Merry Christine

I really love that sentence………Think about it.

I am going to reminisce for a bit. Above my desk here I have a collage. In fact I love collages. I have made collages in every single work space my entire life. Favorite people, cars, clothes, castles, magazine ads, sayings, cartoons, etc.. Anything that inspires me enough that I know the second I see the picture I will never tire of it. In the very center of the collage above my desk here is a picture of Davana Medina from Muscle and Fitness in her opal two piece. This was to be her last layout in the IFBB industry. Her last Ms. Olympia title, undefeated. No one ever had the priviledge to say they beat her. Attacked by many, defeated by none. And in the upper left corner of the picture is her wedding picture with her husband John. A reminder what is the most important to her.

To this day, I have yet to be as inspired as I was every single time I made a suit for her. Don’t know why, and definintely no disrespect to any of the beautiful women I work with now, especially the ones I have been working with for years. There was something about her drive, ambition, and dedication to pleasing the people that gave her the title. I think a lot of the inspiration came from the issue that she had so many “haters” in the competition field at the pro level. One time her make up case mysteriously disapeared out of the dressing room. The level of disrespect to her moved me. So I think maybe I just always wanted to shove her undeniable beauty in their faces. Bottom line was it didn’t matter how much they tried to destroy Cinderella. Bottom line, she was and always will be the undisputed beautiful queen of this industries figure category. Look at her in any line up and tell me why I am wrong. I sure miss working with her. And I cannot begin to express how much I love and respect that girl to this day. But I will tell you this. She is a very happy wife and mother…………

Reminisce a bit further back. I MISS THE OLD NAUTILUS MACHINES!!! Oh how I miss them. Those big huge machines that when you got into them you were sure that after 12 – 15 reps you were not only pumped but in PERFECT form. What I would give to find a gym that had all of that old school stuff near me. Not a single machine back then made by Nautilus had a negative issue. Now everything has to be space effective. You have to stand there and figure out which shoulder press is going to be more effective. And gawd help the leg press machines!! I miss the cable cross over machines that were just cables and you set the plates onto the bar. That is when you really had to steady on your own. The old Nautilus ab machine was my favorite. I have not been there since 04 (unfortunately) but the Venice Golds Gym (Mecca) has all of the old Nautilus stuff still. I sure hope they never took them out. It would be a sin. Especially from that gym. The kindest people I have ever been around is at that gym. It has every reason to be the snobbiest gym in the world, but it is the complete opposite. If you ever are around Venice Beach in California, you must get a work out in there.

I imagine my longing to reminisce is because of our shitty weather, crazy politics, horrble recession, global warming threats, unnecessary sprawling development threatening my mountains, and my fat booty, that is making me wish back a few years. Which is unusually off for me. But I am humble and will admit my emotions for the moment. I cannot help but watch the news, using the excuse to keep up to date with what is happening in the world, but damn, why is it always bad lately? I know we can’t live in lala land but what is going on????

LOOK OUTSIDE AT THE BIRDS!!! Oh yes, okay. It is what it is where it is……………………………………

Waking Life………..It is an animated movie. If you go to the google site and put that name in, you can watch the whole hour and thirty eight minutes. Pretty, pretty amazing movie. You cannot be distracted while watching though, and it needs your 100% attention. I loved it so much I bought the DVD so I can watch it on a big screen.

So, this weekend Mike Davies and Julie Palmer came to the cold damp Northwest to hold a boot camp, organized by my adorable friend, Shannon Gill. “I” made dinner for their Saturday workout. I did not get to experience the torture because I have suits to get done and I am extremely dissapointed I screwed that up. But it has inspired me to get my shit together again and start kicking my ass. I don’t get out much any more so it was refreshing to sit around for a couple of hours with some very cool girls. The whole group was extremely positive and healthy. I just love that!

So running this morning, I came across a small group of snails crawling across the logging road. How cool is that???? They are so beautiful. These little things make me realize I have no valid reason to bitch about anything. I sit on my ass and work endlessly, but no matter how bad things get, all I have to do is look out the window and there is ALWAYS some awesome critter doing something entertainng. My hummingbirds are sucking the sugar water I make them. I have feeders everywhere including right outside my window here and it is hysterical how these crazy critters skwable. Don’t get on my case if I spelled that wrong!

One of the things i did at this gathering last night was explain to the women how I messed myself up by taking enhancing drugs for the past few years and completely messed myself up. I have been pumping iron for over thirty years and it was only five years ago I finally decided to go that route. As each year went by someone would turn me on to something else, and after last years experience I have had no desire to compete ever again. Completely, totally my ignorance. I have no problem admitting I screwed up and I have no idea how long it is going to take my system to come back.

I have nothing, honestly against anyone doing them, providing they completely understand the outcome, but I must say that the longer time goes by, with all the damn cardio I do and NOT eat out of control, I still have an extra 30 lbs. of excess bodyweight that will not go away. This is why I have the utmost respect for Mike and Julie, because I have seen them take so many girls and turn them into mega chicks with NO drugs. Humbles me and makes me feel like a cheating fool. Nuff said on that.

On another topic, I did bring up the topic of fat chicks turned skinny. I have numerous girls email me monthly about loosing over 100 lbs. and want to compete. I always hesitate to take these kind of women on because my experience with that is the girls that use to be fat, are the meanest and most selfish women once they loose a lot of weight and become “sexy”. A bit of advise to you girls that fall into this category. Just because you have dudes checking you out now does not give you a license to be a bitch. Just remember, one slip and you can be back in the blob pile. Being humble and gracious is 80% of your new found beauty.

I would love to chat some more but I must move my butt from one seat to the next and get back to work. Try to check out the movie I mentioned above. It is extremely interesting and left me thinking overdrive for a while after.