I have had several things to post in the last week or so, but now I forget them all.

My one basic point is that whoever is smiting my friends needs to stop. There has been far too much smiting recently.

By now you've heard that Arafat died, we're still fighting in Fallujah and the Peterson trial keeps having problems with its jury. Also, a former bodygaurd is suing Liza for assault and there's a new guy on Law&Order.

In other news, my boss has decided that she and I should go to the gym together. When I suggested 8am--my favorite time to work out--I did not expect her to agree. You see, she is not a morning person. She typically arrives at work between 11 and noon. She stays late, it's not that she doesn't work, but she is not a morning person. However, she agreed to meet me at 8, and was only 10 minutes late. She had so much fun she wants to do it again tomorrow. Partly because the gym is very crowded all of the afternoon and evening, but pretty empty in the morning, so it really is the only time that makes sense. Meeting her at the gym was fine. We didn't interact all that much, and I didn't feel like her presence in any way changed my routine.

But here's the thing: she told the rest of the people I work with who are regular gym rats that we should ALL go at the same time.

As I've told several people recently, if there is one thing I find more boring than going to the gym, it is talking about going to the gym (I recognize that is what I am doing right now. But please allow this minor hypocrisy). And if there is one thing that ignites my insecurities more than locker rooms, it is being given advice on what I should be doing at the gym by anyone other than a trained professional whom I have paid. For example, my co-worker saying "we SHOULD all go to the gym together [turns to me] I could give you a lot of pointers " leads me to snap back obnoxiously "I don't need your pointers Dan" Etc. Now, the thing is, I know Dan meant well. But he set off automatic defenses and alerts. I can't remember the rest of my response, but I know it was not aimed to please.

I don't like talking about it. I don't like acknowledging it. I've been making a concerted effort to work out more often since May. But I haven't told anyone at work that--why bother? Why discuss it? It's personal and boring. So they all assumed that yesterday was the first time I'd worked out in years. Right, because clearly I've lost weight by breathing differently. They've all commented on that, they could have made the logical assumptions. It's not really worth correcting them because either I'll get defensive and annoyed, or else I'll overexplain things that I really don't want to talk about.

That's my story. Now some fun links:

Heilpern gets on a high horse

The staying power of musicals

PS spell checker isn't working. I'm very very sorry.
- posted by Heidi @ 8:04 AM