serinde

Fever's up to 100 again. I mostly feel better--less tired &c, though I have Magic Nose Goblins and my neck aches--but argh. Problem is, I HAVE to go into work; there are things I have to sort before I leave that I can't do from home.

So I guess it's swig the Dayquil and soldier on through.

Fever's down to 99.3. The party has mostly moved into my sinuses and nose, though I'm still coughing occasionally, particularly when

elibalin sends/posts (q.v.) silly YouTube links. Still feeling kinda headachy and sore and tired, which well duh, fever. (My usual temperature is slightly below 98.6, I should note.)

I remain disgusted by the watering-down of Big Fuckin' Q. It has no decongestant at all, and the antihistamine is not The Good Stuff. So I have broken my long allegiance, and instead have taken 2 Real Sudafed (acquired by dint of great effort from the ferocious guardians at CVS) and am washing it down with a Hot Scotch Toddy, Slightly Modified, which recipe I shall repeat here for your group benefit:

1.75 oz whisk(e)y (I had Jameson's handy, so not so very "Scotch")
2.5 oz boiling water
.5 oz lemon juice
.25 tsp orange bitters
1 tsp honey
scrap of blood orange peel studded with cloves (I watched the bartenders getting citrus peel twists, I studied them closely, but I seem to still be Doin It Rong)

Is very nice. Main differences are, you're supposed to use Scotch (duh), Angostura bitters, and lemon peel, but I like my version just fine thanks.

And so, to bed. I think I'll be fine by the time we leave; the major worry now is making sure Steve doesn't come down with it. Which is why I'm quarantining myself up here in the guest room with kitties, laptop, and periodic visits from

dariodevil (who, though perhaps equally prone to catching whatever illness is going, states firmly that he has no reason to care if he does).

It's hard sometimes to tell what malaise is from illness, and what is from the Curse of Eve descending with might at the same (utterly useless) time. (I'm pretty sure the wretched lower backache is not from cold/flu, at least.)

Though it's better than cramps on an airplane, which I have done and have no interest in repeating.

In which we learn that 2 aspirin drop your temperature by about a degree after an hour.

I know you're supposed to let the fever rage if it isn't dangerously high, for to burn out the evil invaders, but I was feeling awfully damn miserable. And I'm less so now, and I think I shall sleep.

My 100.4 degree fever, let me show you it.

I woke up with a tearing cough and a general feeling of Yugh. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

And it's not like I can call in sick when I'm about to be off for two weeks. Even if I had any sick time left, which I'm not 100% sure of.

(Yeah, I guess that's an almost Ric Romero-esque comment, isn't it.)

So. One of the things I was tasked to do in my job was to come up with a unified, consistent set of policies pertaining to our student employees: hiring, firing, raises, reviews, disciplinary action, all that. That was a sort of low-hanging fruit, so I tackled it early on; and being duly diligent and conscientious, I went unto HR back in the fall and asked, "So, what are the university and/or college policies for CAs? Is it all the same as full-timers, or what?" And they answered me, "Oh no, it's entirely at-will, you can let them go whenever for whatever reason." So I wrote it up thus.

Fast forward to yesterday. One of our department's student employees has been Sir Not Appearing In This Picture. In the ~3 months he's been working for us, he's been out 30 days. So his supervisor asked me, well, can I just tell him to FOAD? And I would have said "yes, of course", except he's an "ITSA", not a CA -- that is, he can work up to 32 hours a week, not 20. They are, in every other respect (other than pay) treated the same, as far as I've found; but I thought I ought to ask, just to be sure. Okay, no problem, let me call HR.

I got passed around four people (in a department of twelve, I should add), and no one knew the answer. They'd call me back.

Today I get email saying "You should call the assistant to the director". Okay, I do so. In which I am told that not only are ITSAs supposed to be handled like full-timers--verbal warning, written warning (signed by employee), hearing, fire--but so are CAs. In spite of what they told me not five months ago. Which I pointed out, and the assistant had no particular response for, only continuing to mumble her opinion.

I repeat: there are only twelve people in this department. Eleven, if you count the fact that the director is newer than me.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that we are actually required to go through this gymkhana for 20-hour-a-week, $9/hr. student employees. But I have a meeting with The Director next week to get some goddamn real answers.

Today was the last iteration of varying combinations of running and walking; from this point on, it's all running, all the time, and it's just a question of increasing duration and speed. (Starting with 25 minutes, ZOMG.)

This leads to a bit of a quandary. The school gym only has four treadmills. And, for the last week, one of those has been out of commission; you would not think it would be that big a deal, but a 25% reduction in availability has definitely made an impact. I had to wait a good fifteen minutes to get one, and that only by utilizing my mad sharking-for-table-at-mall-food-court skills. Based on usual school procedures, the thing could be out for weeks. Now, there are signs all over the gym saying "Maximum 20 minutes on cardio equipment!" (with requisite deformed fonts and extra exclamation points) , which no one pays attention to--but that's probably because most of the time there's enough to go around. If there isn't going to be for who knows how long, then it would be wrong of me to bogart it for better than half an hour (once you count in warm-ups and cool-downs). So I guess I should go back to doing it in the morning? Meh meh mrfl meh. I like having the steady indication of how fast I'm moving, because my internal measure is crap.

Today was 10/3/10. Hardest at the start, this time. However, at the end, I was getting seriously overheated; I have achieved the point where that's the weakest link, not tiredness or breath. I don't know if that's supposed to get better or not.

I'm also a little unsure about heart rate stuff. According to the little chart...which, admittedly, is based solely on age and is thus probably mostly worthless...it says that for cardio work I should aim for about 148. When I'm running for more than 5 minutes, I'm in the 170-180 range. I don't feel like my heart is going to explode out of my chest, so I wasn't worrying about it, but should I?

Did 3 reps of 10 at 2# on the modified shoulder press, and 2 reps of 10 at 1# on the lateral shoulder thingie.

Down a pound, in spite of crappy eating habits yesterday.

sweh was, as usual, right. You do have to apply for a visa in advance to go a-holidaying in .au. Happily, in these magic modern times, you can do it online in about three minutes.

(I'd assumed it was like visiting .uk, where you just fill out a little card while your flight is descending, and then they grill you for a few minutes on the ground and *bam* you're done. Not so much.)

Several of the blouses I'd bought when starting $JOB fit perfectly well except at the bottom, where I could not keep the lowest button buttoned on account of my hips of might and main. (See previous rants about how you are apparently not supposed to be hourglass shaped.) Now, however, that is no longer the case.

Cannot yet resuscitate any smaller clothes, but there is still a reasonable chance this could happen before vacation.

Am now on week 6. This is dropping back somewhat from Friday's "run solidly for very long time" experience, and returns to a run-walk-run pattern. Therefore, I picked up the pace somewhat, so we had:
5 min run @5.2mph
3 min walk
8 min run @5mph
3 min walk
5 min run @5.2mph

And then some weights:
modified shoulder press, 2 sets of 10 reps at 2#
lateral elbow shoulder raise thingy: 2 sets of 10 reps at 1# <-- less weight, more reps
assisted dips, 2 sets of 10 reps at 115#
assisted chin-up, 1 set of 10 reps at 115#

I may raise the shoulder press and the dips to 3 sets next week.

Up 3lbs. afkdfjkldfblfjkd I knew I was eating bad things this weekend, but did not think I'd had THAT MUCH.

So, there is this movie Doomsday coming out, well, today actually. And the trailer makes it look like nothing more than a tarted-up British version of Escape From New York with a hot chick instead of Kurt Russell (not, to my mind, an improvement) and Bob Hoskins instead of Lee Van Cleef (that could be okay), where they have not even bothered to file off the serial numbers. So I would ordinarily give it a big honkin' miss.

Except! It's by Neil Marshall, who brought us Dog Soldiers and The Descent, both of which were astonishingly good, and if you haven't seen them get off your tuchus & do so at once. I don't know which way to jump on this one, I really don't.

I ran for twenty minutes without stopping (at a constant speed of 4.5mph, pathetic yes, but I refuse to set myself up for autofail). I didn't think I could, and wasn't even sure that was what I was going to attempt. At 5 min, I thought I was too tired to even keep going for the lower-level routine. At 8, I thought, just push on a few minutes more to halfway, then a brief walk, then run the rest. At 12, I thought I could go on forever. And at 18, I thought it was getting awfully hot in here but why stop so close to the end?

Sheer cussedness had its part to play, as well as a certain...I think the way to phrase it is, an abjuration of the entirely too common waves of Fail currently at work in all aspects of the world around me. People abnegating responsibilities, both to themselves/their well-being and to others; can't-do attitudes, passive-aggression, locks into imaginary prisons of the psyche, blah blah blah, it goes on and on and if I can't do anything about anyone else's attitudes and states of mind then at least I can Not Be That.

Perhaps that's reading a bit much into a jogging session. But I felt a hell of a lot better within and about myself for having stuck to this and accomplished it.

Afterwards, some weights:
- 2 reps of 10 assisted dips at 115#. This was MUCH easier today, don't ask me why, and thus also:
- 1 rep of 10 assisted chin-ups, also at 115#. Much harder.
- 1.5 reps of 10 (heh) on a lateral something which strengthens the shoulder muscles. I figured it would do me no harm to extend a bit of love to my rotator cuffs, though they've recovered for all practical purposes--it's only some aikido holds that are telling me I am not what I was.
- 2 reps of 10 on the modified shoulder press, still at 2#.

Don't know about weight, as again at

sweh's. Probably not too great, as I had black pudding and white pudding and other deliciously evil things last night. But now I find some of my work slacks are also getting loose, so it would seem that progress is ... progressing.

Current Music: Buzzcocks, "Ever Fallen In Love"

I was under a bit of time pressure today, so I just did 5 minutes warmup and then the 8/5/8. This was somewhat easier on the treadmill than on the street, I think because I'm keeping to a (pretty slow) constant rate, whereas when left to my own governance I'll speed up for songs that excite me and tire myself out. But the last couple of minutes are still pretty grinding.

I really don't think I'm ready for 20 minutes' solid running, even at Super-Slow. I am ready for an armband to hold my MP3 player, and a shorter headphone cord. I did not mention that, last week, I got my hand caught in the cord (the player was sitting in a shelf on the treadmill control panel), sent the player flying to the surface, instinctively stopped running to pick it up, started falling off the back of the treadmill, ensue slapstick comedy. Let's not do that again. Ever.

Imaginos is good running music, because I trance out and stop concentrating on the clock.

Down a pound. My trend has been pretty steadily downward so far this month, which is good, 'cos last month it was not. Steve says he is definitely seeing a difference, and I notice that more of my blouses are loose. It may be that I can resuscitate a few garments for vacation. That'd be nice.

I was monomaniacal about a project today, so by the time it was running time, the gym was closed. Ergo, I went unto the river.

Five minutes brisk warm-up walk got me to 71st and Second; from there, I did the 8/5/8, which got me all the way up to the park that is over top the FDR when you get beyond 79th St., which is, um, er, *google*, Carl Schurz Park. Whoever he is. I went partway through the park, then across it, then up the hill (oh god oh god) on the street side of it back down to 79th. I had to break in the middle of the second 8 for a fifteen-second breather, so ran an extra 2.25 minutes in compensation.

At this point, my Session[tm] was done, but I still had a fair way to go back to campus; so I walked 5, ran 3, walked 5, ran 3, went splat, changed, realized I did not have time to have lunch before my next meeting, and scarfed a string cheese.

I really like running along the river, particularly on such a beautiful day, but it occurs to me that locomoting alongside the FDR Drive and its masses of stopped traffic belching fumes is Considered Harmful. Certainly I noticed the fumes a lot more than I have while just walking there.

I am going to do the same sequence tomorrow, rather than try the next one, which is run 20 minutes without a walking break. Srsly.

Down 1.5lbs this morning, though that could be 'cos I didn't really have dinner last night.

ObMusic: My amazing psychic MP3 player threw that at me as I finished up. Har har bloody har.

Current Music: U2, "Running To Stand Still"

Friday I posted about Thursday's exertions. Today I'm posting about Friday's. This has a predictable continuity to it, so I'm going to just blorp everything together and get back on track.

So, Fri. I did, well, exactly the same as Thursday; both the running routine, and the weights. N.B.: I had the assisted dip machine set to 115#, not 155#. This makes more sense.

Didn't run over the weekend. Could have, but did not. Possibly should have.

Today, I upped the ante...actually further than it was meant to go. It is supposed to be 5/3/5/3/5, with the 5s being running and the 3s being walking. I got confused and added on an extra iteration, so it was, in total, 20 min. of running and 9 min. of walking. I did turn down the speed a bit, being not entirely devoid of good sense, and I weathered the change surprisingly well; it's becoming increasingly clear that as long as I'm moving at this general range of speed, I won't run out of wind--my woe comes in the shape of general body tiredness. Not pain, either during or after; just tiredness and a big whiny internal voice of can't-keep-going.

The next session--not next WEEK, mind you, but logical tomorrow--is supposed to be 8 min run, 5 min walk, 8 min run, you're done. I'm not sure about this but I will give it a go.

Finished with another 2 reps of 10 on the modified shoulder press, but could not do any dips because a) I was running out of lunch hour and b) one of the Zombie Weightlifters was bogarting the machine. That particular term of art refers to the (exclusively male) students who sort of drift around the weight room, not, to the best of the observer's ability to detect, engaged in any actual regimen, and suddenly decide to do a brief and unorganized flurry of effort on this or that machine, chosen apparently at random. Maybe they're trying to impress girls, but if so they're probably barking up the wrong tree, because most females do not venture into that side of the fitness room.

I broke open my heel boo-boo again. More bloody socks to wash, hurrah.

Up a half a pound. Bah.

(This post actually covers yesterday's endeavors. Please adjust your set accordingly.)

In which I discover that going down to the gym at 12 sharp, when Open Time begins, is suboptimal because everyone else does it too and therefore you may have to wait for a treadmill. Happily, I didn't have to wait too long. I did the same routine from last week. I realize that even though it's still really (if variably) hard mentally (or emotionally, perhaps; something like that), if I look past the Wah and Ugh and I Can't, I'm actually holding up better to it physically. Still overheated at the end, but not as completely flat.

Then did a bit of weights to finish up:
Modified shoulder press: 2 sets of 10 reps at 2#
Assisted dip: 2 sets of 10 reps, at 155# <-- that was super hard.

Was up half a pound, no big deal. I don't know about today, because I was at

sweh's and his scale has always been quite different from mine.

Today I'm slated for the Yoga class they offer. I'm kind of ambivalent. I am feeling a strong urge to exercise in a much more energetic way, but on the other hand, the stretchy and meditative-ness of yoga is probably something I could really use right about now.

Current Music: Alabama 3, "Speed At The Sound Of Loneliness"

Down another pound and a half, which makes it 7 lbs in 4 weeks. (I can say this for the Too Stressed To Eat diet: it certainly works.) The blouse I'm wearing is now sorta loose on me, which is a little unfortunate since I like it so much; but this is, after all, the point.

In another few pounds, I should be able to bring back the first round of clothes that I spent last weekend laboriously banishing to dark corners of my closet. (Which probably contributed to my success.)

No running today, as between the wound on my heel and extremely sore legs due to lack of pre-run stretching yesterday, it just seemed too stupid to attempt. Also, I worked through my lunch hour.

I went running in Central Park today. This was, for some reason, much more difficult (physically) than the gym. I don't know if it was having to watch out for other traffic, the fact that I didn't have an actual route, the very un-level terrain, or a combination; but I was making heavy weather of it. The fact that my anklet got caught between my flesh and my shoe, and thus gouged a big bleeding hole in my heel, did not help much.

But, did it. I am not convinced I'm ready for the time upgrade, but maybe I'll try it slow-like tomorrow.

Down a half-pound this morning.

First, Steve and I finally adventured into the Heart of Darkness that is XBox Live. Our goal was to get some Rock Band action going with Dr. Nick, who was stuck home with the baby. So here we are, one brain from MIT, one brain from Columbia, and a medical doctor, and it took us 40 minutes to figure the Goddamn thing out (and we still haven't sorted how to make the headsets work right). I suggested, partway through, that we fetch an average 12-year-old child to explain it to us. OH GOD WE ARE OUR PARENTS

Eventually we got it working, and it was Good.

Afterwards, watched most of the 1st season of "30 Rock". It was roaringly funny, and I'm looking forward to more. Alec Baldwin really turns in a perfect performance, there.

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