Wednesday, September 4

OB/GYN: wk4,day21

today was a very blah day.

highlight: working out with JH. i'm feeling more fit than i have ever felt in my life. i work out for my health, and to some extent (though i try to convince myself that this is not my motivation) for vanity. but one awesome benefit of working out is how your body seems to come together. it is so cool.

it's as though your upper body has been doing it's own thing, your arms have been doing it's own thing, your abs have been doing it's own thing, and your legs have been doing it's own thing. but after you work out for a while, the separate parts seem to know each other better, and to work as ONE unit. and the funny thing is, none of the parts nor the collective (the conscious me) realized that my body was so disjointed until it became more united. there is a sermon illustration here somewhere...

the proof?: was in how good i felt running ball on sunday. i was not winded, i didn't feel landlocked, i didn't feel like i was coming up short. until i started cramping up, i was clicking on greased gears. i have to figure out why i keep cramping up all the time. it seems to happen to me more than other people. i'm practically guaranteed to cramp up.

two short anecdotes about my cramping:

story#1
when i was starting hs, all my arc friends decide to try out for waterpolo. (remember that, guys?) although i was the least athletic amongst my friends, i figured, why not, try out with them.

i just want to say, i didn't realize until too late that we had to wear those thin, black, bikini speedos. i don't even remember if i was wearing one. must've been so traumatic that i blocked that memory. if i had worn them, i'm sure i would have gotten several sizes larger than my normal size, b/c i was all about baggy then, and i sure as heck didn't want my privates outlined in tight black speedos. i DO remember some of my friends wearing em. hahaha...whoo--eeee!!!!!

the very first day, the coach was throwing bricks to the bottom of the pool, telling us to get them, we were treading for what seemed like eternity, swimming laps, back and forth, back and forth, "playing" follow the leader around the pool. it was torture.

at some point, my right quads cramped up. to stretch it, i pulled my lower leg behind me, only to have the hamstring suddenly yank as well. in a panic, i extend my leg again, because while the cramped thigh hurts, a cramped hamstring is like a hot iron rammed through your middle. while floundering in panic, the muscles in my left leg cramp up. i was in serious trouble, trying to stretch, but it was impossible. stretching one group of muscles would only make the opposing group cramp more. i was floudering in the water, but no one helped me. in terrible pain, i remember using just my arms, trying to keep my legs as still as possible, to paddle to the side of the pool and let myself out. i quit after that first day.

some of my arc friends stuck it, and became waterpolo studs. i was never meant to be any sort of stud...

story#2
when i was in college at JHU, we would play ball from early evening to closing time, which was around 11. that often meant approximately 4 hours of ball.

one night, i managed to go the entire stretch of all games without cramping up. as we often did, someone suggested that we get a late dinner at nam kang (oh, the golden college days...).

nam kang was our local 24hr korean restaurant. wasn't mom's cooking, but hey, it was good decent food, and a wonderful boon for korean students who were far, far, away from a korean meal. it was a tiny, cramped restaurant, at the basement level, in the almost-ghetto neighborhood of baltimore.

so we go after ball, and surprise surpise, there are a whole gang of korean ah-juh-shi's (korean aging middle-aged men) who were having a late snack after a soccer game.

i was sitting at the far end of the table, against the wall. elbow to elbow. our table was talking, eating. the ah-juh-shis were talking and eating, when all of the sudden, both my hamstrings cramped up together. i cried out, in a hot panic, (there was absolutely no room to stretch) and bent forward suddenly (thus somewhat stretching my hamstrings), slamming my forehead onto the table, jarring all the cups and dishes. everyone's head swiveled towards me.

"jacob!"
"jacob?"
"jacob! what's wrong?"

in the midst of my blinding pain, i hear one of the ah-juh-shis ask another:
"kuh mii chiin nom wheh guh lun kah?" (what's wrong with that crazy fool?)

just hearing that line, asked in such a tone, by that clownish ah-juh-shi dressed in ridiculous soccer gear, put me over the top, and i started giggling and snorting in laughter, while still crying in pain. my friends didn't know what to make of it. i was doubled over, crying, laughing. it took a long time for things to get straightened out.

those ah-juh-shi's snuck peeks at me every once in a while, as if to reassure themselves that i really wasn't a madman ready to break out.


****
saw "the rookie" with JH and roberto while eating indian take-out.

what a movie. surpassed all expectations. so many sports movies are about a sorry team that somehow gets motivated and starts winning a lot, finally to win the championship.

this movie is more about the characters, the changes within, the dreams realized. not so much about the winning. GREAT movie.

although, now that it is so late, i know i'm going to pay for this tomorrow. i am constantly paying for my poor decisions...


yakob at 1:03 AM

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