Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wherein we contemplate chaos, anarchy, and the therapeutic satisfaction of knitting.

I'm feeling pretty exhausted during this week of endings and beginnings. There are so many bits of chaos and anarchy flowing around my business day as I try to wrap things up, pack things up, and generally create some sort of semi-functional and professional-looking environment on my way out the door. Through it all, I continue to dance one step forward, two steps back. I want to cry, to bang my head against a wall, to pour myself a drink, and to start giggling hysterically. Instead, I grit my teeth into a fixed smile as I try to teach at least the bare minimum of my daily responsibilities to a young lady who . . . means well.

I also had my physical and mammogram yesterday, trying to beat the cut-off for some of the benefits which will end on Saturday with my employment. Everything looks good, except for a lecture from the good doctor about my weight. (Cousin Christy posted a quote in her blog from SN Parker that "People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be - not what you nag them to be." I'm just sayin', is all.) The doc informed me that walking 4 miles a day last summer only burned about 400 calories a day, and was therefore of minimal impact. Then he suggested that my knitting (he saw me working on a sock before he came in) was not a particularly active hobby and that maybe I should be walking instead. So, let's simplify this theorem: a doesn't work particularly well, and b is hugely therapeutic for stress and hand flexibility, but I should still be doing more of a instead of b. Does that mean I should have been jogging in place while I waited for him to show up in the exam room? More likely he's just a muggle who doesn't value knitting in the first place. Or maybe I should just show him this to demonstrate how sedentary knitting really can be?



Okay, so I'm venting. And starting next week, I will have lots of time for knitting and exercising, and the young lady in question at my erstwhile office will be on her own, and all this too shall pass. Sigh.

Excuse me, now. I feel my knitting needles calling me.

4 comments:

Christylea said...

Yes, next time, please do some stretching and light aerobics while waiting for your appointment!

Unknown said...

Could you imagine that?!? He would think you were crazy!
-Katie

Anonymous said...

Ummm... The way I see it, 400 calories a day is something like 20% of your daily caloric intake, which seems substantial to me.

Katey

ellaris said...

Muggle alert! No doubt about it. As for the exercise, there's some research to show that weight training is more effective at changing body composition, but in either case you should do what heals your soul, first. Exercising when depressed is strikingly difficult.