Day: January 14, 2008

Back to the Gym

I used to have a very good gym habit.  At one point, I was going as many as five times per week.  Of course, I also lived around the corner from my gym.

After an illness, and moving, I’ve just fallen out of the habit.   So even though I haven’t made any resolutions about such things, I do realize that I would like to get back into the routine.  Even if I only go half as much as I was going when it was practically in my kitchen, that wouldn’t be half bad.   Especially since I’m contemplating walking the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in July.

I went this evening, and I did 20 minutes on the elliptical at half the level that I used to do for 40 minutes.   That was a little bit of an ego blow, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?    I probably could have pushed through and done another 10 minutes, but I figured it would be better to start out slow, even slower than I thought I needed.

So, I burned 200 calories.   Yay me!  Now I’m sitting here with a ThermaCare heat wrap on my bum knee.  Arthritis sucks.  This is part of the reason why I’m not sure about doing the 39.2 mile breast cancer walk.    However, if I keep going to the gym, and build up my knee, I may be just fine.

So here’s what I’m taking away from this: I just need to keep going, I need to pick up more of these wraps, and damn my new iPod is really that cool.

Juno

Juno Movie Poster

I saw Juno on Friday night, and I really enjoyed it. It was full of witty one liners, and fellow movie-goers and myself laughed our way through the film.

If you’ve had your head under a rock, the movie is the story about a 16 year old girl, Juno, who finds herself pregnant. She first makes herself an appointment to “procure a hasty abortion” but backs out once she arrives at the clinic. (The feminist in me is biting her tongue, sparing you the diatribe about so many female characters in TV/movies deciding to have their babies, mostly without even considering an abortion. It’s an angle that’s been covered by better writers than me.) Juno decides to give up her baby for adoption to a couple she finds in the Penny Saver.

There were two things that I liked most about the movie, aside from the fact that it’s freaking riotously funny. First, I really liked what they did with the character of the adoptive mother, played by Jennifer Garner. At the beginning of the film, you’re not really meant to like her. She’s that stereotype of the humorless, kill-joy woman such as in Knocked Up, a controlling, obsessive-compulsive, shrew-like yuppie who is utterly condescending towards her husband. But in the end, they turn that whole awful opinion you have on her on its ear. She ends up being a character that you really do care about, in the end, and a heroine.

The other thing that I really liked about the movie is how they didn’t have that didn’t portray Juno as a victim. She’s not a poor hapless teenager. She’s not in a ridiculous relationship that she’s trying to force to work. She’s got the “cheese to [her] macaroni”. Juno isn’t walking about moping about the baby within that she won’t be raising. She’s walking about moping about a boy, and she wants to get the band back together. She’s not solely defined by the fact that she accidentally got pregnant.

So go see it. You’ll laugh. J4 teared up when the baby was born. (aaawwwww)

Weekend

I had a pretty lame weekend. I have had some weird stomach issues. It’s like I feel as if I’m on the verge of getting sick, I can feel my heart beating in my gut and it feels like my stomach has risen into my chest. Then nothing happens. It got in the way of some major plans.

On Friday night, I got a glimpse of some gruesome Oakland wildlife. The grossest, nastiest, biggest possum I’ve ever seen just strolling across Telegraph.

Please tell me that any one had a more exciting weekend.

Just sayin’.