So since we last checked in, I have had a minor meltdown. Mind you, it was the first one since all of this hip business started so that's not too bad. Just a few tears while listening to my favorite band's new album and realizing that I can't listen to it while running for what already feels like an eternity. Besides that? No big deal, right? It actually didn't last that long. Mostly because I was in a government car returning from Chicago and was about 20 minutes from the hospital and didn't want to have to return the keys with red, puffy eyes. But hey, it worked right? Got me to calm myself down.
Life has been pretty crazy lately what with starting a new business and all. For those of you who haven't checked out the website, it's www.beckleyfitness.com and our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/beckleyfitness. I change the website on an almost regular basis right now until I get one I'm happy with. I had taken some pictures with a friend who is very in shape and his turned out well but mine? Well I just looked incredibly pissed off in all of them! So needless to say, they are not on the website. We are taking new pictures this week in a photo studio with a much nicer camera than my iphone so hopefully there will be some new, more personal pictures on the site soon. Keep an eye on it.
In other news, the hip is healing well. At least that's what my PT tells me. I'm no longer in the lovely brace or on crutches which is very liberating. And he told me at PT this morning that my range of motion is good and had started increasing the amount of weights I use with my exercises. And this morning, we bumped the treadmill up to a whopping 1.8 mph. As a frame of reference, normal pace is 2.2 mph. I'm not complaining though. It's better than where I was a few weeks ago (read: 0.4 mph). Slow and steady wins the race is what they tell me. Of course, I'm a slow and steady runner and have yet to win a race so I'm not sure I believe that anymore.
My brother was in town this past weekend and we had fun as we always do. Well, that is except for the disagreement we had with the grill. I decided last week that it would be fun to have people over for a BBQ while he was in town. Mind you, I did not own a grill at the time I decided to have said BBQ. I was going to buy one of those "some assembly required" grills and a friend suggested that I find a pre-assembled one a one of those large retailers in town. What the heck. It would save me time and frustration. Or so I thought. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon as my brother and I are preparing for the BBQ and we decide we should make sure the grill works. Hmmm...something doesn't seem right. The grill does not want to stay lit. So we read the instructions (each of us, several times) and still can't get the stupid thing to light. So we wait (as suggested in the instructions) and then try again. No luck. Fast forward AN HOUR AND A HALF and the stupid thing is still not lit. So now we are thinking that the genius that put it together might have missed something. So I call for backup who arrives and tries with no luck. More back up arrives and tries with no luck. Hmmm...how many grown adults does it take to light a grill?? "Hey, I don't think there's any propane in this tank." "Are you freaking kidding me?" (That was censored for the faint of heart). Yep. The store sold us an empty tank of gas. Fantastic. So needless to say, by the time everyone else arrived, we were all starving with no grill while the aforementioned back up went to return the empty tank and get a new one.
And then there was the rain. I have a single car garage so you can imagine how crowded it was with about 12 adults, chairs, grill, motorcycle and two tables. But we had fun and didn't let the rain spoil our evening. I have a few pictures but haven't uploaded them yet so I will post that once I do.
It's been a while since I've shared a piece of trivia with you or made any recommendations on new music. In light of that, I am going to do both!!
Music recommendations: yes there are TWO recommendations this time. The first is the newest album from a band called Imagine Dragons. If you watch ABC's Good Morning America and have heard the song "On Top of the World" that they played when Robin Roberts was sick, that's the band. I recently bought their deluxe album for two songs I heard on the radio not knowing they also sing "On Top of the World" and it is a fantastic album. Highly recommend it!
The second album is the new album by my favorite band Thirty Seconds to Mars (formerly 30 Seconds to Mars). Now I have to admit that when I heard their first single "Up in the Air" I wasn't entirely blown away like I have been in the past with thier songs. And then when the album came out (yes I pre-ordered it and downloaded it at 12:01am the day it was released), my immediate reaction was not great. The first few songs, especially Conquistador, I loved but the rest kind of left me blah. But, because they are my favorite band, I decided to give it more time and you know what? I really love the album. Is it my favorite of thiers? That remains to be seen but I will say that everytime I listen to it (which is almost all the time), I find another song that I loved more than the last time I listened to it. So if you are Echelon (and if you don't know what that means then you are not Echelon), YOU MUST HAVE THIS ALBUM. If you are not Echelon but enjoy alternative/rock/electronic, then I recommend listening to it on iTunes first. And if you are not an alternative/rock person, I don't recommend it.
Trivia: One of the things I love about Thirty Seconds to Mars is that they are intelligent and thought-provoking not just "rock stars." So your trivia for today comes from a song on thier new album called "Pyres of Varanasi." Now some of you may know what pyres are but I had absolutely no idea until I saw an interview with the band. So I did a little research and it turns out that pyres (or funeral pyres as they are better known) are piles of wood where bodies are burned/cremated after death, primarily in Hinduism, as it is believed to release the soul/spirit from the human flesh. So there you go. If it wasn't for my favorite band, I wouldn't know anything about pyres and neither would you (unless you already knew, in which case, never mind).
Until next time, dear readers...Keep Calm and Run On!
