Time to Work On the Quads

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I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. My right leg has been giving me grief. My right side has always been my more flexible side, but for the past year, the back of my right thigh has felt pinched in a way that I know isn't right. It's more than tight muscles. I've watched my flexibility steadily decline to the point where I can't even bend over and touch the floor without having to bend that knee to almost a 60 degree angle.

I've been hoping it's a phase that will pass, but recently I've developed a kind of twisty pinched feeling in the thigh that hits me when I'm sitting at my desk or driving a car. Plus, my leg has buckled a few times in yoga and, frankly, I'm frustrated at the lack of flexibility when I know it used to be there.

So I saw my doctor. I was mainly looking for advice. Do I need a chiropractor? Orthopedic doctor? Bruce is a runner as well, which is nice. He said the placement and complaints aren't typical of a standard running injury. He measured my legs and my right leg is almost a half-inch longer than my left, which may or may not be contributing to the problem. His recommendation is that I spend a month strengthening my gluts and hamstrings with weight training, in addition to being religious about stretching after my runs. (Something I'm not good about doing now.) If that doesn't help, then he'll refer me to a sports medicine specialist.

So my weight machine and I will do a little bonding this month. It would be lovely if this were just a case of imbalanced muscles.  Meanwhile, he also said I might want to do a little cross-training. He suggested biking, which I loath. I might to back to Tae-bo, although I wonder if I can do those leg kicks with this pinching.  If not that, there's always paddleboating. =)

Cheers,

Dena

 

Speaking at Well Spring

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My friend Pam and I spoke last night at Well Spring Assisted Living Community on the topic of "Passing Down Your Family Stories." We gave an hour-long talk on how to find the inspiration to write, how to stir memories, the importance of adding details and the five senses to your work...

It was great. I always feel a little jittery when I go into a retirement community. Blair's dad was in assisted living, but a lot of the people in his home were far gone, mentally. That was not the case last night. These people are brilliant. One woman has 40 years of college professorship behind her and has published hundreds of articles on speech pathology. She is also a psycho-drama coach and shared stories of how she would engage high school kids in Shakespeare and Beowulf when she briefly taught high school English.

Another woman said she didn't think she had anything interesting to write about, then proceeded to tell us about the five kids she'd raised. Another woman taught senior yoga and had the outlines of a book in her mind and was ready to start writing. I gave her my card so we could talk through her project.

Several of the attendees had already started jotting down stories or memories and just weren't sure how to organize them.  Overall, it was an incredibly fun evening for us, and inspiring. As I said, after I found out the background of people there, I felt like they should be the ones standing up and lecturing. There were several that are natural storytellers that I could have listened to for hours.

Well Springs is a beautiful community. Lush grounds, gourmet food, and we spoke in a stunning auditorium. I'd welcome the chance to return.

Hail, Oil Light, & No Underwear...

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200880-1559793-thumbnail.jpgThis trip is cursed. That was the thought going through my mind for about the first three hours of our trip to DC this weekend to see my mom.

To begin, Blair and I were on different wavelengths about dinner. Since we didn't leave for DC until almost 6:30 Friday night after Blair got home from work, we decided we'd just grab Wendy's for dinner. Blair pulled into the parking lot and I said, "What are you doing?" His plan was to run inside and eat, mine was to gobble food in the car so as not to waste a moment's time. He won (he had the car keys) but being such a time-oriented individual, it started the trip with a bad taste in my mouth.

Then came the underwear. We were about an hour on the road when for no reason I can pinpoint I suddenly thought of underwear. And realized I had forgotten to pack any bras OR underwear for a 2 day trip. S***. "We'll find a Wal-mart or something," said Blair. Fine, but cheap Wal-mart undies just aren't fun for a vacation get away, you know?

But the underwear didn't matter because soon after that, the oil light came on in the (new/used) Toyota. We found a gas station and added oil. The light went away. For 10 minutes. Then it was back on. We were still a good 4 hours out from DC on rural roads and we just decided the hell with it, we don't want to drive tense with an oil lamp on at midnight, so we turned around and went home. That's right. Three hours on the road Friday night and the only place it got us was home.

We're in bed by 10:30 but at 10:50 I fly upright because someone is dropping small bombs on the house. That's what it sounded like anyway. I look outside and there is hail the size of my fist coming down. I have never seen hail that big. I was worried the skylights were going to crack open from the weight and force of it.  I flipped on the back porch light and all I saw was a swirl of wind and what looked like sand and hail.

"Are we under a tornado watch?" I called to Blair, who, freight train noise or not, hadn't budged from our bed.

"I don't know," came a muffled reply.

I turned on the TV but there was no weather warning and in two minutes, the whole thing was over. Even the rain moved on.

So we got up at 4:30 am on Saturday, showered, packed some underwear, and took a new car and tried again. This time we made it to DC. And were so glad we went. We went to the Spy Museum and took a good 6-7 mile walk around the mall and monuments. I hadn't seen the FDR monument yet, which was incredible. Then we walked and walked and walked looking for an Indian restaurant, because we'd both decided we wanted Indian Food. And when we found it, it looked like a little hole in the wall but upon entering, it was glorious. Small space, great food, attentive staff. Perfect.

We had brunch the next morning with mom and her best friend and then headed home.  And even though we'd had a great trip and had only been gone really about 36 hours, we were so happy to be home. We are the ultimate homebodies. We like our home, our food, our shower, our bed, our stuff.  Love being home.

Now, of course, we've got to get the Toyota into the dealership.  Just praying it's something minor and we didn't just waste $$$ buying a clunker car. We shall see...