What Does 2009 Have In Store For You?

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morning to the tune of ESPN's Sportscenter. It was not my intent to fall asleep with the light and tv on, but we all fall short of the glory on one or two ocassions...

This morning I penned the last entry in my fuschia, flower journal while watching the breaking news from the Dallas Cowboys fallout.

As an FYI, I have been writing in this journal since December 6, 2006, and I had only half of a page to recant my thoughts for December 30th. How interesting that I completed this private detailing of the last two years of my journey two days short of the 2009 year?!?

For a little fun, I reread the first entry, scimmed some entries in the middle and laughed at how much has happened. I quickly came to the realization that a new journal was a signal (literally and figuratively) that I am going to begin a new chapter of my glamorous soccer life.

However, I was slightly annoyed that I couldn't include the 31st in this book. Why should the events of the 30th and 31st get grouped with the new adventures of 2009? I didn't question the reasoning for long because I laid down my pen and went back to sleep.

A few hours later, I arrived at my training facility. I spoke briefly to the building custodian before placing a call to one of the trainers to determine if training had been cancelled. Much to my surprise, there was a miscommunication and training would be taking place at Apollo Creed Alternate Ending's House

*Apollo Creed Alternate Ending is the head trainer. I gave him this nickname for his zealous workout regimen and his classification as an athletic builder and not athletic trainer...*

Anywho, I knew what this training would entail-the woods or should I call it the animaless jungle. This place behind his house is a mini-wilderness complete with running paths (not smooth or clear), tires, a creek and slippery hills-all of which are incorporated into the workout. I have only had one jungle workout, and the story of that workout is an entry by itself....

I arrived, and the usual group of athletes were ready to go. We laced up our cleats, and followed Apollo CAE as he ran to the trees. At some point during the workout, Apollo CAE announced, "This is the year to produce. I am going to be all over you this year!"

His detailed explanation of his expectation (much of which will not be typed here) for the attendees (and me specifically) could be heard as Apollo CAE ran the hills, as I ran the hills and as we all suffered under the pain of the workout. With Apollo's harsh warnings and countless numbers of different hill runs completed, the group ran up the embankments, jumped downed tree branches, tapped through tires to the entryway to the promiseland-the end of the trail.

Today, I received an introduction to my new year. Come on in 2009. I am ready.

Left Behind

Have you ever loved something or someone so much that you had to run out and leave? I have.

These experiences almost always center around food. For the record, I have a love affair with certain food groups. It is an off and on sort of thing because I am pretty disciplined when it comes to my diet.

However, I go home for the holidays and the fried chicken, cakes and pies look so seductive. My aunt offers me some delectable German chocolate cake. My aunt's sister makes these out-tha-box pound, red velvet and italian cream cakes. Who can pass that up? Then, my mama tries to send me home with a whole pumpkin pie and a box of ginger ales!

Each moment I savor a good seasoned thigh or mouthful of dessert, I spend 5 minutes reflecting on how many abs I need to do or how much I can run to temper the sluggishness of my next workout with my trainers...

By the time Friday came, I was frantically trying to pack up my car and get thee out of my hometown lest I be accosted by another restaurant invitation or piece of dessert.

About 5 miles into my getaway, I realized that I had left the remaining pieces of my italian cream and pound cakes behind. I was distraught, but I refused to turn around. My determination to get out, with just a whole pie and the ginger ales, was just too strong. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. For me, the cake had to get left behind...

P.S. Cake Update: "Your loss was our gain. Your grandmother and I ate the cake," said my mama.

Unicyclists Unite!

What is something that people would be surprised to know about you? I was in the midst of conversation with a guy yesterday. He was giving me an overview of his top gifts of Christmas past.

As he ran down the list, one gift in particular stood out like a sore thumb. It was a unicycle. I must admit, as he ran through all the details of how he was introduced to this mode of transportation and the finer points of unicycling, I was still stuck on the fact this guy was a unicyclist.

I do tend to surround myself with a colorful cast. Therefore, I shouldn't be surprised at this little known fact about this guy. I pondered how many people, outside of the kids on his block in the BK, knew they worked alongside a passionate unicyclist....

Today-I want to salute and unite all unicyclists. If you are not utilizing this talent in some form of the traveling entertainment business, please don't keep this skill hidden from the rest of us. Bring that one-wheeled apparatus out and show the world a few tricks!

Do You Read What They Write?

One day a reporter may ask me, "Do you read the articles that they write about you?" I will have to admit that I do--or did--because I just finished reading the cover story for this week's Creative Loafing Charlotte article about my journey into a life filled with workout clothes, trainers (some pretty hot) and soccer balls..In case you want to check it out. Here is the link. Enjoy!

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/south_by_south_america/Content?oid=487805

MY BIRTHDAY WAS ALL CUPCAKES!!!

My birthday was so sweet and included a cupcake taste test. We pit Henri's bakery against A Piece of Cake bakery. The cupcakes were judged on a number of criteria (size, aroma, design and taste). It was a hard fought battle, but I am proud to announce that Qiana's 2008 Birthday Contest Winner is A Piece of Cake.

Just the picture of a cupcake makes my mouth water and ignites an urging to run up Roswell road before closing time to snag one more cupcake...Alas, I ask everyone to join me in giving kudos to our winner!

WE'VE BEEN SET UP!!

Although I can't go into the details, I participated in, what was supposed to be a professional and amicable business meeting on yesterday. This meeting took place in my residence. For a brief time, the meeting participants were dispersed in different areas of my condo and a nearby area. All of a sudden, I hear someone repeatedly scream, "We've been set-up! We have been set-up!"

At this point, do the ATF, FBI or CIA knock down the doors, remaining walls and drop in from the ceiling? Fortunately, the answer is No. However, this announcement SOUNDED like a narcotics deal gone wrong...

It was truly a scene to behold--almost incredulous if you will...this outburst definitely deserves a blog post and a carefully chosen image..Enjoy!

Facebook: No Stone is Left Unturned

Good Afternoon ladies, gents, rappers, athletes and beyond-

I recently joined a slew of social networks. I do want to connect with the world. However, I have come to a shocking conclusion. There are so many ways for people to find you if you have a public page.

For example, the long lost high school classmate can happen upon you because you are on your bff's page; or, after feeling pressured into accepting an 6 degree associate's friend request, they now know all of your profile musings and throwback comments from friends recollecting a time when you decided to Get Low at the party....or, one can begin to learn how "multi-faceted some 6 degree associates' interests are--a little uncomfortable and personal if I should say so myself...

Nonetheless-this is what I have signed up for--questions about my personal business from people who otherwise couldn't corner me in a room to get it...And my fellow Facebook fans, you have signed up for it too--unless you know some secret way to keep those newsfeeds private on a public profile (and if this is the case--get at me)

Perfect Timing!

Everyday I have a plan of action that is accompanied by a to do list. My goal is to stick to the list and accomplish the tasks so that I can start it all over again on the next day.

Is it common for me to wake up and begin knocking out the items on the list? I would have to say about 65% of the time the answer is Yes. However, the remaining 35% of the time I am dealing with the unexpectancies of life. For a long time, it would annoy me to have schedule changes. Fortunately, I got smart and realized that the additions and revisions to my daily routine are not the enemy.

On yesterday, I had a plan of action that had a component which did not take into account the possibility of torrential rain and a tornado advisory. The item was left unchecked, but it was quickly replaced with a really important and (of course unplanned) errand.

Now, this errand was a favor to someone who is ultra near and dear to my heart. This person had been trying to obtain a very important set of items for most of the 2008 year, and most people would've concluded that it was a deadend situation.

Have you ever experienced a situation that you thought would be resolved, but took its sweet time to come to its conclusion? Well, I definitely can rattle off a few personal scenarios.

The long awaited pick-up reminded me that these schedule hiccups are merely perfect timing mechanisms. I can't even imagine what my trip to Brazil would have been like if I had gone for only two weeks in 2006 as opposed to 5 months in 2008. Believe me it was a long wait, but during that two year period, I had the opportunity to develop tremendously athletically and personally.

So now we find the Arena League in a serious operation reflection and people stressed about the lack of stability in their way of life. We can choose to spend the days, months and (possibly) years all wound up for naught.

Keep being persistent. Keep preparing yourself. Keep getting ahead of the curve. One day you will see that the seeming "pause" was only perfecting time operating to put ahead on your path to a greater experience than you imagined!

Clearing Boxes

I decided to take last week off from training to give myself some much needed rest. When I returned from Rio, I did not really take any time off so I was overdue for a break.

Although sleeping later was a nice treat, I have to admit that I had an undercurrent of anxiety over my return from the Thanksgiving break. My physical trainer(s) always provide me with challenging workouts, and I never know what the workouts will consist of from day to day.

When I walked in the door on Tuesday, the plyometric boxes, ladder and hurdles were already arranged. I warmed up for a few minutes on the bike, and then we got started. Once my training session began, it was fast. We moved quickly between the two rooms and I started to feel like I had too much fun over the holiday week.

As a result, my trainer began heckling me with "What did you eat Qiana? Too much turkey! Too much Blue Bell ice cream! Too much cake!" I replied, "Pumpkin pie" after restarting a botched drill on the ladder.

We moved back to the other room so that I could do my next set of box jumps. The box jumps are my least favorite. I think this is due to the fact that these boxes are wooden and I have seen many a strong athlete and trainer misjudge the height or timing of their jumps and take an L (i.e. Loss).

Now since my time at the gym, I have only scraped the front of my leg on the tallest box. However, we were not jumping the tallest box, but the other three, so I was pretty confident that once I moved past the taller box I could breeze through the other two. The drill was a continual jumping from the box to the ground up to the next box and squatting to pick up a bowl and the end, turning around to jump the boxes back to the other end to squat and place the bowl on the floor.

I had about 6 to 8 bowls to jump the boxes to retrieve and return to the other end so I had about 36-48 jumps to do for each set. Keep in mind that I had to jump the boxes facing forward, jumping sideways from the left and jumping sideways from the right. I had lots of box jumps on my agenda to say the least.

My legs were feeling heavy, and I was in the midst of my 2 second set of box jumps. Facing to the left, I jumped on the tallest box and leapt off to the ground so that I could jump the second box. Well, my mind was on auto-pilot and my legs were hanging low so when I tried to clear the box, it didn't go as planned to say the least. The foot clip, the lower body box collision and my tumble to the floor were all a blur.

I sat for about 5 seconds in bewilderment. The box was unmoved, but I had to experience a different fate. Well, I got back up and restarted the jump series with a new concentration to say the least.

Unfortunately, I have been added as the latest victim in the Box Clearing series....

Giving Thanks For My Grandmama

I am not exactly sure how you gave thanks, but I definitely can give you an inside peek to my Turkey Day offering. It all began a few hours before the big day when I was informed that the local family church would be having an early morning Thanksgiving Day service.

Since this was not something I knew about, I showed up the following morning in a pair of jeans, Nikes and a t-shirt with a black ski vest. I think many people didn't get the Thanksgiving service memo because there were about 15 people sprinkled about the church pews.

The service was going right along as planned when an unexpected announcement came. The assistant pastor announced that the youth choir would sing a selection. My sister, a member of the youth choir, looked quite shocked because there were only two members of the choir present. However, this didn't derail the efforts for a selection. As my sister began making her way to the front, an undercurrent of whispers ensued. Before I knew it, my grandma turned around and said, "Qiana, go on up there and sing."

Now, I am the first to tell you (among others) that I have not been granted the gift of song. Moreover, I am not a member of the youth choir, and I didn't know the song selection.

However, who says no to their grandmama? So you know what happened. I went up to the front, received a copy of the song from my mama who was on the church keyboard and began my best in tune rendition of "God Can?." I will just say that at least half of the congregants laughed (including myself) and my grandma was beaming from ear to ear.

Who could not like that? Giving thanks for my grandmama by singing was not on my agenda this year, but I will admit the big hug and good job that she gave me was well worth it.

Be An Entertainer: It May Just Save Your Life

In the midst of feverishly working, I happened to see quite a bit of Britney Spears' new documentary. I enjoyed it because it gave me the opportunity to hear some new songs, one of which is called "Circus."

The first line of the song happened to catch my attention because it goes something like,"there are two types of people in the world-those who entertain and ones that observe." I believe that there is a lot of truth to this first line, and then I realized that, in fact entertainers are considered to be by default of celebrity, public recognition etc. to be leaders.

There is a whole area of media dedicated to keeping up with what these individuals are doing, eating, wearing and buying. As a result, entertainers have the power to influence the rest of the world (i.e. observers).

Sometimes there is a misconception about entertainers (i.e. celebrities). Some people think that they are different than you and I. However, the difference between their elevated status and ours may simply reside in their continuous action to do a little extra, take a stand on an issue or be persistent.

These are three actions that each of us is capable of, and I am soliciting you for your call to action. Today is World Aids Day, and I want you to be an entertainer. Take the extra effort to get tested, take a stand to always practice safe sex and persist in letting people know the importance of doing their part. It may just save your life!