I shudder to think

I walk a lot. Yesterday, when I was pressed for time, I hopped on the bus from the train station to get to the gym. I usually just walk from the station to the gym and back, regardless of whether or not there is a bus available. What drove me crazy, though, was how long the bus was parked at the station before continuing on its merry little way. I'm sure I didn't save any time at all. Taking the bus for that distance made me feel guilty. Here I was conserving my energy on the way to expending it in order to get in better shape. I mean, it's almost as bad as this:

However, I did walk quite a bit today. I had a checkup with my head and neck doctor this morning to follow up on the whole parotidectomy thing. Instead of taking the bus back home I trekked it. A good half hour walk. It felt great, and I hence convinced my mom that it was "not too far" to walk.

Then in the afternoon I visited some old coworkers at the travel agency. After catching up with them I wandered all around downtown just because already so much has changed along Stephen Avenue and such that I felt out of the loop and needed to reacquaint myself with the area. I think walking is seriously underrated. I intend to keep on walking until I can no longer carry myself.

"Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out, till my legs give out....till my bones collapse" ~ Eminem - I Collapse

My grandma's been moaning and groaning about her knee. If you ask me, it's suffering from lack of use. She says she's getting frail. In my opinion, she did not give her body the type of support and regimen it needed to keep strong. I love my grandma, but while other seniors -- who are even older than her -- wander about the city with their friends, even attending senior dances and enjoying themselves, all she does is sit here at home doing word search puzzles. That's right, she sits. She doesn't work herself going down to the basement and back up. I'll bet she doesn't even walk a whole half a kilometre in her daily wanderings about the house. Even during our trip, while the rest of the family was wandering about Pine Street/Pike Market/the mall/etc she would sit at a bench and wait for us. And my poor father could barely enjoy the vacation with us since he had to babysit her. Or if it was a sightseeing trek that we were doing as a family we had to push her around in a wheelchair. (Mind you, the wheelchair was probably an excellent idea just so we could cover more ground in the little time we had.) And now she's saying she's weak and all. I am so not going out like that.

And it's not even just keeping strong that motivates me to keep walking. It scares me to think how much fatter I would be if I drove around. Daisy and I had this discussion. She contemplated the implications of the fact that she now drives to her local drugstore when she used to be happy just walking over there. I mean, don't get me wrong. I ask for a ride on the weekends to go to work rather than take the bus. But if I myself had driveability, I think I'd be bigger right now. And it's not even just transportation. I find I feel a lot better working my retail job, feelings towards the paycheck discrepancies aside, than I did sitting around at a desk at the agency. I could feel my thighs and butt growing bigger and bigger as I sat at my desk, whereas at the store my legs are constantly on the go. And if I'm lucky, there'll be some luggage stock to put out so even my arms get a workout while I'm at work!

I don't know where I'm going with all of this. Perhaps I'm just reminding myself of how spoiled our society is and how we whine and complain about our shape and all, when really it's how our lives have shaped us. Satellite keeps lots of people planted in front of their tvs for hours everyday. Everybody's driving around and around for a parking spot closer to the mall when they could've saved time just parking in the spot farther away and walking over. We sit at our desks all day except for lunchtime and coffee break. Boy, that construction worker sure has a grubby job, but look at how much better shape he's in compared to a lot of the downtown suits.

I didn't write this to say that all of us should be skinny...heaven knows that I'm not one of those skinny people, either. Just so long as you are loving your life, loving how you look...that's really all that matters. I've never wanted to be stick-skinny, and truth be told most days I love what I see in the mirror...but I'm also loving the exercise I'm getting, and I think that's what makes me the happiest. You won't see me all old and decrepit. I'll be dancing up until the day comes for all of you to dance on my grave (not with malicious intent, of course!)