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Friday Fun (The Hill)
I’ve mentioned previously that in spite of an intense desire to be athletic, I am not, nor have I ever been. I’m not talking about fit or in shape; I’m talking about that ability to just run up a hill or jump into a basketball game and not get hurt or…well, you get the picture. Even at my most fit, when I routinely biked at least 15 miles a day and had rock-hard abs, I still got hit in the face with the ball playing backyard volleyball. Heck, even when I would go running I certainly didn’t look good doing it. When it comes to fitness, I am not gracefully athletic. I am awkward.
Anyway, as part of my bid to get back in shape and relieve my anxiety and do good things for the planet, I’ve been biking to work. Well, not all the way to work. I can’t make it that far yet. It takes two city buses to get to my job, so I’ve been biking to the bus connection, which luckily is just about half-way to work. I live partway down one side of a very large hill. In the mornings, I have a nice, gradual slope up for a couple of blocks followed by around five blocks of downhill easy awesomeness. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
In the evenings, I hit the hill at the end of my ride. It’s like a giant middle finger taunting me about how much easier this all would have been if I’d just taken that second bus today. I’ll be riding along, feeling pretty fit and great, passing all the cars stuck in stand-still traffic and happy in the knowledge that I’ve cut my commute time nearly in half. Then the landmarks start popping up to remind me that the evil hill is nearly upon me. Now this hill is not just a hill. The top of it also happens to consist of a bridge, and bridges in Boston for some unearthly reason are narrower than the roads, which means cars that used to be arms-length away are suddenly at your elbow. And this isn’t a pretty bridge over a river or a gully or anything. No, no, it’s over the lovely commuter traffic on the Pike (translation: interstate, highway, Autobahn with a speed limit).
So, I’m at the end of my ride, tired, hungry, sweaty, and there’s the hill. I dutifully switch down a gear, but something’s fucked up in my bike’s gears and it won’t catch when I go down from 6 to 5. I have to go 6 to 5 to 4 then back up to 5 for it to catch. This makes me wobble for a moment in a way that makes the cars near me worry that I’m about to tip over into them. (This is a fair concern as I did tip over into a car once when I was in highschool, but that’s another story). Anyway, so after the wobbling, I try to regain my speed, generally to no avail. And there I am, moving at a pace that eventually becomes so slow that pedestrians are passing me and giving me that “Why don’t you just get off and walk the bike?” look. No matter how many gears I’ve moved up since starting this project (5, thank-you-very-much). No matter how much faster I get. No matter what, this hill is always just as difficult, and I always reach a near stand-still at the top of it.
It just refuses to get any easier. It refuses to stop making me look like an out-of-shape loser. In a way, this hill reminds me a lot of my anxiety. I want to just breeze through the day perfectly happy and not conjuring up new things to worry about and not get stuck in a loop of obsessive thoughts. I want to get up that hill looking powerful and athletic. But no matter what I do, no matter how I start the day, no matter how many times I tell myself this is going to be an awesome day and I’m going to do the right things and I’m going to treat the people I care about with the peaceful trust and respect they deserve, I still wind up sitting at home or in my cubicle at work with a racing heart and panicky thoughts powerhousing through my head.
My anxiety is just like that hill. It makes me look like an idiot and makes me feel real shitty about myself, but nothing I do seems to make me able to conquer it. And yet, I get up each day and say “today is going to be the day I beat that goddammed hill.” And that’s what I say every day about my anxiety too. Someday I am going to power through the ride and realize at the end of it that that hill felt non-existent, and someday I’ll be at the end of the day and realize that my anxiety is non-existent too.
Friday Fun! (Exercise and Zombies)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope you all had lovely weeks and are enjoying your Augusts. Remember that scientific studies have proven that you’re more likely to have a bad Friday the 13th if you believe in the curse, so just don’t believe it. 😉
I’ve had a busy, but fun week. As a way to try to strategize against my anxiety until my doctor’s appointment next month (where I’m hoping to finally get some anti-anxiety meds), I’ve been seriously increasing the amount of physical activity in my week. If I’m exhausted then maybe I’ll be too tired to be anxious, eh? Well, it worked in uni anyway. So I started doing the 30 Day Shred
One of my pepper plants is blooming! But the blooms tend to wither up after one day and die. I have no idea if this means I’ll be getting peppers or not. Are the blooms supposed to whither? Anyone know?
So I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the increasing zombie trend. (If you haven’t heard much about it yet, trust me, you will be). Where is this obsession with a global pandemic coming from? I think maybe, on some level, everyone knows that the way we’re going right now isn’t sustainable. We have too many people using too many resources. A key element of a lot of the zombie lit is that it wipes out the population to a sustainable level, and the survivors are forced to return to the ways of our ancestors–growing their own food, going to sleep when it’s dark out, being physically active, etc… So people clearly know that two of the main issus are overpopulation and over-use of resources, and yet most people do little to nothing about it. What used to be a key element of our survival as a species–the instinct to reproduce as much as possible–is now our downfall. Whereas we used to lose a lot of people in childhood (seriously, as a history major I can tell you, kids were so disposable, some families named all the boys the same name because statistically only one would survive. It was that bad), now you pretty much have a really good shot at living a long, healthy life as long as you live in a western nation. And of course there’s that problem on top of the overpopulation problem. We currently have plenty of resources, but they’re unevenly distributed. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with there being some variance in the levels of comfort, but it’s so incredibly wrong that we have some people with multiple million dollar homes and an entourage they pay for and clothes that cost thousands of dollars while other people are living on the street or in dirt huts or are starving to death. And the thing is, I think everyone knows that the world is fucked up, but we’re tired and we’re beaten down, so we just figure the world is coming to an end, may as well have fun imagining it. My friends and I started talking about whether banding together to fix things was possible or if it’s just too late. One of my friends thinks it’s just too late. I’m inclined to agree with her. I think there’s just too many people who would rather live in happy ignorance than face the facts they know and make drastic changes to fix it. Of course, that’d be a lot easier if so much of the population weren’t debt slaves…., but that’s another rant for another post.
Anyway, so that’s what’s been going on here this week! Lots of physical activity and lots of philosophical discussions, lol. Oh also, I bet you’ve figured out by now that there’ll be a review of a zombie book next week. Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know which one. 😉
What do you guys think about zombie lit? Where’s the popularity coming from?
Happy weekends!
Friday Fun! (Camping and Biking)
Hello my lovely readers! Thank you for being patient with my hiatus last week, and I hope you enjoyed the posts this week.
Last weekend I went camping in Vermont with my friends Nina and E. I love so many things about camping–the fires, the food, the technology free time to talk, sleeping outside, the justification for using a hatchet. We rocked out in the car on the way up, and they also got a chance to meet my family. My brother taught them how to shoot rifles and pistols, and my dad made us dinner one night. They continued on to Canada, and I took a bus back to Boston after visiting a bit more. Unfortunately, the bus was around an hour late, so I wound up arriving at work exhausted the next day.
Yesterday it was finally cool enough to start biking again. My legs only lost a little bit of their strength, so that’s good. My bike fell off its chain for the first time yesterday, and of course I had no idea how simple that is to fix. I spent a few minutes grappling with the chain and getting covered with grease before discovering this lever you can push on to raise and loosen the chain and set it back on. At least I knew enough to put it on the second circle since it was on the second gear. So then I got to arrive on my bus connection covered with grease and got weird looks from the bus driver. It was awesome. I took a risk biking this morning. It’s cool now but is supposed to get up into the low 90s by this evening. We shall see.
Happy weekends, all! How were your weekends? Any good weekend plans?
Friday Fun! (Biking, Lost, Holiday)
Hello my lovely readers! This week was the first step in hopefully, eventually biking all the way to work every day. However, an attempt on the weekend showed me that I’m not capable yet of making it the 6 miles (one way, so 12 miles round-trip). So, to work my way up to it, I’m biking to my bus connection, which is just about half-way there. It was a bit nerve-wracking being on the road with cars, let me tell you, but today I found myself having a bit more confidence on the road. Plus, I was able to move up a gear on the bike already!
Sunday was the Lost finale (and if you have yet to see it, you are not a true fan and deserve the spoilers), and of course I watched it, including the two hour re-cap. I appreciated the action on The Island, but I was disappointed with the spiritual direction the writers went. I’d been hoping the whole way through the series that we would discover that the mythology being yakked about by the older generation of protectors/evils was just a way to deal with science they had yet to understand. Instead we get handed a glowy light with no scientific explanation and a happy-go-lucky, feel-good after-life. Also, I never got to see Kate die, what the fuck is up with that?! However, I didn’t hate the episode, and I actually found myself almost crying when Vincent came and licked Jack. So the verdict on my end was meh. I didn’t hate it, but it also didn’t ruin the rest of the series for me. I’ll definitely be re-watching the seasons.
This weekend is a 3 day weekend here in the US for Memorial Day, which means I have Monday off. I’m so excited! I hope at least one day is beautiful out so I can go for a bike ride or a row on the Charles and have a picnic. Happy weekends everyone!
Friday Fun! (Biking, Gardening, Wii)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope your week treated you all well. It’s finally feeling like summer around here. You would think the summery weather would mean timely buses, but no. The T has made me late just as much as it did in the winter. I take this as a sign that I need to speed up project Amanda bikes to work. Last weekend, I attempted the route with my gal pals Nina and E. It turned out I was only able to make it 8 of the 12 miles. I’m going to have to work up to it. In spirit of that, I’ve been planning on biking to my bus connection to start building up the muscles. 🙂 I had yet to do it this week, partly because of rain and partly because I realized I need to figure out something to wear under my skirts while on the bike. However! I am determined to bike at least 3 days next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I transplanted my seedlings, which are now plants, into their permanent containers last weekend. The containers are a bunch of different vibrant colors, and they really brighten up the kitchen! Now I just need to start my strawberry plants, transplant my flower into a hanging basket, and start either onion or spinach (I have yet to decide which). It’s all lots of fun, and I can’t wait to see the produce I (hopefully) get in the end!
I played Kirby for the first time this week, and I now get the appeal of that odd little pink blob. It’s a lot of fun! I also downloaded one of the super marios (he’s in a castle and goes into paintings….) onto my Wii. It’s one I didn’t really ever play as a kid, so it’s all-new to me. It’s a lot like a predecessor of Mario Galaxy, so it’s a bunch of fun. Of course, I can’t wait to try the new Galaxy when it comes out next week!
I hope you all have lovely weekends. I know I’ll be seeing at least a few of you tomorrow at malibtweetup4! Yay!
Movie Review: No Impact Man: The Documentary (2009)
Summary:
Colin Beavan writes history books, but when he decides that the future is just as important, he sets his sights on living with no impact on the environment for one year. This is complicated by the fact that he, his wife, Michelle, and their two year old daughter live in a fifth avenue apartment in New York City. As they gradually eliminate elements of their life from coffee (since it can’t be locally grown) to electricity, they both question their true motives and impact on others.
Review:
This is really two movies in one. One is about the modern environmental movement and the other about a year in the life of a couple.
Michelle and Colin are a bit of an odd match. She craves Starbucks lattes, Marc Jacobs bags, loves her job at Business Week, and wants more kids. He….well, it isn’t entirely clear what he wants. In the moments when he forgets the camera is there, it seems that he almost feels guilty for living. That he feels guilty for humanity existing at all. Michelle agreed to the project because she wanted to live a moderate existence and she felt that the year would snap her out of her shopping and tv watching addictions, whereas Colin feels guilty about using toilet paper because one tree might die. He clearly views humanity as a pariah, which leaves me wondering why he agreed to get married in the first place. That saddens me, because the environmental movement should be about embracing humanity as a part of nature. We’re not overlords or a pariah; we’re just the animals with the greatest impact on the planet.
The documentary is intriguing to watch. It strikes just the right pace. Viewers less familiar with the movement will be shocked at the worm bin (I lived with one made by my old roommate, Nina). They’ll be surprised and delighted at the dishes Colin creates using only locally grown food throughout the year, an introduction to the localvore movement to viewers who may not have heard about it. Hopefully they’ll be able to see past the extremes Colin takes it to and realize that some elements of the movement are very much worth working into their life. For instance, at the end of the year, Michelle herself says that she wants to keep biking to work and going to the farmer’s market. She enjoys the health benefits of biking built into her day and the sense of community from knowing the people who grew her food. Personally, I like to view the environmental movement more as a lifestyle movement. Hopefully viewers will see those aspects of it through the hype and Colin’s self-hating guilt.
This documentary is absolutely worth the watch. If you enjoyed Morgan Spurlock’s more well-known documentaries, you will enjoy this film.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Netflix
This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Opinions of a Wolf 