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flexagonI've spent a huge part of this weekend reading The Skeptical Environmentalist, which has been blowing my mind and will get a long post all of its very own when I'm done with it (which might not be until next weekend, but I'm sure trying). One thing I will say though--I'm buying a new copy from Amazon next time my credit card billing cycle ends, because I want the author to get some of my money. I also read a lot of stuff in Our Bodies, Ourselves about relationships, infertility, sterilization and all kinds of stuff, because I got interested for some reason. I love reading what that group of women have to say... reading it almost always has a very calming effect. I noticed they didn't say anything about the experience of egg donorship though... they were only interested in the receiving side. Hmph. I wonder if a newer edition would say anything. Aside from reading, I baked in the heat, ignored the holiday aspects of the 4th, did a bunch of crossword puzzles, went to a bbq on Saturday and had a half-decent weight workout on Sunday for the first time in ages.
Barbeque: it was us and four married couples (thanks to recent developments, not a cause for feeling at all bad). I was impressed, as I almost always am, by the dynamics of a group in which there's a lot of affection but no energy spent on flirting and so forth. In case you haven't heard this speech before, it isn't boring--in fact the conversations get very interesting because people aren't over-distracted by hormones. Really pretty neat. I just love that group, at least when they shut up about musical theater. :) Even more interesting, it's getting more clear that the entire group is leaning toward not having kids... I caught just the tail end of a conversation about how some of us (3 couples of the ones there) have pretty well decided not to ever do it, which makes the undecideds a lot less likely to do it because nobody will be starting a domino effect. This wasn't a huge topic of discussion at the bbq itself, but we got a ride back home from SP and MLP, and in the car we talked about the no-kid thing a lot.... about the domino effect where the meme sweeps through a group of friends, reasons not to have children (general ickiness, among others), and (most intriguing) the divide that comes up between those who have kids and those who don't. It seems to be a lot worse than the married / not married divide, and apparently MLP has lost some friends to the phenomenon already. It really makes me think about my friendship with M, which I'm definitely afraid will attenuate after she spends 10 years or so in the south, raising kids in the suburbs and making sure she owns the latest lawnmower. Agh.... let it not happen... :( ...still, given that it will to some extent, it's that much nicer that we might have this 8-10 person group of childless yuppie friends to hang out with for many years to come. (Lately I've been rethinking my current plan to donate eggs one more time and then get sterilized, by the way... so far the plan stands, and re-think really just means "think about it again". It will be so nice to go off the pill.)
Weights: I know I haven't posted much about workouts lately. I've been enjoying my new, less-crazy workout routine, but weights have sucked because I missed last Sunday's visit to the nice gym, and the Sunday before that was a really weak day for whatever reason. So today I gave it a good shot, but my poor legs definitely had to move down in weight on some exercises. I've been trying for a soft landing as I get back into TKD, but this? Argh. Even so, I broke my record on the adductor machine, and possibly on palms-inward pullups, though I'm not sure. I don't think it will take too long to get into a lower-body maintenance pattern near where I peaked about a month ago.
As a side note, my workout routine is much lighter than it used to be, but actually, given that I'm still doing good stuff 6 days/week, I guess it's not that bad. Certainly I like the chance to rest up between Sunday and Wednesday.
Sunday: Weights, full body, in nice gym
Monday: day off
Tuesday: 3 mile walk, 1.5 hour tango class
Weds: 1 hr TKD
Thurs: Weights, in crappy gym, usually worse job than Sunday, often upper body only
Fri: 1 hr TKD
Sat: 1 or 2 hrs TKD
Barbeque: it was us and four married couples (thanks to recent developments, not a cause for feeling at all bad). I was impressed, as I almost always am, by the dynamics of a group in which there's a lot of affection but no energy spent on flirting and so forth. In case you haven't heard this speech before, it isn't boring--in fact the conversations get very interesting because people aren't over-distracted by hormones. Really pretty neat. I just love that group, at least when they shut up about musical theater. :) Even more interesting, it's getting more clear that the entire group is leaning toward not having kids... I caught just the tail end of a conversation about how some of us (3 couples of the ones there) have pretty well decided not to ever do it, which makes the undecideds a lot less likely to do it because nobody will be starting a domino effect. This wasn't a huge topic of discussion at the bbq itself, but we got a ride back home from SP and MLP, and in the car we talked about the no-kid thing a lot.... about the domino effect where the meme sweeps through a group of friends, reasons not to have children (general ickiness, among others), and (most intriguing) the divide that comes up between those who have kids and those who don't. It seems to be a lot worse than the married / not married divide, and apparently MLP has lost some friends to the phenomenon already. It really makes me think about my friendship with M, which I'm definitely afraid will attenuate after she spends 10 years or so in the south, raising kids in the suburbs and making sure she owns the latest lawnmower. Agh.... let it not happen... :( ...still, given that it will to some extent, it's that much nicer that we might have this 8-10 person group of childless yuppie friends to hang out with for many years to come. (Lately I've been rethinking my current plan to donate eggs one more time and then get sterilized, by the way... so far the plan stands, and re-think really just means "think about it again". It will be so nice to go off the pill.)
Weights: I know I haven't posted much about workouts lately. I've been enjoying my new, less-crazy workout routine, but weights have sucked because I missed last Sunday's visit to the nice gym, and the Sunday before that was a really weak day for whatever reason. So today I gave it a good shot, but my poor legs definitely had to move down in weight on some exercises. I've been trying for a soft landing as I get back into TKD, but this? Argh. Even so, I broke my record on the adductor machine, and possibly on palms-inward pullups, though I'm not sure. I don't think it will take too long to get into a lower-body maintenance pattern near where I peaked about a month ago.
As a side note, my workout routine is much lighter than it used to be, but actually, given that I'm still doing good stuff 6 days/week, I guess it's not that bad. Certainly I like the chance to rest up between Sunday and Wednesday.
Sunday: Weights, full body, in nice gym
Monday: day off
Tuesday: 3 mile walk, 1.5 hour tango class
Weds: 1 hr TKD
Thurs: Weights, in crappy gym, usually worse job than Sunday, often upper body only
Fri: 1 hr TKD
Sat: 1 or 2 hrs TKD
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Kay so...
Date: 2003-07-06 09:34 pm (UTC)Basically, gonna check out the book, though for some strange reason I find my hackles raised by the idea of someone claiming the environment (and particularly biodiversity) is not on the decline.
Also, the kids angle is interesting. You are right about the domino effect. It's only understandable though given that people always connect over mutual interests, and kids are fairly all consuming. It is nice to know that you'll still have a dinner party group 10 years down the road though. As for you and M - you're definitely on different paths but that doesn't mean you won't still love each other.
Workouts? I don't want to talk about workouts. I'm feeling so unfocused. Need to stop drinking and going out so much, but I also don't want to spend my last summer with my friends worrying about getting to bed early and watching what I eat/drink.
Re: Kay so...
Date: 2003-07-07 06:04 am (UTC)Regarding getting your hackles up over people saying the earth isn't going to hell, yup, that's common & I did it too. We're so used to hearing it! Do me a favor and wait for the long book-review post though... I intend to make it very clear that the author makes it clear that some (many) things do suck... but that a) we've made great progress in many areas and b) many of the statistics we're used to hearing are based on very shoddy science indeed, and the truth isn't as bad as some would have us believe. Not perfect but not as bad. Somehow, that gets lost even though he says it every second page. I feel bad for the guy. Nice statistics prof decides to check on a bunch of numbers that lie behind the things he believes, finds some surprises, publishes, starts getting death threats... :b
Kids--nothing to do but wait and watch.
Workouts--we all go through cycles. I'm sure you're still doing what it takes to stay healthy even if you're not visibly morphing into Wonder Woman at the moment... that's kinda where I am right now.