This evening, after working all afternoon on a project with Mike, I did not want to go for my daily run. I was supposed to have an SFUC game, but the weather didn't cooperate, and the game was cancelled. So, the daily 2 mile run was on the schedule instead.

As mentioned, I did not want to go on this run. So, I head into the office to start working again on the project. Bella, the short, stinky one, comes up to me and starts pawing my leg. She was so cute, I started petting her.

We often play a game of chase. It usually starts with my getting down into the doggie I-want-to-play position (think: all fours, front paws out in front, butt in the air). When Bella catches on, she'll bay, then run away, usually to the other side of the house. I get up and chase her. When I catch up to her, she bays again. I then turn and run the other way to the other end of the house. She chases me, and bays when she catches me. We then repeat this until either I get tired, she gets bored or Kris yells at me for creating a Crazy Dog.

After a few moments of petting Bella this evening, she got into the I-want-to-play position and started baying. The chase was on!

We chased each other through the house for over 5 minutes. When we were done, I was all warmed up and ready for a real run.

Despite my rump being sore from last night's workout, I ran the set 2 mile loop in exactly 18 minutes. I was pretty happy (considering Tuesday's night run in 19.5 minutes).

Bella the task master. I'm right on schedule with my ultimate off-season training

Today, we received the announcement of the end of an era. Ben and Lisa told us they are moving to Seattle Washington. Ben landed his dream job and it happens to be 850 miles away from where they currently live. Sigh.

I'm unable to express how happy I am that Ben found his dream job. As I'm currently on my way to creating my dream job, I would never begrudge a good friend the same enjoyment of life a great job can create.

Ben will be running a camp. Well, not really. He'll be leading a great group of people that make up

"IslandWood is a unique 255-acre outdoor learning center that provides kids, adults and families with hands-on learning experiences that combine science, technology and the arts."

Damn, I wish I had a chance to go to such a place when I was young. And I almost wish I had kids to send there. (Only almost, because anything more would require actually having such kids all the rest of the time.)

Though I'm really happy for Ben and Lisa, I'll admit to crying when I found out. I'll miss them both so much.

Today was rainy. As a result, there were a lot of accidents on the freeways. And, as a result of that, Kris took over an hour to get to ASA, and G couldn't make it at all. After getting stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and not moving at all, G gave up, called in and went home.

Pat Frost, an ex-MLB pitcher, stepped in and ran the class for us. We started out with ladders. I started well before Kris arrived (mostly because he was taking so freaking long to get to class). I managed to get all my ladders done, and two runs at the T drill before he was ready to run.

Ladders included my favorite LR-RL etc. One leg in, both out. Hop scotch (L R together). Ali shuffle. Shuffle R first (facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, next square R foot in, L foot in, etc.). Shuffle L first. Facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, R foot out, L foot out, advance one square. There were a few others in there. The outside foot in horizontally, both feet outside, other outside foot in horizontally, etc. I'm sure I'm missing a few new ones.

Next was the T drill. The T had 8 steps on the base, 3 across the top of the T. I did four shuffling to the left first, another four shuffling to the right first, for a total of 8 runs. Most of my times were around 9.5 seconds, though I had an 8.9 in there somewhere, and a 10, too. P didn't do too well in telling us suggestions like, stay low, use the arms, butt down on the shuffle, don't pop up. On the runs I did things well, I ran quickly. Otherwise, I did only okay.

Next, we had ice skaters & hurdle jumps

Next was box jumps and 180° jumps with weighted ball.

Last was abs. Instead of our regular, brutal G abs, we did 4 sets of 30 seconds of 5 ab exercises. Starting with bicycles, we did swimmers (lying on our backs, arms out sideways, legs out straight in front of us, move feet up and down from 6" to 12" off the ground), then criss-cross (same position as before, holding feed ~12" off the ground, cross them left on top, then right on top, repeat). Next, we had trunk lifts (hold feet up in the air, left hips off the ground), and finally Supermans (or, lie on your stomach, hands under chin, lift head straight up. That's one set. Repeat 3 times. Four times total.

It was neat to have a new instructor. I prefer G, but I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. Change is often good.

And today, we're officially back to the Real World, away from the ultimate community. The RW is a strange place to be after 5 days in the UC. I guess the biggest differences are the sense of fairness and the ability to undo.

Think about it: in ultimate, there's the spirit of the game. SOTG (nearly) guarantees respect between individuals. So often in life, that respect is lacking (just drive to the grocery store and count the number of times you have to drive 1/2 the speed limit, get cut off in traffic, have people cut in front of you in line or something similar).

And, if you disagree, you can redo the whole thing! Send the disc back. What a deal. You can agree to disagree. In the RW, it doesn't work that way. In the RW, everyone still disagrees and gets pissy at each other. Bah.

Anyway, Real World. Work. Stuff to do. Life goes on.

There are various ways to piss me off. Actually, there are many, many, many ways to piss me off. Here are just a few that I experienced, why, just this past weekend.

• Take credit for my work
  
• Don't do the work you're paid to do
• Get mad at me because I can't solve a problem of your creation
• When you're part of a group, don't pull your own weight
• Don't give me enough information to help me help you solve your problem
• Sit around on your ass while your boss is running around like a chicken with her head cut off
• Tell people my idea was yours
• Stick your nose in where it doesn't belong
• Start a job, do a crappy job, then leave it 95% unfinished
• Lie^H^H^H Exagerate to people about what you do
• Fail to give credit to all the people who support you
• Hire someone to do your job because you're too lazy to do it (or maybe can't do it? not sure there), thereby doubling the cost of your job to your employer
• Do a shitty job
• In a panic, ask me to solve your problems because you were too clueless to plan ahead
• Don't plan ahead
• Waste people's time, thereby burning big favors from said people
• Dress poorly when it reflects poorly on your employer
• Show extreme disrespect to your coworkers

I'm not 100% convinced that any one of these things would piss me off by itself. But when the same person does all of them, well, I admit I'm pissed.

One of the problems I have, however, with getting pissed, is that the person I become is not a person I like. I don't like getting angry. I don't like the downward spiral that happens when I start complaining. I don't like that sometimes I need to rant, and that Kris takes the brunt of that ranting. Poor Kris. He's so good to me. But this is an entry about being pissed off...

Personally, I can't stand being angry without a way to solve the problem. I don't want to complain, I want to solve the problem. What's wrong? Fix it.

But how do you fix clueless, egotistical, immature, disrespectful people? With patience? With understanding? With maturity, respect, gentle persuasion and, well, not a little manipulation?

*shrug*

I guess I can give it a try.