Voting and doctor

Voting - and the feeling of coming together with my community to choose my next leader - always puts me in a good mood. My precint is pretty ecelectic in the only way that Baltimore really can be; it's old and young, black and white, gay and straight. My heart filled with happiness to see an old lady, her bones withered, moving slowly with her cane towards the voting booth. I hope she voted Democratic because otherwise my picture of her is ruined.

Voting was convenient and easy. The place was full of people but there was no line. Everyone was smiling. I voted, then went off to enjoy the rest of my off day, which included a visit to a doctor (finally), an older Indian woman with a soothing voice and soothing hands who put me into her schedule at the request of her son-in-law, a co-worker of mine. She called me overweight and shuddered when I told her my family history of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. The doctor's visit prompted me to go to the gym, my first visit in a couple of weeks. Being healthy for me is a habit that I haven't been in yet this school year, and I've gained back a third of the 120 pounds I lost a few years back. It's happened slowly - say, a pound a month - and pounds don't concern me nearly as much as just a general feeling of unhealthiness that seems to have creeped up around me lately. I ran for an hour at the gym, stopping much more than I should have to stop, and hopefully it's the start of a triumphant return to daily workouts.

No lifting weights, the doctor said, until I get this shoulder tendinitis straightened out. I was embarassed to say that my shoulder has hurt since March, to the point where I can barely pick something up over my head, and she tsk-tsked me in her motherly way and wrote me a referral to get a steroid shot that she swears I'll think is a miracle cure.

Now, the only thing I can think about is the election, but I'm trying not to. I have such conflicting views about O'Malley, and thus did not do much for his campaign, but now wish I had. I hope he can pull it off. Cardin, I'm not so worried about.