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Now It’s Actually Tuesday

After thinking Monday was Tuesday, now it’s actually Tuesday. To be clear, it’s really not my fault that each day last two weeks. If they didn’t last so long, it would be significantly less confusing. Tuesday brought more virtual school, a run and some yoga. It was a pretty busy day.

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Of course, it’s exceedingly hot and humid here in South Florida. Hence, I was trying to convince myself that I should skip my run out of an abundance of caution. Since my diagnosis of Graves’ disease, I don’t tolerate heat well. Also, I run with my puppy and didn’t want to put her in danger of possibly overheating. The actual real feel temperature at 10:00 am this morning was absolutely ludicrous.

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Then I realized all of this excuses are exactly why I needs to run today. Since it was so hot, I had to prepare a water bottle for Athena and to take it a bit slower. Indeed I planned to take more walking breaks and puppy water break in the shade to minimize the risk of either of us overheating. At the end of the day, it was a tough, slow and hot run, but I felt amazing afterwards. It wasn’t my best run by any means, but I stayed on task and made no excuses and achieved my goal.

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Fortunately, they were running the sprinklers in the neighborhood, so Athena got to run through the sprinklers to cool down. Consequently, Goalielocks had a towel ready for the Piggie when we got back. Piggie got toweled off and we both got some fresh water. While Athena relaxed on the cool tile floor, I went into my room to complete my post run stretching. Even though I was attending yoga at noon, I still spent 20 minutes rolling out my leg, glutes and hips. Thankfully, I have a lot less pain in my legs and ankles since adding a vigorous post run stretch session to my routine.

Yoga was noon was awesome as usual. I love having my regular 12:00 pm yoga date with Monica and Pam. They’re two of my favorite people. Our class started with some alternate nasal breathing, which is a great tool for relaxation. In fact, I’ve used it to effectively manage pain when I couldn’t hold down medicine. Honestly, my yoga practice and yoga family have really helped me move forward on my healing journey.

The afternoon I spent with the puppies watching the remained of Balthazar season one. Fortunately, season two drops on Prime next Monday. I love Balthazar for so many reasons. Perhaps the best part is that it forces me to put down my phone and pay attention to the subtitles. While I studied French in both high school and college, I definitely need the subtitles as a safety blanket. If you’re looking for a good, procedural show to binge watch, I highly recommend it.


Last night I started Wuthering Heights after finishing my last book To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. After reading the introductions, there were three, I only ended up reading only one chapter. I’m sure that I’ll finish this book pretty quickly given that there’s still a ban on going anywhere. Fortunately, I love to read and love literature. After this book, I think I’ll go back and reread The Decameron as it’s topically relevant to our current situation.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

*Watched Balthazar and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia 

*Completed BBG day 2 week 8 recovery workout – full body

*Ran 2.5 miles with Athena at a snail’s pace in a sauna

*Attended Gentle Flow Yoga with Monica from Open Heart Yoga Studio 

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on multiple walks

*Worked on Obedience Training with Anakin inside.

*Pulled my hair out (again) managing my teenagers virtual schooling.

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Pandemic Reading List

I thought I’d make a pandemic reading list to share with my readers. Truly, this time of social isolation is the perfect time to pick up a book. Two years ago I made a commitment to read every night before bed. It’s the perfect way to decompress every night and I love reading. Here’s the list:

  1. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaci was originally written during the 14th century during the Black Death., This collection of short stories is sure to both entertain and amuse you. Much like today, the characters in his novel were forced to self isolate in a castle outside of Florence to avoid contracting the plague. Despite the ominous backdrop of plague, the tone of this book is quite buoyant.  See social distancing is not a new idea! This also happens to be one of my all time favorite reads.
  2. Resurrection, by Leo Tolstoy. There’s no Black Death in this book, but plenty of the characters are dealing with consumption. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking tale of redemption. Tolstoy’s ability to develop characters and his stories is second to none and on full display here.
  3. Narcissus and Goldmund, by Herman Hesse. This story follows two friends that take wildly different paths after finishing monastic school. While Narcissus remains in the Monastery as a teacher, while Goldmund explores life outside it’s walls. Consequently, Goldmund experiences the ugliest society has to offer as the Black Death tears through the region. He often finds himself lonely during this travels. Ultimately, he ends up returning to the monastery and his best friend.
  4. The Divine Comedy, by Dante Aligheri because clearly we’re stuck in purgatory. Of course Dante’s classic works touches on more than just purgatory, but since we’re living it you can appreciate that piece of the work. Moreover, purgatory is the place between heaven and hell, which means it could get worse, but it can also get better.
  5. 1984, by George Orwell. I’m not sure this one needs much introduction, but it’s storyline and themes might feel too close to home.
  6. Pride and Prejudice,  by Jane Austen because we can’t just read serious stuff throughout this pandemic. Who doesn’t love a great love story? I love Austen’s characters and the way they develop throughout the book. I’d highly recommend anything that she has written.

To open your pandemic reading, I would start off with The Decameron.  Just be aware that this 14th century novel can be a bit saucy in parts.   Tonight I’m hoping to finish up Vanity Fair before starting Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse tomorrow.  

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery

*Watched The Office season 9

*Ran 2.5 glorious miles.  The weather was amazing, my stomach was not.  Nevertheless, my time was much better than Tuesday’s run.

*Run virtual school for my two teenage boys

*Took Gentle Yoga for a Strong Back on Zoom with Jenn from Open Heart Yoga Studio

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on a walk to see Goalielocks fishing 

*Worked on Obedience Training with  Anakin 

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Reading My Way Back to Health

In order to keep myself sane and intellectually engaged,  I’ve been reading my way back to health.  Over the past eight months, I’ve been out of my normal routine due to injury and health concerns.  Sadly, I often found myself too exhausted to write.  Fortunately, I was able to draw my reading list off The Greatest Books.  First, of all I like the site because it has a thoughtfully curated list of the best fiction and non-fiction works of all time.  Secondly, I love that you can track what you’ve read and what you want to read.

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I’ve read some amazing works from a myriad of different genres and authors across time.  Since I’ve read some wonderful works of fiction, I’d thought I’d share some of them with you.   Here’s the list of my favorites:

If you’ve never read Wilkie Collins, your missing out.  He’s a one of kind author, who narrates his stories from multiple viewpoints.  His plot development and character development are amazing.   Collins was a contemporary and good friend of Charlies Dickens.  He was also a huge influence to Edgar Allen Poe.  Once you read both these books, I think you’ll find that the great Agatha Christie was influenced by him as well.

When I first picked up Ana Karenina, I was a bit intimidated.  It is a thick book. As I got into it, I loved it.  Tolstoy doesn’t waste a word.   I was happy to find that Tolstoy didn’t incorporate essays with in the books or long tangents like those found in his contemporaries works.  Both Ana Karenina and Resurrection are beautiful stories.  In Anna Karenina, he tells the story of the titular characters life and the consequences of her choices.  It’s a tragic story told beautifully.  In Resurrection, he tells the story of man confronted by the impact his choices had on someone he loved.   In the end, he finds his redemption in a most obvious spot.  Truly, after finishing both novels, I feel compelled to travel to Saint Petersburg and the rest of Tolstoy’s Russia.

After finishing Nabokov’s Lolita,  I needed a literary pick me up and a shower.  That book will leave you feeling dirty…. I turned to Hesse’s Siddharta.. Hesse, of German-Swiss descent, bring a unique east meets west perspective.   This novel follows the spiritual journey of Siddharta.  His quest for enlightenment puts him in places and situations he never could have imagined.  It’s a beautiful book.

I loved Narcissus and Goldmund, which tells the tale of two best friends who are diametrically different, but still love each other.  While Goldmund leaves the monastery in search of the meaning of life.  His mentor and friend Narcissus stays in monastic life.  Throughout their lives they take different paths, but eventually their paths reunite.  It’s a beautiful tale of friendship and life.

It took me awhile to get into Steppenwolf, but eventually I was pulled into the world of Harry Haller.  Like the other two Hesse books, this one explores the duality of human nature.  This time in main character Harry Haller and not two separate characters like in Narcissus and Goldmund.   At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong with any of these books by Hesse.

Since I was heading to Scandinavia this fall, I wanted to read something that was Scandinavian.  After much research and a couple of recommendations, I decided to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While in Finland, I finally started reading the book and I couldn’t put it down.  I loved that I could imagine where they were in Gamle Stan in Stockholm since I was just there.

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It’s an awful tragedy that we lost Stieg Larsson before these books were publishes.  He turned in the manuscripts for the first three installments in the Millennium Series, but died shortly after.  His books are incredible.  There are few characters in literature as vivid, damaged and bad ass as Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander.

I’ve already read the first four books in the series and cannot wait to read the fifth.  Since Larsson’s premature death prevented him from finishing the Millennium series, David Lagercrantz took up the mantle.  I was worried that Lagercrantz’s take on Larsson’s characters would be unfaithful to the original.  Lagercratnz had huge shoes to fill, but he did it beautifully.  The continuity between the characters and stories between Larsson’s and Lagercrantz’s books is seamless. If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend it.  If you love Daniel Craig, like I do, you’ll love him in the movie version.

These are just a few of the books I’ve read since last summer that really resonated with me.  I’ve included links to Amazon for each of my recommended books.  I’m always looking for good book recommendations.  What’s your favorite book?  What books do you recommend?