Amazing what feeling under the weather does

It's been a rough week, spring break seems to have brought on a spring cold.  Not particularly thrilled with that, it's been fevers, chills, the runs, headache season.  Wayne says that was mild compared to what is happening at work.  I didn't make it to the gym this week at all, and tomorrow is the whale count, so won't make it then.  I did get in my 2 EA Sports Active 2.0 sessions, and pulled a third workout off this morning. Boy have they been making me sweat.  Wayne is worried that it is the fever, so no walking today.  I have noticed a spike in my blood pressure and resting heart rate, although the resting heart rate is getting closer to the 68 bpm of last week, my diastolic pressure is back up in the 90s.  Systolic is recovering, post exercise this morning I am 131/98, 76 bpm.

Tonight I will have six classmates over from my social work 607 class, and we will be videotaping a mock ho'oponopono session at the house.  Not familiar with ho'oponopono?  I was/am not either.  So out to wikipedia I went (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho'oponopono).  Ho'oponopono is based on ancient Hawaiian/Polynesian practices of reconciliation and forgiveness.  I guess it goes back to the old days, where if you did something kapu (forbidden), if you made it to Honaunau, you were forgiven.  It is practiced by healing priests, sometimes combined with tapping.

It will be interesting to see how this goes, and to apply it to my life with my family -- back in NY, that is.  I'd very much be interested in understanding and embracing the concepts, and then going back and applying them.  There is still so much anger and irritation and hurt, much of which I also caused, that resounds inside me.  Forgiveness and letting go are what I would like to be.

So, I will get out the video camera, well, cameras, and record our session from three angles, and then edit them together.  It will be fun, and I'll get to showcase off some of my own skills to the ladies, which totally differ from theirs.  A number of them have participated, or at least watched a ho'oponopono session, so they will hopefully be the social workers, and leave the ha'oles (white chicks) to be the clients.  I will post some of the video via link here this week.

I think I mentioned this before, but I am currently a Masters student (again!) in social work at the University of Hawaii.  I had spent a lot of time talking with Wayne, and wanting to give back to the community that I have survived -- the Army, and its families.  Well, I went to Schofield Barracks this past week, and interviewed at Army Community Services within the Family Advocacy Division.  I got a placement for my summer internship!  At the newborn outreach clinic.

As I continue down my path, and without divulging any client information, I'll be keeping folks here in touch with how I am doing, and any changes this will bring to my life.  I cannot wait to start - going in to work in the morning, I dread the drive.  I have spent the last year being useless, and doing many projects in order to get promoted to lead associate.  Well, my assessment is done, and I am a week or so away from finding out the results.  I both dread and eagerly await the news.

Now off to the shower and the dreaded job.  Tired, unmotivated, but looking forward to tonight, and to the last whale count of the season tomorrow morning in Hawaii Kai!

Oh what a morning!

Well, as far as mornings go, it was pretty good -- got in 2 workouts of the 9 week challenge this morning, just absolutely dripping with sweat.  And then WHAM -- brick wall consisting of chills, sweats, and yuck. Woo hoo.  Now to head in to work for the day, although I might think I'm a little nuts.

But we will continue to march forward and spend some good time working out over the weekend, which coincides with the final whale  count of the season.  Plus meeting with the girls from class in order to do our video.  Better get the camera batteries charged and ready.  I'll link it when it's done!

Ciao for now.

An inspiring friend!

T,

Although you may not know this, you are one of two people who has helped me reframe my state of being and become more active and healthy.  Just wanted to share that!

While I haven't logged quite as many miles, I am doing a lot more now than I did just two months ago, and I feel great about it.  I feel better about my upcoming change in life - work as a social worker rather than as a communications officer or consultant.  Really, I hate my job.  Hate it.  This is why I've been enrolled and taking classes for the last 2 years.  I want to be a better person and make it a better world.  I watch Wayne every  morning - he has joy in his steps as he goes to work.  I want that too.  Along with a better world for the families of our service members.  That's why I'm so EXCITED about my summer internship!  Ok, I have to go to half time for regular work, and negotiate a lot of home office hours, but in the end, it will be for the benefit of everyone involved.  I'll be in the newborn outreach division of the family advocacy division at Schofield.  I cannot wait.

That said, time to go to aforementiomed consulting job in order to build up hours for the week.

Love to you T, and to the others who inspire me.

Getting healthy, finally!

Unbelievable what a cruise can do for you, as long as you try.

Wayne and I headed out on another MacMania cruise (check out the blog and pictures at http://www.thebatzers.com) in February of this year. When we got on the ship, I was in pretty bad shape. Blood pressure for the last 2 years has either been borderline hypertension or fully hypertension. My resting heart rate was low to mid-90s. And I was terrified of the scale, which is still true. But I made a vow before we went on the trip that I would pay attention to what I ate, and be reasonably fit. I also bought the EA Sports Active 2, which provides a heart rate monitor to watch your heart rate.

When we got on the ship, we met up with our friends Sue & Ivan Samuels, with whom we had cruised two years earlier. Wayne and I met up with Sue in the gym, and she told me she had signed up for "Boot Camp" during the cruise, and encouraged me to join up. I was a little anxious about it, but thought seriously about it. In the meantime, on our first morning out to sea, I went to a sunrise stretch class, followed by a cardio class. It was wonderful! I then continued to do that each morning of the cruise, plus went walking every day. And, I joined in the boot camp training. It was $120, but it was also a great jump start on getting fit again. If you look at our travel blog, you will see my face losing weight (doesn't it always start there?) over the course of the trip. I also looked for another boot camp program in Hawaii, and wouldn't you know the new Pearl City 24 Hour Fitness had it, right around the corner! At only $50/month, it seemed like a steal.

I also found out about an Elemis body detox program, 3 months long, and decided to buy the algae caplets and start my own liver/kidney/body detox program.

When we got home, I started the 3 week cardio kick start with my Sports Active, and signed up at 24 Hour Fitness. 2 weeks later, my resting heart rate was down from 92 to 75! And one more week later, it is now 68! I'm almost finished with my kick start program, and ready to start my 9 week challenge. Combined with walking, the gym, and better eating/drinking choices, I know I can't go wrong.

So thank you, Sue, you started something big. And thank you me for deciding to finally do something and get fit!

Back in Civilization...sort of...

We've landed back in Genoa for a night following a pretty informative set of lectures on our Geek Cruise.

Given the foreign difficulty in posting pictures, and my general irritation with the unfriendliness of blogspot, I'll have to look to update the blog in the upcoming week to share adventures at sea.

And get ready to move the blog over to my own domain.

More on that later.

Ciao!

Pompeii

  

Well, the days here have finally started to blur one into another, and we'd been cruising less than 24 hours.  Of course, travel to Chicago, layover 36 hours, travel to Italy, layover for 48 hours, then get onboard ship while 11 time zones away makes me a tired bunny (don't ask!).

Wayne and I fell asleep very quickly our first night onboard, and to our great amazement, we slept until 7 a.m.  That NEVER happens!  So, breakfast in the suite, 3.5 miles walking on deck (you would not believe the number of people just standing and talking on the jogging/running track), followed by a quick shower and a trip down to the MacMania conference.  The session revolved around the basics of taking and editing good digital photographs, and was a good basic class.  The best part; however, was the review of Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac.  The things you can do with that program!!!

Lunch was a slice of pizza, and then we headed off to Pompeii with our tour guide.  Our first stop was in Herculenium at the cameo factory.  We got to see how they were made, see one being made, and then were afforded the opportunity to shop for 20 minutes.  I would have loved to have purchased one bracelet in particular, but it cost about 2000 Euro.  That's a big no-go!

      

Then on to Pompeii.  Our tour guide was a retired archeologist who had been part of the many excavations of Pompeii, covered by ash and lava since the most famous eruption in August 79 A.D. (at 1 pm, mind you, as our guide told us).

  

The people in the town were caught unaware, and were largely killed by poisonous gases.  Then ash fell, lava flowed, and a town was covered.  The excavation of the town revealed a very modern area, supposedly guarded by Venus (apparently the goddess of love inspired many sex shops -- of the literal, brothel type), where there was an arena, a town shopping area, public baths, what would have been lovely homes.  

   

  

And, in the general merchant sales areas, there were three bodies and a chained dog shown.  The excavators came up with a methodology of injecting areas with a solution to dissolve the ash around the dead, and allowed forms to be made of those cavities.  In one aspect, it is horrifying to think of pregnant women, chained dogs and children dying through inhaling the pre-eruption gases; however, at least it was quick and without feeling molten lava...

It was an amazing journey back in time, and one that I really appreciated.  

 

Then it was back to the ship to hear David Pogue’s discussion on the iPhone.  I was a little disappointed, as all of his tricks, tips and favorite applications were things that I either already knew, used or had stopped using.

:(

Then to dinner with Ivan and Sue again.  Very funny side note -- for the past two nights, Ivan and I have ordered the same dinner, and had the same lunch (although lunches not spent together).  I laughed as he ordered the same dinner last night, and again as he pawned his vegetables off on his wife (I do the same to Wayne).  I pointed it out to him, Sue and Wayne.  Then the discussion turned to pizza -- turns out that Ivan grew up and went to school on Long Island!  How funny and small the world is.  Of course, he was in Nassau county, not Suffolk.

Anyway, good day, leaving us looking forward to the next.

Ciao!

p.s.  Promise to edit and add photos later -- bandwidth challenges abound here

At sea

Yesterday after finishing the blog, I looked out the window of our hotel in Genoa -- sunshine!  Doesn't it figure.  =]

At around 8 am, we headed out to see Joe "the Shoe" to pick up my formerly destroyed shoes.  He did a wonderful job fixing them, and they were fantastic!  So I paid my six Euro, and headed back to the hotel.

We all gathered downstairs to get on the bus(es) to Savona Port.  We were briefed by the Costa guide that there were four ships in port, so there might be some difficulty.  That was ok by us, we were on a new adventure.  We wound around the Italian countryside for about an hour, arrived at the port, and saw that the other 3 ships were also Costa!  And each was in its own slip, so how hard could it be to manage?

Turned out, pretty hard.

Two ships operate out of the same gangway simultaneously.  It looked to be more pleasant than NCL, though.  We got a group number assigned, moved into the waiting area, and were surprised with an internet station, a bar, snack area, duty free, children's playroom, and sofas upstairs and downstairs.

We were due to board beginning at one, and Costa started calling groups at about 1:20.  People with the wrong numbers began crowding the entryway, and the crew of two was overwhelmed turning them away.  Those who were there at the right time either hadn't torn the paperwork as required, or hadn't filled it out!  It just took forever.  I thought to myself that we needed to have Germans running the entry point!  About 3 hours later, we surrendered our passports and headed up to our suite.

Initial impression of the cabin is that it was wonderful!  Very efficiently laid out, nice size bathroom, and a whirlpool tub.  Two closets!  Really, just nicer than any hotel you can get in a big city.  The suite comes with a personal butler!  How the heck did that happen???

Anyway, we had a welcome package, and after we unpacked we opened the wine and had a few glasses while waiting for our mandatory emergency drill.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, the ship started moving (in the midst of a thunderstorm that we appreciated, and rolling seas that made walking difficult).  About 15 minutes into the ride, the ship's captain and crew got on, welcomed us all, went over the drill, and in every language except English, asked that no one bring any cameras or video equipment to the drill.  We were scheduled for area B, on the 3rd deck, port side near the shuttleboats.

About 3 seconds into the drill, the captain came on the loudspeaker and changed all our locations to inside the casinos and lounges because of inclement weather.  What good did that do?  Oh well.  Drill accomplished.  Time to get ready for the Geek reception.

"Smart casual" was listed as the dress code for the dinner seating, so we dressed east coast smart casual.  First thing I noticed going in to the welcome was that we were WAY overdressed.  Jeans and t-shirts appeared to be the dress of the day.  We sat in a corner and listened to the welcome speeches.  Not a great sale for Geek Cruises (The ship staff is terrible, nothing is on time, the food is ok most of the time, blah, blah, blah).  Tell you what, I was underwhelmed.

Then we went to dinner, and our assigned seats.  Tables were not laid out sequentially, but the dining room is gorgeous.  It's two stories tall, with two levels of seating.  The windows and lighting are ornate, extravagant even, and the service was very nice.  And, the food was about twelve times better than advertised by the Geek Brief crew.  We sat with a very nice couple from Atlanta, Ivan and Sue, who run designer eyeglass shops all through Georgia and Florida.  Recent switchers to Mac, very intelligent and business savvy, really enjoyed dining with them.

Back to the room, Wayne and I settled down to our first full night of sleep in over a week.  The CPAP machine setup in the room is hysterical, an extension cord is winding its way out of the bathroom to my side of the bed, the dining table is over at my side, and the machine pumping away from there.  Anyone looking at this who didn't understand would be highly amused.  I'll put in photos at a later time.  

Breakfast in the room, followed by 3 miles walking the deck, and heading down for the MacMania conferences commenced after we slept in until 7 am!  A nice side benefit of upgrading the room was getting that for free.  =]

And now I'm sitting in a lecture about basic digital photography tips and software editing tips, a lot of which are really basic, but I never actually knew the rule existed.  The section on the actual editing software is pretty decent, but the newest program from Adobe seems complicated.

Anyway, we are headed towards Naples, and our first excursion to Pompeii.  Will blog more tomorrow!  And if you're on flickr, keep your eyes open for a few photos.

Ciao!