November 29 – Smooth(ly)

I was so preoccupied with preparing for and fretting over the trip to Holland to visit my nutty, old stepmother that I allowed myself to be quite lax on the exercise beforehand. Then of course, I got no exercise, not even a good walk while I was there. And when I came back, well what can I say, my exercise routine has continued to suffer. I was exhausted, mentally and physically that it was another week before I even got in a 20 minute routine. It was “Smooth” that got me moving. I had returned to slugdom and too much time in front of the computer playing spider solitaire. I really missed it though. The version I have on my old Dell desktop is like a dozen years old. Still the best.

But I was feeling antsy, knowing I had something better to do and wanting to get up and do it. I’ve let myself start slow and back into it smoothly, and Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana’s song “Smooth” helped me make the transition from slug to semi-active. Yeah, I’m not entirely there yet plus due to all recent events which started with being pretty ill-fed during my week away (really good fruit though) and my birthday, I’ve been eating like a pig. Did I mention that on Friday I smoothly transitioned into a sexagenarian? Had a lovely little party and sleepover with pizza and cake and good friends and the celebration extends to tomorrow when I hang out with the ex for breakfast and a movie.

This evening, I did workout to my usual hour-long routine starting with “Smooth”, the three Sly and the Family Stone songs, appreciating the wonderful Cynthia Robinson, whom we just lost, even more, and the entire Amy Winehouse CD, Back to Black. I even warmed up with Linda Ronstadt. Seriously, I will not go gentle into that good night, and plan to be one hot old broad.

Additionally, or maybe this was the point of me writing such an uninspired piece, I’m not writing again. I have a project, I was sticking to it, and was enjoying it. And I need to get back because I’m losing the motivation. I’m losing interest in my own plot and characters. I’m not even thinking about them. That’s been for a few weeks. I am still writing stuff, I’m still imagining and constructing, but things out of nowhere. I’ve way too many starts to really good ideas, but now I’m developing a list of opening lines about any little mundane thing – the tap tap tap of the lightly deflated birthday balloon against the window that let in a soft river breeze… And see, it got me up to write it down. However it’s not only out of nowhere, it doesn’t get me anywhere. Plus I actually don’t have the window open because it’s cold out and the balloon and the vase of flowers to which it’s tied that had been delivered two days ago (now I’m just showing off) are sitting on the HVAC and going boing boing boing rather than tap tap tap.

Yep, I need to get my rhythm back.