If You Want Me to Stay by Sly and the Family Stone

I just spent two hours at the new Y being extremely self-indulgent: on the elliptical doing cardio for an hour listening to all my fave tunes on my beloved I-pod shuffle whose paint color matches my old Honda (sea green). Then I swam and hot-tubbed for another half hour. All on a glorious autumn day when I should have been outside. Still, the Y pool has humongous two storey windows everywhere you look and it's so empty in the middle of the day I couldn't help but feel incredibly lucky to be there. Running into my dear friends Joyce and Jim was icing on the cake.

I had to do a heavy workout because I'd just stopped by our old house which we rent out as a vacation rental: the garden has been clipped back to the barest nubs and it was a very emotional experience for me. I have faith everything will come back. If Sean sees it he will surely divorce me. The amazing and ultimately most depressing thing about it is how much the neighbors love it. I mean LOVE it!! My gardening skills had become a bit unkempt during the previous year while we rented it out but it's still my pride and joy. Heavy on wild abandon and loaded with grapes, raspberries, plums and 10-foot tall lilies I always thought it was lovely in a Garden of Eden sort of way.

So, to console myself, I headed for the Y and worked out to this--hope you enjoy it!