You know you really need to workout when...
you're the designated cook at a Korean bbq restaurant and your arm is sore the next day.

Yes, it's pathetic...i've done 4 exercisy things since the daylight savings change in Dec:
2 snowboarding excursions
2 swing dancing evenings.
yup, that's all. my heart is prolly going to stop pumping soon because of my lack of exercise... i feel so hypocritical teaching health to my 7th graders. =)

but today finally motivated me to exercise more. the reason? i almost got completely wiped out while dancing. that's really sad - when i'm forced to sit down and rest while doing something i love love love! my legs started to get tired and even sadder is that my lower back began to hurt! yes, i'm older now but i don't think i can attribute that to old age.

but all in all, dancing again was so much fun. i found that there's a slightly different style to swinging in LA. it's the first thing i've found about this city that is subtle... usually this town is about being flamboyant (whether in material things, in your actions, in style, etc) but the moves on the floor were quiet, yet smooth. i'm quite bouncy when it comes to social dancing...bobbing is not even a strong enough word - you have to use "bouncy" because i have a lot of vertical energy. I had to unlearn that tonight and some other things...I had to re-learn a couple steps for the lindy and make my arm firmer. the venue was really cool. it reminded me of Jammix at stanford where everyone felt comfortable asking anyone to dance. I met some of the most interesting people and I was quite impressed with the quality of male leads. I'd say 95% of the guys i danced w/ tonight had strong leading technique and style. i love the challenge of having to adapt to each new partner.

but my wimpiness ain't cutting it so i am going to come out of my winter hybernation and do some more active stuff. hmm... anyone want to come watch me fall on my rollerblades?

So on the eve of my birthday, i just found out some great news! I got accepted to a 5-week long missions trip to China this summer. wow. it still hasn't hit me that this is real...will i really be all the way around the world in 3 months?

All i can think about right now is the next hour and not going anywhere near my bed. Gosh, i thought mailing off the National Boards box would let me joyfully play, play, play... but this past week, all i've done is sleep, sleep, sleep. In the final days before sending everything off, I fell behind in my school stuff and I've been playing catch-up (ketchup - heehee). I think my body also needed to de-stress or something because i cannot seem to stay awake in the afternoon after i get home. I pass out and then can't fall asleep at night and then the cycle repeats. So i must stay awake! keep alert! zzzzzzzzzz

This is random but daylight savings really got me this year. I reset most of my clocks but the main alarm I use is from an old cell phone. Naturally, i assumed that the digital satillite thing would do it's job and reset the clock but it didn't. So on monday morning, I got up an hour later than I should have and didn't even really notice until I drove into the school parking lot and realized it was FULL! eeeek! Luckily, I usually get to school fairly early so I was only about 15 minutes late to 1st period but my kids all laughed at me. =) That night, I consciously set my cell phone alarm to an hour earlier because it still hadn't reset. It went off once in the morning at the right time and then between snoozes, the clock was digitally reset so it stopped ringing because the time had already passed. I was almost late again. of course, if i didn't try to time everything so that i can be up and out of my house in 15 minutes, it would solve a lot of these problems because i could have a bit more lee-way, but oh well. at the moment, i'm not quite ready to give up precious sleep yet.

but i guess it is time to start acting more grown-up. 26 puts me definitely passed "the early twenties." i think i put up a surprising amount of resistence to getting older, but i guess each year is special in its own way and i just don't want to let go. in some ways, this year, being harder for me than most, is easier to say goodbye to but i still don't feel ready to be an "adult." oh poo-poo...being young at heart is what's most important anyways and that i'm sure i'll always be. =)