Friends, and some exercise

[redbird]

alanro called last night, and we caught each other up on stuff a bit. The problem with only talking every couple of months is that there's time to pass on news/information, such as there is (less in my life than his at the moment, since my situation is stabler), but not to get into how we're feeling about things, either in our own lives or much of the world around us.

This morning it was sunny and warm, and cattitude and I went for a bit of a walk in the park. Not very long, but more than I'd done in a little while. I am breathing better, either because I am healing or because it is warmer. (I'll find out which in a few days, I expect.) It's mostly blue sky, brown leaves, and gray rocks and tree trunks; we saw the usual geese, ducks, and gulls next to the marsh, but no interesting birds in our little while in the woods. We did hear a tree branch break off and fall to the ground, far enough away that we didn't see it. Odd and a little disquieting: yes, it's winter, but there was no wind to speak of. The ground may be somewhat waterlogged, but it didn't sound like a whole tree coming down.

Cattitude and I then had lunch at a local diner, and he came home while I went downtown to meet roadnotes for tea and conversation. (We had pencilled this in a week ago, and then thought we might have to cancel because she was under the weather yesterday.) I was running early, so I stopped off for tea (and bought probably more than I needed; I'm not sure why I got a pound instead of my usual half pound, but we will use it, it'll just take a few months). Then to Barnes and Noble, where I found a nice calendar, a year of wildflowers; Cattitude's comment when I brought it home was "it has enough purple," and it met my basic qualification for a flower/landscape calendar, namely, it doesn't show me snow and ice during the winter when I want leaves and blossoms.

We had a good conversation, touching on ongoing stuff about relationships and trust, and the ways drama in life can appeal to people, and different attitudes toward secrets. I'll keep them when it's needed, but while I value being a friend who can be trusted with things, I don't specifically like having secrets, because it means keeping track of who knows/is allowed to know certain things. I have at least one friend (hello, serenejournal who won't keep secrets and warns people of that up front; at the other end of the scale are people who seem to take great pleasure in knowing lots of secrets, and hinting at "I know all this stuff." I'm not taking Serene's approach, but it's honest and I can work with it.

Somewhere in there, I realized, not for the first time or even the tenth, that there are quite a few people I've sort of drifted away from, and might be happy to catch up with if we happened to be at the same con, but neither of us feels the impetus to reach out specifically. This feels like an observation that should lead somewhere, but I have no idea where, so I'm just putting it down here.

About 4:15, we said goodbye, and I walked over to Varsano's for chocolate (it's near the A train) and a quick chat with Marc Varsano, and then took the train to midtown and my gym. I had enough time for a workout, though with a shorter cardio session than I normally do; I exercised, showered, changed, and walked out the door at 6:00. That's the official closing time, though as I headed from the locker room toward the front door, I saw one person still on a treadmill.


Cardio, 7:30, top heart rate 150
Leg press, 330 pounds, 3 sets of 15. That's three full sets at twice my body weight. This isn't actually meaningful, as far as I can tell (this is a nautilus machine, not actual weight plates, and how hard it is depends on the positioning of the machine as well as on the weight setting) but I'm still pleased to be there.

Chest press, 50 pounds, 12, 10
Calf raise, 70 pounds, 3 sets of 17
Balance ~fly, 50 pounds, 2 sets of 15 with each leg forward
Crunches, 3 sets of 30
Back arches, 2 sets of 17
Tree, 5 sets of {3 on each leg}

Balance lateral raise, 3 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 15
Balance squats, 2 sets of 15
Biceps curl, 10 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 20
Stretches

I also took a minute, while doing the stretches, to ask one of the trainers to show me how one of the ab machines worked. He showed me, and explained that it was basically assisted crunches. I said that I probably don't need that, since I'm doing unassisted crunches, and he offered to show me a different ab machine. So we walked over there (he commented that helping me meant he didn't have to put the 90-pound barbells away yet), and he showed me a nautilus thing that seems to work the abs a bit differently. I did a few reps (I think 2 at 20 pounds, 1 at 50--where I was clearly using shoulders instead of abs--and one at 30) and then stopped because I had already done my three sets of crunches. But this is something I'd been wanting to ask about for a while. I may or may not actually use this machine, but something for the abs that doesn't risk straining the rotator cuff would be useful.