Yes, today is my mom's birthday.  My parents have done so much for me growing up and I honestly don't know where I would be without the sacrifices my mother has made.

I went up to the grocery and bought her some cake. (Shhhh...it's a surprise!!!) 

I owe my mom a lot.  I got her a card on my lunch and figured out what I was going to get her for a presnt, but honestly the best thing I can do is get off this blog and go spend time with her.

I'm sure I will recap more on this next week, but if what I have been through has taught me only one thing, that thing is how important it is to spend time with your family.  Anything can happen at any time.  Cherish each moment!  That's what I'm doing right now because everything I am and what I aim to do is because of her.  So that is how I plan to spend the rest of my night  (Oh yeah, and I am a bit excited about getting to have some cake too =) )

Have a great night everyone...and go at least tell someone in your family that you love them!  Don't do it for me; do it because you have the opportunity to do it =)

The building that I work in has a gym in the basement that I believe is owned by Marriott and my company is allowed to use it.  However, I was not aware that you have to pass a physical fitness test in order to work there.  I’m assuming there is some insurance policy you have to be able to meet.

So here I am, Mr. 5-Time Marathoner, certified personal trainer and I have to bike for 10 minutes with increasing resistance and have to keep my blood pressure and heart rate below a certain level to qualify working in the gym.  Here’s what I found out:

My resting heart rate mid day is 64 BPM. (Sweet!)
My blood pressure is at 120/70 (Awesome!)
After 10 minutes of biking, my heart rate got up to about 150 with the increased resistance. (I pushed myself a bit on the bike.  Couldn’t resist ;) )
After a minute or so rest, my blood pressure was at 125/80 (Nice!)

Now I am allowed to lawfully workout in the gym at work and am still training one of my co-workers 4 days a week at the gym.  Physical Trainer consultations are now being given if anyone is interested!  Considering that I my doctors thought I may not walk, this is just the ultimate testemant for them.  And now I get to help others overcome their limitations.

One step at a time.  That's what I did and that is what everyone I am working with is doing with fantastic results!

Got in a fun gym workout today, decided that I’m going to get back involved with martial arts and, get this, had time to take a nap and still send out a marketing package to one of the literary agents in DC for An Uncharted Life.

There are still more agents to find, but getting all the prep work made in completing the first package will make compiling the others all the easier!  The only thing left is to create this query letter, but I may actually have time during the week to get that written and edited!  I’ll keep everyone posted on when I hear back from this agent.  They say it’ll take about a month, but fingers are crossed and prayers are being said =)

Wow, I actually had enough time today to completely reconstruct my resume.  The past couple weekends have been spent helping my friends update their resumes and, after reading theirs, I got some great ideas for how to update my own…and I absolutely love how my resume looks now.

Before, my resume was very plain and I was always bothered by how consolidated I tried to make it.  I extended it to a second page, added more details in and made the entire document more aesthetically pleasing.

And on top of it all…I actually found time to job search!  I found a handful of jobs that I had time to apply for on Saturday and finished with time to reward myself by meeting a friend for sushi.  Man, I am feeling good.  Maybe I need to reserve more time to get my own stuff done before taking a majority of my time to help others and scramble to get my own stuff done.  After all, if I am stressing over my own responsibilities to myself, how productive am I honestly being when I’m helping others in such a stressed state of mind?

This is…relaxing.  Wow.

I love how readily my friends come to me either to talk or to ask me to help them with something.  These “requests” are usually last minute, but I never usually mind because I will do anything in my power for my friends.  Prior to this weekend, I spent my two previous weekends helping friends and putting off things I have wanted and needed to do for myself.  It made this past week at work beyond exhausting.  I basically felt like I have been working for 21 consecutive days.  As much as I love helping my friends, the best way for me to be able to help them is by resting this weekend and spending the entire weekend doing things for myself.

With that said, I’m going to leave this post here.  I’ll update you across the week, but I think a week away from social networking in all forms will be the best way to detox my mind and re-energize me.  After this upcoming week, I’ll be back to taking on every problem my friends throw my way to help them with, and continuing to get myself closer to getting this book published.  Hopefully some headway on that this weekend…updates to come!