So, I'm jumping into an oven...essentially.

So, it's been a while since I've blogged and it took a very sweet friend of mine's blog to make me do it again. Instead of just writing how I feel or what's going on in my life - I almost feel like my blog needs to be another homework assignment I'm going to be graded on (or judged, if you will) and it needs to be perfect. My hope for this is that I can just WRITE without worrying about the people (two of you) who might read this and judge me for my ugly blog design or lame musings. So here goes.

If anyone knows anything about me, it's that I love movies. So, of course, the title of this entry comes from a movie. It's a quote that I think a lot about when things get rough and I feel like how can I push forward? Here's the clip:

Can you see what I'm saying? Other than how gorgeous Jeremy Renner is, which there's not really a question about.

This semester has been insane. I'm working for the school paper (required for a class), where we need to turn in two articles a week along with the class assignments and I'm working a million jobs and trying to keep up in all my communications classes and sometimes I really feel like someone has just asked me to jump into an oven and some magnetic suit is supposed to be the thing that saves me.

It's not a secret that Provo isn't my favorite place in the world and it probably doesn't even rank in my top five. I'm an east coast girl and you can take the girl out of the east, but you can't take the east out of the girl, am I right?

On Tuesday I'll be turning 25 and in Provo, as a single woman, I might as well be filing for social security instead of gaining the ability to rent a car. Mormons, especially in Utah, culturally believe in getting married young and having a family young. I am no where near either of those things and if you get to my age without those things happening, there's a stigma attached that something MUST be wrong with you, I mean how could NO ONE want you yet, it's just crazy to imagine that I haven't been "chosen" yet, like one of those little aliens in the Toy Story vending machine.

Most of the time, I feel fine about where I am in my life. This is MY journey and yes, it may be different from everyone else's, but it's MINE and everything I've been through has made me the person that I am and continues to do so. But, sometimes, there are days when those negative thoughts about my age, body, situation in life, abilities and self-doubt regarding everything and anything start to slip through the cracks in my poorly insulated bedroom windows (that reminds me, I need to buy curtains with winter coming...). As Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman, "The bad stuff is easier to believe." Some days it IS easier to just believe the bad things people say and the negative stigmas and connotations that go along with my journey and my story of a 25 year old still in college, single in Provo. In one of those days where my senior citizen status in Provo felt particularly potent, I signed up for the LDSsingles dating site. AH! I just told you all (the two of you) my secret! Let the judging commence! Yep, online dating. That site can be an entire blog post by itself, so I'll hold off on saying anything more about that.

Back to the Jeremy Renner clip... Simon Pegg has to reassure Renner over and over that he.will.catch.him. Not to go into the spiritual (which I actually quoted this clip in a testimony meeting a couple months ago and related it to my relationship with God), but he isn't the only person who has caught me. There are the friends who make Starbucks runs with me, who invite me to spend Thanksgiving with them, who go running in the freezing cold with me because I need to talk or let out frustration or just CONNECT to someone who isn't a robot and has their own opinions, like me. There are the people who send me little reminders that they love me and that I'm special to them, all the way from New York, Boston and Florida.

My life right now is me jumping into a giant oven. But, it feels really great having people around to catch me.

Shoo Fly

A mosquito just tried to land on my face and I smacked myself really hard on the nose.

ouch. 

Adventures of the carless

So, today Gina and I wanted sushi and the best place to get it is at Sushi Ya. We had to take TWO buses to get there. Yes, you read that right - two. Getting there was easy as pie. The way back was a different story.

We spent a lot of time in Sushi Ya. Mainly because we each decided to get four rolls. Big mistake. My third roll was a salmon skin roll. Mainly because of the Friends reference.

It was really really gross. No offense to those who like it - but it was not my favorite. I wanted something to override the disgusting salmon skin roll, so I got the more delicious happy roll (salmon and cream cheese). It took all we could muster to try and finish up the food (they charge you more if you don't finish, since it's an all-you-can-eat thing). I ended up putting three pieces in a napkin and shoving it in my bag to throw out later... shhhhhh!

By the time we made it out to the bus stop, the bus had already come and gone. We look at the schedule to find out it was going to be a 30 minutes before the next one! Are you kidding me? 

We sit in the shade on some grass to wait it out. While we're sitting there, many people pass by us. One girl carrying a chair, looks at us, and says: want a chair?

Me and Gina: uhhh, no thanks...

girl with chair keeps on walking down the street.

Why was she carrying this chair? What were we gonna do with the chair? Was she gonna wait while we sat on the chair till the bus came? All these questions will be left unanswered I guess...

Rough Cut

Okay, so we videoed my boxing today - i'm kind of all shadows and we go out of the shot a lot haha, so maybe at some point i'll get a better copy :)

Enjoy! Watch starting at 5:25 - all the stuff before is just warm ups. My boxing routine is 3 rounds of new school combos on southpaw, orthodox, and southpaw again.

Go to http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15851507 to watch - i tried to post it but it wasn't working :(

Reading...

For my upcoming vacation, I got some books to read on the plane and when relaxing at the beach. :) 

Can't. Wait. 

Mean Right Hook

Today was a rough training day. My body hasn't really been feeling much of anything from training, but after today's session, I am SURE I'll be feeling this! The first two knuckles on each hand are still slightly pink and my session ended at 4:30...it's almost 8:30...

I'll take you through my training today, since I'm sure you're all so curious. :)

We start off warming up with tossing the medicine ball back and forth. They get a little trickier - i turn around and twist behind me to my left to catch the ball then throw it back twisting to my right, then catch right, twist, throw left. It definitely works you.

Then we drilled each combination and would add on. Combos like, double jab, hook, straight or a six hook. We did these combinations on my southpaw side (left) and then orthodox (right). I loved working these combinations and today we got down to business, talking about where each punch would land and impact and motivations, etc. Not gonna lie, I took a couple hits and they were jostling, to say the least. One combination we worked was a "catch hook," where you go in to hit your opponent with a straight punch, they dodge and go to hit you on the side of the head. You catch it by placing your glove directly next to your head to absorb the impact and then hook punch them with your other hand in the ribs. One of my favorite combinations is the "Six Hook." You start with your lead hand and punch 1, then alternate 2,3,4,5,6 and when the opponent swings at you, you make a "buffy-like" dodge by ducking underneath, moving your body in a circle, and coming back up to deliver a hard hook.

My hook is awesome. Hadyn is always impressed by how much strength I put into it and land it every time. I've learned how much power to put behind each punch and how the gloves feel to deliver that perfect hit that makes this "crack" against the training mits. It's a pretty cool sound. I was definitely perspiring by the end of the combo series.

Next, we worked on kicks. These are some of the hardest things I've ever had to do. They require such balance and strength that I just don't have yet. Yesterday, we learned a side kick, straight kick, roundhouse kick, and a hook kick. Today, we added a hook-over-top and roundhouse - basically you swing your leg over and then roundhouse them. The difficult part of training kicks is we do them in a pyramid style - starting with three singles on each leg, then doubles, then triples, then doubles, then singles. Trying to keep your leg in the air after that first kick to deliver two more is really really horrible - I was not very good and felt a little embarrassed, since usually people stop to watch my sessions (no one really expects such a tiny girl to be boxing). When we learned a spin hook using the rear leg...well, I suck at explaining these - so watch this video on hook kicks...


We did spin hooks in a pyramid, too - try doing these in doubles and triples...so.very.hard.

I left the session today feeling tired, worked, and a little disappointed in myself. My kicks were not very good and I fumbled a few combos. I have to remember that I'm learning though and it'll get better with time as long as I'm patient with myself. Even though I didn't feel like it was my best training day, it was still really fun and a great workout, especially with hot pink boxing gloves.

A Day in the Life

Today was an awesome day. I got my boxing gloves in the mail and in between my double shift, I got to break them in. Oh, and I learned some kicks in my session today.