The things I’ll do for attention

My word. It’s been a month. As if you need me to point that out, since these things are dated.

The laughable thing is that since my last post, I further self-mutilated by slicing about 1/2 an inch off my left index finger, while dividing up 30 pounds of pork butt for my dog.

A friend asked later if I screamed, and I don’t think I did. I made a kind of vocalized inhale that sounds more like “ah” than “AHHH!” and ran my finger under the tap. It hurt a lot and was bleeding a lot. I wrapped it in a paper towel and put some ice on it. A few minutes later, I walked outside and up the steps to the studio to put some of the bags of meat in the freezer up there and share my tale with Rob.

Upon seeing the wound, Rob grabbed my other hand and said, “Let’s go to the hospital.”

No, no, don’t be silly, it’s fine. Besides, I don’t think there’s anything they can do for me.

“You need stitches!”

No, no, there’s nothing to stitch. Because I actually sliced the skin off my finger. It hung from the edge of the freshly sharpened Kitchenaid knife like a morsel of raw pork. We saved it in a ziploc bag.

It continued to hurt and bleed a great deal for about 18 hours, but after that, hasn’t caused too much trouble, unless I accidentally flip a lightswitch or flush a toilet with that part of my finger. My trusted hand surgeon in Los Angeles (whom I happened to see during a brief visit) told me that I might need some kind of corrective surgery if it doesn’t heal properly, but all I can do is keep it clean and covered, but not too tight.

Ha! I told you. An emergency room visit would have been a waste of time and a spoiler of my Sunday evening.

Two weeks later, now, and it’s healing pretty well. I’m quite pleased with it. I don’t have to have it covered all the time when I’m at home and the skin regeneration is noticeable.

March 8 (1 day after injury):

March 23:

April 5:


At the seams it seems

Remember when I was all, “Working out with kettlebells is the greatest exercise ever. I’m going to do it all the time and be superfit” ? And then got the most debilitating headache of my life and realized that I use my neck and shoulders way too much and continuing with that form of exercise was a bad idea?

I fear that I am not designed for physical fitness.

I hurt my right foot in step aerobics a week ago Friday. I blame bad shoes and I’m having orthotics made. My podiatrist said there are some people who just can’t do step aerobics, but maybe I’ll be just fine with orthotics. Still I can’t work out again until my foot stops hurting. It’s slightly swollen even. The ball of the foot just below the big toe. I’m superbummed about missing Zumba. I just bought two pairs of Zumba shoes. (I think orthotics might fit in one pair. The other I may have to return. Thanks Zappos!)

Also, I just paid to join two gyms!! I can “freeze” the membership at the one near my work, but I decided to do that only if I’ll be out for closer to a month. I’m not in excruciating pain or anything, but my foot hasn’t gotten perceivably better, and I don’t feel like I should do any exercise involving the flexing or pointing of my right foot. So no yoga either.

At the other end of my person, I have a cracked tooth. Went to the dentist today for the crown prep. Time will tell whether I get to have another root canal for this one.

I didn’t remember this about myself, but evidently, I am hard to numb. It required five shots of anesthesia before we could begin, and even then I felt a little heat when the drilling started. The dental assistant asked if I wanted nitrous. This struck me as funny. I said I’d never had it and didn’t think I needed it.

While we were waiting for the tingling to give way to numbness, I ran out to use the ladies room. I felt jittery and noticed in the mirror that the left side of my face (the numb side) looked normal when I smiled, but the unnumb side looked weird. Maybe it was compensating by trying to move the numb side. I wondered if anyone ever tried to bolt with their face half numb. After another shot, my right eye wanted to close, but the left eyelids seemed unable to touch. Like the lower eyelid was being held down. I made a conscious effort to blink a few times, because I thought it important to lubricate my left contact lens, and you know, my eyeball.

I was uncharacteristically anxious, and considered asking for nitrous after all. Instead I took a deep breath and felt better once the procedure actually got going.

A few weeks ago, when I found out the tooth was cracked, but we thought a filling might hold it together, they asked if I wanted to listen to music. The dental assistant handed me a list of CDs to choose from, and I said, “Ooh! I’ll take Phantom of the Opera.” The dental assistant seemed to think I was kidding.

Today I took my iPod and was pleased to discover that I could hear my music over the drilling. When I first felt some heat, they asked whether I wanted yet another shot of Novocaine, but Gwen Stefani told me she was feeling Hella Good so let’s just keep on dancing. So I did.

Afterward, I had a lunch of a root beer float and macaroni and cheese. The numbness has mostly worn off and all I feel is a slight buzziness in my lips. My contacts and eyeballs are fine. My jaw hurts where they gave me the shot, but they tell me that’s to be expected.

Tomorrow, I get fitted for my new orthotics. In the meantime, I bought some Superfeet. The Superfeet cost about $30 compared to custom orthotics, which can run in the hundreds of dollars. But my insurance will pay for the custom orthotics, making them less expensive to me than the Superfeet, which I realized after I got the Superfeet home.

Oh well, it will take a few weeks to get the orthotics and I have many pairs of shoes.

Maybe by Saturday I can go back to Zumba.

Winter Games

Who knew I was so into the Olympics? Maybe I’m just kinda jazzed about it because I live about 25 minutes from British Columbia.

I’ve always liked figure skating, which should come as no surprise, as it’s an awful lot like dance. I remember watching the figure skating during the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. Alone, in my freshman dorm room. On a Saturday night.

Yesterday, I found myself thoroughly entertained by men’s cross-country skiing and snowboard cross events.

On Sunday, Rob and I drove to Vancouver because it just seemed like the thing to do. To quote this guide: Why Stay Home When the Party’s Next Door?

We had the shortest border wait of all time on the way in. Only one car in front of us. Which was a shame, because I planned to use the wait time to eat a sandwich and find the map of Vancouver that’s in my car somewhere. We parked near a casino park and ride (not actually in the parking lot, because it was full, but next to two cars in front of a nearby shop that appeared to be closed. This may have been poor judgment, as I had an erroneous tow in Vancouver before, but the car was still there when we got back.)

The Skytrain downtown was packed, but festive. The atmosphere around Robson Street was less “rah rah” Olympics and more insanely crowded street fair. I have to say, there weren’t a lot of activities. We wanted to take the free Zipline over Robson Square (5-hour wait) or go in the LiveCity Vancouver viewing area (line around the block), see the medals at the Royal Canadian Mint (line around the corner), or ice skate (line around the corner), but we didn’t do any of those things.

I bought a little stuffed mascot at the Shoppers Drug Mart, which is sitting on my desk, making me smile. We walked to Chinatown in search of a place to eat/drink beer, but didn’t find any place that suited us. There was less Lunar New Year fanfare than I expected. Hopped a bus back to downtown and waited in line to get into a pub.

For some reason, I thought we were waiting in line to get a table, but once inside, we still had to lurk in the shadows to see who was paying their bill and snag their table. Fortunately, this didn’t take too long. Rob drank beer and I had a sockeye salmon burger and yam fries, with a pomegranate cider, as the Canadians around us cheered the country’s first Olympic gold on home soil. Men’s freestyle ski.

We walked to the ice rink after, and spotted the mascots leaving the rink after their show. We missed the show, but seeing the mascots made me day. Seriously, that was all the Olympic flavor I needed. Felt like a totally successful day.

On the way back , our border wait was even shorter. NO cars in front of us.

A candid review of three Zumbas

Last fall, a couple of gals I know said they were going to try Zumba classes and asked if I’d like to join them. I didn’t ask where, but googled it and found a dance studio downtown that offered evening classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Perfect for my schedule, since I have martial arts Tuesday and Thursday. Buy a punch card, get a few classes free. I think it worked out to about $7.50 a class.

Schedules being what they are, I wound up going to my first Zumba class by myself, which was just as well, because I didn’t feel self-conscious, like my friends were going to think I looked silly. I sort of thought it was the only Zumba game in town, because, without discussing the “where,” my friends would up at the same place about a week later.

Zumba is basically a Latin dance fitness class. The Internet boasts that you can burn 500-1000 calories in one class. Not being in the best shape cardiovascularly, I worried I wouldn’t be able to get through a whole class.

I needn’t have. There’s no chance I burned even 500 calories in that class. It was very low impact. The instructor announced that you can always make the moves harder if you feel like you aren’t getting enough of a workout. I got tired during a few numbers and I did sweat, but it wasn’t that challenging. And therefore, not that fun.

The music seemed to be specially composed for Zumba. There was a version of La Vida Loca, and eventually, some popular songs like Right Round wound up in the playlist.

I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it the way I loved “Get Up and Groove” and “Cardio Funk” classes in Los Angeles. The good news is that I found it easy to follow. The bad news is, I didn’t think I looked very good doing it. The first several classes, I didn’t stand in front of a mirror, but once I did, I realized that the stiffness of my shoulders inhibits my dancing ability.

The main instructor was a woman who, forgive me, didn’t seem like the greatest dancer herself. She’s accredited and teaches actual ballroom stuff, so I’m not saying she’s a bad dancer. I’m saying that I wasn’t motivated by how hot she looked doing Zumba.

Not the way Jennifer of Crunch LA’s “Get Up and Groove” made me feel.

The male assistant instructor was more fun to watch, but not inspiring.

In my effort to find morning exercise classes to get up and groove for, I’ve been to two other Zumba classes this week. My favorite is the one I mentioned in my last post, at a health club not far from the dance studio where I took the first class. I have to join this gym just for the Zumba class. The instructor is cuter. Her name is Isis. She wore these awesome pink sneakers with heels, which I have since learned are dance sneakers, and must find out where to buy them.

The class was very crowded, had a few men in it, and an ethnic diversity disproportionate to that of the actual city. I was in a weird place with petite Asian and Latina ladies in front of me, and overweight, very tall women behind me. I looked very long compared to those in front and lean compared to those in back.

The moves were dancier, faster, Latiner. I actually had trouble getting through the whole hour, mostly step-tapping during the last few numbers. I’ve noticed it’s harder to process new dance moves and follow along after the 1/2 hour mark. Like my brain is full. Add that to physical exhaustion, and it was rough in the most wonderful way.

There were more popular songs in the playlist (Boom Boom Pow is the only one I can remember right now), although one of the tunes was the same as one played in my first Zumba class. Just comparing the routines to that song, Fuego, between the two classes…there would be no way to ramp up the moves offered in the first class to equal the intensity of the second. The “wind-down” song toward the end of Isis’ class was as intense as the first class got.

Then there’s the Wednesday morning class at the gym near my office. Very, very popular. Very crowded. They keep the lights low and have a colored light like it’s a dance party. This is a community with a higher percentage of Latinos, and interestingly, the music at this class had a more “authentic” Latin feel. Less poppy. I actually prefer the pop tunes (I totally dig it when they play Pokerface in step class), but I can appreciate authenticity when I hear it.

The intensity and complexity matched that of my Saturday class, although it may have been less “dancey.”

I still have a few more sessions left at the first place, but I have a new regular Wednesday and Saturday workout for a while.

Infidel

This month’s book club selection is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m inspired by it already.

I’ve read a lot of memoirs/stories of people who come from a place of oppression and abuse. Ali seems a rare example of someone who really strives to make sense of her past and make changes for the future of others.

I’m shocked though, by some of her revelations about Islam:

The Prophet did teach us a lot of good things. I found it spiritually appealing to believe in a Hereafter. My life was enriched by the Quranic injunctions to be compassionate and show charity to others. There were times when I, like other Muslims, found it too complicated to deal with the whole issue of war against the unbelievers. Most Muslims never delve into theology, and we rarely read the Quran; we are taught it in Arabic, which most Muslims can’t speak. As a result, most people think that Islam is about peace. It is from these people, honest and kind, that the fallacy has arisen that Islam is peaceful and tolerant.

She’s not saying that Muslim extremists misinterpret the Quran. She’s saying that they’ve interpreted it exactly the way it was intended.

For me, her skepticism about Islam extends to all religions. I don’t know that this is something I will be able to discuss freely within my book group.

Ali looks around at the Western world and thinks, “Waitaminute, here’s a society that’s functioning better than the Muslim world from whence I came. (I’m paraphrasing here.) How can it be that they all are doomed to hellfire if Islam is the only way?”

Any religion that denounces all other religions is intolerant.

Steppercize

It’s not quite as retro as jazzercise, but I’ve started taking step classes again. I’m cheating just a little, because I’m not getting up early to work out, but rather, going to a 9 a.m. exercise class and not getting to work until 10:15-10:30. We’ll see if this makes any difference to anyone.

I took 7 a.m. step aerobics in the fall of 1997 and loved rolling out of bed in Studio City, throwing on workout clothes and steppercizing before acting class. I even socialized a bit outside of the gym with the teacher and another woman in the class. Step choreography requires coordination, but not actual dance skills, just rhythm. I found that I could get the hang of the moves in most exercise classes after about three sessions.

That Thanksgiving, the health club offered back-to-back classes all morning, so you could burn off tons of calories before the big meal. I cannot even imagine doing something like that now.

I was pleased Friday, at my first step class in at least 10 years, that I picked it up pretty well. I was pleased too at how many nice women were taking this 9 a.m. step class. I didn’t think anybody was into step anymore. Thought it was all boot camp and power yoga now.

The hot hot exercise class these days is Zumba. I started this a few months ago, but didn’t find the moves that challenging or the classes that much fun. My new gym (around the corner from my office) has Zumba on Wednesdays, so I’ll be trying that.

I’m also probably going to join another gym, closer to my home, because I went to a Zumba class there on Saturday and it. was. awesome. The instructor’s name is Isis and people shout out “Zumba” at random moments during the routines.

Yeah, I own a 2,100-square-foot personal exercise room, with pretty much any exercise equipment you could want. I have videos for a wide variety of exercise routines. But I need to join two different gyms, so I can go to classes where there are other people.

In my search for the best classes, I started to pine for a big city that might have a Crunch or a Swerve, with classes in hip-hop or Yoga Booty Ballet. But for now, Zumba and step will have to do.

Roses and thorns

It was suggested to me that I would feel more energized and motivated throughout the day if I woke up early and exercised. And if I spent less time on the couch, watching TV (gasp).

This is true, I noticed it when I worked out in my pajamas to a 6 a.m. German exercise show in Prague before an early shift. Better than working out to my TV, or in my 2,100-square-foot personal backyard exercise room, or even walking the dog, would be to leave the house and go to an exercise class where there are other people.

The lack of meaningful, face-to-face interaction with other people is the main problem with my job. Yesterday I was alone for most of the day in the office. I heard Michelle Obama this morning talking about her dinner table practice of asking everyone what their Roses and Thorns were from the day.

Almost worse than having one single thorn, the most unpleasant part of my day was sitting listless at my desk for six hours, not really getting anything done largely because I didn’t have anything that needed to get done. It doesn’t stick out like, “Man, this is the thorn of my day,” just a general malaise.

The rose? Teaching class with Rob last night made me happy. But the best, best part of my day? Watching the Lost season premiere.

So yes, while I am going to make an effort to get out of bed early to go to an exercise class, there is no way I’m giving up any TV shows.

Going without

I’ve mostly had to give up chocolate, because it made me break out. Pretty much every time I ate it. I have found that powdered hot cocoa does not have the same effect, so I’ve been drinking that nearly every day.

Unfortunately, I continued to break out even when I wasn’t eating chocolate, so I sought the help of two dermatologists who said nothing about the possible cause, just gave me creams that irritated my skin, but may have been effective, who knows.

Then I remembered that one of the culprits that made me break out in my 20s was soy. This whole time I was eating no chocolate, I was eating tofu and sushi and teriyaki and other soy based foods. So I gave up those too.

This past week, I started to break out again, and d’oh, wouldn’t you know it, but I’d been eating a bunch of soy-based veggie burgers. So now I have to write those off too.

Sigh.

Machines fail me

I dropped my motorola phone one time too many yesterday and it stopped working. This is a year-and-a-half old cell phone, not my precious iPod John Henry, but the loss is quite upsetting nevertheless. The cellphone has been my primary phone for several years, even if this model only has been with me a short while. I am due to upgrade in March, and AT&T makes it difficult (expensive) to do it any sooner.

The problem is, I didn’t want to upgrade. For the first time, I haven’t been counting the days to upgrade time, obsessively reading reviews and researching what my next phone will be. This mahogany-colored Motorola V9 has met all my needs, which are few:

  • Make calls
  • Receive calls
  • Make and receive small numbers of text messages
  • Wake me up
  • Play ringtones
  • Take photos in a pinch
  • Display pictures of my dog
  • Has speaker phone

I have used it to check email, but only in emergencies. I want my phone to feel like a phone, not an iPod. No sliding keypad, just a flip phone. I liked that it had a bit of weight because it was easy to find in my bag. I don’t need any fancy data-using features.

I went to four AT&T stores, Walmart (I know) and Best Buy yesterday. I also searched Amazon and AT&T’s sites. Apparently no one wants Motorola flip phones anymore. You can’t get them new anywhere. You can get an international “unlocked” version, but those are very poorly rated on Amazon.

I seem to have found someone on Freecycle who is going to give me one for free. (All hail Freecycle.) Plan B is to spend $100 at eBay on a used one. Aside from free, this is probably the least expensive, since AT&T will charge me a $75 early upgrade fee…and based on the available phones at the moment, I don’t even want to upgrade with them in March.

I was in a pretty good mood yesterday before I destroyed this link to the outside world. I was set to drive to Olympia for two nights, to attend work meetings. I had my new iPod, my new laptop and my trusty Motorola. Without a functioning phone, I felt isolated and alone as I drove in the rain, getting used to the company car’s windshield wiper settings and trying to find the perfect intermittent speed.

The best thing I did yesterday was shop for handbags at the outlet mall. I’m not totally into labels or anything, but Kate Spade bags were the rage when I was first out of college, and they are quality. I went to the outlet mall specifically to go to the Kate Spade store, and was faced with yet another disappointment when the store wasn’t listed on the directory. I went into Coach and almost bought an $89 bag before deciding to shop around a little more and stumbling upon the Kate Spade store. I picked out a $99 bag, which rang up at an additional 40 percent off, so I went back to Coach and got that one too!

I got a green tea latte from Starbucks, which was for some reason spiked with espresso. It tasted sort of interesting, so I drank it anyway, not feeling like turning the car around to complain. The upside was that I didn’t fall asleep on the drive and I was able to get work done until 11 and watch Conan at 11:30 (Is NBC really putting Leno back on at 11:35? Quelle horreur.) The bad news is that I slept two hours, woke up with the hotel TV still on, and tossed and turned for another three hours before finally falling asleep, only to wake up an hour early having dreamed about worrying that I would oversleep.

Meeting with my department was productive and fun, but the day was soured with the discovery that I may have lost practically every photo I have taken for work in the past two years. My external hard drive had been failing, but I thought we’d be able to retrieve the data before it spontaneously combusted. Not so, it seems. Many of my best photos exist elsewhere, because they have been used in publications and someone else has a copy of the file. But it’s an organizational disaster and very depressing. Note to self: It’s not a backup if you don’t have the files saved somewhere else.

My old work computer was overtaxed, and I thought it would die before the external drive. Now, I can get files off of it, but not the external. Unfortunately, I stopped saving the raw photo files on the computer all together.

Sigh. New year, new start, right?

Reading in the dark

I’m using John Henry (my iPod touch) as a Kindle. It might even be better than a Kindle.

I read the Wonderful Wizard of Oz first, because it was free, to see if I could actually read an entire book on the device. Even though the “pages” are small, the “page turning” via a swipe of the finger is so fast, I don’t consider that a negative.

I bought Dead until Dark, the first Sookie Stackhouse novel, for about $6 and have been enjoying it very much. I find I read more often, because I tend to always have my iPod within arm’s reach, so when there’s a pause in my day, a wait for my takeout order or a lull between television shows, I read a bit.

The screen is illuminated, but I set the reading app – Stanza – to have a gray screen, so the glare doesn’t hurt my eyes. I can read in the dark. If I can’t sleep, I don’t have to worry about the noise from page turning. I don’t have to prop my head up, but in fact can lie on my side with my head on the pillow.