I haven't had a coherent set of thoughts or unusual events to write about, so I've put off writing. But these are some thoughts I've had in the past month. I'll be posting something about my China trip soon though. Until then, welcome to my brain when it's drifting.
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Working out always seems to come to an end for me either when I hurt myself, or talk my self into too many days in a row off and then I just lose momentum.
One of the things I’ve heard since I got here (and people found out that I enjoy dancing) is ‘You should try Zumba!’, convinced that by telling me they’re letting me in on the greatest secret in the world. In truth it’s a cool concept, working out by dancing and Brazilian dancing at that (almost anything Brazilian is cool). But I had to adjust to freezing winter that didn’t make me feel like leaving the house for Any reason. And then the fact that there was either a morning class (I’m not a morning person) or the afternoon class (which would have made me loose time with my husband whom I’d only been married to for a short time and traveled half way around the world to be with). So it finally started getting brighter earlier and I agreed to let a friend pick me up (saving me my third excuse of having to walk to an exercise class).
The class we went to was the morning class, and admittedly Zumba IS fun. It got me going faster than a cup of joe that early (for me) in the morning. Then we stayed for the class immediately after and I got to try Pilates for the first time too. All and all a good work out day. That was a friday so I had all weekend to rest too.
Monday, bright and early, I got picked up and taken to another round of Zumba and Pilates (and hour for each class). Tuesday Zumba was taught by a different instructor in the gym, this class was a little later in the morning and populated by more new moms complete with babies and baby fat. I didn’t catch on as quickly in this new class and so didn’t get as good a workout. But the next day was Zumba/Pilates again, so I took the break where I could.
And then I decided I needed a day off and wasn’t sure how I felt about the Tuesday/Thursday class. Friday I had the satisfaction of feeling more in shape and able to follow almost all the moves.
The current week, Ceci and I decided to step it up a bit and met to walk to class. Then Tuesday arrived and we decided to step it up one more notch and run around base before the later morning Zumba class. We did okay for two people who hadn’t run in a while and I felt like I followed the moves in class Much much better. But as we we stretching at the end of class I notched my knee hurting and didn’t want to kneel on it. I still had to walk home, shower and walk back to base to meet Justin for lunch but luckily it took me so long to get home that I “had” to call a taxi to take me to lunch.
My left knee hurt in a weird way, like it was severely bruised on top of the fact that my legs we just plain tired. Justin said I probably hyper extended it when I was running and that I should stay off it until it felt better.
I needed no further convincing to take the next day off class… and stay on the couch… and eat a bacon and bacon toast sandwich… and red vines…and a coke light. My knee felt much better since I stayed off of it, but I’m hoping it’s better for class by Friday, because if I stay home and rest it much longer, my bacon sandwich will look healthy by comparison to my “get better” foods of choice.
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I sometimes wonder how my personal perception is different than that of other people. The best example (or simplest example actually) is that of color. I see a red toy. I know it is red. Someone else can look at the toy and tell me that they see red too. But how do I know they are seeing the SAME red that I see? If I were able to take a picture through my eyes and through their eyes and hold them up side by side, would they be the same shade of color? Or would it look like one was blue and the other was red or some other opposites on the color wheel.
The same with feeling or with taste or with… I just lost my train of thought. My point was, how do I know that even though we are all human, we see and experience the world in the same way.
I’m sure there is some scientific study about all this, but that’s not my point. I don’t really care what science has to say about perception. I care about how other people see things. and maybe why it’s hard for other people to see things the way I do.
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I keep having the strangest dreams. They leave me feeling disoriented and tired when I wake up. I can usually tell they’re not real when I’m in them, and I think something like ‘well, this is odd’ but that doesn’t stop them from draining me of a good nights sleep.
Maybe it’s because the weather has been getting warmer. We slept with the window open a few nights to stay cool and I thought maybe the subconscious fear of someone breaking in our first story apartment was giving me strange dreams and keeping me on the edge of wakefulness. Then we finally broke and started using the AC. The dreams remain.
I’m still stuck in the ‘longing to bundle up for safety’ vs sleeping with no covers because it’s hot at night. I feel compelled to sleep with my back either covered up to my head or with my back to a wall or similar. Either way I’m not sleeping well and I get to wake up to confused thoughts and a sweaty pillow.
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