The Burrow

Jonathan Swan's Axios interview with DJT  was a candidate for this post.  For some reason.... okay, for many reasons..... it makes me extraordinarily happy.  The man's a blithering idiot, waving around charts with big (seriously big), bright bars of color and pouting that the interviewer couldn't ask questions that weren't on the chart.   TBG and I sat, fascinated, then closed our eyes and couldn't tell if we were listening to Alec Baldwin or the real deal.  We opened our eyes and imagined Sarah Cooper lip syncing his words.  The exercise made it a bit more palatable.... and then I started to giggle.  The whole thing is so ridiculous, and Mr. Swan was so meticulous, and yes the Modern Major General did come to mind. But that's about all I had that to share. The faunae (isn't that a great plural?)  are racing and slithering and scampering and leaping (yes, it's leaping when you're a bunny covering great distances on tiny little legs) and soar...

Sometimes, when I catch a reflection or a mirror's evidence of my uneven gait, it stops me in my tracks. Why is my right hip up at an angle.  There's no way that helps propel me forward. Why is my entire torso angled to the left?  My hips are going forward, and my head is aimed that way too.  But my thoracic spine decided a while ago to turn away from my injured acetablulum, trying to escape the inescapable. In response to a talking head on tv,  TBG wondered if I would ever get over  being shot.    No , and I don't want to. Certainly the physical pieces are constant reminders, so hoping that I'll be able to relegate it to the Oh, yeah, what about that?  bin in my brain would be a fool's errand.  And why would I want to get over something which at its core is evil but whose effects have been quite special? I'll never get over the murder of my little friend, or the hole she's left in the lives of those who loved her.  But I look ...

GRIN 's legwork and Body Works Pilates 's teachers and Balanced Body 's equipment have given the girls' Sports Fitness Class at Amphi Middle School  professional Fletcher Pilates  instruction, within the curriculum. That may not seem like much, but I am here to tell you that it is a monumental achievement.  Without the support of the school's administrative staff, without their determination that the program would succeed, without their fearlessness in the face of insurmountable (to me, anyway) obstacles, they tweaked and poked and prodded and together we came up with a solution that worked for everyone. It's been going on since April 13, 2012 .  That's 9 semesters of work, 9 semesters of girls who've gained strength and control, noticed by their Coach and classroom teacher, verified by those who've gone before them.  We've done research and measurements on physical and psychological dimensions over the years, and now, with the help of the f...

I've been feeling proud of myself, of late.  I lumber less and I am more limber (sorry, I couldn't resist).  I can park far away from my destination without needing a rest once I arrive.  I walk back if I've forgotten something, rather than ask TBG to travel for me. I'm using muscles in the ways they were meant to be used, rather than abusing certain ones while ignoring the others.  I can go to the gym and carry the weight plates without stumbling. I'm able to flex my feet and point my toes and keep my ankle bones together while on the guillotine or the reformer at Pilates. Rereading that sentence, I find that it is fairly gruesome.  The reality is much gentler:                                      Guillotine                                             ...

Miss Vicki came with me last Monday.  She'd tried to sit before, on her own, but found it difficult to concentrate.  Tempting her with lunch at Prep and Pastry  beforehand, she was willing to try Yogi Marsha and the group at UAMC. Over chicken and brie on focaccia and roasted beet salad, once we got the ice tea situation squared away we talked.  Her life is changing and, as always, I had an opinion on everything.  Luckily, she sometimes finds my opinions to have value; she always encourages me to speak openly. Yes, denizens, she's a brave one, indeed. When she told me that her mother had once said the same thing, we both took a moment..... and then we moved on.  As she drove us down to the hospital parking lot, encountering the first ever traffic jam at the entrance gate, she wondered what the group was like.  Settling, introducing, listening, sharing, meditating in the silence, first sitting, then sharing, then, usually, walking ever so slowly a...

I looked good when I woke up in the morning.  Bed Head was tamed into submission.  My favorite Fabletics yoga pants were clean and on top of the stack , my favorite black top was similarly situated.  My pedicure was still unchipped.  The outside was good to go. Inside, a combination of analgesics -aspirin, turmeric, Advil - and energizers - BComplex and caffeine laden green tea - had me gliding around the living room.  I was wearing sneakers, which always helps my gait, but there were internal changes I noticed as well.  Nothing was sticking or poking or prodding.  There haven't been that many days where all of this has come together; I was lighter than air.  I walked through the bagel store with nary a lurch.  I walked up the staircase to Pilates without pausing on the landing which accommodates the turn.  I wasn't holding on, either.  I held my head high and my back straight and my sacrum reaching to the ground.  I ...

Economy Comfort is an airline oxymoron; four extra inches of leg room doesn't make up for the fact that the seat cushion reached only to the middle of TBG's thighs. I wondered why I was so comfortable, sitting in the middle seat, my feet barely reaching the ground. This leg length discrepancy has been an issue for us ever since we bought our first couch. Paying for the discomfort is an entirely different experience, though. ***** By the time we unwound ourselves in Houston, we were half way to pretzel-dom. The Houston Airport is almost as busy as Atlanta. This trip we had the privilege of changing planes in both of them. We rode monorails between terminals and tried to find something neither fried nor candy coated to eat, having learned long ago that airplane food is less than fresh or tasty. I treated myself to a Popeye's chicken breast and was pleasantly surprised by the juicy texture and the crispy coating. It's a good thing that there are no calories on vacatio...

It takes a village to raise a generation. My village is doing quite nicely, thank you very much. GRIN 's partnership with Body Works Studios and Amphi Middle School is at it again. This public/private/not-for-profit collaboration started its second year this morning.  The swept and cleaned Dance Room at the newly renovated Amphi Middle School campus was the scene, equipped with mats and magic circles courtesy of Balanced Body, Inc. The girls in Coach Powell's  Sports Conditioning Class  were the participants. The girls were a bit skeptical at first. Kyria got them off the mats and onto their feet. They were amazed at the amount of work it takes to put your feet firmly on the ground. Hands placed on the front of the hips lets you feel how open they are, how you can raise your ribs and settle your pelvis and feel taller. These girls have long, aristocratic necks without even trying. Hands on the hips, not in anger, but in service of crea...

In the months I spent lying on Douglas-the-couch, adjusting my pillows so that I could avoid being blinded by the sun traipsing across the sky, willing my bones to grow and my nerves to regenerate, missing Christina-Taylor and my lost physical capabilities in alternating breaths, I reexamined my life. Well before I heard Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of  Lean In , wonder What would you do if you weren't afraid?  at BlogHer'13, I was asking myself the same question. What did I want to do with this new path? Why was I focusing on the problems instead of the actions? Why was I afraid? True, bullets had penetrated my previously intact self.  My little friend was dead. My Congresswoman was damaged and a young man was being forcibly medicated so that he could stand trial for trying to kill us all.  Some of my fears were justified.  I knew that.  I faced them every day, and every day they became just a little less intense, a little more knowable,...

"I can't wait to see what a Pilate is." Today was the day that she found out.  Ten girls from the Sports Conditioning Class and ten girls from regular PE joined Kyria Sabin, Fletcher Pilates Master Disseminator and volunteer extraordinaire, for an adventure on the floor.  And what an adventure it was.   After some initial paperwork to support the program evaluation component, the girls were introduced to their bellies and their feet. Rocking forward and back, finding the spots beneath the ball of the big toe and the pinky toe and the center of the heel, challenged balance and got the students up and moving.   Curling into a little ball loosened and stretched the spine.   Kyria demonstrated the Pilates way to get to supine on the mat. and down they went. They made X's on the floor while Veronica showed them how to st-re-tc-h and thought about using their abdominal muscles to flatten out the curve in the spine. It...