A whole week!
Today was the hardest day to get out of bed so far. I was still tired, my body felt like it’d been punched (thanks, abs challenge!), my brain was foggy, I could hear the wind blowing outside but the bed was nice and cozy….then just as I was about to start my day, Guy brought Howie into the room, so I had to get back in bed and snuggle with my dog and my man. After snugs, though, I at least did my stretches with a warm fuzzy feeling.
Daily Challenges
| Stretching | ✓ |
| 1SE | ✓ |
| Intimate Time | ✓ |
| Cooking | Today’s Menu: I started the morning with a breakfast shake, followed by a light lunch of cottage cheese and pears (Guy ate PBJ); tonight was PIZZA NIGHT for dinner after dance class. |
| Reading (Poetry) | Rebecca Solnit shared (on Facebook) the poem “I Go Back to May 1937” by Sharon Olds. It asks the question, if you could go back and change the past, would you? What if it meant you wouldn’t exist? Framed around presumed future Nazis (before they are Nazis), the answer still seems to be no. |
| Reading (Fiction) | I continued reading The Poisonwood Bible and am so far enjoying the different narrators’ voices. Seeing the world through multiple perspectives enriches the scene immensely. I find myself (at this moment) wondering how Kingsolver chose which narrator’s voice to voice to use for each portion of her story. I sense that I will spend a lot of time unpacking this novel in the days and weeks to come. |
| Reading (Nonfiction) | Today I read about nomadic peoples, which will (like so many things) feature in my piece for November. There are an estimated 50-60 million nomadic people in the world today, which is somehow both a lot more and a lot fewer than I would have guessed (I’m not good at visualizing very large or very small numbers; it’s one of the many reasons I didn’t excel at engineering.) |
| Music | After listening several times to the track I received from doing Gwen’s (remember her from yesterday?) fun little personalized music quiz (go do it!), I was inspired to pull out the electric bass again and relearn the bassline for “Ain’t No Sunshine.” I used to think the bass wouldn’t be that different from cello, but it feels more like guitar, which I tried and failed to learn back in college. I’m thinking I might find a different instrument, maybe, something that fits my body better; perhaps that will make it easier to learn and play. |
| Postcard Poem | In a change of pace, I actually wrote my poem while I had my breakfast shake (instead of right around dinnertime), because one of the first things I read this morning inspired it. Also, writing it on this postcard made me laugh, probably more than it should have: See, it makes me laugh because my poem materialized after I learned about Fat Bear Week, which is happening (on Facebook) at Katmai National Park in Alaska (thanks for the hard-hitting news, NPR!)  For a change of pace, and to celebrate my first week, I’m going to do a giveaway! Instead of selecting a recipient myself, I’m going to ask my Facebook friends, and any reader-commenters on this post, who wants it! If I get more than one taker, I’ll collect all the names and do a random drawing before I publish tomorrow’s post. |
| Trash Pickup | I didn’t end up going on any walks with Howie today, so I didn’t pick up any trash. I feel slightly guilty about this, but also really tired and physically exhausted, so technically I didn’t accomplish this challenge today, but I’m giving myself a break. |
Today’s Challenges
Monday night dance class is sacred to me. I know I have lavished praise on my Divine Movement community several times already, but Monday nights are especially important. See, I’ve been coming to Monday night Boudoir Drop-In basically every week (unless I am out of town or unwell) since the beginning of 2014—counting from then, I have now been to this class 201 times! I see women from a core group of about 20 or so who attend the same class regularly, and with whom I’ve developed deep and lasting friendships (hi, loves who are reading this!) Monday night Boudoir is my church; it’s where I go for sanctuary.
Tonight we did something a little different: instead of dancing to our own songs, we danced to a song selected by someone else. A few years ago, this would probably have made me really anxious, but tonight it was just fine. For one, the woman who selected my song has been my dance mentor for about six years—the other day I referred to her as my dance sherpa, part guide, part support system, part companion—and she and I have similar taste in music. For another, I have intentionally challenged myself to dance to unfamiliar songs, so I’ve grown accustomed to the discomfort. So I thought of my beautiful dancer friend, and I channeled her energy, and it recharged me.
After dance class, I came home to enjoy pizza with my Guy and veg out in front of the TV for a while before doing abs. I intended to do them before dance class, but I used my pre-class time to chat about croissants instead. Day 3 of my abs challenge was the worst day yet. My muscles haven’t recovered from the last two days of crunches, so as soon as I started using them tonight, I knew it was going to be a really long ten minutes (the thing says five and I still don’t know if that’s because they don’t stop to breathe heavily and clutch at their guts between sets or what.) But, I did it!
And then, for a real treat, I watched some more TV before calling it a day. It’s almost like I’ve just about figured out how to fit all these things I want to do into a regular life.
*Featured image of Fat Bear Week 2019 bracket, ©2019 National Park Services.
Sorry we ate up your abs time with crossiant talk–I think we all have a vested interest in your challenge… also, delicious crossiants!
I’d totally throw my hat in the ring for a gay bear poem postcard.
And lesbian! (Send me your address when you get a minute.)