Wiz and me

I had such a nice time visiting Wizard last week! Look at how graceful and pretty he is! I just love the way he is walking with me. I hope to ride him again sometime. I think I could do it now but I am waiting a bit more. Even though I don't see him often, I can tell we are still friends and he is glad to see me. Of course bringing a couple of pieces of watermelon may have something to do with that!!

Starting to exercise

I'm committing to doing a yoga or exercise tape every day. So this is day two. I'm just taking the time while OH goes to the gym. I don't go with him because he take 1 1/2 hours. I also got out my foam roller today after doing my tape but it was probably not a good idea because I have to mostly use my arms (bent) for support. I'll still do it a bit every few days. I also want to start walking as much as possible but still have pain in my heel (using a gel pad there).

Ho hum, also studying French a lot. For this Thursday night's class, we each have to bring in three "goofy" items of clothing or accessories. So far I plan to bring my totally cool bee shoes, my aluminum foil diamond tiara (made by the kids - not sure which one though!) and maybe a Christmas ornament hanging on a string for a necklace. The ornament is a lobster in a pot!



Getting my hair dyed and cut tomorrow - way overdue. My stylist is no longer there so I have to start all over again with another person. And I am terrible at explaining what I want. I bring pics but it doesn't always help. We'll see what happens.

Doing better.

Not to jinx myself but my right hand is symptom-free. My left hand is so much better. I had PT yesterday and have 2 exercises that I am supposed to do every hour. Right. Doctor has cleared me to do whatever I want, even yoga and riding but riding will have to wait until my shingles symptoms go away or get much better. Those affect the nerve in my right leg from my hip to foot. I can ignore it during the day but need pain meds at night when there is nothing to distract me from it.

I can't really do whatever I want because I am still supposed to keep my arms and wrists straight as much possible. Maybe in another month. We'll see.

French class and other stuff

Dean and I started our French class. Despite my years of French ( yes, a million years ago), I think he will blow right by me. Between his great English vocabulary, Spanish, German and Latin, he seems to know every word already and if he doesn't, he can guess or memorize it immediately. Here's an example: Dean, do you know what the word souris is? Must be MOUSE, I was just reading about the Souris River in North Dakota. Crap!!!

Anyway, it is fun to be doing a project together again. When we first started riding, we were so into it. We had fun buying all the stuff, reading and talking about it and actually riding and going on riding vacations.

People have been dropping in and out of the beach vacation. Right now, MIL is out BIL is possibly in and long-lost niece is probably in. I would like her to come.

I got a cortisone shot in each wrist and feel much better. This is the only shot he will give me so I have to be extra careful and take advantage of it. I actually can't really do anything. I'm supposed to keep my arms and wrist straight. It's hard to type, write, hold a book, wash my hair, talk on the phone, etc. Waling makes my arms ache and the bike at the gym is so big that it is just plain uncomfortable, not to mention boring. Dean had been doing everything in the house and driving me around (hardly go out) and I have been sitting around watching TV.. I am quite sick of it. Got Downton Abbey from Netflix and my sister sent me some DVDs of NCIS. I just started watching it even though it has been on since 2003.

I am going today to drop out of band for this semester since I can't keep my elbow bent to hold it while playing. I hope to get back in in September.

Can't go help out in SF and can't go to Florida to help parents because I could not handle being in the airport with purse, luggage, etc. and anyway would be useless while there.

Why oh why don't the people next door ever walk their three dogs??????????

Not today :( - and other stuff

Rats, just when I decided to go see my horse, his leaser is riding him! I guess she changed her riding days again. And why can't I burn the dvd I downloaded to a blank dvd????? Two weeks til I go see a new shoulder dr. I think I see an mri in my future. New year's resolution which is the same as usual but which I will break immediately: To my sisters- "Don't tell anyone else, but . . ." hahaha. Parents will run out of money by the end of 2012 and then what?? Lose the 10 pounds I gained in the last 5 months. Must get out of the house today, maybe will go to the barn anyway but just a little bit later. My driver can deal with the traffic. Will I be able to take my band class or will my shoulder/arm problem be too much? I will sign up anyway and see. Trying to talk Dean into taking a French class with me. I gave him two German short story books for xmas and he can read them! There is an English translation on the facing pages so I just read Franz Kafka's The Judgement (in English of course) and now will read The Metamorphosis which I have not read in a long time. My fav short story is Conrad Aiken's Silent Snow Secret Snow. I think I could be Paul if I let myself. Lovely beach vacation coming up this year. Various relatives will have to be dealt with but the early morning hour on the beach when everyone is sleeping will be worth it. Big family reunion on Dean's side but those are strangely the people I really like. I just love everyone in his family even tho some of them are a little weird. Hoping that BOTH of my kids and their kids come. We rented two houses to accommodate everyone. Thinking of moving to Florida to take care of parents. We would have to sell this house but I don't want to buy one in Florida and I don't want to leave my horse even tho he is not mine anymore. The real estae market in Florida has totally cratered. There is a great house I would love that has been on the market for a while but u would have to pay $70K in club dues every year. as if. This is all one paragraph.

Wiz

Groomed my beautiful horse yesterday. He was just interested in eating grass though. It was hard to hold onto the lead rope and groom at the same time! U would think he had never eaten before.

Anyway, he was sweet and I was very happy to see him. The whole row of horses got some carrots except for the one horse I didn't know. :P poor guy. There was a horse's head sticking way out of every stall!!! Amazingly cute, but I was too dumb to get the camera phone out of my pocket to take a picture.

Concert!

Our band concert is on Wednesday night. The full band got together for a rehearsal yesterday afternoon. It is going to sound awesome. Nevermind that I am faking playing two of the pieces!! Next week we will start practicing for our Christmas concert and our mini concert at Old Town Spring.

Here are our concert pieces!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zOyi60e7Do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WeytMAO06A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkEaMb8JLgo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnzWHTSEYKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQNiqTTvcng

I really don't care for the super fast ones too much. Sounds like just loud noise!! Plus they are too hard and fast for me to play.

I'm not doing such a bad job though considering the fact that I have not really played since 1968. I got my flute in 4th grade (1959) and it is still going strong. I've had it overhauled twice but right now it seems fine. One key was sticking but all of a sudden it is okay again!!

My mother said hello to me last night.

That's about it, a few minutes later I could hear her snoring.

Oh no, I canceled my vacation!

I just don't feel like going to Rhode Island. Dean hates the beach and what else is there to do? I did want to go see Slater Mill, get clam cakes and chowder and walk on the beach early in the morning. Plus it will be cool there and you can smell the ocean and hear the waves.

But somehow, a nice clear stretch of time with no trips seems even more soothing this year. I can get stronger in my silks class, go to band practice and go see my very own white horse lots more.

I know I have to make a trip to Florida in December and I do want to go to SF in November. I'm just tired of packing and unpacking and being away.

There is something about taking trips that makes me gain weight no matter how much I swear I will not. I have gained 7 pounds in the last 2 months. That's why I had pizza tonight - to celebrate the start of a diet tomorrow!!! right.

I have not been riding or doing yoga since my two classes at my gym got canceled. So the lack of exercise is really telling. I will go up to the class in the Woodlands tomorrow morning. I did climb to the top of the silks today - all the way up to the ceiling of the gym!

Tonight I am half re-reading a trashy regency romance novel and half watching an Astros/Cubs game and in the meantime, Dean keeps muting the game and telling me about the German verbs he is having trouble with since he is half studying German and half watching the game. No one has to clean the kitchen since we had pizza-

Poem that I like

A dream is an apparition
A phantom of life in its most unreal moments.
It eludes you
It slips through your fingers
It is nothing.

I love my blog!

Not. I'm seriously super depressed. I don't really know why.

But enough whining about it.

I'm back to my silks class and still loving it. I started out the week (after a week off in Florida) with absolutely not strength or stamina and now am about back to where I was before. I can't wait til Laura comes and tries a class with me. I am learning some new tricks and maybe I'll take some new videos next week. I like to use the vids to watch myself partly to see my progress and partly to see what I am doing wrong. Right now I have gained some weight - only 4 pounds but it seems like more.

omg, what am I doing with my hair????? It looks so bad that it is almost funny! Hear me laughing?? . . .

I need to do some cleaning and grocery shopping. I will probably spend most of this week investigating possibilities for my parents care.

Also, I want to get my rings resized or buy a new wedding ring but sort of like not wearing any rings. One more thing to obsess about and not resolve. I guess if everything was accomplished, life would be just too boring.

shape!

I was told that doing the silks class would change my shape and I can't believe it, but in just 3 months, I have a smaller waist and a flatter stomach. I can see the difference and my clothes fit in a different way. Now lets just get some plastic surgery to get rid of all that extra skin from two pregnancies -haha.

However, I now have a pulled muscle in my chest (due to who knows what - stretching I think) and had to cancel my classes this week in silks and yoga. Also, I have not been riding in a month.

I started a new needlepoint project (with two others unfinished). These are going to be coasters, each one done is a darkish color and then a picture of this on it in a contrasting neon color.


We'll see how they come out!!!

Thoughts from another blog:

Be kinder.
Be more curious.
Be more aware.
Praise more.
Laugh more.
Be in the moment.
Be flexible.
Be humble.
Be grateful.
Be amazed.

Silks ahoy!

I am really progressing in my aerial silks lessons! I can do things I thought I would never be able to do three months ago.

I can now do a Russian leg wrap which involves hold myself up by my arms and then holding my legs out in front of me while they let go of the silks and one foot wraps the silks around the other. I can climb and let myself down using mostly arm strength. My favorite is now a leg wrap where I have one foot in the Russian wrap and then spin around one of the silks three times. I'm not sure what you call that move.

Here's my video from yesterday.

I was kind of trying to copy this amazing and truely beautiful routine:

beautiful

Music breakthrough

Preparatory to my first Lone Starr college band practice, I have been fluting around and seemingly getting nowhere but today, the nice sweet high notes came out without all the low tone creeping in. Miracle. My flute is 52 years old. I got it in the 4th grade. It has been re-padded twice over the years.

After a half your, I can't play anymore so we'll see how a 3-hour band practice goes. I can't wait to hear everyone tuning up. Band was the most enjoyable part of high school for me. A little clique that I kind of fit into. And All State band - heehee, the boyfriends!!!

The youth philharmonic was another romp thru a bunch of boyfriends, and these were not my sister's castoffs because she was not in that group!

Where are they now one wonders? But not for too long-

Miracle aides

Only time will tell, but I think we have the perfect combination of aides for my parents. My two sisters are going there (arriving today and Sunday) and then we will get a real picture of how things are going. My mother is more alert and is saying a few things. I tried to get her to say the days of the week and didn't hear anything but the aide said that she was moving her lips.

Boring

This is the most boring blog ever. Here's an example of just how boring. Yesterday, I spent the entire day cleaning my family room and never even finished. Most of the time was spent vacuuming cat hair off the furniture. Rearranging books. Scraping those little white spider specs off the dark wood floor and them polishing it by hand. That is the part that is not finished. Also, another area rug to shake out and vacuum. Then I have to drape all the towels and blanket over the furniture in the cats' favorite spots and put the zillion throw pillows back. So when I am done, it will look just as annoying and messy as ever.

The impetus for the actual cleaning was that I am finally going to get some drapes made and they are coming over to measure next week.

Ice Skating ****

I did fall and I do have a bruised elbow but I still want to go again. We skated about 45 minutes with lots of rest breaks. I got better as I watched other people - my body sort of automatically copies them. Talked to a teenager who was very nice and had asked OH if he needed any help.

It felt like a big strain on my shins for about the first half of the time but got a bit better as I started to relax. I suppose that if the foot of my skates had been tighter, it would have been a bit easier.

Anyway, I loved it and can't wait to go again. OH says he would not mind going again either.

4 stars

New activities?

Okay, I'm dragging OH to ice skating and bowling at some point soon! Ice skating sounds like the most fun. My sister is afraid that I will get hurt.

Well, I skated on a frozen pond near my house as a kid. I loved skating next to my mother, holding hands with our arms crossed in front of us! I also fished there with my father and once caught 3 little tiny unidentifiable fish. OH's high school had hockey teams and he skated there every winter.

Bowling is another story. Of course I was on a ten pin bowling league as a kid but have only used the large balls about 3 times as an adult and it was not pretty.

XOX

I love you Wiz,, but you are NOT supposed to follow me when you are with someone else!!!