I lost my digital camera for over 24 hours. It was terrible. It’s like that entire day is gone forever, utterly unphotographed. It motivated me to clean my room at my dad’s place for only the second time since I’ve been here. I found all sorts of stuff I thought was gone forever! And I’ve only been here a couple of weeks! I am still missing an eye pillow and several socks, but in general it was a productive session.
Geez, I haven’t really posted much on here since Sunday. On Monday, my sister was in town for an entire day, so the whole family had brunch at my mom’s house. My mother and my sister do NOT appreciate having their photos posted on this blog, so here are our family photos from that day:
On Tuesday it RAINED. It was one of the desert storms I have sexual fantasies about, just giant drops of water hurtling down from the sky, like a waterfall or a drive-through car wash. And the whole city’s steeped in the smell of wet creosote all day, the desert mountains framed in swaths of shades of gray, and it’s like there’s something more humble, more malleable, just stiller about the air as you move through it. The background of your life feels clean, washed, quiet, and you can just exist without distractions. Desert storms probably make the top ten of my favorite things in the whole entire world. (Leo is #1 and West Wing is #2.) It doesn’t rain like that anywhere else.
Before we can talk about Wednesday, we need to talk about CrossFit. CrossFit is my newest exercise regime. I started with CrossFit in Seattle after it was determined that my blood sugar was too high, and I grilled a bazillion doctors on how I could ward off full-blown diabetes, and the answer was always “Do cardio. The more intense, the better.” CrossFit’s motto is “Forging Elite Fitness,” but it should really be “For insanely hardcore seasoned athletes who like pain.” This is, of course, not me. But I signed up and I started going to classes because I was under the impression that this would be the sort of intense cardio that the doctors said would, you know, save me from a lifelong debilitating illness. And it’s horrible. It is beyond intense. I’ve never worked out that hard in my life. But I love it. I am completely addicted. I feel like I’m finally on The Biggest Loser! I work out so hard I nearly puke. It has been really empowering for me, realizing that I actually can do these crazy workouts, even if it takes me a little longer than it takes the rest of the people. Also: After I do a CrossFit workout, my blood sugar can get to around 90, which is really quite impressive for someone whose body doesn’t process glucose very well.
What I’ve learned from CrossFit on this trip is that if I’m willing to subject myself to excruciating mental and physical pain for an hour a day, 2-3 times a week, I can eat a whole lot of fattening foods and not gain a whole lot of weight. This was our workout on Wednesday:
1 Mile Run
100 Pull Ups
200 Push Ups
300 Squats
1 Mile Run
Not only did I do it, but I did it in just under an hour (58:50). Not an especially impressive time, but not bad for someone like me, who would never define herself as possessing “elite fitness.” It’s just so mentally daunting. You look at the tasks ahead of you and you’re just in so much fear of them. They seem insurmountable. When, like, realistically, you know your body can do 200 push-ups, even after it’s done 100 pull-ups, but it’s gonna fucking suck. That’s the fear. The fear is a bigger obstacle than your muscles giving out or your joints on fire or your stomach turning. But now that it’s done, I feel like I can do any workout they throw at me. And all their workouts are insane, but suddenly they seem less insane because I know I can do this one.
Anyway. Point is, I did stuff later that day, but I don’t remember it because my mind was distracted by my body, which was still throbbing from the workout I’d done like 6 hours ago. And there are no pictures. But I had dinner with my dad, and then met up with my high-school pals, who continue to be about the most entertaining and amazing people on the planet. I’d tell you more but there are no pictures, so I don’t feel like investing in a discussion of it as though it were real.
My mom and I spent Christmas Eve with Bogucia, a family friend who immigrated from Poland awhile back. Her niece lives in Arizona, too, so she came over with her husband and her adorable kids, and we ate Polish food home-cooked by Bogucia. There was a lot of fish, eggs, salt and mushrooms. It was right up my alley. I ate a LOT. Leo — who wore his Santa suit — enjoyed playing with the kids, the youngest of whom was around 3 years old, and was very good at bouncing around and wrestling and making noises, and Leo immediately recognized this set of characteristics as a subset of the “Appropriate Leo Playmate” set. Basically, Leo assumed this little boy was like the newest Golden Retriever in town, and Leo wanted so badly to be BFFs. He followed that little boy everywhere he went, wagging his tail and jumping and barking. Leo needs to make some more actual dog friends out here.
After that, I swung by Emily’s house to hang out with her and her kids. Her youngest does really well with animals, and Emily got this adorable pic of the both of them:
We also stalked Santa using NORAD’s Santa Tracker. Here is NORAD’s Santa Cam catching Santa approaching Seattle:
What a cool education tool, right? Um, except for the kids couldn’t care less. Emily and were way more interested in it.
It was a stellar Christmas Eve, I’d say, and now I’m just going to finish up some work, get some rest, and wake up to enjoy my squatter’s Christmas like a good little Jew. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday, whether you’re surrounded by friends and family or have chosen, for sanity’s sake, to sit at home alone and watch every season of Sex and the City on DVD while organizing your nail colors. Both are perfectly acceptable and equally joyful ways to spend this calendar day on which we place so much pressure. Much love and be safe.
