Ups and Downs

The Fall semester starts three weeks from today. I am so depressed. I feel like I've hardly had any time to do what I want to do, and now I need to spend the rest of my vacation getting ready for the new semester.

I'll bet students don't realize faculty feel this way about the end of summer vacation!

*****

Today I attended the funeral of family friend who was 86-years-old. My Uncle Bob was her closest friend and I had only met her a few times, but attending the funeral made me so sad. There were only about 10 people at the funeral and only 4 at the cemetery; half of the attendees were there for my Uncle, not necessarily for the deceased. How sad to outlive all your family and most of your friends.

*****

My day ended on a much more upbeat note. I had my first workout at Contours Express. It's a gym for women, similar to Curves but better (because you use real weights instead of hydraulics). The owner, Anne, is very encouraging and helpful. She showed me how to use each machine correctly. If you've never been to Curves or Contours, the weight machines are set around the edges of a room and you move from station to station, staying about 45 seconds on each machine and doing cardio in between. Two circuits around the room is a complete workout; it takes about an hour. They play upbeat music and a recording tells you when to move to the next station and when to stop and measure your heartrate (once per circuit). I had no trouble reaching my target heartrate!

After two circuits you can do some ab crunches, some exercises with the big workout balls, or play with the hula hoops. I had fun doing all three!

I've never joined a gym before, so I had no idea how to use the equipment. After my first session I am very enthused about it! It's not too hard, you get lots of help so you don't get hurt and know when it's time to increase the weight, and seeing the progress other women my age or older have already made is really inspiring. Exercising really made me feel better despite having a long, sad day I am looking forward to my next workout on Friday.