Migration to the South

After working for about a year at AAAS, Melissa was finding that her job was less than fulfilling. Melissa was not really satisfied with the work she was doing and wanted to do something that tapped into her creativity.

I did not realize it at the time but it turns out Melissa was not only smart but also quite artistic. One day she decided to try her hand at oil painting. She painted a nice little scene with some trees, water, and a boat. I think I liked it even more than she did. I insisted that we hang it somewhere. There was already a nail in the bathroom wall that was actually just right for hanging the painting. I was proud of this painting and I felt a certain pride in being married to someone with such well rounded talents. Melissa was organized, smart, thoughtful AND artistic. Most other artistic people I have met are lacking in some of the other disciplines that life demands.

So when Melissa said that she wanted to go back to school to get an art degree, I was all for it. At the time I was still working at the bookstore but also trying to finish up my graduate degree in psychology at the American University. I had finished all of my classwork and was working on comprehensive exams and trying to get my research published. There was no reason why I could not finish up these things elsewhere while Melissa went back to school.

It turns out that the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia has a good art program. Melissa applied and was accepted. So we picked up our stakes and moved to Richmond. After finding a town house to rent, we enlisted the help of my brothers to help us haul all of our stuff down I95 to Richmond.

Shortly after we moved to Richmond, I answered an interesting ad in the paper for a job with Circuit City. The job posting went something like this, "Do you like to play video games?" There was actually more to it but this is the part I remember. I actually did not really play video games but this drew my attention and I applied for the job. And I got it. I started working for Circuit City doing telephone technical support for all of Circuit City's computers and computer peripherals. It turned out to be a turning point in my career. Fifteen years later I am still working in the computer field.

While I worked for Circuit City, Melissa worked hard in art school. She was probably the most diligent student in art school. VCU art students are not known to be super studious. Melissa threw herself into the work and did some very nice projects. Also I managed to finish up my Masters in Psychology and get a paper published in the Journal of Psychology.

Now back to the main subject of athletics and working out. When I worked at Circuit City I did not play soccer. GASP! Can you believe it? This would be the first time that I did not play soccer as an adult. I did continue to mountain bike. A local bike shop owner told me of a park not too far away that had nice mountain bike trails. The park is called Poor Farm Park and I still bike there today. So while Melissa worked hard in art school, I worked at Circuit City and did as much biking as I could. Poor Farm was the only place I knew in the area that had trails so that is where I always went to ride.

As I met people through work, I found a few people to drag out to Poor Farm with me. My friend Larry and I started getting in the groove. We would go out to Poor Farm several times a week. Then my friend Chris started also going along. Sometimes we would have a group of 5 or 6 people riding the trails. I was still in pretty good shape but looking back at this time I realized that I was not really pushing myself and I was not really paying attention to my diet nor did I really have an exercise plan. I was having fun but I would not really call myself an athlete at this time of my life.

After working for 2 years at Circuit City, I got what I call a break. I was hired by a computer consulting company and started doing desktop support for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. DGIF is a self funded state agency that overseas all this wild in VA. From frogs to fish, quail to bear, DGIF had their hands in all kind of wildlife management. This made it an interesting place to work with interesting people to work with.

While working for DGIF, I continued to mountain bike at Poor Farm. But not long after making the move to DGIF, I started playing soccer again. It turns out that one of the DGIF human resources specialists was a soccer Mom whose husband coached youth soccer and also ran an adult amateur league in nearby Hanover County. She got me hooked up with her husband's team and viola I was playing soccer again.

HASA (Hanover Amateur Soccer Association) was a small league. There was 1 division of about 10 teams. We played our games on Sundays. It felt good to be playing competitive soccer again. For me, playing soccer was like riding a bike. It did not take long before I was back in the groove. I play center midfield so I run a lot. After half a season of playing center mid and also biking during the week, I was starting to get in more serious shape. Would I consider myself at athlete at this time? Well maybe. Compared to where I was going in the future-no but compared to where I had been, yes. Soccer always motivated me to get in better and better shape. The better shape you are in, the more you can play and the better you can play. And that means more fun.

I did have a major mountain bike crash around this time. I smashed my knee pretty good and broke my handle bars. The breaking of the handle bars is important because it showed how hard I went down. My knee swelled up pretty big and I limped along for a while. This happened in the off season so I was not playing soccer at the time. I finally went to Advanced Orthopedics which was nearby my house. This would be my first trip to Advanced Orthopedics but not my last. Dr Zaslov saw me and gave me some exercises to do. At first I was not diligent about doing the exercises until the Dr gave me a tongue lashing. Normally I don't respond well to this kind of thing but it was enough to get me motivated. I started really pushing myself through the exercises and before you know it my knee had healed up nicely. I was back to playing soccer and riding my bike - with new handle bars of course.

I was slowly beginning to define myself as an athlete although I was not totally sold on it. It felt good to exercise hard and be in good physical condition but I did not really have a training plan or any goals at this point.

Thanks again for reading. Next time, from HASA to CASA to the CVSA.