Random thoughts

First of all, I just need to say that I worked so hard in Tae Kwon Do yesterday that I can barely walk today. The instructor had me do about a million back kicks until I seriously couldn't lift my legs anymore. I've realized that for me it's more satisfying when my muscles hurt because I'm working on a skill than when I've just been through an aerobics class. At some point in the not to distant future, I'll be able to break a board with my bare foot. Aerobics doesn't promise that kind of excitement! The instructor told me that if I do 25 back kicks on each leg every day for two months, I'll lose two dress sizes, guaranteed. Which is nice but I wear a size 8-10 dress and I will never in my life be a size 4-6. Ever. But that's ok, if I get to a solid 8 and I don't jiggle quite so much, that'll be just fine.

M-Girl was awesome in Tae Kwon Do - she loves it and she works hard. The instructor is great with kids. He gets down to their level, gives high fives all the time and he notices when they are making a real effort and he rewards it. He knows when to be firm and when to be soft. M-Girl wasn't understanding the foot placement for a kick sequence so he put tape markers on the ground for her to practice on. She did those kicks about a hundred times until she got it right. No complaining. And she got her uniform (which she has been asking for every day since we started). It is way too cute. We got a size too big (because she's growing like a weed) and my mom is going to hem the arms and legs for her. Once it's done, I'll post a picture of M-Girl with it on. It's so damn cute!

I have a bunch of people coming over this afternoon for swimming and pizza so I have to do some cleaning. I'll make the beds, pick up most of the crap off the floor and empty the garbage. I'll probably run a broom around the floors too and if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll Windex the mirrors! Whoo hoo! I really know how to have a good time. My house won't be perfectly clean - my desk is cluttered and there will probably be a few stacks of paper around the house. I used to be hesitant to invite friends over because the house wasn't clean enough. But now I've realized that our friends love us regardless of the shape our house is in and they'd rather see us and spend time with us now than wait until our house is clean (meaning, never).

I went to the opera last night - an attorney from D.C. that I work with invited me. She has awesome box seats at the Lyric Opera House and has been sitting in that box with the same group of people for eight years. They get tickets during the "out of towners" series - meaning pretty much everyone in the audience is not from Chicago, which is pretty cool. I've been to the opera with her a few times and everyone in her box is really nice. I love the Lyric - it's a beautiful building. I'm not really a big opera fan, though (although this was Cinderella and it was light, fluffy and funny). I was sooooo tired that I was falling asleep during the entire second Act and part of the first Act! Here's the thing that bugs me about operas - the plot moves at a snail's pace. They take twenty minutes to sing about a small point like "I'm not really the Prince's valet, I'm actually the Prince himself. This way I get to see how people really are." Ok, got it the first seventy times, don't need to hear you sing about it again. Really. The singers playing the Prince and Cinderella were awesome - they have incredible voice instruments but it gets old after a couple of hours. Four hours of that is way too much for me.

I submitted my short story! I was shaking when I hit the send button. I'm not even sure if I did it right but the publication doesn't seem to have any strict requirements (at least not that they show on the Submissions section of their website). So I'm hoping that if I did something wrong, they'll let me know. I'll keep you posted! So now the issue is whether I start working on some other short fiction or if I work on an actual novel. I had started playing with an idea for a book during my writing class and everyone was encouraging about the idea so maybe I'll keep running with that. I subscribed to The Writer magazine and it's got a lot of good stuff in it. It makes me want to write more to try out their suggestions.

That's about enough random thoughts for one day. At this point, writing this post has become more about procrastination than having anything remotely interesting to say. I'm off to clean! Wish me luck.