Long ago I tapped a guy's front tire when backing out of a driveway. I got out of the car and looked at the tire and there wasn't even a scuff mark on it so I assumed all was well. this was on my dad's street and a neighbour saw the tap. She was also a client of mine so she got out and we both examined the tire and she thought it was fine too.

Three hours later I got a phone call from a very irate guy who informed me I had damaged his car's steering and it was being towed to the garage and would cost over $800 to repair. That was about 2 week's pay for me at that time so this was a major blow.

saef The person who hit your car may have also just given it a tap and assumed it was OK.

Dagmar :shrug:

I should feel caught up this Monday morning: I worked for part of yesterday afternoon, finishing off writing the last of my 10 midyear reviews, which I'll conduct this afternoon.

Instead, I'm watching for the dreaded thing that will ambush me and make my next two days at work more difficult. On Wednesday, my week-and-a-half long vacation is supposed to start. Not "supposed to." I WILL log off and shut down and go away.

But what is the thing that will arise as an impediment as I try to attain escape velocity from the vortex of overwork?

I know it's out there, gathering strength, even as my 6 AM gym departure time approaches.

Weigh-in: 143.4, back up again.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Two apricots
Lunch: Baby arugula and Spring Mix salad with roasted vegetables, marinated artichoke hearts, pecans and a sprinkle of strangely powdery bleu cheese from one of those salad "fixings" packets included within certain Fresh Express salads
Snack: A persimmon
Dinner: Quinoa with shrimp, spinach and broccoli
Dessert: Vanilla almond crunch Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

I did not go to physical therapy because I need a prescription from the orthopedic surgeon after my post-surgery follow-up appointment this coming Friday. At the gym: 20 minutes on recumbent bike, resistance raised to six on hill program, which was hard work. Then I reproduced my physical therapy workout: 1x12 body weight squat to warm up, then 3x12 40-lb kettlebell squat alternating with 4x12 raised-leg crunches; 3x12 quad raise machine; 3x12 leg curls; 3x12 abductor/adductor. And walked to drugstore and then home to apartment.

Yesterday felt strangely calm at work, so I'm thinking I'll pay for it today. I wasn't able to pick up my car, unfortunately, because the garage closed well before my ride arrived. I should've just left work early & taken the train. I will take the train this morning instead after I leave the gym.

(Two consecutive posts full of "Should" and "Should Have": That is indeed how I look at my life.)

I get my own midyear review today. Yes, of course, I'm a little tense about it, but not in great suspense. These are either green, yellow or red, and it's not like I don't think mine will be green all the way through.

Weigh-in: 142.9, down slightly. I thought this would trend slightly but steadily downward once I got back in the gym and it's been all over the place. At least some of this is fluid retention, as my injured leg is still visibly swollen bigger than the other and healing.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Juicy plum
Lunch: Spring mix with roasted vegetables, lots of almonds, goat cheese, Craisins and a can of sardines in hot sauce
Snack: Four little apricots the size of pigeon's eggs and a persimmon
Dinner: Steak, roasted cauliflower, steamed green beans, cucumber & tomato salad
Dessert: Coconut cashew Quest bar, and then, I couldn't resist, five ripe black figs

At the gym:

20 minute warm-up on the recumbent bike, raising resistance to seven, and then back to the Strong Curves Workout 6A, though I lowered the weight for both squatting and weighted hip thrusts. Probably I could have gone higher but did want to acknowledge the leg is a work in progress.

What are you doing during your time off, saef?

Jay, tomorrow I'll go downtown to see the David Foster Wallace movie and an indie called "Diary of a Teenage Girl," and on Friday, after the surgeon removes the stitches from my leg, I'll go Upstate for a week, staying with my mother. We'll attend a big outdoor antique show, which I've gone to annually for maybe 20 years now, and I'll be looking at cars. I've stored a lot of books at her house that I ought to winnow through. I will also go to some local birding spots.

Waking up at 4 AM on my day off. I got a glowing midyear review yesterday, which helps me cope with having to finish off a few tasks online, including a final midyear review.

Weigh in: Despite my feeling that I ate a lot of fruit yesterday, I'm just a bit lower, at 142.7. Now I believe I may indeed be heading back down. Of course my leg remains swollen. It was really itchy last night around bedtime, too. Is it an old wives tale that itchiness means healing?

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Red and yellow cherries
Lunch: Spring mix salad with roasted vegetables, beef, almonds and fresh figs, oh yum
Snack: An elderly peach
Dinner: Chicken leg quarter marinated in yogurt & spices, steamed green beans, roasted cauliflower
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

At the gym, 20 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer, resistance lower than usual, felt good, and back to the Strong Curves Workout 6B. Oh and I did walking lunges across the studio floor. With no pain in my shin or sense of something caught & pulling, thanks to removal of the screws! Though the leg is still swollen up with fluid, I can already feel the improvement.

Hooray for improvement!

On Saturday, I was put off my usual workout by a bunch of loud, cliquish "bros" who were all using the barbell section of the gym, egging each other on and sitting on the equipment between sets. I am far from shy, but since I've been doing the Strong Curves workouts, I feel more self-conscious doing hip thrusts/glute bridges, which are purely a "girly" move (I've never seen a man train using those moves), so I decided to do the hip thrusts with a barbell stolen from a bench press station (not area where the guys were hanging). I stupidly loaded the bar first and THEN picked it up off the rack. Lost control of it and dropped the bar on my fingers, catching them against the padded side of the bench. I broke the distal phalanx of my index finger, and ripped half the nail off of it to boot. Can't believe I let them intimidate me into doing something so stupid. Anyway, finger feels better today but Monday and Tuesday were hard - I was seeing patients all day, and typing notes about each, doing it all with 9 fingers.

Unsurprisingly, I overate on Saturday (and a bit on Sunday) to "comfort" myself. Equally unsurprisingly, the scale was up to 130 on Monday morning. Back down "all the way" to 128.5 today. I feel like this thread should be called "permanently parked within 5 pounds of goal."

Very sorry to hear this, Andrea. Does it hurt very much?

Oh, Andrea, that could have been me: You're right, the weighted hip-thrusts draw some stares in the gym (but I do them anyway), and I do have to remind myself constantly "Claim your space, get your workout done, who cares what the guys are doing?" Also I'm at my clumsiest just at those moments when I want to look nonchalant and completely in control.

Thursday, my first day of vacation that I'll really be using as a vacation. Waking early this morning reluctantly, but keeping to my early hours will help me have the kind of active day off that I like.

Yes, I worked yesterday, compulsively, even as I baked muffins and another egg bake and took my time at the gym. But I did get that final year-end review out.

Weigh-in: 141.6, which is again downward. I ought to adjust my ticker to my post-operative weight.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes and scallions; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Red and yellow cherries
Lunch: Whole Foods salad bar, my own concoction of raddichio, arugula, marinated peppers, Indian lentils and eggplant and sauteed cabbage, shredded golden beets, and a Quest Mixed Berry Bliss bar
Snack: Slightly overripe green figs, insanely delicious
Dinner: Chicken leg quarter marinated in yogurt & spices, steamed green beans, roasted cauliflower
Dessert: Cookies and cream Quest bar -- yes, it's been a two-Quest-bar day.

Going to bed early tonight, tired and thinking about David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides, Mary Karr, Thomas Lux, Marie Howe, Michael Cunningham ... and me, as I was in grad school, over a decade ago.

Andrea, that stinks!! I'm sorry.

Saef, I hope you're starting to feel like you're really on vacation now. It's ok to sleep in a little bit, in my opinion. ;)

Sorry to hear about your injury, Andrea. What I have noticed about the men at the gym is that they are so busy looking at themselves in the mirror that they don't even notice me or anything I'm doing.

We ate at Olive Garden last night - dinner with my son's new in-laws. They were very nice but 20 years younger than DH and me. I had a "lighter fare" dish but ate some bread sticks too. Overall I went over my limit by about 400 calories, which I guess is forgiveable as long as it only happens now and then.

Today I'm attaining escape velocity from my home & daily routine and will be heading Upstate, maybe for as long as a week. I'll be driving for several hours. First, though, I'll get my stitches taken out at a post-op appointment with the surgeon.

Weigh-in: 141.4, another nudge downward. I've readjusted my ticker to reflect what I gained after sitting around for a week recuperating.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Red and yellow cherries
Lunch: Chickpeas with roasted vegetables, almonds and the last of that powdery blue-cheese-like stuff from a packaged salad
Snack: Somewhat mealy Gala apple with a bruised spot
Dinner: Salmon with dill, steamed cauliflower, zucchini & tomatoes
Dessert: White chocolate raspberry Quest bar


Exercise Today:

At the gym, 20 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer, resistance at eight, intervals, not easy, then a simalcrum of my physical therapy sessions, with 4x12 barbell squats with 50-lb fixed barbell alternating with 4x20 crunches, 4x12 quad raises and 4x12 hamstring curls, 4x12 abductor/adductor, and seated calf raise on the left leg with a 30-lb dumbbell sitting on top of it.

Saturday, after a good, long sleep in my childhood double bed in my mother's house Upstate, up fairly early for a full day outdoors in the August humidity at an antique show that spreads out across an entire rural town.

No weigh-in.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Mango coconut muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, the 180-calorie bag
Lunch: Spring greens, with squash onion & tomatoes sauteed, almonds, goat cheese, lots of Craisins
Snack: Plum
Dinner: Way too much to eat. We stopped at the casino run by the Oneida Indian tribe after the antique show, because my mother, who loves those slot machines, had earned free passes to the buffet.

So I was eating at a rural NY buffet, which caters to the more traditional tastes of rural farming communities and Upstate small towns and cities.

I had three plates. I am not proud of this, but I'm determined to be accountable here.

The first plate, heaping to the top, was entirely composed of whatever vegetables I could find, like asparagus, squash, brussels sprouts and "Utica greens" and fresh peas. That sounds like a good choice, doesn't it? The little placards on the buffet seemed self-congratulatory and proud that many of these vegetables were "steamed" -- but they doused them in anachronistic amounts of butter, as though it were still the early "Mad Men" era. So with that plate, I'd eaten all of my fats not only for the day, but for the whole week to come.

The second plate was four crayfish from a boil (I got just the tails) and maybe a dozen peel-and-eat shrimp. I found broccoli and I went back for more of those perfectly formed, meaty spears of asparagus.

My last plate was a small one, consisting of flat-topped strawberries (taken from the chocolate fountain fondue pot area -- the sous chef just beheaded the top quarter to get rid of the stem) and a few chunks of honeydew melon.

I was waddling afterward. I had a huge decaf coffee, black, from the in-house Starbucks, just to help tamp it all down.

Exercise for Today:

Walked from 10 AM to about 5:30 PM, in the sun & humidity, with occasional breaks sitting in a hot van or in a folding chair or on a picnic table bench.

My leg felt surprisingly good. I didn't start to really feel the metal in it until late in the day when swelling caused a bit of discomfort. My feet got tired and my body got dehydrated way before my leg did.

Love this bit! Glad your leg is enjoying things a bit more. You're sounding quite chipper, saef. That antique fair does you good - I've noticed this before.

Birchie, the chaos of this show always cheers me. It looks like the contents of someone's head.

Sunday, after another good, long sleep. But I didn't feel quite right because my mother no longer takes a newspaper and I'm used to the Sunday NY Times accompanying my coffee. Her city paper is now only published once or twice a week and updated online.

We drove to the closed-for-Sunday car dealerships and looked at cars at a place called Driver's Village.

There appears to be some sumptuary law in force whereby car manufacturers can only offer cars in black, white, gray, silver, red or deep blue. Why is this? Is that all that the American male can stand?

No weigh-in.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Protein shake & cacao nib muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Bare Fruit Granny Smith apple chips, the 180-calorie bag
Lunch: Spring greens, with squash onion & tomatoes sauteed, almonds, goat cheese, lots of Craisins -- and a strawberry cheese cake Quest bar
Snack: Peach
Dinner: Steak that my mother grilled, a chuck steak with too much fat for my tastes, sweet corn and steamed broccoli
Dessert: Jell-O sugarfree pudding cup, frozen, slightly thawed

Exercise Today:

At the gym Upstate, 20 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer, resistance probably at about five because I had difficulty figuring out the electronic entry for this updated machine. Then workout 6C of Strong Curves advanced program. This gym has a big free-weight section with a squat cage and six benches with racks for bench pressing, including an inclined bench press. It was full of guys this morning, some quite powerful looking, and of course, I had the workout where you pause in the weighted hip thrust and hold it for one minute. I kept the weight low, at 125 lbs, though my leg is almost where it was before the screw removal.

Slept in again past 6 AM, which I find somehow alarming.

Tried to weigh in on my mother's scale. My weight ranged from 142.3 to 143 from three different step-ons.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Protein shake & cacao nib muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and blueberries with cinnamon
Snack: Gala apple
Lunch: Spring greens, with squash onion & tomatoes sauteed, walnuts, goat cheese, cut-up steak, Craisins
Dinner: At Olive Garden, tilapia with shrimp and broccoli and a lousy garden salad with salty dressing
Dessert: Strawberry cheesecake Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

Did Workout 6A2 of the Strong Curves program at the Upstate gym. I got to use a proper bench with a rack for a bench press. Some teenage boys on the bench next to mine stole the collars off my bar when I was doing the alternating exercise. Why? I had a towel on the bench and my water bottle next to it. Because I was away for less than 10 minutes?