My Life - January 2008

So, since I returned from the holiday trip, my life has been about:

1) The Gym - I really like it there and am managing about 5 trips a week. I'm taking classes in spinning, yoga, body conditioning and now boxing. Yesterday was my sixth spin class and I was finally able to follow all directions instead of modifying the many demands to turn up the resistance again and again and again! So I'm pretty pleased with that. The boxing teacher is a very bizarre little militant, aging likely-dyke. She's seriously hard core, but hilarious at the same time because she's so tiny. I had trouble not giggling as she led us through our warm-up sequence. I also thought she might like me special because she took the time to show me her bare stomach twice. In her defense, she does have admirable abs. If I ever have such flat abs, maybe I will take to doing the same thing.

2) Crosswords - Dirk got me started on the flight to MN and one thing led to another and now I am way deep into easy-level crosswords. Medium is looming large on the horizon. I never thought I'd like these puzzles, but I can't seem to stop now.

3) Wedding Stuff - The main focus here has been invitation design (We are going with the bookmark invitation at Twisted Limb Paper which is all eco-friendly and stuff.) and selection of engagement photos. I also collected addresses for invitations and worked on readings for the ceremony.

4) School is back in session. Week #3 of 15 starts today. So far, so good. There hasn't been time yet for students' efforts to be disappointing. There has however been time for a few characters to act up in class. The most notable was this exchange with a young man:

YM: "When's the break?"
Me: "In about seven minutes."
YM: "OK........ Can I go take a piss?"
Me: "Ummmmmmmmm, can't you wait seven minutes?"
YM: "Well, you see it's cold in here and I really gotta piss."

Mind you, I teach college students and this exchange took place in front of the entire class. That was our first meeting. For the second class he simply showed up, responded when I called his name (for a 9 am class) and then announced that he had to leave and could I please mark him absent. Then he left.

I have no idea why I devoted so much blog time to him.

5) I purchased the entire series of Friends awhile back. My roommate has watched the entire thing at this point, I have worked my way through half of season two. I can never get enough of Friends, but I don't have the obsessive watching abilities that my roommate and Dirk have. Dirk thinks I watch series at "glacier speed." I also find that I can watch post-Sorkin West Wing (aka season five) without pain. This is something that Dirk and the roomie cannot do. Dirk and I watched most of Scrubs, season five over the weekend. We watched at Dirk pace.

6) Did I mention that my sister is prego with child number two? Sounds like pregnancy is not that much fun for her, but I am excited. My nephew is busy doing all the new and amazing and cute things he always does. I can't wait to find out the sex of baby number two.

TV & Movies

I finished season two of Big Love. Dirk gave up halfway through, but I persevered. I'm really glad it's over though; those people are terrible! I can't stand it any more, yet I really want to know what happens to them.

Dirk, my roommate (Abby), her friend (Elizabeth), and I all saw Atonement this week. I loved it. Elizabeth liked it too. Dirk and my roommate were not impressed with it. Their analysis of it was rather offensive to me, as I felt very invested in the movie for at least two hours afterwards and took the attacks somewhat personally.

I saw the first two episodes of season five of The West Wing and could not tell the difference (honestly) between writers. Abby and Dirk did their best to explain why the show was officially awful now that Sorkin was not writing it, but I can't really get behind what they're saying. I'm still gonna watch.

Women's Gym

So yes, you might have noted from the last post that I joined a gym, a women's gym no less! This is what is immediately different about this women's gym:

• Everybody wipes off every machine all the time. (It seems overdone, really.)
  
• The women get in line while waiting for a class - a really long, single file line.
  
• Everyone is early for class because, well, you have to get in line and the further back you are, the worse spot you will get!
  
• Many classes are ticketed, so they never run out of space or equipment.
  
• You only wear indoor shoes as a rule.
  
• You sign up for time on any aerobic machine. There is a clipboard for each one.
  
• Your exercise program is self-filed and everything is in perfect alphabetical order.
  

It's the cleanest, most organized gym I've ever seen.

Just Sharing...

At the gym yesterday, this girl had that hard plastic kind of water bottle that comes in various colors - and hers was yellow. It looked like a giant glass of morning pee. Yum!