Friday, January 2, 2009

Starting Over Again

My heck! I've only taken two weeks off from walking, and I feel like a beginner again! You have to remember that I've been walking for years--through fat and thin and on the way back again.

Even though I haven't been walking, I have maintained my 3-times-a-week routine at Curves, albeit not at 5:30 a.m. like when I'm in school. This morning I went to Curves and only did the weight machines because I planned to walk, and that's what I did. My word! My legs felt like logs, and my hips like unoiled gears. When I had about 1/4 mile left to go, both legs and hips stopped aching and began moving more smoothly. Let this be a lesson to me--don't take two weeks off from walking!

The reasons I haven't been walking include finishing one audio book and taking care of Julie after her surgery. You can read about Julie's surgery if you haven't already on her blog "Julie's Losing It." Since I have many audio books on my ipod, I picked a Dean Koontz, whose books are usually great for walking. I'll be darned if I could concentrate on the book; all I could think of was what I could write about in my blog! I'm sure the newness will wear off and I'll realize one day that I haven't written anything for weeks, but for now the ideas are flooding through my mind.

Like many of you, I'm the type that tries something new and that's all I want to do until something else comes along. On Wednesday, I thought I'd try online scrapbooking for the first time by quickly putting together some pictures from any trip I could find the pictures for. I was actually hoping to scrapbook the fantastic pictures I have of our Seattle trip, but ended up finding the San Francisco pictures of when Shaneen, Mother, and I visited Jason in Monterey in 2003. And, you guessed it, we didn't have digital cameras in 2003, so I scanned all the pictures. Six hours later, I had produced a scrapbook--my first one of any kind ever! Considering that it was my first online scrapbook and a quickie at that, I'm quite pleased with the effort. Now, however, I can imagine collecting all these scrapbooks online and never getting those printed off. At least I'm one step closer to doing something with all my fantastic photos. But, since I decided to start blogging today, scrapbooking may take a back seat with reading the required material for my reading endorsement class, watching HGTV and game shows nonstop, attending boys' and girls' basketball games, and believe it or not, grading Sophomore English essays!

A required novel and scoring students' essays should have been enough of a reason to get out of my rocking chair and go for a walk every day this Christmas break, but HGTV and game shows won out. Today I walked right after Jeopardy and before Match Game at 11:30 a.m. Not quite sure what I'll do when school starts again and all-day television is no longer an option.

Old Walker, New Blogger

Well, okay, all my friends and family, here's my first blog entry. Even though I've wanted to blog for at least the past year, I've been tortured trying to come up with a clever name like Mes Bijous, Framed, In Season, Furious, etc., but those have all been taken. Yesterday lightning struck and I decided upon the blog name "Street Walker." Naturally, Julie knew right away what everyone would think (like that's going to happen!) and I thought about what my mother would have to say, so I spared myself the hassles and named my blog "Going Walkabout." I must say I am pleased with this name because walking is one of the things I enjoy doing the most.

After coming up with a name last night, my mind went wild thinking of all the things I could write about, all of them in some way connected to walking. I plan to write about my favorite walking places, where I walk when I travel, excitements and scares I encounter while walking, books I listen on my walks, things I think about, . . . and so on and so on. As you can see, walking is just the excuse I've given myself to write.

I hope some of what I write can be as entertaining as Julie's adventures and as clever as Shaneen's and Cheya's discourses on books and other topics. Most of all, I think, I hope I can get back into a writing mode. After teaching so many students how to write, sometimes I wonder if I can even write myself.

Well, with that being said, I'm going to go watch a 10 a.m. rerun of Jeopardy (one blessing of having two weeks off for Christmas!), lace up my walking shoes, and take off along the trail in back of my house.

P.S. This will be only my second walk during Christmas break. Something happened to my motivation this year.