Kind Words and Ice Cream
Well… this was a stressful week. On top of the usual (and some not-so-usual) life stresses, my daughter seemed to be brimming with resentment towards me. Everything that went wrong was my fault, and at one point- after she made a mistake and blamed me for the outcome- in exasperation I asked “How is THIS possibly my fault?” She said “It IS your fault, because you were the one who gave me the ‘stupid’ gene.” Ah. Well, at least she gets points for creativity! When I told my sister about this, she remembered her eighth grade year, and said she had days where she felt like she was bursting with anger. She reminded me that it’s probably hormonal, and that it will pass. It was good to put things in perspective, but it was still hard to deal with. On Wednesday my Garmin informed me of this: How did it know??? I have to admit that instead of starting a breathing exercise, I bought myself this: I know what you’re thinking- “Boy, she really knows how to live it up! Sugar-free and dairy-free ice cream!” Ha ha… actually it’s really good. It’s sweetened with erythritol though, which can be hard on the digestive system if you eat too much of it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Why is ice cream SO FRICKIN’ GOOD??? I split that pint between two happy nights. No breathing exercises needed. Today one of my coworkers screwed up massively and somehow left me to deal with the consequences. I had to apologize to the client for the mixup, and instead of being incredibly annoyed- which she had every right to be- she said “It’s okay. We all have bad days.” Because I’ve had such a hard week, I was disproportionately grateful for those words. She could have complained. Or she could have just said “That’s okay.” But to add the extra “We all have bad days” was an extra kindness, and it made my day. It reminded me of this quote (attributed to both T.H. Thompson and John Watson); Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Yes, more kind words… and ice cream. We’ll get through these battles with a little help. Have you had anyone say something unexpectedly kind lately? Favorite flavor of ice cream? – My current favorite is this butter pecan.
Weekly Rundown- The Curse of the Glutes?
Oh, hello! Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by that dynamic duo, Kim and Deborah. There was a bit of drama this week, but why would it be any different from any other week? Let’s get right into it! Sunday I did Day #4 of Caroline Girvan’s Iron Series, which was a full body strength workout. This is where The Incident occurred. During the first round of lunges I felt an ominous pulling sensation in my left glute, just to the side of my sacrum. ARRRRRG! Can I do ANYTHING without hurting myself? And I’ve only done lunges about a gazillion times (I used to do Matty’s “Lunge-a-Palooza” class!) I tried switching to bodyweight lunges, but even that was too much… that left side was f*cked. I did finish the workout, (leaving out all lunges) but I was not happy. Had I been struck down by The Curse of the Glutes (a term Kim coined to describe a mysterious wave of glute/hip problems people are having this fall)??? As the day wore on, I realized the one thing I couldn’t do was step up on my left leg. We don’t have stairs in our house, other than one step down into the garage. When things like this happen, I suddenly become aware that I go in and out of the garage about 9000 times a day (the washing machine is out there, as well as the recycling bins and the cats’ litter boxes, and we have a garage freezer.) Luckily it’s only one step, so I quickly learned to only step up on the right leg. SIGH! Monday The big question… CAN I RUN??? Although that left side was still achy and I still couldn’t go up that step, walking didn’t seem to make it worse so I headed out, hopefully, for a run. PHEW! I really wasn’t sure until I took those first few running steps. Sometimes walking doesn’t hurt, but there’s something about that moment where you have to balance on one leg and stabilize your hip muscles that can be hard on the SI joint… but it was fine. I ran 3 happy, happy miles. Tuesday Back to Caroline Girvan! Luckily for me, Day #5 was biceps, triceps and abs. Good, hard workout. Wednesday No school today because of Yom Kippur, so I got to do my longer run early in the morning. AND, it was only 71 degrees! I know that’s not exactly chilly, but it’s quite a bit cooler than what I’ve been used to. I ran 7 miles and it was… easy? Definitely easy compared to the last couple 7 milers I did in the heat, that really wiped me out. The heat never used to bother me, but it seems the older I get, the less I can tolerate it. Kind of a problem since I live in Florida! But for now I’ll just appreciate our little cool down, and look forward to even cooler weather in a few weeks. Side note- when I woke up this morning my arms were SO SORE from the previous day’s workout. I have to laugh at myself- let’s see, I lift heavy things on purpose until I’m horribly sore. Something is always hurting- do normal people live like this? Thursday Day #6 of Caroline Girvan was a “quad” workout, but when I previewed it, I realized it was very lunge heavy, including multiple sets of Bulgarian lunges (where your back foot is elevated.) I was still very, very nervous about that left glute/ SI joint, so instead of doing this workout I did one of her abs classes. Then after work I decided to pop out for a quick 3 mile run. Yes, it was hotter (82 degrees) but there were a lot of clouds and this run felt pretty good! Friday Okay… I’m going to try the Day #6 class. I did a long warmup, and then did the first round of lunges with only body weight… and it was okay! A little achy when I first started, but I could tell it was going to be fine. I did go lighter with the weights, but the class was still hard. I’m not used to Bulgarian lunges. Saturday 4 mile run! I got out nice and early, as the sun was rising. My favorite time of day to run. Sunday On tap…. sleeping in till 8:00 and then rolling out of bed in time to watch the Chicago Marathon! The waffles are already made- all I have to do is warm them in the toaster. I can’t wait to watch the marathon, and I’m so excited for everyone running it! Later in the day I’ll do Day #7 of Caroline Girvan- it’s another upper body workout and luckily my arms have finally recovered from the last one. So, in spite of the rocky start, I had a really good week of running. There was lots of foam rolling, and I used the hypervolt every day at work. For a couple nights I also forced myself to sleep only on my back- I don’t really like that, but I think it helped that left hip a lot. Now I’m feeling like things are pretty much back to normal. How was your week? Have you been a victim of The Curse of the Glutes? Are you watching the Chicago Marathon?
October Coffee Date- FINALLY!
Well, it’s finally October! I can talk about fall and pumpkins all I want and no one can roll their eyes at me. (RIGHT? I hope no one is rolling their eyes right now!) Thanks to Coco and Deborah for hosting this coffee date. Pour some coffee (or earl grey tea) into your favorite Halloween mug and join us! On the subject of appropriate timing of holiday festivities, I would tell you about the odd experience I had yesterday at Nordstrom Rack. I was looking for some fall hand towels for the bathroom, but all I saw was this: Now, I love Christmas! But everyone knows you don’t start decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving (it’s the rule!) I don’t object to seeing it in the stores super early, but it literally took up the entire seasonal section. I will confess that I looked at the Christmas mugs- I love my mugs- but I was really looking for pumpkins. Sheesh. Switching gears…. I just finished this book. I’m not really sure what the point is in using a pseudonym, when everyone knows this is J.K. Rowling. I absolutely love everything she writes, and I loved this book. This is the sixth book in the series, and they really should be read in order. If you haven’t read any of them, I envy you! I would love to start on book 1 and read straight through the series again. Of course I don’t love these books as much as I love Harry Potter, but it’s the same writing that pulls me immediately into the story and the lives of the characters. One note- the mystery takes place around an online game, and there are many pages of in-game chats that are written in a smaller font. This wasn’t a problem in the physical book, but almost everyone complained in the reviews that it was unreadable on Kindle (I say “almost” everyone, because one person said they read the entire 1272 page book on their Kindle in 24 hours- I’m impressed!) Since I only read physical books, this didn’t affect me. But apparently there are a lot of angry Kindle readers out there. And lastly, if we were having coffee together, I would tell you I’m getting geared up once again for NaMoBloPo! It’s a 30 day blogging challenge where the goal is to post every day for the month of November. I know that sounds daunting, but I did it last year and it was really fun. There’s a great camaraderie among the participants, and I would love it if more people did it this year. If you’re interested, check out San’s post about it here. Have you read any great books lately? Does it annoy you to see Christmas things in October? -It doesn’t annoy me, but I don’t like it if that’s ALL I see- what happened to fall? Anyone interested in joining NaMoBloPo this year?
It’s All Invented
Years ago I read a great book called The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. In a chapter titled “It’s All Invented” we learn that each species perceives information from our surroundings differently. Frogs don’t see any colors, while bees can see patterns in ultraviolet light on flowers. Owls can see in the dark, and dogs hear sounds that we can’t hear. We think we can see and hear everything, but in fact our senses only bring us selective information. Our brains use this information to tell us a story of what we “know” about the universe. If our knowledge about what we’re seeing and hearing is invented by our brains, what other stories are we inventing? “I’m not good at math.” “My coworker is badmouthing me behind my back.” “I’m a slow runner.” These are all stories we tell ourselves, all the time. In the book they show a famous puzzle of the nine dots. The goal is to join all nine dots with four straight lines, without lifting your pen from the paper: Nearly everyone classifies the dots into a square: and by doing it this way, the puzzle is unsolvable. But nowhere in the instructions did it say “connect the dots with four straight lines, without lifting your pen from the paper… within the square formed by the outer dots.” What happens when you realize you can use the whole sheet of paper? The false limitation of the square is an invention by our minds. It’s a perfect reminder that it’s all invented- everything is just a story we tell ourselves. The chapter ends with this food for thought: What assumption am I making, That I’m not aware I’m making, That gives me what I see? And then… What might I now invent, That I haven’t yet invented, That would give me other choices? Since it’s Tuesday I’m linking up with Kim and Zenaida for their Tuesday Topics. Thanks ladies!