For someone who adores being lazy, I’ve certainly been busy these last couple of weeks.
Work has been grueling, especially since I work until 9pm every single night and customers (not all, but some) have been, uh, difficult. Working in customer service can be so challenging, and I don’t know that I have the temperament to work with the public in this manner. I’m friendly and genuine, but it feels forced sometimes and the constant barrage of people wears me down. It can be brutal. It’s not that I want to quit my job, or even search for another. It’s that I want to sit home and write. If only I could make my living that way. If only I’d start producing more than the occasional blog post.
I’ve also joined a gym. Oh yes, it’s true. I’ve waged war on my fatness and have joined forces with my nemesis, the elliptical machine, in order to slim down. I’ve set goals for weight loss (70 lbs.) and toning (abs and arms), and my goal date is May 1, 2009. I’d like to be able to wear tank tops without being self-conscious about my sausage arms. I’d like to have the stomach of a woman who is not pregnant, or who does not inhale Double Doozies from the Great American Cookie Company on a daily basis. (I am not, and I do not.) Thoughts of a toned, well-defined abdomen never crossed my mind…until I started belly dancing.
I’ll give you all a moment to absorb that I am, in fact, a belly dancer. A novice, a beginner, yes, but a belly dancer just the same.
I go to class 2-3 times per week to learn basic movements and choreographed routines, and I enjoy it so much that I’ve decided to pursue belly dancing as a hobby. Possibly, over time and with much practice, I’ll be skilled enough to join a dance troupe or get a weekend gig at the local hookah bar. I plan to dance with swords and/or fire. My stage name will be beautiful and exotic, and it will mean something dark or scandalous. My first performance–yes, performance–is in June.
It’s a great workout (particularly for someone as out of shape and lazy as I am), and it’s fun. Fun exercise is vitally important for someone like me, who spends the majority of her workout time cursing the elliptical and hoping her heart doesn’t explode from overexertion. It hasn’t. Yet.
It’s a fact: The elliptical machine will help me to lose weight and build cardiovascular endurance. Also a fact: Elliptical machines induce misery after 90 seconds of reasonably paced activity. Nothing, not the promise of burning calories and dropping a dress size, or the inspirational melodies of the Pussycat Dolls, can make the elliptical machine more tolerable. It’s a miserable piece of equipment, meant to make miserable fat people even more miserable, and I am certainly miserable every moment I am on one.
I hope it pays off. I don’t like to sweat for the sake of sweating. I also don’t like skipping dessert.
Lastly, between all of the food deprivation, wild work schedules and hip shimmies, I’ve managed to buy a domain name and build a website. As of today, CarlaMcCafferty.com is fully functional, and my blog posts will be posted EXCLUSIVELY on the site’s blogs–Seize The Nacho and Fat Camp.
viva*la*cake 