Pedal Power

I would sit on my stationary bike -hold the sketch pad with one hand -the pen with another and draw. It would be between 4 and 5 am--finishing up the last exercise schedule before I went back to bed for an hour and got back up at 6. I would ride that bike for half an hour--I finished so many cartoons doing that. Reagan, The IRA, The Sandinistas, The first Bush, Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Margaret Thatcher so many Kentucky governors and political deals --they all hung out with me on that sketch pad while I burned off calories that I'd already burned off about 3 times over. I was so exhausted when I climbed off the bike --my feet hitting the floor seemed to always make a big thump. And I always felt really tiny--like everything around me --furniture--everything had tripled in size. If those cartoons could talk they'd say ,''She's really doing such a Hell of a job--she's controlling all she has to control--maybe somebody should tell her she's worth more than her control.'' But they never did.