What Turning 30 Can Do To/For A Person

Ever since July when I joined a health club, I have been trying to get in shape. I have known for over a year that I have to do something about my athletic and health state, but I have been putting it off. Oh, I joined Weight Watchers twice, I tried South Beach for a week, I did the Reader's Digest "Change One" diet for a month, and Atkins for a few days, walked around the elementary gym for about a month during lunch, but I have not really been committed to making actual changes in how I eat and how much I move. And all the diets have seemed to have done is confirm that I can lie and cheat (I don't have to write the M&M's down in my food diary; I only had 10. How many calories could that be?). And the walking just made me smell kind of bad for the rest of the day.
At the beginning of the summer, I had promised myself that I would use this summer to turn my life around. I decided that I would walk UGA's campus between my two classes. I did this exactly twice. The first time wasn't bad; it was a pleasant morning. I thought, "I am woman hear me roar. I will be in J. Lo shape by the end of summer!" The second time, I became so hot and sweaty I nearly passed out, and I smelled so bad that I had to make sure I sat down wind of the members of my second class. That was the end of my rebirth as a fitness freak.
That, of course, was until July hit. At the end of June, I felt my age. No, scratch that, I felt older than my age. One day while driving home from graduate school, I pulled into the parking lot of the Fitness 19 health club, signed a contract, and I have not looked back since. I am now a confirmed person who exercises. I started out slow and grumpy. I did not want to go, I would rather be napping or watching Oprah. I would grasp the hand rails of the treadmill and snarl, cursing the fact that I had gotten fat enough to need to work out.

Somewhere around my third week, however, something happened. I decided I had to change my attitude. I told myself that lots of people enjoy working out and I could too. I just had to try. So I tried. That day instead of snarling, griping, and cursing, I decided to use my time on the treadmill to pray to God. I thought, "Yoga is supposed to be some kind of spiritual experience, can't treadmill walking also?" So I tried to make my walking spiritual. And you know what? It worked. God and I chatted, I ended feeling closer to him, and the time flew by.

So now I work out. If you glanced at me, you would not be able to tell. My abs are not buff and nothing on me is chiselled (yet). But I think I am closer now to whom God wants me to be. I have learned the spiritual/physical connection. Next, I need to learn the connection between that piece of chocolate cake I had with dinner and the size of my pants. Maybe that will be what I learn at 31.

Having the Wind Knocked Out of Me

I remember a time in the not so distant past, a time when 30 loomed far more distantly than it does now, when problems like cancer, divorce, death of loved ones and people in general, marital problems, financial problems, etc. happened to my parents friends and people far older than me.

As I get closer to thirty (it is now days away) these problems become closer to me. A friend of mine from high school lost a baby a month after it was born. A friend at GAC who is only two years older than me was diagnosed (and conquered) cancer this year. My nana died of alzheimer's this summer. An eighth grader that Brad taught last year was killed in a car accident this summer. And last night, I learned that a friend of mine, a best friend, found out that her husband has been unfaithful and has kicked him out of the house.

Part of being an adult of nearly 30 is responding when these problems arise, yet another part of being almost 30 is not having enough experience to know what my response should be. Luckily, this is where the positives of growing up a part of a church community come in. I have watched the adults around me serve each other in various ways all of my life. Now, it has become painfully obvious that it has become my time to serve.

Man, this adult business is serious stuff. I guess growing up is about more than wrinkle cream, Weight Watchers, and sensible shoes. I guess it is about getting up after the wind has been knocked out of you and helping those around you get up.

Gnats--I hate gnats!

I think I am usually a pretty even-keeled person. I think everyone but Brad and a few select students (you know who you are) would agree to this statement. I tend to go with the flow, and I am rarely annoyed (not even in traffic). However, my laid back sensibilities have been put to the test of late. Here are a few of the things that are under my proverbial craw:

1. Gnats (or maybe they are fruit flies) and earwigs. In a fit of absolute and utter rage, I just killed, or should I say annihilated, a gnat/fruit fly by swatting at it repeatedly with half a ream of typing paper (it was the only thing with body nearby). Our building is infested with them, and they are driving me batty. I am thinking of taking a day off so as to have a gnat-free day.

But if I took the day off, I would have to deal with the earwigs and earwig carcasses in my year-old much beloved house. At first we thought these squiggily black bugs with forked tales were some kind of odd breed of silverfish. We had the exterminator come out and spray--twice. But apparently silverfish spray does not work on earwigs. Plus, as the Internet sites about earwigs state, earwigs do not live in your house; they live in your gardens. They only come in your house, sometimes in droves, to seek light and to seek water. Thus the reason you find them near your drains. These Internet sites seem to think that I should take solace in the fact that they live in my garden and only visit my house. This does not give me solace. They are unwanted guests, and they simply will not get the message that they are not welcome. Each time I see one, anger just wells up inside me. I haven't been able to take a much beloved bubble bath in months because apparently they really like my tub, and I am totally grossed out.

2. Allergies. I forgot to take my Lortadine(sp) this morning. That means I am an itchy, sniffing fool today with a mild headache. Maybe that's the reason I am so annoyed?

3. The hole-puncher in the Junior High office. It will only take 10 sheets of paper. If you try to hole-punch 11 sheets, it grabs them with its claw-like hole-punching apparatuses and won't let go. Then you have to shake it at just the right velocity to dislodge your papers. Very annoying.

4. Talking on the telephone. Heather Byars already mentioned how she hates to talk on the telephone on her blog (if I knew how to link, I would), and I whole-heartedly agree. I don't know if it is because I am a teacher, and I talk to probably 100+ people everyday, but when I get home, I hate to talk on the phone. I really love my caller ID, and I love the fact that we don't have an answering machine. That annoys my mother.

--I just killed another gnat this time with my hand. Gross!--

5. Mildew. I think am more than annoyed with mildew. I believe I hate it, despise it. This hatred, though, has led me to one of my greatest loves: Soft Scrub with Bleach. This is fabulous stuff. It kills that mildew dead and leaves your shower sparkling clean. And I do love a sparkling clean shower.

6. The fact that. . .

• making hamburgers makes your house smell like meat for about 3 days.
• I have lost five pounds, but my clothes fit the same, and the fact that I have been working out really hard for two months and all I have lost is 5 pounds.
• and, this might be the most annoying,
  the fact that I am teaching students who were born the year I graduated from high school.
  
  Disclaimer: The students are not annoying (most of them aren't anyway); the fact that they were born the year I graduated high school is annoying.

And the way blogger does bullet-points is really annoying.

The End.