I push it so hard in the gym that I rarely acknowledge regular schmucks, much less someone uber famous staring at me. Call it blind focus or sightless drive or maybe my iron blinders are just soaked in sweat? Some may not understand that kind of focus, but those who are serious gym junkies always will.
Over the years, there have been a few infamous, several famous and many quasi-famous people walk through the doors of my gym. I’d say Mandrill’s is on top of the short list of top gyms to visit in New Mexico. Most of these visitors have been easy to spot out, looking much like their movie version selves. The quasi famous are easy to spot out. They feed on recognition and usually have a parade of people following them and many, many flashes.
On Friday, there were two new, quiet faces lurking around Mandrills Gym. At the time, that’s all they were to me… two new faces. I was off from work and hitting legs hard! I was also being my usual unapproachable self. The two new guys seemed to be circuit training. One, the obvious trainer and the other, the heavily bearded trainee. I know that for at least 45 minutes, these two saw me with a I’m in an ass kicking mood look on my face.
And so goes the story of my accidental meeting with Ant-Man. I was hack squatting and he was benching when our eyes actually met for the first time. The placement of these two pieces of gym equipment made it hard for me not to notice two bulging eyes staring at me from the bench. It was his turn to burn a set and I started thinking… “this guy looks familiar as fuck. Did I go to school with him or what? What’s he looking at?”
I realized I recognized him because he was a movie star somewhere after I saw him buried under 225 on his first attempt. Poor guy. I was resting between sets and felt so sorry for him that I actually took my headphones off and told them that they had the heavy bar. His trainer seemed a little unhappy about my input and confused about the bar, but I made the lifter feel better. He told me… “this isn’t a 45 lb bar? I actually did better than I thought then!” I told him… “no and you did. You could have hit that for one.”
•• My son Daryn, Paul Rudd and Daryn’s best friend Richard ••
I realized it was Paul Rudd that very moment. Maybe it was his voice, because it surely wasn’t his burly beard. For the first time, I felt famous, maybe even infamous in the presence of someone who was actually famous. Rudd has been in at least 50 movies. He was shredded as shit in some of them too. I felt like he was impressed with my workout. I’m far from the hottest gal he has seen, but he wasn’t staring at my butt. He was staring at my drive.
He is here filming a movie. Ant-Man did have his LA based personal trainer, Brendan Johnston with him, but that day, I showed them how New Mexicans do it. Even though I felt bad about my scowling looks, I broke down and asked if he’d take a photo with my son. How could I not ask? My son would kill me if he knew Ant-Man was there and I didn’t tell him. When I asked, they both seemed like they weren’t really into it even though Rudd said yes. Do you blame them? I seemed like a total bitch. Here is a text from my funny ass nephew if you don’t believe me
I walked out of the gym thinking “I blew that one.” My son and his friend were waiting for me outside. I told them about Ant-Man, but had decided I wouldn’t take them in. I told them that he was training in there, but wasn’t really wanting to take a photo with them. They were disappointed, because we like Ant-Man. To my surprise, Rudd’s personal trainer actually ran out of the gym to get me. I was shocked! He asked if we could come inside with him. We were psyched!
I will credit that turn around not to my scowling face, but to the respect I earned that day during my workout and my accidental meeting with Ant-Man!
It is so good to know genuine people who have such good hearts. If you throw thoughtfulness, beauty and fitness into that equation, that makes someone even more special. Thank you to Christina for thinking of me on Mother’s Day weekend. She is gorgeous, fit and super creative. Even though she wasn’t at the gym today, she knew I’d be there, so she sent me a gift with her husband.
Her husband is a personal trainer who delivered me a handcrafted, amazing gift today from one mother to another. It was a clear box housing a homemade sugar cookie beehive. I got buzzed!! Hahaaaa. I told her husband… “tell her these are unbelieveable and awesome. Thank you and that I’ll owe her a few pounds for this!!” He laughed. Good hearts are hard to come by.
Last night we went to see theRiver if Lights~ Holiday Light Show in Albuquerque. My sister was sure it’d be grand and it was the first time I had ever been there. It was rather amazing to think of all the work that creative people behind the show put into it. There were so many insects and animals re-created using lights. They were larger than people in most cases. I took photos of my favorites. I also uploaded one video of a moving TRex to my YouTube channel. You can here a little “tiny tot” (as my sis would call him) talking to his dad in the background. I guess the little boy wasn’t sure what the animal was. He thought it was a Rhino. 2 cute!
~A Polites Themistocles butterfly in my hand today~
Tonight I was looking at historic sculptures and information about Themistocles. It is interesting to learn more about him from artists and scholars. While I was researching, I came across a web page for the Polites Themistocles. How curious that I came across this page!? Was it a sign? Probably not.
The P.Themistocles is the name given to an interesting butterfly which looks like a moth. I believe I caught and released a big one in the gym today. How strange that I learned the name of this species of butterfly the very same day I had an encounter with one? While I worked out, he continuously caught my attention which is rare. He was frantic and I moved to him.
At first…I thought it was a trapped hummingbird. It was very large and was struggling hard to break free through the screen into the light. What was this species which “favors a wide range of habitats including alpine bogs, forest glades, grassy habitats, moist meadows, savannas, and stream sides” doing in my dark gym today? I found it interesting.
*****Photograph taken by Felicia Lujan on 5.7.2014 at 7:25am.
On Sunday I noticed two foreign masses on the Aspen tree outside my bedroom window. At first it looked like a spider web. This morning when I was leaving to work, I saw one small mass sparkling in the morning sun. I moved in for a closer look and realized I was witnessing something beautiful! The two masses were actuallyTent Caterpillar nests. One nest was to high to see, but I had a close look at the other. There were several grown caterpillars and there must have been thousands of small dark eggs the size of a pin head. I took a few photos because this is something I have never seen. I love nature, animals and insects.
I think these caterpillars will become nocturnal moths, and not colorful day breaking butterflies. Still...I admire winged creatures. Maybe because I can’t fly and so I crave metaphorical flight? It was very windy this afternoon. Not only was it windy outside, it was really windy in my mind…unforgiving like a hurricane. I wanted to cry when I got home and saw the beautiful nest damaged by the wind. Maybe I’m feeling over emotional? I arrived just in time to save the silken tent hanging by a solemn thread. The one up high had been taken by the wind. Since these tents are built specifically where morning light hits them, I’m sure all the life was lost.
I worked quickly to secure the other nest. My heart sank while wind thrusts gusted tiny creatures and eggs away from the silky home. After a while, I was able to protect the tent. I came inside and felt relieved that I arrived in time to save the little creatures. I may not be able to save myself from the relentless hurricane in my mind, but I did save something beautiful today. I know that no good deed goes unrecognized in the book of life and love.
An important part of living a fit life is being flexible. I finally have no excuses not to hit it and I love it! My career is important to me, but so is fitness. There was a time a few years back when I would get really upset if I couldn’t workout. That mindset was making me miserable so I had to change it. Now I do what I have to do to get my workouts in. I’m flexible. It works!
Now I know it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not going to ruin my day if I can’t make it to the gym. On those days, I opt for an outdoor workout. I like to have a safe, secure place to workout when I do abs, pushups and detail work. Because of recent circumstances with workers around my building, I had to flex yet again. Some days I can’t run in the open because there are shady peeps lurking around.
Today I hit it on a secure roof top of my building. It was an awesome place to workout. It was a sunny day, there is a beautiful tree out there, and the birds were chirping happily. Wish I had thought of this last summer! Since you have to badge in and out of the area, there was literally zero traffic! Just a sweet ladybug! Ooooo…maybe she will bring me luck? I also had a nice view of the world out there from the balcony.
When it comes to feeling good, making real changes, and pushing yourself to the limit, you have to be flexible. Flexibility is important professionally and physically. Anthony Lawlor once said…”flexibility, as displayed by water, is a sign of life. Rigidity, its opposite, is an indicator of death.” So true!
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~~~*Here is the super short video I uploaded to my YouTube channel.*~~~
………………. Not long ago, D had a chance to meet a self proclaimed entomologist. He met the bug lover at theHarrell House of Natural Oddities, which also has a bug museum. My son seemed fascinated by a master of insects, but I am no stranger to the world of entomology. Sometimes I feel like I either break the rules associated with gender, or if there are no rules, I’m just a manly woman with a love of guy stuff?! Have you heard the acronymFTGS? Click that acronym to look it up! Yup….now that’s me! Girly? I love me some bugs!
The word entomology derives from the Greeks. The “entomos” in entomology means that which is segmented. You know…bugs! Let me get this straight, I wouldn’t love bugs and spiders crawling all over me, but I think they are very beautiful. The branch of zoology dealing with creepy crawlerz recruits the world’s best entomologists. The first time I met an entomologist was many years ago when I worked as a PIO for New Mexico State Parks. I loved that job. I remember being completely intrigued by that strange bug man.
I enjoyed learning all about butterflies, moths, spiders, dragonflies, scorpions and other crawlerz. It was interesting to see that I still feel as I did all those year ago when I met my first entomologist. I felt bad for the “mounted specimens.” Specimens? The word literally takes the life out of them. I thought of my friend Corky and his spider rescue. There is a very fine line between learning and hurting living things. I took photos of some of the butterfly and dragonfly specimens because they were truly amazing to see. I felt bad and deleted the “specimen” photos.
Oliver Greer has collected at least 2,400 specimens from around the world for this museum. 2,400 beautiful things, now gone from their natural habitat. It is actually sad to think about. Greer does seem like a really good man. He is a chef at the Ore House, a writer, and an independent film maker who also loves bugs. Hopefully, he talks to the creatures he is collecting and asks for their forgiveness. I would hope he explains why he is doing it. I mean most people would not learn in a hands on environment without this museum. Yes…we touched some lively creatures.
My favorite part of the museum tour was the live demonstration. I didn’t know scorpions glow under a black light. Did you? I have some wonderfully dark, love poetry planned in relation to the creatures I was most fascinated with. I included those I really liked in asuper short video and put it up on my YouTube channel. Maybe I choose music from Knife Party for the video because they have a song called Centipede. My favorites included: a Ghost Mantis; a Deathstalker Scorpion; an African Millipede; a Tailless Whip Scorpion and an Emperor Scorpion; an Eastern Hercules Beetle; a Vinegaroon; and the Chilean Rose Tarantula.
TheHarrell House Bug Museum is located inside the Harrell House of Natural Oddities store in the DeVargas Mall. It’s worth a look see and maybe a touch see!
~•» Huge yellow butterfly I saw on purple flowers today in Santa Fe. Maybe it’s my symbol this week? I was just talking to someone about butterflies. «•~
“Marvelous~ his lovely wings. I could stare for hours at the golden span. Each marking~ so delightful and I will never understand the changes he endured to master beauty.”
Lover of REALNESS... smart people with large brains... strong people with human weakness... all things divine and magical... and anything that makes my heart beat, my mind race, my body hurt, or my soul ache.
My Voyage Through Time 
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