Boy, this thing, it'll take its toll.

At first, I loved it. "This is what I need. I need a break, I don't have to... " Theatre is a job that when you get done, you thinking about it at home, so you're taking the work home with you. It feels like it just doesn't stop, going through lines in your head, you're thinking about characters in your head, and all of a sudden I have this break. And if I wanted to sit and read a book for 6 hours, if I wanted to sit and watch 5 movies in a row, I could. It's just great and I just listen to records, I watch movies, I read books. I've finished all these books that I got to stacked up, for years. Dave got a handful of projects done. 

painting of a woman ironing with a person laying in a hospital bed nearby
Painting by Carolyn Olson

At the beginning, I even started to lose weight! I took off a few pounds 'cause I got more time to exercise, but gradually, a lot of that started to wear off, and we had a period where our dog got stitches and he kept pulling them off. So for a few weeks, I had to keep him immobile, which meant, I just sit on the couch with this dog, for like 2 to 3 weeks, wait on my fiancee to got home, so I could take a shower, which meant no treadmill. Just sitting on a couch and eating all day. I gained over 15 pounds.  In like 2 and a half weeks. And when I got done and started to back into the treadmill, I had no muscle tone. Because I've literally just been sitting on a couch with the dog all day, trying to keep them from splitting his seams, they're right under his arm, so any time... They had him on pain meds. So, he didn't realize pain and so he'd just keep splitting these things open. But I took five back off 'cause we got... We kinda got back on into it and I'm like, "Alright, well ramp it up, I'll hit the treadmill for an hour and half a day. Do an hour and half everyday." So it's kind of peeking back in there, but boy, this thing, it'll take its toll.  

Jody Kujawa

 

 

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