Fulfillment

The past week has been just lovely, despite my struggles with the transverse abominus.

• I have spent part of every day outside, thanks to fabulous weather.
  
• Last Saturday I got PTO-- we went to a belly-dance performance (the best people-watching experience I have had in months) and out for a drink at the Top of the East.
• Sunday we hiked Mount Cutler in Hiram-- an old favorite.
• Friday we met some old high school friends for a night out in the Old Port. Turns out nothing gets people crazy in Portland like that John Denver classic "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
• Yesterday we hiked Mount Jackson in the White Mountains of NH with Chip, my dear friend Alicia's husband. I have not been on top of a 4,000 foot mountain in a long time. Along the Appalachian Trail in NH are a series of "huts" where you can have a hot meal and a shower at the end of a long hike-- we stopped at one of these for a bit yesterday, and now I think I'd like to make a week-long trip next summer hiking hut-to-hut.
  

Weak and pathetic

Lesson for the day: three months of Core Fusion three times a week does not equal core strength. Two weeks ago I strained my back lifting a patient-- I'm pretty familiar with this injury now, as this is now the fourth occurrence. It's been almost a whole year since my last injury, which I attribute to more rigorous ab work.

Since this is my fourth lower back injury-- I should add that none of them have been serious-- the helpful NP at employee health suggested I could benefit from physical therapy to strengthen my core. I went along with the idea, pretty sure that physical therapy would pronounce me fit and strong as a proverbial fiddle. Pride goeth before a fall, as they say.

Today was my first PT session. The therapist had lay on the table with a pressure biofeedback pillow-- a kind of fancy blood pressure cuff for physical therapists-- under the small of my back. I was instructed to suck in my belly button and then kick my feet one at a time while keeping the manometer needle stable. This sounds easy but is laughably difficult. Turns out, I'm weak in my transverse abdominus (I'm renaming it the transverse abominus). The PT did give me an A for effort-- as in, I know what I'm supposed to do, I just can't do it. Great. Now I have to do this and some other exercises for 15 minutes a day.

Now I'm spending way too much time worrying about whether or not I'm sucking in my belly button correctly. If you see me with that faraway look on my face, I'm probably practicing. Maybe that explains Paris Hilton's vacant stare-- she's working her transverse abominus! I'll try not to do this while I'm driving-- I promise.

New leaf

According to my ledger book, May was a long and expensive month. I spent a lot of money and didn't blog much. So this month, I'm going to try to spend less and blog more. I write this as I sit beside an unopened box from Marais USA that contains these:
(They have a wedge heel that is not visible in this picture. I want to marry them. Sorry Eric.)

I also have a box of returns to send to J.Crew tomorrow. Oh, what a good girl am I.

Today I slept like it was my job-- 9AM-4PM! If there is a God, then thank you, God.