You Caught me Smilin' (Again)

Oh yeah, the presidential campaign has, by a landslide, voted in Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States of America. No news could be better. nothing could rejuvenate my feelings of hope. Nothing else could have renewed my trust in the people of my proud, strong and wonderful country.

I wrote last about change, and hope, and felt a difinitive connection between my hope for our upcoming president and my powerful body changes via crossfit training.

What I want to share now is the idea of Hope. Barack Obama has been lading the bill of Hope. Hope for change, hope for future, hope for security, hope for peace. I've been on his bandwagon my whole life.

The first presidential election I voted in was against Ronald Reagan in 1980. It was an important first; I voted against California Governor Reagan in a Presidential election I felt was vitally important to the safety of our country. My vote lost, and I had to wait for Clinton to give me a feeling of hope and chance that we could, as a country, regain our strength, dignity and safety.

Then there was the Bush administration. I had lost hope for the last eight years, but really it was the last four years that confounded me.

Hope. Inspiration. Change. I did a crossfit training today that seemed impossible. I felt terrible. I was worried for the presidential campaign and had nothing to eat. I couldn't eat as I was so terribly anxious and upset by this election. Additionally, my mother was setting out on a plane trip to go through a grueling divorce trial which doesn't hold her in much favor. At the gym, I asked for a carb drink -- something without caffiene or weird herbs, just an electrolyte drink, and I paid $3.00 for it. I drank it slowly, not wanting to settle a bunch of liquid in my gut, but wanting to get some glucose and sucrose and some electrolytes in my system. It felt embarassing to feel shakey and weak, but that's how I went into it, and Stein wasn't really into giving me much slack anyway.

4 sets of 5o rope jumps
4 sets of 25 jumping jacks

Then a circuit set of 3 sets each of primarily upper body work

Then the crossfit:

10 reps of thusters, 15 pounds each barbel for total of 30 lbs.
15 reps 1/2 puud kettle bell sumo swings
20 crunches
25 rope jumps (should be double-unders)

Time: 13:02.

This was a pivotal workout for me, 0nly because in my head, in my body, and in own ability, I finished. I felt like crap, but that crap wasn't enough crap to allow my mind to allow me to lose. I dared not ask where the polls were while I was diving into this particular workout, but I knew that my trainer has my same point of view.

My workout was hard, very hard, but what I had to give, I gave. I got into a zone I had never been in before. That Zone was one of those wierd zen places where you know you are not going to give up, and you're going to finish. And I dd finish. It was hard, but I got through it.

There is hope. I have hope in myself, but more so I have hope in my country and my government. But it helps if you can find your zone; once you are in that zone, it doesn't cost anybody; you just set your sites and you hit them. That's how Obama did it, and that's how I'm oing t do it, too.