(no subject)

[jianantonic]

I just got back from the gym, where I did my first full workout in a little over two weeks.  I was worried that I had backslid quite a bit in the time that I was sick, but I really hadn't.  I pretty much picked up where I left off, though I did drop my weights by a level or so on each machine.  I didn't want to overdo it on my first day back to weightlifting.  I've been doing cardio, but only lighter resistance things, nearly every day for the past week or so.  Today I amped it up and did 40 minutes, and I felt fine.  I listened to The Waybacks and watched Harry Potter and all was mostly well. 

I was talking to my brother about cardio workouts, and he was saying how the last ten minutes are always a real struggle for him.  I'm the opposite.  No matter how long I determine my workout will be (almost always 30 minutes), the first half just drags.  Once I'm over the halfway hump, it's pretty smooth sailing, especially for the last ten minutes.  So often, I tell myself I'm going to do 30 minutes before I get started, but I find myself bargaining because the first few minutes are so rough.  I give myself permission to stop at 20, but by the time I get to 15, I've usually stopped even looking at the clock, because I'm fine.  And it's like that nearly every time.  Weird.

I finished Persuasion this morning before the gym.  I liked it quite a bit, and I don't really understand why it wouldn't be as popular as any of Austen's other novels, which I must say now that I have loved greatly.  But now I'm going to make fun of her.  Here's the Jane Austen formula, in a nutshell:
 

A girl and boy fall in love, but get pulled apart because someone always thinks it an "imprudent match" on one side.  Parents are useless.  A new boy comes into the girl's life, and seems promising, but it's always revealed late in the story that he has some great character flaw.  This discovery is also usually made after he marries someone else anyway.  The broken hearted, hopeless girl goes on away to visit a family friend, in hopes that a change of scenery might improve her spirits.  While away, she runs into her lost love by chance.  They're both still in love, but because of a strict code of conduct, it takes f o r e v e r for them to even talk to each other again, and of course no one confesses any feelings.  That would be absolutely ludicrous, and is never so much as suggested.  Finally, and often rather abruptly, someone says something to the young man that gives him hope yet, and he writes a letter, or maybe even tells the girl in person that he still loves her.  They get married.  The end.

Oh, and also, every other girl in the story gets married, too.  It's all 19th century girls ever did, you know, was get married.

And everyone is named Elizabeth, Charles, and Mary.

But really, I love Jane Austen.  She's just...a bit predictable.

Changing the subject, because I'm scatterbrained today...my oldest brother is 39 today.  In a year, I'll have a 40-year-old sibling.  Holy crap.  And my baby niece has two teeth!  They grow up so fast...

Peace.

Comments

[photomonk2.livejournal.com]

I just rented "The Jane Austen Book Club" last night and I thought it was a cute film. Makes me want to read Austen (which I have never done). I only had one quibble with the film, but I won't say it here so as not to spoil it in case you haven't seen it yet.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

I have seen it, and read the book. What's your quibble?

[photomonk2.livejournal.com]

At the end of the movie, everyone was happily coupled.... except the young lesbian. Just felt a little funny that all of the straight women found happiness, but the dyke is flying solo. I know they made the point that she falls in and out of love, but since a year had passed, it's not inconceivable that she could have found someone.