"Do Your Best and Forget the Rest"

I have decided to take Tony Horton's advice.

Which is why this morning I decided to do 5 minutes of his ten minute trainer.

Tony, do you think you could make a 5 minute trainer? 10 minutes is just a little too much for me. And I waste approximately 30 seconds whilst fast forwarding through all the exercises I don't like. And I don't think 4-and-a-half minute trainers have much nutritional value at all.

I am also taking Mr. Horton's advice to my Spanish class where 78 percent of the students are native speakers, and where I have to squint my eyes to understand what the teacher says.

I don't know why squinting my eyes makes me closer to bilingual, but it does. Trust me.

I have decided to take this class as an opportunity to learn.

Usually I decide to take classes as an opportunity to give myself a stress attack over a letter.

I am hoping that staying in this class, where I hide in the corner and try not to speak lest someone hear me and say, "Hey you, gringa, you are white. Get. Out.", will force me to improve my Spanish.

So far, my Spanish has not improved, my English has only worsened.

For example:

Today, on the phone, I asked someone, "Who's talking?"

At work.

In a professional office.

Most English speakers would say something like, "Who is this? or "May I ask who's calling?"

But I prefer the Spanish term, "¿quien habla?"*

And, directly translated, that means, "who's talking?"

I've always wanted to dream in Spanish.

But I think this, accidentally-speaking-incorrect-English-in-honor-of-Spanish thing works just as well.

The only problem is, I don't really buy into this do-your-best-and-forget-the-rest thing.

I've been biting my lip ever since I skipped those 5 minutes of crunches this morning.

Clearly this Tony Horton mantra is stressing me out.

*I have no idea how I made quien habla so large.

But if I did know, I would put stressing in big letters, too.

Mostly because I think that would make it more realistic.