The Last to Fall

He succumbed. But to about half of what she went through and about a quarter of what I had. Slept. Got up. Felt better. I am left stunned. I'm STILL wobbling! How is this fair? The man has a stomach of cast-iron.

Wobbly Wednesday

It wasn't food poisoning. It was stomach flu. The DD fell to the bug last night and with kid-like grace is feeling almost her old self again by this evening. How DO they do it? Nearly three nights later I am still tottering around, wobbling on my feet and desperate to sleep. The DH says I take longer to recuperate from the flu (which I guess it was) than anyone else. Oh yay. My claim to fame. We now have to see if the DH will come down with it.

Losing Weight Is Easy!

...if you get food poisoning. Six pounds in 36 hours. Mind you, I don't recommend this as a method to emulate! This was the worst bout of food poisoning I have had in almost 15 years. Food Poisoning: the Ultimate Diet, or How to Redecorate Your Bathroom in 60 Seconds or Less!

Still Sick

Why bother writing anything when nothing of interest has happened other than the fact that I've blown my nose several million times in the last 48 hours...? By dose is very sore...
Haven't run, haven't walked, and even eating is hard, unless I develop a taste for cardboard with sawdust toppings...I am a steaming heap of parrot droppings.

Weekly Weigh In

Weekly weigh-in: 159.5

Feeling Icky

The sore throat is worse, and I'm stuffed up now, so I don't think I'm going to be going for my run today. I went on some walks last week, but was going to go running on Sunday, only to be stalled by rain. By dose is tellig me today it woat be habbenig either.

Aeon Flush

Feeling less than my best. I have a rather sore throat and now wonder if that accounts for my low energy the last few days. But, on the bright side, I haven't lost my voice, which, for a teacher, is suboptimal.

Watched Aeon Flux last night, but I wasn't tremendously impressed. I enjoyed the visual side of the film: great costumes, cool sets, and invigorating shots of Charlize Theron doing impossible leaps across the screen, etc. On the advice of a friend, I kept my eyes peeled for Marton Csokas, the New Zealand actor, and he, in fact, was one of the best things in it. The storyline, however, was rather hackneyed and unexciting, which disappointed me. You'd think they could come up with something a little more interesting for a bigtime scifi film than factions fighting over cloning vs fertility. On that subject, I'm quite keen to see the upcoming adaptation of P.D. James's The Children of Men with Clive Owen.

Blow out

I hit 160 yesterday and decided it was time for a devil-may-care no-diet day to celebrate reaching a zero number. Had lunch at McDonald's and was surprised that I didn't really enjoy it -- and I adore their fries. My insides were a little uncomfortable the rest of the day. Was it the grease? Then in the evening we were at a dinner party and had wonderful food -- amazing desserts. I overindulged again, felt way too full, and was 161 this morning. Oh well, it was nice for a change and I'll be good this week. I don't know if I'll get out for a run today though. My planned walks the last couple of days were rained out. I could try going to the track at the university, but I may have to wait until I'm back at work. This rainy weather makes me want to curl up with a book and be completely inactive.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We on the prairies ought to be grateful for rain. And we are. June was very wet but the following two and a half months have been unremittingly parched, so rain is a good thing. Perhaps it was the conjunction of rain with being back at the university that made me want to scurry back to bed yesterday and huddle there all evening. I felt like I do in the middle of winter, not the end of summer. Our deck is now covered with yellow leaves and I fear the outdoor BBQ my neighbour and I had planned will prove too damp and will have to be moved inside. Has fall fallen so soon?

Reading: Terry Goodkind's The Pillars of Creation (2001). Finished Faith of the Fallen a few days ago. I am four or five books behind on this series, so it looks like it will be a Terry Goodkind fall for me. Have to take a break after this one to read something of my husband's. We do this periodically, maybe only a couple of times a year -- read something the other has read recently or recommends. He read Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors on my recommendation a while back. It's my turn next, so I expect after The Pillars of Creation I'll be reading something about Canadian politics...

Weekly Weigh In

Weekly weigh in (as of yesterday):
161 lbs.

Went for a 3.11 mile walk by the lake this morning. Had the CD walkman with me and listened to Suzy Bogguss's Swing and Simply Red's Stars to put some pep in my step.

Escape from the Parking Ticket

Damn. Those whippersnappers come back to university and hog all the parking spaces. (Of course there would be a whole lot more spaces available if people got that one car/one spot thing down pat.) What is a lecturer running behind after getting the kid off to school to do? If I take the car to the parking lot at the back of beyond I will be late for class. If I park behind the college I'll get a ticket. I suck it up and park behind the college, calling it $15 well spent. I had a parking ticket last week, but managed to escape being given one today -- hurrah!!!! Soon all will be well. I just have to wait until the freshies figure out how arduous it is getting up every morning and coming to class. Soon they will have made friends, start to spend their weekdays getting hungover, and will find it impossible to pry themselves away from their significant/insignificant/temporary others and I will be able to park again. Happens every year.

Walkies

Went for a half-hour's walk on the track in between classes this morning; managed 1.77 miles. I would probably prefer to walk outdoors, but I want to visit the athletic centre a few times so I feel comfortable in the place.

Watched a wonderful BBC programme tonight called Afterlife -- essentially the British original (read: better version) of Ghost Whisperer. The main actress, Lesley Sharp, is just superb, as she is in everything. Her huge blue eyes well up luminously with tears as she hears the pain of the dead who contact her. She's been in loads of films: Great Expectations, The Full Monty, From Hell, The Second Coming, Priest. If I see her face in a film, I always make a point of watching because she never disappoints -- she's a brutally honest performer, always impressive. I think my favourite roles she has played are the mother of the abused daughter in Priest and Mother Gargery, Pip's sister, in the BBC Great Expectations.

The Darling Daughter went to her swimming class tonight. We are optimistic that this time she is on the verge of learning how to not drown. She's cautious in the water -- not wholly a bad thing, really.

Seven to One

After classes were over today, I hauled my butt over to the athletics centre and tried out their indoor track. I also attempted to run seven, walk one, for the first time. I arrived full of trepidation, and loped around the track while younger, fitter folks zipped past me -- mostly men with longer legs (she says, gnashing teeth). I found it fairly easy to run there. I had no curbs or broken sidewalks to negotiate and the lack of pollen made my asthma problems non-existent. I didn't mind running in an air-conditioned environment either. Admittedly, it was a little rough running past tight-abbed teenagers and twenty-somethings doing impossibly fit things on exercise machines. I just tried to keep my focus and slogged onward. As I have said before, each time I add a minute to my run time I approach the run with the conviction that I won't manage to make it, but yet again my body proved me wrong and took up the challenge. I ran almost 2 miles (1.96), and didn't konk out afterward. I wore my sweat with pride. Remember, for me sweat is still a fabulous novelty: "Look, I'm sweating! Isn't it darling?"

Back to Work

First day back at work yesterday. I've been teaching for thirteen years now and yet every time I step into the classroom for the first time I am still nervous. Possibly I am less nervous than in 1993, but not that much less. None the less, no one bit me, threw anything at me, or attempted to kidnap me and make me the victim of a Satanic cult, so I consider it a good first day all round. That is in fact a misleading statement. The students at our university are almost uniformly, and unaccountably, nice. Still, the first-years took a little warming up (they're a tough -- read frightened -- crowd), but they came round eventually and actually laughed a little. That is my litmus test of success. If I can make them laugh in the first half-hour, things will be all right. My upper year Shakespeare class were, strangely, a harder sell in some ways, despite the fact that I knew about 20% of them already. I may have to encourage them to bring their lunch in case I'm getting them while they are grumpy with low blood sugar. They came round too, eventually, but were generally a quiet bunch. I could hear my voice speeding up, and noticed I was saying "um" too much, stumbling over my words a little. But the day when I'm not nervous in a class is probably the day I should hang up my teaching shoes.

All in all, I think I was very glad to be back at work after a summer loafing around. I had a spring in my step and a sense of purpose. Plus: I fell into bed at 10:00 and slept like the dead. Insomnia's over!

Weekly Weigh-in

Weekly weigh-in: 162 lbs.

Not a Morning Runner

Is it that I am used to running in the late afternoon or early evening? I have been trying to switch over to morning runs this weekend and man am I wiped. I managed 1.55 miles this morning, going slowly, pacing myself, but I've spent the rest of the morning feeling like I need toothpicks to prop open my eyelids. I was pleased that I managed to run 6, 6, and 3 out of 17 minutes, though. But my legs are stiff and I'm not at all energised by it. Quite the opposite. Surprising, given I got a decent night's sleep last night for once. Maybe my body wants yet more sleep!!!

Lackadaisical

University classes begin on the 6th for me, but I'm having an awful time motivating myself to pull my syllabi together. After having the summer off, I'm a little too much in "downtime" mode, I suspect.

Went for a run this morning, 1.38 miles. I was pretty knackered when I got home, primarily, I think, because I ran too fast, didn't pace myself properly. I kept catching myself speeding up (an anomaly for me!) and slowed myself down, only to realise I'd sped up again. Don't get me wrong -- I wasn't faster than a speeding bullet or anything! I was just going quickly enough that I knew I would tire myself out too rapidly, which is what happened. As it was I only managed two sets of six minutes, plus a few more minutes of walking. I haven't been running for the better part of a week, so I'll go out again tomorrow and try to work on my pacing.

Weekly Weigh-in

Weekly Weigh-in:
163 lbs.

Haven't lost a bunch this week, but I haven't been for a run for a few days either. Went for a walk last night but only for about 15 minutes.

Black Dahlia

Another of my very strange dreams last night. This one was full of planes and trains (no, not going in and out of tunnels -- snark). Much of it I can only remember confusedly in terms of brief images, but I do recall saying very earnestly to someone that I really wanted to see the new film The Black Dahlia, particularly because I had James Ellroy's book of it (which I don't, though I have several others of his that I haven't read yet). The only other part of the dream I remember was trying, on this train, to make a gingerbread cake with my daughter which involved placing a cookie cutter full of a frozen ice shape in the middle of the cake! Needless to say, it wasn't working out quite as I had planned. I kept taking these failed square pans full of gingerbread cake out and trying again. Then my daughter would wander away, having sensibly lost interest, and I would try to get her to come back so we could try again. Prominent themes here? Frustration, failure, and, oh, yeah --murder (via the Black Dahlia reference). Don't ask what the chunk of ice in the middle of the cake means! I have no idea! Oh, and I do remember trying to land a 1940s plane (which I knew nothing about flying) on top of the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa!