Stretchin the Kooza

I've never been one to enjoy exercising, but recently my outlook on the whole thing has changed drastically. I was beginning to see the light when I was at Penn State Main Campus and had to walk everywhere, but that was out of pure necessity. For a while, I was going to the gym regularly, because I could go with friends which made it a little more motivating, but I didn't keep up with it. Basically the physically fit made me feel awkward.

The past few weekends have been more active for me now that it's starting to get nicer out. We are adding onto our house, and there was a tree that created a mess all summer that we decided to cut down, next to the house. So my dad cut the tree down and then I had to help him carry the logs and sticks to various locations in the yard, and found that when we were finished I felt this rush of exhilaration. I felt really good, both physically and mentally and I thought, "I should do some exercising more often."

Then the parents decided the front of the house had too many leaves along the sidewalk so I raked all those up and again felt really good. (I should add that it was really fun to make a gigantic pile and then jump into it... with the dog... except that when you do that, you wind up with poison ivy despite the fact that no vegetation has grown there in months.)

So I have decided to begin taking daily walks with my fat dog so that we will both get some exercise.

Now that brings me to the other significant recent event. For Christmas, my sister got me and my mom tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show that was playing in Baltimore this past weekend, called "Kooza". It was really cool because it combined the amazing physical acts they do, and it also included a clown side, which made it more like a circus than any of the other ones I saw or heard about.

My little goal to start exercising got a whole new spin when I saw the things they could do: In the beginning, there were contortionists, who I have to admit were slightly creepy even though what they did was very cool (Just because the stretched their bodies in ways I would think would break them- makes your skin tingle). Then there was an act called "The Wheel of Death" where these two guys did jumps and stuff in these two wheels- and then one of them started doing things on the outside of the wheel. It was pretty scary, not to mention it reminded me exactly of when I had a hamster and it would go in its little wheel to exercise. Those were the two I thought were coolest, although there was a lot more in the show that was very cool.

So despite my never being able to astound people with my phsical activities, I will give exercise my best shot, and keep you posted on the progress.