efozzie

Just like I could not believe that half the year was over in July, I cannot believe that 2006 is practically over.

After reviewing my New Years Goals, I present to you the status of each:

1. Do something outdoorsy at least once a month

Yes

2. Go camping in a national park

I'm going to strike out the "national" and put "state."

3. Run across the Golden Gate Bridge

I did this on December 3!

5. Read at least 10 new books in 2006

I've read 8 so far: The Starfish and the Spider, You Inc., Be Your Own Brand, Good to Great, Middlesex, Letters to Montgomery Clift, All Marketers are Liars

6. Meet new people
7. Mend past half-relationships
8. Go on more quality dates with quality people

Yes, yes and yes.

9. Play at least one sport per month

I've been pretty good about this by playing tennis with Sal, surfing, snowboarding, and hiking.

11. Find a hobby

Surfing, although my surf buddy Jed is moving back down to SoCal. Sad! I'll have to adopt a new surf buddy.

12. Love more

I've been doing a good job of showing love. ;)

Incomplete:
4. Cuss less

Not cussing is overrated anyway.

10. Finish Part 2 of my book, The Prediction

I'm going to give myself till 2007.

2007 Goals coming up soon.

Happy Birthday to me! Here is my Golden Year in pictorial review.

J F M A
M J J A
S O N D
An extra December pic because it's my birthday!

I realized today that I have been stressed without even realizing it. Some symptoms that just happened today:

Emotional eating
I inhaled a gigantic meal at our local favorite Jamaican restaurant, Back-A-Yard, in about 7 minutes. Usually, I can't even finish the entirety of a jerk salmon combo plate in one sitting and would have to save half of it for later.

Migraine / Headaches
As I was driving and running errands, my eyes kept squinting at the abrasive sunlight, which normally would have been fine. Then my head started to hurt because of the light sensitivity.

Twitching
My eye and my scar has been twitching for the last 2 weeks!

Fatigue
Although I feel like I've been getting adequate rest lately, I felt thoroughly exhausted, especially when my students arrived with their bustling energy in the afternoon.

The really bad thing is that I've been feeling this way, and the stress has been such a normal part of my life that I didn't even realize anything was wrong.

My big event is tomorrow, BUILD's 4th Annual Holiday Sales Bazaar. Last year's event was a smashing success, and I have no doubt that tomorrow's will be fantastic also. All of the details are covered, mostly thanks to Alison, incubator program assistant, so really I have nothing to stress about. My body, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to get that though.

Why do these get paired up frequently?

I'll start with the bad.

Four weeks ago I had a terrible cold, and I was so sick that I took a day off of work, which I don't ever do. Because of the terrible cold, I called my assigned doctor's office to set up my very first appointment ever with Dr. Vasquez. His earliest workable timeslot was three weeks later. Needless to say, my cold was a moot point by then, so Dr. Vasquez just gave me a routine physical.

A week earlier, at my aunt's house in Tracy, she checked my blood pressure (three times out of shock), and it was a whopping 155/110.

Alarmed, I made sure to bring it up to Dr. Vasquez, so he took my blood pressure, and was also shocked at the 156/108 that he got. He said that a normal guy my age wouldn't get higher than a 130/90. I asked him what the implications were, and he said that high blood pressure could lead to strokes, heart failure, kidney failure, and other unpleasant things. And because both of my parents have high blood pressure, I probably have it too solely from genetics, and the only thing I can do is take blood pressure controlling medication for the rest of my life.

I don't like pills, and the thought of taking a pill every day for the rest of my life starting at the young age of 24 is...stressful.

The doctor and I came up with a "compromise" because I insisted that I did not want to take pills for the rest of my life, and that it may be a dietary issue or something else. I have to take out sodium from my diet as much as I can, and he would re-check my blood pressure in three weeks. If my blood pressure is still high, then I have high blood pressure caused by genetics. If my blood pressure is lower, then the good Lord is watching over me and my blood.

Wish me and my blood some luck...


Now the good news.

Despite the bad news, and my odd current health condition, I had decided earlier in the year that I was going to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. So on Sunday afternoon, after a delightfully relaxing day of sleep and cleaning, I drove with Jed to Golden Gate. He came along to take scenic pictures, and provide moral support.



The day was sunny and gorgeous with plenty of tourists around, and the run across the bridge didn't seem that long, especially with stunning views of the Marin headlands, Alcatraz, SF bay on the first leg, and beautiful scenes of the Presidio, Chrissy field, SF cityscape on my way back across. During my run and after my run, I couldn't help but feel lucky to be living in such a beautiful and friendly city.