Last Christmas one of the doctors I work with very generously gave all of the front office staff gift cards for one hours massages. Its was fabulous because my right shoulder/arm was really hurting. The place I went to was having a discount if you signed up for a massage every month for six months. So I decided to give it a try. My last one was this month and it was getting ready to expire so I had to quickly make an appointment. For the past six months I've been going to Carrie. Carrie is a short pudgy woman probably in her late thirties. I was amazed that she is 1 tall enough to reach me on the table and 2 she is as strong as she is.  She's great. She asked me a bunch of questions the first time I came in about how I was feeling and what I wanted. Then each time after that would do a quick overview of everything. Carrie however was not available this week and I didn't want to let my last massage go to waste. I had to go with who was available which happened to be Kathy. Kathy is a medium size blond girl probably in her forties. She is not great. She has dry sand papery hands that made me feel like I was getting a body scrub with my massage. I think she must chop down trees in her spare time or soak her hands in bleach. While rubbing my neck she continually rubbed lotion in my hair. Lotion doesn't typically come out of a persons hair with a once over shampoo (I know this because of my 2nd roommate who got it in her head one day to use lotion instead of conditioner. A week later her hair was still greasy). I spent much of the hour wondering how long it would take to get out.  Also she would pop my knotted muscles over my bones and I'm fairly certain no thinks that feels good. Its possible that I am more tight getting out than going in. Word to the wise when you find a good massage therapist do not stray.

Awhile back a good friend of mine gave me his bike. I had told him about how I wanted to lessen my negative impact on the earth and that I was thinking about biking to work and school. I was so thankful for the bike and really enjoyed having it but thought that I should wait until it got a little warmer than 30 to start ridding it to work. Finally a couple weeks ago I decided on a whim to give it a try. I hadn't made a trial run before but figured giving myself 30 mins would be leave me plenty of time to get there and look presentable. At first it was lovely. The weather was cool, I was feeling good about exercising and saving the environment, but about halfway through my legs started cramping and I started breaking a sweat. Soon my nice little route stated going up hill and my pass slowed to a craw. I think I turtle may have passed me. I thought I was going to die but was too proud to get off and walk. I got to work 10 mins early a sweaty mess. I spent every second of that time in the bathroom trying to cool down and dry my clothes.

The second time I biked I wised up a little. I decided wear breathable workout gear (really why didn't I do that the first time) and take a bag with a wash cloth, make up, and work clothes. I was cruzing right along feeling a little better than last time. When I hit uphill section it started sprinkling and I was sort of thankful for the coolness. That sprinkle however quickly turned to a down pour. I was soaked through and had to squish squish squish through the halls until my shoes dried.

Today went much better. I'm still horribly out of shape, but I didn't look like a disaster and I only prayed for God to deliver me one time.

I bought green growing things today. I’m so excited!! When the weather started getting bearable here and I started to hear the birds chirping again I decided that this year I would be serious about planting a garden. I have had a love for gardening since about the age of 8. That summer my parents took away our allowance and told us that instead they would pay us for the produce we brought in from the garden. I have amazing parents that enabled us to plant a large garden and made it a lot of fun to plant things. We made a tipi of poles and wires so that pole beans could grow around it and then we’d have a little fort of sorts to play in. They also created a little mess tunnel for cucumbers to grow over with the same idea. We also had the normal rows of tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash and okra. We had an unbelievable crop that  year and I think we probably ate canned green beans for 5 years (thus ruined my enjoyment of beans). The years after that my parents did not pay us for the produce, but I still retained my love of growing things. Its amazing to me that I can play a part in the beauty of nature; that I can cultivate it and sort of arrange it around me. I am also on a quest to lessen my impact on nature and part of doing that is being able to grow some of my own food. Its been a long time since I’ve gardened so we’ll see how this goes. Its still a little cold to be planting anything, but lettuce, from what I’ve read, is fairly cold hardy. I’ve never grown lettuce before, but my excitement of gardening has grown to large for me to contain so I bought some on a whim and will give it a try. I now have green and red lettuce and two plants of kale. You should come visit me in June and I will treat you to a home grown salad. Eventually I hope to plant peppers, zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. Then in my window boxes I'll plant flowers. It will probably be pansies and either sweet potatoe vines or morning glories. I will keep you updated with how the planting/growing goes.