Marilynne's World

I went to Curves today.  I go three times a week so it wasn’t an extraordinary thing.  The difference is that I wore my grey sweatpants with the pink stripes going down the leg and a pink shirt to match.

Still, no big deal, but it was special to me because that’s what Natasha often wore.  Natasha was young and pretty, an exchange student.  I’m guessing she was cutting school to go to Curves because I went mornings and she’d be there.  She was so young and vibrant with blond hair, blue eyes, and a nice figure like only the young seem to have.  She was friendly too and outgoing.  She was fun to have with us.

There is about 47 years between us.  I weight about twice what she does.  In Zumba class she’d take position in the front line in front of the teacher.  I’d watch her from my spot in the back corner that I chose because I couldn’t do the moves as fast as the class and I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way.  I wasn’t ashamed of not being able to do Zumba as well as everyone else.  But to ignore my slowness and my awkwardness I’d watch Natasha in the front row.

She had so much energy.  To keep going, I’d pretend I was as good as her.  I really envied her youth and vitality.  I wanted to pretend I had that too.

Natasha has gone back to her home country now.  I still think of her when I wear my pink and grey outfit that’s something like the outfit she used to wear.  While I exercise I pretend to be Natasha.  I pretend so I don’t have to think about getting tired before my two circuits (30 minutes) are done.  When I pretend I work a little harder and the time goes faster.  I enjoy the workout a lot more.  I get more exercise, because Natasha never got tired.  Natasha just toweled  away the sweat and went on to her next project.

So, today I wore the pink and grey sweats with the pink Tshirt and I pretended I was Natasha.  I do pretty good for an old lady.

Marilynne

In my last post I was complaining that although I was a regular and faithful blogger at Today.com, they had me locked out and I couldn’t post.  It would seem it was just a matter of blitzing them with emails every few hours while clearly explaining my problem and trying to be polite.

So, not only am I blogging again at Women Over Fifty, they also sent me a check for 50 posts.  Life is sweet again.

So, why am I complaining?  Well, I’ve been trying to up my level of effort at Curves.  I’ve learned all the machines and now it’s time to work harder.  But not too hard.  I have been too enthusiastic with the overhead press and sprained my shoulder muscle.  It’s been hurting, bad, for over a week.  Not only that, but I hurt my right thumb on another machine by not using it correctly.

The folks at Curves have been really helpful, but I still ended up at the doctor’s office.  In my opinion, if it hurts a lot more than a day or two it’s time for the doctor.

The doctor has me on Aleve twice a day, plus Prilosec to keep my tummy happy because I also take a daily dose of 81 mg Asprin.  He also told me not to work over my shoulders on any of the machines.  He said it puts too much stress on my older body.

So the Aleve is helping.  I have a few hours daily that it doesn’t hurt – mostly when I’m not at the computer typing away.  I am sleeping well at night because the pain doesn’t wake me up.  And I’m not doing the overhead press, even though it’s one of my favorites.  You can’t always have everything you want.

Meanwhile, I’m blogging about our trip to Australia on Women Over Fifty.  That’s a bridge in Tasmania in this post.  There’s lots of pictures on my blog.  Come join me.

Marilynne