On my way to some far destination

Wouldn’t you know it? The day has arrived. This my friends, is the final day of blogging for me for the next couple of weeks. I’m going on vacation! After packing for the next couple of days, I will be gone from Saturday until August 6th. Believe me – I very much need the break!

I really have no idea what Amanda is going to do while I’m gone. Given the last week or so, I wouldn’t truly be surprised if she lit a match to the whole blog. No, not really, I promise! She is going to take over my blog writing for me, I’ve written a couple of themed blogs for her – and we have a few guest blogs to share during my absence as well. Have no fear, the blog will go on!

On that subject, if you are feeling creative and want to share, we could still use a blog or two on any regrets you have as a fan. What does this mean? Well for example – maybe you missed a show or a tour that you really wish that you hadn’t missed. You can blog about what you missed, the reason why you missed it and so forth. Sometimes, humor helps, but sometimes, there are heartfelt reasons things happen – now is your time to share. If that topic doesn’t float your boat, you might want to write about your favorite band member. That is a favorite talking point amongst fans – I get asked about it every time I run into someone. They want to know who my favorite is, and then the next question is why. If you know our blog, then you know it’s not enough to tell us the obvious answer of “He’s totally hot!”…surely there must be more. In a lot of cases, you’ve had the same favorite band member for thirty years now – by now there must be more to it than his looks, so ‘fess up and send these, or any guest blogs, to our gmail address.

Typically when I’m gone for any length of time and I’m completely incommunicado – which will be the case for the second week of my absence (I’ll be on a cruise ship), the band starts announcing things. Shows, appearances, things like that. They have said there will be no shows in 2013 – and I’m holding them to that while I’m gone. Otherwise, I do have a backup plan, and she’ll do whatever must be done. Just let me know when I need to be on a plane.  Thanks Amanda!!

As always, a vacation would not be a vacation if something funny didn’t happen to me before I left. This time, it is an injury. I’ve been doing this crazy workout plan for about 50 days now called Insanity. It’s not at all easy, and for someone like me, one of my greatest fears each day is hitting “play” on my DVD player. There’s this Insanity meme going around that says “Your workout is my warmup.” It’s not a joke. The workouts really ARE hard, but I was seeing improvement in myself and what I could actually finish each day, so that kept me going.  Until month #2.  Month 2 was like starting all over again. The workouts were nearly impossible at first – and they are almost twice as long. That first week was pure hell, and to top it off, I started noticing some pain in my right knee. To be fair, I’ve been in pain all over my body for a while now, and I think I spent most of month 1 in some degree of soreness each day. It’s just my muscles building from the ground up, and let’s face it – each day I’m burning myself out with these workouts. But this was different, and at first I did what I do with most things – I ignored it and kept going. The trouble is, my knee got worse. It now hurts to bend it, and at some point it started hurting when I was doing absolutely nothing. This past week though, the pain was nearly excruciating when I’d try to do a simple squat, never mind some of the stretching we do, or the plyometric moves – which involve a lot of jumping. (which as I’ve been told – are Satan’s exercises) And, there’s this really NOT cool sound like dry spaghetti being broken that happens at certain times when I’m trying to get up off the floor. Yeah, that’s bad. Even I know that, and don’t even talk to me about going up or down my stairs. So, I’ve made an appointment to see our sports medicine doctor – the one that my oldest goes to for her dance injuries. I can hardly wait. (that is sarcasm right there!) I wish I could say this was just arthritis, but sadly – it’s not. My daughter had something similar (she says it sounds exactly like her injury but I’m in denial) last September and ended up with a metal framed knee brace and crutches for six weeks due to a cartilage injury.

That does not sound like fun while walking all over Florida…or on a cruise ship. Or packing and unpacking for that matter, and don’t even get me started on what it will be like in the airports. So for now, I’ve been wearing a brace on my knee, which seems to help, and staying off of my feet as much as possible. I’m a mom of a five year old, which means – I’m not off of my feet very often. So, let’s hope for the best or else it’s going to be a very long vacation.

With that in mind, I have a pile of laundry to finish and some packing to start. Try to behave while I’m gone, be nice to Amanda, and I will “see” you all in August!

-R