When life isn't from the freezer to the oven...

Tonight was the first time since I moved to AZ I have not "cooked" something that went from the freezer to the oven to the table. I made some chicken pasta salad for dinner, which I cannot even eat until tomorrow because it is suppose to be chilled.

Here is what it looked like in my kitchen after I cooked dinner:

I hope your dinner tonight was not as messy as mine to clean up.

Rock on,
~Lane J

Wordless Wednesday...2 Days Early

For several weeks now I have been wanting to participate in Wordless Wednesday, but I keep forgetting to take my camera with me on Wednesday or forgetting it's Wednesday all together.

Tonight I was sitting in my apartment when I realized the sun reflecting off the clouds in the east. (There's gonna be rain tonight!!!) So I grabbed my camera and I was off to take pictures in the hopes to participate in Wordless Wednesday tomorrow.

Then I realized today was Monday. (Frowns) So I decided that I would post the picture anyway.


Enjoy the Semi-Wordless Wednesday two days early!

Rock on,
Lane J

Today's Path: Breaking Limitations by Thinking Positive

It has been a hard week out here for me. For some reason, my mind has been playing the "what-if" game with me. But guess what mind...What if I succeed? Take that!

Okay now that I have that out of the way let's continue...

Living on my own in a new city on the other side of the country has given me the chance to explore the internet world even more. I have time in the evenings and in the mornings, after I run (3.3 miles today), to just surf. My favorite thing is to find a good blog and then surf their blogroll for the time.

Yesterday, I woke up late so I had more time to surf than usual because I didn't have the time to run before work. So I went to a good friend's website and linked to Phil Gerbyshak's site. WOW! (and not the game) It was what I needed. Phil's blog for the day included two quotes which helped put this week in perspective:

“Once you choose hope, anything's possible.” — Christopher Reeve

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours!" - Richard Bach

Arguing for my limitations is exactly what I had been doing. I was in the mind-set that I couldn't do what was expected. But after a little thought, I realized there are so many things I thought I couldn't do and I did them. One example is with running. 6 weeks ago if someone would have told me I would be contemplate running a 5K tomorrow successfully, I would have been the first person to be rolling on the ground laughing.

Now, I am contemplating it. A 5k? I have run 3 in the past 7 days. The main reason was because I didn't say I couldn't do it. I woke up 5 days a week and ran. At first it wasn't even a mile. Then gradually it got longer and longer. Now look at me!

What walls are you building which you really want to not be there? Are you adding to your limitations? If you are stop! Make a commitment to yourself to say you can do it!

Think Positive and see what happens, I dare you!

Rock On,
~Lane J

St. Louis and Phoenix Similarities

There is not much, heck there is only one thing I can find that makes Phoenix similar to St. Louis. The crazy thing is it's the weather. It's not the crazy weather of 80 degrees then 30 degrees and snowing like St. Louis. Or the 3 months with no sun. The similarity come with the change in the temperature.

Currently, Arizona is in the middle of monsoon season. This means it could rain everyday, or it could not rain at all. On the days it does rain, the temperature is amazing. When I was outside around one this afternoon, it was probably about 105 degrees. About 2 or 3 hours later a storm rolled in and it was about 75 degrees. It was, as Bruce Almighty would say, B-E-A-utiful. I sat outside at my friend's house and watch the lightning.

When I made it back to my place, it was still raining and gorgeous out. So, as I write this blog post, I am sitting on my balcony in jeans taking in the sounds of the storm. It is relaxing and peaceful with the occasional car passing by.

Storms are great to just sit and be still as you take in all the elements from the soft sound of rain drops in puddles to the brilliance of the light show of lightning. What else could one ask for on a lazy Sunday in July?

Today's Path: The Phenomenon That Gets Me Up at 5AM

My friends and I will be running in the Remember 9/11 5k race here in Tempe in September. I started out running a mile at a time, but this week I not only broke my 2 mile goal, this morning around 4am, I ran 5ks. CRAZY, I know, but I did it.

The one bad thing is in order not to die from the heat, you have to run around 5am. I dreaded waking up and running that early, but this week I found one of the amazing reason to wake up and run..

The other day when I was making the final one mile stretch of my run, I saw one of the most beautiful sight ever: the sun breaking the horizon.

Thursday and today both were amazing seeing the bright fireball climbing into the sky to light and heat the world for the day. It seemed in a way to be struggling to get out of bed from its night like I was thirty minutes earlier. There is something about being able to witness this phenomenon that gets me up in the morning to see it.

My crazy friends I have made here in Phoenix, are big runners. They love to run. Many of them have ran 5K Races, and others have ran marathons. The first few weeks that I was here they tried to get me to run. I just wasn't wanting any of it. But several of them took it upon themselves to remind me running a 5K race was on My 50 List.

Today's Path: Decluttering your office and life

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." ~Joseph Campbell

Today was a day of clutter cleaning. From what I hear, every July in service at work is a cleaning day. It was like a very late spring cleaning. Many people went and cleaned their desks and tidied their lockers, but I do what we call hoteling. I don't technically have a space to call mine except what is my space on the server.

So as everyone else went about their decluttering, I went about thinking. (I know, I know, it is a very scary thing when I think.) I was thinking about what I could declutter. What better thing to declutter than life itself.

Life can be crazy sometimes because of things that hold a sentimental value that we keep that have no other use beside reminding us they once had a use. Whether it be an item or a relationship we keep trying to revive because we don't want to let go of remembering what it once meant. Letting go of the clutter lets go of the energy associated with it. And clutter carries only negative energy.

The opening quote was emailed to me last week in a daily email I get from Kim and Jason, The Kim and Jason Insider. (By the way if you do not get their email, SIGN-UP for it today!) It makes me think about how many people are to worried about making their life their way that they don't remember the universe already has a life planned for them.

I'm not saying to quite making plans for your future, but to be willing to change your path when the entire universe had built the enormous sign in front of you which you keep ignoring. It's like in the movies and old cartoons where there is the huge road ends sign that the character keeps ignoring completely.

So what in your life can you declutter? Is it the physical objects sitting in your house? Is it a relationship that you know isn't going anywhere but still wish to hold onto it because you don't want to miss the times that were good? How much space can you make for positive energy?

Go forth, rock out and Declutter your life,
~Lane J

Today's Path: A life Lesson from Dr. Seuss

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss

We all grew up with the Doctor. I learned to read because of him. If it weren't for Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat I don't know if I would have ever learned to read. But today's post is not about reading.

I am a sucker for quotes like those above. There is something about them that makes you go "I guess that is true." I always think about how it can or has applied to my life.

With the Seuss' quote, I think about my friends who have never really minded if I ranted about something crazy in my life that ended up not being important at all. I have been blessed to know so many people that don't care it I rant or not. I try my best to return the favor, but there are times I know I have not.

But truly to all of my friends out there in the world and blogosphere, I want to say thank you because you matter the most to me. I probably have told you several times already, but I just did again.

Thank you to everyone that is my friend, because you all matter to me.

Rock on,
Lane J