More Fit for the Kingdom, Day 1

Last night, the women's group at my church, Relief Society, had their monthly program meeting. It was a lovely evening, overall. Everybody brought different salads and that was our meal. I got to sit next to Cathy Johnson who is only in town for a week, as she and her husband are on a sabbatical they are taking in Utah. In fact, all the ladies at my table are somewhere in the neighborhood of my mother's generation, and I just love them all! I just love soaking up the energy of those special ladies!

From our dinner tables, we all adjourned to another segment of the hall to watch a presentation on our year's major project. On November 19th, we are all going to be walking from our church building to the Temple. It's about 10 miles. I'm very excited about this!

Now, I can do 2-3 miles, no problem. I've done 5 miles and it just about killed me, but I suspect that my posture on that walk had a lot to do with my pain. I haven't done 10 miles since I was a teenager. Thankfully (?) I'm not the only one of the ladies in that predicament at this point, which is why we are kicking off right now.

So, here we go. Honey's out of school and she's said that she would love to walk with me in the mornings before it gets too hot. Plus, I still have the largely unused WiFit and other exercise dvd's and such. I SHOULDN'T have any problem getting into some kind of shape to get this done. Hopefully, six months is enough time to get my body, mind, and spirit ready for this..... We shall see!

The Constancy of Change

When I was a kid I used to love to change around my environment. I took a lot of pleasure from rearranging the furniture in my room, or innovating new ways to do things. Not even really EASIER ways, just DIFFERENT.

After I got married the first time, we moved every 6 months to a year, every year until we separated. The crazy thing about that was, every move in those seven years was within Orange County. When I separated from my 1st ex-husband, I moved to Texas. That was a heckuvah change, boy howdy!

I stayed true to my frequent mover program until I married my 2nd ex-husband, and a life that had been moderately difficult became unbearably chaotic. All of a sudden, when change would have been the best course of action, I was unable to think about anything except trying to keep everything from spinning out of control. All my mental energy was spent walking around with a little mental hammer and nails, trying to nail down my world.

I wanted absolutely nothing to change.

Now, almost seven years after separating from the 2nd ex, I'm finally getting my change groove back. To a point. I have lived in my current home for four-and-a-half years with no desire to move, and for the most part, things have stayed in mostly the same place. I've taken out ugly shrubs and replaced them with flowers or a veggie garden. I've added in some shelving or taken out ugly shower doors. But in four-and-a-half years, I've only rearranged my room once.

Just this week, though, something has shifted in my psyche. I've just suddenly become aware that things in my home aren't at all where they are supposed to be. I'm moving stuff all over the place. The couch is moving to a new home, the armchair is coming out of my room and moving to the living room, and why do I even have those shelves? I feel like I've regained a little piece of my better mental health. A part that had been lost when I was trying to nail down my sanity so many years ago.

So, I'm going onto my computer to find the phone number of the nice lady who will be cutting my hair later this evening and I see a story that picks me up and shakes me. I feel as though my very DNA has been changed without my permission. It seems that I'm no longer a Sagittarius. I'm an Ophiuchus.

WHAT on EARTH is an OPHIUCHUS?

And WHERE IS MY HAMMER?

Friday, anybody?

It's been a very long time since I had to keep a Monday to Friday schedule. After the first four days of this semester, I can honestly say that I didn't appreciate enough the years of NOT having a Monday to Friday schedule. Also, it's been GENERATIONS since I had to be alert enough to be a participant in a classroom at 8:30 in the morning. This is what might actually kill me.

The last time I was a full-time student was when I was in high school. Almost thirty years (gads) later, I'm approaching my classes with so much more commitment, desire, and confidence than I ever had in high school. The one thing I don't have is patience. I am having a hard time dealing with operating at the pace of the slowest students. I honestly thought they didn't do that at the college level. It didn't bother me as much a few years back when I was taking evening classes. I'm not sure if it's because the slowest students aren't as slow at night, or if my tolerance level is pretty much non-existent before noon. Well, then there's the absence of coffee. That could have something to do with it.

So, this semester I'm taking Math 103 which is the equivalent of Algebra II, Psychology, and Themes in Literature. So far it seems the class that has the heaviest work load is the Lit class. Though the chosen theme is awesome: The Bible. YAY! It's forcing me to look at The Bible in a purely analytical fashion, which is kind of new for me.

The class I'm liking the least is the Math class. But not for the reason I normally don't like a math class. First, it seems that at least half the class has no idea how to do anything having to do with algebra. If you're in algebra II, doesn't it presuppose that you've mastered algebra I? One would think, until one sits in on that class. Plus, if you can believe this, there's a seating chart. In college. Thankfully, the instructor is ancient or I'd really have to resent that a lot. Then, the girl who sits next to me is really nice, but she has a bit of a smell.

So far Psychology hasn't been too difficult, but a glance at the syllabus indicates that this is just a temporary state of being.

So now I am unwinding by watching Wipeout with Honey. She's too funny. She thinks she could do it, IF they let her wear her floaty. LOL!