Square Dance July

A few weeks ago, I was in San Francisco for a couple of weeks of work, along with attending the IAGSDC convention. Work was kinda wierd: it was the first time I visited our new company location in downtown SF, which was very cramped as there were renovations still in progress.

The square dance convention itself was an adventure. As vice-president for the Gay Callers Association, it was my responsibility to coordinate the annual caller school, this year with coaches Barry Clasper & billeyler. It was a lot of fun and I consider it to be a complete success. Beyond all of the preparation work in advance, I had to emcee the graduation dance, prepare flyers for next year's caller school, arrange official GCA name badges and back-orders of school materials, make file reports & make presentations with both the GCA board and the IAGSDC delegates and a stack of other minor tasks. billeyeler was kind enough (and not yet sick of me) to invite me to join him as a paenlist for the "Intro to Calling" discussion. I think we were all delighted with the excellent turn-out for that session.

In all, I danced only about 90 minutes out of 90 minutes out of four days. Still, that was enough to satisfy me, especially since I Have so many dance opportunitites at home: I like to the convention for the opportunity to mix & mingle, to catch up with people between sets and generally keep my ear to the ground to see what's going on in the broader community.

I can't say enough good things about the San Francisco convention. I know from back-room discussion with various coordinators that not everything was smooth as silk, but they managed through it, found solutions and kept ugly reality hidden from everyone --and that's what good organizing professionals do. Great location, great facility, great staff and great volunteers: what's not to love?

Since the convention, I've hardly called much. John Marshall is teaching the Mainstream class for DC Lambda Squares on Wednesdays, while Kent & I are assisting periodically and are given test teaching assignments. Last week, I was assigned teaching "grand square". Good news: that call is astonishingly easy to teach and gives the students a huge sense of accomplishment because it is a large call. My regular patter otherwise wasn't the greatest, largely because we had only a dozen or so calls to use and I was exhausted from overtime at work over the last few days. Still, no one died so I'm calling it a success.

There's talk of having us teach a Mainstream class for Chesapeake Squares beginning in mid-September too.

I haven't danced a great deal lately either, largely because my schedule has been very full. Again, I'm OK with this: I'm dancing enough for enjoyment and using the remaining time productively.

Tonight, DC Lambda Squares is hosting caller Bill Harrison for a DBD Plus workshop in the afternoon, a potluck dinner and then a Mainstream thru Challenge-1 dance in the evening. I predict a good time will be had by all.

This Month in Ow

While in San Francisco for work at the IAGSDC convention, I had to the chance to catch up with theoctothorpe who was coincidentally visiting the city for other purposes. One of the kind things he did for me was take me to the gym.

I've never been to a gym before. I have some exercise equipment at home, but for the most part, I've been riding on youthful indestructibility all these years. Sadly, I'm now 46 and my extended warranty is clearly about to expire: I can no longer spoon my way to the bottom of a half-gallon of ice cream washed down with a 2L bottle of Coke Classic with casual impunity. Getting old sucks.

Anyway, theoctothorpe kindly allowed me to tag along as he visited for his regular workout, and he put me through similar paces (with lighter weights as appropriate since he is vastly stronger than me). Squates, planks, inclined leg presses, lat pull-downs, etc.: it was a bit of a blur.

Alas, after nearly 90 minutes of working out, I was feeling a bit off. I should have recognized the signs of overheating and bodily strain. I also should have hydrated in advance and sipped water sparingly during our stay there, rather than gulping water as my body attempted to cool down as quickly as possible. I should have recognized the signs of having pushed too far, but I didn't.

And then I threw up.

Just water, but still. Not pretty. And that's why I can't go back to San Francisco. Ever. *sigh* Poor theoctothorpe was so concerned & apologetic, but it wasn't anything he did: I should have recognized the symptoms and backed off earlier. Lesson learned. Some seated rest, a cool compress to my forehead and a cooling shower later helped immensely. Within two hours, I was mostly normal again, except every muscle in my body was screaming in protest over the recent workout. Standing hurt. Sitting hurt. Lifting food to my mouth hurt. We had dinner at "The Thirsty Bear," but the restrooms are upstairs. OMFG, stairs made me hurt so bad going up *and* down. When I went to the men's room again before we left, I took the elevator.

My body ached for another 48 hours. Thank god I was nearly myself again before I boarded a plane to return to DC.

With theoctothorpe's gentle urging, I've purchased a membership with LA Fitness. There is a gym about a mile from home in downtown Silver Spring. There is also a gym of the same chain about a mile from the data center where I work so I have enormous flexibility in where I go to work out. He has also created a work-out plan for me, helping me along my goal to lose some fat around the waist and improve my upper body strength. We're still tweaking the plan, but it's a great foundation and better than I could have assembled on my own in such a short time.

In the first week at the gym (typically visiting every other day), my muscles ached during & after. These days, I don't ache during the workout, I just feel depleted & wobbly: the much milder ache kicks in the following day. As I write this, my biceps are whining at me about yesterday morning's fun.

I've cut back my consumption of soft drinks by about 95%. In the past two weeks, I've enjoyed one can of ginger ale and stole a couple of sips from kent4str's drink when he pretended he wasn't looking, but that's all. I've consumed more salads and less bread than at any prior time in my life. I haven't had chocolate in nearly three weeks, no ice cream, no fruit juice and only one small gelato. All foods are evaluated (and frequently rejected) for their sugar & starch content and their overall calorie count. Protein? It feels like I've consumed an entire caribou per week. Veggies are great and fruit too as long as it's high in fibre.

Since starting with this plan, I've noticed a handful of changes. I've lost eight pounds and I'm now fitting into my 31" waist jeans comfortably (down from 32"). When I was young, I radiated heat like a blast furnace: my ex, John, used to say I could rent myself out as a space heater. That stopped about ten years ago, but I've noticed recently that eating anything causes the blast furnace effect again for about an hour. I have a fan in my computer bunker now and have needed one in the bedroom if I ate anything late in the evening.

It hasn't all been fun though. I purchased a fat loss monitor, a small device which uses electrical impedence to guestimate one's percentage of body fat and BMI. After giving it my height, weight, age, sex (yes, please!) and body type, it determined I am 20.6% fat and have a BMI of 26. The machine says I'm significantly overweight at 176 lbs and 5'9". That was a little depressing even though I know the limitations of the machine's operation. As theoctothorpe rightly points out however, I shouldn't look at the absolute numbers but use it as a baseline to chart the delta, the changes over time. It isn't that I supposedly have 20.6% body fat, but that I can track progress to lose 3-5% from whatever the reported baseline is. That said, I have no idea what my target body fat percentage should be... I'm still working on that.

The project continues. I'm impatient for measurable results, but must remind myself this is a multi-month and multi-year project. After all, it took 46 years to make me into the slob I am so it will take time to climb back out of the hole.