Since moving to the new apartment with Recycled Art Guru, I've been thinking about finding a gym nearby. I had a gym membership at a great place when I lived with the Dwarf Star, and after I moved to MN, LBCS and I were members at the local Y, but it's too far now. The closest gym is a really nasty Lifetime fitness just down the road. The more I looked at other possibilities for gym membership, the more disheartened I got. They are EXPENSIVE, yo. Plus, between school and work, and with winter looming -- not just any winter, but a Minnesota winter, with all the apocalyptic joy that brings -- I just don't think I'd want to have to drive one more place in the day.
What, then? I want a regular work out -- I'd take up running again, but my much-abused left ankle screams at me when I try. Outdoor exercise and my innate clumsiness don't mix -- see March of 2003, when I fell down Lykavittos hill in Athens, sprained my ankle, and hobbled for the rest of my semester abroad. But I had tons of energy in college and very little energy now and the difference is I got regular exercise then. I'm not super-concerned about losing weight, as dieting is all a big sham anyway, but it would be nice to have that teenage stamina again. Especially going into the holiday season -- last year, work damn near killed me.
So I cudgeled my brains for a solution. And I got it -- bike indoors!
I'm pricing stationary bikes -- or as an alternative, something that will turn my bike into a stationary bike. I think I can get something between $80 and $150 dollars, which is about one to two months at LA Fitness (really). I think I may go the stationary bike route, partially because a small one would fit in my room without any effort, and partially because I may need to get my bike repaired anyway and I don't want to worry about that until spring.
I also didn't get sick as much when I was in college -- again, probably because I got regular exercise. And having it in my room will limit my exposure to nasty nasty viruses and flus going around in the winter.
Don't worry, friends, I will not become some kind of reclusive-hughesian type, but I do catch everything -- I very likely had the swine flu when I thought I had a cold. If there were something going around called "super death flu" I'd get it... and survive it. Swine flu -- if that's what it was -- is nasty, yo. I slept constantly for four days, I couldn't breathe, all I ate was soup and ice cream (ok, that part was kind of awesome), and I lost five pounds in three days, which is A LOT of fucking weight for three days. It's like whatever was making me sick, my body was eating itself to kill it. This is why I would survive super death flu -- I have enough reserves in my ass to help my body outlast the death flu virus. Yeah! More ice cream time!
I have no idea if any of that is true. Still, five pounds in three days and all I was doing was sleeping? That's scary stuff, man.
Don't worry, it came back. *pats belly* Thank you, home-made bread. I couldn't have done this without you.
What was I talking about? Oh, yes, stationary bike. The other awesome part of this idea is that it could give me something else to do on my insomnia nights. Normally on insomnia nights, I surf the internet, and that makes me want to not sleep as much as go apeshit on the world. But bike myself to sleep? Yeah, I could probably do that.
Anyway, I've already made a decision on this, I just felt like nattering on for a while. I haven't done so recently and I used to do it all the damn time. Maybe I should blog more. I blogged all the time in college and was healthy. It is settled then. I will blog more, and I will get a stationary bike or something.
In sum: Super Death Flu.
Check out this little adorable guy.
Well, you can have him for all I care. That little shithead is rhinovirus - the common cold -- and I'm currently carrying him around with me. On my third day with him, usually the day when I basically want to throw myself out the window, except now I live on the first floor and don't have far to fall. Hah. Joke is on me, I guess.
If you read this blog, you'd probably think I get an inordinate number of colds -- which is not true. I go through maybe three colds a year -- one in early fall, one in early spring, and maybe a little one in the winter when everyone gets one. I've only been sick one other time this summer -- when Recycled Art Guru and I were both struck by a bizarro stomach flu that left us wondering if we both somehow got ulcers, because instead of vomiting, we were both struck with a roiling of acid in our stomachs that left us unable to do anything but whimper. Oddly enough, do you know what relieved the pain? Slamming a diet coke and belching. Actually, that one was kind of fun, and i didn't have to miss work. Other than that, I get the usual kinds of little sicknesses that you get if you engage in a public life at all -- nothing serious, everything passing after a day or so. The most often I ever got sick in my life was the first winter I lived in Fort Awesome, when I had the double whammy of working with kids and living with an ER nurse. Which means I got sick every other day. I talked about this with the science teacher I worked with and she said, "Yeah, the first year I taught, I was getting sick so often that I thought I had cancer. Kids just have a lot of disease."
Anyway, the September cold is my least favorite, because it always strikes during the NICEST of weather. Mild days, cool nights, no rain, plenty of sun. And here I am, alternately wrapped in quilts and sitting in front of the fan because I am hot and cold AT THE SAME TIME. This cold has made me menopausal. And angry. As it turns out, though, my little nephew also has a bad cold right now, and is fussing all the time. Hearing things like that makes me glad I am an adult and can express things like, "THIS COLD IS PISSING ME OFF." I'm sure Peanut, had he the language skills, would say the same thing. Plus I can't imagine a baby's reaction to fever dreams. My own fever dreams are disturbing -- last night I dreamed about people who were trying to evolve past the need for food and drink, and lived off animal blood. Like that scene in Red Dawn where C. Thomas Howell drinks the deer blood? Yeah. Anyway, they did this in preparation for the apocalypse, which I also dreamed about. Being an adult, I can wake up and say, "WOW. THAT'S FUCKED UP." But Peanut cannot. Plus, I can read and blog and play video games to keep myself occupied, while my poor little nephew can't entertain himself at all. Which is why it sucks to be a baby.
And yes, we do have a stuffed toy Common Cold virus and a stuffed toy Influenza on our tv stand, right in front of Plastic Jesus and a Clash of the Titans lunchbox. Because 1) my roommate's mom works for the CDC, and 2) I am a big nerdy-nerd-nerd.
