Lots of little things

Posted on December 16, 2009 by ruthek

My refugee student passed his citizenship exam. Three cheers. He wants to continue learning how to read. I'm very proud of him.

Most of my classes are finished for the year. I have one last one tomorrow, but I think I'm going to pick up Eli from the airport instead.

I've been going to the health club and doing more organizing in my workroom. It's a long way from finished, but I'm making progress. I have a very old drafting/light table. It was useful when I was taking lots of slides. Now it's just another surface to clutter. As soon as I finish removing the clutter I'm going to try to sell it. It's really an antique.

I fixed two pairs of pants that needed repairs and took apart two jackets that need altering. I hope I still remember how to do it.

My new doctor told me to get one of those medical alert bracelets because of the Coumadin. It arrived yesterday and I'm wearing it. I feel like I've crossed a line between health and chronic illness, although nothing has really changed.

Exercise can be dangerous

Posted on July 27, 2009 by ruthek

I'm not really an obsessive personality, but once in a while something will get to me. I think of these things as waking nightmares. When I lived in New Jersey and worked in upstate New York I constantly worried about being hit by a truck as I crossed the George Washington Bridge twice each day. After 9/11 when my Chicago friends asked me if I was worried about a terrorist attack I realized I was much more concerned about those trucks. Over the years I've had a number of these concerns, most of which never materialized.

When I lived in Chicago my concern was about the possibility of getting stuck in Cabrini-Green, one of those notorious housing projects unwisely built very close to the most desirable areas of the city. On New Years Day, 1985, I went to visit a friend, mistakenly sailed past the North Avenue exit of the highway, and foolishly got off at Division Street, putting me right in wrong place. I was driving a VW something; I don't remember the model, and it had an electrical problem that the dealer hadn't been able to find. Needless to say, as I got to the stop sign in the middle of the area, the car stalled. Two men came over and tried to help me–actually, one tried to help–I wasn't sure about the other. The car wouldn't start, they pushed it to the curb, I gave them whatever money I had (about $25) and left as quickly as possible. I also got rid of that car as quickly as possible.

My most recent waking nightmare is about falling: either on my face or breaking something important like a hip. Friday morning, after finishing my tutoring gig at the library, I decided I would take the bus to the Strip if it came before my usual bus. I got there, had a fish sandwich at Benkowitz, went to the Society for Contemporary Craft to see the current exhibit and continued walking to downtown Pittsburgh. It's not very far, about a mile and a half. I got to Penn Station and decided to take the bus on the East Busway, giving me about another half mile walk on the other end to get home.

The area had been newly fixed up. There was a park-like place in front of the building and the walkway leading to the bus stop was newly paved with red brick. I never saw that the pavement was uneven: my foot hit and I went flying, landing on my knees forehead and nose. My glasses cut into my forehead, my nose was broken and I've never seen so much blood except on television.

I laid there for a moment unable to move, decided I'd better do something or I'd be soaked in blood. A man passing by came over to help me. He was wonderful. I'm sure he must have had some EMT training. He helped me sit up then moved me to a shady spot. He picked up the book and jacket I was carrying and helped me take my bag off my shoulder; picked up my hearing aid, which came off when I took the bag off, and found the case for it in my purse; each time showing me and telling me exactly what he was doing. I realized how vulnerable I was and how very fortunate that he had stopped to help me. I wish I knew who he was. I'd like him to know how much I appreciate him.

Someone else called for help. The police showed up, my good samaritan left, the paramedics came. Everyone was great. The paramedics cleaned most of the blood off my arms: I looked like I had been bathing in it. They took me to the ER at Shadyside Hospital (my choice) where I was cleaned up, CT scanned, (fractured my nose), the cut was glued (not a good place for stitches) and Steve and Charna came and took me home. I look terrible–like one of those Kabuki masks you can see here, but I feel OK, even went out for dinner with the kids on Friday night. So, don't worry Carol.

Walking with my “fat child”

Posted on March 9, 2009 by ruthek

Something I saw on Facebook this morning made me start thinking about fat children; my fat childhood came with me on today's walk. My brother and I were both fat children and both of us hated being fat. It left us with scars that affected our entire adult lives, in fact, probably killing my brother three years ago.

Here is my kindergarten picture. I wanted to be one of the skinny girls on the right, not one of the fat ones on the left. Obviously, life in the fat lane began before I entered school and continued until I was sixteen when I took control of my life and finally managed to get to a "normal" size (14). I hate to blame my mother for this, but who controls the eating habits of a three, four or five year old, or even a 10 year old. My mother expressed love with food and most of her communication with us involved food. She controlled how much went on our plates and always urged us to clean those plates. "Think of the starving children in Europe."

If I wanted to eat a packaged cookie, which was in the house, she yelled at me. But she was an excellent baker; most of the time there were home-baked cookies or cakes, which she urged us to eat. Looking at the photos, and there aren't many, brings back lots of memories: the dresses I couldn't buy because there was nothing to fit me. Sometimes I was frantic about it. Chubbie sizes were introduced at some point when I was a child, but there never seemed to be anything for me.

This is a picture of Arvin, about ten years old. He was beautiful, but all he saw of himself was his fat, well disguised in the photo. He was four years younger than me.

I wasn't allowed to buy milk in school. They used to give us half pint bottles before recess for a milk break. They cost a penny or two. It wasn't the pennies: it was my mother's effort to keep me from getting fatter. It made me always the outsider.

And let's talk about exercise. I was a tomboy. There were lots of boys living in the apartments near us. They were my favorite playmates. The only real exercise I got was running around with them. My mother always objected. I shouldn't run around with the boys; I shouldn't run around.

Nice girls didn't exercise. Jewish girls were nice. Therefore, Jewish girls shouldn't exercise. How's that for a syllogism. My mother's idea of a perfect girl child was someone who sat at home and read. If no new books were available, the perfect child would sit and twiddle her thumbs. I don't remember when I began my rebellion; probably with the thumb twiddling and continued through most of my mother's life. As I got older there were several times when she would get really angry at me if I lost weight. I guess I was insulting her.

My exercise now is like a moral imperative. I can't say I love it; I think it's very important and helps keep me moving.

Still walking

Posted on March 8, 2009 by ruthek

The weather the last few days has been conducive to walking and I'm taking advantage of it. On Thursday I went to the Strip, an area with restaurants, night clubs and many old time food stores. I was looking for poppy seeds, one of the essentials for food for the Jewish holiday of Purim, which occurs tomorrow and Tuesday. I found poppy seeds in two places (usually not so easy to do) and bought what probably constitutes a lifetime supply. Robin used some to make a stuffed challah (with onions and poppy seeds) for Shabat dinner on Friday. Today she will probably make hamantaschen, I hope. While this errand involved some walking it was not enough.

Darcy was full of energy when I got to Robin's to drop off the poppy seeds, so I took her for a long walk. I always seem to need some motivation in order to get going. We walked over to Mellon Park where she sat for a long time watching other dogs playing. Usually she hates other dogs and will bark and snap at them, but she seems to like watching them run around and play. I can't let her off leash; even if she behaved with other dogs she really couldn't run around with them.

Friday I walked over to the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. That's about 3.5 miles and I was very proud of myself. Yesterday I walked to the Squirrel Hill Theater to see Milk. That was 2.5 miles each way and on both days I still had energy when I got home. It's been raining a little this morning, but I'm thinking about going out soon. Just haven't figured out where to go.

All in a day’s work

Posted on March 5, 2009 by ruthek

I was so tired yesterday I was in bed by nine–most unusual for me. It was a long, but interesting day. First was my pacemaker phone check. It's a simple procedure, every eight weeks, requiring the use of an old telephone, the kind with the separate handset and round ear and mouth pieces that get placed on receptacles in a box to which both of my hands are tethered by bracelets that look like expansion watchbands and I'm supposed to move things around and sit and relax. I have yet to find a good place to plug in the phone and put both phone and box at a comfortable height where I can sit and relax. The whole thing becomes an exercise in clumsiness with lots of tension on my part, but it all seems to work.

After I finished this and completed my usual morning activities, breakfast and blogs, I got on the bus and went to tai chi. While there is no aerobic exercise in this class, my legs get a big workout and ache afterward. Then back on the bus for a ride downtown. I've been offering to work in so many places someone finally wanted me. I went to Oasis, another group providing educational activities for older people, which meets at Macy's, which used to be Kaufmann's.

I must confess I had never been inside the store, which was originally one of the largest department stores in the country. I've been reading about it in Franklin Toker's book, Fallingwater Rising, a wonderful book about how Fallingwater was built and about the Kaufmanns who built it, so this was an opportunity to look at the store, although I am sure it no longer resembles the place Edgar Kaufmann built. Oasis, being on the tenth floor, gave me the opportunity to ride the escalators and get some idea of what was for sale. After meeting some of the people at Oasis and getting a tour of the facility I went to lunch.

My volunteer stint, helping out in a computer class, began at 1 pm. There were six people in the class including one who is about to celebrate her hundredth birthday, or maybe it was her hundred and first. She was a writer and wanted to continue writing. She had published her autobiography, a formidable book, and had a lot more to say. The word processor she had been using no longer worked so now she needed a computer. I was to be her tutor. I tried to keep her following the class work, but it was very difficult; she never really mastered the basics, like moving the mouse and using the buttons.

Truthfully, there is a lot of things about a computer you don't need to know if you just want to write. She really only needs to know how to turn it on, get to Word or whatever, open a document, save, turn it all off, with cut, copy and paste thrown in for good measure. But that lady is so smart she wanted to know about back ups. Bravo to her. She doesn't have a computer, yet. I promised to give her my phone number when I come back next week and help her get started when she got a computer.

By the end of the class I was pretty tired. I guess I have to figure out a way to sit while I'm teaching. I took the bus home, had a cup of tea and went out again. I have tiny black ants infesting my kitchen. I went to buy borax, which is supposed to kill them, then went over to Whole Foods for a few other things. By the time I finished dinner there wasn't enough of me left to finish the day and I have to go spread the borax now.

A good day

Posted on February 26, 2009 by ruthek

Yesterday was a beautiful day: a taste of spring inspiring me to take a long walk. Having spent most of my first 63 years in Chicago I do not believe Spring comes in February. In fact, I hardly believe in Spring–most of the time there was winter and then there was summer. In spite of that I truly enjoyed the day. It is still warm today, although very gray, but I will go for another long walk.

I began the day with my tai chi class. Not the class which met twice a week for mild exercise at the health club, but a real tai chi class. We are learning to relax and sink; to walk on thin ice; to ward off left and right; to change the weight on each leg; and the five most important principles of the 55 that constitute tai chi. I've been doing this for several years now. My teacher says it can take ten years to really learn those first movements. My legs still rebel at all of the weight shifting and I need to practice more.

After the class I took a short walk, about a half mile, over to Carnegie Mellon University, and sat through an interesting lecture on the management of culture in China. I had never given any thought to the policies that promoted the numerous archaeological digs and how the objects were managed after they were found, so this lecture gave me much to think about.

Since I came to Pittsburgh I've been looking for some kind of volunteer work that didn't involve raising money, long hours on my feet or stuffing envelopes. I think I finally found a tutoring opportunity, but it requires tutoring reading as well as speaking. So my next stop was the library where I picked up a book on teaching ESL. From there, I walked home–about two miles, and felt very virtuous.

Numbers rule my life

Posted on January 16, 2009 by ruthek

The sun is shining; there is snow on the ground and it is minus six degrees here in Pittsburgh with a high of four degrees predicted. Yesterday was similarly cold; I don't remember seeing the sun. My class was canceled yesterday. I thought about going to work out, but never got there. Today, I'm not even thinking about it. Instead I spent about a half hour doing my leg exercises.

Exercise has become very important to me. I lost about 15 pounds while I was in Asia because I was doing so much walking. I confess I was not on a diet. I ate very well in China and frequently had chocolate or other candies. In Japan, I ate a lot of bread, sweet rolls, and other no-no's. For most of those two months I walked most of every day. I don't do that here. On days like today, I won't walk at all.

I don't want to gain back the weight–altogether too easy for me to do. So I have no nosh in the house. I have food; I'm not going hungry. There is tofu, spinach, another kind of tofu, tomatoes, clementines, but no sweet rolls, scones, cookies, not even popcorn. It's driving me nuts. I've been working on my China book with breaks to continue organizing my work room. Every so often I get up, walk into the kitchen, remember there is nothing I want to eat and go back to work. It's very difficult. Tomorrow it is supposed to get up to 19 degrees–I'll go out and walk.

Random thoughts

Posted on July 5, 2008 by ruthek

A Prairie Home Companion is coming from Ravinia this week. Sitting here listening I’m feeling very nostalgic. I’ve spent many summer evenings there, although I never considered it a great place to hear music. But some of the concerts were good and I saw Stravinsky conduct the Chicago Symphony.

I’m sure my cousins are sitting there in the audience. Maxine lives near the park and is always urging everyone to come and picnic on the lawn. Garrison Keeler wished Paul of Chicago happy 94th birthday. That’s probably my cousin, also. I was supposed to go to a party for him, but had to cancel my trip because of my detour to the hospital.

I think about Chicago often. Even now, after eleven years away, it’s still a big part of me. I plan to visit in September, make up for the trip I missed. Sometimes I think about moving back. But it’s probably true, you can’t go home again. My cousins are very good to me and I still have several good friends there. But I’ve decided it’s better coming back and visiting. After all, then I’m a celebrity. And I would miss my family terribly.

Charna is going to the Governor’s school for international studies this summer. She’s been there for two weeks; this weekend is her only opportunity to come home, then back for another three weeks. I think she’s enjoying it very much. She was very happy.

I’m still concentrating on all my exercises. I went back to the mobility clinic on Thursday and they suggested a few more exercises for mastering those steps. They also told me the beta blocker I’m taking is what is probably making me more tired than before. They think I’ll get used to it. I did manage my three miles yesterday and didn’t collapse afterward, so I guess I’m doing better.

3 Miles

Posted on June 27, 2008 by ruthek

I did it yesterday morning. In fact, I did my leg exercises, walked my three miles, then went to a museum in the afternoon. Of course, I was wiped out by dinnertime. Oh well.

As Phyllis and I started to walk in Frick Park we were assailed by tiny flying things, maybe mosquitoes. I’m usually a mosquito magnet so I wasn’t happy. We’ve had a lot of rain here. Although the path wasn’t wet we decided to leave and went over to Homewood Cemetery, next to the park. Where the park is wild and only the paths are cleared, the cemetery has broad roadways and the lawns are beautifully manicured. I don’t like it as well because it’s usually sunny–not so many trees, but it was cloudy for most of our walk. Most of the cemetery is wonderfully well kept. After all, it’s the finally resting place of some of Pittsburgh’s most prominent citizens, like Henry Clay Frick.

We talked about the Carnegie International, which Phyllis had seen the
day before, and I was anticipating seeing in the afternoon. (I’ll write
about it next week.) About two-thirds of the way through the walk we came to a place that could provide material for artist installations. An old, deteriorated building had been destroyed. There were some old monuments, bricks and other building materials in a pit where the house had stood. I’m surprised they haven’t cleaned it up; it’s been like that for awhile. Here are a couple of pictures looking into the pit.

This strange thing was on the edge of the pit. I don’t have a clue about what it is. Kind of makes me think of an elephant.

This week

Posted on June 15, 2008 by ruthek

It is almost two weeks since all of my bandages and bits of tape have been removed and I have showered every day, but I'm still finding adhesive on my body. It's finally showing up as dirty and I'm having to pick it off. I wonder if there's some on my back I can't see, where they fastened those electrodes.

I've been following an exercise schedule–working on my leg exercises and walking again. I've taken two walks with Mary and Phyllis, but not going all the way. There's a shady bench about two-thirds of the way down the path where I sat and waited for them. It's supposed to be cooler next week so I'll try going the distance the next time I walk. I'm alternating walks and exercises.

Eli came home on Thursday and Renee is here for the weekend. We spent much of yesterday afternoon waiting for the rain to end so we could go to the Three Rivers Festival. Finally went down to the Strip and got to a few places before they closed. We drove toward the Festival watching an ominous gray cloud to the north, then went over to the North Side to the Moxie Dada gallery. Eli recommended we go there. It's a great place–an old firehouse turned into artists studios, mostly ceramists. There was a wonderful covered jar for sale–beautifully made with a perfectly fitting cover. More money than I could afford, but I loved looking at it. Across the street are two wonderfully painted and decorated houses–someone's personal art project. One day I'll go back and photograph them; too much rain yesterday.

In the evening, Eli, Renee and I went over to Construction Junction to a kind of cabaret run by the Pillow Project, a local dance group. The dancers and musicians were wonderful. I'm told they are students, graduates or somehow associated with Point Park University. I was very impressed. This is obviously a young persons activity; we were far and away the oldest people there, but they made us feel welcome. I'd like to go back again.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Category Archives: Exercise