Predators Among Us

Recently, I found out that my next door neighbor is a sexual offender. I only know this due to an informational brochure that the police delivered directly to me. The officer delivered one to every home on our street to let us know about our dear neighborly pervert. Now, I am not going to play devil’s advocate too much on this one, simply because my daughter is the same age as his victim.

Now, in my state (no clue nationally), sexual offenders are rated on levels - the degree to which they are accessed and could possibly re-offend. There are four levels in my state and my neighbor is a level 2. Well, here is the breakdown on what I learned.

Level 1: Can live anywhere and you would never know. The police are not by law required to notify anyone that this level offender lives near them. Although this level offender is a registered sex offender, level 1’s do not appear on any public registry for you to look up. There is a 25% likelihood this offender will re-offend.

Level 2: (My neighbor). Can live anywhere, but those on the same street will receive a notification from their local police - only after an assessment has been completed. Although this level offender is a registered sex offender, level 2’s do not appear on any public registry for you to look up. There is a 50% likelihood this offender will re-offend.

Level 3 (high risk) Level 4 (dangerous): Can live anywhere and neighbors will receive notification from their local police. Level 3’s and 4’s do appear on local and national registries for the public to view.  There is a 75% likelihood that level 3’s will re-offend and a possible 100% likelihood that level 4’s will re-offend.

No one can give me a clear answer as to why my neighbor is still in his home and has not served any time. I spoke to a friend that is a former police officer and her response was basically age. Now, I can’t say if this is correct; this is all speculation, but because he is 72 years old it is possible they felt he was too old to prosecute and waste the money on.

He was convicted less than one year ago for Sexual Assault 2nd Degree, his victim - a girl, age five at the time and all he got (looks like it to me anyway) was a slap on the wrist by possibly serving probation. If they didn’t want tax payers to pay the penalty for this sick bastard, then place him on house arrest. That way he would have had to pay the incarceration fee and he couldn’t leave his home. I know I would feel a hell of a lot better knowing he couldn’t go outside of a certain range.

It sickens me to know this man is over there. That if for a split second I had left Miss K alone outside, he could have walked up to her and befriended her. I don’t want to even want to think about what this old pervert could have done. I did discuss with Miss K and Mr C about what this man had done (not in detail); enough for them to understand that he is an extremely bad man that hurts children.

I just think often now about his little victim. My heart aches for this little girl and her family.

 

New Class Underway

Well, I started a new class yesterday and with less than a year to go for the marketing degree, I am really second-guessing it all now. I am slowly (more like I AM ALREADY THERE) getting burned out on my current career path that I have been in for over ten years. I am fortunate to have both the background and experience in my career that I do, but I find absolutely no joy in anything associated with this career choice.

Yes, I have a lot of benefits with my company - working from home, extremely lax working hours, and so on, for normally a position that requires a lot of strict guidelines because of what I do. I love my company, I just want out of the job. It is because of the feelings towards what I do, that have me questioning the degree path I am on.

I usually work through the feelings and frustrations because I have a ton of time, energy, and money  invested in the degree, and lots of lost time with my kids. It is too late really for me to change my degree a whole lot and what ever I would decide, would still be in business, so it’s not like I can make a huge change and still be within a good time frame to successfully complete my degree. I’m not starting all over again.

So, really this is more of a vent to release some frustration because I know what I’ll do; I’ll keep going with this degree since I have such a little amount of time left. Then I will have a marketing degree and want out of business so bad that the bitter taste in my mouth won’t go away.

I ventured out at 18 to find the path no one else in my family took. I started off pretty good, then young and stupid, I got blinded by what I thought was love and my path skewed a bit. Well, love found and lost and two kids later - both reminding me they are the center of my world - I find myself age 34 and trying to get back on that path is frustrating to say the least.

OK, vent OFF!

 

Training Day 8

Trainer K showed me a new friend today. Oh how I use to hate those lunges. Now they are the love of my life compared to the  *gulp* stability ball! I hate it! My abs are on fire and I really want someone to put them out for me. Please? When she said, “Ab workout.” OK. Then she said, “We will get a whole body workout from this.” Again, OK. She showed me the ball, I was ready to go. How stupid the newbie is.

I didn’t think anything of it. Never used a stability ball before. Remember, no clue about working out. I should have that made into a tattoo on my forehead. Back to the story. To me the ball was plastic filled with air; a bundle of bouncing joy to help me get into shape. Well, maybe next month it might be a happy bundle, but today, oh no, it was torture.

It was a total body workout. You literally have to use your entire core and concentration to keep yourself on the ball. I rolled a few times, not off, but around. The power needed in your legs - thighs and butt - to keep you in one location and then using your core to keep you on the ball; that alone helped me sweat enough to keep me good for exercise until next week. Unfortunately, Trainer K didn’t let me off that easy. She threw in the ab workout too!

Now, today wasn’t about reps. It was all timed. So, normally abs are say 3 sets of 25. Not today. Today, I did 3 sets, but each one minute long with a rest in between. So, instead of 75 total, it was up to around 150 or something like that. Upper abs, lower abs, obliques, oh my! And not just one form of crunch for upper abs, oh no, there were like four versions for each: upper, lower, and obliques. Oh yes, oh my.

Then of course we had to throw in some thighs and butt into just staying on the ball while trying to crunch. Boy, I can tell this is a technique I am going to have to master, and soon. Trainer K plans to make the stability ball my friend. When that happens, it means I am going to be using it almost EVERY session. Happiness is just poring out of me, can’t ya tell?

Now, I get to look forward to waking up tomorrow in pain and kickboxing on Saturday. Wish me luck!

 

Kids and Back to School

Spring Break for my kiddos was last week. They stayed up late, they partied harder than mom, and now they hate returning to school. OK, so I was lax over the week, it was Spring Break for heaven’s sake., but no one can get back into the groove now. Tired and cranky is how the past few mornings have been, but usually once up, Miss K is ready to go. Not Mr C.

Sluggish and tired; no get-up and go, we all are still on Spring Break and want to sleep in, do what we want and forget time exists. Then I wake up from that day dream and realize we are in the real world again and sleeping in is a thing of the past. OK, I guess schedules win.

Today was just funny to hear nothing but, “I’m too tired to wake up.” ” No, I’m not going to school.” “Please don’t make me go!” Oh how I love the sound of tired in the morning, that means they will fall asleep at least on time, if not earlier, for bed tonight. Know what that means for mom? Yea, getting to go to bed early too! Hmm, what did you think I meant?

 

Training Day 7

If ever there was a dreaded day to look forward to, this day would be it had I know in advance what she would put me through today. I’m in pain, I hurt, and I can’t sit down! Oh yes, this was not just a whole body anything, this was bluntly - Ass Day! And my ass hates Trainer K for it!

Of course, you know how my day starts out - WARM UP. Trainer K was already there when I showed up from a previous session - damn! She caught me. Right away she sticks me on the elliptical. I hate her. Oh thank you - 7 minutes never looked so good. Time to get off. Thighs burn, butt burns, and she is smiling at me.

What is on the drill today? My favorite lunges, squats, and stances, UGH! Twice around the room on the lunges, so not a regular what 35 - oh no, she upped it. I did about 60 lunges and wanted to lunge at her afterwards. OMG, help me, my legs are like jello and I can’t walk.

Then what does she shove down my throat? Squats. WTF!? Are you nuts? And not just squats, 3 different forms of squats, in a fluid motion, so basically 3 squats equaled one, 3 sets of 12. You know, there is just something about a personal trainer when they can watch you in pain and then -  smile

Best was saved for last. After all of my butt and thigh work, time for some core love. Again, the stance as if you are going to do a lunge, she hands me my weights, and off I go. Twisting at the hips and waist, holding out the weights, for 75 lovely painful twists to work my abs. I flowed right into 75 crunches, then into 75 side crunches - which in my world is technically 150 crunches - 75 on each side.

Finally, that was that, Trainer K said adios and I couldn’t move. I went into the back room, laid down on a mat, and literally felt sick to my stomach. That was the hardest core workout ever for me. So, I caught my breath, drank a ton of water, took my shower, and now I am SOOO craving a Hostess Twinkie!