Here’s The Scoop … Chicago … Shamrock Shakes And Ponytails …
March 30, 2010 by Barbara
RIGHT OF PASSAGE?…
Dear Readers … No more single day “Chicago” posts…as I was neglectful and time pressed with pressing LBTS posts and everyday life to post …So for now time to time updates will have to do…
Continuing on where I left off on day 7 ….Cybex #1 (treadmill #1 out of 5) and I are now old “friends”… We meet everyday…and have moved from a straight out fast paced walk to going at an incline that “mocks” walking up hill…The benefits of that are to increase the momentum for a quick and rapid decline of the “computer seat” that came from more sitting in front of the computer than walking the “hills” of LBTS!… So far so good …Although my new scale (the one that brought the reality of too much baked goods consumption and taking a pass on revving up the endorphins) has a malfunction …A display snafu that shows an incomplete digital number…and you can’t have that when you need to see the numbers go down…(creeping up…that’s another story )…The dreaded call to the company I purchased it from with the expected “call the manufacturer” response…Surprisingly it turned out so well I thought I should go play the lottery…A few simple questions and the Rep. said they will send out a new one…They don’t want the first one returned (Whew! Since I have not yet found the local post office/UPS ).. I was advised to put it wherever old scales go…Hmmm…Where do old scales go?…
As I faithfully and passionately walk the Cybex”cline” …I am really catching up on country music and new names.who are making it on the radio..It’s akin to the new athletes from figure skating to football that escape my recognition…I am still stuck way back with names that are (if their lucky) now sports commentators to sports commentators …. or doing commercials…
While the downside to radio (still Ipodless) is usually the commercials …(HD radio still succumbs to them)…. for this writer they are providing some of my best entertainment in going down memory lane..Yes, still!…One was a commercial with Mike Singletary (speaking of old time familiar football players) “hawking” car dealerships in the norther suburbs nearby where I grew up and lived until 16 years ago…The one that really got me smiling though…Shamrock shakes at McDonalds! I had to laugh at this one…as I remembered back to the first year in Florida when St. Patrick’s Day rolled around…My husband found out that in South Florida (at least in our neck of the woods) there were no Shamrock shakes…and no recall of having any knowledge of their very existence…. As much as he tried to describe the “classic” Shamrock green shake to each McDonald employee he came in contact with in the month on March…he made no headway… just receiving a lot of vacant stares and move along mister “snickers”……But here in Chicago they are still going strong …for a limited time…til next year!…
Observations come often with time at the gym…The “factions” …there’s the yoga crowd…the swimming class groups…the glider aficionados …weight training- spot exercise fanatics…the obligatory “walkers” who seem to walk back and forth in “preparation” to get on with it but never seem to quite get on to it as they “stroll” the “aisle”as the rest of us sweat…
It’s a time to observe who reads the signs and actually participates and sanitizes the equipment after each use for the next in line who might not want to become so closely related to the prior participants DNA… Watching the overwhelming number of members as they haphazardly walk away thinking perhaps their sweat doesn’t count …Then there’s those “posers” with the pseudo spray of disinfectant from the community spray bottle applying it with swift skimming single wipe in order to have followed through for appearance sake only…As for me, I spray before and I spray after double time and double…triple sprays to keep my sweat to myself and others at bay with a new baby on the way… I figured after I needed to get the H1N1 shot to be around the soon to arrive granddaughter, so this is a no-brainer!…
Prominent in all workout locals…is the ponytail….What is it with “ponytails’?… Are ponytails a woman’s “tree rings”?…Could be …I think maybe you can tell the “circle of life” from where a ponytail is located on the female gender …You start out in life with one or two way up on your toddler head like antlers…(usually lopsided antlers)…and as you approach your teens and twenties…it slowly starts inching its way down…(2 “pigtails”, in this writer’s opinion need to be left for the toddlers…and no it’s not ok to wear em’ into your 40’s and call it a “southern” thing!….”Daisy Duke” is no ones’s reality!) …Somewhere around 30+ the “tail” is slightly above the neck…and after that, unless you’ve gone the way of head hugging short…aka “Supercuts #5″….it never ever goes above neck high … Any higher on a senior gal just looks like a flashing neon light of denial ….Botox, lifestyle lift or full out plastic surgery it doesn’t make it right!.. And while we’re on the subject of ponytails…let’s address the subject of accompanying bows……. Ladies, come on….those too need to be left to the Sesame Street contingency! … Bad as it is to see a senior missus with a misplaced ponytail…add a bow, any bow…any size…any color… and all that comes to mind “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane” …Need I say more?…
With my ponytail firmly planted in the age appropriate location…Cybex #1 is awaiting my return … for there are more “hills” to climb and more observations to come….
more to come….
