Stress can take over, if you let it. If you think I'm S.L.B. now imagine what I would be like if I didn't work out.
I am not normally the type of person who sets "personal goals", especially ones like "spend more time with family" or "quit drinking" or "be more patient" because I've tried these things and discovered I was more successful at "make more 'me' time" and "drink nicer wines" and "race around passing lane road hogs". Homer Simpson onced remarked "Can't do it? Don't try". I can live by that motto.
Pretty soon they will close off part of the Y so they can refinish the hardwood floors. That should smell nice. Anyway, I'm already anxious about it. Then the week after that they will close the pool. Argh! If I want to swim I'll have to go elsewhere. I went to the Beast Beangush pool a few times last year when they closed our pool. It's the same floorplan as our Y but the details are different. It's like a bad dream: you are walking through the place and you know where everything is but the reception desk is in a different location, the tiles are a different color, the pool water is green/not blue. At 5:00 a.m. driving down I90 I almost hit a coyote crossing the road. Where the f*** am I??? What am I doing out here?????????????? But I know at least when they re-open our pool that it will be CLEAN and clear and free of things like bandaids and gum, so that's a good thing. Let it go. Let it go.
If I get to wake up and get all the way to the Y in the morning without dealing with pesky husbands, tailgaiters, Hurly Burly, construction, and assholes cutting through the parking lot on a definite diagonal, I'm great. I can have a good workout and get through the day with grace and humor. But it seems more often than I care to admit these days I get zipped by the little things and feel I have this lingering need to be refreshed - to relax a bit more, enjoy the beautiful moonshadow as I drive down 155, even to be thankful for new compression shorts, and not let things get to me so easily. So I decided to set a few personal goals.
1. Draw up a Will, Living Will, Health Care Proxy, Power of Attorney. I'm not planning on popping off anytime soon but I made the appointment so I'll finally get this taken care of just in case I drop dead on the treadmill.
2. Figure out what to do with my parents in their old, old age if they decide to bless me with moving to Albany. Make up a portfolio to hand to them if they have any questions.
3. Stop letting the little things, like the awful foam soap in the showers, get me down. Focus on the long term goals, the big picture, like surviving your 18th birthday. Every year past that, as far as I'm concerned, is a gift.
It's Friday night. Second glass of Pinot Grigio. I feel happy doing this blog and taking the night off, without anyone around (including Pesky Husband). I feel relaxed. Refreshed. It was a good week at the gym and a good week and work. Let's see how things go next week.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Elbow Room
The Littlest Mermaid is being elbowed out by Big Fat Ugly Man. We had fun rolling our eyes at each other when he hogged the best jet in the hot tub last week. He has been shunned.
When she was first at The Good Jet earlier this week he sat really really close to her so he could be the first to take it over when she vacated. Like anyone with a tailgater the best most fun tactic is to drive really really slow and take your left turn realllllly sloowwwwwwwww just to be annoying. I am proud to know The Littlest Mermaid sat there extra long and made him wait.
They were doing "maintenance" in the Ladies Locker Room on Monday so we all had to use the Children's Locker Room instead, complete with smaller lockers, smaller shower stalls, no makeup/hairdrying space except the sinks (conveniently located right next to the toilets so gawd forbid all that exercise made your system work for you and you need a bit of privacy). Puppy Sweet Cheeks took over five lockers for all her things. I think I have some competetion there. Anyway, the funniest part was 8 of us all trying do our makeup, dry our hair, and also make room for those that needed to wash their hands after using the loo in the space of two sinks, including Butch, who, by the way, appears to be female in all respects. We did fine except for blowing a fuse because we had more than two hair dryers running at the same time. What can we say? Sometimes the Y sucks.
The Children's Locker Room has a working scale, FYI. The new chintzy one that they put in the Women's Locker Room is a small, digital scale. Very nice. I weighed myself on it, went for a pee, then came back and weighed myself again and it appeared that I lost 4 ounces. That was satisfying. Except now the battery has already died after just one week. I made a bet with Cookie that within 3 weeks the stupid thing will get stolen. If you want to get in on the bet just let me know.
One of the best reasons for going to the gym early in the morning is Elbow Room. It's not as crowded as later in the morning ("don't these people have jobs"?, you might moan to yourself on those days that you aren't working or get to go to work late), or in the evening (and in the evening it's mostly dysfunctional crazy stressed out working folks and youngins posing and looking for pickups and they do look good, by the way), and bonus points: the toilets are clean. So you've got all this lovely space and some stinky guy decides to take up residence on the bench, or the bike, or the treadmill right next to you when there are many others they could have chosen instead. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Chill out, S.L.B. - everyone needs elbow room to do their thing, including me.
Which is why I left my weekend company to their own devices and ventured forth for a workout both Saturday and Sunday instead of playing hostess, hoping they would all have showered and eaten and had some privacy so I could come back home and eat right away because I Am Starved and then we can just get on with the day. Except that they hadn't showered, or eaten. They Slept In. My cat, Bob, is obviously not doing his job of howling at the top of the stairs the way he does normally. I smooched him and explained the situation and suggested he scratch at some doors tomorrow morning.
We can all get along as long as we know when to make a little room for others in our lives, and when to put our elbows out. Right now I've got my elbows out and company went to the movies and I get some privacy and a chance to do a blog. Life is good.
When she was first at The Good Jet earlier this week he sat really really close to her so he could be the first to take it over when she vacated. Like anyone with a tailgater the best most fun tactic is to drive really really slow and take your left turn realllllly sloowwwwwwwww just to be annoying. I am proud to know The Littlest Mermaid sat there extra long and made him wait.
They were doing "maintenance" in the Ladies Locker Room on Monday so we all had to use the Children's Locker Room instead, complete with smaller lockers, smaller shower stalls, no makeup/hairdrying space except the sinks (conveniently located right next to the toilets so gawd forbid all that exercise made your system work for you and you need a bit of privacy). Puppy Sweet Cheeks took over five lockers for all her things. I think I have some competetion there. Anyway, the funniest part was 8 of us all trying do our makeup, dry our hair, and also make room for those that needed to wash their hands after using the loo in the space of two sinks, including Butch, who, by the way, appears to be female in all respects. We did fine except for blowing a fuse because we had more than two hair dryers running at the same time. What can we say? Sometimes the Y sucks.
The Children's Locker Room has a working scale, FYI. The new chintzy one that they put in the Women's Locker Room is a small, digital scale. Very nice. I weighed myself on it, went for a pee, then came back and weighed myself again and it appeared that I lost 4 ounces. That was satisfying. Except now the battery has already died after just one week. I made a bet with Cookie that within 3 weeks the stupid thing will get stolen. If you want to get in on the bet just let me know.
One of the best reasons for going to the gym early in the morning is Elbow Room. It's not as crowded as later in the morning ("don't these people have jobs"?, you might moan to yourself on those days that you aren't working or get to go to work late), or in the evening (and in the evening it's mostly dysfunctional crazy stressed out working folks and youngins posing and looking for pickups and they do look good, by the way), and bonus points: the toilets are clean. So you've got all this lovely space and some stinky guy decides to take up residence on the bench, or the bike, or the treadmill right next to you when there are many others they could have chosen instead. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Chill out, S.L.B. - everyone needs elbow room to do their thing, including me.
Which is why I left my weekend company to their own devices and ventured forth for a workout both Saturday and Sunday instead of playing hostess, hoping they would all have showered and eaten and had some privacy so I could come back home and eat right away because I Am Starved and then we can just get on with the day. Except that they hadn't showered, or eaten. They Slept In. My cat, Bob, is obviously not doing his job of howling at the top of the stairs the way he does normally. I smooched him and explained the situation and suggested he scratch at some doors tomorrow morning.
We can all get along as long as we know when to make a little room for others in our lives, and when to put our elbows out. Right now I've got my elbows out and company went to the movies and I get some privacy and a chance to do a blog. Life is good.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Weighing In
A woman's weight is a very personal thing. No one would dare ask you, it seems, except if you are thin. NOTE: Like everyone else, even I am going to lie about my weight.
There was a public librarian in Iowa who was fired from her job a few weeks ago because she wouldn't reveal her weight and height for a new city ID card. They insisted they needed this data in case there was an "emergency where they needed this information to identify her". Whatever the hell kind of freakin' emergency do they think will happen at a little public library in the middle of nowhere??? More power to you, girl. I think even if she HAD filled out the form she likely would have lied about her weight anyway. Stupid bureaucrats.
When I went to the doctor a few weeks ago she put me on the scale, fully clothed, with shoes, and recorded my weight in my file. Then she made me take my shoes OFF to measure my height. I said NO FAIR you have to reweigh me, which she did. I made her change her data. I watched just to make sure.
The scale in the ladies locker room has been fussy the past couple of weeks. On Monday (after two days of eating) I got on and shifted the counterbalance up a pound, one more, two, three, SEVEN!? YIPES. NO WAY. I checked and sure enough it didn't balance at zero. I reported it and found out later that in fact it was busted and is going to be replaced, hopefully with a scale that isn't as chintzy as the old one. I was thinking of all those really really really fat women that had been dieting like crazy and working out every day only to discover their weight was going up and up and up. Do they work out more or give up entirely? I guess they will have to weigh their options.
I've seen women so obsessed that they weigh themselves before and after their workout. Did anyone see the laminated signs on the fitness equipment upstairs that read "Single Set Users Have the Right Away". They finally changed the signs but not before many of us more alert gym junkies had a good laugh. Anyway, we may need the same kind of sign on the scale in the ladies locker room.
One big guy told me after a spinning class a while back that he had weighed in at work as part of a Weight Watchers program only to find out he had gained 7 pounds in the past year. In April I gained 5 pounds in one week on vacation. Have I lost it yet? I'll never tell.
If you've lost weight - way to go! - if not (and you're trying), you may have a way to go, but don't give up. Welcome to the Y. Now go away. Uh, I mean, have a nice day!
There was a public librarian in Iowa who was fired from her job a few weeks ago because she wouldn't reveal her weight and height for a new city ID card. They insisted they needed this data in case there was an "emergency where they needed this information to identify her". Whatever the hell kind of freakin' emergency do they think will happen at a little public library in the middle of nowhere??? More power to you, girl. I think even if she HAD filled out the form she likely would have lied about her weight anyway. Stupid bureaucrats.
When I went to the doctor a few weeks ago she put me on the scale, fully clothed, with shoes, and recorded my weight in my file. Then she made me take my shoes OFF to measure my height. I said NO FAIR you have to reweigh me, which she did. I made her change her data. I watched just to make sure.
The scale in the ladies locker room has been fussy the past couple of weeks. On Monday (after two days of eating) I got on and shifted the counterbalance up a pound, one more, two, three, SEVEN!? YIPES. NO WAY. I checked and sure enough it didn't balance at zero. I reported it and found out later that in fact it was busted and is going to be replaced, hopefully with a scale that isn't as chintzy as the old one. I was thinking of all those really really really fat women that had been dieting like crazy and working out every day only to discover their weight was going up and up and up. Do they work out more or give up entirely? I guess they will have to weigh their options.
I've seen women so obsessed that they weigh themselves before and after their workout. Did anyone see the laminated signs on the fitness equipment upstairs that read "Single Set Users Have the Right Away". They finally changed the signs but not before many of us more alert gym junkies had a good laugh. Anyway, we may need the same kind of sign on the scale in the ladies locker room.
One big guy told me after a spinning class a while back that he had weighed in at work as part of a Weight Watchers program only to find out he had gained 7 pounds in the past year. In April I gained 5 pounds in one week on vacation. Have I lost it yet? I'll never tell.
If you've lost weight - way to go! - if not (and you're trying), you may have a way to go, but don't give up. Welcome to the Y. Now go away. Uh, I mean, have a nice day!
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