My new Vita Mix blender...and more J-rope angst.

I scored this killer unit today for $24 at one of my fave resale shops. They sell on eBay for around $75 (plus shipping of course), so not bad. I've been looking for a new blender ever since we broke the glass cylinder on our Waring Blendor (one of the best blenders ever made, A), because it's called a BLENDOR - how cool is that?, and B), because it looks more like a rocket than a blender. Oh yeah, and it blends the shit out of anything you put in it). However, the Vita Mix might be even better - especially since the container is metal, and thus impossible to break! If you're looking for a really good blender, please don't buy a new one. They're all plastic pieces of shit, unless you go and spend a ton of money on a commercial grade one. These vintage ones are super sturdy, incredibly powerful, and absolutely bombproof (assuming that you don't go and break the glass).

I also scored one of these lamps for $22 at the same store, so it was a good morning! ;-)

However, my J-ropes totally SUCKED today. I mean, I think this was my worst set ever. The best run I had out of the whole 800 was 39 jumps. 30-FREAKIN'-NINE. I mean, COME ON. That's pathetic! I think the average number of jumps I did before tripping today was probably somewhere between 10-15 - no joke. And there were MANY times that I didn't even make it through 5 jumps! 1,2, trip. 1,2,3, trip. 1,2, trip. 1,2,3,4, trip. .
The thing that's weird is that I don't feel like there's anything especially wrong with my form. The jumps that I DO get right are super smooth and feel really good. It's just that I can't get enough of them in a row! I swear there's some mental component to it. Invariably, if I get on a good run (which for me is 30-40 jumps), I start to think something like "hey, maybe I've got it, maybe I can do 100 jumps this time!", and INVARIABLY I trip like 5 seconds after those thoughts roll through my mind. I've been trying to figure out how to not think those thoughts and just keep my mind on the number that I'm currently on and not get ahead of myself, but that doesn't seem to help much either. The exercise itself isn't even that hard - it's just so damn FRUSTRATING!!

On a happier note, seeing that we were going to start doing real pull-ups, and never actually having done one in my life before, I decided to give it a try - and I was able to do one, no problem! I doubt I would have been able to do too many, and I decided not to push it (the time will come soon enough), but it felt good to be able to even do just one. Small victories, right?