Our wonderful neighbor called tonight to tell us about the Kimono show in town at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts.  I am on their mailing list and had eyed that show as one that might be interesting enough to leave the comfort of this house to see.   Since I began weaving more than thirty years ago, kimono has been the inspiration for much of my work.  This show may be what I need to get back on track.  I have been veering off, leaning to more conventional garments that are easy to wear.   Although the kimono is beautiful to look at and intriguing, it isn’t that easy to wear on a daily basis, and I do want to sell some things, after all.  I”ll have to see; I have something in mind that may be a compromise.

I am so tired today.  The week was a little challenging for me.  On Tuesday night, I left for my mom’s to take Sarah to two more infusion appointments in Brighton.  I was glad we didn’t have to go back to Ann Arbor, as nice as the nurses were there.  It is too long a drive, too much red tape to get admitted for five hours.  In Brighton, you breeze in and out.  The nursing staff are efficient and kind.  Sarah did fine and we enjoyed the first day, laughing and reminiscing.

After I got her home, I had the honor of accompanying my niece to the Lansing Art Gallery where she was dropping some pieces of her work off for jurying.  I know that process.  You must succumb to the scrutiny of strangers judging your work.  It is a terrifying experience, and one that to this day still frightens the heck out of me.   I hope and pray one of her pieces is accepted.  But if it isn’t, there are so many shows out there.  Each time I send slides or photos in, I learn something about the jurying process.

By the second day, the clinic had lost some of its allure for Sarah.  She kept checking her watch and mumbling under her breath about the time it was taking.  I avoided making eye contact, because when I did, she would make one of her dry humor remarks and then have laughing hysterics.  Finally, it was over.

Sarah at Woodland, getting her last infusion of the series.

While I was at my mom’s, I ate too much.  Candy, ice cream, french fries, and then the coup de gras, Coney Island hot dogs.  They are better here than they are in Coney Island.  I knew that when I arrived home, the first thing I was going to have to do was keep my appointment with my trainer, Dina.  All the way home I ran through excuses I could use to cancel.  I was sick.  That wasn’t far from the truth; I had a headache the whole time I was at my mothers.  Allergies, I think.  We still have to get our tax stuff to the accountant.  That was as good excuse as any.  Then I thought of some lies I could tell; I was still at my mother’s, I had car trouble, the car was stuck in the mud. Oh, I had already used that excuse this month.

Going to the gym, having a trainer, is elective.  No one is making me go.  So why do I do this to myself?  For one thing, if I don’t exercise, my physical limitations will increase exponentially.  I know this because I went from being an athlete to barely being able to walk in  less than five years when I delayed having the first hip replacement.  Getting in and out of the car, just turning over in bed or getting out of the tub, took effort and caused pain.  Who wants to live that way?  I had promised myself that when we got settled, the first thing I would do was to try to get some kind of physical exercise.  I thought yoga would be an easy, gentle way and would compliment my new interest in Reiki.  NOT!  Yoga is hard!  I spent most of the time rolling from my front to my back, getting on my knees, and falling off the pilates ball.  No thank you.

I found the gym in Saugatuck, and a fine gym it is.  Just big enough to have everything you need in numbers so that one doesn’t have to wait on line for too long.  And then I found Dina.  She is pretty fabulous.  She is fabulously pretty.  She looks great, which was important to me.  I didn’t want a trainer who looked worse than me.  She is amazing, upbeat and positive.  But she is tough.  I dread going to the gym for the workouts, because I know she is going to kick my butt.  Yesterday,  I left the gym feeling sweaty, but energized.  That got me home.  I could barely get into the house.  My arse was killing me.  All those butt lift, glut tightening moves, guaranteed to get it out of the back of my thighs where it had sunk, were working.  She wanted me to go to the gym today to walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes.  Uh, I don’t think so.  I had to work in the barn and was afraid that each box I lifted would take me to a new place on the pain scale.

Then, the landscaper we are hiring to fix up the yard showed up to walk the property.  We walked for about 45 minutes.  And I noticed something.  My hip that has been a source of concern no longer hurts.  I can climb up a ladder and the lifting of the leg is just that, nothing to be feared because of the pain lifting it had been bringing.  I thought of the work I had done in the barn.  An hour straight of lifting, carrying heavy boxes, moving furniture, and I did it without the slightest hesitation.  Even Jim was impressed.

In the last month or so since I have been going to the gym, I no longer ask Jim to run up or down the stairs to fetch something for me, or to go to the barn or the car.  I am able to run my own errands.  In the past, those activities would have caused me pain.  I think I could go the airport and get to my plane now without a wheelchair.  I can walk the mall, go shopping, hike the beach, all without pain.  Dina did this for me.  She makes me do things I would never, ever do alone.  When she told me to jump on this ball thing and hop over it, back and forth, from side to side, I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding me.  But I don’t have the nerve to tell her I don’t want to do something.  And I usually end up doing it without too much trouble, eventually.

This butt thing, boy, if I could just do better in the calorie department, I bet you could see a difference.   You lay on your back with your knees bent, your feet elevated on something.  I am going to use my step here at home.  Then you lift your butt up until your body is like a table, and lift your leg in the air. Then you put down your leg and lower your butt and then lift your butt and your other leg.  Oh lord, it was hard!  I thought, I wonder if she realizes how old I am?  And today, I really have the knowledge that I have a rear end.  Ouch.

I”m getting ready to sprint out the door for the Kimono show.