Happy first Monday of the new year!
I thought I posted last week, but I apparently did not. New Year's was our typical low key at home. We did try to make it fun with some indulgent drinking experiments. David spent his night comparing a 12 year vs 15 year single malt scotch brand's offerings. Meanwhile, I compared a premium bottle of champagne to viral favorite $10 bottle of sparkling wine from Trader Joes. We also experimented with drinking vessels to see if the festive favorite was really inferior to the sommelier's choice. David liked both bottles of scotch and would gladly drink either one, but noted the 15 year was nice and rich compared to the 12. For the champagne, the premium stuff was the obvious winner...although, I've confirmed I still don't love champagne. It tasted better, was smooth enough that I could polish off the bottle with ease, no hangover, I'm no expert but I could pick up things in the bouquet and overall depth of flavor, and the bubble production was far superior. The sommelier's choice of using a white wine glass (since I don't own tulips) was a fail. The coupe glass was the worst, but the festive flute bubbled endlessly and it held the bouquet better to the point that I could really taste a difference. The TJs stuff tasted like cheap bubbly wine. We ended up using it for mimosas.
So, some fun New Year fitness stories...and it's only the 5th!
1. On January 1st, I got up to go for a moderate distance walk. I was grateful for lots of energy, no hangover, and decent weather. As I neared the 2.5 mile mark in the route I'd designed for the day, I saw a crowd up ahead. Now, I knew the Texas Marathon (and half marathon) were this day in my town. In fact, I ran it back in 2020. I thought about doing the half a couple of weeks ago but decided against it because I wanted to drink on NYE. The old race route was deeper into our town, but this year's route covered 75% of my weekday morning route...which happened to be part of my plan for 1/1. So, I ended up in the middle of the race! It was so much fun to have people cheering me on, people I normally see walking their dogs were set up with signs and even shot/mimosa stations, and I met a lovely man whose running pace was similar to my walk and we chatted for a solid 1.5 miles after I paused so he could save a turtle that had positioned himself in the middle of the green belt. I ended up going a total of 9.3 miles that day (since it was a moderate day for me), but it was such a fun surprise and fun way to start off my fitness in the new year.
2. I've been to the gym several times in the new year and it's been fun interacting with some of the longer-term employees as well as the regulars. I don't converse a lot while I'm there but as we hit the season where everyone and their mother is trying to get healthy it's been kind of rewarding to be recognized as a consistent figure in a sea of newbies...like I've done good things and belong. It's hard to describe but it's just an unexpected boost from the hard work and consistency I've been putting in.
3. Last Monday, I had to resort to treadmill use for my morning walk. I can't even use my walking pad at home because my standard pace is now a bit too fast for it...aside from it being horribly narrow and unsafe at the highest speeds. While I prefer the PF at the front of our neighborhood, the local franchisee bought a gym that's a 2-3 minute drive from my house (maybe only a mile walk) and has turned it into a PF. Sure, the equipment transformation will take a year but I have access. So, just a quick drive Monday morning and I was on a treadmill for 6+ miles. It's a totally different vibe and crowd...not to mention 1/4 of the treadmills and lots of people right on top of me. Still, it's going to be really helpful on mornings where I need a gym treadmill or do things in reverse. So, that was big.
4. I have been hovering near the half marathon distance for my long walks for over a month now. On Saturday, I decided it was time to just do it...assuming I didn't have any issues along the way. I mapped it out, fed and hydrated myself accordingly, packed a little nutrition in my pocket, and put in a 13.14 mile walk. I then biked a gentle 8.53 miles to loosen up my legs at home, hit the gym for leg day (had a surprising amount of strength and energy), and then hit a hydrobed to try and massage out some of the day. It all just made me feel really accomplished...like we're doing big things and maybe a marathon is in this body at some point. At the very least, I may do a walker friendly half in March.
In other New Year's news, rather than doing traditional resolutions, like last year...I got a head start in late December on goals/ So, last week, I...
1. Started my goal of getting digital records of my physical photos. I have a LONG way to go, but I started with my albums from a European vacation in 2000. I still don't have the heart to physically dismantle them because I worked so hard on assembly and artifact retention. So, I took pictures of pictures vs. formal scanning. Still, I now have everything from all 24 rolls of film + some of the little things I held onto like packaging and tickets, digitally photographed and in albums.
2. Last year, I sorted out my jewelry. There was a pile to keep, a pile to discard, and a pile to fix. The pile to discard was then further separated into gold vs. silver. I had quite a few pieces I've been meaning to fix for decades but have serious trust issues when it comes to putting some of these special pieces into the hands of a stranger. We have a local jeweler that gets great reviews and has been around for years, so I finally took the plunge. After going through the discard pile one last time, I went in last Monday and not only sold them all of my gold and silver scrap, I trusted them with my dead watches and favorite pieces in need of fixing. My watches were just batteries, so I had them back in hand and working (including my favorite) right there on the spot. Gold has been high, so I got a nice sum for my scrap and was able to apply a portion of that to my repairs. The three necklaces and two bracelets were a bit trickier, but they had them back to me by Friday. I will admit that I started to tear up when he helped me put on my big chain. It broke around the time Kendall was born. It's a combination of my grandfather's pocket watch chains soldered together to make a necklace. Between the body transformation and the jewelry, I'm really starting to feel like me! So, that's kind of my theme going forward...doing things that restore ME! The real me!
OK...sorry for the novel but hope you all had a fun and safe New Year's and have gotten off to a great start in 2026.
