Day 31: Bunny Hoppin' into my mouth.

For lunch today, I decided to go the extra mile to whip up something a bit different and obviously new to me. Since I didn't have to so into work until late today, I rolled out to Whole Foods to pick up some rabbit and portabello mushrooms. I marinated both in the fridge for an hour while I did my Shoulder/arm/abs workout. I also prepared a sauce to drizzle over it while baking. It was very Greek flavored with some light olive oil, skim milk, parmesan cheese, and a bit of nutmeg. Wow, it was really tasty! I've never tasted rabbit before, but this is certainly the way to eat it.

I'm hoping it will get warmer soon and I can move this 365-day movement back outside. It was a chilling 34 degrees for most of the day and it's supposed to snow tonight. Maybe I'll pee my name in the snow tomorrow. That would certainly be new. :)

Day 30: Tried Creatine for the first time.

If you have been reading this blog, it's no secret I'm trying to get into better shape. Today I've added a minor amount of Creatine supplement into my diet after my workouts. Creatine is a compound of amino acids which provides additional energy for muscles, increases size slightly, and helps with breaking down all the protein I've been ingesting.

It's something my body already creates naturally, so I'm just helping it along. Athletes typically take up to 20 to 30 grams a day, but I'm going to keep it low with just a gram. I really don't need much since my weight is fairly low. I do feel a bit more energetic after my workout.

In other news, I took another plyometrics class as well as revisiting the NV Salon to get a trim. Actually, my hair stylist tried something new with my hair. She thinned it out and used a straight razor to add texture. She also did a little flippy-up thing with the front of my hair that looks really good. I'm totally digging the difference. But I'll still probably get a shorter haircut next time if I can shave down my body fat which should tighten up my face somewhat.

Day 29: Spent the day as a vegetarian.

And I was hungry for the majority of it! I had a ton of veggies that I bought last week getting ready to go bad, so I choose to live out the day as a vegetarian. Perhaps not the most adventurous of pursuits, but new to me. :)

For breakfast, I had a strawberry shake made from tofu, strawberries, a banana, and a little water. Lunch was a medley of cooked veggies (squash, broccoli, carrots, hothouse cucumber, and green pepper) with some whole grain, brown rice and a bit of soy. Dinner was a gargantuan amount of veggie mixture in an enchilada form topped with some awesome roasted garlic salsa.

Can't say I really enjoyed the lack of my precious meats, but I certainly felt pretty good today. Very clean, I suppose.

Day 28: Brrr...Bought a Pea Coat

Shopping is something I shy away from. Not because I don't enjoy it, but rather because I'm indifferent to the whole process. I love to buy new things for myself, but I hate spending the money. It all evens out I suppose. I've been debating that whole second job thing for a while to change that.

Anyway, I was in the mall today checking for an oddball stuffed animal (preferable one that dances) to put in front of my Xbox Live camera while I play Uno on my Xbox. I know, extremely important stuff! Express was having one of their crazed 80% off sales, probably because nobody is insane enough to pay $98 for a pair of slacks or $70 for a shirt.

I spotted some of their coats still on the clearance rack. It's been really cold outside lately. It's 25 degrees outside at the moment. I have 2 main coats I wear; a very thin, lambskin leather jacket that fits me pretty well and a warm suede jacket that's 1 size to big. I can't wear the suede jacket in the rain, which makes for some cold walks in the thin leather. Express had this wool jacket on sale, so I bit at a little over $50. They probably still made money off me. I'm really digging it because it's fitted to my body and very warm.

By the way, I didn't realize how much the Kempo workout worked until I got up this morning. Wow, my shoulder blades were really sore as well as the joints near the top of my thigh. Good stuff. I took it easy today with an hour-long stretching session. Much like yoga, but mostly focusing on allowing the muscle groups I worked this past week to stay limber.

Day 27: Kempo kicks ass

So I took a Kempo class today and it was fantastic! Kempo is an aerobic form of cardio exercise that's based on a form of self defense. It's mostly a series of punches and kicks that rapidly increase in tempo as the session progresses. Blocks, jabs, uppercuts, front kicks, side kicks, and a tremendous amount of combinations. It's pretty easy to perform each move, but form is important.

I was really surprised the amount of sweat that I worked up doing those exercises. It didn't seem like much, but I sweated up a storm. I think I have enough to take away with me to perform the exercises on my own, though. The instructor for the class kind of sucked anyway. Plus there was no eye candy in there. Not like yoga anyway.

I'm a bit sore from the exercise but extremely limber. I'm already starting to feel the effects of the recent diet / exercise regime. I have more energy during the day and I can feel muscles starting to pop out a little. I'm a bit excited about it, especially of how I will look in a couple months. I'm jonzing to get high on a little narcissism. :)

Day 26: Hit the town, good and proper.

Whew, what a long night. I'm typing this with very sleepy eyes, so please forgive the occasional grammatical faux pa.

My Friday outing started at Chicora Alley for a couple drinks on an empty stomach after my legs/back workout. (not a good idea) Upon receiving a voicemail about bird defecation upon automobiles and the necessity of female urinary displacement, I dialed up the anxious caller. While I strained to hear the call due to the surrounding reveling drunks, a young woman, pretending to have the voice of a mannish miscreant, answered and told me that I had the wrong number.

As I had only consumed 1 vodka/cranberry at this point, I was pretty sure I had dialed the correct number. Happily, the women on the phone erupted in a fit of giggling and requested my presence at Coffee Underground. I stumbled back to my table, downed the fresh drink the waitress brought for me, paid my bill, excused myself hurriedly, and rushed out of the bar, much to the dismay of my party.

As I performed a 6 block drunken dash up Main street, 1,000 different thoughts raced through my alcohol laden mind; some idealistic and some nagging self-conscious hang-ups. I was going to see a woman that I use as my main motivation for this little 365-day endeavor. And dammit, she still makes my heart skip a few beats.

Anyway, myself and the two young women had a wonderful time drinking coffee, stealing Christmas ornaments, hitting up the O Cha tea bar, and going to see a depressing play at the Warehouse theater along with a fairly funny Improv show following it.

All in all, today was filled with many entertaining firsts. But much more importantly, I feel re-motivated to continue. Thanks. :)

Day 25: Shark bite

Actually, I'm the one that took a bite out of the shark. I've never tasted or cooked shark before, so I picked up some over at the Whole Foods Market after my yoga session. It's not an attractive piece of fish, but what is?

Anyway, I marinated it in a low-sodium soy sauce / lemon juice mixture for about an hour and tossed it on the grill. It cooks up pretty quickly and has the consistence of a steak. Add in a pile of wild rice along with some fresh green beans and that's one hell of a dinner. Shark is easily one of my favorite types of fish, up there is salmon. I'm going to have to cook that up more often.

Today's yoga session was a bit easier. I think my flexibility is increasing rapidly. I've got a legs/back workout tomorrow, but I'm more excited about Kempo on Saturday. A couple of the students at school speak highly of it. Should be fun!

Day 24: Took on actual responsibility at work.

Oh boy, this is a silly one. For some odd reason, the school that I work at decided it would be a good idea to create a Myspace presence for the school. Something about reaching out to the youth of South Carolina. Somehow, I bet the youth would prefer their Myspace/Facebook/Xanga sites are free of such taint, but who knows?

Anyway, I realize that messing around on the net isn't new for me, but being asked to take of such things for my job certainly is. So I spent the better part of my workday writing code to overlay that horrific, basic Myspace design. Anyway, this was the end result: Link Very minimalist in nature. I may add some black and white photos of the school at the bottom to give it a little more flavor.

It's funny that this one fell in my lap today. I woke up way too late to try something new because I have to cook up a storm and spend 90 minutes on my shoulder/arms & abs workout. I made some awesome lowfat, homemade chicken salad for dinner over a spread of spinach leaves. Oh, it was delicious. I'd love to have some more right now.

Day 23: Plyometrics class

Oh wow, I think I just left a bucket of sweat at a new cardio class I just attended, plyometrics. Definition time: Plyometrics is a muscle building technique that uses power lunges and jumps to improve strength, flexibility, and speed. For my perspective, it just looked like a 60 minutes jumping class.

But what a workout! Lunges, crouching, leaping, oh my. It was extremely intense and I couldn't even keep up with the smoking hot instructor or the majority of the soccer moms for that matter. It was just straight up embarrassing. All that running I do and I was gasping 40 minutes in. My shirt was drenched after class.

But I will have to say it was a really rewarding experience. I think I'm going to try their Kempo class as well to see if I prefer it. But it may be better for my muscles to keep them guessing with different types of exercise. Fortunately, my shrimp stir fry, baked potato, and green beans were waiting at home to refuel me. :)

Day 22: Checked out Earshot.

Another dreary day in Greenville. Cold, Rainy, and just plain depressing. Blah.

But I still got out to visit a place new to me. I've never been inside the little music store near my sushi habitat, so I decided to visit it today just to get out of the apartment. I have no inclination to buy any CDs, but it is a laid-back place to chill out and listen to music. I liked the cushy setup around the listening stations and the little coffee bar inside the joint. I'm amazed they actually sell music for those prices though. It must to be people who haven't heard of the Internet yet.

After that, I came back to the apartment to collapse. That shoulder/back/abs workout nearly killed me today. My meal structure was awesome though. Mushroom Omelet for breakfast, Chef Salad for lunch, protein bar for a snack, and Salmon/red potatoes/corn for dinner. That's always the nice thing about starting a really intensive workout; I get to stuff myself silly with delicious, healthy food.

Day 21: Read a new book in 1 day.

Not much to tell today. It was nasty outside all freakin' day. The temperature never got quite down into the freezing range, but the pouring rain was horrifically cold when I went food shopping. I spent way too much money on food, by the way. Mostly because of the new diet I'll be using for the next 90 days.

Anyway, I tossed out my outdoor ideas and stuck around inside today. I started and finished a new fiction novel: 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers. It's a quirky little tale about a father/daughter team that robs banks for a living. Very humorous and incredibly vulgar. It was a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Day 20: Arrrgh! I'm Fatty McFatso.

There's a little gym that opened up about 5 months ago down on Main Street. This week, I received a promotional mailer from them about a free, professional body fat measurement. Obviously, they do this to hook you into deciding to work out, hopefully at their gym. I have my own gym at my work though. I also have a body fat measurement scale, but it's been on the fritz for a couple months. So I decided to take them up on their free offer to do something new for today, but with no inclination to signup.

If you have seen the weighing method done on most reality workout shows, it's exactly the same. Basically, you wear a bathing suit and sit in a harness that looks alot like a swing on a kid's swingset. They lower you into a large stainless steel tank and measure the buoyancy of your body. In other words, fat floats and muscle sinks. It's totally painless, other than the fact that you have to face the harsh reality of the result.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, they came back with the results: 18.4% body fat. Ahhhhhhhhhh! At 157 pounds, that means 29 of those are friggin' blubber. I still look skinny, since I'm 5'10", but I can't see any of my muscles under the fat. Yuck!

Anyway, I came back to my apartment pretty pissed off and spent the next three hours devising a kick ass nutrition / workout plan which starts tomorrow. I'm going to do it for the next 90 days and post updates along the way here. I found some great recipes for a variety of extremely healthy dishes and my workouts are going to integrate some new resistance training techniques. I'm also going to try out some different cardio programs around town to find one I really enjoy. That plus the yoga should mold me into a lean, cut dude.

I'll be satisfied with lowering my percentage to 14%, but I'm going to shoot for 11%. All I know is that I'm going to be sore for the next 3 months. No more chocolate soufflés or Starbuck Mochas for me. :(

Day 19: Chocolate decadence

I'm not a stranger to cooking, but I do like to try new recipes from time to time. Today I tackled a dessert, the dark chocolate soufflé filled with a molten chocolate center. It's very similar to the Chocolate volcano they serve at City Range on Haywood road. I had to buy a few items to kick it off, namely a ceramic soufflé dish, a wisk, and some Scharffen Berger dark chocolate.

The actual ingredients are pretty simple: the dark chocolate, cream, butter, eggs, sugar, and a bit of tartar. The trick to the hot center of melted chocolate is to center a large chunk of the dark chocolate in the middle of the mold before popping it into the oven. It only takes about 7 or 8 minutes to bake and the batter can be stored in fridge until ready for baking. Top it off with some vanilla ice cream and it's pure euphoria!

I should have taken a quick picture of it, but I gobbled it up too quickly. :)

Day 18: Looking at you

This one may sound lame to some people, but I woke up today with an interesting idea for something new to try. I have a bad habit of rapidly looking away from someone when I visually greet a stranger or even greeting someone I know fairly well. I'm not quite sure if it's a self-confidence thing or perhaps a bit of shyness, but I set out to concentrate on practicing my eye contact today.

Every person I passed today, I made it a priority to focus on keeping those few seconds of visual contact when greeting them or just passing by. I obviously wasn't doing some creepy, constant stare, but more of a brief, steady glance. It's a habit I'd like to get into rather than nervously looking around the room.

Keeping it up at work was fairly simple, as knowing most of the folks there made it easy. The tricky part was when I hit up Coffee Underground after work to chill out, listen to my Zune, and read a little bit of Nick Hornby's last book. I wasn't staring at anyone in particular, but I did catch a girl at a nearby table look in my direction a couple times. Typically, I would immediately dart my eyes down, but I crammed down the nervous habit, smiled and held the gaze until she broke it off both times. That felt really good. :)

Perhaps not the most monumental of new things to try today, but it was exciting to me. I realize this sort of thing comes naturally to many people, but I'm vastly out of practice.

Day 17: Grew up a little bit

I did something today that I'm ashamed that I've never done sooner. I have an uncle that's always been very generous to me on my birthday. I realized today that I've never reciprocated that action besides a happy birthday email (if I even remembered). Perhaps it was the naive kid inside of me still thinking that I should get rather than give. I noticed that he seemed a tiny bit depressed over the holidays, partly I think, because he doesn't have kids of his own. Anyway, I shipped him the first two seasons of The Office via Amazon.com. I feel pretty good about myself.

Also, I revisited the yoga place up the road from me today to try a different style. Iyengar Style seemed to be a little easier on the body and simpler for a starter like me. I had a 60 minute session this time instead of 90 and came out a bit more relaxed. Plus the eye candy stretching around the room was certainly refreshing at 6:30 a.m. I'd like to wake up like that every day.

Alright, back to my snow dance. Come on, icy goodness!

Day 16: Thai Food

I've never been a fan of Asian cuisine, besides sushi. I think it's the smell that gets to me. But in the spirit of my movement, I hit up the Lemon Grass restaurant on Main for a meal today. I got a spicy beef dish flavored with basil, chili, garlic, and peppers.

I've got to say it wasn't half-bad. Certainly far better than the curried goat incident of last week. I still can't stand the smell of those places, but I'll have to hit up takeout now and again. I also passed through Marble Slab Creamery besides it afterwards, which is always deliciously awesome. Plus my mouth was on fire from all the spices.

So, a bit on the easy side today. On a side note, I've been compiling a list of things I'd love to do this year if I can find a way. Here is a little taste: dance lessons (not sure what type), scuba diving, get up to see the sunrise from a mountaintop, go to a rock concert, hang glide, pedicure/manicure, water ski, origami, sit for a caricature, visit another country, ride a mechanical bull, try pilates, lay in the grass and stare at the stars, etc... Gotta make it all happen.

Day 15: Beat my Dad to the check.

I really don't make a ton of money, but I do like to spend my easily-earned moola on the folks that mean the most to me. More specifically, my parents came over for dinner and we scored some sushi. After stuffing ourselves silly with edamame, baked mussels, Unagi, a healthy amount of sashimi, and a wee bit of sake, I snuck away from the table and paid the bill.

It was certainly fun to see the look on Dad's face; totally worth the expensive check. Afterwards, we hit up Coffee Underground for some java, mocha cheesecake, carrot cake, and the chocolate ecstasy that is trigger pie while talking about my bendy experience on Day 3. They also saw a big difference in my hair from Day 10. Anyway, my parents have always been extremely supportive of me, so I decided to toss a little gratitude back at them for a change.

Day 14: Minor philanthropy

I've never been charitable whatsoever. It's not that I'm empty of empathy, just too damn lazy to do anything. So as a small attempt to kickstart my inner philanthropist, I decided to donate a crapload of clothing and accessories to Goodwill. Anything I would have typically thrown away that's in decent condition was tossed into a box for the folks at the Goodwill down on North street.

As a benefit of this action, I got to clean out my closet. Since I moved into my apartment a couple years ago, I've never actually cleaned out the ole closet. I had clothing in there from when I was a bit chubby; 36" jeans, large dress shirts, etc. Any of these items look completely ridiculous on me now, even the suits I bought when I left college.

So tallying it up, I dropped off three suits, several pairs of dress pants, a variety of dress shirts, a collection of ties I haven't worn in years, a couple pairs of shoes, 4 belts, several ugly sweaters, and some jeans. Nothing major really, but I have a ton of space for all my new stuff. I can get it off the floor and onto some hangers finally.

Day 13: Filling the Jar

I'm a pop culture kind of guy with my forte being movies, TV, and technology. I can tear up anyone on the Kevin Bacon game or identify a celebrity voice in a commercial within the first couple seconds. It's a ridiculously useless talent. I never got into the music scene though. Sure I listen to what's on the radio, but I couldn't tell you who was singing, the name of the band, or the name of the song. Unfortunately, it really puts me at a loss in any type of conversation about music. In social situations, I have to sit around awkwardly until the topic changes.

I feel like Adam Sandler applying for a job at the bank in the Wedding Singer: "No, sir, I have no experience but I'm a big fan of money. I like it, I use it, I have a little. I keep it in a jar on top of my refrigerator. I'd like to put more in that jar. That's where you come in." That's me with music. "I like music, I use it, I remember a few songs that I keep in my head. I'd like to put more in that brain. That's where a new mp3 player comes in."

So I picked up this lovely little technological marvel today with my Christmas Best Buy gift card:


I realize buying a technological item isn't new to a guru like me, but spending the day discovering music is something I've never spent a substantial amount of time on. I'm finding out what I'm really passionate about and experiencing tons of auditory delights that I would have never tried otherwise.

Why did I pick the Zune over the massively popular Ipod? Let's see: It has a larger screen for videos, music subscription service which has an awesome loophole (Hint: free music), FM Radio with text display song descriptions, Wireless song transfer, and it comes in Brown! That's right, I said it; Brown. It’s actually pretty attractive and certainly blends in with my apartment. I suppose a minor reason for picking up the Zune was to be unique. It seems like everyone has an Ipod these days and it's actually anti-establishment to pick up a different type of player. So screw those dancing silhouettes!

Anyway, I need to get back to filling up this 30 gig of space. I think music is my new sickness. And that's lucky number 13.

Day 12: Squeeky clean

Like most guys, I keep things very simple in the shower / shave arena. I use shampoo/conditioner combo, Old Spice body wash, Gillette shaving gel, and the occasional dab of after-shave if I went against the grain. In an effort to expand my self-cleaning repertoire and more importantly appearance, I hit the local Publix to try out a few new options.

I picked up some Nivea facial cleanser to chase away the dirt, a slow tanning moisturizer, Neutrogena Razor Defense Exfoliator, and a loofah. I've never used any of these items before, so I took a quick shower to see what the fuss was all about. Gotta say I really liked the loofah over the old washcloth. It seemed like it did a much more successful job as scrubbing the dirt off.

After singing a horrific rendition of Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, I hopped out of the shower, dried off, and tried out the exfoliator. I won't be doing that very often. Maybe I used too much, but scouring my cheeks with that stuff stung quite a bit. The cleanser was a nice soothing feeling after that. Plus my face felt really soft afterward. I only tried a tiny dab of the moisturizer to see how tan it makes me as well as the shade of the coloring.

I don't look any different, but my face feels wonderful. I'm not sure how much of this stuff I'll keep using, but it was something fun and easy to try for today.

Day 11: Imparare l'italiano

A bit late on the update today, but for good reason. Working late last night + having to get up really early hit me hard after I finished up at 5 today. I think I may be coming down with something. Blah...at least I have tons of chicken soup to get me through it.

Anyway, the update today is a fun one. I've really wanted to start learning a new language for a while, but never dedicated the time to it. I took a couple years of Spanish in high school, but only wanted to pass the courses rather than learn the language. But Spanish doesn't really interest me at this point, so I've chosen Italian instead.

I started an audio course as well as reading complimentary material that accompanied it. The pronunciation seems pretty easy so far and the grammar is fairly straightforward. It's going to take constant practice, but I certainly have 20 minutes a day to dedicate to it. Anyway, if I ever find the courage to head overseas, Italy would be my first choice. Ah, Forse presto.

Day 10: Fancy-Smancy haircut day

On the advice of a beautiful, young woman who knows much more about such things than myself, I decided to make myself an appointment at the trendy salon about 3 1/2 blocks away from me. But a little background is needed first:

Through most of high school, my mom cut my hair. When I was a kid, it was because we were short on cash and as a teenager, it just became a habit. When I went to college, I graduated to the cheapie places that populate the strip malls of America: Great Clips, Supercuts, etc... I've always been too intimidated of those trendy expensive salons. Plus they are typically populated with women, rarely men getting haircuts.

I still got the same vibe when I walked in there today, but I pressed on. A cute girl named Gretchen had me follow her back to her chair and it began. I'm sure she saw the trepidation on my face and my lack of knowledge on the entire subject of hairstyles. Anyway, she washed my hair (which totally kicks ass) and started by thinning my hair up top. No clippers, all scissors.

My hair has always been very thick, dense, and stagnant. But after my haircut, it feels light and fluffy. The length is actually about the same, but the weight is far less and the sides / back are all trimmed up. She also tossed in a little hair product to allow a bit of a messy look. It's tough to see any major difference, but I can certainly feel it and it should be easier to manage.

Personally, I tackled a scary one today. I realize getting a new haircut at an unknown place shouldn't be, but for some reason, I was anxious about the whole ordeal. Anyway, whew!

Day 9: Curried Goat

Island Blend Jerk & BBQ Grill is a little restaurant on Main Street that's very close to my place, yet I've never ventured in during the years I've lived in downtown Greenville. It's very similar to a narrow NYC deli, but decorated in a Caribbean theme. It's kind of hidden between an art gallery and a place that sells Hollywood memorabilia.

Anyway, I decided to hit up the place for some lunch today. I got to choose between Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork, Curried Goat, or Oxtail. I've never tried the last two, so I gave the goat a shot. Really, the guys in the kitchen could have put any sort of meat on my plate and I wouldn't have known the difference. The curry flavor on the goat was pretty tasty, but there were too many bones in the actual meat. It also gave me a bit of indigestion. The dark rice & beans + the veggies were delicious though.

I will be going back, mostly due to the huge variety of obscure sodas in there. Grape, Pineapple, Cream, Mango, Guava, Carrot, Coconut, Ginger, Ginseng, and some stuff I can't even pronounce. I wouldn't mind trying their Blue mountain coffee either. I don't know what it is flavored after, but it sounds good. Next time, it will be a veggie plate and Jablum!

Day 8: Spontaneous flirting with strangers

I've never been good at flirting, partially because I get tongue-tied. I always think of what I should have said 5 minutes after the moment has passed. Also, I never seem to have the guts to initiate the conversation. Oddly, I love the feeling of flirting, even though I really stink at it.

Anyway, I headed out to the Publix on a whim today to pick up some basil and garlic to make a Portobello Mushroom, thin-crust pizza like they make down at Trio's. I was strolling down the spice isle humming whatever song was on the loudspeaker. I must have been humming loud as I got a friendly smirk from a cute woman who glanced in my direction as I stood staring at the multitude of spices.

So in an effort to become less socially inept, I tried to start a little conversation and asked her if she knew what song that was. She didn't, but hung around to talk about music for a bit. Despite my best attempts to be coy, nothing really came of it. But it still felt exhilarating to try. Good practice too.

Day 7: Christian Coffee

It's been a dismal day outside today. Constant rain and a bleak sky makes for a lazy Sunday, I suppose. But I did manage to get out to do something new late tonight. There is a little coffee joint that's only open 3 hours every Sunday. It's under the nearby Bellacino's which is really close to my apartment. The reason it's only Sunday is due to its religious overtones.

I'm really not into religion. My parents took me to a variety of different types of churches as a kid, but nothing really stuck with me. I do like that they gave me choices over the years, though. I don't attend anymore nor do I prefer a specific faith, but I do believe in the possibility of a higher power. The world is just too darn incredible to rule it out.

But I'm rambling. The coffeehouse has a Christian rock band each week and the people hanging outside seem to be fairly Bob Jones free, so I decided to give it a chance for half an hour. I can't say I enjoyed the Jesus music, but the coffee was decent and I ran into a friend that works in the Main Street gym that opened up last year. I wasn't really comfortable and probably won't go back, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. It's better than wondering what's down there every time I walked by it.

Day 6: Took a nap in the park.

So I was up late last night watching Interstate 60, a movie about a 20 something guy trying to find himself. It's a quirky little flick with a ton of stars in bit roles. The main character is played by James Marsden. That's Cyclops from X-Men for all you Internet geeks or Lon the fiancée in the Notebook for all you swooning ladies.

Needless to say I was a little tired this morning, plus heading out early to run didn't help. Anyway, I went down to Fall's Park to chill out and get some much-needed sun. After about 20 minutes of lying on my beach towel, I dozed off and woke up about 45 minutes later.

I've never fallen asleep by myself in public that I can remember. I always seemed to be too self-conscious that somebody would mess with me. It was a bit exciting waking up, not knowing where I was or if I still had a cell phone. So, that was a first for me. It's kind of an odd one today, but still new to me.

Day 5: Housecall to help a friend.

I've always been selfish with my personal time. You could say ME time is my predominant preoccupation. So this year, I'm going to try and go out of my way to offer my abundant personal time for friends that need my special skills for some help.

Anyway, a friend at work seemed to have fouled up her TV something fierce. She hit the wrong button on her remote which sent the TV into auto-programming mode. Basically, she was unable to fix the channels and get her cable box working again. It was so bad that she was stuck exclusively watching Nip/Tuck DVD's she got for Christmas over the past few days instead of her favorite television shows.

Seeing how my brain solves these sorts of issues in mere seconds, I offered to head over to her place to fix it. No ulterior motives here, just a little slice of altruism. We headed over, I took care of it, and took the quick house tour. A simple problem was resolved and she was overly grateful for my minor fix. I knew that hunk of grey matter between my ears was good for something.

Day 4: Weird Fruit

My grocery habits have been pretty much set in stone. I buy the same stuff all the time. As for the fruit section, I stick to the standards: Strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and the occasional orange. So in the spirit of newness, I decided to patron the weird fruit isle at my local Publix this week. You know the one I'm talking about. The place where they stick all the hairy, mis-shaped freak fruit; the stuff that goes unnoticed.

Anyway, I walked out of there with 3 types of fruit I've never tried: A fresh coconut, a plantain, and a grapple:


The plantain is a cousin of the banana and the grapple seems to be some sort of cross-breed of a apple and a grape. It has the consistency and shape of an apple, but tastes like a grape. The grapple really tastes great, but it's way too expensive. $1.25 per grapple.

At the moment, I'm frying up the plantain. It's too tough to just bite into and they are supposed to be phenomenal fried. I'm using this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Puerto-Rican-Tostones-Fried-Plantains/Detail.aspx The coconut will be saved for desert, if I can manage to get inside. I've got a hacksaw, hammer, and gigantic pair of vice grips. I'll probably burn off more calories trying to get inside the darn thing than actually eating it.

Day 3: I'm bendy!

Ah, my first 90-minute yoga lesson. There is a little place down Main Street next to Horizon Records called North Main Yoga. So, I hoofed it a mile down the road around 6:30 p.m. today and popped in for the 7 p.m. class. After unleashing my stinky feet from their sweaty prison, I stumbled into the dimly lit room.

Immediately, the yoga teacher lurched toward me to give me a hug. A bit creepy, but it totally fit her spread-the-good-vibes personality. She sent me to the other two new people in the class and I happily laid my mat down between the two hot, but married chicks. On the subject of male to female ratio, let me just say damn! There was 1 guy for every 3 or 4 girls.

Not surprisingly, that feeling of euphoria didn't last as my body was stretched to bendtastic lengths that I didn't think possible. The warm-up was really simple, but the pacing was brutal. Every time I thought I was doing the pose properly, the teacher would come over to our little group of newbies to alter our bodies in ridiculous positions. I worked up an incredible sweat over the first hour mostly due to swan, dolphin, and three-legged dog position.

The last half-hour was mostly cool-down and some off-the-wall new age chanting. I really enjoyed the meditative aspects of the cool-down and became very relaxed even though my body was screaming about not being able to collapse on my leather couch.

All in all, I may consider visiting again; perhaps a shorter class next time. I'm sure my body will have a strong opinion on that matter when I drag my ass out of bed in the morning.

Day 2: Started a speech therapy course

English is obviously my first language and I amazingly avoided a southern accent all my life, but I do have a bit of a slurring problem. I tend to speak faster and faster, usually losing the person I'm speaking to. It all sounds perfect inside my head, but almost comes off as loud mumbling. Perhaps it's because I'm infrequently out of practice due to living alone, but the reasoning makes no difference at this point.

I picked up a series of audio lessons to improve my intonation, pronunciation and diction. I'm about 2 hours into it at this point. I'm attempting to analyze my pronunciation difficulties and fix those issues with a practice regiment. Anyway, this is something I've wanted to improve for years, but never took the initiative to do it.

So, I suppose the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain. ;)

Day 1: Took a completely different running route.

Lots of folks make a New Year's resolution to workout more. I worked out constantly through Jan 06 to early summer 06, but became very sporadic after my motivation left the state (long story). Anyway, I'm going to incorporate a running schedule back into my daily routine.

So, there is a gym where I work. I either run on the treadmill there or start at my apartment when it's warm. I take the same exact route every time: directly up Main Street, jog through the local graveyard, cut across the small park with the mini-golf course, and race back up Church street; dodging cars all the way.

Anyway, I changed it up this time and decided to run down a side street off Main. I looped around the west side of my little burg and followed the river back up to my place. A bit unpopulated, but I did see a little juice place that I want to try. It looked like one of those Jamba Juice places, only with a generic name. I also saw a new barber I may want to try, depending on the prices. I've been living here for two years and I didn't even know those businesses were over there.

So, a bit of a small change today, but a successful one regardless. I'm going to switch up my route more to find all the little hidden stores in running distance.

I don't know what I could be.

I lead an extremely boring life. Don't get me wrong, my lifestyle is virtually stress free. I have a wonderful family that loves me, an extremely easy job within walking distance, and a spacious downtown apartment with a vaulted ceiling & brick walls. I make enough money to pay for everything and have a bit to sock away each month.

My problem is a massive lack of change. I do the same thing day in and day out. I get up, take a shower, have a bowl of oatmeal, walk to work, go to lunch at 11 a.m., eat a tuna fish sandwich, hit Starbucks at 11:50 on my way back, finish work at 4:30, walk home, have chicken or a turkey burger for dinner, and play video games / watch TV until about midnight. Rinse repeat. Weekends are just extended versions of the last step:

I've tried to alter my repetitive behavior with little vacations to NYC to visit my sis, but it's just not enough. My personality has become one of an extreme introvert. I rarely leave my apartment when I'm away from work. I've blamed it on a lack of friends in the past, but the truth is I'm too afraid to try. For what reason, I have no idea.

So I was laying in bed, wide awake at 3:00 a.m. on New Years morning, looking for perspective and common sense finally dawned on me. I cannot change if I never open myself up to new experiences in my little corner of the world. For the entire year of 2007, I'm going to try something completely new to me every single day.

It could be something as comfortable as getting a massage to something as frightening as skydiving. It could be going up to a complete stranger to strike up a random conversation or calling my parents to let them know how much I love them. It could be volunteering at the local animal shelter or picking up a second job as a bartender. Any change would be welcome at this point.

And so the reinvention begins...