Wow - Two Years?

So its been a while since my last post. I thought I'd share what's been going on.

I finished culinary school. I worked for about a year as a part time pastry cook (full time was too hard on the hips). After a year I realized that my hips were going to break and crumble into dust, or so it felt, if I continued with the pastry work. And after some swallowing of pride and bitter pills (figuratively, of course), I decided to do some searching and find another avenue, career, path, etc.

In May I finished my first semester of grad school for my Masters of Library and Information Science. Library work has always been something that interested me and you can't walk in our house for books, so it seemed a natural fit. I love it. I even started volunteering at the local library 2 days a week.

But the hips kept getting worse, especially in the last 6 months or so. Oh, and I've lost my health insurance again! I will be getting it back in the fall through school, but it will be less then great quality coverage. Anyhoo, I've been wanting to exercise for soooo long now (years) but everything I tried hurt the hips. Elliptical machine? No way! Stationary Bike? Eh-Eh. Well, I finally sucked it up and decided that I must force myself to drive to the town rec center 3-4 times per week and swim.

Oh My God! Swimming RULES! I take aqua aerobics (with the septuagenarians) twice a week and I swim laps the other days and it feels amazing. If anyone out there lives with any sort of chronic joint pain, I say, "Get Thee To A Pool!!!" Even just standing in the water reminds us of what it was like *before* the pain. I am pain free in the pool. I am graceful and lithe and I swim like a fish. Its wonderful. And when I am not in the pool, the hips are better, less achey, more durable. This gives me hope. I like hope!

So I say to all of you hipsters out there - GET WET!

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