Every day is a new beginning

Now that I’m back in my home zone, my focus on my health has begun despite a slight setback — I broke a toe by slamming it into the metal leg of one of my patio chairs.

My trip to the US was very reaffirming; I loved seeing all of my friends, although there are always so many people I don’t get to see or spend enough time with. While living in Mexico has many advantages, but not having my tried-and-true friends around just, well, sucks. I wish we could just teleport back and forth so we could have more opportunities to socialize, play tennis, hike, and generally enjoy time together. (Scientists, plz get busy on that, eh? What we see on TV can come true! I am totally convinced of that.)

Of course, much of my purpose during my US trip was to get all of my healthcare exams done and tackle “mis pendientes” that have been lingering for a while now, like renewing my driver’s license and switching banks. Only the bone density scan came back less than great — osteoporosis. Everything else was good (yay!). Breaking my toe after that diagnosis made me angry yet even more determined to get this body back into tip-top shape. I may not be getting younger, but I absolutely refuse to get frail and infirm. I still have waaaayyyy too much to do in this life, and I need a strong, healthy body to get it all done.

So, now, I have gotten back into my somewhat normal routine with some key changes: I started back to yoga twice a week and will start working with a tennis coach on Saturday (if my damn toe allows). Tennis will help with my endurance and heat tolerance and give me some aerobic exercise that is sadly lacking in my exercise regimen. Fingers crossed I don’t fall down and break something!!!

I am also supposed to start working with a personal trainer in the gym, too, but I have had to put that off a bit for budgetary reasons. Hopefully, I can begin at the end of September. We will see. Grace, the trainer, is amazing.

In new news, I started taking an oil painting class. I took one in high school (omg, so many years ago), but have forgotten everything I ever knew. I am finding the experience quite frustrating. I have never been great with color and this medium is very unforgiving. It didn’t help that I missed the first class (got the time wrong) and then didn’t fully understand the instructions for the second class. Improving my Spanish skills will be a welcome side-benefit of this experience.

The instructor is very kind and has helped me tremendously already. Through September we are working on an urban landscape. I chose to use a photo of a church plaza from Querétaro. You can see a copy of the photo below the drawing I did and the painting in progress next to that. I didn’t get the proportions right for the painting, which has complicated matters. Oh well, first one out of the box. It will be ok. Live and learn, right? I am pretty happy with the tree so far, although it is hard for me to “see” the painting as I am working on it. Progress not perfection. (Are there any other colloquialisms I can use in this post? Hmmm?)

English classes are also ramping back up. I am trying not to over-do it, though, as I do need time for R&R. I am expecting a group class three times a week to start shortly. That class is from the school Lyn and I teach for in Querétaro.

The fall always seems to be the busiest time of year for me and Lyn. As the children go back to school, parents get back to work and to their own projects, just as we have. Hopefully, the pace of life will stay manageable and will will all progress steadily toward the next chapters of our lives.

More to come…