Skip to main content

Rubenesque at 50


As I was slathering on lotion after my shower the other day, I made the mistake of glancing in the mirror. And the thought that leapt to mind was, "I'm Rubenesque". The next thought was, "I am not happy with that analogy!"

Of course the latter thought was more strongly worded and might have included an expletive or two. Or three or four.

In a society that champions thin, Rubenesque is certainly not a prized state of being and it is taking all kinds of courage to admit this in this public forum, but I feel it's something I must do to get my Rubunesque butt into a more desired shape. I have let my MS gradually immobilize me to the point where fear of falling or tripping or looking klutzy are the glue that's keeping me in place. And the glue is made all the stronger by the snow and ice awaiting me as soon as leave the house. Nothing good can happen by hibernating in fear - in fact quite the opposite. So, I've committed to daily exercise - for now it's in the comfort and safety of my own home with my Wii Fit. And by the time the snow and ice have melted and given way to green grass, I will be out and about - I won't be running any marathons but I will be out with my Igor Shuffle proud to be shaping my Rubenesque form into something more modern. And healthy.

In addition to letting fear keep me from venturing out much, it has kept this big personality from the people she loves and needs. I am not much of a wallflower - haven't been since junior high. I am like one of those "People who need people" Barbra Streisand sang about it Funny Girl. I need my peeps!

And since, I've now broadcast this to the world I have a lot of accountability partners. I will exercise daily and will be out-and-about more often - despite my fear of falling. So accountability partners, help me stick to it!



Comments

  1. You are one of the most beaitiful people I have ever known. True dat. Nothing has ever changed that.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Friday Night Lights

Friday night lights were blazing last week - when for the first time in the history of our little town, the Saugatuck Indians clinched the district title! You can see the sheer joy on Matthew's face and the pride in his father's eyes in the picture above. Leading up to and during the game, there were several things that made the victory even more sweet. The first being that the sports writers in the area, to a person, all predicted the opponents, Climax-Scotts, to win. They'd had a perfect season - until Friday. The second was that we had to travel quite a distance (nearly 90 minutes) to get to the game. And the weather was frigid and snow was blowing - thankfully it was blowing towards the Climax-Scotts stands and was at our backs. And then our quarterback injured his shoulder and had to sit out for a good portion of the game. Thankfully, the replacement quarterback (a sophomore called up for the playoffs from the junior varsity team) did not let the stress effect his ...

The amazement of children

I am a kid magnet. Especially little ones in strollers, my fellow four-wheelers. They will look at me, then my 'stroller', then back at me. And I waste no time in striking up a discussion with these fellow captives of the four-wheel system that has us at the mercy of whomever may be pushing us around. For those that are verbal, I like to compare our 'strollers'. One such young man, at the March in D.C. pointed out that I had two really big wheels and two really small ones, but his transport's wheels were all the same size and then he counted (it was adorable watching him squirm around in the stroller to look at the wheels behind him!) eight wheels. "Pus," he lisped what I assume was 'plus', "I have a hood." He proudly grabbed the stroller canopy and pulled it forward and backward. Yep, he had a much superior ride and I told him so. Then he said, with not a hint of awkwardness, "You're big for a stroller." His mother was ab...

You don't know me . . .

I stopped blogging for awhile. I know some might think that I was being lazy, or overly-involved in some community or school venture or in the middle of some really good books or projects. While all of those are true, that's not the main reason. I stopped because it felt strange to be somewhere and have someone refer to something I wrote. It was like they knew a secret about me (though secrets are not usually published on the Web) that I hadn't shared with them. Though in reality I had shared because I wrote it on the blog.  Truth be told, I don't know who reads this - I have a smattering of followers but a lot more readers. Blogger lets me see how many page views for each posting and I can even tell the referral site. The most I have had for any post was 152 and I've had readers from as far away as New Zealand (thank you Gretchen) and Alaska. Most readers are referred through Facebook. I know that if I were more diligent, I could market the crap out of the blog ...