I've recently learned - Pilates is not for everyone.... if you're inflexible (as I am, in body) you end up looking like a fish flung out of water while trying to follow along...
I know, I know, you're supposed to stick with it and get better, but I've been unflexible for 30 years now and my back is really straight, so I don't think I'll get flexible enough before giving up...
back to good ole running for me then.... if it would get warmer than 50 degrees here I'd be able to take it outside, which will be great....

I'm being sent to Mexico from work, which sounds like it should be lovely, and it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that my work plant is in Juarez Mexico.... Juarez, according to the guide book, is the second most dangerous city in the world, making it less safe than Mogadishu, Somalia, but a bit safer than Caracas... it's home to drug cartels who've been slaying each other for about, ever, but have *really* picked up in the last few years (yey war on drugs).... things to see? decapitated police, amputated hands being sent with notes as *warnings*, crosses set up for the hundreds of women who've been taken into the desert never to return....
just this past week 7 police officers/federal agents and a bystander were shot and killed... 9 people were shot and killed outside of a mall.... 8 people shot and killed at a bar in the city center...and 3 bodies found on the highway...

so I guess sightseeing will be off the agenda?

and I do realize that the people who *work* there have to be there every day - I mean, there are good people just trying to make a living, and they have to deal with this on a daily basis, so me being all put out by having to be there for all of one day makes me seem a bit prissy and insulated.... but still....

most of the violence there is limited to people actually involved in drugs and gangs and whatnot... hopefully violence of the "innocent bystander" variety is limited...
it's a serious situation....

and now with that crazy Arizona law just being passed, i'm sure tempers will be flared towards u.s. citizens....
that Arizona law really is ridiculous.... I'm getting sick and tired of people going on and on about 'illegals' - first off, they claim that illegals are here getting all our services.... what, pray tell, would these services be?? other than sending their kids to public schools (and many of the kids are then "legal" if they're born here - so technically, as legal children they are entitled to public school, but I digress) other than public school, what other puplic services are they getting? they ain't getting healthcare (unless you count emergency room visits, but in an emergency, no matter what your resident status is, you'll be seen, even if you're a tourist from Scotland)... they're paying taxes but not getting anything back - not getting social security after 65, not getting voting rights, so actually, it's better off for u.s. citizens right? because illegal immigrants are paying in and not getting anything back.
they pay taxes on items they purchase, and they pay payroll taxes too. if they get unemployment, it's because they've earned it, by, um, working... I don't really understand what illegal immigrants are getting that's pissing off all the old white guys...

secondly, why prosecute them? they've made it here somehow, fine... they're not 'supposed' to be here, fine.... but why are we not prosecuting those who hire illegals? the people doing the hiring are the ones breaking the law, and they are legal residents or citizens, so they should be held to a higher standard; they're the ones keeping the illegals here.... so basically, you choose to punish the little guy again, instead of going after the guy who benefits most from the cheap labor these people provide and get nothing in return for....

once the jobs disappear, the illegal immigrants will too... such a simple solution... you won't need to 'deport' anyone at all.... in fact, many of the illegal immigrants I've known over the past few years have gone back home just because the economy is so bad right now; now that the jobs dwindled they left of their own accord.... isn't that simpler than requiring everyone who has an accent or looks a certain way to carry documentation?
I really resent that.... that means that many members of my family, if we were in Arizona, could be stopped by police and detained if they didn't have the right documentation... and yet i probably wouldn't be detained at all - just because my accent is American...