Community Ed Fitness

I signed up for a community education fitness class because it is at a school only a couple blocks away. It gives me somewhere I can walk to in the wintertime. Thus far the class hasn't been particularly challenging. It is only 50 minutes long, we usually start 5 minutes late, and there's 5 minutes of explanation etc.

Tonight though it kicked my butt. We did six stations and worked through them 3x. 1. mountain climbers 2. triceps 3. salt and pepper 4. squats and shoulders/chest 5. pop-ups shoulder thing 6. wall sits. After the instructor explained the exercises I headed straight for the one I dislike the most (mountain climbers), thankfully so. At the end I did not have energy for that. Also each set got a little shorter and on my first set of mountain climbers (the longest one) Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us" came on. I could of used a little more volume, but I'll take it.

The instructor walks around giving form tips. Today he said that my right knee bobbles inward when I come up from my squats. Previously I haven't taken his comments very seriously, but that is the exact spot where my knee has been injured a couple times. Wow. I had no idea it does that and I'm grateful he was paying attention and pointed it out to me.

I also like the wide variety of ages in the class from a 21 year old (son and mother team) to retirement age. Cathy is on the older end and I guess has been taking this class for years. She is talkative and inquisitive without being intrusive. "I thought you had soccer on Wednesdays" she said to me today, because she talks to people and pays attention :).


Bonus from earlier in the week:

I have so much respect for Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond, the advice they offer and the way they offer it.

http://www.wbur.org/series/dear-sugar

"As Almond told Here & Now’s Robin Young, the people who write in 'don’t want an answer, they want permission essentially to feel what they’re feeling and to know that they’re in a process of struggle and they’re not alone in that.'”

Go Dakota County!

#1 - My friend and I went ice skating today and she said one of the things she appreciates about me is being willing to do things with people who are beginners.  According to the StrengthsFinders test, developer is my second strength so it gives me energy to encourage/support people to try new things/grow.  I get joy out of it naturally.

#2 - Another friend asked if I wanted to stay at the camper cabins sometime in a new Dakota County park.  I usually would prefer to be in a tent, however these camper cabins look gorgeous!  And there are ski and snowshoeing trails right outside so winter excursions are just as appealing.  Well done Dakota County! 

#3 -  I had my cholesterol checked for the first time.  I got the results which I don't know anything about.  My friend looked at them and said they are "really good".

#4 - The country that most closely rivals the U.S. for incarceration rates is North Korea (though that statistic is hard to ascertain).   

If you point a finger at someone else you have three fingers pointing back, right?  Well, for all the negative talk about that country, maybe this information could be clarifying, motivating, enlightening?

#5 - Also I read/skimmed a horrible NYTimes article today.

U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for Profit

Animal Welfare at Risk in Experiments for Meat Industry

The reason I came upon this article is that Cory Booker (New Jersey Senator) says he's going to look into it

and I believe him.

All I Need

• I made a spinach chickpea soup recipe from Simple Vegetarian Pleasures during breakfast.  It was inspired by the fact that I had a 1.5 pound bag of spinach that I didn’t know what to do with and was pretty sure most of which would go to waste.  However Jeanne Lemlin saved me, it needed 10 cups of spinach.

• My favorite 5 year old is wondering when I’m going to come over and put him to bed at night.  That was a part of being a kid that I hated, I suppose it is the “Activator” in me.  I wanted to be able to make things happen. 

• I told my father that I scratched his car last night.  It was in a tight parking lot and I didn’t realize the back of the minivan next to me swung into my spot.  I couldn’t see any damage last night to either vehicle but I figured in the bright sunlight it might be different.  There was a scratch, really minor, and it just made me realize how fortunate I am with over 20 years of driving to have this and a scratch to my sideview mirror in my old car to be my only mishaps.  When I told my father he said, “If you were in the hospital we would have a problem.”

• I wrote my friend an email about how great some of the guys I play soccer with are.  I thought it would make me feel appreciative/wealthy, but instead it made me feel a bit sad.  This perplexed me and I wrote to her again sharing this and trying to understand why I might feel that way.  She replied, “I get that. I totally do.”  And sometimes that is all I need.

Deep Blue

#1 –Looking out the window to the West and seeing a deep blue in the morning sky while the temperature read -4F on my way to my soccer game.

#2 – Not caring at all when my friend yelled at me in soccer (he yells at everybody including himself), and meeting the new woman on our team, a friend of one of our players.  Women in the over 30 league are a rare find.

#3 – Arriving to the announcement, “My best friend is here!”   (My niece as soon as I opened the door.)

#4 – I finally got my bedroom windows winterized with plastic last night before this serious cold snap blew in.  I almost just feel asleep sitting upright in front of the heating vent near one of them.

#5 – My soccer game was near my brother’s place so it was convenient to stop by afterwards and see them and my cousins who stayed there last night.  Then they all headed to the REI used gear sale which was  conveniently located on the drive home for my cousins' and also helped motivated them to leave before too late (on such a cold day).

Not Quite So Far Fetched

Last night I thought I might be getting sick.  It would be a good evening to watch a movie, but then I remembered I had a book on CD from the library for over a month that I hadn't listened to.  It is called Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Initially I thought the premise of the book a bit ridiculous (SPOILER ALERT - skip ahead if you want to read this book).  The book takes place in the 1800's, but then you learn the people are enacting a historical lifestyle so that tourists can come and witness life in that time.  The adults know the true date, but the kids growing up there do not.

Then I remembered I'd heard a story eerily similar to this while listening to SNAP Judgement on NPR last week.  It's about a movie set in the Ukraine where a similar thing was done.  People stopped acting and started living their lives on the set (and being filmed ALL the time).

http://snapjudgment.org/neverending-story

(It's a 17 minute story.)

Okay so maybe the novel wasn't so far-fetched after all.

I woke up today grateful I had zero plans and could rest if needed.  I was also so happy to see all the snow.  On Christmas Day the ground was bare.  I signed up for a cross-country ski weekend at a nearby state park in early January and the prospects were not looking good. 

I've been resting most of the day.  I did enjoy going outside to shovel.  The snow is light and fluffy. Then I finished listening to the novel.

I sent a New Year's card to the three sisters who run the little retreat center I love as I know this is the last new year they will be there.  I also mentioned a great interview I heard with the Jesuit Priest James Martin on On Being on NPR last weekend.  It was refreshing!

Every once in a great while I try to do some research into retirement investing.  I have a friend's mother who treats investing like I treat playing the guitar.  She really enjoys putting time and energy into it.  I cannot match her enthusiasm, though I do appreciate having her as a resource.  Half the time when I ask her a question I do not understand her replies.  I think she gets excited and gives additional information that makes zero sense to me. 
Here is the beginning of an email she just wrote me

"Check the Beta out on each one

of the funds.  PRBLX has a lower

Beta than PARNX.  The lower the

Beta the less the stock will fall in

a BEAR market..."

I know neither what a Beta or Bear market is.  So it's not my thing, but every once in a while I still give it a try.

Just Give it Time

#1 – This may be the beginning of a song, or it may be all that comes.  Did I interrupt the flow to record and write this?

#2 – Confidently and peacefully refusing to send a work email today that didn’t make any sense to me.

#3 – They changed the email to something that I could send (because it made sense).

#4 – Not only was I out 3 of the last 4 evenings, I also exercised Monday-Thursday. This is rare, especially this time of year when the only outdoor exercise I want to do is cross-country ski and we don’t have snow.   

Maybe that is why I’m content to have a quiet evening at home, maybe start a song, eating a bowl of soup in the holiday lights.  The only sounds the refrigerator humming, a clock ticking and my fingers on this keyboard.

#5 -It's kind of funny because I want those lines to turn into a song, but then I just laughed at myself when I listened to the words again.

A Path Appears

“If we want to nurture university graduates, maybe the most cost-effective way is to donate not to a college but to a nursery school or parent visitation program.  We wish more donors would endow not just professorships but also the jobs of nurses who visit at-risk parents (66).”  

A Path Appears – Transforming Lives Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn.  

Kirstoff and WuDunn tell of an experiment where random people were given small amounts of money and then either told to use it as a gift/donation or spend it on themselves.    “When a researcher telephoned each participant for a follow-up, those assigned to spend money on others reported being significantly happier than those who spent it on themselves (it didn’t matter if it was $5 or $20) (239).”

They also write about this cool woman, Diana McDonough, who adored her 8 grandchildren yet became upset that by accident her beautiful and fragile granddaughter was born into privilege and others were not.  She started an organization with women who gave to far needier children whenever they gave something to their own grandchild.  Go Diana!!

Then there was an experiment where students were in a waiting room and a woman behind a screen was perceived as climbing on a chair to get something and then falling down.   She made sounds and said she was in pain/injured.  If the student was alone he/she helped 70% of the time.  However if someone else was in the room who seemed not to care the student helped only 7% of the time (194).  I can easily see myself as that student in the room – certain to help if alone, but easily dissuaded by others to ignore.  Walk through any major city and this can clearly be illustrated.

******

The captain of my mid-week soccer team strikes me as a kind-hearted person.  I thought it the first day I met him and I thought the same thing last night after our 4^th game.  So I decided to send him an email today saying just that.   

I’ve been taking a vulnerability writing class which has made me especially aware of when I feel vulnerable.  And I did feel vulnerable sending that message, “What if he thinks I’m interested in him?  I don’t mean it that way, maybe I shouldn’t send it.  Is this weird?”  These were some of my  thoughts.  But no, it was a simple and kind observation so I sent it.  He replied, “Thanks for such kind words! Your message has brightened my day!” 

***

I'm making some homemade vegetarian lunch "meat", or rather, sandwich filling for the first time.  It is supposed to bake for 2 1/2 hours!  I guess I'll be pulling it out right before bed.