School is OVER... almost

So, after dealing with the wisdom tooth drama last Thursday I realized that I had a final that night in my social science class (which I loved every minute of). Fantastic. In pain. On heavy drugs. Taking a final (that I hadn't studied for). Priceless. So, I studied for an hour or so before heading off to class. I also had a paper due in the same class that night. No worries on that one. I had it written on Wednesday because I knew that with the tooth drama I would not be up to writing a paper Thursday afternoon. Thank God I thought ahead for a change! At any rate, I went to class. I turned in my paper. I took my final. I actually felt pretty confident once I was done.
So, that's one class (out of three) done. Praise God!
This past Tuesday I had another final. It was for my humanities class. My humanities class that tortured me all semester long. While I'm sure the professor is a nice man outside of school... he sucked at school. Holy hell! I can honestly say that I don't think there was a single person in the class that liked him. It took everything in me to drag my ass to class twice a week. I read all of the required readings. I completed all the required homework. I wrote the paper... I got a C. I don't get C's. I get A's. That hurt a bit. I could have rewritten the paper, but I had lost all heart when it came to this class. It sucked the life out of me. Every time I tried to participate in discussion I was shut down. I missed two classes throughout the semester. The only reason that number wasn't much higher is because I believed I needed the attendance credit to carry me through to the end. Oddly, the last week and a half of class the prof decided to let me participate in class. He actually told me I couldn't answer his questions one night because I knew all the answers and he wanted other people to participate. I shit you not! I almost fell off my chair! So, as I said, this past Tuesday was the final for this hellacious class. I studied. A little. I was so disheartened by this class that it was all I could do to force myself to study. Apparently it paid off. I got 128 out of 129 questions right. That's roughly a 99%. That's obviously an A. Knock me over with a feather! So, within about ten minutes of finishing the final he had my grade posted online. I got an A! How the hell?! I even asked him, just to verify, if that was accurate. He said, "You got an A, why are you so surprised?" How do you respond to that?! "Well, since you usually ignored me and tore my paper to shreds, I just thought..." Yeah, I wasn't going to say that. I just said thank you, made 30 seconds worth of small talk and went on my merry way. Holy Hell!
So, I took three classes this semester. Two traditional (on campus) and one online. So far... two A's (in the traditional classes). The verdict is still out for the online math course. I have until 11pm today (the 14th) to take the final online. Then... I'm done! I'd love to say I'm expecting another A, but it'll be more likely that I'll get a B. I'll update when the verdict is in!

Ooh-ooh! Since I'm rambling about school! I was reading in the e-mail Carpenters union newsletter that I get every couple of weeks that my school (which is part of the Chicago Community Colleges) offers courses geared toward earning associates degrees in environmental technologies and building energy technologies. Why is this a big deal? Well, I'm in construction and currently unemployed. So, I went back to school to a) make good use of my time off and to b) make myself more marketable. So, rather than just getting a general associates degree I might as well make it in something that has to do with the construction field. And, since green building is the wave of the future, not to mention something that I'm very interested in, what's not to love!? I'm going to wait until the summer semester is under way and make an appointment with an advisor to see where I stand and what I would need in order to attain this goal. I'm very excited about it!

My fugging mouf hurts!

I had my lower right wisdom tooth pulled last Thursday. It was impacted and they pretty much had to chisel it out. I didn't think it would be a big deal. After all, I had already had my upper right one removed and it didn't hurt a bit. Ha! Was I in for a BIG surprise! Thursday afternoon my mouth hurt... A LOT! And that was WITH the vicodin the doc gave me. Shit! So, I loaded up on Advil too and that seemed to help. So, for the last five days I've been alternating between vicodin and advil to try and keep the pain under control. Actually, I've been trying not to take anything, but that's not working out so well for me. Think it's counter productive actually. I'm just too stupid to figure that out. Anyway, I called the dentist's office (a surgical place) today and asked if this was normal. Informed that it was and that in another day or two it should ease up and I'll start getting back to normal. Holy Hell! A whole week! My mouf and jaw hurt so bad I could almost cry! I said almost! I have a high tolerance for pain, but this thing is kicking my ass! Oh well, had to vent. Going to find the vicodin now. Cheers!

So Proud...

I'm so easy. Seriously! I just figured out how to put the status bars with my works-in-progress (WIP's) on the right side of the page and I had to write about it. LOL It took me a while to figure out where the hell to put all the code, but I figured it out! I'm not as dumb as people think I am! Really, that's just an act. If people knew my IQ I'd have to start acting like a grown up. :)

Bally's & the YMCA

I have actually worked out at Bally's a couple of times now since I re-upped my membership. Can you believe it!? I should've gone today, but I was running errands with my Mom and then had some reading to do for school. Will definitely go tomorrow! I actually like going. It makes me feel good.
So, I mentioned once before that I won a three month family membership for the local Y. I had J talked into joining with me. It took three weeks, but I finally got him to go with me and sign up. Woo-hoo! We're official members of the YMCA now! The next trick will be actually getting him over there. I'm excited! They have three swimming pools! I'm an okay swimmer, but J used to swim competatively so that'd be a great workout for him. And! They have raquetball courts. I'd love to play again! And J says he has a raquet too! I'm going to dig mine out this week and hopefully I can get him to play with me next weekend. Hell, if I can get him to go at all that'll be a major improvement. I wish he were a morning person. I'd drag my weary ass out of bed every morning if I could get him in the gym before work. We talked about it after we signed up and he knows that it would pump him up for the day, but he's by no means a morning person and reminded me of that. Sigh. I'll come up with something. I just want him to get healthy. It would make him feel so much better. Baby steps! We've gotten this far and it's definitely further than I thought we'd've gotten by now. We're definitely on the right track.

Three weeks of dieting... ugh...

So, on April 4th J and I weighed in after a week of dieting. He lost 12 pounds! As a matter of fact... so did I! Awesome day! I was definitely more excited for him than I was for me, but wont deny that I thought I'd done pretty damn good myself. So, we continue doing what we're doing and after two more weeks we weigh again. This past Saturday, April 18th, we headed over to our friend Barry's house to do the official weigh in. I'm pretty sure before we get there that I've gained some weight back. No particular reason aside from the fact that I'm a bit lazy. So, we get there and I have indeed put 4 pounds back on. Oh well. Not the end of the world. I need to keep the other folks in this little competition guessing, right? :) So, J gets on the scale and he's lost another 12 pounds! He's my hero! That's 24 pounds in three weeks! I can't even begin to explain how proud I am of him! He's doing phenominal and he's not complained once since we started. Imagine how much he could possibly lose if he was exercising! We're joining the YMCA this coming weekend. I won a three month family membership so he's getting sucked in with me. I was looking at their web site a couple of days ago and they have a lot to offer. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully once we start going he'll actually want to go. Who am I kidding? I need him to drag me over there the first time. I'm such a damn chicken shit! Once I get over there at least once (maybe twice) I'll be much more comfortable with the idea of going alone. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it'll be another healthy change for both of us.

Sleep... or the lack there of

I'm not sure what my problem is, but I can't get myself to go to sleep at a normal hour. I used to, but ever since I got laid off (six and a half months ago) I can't. I would love to be back on a normal schedule, but it seems as though when everyone else is going to bed, I'm just geting my second wind. It's starting to drive me insane. Well, maybe not insane, but a little batty. I never thought I would say that I actually miss getting up at 4:30am for work. Hell, who am I kidding? I miss work! A crazy thought when you actually have gainful employment. I don't even know where I'm going with this. It's two minutes to two in the morning. I wanted to go to bed an hour ago, but there's always just one more thing I want to look at online or I just absolutely have to check my e-mail one more time. Who am I kidding!? No one is up sending me e-mails in the middle of the night and nothing I want to look at online can't wait until tomorrow! This blog is a perfect example actually. I didn't have to write this. I could've just gone to bed. Maybe I'll try that now. Maybe...

I got on a scale

Well, a friend of ours decided that a bunch of us should get together and do our own biggest loser. Each of us are going to put in $50 and after three months the person who has lost the highest percentage of weight will win the pot. Most of us weighed in this past weekend. I think there are supposed to be ten of us. $500 in the end would be nice. Although, losing some much needed weight would be nice too. However, since I'm still out of work after six months, I could use the money in a major way! Anyway, my brother, Bubba and I went and weighed in Sunday afternoon and it's official... I'm fat! Holy hell! How did this happen!? Ten years and one week ago I weighed 300+ lbs. I can't give an exact number because I honestly don't know what it was. The most I was ever weighed at was 292 lbs, but I know I gained at least eight pounds after I got on the scale that day. Nine years ago today I weighed approximately 150 lbs. I shit you not! I looked hot! It was probably five years ago (if that) that I was down to 125 lbs. Didn't look hot (although at the time I thought I did)... looked sick (and I have pics to prove it)! LOL So, I would guess that last year at this time I was probably 175-180. Not ideal, but not the end of the world. Hell, at that weight I was still wearing a size 12 so the sky was not on the verge of falling. So, on Sunday, my fat ass weighed in at 201.5 lbs. Are you fucking kidding me!? I'm over 200 lbs!? This is what being out of work does to a carpenter. Well, a lazy carpenter at least! Shit! So, it's a good thing we're doing this biggest loser thing because my size 14's are starting to get a bit snug... oh and they're warn out and falling apart too. So, I need to lose weight so I can get into jeans that aren't falling apart. Not to mention that I'd really like to be healthier and back at my fighting weight. I'm aiming for 160. If I can go a little under that... awesome! If I'm 165 that's okay too, but not more than that! I've worked too hard to get healthy to let myself get fat again! So, I've already started the South Beach Diet and I re-upped with Bally's yesterday. My goal is to hit the gym a least three times a week (I'm aiming for more than that to be honest). I'll make an effort at posting milestones, etc. No guarantees as I'm totally lazy! Oh, and the pic above is me taken within the last week. Looking like ASS! Rolls everywhere and what's with the freakin' bandana!?