Day Thirty-Nine – The Rollercoaster

Today’s Workout:
• Beach Boot Camp (1 ¼ hrs)

Today was a rollercoaster day for me. It was a beautiful morning and I was actually looking forward to the Beach Boot Camp, hoping that I would improve my time in any of the runs or increase weights or whatever. Mom was still tired from her Dune-climbing from yesterday so she elected to stay home, but walked around the neighborhood and did a core workout. We also had plans to drive to Rodeo Drive and the HOLLYWOOD sign so she was going to plan our map for the day. We started our warmup with a trip around the Bird Sanctuary (aka, The Bird Cage). Recall that my best time was only 00:15:12 so I wanted to beat that. Belinda kept pace behind me and I felt more energy than usual and was able to take bigger and faster strides. I’m still not ready to jog or run as that tires me out immediately. I was very pleased that I made the complete round trip in just over 14 minutes…a full minute off my original time. Belinda kept up, too, so I felt that a high-five was necessary even if the trainer was telling us to hurry up. I was still feeling a slight bit of pain in the back of my left knee but I was wearing a compress band and didn’t complain or use it as an excuse. I really did go as fast as I could, but I think the trainer thought I didn’t. Grrrrr. Trust me, I always put in 100% and try to put in more than that whenever I’m physically able to. I mean, c’mon! That day that I had chest pains and extreme heart rate and was so upset (four weeks ago today) I STILL did the second workout of the day without complaint and I didn’t use that incident as an excuse to not work hard for that workout. I really get angry and emotional if anyone implies that I’m not working hard. Well, today...a few people saw a side of me that I don’t think they expected. We had to do some stretches…and you KNOW how I love to stretch and I usually have no problem with that. I asked to do the stretches on the sidewalk rather than in the sand so that I could have more stability for my knee. I was told ‘no’ so I did the best that I could. We were instructed to do ONE HUNDRED pushups…OK, you know I’m working on that, so I said I could do 100 cobra pushups. That wasn’t satisfactory so instead I was instructed to lay on my back (in the sand) with the others who couldn’t do 100 and do chest presses. Fine, no problem. The only free-weights left were 8lb and 10lbs. I knew my own strength and I knew that I probably would not have been able to complete 100 pressups with the 10lb weights, so I took the 8lb-rs and went for it. I knew that was going to be tough, too, but I didn’t complain and I was actually pleased to have the challenge. It took a little while, but I did it. Then I had to do 100 rows (or maybe 50…can’t remember) using the elastic bands. Again…I pulled back on the handles and did all of them to the best of my ability. We had to do another trek to the lifeguard station that is about 1/8th of a mile away (so a roundtrip is a quarter-mile) and I actually jogged it about half the way. As I said my heart rate shoots up so high and I get winded very quickly from this so I just took big strides to get there and back. I returned, noticing that the trainers had not noticed that I actually RAN for a change, but I plugged on. Next we had to grab some weights and army-crawl a certain distance. OK, this was NOT EASY. Again, only the 8-lb weights were available, so I started the crawl. It was incredibly difficult. I was getting sand in my shirt. I stopped to catch my breath and keep going. As I was near the end I stopped for a second just to reposition myself and the trainer asked if I was OK. I said that I was but I was carrying 16-lbs. The girls who were ahead of me had lighter weights and asked if I wanted them, but I cried out NO ‘cause I didn’t want to wimp out to a lighter weight. So, I stood up and was told to do 100 squats with the weights. I took a deep breath and was about to begin when I was asked AGAIN if I wanted a lighter weight and I yelled NO very loudly. The trainer yells at me to “stop crying like a big baby this is boot camp.” Well I was NOT crying and I told him that. He yelled it again. OK, NOW I AM FURIOUS!!!!!!!!! DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES HUMILIATE ME LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF ANYONE!!! I WILL RETALIATE IN KIND, AND NOT KINDLY! AND NEVER, EVER TELL ME THAT I’M NOT PUTTING FORTH MY BEST EFFORT!!! I called him an ASSHOLE and YELLED that if he was going to humiliate me then I was not going to do this. He yelled it again! So, I was DONE. I DO NOT PAY THESE PEOPLE TO HUMILIATE ME and DEMOTIVATE ME THIS WAY. (CAN YOU TELL HOW PISSED OFF I AM ABOUT THIS?). There was no way I was going to tolerate this so I took the weights back to the assembly spot, gathered my things, and left. I called Mom to come get me and started walking. Shoot, on the walk back alone I burned just as many calories.

I’m pissed off about something else, too. The apartment complex has changed to DirectTV so each apartment had to have new boxes installed. As our apartments are leased by Camp Technique, they had to arrange for the installation of the boxes. I never received any notification that this was going to happen over the weekend. In fact I was told it was likely that I wouldn’t have TV for a couple of days. That didn’t bother me. Mom was here and I knew we could entertain ourselves. So, Friday, after that exhausting day at the Dunes and the subsequent workouts, Mom and I were relaxing on the sofas; in fact we had both dozed off when our meals for Saturday were delivered. No problem. It was time to get a-movin’ and have dinner. But then, minutes later someone is trying to come into my apartment without knocking!! I was near the door so I opened it. The person who was representing the Camp in getting the boxes installed in all the campers’ apartments was letting herself in. How rude is that? To just let yourself in without knocking? She said that she didn’t know who was home or not. SO WHAT?! YOU KNOCK FIRST! What if I had been shagging away buck nekkid on the living room floor? Or walking around naked? I politely said that she should have knocked but that made no difference to her. She made NO APOLOGIES! HELLO!! Can we please have some common sense and common courtesy? Geez! TODAY I AM A DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER!! SOMEONE WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS ON MONDAY!

Ok, back to TODAY which significantly improved. I blew off the group lunch and the second group workout. Instead Mom and I returned home, had lunch, showered, mapped out our trek for the day, and headed out to meet Shella before cruising along Rodeo Drive. I had texted Shella our location and that we were in a royal blue Nissan Versa. Well…a navy blue Altima parked next to us. A couple of minutes later Shella appears and as I’m saying Hello to her she started to get into the Altima! Mom and I cracked up. Sorry, Shella, to laugh at your expense, but it really was funny. As Shella has been here awhile now she was able to play tourguide a bit and get us to Rodeo Drive. Woohoo, I saw a few shops that I want to visit at the end of the camp when I’ve lost more weight and inches and treat myself to a well-deserved “nice” dress (i.e., more expensive than I would normally spend). I saw one at Dolce & Gabana that would be perfect for a wedding that I’m attending in June (Pam, are you listening?); I hope it’s still there and comes in my size (I won’t be a size 8 by then, but maybe a 14? We shall see!)! After a round-trip through Rodeo Drive we headed for the HOLLYWOOD sign. The road to get up to one of the viewing points is very narrow and steep with unique houses and loads of trees. It made the trip quite interesting, really. As we were getting closer and closer I took loads of photos (since I can delete ‘em). We finally reached the viewing spot at the top of Mulholland Drive and had a wonderful view of the sign and the dam (anybody know what that dam is called?) and valley around it. I had no idea it was going to be so lovely. And the fact that we were experiencing great weather made it more so. After several photos and chatting, it was time to go as I was tired and hungry. We dropped Shella off and returned home just in time to see the start of “The Ten Commandments” which is always aired on Easter weekend. I just love all those glitzy Cecil B. DeMille epic movies. Gosh, I can’t believe it’s after 10pm already as I write this. I’m glad this rollercoaster of a day is over and ended on a positive note. I know for sure I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight; gonna need that Advil PM for sure. Tomorrow is the usual 2-hour circuit workout, then Mom and I hope to visit the Rose Garden if it’s open. And maybe the Chinese Theatre, too. When we passed it today it was PACKED with people. How am I going to find Gene Kelly’s footprints with all those people, hmmm?

For those of you celebrating Easter, I hope it is a blessed and lovely day for you. For all of you I hope you have a great weather and lots of laughter. That always makes me feel good.