What I dids and how I dids it this week...

4-5-12

I get woken up by a bouncing bots on my bed around 7:10. I hear him playing and the wife up showering and getting ready for her doctors’ appointment at 9. I keep dozing off, getting as much sleep as I can. Around 9, she gets me up for good and takes off as I keep the bots occupied. I get up and check email and online shit while drinking a glass of OJ. I re-look at the cards I did last night and decide I wasn’t fooling myself. I had an “art attack” and they came out real nice. The wife gets home around 10 and I stop working on cards and hit the treadmill for 30 minutes. I decide that today is the day I finally stop all this. I have been gearing up for a full on life change for the last two weeks but have been treading water. So today it starts for good. After that we go to lunch at Ponderosa, where I eat fruits and soups first. Only three chicken wings only and half a cup of Mashed Potatoes. Proud of my accomplishment of eating better and portion controlling we get home and I take a nap till 5pm.
I wake up and head to work for my long 6-4 shift. I realize my co-worker might need a ride (he walks almost 4 miles to work), I call him and arrange a way for me to pick him up. I work the long ass shift and my feet hurt like a huge bitch. Its not too rowdy though, save for a couple assholes here and there. I get out at 4, drop him off and hit up Walmart for the bots some yogurt, which he is out of. I get home and pass out around 5:30.

4-6-12

I wake up around 11am due to my phone virbrating off the hook. Some of it was my boss asking why some product wasn’t put away last night. I call her and tell her we were told not to by the assistant manager who was receiving the order last night. With that, I am in the clear. I also got a message from a Walgreens Manager asking if my application on file was still valid and I indeed still wanted a job there. I mull over the potential employment transfer all morning. I get up, check email and the wife wants to get out of the house cause it’s a nice sunny day. Wanting to drive to Grand Rapids or Kzoo, we realize our funds are somewhat limited. So we decide on a drive to Okemos Mall. Once there, I find a cool Atari shirt in my size for $6. Hard to pass up any shirt in my size for under $10, I don’t care what is on it. Point is, it will cover me and hide the undergut that peeks out over the pants. We get Lou and Harry’s for lunch and I eat a burger and fries. Instantly I feel guilty but remember a conversation I had last night with a trainer who comes into my day job sometimes in that I HAVE to wean myself off the old stuff and into the new. Diving straight in will always equal disaster. And it always has. So I decide to suck up my guilt a bit and eat this small meal. But NOT fall off the wagon! Eat good, eat bad but keep going on the prize. One semi-bad meal a day for a while will not kill me. In fact, it will help keep me on the path. Once in a comfortable spot, I can wean it all for good. Its like methodone for a heroin addict I guess. Seems like it anyway.
We walk around the mall a bit more and then drive clear across town to Grand Ledge, to the Family Fare to stock up on groceries. On the way we talk about how I read an article detailing that Stephen Hawking goes to a sex club in California. We joke about the potential fetishes that Dr. Hawking might have in a sex club and what he can get the girls to do for him. We get to the store and I get some nice fruits and chicken and booze for the weekend. We drive through the McDs to get the bots some fries. I smell the greasy goodness but do not partake in even one of them. We get home, I check online news and then hit the gym. I do 35 on the treadmill, even work up the courage to jog a solid five minutes, which is a miracle in itself. Then cool down. Then I do ten minutes of weight training, learning the huge machines they got in there. I do pec and bicep work, as I want to impress the wife with my growing Arnold Swartzenegger type of muscles as the fat dissipates. I leave the gym to walk back to our place but “Eye of the Tiger” comes on my ipod in my ears. So I decide to take another brisk 5 minute walk around the parking lot in the shade for the duration of the song. I begin to note how much better and more energetic I feel. Something tells me that finally, this time my efforts will stick. Two days in and I am doing really well. I get back inside, break the good news to the wife and check email. I get her to go back out with me to drop off movies I got a week ago and to stop by Big Lots for bots some more discs. Once back, she falls asleep on the couch and I pencil about 10 Titanic cards. Then take bots into the bedroom to watch TV and play while I let the wife sleep in peace.
About 9:30pm I am bored out of my mind and am itching to do something. My friends cancelled on me and are coming tomorrow instead, so I am left with nothing to do. I was invited to a party at a co-workers but I’d feel really out of place. I know them pretty well, but its just that I am older and sorta lame when it comes to those types of things. And I didn’t want to feel like Mr. Buzzkill who didn’t want to drink cause he had to drive. The wife gets up, puts the bots to bed and I say I am going out to the movies or something else. She’s not into it and wants me to stay home for some reason. I text Dean and see what he’s doing. He comes over around 11:15 and we draw at my coffee table while watching MST3K: Time of the Apes. That’s about as exciting as my life gets! Turn down a party, going to the movies, the bar or anything else to sit and draw nerdy art and watch a 20 year old sci fi comedy TV show. But hey, at least I had a friend with me! Dean leaves after the show is over and I pass out around 1:30.

4-7-12

The wife kicks me at 7:30 to wake up with the bots. She’s been asleep almost 14 hours now and still not feeling well. Plus she works today so I don’t put up a fight about it. I get him up, get him food and things and lay on the couch to doze off in and out between hearing loud parts in his cartoons. I finally get up around 9:30 and feed the fish and refill bots’ drink, then check online shit. According to tracking, my Amazon order should be there sometime in the day. I update blog and other things as the wife finally emerges from hibernation around 11:00.
We head to Grand Ledge Mcds because I know they have soup there and it’s a healthy alternative. Unfortunately, its revealed it is a seasonal thing and they have none. So I get a grilled chicken instead. We head back and I go to the gym to do 30 minutes on the treadmill. I convince the wife to go swimming with the bots and that I would join them after I was done. After 30 minutes of hard walking, I need to cool off anyway so I swim with them for about 20 more minutes. My arms get a killer work out! We get out and shiver all the way home, change clothes and check email and other online shit.
I start working on sketch cards and reading info about old Nirvana recording sessions. I update the blog and then get the house cleaned up for the night’s festivities. Bots is unusually good and keeps things mostly clean. Kelly heads to work for a 3-12am shift. She texts me some stresses she’s dealing with throughout the day and I feel bad for her. I keep working on Titanic cards and watching documentaries on the ship via Youtube till Matt and Michelle arrive around 8pm. I introduce them to James Rolfe and the AVGN/Board James videos, which they love. I get the kid to pass out shortly thereafter. We start to drink a bit and catch up while playing a round of this drinking card game I have. We finish up as Kelly walks in the door around midnight. We all sit and drink and talk while listening to music. It’s a grand old time. Then it turns to 2:15 and we all decide to hit the hay. I convince the wife to spend a little us time (HUBBA!) and I end up passing out around 3am.

4-8-12

I get up around 7:30, hearing the wife and bots playing in our room. He’s in full moody mode and not calming down. I get up, pee and try to get more shut eye but it doesn’t take. We get up and Matt and Michelle are getting up as well and we chat for a while. They take off around 10:30. The wife and I opt for some Logans, so we head out to see if it is open. We get there and eat the usual. No fries for me, as I am still on the prize hunt! The gym is closed today so no treadmill, unfortunately. We finish eating, chat with a friend we’ve made there and head back home. I attempt a nap, which doesn’t take (when will I ever learn??) and get up to clean the house. I decide I need a project so I drain my fish tank to about 20% full and move it and the table its on closer to my office area, out of the way of foot traffic, and where bots could potentially knock it over with his power wheel bike. I refill it and put in the 20 different chemicals to make the water safe for my fishies. They take it well and don’t seem stressed, thank the Lords of Khobol.
I putz around cleaning out more things and re-organize my bookcase and the wife heads to work. I start penciling the last of the Titanic cards and start inks. I text the wife throughout the day keeping her informed on news I am reading about friends and the rest of the world. Bots plays with his discs and we do a round of toss and bounce, plus hoops. At one point I go over to the fish tank to watch my beloved pets and realize something strange. I see these itty bitty tadpole type of fish swimming around. I realize quickly that they must be baby fish! Instantly I get worried that perhaps one of the fish laid her eggs in the coral and when I moved the tank earlier I might have made the eggs hatch or maybe even damaged them in some way. I decide that perhaps I did not and might never know. But in all I count three baby fishies so far. I call the wife and text/tweet some pics. I’m also quite proud. For weeks I have been struggling trying to get the tanks’ condition in such a way that fish could live in it without high ammonia levels and the proper Ph. And now I did such a good job that they decided to REALLY make it their home and make babies. I am a proud fish papa!
The kid goes to bed around 8:40 and I start coloring Titanic cards. I finish them around 11:40 and I am happy with the results. Another card set in the bank! I scan em and send pics of them to Liza and ask a few questions. Wife texts and says her replacement overslept and will be running 30 minutes late. So I stay up for her to get home and see the baby fishes. She gets home around 12:45 and is delighted to see them. I lay down to re-read Invincible Hardcover #6, in preparation for my new Hardcover to be delivered tomorrow. She lays next to me and I am passed out around 1:30am.