Same as it ever was

There's nothing like clean sheets - clean comforter, clean pillowcases, the smell of powdery, flowery detergent. Ahh. Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holidays were joyous and wonderful. Mine were exceptionally low key (work aside), which was wonderful. Christmas itself already seems like a year ago. Everyone behaved, interestingly enough. Strangely it was I who wound up pulling medical shenanigans, with weird leg cramps that won't seem to go away and that landed me in the ER the Saturday after Christmas to ultrasound for clots in my legs. Fa la la la la, I'm a freak.

New Year's Eve and Day were wonderful as they were shared with one of my best friends, a best friend who, incidentally, also dragged me out to see "Twilight" a movie I never thought I'd see. Let alone twice. Read this week's rant for more commentary on that - not only the vampire bits but the state of young adult literature in general. If anything, "Twilight" is good for a hearty laugh and it was even funnier the second time around (despite the seething glares I endured from neighboring teens in the theater who were peeved that my laughter was disrupting their soft porn enjoyment of Robert Pattinson. I'll admit, I didn't expect to find him attractive. Post movie, I can see it in a weird, convict kind of way.

Tonight was my first night back on the wagon of trying to leave work early enough to grab some food and then head to the gym - this time to a Pilates class. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it nothing like yoga, which I absolutely loathe. Rather, the idea of yoga is exceedingly appealing. The application, in reality, is appalling, particularly for someone like me who makes 96-year-olds with double hip replacements look flexible.

The newly expanded Morrison YMCA is truly beautiful. It's a tad bit intimidating to go in the new entrance and have sweating people on treadmills above you staring at you from the open second floor (or conversely, sweating on the treadmill and have everyone who's coming in glaring up at you), but I guess it maximizes the space and is better than putting something else there that might be more liable to having exercise balls bounce from the second floor down into the lobby.

I talked to my favorite Y guy Tony tonight, who was manning the "front desk." If you can even call it that. Poor guy. The front desk used to be a valid, wraparound, L-shaped desk with room for two and then some and all the trappings someone at a front desk might need. The new entrance features a small, pod-like station in the center of the hallway, around which entering and exiting traffic can walk past. It's standing-room only in the pod and there's barely room for a highlighter or cell phone now that there's a computer, keyboard, and three or four other devices that need to be monitored and a phone to be answered - all mashed into the gym equivalent of a tiny toll booth. 

That and the undersized new locker room aside, the facility is gorgeous. I was surprised to hear Tony say that they've had a few complaints from people who apparently thought they were building the Taj Mahal of gyms and thought the walls would be stainless steel and the foyer adorned with fountains. Please! There's more room for exercise classes to spread out (although with the growth of south Charlotte I'm sure those will be full to the hilt immediately) and it looks like there are more spinning bikes, although I was sad to see they all face one wall in their new room, a stark contrast to the old spinning room which looked out the windows. Granted it was largely parking lot, but at least you could zone out into the trees and grind your legs to the techno music.

And in other news, how about this crazy weather, eh? I didn't realize we lived in Seattle. What's up with all the rain, fog and wind? That wind and rain storm the other night was insane. There are tons of deer in the woods behind the house and one must've gone insane in the storm and got stuck/impaled on a neighbor's fence. (Why do I hear more and more stories of this happening? Are there more fences? Are deer just freaking out? What's the deal? I had never heard a deer-on-fence impaling story before and now suddenly I've heard like five in the past two months.) I guess the deer tried to free itself and was shredding itself to pieces. The neighbors called Animal Control but couldn't take the agonizing noises any more as the deer struggled in pain.

All I heard were three gunshots.

It's a little weird when you hear gunshots in your neighborhood and you calmly think, "I wonder what's going on at the Walters?"

They're avid hunters and occasionally shoot targets and things with BB guns in the back. I've grown surprisingly used to it. There was no mistaking these shots weren't BBs.

Animal control rounded the corner at about the same time. I heard they had a bit of trouble getting the deer off the fence. I also heard to add insult to injury they used the neighbor's wheelbarrow to haul the thing off. Not only did they have to kill it, they got to clean their wheelbarrow of the poor deer's blood and guts, too. You can't beat that.

All in all, it's been a bit of a weird week. I must sleep. Last night was the first good night of sleep I've had in weeks. I hope to have a repeat performance. I need it lately for some reason.

Sleep well - xoxo

Comments

[susan]

Happy MLK day Regan! I want to read the Twilight rant but have been traveling and missed it. Is it posted on the internet anywhere? I hope you have a great Monday.