what's in you wednesday

Yesterday, I had to drive up to Newport Beach for a meeting.

Newport Beach is in Orange County which is a lovely spot just south of Los Angeles and just north of San Diego which many people might never have heard of if not for a show about some "Real" Housewives that live there. Here's a picture of one...

Yeah, that's pretty much what I look like on most days.

So as I'm driving to this meeting - which took me around two hours from San Diego - I was reflecting on the exercise I've done over the past week and sadly, it hasn't been very much. I did go to the gym once and I took the kids to a local field where we spent over an hour sprinting up and down a huge grassy hill. But aside from that, I've been making great plans that haven't been fulfilled for one pathetic reason or another.

I turn on the radio and tune in to a Disco station. As I'm tapping my fingers to the beat, I'm struck with the idea of doing some simple stretches while I'm driving. I start with a shoulder shrug. Pulling my shoulders up to my ears and then lowering them down.

Pushing up. Hold. Hold. Pushing down.

Then I do a few shoulder rolls. Five forward. Five back. Five forward. Five back. Followed by a few more shoulder shrugs. Then I decide that since the traffic is light and I have a good grasp on the traffic flow around me, I lift my right arm up and do a few rotations. Then a few curls. Then a few rotations. Curls. Rotations.

I'm feeling a little heat.

I'm getting a workout.

In my car.

On the way to a meeting.

This is multi-tasking at it's finest!

It was a little more difficult to do rotations and curls with the left arm, seeing as the window was there, but I improvised enough that within a few minutes, my muscles felt a bit sore.

Then I switched my vehicular exercise routine to my lower half. Putting the car on cruise control, I lifted each foot and did 100 foot rotations. Then I did knee lifts, while keeping my knees bent. And then, once I sensed that traffic was picking up, I took the car off of cruise control and started working on a gluteal squeeze. First my left side. Then my right. Then my left and right, together.

"Celebration" is on the radio and I can feel the endorphins pumping through me.

There's a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the year. So bring your good times and your laughter too, we're goin' celebrate your party with you! Come on now CELEBRATION!! We gonna celebrate and have a GOOD time! Come on now! CELEBRATION!!"

I'm watching traffic and adjusting my speed, accordingly. I'm very aware of the cars around me, the music on the radio, and the beat that I'm trying to keep.

Right squeeze. Left squeeze.

RIGHT LEFT TOGETHER SQUEEZE.

I'm only slightly aware that as I'm doing these exercises my entire body is rising up. And down. And up. And down. Just about then, I hit a patch of congestion as Interstate 5 merges with the 405 but I keep on squeezing, while thinking of the outstanding possibilities for enhancing my physical fitness as I drive to the multitude of projects I manage throughout southern California in San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

Those Real Housewives ain't gonna have nothing on me.

That's when I see out of the corner of my eye a car has been hanging in my left blind spot for an extended period of time and as the car pulls alongside my vehicle, I sense that someone is watching me. I turn to look and a man in a Prius is smiling and nodding. My eyes fly forward as I immediately stop my gluteal squeezes and pretend like I dropped something on the floor.

A few minutes pass and the traffic slows to a stop. As I take a sip of water, I casually glance over at the car next to me where I see that Mister Prius is still there. Smirking. We make eye contact for the briefest moment and he winks.

The dude WINKED at me.

My Kool and the Gang rock out session promptly ended. I tuned in to NPR and spent the rest of my drive listening to Morning Edition while trying to shake the embarrassment.

Thirty six hours later and my face is still a little pink.

******

(I think I share way too much with you guys. So please share with me what you've done for yourself this week. Did you fly off a treadmill? Wear your bicycle helmet running? Come on. Don't leave me hanging. Surely you've had a doofus moment. Or three...)