I watched the State of the Union and Republican response. But why would I comment. Plenty of pundits out there to do that.
More importantly, I finished my taxes. Benefit of few assets, taxes are very easy to do. There are so many questions I can skip. Always a bit scary to realize that with a child or two more I would be eligible for EIC, I think that's what it is called. The country is going to move on without me, but taxes? Now, that's something that I, like or not, have to check off my to-do list. That's all I got. A little overwhelmed by my own accomplishment.
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I am up to day 23 on the plank challenge. They have not been 23 consecutive days, but I am plugging away. Today was 180 seconds, more commonly known as 3 minutes. I usually plank in the morning when my brain is even fuzzier and doing the math can take a couple of tries. I can plank for 65 seconds or so until I succumb to the half plank. Today even the half plank seemed like too much so a few strategically placed breaks were needed. Energy still expended.
If you haven't noticed, it has been really cold in many parts of the US this week. (Whoa, pardon the lack of transition sentence.) When you live in a place that does not get this cold except for every 20 years or so, you don't tend to have appropriate apparel. You also don't have enough snow removal equipment nor ways to warm the diesel school buses in the morning. A little bit of snow + a lot of cold + a typically warmer climate = no school for 1 week. I still had work, never fear. On a late night, wee morning stint at work, I wrote a little ditty, a la Winnie the Pooh. Cold, bone cold Too cold to be fun cold Plain cold cold Should I add a tiddle-dee-dum? or tum? I did find a silver lining. 30 degrees? Balmy. Why was I talking about the cold weather? Oh, yes, exercise. I am happy to report that I exercised more days than not, but the hibernating instinct is very strong. Final thought. Did you know it was 94 degrees in Panama this week? Riding in the NY subway. Very pregnant woman comes on. (You know, some women might be sorta kinda pregnant...) Anyway, a fellow passenger asks one of the seated passengers if she would give up her seat. To which the seated passenger replies, "No. Can't you see? I need to read my Bible."
Money is a hard topic so this may not be the last word. I may even say completely opposite things in the process of writing about it. Let's see what happens.
A couple of times a year I decide that I am going to make a good plan for my finances. Sometimes I even pick up an issue of Money magazine or something of that ilk. Those magazine are written for people with a lot more money than me. There is so little that can pertain to my reality. I've even gone to talk to people who are so-called experts, and they don't know what to say to me since they are accustomed to people with "real" incomes, I guess. And I am the so-called middle class. So then I look stuff up and think about the "latte" effect. What are my little money drains? Probably there are some, but what do you do when you have very lean spending habits and there is still not much or enough? None of the help columns work with the bottom 50% that really have to figure out, forget week-to-week, but day to day budgets. So really, it is just a "sucks to be you" kind of thing. Oh well. Everyone talks about money from their reality. I will talk to one person and they talk about tax incentives, for instance, for donating money until I have to finally say, "I don't make enough to donate enough to need your receipt for my donation." Now, there's a conversation stopper. Then I complain about hand washing my clothes when I was in Panama and the woman responds, "I don't mind washing clothes, I just like it when I can afford soap." Oops, first world problems rise again. That's right, need to remind myself, I have always had enough for laundry soap and even had some left over for something for dinner. But then I find myself in a conversation with someone who is about to file bankruptcy who tells me how she and her husband spend around $300/week going out to dinner. What??? I could pay off a lot of bills with $300. Then there's the spouse who does not make a lot of money who benefits from the six figure plus spouse and acts like somehow (s)he made such good decisions, implying you haven't. No, your high-worth spouse did -- assuming here that money is the goal--, and now you reap the benefits, but don't get too superior on me because you are only a divorce away from the other 90-99% of us. I am not saying that it is right about the whole divorce thing, but it is a truth. So, after going around in circles I usually come back to square one not a bit wiser and usually concluding I am doing what I can with present circumstances. In another post I will write about some things I think I do and don't do well around this somewhat taboo topic. Apodos (sobrenombres) or nicknames are everywhere. An easy example was a friend of our family who everyone called "Bay." That was because she was the youngest in her family and everyone called her "Bay" for "Baby." Into her 90s, she was still Bay. In Panama and pretty much all Spanish speaking countries nicknames are very much part of the fabric of society. It makes our US nicknames seem pretty tame. People don't always introduce themselves with the nickname. Instead usually a full name will be recited. So on first meeting it goes something like, "Hola, me llamo Fulano de Tal de Rios." And in the next moment, another person would call him over and say, "Ñeque, ven." Very confusing to the beginning speaker. When I went to the immigration office in Panama for my final interview for residency I was asked to list the names of my in-laws. My husband was then asked to list the names of his siblings. I am not sure how we passed that step because I gave a list of all the nicknames, how I called them, and he gave all their official, birth certificate, names. Needless to say, the lists did not match.
Nicknames usually relate to physical characteristics or something that someone once did or said. The more rude (to my sensibilities at least) ones seem to be saved for men. And there are also those that are pretty straight forward, "La Hija," "Niño," "Tica." Here is a list of some of my favorite apodos. a. Ñeque, aka agouti which is a giant rodent. b. Saco de Hueso, sack of bones. c. Bombillo, light bulb. d. Culo de Gallo, rooster butt (Can you imagine getting away with calling someone Chicken Butt in English?) e. Batahola de Perros, ruckus of dogs. (a. big front teeth, b. tall and skinny, c. bulgy eyes and not very bright, d. not sure why he earned this one, e. always had 4 or 5 dogs following him everywhere.) I would like to take a moment to give a call out to the phenomenon of the rest stop. A place with a reasonably clean toilet, water, and even picnic tables and trash cans. Whoever thought these up should be remembered with an appropriate holiday and three day weekend. (Have not come up with a clever name yet for this national holiday.) Not the most glamorous spots certainly, but as the children’s book says, “Everyone poops.” Awfully nice to have places that recognize this truth. During my most recent opportunity to take advantage of one of these facilities, I decided that I really love the xlerator hand dryer. These raise the experience from something of deep appreciation to a form of entertainment. Sure, they are found in other establishments, but I have grown to look forward to them on long road trips which are also when I usually venture into a rest stop. I love to watch the deforming skin as it dries. I only wish they were higher on the wall and equipped with a mirror so I could blow my face and see the warping. I think there is a lost opportunity for hours of fun. OK, maybe not hours but certainly an extended period. What else would warp besides skin? Would some fabrics look cool? Would clay be too hard or what about a bowl of mud, that would work. I need to get organized with the camera and put a short video clip here to add to the ones I already found on youtube. Ideas for other warpable materials that need documenting?
Sunday Update. I seem to plateau at a 60 second plank. I am half planking the rest at this point. Even then, I am not sure I will make it past 120 seconds. The elliptical is still working as a form of catching up on podcasts and getting some exercise. This weekend was a little less productive on the exercise front. I went to my parents’ house this weekend and can’t say I really even got outside. Step one, figure out how to do this exercise thing at home. Step two, figure how to make myself do it when away from home. Step three, figure out to keep some sort of routine when I have house guests of my own. Good progress on step one. Not so much on step two and three. When I was in middle school several of my friends were very into (very into, can't be more middle school than that!) Douglas Adams and the series surrounding The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and regularly quoted it. I dutifully read it and did not find it quite as hilarious as they did, but read the whole series anyway. With so many references to the series and the creation of things like BabelFish translator online, I acknowledge that I may be alone in my lack of appreciation for the series. Wondering if I had perhaps missed something, I read this book to my daughter recently. (You may be thinking at this point that I use my daughter as a guinea pig, and there is probably some truth in that.) I felt that the book had a historical context and that she needed to know about it. I was also hoping that maybe I would discover that it was as funny as other people thought. Quite honestly, the few quotes that I remembered being funny were still there and pretty few and far between. In their defense those few moments were funny even if I still think the whole thing rambled more than necessary. Most importantly, the digital watch references had an entirely new level of humor read several decades removed from its creation.
I am not a person who has a musical soundtrack through her life, although I quite admire those who do. Growing up, the radio station that dominated our house was NPR. Morning Edition, Evening Edition, All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion provided the soundtrack of my youth. When I was in Panama the US military was still in the Canal Zone. This meant that there was one radio station from the Zona. Up on my hill in the Azuero Pensula I got great reception even though the life in the Zone couldn't have been further away. They played a range of programs, among them being the familiar programs from NPR. I can't begin to describe the delight I felt listening to NPR as I looked out at the unfamiliar world I inhabited. Now back in the States I live in an area where it is not uncommon for a perfectly clear radio station to lose its reception when the topography changes. This means that my car radio is set to four different radio stations that receive NPR. As I drive along I switch around until I find the one with the best reception or the one that is not fundraising at that moment. Drives my family crazy, but the person who drives controls the radio.
Driving and listening to a radio program is great until you reach your destination and have to leave your car halfway through a story. I started downloading podcasts of This American Life and Planet Money so I could have a more complete listening experience. This final step, a technological leap for me, leads me to the elliptical. At one point my sister told me that she spent twenty minutes on the elliptical. Since I apparently like the number 20 – 20 seconds of plank, 20 minutes of elliptical – and I knew of an elliptical machine to which I had access, this seemed like the solution to cold weather and the exercise dilemma. The first day I spent one minute on the elliptical and instant boredom set in, I had to get off and walk the other nineteen minutes. Then came the eureka moment. Planet Money always runs about 15-20 minutes and I had several episodes that I had not listened to. The next time I confronted the elliptical I came prepared with an episode keyed up to start. Appropriate soundtrack in place, what could possibly go wrong? Week 2: Two weeks in. Up to 60 seconds on plank. I stepped on my good enough for government work scale today. I think I can safely say 4 pounds and if I shift to the right a tad maybe I can claim six pounds of success. Always better to go conservative or I might be tempted to celebrate with a bowl of ice cream or a chocolate bar. Let’s go with 4. Two monks are walking. On their way there is a river that they need to cross. They meet an elderly nun who also needs to cross the river. One of the monks offers to carry the nun across the river. On the other side he puts her down and she goes along her way.
The two monks also continue along their way until the second monk turns to the first, "I can't believe you just did that. You touched a woman and broke your vows." The first monk responds, "Yes, I carried her, put her down, and let her go along her way. Why are still carrying her?" ~ a story told to me after a restless night of second and triple guessing myself. When we talk about fat people, it is always the other and usually an unidentified other. Once I get to know someone well and count him/her among my friends, I am not terribly concerned about their body shape. Whether or not they are short, skinny, pretty, fat, tall, ugly are not important concerns about what makes a good friend. So someone being described as "fat and lazy, etc" only comes in a conversation of either a fat person who I also happen to dislike strongly or someone I don't know in the first place. "Wait," you are thinking at this point, "but I thought you were a fat person." To which I respond, "Yeah, but fat people are judgmental as well and we live in the same universe as the skinny people. Plus, I don't think of myself as one of the fat people when I am thinking mean thoughts about them. I just think of myself as me and the outside shell is just a secondary necessity."
So, I have been thinking about my friends, those who also happen to have a few extra pounds to count on and what I appreciate about them. I can't really group them since the fatness is not why I am friends in the first place. But I did come up with some qualities that I realized I have been unconsciously appreciating about the fat part of the fat people in my life: 1. They generally give the best hugs. Hugs are important and some softness to lean into is preferred. 2. They never talk about the last marathon, triatholon, Iron Man race they recently ran of which they therefore feel compelled to give a blow by blow description. 3. If I am angry with them, I never have to go deep when I want to figure out how to insult them. I just can stick with the surface, "you fat (fill in the blank)" and I can be pretty confident that my insult will stick. "Skinny B__" does not resonate as well and it only works for women. I like more gender neutral insults myself. So easy. 4. The best kind of fat people have a true appreciation for food. A passionate conversation about food is much better when shared with a fat person. It never quite rings true with a skinny person because with them there is always this tone of judgement and sacrifice around the food topic. "I love...but I can never..." is a skinny person's idea of a food conversation. That's not passion, sorry, and mostly annoying. 5. Since you aren't limited to conversations around the latest exercise fad or the foods you're not eating, then the opportunity for conversations around more interesting topics is a possibility. This last point only works with those who have truly embraced the fatness and are not spending time telling you about their newest diet, health issue, etc. I have no love for that. Weekly update: So it is Sunday and time to report in on my week. Still trying to do the plank. I am up to 60 seconds. I may have to take baby steps between the 60 to 90 second mark. 5-10 second intervals rather than the gaping abyss of 30 seconds. I have made it a couple of days to do 15-20 minutes on the elliptical. That will need a post of its own one day. Here is a teaser: How are Planet Money and exercise related? It has been bone cold and then rainy and rainy some more so I got my first walk in this morning. |
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