It was put very succinctly today by someone I know: when the ship is sinking, the people that stay on the ship to the end are the ones that drown.
Everyone seems to be scurrying around making their respective Plan Bs. It’s becoming more and more apparent that I should do the same.
This one needs sound for the full effect.
The video page promised: Sex! Betrayal! Foul Language! It delivered.
I’ve always had a thing for taking a walk after work. As I’ve said before it helps me to unwind after a long day of figuring out algorithms and laying out code. It’s not like it’s physically strenuous, but it still takes a lot out of you. Besides the required mental energy, the fact that I’m seated for most of the day can be hard. The walk from work to the station takes me about 35 to 40 minutes at a leisurely pace. It’s long enough to be substantial, but short enough to not feel like an ordeal. It’s relaxing, for sure. Over the past few years doing the walk has just been an occasional thing–maybe a few days a week. Although, the frequency tends to be less during the summer months because I seriously can’t stand the heat.
So, over the past week or two, I’ve started making the walk to the station a little bit more than I normally would. See, a little while ago I picked up a pedometer from Wal-mart. Now, a lot of people say that 10,000 steps is a good number to aim for in order to encourage good health. Seriously, I see that number everywhere. Well, it seems to me that due to the nature of my job I can’t seem to get to that number unless I make that trek, and perhaps head out for a lunchtime walk. So, that’s why I’ve been consciously trying to get out there more often. It’s just another step in my quest to find better health. I don’t think I would have consciously made the effort if it wasn’t for the pedometer. Seeing something quantitative really makes it easy to keep track. This is an inexpensive piece of equipment that you can clip on and just check on every now and then. The fact that you have a goal in mind keeps you accountable. Very useful!
Part of the job of teaching a Running Room clinic is setting up the curriculum. Given that the whole thing starts next week I figured that I had better get off my butt and piece one together. I was actually planning on using the topic order from the clinic I’d just been in to give me an idea of when I should have certain topics. Even thought the old clinic was completed, I still had it in my dropdown list on the RR site. So, today, I went in and started to poke around only to find that the old clinic info was finally closed, completed, and gone from my list. D’oh! It’s a good thing I still had the contact info of my previous instructors. One of them was kind enough to give me a small spreadsheet of topics and dates that she had.
So, now everything has been set up. It starts on October 27 and runs right through to the end of February. That’s a very long time! If you recall, I do have experience with coaching from the Learn to Run clinic. That stint was certainly fun. I had a good experience with crafting the emails every week and designing the routes. Some weeks I got many emails with questions from the students and I’d spend the time giving each one some thought and replying in an honest manner. If I think about, I suppose I could say that teaching that clinic should be harder than the half will be. I mean, at that point everyone is still a newbie: of course they’ll have many questions. Besides acting to support them, it was my job to make sure that they developed a solid running foundation so that they’d be able to train for longer distances with confidence. With this new clinic, everyone should have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work. I think my biggest role this time around is to play the role of the encourager. I mean, 21 kilometres sure is a ridiculously long distance. Sure, people need to be physically conditioned to run it, but the mental preparation is such an important part: it’s easy to be intimidated.
Actually, I’m feeling a little intimidated as well. This clinic is 17 weeks long! Will I be able to come up with informative emails every few days? Will I be able to provide information and routes in a timely manner? It’s a little bit more work in that sense. Still, I’ve been through this clinic 4 times now in the span of a little over a year. I think I have enough knowledge to not have to wonder what the heck I should be saying. All of this madness starts in a week. I’ll be ready!
Thought I was being good at lunch today by ordering a spicy chicken breast on a bed of salad. Sounds bleedin’ well healthy, except for the fact that the salad was smothered in Caesar dressing. That made the salad pretty fatty. Damn.
Guess that just shows that I’m still learning.
It was quite a curious day for me today, and to be honest I’m not really sure how to process it all. I suppose, first of all, let me get this out of the way–I’m now a Godfather to a second child. The first time I was asked to be a Godfather was many years ago for a cousin’s kid. By now he should be in his teens–I’m glad he’s doing well. Anyway, the main story is a little bit convoluted. This time around it’s for my father’s friend (a kababayan…a paisan!) whose daughter just gave birth to a child. See, at the time they had more female Godparents for the child’s upcoming baptism than male ones. I’m not sure what was going on, but I’ll assume that they just couldn’t find another guy to fill the role, so my father’s friend asked me to be a Godparent. Maybe it was just because the friend genuinely liked me. I’m not sure. Now, when I heard the news through my own parents, that’s when I first learned of the custom for a child to have many ninongs and ninangs (Godparents). Heh. I suppose it’s a cultural thing. My mind is used to the role being one conferred to just two people, you know? In any case, yes, I was honoured to do so–puzzled, but honoured. Thing is, even though I knew my father’s friend, I didn’t know her daughter at all. I haven’t even spoken to her. Thing is, how can I say no?
For this event, I knew I didn’t have that many (kind of formal) clothes which is why I went to Moores last weekend. My original intention was to wear the new shirt, my dark jeans, new shoes and the new blazer. I put it all together this morning, only to notice that my jeans smelled like hot pot from this past Friday. I tried airing it out in the dryer with a fabric sheet. When I wore everything together, I looked exactly how I wanted to look, but when I sat down my pants smelled like chicken broth. Yeah, that prompted me to make other plans. I switched to another pair of jeans, but they seemed too casual. Twitter people suggested that a baptism required me to lean more formal, so I switched to pinstripe pants which are really the only pair of formal pants I’ve got that aren’t a size too big. Bah. My big fear was overdressing, but no matter, I had no choice.
The baptism itself was fascinating, though awkward for me. I recognized maybe…a handful of people in our party. Those people were all my parent’s contemporaries. As for my contemporaries…yeah, no clue. The whole thing about pairing off ninongs and ninangs? Nope…didn’t happen. As I was there I couldn’t help but think that I was so clueless about this cultural thing. There were two other families there that had just a limited number of Godparents. I understood those families. For our party it was sort of an amusing melee. Even though I was confused I just smiled and followed the lead of everyone else. It was only in the church when I first saw the daughter and her baby. The baby was so cute! It took me a while before I figured out who the father was among the many people. Up to this point I still don’t know his name. Awkward!
By the end of the ceremony everyone was taking pictures. I was told to pose with the baby. I was so reluctant but they were insistent. I got my turn and awkwardly held the crying child. With so many flashing lights, I can see why he was crying. God, I had no freaking clue how to hold the baby. All I could do was hold him awkwardly (apparently) and grimace. Soon enough I’m sure someone was like “get the damn baby away from that guy!” When I passed him on, I just went back to the pew with my parents. I looked over to mom, and she understood. Someone commented that I didn’t know what I was doing. Duh.
So, in the end, I fulfilled my role. I still don’t think the baby’s mother knew who I was. Did it really matter? It’s more important for her to cater to people that she actually knows, no? I don’t think I’m going to have any role in this life, to be honest. Though, due to what happened I guess that even if I don’t see him again I will have a spiritual connection to him. As much as I’m confused about what happened, I do know that I’m going to keep baby JB in my thoughts. May he grow up strong, loved, and of strong faith.
I know, it’s a bit past midnight as I post this, but I’m marking this as Saturday’s post. It’s a little bit of a cheat (again) but I’m OK with that. Why the late post tonight? Well, I just spent the last two hours constructing this cabinet over the left. Nice, eh? I’ve really been meaning to put a cabinet like this in there for the longest time. That’s because the bathroom really doesn’t have all that much storage space. At most, there’s just the vanity, but it’s not convenient to stash anything away there. That’s where a cabinet like this comes in. Anyway, the process of getting to that point wasn’t the easiest.
Earlier today I was at the local Canadian Tire looking for the Debbie Travis brand of this cabinet. I saw a white one, but I wasn’t in the mood to make my bathroom have some sort of Nantucket feel. No, thank you. I checked with the clerk and they said that there was one available at another location on the Danforth. When I heard that I was dreading the drive over, mostly because the road is always crowded and narrow. So, I set out there but somehow managed to head in the wrong direction several times. God knows how because Toronto roads are very grid-like. I guess I just forgot whether the destination was further east or west. Anyway, when I got there I got to the expected aisle only to find the damn Nantucket style cabinet. I checked with a clerk who found that their only available one was the display model. I asked about it and they were willing to take off $60. Not a bad deal, however, I was really wondering how the heck I’d stuff it into my car. I know my Corolla is capable of carrying a lot, but this thing? Besides, the floor model was looking a little worse for wear. So, in the end I ended up getting this Home Collections brand.
Now, like I said, I spent the past while putting it together. I followed the instructions closely and it came together well. I think I scratched my hardwood floor in the process though. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Once it was done I grabbed it and went to put it over the toilet. Thing is…see that wood piece between the two back legs? That actually blocked me from easily sliding it in. Damn it!
I ended up having to partially disassemble the thing, take the legs and go over and behind, then place the cabinet part back on. No, I suppose it wasn’t that bad, but I feel like the company should have noted that in the instructions. I suppose I could have carried the whole cabinet up and over, but the bathroom ceiling isn’t that high. Besides, I wasn’t going to risk having the whole lot collapse or fall apart–especially since I’m the only one working on the damn thing.
So, it’s in place, but I think I should really consider anchoring the thing to the wall. I don’t want it to tip over once it’s loaded with stuff, you know? Sounds great in theory, but I think I’ll end up being too lazy to care. I’ll put stuff in there tomorrow morning. For now, I’m just sleepy.
How does that idiom go?
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Met up with some friends after a long while absence. Despite all of the talk of weddings and pregnancies and grand life changes, I felt like everything is fundamentally the same among us. We could have been having these exact same conversations years ago.
OK, so maybe that’s not true. After all, we’re all approaching life with a more mature point of view, right?
I’m not saying I feel stagnant. I’m not saying that I’m not progressing.
Maybe it just shows that despite evolving circumstances, we are still who we are. You can’t take that away from us.
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