Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Day in the life of Jeremy Mateyk


6:00 a.m. I wake up and the first though through my head is thanking God I'm not a southerner. This thought lasts for approximately 5 minutes

6:05 a.m. I take a shower and quickly get dressed in my uniform for work. Khaki pants with a brown belt, a light blue collared shirt with a picture of a baby on the front pocket, and elbow length rubber gloves. I ride by bike to work with the rubber gloves on, gets my fingers used to the feeling for the day.

7:00 a.m. I arrive at work (long bike ride), I put on the regulation trash bags over my shoes and make my way down to the experimentation room. This Summer, I am working for Johnston and Johnston baby company. I work in the Vaseline and lotion department, also known as the big show to the other guys in the company. My job is a fast-paced one. I am the man running the direct experiments on children. Every twenty minutes a new baby is brought to me. I take them by the ankles and rub Vaseline or lotion on their palms and bottoms of their feet and knees. I then see if they can crawl without slipping and sliding. Once my bit of fun is done, I do the actual experiment and rub lotion on their forehead, and then ask them a series of questions about how it feels. I've yet to receive a verbal response, but the company tells me that my work is vital to the success of its new "Infinity" line of baby lotions.

12:00 p.m. Lunch break. Finally. I peel off my gloves and leave them at my work station. Then I head down to the lunch room. I take my brown-bag lunch out and devour it's contents. PBJ. Mmmm. I wish I had D2 right about now....

12:15 p.m. back to work.

5 p.m. I clock out and start the long ride back home. Luckily, its all down hill so I make it quickly back to my west chester abode.

5:05 p.m. I walk in the door and see a smorgesboard of treats that my father has left out before me. Meats. Cheeses. Cream Puffs. A bowl of Hershey's syrup. Grapes. Strawberries. Graham Crackers. You name it, its probably on a platter before me.

6:00 p.m. I go and read for a long time. And not just any book. The Bible. The Holy one.

8:00 p.m. I go on a three-way skype sesh with the Mikes. We do this every night. Great friends aren't just there during the school year. We chat about our days, and about acapella and stuff. Then we tell each other goodnight and climb into bed.

10:00 p.m. I am in the bunk beneath James's. He is fast asleep already so I listen to his breathing while I stare at the Ferrari poster taped on the bottom of his bunk. So much power. So much speed. Beautiful. Someday, I won't be lotioning babies anymore. Someday, I'll be a star. Someday, I'll work for the BMW Mountain Bike division. It will be glorious.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

oh man

Hey guys, breaking radio silence to say that I stinking miss ya'll. Reading the recent posts (hilarious, by the way) a little bit of tears came out of my eyes. Mostly from the hard laughing, but some too from love. I haven't really felt alone on the trail, because the Lord has been with me and I'm not the only thru-hiker. But I just miss my brothers.
I'm in Maine now, and I plan to summit my last mountain of this long haul next saturday (30th). Then the real adventure begins: the rest of my life. I think I'll start by coming home to the burg, finding some sort of job, and spending a lot of time with this particular girl I think is cute. Seeing as I am currently homeless, I would like to crash at the house a few nights in August (1st, 9th, 10th, 11th), if that would be cool. It sure would be good to see you guys.
I'll bring a picture of me standing next to a sign, if you know what I mean.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A Day in the life of Joe Danehower


3:00 a.m. Mmmm Protein. A lot of people wonder how I keep my body in peak physical condition at all times. I tell them the three p's: power, persistence, and protein. Power: lifting, running, homework. Everything I do, I do powerfully. Persistence: Go hard. All day everyday. Protein: pretty self-explanatory. I intake at least a 100 grams of protein every 3 hours to keep my body working at 100% (see persistence). That's why I wake up at three a.m. every night; to make myself a whey protein shake.

6:00 a.m. Breakfast time. Meat. Peanutbutter. Protein shake.

6:30 a.m. I start getting ready for my classes. Lemme tell you right now, summer session is exactly as rigorous as I thought it would be (see power). I'm taking a few engineering classes, and spend almost every other waking hour at the church where I work, or doing homework.

6:55 a.m. I ride my bike to class, and get ready for 6 hours of boring lectures.

9:00 a.m. leave class for a "bathroom break" (see protein).

1:00 p.m. Out of class, I ride my bike over to Mccomas for a brief lift (http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/muscle-building-11)

3:00 p.m. done with my lift, eat a power bar and drink two protein shakes. I ride my bike back to my house, and get ready to meet with some of the guys from church tonight for a Bible Study in the basement. I pass Jason playing supersmash bros on the Nintendo when I walk in. I haven't played in a few months. The last time almost ended in bloodshed. James kept making jokes and Sam, Jeremy, and Jackson had to hold me back after I threatened to break his neck with my bare hands, and then advanced to do so. I figured some time off of the N64 would be good. James sure can get my goat...

4:45 p.m. I start picking up some guys for Bible study/ dinner.

6:00 p.m. everyone is at Willard for the meeting. We break some bread and then get into the Word. We finish up around 8 p.m., and the guys all head home.

8:03 p.m. I pass Sam in our basement bedroom, and make a quick Bible jokes. He has a quick giggle and then heads outside to grill up his dinner. Everyone loves my Bible jokes. Especially Doug, which is one of the reasons I'm glad he's staying in Blacksburg. When the other guys don't pick up on my Old Testament jokes referring to Habakkuk 3, he always can. (see persistence)

9:00 p.m. just finished talking on the phone to my girlfriend Claire for the past 45 minutes. I miss her so much. A single tear slides down my cheek. I wipe it away quickly so the other guys can't see... then I eat more meat (see protein)

9:30 I get into the word by myself and have a great time with the Lord, over a PBJ sandwich. Afterwards, I do some more homework for tomorrow, and get ready for another Summer day in Blacksburg.

12:00 My alarm wakes me up, time for one last PBJ of the day. (see protein)