The Soda Stand

Archive for December, 2011

I hope you all have a happy, safe new year and that 2012 brings you happiness, joy and love.

I know I’m not the only one who will be happy to have 2011 in the rear view mirror and not have to look back on it.  It’s been a rough year for a lot of people, myself included and I’ll just be glad when that ball drops tonight at midnight.

Until next year….

For the last several weeks, I’ve been wanting to go out on the patio to get my Christmas stuff out and maybe rearrange and look through things.  I put it off because of my visitor a few weeks ago (if you missed it, there was a HUGE spider living on the patio) and I was, admittedly, frightened of going out there and facing that fear.

Today, I finally put the fear aside and went out there with a broom to clean off all the cobwebs and what not.  I opened the door to the storage unit and this is what I found:

Doesn’t look too bad at this point.  I figured whatever was in the cardboard boxes would be lost and everything else would be okay.   During this photo, I had already removed the ladder I had and the Christmas tree box, and both of them were a total loss.

As I was trying to bring everything out of the storage unit so I could see exactly what the loss was going to be, I realized the side panel on the right side was falling off:

I also found a hole in the bottom left corner of the storage unit:

I was becoming really discouraged with what I was finding.  I knew there were some old books that I collected over the years.  Laurel K. Hamilton, Jude Devereaux, etc.  My entire Jason Bourne book collection was destroyed.

I finally got to the plastic containers and they were frozen together with some of them being damaged and water seeping through them.

I’ve emailed all the pictures to the manager asking her to fix to the storage unit.  I’ve gone through all of those containers and I went from 5 to 2.

As I was going through this stuff, and getting really upset, I tried to focus on the positive.  This enabled me to take the time to go through all this stuff and get rid of things I don’t need anymore.  Although it was heartbreaking because some of the stuff had definite emotion to them, I knew it had to be done.  I also found paperwork from the early 90’s and forward.  Really didn’t need to keep that stuff.  I did it quickly and thoroughly and I’ve taken all the trash out.  I won’t be putting anything back in that storage unit again, even if they fix it.  I’ll just store them in here with the rest of my stuff and call it a day.

I, of course, will turn this around to be my fault ya know.  I left those cardboard boxes in there.  I knew that storage unit wasn’t the best.  I shouldn’t have done that.  I should have put all those books in a plastic container.  I may still have them.  I guess I had figured since they were on TOP of the plastic containers, they’d be okay from water damage from the bottom of the unit.  Never did I imagine the water damage would come from above the boxes.

Until next time…

I’m sitting here before work, thinking about how my life has changed, improved, grown, etc., in the last year.  One year ago yesterday, I asked a coworker to make up a workout for me everyday.  In the last year, he has missed/forgotten a handful of times to send me something.  Beyond that, he has sent me a workout via text or on his duty days, he’s made something up for me.

One year of Crossfit type workouts and I am creeping into a size 10 (my goal is size 8).  I started at size 14.  One year of these workouts and I lost 26 pounds and then gained 7 back and then lost another 2, so I’m sitting at a total of 21 pounds lost.  I have yet to really change my eating habits along with this workout regiment.  However, for this next year or workouts, I’m going to work on my eating habits and try to eat healthier so I can see even more results than I already have.

I’ve felt better about myself, other people and life in general in the last year than I have in quite sometime.  I’m pleased with the results I’ve seen, I like how I feel.  I like how I look.  I’ve also formed a different kind of bond with some of my coworkers who workout with me everyday.  Same group of people, everyday.  We encourage each other to keep going when we know all we want to do is lay down on the blue mat and die.  We congratulate each other on finishing a difficult workout.

I’m blessed to work with such awesome people and have the opportunities I do with having a gym in the basement and the abilities to use that gym.

Also, I’ve decided to keep the blog.  Too many memories around this place and I’m just not ready to let it go.

Until next time…