Weekly Rundown- New Year, New Everything!
Well, well… we made it. You know how, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, bursts into flames and is then reborn from the ashes? Well, I feel like I kind of burst into flames at the end of 2021, but now I’m ready to rise again! How’s that for a dramatic start to the weekly rundown? I’m linking up as always with Kim and Deborah (thanks for hosting, ladies!) The week was a bit unusual, but ended strong! Let’s get started. Monday So tired. Rewind to Christmas Eve- I had a horrendous sore throat (which turned out to be Covid) but didn’t experience any unusual fatigue for the first couple days. It all caught up with me though, and Monday looked a lot like this: Tuesday My cat was hilarious- every time she saw me lie down on the couch she would run over to snuggle with me. Wednesday Weird thing- I was feeling better except my legs were so achy. Like one lower leg would ache, then that would go away and the other hip would ache, then both hip flexors would ache… I wasn’t too worried about it, but it was annoying. I decided it was time to start moving a little more, so I did a yoga class with Denis Morton on the Peloton app. That felt good, but didn’t relieve the achiness. Advil helped though (once again, a big thanks to Advil for making this holiday possible.) Thursday Enough is enough! I had fulfilled my seven days of quarantine and it was time to get outside. I had a lovely walk, using my new orthotics. As a matter of fact, I wear them all the time now. When I’m in the house I have them in an old pair of running shoes that I can slip on and off like slippers- so they go on as soon as I get up in the morning. Walked 2.5 miles and it felt amazing to be out in the sunshine. After this, the leg aches never came back. I don’t know if it was the walk that did it, or if it was time for that to end anyway. Although I felt much better, energy-wise, I was still coughing and sniffling. I was scheduled to go back to work on Friday, so I took a Covid test just to be sure, and it came out… positive. Noooooooooooooo! I work in such close contact with people, giving massages, and a lot of my clients are elderly, so my boss and I decided to give it a couple more days. Sigh. In other news, my daughter turned thirteen! It was another in a long line of unexciting birthdays for her. Poor girl- December 30th is not a good birthday, and this year was especially blah. I did make a cake: Friday I realized we have a trampoline in our backyard! Bouncing on a trampoline is supposed to be really good for your immune system- I should have been doing that all along! I jumped for 20 minutes and then did some rehab-type hip exercises, which left me sore, but in a good way. Not achy sore, but getting-stronger-sore. New Year’s Eve was uneventful. My husband was supposed to be playing a show, but it was canceled because the drummer had Covid. It was nice having everyone home. We ate pizza, watched a movie, saw the ball drop in Times Square, and went to bed. Woohoo! Saturday Happy New Year! Or, as the saying goes, “New Year, New Foot.” There was absolutely no way I was NOT running on the first day of 2022. Given all the recent developments, I decided to behave as if I were starting fresh as a beginner. I walked a mile and then ran a mile. When I first started to run, my breathing was so labored I wondered if I really was starting as a beginner- but by the end of that mile I felt amazing! It was only a mile, but it was the perfect start to the year. At night we watched Baylor win the Sugar Bowl!!! All our holidays were so low-key this year, I tried to make it as festive as possible. Sunday Moving forward, I’m planning to run every other day in January while I build back up. On tap for today is yoga, and taking down the outdoor Christmas lights (boo hoo! Taking them down is so much less fun than putting them up.) And… getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. Back to real life! Do you like the week between Christmas and New Year’s? I feel like it’s so distinctive, it should have a special name. The only thing I’ve been able to come up with so far is “In- Betweek.” Still working on it. Are you sorry to see the holidays end, or ready to get back to real life! – A little bit of both, for me.