
annafdd
- February 3rd, 20:21
Today I was at the Mayhew for my weekly shift, which was unusually hard. A lot of cats had gone on to be adopted, and there were as a result a lot of cabins to be scrubbed and sterilized so that the next cat or cats can be placed there. So I spent three solid hours scrubbing hard and squeedgeing water off and then towelling stuff dry.
Good exercise, and strangely pleasant - when I get going, I deeply enjoy cleaning and sorting out, and seeing the little steel steps become nice and white again was soul-lifting.
As was the sudden Great Cat Turnout. For a while when I started it seemed like lots of cats were there to stay: week in and week out the same hopeful feline faces looked at me from the cabins, all demanding love and attention. Then, after Christmas, they were all gone. Old cats, three-legged cats, sad cats - all adopted out. Only one is left, but he is... well, a special cat. I like him, but he tends to go slightly mad. Jellybean is also there, but I doubt she will be there for long. I suspect that the reason she hadn't been adopted was that she was due for spaying, which happened last week.
So - this morning I had the glorious feeling that I was making a contribution towards something that actually worked, that actually rescued cats (and presumably, dogs) and not simply wherehoused them. (Of course, there are the jungle</striketrough> garden cats, but theirs is by no means a bad life either.)
Apart from that, but connected to it, I feel I am getting fitter and fitter every day. I'm not losing weight but then, despite the Wii's pushing, that was never my aim. What I want is to feel strong and easy in my body, and if this means that it has to lose some mass, that's fine, but if it can do it at my current mass it's fine by me too.
Today I managed to do the whole press-up and side stand exercise on the Wii Fit Plus that I had found absolutely ridicolously impossible when I first tried it. It wasn't easy, but I completed it, something I wasn't even remotely able to do a month ago.
The amazing thing is that for maybe the first time in my life I am having fun exercising. No, I take that back: I had fun doing karate back when I was in college, although I never progressed beyond a white belt. But in high school, boy how I hated PE. And now I have to make an effort to stop doing exercise after exercise on the Wii. A lot of things contribute to this - the threshold is very low, since the gym is in my living room and I can get there in thirty seconds without even having to change. I never had problems doing stuff in front of people, but I did have problems with the enforced sociability that comes out of being in a gym together, where you are supposed to chat and interact. (Part of the fun of doing karate was that I managed to make friends in my class).
And then there is the endorphine high and, of course, the reward of getting better and better at the exercises. The Wii chides you a little bit, but never as much as some of the teachers I've had, and is prodigal with praise as well. And anyway, even if it is a computer simulation, it is a computer simulation that spends all its time with you, which is rewarding in itself.
And so - I have signed on for a 10k run in July, to raise funds for the Mayhew. I can't run 10k now, but between now and July I'm pretty confident I can do it, if I am careful not to injure my back again. Hence the yoga and muscle training on the Wii.
I read a lot of things about running barefoot, which are very interesting, but I am not ready to put my bare flesh on London's pavements, so I am looking into making myself some sandals. Anyway, not in February I don't think so. But yes, it does look like running with cushioning shoes is not good for your feet, so I had a look at the new Nike free shoe, and I concluded that there must be a better and cheaper solution than a £65 shoe that seems pretty cushiony to me anyway.
I am also looking for Yoga lessons, and there are a couple of centres near me that seem very promising. Yoga is interesting for me because it is non-competitive, and promises to be, if you do it right, not boring. But we'll see.
I also spent some time yesterday researching an essay for my Psychology course at the Birkbeck Library. It was very peaceful and productive, and I decided that I should do it more often. I am not so sure about simply taking up a seat to read and concentrate though. Also, I was a bit unhappy with the library itself - I was looking for a particular article by Karl Popper and I was surprised to see that there is precious little Popper in the Birkbeck library. On the other hand, they had several copies of the Ernest Nagel book I also was looking for. Most importantly, I must not let myself be led astray by several years of Epistemology and write 1500 on what is the scientific method that boil down to "it's REALLY complicated".
The roof got fixed on Monday - there was something incredibly upsetting and unsettling in a roof that doesn't keep the rain away. It is a sort of betrayal of your house, and I couldn't stay in the computer room even when it wasn't raining and the row of buckets was silent.
The cats are happy, and Jam in particular seems to be a lap cat that is - yet - afraid of laps. With time, I think she will end up curled on me.