My Everything Hurts

New Year's resolution accomplished. On New Year's Eve, as the ball was dropping, I said to myself "I'm going to exercise this year. I'm going to lift, and I'm going to run." Well, I've achieved those goals. Yes, for the first time this year, I lifted (for the first time in two years, actually) and I ran (I played basketball). Now I'm done.

I'm kidding, of course. But I'm sore as anything right now. I organized a basketball game between my old dorm floor of last year. Now, in nine months of last year's games, we didn't have a single injury. Tonight we had two. They were serious enough to get the entire front desk of the SHELL to come and make sure nobody passed out because of a concussion. More about that in a second. But let's talk about me.

Now, I hadn't played basketball since last year's adventures, and I wasn't even good then. I mean, over the year I progressed, but come on, I'm used to shooting at a four foot by six foot net, not a 3 inch wide circle. So, let's just say the first game was rough. I think I was 1-for-8 from the floor, which is still higher than Armon Gilliam's career average. This was with a 80-pound girl covering me. Hey, she's good. She was really speedy. That combined with my horrendous ball-handling skills was my downfall.

During the second game is where the fatalities occurred. We had one sprained ankle from my friend Aaron, who once when he was drunk poured my chocolate milk down his pants (just for reference). The other was none other than my assignment, little Ellen. She made the mistake of going for a rebound against my beast of a roommate, who never saw her coming. Needless to say, she hit her head so hard on the ground it wasn't funny. Even when I thought she was dead, she never stopped smiling, one of her more favorable traits. They're both fine from what I know, but you never know with concussions.

On a lighter note, I did a little better throughout the night. My assignment for much of the second game and all of the third game was Corey, who is my height, but a rock. He's immovable. Luckily, I had some mobility against him, so I'd say my shooting average was better.

After the games I was about to head home, but then I decided, hey, why not stay and lift with Stapes, my roommate. There weren't too many people around to point and laugh at me, as it was 10 pm, so I was like what the heck. Now, I am a small guy. 5'6". I also haven't lifted since the end of my hockey season senior year of high school. I was never an amazing lifter, but my summer job at the golf course often requires heavy-lifting, so I guess I developed some abilities, because I could bench as much as I could in high school. That's only 95 pounds, which I'm not proud of, but remember, I'm 5'6" and I've been out of it for two years. I also did three sets of 10 reps.

Right now, however, I can barely move my fingers to type this entry. This is the reason for my dramatic first paragraph. I'm sure I'll lift again to try to beat the century mark (that sounds pretty sad).

In the spirit of this post, I will make the song of the day a song called "Macho" by Tin Circus. Tin Circus is the band that Judah Nagler (The Velvet Teen) led and played bass for in high school. It is amazingly talented California Ska music. There is not a weak point in the band, and Judah is probably a better bass player than a guitar player (which makes it unsurprising that when Josh Staples left the band last year to focus the New Trust, Judah took over bass duties and they hired Polar Bears guitarist Matthew Izen to take his spot on guitar). This is probably the high point of the album, which early Incubus / Primus - like slap bass and psychedelic guitar parts with some brass thrown in for good measure. The whole album is available for free download at www.tincircus.com . If you don't want to download the whole thing, head over to myspace and give it a listen.

Tin Circus - "Macho" at Myspace.com