Since I started working a few blocks from my
apartment, I have gained…a tiny amount of weight. It’s nothing to panic about,
I tell myself. It’s barely worth noting. But of course I have noted it, because
I am who I am, and because I am ever on alert now due to the trauma it caused
me to “have” to lose thirty excess pounds a few years ago. I am not going through that seventh circle
of hell again. When I was working at the other location in the Central
District, I would walk uphill about two miles every morning on an extremely
steep incline, and walk back downtown on the way home. That was my exercise for
the day, and while it was hardly a P90X workout, it did ensure that my heart
rate got up at least twice a day, and that my muscles were engaging in some
sort of resistance. But since I started at the new location, I’ve noted a
distinct softening of the musculature and a general physical malaise settling
in. So I signed up for use of the employee “gym”—a tiny but functional workout
space with a balance ball, an elliptical, and several confounding contraptions
I haven’t figured out how to use yet. I faffed around the last two days doing
some crunch-type gestures and some half-hearted cardio on the elliptical during
my break. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed that this new exercise
“plan” will stave off further atrophy and weight gain, because I lack the will
to do anything more ambitious.
I’ve been putting a lot of mental energy into
dealing with the work transition, and as such I’ve been letting things like
writing my query letter go. But I plan to tackle it again soon, along with my
new idea for a long-term project, whatever form that may take. Right now, I’m
working on character development. There’s always this magical moment for me
when something “clicks” and my main character comes into to full and brilliant
focus. One of the best character-development exercises I ever read was to imagine what is on your character’s refrigerator doors. I thought this was brilliant
advice. A refrigerator will tell you a lot about a person. You could be the
type who has a million expired coupons stuck on there with motley magnets
collected over years, (sounds familiar), you could be someone who has
aspirational flyers for vegan food-delivery services, (also familiar) or you
could be some pathological neat freak whose fridge doors are a blank stainless
steel canvass. A refrigerator door reveals multitudes.
In a
follow-up to last week’s post, I wrote my first “Life of Norman” story, received
with typically lukewarm praise. But I
got seven upvotes! At least one of which was Mr. Typist, but I’ll take it. I’m
enjoying the Norman phenomenon and will write another Norman story soon. Oh,
and I finished my pillow!! I actually finished a thing! A whole, crafty thing
from start to finish that required sewing and everything! Admittedly, the
stitching is pretty jenky, and the whole thing is this close to exploding into a mushroom cloud of yarn and batting,
but the point is, I did it! I crafted a craft. I’m a crafy m-effer. I can now
strut proudly into Joanne’s Fabrics and hold my own with those goth hipster
cross-stitch nerds. Ha! Evidence of my crafty brilliance:
--Kristen McHenry
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