Under Pressure

I’m back in the office to work today and I am already stressed out as I’m receiving pressure to get things done from multiple sides. Blogs will be brief and RealiTV updates will probably be a day later than they should be (though I did watch last night’s The Amazing Race and will comment on anything you comment about today).

Another LEAF has turned
This weekend saw me drive the Jackmobile up to Black Mountain, NC for the Lake Eden Arts Festival, more commonly known as LEAF. The weekend was a fun, albeit very cold-nighted, weekend. This was my third trip up to LEAF and as in year’s past I got up there and set up a tent and cracked open a beer in anticipation of seeing ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy and their kids. This year I added more entertainment for those around me by bringing my bigger tent, which I’ve not erected in two years, and with the wind on Friday afternoon I mimicked a much uglier male version of Team Blond on Blond as my tent blew over from lack of staking. It was the only moment that I was glad to be alone as I was certain that I’d be the recipient of much laughter because of this.

With the exception of my lunch stop at Zaxby’s somewhere along the infamous White Horse Road in South Carolina I was a vegetarian this weekend. You’d think a man with as many inherent challenges as I have wouldn’t feel the desire to impose more, but when around Lisa and Randy I try to eat vegetarian — not for them, for me. I will admit that the smell of bacon being cooked by one of our tent-neighbors did nearly lure my back to the dark side on Saturday. At the hippyfest that is LEAF it’s actually harder to find carnivorous than vegetarian meals. On Friday night I dined on BBQ tempeh tacos (delicious) with some sweet potato chips. On Saturday I had some red beans and rice, and some vegan spring rolls for lunch and a BBQ vegan “short rib” wrap for dinner (which was surprisingly good). And on Sunday I had a “Breakfast Thing,” essentially a burrito shell grilled with a bunch of fresh veggies and cheese and then topped with scrambled eggs, and dinner last night was some of the leftover snacks and Malbec wine while I watched “60 Minutes” and “The Amazing Race.”

The weather during the day could not have been nicer. Once the haze cleared and the frost melted we were treated with some of the most pleasant days I’ve experienced at LEAF. The days were spent walking around the grounds, stopping occasionally for some hula-hooping (kids, not me) and playing the role of cool “Uncle” Paulie. For me the female demographic of the festival seemed to be teenager and MILF, neither of which were, or should, be interested in an overweight graybeard with back lumps and severe hat hair, no matter how cool of an “uncle” I can be (after all, I’m no Daniel Pecan Cambridge you know). The nights were downright cold, not chilly, cold. I piled into my spacious tent and snuggled into my sleeping bag which sat atop an inflated Therma-Rest and below my “camping” duvet. I thought about tossing one of the handwarming packets that I bought for the photography trip I bailed on during the Great Ice Storm of 2011, but then read on the package that they should not be used while sleeping (damn me and my need to follow rules!).

In addition to the great people watching I heard some good music and saw some entertaining things at the Child’s Stage. This year we also found the location of the fire/drum circle (The drumming is easily heard from the camping area all the way until about 3am. I don’t know how the hell people stay up so damn late. Shit, I’m old.) and traversed the “tricky trail” from the circle down to the lake.

I do enjoy my weekends away. Heck, I will actually put the Spring LEAF into my calendar so that I don’t do something sill like sign up for a half-marathon on the same weekend. 😉

ITP Flickr Pic
I keep thinking “Some day I will start taking photos again.” However, even though there was a DSLR in my car, that only saw the light of day once when I thought about attempting to take a star-trail image, my only snapshot of the weekend was taken with my iPhone 4 (not-S).

LEAF

This is the view of Lake Eden, the Lake Eden portion of the Lake Eden Arts Festival, from near the start of the zip line which takes you all the way down into the lake.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – tired
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – At LEAF we saw a neat new camping trailer called “Go” from Sylvan Sport. The trailer was cool, not cheap ($8000), and I have no where to store it without fear of theft. Oh well, so goes it.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing official, but plenty of walking occurred
Morning Weigh-In – November

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~5.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – ~16.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 13 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Meals – lost count (significantly fewer than carnivorous)
Carnivorous Meals – lost count (significantly more than vegetarian)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

October Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash (though I’m beginning to this this will never happen)
– Ride my bike no fewer than 100 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least twice
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than fifteen vegetarian meals
– Lose three pounds

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This entry was posted in My Daily Life. Bookmark the permalink.

13 Responses to Under Pressure

  1. Lisa says:

    It was not only cold, it was FREEZING! And, yes you did hula hoop and I saw it!! Had a great weekend, thanks! See you over Thanksgiving 🙂

  2. Hey, I thought that we had a pact! 🙂 And you didn’t see me hula hoop for long as I have no talent in the hula hoop category.

    Looking forward to seeing you all again at Thanksgiving. And I looked up the Chatham County Line date and will let you know if I can go.

  3. Lisa says:

    Sounds good. Oh yeah, I slept with the hand warmers in my gloves. Look at me… rule breaker and I still have hands and fingers!

  4. At least Randy will provide a positive role model for your kids. 😛 And before anyone gets confused, I love Lisa and Randy like family.

  5. Randy says:

    Thanks again for being “cool” Uncle Paulie this weekend. The kids enjoyed having you around, especially when you are willing to substitute for monkey bars (like at the barn). The nights were definitely cold – no doubt about that – at least that makes it easier to go to bed “early”.

    I thought the Go might have been $5K. Too bad it’s so expensive, it sure is an impressive camping trailer.

    Looking forward to seeing you (and a bunch of the other Atlantans) over Thanksgiving.

  6. Barb says:

    glad you guys had a fun weekend – we were talking about camping & how we haven’t been in forever……. it was a little chilly, but that is why we car camp, so we can bring way too much stuff!

    We are thinking about cooking at our house on Thanksgiving, so if anyone wants to join us, let us know. Allan is going to smoke a turkey on the Egg, then maybe fry one & then maybe bake one too, depending on how many people we come up with. Allan has to work friday (hint, hint Lisa & Randy in case the boys need another trip to visit the firehouse), but then is off the rest of the weekend.

    Amazing Race – this was the first episode in a long time that I thought, wow, these people are going to be totally spread out & not have any idea where they are in the pack. I kind of like that.

  7. Stacy Fox says:

    I loved this TAR because my team *kept screwing up!* Between not taking notes at the build-a-temple to getting on, then back off a first class bus for no reason, I thought for sure they would implode and I’d get the Win. (Dammit!) The way they’re bickering, though, it’s going to happen soon. I can feel it.

  8. Yeah, I liked how the teams got spread out even though there was some clumping with the buses. SPOILER! (which I already spoiled for ITP-Reader Terri) I had no idea that the “First Class” rule only applied to flying.

  9. I’m with you Randy. I knew the Go would be expensive but not that expensive. And I like goofing off with the kids, it keeps me young(er) and gets me a little bit of exercise. Btw- I have an “okay” video of you and Thing 2 doing the trebuchet.

  10. Could have been worse Stacy, SPOILER, your team could have finished first like Terri’s did.

    Which reminds me, we need to institute the added punishment for having the team you picked to get eliminated actually win the leg. ]:^>

  11. Stacy Fox says:

    AGREED! Right? Either that or the ACTUAL losers don’t lose and it gets flipped onto the winner to pay the punishment instead. That could be a fun twist.

    That being said, I need to win already! I have a great song in mind for the two of you! My “1st Wave Classic Alternative” Sirius station has been killer with finding some fun things lately. That or “Sesame Street,” of course.

    And hey, I know I joked about it last week, but what say you about hosting us on the 6th, hmmmmm? The next week I’ll be off in Kentucky (yay me), and then T-giving is fast approaching too. Pretty soon we’ll have no days to watch together!

    I actually didn’t realize it only pertained to air travel either – but I’m going to guess they should have.

  12. I’ll host on the 6th. My goal by this weekend is to have my tv situation all back to normal.

  13. Stacy Fox says:

    Joy! I’ll bring wine. 🙂

Comments are closed.