Profoundly Asleep

Jenna, this morning, left the apartment at 6:15 because she had to work an unusually early time slot. I say that to explain why, an hour later, I awoke to the feeling of some seemingly foreign object sliding across my chest, headed off the bed to the floor.

Apparently, in an effort to shield my sleep-riddled eyes from the light streaming from the kitchen, I had covered my face with my arms. (Do not, gentle reader, assume that my lovely wife is uncaring and cold enough to turn on all the lights in our humble apartment in attempt to thwart my extra moments of sleep that she, unfortunatly, cannot enjoy alongside me. On the contrary! she does her very best to use as little light as possible in order to facilitate my extra moments of slumber.) In the ensuing hour I lost any sensation of feeling in my right arm. Not only did I lose feeling, I could not--no matter how hard I tried--move my arm. It was completely asleep, profoundly asleep.

That has never happened before and caused quite a shock in my groggy, half-asleep mind. I, momentarily, worried that my right arm would be left useless. Luckily I'm left-handed, so I retained some hope for my promising (if only) career as a literary scholar. Of course, every one knows, one cannot possibly hope to at all function without an operative dominant hand; ask Edward Rochester.

It was an interesting start to the day, if nothing else.

Fitness Revolution Update #3

So I stepped on the scale this morning and was shocked by the number between my toes: 236.5. That's two pounds more than last week! It is a bit frustrating, but upon further reflection I realized that I hadn't done anything in the last week to further my fitness goals, so I deserved this decidedly upsetting step backwards.

Luckily, Jenna and I finally got our membership to the local YMCA finalized. This morning (from 6-7) I participated in a spinning class and it was a whopper. Pretty much, I (along with 15 other people) sat on a pretty nice stationary bicycle and was goaded to go faster and harder by a guy named Fred yelling over mediocre-but-occasionally-amazing music. They played "Who Are You?" by The Who followed immediately by "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock. It's not the ideal juxtaposition, but I dealt with it. I plan to do that class at least twice a week and lift at least twice. Hooray for the YMCA. It's fun to stay there.

ps- Go Obama Go!

A Few of My Favorite Things

This video may be my new favorite thing.
"Hooch is crazy!"

so is Tom Cruise.

Gerund+Noun=Movie Title

Inspired by the Language Log's multi-piece article on non-constituent titles, I have recently become interested in movies whose titles are made up of a gerund and a noun (or noun phrase, whichever you prefer). I'm certainly no linguist and my knowledge and, frankly, interest in grammar is minimal, at best so this certainly isn't a legit pursuit of linguist knowledge or renown, just an observation.

So far, I've thought of:

Chasing Amy
Finding Forrester
Searching for Bobby Fischer (maybe doesn't count, but who cares?)

Chelsea's:

Waking Ned Divine
Driving Miss Daisy

And really, when I was talking about this I had many more but when it comes to writing it down, I am drawing a blank.

Anyway, if you can think of any more, just throw them my way.

Fitness Revolution Update #2

The weigh in today: 234.5 lbs. I know, I know it's only a loss of .5 pounds, but it is a loss of 5 pounds over two weeks. In my defense, I'm going to blame the nearly stagnant numbers on a nearly exerciseless week and the fact that as of yesterday, Jenna and I have been married for 6 months so we made a mighty filling dinner (of which I ate too much) complete with homemade (that means out of a box) cake and lots-o-icing. Our membership to the YMCA should kick in tomorrow, and that means that I can start early morning spinning classes before work and actually add the exercise portion to my fitness regiment. Thanks for all your support and thoughts. Know you're loved!

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Yesterday, walking through the streets of West Chester I was passed by a borough-owned vehicle towing a tree-chopper. The primary purpose of the tree choppers were, I imagine, to chop up and cart away the carcasses of the past-their-prime (it appears that this will be a hyphen-filled post) Christmas trees lining the streets. The scent emanating from the back of the truck brought back countless Christmas-time memories or my childhood. I love Christmas-time and it kept me in a good mood all day... at least until my 30-minute drive took over two hours because of the snow/traffic.

In other news, the search for Bobby Fischer is over. NPR reported that he passed away in Iceland, his new home. I've always been a fan of the movie about the child chess-talent.

Anyway, the part about the smell of Christmas trees bringing back memories is a lie: my mom is severely allergic to real trees so we always had a fake tree. Enjoy the day.