Do you want to . . .

"Do you want to do some bike and stair master on Monday?"

NO!!

Ok, people, lets go over this again. I don't like cardio. I really don't. Here are some things I do like:

• Sleeping 8 hours a night
• Watching the Colbert Report
• Learning from other people
• Fresh fruit
• Game nights
• Game nights with nachos and my friend Mary's divine popcorn
• Brunch
• Growing my own basil
• Teaching
• Babies. More specifically, watching babies becoming toddlers and learn awesome things.
• Swimming
• Writing
• Photography
• Giving someone a gift that makes their face light up
• Hearing people's stories
• Cooking
• Really amazing pizza
• Cupcakes
• Shakespeare
• Organization
• Respect, trust, integrity, inspiration
• Sports movies, end of the world movies, and movies based on true stories
• Working hard at something and getting it right
• Walking
• The ocean
• Sunsets over the mountains
• Pedicures
• Having friends from different corners of my life meet and like each other
• Music - listening, dancing to it, and making it
• Spending a day with some really good lemonade and a book I can't put down
• Laughing until my ribs hurt
• Fried pickles
  

Yeah, that's right. I like fried pickles. A lot. (It's hard to find them done right, but when found, they are glorious!)

So, ok, there are some forms of cardio on that list. I love to take a nice walk. Swimming calms me down and makes me feel both adrenalized and calm at the same time. And I've gotten exercise I haven't loathed while I was sweating. I used to climb with my bestest friend in NJ and, dudes, I sucked at it. But I loved it. I had no natural ability for karate, but an hour of working up a sweat at the dojo was more fun than beers with my friends, and so I often gave up going out with friends in favor of a class. I've been in some excellent games of capture the flag and soccer that I loved, win or lose. (Though I'm quick to tell you all, at age 21, playing a serious, all out game of capture the flag across my college campus, I brought home the opposing team's flag, with three of their players hot in pursuit. I ran THROUGH the dorm that had bathrooms as connectors between the halls, and changed floors from first, to second to third several times. No, I'm not competitive at all. I haven't any idea what you're talking about!)

But, cardio, for cardio's sake - naaaahhhhhh. I don't wanna. Nope. I do not want to meet you on the stairmaster. But I will. (Siiiiggggh)

Because here is something else I don't want. I don't want to sit at home, watching 6 hours of the Intervention marathon. I don't want to spend 3 days in a row in my pajamas, unshowered. I don't want to be here, each week, when my local Jehova Witnesses come on their regular visits. I don't want to lie in bed for three hours reading, and staring at the ceiling, and avoiding the frightening things about my current reality. I don't want to steep myself in activities that make it easy for me to slip into depression. I don't want to dwell on the negative.

I'd hate it more if I became a depressed shut-in trolling the web for job opportunities and cutting and pasting cover letters. So, I get on the treadmill. And I meet my friend and bike, and stairmaster (brutal!) on my appointed day-off from exercise. Sweating is better than crying. That's all there is to it. And being with people is better than being alone, even if it's a brutal 45 minutes on a bike and a stairmaster that make me want to hurl. Ugh.