I'll start by wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! This will be my final update of 2008.

I'm officially in 'holiday mode', today is my final day of work...yahoo! This year, my 'sleepy hollow like city' is actually experiencing weather that one would expect during the holiday season anywhere, but here.....we have SNOW!...and lots of it. In fact, it has been snowing here off and on for the last five days and falling constantly for the last 3 days!!! My car is easy to drive in the snow, but we have so much of it that I've been forced to park my car and upgrade to something more suitable for now.

Even with the crappy gas mileage, I think I'd like to get a truck. This could be my inner 'red-neck' speaking, but I do enjoy being able to navigate around in a vehicle that size...I can drive on or over things and not even feel it!!

And speaking of the holidays, I'm not sure what a Christmas season would be like without parties and endless party tray preparation!


I may be skilled in other areas, but the kitchen is where I do my best work :)

Ya know, even with all the parties I've attended, I'm still not filled with the so called 'Christmas spirit'. My sis, bro and I have 'opted out' of any and all family celebrations on both sides of the family. Instead, we have chosen to celebrate amongst friends (aka the riff-raff) who don't have family in the area or simply don't have any family at all. Considering this is the first Christmas without my parents together, it's been a huge adjustment and not an easy one. Fortunately, the holidays will come and go in a 'blink'....

So far, all is well with my training. Recently, I did need to take a few days off due to a pinch in my trap/neck. I was training while I was plagued by a serious head cold and somehow, I managed to hurt myself. It has healed up quickly and the residual stiffness I feel is easily fixed by a healthy dose of anti-inflams and a good warm-up at the gym before I train. You may think I'm nuts for training even though I still have some stiffness, but I assure you, the only thing that would make me crazy would be an extended period out of the gym. With all of my work/family stress I NEED an outlet and the gym is where I relieve it. Aside from stress relief, I can't afford to take extended time off from the gym with the upcoming contest season quickly approaching....I have zero time to screw around. Hell, I'll be on stage at the New York Pro in a little less than 5 months!!

As for my nose piercing...I'm still lovin'it...it has almost completely healed. The only time I KNOW it's there is when I hook it on something like a towel...that's when I get a huge reminder that it hasn't completely healed yet.

alright....that's enough outta me...happy holidays!!!

apparently I need to get back to my regular groove of updating my journal because this time around, I'm way overdue for an update. November passed me by as if I was standing still. It was a busy month of work and travel and now I'm sitting here looking at the calendar realizing the first week of December is almost over. Damn, Christmas is almost here!!!
With all of the turmoil my family has faced this year, my siblings and I have decided not to celebrate or at least not make a big deal of it. It'll be a low-keyed holiday season for us.

The final bodybuilding competition of our local season was amazing! Each year this novice show has a record number of entries and those numbers continue to increase. Pre-judging was very hectic, but at the night show, I was able to catch up with some friends during the intermission and afterward.


Of course, once I returned home from the show, I was counting down the days until my trip to Atlanta. Now that particular weekend was a blast! The nationals in the USA is a huge event, it's well attended and it showcases a ton of talent. I was pleasantly surprised! My sis and I flew to Atlanta together and met up with friends once we arrived. My girl Melody had arrived the day after us; when she and I met up at pre-judging, we were practically wearing identical outfits...she and I think
a lot alike so this really wasn't a surprise!


After the eventful weekend, a few of us went out to celebrate my b'day on the Sunday night. We had some good laughs and good food as well.


Sometimes, I have a difficult time comprehending the fact that I'm already 32! I swear, as I get older each year passes faster. And speaking of getting older, we also celebrated Dreu's b'day (my bro's girlfriend)at the end of November as well.


I do have more candids from the weekend which I'll post next time.
Enjoy your day!