AO: Beverly Hills
September 20th, 2023
62 degrees, clear skies, beautiful morning
PAX- Kielbasa, Julip, No Cry, Bambi, Sputnik, Big One, Good Lookin’
Q: Roadhouse
I pulled into Big One’s driveway at 5:05 in the morning. We were carpooling today and I told him I would be there at 5:10. I was early. I texted him and said, “I am here early, no rush”. As soon as I pressed send, I realized that I had made a terrible mistake.
As we all know, when it comes to getting up and getting to the workouts, there is absolutely NO RUSH when it comes to the Big One and I just gave him a hall pass. I waited in the car, looking for a light to come on or a door to open. The clock hit 5:10 and still nothing. No big deal, I thought, it’s not like I am on the Q…
At 5:11, a light lit up the darkness and the garage door opened. And there he was, in all his glory. He moseyed to the car and we were on our way.
It had been a while since I had been to Beverly Hills and I was excited to explore the site and to see some guys I don’t always get to see. Big One and I had a great conversation on the way down, solving all of the world’s problems, and we pulled into the lot around 5:25. Just in time or as Big One would say, way too early.
I greeted a few of the PAX that were waiting and waited for the clock to strike 5:30. At 5:30 there were 8 of us and I stumbled my way through the intro. 3 Fs. 5 cores. Even got the mission. The rest is a bit of a blur.
I instructed the men to mosey to the basketball court for a little warm-a-rama. We circled up and got to it.
WARM-A-RAMA: Basketball Court
Big Ones
Deep Leg Stretch
Imperial Walkers
Michael Phelps
Sun Gods
Side Straddle Hops
Warm- a-rama went really well and the deep leg stretch ended up being a religious experience for me. I felt something in that stretch that I have been searching for a long time. It started in my hammies and spread down to my Achilles and up through my tight cheeks. This is going to be a regular for me moving forward.
We moseyed back towards the flags and I introduced the pre-Thang.
THE PRE-THANG:
For the Pre-thang, we did 11s up the hill. At the bottom, Air Squats were on the menu. At the top of hill, Merkins awaited us.
We got about halfway through 11s before I called Omaha on that part of the workout. That hill is a real fucker…
Now it was time for the Thang and I was excited to try out my new App. We were going to Tabata today and someone downloaded a Tabata timer app. Boom!
We moseyed around the site and to the parking lot in the Southwest corner. We circled up and I introduced the tabata concept. 40 seconds of an exercise and then 20 seconds to rest. Let’s go baby!
THE THANG:
Tabata Style: 40 seconds on 20 seconds off
Merkins
Big Boys
Prisoner Squats
Mountain Climbers
Flutter Kicks
Burpees
Carolina Dry Docks
Star Fish Crunches
Sumo Squats
Plank Jack with a Pushup
LBCs
Jump Squats
This group had a lot of fun during this Tabata. I wasn’t sure if I could play music and have the timer going so we had to fill the gloom with chatter. One question that was posed was what celebrity people have told you that look like. This was fun! Kielbasa went with Ethan Hawke which is spot on. He also took credit for Justin Bieber’s famous hairdo. Then Big One threw out two names. One was Chris Hemsworth, which his wife Kim adamantly disagrees with. Then he mentioned Canelo Alvarez. No Cry said Paul Rudd. Bambi said one time at night, when he was wearing sunglasses, a hat and a beard, someone confused him for Matt Damon. Good Looking said he has been told he looks like Tight Lip. We then argued over the definition of celebrity. I gave the obvious answer of Jeff Goldblum.
The next conversation was about beards. Then we really got off the tracks as someone brought up the show Black Mirror. There was a lot of innuendo as we discussed episodes and I was both confused and aroused by the conversation. Overall, it was a great time in the gloom and I feel like I know these guys a little more than I cared to.
At 6:05, Omaha was called and we moseyed back to the flags for some Mary,
MARY:
American Hammer Rancid Style- 8
And with that, we were done. We had finished and he had finished together.
Name-o-Rama:
NOR went fairly smooth and the group photo was fantastic.
Announcements:
Tracks lounge get together next week
Both St Roberts and Our Lady of Lourdes have festivals this weekend.
Lots of shit going on
Prayer Requests:
Tassels and his wife as they navigate her cancer
Bambi’s wife as she deals with recent surgery
COT:
On Sunday this last weekend, Bodhi and I were hanging out watching cartoons and he asked when his mom was going to come get him. I told him she would be over that night to pick him up and he was upset. He said he wanted to go there now and I will be honest… that hurt.
We had had a great weekend. All day at Vala’s on Saturday and an art show for him on Sunday morning. And now he was done with me? He was bored? He wanted to be with his mom more…
Immediately, my mind started spinning thinking negative thoughts like, I am not a good dad, I’m failing at this, what am I doing wrong? I started beating myself up about how I need to be better. And then I slowed myself down, climbed down from the roof and asked Bodhi a question.
Who do you want to go to your mom’s buddy? I asked simply. He looked at me, with a slight grin and said, “She has an Ipad…”
It was that simple. It wasn’t me or anything I was doing. It wasn’t her or anything she was doing. It was a tablet, a toy, a thing. And here I was telling myself stories about how I was failing as a dad.
Later that night I was reflecting on what happened and I realized I do that a lot. I hear something or sense something and I run with it down this rabbit hole of negativity creating almost a worst case scenario situation. And in doing this, ignore the facts, I make stuff up, I create a narrative where I am end up full of doubt and insecurity.
And what I realized is all I have to do is ask a few questions to understand more. All I have to do is be more curious. All I have do is find out why things are being said or why things are happening.
So the next time, you start beating yourself up because of something someone said or did, ask a few questions to gather more information. It might turn out that you are not a giant dipshit! Or maybe you are…
Roadhouse, CLB
I love you guys!