Done for the Week: A New Leaf on the Family Tree

My family contains one more person this week than it did at the beginning of last week--the first girl born into our extended family in many years.  I am ecstatic.  I am worn out.

The little one who was in such a rush to get here has left some serious turbulence in her wake.  In the midst of her joyous and disruptive arrival, here's what I got done:

Done for the Week:  Oct. 10-Oct. 16, 2011

1. Continued 5K training with my youngest son, in preparation for his first race--Finished Week 7 of 9 Week Couch-Potato-to-5K program
2. Ran once
3. Read Murder Your Darlings, by J. J. Murphy
4. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
5. Published 1 blog post
6. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
7. Attended second week of four week Run Better class with triathlon coach Lauren Jensen
8. Became a grandmother for the second time, as my daughter's premature daughter entered the world
9. Became a live-in Nana to my four-year-old grandson
10. Gave nearly full-time support to my daughter and her family as they coped with early arrival of their baby, and my daughter's continuing health problems
11. Dealt with my daughter's acutely ill dog
12. Helped prepare my son to begin technical college later this week
13. Went out for happy hour and a movie with my husband
14. Did laundry
15. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory aloud with my husband

Last week's "most important thing," hands down, was supporting my daughter and her family through the premature arrival of her new daughter, and her own continuing health problems.   The baby was born early Tuesday morning, at 31 weeks, and though doing remarkably well, is expected to be in the hospital for at least another 3 weeks.  My daughter is dealing with two separate complications and a preexisting chronic illness, compounded by exhaustion and the aftereffects of necessary obstetrical interventions.  Her four-year-old is struggling with the temporary chaos and emotional distress that has beset his happy, stable home life.  We are all attempting to deal with the strategic demands of tightly scheduled twice daily visits to the NICU; my grandson's part-time preschool schedule; my daughter's medical appointments, including yet another specialist to be consulted for a new condition; hot and cold running relatives--the various members of our complicated extended family, all of whom want to help, to visit, to be part of things, and mostly on their own terms; and my daughter's serious need for rest.  


I have adopted the attitude I found helpful during my father's extended illness and eventual death a few years ago--that our circumstances currently are more like M.A.S.H. than like Happy Days, and we need to lighten our loads and keep bailing.  Low expectations, clear priorities, and a healthy sense of humor will get us through.  In the meantime, I cling to my nightly glass of red wine.  For the heart benefits, of course.



My focus goal last week was to "make some time for resting and taking care of myself and my home, and staying loose about how that will get done."  I did manage to get to my running class; to meditate in the middle of the night while my daughter was in preterm labor and I couldn't sleep; to squeeze in a couple of latte breaks; to vacuum several large dogs worth of yellow lab colored hair off my living room carpet; to read an inconsequential mystery novel; and to spend a pleasant evening with my husband.  If I had to miss three blog posts, abandon my novel, skip workouts, miss yoga and tap class and sleep and showers, I did the best I could.  

This week, we can probably better anticipate what lies ahead.  We are starting to problem solve, and to martial additional resources.  My new focus goal is to fit in three runs, in preparation for Sunday's race.  The rest will have to take care of itself. 

Done for the Week: Ready to Reconnect

While I was getting around to finally getting this post up, it turned into the first day of September.  And the first day of my intended blog reform.  My worst week of blogging, followed by cleaning up my act.  That's the plan, anyway.

I did get some things done last week, and here's the list:

Done for the Week:  Aug. 22-28, 2011

1. Relaxed and enjoyed my post-triathlon glow
2. Tracked down my bike pump lost on bus at the triathlon
3. Returned rented wetsuit, and made plans to purchase
4. Attended introductory spin class
5. Went to outdoor water park with my kids and grandson
6. Launched 5K training program with my youngest son, in preparation for his first race
7. Babysat while my daughter and her husband watched the Brewers beat the Cubs
8. Went out for breakfast with my son
9. Finished Good Things I Wish You, by A. Manette Ansay
10. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
11. Provided technical assistance to nonprofit organization
12. Published 1 blog post
13. Continued reading Elizabeth George's In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner aloud with my husband
14. Continued significant work on current clients' projects
15. Purchased new laptop tote for my new business
16. Attended 9 to 5 National Day of Action
17. Helped my husband prepare/pack for trip to Kenya
18. Joined my husband's family (in his absence) for lunch
19. Did laundry
20. Called my mom and sent tri pictures

Last week's focus goal was to "come down gently, and as little as possible, from Cloud 9-3/4."  I can honestly say I pretty much devoted myself to that pursuit.  I even managed to continue reveling while helping my stressed-out husband survive the start of a new semester and leaving for a ten-day international trip.  

I realized, in the process, that it has been a long time since I have had that feeling that "God [or whoever] is in her/his heaven, and all is right with the world."  I should probably try to stay in practice more, so I don't get the spiritual bends ascending to this relative height.

I believe my most important accomplishment last week, supported by my happy mood and my less-training-intensive schedule, was the attention I was able to give members of my family.   I know I have missed them, and I believe they have missed me, as the amount of time I spent training and preparing for the triathlon, working on a recall campaign, and accidentally starting a small business, has engulfed my recent weeks.  

It seems that the way balance works in my life, when it does, is as a wild ride--consisting of going too far in one direction, and then taking drastic action to right things by going too far in the opposite direction.  I'm not sure if I can, or should, learn another way. . . .

Next week's focus goal? Resuscitate the blog I have neglected over the summer.  My recovery plan is to post four days a week, Monday through Thursday, taking off time for major holidays and traveling.

It's September, "back to" time.

Done for the Week: Waiting for the Thaw

I'm slowly coming back from hitting the wall, in terms of my level of activity.  This past week, I had a bit more energy, perhaps because of the physical exercise I got.

Spring is teasing us here in Wisconsin.  After temperatures in the 80s on Sunday, the rest of last week brought a chill wind, some rain, and even snow flurries on Saturday.  All of my outdoor rallies and ventures in petition circulation have taken place in the cold--no friend to my Raynaud's syndrome.  Hence, the whitened fingers with which I have held signs and extended pens and clipboards.  And the frozen toes on which I have marched and stood and walked. 

This morning, I awoke to snow on the ground.

This is what I got done last week, in this inclement season.

Done for the Week:  April 11-17

1. Continued off-season race training; completed Week 7 of C2K--three training sessions
2. Finished Sepulchre, by Kate Mosse
3. Continued significant volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit
4. Attended state Joint Finance Hearing on Governor's proposed biennial budget
5. Attended budget protest rally
6. Circulated recall petition door to door; 3 hours total
7. Attended Board Meeting
8. Attended Issues Night
9. Attended Good Jobs & Livable Neighborhoods meeting
10. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
11. Published 4 blog posts
12. Meditated 7 times
13. Participated in interviews of two finalists for Lead Organizer position, and in hiring recommendation
14. Got one son and husband to the gym with me once each
15. Attended 2 yoga classes
16. Had dinner date with my husband
17. Got my last learning driver to driver's ed 5 times 
18. Shopped for groceries
19. Cooked
20. Caught up on laundry
21. Took son shopping for clothes
22. Drove son to DMV, and signed as sponsor for learner's permit
23. Watched basketball with husband and sons, including first playoff game of one of the two teams we root for
24. Saw my therapist
25. Tracked down and took steps to resolve one son's termination from our health insurance 
26. Paid brief visit to sick grandson
27. Paid our monthly bills
28. Kept my household checking account out of the red for another month
29. Met with website client

Apparently, I neglected to record a focus goal for last week.  My intended goal, however, was to complete Week 7 of the Couch Potato to 5K training program, which I did.   

I continue to struggle to find time for the training, given all that's going on.  I am exhausted too much of the time.  Combined with early morning meetings, and other commitments, which push available training time later in the day, I am drawing heavily on my reserves of perseverance.  But I am more consistently in the zone of reaching my minimal goal than I was just a few weeks ago.  For next week, my focus goal will be to complete the C25K Week 8, and to spread the three required sessions more evenly over the week.

Meeting last week's focus goal was, in my opinion, also the most important thing I got done over the last seven days--which is why item 1 on the list above is not only highlighted in green, but appears in red text.

I am certainly not the only one who battles a chronic low-level depression these days.  Nor am I alone in experiencing difficult moods in the spring.  Exercise and meditation are the most effective approaches I have found to dealing with feeling sad, overwhelmed, and edgy, as I have recently.  So I intend to keep making time for these essential remedies, particularly in my currently stress-filled circumstances.

We are living in uncertain, and contentious times.  I would amend the bumper sticker/button/coffee mug saying, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention," to read "If you're not anxious and depressed, you're not paying attention."  But maybe that's just me.  In any case, I'm aiming for tolerable mood and energy, enough to keep me carrying my share of the load and believing in the possibility of a better day, and better conditions for all.  Bliss seems out of the question at this time.  I will, however, be glad to see the sun and some mild weather, when they finally show up.

Done for the Week: Still Crazy After All These Weeks

Last week was beyond busy.  Insane, actually. The craziness extended into yesterday, so I am posting what should have been Monday's Done for the Week today.

Here's the list of what I accomplished, in between obsessive absorption in weirder and weirder state political happenings.

Done for the Week:  April 4-10

1. Continued off-season race training, returning to C25K; completed Week 6--three training sessions
2. Finished The Sunday Wife, by Cassandra King
3. Continued significant volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit
4. Attended open house at new recall office
5. Gathered signatures on recall petition; 9 hours total
6. Attended Get Out the Vote Rally
7. Voted
8. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
9. Published 3 blog posts
10. Meditated 6 times
11. Met with my meditation group for the first time in several weeks
12. Called three references for lead organizer candidate
13. Got one son and husband to the gym with me once each
14. Attended 2 yoga classes
15. Ran with new triathlon training partner
16. Attended triathlon training party with Sally Edwards
17. Had dinner date with my husband
18. Registered for upcoming 5K event
19. Got my last learning driver to driver's ed 5 times 
20. Had dinner out with one son

Last week's focus goal was "to complete Week 6, and two of the three sessions of Week 7 of the Couch Potato to 5K program."   I received some news early last week that gave me a bit more breathing room with respect to the May 1st 5K I am planning to participate in.  So I decided not to push my training, given its less than ideal conditions the past few weeks.  

Instead of accellerating Week 6's completion, and attempting to complete Week 7, I decided to adhere more sensibly to the Week 6 schedule.  I was able to complete the three prescribed sessions, and am feeling more confident of completing the program at this point.  I even had a chance to run outside for the first time in months, when Sunday brought us temperatures in the 80s.  It was a pleasure to begin training with my new partner.  I am looking forward to her return from Costa Rica, and to stepping up our routine. 

I believe that the most important thing I did last week was to turn in 3+ sheets of recall petition signatures.  If we are to stop the assault on programs and people I am concerned about in our state, we will need to act to restore our fractured democracy.  My state Senator has been at the forefront of the ongoing efforts to abridge rights and dismantle the social safety net for our most vulnerable citizens, all the while championing tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.  She and her colleagues have gone far beyond anything the voters were led to expect when they took office.  And they have acted with cavalier disregard for the rules set up to protect the process, and the rights of citizens.  I am hopeful that we are close to completing our effort to give the voters an opportunity to register their reactions to this new reality.

And in the meantime, I will continue trying to find a balance I can live with as we go "Forward, not backward," to borrow one of our movement's chants, this one based on Wisconsin's state motto.

Done for the Week: Giving Up on Perfect

Last week was busier than the previous one.  The community organization for which I work part-time; do way too much volunteer office and IT work; and function as a leader in and outside of my congregation continued to ramp up for tomorrow's crucial election.  I am doing better, however, at pacing myself--necessitated by intermittently swelling family demands, and a level of moral fatigue that is beginning to seem chronic.

Here's the list of what I accomplished last week.

Done for the Week:  Mar. 28-April 3

1. Continued off-season race training, returning to C25K; completed 2/3 of Week 6
2. Finished South of Broad, by Pat Conroy
3. Continued significant volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit
4. Attended meeting of lead organizer search committee
5. Attended rescheduled Issues Night
6. Participated in teach-in on state's proposed biennial budget
7. Worked my two part-time jobs
8. Published 5 blog posts
9. Meditated 7 times
10. Got both sons and husband to the gym with me once each
11. Attended 2 yoga classes
12. Saw my therapist
    
13. Helped my son with emergency shower faucet replacement
14. Cleaned off my dresser
15. Cleaned off desk in my bedroom
16. Cleaned off workspace couch
17. Had lunch with new triathlon training partner
18. Had a 24-hour sleepover with my 3-year-old grandson, including museum visit
19. Had dinner with my sister-in-law and her family
20. Called my mother
21. Shared an evening out with my husband
    
22. Got my last learning driver to driver's ed 5 times 

Over half of the items on my list are in red, because together they represent what I feel is the most important thing I did last week--which was to give myself, my family, and my home some much-needed attention. 

Last week's focus goal was "to complete the remaining training session of Week 5, and the three training sessions of Week 6 of the Couch Potato to 5K program."   

Weather, a hectic schedule, and fatigue combined to derail my plan.  Intentions to run on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all bit the dust, and it was Thursday before my feet met the track.  I had revised my training schedule to omit the last Week 5 session, and had started with Week 6, session 1. Saturday was to have been my second training session, but it was "rained out" by a sudden plumbing disaster, requiring immediate attention.  I completed the second session yesterday evening.

I still intend to participate in a 5K race on the first of May--ready or not.  But it is probably unrealistic to expect any perfect training weeks between now and then.  My focus goal for this week is to complete Week 6, and two of the three sessions of Week 7.  This amounts to running three times this week.  One of those runs will be with my new training partner, a friend who plans to participate in the Danskin triathlon with me this summer.

Anne Lamott writes that

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. 

Today, I'm working to believe that this season's training will come together, if I just keep at it.

Done for the Week: Running to Catch Up

The time I spent on the politics of my state's governing disaster continued its decrescendo this past week.  Unfortunately--or fortunately, depending, I suppose, on how I look at it--I continue to be haunted by the backlog of previously postponed work.  I'm beginning to believe I would be better off abandoning the notion of catching up.

Here's the short, but dense list of what I got done last week.

Done for the Week:  Mar. 21-Mar.27

1. Continued off-season race training, trying to get serious about race in 5 weeks; ran twice
2. Finished Love Over Scotland, by Alexander McCall Smith
3. Gave significant volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit; major, over-the-top (25 hours) I.T. contribution 
4. Worked my two part-time jobs
5. Published 5 blog posts
6. Meditated 7 times
7. Got my son to the gym with me once
8. Watched our 2 teams play 2 basketball games, with my son and my husband 
9. Attended anti-Walker rally with my husband
10. Addressed religious leaders breakfast meeting on proposed state budget impacts
11. Helped my son complete approval for classroom accommodations for summer enrollment in technical college
12. Attended 2 yoga classes
13. Saw my therapist
    
14. Met with website client
15. Got to bed "early" twice 
16. Helped my son get his car problems checked out

In my opinion, the most important thing I did last week was to resolve some long-standing office computer problems (in red above).  I am hopeful that my substantial investment of time will pay off in fewer emergency troubleshooting calls, and give me some distance from the floundering organization I have given so much volunteer time to. 

Last week's focus goal was "making sure that I complete the required three training sessions for Week 5 of the Couch Potato to 5K program."  I fell short of meeting this goal, due to spending the last three days on computer and network overhaul, which used up the available time for my scheduled third training session.   

This week's focus goal will be to complete the remaining training session of Week 5, and the three training sessions of Week 6.  My intention had been to get the last Week 5 session in today, but I left it until too late, and ran out of energy.  But, as I read today in a Happiness Project interview that Gretchen Rubin did with Katy Wolk-Stanley, The Non-Consumer Advocate blogger, "Every day is a fresh start."  So tomorrow, I hit the track again.

Done for the Week: Still Out of Focus

A snowy day, though not as bleak as this out-of-focus picture.  Kind of pretty, really.  I'm trying to leave room for wonder in what is promising already to be one of my crazy weeks.


Here's what I got done last week, despite my continuing battle to stay in focus.

Done for the Week:  Jan. 2-9

1. Continued off-season race training; biked twice
2. Succeeded in getting husband and one son to gym with me once
3. Finished A Clue for the Puzzle Lady, by Parnell Hall; A Puzzle in a Pear Tree, by Parnell Hall
4. Continued providing minimal volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit
5. Worked my two part-time jobs, with continuing sporadic hours due to holiday schedule
6. Published 5 blog posts
7. Wrote 5 Gratitude Journal entries
8. Wrote 4 Morning Pages
9. Meditated 5 times
10. Watched our two favorite basketball teams play 4 games, with son and husband
11. Foraged for food at the grocery store several times
12. Attended two yoga classes
13. Celebrated Polar Express Day with my grandson
14. Sent teenager and friend to Rave concert and stayed up for their safe return
15. Resumed reading In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, by Elizabeth George aloud with my husband
16. Walked my dog twice and my daughter's dog once
17. Attended jobs rally at state capitol
18. Had long overdue coffee with friend
19. Had date night with my husband
20. Attended church
21. Resumed novel writing, at scheduled times
22. Visited with friend I hadn't seen in years
23. Purchased replacement bathroom light/fan in time to take advantage of sale
24. Arranged electrician appointment

Last week's focus goal, making its fifth straight appearance, was "to post five blogs, exercise four times, meditate six times, and make the time to resume writing the novel--before I forget what it's supposed to be about."  The items related to this goal are highlighted in green on the list above.  It is apparent that I am having no particular trouble completing five blog posts, as this part of the focus goal has been met consistently.  I am, however, occasionally struggling to get my post up before noon.  One of last week's posts didn't make it up until mid-afternoon, and one lumbered in after 9 at night.  When I was a newbie blogger, I was more compulsive, either getting up extra early or preparing the post the night before on those occasions where early morning commitments competed with my usual blogging time.  After I found that my mornings were becoming tension-filled as I "rushed to deadline," I got a little more laid back about the whole enterprise.  Perhaps a bit too laid back.  This week, in the spirit of "first things first" which launched this combo focus goal a few weeks back, I am going to make the effort to prepare posts the day ahead when I can anticipate morning conflicts--at this point, I can foresee three such mornings this week.  (That won't, however, help with mornings like this one, which looked like clear sailing until I started answering the phone and reading my email, thereby learning about the day's unexpected crises and requests.)

I have been falling behind on exercise lately, managing only two sessions last week.  I am planning to return to the "Couch Potato to 5K" regimen this week, in hopes that its structure will help with motivation.  I was more successful with meditation last week.  This may be partly due to having followed through with my intention to wear my Serenity bracelet as a reminder.  I did not, tellingly, give the same due to my plan to copy my focus goal into my daily planner.  I will try to manage that this week, in hopes that I will respond to a visual prompt to exercise, blog earlier, and write.

In red above (and highlighted in green to reflect its designation as part of the week's focus goal) is last week's most important accomplishment.  (Fanfare!)  After a dismal December of no novelling (to use NaNoWriMo's gerund), I succeeded in getting back to it; and in adhering to the schedule I had created to accommodate writing time.  This week may be more of a challenge, as my grandson is sick, and may have to miss preschool.  It might help to plan ahead in this overbooked week, and create a fallback approach. 

I am recycling my focus goal once more for the coming week--and until I get it right.

Done for the Week: Ch-ch-ch-changes

I have begun to question the wisdom of publishing this weekly done list.  My stats tell me these posts are not my "most popular."  And week to week, they are pretty repetitive.

On the plus side, the done list eases me into the blogging week. Making this regular accounting for all to see (whether anyone wants to see it or not) keeps me honest.  It tracks my progress, or lack thereof.  It reveals patterns.  And so, for now, I have decided to keep it going.  

It may be that my disinclination is related to the four-week siege of illness that I hope has almost ended.  As often happens in this all-too-real world, its energy drain and incapacity has coincided with a period I saw coming, when external commitments would eat into the time available to tackle my own projects. 

Here's my story, sad but true:

Done List--Week of Mar. 15 - Mar. 21

1. Finished Death in Holy Orders, by P.D. James; halfway through several other books
2. Took my blood pressure daily
3. Survived two part-time jobs for another week
4. Attended 1 meeting; scheduled 1 more
5. Published 5 blog posts
6. Meditated 2 times
7. Spent 37 hours caring for two-year-old, and enjoyed almost all of it
8. Spent 3-1/2 hours in college interview with son, and completed admissions application
9. Finally recovered 90% from virus-from-hell (4 weeks and counting!)
10. Refrained from 5K training--regretfully but therapeutically--while retaining the ghost of my self-image as a runner
11. Resumed walking
12. Put in many volunteer hours on fundraising project for nonprofit organization; committed to more
13. Disciplined myself to get extra rest for second weekend in a row; asked for and accepted extra help from family members; put in couch time with my underexercised dog

Some lessons are being learned in all of this.  I'm not sure yet what they are.  But I do know that getting up to do this blog--even when, as twice last week, I have to set my alarm for 5 a.m. (and this during the first week of daylight savings time!) to accommodate other scheduled responsibilities--is changing how I operate.  And that is changing how I see myself.  

Done for the Week: A Bad Cold Ate My Week

I am less than thrilled with the list that follows. But I should be okay with it.  If I learned anything from reading Mary Pipher's book, Seeking Peace:  Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World, it is the importance of self-forgiveness.  And why should I even need to forgive myself for the hardly cardinal sin of being sick, or being human?  

I think my reaction is a residual of being raised as a doctor's daughter--the healthy one, at that.  Growing up, we chided each other that being sick was bad advertisement for Dad's medical skills.  And I secretly disliked the not-so-sick who called at all hours of the day and night, interrupting every family outing and celebration.  

As an adult, I have seldom done the kind of work where sick days were an option.   I have been blessed with darn good health overall, but when I do get sick, I generally try to work through it.  Succumbing to the need for rest and a reduced work schedule feels like malingering to me.  

This morning, after three days of  inactivity forced by fever, body aches and a racking cough, I awoke feeling slightly better.  Just in time to start another hectic week. And disappointed, mostly, about my inability to complete Week 9--what should have been the final week--of my 5K training.  My daughter/coach has been admonishing me not to resume training until I am well, and reminding me that even great athletes (whose ranks clearly do not include me) get sick, and injured, and have to rebuild.

Perhaps I am most troubled that my list for last week doesn't really look all that different from those of previous weeks.  

Done List--Week of Mar. 1-Mar. 7

1. Completed Day 1 of Week 9 of Couch Potato to 5K Training
2. Got sick, and then sicker
3. Finished Sold Down the River by Barbara Hambley; Seeking Peace:  Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World, by Mary Pipher
4. Walked my semi-grateful dog one day, got family members to do it 2 others
5. Took my blood pressure daily
6. Survived two part-time jobs for another week, working while sick
7. Attended 2 meetings
8. Published 5 blog posts
9. Meditated once
10. Started letter to my dead father, as instructed by therapist

My plan for the coming week is to get over my illness, and get over myself.  As I cough my way into the first hours of Monday, I will try to ease into the resumption of routine, and to leave time for resting.  I look forward to getting my potato uncouched when my lungs clear. 

Done for the Week: Is It Me or Is This a Little Hyper?

As I look over this lineup of things I accomplished last week, I begin to feel kind of keyed-up.  In the past, this has been a sign that my tendency to zip around is reemerging.  And not necessarily in a good way.  For what it's worth, here's the list:

1. Completed Week 5 of Couch Potato to 5K Training--including much-feared Day 3!
2. Finished Ghost Country, by Sara Paretsky; Steel Guitar, by Linda Barnes; 
3. Walked my grateful dog daily--really!
4. Took my blood pressure daily
5. Followed up w/ allergist appointment for teenager, which took 3 hours, and resulted in new asthma diagnosis & more meds
6. Identified need for leisure & fun
7. Arranged college visits for offspring
8. Survived two part-time jobs for another week
9. Attended one meeting; set up two more; missed one due to miscommunication w/ personal trainer (rescheduled)
10. Fell asleep while napping toddler
11. Wrote new poem
12. Published 6 blog posts
13. Decluttered kitchen/sunroom
14. Meditated 3 times 
15. Attended 2 prayer vigils for homicide victims
16. Deposited 3 miniscule paychecks, thereby settling small debt to teenager & resuscitating household checking account
17. Began training in Harry Potter video game, under tutelage of highly skilled teenager; received medals for de-gnoming and dueling, and some wizard cards
18. Watched first ever Super Bowl out of loyalty to family in New Orleans
19. Scheduled trip to New Orleans 
20. Attended church; learned something I didn't know about Unitarian Universalism
21. Exhumed my novel from its two+ years' computer internment; read through it; didn't hate it
22. Found iPod, missing library audiobook, strap to heart monitor

So there it is, the ridiculous and sublime account of where my time went over the previous seven days.  It seems, from where I sit, a bit all over the map.  Perhaps I need to sift for frogs?

Couch Potato Training--Part 2

For any of you who might be still in suspense, holding your breath to see if I made it through yesterday's workout, featuring two 8-minute jogs, the answer is yes.  After four and a half weeks of following the Couch Potato to 5K training program, my body is a bit leaner, the contours of my muscles a bit more defined, my edges somewhat sharper.  But four and a half weeks into the new, improved, 2010 me, I am becoming aware of some other vitally important muscles that need work.  And for this muscle group, the couch I am to have abandoned for the gym is a tried and true training zone.  I aspire to partial couch-potatohood.


Answers.com  provides this fascinating history of the term "couch potato:" 

Very few words have a birthday so precise, and so precisely known, as couch potato. It was on July 15, 1976, we are told, that couch potato came into being, uttered by Tom Iacino of Pasadena, California, during a telephone conversation. He was a member of a Southern California group humorously opposing the fads of exercise and healthy diet in favor of vegetating before the TV and eating junk food (1973). Because their lives centered on television--the boob tube (1966)--they called themselves boob tubers. Iacino apparently took the brilliant next step and substituted potato as a synonym for tuber. Thinking of where that potato sits to watch the tube, he came up with couch potato.

Or so the story goes, as told in the subsequent registration of Couch Potato as a trademark. In any case, when the new phrase reached the ears of Robert Armstrong, another member of the boobtubers, he drew a cartoon of a potato on a couch, formed a club called the Couch Potatoes, registered the trademark and began merchandising Couch Potato paraphernalia, from T shirts to dolls. He published a newsletter called The Tuber's Voice: The Couch Potato Newsletter and a book, Dr. Spudd's Etiquette for the Couch Potato.

If the story ended there, couch potato would have been as passing a fad as the "pet rock" (1975) of the same vintage. But since the 1970s the tube has grown more alluring and the couch potato culture more compelling, especially with the 1980s invention of the zapper (1985), or remote control. No longer a cartoon character, the couch potato is now one of us.

Somewhat more generically, Princeton University's wordnetweb gives us this stripped-down definition:  

an idler who spends much time on a couch (usually watching television).

As I have understood and used the term, the key element is physical (and perhaps mental) inactivity.  Television is optional.  And not all couch potatoes are overweight, or subsist largely on junk food.  


Danielle van Versendaal, in her article "On Mirror Neurons or Why it is Okay to be a Couch Potato," offers one of the few defenses of sitting around that isn't intentionally facetious.  She argues that watching sports, for example, can be almost as good as engaging in them, in terms of what's going on in our premotor cortex.  She doesn't address cardiovascular capacity or muscle strength, however.


But I am intrigued with the word "idler."  Thesaurus.com reveals the language's ambivalence about this appellation.  Definitions for idle include:  "not used; out of action;" "lazy;" and "worthless, ineffective."  Synonyms for "idle" range from the enticing--"asleep," "at rest," "taking it easy," and "leisured"-- to the judgmental--"mothballed," "shiftless," "pointless," and "slothful."  Idler is defined as "lounger," with synonyms of "couch potato, drone, lazy bum, loafer, [and] slacker."  

This collection of meanings reflects our productivity-obsessed culture's uneasiness with ease.  Meanwhile, bookstores and libraries, talk shows and coffee house conversations are teeming with discussions of stress.  And in the midst of these conflicting messages, we are left to find our own resolution, and make our own resolutions, and struggle for balance.


For me, I have felt increasingly stressed as my balance has tipped to the overly active side.  A little more down time is called for.  Maybe even some television, a nap or two.  I need to log some hours on the couch.