I saw this video months ago and I've thought about it various times since. Lucky for you I have a terrible case of pregnancy insomnia and my youtube trolling let me find it again.
You have no idea at all how hopeful this makes someone whose weight passed up her husband's last week.
Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gym. Show all posts
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Friday, September 16, 2011
I don't really know what to do....it's our first fight
Ladies and gentlemen I hoped this day would never come. I hoped that I could to through the rest of my life with just the lovey-dovey feelings I've told you about but the day has come and I don't know what to do.
24 Hour Fitness and I are in a fight.
Let me tell you what happened so that you can commiserate with me and leave me comments about how insensed you are too.
On Monday as the hubbs and I were getting Claire ready so that we could take the hubbs to the airport the hubbs leaned over to me as he was putting on her shoes and said, "Have you seen this?" He then points out a little thing that looks like a pimple on Claire's ankle. I had not seen it but as I'm looking I notice that she has another one on the side of her foot. We talked about it for a minute and the hubbs says, "sometimes I get little blisters like that when my feet get too hot" and we continue on our merry way to the airport. After the airport Claire and I head straight to the gym where we stay for about an hour. After we're home I take her shoes off and notice another little blister on her other foot.
I panic. I then carefully examine her feet and find three little red marks on the sole of her foot. A couple of our friends have recently had hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM) and I know that it's making it's way around two of the housing complexes in this neighborhood. I hit the internet and look up pictures and sure enough, the little marks on Claire's foot look like the pictures on the internet so we buckle down and I get prepared to spend a week at home. I call a friend who's kids had it and she tells me exactly what her Dr told her. It's a virus and there's nothing you can do and they are contagious for 48 hours. I email anyone who has had contact with Claire to let them know they should be on the lookout and then I call 24 Hour Fitness to tell them the same thing and tell them that they probably need to Lysol down the kid's club to be safe. I also canceled a Dr's appointment and the babysitter and hunker down for the week.
Well the week rolls on and nothing happens to Claire. The 3 blisters on her feet and the 3 red marks on her sole don't expand--there aren't more of them, she just seems fine. There's a chance she had it but really I think that she just had a heat rash on her feet--though to be safe we stayed away from kids for the 48 hours that HFM is contagious.
And here's where the fight begins. Today I got a call from one of the managers at 24 (who is a very nice girl and who I really do like) and she says, "So, how's Claire." I just say that Clarie is feeling better because getting into the whole false alarm thing didn't seem like a great idea. And she says, "great. I'm so glad. So...I was wondering, do you think you could bring a Dr's note to the gym when you come back to tell us that she's okay?"
I told her "No Way" and I start getting mad.
She said, "well...we're just trying to figure out how we can not tell everyone who it was."
I then explain to her that it is a common childhood virus and that there is nothing a Dr can do. I tell her that it is contagious for 48 hours and that we have not been back to the gym in 4 days just so that we could be sure. She sort of mumbled and said, "okay. See you tomorrow."
I've hashed through this a couple of times with my mom (oh my poor mother having to hear this insignificant story all day long) and here's why I'm mad.
I was really trying to be responsible. I didn't have to call to tell them what happened but I was trying to keep the other kids safe. Then, after I had tried to be totally honest and responsible she calls thinking that I'm going to try to sneak Claire into the gym before she's totally well.
When I first hung up the phone my thought was, "That makes me not want to be honest and tell them when Claire is sick."
My second thought was what kind of witch-hunt is waiting for me when I get back to the gym. I imagine all kinds of parents thinking there is some conspiracy and getting ready keep their kids from getting anywhere near that mom who would take a sick kid to the gym. Really that's not what happened. It was an honest mistake and I tried to take care of it the best I could.
So here is what I am going to tell myself before I go to bed and before I go to the gym tomorrow (where I will not take Claire just because if there are witch hunters waiting with pitch forks I'm much more nimble when I don't have her on my hip)
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent M. Keith
Be honest and frank anyway...be honest and frank anyway.
*a copy of these hung in Mother Teresa's Orphanage and thanks to a kind friend they also hang in my living room
24 Hour Fitness and I are in a fight.
Let me tell you what happened so that you can commiserate with me and leave me comments about how insensed you are too.
On Monday as the hubbs and I were getting Claire ready so that we could take the hubbs to the airport the hubbs leaned over to me as he was putting on her shoes and said, "Have you seen this?" He then points out a little thing that looks like a pimple on Claire's ankle. I had not seen it but as I'm looking I notice that she has another one on the side of her foot. We talked about it for a minute and the hubbs says, "sometimes I get little blisters like that when my feet get too hot" and we continue on our merry way to the airport. After the airport Claire and I head straight to the gym where we stay for about an hour. After we're home I take her shoes off and notice another little blister on her other foot.
I panic. I then carefully examine her feet and find three little red marks on the sole of her foot. A couple of our friends have recently had hand, foot and mouth disease (HFM) and I know that it's making it's way around two of the housing complexes in this neighborhood. I hit the internet and look up pictures and sure enough, the little marks on Claire's foot look like the pictures on the internet so we buckle down and I get prepared to spend a week at home. I call a friend who's kids had it and she tells me exactly what her Dr told her. It's a virus and there's nothing you can do and they are contagious for 48 hours. I email anyone who has had contact with Claire to let them know they should be on the lookout and then I call 24 Hour Fitness to tell them the same thing and tell them that they probably need to Lysol down the kid's club to be safe. I also canceled a Dr's appointment and the babysitter and hunker down for the week.
Well the week rolls on and nothing happens to Claire. The 3 blisters on her feet and the 3 red marks on her sole don't expand--there aren't more of them, she just seems fine. There's a chance she had it but really I think that she just had a heat rash on her feet--though to be safe we stayed away from kids for the 48 hours that HFM is contagious.
And here's where the fight begins. Today I got a call from one of the managers at 24 (who is a very nice girl and who I really do like) and she says, "So, how's Claire." I just say that Clarie is feeling better because getting into the whole false alarm thing didn't seem like a great idea. And she says, "great. I'm so glad. So...I was wondering, do you think you could bring a Dr's note to the gym when you come back to tell us that she's okay?"
I told her "No Way" and I start getting mad.
She said, "well...we're just trying to figure out how we can not tell everyone who it was."
I then explain to her that it is a common childhood virus and that there is nothing a Dr can do. I tell her that it is contagious for 48 hours and that we have not been back to the gym in 4 days just so that we could be sure. She sort of mumbled and said, "okay. See you tomorrow."
I've hashed through this a couple of times with my mom (oh my poor mother having to hear this insignificant story all day long) and here's why I'm mad.
I was really trying to be responsible. I didn't have to call to tell them what happened but I was trying to keep the other kids safe. Then, after I had tried to be totally honest and responsible she calls thinking that I'm going to try to sneak Claire into the gym before she's totally well.
When I first hung up the phone my thought was, "That makes me not want to be honest and tell them when Claire is sick."
My second thought was what kind of witch-hunt is waiting for me when I get back to the gym. I imagine all kinds of parents thinking there is some conspiracy and getting ready keep their kids from getting anywhere near that mom who would take a sick kid to the gym. Really that's not what happened. It was an honest mistake and I tried to take care of it the best I could.
So here is what I am going to tell myself before I go to bed and before I go to the gym tomorrow (where I will not take Claire just because if there are witch hunters waiting with pitch forks I'm much more nimble when I don't have her on my hip)
The Paradoxical Commandments*
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent M. Keith
Be honest and frank anyway...be honest and frank anyway.
*a copy of these hung in Mother Teresa's Orphanage and thanks to a kind friend they also hang in my living room
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Good Night and Good Luck
Our favorite babysitter is leaving the gym. We are going to miss Malorie like you would not believe. Today Claire cruised into daycare and when she saw that it was someone other than Malorie she pointed at the babysitter and screamed. (You can imagine how endeared she is to that babysitter.) She was in such a tizzy that we only got in 30 minutes of working out.
Malorie got a new job that's full time with full benefits so we can't begrudge her leaving but, oh, we will miss her. She is the kind of girl who cries Claire's name and hugs and kisses her when she arrives.
My friend Alice just started this brilliant new blog. Before Alice became a mom she was a buyer for an online retailer. Her blog is all about how to pick gifts and she has incredible ideas. I emailed Alice to ask her advice (It's kind of a tricky situation because I don't even know Malorie's last name but she has provided wonderful care for Claire) and boy did she deliver. All of her suggestions can be found here.
Claire and I went with candy in a candy jar. We filled it with Hershey's hugs and kisses. Claire finger-painted a card and envelope and I wrote that we wished her lots of hugs and kisses and all the chocolate she needed for her new job.
Goodbye Malorie, you will be missed.
**and speaking of professional gifts did you see this darling ring on Cup of Jo? And when I say "you" I mean the hubbs. Wouldn't that make a great gift for me?
Malorie got a new job that's full time with full benefits so we can't begrudge her leaving but, oh, we will miss her. She is the kind of girl who cries Claire's name and hugs and kisses her when she arrives.
My friend Alice just started this brilliant new blog. Before Alice became a mom she was a buyer for an online retailer. Her blog is all about how to pick gifts and she has incredible ideas. I emailed Alice to ask her advice (It's kind of a tricky situation because I don't even know Malorie's last name but she has provided wonderful care for Claire) and boy did she deliver. All of her suggestions can be found here.
Claire and I went with candy in a candy jar. We filled it with Hershey's hugs and kisses. Claire finger-painted a card and envelope and I wrote that we wished her lots of hugs and kisses and all the chocolate she needed for her new job.
Goodbye Malorie, you will be missed.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Taking a hint
Last week I had to go to the doctor's office and run a couple of errands. I dropped Claire off at babysitting co-op and was going about my business. Before I went to the bank (where there is no bathroom) I stopped off at the gym (which is right next to the bank and does have a bathroom).
I am the kind of a girl who goes to the gym to go to the gym. I almost always go first thing in the morning and I hardly even brush my hair back into a ratty pony-tail before I'm out the door. When I popped in to use the restroom I was actually dressed--jeans, a white button-down shirt, some cute ballet flats and I'd done my hair and make up.
You would have thought that I had grown a third eye.
Three or four people walked out from behind the desk to greet me, all cooing and telling me how great I looked. The manager said, "Honestly, I would not have even recognized you!" The response I got was beyond flattering and well into the realm of humiliating. I wasn't even that dressed up and I didn't look that cute. I had just been to a doctor's appointment for goodness sake.
So I guess that the ratty Hanes 3-to-a-pack men's t-shirts and ill-fitting shorts from Smiths' Marketplace aren't really cutting it. Might be time to invest in some appropriate workout gear.
Suggestions?
*** And seriously--this image has to be altered right?....YIKES. Cute clothes but she looks like a skeleton
I am the kind of a girl who goes to the gym to go to the gym. I almost always go first thing in the morning and I hardly even brush my hair back into a ratty pony-tail before I'm out the door. When I popped in to use the restroom I was actually dressed--jeans, a white button-down shirt, some cute ballet flats and I'd done my hair and make up.
You would have thought that I had grown a third eye.
Three or four people walked out from behind the desk to greet me, all cooing and telling me how great I looked. The manager said, "Honestly, I would not have even recognized you!" The response I got was beyond flattering and well into the realm of humiliating. I wasn't even that dressed up and I didn't look that cute. I had just been to a doctor's appointment for goodness sake.
So I guess that the ratty Hanes 3-to-a-pack men's t-shirts and ill-fitting shorts from Smiths' Marketplace aren't really cutting it. Might be time to invest in some appropriate workout gear.
Suggestions?
*** And seriously--this image has to be altered right?....YIKES. Cute clothes but she looks like a skeleton
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Too Many Stories to Tell
I've been hesitating to write for a couple of days. I have a couple of half-finished posts that just weren't coming together. At first I thought it was because I didn't have any stories to tell. My week has been terribly void of remarkable stories though full of trips to the beach, the pool and the gym. I felt like writing them down was resigning myself to being a mommy with an insipid life. So it wasn't that I didn't have the stories, it was that I didn't want to document them because I was afraid of what they would show. That's also tricky because I like who I am. I like the life I have. (he's a pic of Claire's post-beach hair)
One of the reasons I started this blog was because I missed the act of writing. Like a muscle I had left too long unused, I felt like my ability to write was sloppy and weak. I have loved the exercise and I feel like my writing is getting stronger. This blog is helping me to be a better writer.
Some day I will start working on other stories, but for right now the story that I have chosen to tell is my own and I need to be comfortable with the subject matter. My life may consist of trips to the beach, pool and library but I can find interesting ways to talk about them and somewhere in there is a good story.
In an attempt to embrace the story of my own life, I now present the undocumented tales of the week:
1) Did you know I make my own yogurt now? True. Weird, but cheap and delicious and true.
2) Claire's new love is banana applesauce mini muffins and yesterday she ate 4 at one sitting so I could probably start making them normal size but there is something so darling about a chubby little hand holding a tiny muffin and trying to shove the whole thing in her mouth at once
3) I went in for my deep root cleaning this week (that's where the dig into your gums and clean the roots of your teeth--gross, I know.) And two days later my jaw is still sore. There was a whole dental disaster and I was crying when I left the office because I had been in the office for 3 hours and still left without my permanent crown (That means ANOTHER dental visit!!! ahhhhhh)
4) We switched to 1 nap a day instead of 2 which means that we're hitting the gym at 8 in the morning instead of 11. Sadly, we've said goodbye to the mafia and the older men working out in pleated kakis but we've said hello to the older Orthodox Jewish man who works out in full Orthodox regalia and skull candy headphones. The gym just gets better and better.
5) I got a new job at church. It's going to be time intensive and maybe a little stressful but I'm excited.
6) Claire has been through a major right of passage for a girl. First pony-tail ever. (not everyone can pull off the side pony but I think she does it with just the right amount of pzazz)
One of the reasons I started this blog was because I missed the act of writing. Like a muscle I had left too long unused, I felt like my ability to write was sloppy and weak. I have loved the exercise and I feel like my writing is getting stronger. This blog is helping me to be a better writer.
Some day I will start working on other stories, but for right now the story that I have chosen to tell is my own and I need to be comfortable with the subject matter. My life may consist of trips to the beach, pool and library but I can find interesting ways to talk about them and somewhere in there is a good story.
In an attempt to embrace the story of my own life, I now present the undocumented tales of the week:
1) Did you know I make my own yogurt now? True. Weird, but cheap and delicious and true.
2) Claire's new love is banana applesauce mini muffins and yesterday she ate 4 at one sitting so I could probably start making them normal size but there is something so darling about a chubby little hand holding a tiny muffin and trying to shove the whole thing in her mouth at once
3) I went in for my deep root cleaning this week (that's where the dig into your gums and clean the roots of your teeth--gross, I know.) And two days later my jaw is still sore. There was a whole dental disaster and I was crying when I left the office because I had been in the office for 3 hours and still left without my permanent crown (That means ANOTHER dental visit!!! ahhhhhh)
4) We switched to 1 nap a day instead of 2 which means that we're hitting the gym at 8 in the morning instead of 11. Sadly, we've said goodbye to the mafia and the older men working out in pleated kakis but we've said hello to the older Orthodox Jewish man who works out in full Orthodox regalia and skull candy headphones. The gym just gets better and better.
5) I got a new job at church. It's going to be time intensive and maybe a little stressful but I'm excited.
6) Claire has been through a major right of passage for a girl. First pony-tail ever. (not everyone can pull off the side pony but I think she does it with just the right amount of pzazz)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.
Claire and I have gotten into a nice little schedule. She goes down for her morning nap at 9:00 and gets up between 10 and 11. As soon as she gets up we're off to the gym. The 10-noon crowd at the gym is different than any other time I've been there. Sure, there are a few roid-warriors but the majority of the crowd is in the 60+ age range. There are several people I love seeing everyday--there's the guy with the horrible toupee (Doesn't that sound incredibly uncomfortable and sweaty?), the 60+, size 12-ish lady who rocks the bare midriff look and an incredible number of people working out in pleated khakis.
And my favorite, the mafia--three ladies of unknown descent who spend hours at the gym and don't really seem to accomplish anything more than gossiping in a slightly guttural language and gazing at the other patrons from under their highly-arched, pencil-drawn eyebrows. I've been working for weeks to get their picture (please don't take away my membership 24Hour fitness). Here's a failed attempt--turns out you can't take a steady picture while you're on the stair stepper. Who knew? But you can see the emphatic hand gesturing that's going on.
Then last week...success. Well, mostly. I only got two of them. The ring leader was across the way on another weight machine.
I always try to smile at them because I'd hate to get caught in the crossfire and even if a man is the head of a household, the woman is the neck.
**Review of Half Broke Horses is going up on Friday. Book Clubbers (and non-book clubbers) I'd love your thoughts. It's a quick read and I really enjoyed it.
And my favorite, the mafia--three ladies of unknown descent who spend hours at the gym and don't really seem to accomplish anything more than gossiping in a slightly guttural language and gazing at the other patrons from under their highly-arched, pencil-drawn eyebrows. I've been working for weeks to get their picture (please don't take away my membership 24Hour fitness). Here's a failed attempt--turns out you can't take a steady picture while you're on the stair stepper. Who knew? But you can see the emphatic hand gesturing that's going on.
Then last week...success. Well, mostly. I only got two of them. The ring leader was across the way on another weight machine.
I always try to smile at them because I'd hate to get caught in the crossfire and even if a man is the head of a household, the woman is the neck.
**Review of Half Broke Horses is going up on Friday. Book Clubbers (and non-book clubbers) I'd love your thoughts. It's a quick read and I really enjoyed it.
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