Emerged from the other end

You may recall last week how I was looking forward to getting through the past few days as they were just filled with stuff to do.  Well I am happy to report I have now come through that tunnel intact. Wow, what a blur since Friday.

So on Friday Cindy had her spray tanning session in preparation for her second bikini competition on Saturday.  She had this done for her east coast competition several months ago but this was the first time I saw the end result in person.  It’s pretty incredible just how dark she was but it really is a requirement for the show as the dark colors hide certain things while accentuating others.

Friday I once again rode an EUC over to the track to get my run out of the way.  I felt abnormally fatigued even before I started running which I talked about a lot in the video.  My body almost felt as it would if I was in the midst of fighting a cold or flu, except I wasn’t.  Running three and a half miles was the last thing I felt like doing but I had not gotten to go to the gym during the day so I felt obligated to get the run in.  The run was pretty pathetic, taking a minute longer than the week prior which had taken longer than the week before that.  My energy level was just terrible.

When I got home I did some looking around at medical sites.  I have been having repeated instances of pain in my right side that is normally brought about by strenuous gym activity, including last week.  Major organs in that area are the liver and gall bladder.  As I did some research on “right side pain and fatigue” I came across info that said liver issues that include elevated liver enzymes can cause body fatigue.  Well that got me concerned.  Concerned enough that I have an appointment with our onsite med clinic this week to take the first steps in investigating the issue.

On Saturday morning Cindy was up early doing her make up.  The early pre-judging started at 10 but she had to go in much earlier for spray tan touch ups and other work.  I tasked myself with getting as much done around the house as possible before I headed down there.  I again fought with fatigue that made even cleaning the chicken coop and weeding the property feel like a cardio event.  I just felt weak and oddly abnormal.

I piled my plate higher than I should have.  I left the house about 15 minutes later than I wanted to.  I didn’t get to the Naples Beach Hotel until 10:15 and a series of confusing signs and directions from staff put me on a wild goose chase for another 10 minutes until I actually made my way into the venue.

Unfortunately I missed the first time Cindy posed on stage but I saw her and her friends come out for another category.  My main job was to try to film their performances.  I felt badly that I missed part of it.  I still was feeling very odd physically when Cindy emerged from backstage.

So the actual judging takes place during the morning show but then in the evening they have the awards show which plays to a bigger audience, even though there were a couple hundred people at least at the morning session as well.  Cindy and a bunch of our group went out and grabbed lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  For the girls it was the first “big” meal they have had in a week or more so they really enjoyed themselves.  After lunch I headed home for a short while to let out Elsa and do a couple other things.  Cindy stayed there as they had a room at the hotel reserved for them to chill out at until the evening show.

I made sure I returned 30 minutes early for the evening show, not wanting to be late twice in the same day.  Katie joined me for the show.  We had fun people watching as the event went on.  There were many funny things to see.  Cindy did great once again, getting first place in two categories.  Despite battling bad pack pain the entire week leading up to the show I thought she did a fantastic job on  stage.  She looked beautiful and seemed comfortable on stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRLdexzL0SI

Originally we thought the order would be similar to the morning where Cindy would come out during the first half.  It was the opposite for the nighttime show, she was actually on stage for the very last group, some three and a half hours later.  Katie and I were both very proud of her.  We had three different vehicles so we all drove separately.  I got home first and tended to Elsa and a few other things.  When Cindy got home she was very anxious to get in the shower to wash off the day old spray tan.  The shower floor was literally black as she scrubbed and scrubbed the fake tan off. It was funny.

It was a late night Saturday which made getting up Sunday with an office move ahead of me seem all the less appealing. Our department met up down at Marco Island to move that office to a temporary location where they will be residing while their building gets renovated.  Most of my work was network related as I was focusing on getting communications up and running in the new spot.  We ran into a couple snafus during the day but overcame them.  I headed for home around 2:30 so at least the entire day was not consumed.

When I got home instead of basking in the glow of what remained of the weekend I jumped right into more work, changing the oil in the Prius and doing some speed mowing just around the house mound so the grass wouldn’t look ratty for the fantasy football draft party Monday night.  I collapsed into bed Sunday night wondering where the weekend went and thinking about what needed to be done yet for the Marco office and preparation for the draft party we were hosting.

So I spent most of yesterday at the Marco office once again.  I had a number of smaller but annoying loose ends to tie up.  They consumed much more of the day than I anticipated.  I headed right from Marco at 3:30 back home so I could assist Cindy with party prep.

Cindy had been busting ass to get stuff done since I have not been able to spend as much time on prep as normal.  It was much appreciated and allowed us to have everything ready to go well in advance of the 7PM draft start.  Once again we had some owners connecting remotely via Skype.  Once again we had remote owners that had issues with connecting that never got worked out fully.

I normally do very minimal draft prep for my fantasy team and this year was even more sparse due to the time constraints.  I only printed out a single fantasy “cheat sheet” that ranked players by position and used that as my basis for picks.  As usual I overate at the party but not quite to the levels I have in the past.  I also drank less beer, only downing three Miller Lites during the event.  All of the people in attendance were very appreciative of our hospitality and seemed to enjoy themselves. After the last person left Cindy and I tore into clean up.  We actually got everything back in place and cleaned before heading into the bedroom which was a good feeling although it once again meant we didn’t get to sleep until close to midnight.

I feel a sense of relief getting this series of events/tasks out of the way.  The next few months should hopefully be slightly less demanding. It seems like the last couple years at work have been the busiest of my nearly 20 years in the position.