Penelope

Do you recall in Homer's Odyssey what the written description of both Helena and Penelope's pinnacle of beauty resided in? Not their porcelain faces, rarely mentioned for all the modern interpretations, nor their looping curls (clearly not written by me) or their psychic (fatties the both of 'em, I bet). Anyone? Anyone? Right, there "fair skin" and, this is my point of focus, their "slender white arms". Placing the obvious grecian albino-worship aside, their beauties continually came back to their slender, encircling arms. For all we know it was the exposure of skin- the thong hip of its era- but I think there is something to be said for slender, leanly muscular arms.

I was reminded of this today, when for the first time in a long time it was warm enough to wear a sleeveless tank without a sweater hiding what may be my only claim to classical beauty. Doing my boxing reps with free weights has actually paid off too, and I was called upon by a faint memory of a stray compliment I received once. A man in my life slow to *excitement* once told me, when he himself was reminiscing about the night we first kissed, that he could remember exactly which top I had worn, because it showed off my arms, and that he thought my arms "were always what had attracted me to you. So strong, but long. Slender." And I thought of Penelope, and Helen. And I thought, "Kiss my grit, Penelope"

Fixed

I walked without the cane today, a huge improvment from the gimp that I've been the last week. I think I got a callus on my thumb from whipping that baby around. I kept my date with my trainer, and tried not to make her feel guilt about pushing me last week to crippledom. She actually spent a lot of time "loosening" my back, and relaxing my knee, so I walked out feeling better than I had all week. But BUT she absolutely FORBADE me to go running. Here's the gist:

"You're going to need to rest it for a while, and see a chiropractor because it is your back that is destroying your knees."
"So, I shouldn't jog on Wednesday? Cause I was hoping that I would feel bet..."
"HaHAHAHAHAHAHA. You're kidding!"
"Um, no. I wasn't I just thought if it was feeling better I should tr...."
"No way. I would tell you not to run for 2 months!"
"----"
"What, are you training for something"

"So I won't go this Wednesday"

But at least it feels on the mend. I fear she's probably right about the back, but there's really little to nothing I can do, especially with my health insurance running out so soon. Come on Congress, pass that universal health care bill before I'm crippled! For the children, do it for the children!

Crippled

Call me Gimpy. I decided that walking around with a cane was preferable in the long run to limping all over the place, and keeping myself in a state if pain. With the cane the only pain is having to answer everyone's "Oh, no, what happened to you?" and since I work with children more often the "Why do you have a cane? Can I play with it?" which is of course what the adults are thinking, but don't say. I did not, needlesstosay go jogging today.

My personal trainer broke me

So today I met with my personal trainer for the first time. She is very nice; which is to say that she has the excat same personality I did when I was 17. Exactly. Frozen in time. Which wasn't a bad person, in fact, I think it was when I was still a really cute person. Dull- but cute. The only problem with her having the same personality I had when I was 17 is that she is 45. Which makes for some awkward moments when I say more mature (read: jaded) things as a joke, and she looks at me with these innocent shattering eyes. "Really" she asks, to my saying that of course the society of Star Trek the Next Generation is a wonderful idea, but implausible. "No, not really. Of course that could happen." I just can't bear to break her heart. It would be like finding my 4 year old self and saying that there is a Santa Clause, but he hates you.
On the exercise front, I had a really bad knee today because of the weather-- ok ok MAYBE I inflammed it a LITTLE bit by carrying 8 gallons of paint through 14 blocks in the rain-- but whatever the reason I showed up for our first time already a little soar and creaky. Our exercises did not seem to help, as I limped the whole way home. I hope I haven't done anything permanent and stupid. Or permanently stupid.

Rain rain go away

Well, after carrying 40 pounds of potting soil (and planting) and 6 gallons of paint around yesterday, I woke up this morning, shall we say, sore. That combined with the biblical amount of rain today did not inspire much exercise, but I figure I was due for a rest. Tomorrow I have my first session with my trainer. I'm a little nervous- being put on review always does that. We'll see. Here's hoping for clearer skies tomorrow anyway.

Concrete

I have been sore in the neck for the last two days- I think it may be because the jogging on Wednesday really was the first time I've jogged that distance on concrete. The fault couldn't be in my brand new Payless shoes...
I made plans with my future trainer, Maria, to meet every Monday at 7:30. Hopefully concretizing the plans will make it more definite that I'll stick to the regular exercise. In the meantime, I just want to lay down my aching spine and sleep for a hundred years.

cool runnings

ran in central park today, 2 miles, yeah baby! My first of many runs along this route, hopefully. It was frightfully cold, at 41 degrees and windy, my least favorite weather, but I had a date to run so that kept me honest. I mentioned to my running date my theory of thinking motivation- or more appropriately my usage of fantasizing to up my heart rate to match the speed my legs need to go. He laughingly called it my porno motivation. Hmpfh. Let's see how many fantasies he features in now!
So a little sore, but feel good to have done it, and certainly the most so far.