Winding Up Keith at the Card Table (Part 3) – Mad Chaos: March 18, 1999

Keith Calls and Shawn Returns

Our conversation finished at 10:00 p.m. and with that I started back up on my computer. Seconds later I received another and feeling that it would be Lyssa again I kept myself quiet. Luckily I didn’t blurt out “What do you want” as I normally would because it was Keith seeing if I wanted to come out “Oh man” I moaned, “This Subway thing is getting boring heaps quick”. Not wanting to go out and wanting to spend time with my computer and thoughts he told me we didn’t have to go to Subway so I just told him to come over.

While here, we watched the ending of Shawshank Redemption and then we tried calling Shawn. Keith and I were bickering over who should call him and not wanting to do Keith’s dirty work for him as he’s so renowned for having people do, I made him ring. Both times he hung up the phone prematurely as the time was 11:15 p.m. and his mum answered the phone first. Jumping in the car we headed to Simon’s house first and as he wasn’t home we headed to Shawn’s. This was his first day back from Queensland and he wasn’t too tired because he was out like a fire bolt from the sky.

Cards at Subway Again

With Shawn now eager to come out and with my packet of cards on hand we made our way to ‘Subway’, the usual. This time around, the younger guy who was going out with the skinny but unattractive manager girl was there. As usual, she was doing the books and he was doing the service behind the counter. Before we began our first hand, the dude came over to us and informed us that the main boss wasn’t too happy with us playing cards but Keith sweet talked him into letting us play a couple of hands.

“Okay then, I’ll let you play until the boss gets here, he’s coming soon” he said and then let us be. Keith and Shawn figured that his girlfriend boss had something to do with his coming over as she didn’t really like us but we kept playing on. Playing black bitch first I caused quite a stir between Keith and Shawn in the car. Making up some bullshit I said to Shawn “You better be prepared for black bitch tonight because Keith said he would put you under the table any day”.

Of course he didn’t really say that but because Keith had a knack of gloating about his winning streak I thought to make him feel the pressure on himself. Adding more to the spice I told Keith that Ralf said he could beat Keith at something, I can’t remember what though. Keith thought I was full of shit which I was and he thought I was stirring him up which I also was but I was having fun, I didn’t care.

Black Bitch was majority on Keith’s side and minority on Shawn’s side for wins where I was continually in dunce and rarely in the mediator spot. When that was over after a few hands we started playing ‘Asshole’ and in this I had a bit more luck. Playing around eight games the end score was 3-3-2 with Shawn coming one point behind us. This was around when Keith couldn’t hack my hacking on him continuously so he decided to give up to head home.

I guess those cracks to the elbow which hurt his funny bone twice that night were enough laughing points for him.

Curtains Across the Street

The trip home was firstly to Shawn’s house and when I was dropped off we made our way past Caprice’s house, naturally.

The only difference was that her curtains were see through tonight and although it wasn’t like looking through a window where her light was on but behind those see through curtains you would be able to notice her undressing. That isn’t implying that I’m going to start snooping around and looking through her window but if I ever did, this Diary would be the first to hear about it.

For the rest of my night after coming home I started on my Sonnet and for two or three hours I worked on a whole new strategy about it. Eventually I had it finished and that is what took up the brunt of my morning.

However, each morning I always find a way to work past the 6:00 a.m. mark which I now never go under. My sleeping pattern to a regular sleeper is just getting from bad to worse. Actually, I feel these sleeping patterns that have jumped forward two hours are part of the cause of my not being able to focus on poetry of a night. If I dropped back to getting to sleep around 5:00 a.m. or sooner I would probably see better results, what do you think.

News From the Link

Some brand new to the second news now. Being 8:30 a.m. now I gave the link a call about twenty minutes ago and arranging an interview time for myself I managed to get it two Mondays from now. You know what that means don’t you, I get my last payment.

So, this last two weeks will be the telling tale on whether I will be a bum poet or a lacking poet due to a nine to five job I must keep. Either way it’s a lose-lose situation, now if only my hobby turned professional engagement had some funds that went to it apart from the link. If I could live my life as it was and not have to worry about the necessities of life, just poetry. That day will come, soon, that day will come…

Resisting Sleep Again

Thursday 11:50 p.m.

Mountain peaks build with icing snow, waves do crash closer to shore with each minute closer to high tide and I build with each passing day, my resistance to sleep. Right now I am feeling a tiny bit drowsy but I can be sure that it is only a short-lived transpiration.

Today I didn’t get to sleep until 9:30 a.m. in the morning and my waking time wasn’t until 5:30 p.m. This shitted me that I had missed the all of the day and had no chance at all to have any normal thing done but the race was now on to get to the Gym before it would close hours later.

My visits to the Gym have also been getting later these days. It used to be around 5:00 p.m. and a couple of weeks ago it would have been 6:00 p.m. but lately it hasn’t been before 7:00 p.m. What amazes me is that I can stick to skipping, going to the Gym, dieting, poetry and controlling my money but I can never seem to get a grip on a good night’s early sleep.

A Gym Without Ladies

Seeming there wasn’t much done in the space of time that I was getting ready for the Gym I might as well just get straight into it. Before I do let me just note that around 7:00 p.m. and especially today there wasn’t any ladies to keep my wandering eyes company. I need to get there at my normal 6:00 p.m. time to roam amongst them if I may. However Jaromir was there and despite him being the only one there apart from Jett and Maddox I found it more harmonious.

Jett and I talked about tomorrow where we will supposedly be heading to the City to watch a movie under the stars but considering he’s bringing Min-Su with us I might just have to let the both of them head off by themselves. One more thing, my workout today was fairly good.

No matter how much I wanted to take the weight down ten pounds on each exercise I just couldn’t put myself up to it and it was a bold and good move. My workout turned out to be a great one and what made it reach that level was the higher weight I lifted due to finally using my towel for gripping bars. Instead of slipping my grip on Seated Cable Rows I would just wrap the towel around it and what do you know, instant satisfaction. Here now is the back workout completed today…

The Back Workout Log

Back: Starting with my two minutes on the bike I warmed up with three sets and then began my bodybuilding crusade. Beginning with Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns and 160 pounds I created 12 reps. Moving now to Close Grip Lat Pulldowns I pulled it down a further 12 reps with 160 pounds. Reverting back to Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns but keeping the weight at 160 pounds I pushed out another 10 reps.

Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns was after that and with 170 pounds I pulled it down for 8 reps. Taking the weight down to 120 pounds I just done some Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns to the front for 8 reps. Lat Pushdowns was next and with my usual 240 pounds I pulled out 15 reps.

The broadening part was now at full swing and jumping on Seated Cable Rows I pulled out 12 reps with 160 pounds. Placing a towel on it I completed a further 6 reps. One Arm Cable Rows was next and putting it up to 100 pounds I pulled out 12 reps per hand, no real struggles. One Arm Dumbbell Rows was next and increasing to a new 90 pounds I used the towel to grip once again and created what seemed to be an easier 12 reps than what I expected. Taking the weight down to 80 pounds and sweating a drop every second I completed another 12 reps to finish off my back workout.

Triceps: Beginning with Triceps Pushdowns I loaded it up with 85 pounds to push out 12 reps. Once that was complete I made my way to One Arm Cable Pushdowns and with 40 pounds I completed 12 reps. Next was Overhead Dumbbell Extensions and with 70 pounds I pushed out 9 reps feeling that another would get me stuck. Lastly I moved my weight to Lying Triceps Cable Extensions and with 70 pounds again I created 12 reps.

Abdominals: This once again was the last of the body parts and throughout my reps I kept the weight on 60 pounds. The first set was of 30 reps and holding the rep for a count of two or more, no hassles. The second set was for 20 reps not being able to hack anymore and then quickly I finished another 15 reps with a slight pause. The last set was broken up into two where the first half was for 15 reps and the last after a couple of seconds resting was for 10 quicker reps.

Keith Waiting Outside

Now before I speak on about the events after the Gym let me comment that Keith and Shawn both came to the Gym near the start of my workout. Keith came down to talk to me while I was working out and his plan was for us to head to ‘Subway’ again for the night so we could play cards and watch ‘The ‘Footy Show’.

My suggestion was for us to head to the Catholic Club but he didn’t think this was that appropriate. Starting t detest the thought of ‘Subway’ as we have overused its use I kept my thoughts to myself and asked him to meet me at my house in forty five minutes.

When my workout was finished Keith was out the front of my house with his car and upon approaching him he informed me that he had been waiting there for half an hour. Looking at where he had parked and seeing that the bedroom lights at Caprice’s house were on it didn’t take me long to figure out why he had parked just up from my house.

“There have been two guys who walked in there” he told me as he kept looking over and as I could see nothing in the room I thought them to be worse than me. There you go, Keith was the first to start his peeping tom mishaps and knowing he used to be doing it all the time back a couple of years ago when everyone was living on his street he’ll start it once again.

Boiled Chicken and Salmonella

Informing Keith that I would be at least an hour to have something to eat, have a shower and then get ready I mentioned that it would be best if I just gave him the playing cards and for him, Shawn and Tatton to leave without me. This was fine with him and as Tatton said something I realized that he was only coming out because Shawn was now back. Tatton tried to tell me that I would get Salmonella poisoning if I kept having boiled chicken but it hasn’t done anything to me thus far so why stop.

With Keith leaving as I made my way up to my house I walked in and began the big feast that was to become of my dinner. Within an hour it had all been eaten like I had estimated but I was still a bit hungry because of the bigger than normal workout. Once again I can already feel it in my abdominals so I must be doing something right. The rest of my night consisted of watching television, having something more to eat, having a shower and then jumping onto this Diary here.