Monday, February 28, 2011

Turn the page and close this book....

Today is the last day of February and my last day as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym at Whiterock Lake. I turned in my notice two weeks ago after making the well thought-through decision to no longer work there. It has been a great 20 months but it is time for me to move on and go on to something else. I have collected a lot of experiences and learned a lot about the industry and everything that came with it, but it is time now to close this chapter of my life and start a new one. I will teach till the end of March and then stop doing that also. The hardest thing really was telling my clients, where a lot of them have become more than just clients, but friends. I spent New Year's with Chelsey, Cortney is about to have a baby in about two months and Barry has come such a long way, I feel like I am part of the Martin-family ;-). And then there is Enid, who is from South Africa, so it was a multicultural training session with more than just my German accent, but with her African accent as well, hehe he. And so many others as well. My co-workers have become more than that as well and it will be a real adjustment not to see them almost every day anymore either. I know that it will take some time to transition but in the end it will have been the right decision, even if hard, and everyone will be happy. And since I am staying in Dallas, it is not like I am out of the world. Just not at Gold's anymore.
Anyway, I made cake-balls this weekend and let me tell you...... it looked like I had killed someone. I had red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, so my hands were bright red. And since my hands got warmer and warmer as I rolled the cake-balls, the consistency of the dough was not as good as I wanted it to be.... Needless to say they were not all pretty, but some were, but super-delicious!!


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Happy Hug And Kiss Day - OR - Two years later and I am still here!! :-D


Monday was Valentine's Day. Yeay. Happy Hug and Kiss Day. We were actually allowed to wear an appropriate Valentine's Day Shirt at work that day, which I thought was *awesome*, but I suppose nobody else shared that opinion. At least in the PT department. Only the OM wore a shirt with hearts as well, and mine had smoochies all over it. Aaron and I went on a lunch date that day, because we both worked till 8pm. Actually, we do not really care about Valentine's Day that much, but it was also my two year anniversary of my immigration and that means I now have been a permanent resident for two years. That also means, three years to go till I can start the whole naturalization process. Anyway, last year my anniversary was forgotten (wink, wink) and this year we did not really mention it either, but I suppose it is ok. Anyway, we had really low temperatures the other week, actually the week of my last blog. That Friday I did not go to work either. Aaron came home pretty late that night and I was about to cuss him out as he came home, as he gave me a pretty good explanation for his being late. Him and Marcus had gotten stuck in the snow and had to actually call the fire department to help them - infront of the gate of the apartment's parking lot, hehe he. Needless to say, the gym was closed till 10am and most of my clients cancelled, if they had not originally had a session that was before 10am. Weather is back to normal now. We had a nice 22°C today and it was really sunny outside! Last weekend I dropped off the babies to get their hair cut. It was Champy's first time and he sure did not want to go with the nice lady who cut his hair. He had a little bandana on as I picked him up and now he can actually see again without having to shake hair out of his face!




Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Alright everybody, close down the DFW airport - it is SUPERBOWL TIME IN DALLAS! - really??


Alright, first of all Superbowl XLV is in Arlington, TX, not Dallas, but the stadium is exactly in the area where the planes fly in and out. Hmmmm, let's not distract the dear players by ANY noise and let's close down DFW for the duration of the game. YEAY! I wonder when the different airlines and DFW are going to come up with the numbers of how much that cost them during that time, not to mention pissed off people who are trying to get away from all the locomotion (yes, I put "loco" in there), because people are going NUTS! The two teams arrived in Dallas yesterday and some TV stations decided to broadcast about this whole thing 24/7. Really? What about those people who just do not care. Me, for example. I could really care less. I already do not like going to the mall on the weekends due to the loads of people who push (or roll) themselves through the aisles to get a good steal or just to spend $1,200 on a pair of shoes or on a purse. Wednesday morning is a great time to shop or Thursday morning - there is nobody there and you do not have to wait in line to purchase your new sneakers or workout apparel ;-). (Yup, I said it. I mostly buy those things due to my profession, but also so I do not end up rolling myself through the aisles at the mall, because I live a rather healthy lifestyle.) Anyway, got a little bit off topic there, didn't I? Oops. I apologize.
Alright, so back to the topic. Superbowl XLV. This Sunday. Hmm. I decided not to leave the house, unless I ABSOLUTELY have to. I mean, I have to kick some ass in the morning in class and then some normal PT, and my own workout, but other than that, I plan on moping around the house and stay in. Yes. I can be super-boring sometimes. But I really prefer that to getting pissed off at other people who do decide to throw themselves into a situation which is going to aggravate them (and they know it beforehand), and share that joy with two million other people who want to see a team of people which is made up of overweight people and then others who can run really fast with a nice behind try to get a ball to the other side of the field. That's all I know about football. JK, I know a little more. ;-) Alright that's my two cents on the "super" Bowl. LOL
This week the forecast people were warning about the "cold front" coming here. I did not think it was going to be bad. I was wrong. Last night was fine. This morning I had my normal 6am client scheduled and got up at 5am. Look outside, looks fine, little rain, looks like a little snow on my windshield. Cool, gonna be fine. Turn on the TV, which I usually do not, because I enjoy a little quietness in the morning and school districts are closed down everywhere. Usually that is not a good sign. Hmph. Last night I asked Aaron if we had an ice scraper, just in case. No. OK, so I go outside, armored with a spatula (LOL). My passenger side door was frozen shut, great, BUT my car started, so that is always good. Turned on all the crap in the car to make it warm and so on and scraped the ice off my car - with the spatula from IKEA! Good tools, those European things, hehe he. Anyway, the ice was really hard-headed, but I got it so far that I had a clear view. Cool. Outside, everything was squishy, watery. I went 20 miles per hour, I usually go like 35/40 miles per hour. So it took me a little longer to make it to work. My loyal client had just gotten there as well as I arrived so it was all good. Worked out myself after her and decided to head home. My car was frozen in place though in the parking lot. Great. Started the car, tried to drive - car died. Let's do this again, 2nd gear. Worked. Cool. On my way home I had to stop at a light and as it turned green my car would not move - booooo. Rolled back down a little in reverse (weird that that worked) and used a little more initial force. Made it through the light. That was super fun. Not. It was right by a fire station though, so if it had not worked I would have asked one of the guys on duty to "rescue" me - I am pretty sure they would not have minded. hehe he.
The gym closes down early today, due to the weather and it does not look like it is going to warm up the next couple of days, see the picture, temps are in Celsius. Cannot wait for the weekend, because of the weather, not because of the bowl....