Week 1488

I started this week with a day off. There is nothing quite like knowing that you don’t have to go to work the same day as everybody else. 

I spent the day reorganizing the newly reorganized garage to ensure it was up to Syd’s standards (making sure that we can park our cars in the garage easily). I got to go to the gym and ensured that there was enough space in the garage so we could part and have a refrigerator in there. With my sick organizational skills, there was more than enough room. 

I also was home long enough for Syd to get a freight delivery of furniture to our house. A freight delivery is exactly what it sounds like. A pallet of goods delivered from a semi delivered into a residential area. Fortunately, the guy was really nice about it and I walked with him to drop the pallet off into our newly-organized garage. One that wouldn’t have had the capacity to receive said delivery without my kind reorganization. 

Bonus, while I was reorganizing, the dogs got to practice sitting on their dog beds in the garage with me. This may not sound like much but I was proud of them for staying (for the most part) while I dragged 130 lb metal shelving units all over the garage. Such good puppies. 

The work-week was a bit of a blur. Tuesday, Syd had to destage a listing where the realtor had dropped the client. After we de-staged they talked about how we can do the stage if she wants in the future as we aren’t married to the realtor. Soooooo we may be back next month. 

I always feel bad for the dogs on nights like this so I was that much more intentional about taking the time to work with them on training and getting them some additional mental stimulation as they didn’t get to spend much time with us this week in general. 

Wednesday was mostly normal. 

Thursday, I was supposed to have a work event but by the time I got to the gym, I knew I wasn’t going to make it. It was meant to be a fun event that I have been to before so I wasn’t worried about missing and was significantly more concerned about my dropping weight throughout the week so far. 

Midway through my leg day, I left to get a 30 piece nugget, sweet tea, peppermint milkshake (so damn good), and a large fry from Chick-fil-a. Don’t worry. I didn’t eat all of it. The dogs each got a nugget and Syd got ¼ of the milkshake. 

I got back up into the 230s the next day so it was worth it. 

Friday night, we attended a love podcast with Chris Williamson. I had no expectations going into it but our experience at the show was unexpected to say the least. We were in seats E 12 and 13, having paid for the VIP experience. Bougee, I know. 

Firstly, The seating in this section at The Paramount Theater consisted of plush folding chairs, which was unexpected. Secondly, these seats aren’t constructed for anybody over 5’10”. Being 6’9”, I was uncomfortable the whole show. I narrowly fought off a hamstring cramp that I would have taken out the whole row in front of me tending to had it happened. For the couple behind me to the right, I apologize. I saw you have to switch seats so you could try to see. I recognize I make a pretty damn good wall. 

The above was shockingly tolerable compared to the most unexpected portion of the experience. 

Before I detail this - know that I tried to ignore the behavior and not let it disrupt my experience but certain things are hard not to notice when you can feel the repulsion and discomfort of everybody around you. 

The lovely couple sitting in seats D 13 and 14 were a bit more focused on their plans for after the show than the show itself. So for the first hour of the show, I was distracted by the rage building inside of me as I had to listen to drunken whispering of sweet nothings that was clearly making the man next to them, my wife, and the man behind them incredibly uncomfortable. 

I had never had to actively talk myself out of slapping the shit out of someone for their disrespectful actions until this moment. It was quite the experience. 

Over the course of this hour, I had many opportunities to rehearse not slapping the shit out of the most disrespectful people I have ever encountered in the wild and instead the sweet nothings that I would say to them in this non-consensual foreplay that we all found ourselves caught in. 

Unlike them, I care tremendously about not impeding on the experience of others so while a slap or a quick chat may have been well deserved, I didn’t want to risk further turning them on nor disrupting the experience for the rest of the people that were able to focus on the show due to the lack of a couple making out and rubbing each other in front of them. 

My rage and rehearsal piqued when Chris was intimately sharing his struggles this year and the foreplayers were loudly whispering about how sexy they were and their plans for the evening. 

After he finished spilling his heart to his audience to a resounding applause, I capitalized, tapping the leather jacket man on the shoulder and asked, “can you guys dial it back a bit?” Receiving a passive aggressive thumbs up and a, “show’s up there, buddy.” To which, I bit my tongue and clenched my fists knowing that while it would have been deserved, physical violence to correct this blatant disregard for those around him could result in larger ramifications for me than him. 

The foreplay dialed down for all of 5 minutes before ramping right back up.

Fortunately, I was able to pay a bit more attention at the end of the show due to the slightly dialed back foreplay happening less than an arm’s length away from me and I enjoyed what I was able to hear. 

Based on his reaction to my correcting his repulsive behavior, I assumed that obnoxious leather jacket foreplay man was going to try to confront me at the end of the show. 

Fortunately, Chris received a standing ovation and he got to see that I had nearly a foot on him when he glanced over his shoulder at me as we stood. 

Him and his poorly whispering date, scurried out to act on what they were building to the entire show and the four of us most immediately impacted by the non-consensual foreplay we had been caught up in for the last couple hours got to debrief on what I’m sure will go down as one of the strangest experiences of our lives. 

We also all had a good laugh at the over the shoulder look and realization that this was a David and Goliath situation in which he was far too close to throw stones and knowing that flamboyant jackets or ego-centric displays of insecurity do not act as super-effective attacks. 

I also had a good laugh with Syd after she informed me that one of the two had been farting the whole show while this was happening. 

Moral of the story: foreplay = good, foreplay in which you are non-consensually dragging others into your foreplay = not good. 

Regardless of our experience, it was great seeing the positive impact that Chris has managed to have on those that listen to him. While I have always found it more interesting to hear from who he is connecting with, it seems as though his story has really uplifted and helped others see past their situation and I hope that those that needed it were able to focus on the content that he presented. 

I was also impressed by Chris’s ability to focus after the show on each individual that took pictures with him. He focused intently on each person and engaged with them in a way that showed he really wanted to hear from them. 

I had two questions prepared for him: what pain point did you identify and at what point did you decide to act on it, causing you to hire a diction coach? And how much risk did you take on while building your podcast to this level? My third question was more of a suggestion but I was going to ask, “when are you going to have a Neutonic variety pack?” as I have found the need to buy a case of one flavor being a barrier to my purchasing. 

I paid for the VIP experience to ask these questions and looked forward to it all night. 

But when I got up to him, I could see that he was exhausted. He was taking the time to make people feel special but hurting himself in the process. So we took a picture and I patted him on the shoulder wishing him a good night. 

It was odd. 

Maybe it was that I had already tried to stand up for myself and others having had a bad experience due to the selfish actions of others, or maybe it just seemed like the right thing to do. But I, without thinking, passed on an opportunity that I had been waiting for since May. 

I had thought so much about those questions. Rehearsed my framing of them to ensure they weren’t misunderstood, yet, in the moment, I saw the humanity in him and ignored myself to try to make his night better. 

Syd and I had a fantastic talk after the show on the drive home and she was pleasantly surprised at liking the show after expecting it to be a bro-sesh. 

I love getting to have deep conversations with her. We don’t have them all the time but I feel so connected to her when we do. 

At one point, we were talking about how Chris categorizes his audience as Type-A overachievers and Syd said she thought this described me well and she always felt more Type-B. I laughed as I felt the exact opposite. 

This ultimately led to her paying me a compliment about how hard I work and all that I have done, which I passed by and justified (my M.O. for receiving complements). We debriefed this and came to the conclusion that I simply expect a lot of myself and that I know myself well. I know my capabilities so when I accomplish something, I expected myself to. 

I may experience a brief blip in happiness but I quickly return to my baseline and focus on the next target. 

It’s not that I’m perpetually dissatisfied, I enjoy my life and recognize that I have lived an objectively good one. I just don’t like to not have something that I am aiming for. Something that I can strive for. I don’t like feeling like I lack purpose. 

I didn’t make time for dinner in the evening so I dropped more weight the following day. 

Syd had to work Saturday and go up to Fort Collins to spend time with my family, accidentally taking my keys with her so I was on unintentional house arrest on a day that I intended to go to the gym twice. 

I was surprisingly unbothered by this and shifted my attention to writing, training the dogs, and eating to get my weight back to where it needs to be (I am trying to gain ~ 0.5 lbs a week for the next year or two). 

I had a great day after a strange night. 

Sunday has been relaxing aside from a brief blip of un-necessary frustration at Syd for moving my gym bag up into my office (I promptly apologized after recognizing that I was being a dick for no reason). I finished my check-in with Jack (my dietitian at The Bodybuilding Dietians), did my photo check-in where my lats looked great, and have spent the last couple of hours in my office with Truman snoring on the couch behind me. 

I still have the gym on the docket but it’s been a great day.