MOOCHERS WITH NO LIVES.

I interjected at the last bit.

Me: Uh, what? Not all people in wheelchairs are lazy ass moochers with no lives. Some people are in them legitimately as the result of disease or accidents or defects.

Girl: Puh-leez. They are all just lazy attention whores. They need to be shot or made to actually walk.

Me: Are you outside your mind? What about soldiers with amputations? Or victims of car wrecks who become paralyzed? Are those people lazy ass moochers?

Girl: Can you prove they were actually in accidents and not just fucking stupid?

Me: CAN YOU PROVE YOU’RE NOT FUCKING STUPID?! My mom has been a wheelchair my whole life because of MS. A disease that takes away people’s movement without discrimination, leaving them largely immobile. Those people NEED wheelchairs to get around and be functional and productive.

Girl: Ore they can stop being lazy and walk. You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.

Me: I know EXACTLY what I am talking about. I can make it necessary for you to be confined to a wheelchair, then I can call you a lazy ass moocher with no life. Would we like that? No, because then you would be proved completely wrong as you already are, and I don’t think your ego can handle that.

Girl: Whatever, asshole.

Me: One more word. I dare you. I can make it possible right here.

Professor: If you two are going to kill each other, do it OUTSIDE. AFTER the exam.

- – -

So that was fun.

I have a nice letter I would LOVE to deliver to this imbecile.

Dear Self-Righteous yet COMPLETELY Brain-Damaged Girl from African Politics,

Before you start talking about things you have absolutely NO idea about, please do your research and then form opinions.

If you want to call all wheelchair-bound people lazy ass moochers without lives, please come talk to me first.

I would absolutely adore bludgeoning you into paralysis with my size 15 snow boot and make you one of those “lazy ass moochers” and then lodge the size 15 bludgeoning boot sideways in your anal sphincter.

Love and hugs,

Royally Pissed Son of a Woman Confined to a Wheelchair.

P.S. You’re a dipshit. Let me smack the stupid out of you.

So that was fun, right?

I am off to get lunch and go to work.

No conditioning today (exhaustion and angry shoulders).

Hymn

10:35pm.

Marriott Library.

University of Utah.

I am here because the one textbook I could not find ANYWHERE, because it is apparently being hoarded by the U of U, is here on reserve for my WRTG 2010 course.

I am working on assignments for the next few weeks so I don’t have to make more trips like this one in the immediate future.

Such is life.

Great, huh?

- -

In other news, I have decided that my ultimate goal in life is to work for the US Foreign Service. Living a different country every three years, learning new cultures and languages and working in an embassy sounds like the perfect career for me. I am excited.

I take the first step in June when I sit to write the FSOT, or Foreign Service Officer Test, right here in Salt Lake City.

Exciting times.

Falling Awake

8:31am

Union Student Lounge

Crystal clear blue skies. Cool, crisp air. Gary Jules on iTunes and a cup of coffee.

It is mornings like this when I realize that I am… happy.

Utah has been very good to me. There are good people, good friends, a great school and a great job.

I do miss my friends back in Marquette, but I am much happier here.

Training is going quite well. My flexibility is slowly but steadily increasing, my endurance is picking up and my strength is improving. My long-term goal is still Rio de Janiero in 2016, but my first short-term goal is set for August: tumbling and vaulting. I know August is a long way out still, but I figure after 7 months of conditioning and additional training, I will be ready to take that first step.

- -

Today, as most of the universe is aware, is Valentine’s Day. Though for many people, it is “Singles Awareness Day.” I don’t mind being single. I don’t have time or energy for a significant other right now. School, work, training and other things get in the way. It wouldn’t be fair to be in a relationship where my lifestyle doesn’t permit me to give 110%, and that is just how it is. I’m not worried. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I have my own goals and dreams to chase right now, and I am okay with that. I accept that.

For all of my readers (all three of you) who are in relationships, I hope you get to spend some good, quality time with your significant others today. Enjoy their company and their presence. Cherish it.

- -

That is all for today.

- -

 

OH.

It’s supposed to be 60˚ today