So, I've been working out at a Crossfit gym for the past five months. I've definitely drank the Cool-Aid, in fact, I'm pretty much swimming in it right now. I went in for small group personal training when my physical test for Tacoma Fire was looming on the very near horizon. I was super nervous and went into Crossfit and had Jake, the owner, hand my ass to me for nine sessions before the test. I probably increased my strength a little bit. But, more than that, I was pushed to my mental limits almost every day. I can remember clearly one workout that I was convinced I wouldn't finish. He had Maria (my training partner and fellow TFD applicant) go 200 meters around the block with two kettlebells. I think mine were 16 kilos (about 75lbs total). On each corner we had to do 10 or 12 thrusters (squat to a push press) and then 20 steps of walking lunge with the kettlebells. The trick was that we could never set the kettlebells on the ground. We had to hold them the entire time. One of my co-workers and friends passed me on the street with her boyfriend. I was dripping sweat, red in the face, carrying these balls of iron (or whatever they are) and Jake is standing there without his shirt on, egging me on. That was pretty awesome. Long short is I barely finished that workout but it was in the front of my mind when I stepped on the physical abilities course down in Tacoma. I knew there was no way that something with a maximum time of 7.5 minutes could be worse than the shit Jake had us doing. And it wasn't. It turned into a game, another Crossfit workout and I had a time to beat. My confidence was huge and I was stoked at the end to hear I'd finished over a minute under the max time (and beaten my previous run-through by over a minute as well). Since then, I've been going to the gym on average 3-5 days a week. I've gotten much stronger and am constantly learning new things, new ways to punish myself. But, it rarely lasts more than half an hour. Recently, I decided to give the nutrition aspect of the gym a go. That's something I'm more skeptical about. As a vegetarian (or pescetarian, if that's the right word), eating a paleolithic diet was challenging. Pretty much just meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds. I've reached a happy equilibrium now substituting tofu, tempeh, beans and lentils for the protein I'm missing out on in meat. It's not 'by the book' but it works for me. I just had a breakfast that pushed the envelope a little bit, muffins made out of ground of almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes, eggs and honey as a sweetener. Super delicious (dripping with butter they'd be even better). Cooking and baking is something way too near and dear to my heart for me to sacrifice that tradition for a little bit of weight loss or an increase in athletic performance. But, if I can have my paleo coconut muffin and eat it too, I'll be happy with that. The point of this whole post is that I haven't really written anything about Crossfit but it's been a growing part of my life over the past few months. It's a daily chance to make myself want to die, compete against myself and maybe others, sweat like I'm in a sauna, and then get back to whatever I was doing before I walked into the gym. It's a daily intermission that is everything a workout should be. It's the first time in my life I've followed a workout consistently. I grew up with access to a whole lot of outdoor work that needed to be done. Now, living in the city and working indoors, Crossfit has given me a chance to exhaust myself daily. I might be deadlifting instead of moving bales of hay or doing kettlebell swings instead of weilding a pitchfork. But, the end result and the soaked shirt are all the same. And, now that I've put my rugby career on hold in the hopes of staying healthy for a career in the fire service, it's a new community and a new way to beat myself up. I miss rugby often but I'm glad I have another outlet. Last thing, I was working out in a traditional gym before joining Crossfit. I had a nasty case of tennis elbow and some kickin' carpal tunnel. I still wake up to a dead right arm pretty regularly but it doesn't wake me up the way it used to. And my tennis elbow is history. I'm almost exactly one year out of shoulder surgery and I did a workout last week that involved 100 pull-ups. I couldn't even do that before I had my shoulder repaired. Like I said, I've got the Crossfit Cool-Aid on IV drip.

It's still cold out hur.

There's a serious change in this land. It is damn cold this winter. It seems like it's been raining less, raining harder when it actually does rain, and snowing or being clear and cold way more than normal. I remember straight-up rain from November through April when I was a kid. Snow was a rarity, and it always turned into slush within a couple hours, if it didn't come out of the sky that way. It's clear and cold out there. During the snow storm in December, we forgot to collect eggs one night and it froze in the shell, bursting out seams in a frosty eggcicle treat. Suzy ate it. Although, it is nice not having to wade through water to get to the street. And, Suzy can't rip up the yard when it's frozen.

Yes We Did.

He said it best.

Yesterday Newman, Gail, Ty, Chet and I crowded under the store television to watch Barack Obama replace George Bush as the 44th president of the United States. We all heard there would be crowds, possibly millions, to watch his speech. Somehow, it still seemed fake, penciled-in (or whatever the fancy digital equivalent would be) to see that stretch of humans, all there for one person, all facing the same direction, all accepting the cold and crowd in order to be a part of his inauguration. Because of that it felt like our inauguration, as if we all stepped up to the podium and acknowledged our own responsibility in pulling each other, every other different American, out of this sludge of a mess we're in, financially, morally, diplomatically. Thinking forward and imagining his voice coming over the radio, week after week, for the next four years, is reassuring in itself. He is thoughtful, well-spoken, fair, and pragmatic. And, he's now our president. He inspires us to look forward, to accept what has happened in eight years for what it is, but to focus on the solutions, on real and sustainable solutions. Can we actually move past partisan politics in exchange for more results? It almost seems possible today.

I did drink too much whisky last night in celebration. I didn't intend to, but it certaintly happened. But, being in the house and watch President Obama dance with our new First Lady, with all our damn creatures, and Molly, and good friends, was a fuzzy perfect. It was. And, now, in this new world, and I really do believe it's a new world today, I want to hang an American flag from our porch and go to city council meetings and read the news and get back to being a citizen, something that is once again valued and appreciated, no matter what small town or big city you belong to. We've been given not only hope but agency and vision. We've been spoken to as capable adults rather than scared children. We were respecfully told the hard truth rather than padded falsehoods. And, we're still listening.

Thank you, America! Yes we can. Yes we did. And yes we will. I am so proud of this country today, so proud to be an American. We've gotten our country back and we have it more than we ever have.