Thursday, June 23, 2016

Pacing Myself...Old School Style


I took this selfie today and realized my job is aging me quicker than I'd like. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job but is one tough physical workout if done the right way. There are a handful of slackers who rely on me being the work horse, doing not only my job but half of theirs too. Guess you can call me 'The Enabler'. I enable them by always having glassware and silverware polished. I enable them by always,  always going to the expo window to run food when the chef calls for food runners. Trust me, when he calls for runners... they run, away from the expo area.

That's okay too.

In mid September after I leave, they got a huge shock of reality coming.

I've been there almost two and a half years and this is the busiest I've ever seen the restaurant.They're not gonna have a fifty six year old woman working circles around them anymore.

For the most part, I am in pretty great shape for an oldie. I weigh in at 100 lbs (took me two years to get back up to three digits) and at least always look neat, clean and in a  pressed shirt. But waiting tables for almost forty years is a lot of wear and tear on your body. Not to mention weekly yard work six months of the year.

My right shoulder kills me after weed eating, my left knee still sporadically goes out from the time I won the speed skate for mothers at the skating rink when Massey and Zach were in elementary school and that mom tried to bump me like we were in a Roller Derby.



About once every two years my back goes out for about a week. Last time it happened had to wear a velcro back brace under my work uniform shirt for two weeks, which doesn't mesh well with my hot flashes.

Last time Tim was home, he told me for about the hundredth time that I needed to stretch every day.

I'm lucky to just make it to work on time; ain't got no time for stretching other than that big yawn I make when tumbling out of the bed and heading towards the shower for work, but know he's right.

Now I'm gonna go retro.



Back in the eighties when Jane Fonda came out with her blockbuster workout, I climbed right on the band wagon. The first copy I had was on a vinyl LP record given to me by a friend. Nothing to look at, you just listened to Jane and did what she said to do. I was a bit embarrassed after finally buying the VCR tape and realizing  was doing half of it the wrong way.

The first ten minutes were devoted to stretching and still to this day remember the stretching part, verbatim. "Knees soft, shoulders back".

I searched Amazon the other day and bought her original workout CD. Cost me eight bucks but will be the best eight bucks I ever spent.

I still remember the first time I made it through the entire workout. I was exhausted but felt better than I ever had the next day.

I've dragged my daughter into my latest venture with me, telling her how much better I felt after jamming out with Jane Fonda and Peggy Lipton for an hour.





My daughter has no idea who Peggy Lipton is but loves her daughter, Rashida Jones.




So to get myself through these last couple of months of working like a mule decided to go retro and make my body feel better. I'm making Massey do it with me.

My video came in the mail today.

I hope I still have some leggings somewhere!

Is it sad that I'm excited about getting a workout video from 1982 in the mail... or is that a good thing?

Now if someone can just show me how to play a DVD on a Playstation3, I'll be in business.

It's hard living in the Jetson's age when you were born in the Flintstone's.

Til next time COTTON

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