Wendy McClure

Author and Professional Obsessive.

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Archives for February 2007

A little break and the ballad of Crazy Pants

February 23, 2007 by Wendy

What was up with this week? I felt sort of worn out nearly every night, even when I hadn’t worked out that day.  My guess is that I’ve spent the last few weeks shoving myself along through all the  snowing and the souping, all the while I kept telling myself: this is as hard as it gets; it gets easier after this; if I can do this now just think what a breeze it’ll be in the spring; go me go. And so on.

And then it got warm, and the snow started to melt, and there I was all bundled up tight in my own resolve, which suddenly felt heavy and uncomfortable. I suppose I needed to relax. I skipped a gym night. I got in bed early the other night and read a bunch of East Village Inkys that Chris had gotten me. I think that helped.

*  *  *

We’re still doing the Lifting Weights to Hateful Pop Remixes class (heretofore called Weights & Hates). Wrongy Lady stopped coming to the class a long time ago, as I knew she would. But now we have Crazy Pants. Crazy Pants wears plaid flannel pajama pants and is in his forties, I think. In the class we all use plain old bars and plates specially made for the class, but Crazy Pants brings in a pile of extra stuff from the free-weight area: ankle weights, two pairs of massive iron dumbbells, a big honking 50 lb thingy. It’s all strewn out on the floor next to his step platform. It looks like he’s building a fucking robot. He could keep all this stuff in front of his bench, where it would be more out of everyone’s way, and surely with his strength he could reach a little farther for the seven extra weights his crazy muscles crave, yes? But this is not the way of the Crazy Pants.

He doesn’t come to class to do the class, really. He does a special parallel universe-version of Weights & Hates involving higher weights and fewer reps and lots of random flailing around. Sometimes when we’re between songs and the rest of us are adjusting our bars, he’ll grab his special crazy weights and toss off a quick set of curls or extensions or deadlifts or rows or squats triple axels or lindys or bootyclaps or whatever the hell it is he does. But perhaps he knows what he is doing. And actually, if he came to class every Monday and Wednesday morning like most of the rest of us do, I would have a great deal more respect for him and his manic muscle ways. But he only shows up every now and then, and he’s all, look at me! Gaaarrr! I am working so haarrrd!

Chris has a theory that Crazy Pants puts his pants on in the morning and they tell him what do to and where to go, and he doesn’t get a say in any of it. What if he belongs to several gyms and his pants march him to a different one every day? If so, perhaps you’ve seen him. Tell him we say hello.

Filed Under: Body, Chicago, personal, this thing I'm doing

Three things for President's Day

February 19, 2007 by Wendy

1.) YES THERE IS MORE SOUP. You can see the soup here. We made three kinds this weekend, including a recipe which uses two pounds of greens. And while it tastes very nice, maybe you don’t need to see a picture of this soup, because it’s really, really green. And not a jolly green, either; no, this is Heart of Darkness Soup. And we’re going to eat it.

2.) I think I’ve legitimately lost the twenty pounds now. The time I weighed myself after I was sick doesn’t count, since I was just all dried out and as soon as I drank anything I got all big again like a Gro-Beast in water. But now the magic number is back, and it’s shown up on the scale for the past two mornings, so I believe this means, scientifically speaking, that I’ve been able to replicate the results of my very important research study called Let Me Stand on This Thing and See If I’m Still Fat. (Of course I am still fat. But these latest findings are promising.)

3.) Of course we’re all horrified that Britney shaved her head. Why can’t she just develop herself a cute little eating disorder like the other girls? Everyone knows that’s the only respectable way to freak the fuck out. It’s getting really hard to watch and I really hope someone will just step forward and shoot her with a tranquilizer dart and carry her off to someplace quiet.

Filed Under: Body, personal, popcult, this thing I'm doing

Upcoming Readings

February 16, 2007 by Wendy

Tuesday, August 21: I’ll be at Funny Ha-Ha at the Hideout, 1354 Wabansia, Chicago. See me, Alpana Singh, Mark Bazer, and more! Starts at 7pm, $5 suggested donation (goes to charity!).

Thursday, August 23: I’ll be doing the Fixx Reading Series, hosted by Amy Guth. 7:30 pm at The Fixx Coffee Bar, 3053 N Sheffield, Chicago.

And hey! If you want map information and email or RSS notification of future readings (like the one I’ll be doing in October!), check out my author page at BookTour.com.

Filed Under: promo

The regular we

February 14, 2007 by Wendy

I hope by now you’ve figured out I’m not using the royal we in this blog. It just means that Chris is here, for most things.

That’s him below in the onion-cutting goggles I got him for Christmas, since we’re making an effort to cook more. (MORE SOUP!) And that’s me in the fancy swim goggles he got me, so that I can swim my little heart out. Perhaps you are thinking, “My, you two are certainly supportive of your mutual goals.”

But more likely you’re thinking that we’re dorks.

Dorks!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DORK! Love, me.

P.S. If you’re looking for my Single Girl Valentines, they’re here on Flickr. Keep up the apathy!

Filed Under: meta, personal

Leaving the bubble

February 13, 2007 by Wendy


No shit, we went to the gym tonight. This was after both of us got off work early on account of the huge whomping honkload of snow that fell and blew and drifted and still yet this very minute threatens to smother us all like a massive down pillow wielded by a cruel giant nurse. We got all the way home through the snow and somehow I got my car in the garage and wandered through the snowdrifts and made it upstairs and then Chris and I actually made the conscious decision to go back downstairs and get in the car and drive to the gym. And there we did some very nice cardio-kind-of-things while the wind raged outside the big gym windows. And then we drove home and almost didn’t get the car back in the garage. But we did it. WHY DID WE DO IT? I don’t know. But you must understand how I had to report it.

It does help that it’s only a five-minute drive. Well, ten or fifteen minutes in the middle of fuck-all-to-hell winter rush hour traffic, but still. While we were stomping down the snow-drifty back stairs we kept talking, oddly enough, about how awesome it is to be snowed in when the weather is like this, where you just shut yourself in like a frontiersman and watch movies for five hours. And it IS awesome! Especially when you live with Chris! Do you know how many videos he has? And yet we just continued to clamber down the stairs and go to the gym as if we were talking about merely a theoretical universe in which shitloads of snow gets dumped on us and compels us to stay inside. I know, right? Maybe it’s because we know that tomorrow we are going out to dinner and we could use a good cardio kind-of-thing. Or maybe it’s because once I decide to do something I really hate being thwarted. And lo, we were not thwarted.

Of course now we are also very tired, after the snow and the gym and fixing dinner and watching The Boy in the Bubble starring John Travolta. (We found the DVD at a dollar store.)

And now we’re going to sleep.

Filed Under: Chicago, personal, this thing I'm doing

Lately listening:

February 13, 2007 by Wendy

The weekly mixes at Out of Five: ten people (some are my friends!); ten songs; one theme.

Filed Under: General

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The Wilder Life on Flickr

Recent Press and Links

  • Essay: A Little House Adulthood For the American Masters documentary on Laura Ingalls Wilder, I contributed a piece to the PBS website about revisiting the Little House books.
  • Essay: The Christmas Tape (At Longreads.com) How an old audio tape of holiday music became a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
  • Q & A With Wendy McClure Publishers Weekly interview about editing, Wanderville and more.

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Where else to find Wendy

  • Candyboots Home of the Weight Watcher recipe cards
  • Malcolm Jameson Site (in progress) about my great-grandfather, a Golden Age sci-fi writer.
  • That Side of the Family My semi-secret family history blog
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