monday morning high

I didn't ride this morning.

this time I'm being truthful.

my yoga class is held at the Jewish Community Center, which is closed this evening through wednesday for Rosh Hashana, so there will be no yoga for me tomorrow morning. and since I try to squeeze in a brief weight room workout before yoga class, I will miss that as well. so I decided to go to the JCC and work out this morning, and I'll ride tomorrow. my well-planned life.

what I need to write about this morning has to do with weight room workouts and technology. not about fancy machines or great workouts that utilize new concepts. it's about apple technology: the ipod.

I received an ipod for christmas two years ago, and I thought it was a pretty unnecessary gift. I'd never wanted one, and I didn't really understand why people liked them so much. I had a friend who cycled while listening to one (just using one earphone, for safety reasons), and I didn't get it. I love the sounds I hear while I'm cycling, even if it's just my own labored breath.
but it was a generous gift, and I thought I should figure out how to use it. this took a while, but with help from my son, the ipod got set up and filled with music. and then he helped me learn how to work it. or at least to work enough of it that I could turn it on, choose "shuffle," and fast-forward/reverse as needed.
the first day I hit the weight room with my ipod, I felt like one of the crowd. I, too, had an armband with a little gadget in it and earphones running from it. and then I stopped feeling like one of the crowd, as I got lost in my own fabulous world of songs I loved. I cranked the volume, and loved every minute of having this music in my own personal space, and no one else's. the only hard part was restraining myself from singing (shouting) along with the songs.
the workout became almost secondary.
almost.
last winter I tried to fit in spin classes when I could, but found that I was usually in the weight room 4 to 5 days a week, and I grew even closer to my ipod. I would fast-forward through songs I wasn't in the mood for, and re-play (sometimes two or three times) the songs that fit perfectly with what I was feeling that morning. I came to love the experience of having this amazing collection of songs available to me, and the "shuffle" kept me surprised, pleased, and away from getting stuck in a rut of listening to only the songs I thought I wanted to hear. songs would often catch me by surprise with how much I enjoyed them, being aware that I wouldn't have knowingly chosen to listen to them that morning.

but I don't wear my ipod while riding outside, still. there may come a day when I do ~ never say never ~ but to this point I still don't have a desire to. and because my weight-room time since sometime in may has been limited to about 20-30 minutes before yoga, I haven't used my ipod in (gulp, this is hard to believe) over four months.
until this morning.
and this morning at 5:30 I remembered the joy of listening to songs I love through the earphones connected to my ipod. I absolutely love it. it's as if I'm in my own little world, happy as a clam, singing away inside my head. (funny how one can do that...) I see people I know ~ and enjoy ~ there working out, and I reluctantly pull one earphone out to say hello, keeping the other one in so that I am only partially committed to the conversation. when I take both earphones out, it means I really like the person and am willing to sacrifice my listening pleasure for a brief moment.
because I love this music. some bring memories along with them, but most please me for myriad different reasons: the voice, the harmonies, the words, the melodies, the rhythm . . . each song has some unique collection of those that just meshes with who I am and sends me to a glorious place.
I don't need drugs.
I've got my ipod.