[44] Insomnia Morning Bike Ride

Did not sleep.

5am - 6:30am - chit chat with Dan who, for some reason, was awake.
6:30 am - bike to Old Navy with Wing for dem $1 flip flops.

Eat, Errands, Slept for like 3 hours.

4pm to midnight - work

[42] Spaghetti & Meatballs

From burger night, we still had a lot of ground beef leftover, so Hiep, Dan, Kevin (summer roommate), and I  decided to make spaghetti and meatballs!

We got some whole wheat spag' goin' on (I think), meatballs seasoned with random stuff, tomato, and Parmesan cheese. Oh yeah! The best part was the sauce. Dan made a combo sauce with regular pasta sauce and some alfredo. It was delicious! I think my mom would love it!

Note to self: Make that for Mom when you get home.

[41] Surprise Family Visit

It's not so important what we did but just that they visited. My little cousin Jerry is going to China for a month, so my sister Becky planned this surprise visit so he can see me before he flies off. She brought the whole posse too--my other little cousins, my mom, and ... herself. I think this was, in part, for me too. As I was talking about in another post, I really miss home when I'm away for school. It's more this year than years before, but it's hitting me especially hard this summer...and Beeckity knew. I didn't even want to come back  for the summer, but I'm an adult and I have certain responsibilities and obligations for my future. Blah! So I'm stuck here.

Don't get me wrong, when I'm here, I enjoy work and hanging with my roommates and the environment and everything. But, if you gave me a choice of being home or here (with no consequences), I'll choose to go back home in a second. It's just... I don't know why I miss my family so much. I never thought me much as the kind of person who "misses" someone. Do I want to see them? Sure. But I know I'm very fine without seeing them. It's only in my upperclassman undergraduate years when I realize how much I can yearn to see people and truly miss someone. And I learned that because of my family. There are people who are like-family here but as much I love Jeff and Wing, I can't necessarily count them as family.

I don't know why I'm complaining because in all sincerity, I love being here in Urbana-Champaign, too. There's a lot of great friends, I love the independence, and there are so many different types of opportunities and perks of being here. But still, the only thing that pulls my frickin' heartstrings to want to go home right that moment is thinking about Joe and Becky and my mom and all my little cousins.

Okay, I'm really done with this. I just keep going back and forth with this. I should go to sleep. In conclusion though, I really appreciate my family coming down to see me. It meant more to me than they can even fathom. I think about them everyday and I miss them everyday, and I'm just counting the days I can come back home and see them again and give them a great big hug. In the meantime, I will do 'me' while they do 'them' and we'll all meet back up in August when we can enjoy the time we will share together.

gNite <3

  

[40] Singin' In The Rain

....or rather singing because of the rain.

It was raining so hard today in Urbana....harder than cats and dogs...it was raining lions and wolves. Harhar. Womp womp. But seriously, it was dangerous outside. Heavy rains, frequent lightning, and damaging winds pretty much guaranteed my tush was staying at home today.

Trapped by the storm, there was nothing to do.....


except karaoke.

My roommate Hiep and I (with various chiming in from my other roomie Dan) just chose random songs on Spotify. We sang along with lyrics provided by a Spotify App called TuneWiki. This neat, little tool would detect the song playing and cue up the lyrics even highlighting the lines of the song that's currently playing. So cool. As we browsed through random songs, we realized there were a lot that are too high to sing. That's when Boyce Avenue came to the rescue. They beautifully cover a ton of songs that are super fun to sing and the best part is... they sing it in an octave that is do-able by us. So, for the most part, we pretty much just stuck with Boyce Avenue and sang our hearts out until we could no more. End of story.

Aside from singing, the rest of the day was uneventful and unproductive. Tomorrow will be better.

[39] Insomnia Bike Ride

My sleep schedule has been seriously out of whack. I've been sleeping between 4am-8am and waking up between 12pm-4pm. By some miracle I was sleepy today by 12am, so I thought "Yes! This is the day I fix my sleep schedule!"

WRONG!

 My body was just teasing me. It took a nap instead and woke up 2 hours later. So there I was laying in my bed at 2am trying to fall back asleep. An hour and a half go by, and I realize I cannot will myself back to sleep, so I head into the living room where my roommate Dan was still awake.

A chit and a chat later, we're getting dressed, putting on our bike lights, and bringing the bikes out for a late-night, insomniac's bike ride.

Here's our beautiful and convoluted route mapped out using www.mapmyrun.com 

Two hours later with a few breaks reminiscing at our old dorm ISR, checking out a park, and ogling at big, fancy campus apartments, we got back at 6am after biking a total of 8.52 miles.

[38] Ladder Push-Ups

Today, Dan and I were introduced to Ladder Push-Ups by Hiep. There are two components of this workout: push-ups and shoulder touches. Here's how you do 'em...

Repetition
 Starting on your knees, you go down to do your push-up(s). After completing the push-up(s), sit back up onto your knees, reach both arms straight up towards the ceiling and touch both shoulders with the homolateral (same side) hand. Repeat shoulder touch as instructed.

Workout
1 - One push-up. One shoulder touch. Then go back down to do...
2 - Two push-ups. Two shoulder touches. Then go back down to do...
3 - Three push-ups. Three shoulder touches....
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 - Ten push-ups. Ten shoulder touches.
9 -
8 -
7 -
6 -
5 -
4 -
3 - Three push-ups. Three shoulder touches. Then go back down to do...
2 - Two push-ups. Two shoulder touches. Then go back down to do...
1 -  Last push-up. Last shoulder touch.



Do you see why they're called ladder push-ups? You do not use any physical ladder whatsoever. It's not a specific type of push-up that resembles a ladder. You're simply doing push-ups and shoulder touches...climbing higher and higher in how many you do then back down. And if you complete it, 100 push-ups later and 100 shoulder touches later, you're probably dead.

Hell! I couldn't complete it, and I STILL died. I went up to the top of the ladder, climbed down to the 8th rung, then fell off the ladder. I'm still pretty pleased I was able to push myself to complete 62 push-ups but by the time I reached my limit, I couldn't push up from the push-up. I was cheeking the floor with my arms noodle-y limp at my sides, and Hiep had to pull me off the ground.

This ladder is my Everest, and I will climb it.
Another day.
I still have a bit of whine left in me until I'm ready to attempt it again.

[34] The Scientific 7-Minute Workout (Modified)

Here is a short article about the "Scientific 7-Minute Workout". And here's a How-To Video.

Exactly as it sounds, this workout last only 7 minutes. It's composed of 12 exercises that are each done for 30 seconds with only 10 second rest periods in between.

But Hiep and I made our own modified version that has a different format and different exercises as well. Also, thanks to Becky for showing me this.

Original                                                                                  Modified
-12 exercises                                                                           -12 exercises (different set of exercises)
-1 repetition                                                                             -3 repetitions
-30 seconds for exercises                                                    -30 seconds for exercises
-10 seconds for breaks in between ex.                             -10 second breaks in b/t ex. (30 sec breaks in b/t reps)

Exercises
1. Jumping jacks
2. Wall-sit
3. Push-ups (varying the kind of push-up per rep)
4. Step-up onto chair
5. Squats
6. Tricep dips on a chair
7. Plank (varying with low plank on forearm, then high plank on palms, then low plank with pulsing)
8. High knees in place
9. Lunges
10. Plank knee-to-elbows
11. Left side plank (hold)
12. Right side plank (hold)

The Low-Down
This is definitely a challenging workout, especially if you do 3 reps. It works the whole body, gets you nice and sweaty, and is just great. I would definitely do it again.

A few notes however. Since the exercises are dynamic (moving instead of holding a pose still), it's very important to make sure you learn proper form for such exercises as wall-sit, push-ups, tricep dips, squats, and lunges. In addition, as you continue with your reps, you're going to feel tired. It's very easy to start sacrificing form, but it's absolutely important that you don't do that. It ain't about the reps, it's about doing it right. You lose what you have to gain when you do it wrong.