philosopher

Hallo, here I am, again, more or less on holydays, because I wanted to finish off with my work at the Historical Institute: sending letter to various schools, begging scholars to take part in our Congress ecc. Now I hope that nobody will chase after me for the next 33 days. Last Thursday I took a day off and went for a hike in the colle del Nivolet, in Val Locana, where there are several beautiful lakes. En route for the Rousset lake, where I had never been, I passed by a cove where several cows grazed and two or three men were working. One yelled hallo, and I said back hallo and the went along the path followed by cheers. Well, I felt uneasy. Not really in danger, mind, because, even if I’m in the habit of hiking alone, it’s years that I choose only proven and crowded itineraries. There was people everywere. But, most wardens, nowadays, are extra - EU people hired on a seasonal base, who, I recognize, do a very hard work, but I imagine are simply not accostumed to our way of living. To the way we as women are living.

Well, I wanted to tell you of the lakes, of the beautiful day, and the cute animals I took pictures , who were sleeping in the grass, mindless of passers by, and instead I ended up with something else.

Besides, we are all tough girrrls…

I had promised to log my running time and here it is: yesterday I ran 1,5 miles in 21 minutes, that approximately makes a 10 minutes km. Going for a walk was probably faster.  Maybe the problem is going the distance: on thursday I finally went for a hike, and for sure I lost tons of water, as it was very hot and humid even in the mountains, but most of the time I felkt a lot of fatigue (and spent aching the two following days). Anyway, I’m feeling I’m on the right track to a good hiking shape (i.e not panting like a dog after a few minutes), so  my Dara Torres automotivation speach was not a bad idea, after all.

Pictures of supermom, super everything Dara Torres graced the front pages even here. God bless her, 41 and still swimming. She can do that, we can do our “that” (even without her sponsors or personal strechers) . In the pool, you are alone, with the occasional glimpse of someone in the lane nearby (I know, I used to be in competions in my teens - and I hated the whole thing, to tell you the truth) and the clock ticking in your head. Well, let’s select our olympic game, and go for it. Mine is a 10 minutes mile ( I was faster, but I need to work on it. I’ll log my time)

Oh, today was Doctor Day: mixed news. My husband took 2,5 pounds: too many dinners with his students. My weight, on the other hand, is stable, neither less not more, after my thyroid went crazy in february ( remember the trendy cocktail party my students threw? I saved calories.) The doctor was happy: in september we’ll be both back on a diet.

This evening, licking a very small ice cream, my husband told me: Summary  of the day: I’m fatter and poorer.

Poorer because we went to his bank manager to assess his investments: to be safe from markets fluctuations, you need to be Mr Berlusconi, not a high school teacher.

Hallo you all! Have a nice holiday. Go outside and get a suntan (with a lot of sunscreen…) playing doing sports and being with someone you love. With that you could imagine that I would have a lot to complain. It is true, of course: money, fat, age. The first is scarce (and luckily my marriage has survived our mortgage: a number of marriages of our knowledge didn’t), the two latter are way too abundant. Here being a normal working day, I ended it with my annual check up with my ob gyn, and I received a clean bill, which is a VERY GOOD THING (I only have to wait for the Pap smear). In October I’ll have a sonogram and a mammogram (the latter for free: in Italy, for women of 45 and over, you can have a free mammogram every two years, unless for some reason you need to come back for a check in: last year it happened to me, and besides the phone call at breakfast time suggesting a visit for the very same day, and besides being scared to death, in the afternoon I was told that my mammogram showed an abnormal growth in my right breast. I was checked twice, and nothing was reported and at last tha radiologist asked me if I could wait for him to finish all the patients and then come right back to the hospital where he would perform a sonogram, since my tissues were dense. I said ok and my husband and me left Laboratory (a perfect example of rationalist architecture of the ’30s- I’m not joking- my town is a modern architecture heaven) in a rainy october afternoon. And waited. At seven o’clock p.m. two doctors were looking at my breasts. And everything was fine. Well’call you back in six months - they said. And they did.

Prevention is a weapon! and we are women, we have the right to our health. In Italy a lot of things don’t work, I know, but if breast cancer is an epidemy that can touch every girl we know, potentially, screening is the solution: a massive screening costs less than a cure. In Italy it is called Happy Prevention: you can have pap smears and mammograms for free, performed by the very same M.D.s that work in the local hospital, and the more they perform these kind of examinations, the more expert they become. So next week I’ll go to check my moles ( I was born in that happy age when sunscreens were for sissies: I sunburned on every northern italian mountain)

Oh, and next tuesday we are going back to our dietician (I’m sure you’ll hear him screaming even in California), I have signed in for the Shape plan on that website: not bad and it is free, it provides meals and exercise after you have taken a test; tomorrow evening I’ll go to see the fittest people in the world: ballet dancers (Momix new performance in a delightful Monferrato village) and yes, here it is very very hot…