As he was instructed, Hubband made sure I was awake and had both feet on the floor before he walked out the door this morning.

This did not, however, prevent me from laying back down as soon as he was out the door. Not only did I lay down, but I turned the TV on as well. And wouldn't you know it - the "Buffy" was an episode I hadn't seen before. (Well, not all of it anyway.)

All of this was a stalling tactic meant to keep me from getting ready for the gym. But I prevailed and packed my gym bag. I made sure I had not one, but two pair of clean underwear. (I think I'm forever scarred from having to go commando the one time I forgot them.) I opened the drawer in which I keep my workout clothes and I swear moths flew out of it, but I selected my tone-on-tone black outfit and put it on anyway. I put all of the toilletries I had been borrowing from my gym bag back in it. I even remembered that my Diskman was out of batteries and put in fresh ones.

Nothing was going to prevent me from going to the gym today.

I dropped Little Boy off at school with actual minutes to spare until the bell rang. I took my lazy lactose intolerant ass over to Tim Horton's and bought a medium Iced Cappucino so I would have something resembling a breakfast in my stomach. I drove to the gym and sat in the parking lot, with the motor running, for 20 minutes listening to The Bone Setter's Daughter on tape.

Eventually I began to see the same people coming and going while I sat listening to the soothing sound of Joan Chen's voice.

It was time to get out of the damned car.

You know what? It really wasn't bad. It was actually good, in fact. I was able to keep up with my cardio without killing myself and while I had lost some strength, I didn't feel like it was an enormous backslide. I mean, it's been 2 months since I've even been inside the building and I hadn't really been pushing myself on the strength training for months before that. Things change. But the muscles are still there and I don't think it will be long before they start showing themselves again.

My latest project had been to go through each of the workout sheets Cute Trainer Boy had put together for me. I made a spreadsheet with the information from the last day of each workout (he'd change me up about once every 3 workouts). Now I have preset workouts, with all the numbers I need, and I only have to carry around one little sheet of paper.

It's a good thing, as MFS would say.

Sadly, it appears as though Favorite Trainer Girl has left the building while I was away. Her face is no longer featured amongst the training staff pictures. One of the women I used to see there all the time had a apparently had a hip replaced while I was gone and was now back to working out. (This one kind of startled me into realizing just how long I'd been away!)

I was a little horrified to see how large my stomach had become when I was getting ready to shower. It's been about 6 months since I concentrated on those muscles at all. I think I might have to get over how stupid they look and do the damned exercises anyway.

I left feeling pretty good which is a feeling I'd like to remember so I'm more likely to go back more often.

It was a beautiful day so I decided to take the ride out to Romeo anyway. I was glad I did since they had a 4-stamp set on sale for %40 off and a whole table full of stamps they had used in classes that was %50 off. They are having a 5-hour card stamping party later this month and I think I might attend. I sometimes need the push of a committment to get my creativity flowing.

So, it's been a nice day and I'm glad I have it off.

Hope you enjoyed your day, too!