That Which Does Not Kill Us...
I got the idea that it would be a Good Thing to start riding my bike to and from work. It's not far, yes, there are some hills, but they go both up and down, if you see what I mean, so you get both, each way. I thought it might be a great way to get in some workout, and start getting in shape after a winter of the Couch, TV and too tired to cook just ordering pizzas.
I rode it home tongight.
Heh.
Apparently, one loses being in shape quickly. I couldn't even make it up two of the hills, and it took rather longer than it should have.
Tomorrow will be quicker. And I will make it up those hills. Soon.
On a happier note, I got to have a lovely chat with Lisa Snellings, which always makes me happy. She is having a Sale soon, called BUG OUT and mentioned the CBLDF and asked could I send her a pot of honey, some bees wax, a bit of comb and the dead Queen in a tiny coffin.
Lisa Snellings is an Evil Genius.
This ought to be fun. Watch her website.
I am a Puddle of Goo. I am going to take Ms AUsten into the Foster Room and read to JL1 and 2. They seem to like it. Tho again, hard to tell.
Love and Workouts,
Lorraine
posted by FabulousLorraine @ 5:54 PM
25 Comments
25 Comments:
Lisa is ALWAYS fun to chat with and her blog is fascinating. You can also see her art at www.lisasnellingsgallery.com and at www.poppetplanet.com and on her blog at www.slaughterhousestudios.blogspot.com
(sometimes I have found it was tricky to navigate between her webpages ... so I just memorized them instead)
If you look under the 'poppets on tour' pictures on poppetplanet... the first picture (from rubius obviously) is of my cat, LaMie (guess who she was named for), who is also this blog's official mascot. The pic also includes my Foxbox (from Lisa) and my first poppet.
It was such a treat to see her art in person at Balticon a couple years ago, not to mention Neil's collection (wow... incredible stuff). I have now (finally) got a full spectrum rainbow of poppets (I have been working on it for quite a while) and I CAN'T WAIT to see what she will bring to VCON when she comes to Vancouver for the convention this October (yes, you heard it here... VCON got Lisa to come and play with us!!!)
maybe she will bring something with a dead bee, some honey, some wax, some comb... and a tiny coffin... but... hmmm... customs might not like that too much... oh well
btw the 'slaughterhousestudios' link on the sidebar of the LaM blog goes to one of her 2005 blog postings, not to her site (you may want to update that, but who knows)
That Which Does Not Kill Us...
...scars us for life.
Ugh. I can't even imagine how useless I'd be on a bike right now. I'm thin, so everyone assumes I must be in good shape. Couldn't be more wrong. Aside from the arms (from lifting/tossing Allistair), my body is painfully lacking in muscle. I keep threatening to take up power-walking with a light jog, but as I don't even find the time to shower every day, I'm thinking it might not happen soon. Ah well.
Best to you and those blasted hills!
Shower every day? People have time for that? I've been feeling good about WEEKLY, hee-hee. Tho I suspect if I start working out...
I hadn't ridden my bicycle in a couple years, but you know, when I got back on today, it was just like riding a.....
(Sorry......That's been lurking in my brain all night...)
it is a particularly apt saying... I have often thought that.
You may just inspire me to get on the old two-wheeled horse.
speaking of exercise... It always sucks for about a year, then you get used to it. Finding something you love is the kicker. Then it's easy.
I wish eating chocolate was an exercise. Guess not.
Go Lorraine. We are all suffering with you!
I miss all the biking I used to do. I need to move somewhere more bike-friendly, where I can bike to the grocery store, and to run other errands.
I biked to school all through elementary school. I started giving my friend, Nobu, a ride on the pegs starting in the fourth grade. There was the one big hill where we'd both always have to jump off and walk it the rest of the way up. The day when I managed to pedal all the way up that hill without walking the bike was a major triumph in my young life.
I've lost the stamina, but I seem to have kept the calf muscles. (Score!)
I do love to bike, and have a half hour course that I do every night after dinner, as long as it's not freezing - we have four small lakes close by and roads that wind around each one, lots of fun, fairly flat too. Exercise is a pretty important part of my daily life, but Malena is right, it was about a year before it really integrated itself into my psyche - I don't go more than two days (unless on vacation) without some kind of workout - i do a variety of aerobics/toning and go to an irish step dance class (which kicks my butt, figuratively as well as literally) once a week. Osteoporosis is rampant in my family, so I really work to keep my bones strong.
Lisa' work is wonderful, as well as her blog - lucky VCON! I have one of her harlequins and a small sculpture, and enjoy each piece. Can't wait to see how the bees are treated, hmmmm, wonder if she will use some clear resin, embedding them like bits of amber....
A year, eh? Well it will be worth it.
The bike thing is a good start. I will them move on to....Something else. Tea drinking is all I am coming up with.
I figure if I can get my CATS an exercise wheel, I can get my QUEEN BEE BUTT moving too. And I actually like it, once I am doing it, feels really good.
Congratulations on biking even though it was hard! ;) You will totally make it up those hills soon; I have faith in you. :) Bikes and I have had a fraught relationship, as the area I grew up in was very hilly, with lots of traffic -- sort of a death sentence as a kid. So we all walked everywhere. :)
Exercise is something I do to destress and stay healthy, but it's never been a way to lose weight, for me. I've resigned myself to being 'fit but fat.' I eat well, am healthy, can get through karate classes, weights and cardio at the gym, pick up and move a washing machine... but still wear a size 20. *headdesk* This is Not Acceptable in LA.
I wonder if reading Austen to the Jungle Loves will have much the same effect as playing classical music is supposed to have on babies...
Biking to work? Exercise? I've forgotten the meaning of the word!! And like Mistress Mousy (although not a quarter, make that a sixteenth as beautiful!), being mostly thin hides that I have no muscle tone, no stamina, and am in reality a big tub of goo, who likes to read Jane Austen. Side note -- it is interesting to notice in her works how often the ladies go walking for exercise, and talk about how important regular exercise is. Seriously! We think we invented it, but no. Austen had it going on, way back then! Anyway, GO QUICHE, you are the bomb! :-)
My goodness, Lorraine! I just caught up on the last week of your posts, and what bengal adventures you've had!
It sounds like you're making great progress with JL2, and hopefully JL1 will follow, soon. Patience is the key. Reading to them is great.
Re: the food, this is another 'patience' category. Even if you're not transitioning to a raw diet, you might find the advice here: http://www.rawfedcats.org/practicleguide.htm helpful.
On to non-cat things! Pride and Prejudice is by far my favorite Austen, and I have a guilty pleasure of reading it alongside the modern adaptation, Bridget Jones's Diary.
Malena-- it takes a YEAR to get used to exercise? No wonder I've never made a decent go of it. UGH. If only it weren't so expensive to be an equestrian.
You know, everyone of us is truly beautiful. There is no "less beautiful" or "not as good looking" as someone else.
Beauty is something in the soul, that comes thru the eyes and is seen in the heart.
I want to get fit and lose weight because it's healthy, I feel better, and want to wear my clothes again. I don't feel Less Beautiful now, I feel like I sat on my butt and gained 20 pounds this winter.
There is no shame in that. The shame would be not fixing it.
Adventures indeed. Every day!!
Bridget Jones Diary is an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice???? How do you people KNOW these things????
Well, the lead gent being named "Darcy" is a bit of a giveaway. hee hee
I think one can get into the exercise swing in less than a year if one has the right mindset for it. When I was hitting the gym regularly, it only took me about 5 months for it to not feel like a chore to go there (once I was there it was fine), and then another 4 or 5 months until I stopped backing out of excuses not to go and really enjoying it. hmmm. 9-10 months is still close to a year isn't it?
I keep thinking I should join the local gym. I like machinery. But then there's that whole not-enough-time-to-even-shower thing.
As for fit-vs.-fat: More important in my opinion to be fit. Being fit is WAY more useful all around. And 20 may not be petite, but I've seen plenty who are drop-dead-gorgeous (and most of them in decent shape). A former roommate of mine was a 24 and we'd walk to class together sometimes - all the way across campus, up and down hills (stupid hills). She was also a regular distance swimmer, and sometimes we went to the pool together. Me and my skinny-butt, eating disorderly self could NEVER keep up. Sometimes I'd have to sit out and just catch my breath because I was generally out of shape. Other times I'd have to let her go ahead without me because I was too dizzy to move that fast.
Yeah, fit = WAY better than skinny any day. Screw LA attitudes.
Er, I didn't mean to get on a soapbox there - sorry. Guess it's a bit of a personal sore spot.
Looks like I have some post reading to do...
It will have to wait until the weeknd, but I am glad to read that you are finally able to start on the cycling plan you were telling us about back in February.
Congratulations on the first hills. It will get better.
Greetings (to everyone) from soggy Prague.
Bridget is probably my favorite off-genre adaptation of Austen (and it really is very close, aside from the sisters), but the film Clueless is probably more 'famous.' It's an adaptation of Emma.
I also like off-genre song covers. :D (My friend Jonathan's soft-rock cover of Baby Got Back never fails to crack me up, but Dolly Parton's cover of Stairway to Heaven puts me in tears every time)
Oh, I completely agree: fit is the goal, not size. I like feeling stronger and with more stamina -- I feel more comfortable and at ease with myself and therefore with others and *that* is a beautiful thing. :-) My younger sister (a birdchick almost as cool as The Birdchick -- she's the animal trainer at the Nashville Zoo, and does the animal shows with hawks and other birds and 'possums and small cat creatures and all kinda animals!!) is in MUCH better shape than I am, and is a real woman with the curves and rounded parts and everything good like that. I am now feeling inspired. I may have to go for a walk or something. And sneak in my favourite line from "Emma": "How could she have exposed herself to such ill opinion in any one she valued!" Happy sigh . . .
I had to read Bridget Jones' Diary for English in Uni... alongside Pride and Prejudice.
reading for class always makes it seem much more painful though (except for Golden Compass ... that was FUN). Anyone else notice that?
Lots of people seem to be choosing bicycling as an alternative to driving cars these days. I think it's a wonderful idea, and hope you get to enjoy it! I often walk to get where I need to go -- I love walking ... doesn't require much focus on the exercise itself and offers a lot of variety. You can think and look at the scenery.
~Emily
Lorraine, your words about beauty touch my heart.
I was just thinking about biking the other day, missing it really. As a kid growing up in a small town eons ago riding bike was our major form of entertainment. I remember as a teen spending hours just riding around town with my best friend.
I also have a scar on my hand from an accident I had going down a big hill. It is hard to imagine getting back into it now, but you have tickled that part of my brain that loved it when I was younger.
I have always been overweight but I am bigger and more out of shape right now than ever. Health problems the past couple of years made being active difficult. (Odd catch 22 really.) Sadly while it may take a year to get exercise integrated into life it takes no time at all for the sedentary habit to stick! I really feel so much better now though and I hope to follow Lorraine's example and work more activity into daily life. For me just taking the bus to work will add some walking to my day -- not to mention save $$$$ on gas and parking. That is part of the plan for the summer.
Okay. You all have convinced me. Austen is moving up on The List! I really liked Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility.
Have fun on Holiday, Spacelaw! (I wrote to her today a letter that was over half in French! Sadly the letter went like this: Where are you my little French friend? Miss you. Are you on Holiday?)
Dolly Parton covered Stairway to Heaven?? Cool. I went to Dollywood once, just because of her. Sadly, not as cool as the idea was.
Soapbox away, Michele! We like to see you around ( we know how busy you are with your little cutie!) It's important too, I think. Fitness, weight, self image. I know Malena has to deal with some completely insane ideas about what an actress should weigh.
(How fit are skeletons?)
I think going for fitness is one of the most important things I am doing. I know I will feel better, I will be happier. Every time Malena cleans out her closet, she sends me her fat clothes. Great stuff. Her fat, sadly tho, is my goal. It's all relevant, see?
Fit is what is important, and happy. We are all beautiful, even the MEN here, you are in this as well, guys. I am staring small. I think it is a mistake to say "NOW I AM GOING TO TH EGYM EVERY DAY" Bike riding to work. Small thing. Easy to fit in. Aleta, great on the bus, try walking one stop further down the line. Easy to do.
It may take a year. But how cool is it going to be then?
(Ye, gads , soapbox indeed, this darn thing is a post in itself, and I have something else fun to talk about later tonight.)
I've found no matter what size you are, you feel the same inside. It's the insides that need love and attention. Then the outside will follow because you will have the self love, the drive to do anything!
Spacedlaw, hope you're having fun in Prague!
It was so awesome to read all the comments about, well, how awesome being fit is. ;) I'm going to copy them all and save them to read when I'm feeling down. Or when someone's made a snarky remark about the size of my hips.
I love the way you put that, Malena. Truer words could not be spoken. :)
Prague was fun (and invlved a lot of walking about so I should be feeling fit too). I used to bike everywhere when I first lived in Holland (and in all weathers too) and I do miss it. But here it is way too dangerous (those mad Italian drivers - plus bad roads). So I walk about.
Being fit is the best, it is a gift we are doing to ourselves. Shapes are not something we can always control since a lot of it is also in our genes (well there IS surgery if you must, but a sound mind is far better).
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