Rusty

I'm a bit rusty, but at least I'm back!

I played volleyball for the first time in 3-1/2 years tonight, and it felt great. Rusty for sure, but great nonetheless. And none too soon, either, becuase I really need to shed some of this, ahem, additional weight I've accumulated over the past couple of months.

I wouldn't say I've gained all this weight simply because of all the partying for my 40th birthday and a home-for-the-holidays Christmas. I guess I now realize just how physically active my former circus job was. I used to blog about the trials and tribs of Set Up and Tear Down and all the physical output accumulated with both of those arduous tasks in each city, but I suppose that was just part of the picture.

Every day in the process of doing my job, I must have walked miles. And, trust me, I didn't cover nearly as much real estate as Tower Girl or Lucky, who logged a mini-marathon every day. Still, my tent was always located at the front of site, so I routinely covered plenty of ground walking to the back of site to go to the kitchen over and over again, to put in laundry, to move laundry, to get laundry, to go to completely unproductive meetings, to move inventory, to sign payroll, to do whatever. And then when it was showtime and my VIP suite was open, it was always go go go! I circled repeatedly to make sure that everything was going according to plan -- observing, puttering, adjusting, fixing, hosting, chatting up the cute guests. Seriously, it was rare to ever stop and smell the chocolate fountain fondue because I was always running around.

During my last eight months with the circus, I used to tell everyone that I was conducting a physiological experiment: I didn't do a freakin' bit of exercise, I ate everything in sight, I gorged on desserts, and still managed to avoid a weight gain of 50 pounds. But now I realize that it was all that walking and moving and lifting and everything -- in addition to the craziness of Set Up and Tear Down -- actually kept me within an acceptable weight range. Even if I wasn't doing any extracurricular exercise, my on-the-job output was enough to work wonders.

But, not surprisingly, it's all gone to pot now. Perhaps it's time to start workin' on that and lose this mess of a middle I've suddenly acquired.

Stay tuned.