exercise

Angel #2 and I oh so nobly went to the gym today. We did our little orientation session with the trainer, then headed for the machines. I broke a sweat, people. What kind of sadist invented those elliptical machines anyway? We also inspected the pool and got a list of the different classes they offer. We're going to try a few out and see what happens.

I did so good today. As a rule, I don't strike up conversations with random strangers beyond the 'can you believe the price of milk?' sort of thing. Today there was a woman at Kmart who was shopping with her obviously mentally handicapped daughter. Tomorrow we're having a big Special Olympics event and I wanted to invite the woman and her family to it. Of course, this is rather risky - everyone knows someone who LOOKS mentally handicapped but isn't, and it would be rather awkward to invite someone to the picnic then have them give you this look like, why are you inviting ME to a Special Olympics event? But, I figured I was pretty safe with this woman. She seemed only mildly interested, but told me that there was another woman in the store who had a little girl with Down Syndrome who'd come up to her earlier asking about local programs. Woman #1 must have run into woman #2 a little later and told her about me, because this woman came up to me later with her adorable little girl and started asking me questions. I invited her and her family to the picnic tomorrow and it sounds like she'll be coming. How cool is that? And it was all because I finally got brave enough to strike up a conversation.