Monthly Archives: August 2018

movies and dance

I watched a lot of TV last month when I wasn’t feeling well.  I really got quite sick of Netflix.  Nevertheless, there were a few things worth watching in there.

Lion – such a great movie.  I high recommend it.

Broadchurch, Season 1 & 2 – Nothing like a good British detective show

Orbiter 9 – not awesome, but kind of fun.  Reminded me a little of Moon.

Safe – a teenage girl is lost in suburbia.  Surprisingly good.

Lost in Space – space geeks unite.

Touch the Wall – love this documentary on Missy Franklin and Kara Lynn Joyce (swimmers)

Gone Baby Gone – great movie about the search for a missing child

I injured myself trying to get back into running too quickly, so I’ve been slacking lately.  I’ll try running again today, and hopefully my IT band, which I believe is the injury, will be happier than last weekend.  Running is such a huge time commitment, and it’s been nice the last couple of weeks to feel well and have that extra time to be lazy and knit and just do whatever.

I’m still trying to get L into a dance class.  She just loves ballet so much.  I don’t understand it, honestly.  My feelings on ballet are decidedly mixed.  I like that dance combines music and athletic activity, but I don’t like: the general obsession with attire, the terrible things it does to feet, the excessive skinniness of professionals, the tights – who wants to sweat in tights? and tights on men?, the fuss about the performances for little kids, and on and on.  I also hate that around here you have to sign up for dance for an entire year.  With sports, you sign up for a season.  You can do soccer in the fall, swim in the winter, and T-ball in the spring.  I hate to put L in more than one or max two activities at a time, and the constant commitment to dance is really annoying.

However, the bottom line is that she loves it.  Finding a class is non-trivial because there are just not that many commercial establishments within 15 minutes of where we live, which would be the preferred max distance I’d like to drive.  Of the dance places, many have their classes on Saturdays or after 6 pm, neither of which is ideal.  Saturday is a non-starter because you have to show up or they won’t let your kid be in the show, which I don’t care about whatsoever, but L definitely will, and I don’t want to give away our Saturdays for 9 months!  So, we did a trial class at a place not too far away to see if they’d let her into the 7-year-old class as a backup if she doesn’t get off the waitlist at this other place which is an inconvenient drive into North Bellevue.  Ug!  Anyway, bottom line is that L was so excited when she heard about the trial class, just because it was a ballet class that she got to go to.  She ran around the house screaming and jumping, which is not typical behavior at all for her.

At the end, the teacher said she was fine for the class, so we have a backup option, even if I’m quite un-enthused about dance every Thursday night extending past her bedtime.  I felt like quite the dance mom, as she has her ballet themed dance bag (very pink and frilly and not bought by me) and had her ballet outfit on, whereas most of the other kids were just in shorts.

 

the ticking of the clock

I am a sucker for all the ads from Nike and friends.  I like the taglines.  Just do it.  No excuses.  Those two pretty much sum it up as far as running goes.  I think anyone can do amazing things if they adopt that attitude.  But I’m full of excuses right now.  5 weeks of no running, and I went out for a 7 mile hilly run.  Dumb.  Obviously.  Not surprisingly, I injured myself.  Rather than call H to pick me up, I slogged out the last two miles home and made it worse.  It’s not serious.  I’ll be back running in a week or three at worst but still.  The want is coming back though.  Immediately after, I didn’t want to work.  Didn’t want to run.  Basically didn’t want to do anything.  I’m remembering what it feels like to work hard and reap the rewards, such as they are.  I’ve been thinking a lot about my 1:43 half marathon lately.  1:43 is nothing amazing – great for me, unattainable for some, terrible for others.  For me, it represented a lot of running in the cold, in the dark, on ice, early mornings, sacrifice.  I want to try again and see what I can achieve.

At the same time, I can’t help but think about #3.  And for me, #3 means putting everything on hold – running, work, etc.  It means absolute misery for two months at a bare minimum, likely closer to three, and nothing resembling running for about a year.  I’m 38.  The clock is ticking on ability to be procreate again, to run fast.  Basically everything physical.  I wonder if it’s as real for men?  For a woman, there’s no denying age.  Menopause will remind you if nothing else.  One of my older mom friends was talking to me about menopause and how it’s sucking for her today.  It’s coming.

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In other news, it’s sign-up time for fall activities.  B will be doing soccer once a week and twice a week individual swim lessons.  They only offered daytime group lessons Mondays and Wednesdays, when she has preschool, so individual it is.  (The major drawback is cost.)  She’s been making rather painful process in her group lessons.  She currently has a teacher who is tough and makes her do things she doesn’t want to which results in tears.  It is hard for me to watch, but I cannot deny she’s making progress.  And she says she likes her teacher.  So Bri will have 9 hours of preschool (MWF), 1 hour of swim (TR), and 1 hour of soccer on Tuesday mornings.  It should be enough to keep her busy.

L’s freestyle is starting to look kind of awesome (even if she can only do it 10 or 15 yards), but I’m not sure yet if we’ll do fall swim lessons for her.  I feel like school is such a huge commitment, I don’t want her to be overwhelmed.  Dance is her favorite activity.  I am not a huge fan of dance.  I don’t like the costumes.  I don’t like what pointe shoes do to feet.   I don’t like the ultra-competitive nature of ballet.  I don’t like the lack of team that you have in group sports. I don’t like that it lasts all year instead of just a season.  But it can’t be denied that she loves it, so dance will be her primary activity.  She’ll probably do an hour of dance after school, once a week.  We’ll also possibly do a weekend swim lesson.  And that’ll be it to start, as she adjusts to first grade and gets used to being spoken to in French again.

yet another

When I “opened” the local newspaper this morning, I came across yet another #metoo case.  I find it extraordinary how in almost all of these cases, there are many many women who have come forward.  I can’t decide if this is because these guys always are abusive or obnoxious to many women, or if if no one listens until 10 or 12 people have come forward, at least in the case of someone prominent.  This particular guy, David Meinert, has been accused to “misconduct” by 11 women, including assault and rape between 2001 and 2015.  (Meinert is a “prominent business man and activist” in Seattle.)  Two of them filed police reports, but apparently nothing happened until now, when the local NPR station published reports highlighting the accusations.  What if NPR hadn’t published those reports?  Might this guy have continued on without issue for another few years?

(Is it really appropriate to lump RAPE in the category of #metoo?  The ST categorized their story as a subset of that broader movement / “discussion”.  But to me, rape is a crime on par with murder that should stand on its own, apart from other types of harassment.)

“Whether at a bar or in a boardroom, Meinert had a reputation for aggressive-bordering-on-inappropriate behavior, according to seven people who worked with him in a variety of capacities.  Those interviewed described instances of Meinert hitting on employees at his businesses, making sexually charged comments and not backing down when rebuffed.”  Why are people like this tolerated?  I can’t think of anyone I interact with at work that behaves like this.  I guess I’m not sure what I’d if there was someone; if someone doesn’t cross the line in public, and they are good at what they do, it’s hard to get rid of them.