I'm proud to say that I have read more books in 2009 than in any other year. At first I thought my leisure reading time might take a hit when I quit my job and no longer had 90 minutes of train-commuting time to read, but in actuality I have much more of a desire to read for pleasure now that I'm not reading math books all day.
Here are some books I have read lately:
Well, since we last spoke, I finished Middlesex. Overall a good story, but for me I'm not sure it was the life-changing, eye-opening, amazingly-described-in-superlatives book that other people said it was. And I had a problem with the author's high-falutant vocabulary, some of which I didn't understand. And I like to think I have an average vocabulary.
But I liked Middlesex enough to see it through to the end, which is more than I can say for my next reading endeavor, Outlander. I wanted to like it. It's about time travel, which I like in non-geeky contexts. (To give you a reference frame here, Back to the Future would be a non-geeky time travel movie. Doctor Who would be a geekier version of the time-travel genre.) But I only got to page 25 of Outlander and realized I was not looking forward to reading it each night. And since it was a library book anyway, I just up and quit reading it.
Next I picked up the fluffiest, lightest chick-lit book you could ever imagine, Nora Roberts' Vision in White. It's the first in a 4-part series about these four women who live together in a big house and run a wedding-planning business that hosts weddings in the same house. Think of the female camaraderie of Sex in the City, with a lot of pretty, fun wedding details thrown in. Oh, and there's the romance with Mr. Perfect, complete with gratuitous sex details. Since this was a book about weddings, I can't help but use wedding-related metaphors to describe its fluffiness. Think of the fluffiest tulle dress and frothy cake frosting, and you have this book. Which is not to say I didn't like it. A book this light is good sometimes. Sometimes you don't want to think too hard, or be too saddened by what you're reading. This book was perfect to fill the completely frivolous niche. I have the second book in the series, Bed of Roses, which I think I will save for the next time I'm craving something light. It focuses specifically on the character who is the florist in the wedding business, so it taps into one of my other interests as well. It just might be perfect for one of those crappy winter days when you need some color in your life.
So, next the library came through with my requested copy of Jennifer Weiner's summer hit, Best Friends Forever. What I like about Jennifer Weiner books is that they're sort of a happy medium between completely unsubstantive chick-lit and serious, tragic novels. There's enough to make you think in there, but they're still pretty quick reads. But I'm only on like the third chapter, so I can't provide a review yet.
I believe after this I will read Superfreakonomics, the new follow-up to Freakonomics, which I loved. (Side note, one of the reasons I loved it is that I e-mailed the author at the University of Chicago and asked him to autograph a book for my uncle, who was an economics professor. The author wrote back immediately and said sure, come by anytime. I sent my husband because he worked at the U of C at the time.) Anyway, it looks like Superfreakonomics has gotten some kind of crummy reviews on Amazon, so perhaps I will be disappointed. I'll let you know.
After that foray into statistics (albeit pop-culture-related, way-more-interesting-than-anything-you-studied-in-college statistics), I'm thinking of going back to historical fiction. Anyone have any recs?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Hobby Discussion Day 1: The Gym ... ???
It has been about a year since I became a stay-at-home mom, which has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. But when I initially quit my job, everybody (myself included) had a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not I could occupy my days in meaningful, non-depression-inducing ways.
But a year later, people sometimes comment on how busy and scheduled the boy and I are during the day. I feel like I don't give myself enough credit for my motivation to try new and interesting things. In a way, I think now that I no longer have projects related to either school or work, I invent self-improvement projects. (Which, actually, sounds a little pathetic.) Projects like, "This fall, we're going to try something we've never done before," and, "I'm going to attend all 7 of my gym classes this week."
About a week ago, I started to write a post listing all my hobbies and the recent developments with them. The post got very long and unwieldy, and it generally just ventured into "Who the hell would want to read this?" territory. So I thought I would break that post up a little and devote several days to a discussion of my hobbies.
Today's hobby is The Gym. I am not sure I can call the gym a hobby, because, like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with the gym. But lately I have looked forward to going to the gym more and more, so I have decided it's a hobby for me. I mean, I [try to] go 6 days a week, so even if it's not really a hobby, it does take up a lot of my time. And the gym has a daycare that Nathan enjoys, so it gets more appealing as we head toward that time of year when we look for indoor entertainment.
So, as most of you know because you're my friends/relatives, my only God-given athletic talent is swimming. For my first year of gym membership, I only used the pool. Sometimes I took aquacize, but mostly I just swam laps. It was awesome in terms of my mental health, but not so much my physical health because (a) it's generally not the best calorie-burning sport to begin with, and (b) my body was getting too efficient at it, and that made the calorie-burning even more pathetic.
Therefore, in September I decided to try some new activities at the gym. I hate, hate, HATE exercise machines, so I never go to those. The classes really push you, and have the added benefit of being scheduled at specific times, so they are harder to flake on. (On the other hand, it's hard to get there on time because of unforeseen toddler-related stall tactics that make us late.) Anyway, these are the 7 classes I have been taking lately:
Monday: Strong (weight training)
Tuesday: Yoga (don't let the dim lights and calming music fool you; this is a serious workout)
Wednesday: Interval Mix (which was once some other kind of class, but instead has evolved into 1/3 Boot Camp, 1/3 weight training, and 1/3 of the evil spinning)
Thursday: H20 Works (the harder, less-for-old-people version of aquacize, which is still my most pleasant class of the week)
Friday: Zumba (the trendy Latin dance-based workout that I suck at)
Saturday: Back-to-back classes, Power Hour (High/Low aerobics) and then Strong (weight training)
Sunday: Gym skip day (oh, beloved Sunday)
As I said, I attempt to go to all 7 classes, but scheduling conflicts with other non-gym activities usually get in the way of some class or other. And I really feel that my mental health has taken a hit now that I have quit swimming, which is a problem because when the hell am I supposed to squeeze that in? I do not really want to go to the gym more than once a day. I guess I could swim after some of those classes, because Nathan is already at the daycare anyway. Except a lot of my classes end right when the daycare closes, so it's not possible to do anything afterward. (Sometimes, if we're going somewhere afterward, I actually have to retrieve the boy from daycare and make him hang out with me while I take a shower.) So it would not be possible to swim after my Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday classes. And the Wednesday one ends right around dinner time. Swimming before sweaty classes seems like a waste, and you'd have to do the classes with wet hair and chlorine smell.
Anyway, this is not that interesting to you. Bottom line, I might have to start going to the gym twice a day, and I might have to make one of those daily visits before Nathan wakes up. So it's back to the high school dreaded early morning swim workouts.
Oh well, it's a moot point until Thursday when I get these stitches out of my finger. I'm not supposed to do any soaking-based activities.
So, that's the story of the gym. Thank you for joining me on Day 1 of my hobby discussion.
But a year later, people sometimes comment on how busy and scheduled the boy and I are during the day. I feel like I don't give myself enough credit for my motivation to try new and interesting things. In a way, I think now that I no longer have projects related to either school or work, I invent self-improvement projects. (Which, actually, sounds a little pathetic.) Projects like, "This fall, we're going to try something we've never done before," and, "I'm going to attend all 7 of my gym classes this week."
About a week ago, I started to write a post listing all my hobbies and the recent developments with them. The post got very long and unwieldy, and it generally just ventured into "Who the hell would want to read this?" territory. So I thought I would break that post up a little and devote several days to a discussion of my hobbies.
Today's hobby is The Gym. I am not sure I can call the gym a hobby, because, like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with the gym. But lately I have looked forward to going to the gym more and more, so I have decided it's a hobby for me. I mean, I [try to] go 6 days a week, so even if it's not really a hobby, it does take up a lot of my time. And the gym has a daycare that Nathan enjoys, so it gets more appealing as we head toward that time of year when we look for indoor entertainment.
So, as most of you know because you're my friends/relatives, my only God-given athletic talent is swimming. For my first year of gym membership, I only used the pool. Sometimes I took aquacize, but mostly I just swam laps. It was awesome in terms of my mental health, but not so much my physical health because (a) it's generally not the best calorie-burning sport to begin with, and (b) my body was getting too efficient at it, and that made the calorie-burning even more pathetic.
Therefore, in September I decided to try some new activities at the gym. I hate, hate, HATE exercise machines, so I never go to those. The classes really push you, and have the added benefit of being scheduled at specific times, so they are harder to flake on. (On the other hand, it's hard to get there on time because of unforeseen toddler-related stall tactics that make us late.) Anyway, these are the 7 classes I have been taking lately:
Monday: Strong (weight training)
Tuesday: Yoga (don't let the dim lights and calming music fool you; this is a serious workout)
Wednesday: Interval Mix (which was once some other kind of class, but instead has evolved into 1/3 Boot Camp, 1/3 weight training, and 1/3 of the evil spinning)
Thursday: H20 Works (the harder, less-for-old-people version of aquacize, which is still my most pleasant class of the week)
Friday: Zumba (the trendy Latin dance-based workout that I suck at)
Saturday: Back-to-back classes, Power Hour (High/Low aerobics) and then Strong (weight training)
Sunday: Gym skip day (oh, beloved Sunday)
As I said, I attempt to go to all 7 classes, but scheduling conflicts with other non-gym activities usually get in the way of some class or other. And I really feel that my mental health has taken a hit now that I have quit swimming, which is a problem because when the hell am I supposed to squeeze that in? I do not really want to go to the gym more than once a day. I guess I could swim after some of those classes, because Nathan is already at the daycare anyway. Except a lot of my classes end right when the daycare closes, so it's not possible to do anything afterward. (Sometimes, if we're going somewhere afterward, I actually have to retrieve the boy from daycare and make him hang out with me while I take a shower.) So it would not be possible to swim after my Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday classes. And the Wednesday one ends right around dinner time. Swimming before sweaty classes seems like a waste, and you'd have to do the classes with wet hair and chlorine smell.
Anyway, this is not that interesting to you. Bottom line, I might have to start going to the gym twice a day, and I might have to make one of those daily visits before Nathan wakes up. So it's back to the high school dreaded early morning swim workouts.
Oh well, it's a moot point until Thursday when I get these stitches out of my finger. I'm not supposed to do any soaking-based activities.
So, that's the story of the gym. Thank you for joining me on Day 1 of my hobby discussion.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
November First
Well, first of all, I pledged to do National Blog Posting Month (or, abbreviated, the verbal diarrhea-sounding NaBloPoMo). I have to write a post every single day for the month of November. So check back, because I'm doing this to entertain you, my loyal readers. All 5 of you.
So, it's the first day of November. Do you know what that means? It means Halloween is finally over! Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween. It's just, does anybody feel like Halloween went on for several months this year?
Part of the problem is that retail establishments don't have any theme to showcase between back-to-school and Halloween, which is a good 2 months. So as soon as Target clears out the school supplies, they bust out the candy corns. Then you get to feeling that if you don't have your kid's Halloween costume by October 1, it's probably too late and your kid is doomed to be a ghost wearing a bed sheet.
Anyway, so in total, we did the following fall/Halloween things:
1. Homewood Fall Fest
2. Oak Lawn Fall Fest
3. Apple/pumpkin picking at County Line Orchard
4. Scarecrow exhibit at the Morton Arboretum
5. Bengston's Pumpkin Fest
6. Two kids' Halloween parties
7. One adults' Halloween party
8. Costume parade at library
9. Halloween party at Nathan's babysitter's
10. Trick-or-treating
11. Park district Halloween party
That stuff all lasted about a month. It was pure fun, and Nathan had fun, and we got some great photos, but every single one of these things was a high-energy event. And Nathan is at that stage where every transition is a giant hassle. So each time we get ready to leave for some fun-filled, once-in-a-lifetime activity, Nathan throws a massive tantrum because he wants to stay home and play with his plastic toys. Then when we finally get to the fun holiday activity, he cries when it's time to leave.
So, I'm happy for November. Thanksgiving is a fun, low-key holiday, and it really only lasts one day. Of course, Target is already breaking out the Christmas stuff ...
So, it's the first day of November. Do you know what that means? It means Halloween is finally over! Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween. It's just, does anybody feel like Halloween went on for several months this year?
Part of the problem is that retail establishments don't have any theme to showcase between back-to-school and Halloween, which is a good 2 months. So as soon as Target clears out the school supplies, they bust out the candy corns. Then you get to feeling that if you don't have your kid's Halloween costume by October 1, it's probably too late and your kid is doomed to be a ghost wearing a bed sheet.
Anyway, so in total, we did the following fall/Halloween things:
1. Homewood Fall Fest
2. Oak Lawn Fall Fest
3. Apple/pumpkin picking at County Line Orchard
4. Scarecrow exhibit at the Morton Arboretum
5. Bengston's Pumpkin Fest
6. Two kids' Halloween parties
7. One adults' Halloween party
8. Costume parade at library
9. Halloween party at Nathan's babysitter's
10. Trick-or-treating
11. Park district Halloween party
That stuff all lasted about a month. It was pure fun, and Nathan had fun, and we got some great photos, but every single one of these things was a high-energy event. And Nathan is at that stage where every transition is a giant hassle. So each time we get ready to leave for some fun-filled, once-in-a-lifetime activity, Nathan throws a massive tantrum because he wants to stay home and play with his plastic toys. Then when we finally get to the fun holiday activity, he cries when it's time to leave.
So, I'm happy for November. Thanksgiving is a fun, low-key holiday, and it really only lasts one day. Of course, Target is already breaking out the Christmas stuff ...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Funkytown
I'm just going to start off by saying that, although I try very hard to be economical and buy generic laundry detergent and/or what is on sale, I really just love the smell of Tide best. And I think that when I'm barely eating, dragging my ass to the gym, and held hostage indoors by cold, gray weather, I deserve some good-smelling laundry detergent.
This was my way of segueing into a discussion of how it is only mid-October and the weather is really bumming me out. I know the winter is sucky, and each year I brace myself for that. It's just that I don't think we should have to deal with wintery weather in mid-October. I remember last year, the kids were sweating in their costumes while trick-or-treating, while we parents were wearing short sleeves. Of course, last year the winter started late and ended late. Maybe this year when the winter is starting early ...
Except it doesn't really work like that. There are no patterns in the weather. Or maybe there are, at the technical level of cold fronts and high pressure systems, but to the layperson the weather appears to be very random and erratic.
Anyway, my point is, I'm finding myself already having to dip into my arsenal of indoor entertainment activities.
If you don't live in Chicago or some other crap-tacular climate, let me give you a brief summary of our weather. For a few months out of the year, you can engage in warm-weather activities. These activities are usually free, local, and easy. I'm talking about your pools, your parks, your splash pads. When you need to kill that awkward hour between naptime and dinner prep, you can just pop over to the park. (And if you've never been to my house, let me just tell you that there is a gigantic park that is literally our backyard.) It's all very simple and hassle-free. In contrast, winter activities tend to involve a lot of driving, pain-in-the-ass parking, and entrance fees. And there's just something inherently more stressful about being crammed in a hot, dry room with a bunch of children trying to release their pent-up energy, all while schlepping around winter clothing.
And now here we are, faced with these indoor entertainment options. Since they're generally pretty time- and energy-consuming, and since I'm sort of out of the swing of indoor activities, more often than not we are now opting to spend our free time at home. Now, the idea of hunkering down on a cold, gray day in your sweats and snuggling with your kitty sounds nice ... until you throw in a toddler. Because there really is no "free time" when you have a toddler. So hours upon hours at home equals hours upon hours of sitting on the floor playing with some sort of small vehicle or another.
To be honest, free play on the floor with my child is not my strong suit as a parent. Oh sure, I can build a pretty kick-ass wooden train track setup, but that gets really old, really fast. I prefer to throw in some sort of outside-the-home stimulus to get my parenting going. You know what I mean: it's just easier to facilitate those teachable moments when, say, you're on a walk or something. Stuck at home all the time, I get bored. And the minutes slowly tick by.
So I'm in a weather-induced funk. I know eventually I'll hit my stride and find a good combination of indoor activities to keep the child and myself entertained. But right now I'm still reeling about not being able to go to the park.
This was my way of segueing into a discussion of how it is only mid-October and the weather is really bumming me out. I know the winter is sucky, and each year I brace myself for that. It's just that I don't think we should have to deal with wintery weather in mid-October. I remember last year, the kids were sweating in their costumes while trick-or-treating, while we parents were wearing short sleeves. Of course, last year the winter started late and ended late. Maybe this year when the winter is starting early ...
Except it doesn't really work like that. There are no patterns in the weather. Or maybe there are, at the technical level of cold fronts and high pressure systems, but to the layperson the weather appears to be very random and erratic.
Anyway, my point is, I'm finding myself already having to dip into my arsenal of indoor entertainment activities.
If you don't live in Chicago or some other crap-tacular climate, let me give you a brief summary of our weather. For a few months out of the year, you can engage in warm-weather activities. These activities are usually free, local, and easy. I'm talking about your pools, your parks, your splash pads. When you need to kill that awkward hour between naptime and dinner prep, you can just pop over to the park. (And if you've never been to my house, let me just tell you that there is a gigantic park that is literally our backyard.) It's all very simple and hassle-free. In contrast, winter activities tend to involve a lot of driving, pain-in-the-ass parking, and entrance fees. And there's just something inherently more stressful about being crammed in a hot, dry room with a bunch of children trying to release their pent-up energy, all while schlepping around winter clothing.
And now here we are, faced with these indoor entertainment options. Since they're generally pretty time- and energy-consuming, and since I'm sort of out of the swing of indoor activities, more often than not we are now opting to spend our free time at home. Now, the idea of hunkering down on a cold, gray day in your sweats and snuggling with your kitty sounds nice ... until you throw in a toddler. Because there really is no "free time" when you have a toddler. So hours upon hours at home equals hours upon hours of sitting on the floor playing with some sort of small vehicle or another.
To be honest, free play on the floor with my child is not my strong suit as a parent. Oh sure, I can build a pretty kick-ass wooden train track setup, but that gets really old, really fast. I prefer to throw in some sort of outside-the-home stimulus to get my parenting going. You know what I mean: it's just easier to facilitate those teachable moments when, say, you're on a walk or something. Stuck at home all the time, I get bored. And the minutes slowly tick by.
So I'm in a weather-induced funk. I know eventually I'll hit my stride and find a good combination of indoor activities to keep the child and myself entertained. But right now I'm still reeling about not being able to go to the park.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Fall!
I am just so loving fall! I know, this is uncharacteristically chipper of me, but before you think I've upped my Prozac dosage to the point that rainbows are shooting out of some of my major orafices, let me tell you what I love about fall.
I love the boring routines.
I looked forward to summer like you wouldn't believe. Well, you would believe it if you lived through the same hellish Chicago winter that I did this past year. When summer came, I was determined to seize every last moment of it, and I believe I did. We swam, we took trips, we ate picnics in the park. It was awesome. But by the end of summer, I actually began to grow weary of the lazy "what the hell should we do today?" feeling I had every moment when I woke up.
I think I did a pretty good job of scheduling fall activities in just the right amount. As I mentioned previously, I kind of over-scheduled us in the early part of the summer, and it felt a little stressful. On the other hand, I also hated having nothing scheduled at the end of the summer. It's a very hard balance to achieve.
But I think the fall schedule is going well. I try to work in some time at the gym every single day, which actually works wonders in terms of giving me a break from The Boy and his Terrible Two-ness. I think the gym daycare is good because, besides the obvious benefits of being exposed to other children and different toys, The Boy is forced to entertain himself there, which is a skill that he somehow lost over the summer. (I don't know if it was the constant entertainment in the summer, or having so many people around to play with him during our travels.)
As for the obligatory update on my workout pursuits, I think things are overall going well. Yoga has been better since that first awful week. For some reason my first week attendance was very low, and everybody who went seemed like a yoga master. But then in subsequent weeks, the attendance has almost doubled since that first time, and some of the people are struggling just as much as I am. The husband and I are continuing to do the weight-lifting class on Saturdays, and this week we also added in the Monday session. Which means on Monday, I actually became one of those annoying people who goes to the gym twice in one day. Don't worry, though, I have not done that since. I think Monday is going to be my only doubling-up day. It's very exhausting to go twice, especially when you aren't eating very much, and also, who the hell wants to go through the hassles of getting to the gym, getting dressed, doing the daycare drop-off, etc. two times in one day?
I've been trying to replace eating with stuff like reading and TV. Mostly reading, because some of my favorite TV shows and I are not on good terms. Like The Office. I just don't like the Jim and Pam pregnancy storyline, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a show about an office, not some family sitcom. Or maybe because I feel like the writers of The Office played the baby card too quickly. And also I'm just sick of Michael's stupidity. Plus when I realized Wisteria Lane is adding a new resident this year with (gasp!) a mysterious secret past, I decided to cut out Desperate Housewives as well. I'm still going to hang in with Grey's Anatomy and 30 Rock, plus I have added Glee. And I have Mad Men while that season is still going.
Book updates: I just finished the two existing books in the Hunger Games series for young adults. Loved. They're totally not something I would normally read, but I'm trying to branch out. Now I have a few other books on hold at the library, and in the meantime I checked out two books today. One is The Drunkard's Walk, which is a non-fiction book about the concept of randomness. I was hoping for a Freakonomics kind of thing, but so far it's a little more academic. But some of the stuff reminds me of the fun experiments I used to learn about in my psychology major days, so at least I feel like I'm exercising my brain a little by reading it. I also checked out Middlesex, which is a bestseller I happened to miss. ("Bestsellers you happened to miss" being a major category of books you can get at the library.) I hear it is really good. I haven't started it yet.
Well, I think The Boy has watched enough consecutive episodes of Dora that I should maybe get off the Internet and give him a little bit of attention. (In my defense, we just had the carpets cleaned this morning, and the floor is too wet for playing.)
I love the boring routines.
I looked forward to summer like you wouldn't believe. Well, you would believe it if you lived through the same hellish Chicago winter that I did this past year. When summer came, I was determined to seize every last moment of it, and I believe I did. We swam, we took trips, we ate picnics in the park. It was awesome. But by the end of summer, I actually began to grow weary of the lazy "what the hell should we do today?" feeling I had every moment when I woke up.
I think I did a pretty good job of scheduling fall activities in just the right amount. As I mentioned previously, I kind of over-scheduled us in the early part of the summer, and it felt a little stressful. On the other hand, I also hated having nothing scheduled at the end of the summer. It's a very hard balance to achieve.
But I think the fall schedule is going well. I try to work in some time at the gym every single day, which actually works wonders in terms of giving me a break from The Boy and his Terrible Two-ness. I think the gym daycare is good because, besides the obvious benefits of being exposed to other children and different toys, The Boy is forced to entertain himself there, which is a skill that he somehow lost over the summer. (I don't know if it was the constant entertainment in the summer, or having so many people around to play with him during our travels.)
As for the obligatory update on my workout pursuits, I think things are overall going well. Yoga has been better since that first awful week. For some reason my first week attendance was very low, and everybody who went seemed like a yoga master. But then in subsequent weeks, the attendance has almost doubled since that first time, and some of the people are struggling just as much as I am. The husband and I are continuing to do the weight-lifting class on Saturdays, and this week we also added in the Monday session. Which means on Monday, I actually became one of those annoying people who goes to the gym twice in one day. Don't worry, though, I have not done that since. I think Monday is going to be my only doubling-up day. It's very exhausting to go twice, especially when you aren't eating very much, and also, who the hell wants to go through the hassles of getting to the gym, getting dressed, doing the daycare drop-off, etc. two times in one day?
I've been trying to replace eating with stuff like reading and TV. Mostly reading, because some of my favorite TV shows and I are not on good terms. Like The Office. I just don't like the Jim and Pam pregnancy storyline, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a show about an office, not some family sitcom. Or maybe because I feel like the writers of The Office played the baby card too quickly. And also I'm just sick of Michael's stupidity. Plus when I realized Wisteria Lane is adding a new resident this year with (gasp!) a mysterious secret past, I decided to cut out Desperate Housewives as well. I'm still going to hang in with Grey's Anatomy and 30 Rock, plus I have added Glee. And I have Mad Men while that season is still going.
Book updates: I just finished the two existing books in the Hunger Games series for young adults. Loved. They're totally not something I would normally read, but I'm trying to branch out. Now I have a few other books on hold at the library, and in the meantime I checked out two books today. One is The Drunkard's Walk, which is a non-fiction book about the concept of randomness. I was hoping for a Freakonomics kind of thing, but so far it's a little more academic. But some of the stuff reminds me of the fun experiments I used to learn about in my psychology major days, so at least I feel like I'm exercising my brain a little by reading it. I also checked out Middlesex, which is a bestseller I happened to miss. ("Bestsellers you happened to miss" being a major category of books you can get at the library.) I hear it is really good. I haven't started it yet.
Well, I think The Boy has watched enough consecutive episodes of Dora that I should maybe get off the Internet and give him a little bit of attention. (In my defense, we just had the carpets cleaned this morning, and the floor is too wet for playing.)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Wow, I'm already heading into once-a-week blogging territory. If that.
Here is what I've learned in the past week: No matter what the exercise class, I will be the person in the class who is singled out for doing the exercise wrong. If you see the teacher getting up and heading toward the students, you just know she is heading toward me. It ranges from a gentle little nudge to correct my position, all the way to, "No, Shannon, drop the weight and practice your form! I don't want to see you with that weight for the rest of class! Or next week either!" Even in this class where I was younger than everybody else by at least 50 years, I was still the one doing it wrong.
One time I took a class about teaching dance to elementary students. The guy teaching the class had a rule that you praise individually, but correct as a group. So you would say, "Great job, Jane!" But if you saw one person doing the wrong thing, you might say, "Now, I see some people who need to bend their knees," even though it was really only one person (usually me) doing it wrong. I appreciate the exercise teachers who use this system.
Another thing I have decided is, I'm burned out on trying new things. I have heard that trying new things is good for building new brain synapses or something like that. I also think trying new things is essential when you have a fairly monotonous life, as most stay-at-home moms do. That's why I launched my campaign to do something I had never done before. But in the last two weeks, I have been the flower-arrangement student who doesn't know how to use a knife yet, the ice skater who can't stop, and the weight-lifter who has to drop the bar and practice her form. At some point in there I decided I needed to practice some activity that I was actually already good at.
What the hell am I good at, though? I'm sort of an amateur cook, but I at least got some praise for the baked goods I distributed to my friends this week. I'm better than average as a swimmer, or as my British friends at swimplan.com say, "quite good." But swimming is kind of boring.
When I think about it, one of the hardest things about not having a paying job is that there really is virtually no feedback on anything you do. I know Moxie says that you are the best parent for your child, but most of the time I feel like a big fat failure at that. It's pretty hard to rank your quality as a parent on any kind of objective scale. There are just too many variables, too many different value systems. I think I am good on providing enrichment for the child, but bad on discipline. I feel like I cave in too often, because sometimes after a day of battles over everything, I'm just too tired to fight anymore.
But on a happier note, I will leave you with my thought for the week:
I control my body. My body does not control me.
Here is what I've learned in the past week: No matter what the exercise class, I will be the person in the class who is singled out for doing the exercise wrong. If you see the teacher getting up and heading toward the students, you just know she is heading toward me. It ranges from a gentle little nudge to correct my position, all the way to, "No, Shannon, drop the weight and practice your form! I don't want to see you with that weight for the rest of class! Or next week either!" Even in this class where I was younger than everybody else by at least 50 years, I was still the one doing it wrong.
One time I took a class about teaching dance to elementary students. The guy teaching the class had a rule that you praise individually, but correct as a group. So you would say, "Great job, Jane!" But if you saw one person doing the wrong thing, you might say, "Now, I see some people who need to bend their knees," even though it was really only one person (usually me) doing it wrong. I appreciate the exercise teachers who use this system.
Another thing I have decided is, I'm burned out on trying new things. I have heard that trying new things is good for building new brain synapses or something like that. I also think trying new things is essential when you have a fairly monotonous life, as most stay-at-home moms do. That's why I launched my campaign to do something I had never done before. But in the last two weeks, I have been the flower-arrangement student who doesn't know how to use a knife yet, the ice skater who can't stop, and the weight-lifter who has to drop the bar and practice her form. At some point in there I decided I needed to practice some activity that I was actually already good at.
What the hell am I good at, though? I'm sort of an amateur cook, but I at least got some praise for the baked goods I distributed to my friends this week. I'm better than average as a swimmer, or as my British friends at swimplan.com say, "quite good." But swimming is kind of boring.
When I think about it, one of the hardest things about not having a paying job is that there really is virtually no feedback on anything you do. I know Moxie says that you are the best parent for your child, but most of the time I feel like a big fat failure at that. It's pretty hard to rank your quality as a parent on any kind of objective scale. There are just too many variables, too many different value systems. I think I am good on providing enrichment for the child, but bad on discipline. I feel like I cave in too often, because sometimes after a day of battles over everything, I'm just too tired to fight anymore.
But on a happier note, I will leave you with my thought for the week:
I control my body. My body does not control me.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sub-Headings
Sometimes I think it's easier to blog when things are going poorly than when things are going well. I've blogged ad nauseum about depression, griped like hell about the difficulties of parenthood. But lately things have been going relatively smoothly (knock on wood) and I feel like I have nothing to say. But here's a brief run-down of what's been going on with me.
I'm Trying to Step Up My Workouts
Now, back in the days when I didn't really work out (those days being defined as "the random pockets between various workout fads"), I would say, "I should work out more," just thinking exercise was something I could seamlessly slip into my life. Turns out, if you're going to take on some type of workout, you have to give up something else. Like energy.
When I first got back into swimming, it didn't occur to me that adding in 45 minutes of cardiovascular workouts per day would leave me dragging in other areas of my life. I guess it's because we have this image of a mom with boundless energy who works out every single day and then powers through the rest of her responsibilities without a single groan or yawn. After all, exercise is supposed to give you energy, right?
Well, somehow I've never been able to emerge from exercise feeling energized. Calmer, yes. Less stressed, yes, I think. But energized? No. Some days I work out in the morning and then count down the minutes until the boy's naptime so I can take a nap myself. After naptime we basically just get through the dinner and bedtime routines and I kind of crash in front of the TV. At the end of the day, I think about how the only thing I accomplished was working out and managing to keep my family alive for another day.
Anyway, since I've been swimming fairly religiously since about a year ago, you'd think I would have lost a whole bunch of weight through exercise alone. But, in fact, prior to Weight Watchers, I actually gained a whole bunch. And then even with Weight Watchers, the loss is slow-going. So when the new fall schedule at the gym started up again, and the gym daycare resumed its full hours, I decided it was time to amp up my workouts.
I thought maybe yoga would be good for me. Now, I have done yoga before, and in actuality I think yoga and I are a terrible match. I have a really hard time quieting my mind, which, yes, I know, is precisely why I should do yoga. Also I have a hard time getting into the spiritual aspect of yoga. While I completely respect those who follow the Hindu religion, it's unfamiliar to me and doesn't feel right in the context of exercise. And perhaps I'm very unenlightened, but I feel like in my life I need to keep spirituality and exercise separate.
Well, the good news was that the gym's yoga was pretty light on the spiritual side. The bad news is that it was the most ass-kicking core workout I have ever experienced. Seriously, I was dying in there. And I had the wrong clothes. Everyone else had these tight-fitting yoga clothes (and the bodies to look good in them), whereas I was wearing my free giveaway Ingalls hospital t-shirt, size XL. So it was all billowing around my head every time we did something that was upside-down, which was a lot.
Sore as I was from yoga, I kept up my swimming workouts, swimming 2000-2500 yards four times last week. Thursday night I went back to aquacize, which I really like. It's so much less boring than swimming, and I actually think if you try you can make it a fairly rigorous workout. The evening class, which is the one I go to, is a little more challenging than the daytime classes, so we workout with special water weights (basically just buoys shaped like dumbbells) and also these crazy giant rubber bands.
Saturday Bill and I decided to take the Strong(R) weight-lifting class. The brochure described at as "non-tricky" and "non-dancey," which I appreciated. But that didn't mean it was non-difficult. But it wasn't impossible, which is more than I can say for some exercise classes I have taken. In fact, I emerged from that class feeling an energy that I haven't felt in a long time. I also appreciated that it got us all out the door on a Saturday morning, so afterward we toodled around town as a family. We went to the bakery (oh, the irony, I know, but seriously I only had a Diet Pepsi) and to the farmer's market. I bought some apples. I'm going to make pie. (I know, more irony. But I'm giving them away. I swear. I put it in writing on the Internet, so there's no going back on it now.)
But I digress. Anyway, although I'm going to give yoga another chance, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for to meet my flexibility needs. So in a couple of hours I'm going to go do a swim and then take a class called Just Stretching. I'm hoping it's not Just Old People. There's another class I'm interested in called Spirit Qui Gong, which is an energy-producing workout of Chinese origin. I like how they hold that class outdoors somethings, which is fun for at least another month.
But I don't know if I'm going to have time for Spirit Qui Gong this week. Or Zumba, which I also want to try. I'm kind of running out of time, and tonight is my first ice skating class! How I'm going to stay up on ice with my horribly-sore muscles (from the weight class), I don't know.
And if I don't lose like 5 pounds this week at Weight Watchers ... well, I guess I'm just going to keep on trying.
I've Been Doing Some Other Stuff, Too
Since I last blogged, I have been on a few adventures.
I went to floral arrangement school. Now, floral arrangement has been an interest of mine for some time, and I've been looking for the right place to get some formal training. I finally found a place that offers one-day sessions for non-professionals, and spent a blissful day there on Sept. 5. Okay, actually it was also a very tiring day, because 8 hours is a long time to arrange flowers. And in some ways it was a humbling day, because I have a long way to go in terms of my floral knife tools. But we made some beautiful bouquets, and at the end of the day the teacher and I were friends. Well, friendly, at least. Also I'm all jazzed to go to the flower market (which is not open to the public, unlike the L.A. flower market, but I got a special in because I went to flower school) and make all kinds of flower arrangements. So far the only flowers I have "arranged" are the ones I bought at the grocery store yesterday.
We went to a carnival for Labor Day. It was dumb. I don't want to write about it.
Last week we had the opportunity to see a preview of the new show at the Shedd Aquarium, Fantasea. And it was a total WTF? See, the old show consisted of some dolphins doing tricks, and the trainers told us a little bit about dolphins, their training, and how to be a responsible environmental steward. Kind of dull and educational, but what do you want from an aquarium? Well, apparently when creating Fantasea, they decided to throw all education out the window and create some Disney-esque extravaganza consisting of a giant backdrop screen, weird creatures dressed in costumes reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, and, for some reason, a falconer. And they did the stupid "let's pick a random kid out of the audience to be part of the show ... oh wait we had that kid planted all along." The only good thing was that the plant kid was sitting right next to Nathan, so he got to be on the jumbo-tron thing when they close-upped on the girl.
But the rest of the evening was great. The aquarium was relatively uncrowded, and they had ample free food. And why is it that Weight Watchers doesn't seem to apply when the food is free of charge?
This weekend I mostly just worked out, slept, and took care of household chores. I was just the picture of discipline yesterday: bathroom-cleaning, gym, laundry, grocery store, and more laundry. And I know this isn't interesting enough to warrant inclusion on a blog, but I got every shred of laundry in my laundry room put away and/or hung up. It had been about two weeks since I did that. Of course I promptly started a new load, so the excitement of laundry-doneness was fleeting.
I have declared this week "stay local" week. In an effort to seize those last few days of summer, I dragged my family all over Chicagoland. We traveled on trains and in the car. But the reality is that I live in a beautiful community with fun things to offer right here. So I am only allowing myself to go within a 10-mile radius, and really it's mostly only a 2-mile radius except when I have to go for the vehicle emissions test. (It's like Illinois' version of the smog check, except it's free here.)
Tomorrow the boy starts up his music classes again, which is something he's been counting down to forever. Seriously, we were in Hawaii and I mentioned the music classes to my mom, and right then and there Nathan thought we were heading to music class, and he began to cry when he realized we weren't. And every single day he wakes up and asks me if we are going to music class that day. I sure hope that class lives up to his expectations.
Off for more self-torture at the gym. Hope you are all having a beautiful fall!
I'm Trying to Step Up My Workouts
Now, back in the days when I didn't really work out (those days being defined as "the random pockets between various workout fads"), I would say, "I should work out more," just thinking exercise was something I could seamlessly slip into my life. Turns out, if you're going to take on some type of workout, you have to give up something else. Like energy.
When I first got back into swimming, it didn't occur to me that adding in 45 minutes of cardiovascular workouts per day would leave me dragging in other areas of my life. I guess it's because we have this image of a mom with boundless energy who works out every single day and then powers through the rest of her responsibilities without a single groan or yawn. After all, exercise is supposed to give you energy, right?
Well, somehow I've never been able to emerge from exercise feeling energized. Calmer, yes. Less stressed, yes, I think. But energized? No. Some days I work out in the morning and then count down the minutes until the boy's naptime so I can take a nap myself. After naptime we basically just get through the dinner and bedtime routines and I kind of crash in front of the TV. At the end of the day, I think about how the only thing I accomplished was working out and managing to keep my family alive for another day.
Anyway, since I've been swimming fairly religiously since about a year ago, you'd think I would have lost a whole bunch of weight through exercise alone. But, in fact, prior to Weight Watchers, I actually gained a whole bunch. And then even with Weight Watchers, the loss is slow-going. So when the new fall schedule at the gym started up again, and the gym daycare resumed its full hours, I decided it was time to amp up my workouts.
I thought maybe yoga would be good for me. Now, I have done yoga before, and in actuality I think yoga and I are a terrible match. I have a really hard time quieting my mind, which, yes, I know, is precisely why I should do yoga. Also I have a hard time getting into the spiritual aspect of yoga. While I completely respect those who follow the Hindu religion, it's unfamiliar to me and doesn't feel right in the context of exercise. And perhaps I'm very unenlightened, but I feel like in my life I need to keep spirituality and exercise separate.
Well, the good news was that the gym's yoga was pretty light on the spiritual side. The bad news is that it was the most ass-kicking core workout I have ever experienced. Seriously, I was dying in there. And I had the wrong clothes. Everyone else had these tight-fitting yoga clothes (and the bodies to look good in them), whereas I was wearing my free giveaway Ingalls hospital t-shirt, size XL. So it was all billowing around my head every time we did something that was upside-down, which was a lot.
Sore as I was from yoga, I kept up my swimming workouts, swimming 2000-2500 yards four times last week. Thursday night I went back to aquacize, which I really like. It's so much less boring than swimming, and I actually think if you try you can make it a fairly rigorous workout. The evening class, which is the one I go to, is a little more challenging than the daytime classes, so we workout with special water weights (basically just buoys shaped like dumbbells) and also these crazy giant rubber bands.
Saturday Bill and I decided to take the Strong(R) weight-lifting class. The brochure described at as "non-tricky" and "non-dancey," which I appreciated. But that didn't mean it was non-difficult. But it wasn't impossible, which is more than I can say for some exercise classes I have taken. In fact, I emerged from that class feeling an energy that I haven't felt in a long time. I also appreciated that it got us all out the door on a Saturday morning, so afterward we toodled around town as a family. We went to the bakery (oh, the irony, I know, but seriously I only had a Diet Pepsi) and to the farmer's market. I bought some apples. I'm going to make pie. (I know, more irony. But I'm giving them away. I swear. I put it in writing on the Internet, so there's no going back on it now.)
But I digress. Anyway, although I'm going to give yoga another chance, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for to meet my flexibility needs. So in a couple of hours I'm going to go do a swim and then take a class called Just Stretching. I'm hoping it's not Just Old People. There's another class I'm interested in called Spirit Qui Gong, which is an energy-producing workout of Chinese origin. I like how they hold that class outdoors somethings, which is fun for at least another month.
But I don't know if I'm going to have time for Spirit Qui Gong this week. Or Zumba, which I also want to try. I'm kind of running out of time, and tonight is my first ice skating class! How I'm going to stay up on ice with my horribly-sore muscles (from the weight class), I don't know.
And if I don't lose like 5 pounds this week at Weight Watchers ... well, I guess I'm just going to keep on trying.
I've Been Doing Some Other Stuff, Too
Since I last blogged, I have been on a few adventures.
I went to floral arrangement school. Now, floral arrangement has been an interest of mine for some time, and I've been looking for the right place to get some formal training. I finally found a place that offers one-day sessions for non-professionals, and spent a blissful day there on Sept. 5. Okay, actually it was also a very tiring day, because 8 hours is a long time to arrange flowers. And in some ways it was a humbling day, because I have a long way to go in terms of my floral knife tools. But we made some beautiful bouquets, and at the end of the day the teacher and I were friends. Well, friendly, at least. Also I'm all jazzed to go to the flower market (which is not open to the public, unlike the L.A. flower market, but I got a special in because I went to flower school) and make all kinds of flower arrangements. So far the only flowers I have "arranged" are the ones I bought at the grocery store yesterday.
We went to a carnival for Labor Day. It was dumb. I don't want to write about it.
Last week we had the opportunity to see a preview of the new show at the Shedd Aquarium, Fantasea. And it was a total WTF? See, the old show consisted of some dolphins doing tricks, and the trainers told us a little bit about dolphins, their training, and how to be a responsible environmental steward. Kind of dull and educational, but what do you want from an aquarium? Well, apparently when creating Fantasea, they decided to throw all education out the window and create some Disney-esque extravaganza consisting of a giant backdrop screen, weird creatures dressed in costumes reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, and, for some reason, a falconer. And they did the stupid "let's pick a random kid out of the audience to be part of the show ... oh wait we had that kid planted all along." The only good thing was that the plant kid was sitting right next to Nathan, so he got to be on the jumbo-tron thing when they close-upped on the girl.
But the rest of the evening was great. The aquarium was relatively uncrowded, and they had ample free food. And why is it that Weight Watchers doesn't seem to apply when the food is free of charge?
This weekend I mostly just worked out, slept, and took care of household chores. I was just the picture of discipline yesterday: bathroom-cleaning, gym, laundry, grocery store, and more laundry. And I know this isn't interesting enough to warrant inclusion on a blog, but I got every shred of laundry in my laundry room put away and/or hung up. It had been about two weeks since I did that. Of course I promptly started a new load, so the excitement of laundry-doneness was fleeting.
I have declared this week "stay local" week. In an effort to seize those last few days of summer, I dragged my family all over Chicagoland. We traveled on trains and in the car. But the reality is that I live in a beautiful community with fun things to offer right here. So I am only allowing myself to go within a 10-mile radius, and really it's mostly only a 2-mile radius except when I have to go for the vehicle emissions test. (It's like Illinois' version of the smog check, except it's free here.)
Tomorrow the boy starts up his music classes again, which is something he's been counting down to forever. Seriously, we were in Hawaii and I mentioned the music classes to my mom, and right then and there Nathan thought we were heading to music class, and he began to cry when he realized we weren't. And every single day he wakes up and asks me if we are going to music class that day. I sure hope that class lives up to his expectations.
Off for more self-torture at the gym. Hope you are all having a beautiful fall!
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