Running with words

Look I'm posting! I'm not apologising for not posting. I have had a lot of things to put here but they haven't been making it out my fingers.

So what's going on with me?

I've just become host mother to a 16 year-old German AFS student, B. My mental images of this relationship owe rather too much to the Alien movies but I'm not actually expecting him to come bursting out my chest.

Now one of our children is 6'2" I don't think I can keep using "the midgets" as a collective noun for them. Any suggestions?

H is waiting for an operation on her shoulder. The first of many she'll have in the next 10 years. for a congentital condition called MHE. Four months ago they said her operation would be in the next six months. Waiting sucks but I'd prefer universal public healthcare to the alternatives.

My neurological oddity is officially unimportant.

I had the swine flu and 2 months later I finally think I'm totally over it. In June, just before I got sick, I set a goal to go for a 20-30 minute run/walk at least fortnightly from the middle of August. When I set the goal it seemed very, very easy and very, very far away. Today I actaully started and the achievement has made me blog.

Oh me! Oh my!

I ran.

I went for a run.

I chose to go somewhere for the sole purpose of running.

I wasn't trying to get from A to B.

I wasn't in a hurry.

It was just for fun.

Me.

Really.

I'm expecting further signs of the apocalypse shortly.

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I went to the Crofton Downs entrance to Otari/Wilton's Bush and jogged and walked along the river. It was pleasantly cool and shady and the bush was beautiful. I saw a kingfisher, several tuis and was pooed on by a wood pigeon.

Before I do it again I want to make some modifications to my clothing. I wore my green sports fabric t-shirt which says "RUN" on the front (when I bought it it was the only choice that fitted and was a pretty colour). I'm planning to add a "T" before and "DLE" after so I do not feel intimidated by my shirt and cannot be accused of false advertising. My shorts kept falling down so it'll be some new elastic for them. Also my bra kept falling off my shoulders, at frisbee I wear a bra that gives less support and a skins compression top which gives lots but part of my plan with running is to wear clothes that aren't my frisbee clothes.

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Here are some who like to run. They run for fun in the hot, hot sun. Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! Oh my! What a lot of funny things go by.

Dr. Seuss

I'm a little teapot

A friend just posted about being thinner and it has finally driven me to blog after a long hiatus caused by sunshine, too much TV and not enough cafenet.

I am fat. I have a BMI of about 40 which puts me on the borderline between "clinically obese" and "morbidly obese". I am fat because:

• I have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). PCOS has metabolic effects. These effects mean that I gain weight very easily and retain it when someone with a normal metabolism would lose it.
  
• For a many years I was taking drugs for PCOS which had weight gain as a side effect. Although I have been off the drugs for over a year it is hard to lose the weight I gained (see above).
  
• I like food. In particular I eat takeaways a couple of times a week, too much chocolate and slightly too large portions particularly of carbohydrate rich foods.

When I started playing Ultimate I was hopeful that I'd lose some weight. Since August I have been doing strenuous physical exercise for a hour a couple of times a week as well as less strenuous exercise a couple of times a week. I have got noticeably fitter and developed muscles I didn't have before but not any lighter.

I try and tell myself that fitness is more important than fatness. Certainly from a health point of view being overweight and fit is better for you than being unfit with a 'normal' BMI. I also remind myself that my blood pressure is excellent, I have no signs of insulin resistance and no other weight related health issues. But fatness is what you can see and our society is not kind to fat people.

Fat is the stigma I wear.

I can see clearly now

Since I've started wearing reading glasses:

• I am much more conscious of the bridge of my nose.
• I am developing a whole new set mannerisms (like taking them off and waving them at people while I talk).
• I keep being at meetings where everyone is wearing glasses.
• All my friends have got wrinklier.

What I want to be when I grow up

I'm not clear about what I want to do when I grow up but there have been a few times in my life I have had an absolutely clear vision of what I want to be like. This is about two of those times.

The first time I remember was when I was 12. When I think of it I always have a very strong memory of the exact place - sitting on the toilet at my grandma's house. I can see the turquiose walls and light filtering through the frosted louvres. The curtains moving in the light breeze. Slightly cold but comfortable. The smells of lavender and disinfectant.

In that place, at that time, I decided that I wanted to be popular and have lots of friends. I wanted to be the kind of person that people wanted to be friends with.

When I was 18 at university I realised that I'd acheived that 12 year-olds goal. I was popular. I had lots of friends and I was one of the people who everyone wanted to know. (It helped that "everyone" was a bunch of 19 year-old male comp sci students and I had the winning combination of brains and breasts.)

The second time I want to tell you about happened years later, about 1998. I went to a friend's parents' house and met her father. He in his fifties and was pottering around wearing support stockings and had an oxygen tube up his nose. Despite that, in less than five minutes of trivial converstation he managed to come across as confident, sincere, sensible, warm and interested in me. He had presence. I decided - I want to be like that.

Later I found out he was a manager at a bank. It made sense - he seemed like a person it would be nice to work for. I also realised then that some of the things that I wanted to be were things that good managers are.

Sometimes these days I have that presence.

A motto for perfectionist procrastinators

If a thing is worth doing,

it's worth doing badly.

I have been following this and catching up on a heap of small things at work that I haven't been doing because I wanted to do them properly but badly is better than not at all. In fact a perfectionist's badly is sometimes better than other people's properly.

In other news I have been watching lots of Heroes. As one of the people that recommended Heroes to me said "The premise is that people all over the world are developing superpowers, from California to New York" and before you say "What about the Japanese Guy?" I'd like to point out the first thing he does with his superpowers is go to America. Despite this and its complete disregard for science as we know it, I recommend it.

Being productive at work and watching Heroes in the evenings has led to the sad neglect of this blog for the last few days.

Oh, and D is away again. Bother that man.

Note: For increased appreciation of that last statement you need to be familiar with a later edition of Mog the Forgetful Cat. For those of you familiar with an earlier edition - Drat that man.

Six geese a-laying updates

The nanny hunt is not going well. My nanny leaves us at the end of this week and I don't have a replacement yet. I have another interview planned for Wednesday night. Hopefully that will go well because all the agencies close down for a couple of weeks over Xmas. In fact the whole country closes down for a couple of weeks.

My operation didn't go quite as well as I hoped but the results are OK and heaps, heaps better than before. Coming off high doses of hormones has also been great, I've lost weight, stopped having headaches, stopped being randomly excessively hot (I'll save that for menopause) and been feeling generally happier and more resilient.

I'm still quite conscious of scarring from the chicken pox but no one else really notices and the worst ones are under my clothes.

I've been sticking to my excercise plan and enjoying it.

D is back and has no more trips planned although his work would like him to go again soon and he isn't very good at saying "No".

H and K are in rude health and enjoying the build up to Christmas.

Commit me

One of the concerns I had before my operation was that I'd get lazy afterwards and not get back into my exercise regime. This week I have been getting back into it fine but just to make sure I thought I'd put it in writing, post it in public and tattoo it on my forehead.

I will:

• walk to work every weekday it isn't raining
• aquajog most Tuesday mornings
• go to Pilates at the gym on Thursdays (and do circuits if I miss the class)
• go to Tai Chi on Mondays

Good thing I have a fringe.