So I did plan better this time. I took back roads and avoided gravel. Fortunately this plan also helped me avoid some of the crazies I run into on my daily walks (although they can also be highly entertaining).
I did see an actual granny pushing a granny cart across the street from me. I wondered for a moment if I was seeing through a rip in time and actually watching myself in 50 years. Hmmmm.
The problem this time was that since I have my large clan of brothers and sisters coming to stay this weekend, I bought way more than the GC was prepared for, and I rolled home with an eight pack of toilet paper balanced precariously on the top of piled high grocery bags sitting on top of half gallons of juices and milks and coffee and melons.
Needless to say, I got my workout in for the day. As did the Granny Cart.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Granny Cart
Carlos bought me what I like to call a granny cart at the flea market a few months ago. He didn't like to think of me hauling groceries up 4 flights of stairs, and in gratitude I have used it ever since. I keep the granny cart in my car and use it to take the grocery bags from my car up the elevator to my apartment. It's much easier.
Today, I got it into my head to walk to the store with the granny cart and granny cart the groceries all the way home. Trader Joe's is about a 20 minute walk from my house, and I thought, "well, since I want to exercise, and I need a few things from the store, I'll kill two birds with one granny cart." No big deal, right?
Wrong.
It took me twice the time I thought it would. Apparently, I should have factored in having to wheel the cart into my calculations. Part of the trip is over gravel and dirt, so you can imagine the rickety, rackety shaking of the poor wire basket on wheels. Some lady wanted to touch my pineapple. A shirtless man in his sixties on a bike with the butt of a cigarette stuck between his lips veered way too close to the cart and me. And the traffic lights change much too quickly for me and my cart to get across the street.
Needless to say, it was an adventure.
In the end, I did get my groceries, and I got my exercise.
I'm not giving up on this idea. But next time I will plan better.
Today, I got it into my head to walk to the store with the granny cart and granny cart the groceries all the way home. Trader Joe's is about a 20 minute walk from my house, and I thought, "well, since I want to exercise, and I need a few things from the store, I'll kill two birds with one granny cart." No big deal, right?
Wrong.
It took me twice the time I thought it would. Apparently, I should have factored in having to wheel the cart into my calculations. Part of the trip is over gravel and dirt, so you can imagine the rickety, rackety shaking of the poor wire basket on wheels. Some lady wanted to touch my pineapple. A shirtless man in his sixties on a bike with the butt of a cigarette stuck between his lips veered way too close to the cart and me. And the traffic lights change much too quickly for me and my cart to get across the street.
Needless to say, it was an adventure.
In the end, I did get my groceries, and I got my exercise.
I'm not giving up on this idea. But next time I will plan better.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Time to think
I remember a few years back I read The Blithesdale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Essentially, all of these writers in the nineteenth century thought of this great idea: they would move to a plot of land with a spacious cabin on site, where they would work the land all day for their food and keep, each performing important tasks for the good of the communal life, and at the end of the day, they would be so inspired by their work that they would spend the evening writing.
The plan did not work out so well, you see, because they quickly realized that after a long day of hard work, their brains were far too exhausted to even make an attempt at creativity.
I learned this lesson first hand over the last few months.
Right before I began work teaching full time for the summer, I had been actively reading and writing every day, excited to get up and get into it, completely uninterested in the television and other mundane distractions.
Alas, after my first week of grueling teaching for 40 plus hours a week, I had lost all interest in creativity. I didn't want to read anything of import. I wanted cheap and easy, lust filled, give-it-up-on-the-first-page paperback novels that required little thinking and less effort. Television once again became a much needed escape from my pounding head. I didn't even want to bake!
Perhaps worse, I was too tired to stay actively interested in what was going on in the world, in society at large.
So, a week back into my freedom, I have come to the realization that if at all possible, I will never drown myself in work again. I will never chase my creativity away.
A long, long, long time ago, I lost myself completely, forgetting my dreams, my goals, what had really mattered to me, making a difference. And I lost that girl for a long period of time, years.
This summer, losing just a tiny part of myself shook me to the core.
It was certainly an experience. One that I hope never to repeat.
I think when we lose ourselves, we cease moving forward.
And I love moving forward.
The plan did not work out so well, you see, because they quickly realized that after a long day of hard work, their brains were far too exhausted to even make an attempt at creativity.
I learned this lesson first hand over the last few months.
Right before I began work teaching full time for the summer, I had been actively reading and writing every day, excited to get up and get into it, completely uninterested in the television and other mundane distractions.
Alas, after my first week of grueling teaching for 40 plus hours a week, I had lost all interest in creativity. I didn't want to read anything of import. I wanted cheap and easy, lust filled, give-it-up-on-the-first-page paperback novels that required little thinking and less effort. Television once again became a much needed escape from my pounding head. I didn't even want to bake!
Perhaps worse, I was too tired to stay actively interested in what was going on in the world, in society at large.
So, a week back into my freedom, I have come to the realization that if at all possible, I will never drown myself in work again. I will never chase my creativity away.
A long, long, long time ago, I lost myself completely, forgetting my dreams, my goals, what had really mattered to me, making a difference. And I lost that girl for a long period of time, years.
This summer, losing just a tiny part of myself shook me to the core.
It was certainly an experience. One that I hope never to repeat.
I think when we lose ourselves, we cease moving forward.
And I love moving forward.
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