Writer Re-Learning to Walk

With the mounds of snow and the ice slicked sidewalks of late, I have not gone out much. Once a week?  Twice, maybe?  Ubering my way to and from. It takes a toll.  

Yesterday, I bused to a shopping area and actually walked someplace other than my apartment, hitting 5 or 6 stores. And quickly became aware that my legs had forgotten how to walk, so it took a while to relearn those skills.

Today, I did something about this.  I headed to the spa, which I've put off a few times this winter, due, again, to weather. But today was a good day, meaning, it was cold, not unbearably so, and there were only a few flakes coming straight down, like some never-ending Christmas light show imitating snow.  

The spa was for a pedicure and a facial. I have pedi's every 4 to 6 weeks. Helps me walk because over the years my poor feet have suffered so much abuse (anyone else wear spikes in their youth?) that my feet need to be in tip-top shape now. The facial, well, I've become a facial sloth. I haven't had one in about a year, and my face needed this. 

But the important part of this day is that my spa moved in December to the Ritz Hotel, which has a pool and health area, and spa patrons get to use those facilities. So I took my swimsuit, got keyed up to the health club, and submerged my body into the warmish waters of the infinity-like pool.  Not a real infinity because there is no ocean or lake leading to the horizon, only a band of water about a foot wide continuing from the pool (which ends up as a waterfall and turns into a wall of water). In any event, the pool, while lovely, is a modern hotel pool, meaning, shallow.  1.5 metres (just under 5').  I like to tred water, which gives me a workout, interspersed with swimming lengths, interspersed with wading lengths.  Most of that is impossible in such a shallow pool.  And after 10 minutes, I was really tired and ready to get out. I persevered, distracted by a young couple, the guy waiting in the pool for the girl who came and went 5 or 6 times over 20 minutes, for a shower, for a hair band, for an extra towel, to chat with the woman at the desk, and finally she arrived and stood at the wall of water flirting with the boyfriend who was still in the pool. By the time he pursuaded her to join him, I had hit the 30 minute mark and figured I'd done well, for someone relearning to walk, so I left the delightful waters to the lovers.

The highlight of the day was showing the pedicurist my book cover for Revenge of the Vampir King. She actually gasped, then declared it 'magnificant', not a word one hears often.

By the end of this (to me) very long day (waking at 6 am, unable to get back to sleep, finally out of bed at 8, leaving home at 11 am, returning home at 7 pm) I needed food and took myself to Le Taj for dinner, since it was just about around the corner.  (And now I have the equivilent of enough leftover curry for two more dinners!)

My face looks good, my feet feel good, I'm pleased I moved at least a bit. Maybe tomorrow I will move some more!

B#15