Public Servanthood

Lately, I've been trying to decode the mystery of my draw to the "become-so-busy-you-want-to-kill-yourself" way of living. Unlike the average person, I believe myself to thrive in these types of situations, and with that comes the God-given rights to gripe and vent to whomever will listen. There are a multitude of problems that occur when a person does this to him or herself, but they really don't manifest until the last blasted bit of rope has been pulled apart and destruction is, therefore, inevitable. The real problem with these types of people is that they never learn how to do less. They just kid themselves into thinking that this will be the time they finally are able to flawlessly pull off an overloaded schedule. Which seamlessly brings me to June 2011.

I've dipped my toes into my summer internship (er, in-service training in public administration), and it actually looks to be pretty exciting. Officially, I'll be working in HR attempting to do some benchmarking studies to improve the current Greene County compensation scale. I preface that with "officially," because who the heck knows if that's really what I'll actually accomplish. So if you're driving around Government Plaza, wave in my general direction. I'll be putting in 32-ish hours a week, housed for now in the building where the County Commissioner lives and breathes.

So there is one snippet of my summer. Tune in next week for Part 2 of my series, "Dreaming Big While Not Actually Dreaming At All."

Aaaaand....scene.

Who could love someone named Beezus?

Jesus. That's who.

I am currently semi-obsessed with the movie, Ramona and Beezus. I was stoked about it the very idea of it when I first saw the previews, but I never made it to the theater. Life and other happenings got in the way. But my schedule has cleared out lately, and while I am still sort of busy, I also make room to rent stacks of DVDs and plant my brain-dead body on the couch. Ramona and Beezus, Waiting for Superman, The Social Network, The Kids are All Right, and Easy A all made the list, and I must say, I picked some winners. Hilarity, emotion, and some hella witty writing all make me so happy.

So yes, the semester is over. Year number one is in fact over. I escaped with straight A's, and I am happy as bird with a french fry. This time next year I will be embarking on a whole new chapter of my life. At this time, I don't know exactly what that means, but it is exciting. However, anyone that knows me at all knows that once I get something, I no longer want it. This is my biggest admitted flaw. I blame my perfectionist attitude. It's exhausting really. I need therapy. Or a life coach. Except I already have one of those. (Hi, life coach.)

That is all for now.

I write a better blog than a research proposal.

Last weekend I bought a road bike. She is a thing of beauty, no doubt about it. And she is built for speed. Well, as much speed as she will be getting from these legs. I love her. Although, I do sort of regret purchasing a new ride smack dab at the end of the semester. Last week was horrendous for me. I cried once. And ate countless calories of junk food. Because it is a suggested fact of life that M&Ms and egg rolls help those academic juices flow. I could write a thesis on that hypothesis.

I took my epidemiology final today. Two hours of using my brain to try to figure out if my professor was trying to trick me or not. I swear. If I were a professor, I would not be THAT kind of professor. It is mean and useless, and the people that would get an A are still going to get an A. It just takes longer. So now I have one left. A take-home final and then I will be finished. Until I start my internship and summer school. Grad school is no joke.

I saw on Bravo that they were hosting a Tweet battle to determine if Bethenny was taking on too much. I think sometimes I should ask myself that same question.

The other Tweet battle asked if the Brunettes or Blondes were in the right on Real Housewives of NYC. This is the census work of reality television here, people.

Anyway, I tweaked my back on Saturday trying to be a BAMF. Not so smart. The WOD was the Lumberjack 20. That is WOD-speak for heavy and horrible. I need to remember to keep things in perspective. Just because I CAN pick up a 185 bar 20 times and swing around a 55lb KB like a crazy person doesn't necessarily mean I should. Well, I still want to. It's the whole opportunity-cost benefit analysis thing that says I shouldn't. And the fact that I have been BATHING in Biofreeze the past few days.

Oh, and I am committing to the Omaha marathon in September. I am semi-excited about this, and I really don't want to flake out like I have the past 2 races I've registered for. Wait. 3 races. STL, KC, and Houston marathons. Whoops. Well, this will be my year, peeps. I will have some fun runner friends by my side, at least until they leave me in the dust.

I throw my hands up in the air sometimes. Hey o.

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I’ve got to get out of the habit of posting so intermittently. Really only because it places too much doggone hype on my biweekly post. But it is what it is. And here is what my blog is not—obligatory snorefest posting. Ta da!

I’ve been watching the Today Show. Nothing new there. I’ve watched that show for a long time now. But I’ve been watching the interviews with decidedly more interest as I look at how the interviewees respond to Matt or Meredith or Ann. If I make it big in some way that permits me to be on national television, I am going to remember these things that I have learned.

1. Try on my outfit before I go on air. Nothing earth shattering there. But important all the same.
2. Get on a first name basis with the big guys/gals, even though I likely have no real authority to do so. This must be performed in an unpretentious way that wafts of confidence but not egoism. “Why thank you, Matt. I too believe that this is but a small, but monumental step for future generations.”
3. Use words such as “future” or “generations” to appear socially conscious and eco-hip. But only once. Twice tops. See Rule 4.
4. Accept that I am 26 and need to act my age.

“Wow, Matt. I never realized how much analyzing perfect strangers on national television was really setting me up for a backlash of bad karma when I finally hit it big.”

I’m tired. The semester is winding down, which means my workload is piling up. I am stressed so I am grabbing extra workouts to decompress. Which means I’m energized. Then exhausted.

Throw a girl a candy egg.

I'm baaacck!!!

It's been awhile, so I'm going to ease back into the blogosphere by providing a list of what I've been up to since March 27th. Shall we? Let's.

• I've kept all my A's this semester. 4 more weeks to go.

• I have committed RPM 50 and ATTACK 72 to memory and am ready to rock starting tomorrow.

• I PR'ed on clean and jerk at 125lb. What a happy day.

• I ran a marathon relay with 3 studs. We came in at 4:01:37 despite fighting heat and other, um, elements.

• I turned 26.

So those are the highlights.

I've also been thinking a lot about how we view ourselves in relation to other people. How it's completely jaded us and made us not appreciate our own personal accomplishments because we're constantly looking at how we stack up in the grander scheme of things. Or maybe it's just me. Regardless, my goal for my new birth year is to celebrate my own victories. Of course I'll still look to others for inspiration/motivation/other-ation, but I'd really like to just be in a place of yes. Ala Bethenny "Stop Pissing on my Cornflakes" Frankel.

So here's to 26, blogging more, and eating my cornflakes. Rawr.