Due to a small string of injuries and ailments, I haven’t been to a dance class in a little over a week. That’s a long stretch for me and I’m getting stir crazy. My kid threw some oatmeal around at breakfast this morning and I blew a gasket. Mommy needs to get out of the house and back to the barre.
Are you asking yourself how obsessive I am? Can’t I live without ballet? Of course, I can. I’d rather not, but I certainly can. However, dance is my prime method of exercise and anyone gets cranky if they don’t get to sufficiently stretch their legs every now and again.
This must be what veal feels like.
Exercise is healthy on so many more levels than just the obvious physical one. Ballet is cheaper than therapy, as I so often say. If my instructor knew how many of us she kept sane just by doling out pleés and tondues, she could up her rates to match a psychiatrist. I’d pay it.
The time at home with tissues and tylenol has probably been good for me. I’ve gotten some gardening done. I’m working my way through an online traffic school course. (Yep, got a ticket. Sucks.) And I’ve actually had a fair bit of GIS work coming in lately so I’ve gotten to make some maps. And I’m probably 3/4 of the way through the first season of Heroes, which a friend recently got me hooked on. (Thanks, Kari.)
And I’m making Christmas presents and working on the next Crow edition. I’m knitting a baby sweater for a friend. Making casseroles and cookies. So it’s not like I’m not doing anything. It’s just that running around in circles doesn’t really get you anywhere, you know? It just wears tracks in the rug.
I suppose waltz turns across the floor don’t technically take you anywhere either, except to the other side of the room. It’s not like I’m running 13 miles or anything (good luck this weekend, Chezza, by the way). But sometimes stretching my toes across a different floor can take me worlds away from where I am on the inside. I guess it’s about letting your brain hold still, your body move, and everything that lives in between stretch to fill the space. There is more than muscle that feeds on movement.