La la la la la la la. I can't hear you.
I am so ready for summer. I know I shouldn’t be living in the future and missing all of the precious moments that make up each day. I know the months already fly by and I’ll be asking where the hell August went in, like, a week. But all the things I want to do these days are summer things, and now is evenings that get dark before you can find someone to go to the park with, and the end of citrus with no new fruit ‘til apricots, and not really quite warm enough to take your book and a drink out to the porch. Asparagus is here, tasting like god’s own rainbow of hope after a forty day deluge of roasted root vegetables, so I suppose that’s something.
I’m especially looking forward to this summer, because the hard yoga teacher is moving to a studio even closer to my house* and the pool right next to work will open at the end of May. The hard yoga teacher will have early morning classes; if I could get into a routine of hard yoga most mornings and swimming most lunches, I would be the most serene person ever. I love lunchtime swimming, especially because they keep this pool good and cold. But more importantly, a combination of hard yoga and swimming would thoroughly address the only two things I admit to being vain about. I try not to care much about looks, but the truth is that I feel a million times prettier when I am tan and I want tricep ridges more than anything.
The tricep ridges are developing, since freakin’ every other move in hard yoga is chaturanga and I can get halfway through class before I have to drop to my knees to finish the push-up. Swimming'll reinforce the triceps, and I can borrow Ali’s swim paddles to make it harder. But the really important part is the tan. When I first started lap swimming, I would do the front crawl for forty minutes and call it a day. Couple weeks of that went by and I noticed that my back was getting tanner than my front. An uneven tan is purely unacceptable, and I switched to backstroke every third lap, which solves the problem. I also used to only breathe on my right, but when I began to develop a goggle tan on my right eye, I changed twenty-five years of swimming habits and learned to breathe on my left. I’m sure you are as relieved as I am that I no longer have a lopsided goggle tan.
I was going to take another solemn oath** that as god is my witness I will not have a racerback tan this year but before I could get all melodramatic and raise my fist to the sky, I happened on an athletic suit without a racerback. I am very excited. It makes me want summer even more.
*It is very silly that I am excited for the move. She’s moving from about a mile away to half a mile away.
**It is a big year for oaths. The one I declared earlier, that I’ll get a cell phone when Anand moves to California, looks like it might actually come due. I’ll let him tell you all about that.
I’m especially looking forward to this summer, because the hard yoga teacher is moving to a studio even closer to my house* and the pool right next to work will open at the end of May. The hard yoga teacher will have early morning classes; if I could get into a routine of hard yoga most mornings and swimming most lunches, I would be the most serene person ever. I love lunchtime swimming, especially because they keep this pool good and cold. But more importantly, a combination of hard yoga and swimming would thoroughly address the only two things I admit to being vain about. I try not to care much about looks, but the truth is that I feel a million times prettier when I am tan and I want tricep ridges more than anything.
The tricep ridges are developing, since freakin’ every other move in hard yoga is chaturanga and I can get halfway through class before I have to drop to my knees to finish the push-up. Swimming'll reinforce the triceps, and I can borrow Ali’s swim paddles to make it harder. But the really important part is the tan. When I first started lap swimming, I would do the front crawl for forty minutes and call it a day. Couple weeks of that went by and I noticed that my back was getting tanner than my front. An uneven tan is purely unacceptable, and I switched to backstroke every third lap, which solves the problem. I also used to only breathe on my right, but when I began to develop a goggle tan on my right eye, I changed twenty-five years of swimming habits and learned to breathe on my left. I’m sure you are as relieved as I am that I no longer have a lopsided goggle tan.
I was going to take another solemn oath** that as god is my witness I will not have a racerback tan this year but before I could get all melodramatic and raise my fist to the sky, I happened on an athletic suit without a racerback. I am very excited. It makes me want summer even more.
*It is very silly that I am excited for the move. She’s moving from about a mile away to half a mile away.
**It is a big year for oaths. The one I declared earlier, that I’ll get a cell phone when Anand moves to California, looks like it might actually come due. I’ll let him tell you all about that.
posted by Megan at 1:59 PM
16 Comments:
Hey, I have those tricep things. I don't know where they came from, they've just always been there.
And, if you want a tan, you should have come camping with us this weekend at Mt. Lassen. It was warm enough I ditched my jacket and shirts altogether on the hike back. The guy I went with was running around in the snow in just his underwear for awhile. We both got some color, mostly red.
Justin
Yeah sugar. I'm sure you have lots of triceps. You also have, like, no body fat. And you use your arms to climb. Triceps don't spontaneously appear for everyone.
That's the only visible muscle I have though.
I think dips works it out. You should do dips.
Justin
Oh, and abs, most of the time I have abs.
But that's it.
Justin
The awesome thing is, anyone else would be bragging. But you're just being Justin.
I'm also looking forward to fresh summer fruits. I finally got back on the bicycle yesterday for the first time this year. Even the short run reminded me that muscles don't remain ready to go without some effort.
I think dips works it out. You should do dips.
Correct, also bench presses, especially when done with a grip slightly narrower than shoulder width.
Many men do endless sets of dumbbell kickbacks and cable pulldowns to build their triceps, but those aren't particularly good exercises.
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights
1. Girl! I'm so with you! I love summer and I want it to come. right. now!
2. I do a zillion dips all the time (off the step, Bosu, floor...) at the gym and my tricep ridges are mostly not visible unless I flex in front of the mirror at home by myself, which, of course, I would never, ever do.
aDubin!
Who would do that? Who would straighten their arms as hard as they could to see whether their triceps are bigger than they were yesterday? Who would rub the length of their upper arms to see if there is a contrast between the steel of her shoulders and the iron of her triceps? That would be self-absorbed! And vain! And ridiculous, when swimming season hasn't even started yet. And pointless, because who cares what my arms look like when I am still coasting on last year's tan which has run out so how can I ever love my body until I can get enough sun to correct the shame of being pale?
There are plenty of winter sports that put you out in the sunshine. And are lots of exercise. In fact, snow shoeing is an incredible workout. All that sinking into the snow, and high stepping.
Anyway, winter is far superior to summer. You can always dress warmer, once it gets hot, you can only undress so far until air conditioning is the only solution.
Justin
I like the heat and I LOVE to sweat, and don't like wearing layers of clothing. So summer is better for me.
Air conditioning is unpleasant and gives me a headache. A breeze from a fan is good, but so is being hot. You can always go to the pool if it is unbearable. But if you do that before it is 105 degrees out, I'll call you weak.
going to the pool is all well and good, unless you've got to work, or live in an apartment that can't be adequately ventilated.
I was considering moving to Big Basin for a few weeks last summer when the night time temperature inside my apartment was close to 100 degrees.
I don't like sweating when I'm in bed.
And, you can sweat in the cold. You just start moving, and you get warm really fast. I've certainly worked up a sweat out in the cold, hiking, skiing, sledding, cross country skiing, biking, running, etc....
Plus, it should be pointed out that Sacramento doesn't really have a winter. I'd be shocked if the temp ever dropped below 25. That's not cold enough to stop you from doing most anything.
Justin
Here it is still winter, and I am confining myself to being impatient for spring. But very, very impatient I am.
This Sacramento "winter", especially the last three weeks or so, has been some of the most pleasant weather I've ever experienced anywhere. Although Megan's right that the days are too short.
In my limited experience (last summer) of a Sacramento summer, it can be a hellish inferno. All plant life is dead and brown, the air is also brown and sears your lungs, and finding shade at midday is a survival issue.
Megan's macho attitude toward summertime temperatures is an almost precise mirror image of how people from Minnesota and the Great Lakes regions treat winter. There are a lot of people up there who defiantly put on t-shirts and shorts as soon as the temperature hits 40.
Marcus
P.S. actually, "winter" in the central valley is almost exactly what would be described as "spring" anywhere else -- temps from 40-65, occasional intermittent rain, lots of blooming and blossoming going on.
Yeah, I love how the yoga instructors trick you into doing pushups:
"Okay, plank position, everybody. Now slooowly go chaturanga. Aaaand, back to plank. Slooowly go chaturanga..." Et cetera.
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