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There was a recent "article" at The Onion about someone who sent out so many emails chronicling the minutia of his life that he was considered a modern day Proust. I kind of feel like that guy. I do write a lot each day, but it is all emails, mostly to this odd little chat group to which I belong and to my long-suffering husband. And it's also interesting (to me at least) that I have been thinking about reading Proust, even though I haven't cracked page one of volume one. But I enjoy reading about Proust, which I do vicariously through a blog called Orange Crate Art, written by an English professor somewhere in Indiana.

Much has happened in the last little while, not the least of which was that I turned 50 and didn't even mark that milestone with a blog post. I have concluded that I must begin blogging about the minutia of my life in a Proust-meets-the-Onion sort of way.

Today, I wrote the CanFitPro Personal trainer Specialist exam. I gave myself the course as a 50th birthday present. I don't know if I am going to become a personal trainer but I have been going to the gym lately and noticing a lot of women older than I am who could probably relate more to a personal trainer closer to their own age. Plus, I have been watching my parents age (gracefully, I may say) and they do love to quote (was it Bette Davis?) someone who said "getting old ain't for sissies". I figure I have about 30 years before I allow myself to qualify as "old" and I am going to start preparing for it now. Although I am a member of the GoodLife Gym and I really enjoy its group exercise classes, I don't think I would want to sign on there as a trainer in its stable. Because "stable" sort of says it all for me. If I do become a trainer, it will be on my terms. I want to be able to choose the people with whom I work and it's not the money that is important to me.

Anyway - first I have to pass the exam. I don't know when I'll hear how I did. If I passed (I'm pretty sure I did), then I have to take a CPR certification course and then I have to do the practical exam, which I know I will pass. And then we shall see. In the meantime, I continue to teach part time, which ends at the end of April. Peter and I are going to Europe in May for the first time ever together. And when we get back, I want to renovate the upstairs of the house, including putting in a whole new bathroom. So I think I'm busy until July at any rate.

There. That's a good start. Now I just have to do this every day.

Proust and Glory

June 29
In a previous entry, I wondered about Proust in the comments. The reason I have been thinking about Proust is mostly because of the entries at Orange Crate Art, a blog by an English prof. Now, he has an entire entry on how to read Proust so I'm wondering what excuse I can use to continue to avoid reading "Remembrance of Things Past". And is that the same as "In Search of Lost Time" except for the translation? Okay it is, I looked it up in Wikipedia.

Phrase for the day:

sic transit gloria mundi: So the glory of this world passes away. (An exclamatory phrase used at the installations of the popes.)

Sic transit gloria mundi is a Latin phrase that means "Thus passes the glory of the world," but is more commonly interpreted as "Fame is fleeting."