It all seems like fun and games until... THE HOLIDAYS

My parenting plan has been for each child to have one sport and one musical instrument in addition to school. Rosie has also shown an interest in the arts, performance and visual; Dash enjoys strategy games like chess. There are after- or before-school classes for any or all of these interests; I don't discourage, but choose what we can fit in very selectively.

Sport
When our pediatrician told me last year that the kids were both overweight and needed to have at least an hour of sweaty activity every day, I enrolled them both in tae kwon do. TKD meets three times a week, which covers some of that allotment. Their PE class only meets a couple days a week and lasts about 30 minutes, so that doesn't cover much. Rosie also has a tap dance class that meets once a week, and seasonally, I put Dash in soccer or track (each meets one day a week).

Music
Rosie started the cello program at school last year, took weekly lessons through the summer, and (despite sporadic practice at home) is now a "leader" in the cello section, according to her Strings teacher. Dash is taking weekly piano lessons with a neighbor.

Performance Arts
In addition to Rosie taking tap lessons, I take modern dance classes and Jazzercise to stay healthy and have fun in my spare time. Rosie is in a weekly "art club" at school.

ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES HAVE HOLIDAY PARTIES. 
Starting today, there are non-stop winter performance/open house/holiday parties through the weekend. Thank goodness the piano teacher took a holiday — there is no piano party.

Thursday (today): 
5-6 PM, Tap Class Open House (Rosie performs)
7-9 PM, School Winter Strings/Band/Choral Concert  (Rosie)

Friday: 
5-6:30 PM, Tae Kwon Do Studio Holiday Party (optional, Dash wants to go)

Saturday:
9 AM, Jazzercise Holiday Party (optional, Nylon, going to bail)
10:30 AM - 12 PM, TKD Belt Testing (Rosie)
[no specific times] Taking kids to an overnight with Auntie, Nylon gets coiffed/primped
6 -10 PM: Office Holiday Party in DC (Nylon & Monkeyrotica)

Sunday:
[no specific time] Picking up kids from Auntie's, Nylon gets coiffed/primped/costumed
1 - 3:30 PM, The Dance Studio Holiday Program (Nylon performs with modern dance class)

I'm sure I'll make it through the weekend, but I'm crawling into a hole Sunday afternoon.

(Not quite) Free-range Rabbits!

All the other images I posted of the rabbits show them caged, so I made an effort today to take a few photos while the were hopping around! It was pretty tough avoiding motion blur, as they're constantly moving. In this first photo, you can see a little bit of the large, white wire corral that we borrowed (permanently?) from our neighbor. Her daughter used to have a a bunny and she was happy to lend it to us. She used to set it up in the yard outside to let the rabbit get fresh air and grass under its paws, but we're not quite that adventurous — yet.

Mary Potter, in the corraled area

After I set up the corral in a doorway that had access to the bedroom where their cages are, I learned that they won't "spray" or excessively "pill" to mark their new "territory." Whew. They really made some messes when we unknowingly separated them from their "home base." I learned from an article about litter box training (h/t Kellygo), I'm apparently doing the right thing (now, not at first!) by introducing them to other rooms in stages, so they get used to their location in relation to where their home base is.

Bugs Bunny, grooming Mary Potter in the kitchen

We first let them roam around Dash's room, their home base, then moved them to the bathroom. Bad idea — much territory marking. We tried corralling them in the dining room, first in one area, then around the dining table, also bad ideas with lots of sanitizing afterward. Earlier this week, I let them roam from Dash's room (home base) through to the kitchen, which worked out great until Bugs Bunny got too curious and hopped over a solid, 24-inch barrier. Yesterday, I had the brilliant idea of using the corral as the barrier, letting them wander from the kitchen and a short way into the living room, and be able to view the surrounding areas. That worked very well! Only one little "pill" at the end of the corral, to mark their new "territory." They still have a very clear path back to home base.

Bugs Bunny, lounging in the kitchen

Maybe soon, after we introduce more new areas, we can get some bunny-proofing going and let them have more range through the house!

Making the best of a long weekend

We've all been in the house together since Thursday morning, except for kids' playdates on Friday. Rosie had been asking to play with a new friend, Paige, and Finn had been asking about Dash. Dash rarely requests playdates and prefers playing on his own, which is okay by me, generally, but they needed to get out of the house! We were all getting on each other's nerves and were more than a little stir-crazy.

On Friday, Dash went to Finn's and I tried to take the girls to River Farm, but I swear, every time I try to get in there, it's closed for a private event. Same thing yesterday. I ended up taking Rosie and Paige to their elementary school's playground and believe that they enjoyed having it to themselves instead of sharing it with everyone in their grade for a change. We stuck around there until lunch and returned for Nutella sandwiches, fruit, and carrots before I set them up to play Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Two o'clock snuck up on us, and it was time to take Paige home. The girls weren't at all ready to part and were begging for an extension, so I accepted a bargain to drop them at Paige's until I returned from Finn's with Dash.

Dash and Finn had been peacefully playing Legos the entire time. Finn's mom expressed to me that for two boys that are so disruptive while in class, they played like quiet little mice. We exchanged several observations about their first-grade teacher and the negative comments on interim reports before Dash and I were on our way. Back at Paige's, we met her little brother, Chase, who is also six like Dash, but a year behind in school. True to their names, they were running circles around each other in the front yard, fast friends. I couldn't help commenting on it a few times—go, action verbs! We promised to schedule more play time for them all together soon, as it was such a great success.

Saturday morning, I left the house to make the first Jazzercise class since Wednesday afternoon, as they'd cancelled all the in-between ones for the holiday. It was PACKED. I managed to squeeze into a spot in the front corner and had a blast as usual! Harmony (today's instructor) is so easy to follow and doesn't crank her tunes too high. I wear earplugs a lot and wind up missing cues in other classes. Still fun!

When I got back and showered, we had already worked out that we would all take advantage of the lovely weather and walk to the library. Rosie has a biography project due next week and needed to pick up some books for research. To sweeten the deal for the kids, Monkeyrotica had found a walking path on Google Maps that cut through the neighborhoods and made the trip less than a mile one-way (by car, it's 1.5 miles). Rosie found her books and we each picked up another book or two; all the books ended up in my bag to carry home. It was close to lunch, so we walked another half-mile out of our way to get sandwiches at one of the few local delis (read Monkey's Yelp review). I don't think Rosie and Dash even noticed that they walked about 2.5 miles today, with all the exploring, leaf-kicking, and bird/squirrel/deer spotting.

It was such a beautiful, warm day—really a gorgeous weekend! I'm so glad we didn't just stay indoors, which is what might have happened if it had been colder.

First Soccer Club Practice!

Rosie attended her first practice with the soccer club! She's been participating in an after-school soccer program for a few years now, but I have had no indication that they actually play games; it's more about gaining skill with the ball and agility as a player.

Her first two practices were rained out (and the temps were in the 40s—brrrr!), so in desperation, the coach scheduled an extra practice this past Sunday. They had beautiful weather and the girls had such a fun time.

One part Rosie didn't like so much: in their scrimmage, there was an odd number of girls, so the coach asked her to be a "floater," meaning she was on the team of whomever held the ball. Practically, this meant the other girls didn't know which team she was on and nobody passed the ball to her. That's a tough position to play, but someone has to do it!

The next practice is tonight and her first game will be this Saturday. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Overbooked, Overscheduled, Oh!

Dash's karate kick!

Months ago, back at the beginning of the school year, I made a personal decision. Now that I had two kids in public school, which comes complete with the shorter days that make a working parent's nerves twang, I had to make a concession. Either my kids would come home from school and watch TV until 6:30 when I arrived, then quickly shovel dinner in and finish homework before they dropped; OR, I would shorten my hours so that I could be home when they got home. I shortened my hours.

When I first envisioned the extra two whole hours balancing away in my work-life scenario, they seemed like golden, glittering minutes, full of promise. I could choose after-school activities for the kids. I could go to the gym. I could get all those to-do lists of home-chores done. We could gambol in the yard, go for hikes, schedule playdates! So, you smart people, you already know the reality, don't you?

What really happened at first is that when I got home earlier, the chores started immediately, dinner happened much sooner, and then TV and homework and collapsing. No gamboling, no walks, no hazy crisp fall afterschool playdates. Perhaps what was wrong here was a lack of structure, I thought. I started to schedule activities.

Rosie and Dash were already taking tap and ballet classes on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Last summer, we added Saturday karate for Dash, while Rosie did Japanese calligraphy. They were also taking afterschool soccer on half-day Mondays, but that ended at 2pm and Grandma S picked them up (thanks, mom!!). Of course, I have my modern dance class too, on Thursdays. This winter, we added art classes for both Rosie and me on Saturdays and Mondays; soccer had ended, Rosie dropped calligraphy and I took a break from dance just for home-life balance with the art class. For Dash, we added a language class on Wednesdays, Spanish, and for Rosie we added Junior Jazzercise on Thursdays, which just ended. The Winter-term art classes just ended, as well. Have you lost track yet?

Here's how things look at the moment:

• Monday: nothing
• Tuesday: nothing
• Wednesday: Spanish, tap 
• Thursday: modern dance
• Friday: nothing
• Saturday: karate, tap
• Sunday: nothing

Only three days booked? My brain fired: must schedule MORE!!! What did I do? I signed the kids up for Gunston Soccer Club, a local competitive league. I sure had my rose-colored glasses on, because I thought that since some close friends who have kids (the same ages and genders as mine) were also registered, that all I had to do was request that we have the same teams for our kids and it would happen! I imagined carpooling and sideline flask-sipping with adult friends while our kids frolicked happily around the soccer fields.

Reality hit when I got their coach assignments and details about the league.  A gut-punch to the stomach: neither child was on our friends' team rosters. Carpooling? Out the window. I only recognized one parent's email address from either list. But the freak-out really happened when I saw the scheduling... Thursday practices for Rosie starting at 5:30 (with an optional Tuesday clinic), and game day Saturdays; Friday practices for Dash (at a different location) at 5:30, game day Saturdays—each child would have two games back-to-back, with times scheduled by luck of the draw. With two kids, you could potentially be at the soccer field for most of Saturday, worst case scenario.

What was I thinking? Dash already had two Saturday activities! And while Rosie likes soccer well enough, she wanted to continue with art or Jr. Jazzercise, which are scheduled on Saturday and Thursday, overlapping. This is a very popular soccer club! How do all the other parents do it?

In tears, I emailed Dash's coach and told him that I wished to withdraw Dash, sight unseen. He was very nice about it, even trying to offer scenarios for me to keep Dash in the club. I stuck to my message and said no, again and again. He finally got it and took Dash off the roster. Instead, I put Dash back into the Monday afterschool soccer, where there were no conflicts. Rosie will stay with Gunston for now—I'm curious to see how the club works and whether it's manageable for future seasons.


A quick recap of schedule to be (four days scheduled):


Monday: Dash, soccer
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: Dash, Spanish; Rosie, tap
Thursday: Rosie, soccer club practice; me, dance
Friday: nothing
Saturday: Rosie, soccer club games (starting 4/9); Dash, karate & ballet
Sunday: nothing

I've still got ideas bouncing around in my head. I want Dash to try the track team and Rosie to get back in art. I'm not sure this soccer thing is going to work, but if she likes it, that's what counts (I know Dash loves it). I'm here to give my kids opportunities to try different things and see what they're good at, learn to use their bodies and minds, practice and develop. I'm helping them become well-rounded little people.

But, y'know, I still need to be able to schedule a haircut for myself now and then. 

On my way to the polling place...

I voted yesterday afternoon, at the third polling place I'd visited in the day. No, I wasn't confused or lost, but it was a little irritating that you can't vote at the place that's closest or most convenient to you. We must vote at the polling place that has been arbitrarily assigned to residents based on some arcane boundary system. Whatever.

When I dropped the kids off at SACC (which was all-day, due to the school closures for teacher conferences and voting), I hit the first polling place. I actually asked the elections officials there if I could get my vote in while I was there and was denied (irk!). A few hours later, I had a mid-morning teacher conference concerning Rosie's progress at the second polling place. As I entered, a couple of cheerful leafleters attempted to press their documents into my hands, but I had to convince them that I was not there to vote. Although the conferences were running behind schedule and I had about 45 minutes to kill, I didn't bother checking if I could get my vote at this location—those elections people are pretty hardcore.

The conference itself was glowing as always with Mrs. Clark (she LURVES Rosie with all her heart). Mrs. Clark told me things I'd heard before, such as Rosie is a unique thinker, not cookie-cutter, takes projects in directions none of the other kids think of; she blew all the other kids out of the way on her spelling placement test at the beginning of the year, placing into 3rd or 4th grade level words (e.g., she spelled alliteration correctly!); and is one of the best class artists along with her friend Janna. The only negatives she received were with math and organization skills along with a negative-positive comment that Rosie has really blossomed socially with her peers to the point that she's too chummy and chatty, getting distracted by the socializing.

That afternoon, I almost considered not voting just out of irritation with being thwarted twice, but then couched going to vote a different way in my mind. I hadn't had any exercise yet, so I would bike to the polling place! It was really just three miles round trip, so nothing much really, but upon arrival at the middle school's polling place (third of the day!), I was surprised by something. There were absolutely no, none, zilch, nada bike racks there. I circumnavigated the entire school grounds and baseball field and found not a one. When I asked the group standing outside the voting entrance where the racks were, they were confused. One girl who attended the school informed me that there were no racks because the middle schoolers WERE NOT ALLOWED TO WALK OR RIDE THEIR BIKES TO SCHOOL.

I was astounded. This just went to another level of annoyance with me. The reason for this, I was told, was that the wide-but-only two lane road outside the school was deemed "too busy." There were sidewalks and bike paths leading up to the school—I had just ridden on or by them. The road itself was very wide, plenty of room for cyclists. What on earth? Are they concerned that the buses would run the biking children down? I'm sorry, but no wonder our kids are so unhealthy. They must be driven everywhere, have so much homework that they can't do after school activities, and probably have trouble with maintaining endurance during the activities they do choose. I've googled information for this school and can't find anything prohibiting walking/biking online. Thankfully, my kids won't be attending this school (and I am planning to allow them to walk or bike), but I'm hoping that someone is willing to be an activist to do something to get the school to change this policy. There should be a way to make the area "safer" if that is the concern? Crazy.

And also, I voted.

I'm a track meet parent

Rosie had her very first mini-meet for her K-1 track club last night. She was thrilled about it and such a champ. Despite gray, rainy weather that seemed to drop as low as 55 degrees, she was upbeat, goofing with her friends and ran her little heart out. (sorry about the digit in her photo!) After the meet was over (it lasted at least an hour and a half), I told her, "Rosie, you ran so fast!" Her answer was definitive: "Uh-huh!"


Rosie competed in four events, the 100-meter dash, the long jump, the shot-put (using a softball), and 4 X 100-meter relay. We won't know her standings until later. It was a great first effort!

Since I'm not one to often attend outdoor sporting events, I'll pass on these tips.

• Bring a blanket. Even if you're not cold, your butt will need cushioning on the hard, metal bleachers.
• Bring snacks, or cash if there's a concession stand.
  
• Don't forget water for your little athlete! (I did.)
  
• There's a lot of waiting around. A lot. The coach is pretty good at wrangling the kids, but it gets dull for spectators.
• If you have a younger sibling with you, hope to Bob that there are friends of his there. A little girl named Katya saved us hours of Dash's whining.
• Don't forget a flask for yourself, with enough to share!
• Invite or make friends with other parents to stay entertained.
  

Thanks to Monkeyrotica and my parents for coming out to support Rosie and her team!

***UPDATE*** The school just posted photos from the track meet! Here's my girl (#5), powering up for the 100-yard dash.

Philly, Day 2: Museums We Loved (but didn't photograph)!

On Monday, we got up bright and early to enjoy the hotel's complimentary breakfast, where we found that all the other guests were foreign (well, one couple was from Montana, does that count?). Thankfully, all the items they served were foods that both Rosie and Dash would eat. After we filled up on cereal, bagels, muffins, fruit and coffee, we bundled up in extra layers, raincoats, hats, scarves, and gloves. With umbrellas at the ready, we headed out for the one-and-a-half-mile walk to the Franklin Institute.

At the Frankin Institute, I waited in the long lines to get tickets for everyone. The basic tickets included just enough of the exhibits to engage the kids—the "Body Worlds and the Brain," IMAX theatre and all the extras would be too much. As we walked in, we were just in time to line up for the Planetarium, where they were showing a special presentation, "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity," narrated by a particularly classy voice-over actor, Liam Neeson! Rrowr. The animation for the visualizations were spectacular. They were showing planetary phenomena that no-one has actually seen, all speculation, but it was so well-executed (and well-narrated!) that heck, I believed it! When Red Giant stars go super-nova, they implode, and the energy plus the gigantic force caused by that implosion feeds on itself, sucking everything around the star inside, causing the black hole. Then, there was a bit about Einstein's theory of relativity and some really cool grid-line simulations that I though I understood at the time, but, um, *shrug*.

Then there was a bit about big locomotives, then some fancy aerodynamics hand-on exhibits where Dash sat in the cockpit of some stinky old shabby aircraft DASH GOT TO RIDE A PLANE! Now, Monkeyrotica had been playing up the "climbing through the giant heart" that he recalled from his grade-school field trip. The kids loved it—we went through twice, when many other claustrophobic souls dropped out shrieking early on. Sure, it was some painted fiberglass that has seen better days, but it's a great teaching tool. Squeezing through the tight "ventricles" while a throbbing "lub-dub" surrounds you and simulated red and white blood cells speed past overhead was pretty exciting.

From there, we hit the gift shop and headed just a 1/2-mile away for lunch at Oh! Shea's, which served acceptably decent pub food with a nice house-brand root beer. Just three blocks away was our next destination, the Mutter Museum Of College Of Physicians Of Philadelphia. This oddity actively prohibited photographs, with burly security attentive docents ready to give you the smackdown if you attempted a cameraphone pic. If you can hunt down the Discovery Channel's special on the Mutter Museum, you'll pretty much see everything we did, jugged guts, dessicated foetal mutations, eye and skin diseases, genetic disorders. Needless to say, our kids were the only ones in there under 14.

We schlepped it back the 1.5 miles in the rain to the hotel, with one stop for me to replace my hobo-umbrella, which was turning inside-out with every other gust of wind. We stayed in for a breather, let the kids splash in a hot bath, then headed out to the Brauhaus Schmitz, an authentic German restaurant about 5 blocks away. The kids were getting kind of loopy at this point, crawling under the table, playing with our phones (photo of Dash doing exactly that!) and such. We ended our day with cookies and tea back at the hotel.

Next up, Day 3: Damn, it's cold!

"Why Do Paired-Off Women Get Fat?" Australia asks

This question seemed ridiculous to me after getting a few paragraphs into the article I read today on NYTimes.com, and I thought that maybe, somehow, my crystal-clear vision wasn't obvious to these researchers. Here's what the scientists from University of Queensland, Australia discovered:

"After adjusting for other variables, the 10-year weight gain for an average 140-pound woman was 20 pounds if she had a baby and a partner, 15 if she had a partner but no baby, and only 11 pounds if she was childless with no partner...There is no reason to believe that having a partner causes metabolic changes, so the weight gain among childless women with partners was almost surely caused by altered behavior. Moreover, there was a steady weight gain among all women over the 10 years of the study."

One of their suppositions was that with a partner comes a circle of friends; socializing leads to eating out at restaurants with fatty foods and large portions. Hm, possibly contributing. I have a different take on it.

Factor 1: Other people in your life demand your time. This is a good thing, and goes both ways. When I was single and on into early stages of dating, I had a membership at an awesome gym. I went to the gym for hours, several times a week; I love studio classes. When I wasn't at the gym, I was going on long, challenging bike rides, training for biking events, or going for local/regional hikes. One of my partner's biggest complaints, early on, was that I was spending too much time at the gym and not enough with him. In the interest of compromise and making the relationship work, I significantly cut back on my workouts for my spouse. When children are added to the family, your personal time is even more popular with them.

Factor 2: Caring for children and eating their food doesn't burn calories. After having kids, sure you gain lots of weight during pregnancy and trying to get rid of it seems simple: go to the gym! But, wait. Who will watch the child while you go to the gym? Will you entrust your newborn to the gym nursery that never gets cleaned? Do you even have the cash for the gym membership, or has your diaper budget taken all of your thin margin? Also, with small children, you're basically doing a lot of cooking, cleaning, and sitting around entertaining them. Not much cardio. AND, once kids start eating solid food, they refuse to eat healthy things! You wind up stocking more and more junk food in the house to keep them fed, and start eating it yourself. I was reading somewhere that a major cause of weight gain in moms was during meal clean-up, eating the food your picky kids leave on their plates, rather than toss or save as leftovers. Don't get in that habit.

Factor 3: There is no more spare time. Available time is an issue. I work full-time, I am married, I have two kids, hobbies, friends, and responsibilities. Finding hours or minutes to fit in cardiovascular activities, indoors or out is tough.

All said, it's tough to avoid weight gain with major lifestyle changes. When you're single, you can be as active as you want; you're not accountable to anyone but yourself. Is weight-gain when partnered metabolic? Probably not. I think that when you make compromises in your lifestyle to accommodate other people, you might gain weight without realizing it. If you want to take the weight off, it takes awareness of the changes that occurred and an effort to be as active as you were before, or to eat less of the kid-friendly foods and find healthier options for you. Fitting cardio activities back in wherever possible (I changed my schedule to work out on the lunch hour) can really help, too. Best case: find an activity that your collective family enjoys and can do together!

First days at summer camp!

Rosie survived her first two days at camp! And she actually had fun, believe it or not. We signed her up for a week of Soccer & Swim camp at a local Rec-Center, where we sent her due to its proximity to her Grandma's house, not because she had any friends going there or it was recommended for its excellence. She told us that she did make friends at camp, but couldn't remember their names. That's okay, as long as she's enjoying the activities.

Monkeyrotica and I had quite a time gathering all the gear she needed on Sunday night. We dug our own hole, as it was a lazy, balmy evening and we kept the kids up after bedtime. The sun went down and we had a grand time chasing, catching and releasing fireflies. Rosie was creating a community of them in her critter case, while Dash would hold one in his hands for a minute, then cajole them to fly away saying, "Go home to your family! They're looking for you!"

By the time we had them bathed and all the gear assembled (and LABELED), it was well past 10 p.m. Between soccer and swim gear, there were eleven items on the checklist to fit inside Rosie's backpack. Of course, when we started, I didn't even have a list ready and all the stuff was in various places around the house. Monkey had packed her lunch, got the water bottles ready and set two snacks aside; I located her soccer cleats (which we found out later, weren't needed. Craigslist?), her shinguards, soccer ball, baseball hat, sunscreen, swimsuit, goggles, flipflops, and towel. Then every last little thing needed to have her name on it, since I can only assume the undressing and changing into swim gear from soccer gear would be a riot zone. Rub-a-Dub marker to the rescue! Somehow, through my mastery of spatial relationships and packing prowess, all of the above fit in her school backpack.

I'm a little in the dark on what and how exactly they're teaching the soccer/swim skills in the camp. Maybe some well-structured questioning will get more information out of my girl. For now, it matters that she's not begging to stay home with Grandma!

Looking for walkies: Alexandria National Cemetery

Alexandria National Cemetery (16)
Originally uploaded by mmstudiosdc

It's much too hard these days to get my family to engage in a group activity, so I've decided to do a little documenting here on my blog on local places I'd like to take the four of us for a walk! Just a minor exertion, maybe with an educational bent or some gorgeous scenery, is all I'm looking for. We might even discover a wonderful place that we'd never given a second glance. Such as, the location I'm profiling today: the 5.5 acres of The Alexandria National Cemetery.

On my commute, I drive by this cemetery twice a day and have, until now, never done any research on it or thought twice about its place in history. What I learned, through Wikipedia (that's where I go to find the obscure facts, you know?) is that this cemetery predates the Arlington National Cemetery and in fact, Arlington was conceived when Alexandria's National Cemetery began to fill, according to the cemetery's website:

"Alexandria National Cemetery is one of the original 14 national cemeteries established in 1862. The first burials made in the cemetery were soldiers who died during training or from disease in the numerous hospitals around Alexandria. By 1864, the cemetery was nearly filled to capacity, which eventually led to the planning, development and construction of Arlington National Cemetery."

The cobblestone avenue, a fountain, an ornate wrought-iron rostrum, graveled walks and paths, a small pond and a greenhouse all contribute to a very beautiful and peaceful appearance. With the kids' recent interest in their Civil War figurines, it might be a good place to take them for a walk some weekend afternoon.

A piece of random trivia: very often, as I pass on a nearby road, there is a group of women in varying stages of fitness being trained inside the cemetery grounds by a very fit-looking guy. His Hummer is always parked nearby, and has his company's name, Awesome Physique emblazoned on its side. Whenever I see them, I can't help but think how much more inspiring it must be to get trained in such a beautiful environment, outdoors on a sunny day, than inside a stinky basement office gym. What a great idea.

I like my country music angry.

Moving in stereo
Originally uploaded by Rune T

Today's run on the couch-to-5K was a 25-minute straight jog. And I forgot my iPod at home. The TVs in the office gym were playing "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," which has that great whistling tune, but sadly, wouldn't be enough to get me through 25 minutes. Eh, Blondie?

I mentioned my dilemma to the gym's trainer, whereupon she showed me her stash of abandoned music players, in various states of disrepair or power loss. The one I settled on was an MP3 player.

Quick discovery: the previous owner liked him/her some country ballads. The more lonesome and acoustic, the better. I spent pretty much the entire 25 minutes listening to the first 15 seconds of each song. Harmonicas? No. Lilting guitar? No. Soft piano? No. Banjo? Um, maybe...wait...No. I did listen to a tune about "California Girls" by Gretchen Wilson that had some angst. If I had it to do over, I would have stuck with Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on repeat. That one had some serious attitude. Or it did at least compared to "Red Watermelon Wine" or "Stop Shaking Your Finger at Me, Woman." Aaaiiieeee, so very not my music of choice. No, wait, if I had it to do over, I would have had my own music. PLEASE GIVE ME MY PIXIES AND JANE'S ADDICTION BACK!!!!!

However, the distraction of being pissed off at all the stanky tunes, and clicking through them, may have helped. I did the 25 minutes straight, without really thinking about how hard it was. Yay me.

Ready for the Storm

I loaded my iPod shuffle with music to get me pumped up for my couch-to-5K training. The playlists are full of high BPM tunes by Public Enemy, Jane's Addiction, Breeders, Pixies, and others to keep me moving while running.

While I was setting up the library, on a whim I added "Ready for the Storm" by Dougie MacLean, thinking it might be good for cooldowns. In practice? It's exactly the opposite. The beauty and stark emotion in this acoustic guitar piece by the Scottish songwriter gets my adrenaline running even higher than JA's "Ocean Size." Seriously, just listen! And turn the volume up to feel it build. (and excuse the crappy video production.)

Almost by coincidence, I have seen Dougie perform "Ready for the Storm" live three times. I'm probably remembering the live experience, which is energizing and participatory, while I listen. He is famous for not leaving Scotland, so it's practically a miracle as I've never been there. Ach, enjoy his wee little tune already.

Getting to love my office gym

Group Fitness Room
Originally uploaded by Belmont University

I initially felt that the office gym was dreary; no music playing, TVs showing the History channel's show on military weapons of the Civil War, and just a bunch of guys there working out on the free weights. I adore aerobics classes, and they have them, but they are at 6:30 a.m. or 5:30 p.m. and I initially thought that was not doable because of my schedule with the kids. After consulting with Monkeyrotica, we decided that it was possible to make the 6:30 a.m. class work. I just have to set the kids' clothing out the night before and feed the bird before I sneak stealthily out of the house at 5:45 to get to the gym on time.

Last week, I went to the morning step-aerobics class for the third time since October, when I was relocated to this building. I was being a little down on the class/instructor the first few times because she doesn't play the pumping, dance-club-style music I enjoy working out to. Also, her teaching style is low- to medium-impact and I like high. Giving her some credit though, all of the four other women in the class were either injured or very new to step, so low-impact was appropriate. But BORING for me.

Instead of just resigning myself to being bored, I went ahead and just did some alternate high-impact moves and had a blast!! At the end of class, I asked her if that was okay (I have known instructors to get p.o.'d if you don't follow them) and she said, sure! She was a little inexperienced and hadn't been trained for high-impact, so if I or anyone else wanted to do high, she'd just point them over to ME to demonstrate. On top of that, in the locker room, a few of the other ladies in the class asked me (hopefully?) if I was planning to be a regular! That was very flattering.

I went back to the step aerobics class yesterday and there were about twice as many people in it. About halfway through, the instructor stopped and told everyone that her knee was bothering her and she'd be doing the low-impact versions of the moves, but if you wanted to try high-impact to LOOK AT NYLONTHREAD! Um, no warning (even though she did say she might do that last week, I wasn't really mentally prepared for it)! And, while I love the high-impact, I'm a follower in those classes, not a leader (especially that early in the day). Maybe next time if I plan for it I can handle keeping it together, but I think I put a wrench in her routine a few times because I went the wrong direction while on my own.

Seriously, it's my fourth aerobics class in two years or more. I'm going to cut myself some slack for not being perfect. Dang, it was fun, though!!

Getting serious—I joined "The Daily Plate;"

weight
Originally uploaded by anna.klevan

I just joined The Daily Plate. They have a food diary, calorie calculators, and once you set your goals, a counter shows up to tell how many calories you have left for the day. It's free to register.

You all should be glad that I'm tracking all this somewhere else and not boring you with what I ate for breakfast and how many flights of stairs I climbed here. Yawn!

If anyone is thinking of joining on Daily plate, friend me!

I'm not sure if it was all the Chinese food I ate over the past weekend, but I've gained 4 lbs since last Friday. My goal is to be 4 lbs below what I was Friday, so now I have 8 lbs to go. I hate backtracking!!

Inspired

I know, the magazines and newspapers are full of advertisements to join a gym! get healthy! here's how! And I'll have to admit, I'm not immune to it all; it all has been sinking in, infiltrating my subconsious. So, while reading Unfit Mother's blog today, I really was drawn in and came out strongly identifing with her post. It's not just that I worked at a gym (YMCA) when I was a teen and was too goth to participate in high-school sports, and then somehow became addicted to classes at my gym (starting in 1993), sometimes going 3 or 4 times a week and taking two classes back-to-back (which during pre-wedding marriage counseling, I was advised to give up, for compromise's sake), but that I haven't had a gym membership for much too long.

Here's what rang true in Unfit Mother's post (she is an impressive writer, btw):

"When we bought a new house in July of 2006, our family had to reallocate every penny of the budget to make the West Coast real estate market work in our favor. One of the first items on the chopping block: my gym membership. I tried to exercise at home – I went for walks, calculated household chores into calorie burning equivalents and thought about running. But despite my best laid plans I became flabby. With folds of skin pooling on top of each other in soft mounds, I gradually lost muscle tone. I spend my days in a puddle at the computer and at night dreamed of accumulating digitized hours on a treadmill in a musty room pumping house music."

We did the very same thing. When Dash was born, the cost of his daycare forced us to eliminate several items from our budget, one of them my gym membership. Now, at my new job (location), there is a gym in the building that several of my coworkers go to. Just this month, they are offering aerobics classes! Ah, my favorite. I will go at lunchtime, twice a week to start.

Even the price is right! For what I will no longer be spending on cafeteria coffee and the occasional lunch, I can have single digit deductions taken out of my paycheck.

I'm signing up today.

back to the dance class...

and all that jazz
Originally uploaded by getthebubbles

At first, when folks mentioned to me that, with dance classes, come recitals, my response was, "um, I think I'll be out of town that day." Did I mention that I managed to avoid most recitals from previous classes? But, as of last night while we were practicing for the December party performance, I was kinda getting into it!

During the routine, where we all have assigned locations, I stand/dance next to Amanda, who is 14 or 15, such a sweetheart and a beautiful girl. She is only 5'4", but is mostly leg -- when she does some kicks, it's amazing to watch because she doesn't seem to notice that she's almost able to kick the ceiling.

Last night, at a certain point in the combination the teacher decided to let us "do what we wanted" for 8 counts (I think she was flying by the seat of her own leotard), except for Amanda. "Amanda, you're doing kicks," she ordered. I know it's because Mrs. H wants the audience to experience the beauty of A's legs. A, being a little shy, started to do other stuff, and was lightly reprimanded. So, I told her that I would do kicks, too, and we could do them together (she agreed). Whew! Except my kicks come just slightly above my shoulder and hers are about 2 feet above her head. Amanda is on the "cheer team" at her high school and rightly belongs there; she is a lovely ball of positive energy.

Despite myself, I am feeling excited about performing! We'll see how it goes when the day comes. We have already been invited to two somewhat-overlapping parties that same day...

2nd night of dance class!

In case you were wondering, I'm continuing with the dance instruction, despite all the teeny teens who are mostly named Ellie. Last night was class number two, and thank all that's holy, the teacher started a new dance combo, because I couldn't fight my way through the one from the previous class and of course all the other girls knew it because they'd been practicing it for weeks.

So, I'm not only at a disadvantage for not dancing (in a structured setting) for 20 years, I've also come into the class five weeks late. But look, really, I'm not here to learn to be a Dancah! Or perform, I just like the movement. Dancing and moving your body fluidly is just not accepted at all in any other part of an adult's life. Even going to dance clubs downtown these days I feel like I'm too old to be going out there with those early-20-somethings. I try to dance at home and get, "MoooOOooom!" If I tried to dance at work, I'd probably be taken aside for a mental consult. You know what I mean. There's that guy I used to see on the Metro subway platforms, doing little toe-kicks or pirouettes when he was in the mood; I don't want to be him.

BTW, I saw my neighbor picking up his daughter for the class before mine. I said hi, and told him that I was taking the next class (Samantha had already waved at me). He got this Rodney Daingerfield look and said, "Um, hey, can I stay and watch?!?" More next week!

cherry blossom walk (that was nicer than AJS thought it would be!)

Color me surprised when AJS volunteered to go on a family outing to *gasp* downtown D.C. *eeek!* to view the Cherry Blossoms and see the Kite Festival on Saturday, all the while intermingling with the hordes of tourists and otherwise repellent examples of humankind. Even when we lived in D.C., he would avoid any type of ethnic festival, chili cook-off, or large gathering like a pestilence and virtually refuse to leave the house.

Then, I learned that our dear friend Mel, who has been very unavailable for the last several months had agreed to meet us there, along with her dog, Walter. So, AJS was not going to miss this fleeting opportunity!

The only way this would work for AJS was to get to D.C. before 8 a.m. so we could get a parking spot and so avoid the other repulsive congregation of the unwashed, the Metro. We found a space just in time at one of the Hains Point area parking lots and have an easy walk to the Tidal Basin. Another sacrifice that was necessary for this to be a workable outing was NO STROLLERS. In order to navigate the sidewalks that are choked with tourists mesmerized by the beauty of the fragile blossom petals, walking in slow motion, taking photos in the middle of thoroughfares, we would have to allow our children to walk or carry them. This worked out to mostly carrying them.

It was truly a beautiful day! The weather was sunny and brisk, the blossoms were in full, white-and-pink fluffy loveliness, and Dash and Rosie were in good moods. We saw the signage with the silly safety mascot of the festival, a beaver named "Paddles" who advised that we refrain from picking the blossoms. Hee! Oh, so badly drawn...


As we walked through the Jefferson Memorial, Dash cheerfully circumambulated the statue (at high speed), pointing and yelling "MAN! MAN!" Thankfully, most of the other folks there seemed to find it endearing (except when we were in their camera's viewfinder). Rosie chased him around or wandered on her own path, taking in the views, watching the paddleboats make their way across the water.

From there we walked to the FDR Memorial (well at this point, AJS and I were personal transports), where Dash also yelled and pointed, "MAN! MAN!" at all the statues of Mr. Roosevelt. Rosie got up close and personal with Fala, while AJS took some nice video of her gently patting her bronze, spiky fur. Dash and Rosie both enjoyed the waterfalls, which I found to be serene and violent at once as they crashed over the geometrically carved stones; I wondered if this effect was considered by the architect/sculptor?

We all ran across the grassy field and then I carried Dash up the steep steps at the Lincoln Memorial. Again he had an opportunity to yell at The Man, although by this time of day (9:40?), the tourists were quite thick at this popular site and we wandered down to rest at the less-populated reflecting pool. Rosie and Dash tried to locate rocks to hurl in and make ripples; hopeful ducks occasionally glided over to see if we'd feed them. Another baby that was ahead of us toddled waaaay too close to the edge for my comfort, but set a bad example for Dash, so both her parent and I struggled to keep our toddlers from dumping into the drink as they barreled ahead. We passed them, as the wee lass distracted easily and my boy can be focused, once on a path. As we headed toward the Washington Monument, a loudspeaker started playing music to announce the kick-off of the Kite Festival.

We were crossing 17th Street as a quavering, older, female voice, possibly of Japanese origin, came on the PA, launching into our National Anthem. As soon as we crossed, I took a call from Mel, who was nearby and wanted to establish a meeting spot. We had been pointing out the different kites to Rosie and asking her what they looked like; Dash just pointed, except when he saw Elmo and then couldn't stop talking about his beloved little red monster. I recall there was a pretty well made upper-half of a soccer player (torso, head & arms) reaching for a soccer ball that was the kite's tail! There were some speedy and tricky stunt kites, some beautiful birds and butterflies, and plenty of scary pirates, spidermen and sharks. The wind was very strong, so many, many kites were in the air.

Mel and Walter appeared and we walked with her all the way back to the car, which seemed to be soooo very far away, especially since Dash was cranky, trying to twist out the carrier. He fell asleep when we were almost to the parking lot. Mel tried valiantly to catch up with me, but I was tired and concentrating too much on walking and my aching shoulders to really keep up my end of the chatter. I learned that she's enjoying her new job, is considering leaving her second job, is doing consulting work for her previous job, and also that academia is calling to her: is another degree in the making?

We drove to an Irish pub in her neighborhood, and while we were in the car, Walter gave Mel and AJS happy-dog kisses, then looked expectantly into the back seat, where kisses weren't welcome. Sorry, Walter. At the pub we learned that they served deep-fried tater tots and that the waitress was indulgent enough to give our kids slices of cheddar cheese and crispy bacon (no bread, please) for their lunches. Sorry, no milk. Mel tried to advise Rosie that once you pass 22 years, you'll want to cut back on the bacon and cheese unless you know a good cardiologist.

After parting ways, I fell asleep in the car, then dropped the kids off at my parents' house for a few hours. I went back home, took some Advil, crawled into bed and took a serious nap. Oh, I didn't mention that on Friday afternoon, I took a turbo-step aerobics class? I was tired. But it was a nice outing overall!