So, recently my mother and I drove to Portland to look at colleges. Driving to Portland, from where I live, is a very long drive. I managed to get almost absolutely nothing done, but the things I did accomplish I thought might be blog worthy.
1) Singing. It doesn't matter what song, if you know the whole thing, if you know the words, or even if you know the tune. As long as you know the general jist of it you are good to go. Also, children's songs can go a long way. There was a man who had a dog.....Old MacDonald, the Ants go Marching, This old man, he played one.....the list is pretty long.
2) Reading, if you are able to read in the car, bring a book. It is one of the most antisocial things you can do, but when you are in the car for over six hours you can stand some anti-socialness. I finished a book and started a book this trip, I actually did much less reading than usual because whenever I would start to read my mom would think of something to say.
3)Sleeping, I am terrible at sleeping in the car and my neck always hurts afterwards, but I hear it is a great pastime.
4) Trying to get the GPS to work. We have a particular finicky GPS, I spent a lot of time mumbling harsh words at it under my breath while I tried to get it to tell us where to go. Oh, then we tried using my mom's smart phone, and it tells us where to go so we can hear it, none of that looking at the screen nonsense. Anyway, we had the GPS and the phone telling us where to go. Then we decided that we really needed coffee. I programed in where coffee was on the GPS, and we got off the freeway and it told us to turn right. Then my mom's phone stepped in and said, "In a half mile, turn left, freeway entrance blahblah blah. My mom dutifully followed those directions too. Then the GPS stepped in and said, turn right, or rerouting, or something. ANYWAY, we got thoroughly mixed up till I figured out why and turned the phone off.
5) EXERCISE, there are not a lot of excercises you can do in the car but there are some. All you have to do is find a radio station that is playing music that will get you pumped up (some espresso beans from starbucks don't hurt either). Then do the exercises.
a) Wall sits. these are technically chair sits, BUT, you don't put your butt on the chair. You straighten the back of your chair and then position your feet and sit, without touching the chair. Try to make the angle between your stomach and you legs 90 degrees, and the angle your knees 90 degrees. Also, keep your abs tight. Go until you think you can't hold it anymore and then count to thirty, or sixty if you had a lot of espresso beans.
b) Curls, water bottles are what you need for this one. All you do is curls, holding a water bottle (Preferably full of water). Remember to keep your wrists straight, and your elbow in one place. Do as many reps as you can and then switch arms.
c) This may be the most boring exercise. Hold your arms out in front of you for as long as you can and then count to sixty. You can have your palms face up, face down, facing each other, facing away from each other. Remember, don't lock your elbows, and hold your arms chest high, at a 90 degree angle. That is the most difficult position.
d) Leg lifts, or holding your legs off the ground. When you do this make sure you tighten your abs. Hold your legs up, off the ground in front of you. You will probably want to scoot your seat way back so that you don't kick the car. If there is a person behind you, ASK if it is ok for you do scoot your chair back.
e) Marching. Exactly how it sounds, march in place while sitting down. You may want to sing, the ants go marching one by one for this one. Singing a song with a good one two rhythm makes it a lot easier. Believe me. This one is hard at first, then it gets super easy, and then after a while it gets hard again. Go for as long as you can in the that hard again stage. Or, if it never gets easy, go for as long as you can. But at least, one to two minutes.
Once you do all of these things you can repeat. I recommend going through the exercises a few times. Exercising makes you happier and we know that you want to be happy when you are on a long car ride with other people.
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