T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Tiny turned 4 on Saturday. I know it is so cliche to say, but where does the time go?

This kid is hilarious! The things he says and does make me laugh every day.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at an event with BIL and I was telling him to feel free to promote me to single men. You know, tell them how awesome I am.

He started laughing and told me that Tiny is so much like me. Apparently he will frequently walk up to BIL and say, "Dad, I'm awesome. Are you awesome?"

I say there is nothing wrong with that kind of confidence. And why wait for someone else to point it out? 

But recently it has come to my attention that Sissy may be in trouble with this one. He is one charming kiddo.

At school he was helping his teacher with something and she said, "Tiny, you're my buddy aren't you? Am I your buddy?"

He replied, "No, you're my sweetheart."

I mean, really? Where did he even come up with that?

On Saturday when I got to his house with his gift, an orange case for his electronics, Belly said, "Tiny, isn't orange your favorite color?"

He looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, "I don't like orange."

I got a sad look and asked when he decided that.

He replied, "Ok, I'll change it for you."

Seriously, he knows how to get just what he wants.

Turning the Negative to Positive

I read a little blurb in Fitness magazine that a new study showed that 90% of women who thought positively about weight management had either dropped pounds or kept them off in the past year, compared with only 50% of the ladies with a negative approach.

Then I got to DC last night and realized that I didn't get my score sheet for 13.1 so I didn't submit my score. 

I was totally bummed.

Then I realized, that it may be a sign.

I don't think I've necessarily been extremely negative about my CrossFit and weight loss journey in the last year, but I have definitely focused on the things that I couldn't do and the weight that I haven't lost.

And I think it is creating a mental barrier for me that is not allowing me to reach my goals. 

So, starting today I am going to be more positive about this journey of mine. I'm going to celebrate my accomplishments, no matter how small.

If you hear me talking about the things I can't do or the goals I haven't reached, please remind me of how far I've come. 

This is going to take some time and a pretty serious mental change, but I know I can do it.

The Open Is Upon Us

The CrossFit Games season has officially started.

On Wednesday evening, the first workout of the 2013 CrossFit Open was announced. You may remember that I signed up for the Open last year. I had not yet moved up into the official CrossFit class at my gym, but they told me that they programmed the workouts so that nearly anyone could do them.

And I did. Well, I at least recorded reps in every workout. In the third workout I couldn't do the toes-to-bar and in the final workout I couldn't do the chest-to-bar pull-ups, but I finished the movements before those and recorded that score.

I truly struggled with whether or not I would sign up this year. I will be in DC all of next week so I will have to do the workout at a gym where I know no one. And I still can't do toes-to-bar or chest-to-bar pull-ups. I don't know if those will be part of a workout, but I can imagine they will be.

The first workout was announced on Wednesday, and it was a combination of the first two last year.

Last year I got 60 burpees in 7 minutes and 60 snatches in 10 minutes (at those first two weights). This year, I completed 124 reps - that's an improvement of 4 reps. Not great, but at least an improvement! Those burpees killed me.

I follow a lot of people on social media sites who are into CrossFit and doing these workouts and some did more, and some did less than me. But for me, I need to keep reminding myself that I am only competing against myself at this point. 

My goal is to be better than I was, and I think I am accomplishing that.

367 in the 505

I have mentioned before that I spent 2004 working on the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign. I started in Washington, DC, as an intern; got sent to Arizona; then when we were up by double digits in Arizona, I was sent to New Mexico.

New Mexico only had five electoral votes, but in 2000, President (then Governor) George Bush lost the state by only 366 votes. And there was some shady business that went on. There was a snow storm and like weeks later ballot boxes were found in people's basements. Slim shady business, I tell you.

Because of that, and the fact that you shouldn't take any electoral votes for granted, there were quite a few resources sent to New Mexico in the final months and days of the campaign.

I was sent as a general clean-up batter. Meaning that anything that needed to be done or that wasn't getting done, I was in charge of. 

Long story short, we ended up winning New Mexico in 2004.

There is a friend of our family who honestly tells people that because of me, George W. Bush won the state of New Mexico in 2004.

Now, I'm good, but I'm not that good. I would go out on a limb and say that Big Country* probably had a little to do with it as well.

Either way, it has kind of become a joke in our family.

So on Saturday night, Sissy, BIL, and I went out to an alumni pub crawl for BIL's alumni group. It was in downtown Scottsdale, which isn't really where my kind of people hang out. So Sissy and I are hanging together and we start talking to a very nice guy. Somehow it comes out that he is a Republican. And a very serious one. So Sissy busts out with the story and tells him, "My sister is the reason that George Bush won New Mexico in 2004." 

He seemed pretty impressed. If he only knew...

Flashback Friday

I told you a part of this story ages ago, but recently SuperFan, Diddy, and I were enjoying a bottle of wine and the rest of the story came up.

I'll fill in a few details here.

Let's start with the Wednesday night of karaoke...

That was probably the first time that I had ever spent any real amount of time with DVL. At the end of the night, Diddy, DVL, and I walked back to our hotel together and then stood outside the hotel where I proceeded to have a conversation with DVL about a guy I went to high school and he went to college with that neither of us thought very nice things about. 

For like an hour or something.

The wine tour the next day was organized by DVL, and to be honest with you, he's lucky we are still friends after that.

When I tell you it was the worst hangover I ever had - I am not kidding. 

I literally thought that I was going to die on the bus on the way to wine tasting.

For some reason, Diddy and I ended up towards the back of the bus, next to the ice chest. So every time someone cracked open a beer, I nearly barfed. It was bad news bears!

At the first stop, Diddy needed to use the restroom, so he goes outside to the restroom and closes and locks the door, where there is a sign that reads, "Please be aware. There are snakes on the property."

He said at that point he thought to himself, If a snake gets in here, I'm effed. There is no way I'll move fast enough to get away.