The first blog post July 6, 2008

This blog will be a reflection of whatever is going on in my life at the time. No common theme in mind - it could be about a workout, my feline friends, my artwork, whatever.

The big thing in my life right now is my impending job change. I've been employed as a police/911 dispatcher for six months shy of 20 years. The job is stressful, unappreciated, dead end and very underpaid but it is stable work. Police and emergency services will always be needed. Now I'm planning to give my two weeks notice this week to pursue a fulltime position in the fitness industry. It certainly doesn't have the same feeling of stability that the 911 position has but it is exciting, makes use of my talents, and has the potential for very good pay and my pay will reflect my level of effort. So I'm excited, scared and chomping at the bit to be free and give it go.

There is still the part of me that wants some stability, so I interviewed for a half time job as a Medflight dispatcher with the UW Hospital. The interview went very well; I believe a stand a good chance of being offered the job. It's two 12 hour shifts per week with rotating hours and days off and fulltime health benefits. Not bad as the fitness job allows me to set my own hours so it will not matter what days or shifts I work. (I'm used to working weekends, holidays and rotating shifts now so this is old hat for me).

On a slightly different front, Mom suffered a ministroke last week in her sleep. She went to bed with good vision in one eye and half vision in the other and woke up nearly blind the next morning. I've driven her to several specialists and the diagnosis is that the new blindness is permanent. There is damage to the optic nerve of her good eye and a laser surgery performed years ago had already removed most of the vision from the other eye. This is another reason I am so compelled to work from home and being able to create my own hours. Mom now needs someone to assist her with errands and daily things. It's a good thing I live right across the street from her. My brother is moving to Colorado and will not be able to help.

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Today's CrossFit WOD was 30 squat cleans and jerks with 100# for women. I am both embarrassed and slightly pleased with my performance - 11:57. I'm so bad at the O-lifts that 100# C&J is almost my single rep max. I had to treat this WOD as a series of singles and did all of them ass to ankles depth on the catch and with honest jerks (not push presses) held fully overhead. I'm pleased that I was able to finish the WOD in under 15 minutes.

I will find an Olympic lifting coach after the World KB competition in Toronto to help me fix this problem.