See...I told you so!!!!

hip hop hippy a hippy a hip hip hop you dont stop. rockin out da baby bubba da boogity bang bang to da bang to da boogie da beat.

Hi freaks and weirdos...I'm back.

I knew I would do that! I knew if I missed a day, I would miss several. Grrr. I now myself so well, it frustrates me. And the bad thing is, I'm hard to get rid of! Believe me, I've tried.

Okay so whats going on with me?? Nothing really. I'm still here in atlanta. And after a couple months of this weather, I've come to the realization that I loathe the weather here. Why? check this out. Sunday, it was 42 degrees and rainy...miserable..unless you are Ernest Hemmingway. Monday was 66 and sunny. Not bad. But Friday (yes, I know I am going out of order) its was 80 friggin degrees and sunny? WTF. Thats perfect!!! From ideal weather for me..to a cold damp hell. I don't think Dante even tought of it like that.

My ideal weather? Hot. Sunny. Maybe a rain shower or a thunderstorm here and there. Nights at 68. Days at 80 or better. Sun, surf, sand....god I miss florida.

And how are things on the returning home? Slow. But I have a meeting next week to determine a timeline of things. Hopefully I am employed soon again and back on the right track.

Yup, Im unemployed. Its sad, I know. I quit my job as a Retail Manager with acompany that I loved and spent 5 years there. I left to take a job with a HUGE entertainment conglomerate in florida...only to have it pulled out from underneath me thanks to collusion and backhandedness from the powers that be. GREAT. so yeah, that part of the reason for my melancholy recently. No job, not where I wanna be. Thank god i have family here, otherwise..I don't know.

Health: Well I need to join a gym. Any donataions are welcome. I need a BIG GYM with loads of stuff to do. A lifetime fitness or LA Fitness...something like that. Any takers. I hae lost no weight, nor gained any weight. And i dont feel better or worse, so it was a odd week. I just need to remind myself to make healthy choices. For example..BK's Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch Sandwich....NOT A GOOD CHOICE!!! Tastes good...but thats it. Oh it had a tomato on it..yea health food! lol

No, I want fresh food. I am tired of unnatural crap. Over processed junk and loads of salt and preseratives. I am tired of frozen food and ready to eat things. I want my own house, with my own kitchen so i can stock things my way. Very little pre prepared food, loads of fresh INGREDIENTS so i can spend time making high quality, healthy food. I have a load of cookbooks so I can surely find stuff to make.

Okay. There is another little piece of me. I'm sorry it took so long to get back here. Maybe I'll do this again later today. I'm sure something will come up that I need to spew about.

feel free to email me with ideas..all 800 million of you.

Peace.

Gimme three Pina Coladas....One for each hand....????

welcome back to my world....watch your step.

okay...so today's topic...me! I have come to the conclusion that I need to do some overhauling in my life. Yes, the weight thing is a big part of that, but I mean deeper.

I have alot of things that I love to do. Probably too many, but they make me happy so deal with it. First off, I love music. I love to o out and do karaoke with my friends on sunday nights. I am even working on a couple new songs to knock em dead with when i et back to Cricketer's Arms. I do mainly rock and country..but i do throw some Sinatra in there too. so I am diverse.

I also love to play the drums and guitar. Drums are kinder to me than the guitar but i still love it. I need to buy or build a house where i can set up a room for a recordin studio. there i will hae my drum set up along with guitars and computer and microphones to put it all together. I know a couple friends wanted to put some people together and play some. Maybe even write some. And if we get good enough, perform too. Do we have delusions of grandeur? No...just bars for beer tabs and all that. Maybe pick up a couple girls..who knows. I hope they are serious about it, because music is my favorite outlet for creativity and all that. Rudy, Westhoff...Im serious!

You may know i wnet to culinary school as well. I love to cook and i so kick ass at it. But I dont want to work in a restaurant or caterer. Why? long hours, crappy conditions and idiots above and below, inside and out. Unless I open my own..thats different. I'd love to spend a year or two working for Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain, Ming Tsai or Mario Batali at one of their restaurants, but thats about it. I worked at a local Dunwoody hangout called High Cotton for two years and I loved it. Was there opening night and thought it was fun. Mike Zajac was great.

But I want more. I want to have a restaurant WITH him or like him. But he put in 20 hour days all the time, which is nuts. But it was the right thing to do. It opened in 2000 and its still open today. Well done.

But cooking or managing isn't where I wanna be. If I were the owner, then I'd gladly do it. My restaurant, my name on the door, my standards. My REAL love is wine.

Yup wine. I wanna be a sommelier. A professional wine steward. build menus, teach classes, pairin with food, travel. The nerdy part of wine. Hell, I was great at that in culinary school and in the restaurant. I have a friend who owns a wine store in Orlando and his friend IS a sommelier. I plan on pickin his brain for every morsel I can until I enroll in the IWA School. It costs money and time, but it will be well worth it. My ultimate aol: Grand Master Sommelier...theres only like 20 in the world now.

But more than that, I like all kinds of alcohol. Now before you start shaking your fists and gnashing your teeth, listen. I like the educated part of aclohol..sophisticated. Know what pairs with what and how its made and blahbity doo dah.

So I will also be pursuing a couple more degrees. A beer sommelier's diploma....and a whiskey one...and alslo a Sake master. Yup I love drink. This may take me my whole life and I hope to teach many people and write several books or articles, but it will make me happy.

and on top of that, I got the wild urge to become a sushi chef as well. I loe sushi and to atch guys like Masaharu Morimoto amazes me. That will take years of practice and training but I will so love it. and they have REALLY COOL KNIVES. Morimoto had a knife MADE for him that is worth $15,000 ALONE. One of a kind....perfect balance..looks like a sword. It's awesome.

So there are my dreams for today. I'll keep you informed when this all happens.

For now... I wanna sleep.

Tomorrow's topic: who knows. I'll figure that out tomorrow.


.....oh and for that other pina colada....I drank the other two too quickly. I have a brain freeze now. Anyone want it?

Grrr...major skull pounder.

And it came to pass on the second day...

...that i still have no idea what to write. But I also know that if I don't write something EVERYDAY that I'll never write anything. So here goes...day 2.

You know, it really amazes me just ho up and down a day can go. It's like one minute you are flying high and the next you are downtrodden. But then again maybe we as humans are FAR too sensitive to that. More worried about our feelings as opposed to what is best for us. Best opportunities to grow and to learn.

Take food for example. Now remember that I am trying to eat better and take care of myself. I don't wanna die early or have to rely on taking pills everyday to survive. Hell, I cant remember to take vitamins everyday without having to leave myself notes. So yeah, me and pills...no good.

So last night I got tired of eating crap, so I went out and got some fish..Tilapia. I remembered a recipe that we did at High Cotton restaurant, so I modified it and made it for me and my parents.
I eneded up making it with a breading of panko and Parmesean cheese..then topped it with sauteed red and yellow peppers and a buerre blanc. I had no idea how i remembered the method for it, but it all came back all at once. I was like a machine in the kitchen..not thinking...just acting. It came out awesome..better than you can get at any restaurant. Mike Zajac (my mentor from long ago) would be so proud.

So that when well..and i even decided to make home made dark chocolate espresso brownies for dessert. Soft,rich, moist and crispy outside. it was perfect. Gotta love Gordon Ramsay recipes. but they were so rich, you could only eat them in 1 inch squares without feelin like you were gonna get sick. There's still half a pan downstairs now. All in all, not totally healthy, but better food than you can pay for... and all natural..no crap. GO ME!

So fast forward to today. Breakfast: yougurt...good. lunch: frozen taquitos????? dinner: CHICK FIL A strips and fries?????? Have I not learned anything??? One step up and two steps back....thanks Bruce. (Name that song for 10 points)

But I did go out and paly disc golf again today. This has been an on again/ off again love affair since 1997. Thansk Brian Stuppy for introducin me to this fell mistress. I love the ame but haent gotten to where i am completely confident in it. I need to develop "the snap," where it looks like the disc is bein launched from your arm as oppsed to just being thrown. The pros can chuck a disc upwards of 500 feet..and make it look effortless. But some are 6'6" and lanky as hell, so they produce a crazy amount of torque. I am not, plus I am big and i have relatively short arms. I can still go about 300 feet, but it is me really muscling the disc down the field. Imagine what will happen when i get the snap....look out PDGA! lol This just like it all...takes time.

So I am talkin with an old friend, rehashing the past and "remember the time" stories. IT makes me wonder....what if I had done one or two things right. What if I had gotten to the fork in the road and turned right instead of left? Would I be here now? Would I be happy? Where would my life be?

Then I think to myself: Is this healthy? Why am i spending so much time asking myself where i screwed up? Shouldn't I be more like "what CAN I DO differently?" I can't change the past. But I can make the future better. And I have got some ideas on that too.

I think when i et back to Florida, I'm gonna learn how to surf. It seems like they have a peace to them that sounds so enticing right now. Like they are at one with the world..or at least the ocean. Any takers??

Tomorrow....Sushi, Wine, Music and Running....in the rain.

P.S. Biggest Loser...Tara Costa....WOW. first off...you are gorgeous. second..you hae the heart of a lion. third..you are far and away THE BEST on the show this time.

Did I mention you are GORGEOUS?????

Day one.....or something similar to it.

It seems to me that you will never know when a spark of creativity or whatnot will flare up, but I figure we all need an outlet for whence it comes. So this is mine. Now if I knew what to write...

Okay, here goes....Hi all'yall. I am Chris. 31 years old. Atlanta, GA currently. single. 5'10" 255 lbs. brown eyes. brown hair. I have alot going on in my mind..and really do know were to start. so I'll pick one at random.

Happiness. What is it? how do we get it? Where does it come from? Who knows? Here's what I know.

I am unhappy. Why? many things!

So what do I do? Change them. My brother told me that if I don't like the way things are going, get off my ass and change them. So maybe I can use this blog to hold me accountable for my actions.

What makes me unhappy the most. My looks. Now granted, I'm no Brad Pitt...whatever. That's not what this is about.
What this IS about is me getting healthy again. When i was in culinary school (in 2001) I started off the winter quarter at 200 pounds. I dropped 30 pounds in 2 months after working out EVERY DAY and taking vitamins and watching what i ate. I cut out sodas and drank a gallon of water everyday. AND I WAS TURNING HEADS!!!! just ask my ex. she was pissed at me!

That was 55 pounds ago...and 8 years. Wow. It boggles my mind when i think back on that. And you know what. I'm gonna do it again.

I tested myself a while back and it said i was 31% body fat....that means i am carrying about 77 pounds of crap on me at this time. that is just sad. I am considered SEVERELY obese, but I don't feel like it.

So lets fix it. GOALS: weight 190 pounds. body fat: 8% waist: 32 in. when: Halloween. I wanna be down to like 220 before my birthday... August 1. How: eliminate excess sugar and fatty foods, cut out sodas and do something active EVERY DAY. No excuses.

I have spent time in the past couple days outside playing disc golf (which I know I will blog about alot). I also cooked fish tonight...and loads of vegetables. So that is good. I just need to be patient. I know i cannot lose 60 pounds overnight, but I know I can do it. I just gotta get off my ass and do it.

A dear friend of mine is oin on a similar journey, and is 20 pounds ahead of me. I am so proud of her. And I am using her as my motivation for this. Thanks Liv.

And about that ex I was talking about: I still talk to her alot. and she's dropped 25 pounds in the past couple months too! kick ass! Good Job Jen.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

P.S. watch the biggest loser. Tara is HOT!!!! but it is the real last inspirational show on TV currently.

Next blog: Family, Friends, Florida...and Gordon Ramsay