"Portnoy's Complaint", Quitting Smoking, & NYE

Today is Tuesday December Twenty Ninth Two Thousand Oh Nine. I am in the middle of reading "Portnoy's Complaint" by Phillip Roth and it is one of the most hilarious books I have ever read. It was a recommendation by my friend Dave and while he struk out with Thomas Pynchon he hit a home run with this one. He said that it was laugh out loud funny and that is a true observation. Its about a jewish sex addict who is telling his life story to his doctor and while its mostly a soliloquy there are flashbacks of his childhood. This will be the last paper book I read before I go over to the dark side and start using my kindle and I am glad its a great book. Considering how many crappy books I read its cool to be reading a good'in.

Stopping smoking is almost a reality, I have 1 3/4 packs of Marbys left to smoke. I was at Walmart in Rockland the other day and stocked up on some nicotine candy because it was on sale. I have two hundred fifteen pieces of nicotine goodness and I will most certainly figure out some way to slowly taper of them. The lozenges last much longer than the gum so I reckon I won't have to use as many in a day that I would the gum. I had the choice between cherry and mint flavor and after must deliberation I went with the minty. They still taste ghastly but I don't think having my breath smelling like a ten year old girl is the way I want to go. I am pretty psyched actually because I know that I will see results in the gym within a couple of weeks.

Speaking of the gym, after much internal deliberation I have arrived at a schedule that will allow me to work out five days a week rather than the four days I am currently doing. I will do my single routine and cardio workout on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays followed by both routines and cardio on Saturdays and Sundays. I have been riding the deathcycle for a month now and doing the routines and death cycle for three weeks so I think its time to turn things up a bit. I think that I have started slowly enough to give my body a change to wake up after fifteen years of dormancy and its time. Today I rode the death cycle for twenty five minutes and instead of keeping the rpms at eighty six I slowed it down to seventy five and my heart rate was a steady one hundred thirty. I was able to complete the twenty five minutes without thinking I am going to die, I was still dripping sweat, and my heart rate was right where it should be. I have been really concentrating on my form with the machines and I am hoping that I am doing it correctly.

I am trying to come up with something interesting to do for New Years Eve this year. This is not the first NYE that I have spent sober but it is the first one with any length of sobriety. The Los Sugar Kings are playing from 7:30-9:00 and Chris Brokaw's twelve string guitar quartet go on at 9:30 so I should be able to catch both shows if I decide to go out and about. The only thing is I need one of those first nite buttons for eighteen bucks in order to check out the music. I sent an email to Michael from the LSKs hinting that perhaps maybe he could get me in the door without having to purchase a button but I guess I wasn't obvious enough. My sponsor invited me to a sober NYE party over in Roslindale but I don't think I want to hang out in Rozzie all night. Maybe I will check out the tunes and then head over there for a few, I just need to figure out how the hell I am going to get back to the Amsden. I am hoping that a certain xx chromosome will take pity on me and send along an invite to whatever she is doing but I am not counting on that. I have not really made any play for her and won't till I get to know her better. She is just so damn pretty and perky and its tough to just chill out about the whole subject.