click here for my SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

2:18 p.m. - 2005-07-20
true story
So I've been saying for a while that I want a pedometer. I've never had one or even seen one, but it seems like a good idea. Oprah says if you walk 10,000 steps a day you'll be in pretty good shape. Well, I need to know how far off from that seemingly lofty goal I am. I've been telling everyone I know that I want a pedometer...the one great thing that consistently happens to me (probably because I tend to know a lot of people) is that with a certain vague classification of items including things like furniture and electronic gadgets, I can almost always find someone who has one lying around that they are willing to give me.

So I've been mentioning here and there that I want a pedometer. I mean, they were giving them away with extra value meals or something for a while at McDonalds....that right there means there must be an entire airport-sized building out there somewhere dedicated to unwanted pedometers. People who eat a lot of Big Macs don't care how many steps they are taking, unless it's the moment they pull into Micky-Ds and debate on whether or not to take the open handicapped spot because the drive thru is jam packed and the next closest spot is two rows back. People who eat a lot of Big Macs throw pedometers in the last drawer of their desk and it will be there in five year when three other people have had the same job and same desk.

I don't eat a lot of Big Macs, though I won't tell you I haven't had a McDonalds cheeseburger in the last two months because that would be a lie. I am interested in how many steps I am taking. I would like a pedometer.

Today my boss comes in and hands me a box with a certain local medical center's insignia on it. My boss just says "here ya go", they gave me one at the meeting and I already have one so you can have it. I open the box. It is a clearish blue plastic device with a carabeener-type clip on it. Ah ha! I say to myself. At last...my pedometer! And from the Meidcal Center, no less. Must be a good one! All I have ever heard about pedometers is that "you wear it on your hip." I click the "On" button and the little screen reads "0", clip it to my belt loop and start walking merrily around the office. I appreciate the way the "pedometer" hangs exactly over my hip bone, feeling the movement, counting each and every step my right leg takes (and I assume multiplying it by two.) I can't believe my good fortune. I had a big lunch today and was feeling a little bit of food-consumption-guilt, but now I was feeling good about this progress toward more measured health. After a minute of walking around and counting my own steps mentally to see if it was accurate, I unclip it and look at it. It still says Zero. Great, I think. As I'm looking at it, it blinks off.

I know this is going to be very hard to beleive....but it wasn't until this moment that I realized that this device was not a pedometer at all. It was, in fact, a calculator.

My boss must have thought I was pleased as punch with the new carabeener calculator, clipping it on right away and parading around the office triumphantly....

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!