Circling the Brain

As I stated in my previous post, I have a hard time getting my brain stop. It is constantly contemplating that one thing or that next thing, or why did she/say that?, why did I say that? what is on the to do list?, pick up, drop off, dinner, soccer schedules, work out opportunities, financial crisis (personal and national), Basketball box scores, the state of the union, (personal and national), education of the ill communicators, etc, etc, blah blah blah.

So, on that note let me take a moment to purge these thoughts for you. Or on you. Whichever.

1. First off, since it reached a new level of ugly last night....what the hell is going on with the Blazers and their athletic trainers? Injury roll call for the year:

Jeff Pendergraph, hip surgery; Nic Batum, shoulder injury; Travis Outlaw, fractured foot; Greg Oden, split knee cap; Joel Pryzbilla, torn up knee; Rudy Fernandez, dodgy sciatic nerve and back surgery; Brandon Roy, hamstring strain; Jarred Bayless, sprained ankle last night

Professional basketball players put their bodies through a tremendous amount of punishment every game but this is getting ridiculous. Somebody needs to reconsider the competence of our teams training staff and find someone who can keep one of the youngest teams in the league healthy and playing. I want my team of their crutches and out of their braces and on the floor playing the game.

2. Ugly results this week from Massachusetts, as the voters there apparently felt like giving the legacy of Ted Kennedy the middle finger. The sad fact that John Kerry is now the senior senator from the state and that a republican holds the title of junior is a bit depressing. The number of GOP boners and FOX news circle jerks over this political coup has been really nauseating.

3. Which brings me to this little fun fact: Did you know that the Supreme Court of our dear nation in a 5-4 decision over turned 100 years of campaign finance protections that were meant to keep corporations out of the business of electing political officials? Well, they did. And now I fully expect to see politicians selling advertising space on their suits, ties, foreheads, etc. as ad executives and candidates work to adjust to these new rules. For example, " Please welcome Governor So&So, brought to you by Chase Bank, providing you with unmanageable debt for over 40 years!"

Mark my words, people. This new interpretation of the law will be one of the most far-reaching and perverse acts instituted in this country in a long, long time. I'm so glad that our rights to free speech can apply to corporations. I'm so glad the democracy is subject to the whims of corporate interest. (insert bitter sarcasm here)

I feel like I'm living in one of those distopian novels that are set in the near future and includes flying cars, computer chips in the shoulders of every man, woman and child, and Big Brother wanting us all to burn books while voting for the candidate being promoted by Wal-mart. Maybe the People of Wal-Mart blog will become the national news outlet in this whacky new world.

Thanks to Justices Sotomayor, Bader Ginsburg, Breyer and Stevens for being intelligent and decent people. At least there are 4 people in the world that think corporations are not the equivalent of citizens.

To Chief Justice Roberts and his hit squad of Justices (Kennedy, Alito, Thomas, Scalia) I am exercising my free speech rights as an individual citizen, while it still exists. You five can kiss my ass, bite me, shove it, stick it, and just generally fuck off.

I hate yoga. Alot.

In the past 3 days I have made it to the gym 3 times, which is a 100% improvement over the past 6 months. Although I developed a steady gym habit a little over a year ago, my commitment and attendance has severely dropped due to the working of two jobs and a strong desire for laziness in my off hours.

Sunday, I kicked off this New Year's Resolution by running (mostly)/walking 4 miles on the treadmill. Monday, I put managed a one mile run on the treadmill and an hour long Pilates class, and, tonight, 2.6 miles run/walk on treadmill followed by a "yoga for runners" class. I figure if I am going to transform myself into a runner for the first time in my life I should have some direct guidance in how to counteract the effects of this new endeavor.

I am not, nor have I ever been, a flexible person. As a child I was long and lithe, and at varying times took both gymnastics and acrobatic classes. I had great balance, decent coordination and strong limbs. I could hurdle over the beams and bars, cartwheel around the room, and spring forward or backward with the best of them. Full splits? No way. Cirque du Soliel quality backbends? Nope. This inflexibility has followed me into adulthood and into my health routines.

About 5 years ago, after getting through graduate school, I found myself weighing 230+ pounds. I don't remember the high water mark for my flab but it got pretty bad and I felt horrid. Even at the time, I was not an inactive person. For example, my friends, boyfriend and I backpacked a length of the Pacific Crest Trail, from Mt. Hood to the Columbia Gorge, with 40 extra pounds in my pack and on my ass. So when I began attending group exercise classes at my gym I was not a completely floppy fish, sweating and red-faced after 10 minutes on a treadmill. Nor was I the athlete that was part of my childhood identity.

The classes were a way to make me complete a full hour of exercise, hold myself to a high standard and partake in a variety of movements to slim and tone. Yoga classes were on my to-do list and I discovered yoga makes me cry. Everytime.

It's not that it's particularly hard or particularly painful, though it can be both. It's that I don't relax. I don't bend and my mind does not quiet. Sitar music and reed pipes suck. And when someone says the phrase "chataranga to the floor" I want to choke them with the elastic bands hanging on the wall. Scoffing is general practice of mine and for some reason people don't scoff during yoga. My derision falls on quiet contemplative grunting as the ladies on mats next to me triangle pose them selves. I can't muscle my way through through the class, 'cause duh, it's not about forcing anything. And I can't take a break then complete the set, 'cause duh, the set is just the same from start to finish. And I can't get my body to line up and bend over and Warrior 1 and down dog and BREATHE all at the same time. So I relent in the only way I know how which is to chant my personal mantra, "I hate yoga. I hate yoga. I hate yoga." Inevitably, I just barely make it to the 60 minute mark, my eyes red, my nose stuffy, which makes mouth breathing essential, and am asked to be grateful to my body and the universe and my classmates and whatever for making it through the class and NAMASTE.

So.

Next week, I will go again. I will. Perhaps because I am a sucker for self flagilation.

Or perhaps because it seems like the thing to do, this practice of flexibility and breathing.

Or whatever.

Namaste.

Resolute- Take 2

Here we are, at the start of another year and again I find myself contemplating what I accomplished in 2009 and what I want to accomplish in 2010.

I have begun laying plans for a year of athletic feats. In '09, the big goal was not one of physical health, but of world adventure, so my time was consumed by working a second job to save for the European trip we took in June, and combing the internet for itineraries, locales and sights to prepare for when we got there. One of the side trips I did manage to take was to San Francisco with my friend. We happened to be in S.F. the weekend of the Bay to Breakers race, which is quite an event but was completely new to me. We watched from hotel windows as sleek runners, graceful even from 20 floors up, sped down the street, followed by a menagerie of characters in costumes and, in some cases, touting floats, up the street in a multi-thousand person throng of fun and run. It was so fun in fact, that I have put that same friend on notice, as well as step-mom, and partner, that I will be there, I will run this race, and I will kick ass.

Hence, athletic feat number one. -Bay to Breakers 10K run in mid-May

Athletic feat numero dos: Pine Hollow Sprint Triathlon in June, http://www.pinehollowtri.com/,

which looks like it takes place in a gorgeous resort on the east side of Mt. Hood.

There will be other items added to this list, I'm sure, and other resolutions to work on but this seems like a good start.