Depression, Time Off, and a New Hobby

Life has not been super eventual lately.    Summer Youth Fitness ended last week.    I don't have complaints other than low enrollment.    The children behaved well, much better than last year.    The employees were decent too.    My main issue was with grad students that worked hourly for me.    I expected the issues to come from undergrads but nope....grad students.    I still need to write a closing/thank-you email to the participating families.   I also want to create a survey for families so I can get some data about some future ideas.   I'll do some work on the program tomorrow when I need to kill some time at ISU before my eye appointment.  

I had a really rough weekend in terms of mental health.    I couldn't get out of bed and was in a really bad funk.    Dan had me get up and go out to eat with him so that helped a bit.    I felt bad paying to go out to eat because I'm not able to eat  much lately either.   I have no appetite.    Yes, I know...time to schedule a doctor visit.    My friend Mike reminded me of something that plagues me from time-to-time.   I thrive when I'm busy and structured.     When I have downtime I struggle.     He reminded me that I need to do things for myself and I need hobbies.    And my hobbies need to not be related to working.     Seems pretty sad that I only get enjoyment from work at times.    I've had a growing interest in yoga as I need to find ways to relax.    I am trying some yoga classes this week.   The studio is here in Ankeny.   There are several in Ankeny but one stood out to me because of its well-designed website and nice variety of classes.    I need to start out simple since flexibility isn't my forte.  

Time for some honesty:

• I didn't enjoy my time with Jude as much as I thought I would.    The step-parent experience frustrates me more than anything.    I keep comparing him to Gavin and I shouldn't be doing that.   Jude has had a different upbringing and that upbringing is what is causing some issues.   Don't get me wrong, Gavin's upbringing wasn't always sunshine and rainbows but I think he had more stability when he was younger.     And I cannot stand how dependent Jude is on technology.   It drives me crazy.     

• For awhile, Dan has been wanting to speak to my parents about marriage.   He wanted to be traditional and make sure they are on board and I can appreciate that.    He has been wanting to bop up to Waukon on occasion and I've told him to calm down about it.    It finally seemed logical to go up recently since LeAnn was having her garage sale and I wanted to see Grandma Stika.   I know it would be tricky to get both Mom and Dad in the same place at the same time.    He did speak to them about it and I don't feel it went as well as it should have....sigh.    Go figure.     Combine with me feeling rather down lately, things haven't been great with he and I as he doesn't feel it went super well either.     

So I plan to do some yoga this week, minimal work, and attend some appointments.    I paid a buttload of bills yesterday and everything is ready for Gavin and his school year.    He had his physical on Friday along with a second meningitis shot.  His registration fees are paid except I still need to buy his athletic pass but that will be a bigger deal in the winter when he goes to basketball games.    He bought his own stuff for football so I don't have to bop out and accompany him to stores.   I need to schedule some senior picture shots.    I do want him to have some taken in NE Iowa too in the fall (ahem Alissa).    

That's enough for now!

Milwaukee: Land of Beer and German Stuff

Greetings:

Back to the grind today.     The remaining two weeks of summer camp at ISU should be fairly easy and I don't have anything on my schedule in the mornings and only need to work in the afternoons.    I do need to start packing up my office to move to my new location in the building.   It's not really a new location as it's my previous office.    They are currently painting it and waxing the floor.   Hope to start moving by the end of the week so I don't have to deal with the move when I'm off in August.
Dan and I took an excursion to Milwaukee the past weekend.   It was a quick trip but organized well so we balanced our time with sightseeing and resting.    We departed on Thursday morning and took our time since we didn't need to be at our first planned event until 8pm.    I used some of those travel sites to book our hotels and our first hotel was a Ramada.   The one in Des Moines is decent and the one I used in Sioux Falls was really nice too.    The one in downtown Milwaukee?   Not so nice.   You could tell it had been smoked in and seemed a bit musty too.    It served it's purpose though and it was a place to lay our head for one night.

We took some time to walk around the downtown to find a place to eat.   I decided on The Safe House which is a spy-themed restaurant.   It took a little bit to find because it was hidden in an alley.    I should have figured they would make it difficult to find.    It was confusing at first because you enter a small room and a guy simply asks you for the password.   We both guessed a password but were wrong.    We then had to perform a challenge to prove we were worthy to enter the establishment and weren't enemy spies.    At this point I was like "what the hell did I get us into?"   We were to act like monkeys at the zoo and fling poo at each other.    Dan did this very well and I was like I said....confused.    We were then granted access and one of the walls opened and we walked into the restaurant.    We then realized that TVs are positioned all over the restaurant and people can see you performing your challenges.    Embarrassing at first and you get over it as you start watching other people act like fools too.    Decent food.    Interesting establishment.  

We then literally went across the street for the concert.    Dan's favorite band is Toad the Wet Sprocket and they were playing at the Pabst Theater.   It was the first day of their new tour.    It was a very good concert.    The venue was awesome too as it is a very old theater.   They sound just like they did back in the 90s.    I feel their most popular song was the one in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bM1CqHoBY

I remember the song playing when we would swim at Lonning's or the pool when I was kid.

On Friday we slept in and found a local place to eat lunch.   It has the longest bar in the USA.   If I remember correctly, it was called Buck Bradley's.     Milwaukee is all about fish fries on Fridays so Dan ordered that for his lunch.   I got a basic salad because I couldn't carry leftovers with me all afternoon.    The fish (cod) looked amazing though.   We then took a river cruise down the Milwaukee River during the afternoon.    It was focused on history so we learned a lot about the turmoil in the area and various immigrants that settled in the region.    The cruise took us out on Lake Michigan too.   The only bummer was that it was cloudy and rather gloomy.    I gracefully cut my hand on one of the doors too when going back and forth from inside to outside the boat too.    I had been wanting to try some German food so we did that for supper.   It turned out to be our pricey meal of the trip but it was worth it.   I got a meal that included a flattened, breaded chicken breast on top of spatzle with a mushroom gravy.   So good.   Dan got a platter of various meats including brats, sausages, etc.

Our second hotel was a bit better as it was more modern and smelled a lot better.   It wasn't in a great neighborhood though but we didn't die and my vehicle wasn't broken into.     I thought it was further from downtown but we were still really close so that was nice.  

We left on Saturday morning.   Originally we were going to visit Cave of the Mounds for a cave tour but changed our minds and went to House on the Rock instead.    Dan had never been there and I was in the mood to go again.   We spent a couple hours there and drove into Iowa.    We took a pause in Cedar Rapids, ate at Red Lobster, and then continued to Newton.  

Overall it was a good trip.    Thankfully Milwaukee was semi-easy to navigate.   It was actually rather cool there so I was glad I brought a hoodie.     Gavin survived my absence and didn't burn down the apartment building.

Here are some pictures from the experience: