(Almond) Butter Luck Next Time

So, it's been a while since I've posted an update. I've been busy with school and haven't really felt like sitting at the computer to type. The solution is that it is now Sunday and I am using a laptop. It's ultra fancy and lets me sit at the couch while I blog. Thanks to some support from Merilee's parents, we've been able to get one for school. I saw lots of students with them at Cal Poly, and figured that it was about time I broke down and got one instead of having to worry about when computer labs were available. By the way, here's a random picture of Merilee and I at an A's game. I have such a wonderful wife.

We got free tickets from a friend (thanks Marty!) and it turned out to be a Journey-themed (you know, like the band) fireworks game, so we stayed for that before heading home.  Did I mention we got free parking? It was a great date, with the only hiccups being the fact that the free pizza promised by Round Table wasn't actually free.  On our way home from the coliseum, we stopped by the one in Castro Valley, and apart from trying to convince us that we were crazy and somehow imagined the announcer telling us we would get free pizza for our ticket stubs, they were out of dough.  I'm wondering how they stay in business since we stopped by another day with the internet promotion on my phone and they were almost out of dough again, but somehow had enough for two personal sized pizzas.  It was only like 8:00 pm that night.  Anyways, the end of the story is that it still cost us about three dollars, for what they said was "tax." Looking at the receipts, tax was like 25 cents, but the "Free Personal Sized Pizza" code only gave you $4.75 of the original $6.  I'm not really sure how that's free, or why I'm complaining about paying $3 instead of $12 for delicious pizza.  I guess I just don't like being lied to.

Reconcilliation Day

This last week Merilee and I celebrated what has come to be known as Reconcilliation Day.  It was the day that we decided to try dating again last year after a month or so break up.  Merilee is always impressed by how I remember dates and stuff so I was surprised that she remembered this one and even did stuff to celebrate. She had actually transferred it from last year's planner to the one she has now. 

It's definitely something important to celebrate.  I remember that choice to get back together was difficult to make because it was a huge risk for  both of us.  We didn't know if things would be better, and we didn't want to just make things worse than they were by trying again. 

Obviously, we did try again.  Things didn't get better right away, and our marriage is just beginning, but so far things have been really great.  We're still waiting for the despair of marriage that people talk about to settle in, but meanwhile, we feel really blessed.

So I've seen this photo I call "buff Justin Bieber" on Facebook probably 100,000,000,000,000,000 times.  In fact, I see a lot of buff guys on Facebook.  I think I saw an ad about two years ago for one diet or ab exercise thing and I made the mistake of clicking on it.  I've regretted it ever since.  It linked to a video that ran on for a while and didn't really say anything and you couldn't skip to the end.  I think it eventually was supposed to sell me some nutrition advice but after about 5 minutes I gave up and exited out. 

Ever since, Facebook has decided to bombard me with fitness ad after fitness ad, including the one that uses Justin's countenance to get my attention.  It's all the same crap: "Trainers hate this guy," "Should this be illegal?," "Trainers hope you don't know this one little secret..."  Part of me hates these ads because they are obnoxious.  Really? You're going to get my attention with these fake (or at least I hope they're fake) pictures made even more tantalizing by the catchy phrases and thought-provoking questions? 

The other part of me is astounded that they exist because that means that they work somehow.  Facebook ads probably aren't free, and these ads are everywhere, probably paid for by the same people.  If they're anything like the crap I clicked on two years ago, they're just garbage.  But people actually buy it?  What is it exactly? Some berry from the tropical rainforest that if you take at the right time at the right place when the sun is in the right position in the sky, then you will get buff without having to work out?  Sounds worse than MonaVie (no offense if you sell that stuff).

Come one people!  Working out and eating right are practically the only ways to get in shape.  I remember this guy that worked with me at the Chalet.  His name was Bob and he had huge forearms.  One day in the break room I asked him how he got such big forearms, but as he turned his head towards me, I could tell by his expression what was coming and answered for him: "Let me guess, diet and exercise?"  Content with my own answer he calmly went back to eating his soup.

My perspective on "getting in shape" has changed quite a bit since I started doing P90X.  I am probably in the best shape I've ever been in, but I'm not nearly where I would have before said is "in shape." I'm not anything like Justin, but I still think of myself now as being "in shape."  It's not that my standards have fallen, I just think they're more realistic.  I'll see actors in movies now that I didn't think were fit before, but now I do recognize that they actually did work out, and in many cases are still in better shape than me.  One example is The Mummy.  I never thought of the bad guy in that movie as being particularly strong, but after almost two months of P90X I can tell he had to work for the shape that he was in.  Don and I have six more weeks to go with the program.  I don't know if anyone besides me and Merilee will notice a difference, but it doesn't matter.  I'm seeing results and it's awesome.  Everything is Awesome!

In with the Cool Kids

Probably the highlight of the last couple weeks has been feasting on our newly purchased Dino Buddies.  Apart from that, we had Valentines Day and I got accepted to both of the CSU schools I applied to.  Merilee has been baking some delicious stuff too.  I try but fail in my effort to not eat any of it.  Actually, I don't really try that hard.

So for Valentines Day I didn't buy Merilee anything.  It was our first Valentines Day together (last year we were broken up) and I didn't really know what to expect.  I've never had a significant other around this time and I didn't feel like doing the whole "buy a box of chocolates, flowers, teddy bear, balloons, and a fancy dinner" sort of thing.  It's nice and all, but it's expensive.  I told Merilee that I liked what my sister-in-law Melanie does.  On the 15th she buys discounted Valentines Day stuff (like plates etc.), and on the next family dinner they have, they do a "we love our family" sort of celebration without having to pay retail.  I like that idea for when we have kids. 

So I decided to make a box of chocolates for Merilee.  I've made fancy things out of cardboard before for class projects, so why not a box?  We had a recipe for turtles in our cookbook, so I could make those too (they're her favorite).  I also got little wrapper things for them to make them real fancy.  I probably would have broken down and bought some flowers or picked some if we didn't already have some from the week before when she passed her tests for her CDL.

So the week of, I didn't have any time to make the box because of my big homework load, which meant I only had Friday to do it.  I was even then limited on time after working out and doing some home teaching.  So, it didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined it, but it worked.  Maybe I can make her a better one next year.

The chocolates didn't end up exactly as I had hoped, at least initially.  There was a typo in the recipe.  It called for two tablespoons, instead of two cups, of half and half.  So in the picture you can see the fist sized candies that resulted from the chocolate not being completely liquified (I didn't want to burn it by increasing the heat so it just stayed clumpy).  When she got home and I gave her the box, we ate one then decided to try breaking them and melting the chocolate down again with more half and half.  The result wasn't photographed but let's just say that it worked a lot better.

That week I heard back from San Jose about my admission status.  I wasn't expecting to hear back from anywhere until April, so I was pretty surprised and excited because that meant that I might not have to wait to hear back from my other schools too.  Merilee didn't want me to get my hopes up because she thought I would stress more about it.  I didn't go around announcing my acceptance to the world because it's my back-up school and I pretty much knew I was admitted before I did the application.

The real excitement happened two days ago when I got an email from Cal Poly about my acceptance there.  I got in to my top school and didn't have to wait until April to find out!  Now everyone is sad because Merilee is moving away, but whatever.  She's mine people!  See this face?  All mine.

So things are wonderful and exciting here at our house.  We're enjoying our time alone together before we start making babies.  I'm very much looking forward to the new adventures that are in store for us in San Luis Obispo.  I'm so grateful for all the blessings we have, and for all those that have supported me and Merilee get to where we are today!  We'll miss you (but not until August), but hope you'll visit!

The Blood of Angry Men

So I had neglected to post my last post for a couple weeks because I thought I still needed to finish it.  I was wrong.  Racist and wrong.  It's not the first time.  Last night, in fact, I was wrong in assuming that not wearing red was okay.  I guess I should have asked first.  It was good though.  Merilee and I got taken out to dinner by the Schulls.  It had been a while since we had seen them, so it was great to catch up and talk about things.  They repeated the usual admonition to make the pilgrimage to Disneyland, to which we gave the usual reply saying that we would once we knew where I got in to school.

I won't hear anything back from the schools probably until April, which stinks.  I can pretty much assume I'm going to Calpoly based on my GPA and such, but you know what they say about when you assume.

It's been interesting in my engineering classes lately.  We've had several former Las Positas engineering student visitors talking about their transfer experience.  One girl got like a 2.9 gpa from Fresno State doing civil engineering and her first job is paying her 60k a year.  She had an advantage with her experience working on a special water drainage project at school that related to the job she was interviewing for with PG&E.  It got me excited, because if I reach my goal of getting a master's degree from CalPoly, I would probably be making more than that (and I'm kind of excited to make more than $8.25 an hour).

Another visitor was a San Jose student (my backup school) and he had a lot to say regarding the difference between a UC and a CSU when it comes to engineering.  Basically, what I took away from the visitors was the importance of projects, lab, and internship experience.

I've almost got a job at the Tutorial Center at Las Positas.  I've had to jump through various hoops in the bureaucratic financial aid system to do it but it should be coming together soon and I can start working again.  Until then I've pretty much just been doing school and working out.  Both are going well.  Don and I start week 4 of P90X tomorrow.  Then we're about one third done with the program.

Well everything is going really great.  Merilee and I are doing really well.  I don't have to report her to the police anymore for having a MO driver's license.

The Phoenix, Part 2

So Don and I are on week 2 of the program.  Yes, it's incredibly difficult.  I won't get too detailed about the program, but one thing I will say is that it makes you work out more than you think you need to.  You do exercise after exercise and when you think you're near the end, the video shows 33 minutes left.  My theory is that the human body has adapted to tell itself to stop at a certain point.  It's the point that, once surpassed, the body will no longer be able to defend itself from predators (or even hunt prey), neither after the workout, nor once soreness kicks in.  The body then does all it can do to adapt and get stronger for next time.

There's plenty of times that I've gone to the gym, felt the burn, and come home.  For me, the magic of P90X is having someone there telling you not to go home, but to keep going.  I think that's why athletes, who train as a group under a coach, usually get better results from their workouts than those who exercise on their own.  If there wasn't such an emphasis on completing workouts in P90X, even if that means longer and/or more frequent breaks, then it'd be so easy for me to do half the workout thinking that I'd work up to doing the full one.

Anyways, don't worry, I'll post pics for everyone after week 13.  Yeah right.  As hard as it is, I really like it.  It's hard to schedule sometimes because Don and I both have responsibilities (his wife just had their 3rd child in December!), and there's something scheduled everyday, but we've been doing alright so far.

The first week of classes has been pretty slow.  I'm trying to get a job in the tutoring center here at Las Positas.  I can't tutor at DVC this semester since I'm not taking classes there anymore.  This semester will hopefully be my last at community college.  I should hear back from the places I've applied to by April.  I'm taking Physics 8C (Oscillations, Waves, Thermodynamics, Light and Optics), Math 5 (Ordinary Differential Equations), Engineering 44 and 46 (Materials of Engineering and Introduction to Circuit Analysis).  It totals 15.5 units, which is the fewest I've taken since coming back from the mission.  Since I'm not tutoring yet, my schedule looks drastically empty compared to last semester.  Though I am worried about having time to workout once I do start working.

I'm hoping I can get enough hours tutoring so I can justify not working weekends.  It's not that I just don't want to have to work those days, but having a full school load and a weekend job makes it hard to take Merilee out to do things.  I just feel that we don't get to do enough fun stuff together because of all the school and stuff I'm always engrossed in.  She doesn't complain, but for example, I'm sure she liked that I was able to play Ultimate last Saturday.

Anyways, life is good, this blog is long. Six months of marriage down, the rest of eternity to go.

Woops!  I was supposed to post this like a week and a half ago!  My bad.

The Phoenix, Part 1

I know what you're asking.  It's the dilemma that's taken hold over your thoughts, dreams, and actions during the last two months.  Why haven't you written Charles?  Well, the weekly blog thing was a good idea but I really ran out of time last semester.  I don't know how I stuck to my commitment to refrain from doing homework on Sunday's, but I did, and I didn't use the time for blogging.  It was mainly used for napping.  After school was over I was in Texas.  When I got back, I figured I'd wait until classes started to give an update.  But I'll finish talking about my ridiculous Fall semester before I move on to this semester.

I was taking 18.5 Units and it was pretty rough.  I did have my tutoring job until the end (about 8.5 hours a week).  The Chalet I eventually "quit."  They stopped giving me hours when their budget was tight and I didn't want to work there anyways (more time for homework/naps on the weekend).  I turned in my two weeks notice before they could either (a) schedule me during finals/holiday times and/or (b) fire me.  I didn't look for another job after that since my two-day a week availability really only works with a retail job, and I don't know of a retailer that would hire someone in November/December who would be away on the holidays. 

I don't really remember why last semester was so hard besides the unit load.  I know I was making sure that school wasn't taking priority over spending time with Merilee.  I just remember pulling all-nighters a lot after I kissed her goodnight.  But it finally ended, and I eventually slept. 

Texas was glorious.  Merilee has a sister there, Sarah, who I'm very much a fan of (she planned our wedding, for one).  Me, Merilee, and Bonnie, had all bought tickets back in May so we could spend Christmas with Sarah and her family in Spring.  We were the first ones there, so the first couple days we basically just took naps all day.  Once more people arrived, we spent most of the time watching movies, playing games, eating chocolate, and laughing at how much Sarah's youngest hated Merilee.  I probably ate my weight in chocolate (there seemed to be an endless amount!) and even forgot what day it was a few times.  Like I said, it was glorious.  It was also good to get to know some of the Peterson clan better.

Day Before Marriage

We had been there two weeks (the 19th to the 1st) and when we came back I had three whole weeks before school started.  I weighed myself and surpassed even my wildest expectations when I found that I had gained about 10 pounds over the break.  I was 165 when I got married, then I somehow gained 10 pounds, then after the break I weighed in at 185 (a weight I only had once when I was in high school).  You can see in these two pictures the 20 pounds I've gained since that most wonderful day in July.

 

 

 

Jan 1st, Returned from Christmas in Texas

I committed myself immediately to losing those ten pounds in one week that I had accumulated over those two weeks.  I started running, using my dumbbells, etc. and succeeded.  Fortunately, I also gained 5 pounds or so of muscle, so I'm still hovering between 180 and 185.  Anyways, I'm fine with being 185 as long as more of it is muscle, but my pants are getting tighter and I don't like it (too much hip muscle?).

I don't know exactly how we started talking about it, but it came to my attention that my brother-in-law, Don, was wanting to use the P90X program he had but wanted someone to do it with.  But I'll talk about that more in my next post, since this one is already pretty long.

Soul to Squeeze

Many have been asking me how married life has been treating me.  If this picture doesn't give you a clue, I'll explain in detail.

But first, I guess I'll just give a general update.  I haven't blogged since September (duh).  I have not been held hostage.  I've only been busy.  School has been pretty crazy, and the rest of life hasn't left me any chance to slow down.  Plus, all that waffle-making.

I'm also applying to schools this semester.  My #1 pick right now is San Luis Obispo, but we'll see what happens.  I would go private if the financial aid was good enough.  I have a few unique circumstances that might get me some scholarships.

Work has been different.  My weekend job at the Chalet isn't giving me many hours.  My boss knows I'm looking for another job.  My tutoring job at DVC has bumped me up to 8 hours a week.  It's a nice job.  Unfortunately, it's been pretty busy at the math lab, so I don't get as much homework done as I thought I would be able to.  I can't really complain since I'm getting paid to tutor and not to do my homework.  It's mostly irritating when people come up with questions where they basically just want you to work through the tediousness that is algebra.  Or people like this one girl who takes a chemistry class at another college that isn't even the chemistry class I technically tutor for, and then wants me to figure out what she was supposed to do in her lab.  That's like you barfing into my bucket and then asking me what you had for breakfast.  I hope that makes sense.

This semester so far has been all about balance.  Balancing schoolwork, my marriage, church responsibilities.  Oh by the way.  I don't know if I mentioned it before but I've been called as the Sunday School instructor for 14 and 15 year-old group.  Merilee and I also just gave talks in our ward.  Anyways, it's been pretty hectic.

It's also been extremely rewarding.  Married life, to answer all the questions that everyone's been asking, has been great.  No, better than great.  It's exceeded my expectations in many ways.  I feel like I tell Merilee all the time that I'm so glad that we got married.  The thing is, that I probably only say it 10% of the time that I feel I want to, so the phrase doesn't get worn out.  I try to tell single friends who ask how married life is that they should just go get married.  But I know that it's not that easy.  As it is, married life is challenging (and I don't even have kids).  The balance of 18.5 units of school and part-time work with family life really requires effort, but it's so worth it if it's for the right person.  We have a lot of blessings and a lot of things going for us that make our marriage super great.  It's sad to see families and couples struggle, but we're glad to have the Gospel and each other.  We're pretty excited about that.