I'm Still Standing

Getting old sucks. I can remember a time when my body would move the way I wanted it to move. I used to think I could run forever. Now it seems I have a hard time just getting out of bed. It's been especially hard having a personal trainer. Our personal trainer has been working my friend and me like nobody's business. 

The first week I was cursing her as I felt I couldn't even raise my arms a couple of days after our first work-out. I'm sure that was her way to keep me from eating since I couldn't even raise my arms to feed myself without excruciating pain. Things have gotten better. Now I can at least can jog for a little while instead of losing my breath while trying to go up the hill. I also seem to be able to handle the weight lifting a little bit easier. I still have a hard time with all the reps. I'm sure that this will get better as time goes on.

My trainer was saying that she is going to try to push me more. She feels that I can do a lot more than I am currently doing, and she feels that I am capable of so much more. I think that's part of it. I think you really need to see how far you can push yourself and see that you can do more than you think you can.

It still sucks getting out of bed in the morning though.

Fruits and Veggies

Week two of the regimen continues... I feel a little like Sofie looks...
Although, I have to admit that I did better today. I was able to actually jog for a bit, and I didn't feel like I was having a coronary going up the hill. Afterward I was so motivated by the endorphins, or crazy from the lack of blood supply to my brain, that we went for a Costco run and bought a lot of fruits and veggies... Hoping to keep the energy, and enthusiasm, up for the next week...!

From #596 to #520, Z is for Zaftig

Definition of ZAFTIG

of a woman

: having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump

Yeah, that's about right...

I have a thing for roads...

I like photographing them...

they hold such promise.

You have to continue down them to know where they will lead.

Some roads you can't escape...

some roads you choose...

I thank the 10 or so new readers who have opted to come along on my journey.

It may not always be pretty, but I am glad for the company

to share the time.

I hope you all have grown,

and we will continue to pass this way together

growing by the experiences of others

that they have chosen to share

in this little corner of the cyberspace world...

Thank you...!

#520 - Y is for Yes, I Can...!

I hate having my photo taken... I don't find myself to be at all photogenic.  I think that's one of the reasons I liked photography so much.  It gave me an excuse to always be behind the camera rather than in front of it.

Our vacation in the Caribbean forced me to be in front of the camera a little more than I would like to be as my husband kept insisting that there needed to be more pictures of me and of us during this wonderous trip.  Coming home and looking through all of them, I realized that I NEVER want to look like this again.

So, today I took the first step in changing my future.  My friend and I hired a personal trainer, and we had our first session today.  I'm not saying it's going to be easy.  I'm not saying I'm going to come out looking like her (skinny wench that she is already, my friend, not the trainer.)  But, I am saying I'm making a public commitment to get improve myself physically.  So that the next time I'm forced in front of a camera I won't look like a potato stuffed unsuccessfully into a spandex suit...

And, my goal is a pair of jeans from college... Levi 501s, stone-washed, button fly... you know the ones... date night with the black boots and white t-shirt... oh yeah...!

#520 - X is for eXasperation

I think most doctors I know are social misfits.

We don't know how to have normal conversation.

We really don't like being around people.

Yet we choose a profession where we are forced to interact with people

much to our own chagrin.

I think that frustration is compounded when 

you choose a specialty like Emergency Medicine.

You deal with some people on their worst day.

Those, surprisingly, are the cases we like best.

You deal with some people on what is a 

perfectly ordinary day for them 

which they've made just slightly more interesting 

with a trip to the ED.

We don't like those cases so much...

Really...?

You came in for that...?

You know you can buy over the counter medication for that...?

Really...?

You didn't know that...?

I guess when you input your symptoms into WebMD, 

you forgot to read the most common ailments and

skipped beyond to all the 

in-no-way-connected-to-your-disease-process-at-all problems...

which you don't have...

and, no, you don't need an antibiotic for that...

And, stop smoking...

#522 -W is for Weary Traveler

I have been away from home for two weeks. We left for SoCal(12 hours). Went from there to Willliams, AZ (7 hours). Took the train to the Grand Canyon (3 hours). Spent the night at the Grand Canyon, then returned to Wiliams. Left the next morning for Sedona (1.5 hours) then off to Laughlin, NV(5 hours).

Spent three days in Laughlin before returning back to SoCal(4.5 hours). Drove up to Oakland where my DH stayed to go hang gliding before heading home, while I drove to Sacramento(2 hours) and worked 4 shifts. I drove back to Oakland yesterday to present at a conference today, and have now been sitting at SFO waiting for my plane (which, naturally is delayed) for the last 4 hours with about another two to go.

A short hours' drive after I get to the airport will finally get me back home....

Did I mention I love to travel...?

#522 - V is for Veronica

any of a genus (Veronica) of annual or perennial herbs of the snapdragon family that have small pink, white, blue or purple flowers with a 4- or 5-lobed calyx, a rotate corolla, two stamens, and the fruit a compressed capsule

I don't know that I've ever shared this on my blog,

but my parents didn't name me.

According to my mother, they were really expecting that I would be a boy.

Mind you, this was in the days before finding out the sex

of a baby via ultrasound was commonplace.

So when I was born, and

disappointingly a girl,

they didn't have a name ready.

My mother stated that she was at a loss.

She asked her OB,

an old Jewish doctor,

what did he think.

He said, "She looks like a Veronica."

And, so I was named.

And, no middle name because 

"my name was too long to begin with."

Yeah... it was like that...