(no subject)
My back is killing me.
I take that back. It's not that bad right now, as I'm doped up on Ibuprofin and have been sitting up for forty-five minutes. The past two nights, on the other hand, have been hell. It all started with a conversation Mr. Aba and I had last week.
"You know," said Mr. Aba, "You really ought to do some ab crunches. I've been doing 230 a day, and I know there's a six-pack here, underneath this fat." With this, he lifted his shirt, and sure enough, I could see the outlines of a six pack. Mmmmm... sexy husbands... but I digress.
"Well," I replied, "I don't particularly want a six pack, but tight abs are intriguing." I have no idea why I agreed with him. Our typical conversations about exercise involve him saying "You really ought to work out every single day, and lift weights and bike and run. You should do this even when you're stressed out, sick, or have a broken leg." And I usually reply "Fuck off, loser" and open another beer. OK, not really. But he's the type who stresses exercise over dieting to stay in shape, whereas I work out moderately and watch what I eat. As the only thing our mutual lifestyle decisions have done is to make us fat and happy, I can't honestly say that either of us had the edge.
The next day, I dutifully did my 45 minutes on the spin bike, then hopped off and did 60 crunches. That felt fine, so I kept it up, quickly progressing to 75 crunches and then 90. Last Thursday, I was up to 105. That's one nice thing about abdominal work - you really see results fast.
Only something was wrong. Nothing hurt while I was doing them, but when I got up the next morning I noticed a twinge around my upper back. I'm no stranger to back pain in the morning, but it's usually my lower back screaming at me. This was different. Like the dumbass I am, I went ahead and did more crunches later in the day.
That was Saturday. Sunday morning at around 3 am, I woke up. My upper back was killing me. I tossed and turned, and finally got up and took a couple Ibuprofin. It seemed to do the trick, as I fell asleep fast once they kicked in. Last night was the same, only the Ibuprofin didn't work. By 5am I gave up and got up and killed murlocs in World of Warcraft until 8:30, at which point the lack of sleep overcame the back pain, and I passed out. I was up again four ibuprofin and two hours later, and my back feels OK for now.
So what's the moral of the story? Ignore Mr. Aba and do the kinds of workouts I want to do. (grumble, huff, OK, I probably overdid the crunches. But it makes my back feel better to blame him.)
Other news:
My essay "Why do we feed the birds" is out at two different magazines now - Bird Watcher's Digest and a regional nature magazine. I also sent a query to the National Wildlife Foundation Magazine, but they rejected my query the following day.
I'd really like to get it in Bird Watcher's Digest, and I think I have a chance. It's the type of contemplative, artsy piece that's hard to write a query for - I mean, you say "It's contemplative and artsy!" and they have no idea if you're Annie Dillard or some hack with no talent at all. BWD is happy to recieve manuscripts as opposed to plain ol' queries, so I think it has a better chance there than at NWF, where they wanted only queries. And, of course, Whisper in the Woods would be good as well, although I'd really get off on getting into a magazine with a national circulation as opposed to regional.
Oh look! It's snowing again! Oh yeah, that's not news. That's just normal.
I take that back. It's not that bad right now, as I'm doped up on Ibuprofin and have been sitting up for forty-five minutes. The past two nights, on the other hand, have been hell. It all started with a conversation Mr. Aba and I had last week.
"You know," said Mr. Aba, "You really ought to do some ab crunches. I've been doing 230 a day, and I know there's a six-pack here, underneath this fat." With this, he lifted his shirt, and sure enough, I could see the outlines of a six pack. Mmmmm... sexy husbands... but I digress.
"Well," I replied, "I don't particularly want a six pack, but tight abs are intriguing." I have no idea why I agreed with him. Our typical conversations about exercise involve him saying "You really ought to work out every single day, and lift weights and bike and run. You should do this even when you're stressed out, sick, or have a broken leg." And I usually reply "Fuck off, loser" and open another beer. OK, not really. But he's the type who stresses exercise over dieting to stay in shape, whereas I work out moderately and watch what I eat. As the only thing our mutual lifestyle decisions have done is to make us fat and happy, I can't honestly say that either of us had the edge.
The next day, I dutifully did my 45 minutes on the spin bike, then hopped off and did 60 crunches. That felt fine, so I kept it up, quickly progressing to 75 crunches and then 90. Last Thursday, I was up to 105. That's one nice thing about abdominal work - you really see results fast.
Only something was wrong. Nothing hurt while I was doing them, but when I got up the next morning I noticed a twinge around my upper back. I'm no stranger to back pain in the morning, but it's usually my lower back screaming at me. This was different. Like the dumbass I am, I went ahead and did more crunches later in the day.
That was Saturday. Sunday morning at around 3 am, I woke up. My upper back was killing me. I tossed and turned, and finally got up and took a couple Ibuprofin. It seemed to do the trick, as I fell asleep fast once they kicked in. Last night was the same, only the Ibuprofin didn't work. By 5am I gave up and got up and killed murlocs in World of Warcraft until 8:30, at which point the lack of sleep overcame the back pain, and I passed out. I was up again four ibuprofin and two hours later, and my back feels OK for now.
So what's the moral of the story? Ignore Mr. Aba and do the kinds of workouts I want to do. (grumble, huff, OK, I probably overdid the crunches. But it makes my back feel better to blame him.)
Other news:
My essay "Why do we feed the birds" is out at two different magazines now - Bird Watcher's Digest and a regional nature magazine. I also sent a query to the National Wildlife Foundation Magazine, but they rejected my query the following day.
I'd really like to get it in Bird Watcher's Digest, and I think I have a chance. It's the type of contemplative, artsy piece that's hard to write a query for - I mean, you say "It's contemplative and artsy!" and they have no idea if you're Annie Dillard or some hack with no talent at all. BWD is happy to recieve manuscripts as opposed to plain ol' queries, so I think it has a better chance there than at NWF, where they wanted only queries. And, of course, Whisper in the Woods would be good as well, although I'd really get off on getting into a magazine with a national circulation as opposed to regional.
Oh look! It's snowing again! Oh yeah, that's not news. That's just normal.