Four days into the bachelor life I walk around the house using my beer as a microphone as I give a sold out performance to whatever ghosts and spirits occupy this joint.
There is no rhyme or reason to the songs I choose. It is a mix of pieces from my personal library culminating with a rocking rendition of an old Chuck Berry favorite.
A few hours earlier I hit the gym determined to have a better workout than the prior two days.
So I dig into my simple bag of tricks and think of what will give a little lift. I don’t need much, just have to crack the door open a bit and then I’ll throw my entire body against it and blow it right off the hinges.
The Undeniable & Irresistible Pull Of The Bells
They keep going off inside my head and I keep ignoring them.
A few days before bachelor life resumed my baby girl and I had a disagreement or two.
Ask me what they were about and why and I’ll say sometimes all it takes to set off a teenage girl is to simply breathe.
So I went back to basics and made her laugh.
First I did the Superhero entrance on the stairs to the Avengers Infinity war entrance theme.
Of special note, not only did I time my jump from the staircase to the tile floor perfectly I did so without cracking the tile floor or any bones in my body.
I may not be invulnerable, but I am still relatively solid.
This made her smile and giggle for a moment and then she instructed me not to hurt myself at which point I offered to come to her high school and do my best impression of Thor screaming “Bring Me Thanos!”
She didn’t appreciate that offer but did tell me she knew some girls who went to see Thor Ragnarok because they think Chris Hemsworth is cute.
I told her I may not be a pretty blonde like him, but I have great muscles and flexed my bicep. She shook her head and then groaned when I told her I was using the left because my right is much too powerful.
When she started an argument just before they left I told her it is always easier to say goodbye when you are angry.
She rolled her eyes and told me I have said that too many times and then I smiled and said I have said to other people too and she told me she doesn’t understand how her aunts never killed me.
“Because of that right bicep, it is far too powerful.”
Her older brother told me that moment right there proved I had way too much practice teasing his aunts and said he was taking notes.
Fortunately looks can’t kill ‘cuz his little sister wasn’t interested in hearing me receive any praise for my antics, especially when they might be imitated later on.
****
As I walked through the gym towards the bench I thought about the conversation with the kids and how much crap we have all had to deal with.
It has been a rough road to hoe and undoubtedly they have felt s0me of the pressure too.
I haven’t slept as well as I could or wanted to which has played into why these last couple or workouts haven’t gone well.
But this wasn’t going to be one of those days, I wasn’t having it so I pulled out my phone and watched the first minute of this clip.
It might sound or seem silly to you, but that was all it took to give me that little lift.
I pumped out the two best sets I have had at 225 in twenty years and bounced to my feet feeling a surge of adrenaline.
When the kids or friends ask how I have pounded through some of these moments I have often said I have ground it out or reached into that bag of tricks for something that helps me stop thinking.
That is how I reach back in time to find the 5 year-old who would put on a cape and run around the house yelling “I have got my power.”
PSA, it is cute when 5 year-olds do it but not so much when done by a grown man.
Don’t ask how I know this, just submit and accept I do.
I know things and this is one of them.
Twenty Minutes
I didn’t plan on writing.
I was going to take the night off but I keep thinking about the results of a test and what they might mean.
Won’t get them before tomorrow and they may be fine. Might not be a thing to be curious, wonder or concerned about.
Would rather not waste energy on it but it kept ping-ponging around so I gave myself twenty minutes to do a mind dump on the page.
Twenty minutes to see if I felt better with a promise to stop typing at the bell.
Twenty minutes and now we have this.
