Just a funny...

Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

Will you help hold my hair back please?

I was once told by a boss that I vomit sunshine. No joke! At the time I was a little thrown off by such a crazy notion. Huh, vomit sunshine? Do those two words even go together in the same sentence? And if so, how can that be such a bad thing? I guess it's the price I pay for being an optimist....such a burden label that is to wear. I'm not sure what it was in my life that made me this way but whatever it is is engraved into me like the tattoos on my skin. Maybe it was my parents teaching me at a young age to always be thankful of what I had and be considerate to those around me. Maybe it was my grandpa and all his silliness. Maybe it was the fact that I was born a leader, the oldest of all my siblings and I knew they were always watching me, looking up to me, and I had to show them I wasn't scared. Maybe God just put more sunshine in my belly? Whatever it is it makes me happy. I not only see the glass as half full but it's always overflowing with unlimited refills. I swear this is not an act! If anyone out there reading this blog knows me on a personal level then you can justify I really do just enjoy to smile! I don't stress like normal people stress, (it drives my husband batty) I really do believe in the motto that "Whatever's meant to be will" and the idea that "Things always work out in the long run." I don't know if it's fair or not that I am encoded this way but for me I don't know any other way to be. I consider it a gift and that gift I want to share with you. I want to help inspire you, motivate you, and make you smile along the way. This is a cruel world and if you're a weightlifter then it's even tougher. If you don't like my blog then don't read it. If I don't impress you then go find something else that does. I lift heavy, train hard, and still go home to be a mother to my princess. Still not impressed, then leave.....go far far away and never come back. Take your pick axe with you because this tree is standing strong. Stick around? I'll show you strong. I'll show you brave. I'll show you the bottom of my glass only after I throw this positive water on you. Surround yourself with greatness, surround yourself with the best, surround yourself with what you want to be. Dream the highest because with enough hardwork and determination anything is possible. You decide how your day is going to go from the moment you roll out of bed. If you stub your toe in the morning don't be pissed that it hurts, look down at it laugh because you just showed that wall who's boss! Today, go do something great! Hit a PR, help an old lady across the street, put a dollar in some homeless guy's jar. Go take over the world with your greatness! Smiles are contagious ya know!! Now go my fellow minions....go vomit sunshine!

I'll Scratch Your Back if You Scratch Mine.....

TEAM. El equipo. Mannshaft. In whatever language you say it in it still means the same thing. Team:(n.) A group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport. Is that it though? Is that all a team is or did Webster have to save room for the more important words like win, victory, and champion? That must have been it. They must have felt the need to go green and save pages because to me there is so much more to say about "team"........or maybe they just don't know the extent of mine?
At Cal Strength we are a TEAM. We are the Bonnie and Clydes of weightlifting. The Ren and Stimpys of jackassory. When one member goes down the other 6 are there before he ever even hits the floor. We are a team of viruses. We feed off of one another like amebas on pond scum. Donny hits a PR and myself and the others all follow. This sport is a roller coaster of events on a daily basis and personally I enjoy the upside down part of the loop, the highest point possible, but not every day is like that. When one person gets down on themself then it's up to everyone else to bring back up the good atmosphere.

A good team is well rounded though. It consists of a little bit of everything. We at Cal Strength are the walking example of that. I am the one who yells and cheers, "Come on, you got this!" as I see my teammates look heasitantly at the loads on their bar and worry about who's going to come out victorious in the end, them or that piece of steel. Maybe it's the little bit of CrossFit still left in my veins, or maybe its the coffee mixed with our Euro House techo music? Jon yells back, "We don't get HURT!" Immediately this washes out the fear in the room and we know that even if we don't win against that bar we will at least get back up to fight it again. I think we sometimes need to hear this more often.....maybe someday we will run Fear off and he will go visit and make home at the Eleiko Center down the street. Kevin is our happy place. He joins in by telling us stories of mermaids and relieves our doubts that even though our dark, chalky little corner feels like Hell, that it is indeed a Heaven of Hells right here on Earth. Whatever that means, it works. Without even realizing it in the time it took us to try to figure out what in the hell goes on in his head we've already lifted the bar and like a robot already added more weight all the while laughing. Rob.....he's the shit talker of the group. Even more so, he's the one who snatches 130s while still eating his lunch. He'll have a BBQ rib hanging out of his mouth, walk up, snatch, and walk away while still eating. Spencer walks around cheering quotes from remember the Titans.....I'm not sure exactly how strong I am, but Spencer sure tells me I'm too strong??? That means this should be easy right? Tom, our newest member is an awesome addition. He's just going through the first "hurt" stage of the game so we all jump on his back when 2:00 rolls around and we all still want to milk the last remaining minutes back in the breakroom working on our blogs. Casually we walk to our corner of the gym to dreadenly lace up our shoes .....guess what, Tom already has his bar loaded and is already trying like hell....this sets our tempo! If Tom is excited to be there then we should be too.....he's our teammate and we dare not let any teammate down. Donny. Well Donny should have his own paragraph....hold on....

Ok, that's better. Donny... Donny, is quote unquote our team captain. Shit, Donny is Captain America, and if there was such thing as a Captain World, he'd be that too! He doesn't even have to talk to be heard. When I'm frustrated at a weight, HE knows.... looks at me..... and then I know. I'm not sure if it's magic or if it's fear supplied through telepathic brain waves that I can't let him down, but whatever it is, it works. It's a strong look! The Shankle look tops off this crazy circle of team dependency. He is the leader of this circus clan. The papa ape of all us little monkeys, but you better believe that when Donny needs a pick up we are all there for him too! I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine....that's the kind of the moto we live by.

So Webster, what I guess I'm trying to say is that if I had to go back and do it all again......I would save you even more paper.....

Team: (n) see term: Cal Strength

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."
         -Leon J. Suenes

Wonder Woman

So now that I am in my 6th month of training I assume it's time I start a blog, since afterall, that IS what all the cool weightlifters are doing. For my first post I guess I should talk a little about myself? Ah, who am I kidding, they're all going to be about me; this is a Lindsay Taylor blogspot, but what I guess I'm trying to say is the first one should be about what you're getting yourself into by reading my blog and what you're going to have to look forward to in the future posts. So without any further adue, here we go....

                                                    Lindsay Taylor,
                           The One They Call Wonder Woman

I'd like to think the whole Wonder Woman phenomenon all started because of my uncanny ability to wear spandex or posibly even the similarities we share as far as our hair, legs, and...well I guess just hair and legs (dang it)! But I think it goes a little deeper than all of that. My super hero story started almost six months ago, on a hot summer day in August, when I first walked through the red double doors of Cal Strength in San Ramon. I came into this story as a CrossFitter. Now, I wasn't what I'd call a "juice drinker" but I was pretty decent at it and above all I was really really enjoying it. Shortly after sitting down at Cal Strength I met Glenn Pendlay, and at the time I had no idea what this man was about to do to change my life. I think it took Glenn maybe about 5 minutes to be curious as to what I was doing there, another 2 minutes to get a wooden dowel in my hands, and about 15 seconds to decide that he wanted me to stop whatever it was I was doing and become a weightlifter! Back and forth we conversed about the possibilities I had in the sport and the potential he thought I possesed. Taking in what he had said and instantly being intrigued I shortly after started my training with Coach Pendlay (still secretly as a CrossFitter). He began to take me with all my years of athletics: high school basketball, track and field, softball (both HS and Division I college) and a few years of working out on my own and CrossFitting and started to mold all that into a competitive weightlifter. In my very first practice with Glenn I think I snatched 67kg and clean and jerked something like 82kg. He saw what he kept referring to as potential, I just kept feeling throbbing pains in what I'll just refer to as my ovaries! After a week, I was stuffing my pants with pieces of turf and pushing on. Maybe that was Wonder Woman? Purple had started to become a very flatering color on me, and thank goodness too because it didn't seem like it was going away anytime soon. Weeks went on and I started competing in a few local meets. It wasn't long before I was officially hooked, officially dropping the title of CrossFitter and officially kipping my last pull up. Now all I want to do is LIFT!

With the heart of an athlete it seems like competition is my biggest addiction and winning is my drug of choice. I want to win like the guy on the corner wants his next high. Maybe that's Wonder Woman? In my second meet I took gold, third meet won money, and forth meet became 3rd in the NATION! Maybe that is Wonder Woman? On Fridays I lift against my teammates to get stronger, both with the bar and in my head. It's sometimes a good thing I'm used to pounds because I look at the bar and just think the colors are pretty and not necessarily that they're heavy. My kilo math is getting quicker, hopefully my butt under the bar will catch on and join in on that quickness too? In practice I load the bar with totals it takes to win, whether I can really lift them or not, and then pull like hell to put them over my head. That is deffinately Wonder Woman!

I don't like to show fear, or maybe I really am fearless? I tell my daughter, Jayden, all the time, "Mom isn't scared of anything!" to help ease her dread of the dark, funny noises, and the crazy notion that there are zombies out to get us (thanks dad). At least to her I'm Wonder Wo-MOM, fearless and strong! She tells me she wants to be like me when she grows up! (if only all my fans were four!)

So here we are 6 months later and not even on to our next chapter. My best lifts are an 86kg snatch and a 102kg clean and jerk in training and 84/100 in competition. My goal is set on a 200kg total and my hopes are to hit it at Nationals in March 2012! My dreams are what every other strong weightlifters dreams are, to someday walk off the platform wearing a gold medal around my neck, sporting the colors of our lady country and crying my eyes out at as they wrap me with our flag and play our country's song.

I never want to forget this chapter though, this is where I start. This is where I put in the work, the time, the pain, the blood, sweat, and the tears. Never forget where you started, it's like forgetting who you are or where you come from. It's like forgetting your name. It makes you who you are today and lays the foundation for all that you have to become tomorrow. I am Lindsay (Eaton) Taylor, daughter of Janet Stringer and Larry Eaton from small town Cuba, Missouri. I have the best family in the world! I am a mother, a wife, and a business owner. I am surrounded by the best team of guys anyone could ever ask for. I love to smile, make every situation positive, wear flip flops, and have an uncanny ability to wear spandex! I surround myself with the best because I want to be the best! I have a Coach who believes in me, is happy for me when I hit PRs, hugs me, and then tells me to add more weight! I am a Cal Strength soldier, a follower of Attitude Nation, and Donny Shankle's biggest fan! I am a strong, beautiful babe with a barbell....I am WONDER WOMAN!