palace of winds

I got in trouble this morning with my downstairs neighbor for my six a.m. step aerobics. Either that or there was some kind of gigantic bug crisis on their ceiling that required a lot of jabbing with probably a broom (or maybe a fist, if they are tall).

Which is sad because I am really, really trying to get recommitted to exercising at least three times a week, and mornings are my times. After work I’m usually heading to the barn, and the last thing I want to do is spend an hour working out, then climb all sweaty and exhausted into my riding clothes and go try to have a good, productive ride. (And my rides this past week have been frankly demoralizing, which is a whole other story.) And I’m usually rolling back from the barn around 8:30, and planning to exercise at the very end of the day, when I’m tired and hungry and wanting to watch tv then go to bed, is just a recipe for failure. So, I don’t know.

Weird thing is I did a whole hour on Monday without a peep from downstairs, and last week did 45 Monday and Wednesday mornings. Maybe they just happened to be up and cranky this morning? Or maybe they’ve reached the end of their rope with it? Or maybe I was stepping in just the wrong spot that makes it all creaky downstairs?

I don’t know. I don’t know what to do about it, really. I could try talking to them (ugh). I could try, as I’ve often daydreamed, of somehow subtly alluding to their pot-smoking habits. We could strike an unspoken bargain where they can smoke and I’ll ignore the smell of it coming all up in my balcony and into my living room when the sliding door’s open, and I can exercise in the mornings in peace.

Sometimes I just really, really hate apartment living.

Last week on the evening news there was a story about a dog who’d lost 32 pounds in 5 months. My first feeling was one of faint shame and inadequacy: if a dog can do it, why am I struggling with these 10 pounds? And then I thought further; if I had someone to apportion my food at specific times of day and to force me to exercise, I probably wouldn’t have any trouble either. It’s not like the dog woke up one day and said Okay, I’m going to get fit! and then started doing daily doggy calisthenics.

A confession: I’ve had this ‘Write Post’ tab open in Firefox for almost a week now, with just the lone prior paragraph. Which is to say that I am lazy, which circles exactly around to my original problem. Anyhow, this morning I got up early and exercised. It was hard, but less hard than I expected. Just one more advantage of not believing in the snooze button: you are exercising before you really wake up enough to catch onto what you’re doing to yourself, and by then it’s too late — you’re wearing the clothes so you might as well lift weights for the next 45 minutes.

Another thing I’ve been meaning to write about but keep not: I adore my new riding instructor. I read this article about Principals of Good Training a little while three weeks ago. The author is talking about how to evaluate instructors, and says:

I suggest to them that they observe a lesson AT ANY LEVEL and decide if, at the end, the horse is MORE:

1. willing
2. responsive
3. round
4. symmetrical
5. self-carrying
6. self-propelled (forward)
7. relaxed TO ANY DEGREE

I have, happily, been able to say YES to all of those questions after all of my lessons so far. I just really love riding with Jodi. I am so, so much better when I ride with her, and — on and on.

I’ve had a couple good rides lately, and a really great one yesterday. G and I trailered our ponies to Lake Maria State Park and spent two and a half or three hours (we forgot to check the time when we got there) wandering the trails. It’s a really gorgeous park, the trails winding through the woods with occasional glimpses of the few lakes scattered throughout. The colors are starting to turn, and the weather was just right — it was overcast all day, which was perfect for jackets, and which must’ve kept most people away from the park because we saw only one other horse and a handful of hikers the whole time we were out. Ev was awesome — he took turns leading, and while he’s slower and on alert out front he does it without much fuss. It was great to take turns, giving him opportunities to be brave and chances to relax. It’s a pretty hilly park, and Ev got his first experience with psuedo-stairs on a particularly steep downslope (we actually wondered if we’d somehow gotten off the horse trail, but we hadn’t); it didn’t phase him at all. He was a superstar all day, and I think (hope) it’s gone a long way in repairing some of my frayed nerves after our bucking incident in the back field, and our park bench incident this spring.

It was just a really great day, one that reminded me how lucky I am in this life. To have this Sunday in late September, these trees going all orange and red, these quiet winding trails; to be this girl with her horse in the woods in the fall. Watching the leaves drift down and thinking forward, imagining myself an old woman on a front porch watching leaves fall and thinking back.

As I was drifting to sleep last night, pondering the state of my refrigerator, I realized all of the tidbits I had lingering there — a few green onions, a fifth of a block of tofu, some fresh pineapple, and half a bag of baby carrots — added up exactly to the Pineapple Fried Rice (good enough for caps, definitely) I’ve lauded before. It’s from Nancie McDermott’s Real Vegetarian Thai. I’m a big believer in this cookbook; I think I’ve bought more copies of it to give as gifts than any other book, fiction included. It’s worth buying for this recipe alone — the entire book will cost you about the same as ordering a plate of this in a Thai restaurant, and then you can make it yourself to wow your friends and neighbors. Especially if you take the extra few minutes to serve it in a hollowed-out half-pineapple. (…when did this turn into a sales pitch?)

I’ve just started listening to Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (briefly: a book about her family’s year-long adventure in trying to eat only locally-grown/raised food), and it’s an excellent time in my life for it. Spring is (ever) just around the corner, and I’ve recently been trying to get back into the swing of meal-planning and out of the habit of eating out, for the sake of both my waist and my wallet. Most of what I’ve been making at home lately has been just thrown together: simple salads and stir-fries and pastas, the occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a plate of roasted veggies. And it’s all fine, but it’s lacking a certain satisfaction. I miss the completeness of my old process, of menu-planning and neatly-regimented shopping, the preparation and cooking and then apportionment of leftovers. My weeks now are lacking in structure; I come home from the barn hungry, prowling the cupboards, uninspired. I have fallen into a serious snacking habit.

So, back on track for spring. I’ve started getting up before work to exercise as well, and I think I’m nearly home-free on that being such an agony. I’m at the end of the third week today and I feel utterly exhausted — so much so that I took this morning off for the extra sleep and to give my aching muscles a chance to heal. In future, more sleep: check.

08/19 Sun: rest
08/20 Mon: riding
08/21 Tue: riding
08/22 Wed: 40 min S
08/23 Thu: rest
08/24 Fri: biking
08/25 Sat: riding

Four days!! (From today, Monday, that is.) So much to say, no time to say it…

08/05 Sun: zoo (walking & toddler-toting)
08/06 Mon: riding
08/07 Tue: riding
08/08 Wed: biking (40 min)
08/09 Thu: riding
08/10 Fri: rest
08/11 Sat: rest

08/12 Sun: biking
08/13 Mon: rest
08/14 Tue: riding
08/15 Wed: 40 min biking
08/16 Thu: riding 60 min walk
08/17 Fri: biking
08/18 Sat: rest