11 December 2006

blinded by your daylight

I hope "Random Shoes" is finished downloading when I get home. I need my new John Barrowman fix of the week.

Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do if the show isn't picked up for another season. Cry or something--the "something" probably being pathetically watching the thirteen available episodes over and over again.

And getting the novels from Amazon.co.uk.



And obsessively reading fanfiction (like I'm not already doing that).

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Should I feel guilty about not wanting to exercise with somebody else?

A coworker of mine asked me if I was going to join the university gym this season. I said that I might, and she said she was looking for an "exercise buddy"--you know, the person who's supposed to drag you to the gym even when you don't feel like it.

I was wishy-washy in my response, mainly because I'm not a big fan of exercising with other people. Instead, I asked when she thought she would like to make a habit of going, and she said that she wanted to go from 8 to 9 in the morning.

... *Alarm!* I like getting to work by 7 so I can leave by 3 and get some daylight out of the day, not easily done this time of year in Boston when the days are so short.

I asked if going to the gym after work would be possible, but she said that doesn't work for her because she has class from 6 to 7.

(And if she were like me, and left at 3 every day, that would be plenty of time to exercise before going to class.) I didn't say that, however; I did say that I prefer coming to work earlier.

In the end she just said, "Oh," and left me standing at the mail machine feeling like the most awkward person in the history of ever.

But, when I was thinking on it later over the weekend, I decided that it was just as well. I'm not a social person to begin with--so why should I be a social exerciser? Whenever I exercise with my parents, I end up killing myself trying to "keep up" with them. And when I exercise with people who are less physically fit, I feel like I "dumb down" my own workout to suit them. It just leaves me cranky, and exercise isn't supposed to make you cranky--it's supposed to give you a lift.

Ending conclusion? For the anti-social individual, iPods make better gym buddies than other human beings.

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Several of my parents' college friends and coworkers send out mass-produced holiday newsletters. They're usually poorly formatted, poorly written, and possessing some crappy pixelated border that may or may not suit the season.

I know it's more in-depth than a card, gives you a better idea of what's going on with so-and-so and all their little sos-and-so. But it's kind of peculiar, isn't it?

It's like you have a fan-club and a generator of addresses. And all you have to do is print off all these unpersonalized essays, a sheet or two of address labels, and then it's done. And you didn't have to think about it at all. I know that's also a part of the charm, but it's just so impersonal.

This judgment-call coming from one who rarely (if ever) mails a letter to anyone.

Yes, so maybe so-and-so's crappy newsletter is better than my nothing.

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