Squawk!

So yesterday morning was my first appointment with a personal trainer.

And before I get all the emails telling me how I’m just fine the way I am, listen!

I am not A) trying to lose weight or B) trying to lose inches.  Yes, I do realize that all my clothing tags say 'small.'  The main motivation here is 1) strength, 2) tone and 3) more energy. 

Perhaps you’re different and could totally self-motivate yourself into these results.  In my case, however, while the occasional arm jiggling disturbs me, it’s not upsetting enough to keep me on the elliptical.  What is enough is the fear of disappointing someone.  This is the beauty of accountability.  I might be more lax in wasting my own time; but I don’t want to waste CJ’s (my personal trainer’s) time.  -Man!  It suddenly hit me that I’ve reached a whole new level of manipulation.  I’m actually manipulating my people-pleasing self!  It’s about time that I use these powers for good!

After working out to the point of nausea (it really doesn’t take much), I hit up a couple grocery stores.  With more exercise comes more appetite; and I wanted to be prepared with healthy snacks.  Halfway through the second grocery store, I got a phone call from my big sis, Mandy.  She surprised me and drove 1 ½ hrs. to my house to drop off some birthday goodies; but she didn’t want to disturb me in case I had more pressing plans for my day off. 

Nothing trumps sister time.  Nothing.

Groceries were quickly purchased and I sped home to hug on her and her best friend, Rachael.    In addition to birthday goodies, they also brought along a gigantic bag of hand-me-downs (thanks to my brother’s fiancée).  Closet space is quite limited in our house; so we went from digging through the hand-me-downs to purging my own wardrobe.  Clothes were flying in every direction!  After about an hour we all had new looks to wear and none of us had spent a dime!

Then it was time to fuel up on caffeine and do some extra browsing for Mandy.  If you haven’t met Mandy yet, you’re missing out.  We have an equally hard time summing each other up, but I’ll do my best to begin.  You need to know, though, when I’m discussing Mandy in an endearing sense, her name changes to Manny.  Keep up.

Manny is… loud.  Very loud.  You might think she has some bizarre form of tourette syndrome thanks to all the random bird squawks, but I assure you she’s just getting a kick out of herself.  She’s expressive and loves to laugh.  One of the best things about writing Square Piece is knowing that somewhere in Virginia, Manny is laughing.  Manny is strong, compassionate and fiercely loyal.  As much as she beat me up as a child, she’ll beat you up worse if you mess with her Sunanna (um, that’s me).

I’ll end there for now, but there are novels to write about Manny.  And if I did, I think you’d fall in love with her.

Did I mention that she's brave and gorgeous? 

Here's a photo of us from a couple years ago when she was sporting a mohawk.  Brave and sexy!