Basketball Boy

Wow, we have been busy, so busy.

Nico is reading.  Really reading.  It's awesome.  He is still into just about every sport imaginable.   As I write this, he is running around the living room knocking a ball at a goal with a hockey stick narrating with a play by play "Henry runs the ball down, but he can't hold on to it.  Lauren is onto it now, she's hit a shot onto the back post, but now Nicholas brings it back..."

It's pretty great.  

We also started basketball.  

Dave has been hired by a company that staffs charter schools with subs.  During the interview, one of the interviewers picked up on his real mission (to get back into coaching) and called him on it (in a good way).  She suggested that he use this as a way of figuring out if there are any coaching gigs out there.  

Me- I am not teaching this quarter- but I am no less busy.  I have the incredible ability to jam pack my schedule with stuff.  A lot of it is stuff I like doing, so it's not too bad.  

Oh good, just what I didn't want...

So, its that time of the quarter.  Where we begin the downward slide (some might call it a spiral or a tumble) to the end.  The final is on Monday the 17th.  The thing I had forgotten when teaching as a grad student is that time when I had created all of the course material and so therefore my "teaching" was really posting stuff on Blackboard and then grading. But since I have never taught this class before, I am preparing things on the fly.  ON. THE. FLY.  Seriously, that is some real non JBR shit going on there.

It could be worse- since I am doing the experiment with the flipped classroom, I have to edit my powerpoint slides, then record them, then edit the recording, then upload.  But it sure as hell beats the process that would have happened with me doing live legit lectures every week.  Uggh.  As it is now, we run through the lecture and I touch on the high points and clarify stuff that needs to be clarified.  Because I hate listening to my voice.  I hate it even more when it says things like, "I don't know."  So there is that.

So needless to say, I have been working my ass off.  Seems like all I have been doing lately is working, working out, and teaching.

Plus, my gym is doing the CrossFit Open.  It's definitely a big hullabaloo.  CrossFit HQ will release 5 workouts, once a week for the next five weeks.   Everyone who has signed up for the Open are supposed to do.  You have to do it on video and upload it, or you have to do it during a set time, so that a coach can count your reps and judge.  It's supposed to be all comraderie and such, like, "yay, we're doing this with 432095094580934 people around the world!!"  For elite athletes, it is the first step to get to the games (people with the highest scores are invited to regionals... if you do well there, you go to the real games).

I have no hope of going to the games, and I am not being modest (so don't get on my back JJ about the power of positive thinking).  It's just not in the cards for me right now.  But maybe some day.  Regardless, I will be spending a lot of time shooting in the next couple of weeks, which is great.  I'm just really busy now.

I requested vacation time yesterday, which is cool.  We are planning to take our postponed New Years trip to Miami in April.  I am hoping to run 7 mile bridge in the keys.

Birthday Post and Other Things...

So as you recall, this week included a very special day!  In fact, it included the most special of all special days: my birthday.

With the Queen's Lunch on Wednesday at noon, I had to go to CrossFit at 6am.  Waiting for me was a partner workout, which included 8 rounds (where one person does one round and the other person rests- so we each were to do four rounds) of: 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, and 50 air squats.  My partner had to go to work, so we only ended up doing 3 rounds, but my arms and shoulders were shot nonetheless.  That said, I have seen (on the internets) other places that have birthday workouts... like, "Hey!!  You're turning 23!!  Let's do 5 rounds (because it is May 5th) of 23 pull-ups, 23 overhead squats, 23 push-ups, 23 double unders, and 23 handstand push ups!!)  To which I say, "Ain't nobody got time for that!!"

My coworkers joined me for lunch in our conference room, where we had cake and champagne!  Julia's Doppleganger (who is my coworker, who I absolutely adore) made me a crown.  Don't be jealous, MOM!!

For my birthday, Dave and Nico got me a Manchester City scarf, a DePaul Beanie hat (it's getting cold up here), a DePaul drawstring sack, and the book "The Signal and the Noise."  And we had Lou Malnati's pizza for dinner.  And I had cider.  And Dave got us a trifle/layer/parfait dessert thing that was delicious, but quite the mess.  In all it was fantastic!!  Last night, we concluded the festivities with a date night at the Little Bucharest Bistro and a stop by a nearby used book store.  Dave and I were talking about it last night, and so far, we have had cuisine from: Romania, Serbia, Poland, the Phillipines, and Cuba, since we have been in Chicago.  Isn't that cool?

So, in all, it was a fantastic birthday!!  I couldn't have asked for a better day!!

Which brings me to an announcement: one of the things that I want to do in the next year is get pregnant  (for the last  time?).  As a demographer, I am well-aware of the risk of having babies after the age of 35.  Since Dave and I have always been planning to have more than one kid, we need to get this show on the road. ASAP. That said, I want to lose the last 9 lbs of Dissertation+Nico baby weight before we get that show on the road.

There is no real reason for this.  I am really healthy.  Most weeks, I put 35-45 miles on my bike, I do CrossFit 3-5 times a week, and those are the "easy' weeks.  This year, I have stopped drinking soda, stopped eating fast food, cut way back on alcohol, and have dabbled with paleo eating (I say dabbled because I can't quit you cake, chocolate covered anything, frosting, cookies, bread, pasta, peanut butter, beer, cake pops, little debbie cakes, oatmeal cream pies, fried anything, pretzel buns, pizza, butter, yogurt, donuts, bagels, biscuits non-paleo food).  Also, since I don't do drugs or smoke, the only thing that would really put me at "high" risk other than my age is my weight.

Hold your horses, even after I lose these last Dissertation+Nico lbs, I will still have about 20-30 grad school pounds that I'd like to get rid of.  Don't get me wrong, I will be super excited to be back to pre-Nico weight.  I don't think I have ever put the numbers "out there" but when it was all said and done, I put on 45 lbs with Le Beast.  Obviously, I am going to bust my ass for as long as possible so that doesn't happen with El Dos.  Can you imagine how bad ass all my CrossFit friends will think I am when I am still working out at 6 or 7 months.  Of course, I can't wait to use my pregnancy as an excuse to not do certain things.  Death by Burpee today?  Sorry, can't! Doctor says I can't be on the ground like that!!

I think this plan is completely reasonable, it just takes time.  Also, the weather is changing up here... which means I might not be able to ride my bike for that much longer.  Mostly because I don't have snow tires on my bike (which I think are what mountain bikes are for in the city).  That said, I cannot justify buying another bike (would this be a "winter bike?") just to for winter riding.  I really would be insufferable then.  In fact, I am hoping to make it to Thanksgiving riding to and from work.  That might be ambitious, but as long as there isn't snow or frozen water on the ground, I think I will be okay.

So my announcement is that I am ducking out of the blog and facebook for a while.  Just till Thanksgiving.  Mostly because I have two big papers I am working on at work that I am kind of digging... so if anything I want to put in more time working on them.  But also because when I get home at night, its only a matter of time before I am ready for sleep.  Not ready for bed, but ready for sleep.  If I had my way, most days, I would be asleep by about 830 pm (as it turns out, I am turning into my Dad).  Besides, I hate the idea of people checking my blog for news about the Bishop-Royse adventures in Chicago only to be disappointed. And plus, The Facebook is kind of a timesuck.  And a half.  So for about the next six weeks, I am going to focus on Nico, Dave, working out, eating well, and work.  If you need me, call me or email me.  Otherwise, I will catch you on the flip side.