Cirque D'or and Anniversaries and P90X (oh my!)

So . . . we saw this tonight.




It was showing at the Akron Civic Theatre, and we went to see it off-the-cuff (totally unplanned). One of the reasons we love Akron so much is that it's easy-in, easy-out. By this, I mean to say that we get quasi-big-city amenities such as shows and restaurants and other great diversions, coupled with the small-city rewards of being home in 10 minutes. It would be hard to leave here.  We walked into the theater, bought tickets at the box-office, saw the show and left. It cost $40 for the two of us and not a dime more. Great not paying Ticketmaster service charges, and parking deck fees.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all about it (you'll figure out quickly why we went to see it). Cirque D'or is a Chinese Acrobat troop out of  . . . well the Dallas area, I think. But in speaking with one of the acrobats tonight, I discovered that most of them are recruited (transplanted) from South Beijing.  Anyway, very very similar to what we saw while in Shanghai in 2008.

Anyway . . . tee-minus 3-ish days until our French Polynesian vacation. This will serve as our 10th anniversary vacation-celebration-vacation. What have we done to prepare for this vacation? Well . . . the reason we have been near-extinct this summer (and year) is because we have been doing. And doing and doing and doing. It's laughable when people say that they're "so busy". Because we all go . . . "yeah . . . right. So is everybody".

I shudder to say it . . . but . . . we were. Just that - busy. Something like going to see Cirque d'Or tonight is a clear example that we are planned to the minute, and if there's a free minute, we find a way to consume it. No sitting around, here. One of the things that has consumed most of our time is [yuck] trying to get into shape for our vacation. We always say that we're trying to get in shape for "something", but it never seemed to happen.  This time, it did.

We both engaged on the trip to P90X perfection. Though Sharon chose to do a hybrid-version of the workout (to include skipping many of the exercise days in lieu of running or going to the gym), I stuck with it. Minus the diet. Because who eats 2,000 calories a day? Or worse - 3,000!

Tony Horton - we hate him, but we love him. We love to hate him.

In any case, we sought to be "in the best shape of our lives" . . . excluding the days of youth, when you could do nothing more than drink diet coke and smoke cigarettes, and somehow still end up with rock-hard abs.  Not to brag, but . . . we did it. As of today. (No, I don't mean that as of today we smoked cigarettes and drank diet coke and still ended up with rock-hard abs. Quit trying to be funny.)

Today, I weigh the least I've weighed since "those" days . . . and I have a body to match (yeah still a little-bit "thirty-six-year-old" going on, but I'll still take off my shirt and not feel overly-disgusted with myself.). 2010 to date, I've lost 20 pounds, exactly. And I'm 2 days from becoming a P90X graduate.  I will qualify that by stating that though P90X is a grueling 90 days, I will have completed it within ~120 days. Too much of a pain in the ass to get it done in just 90 - you'd have to forfeit a job and family to do it in that time.  I still say . . . just getting through it (provided it doesn't take you 5 years) is enough to say you've done it. Yoga? Yeah, I do it. I challenge anyone who says it's for sissies: Come do yoga with me; if you walk away, you won't be walking tomorrow. And that's just one day of six equally-as-ugly ones. I love the fact that I can get through all 10 discs . . . . full tilt. I feel 23 again; and I earned the right to say so. Minus the several injuries P90X caused (all worked-through).

Aside: Do this and tell me what you think. It's a joke. Funny what it takes to make the Body-Mass-Index chart tell you you're a healthy weight. For the record, I'm just inside the "normal" range. This pisses even my physician off.

Sharon? Though she didn't do P90X the whole time . . . she did exercise every day that I did . . . and it shows, too. To her GREAT credit, in addition to doing her own P90X+hybrid thing, she's stuck with me through each and every day of the last 2+ weeks of doing nothing but P90X. And of each day that she's completed, she has never regret a one. She's nearly at the weight goal she set for herself (~1.5 pounds away and she'll find that before we leave, I'm sure) and looking mighty skinny.

I did take the before pictures that they say you should take . . . and I will take the after-pictures  . . . don't know that I'll post them. Gross. If you're family, I'll send them to you, provided you promise not to post them on Facebook or sell them on eBay.  Sign the contract.

What's next? Sharon keeps talking nonsense about some Insanity thing. Let's hope to be stranded on an island in the South Pacific.