Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Chair Prisoner Meets Her Match


Tuesday, January 11, 2011
It's 1/11/11 today, or as they say in Europe 11/1/11. It looks so much better the European way, but then those folks always do things with a bit more panache then we Americans do. I mean, just look at the symmetry of those numbers. That's design balance, baby. Structural integrity. It looks great and it can stand perfectly balanced on it's own.

Balance. That is my word for today. Balance became an issue starting last night when my 10 year old pound rescue dog suddenly couldn't stand up. Her back right leg has something going on, neurologically, and it just slides out from under her and she's down. The vet did the exam and xray's and thinks she might have thrown her back out playing with my other dog; a Great Dane. She's on her anti inflamatory and a little somethin-somethin meds for the pain and she's comfortable, so she's chilling out on a cloud of softness.

Yesterday morning life was the same routine and then just one thing, one leg threw all the balance off and now everything is different and may never return again, to the way it was yesterday morning.

It got me thinking about where I might be out of balance in my life. The smart part of my brain knows that everything has balance in the Universe. One thing pushes up against another compressing tiny particles and producing dense matter versus dark matter; a half day of darkness balances the half day of daylight during our custodial visit from the sun and we turn our faces towards where it hangs in the sky.

Some days, I have sat at this computer for way too long. If standing had a sound it would be like an old rusty iron door on a container ship creaking loudly as it's yanked open. I know that my body is out of balance when the creaking starts. If I spent as much time standing up and moving as I do sitting down, then my knees, and my lower back wouldn't be laughing at me when I try to use them as more than table edge locators and dull ache storage facilities. I refer to this particular physical phenomenon as "Folded Person Syndrome"; a common ailment amongst writers, IT people and eBay addicts everywhere.

Even though I may have achieved hyperspeed in my writing career by sitting here for five hours straight cranking out pages, the balance in my life is off because my body suffers. My mind does too when the cream filled version of my mind, tells me that I could just go prone on the sofa and catch up on the old How I Met Your Mother episodes so I will be current when it ends.

Shameus, who I introduced yesterday, works as the General Manager of the Creamy Mind department and if my body hurts enough from inactivity, he just might sneak back in here and try to take over again and "help" me get comfortable. "Dooooonuts!" So today, with my dog Pez (yes, named for candy. What else?) faces her own doggie balance challenge, I am paying attention to the active/inactive balance and walking away from this machine in just a moment. Notice I said "walking". Hooray!

Psssst- final word on balance: I haven't missed the deliciousness of Cherry Garcia yet. Trade off/balance: I found a new product, like Crystal Light, that is sold in little water bottle sized portions to jazz up your H2O. Awesome! It's made by a company called (ironically) "Klass" (what?) and I am currently enjoying a huge glass of pineapple flavor water. So delish!! I found this accidently when I was in the imported Mexican food section of our local Meijer store while looking for some spices. There it was, looking all innocent in it's white and blue box. A favorite flavor, she had some yummy siblings like a hibiscus one called "Jamaica". I have balanced my sweet tooth by trading the crazy points of ice cream for zero points of yumminess.

Plus, it's 20 freaking degress outside today in Michigan and I am also trading the mental image of igloos and blue lips for beach chairs and Coppertone as I sip my drink and hang out with Pez while she heals. 11/1/11. Standing up now...

No comments: