Today's rambling: Pain is gain...?
Written on Monday, Mar. 17, 2003 at 7:52 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Around quarter after 8 last night, I hauled myself down to the Rec Center to just kind of...well, if you can consider it relaxing then that's what I did. :P I thought Amanda was going to go as well, but she didn't show up...which was just as well, as I needed the alone time. I walked around the track a little bit, then went down into the weight room. Other than the girl working there, I was the only female in the room...and I was suddenly quite self-conscious. I went off into the corner where the leg-working machines are and did my thing there, worked on one arm machine, but then was feeling too awkward to say so I went back upstairs and used the elliptical machine for about 15 minutes. I barely made it the entire 15 because my leg muscles were so stressed, but it all worked out and after another cool-down lap around the track, I left. It was about 9 o'clock by that time, so I sat down on a bench and stared up at the sky for a little while. I probably could have stayed out there for ages if it had just been me, but of course there were people walking back and forth and it was getting on my nerves. I need to be by myself when I'm thinking/meditating like that.

So anyway, I came home and got into the shower...and the pain began.

It wasn't really until the end of my shower that it happened, but this one part of my lower back (the right side, kind of right above my bum) started hurting really badly. I thought maybe I'd gotten a stitch or something and so kept trying to bend so that I could work it out, but it only helped for a few seconds. By the time I got back to the room, I was hobbling and I couldn't bend over at all. Sitting was absolutely impossible, and trying to get into/out of bed was equally so. I actually burst into tears at one point, the pain was so bad. And I don't even know what I did! The only machine I can think of that would have done it was this...I forget what it's called, but you're more or less laying there with your feet up against a metal platform. You have to push your legs against said platform so that the part you're laying on goes backward. Anyway, that's the only machine I can think of that would have done it, only because I have the most weight on that one. I used the hip abductor/aductor machines (or however they're called) too...oh yeah, and that one where you lie on your stomach, put your ankles underneath this bar thing, and then bend your legs at the knee (thereby lifting the bar up, of course)...So any one of those could have caused that muscle to rip painfully.

But anyway, I stayed in bed until 12:30 (because I couldn't even sit up before that). After that, things were a little better in that I could sit, so I ran off to French class...where I found out that I got a 98.5 on my exam! Wahooo!!! :D I'm so pleased with myself. I hope I can do this well for the rest of the semester!

So back to the muscle thing, I'm almost all better now. I'm sure I'll be stiff and sore again tomorrow morning, but now I'm pretty much back to normal. The only thing I can't do is bend and touch my hands to the floor. *giggles* Still, no pain no gain, right? Ha ha ha...yeah right, as if I actually believe in that adage...

In my possession at this very moment is the esteemed NBS binder that our former president used to tote with her to every meeting. Misty had been the last to have it and she told us ages ago that she'd left it in the TV studio, but we finally got it today. Of course, none of us has actually heard from Misty since before break, so we had to get Bill to retrieve the binder for us. In it are all the NBS rules and things, plus forms for anyone who's interested in joining...Amber told me to take it since I'm the vice president, so I keep peering around my laptop monitor to gaze at it. I'm such a dork. But this is the first time I've ever held an 'important' position in anything, so everything's all new to me! Hehehe...

Amanda and I are going to watch "Monty Python's Meaning Of Life" tonight. I just got it in the mail today and I'm itching to see it! I was surprised that Amanda said she wanted to watch it, since she's always complaining that she doesn't get British humor. Sure, every so often there's been a joke that I've kinda been "Huh?" about, but basically I don't see any difference between this stuff and ours...other than the fact that they can be wackier because Americans get offended so easily by things. Odd, don't you think? We're always thinking of Europeans as being these stuck-up, very proper folks, and yet they're the ones who are so much more open and free about things than we are. Oh well, that's the way things go.

Mom called me today to make sure I wasn't over here dying (hehe...she knew it was a pulled muscle), and she told me about the conversation she had with Geoff today. :P Actually, she said she didn't even bring my name up at all...he was practically following her around all day, but there were always other people around so he couldn't say anything. But then finally they were by themselves and he started talking about the phone "conversation" he and I had had on Saturday. Mom played dumb, which kinda irritated me as I'd wanted to find out why he'd been acting like such an ass, but at the same time I understand why she didn't interfere. Anyway, I forget exactly what she said, but she was like, "You should have seen the way his face lit up," and something about "I think you finally have him on the end of the hook...now all you need to do is reel him in." It was amusing, but cute at the same time. And it's about time, too! Spending nearly two years on a guy is quite a bit of an investment, don't you think?

Okay, I'm going to go now. I'd gotten inspiration yesterday on my Labyrinth fanfic that I haven't written in ages, but now I'm at a tough spot again so I need to think about how to get around the block. :P Thanks for reading along! ;)