Two Realizations

Over the past couple of days, I've come to two important realizations.

First, I had a "fitness evaluation" at the Y with Brittany. Brittany is a recent graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University with an exercise science degree. So, I presume that she knows what she is talking about. She measured my heart rate, how many sit-ups/push-ups I could do in a minute, that sort of thing. She also measured my body fat percentage. Folks, I am 35% fat. It is really sad. And then she told me that my capacity for aerobic exercise was "low". We set up an exercise regimen together that I am praying will work.

This came as a bit of a shock to me - not the fat part, but that my capacity was considered "low". I had been exercising with Shaun since the beginning of the year and, granted, the past two months or so I hadn't been terribly consistent, but I had lost 15 pounds since the beginning of the year. I considered that a great achievement. I'm now really depressed over how little of an achievement that really is for me. It is one of my personal goals for my sabbatical that I take this "year off" to get in shape, this year when I don't have a fixed schedule and I have relative freedom to devote a great deal of time to the effort. But now I realize that I have a long, long, LONG way to go before I am anything close to "fit", and I seriously don't know if I can make it. I also view this sabbatical as my "last chance". I've tried to lose weight off and on for my entire life and none of it, obviously, has been successful. If I can't be successful this year in at least getting reasonably close to my target weight then it may just be time for me to give up, accept my obesity and that I'm going to die of heart disease before I'm 60. So, this sabbatical has taken on a new dimension for me. It is the Last Stand in the war between Jeff and Fat.

My second realization came last night as I decided to venture out to Fox Sports Bar & Grill. I had been there a couple of times before; it's relatively far out of town and the other times I had been there, the clientele seemed to consist mostly of businesspeople enjoying happy hour. That seemed fine with me. But last night was the first time I went there on a weekend evening. To my relative surprise the place was full of frat-boy types and drunk blonde women. If I had wanted this experience I could go to any downtown bar and see the same thing. It finally dawned on me that this was not the place for me. Not just Fox, but this category of bar in general.

(This is going to sound Marxist, so if there are children in the room, tell them to close their eyes!)

Ever since I became a professor I've struggled with my class identity, or even if it matters. I am the kind of guy who, honestly, likes drinking Miller Lite. I can appreciate good beer but I'm not exactly a connoisseur or anything. And I've never been into wine snobbery or hard alcohol snobbery (e.g., Scotch, martinis), or pretentious activities in general. So I go to sports bars and the like that don't have that kind of pretentious atmosphere and who have bartenders who don't look at you funny if you deign to order a Miller Lite. But now I've realized that the type of woman for whom I am going to be able to compete is not likely to be found at this type of establishment, even if it's not strictly a sports bar. The type of woman likely to be found at the establishments that I frequent are indeed the ditzy drunk blondes that I saw last night, and even if they were attractive to me on more than just a physical level, I will be outcompeted for their affections by the frat boys.

So, this leaves the women who don't go to these types of bars. They are the ones who would more correctly fall into my class, as it is defined by my profession. They are more likely to be the wine snobs and appreciate more "highbrow" activities. That's what is expected of members of my class, right? So does that mean that if I want to find a woman who not only is appealing to me both physically and mentally, but also whom I have a chance of wooing over, that I must start acting like a pretentious snob and going to martini bars? Is this called "growing up" or "faking it"? I honestly don't know.

I guess I will see what happens tonight. I've decided to go here tonight to see what happens. I'd been there once before and it seemed like a strange place at the time but maybe this is the place I have to go to in order to finally end my loneliness. I think the review from the Seattle guy says it all.


Anyway, those have been my Deep Thoughts(TM) for the past few days. Let me know what you think.