Lessons in Obvious
It’s been a most triumphant spring break kind of day. Got up early to go to the doctor… turns out I have twelve kinds of stress. Or at least I have enough stress I’m failing to do anything with that I’ve racked up three stupid body things this quarter – migraines, heart palpitations, and a knot in my neck that feels like a tumor. Anyway, doctor checked everything out, and he’s going to do some routine bloodwork, but otherwise I’ve been prescribed some chilling the hell out. So… yeah. Like I said yesterday, I guess I need to take this seriously. That’s a really difficult thing to get ones mind around – seriously needing to chill out. It’s a lot easier to think you’ll get to chilling out at some point when all the important stuff is done, instead of the chilling out being part of the important stuff.
I’m making headway in that direction though. I toured a gym today, and I think I’m feeling settled on joining. It seems like a great place – a separate women’s workout room, classes are all free and are all drop-in, towel and locker service… they even put shampoo and conditioner in all the showers, have free towel service, don’t play any music, have the TVs all on mute, and give you two free sessions with a trainer. The class schedule looks nice, the fees aren’t terrible, and there’s no contract. The people in there today also seemed really reasonable – no crazy bodybuilders, no meat market feeling, and a surprising number of middle-aged folks and seniors… just the sort of folks I want! Plus, it’s just a stone’s throw from the Center (where I have a class, and will be doing research at next quarter), thus not far from the house, and also could be made to be on the way to campus. I don’t see how there’s a downside, other than general gym-phobia. But if yoga classes and some regular working out-type exercise make me feel better, and maybe teach me to release some stress… it’s got to be worth it. And maybe I’ll stop having panic attacks and migraines! I’m pretty excited, if somewhat aprehensive.
So post gym and doctor today, we spent the whole day working in the front yard. I put together a little master plan for what I want to do with the front garden, and we got a really great start today! I spread out the whole pile of dirt that was left over from the palm tree stump’s removal. We’ve been letting the pile decompose for a while hoping to make dirt out of palm fiber, and it was looking really nice when I got into it today. So I flattened all that, and trimmed the front hedge, and helped Lewis remove some small tree things. It’s amazing how much nicer it looks already! Thursday is going to be our big nursury trip, I think, to get the plants and vines and whatnot we’d like to put in. I’ll post pictures as soon as there’s something more than excitingly flat dirt. I’m very excited!