You know, watching the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics has totally been transformed by tweeting and contributing to the chatter at the same time. Everyone is so damn snarky and appreciative at the same time. It really does feel like I’m tapping into the collective mind.
If you ever get a chance, I recommend following along next time there’s a big spectacle that you know most are going to be watching. Twitter’s totally enriched this experience for me.
There really is something a little messed up with having to do your job and talk about aspects of it that don’t apply to you because of the imminence of the end of your employment.
“Oh, but we don’t have to worry about that because we won’t be here.”
Seriously? What the hell? That really plays havoc with your mind because it really underlines the idea that you are expendable. Granted, that’s true of any job at any company. I mean, it can be assumed that things will continue and that it will be business as usual even if you’re no longer a contributor. Still, when you have a countdown doom clock looming over your head it’s very hard to keep your morale up.
For me, most days it’s easy to deal with because I know that I have to remain professional and continue to provide the levels of service that are expected of me. On some days it’s a lot more difficult. It’s like we’re happily helping the executioner go shopping for an axe.
What kind of messed up situation is this???
On these tougher days I need to remind myself that it’s just a job, and that it’s just business. It’s the way things go, and it’s not personal in the least. It’s not a commentary either on the quality of work that I’ve produced. I know, they know, everyone that knows me knows that I care about my work. So, I can take comfort (perhaps) in knowing that it’s not because of anything I did. To everything there is a start and an end. Still, having that knowledge isn’t helping my mood in any way.
Today was our final day of speed training. We had four sets to get through, and with the wind and snow covered streets I knew that it would be a bit of a rough go. I really worked hard through it and by the time I was done with everything my hips were feeling tired. Despite the discomfort, I was completely pleased with myself. Speed training really is one of the toughest phases of the training cycle, and I made it through without injury. I really had the runner’s high thing going; all of the happy chemicals were really flowing. As we were running back I kind of exclaimed to the group: “life is good!” Everyone laughed along. Yeah, rather random, isn’t it? If there was any doubt in my mind that the runner’s high isn’t real, it was squashed with today’s run.
I’m doing everything I can to train properly. I really do hope that I can churn out a great result come race day. I really do think I’ll surprise myself. I’m not going promise myself the world, but I will set my sights high. I will continue to do my best.
Doesn’t anyone see? The emperor has no clothes!
And he didn’t understand his underling’s question!
Ugh. At least some other people understood what was going on…
I’m sitting here in my living room shivering under a blanket with a sweater on. According to my thermostat the temperature in here has dropped to about 16°C. Despite feeling chilly, I’m really in no mood to switch the heat on at the moment. This is due to a couple of events earlier this morning. Ever since I’ve moved here I’ve been trying to get my account with the chosen gas provider set up. I’ve called many times, but they keep saying they’re working on getting my account into the system. So, in these past seven months I’ve been going about my business without worrying about gas usage.
Today, I decided to do yet another follow up call with the gas company. I decided though to look for my current gas meter reading just to help them along and prevent myself from getting an inflated bill. I got word that the meter was in my mechanical closet, so I went outside and started poking around. Unfortunately I didn’t see anything. I ended up calling the builder to see if they knew where I should look. The guy that answered told me that the meter was in the basement. Hah. He said he’d meet me downstairs to show me. So, I went downstairs and we started hunting together. We spotted it fairly quickly. It took me a moment to zero in on the reading, but when I saw it I was in shock. My gas reading happened to be 10-20 times larger than the surrounding meters. Damn! I immediately joked about wearing sweaters indoors from now on. As soon as I got back to my suite I switched the heat off, and it’s been off since.
Prior to this, the heating has been on 24/7. The thermostat was programmed properly, so it was low when I was out, and a bit warmer when I was in. Even so, I’m amazed that the numbers went up that high in a period of 7 months–especially in comparison to everyone else. So, that’s why I’m putting up with the chill, which really isn’t so bad now that I’ve sort of gotten used to it. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to just switch the damn thing off. So silly of me, right? Well, going forward, I plan on being more careful. It seems like it’s just another part of homeownership that I needed to learn first hand.
This whole half marathon training thing is such that I’ve got things quite figured out for myself. Actually, I’m sure that there are a couple of discoveries that are still out there waiting to be found, but for the most part I have a good sense of what I need to do and when I need to do it in order to get good performance out of myself. Once in a while though, I need something like a small kick in the pants to remind myself to stay vigilant.
So, last night I ended up getting caught up with various distractions. Next thing I know, 1 a.m. came and I knew that even if I couldn’t get some proper sleep I’d need at least a few hours down. I totally forgot my usual routine of drinking a couple of glasses of water prior to heading to bed. I do that to help me stay hydrated. Anyway, I set my alarm to use the radio at 6:15 am. I had by iPod docked there earlier, but I decided that radio would serve me better for a wake up call. Morning came. When I took a peek at the clock I was shocked to find out that it was already 7:30 a.m. I had half an hour to go to the bathroom, get my gear on, and head out the door. Somewhere in the rush, I completely neglected to eat something. Usually I have a piece of toast with some sugary spread of my choosing on top. This time though I was running on empty.
After all of these misfires, the run itself just didn’t feel great. I was running somewhat normally, but I just felt like something was a little bit off. I became hungrier earlier. I went through my bottle of water pretty quickly, forcing me to conserve my fluids for the last few kilometres. My hips were aching earlier than they really should have.
All in all, I should have known better. Yes, I should have done all of the necessary pre-measures to prep myself for being out there for more than two hours. At the very least, now that I’ve done this I’m more likely to be more careful.
You know, as I was writing last night’s post I was passing in and out of consciousness. OK, so maybe that’s making things sounds much more dire than they actually were. I was just really tired and actually had difficulty just completing the entry. At the bar, by the third Strongbow Erika was telling me that I had the sleepy eye thing going on. Yeah, I’ve actually noticed that before. It seems that when I have alcohol I tend to just look fatigued. I don’t go Asian red, but I just look like I haven’t slept in 36 hours. I guess it’s true though: I really was tired. And walking over to Yonge and Bloor after a long night out probably didn’t help me out either.
Anyway, in yesterday’s post I meant to post pictures of the foie gras poutine as well as the remnants of the Belgian chocolate fondue that we shared. Unfortunately, my sleep baked mind just couldn’t manage that. So here they are. Yes, they were both awesome and tasty.
I just got home a couple of minutes ago. I’m really quite exhausted–I was at a bar for 5 hours tonight. All things considered, that’s something that I don’t do all that often. I actually spent the evening catching up with a good group of Toronto based members of the 20 Something Bloggers community at the King St. W location of Bier Markt. Yeah, part of me still says that this, meeting people I met on the Internet, is something that I wouldn’t normally do, except that time and time again I find myself doing it. I’d like to think that I have a good sense of whether people are total kooks online, and so far it hasn’t led me too far astray. Especially with this 20SB group, everyone seems to be genuinely awesome.
Upon looking at the menu for the place, I was sort of determined to get something a bit strange and different for my meal. I ended up getting the foie gras poutine. In terms of drinks, since we were sitting at the bar I had a good view of all of the different things on tap. I couldn’t decide what I wanted, so I just named what was on the tap that was right in front of me. Turns out that was Strongbow Cider, so I stuck with that drink throughout the night. I honestly didn’t know Strongbow is a cider. So, when I first tasted my drink and got something fruity I was sort of surprised. I had 5 pints of that tonight, and frankly I’m still feeling a little bit drunk. All the same, my typing seems to be pretty bang on, so I’m doing well. The only drawback that I can think of right now is that with the poutine my caloric intake for the day is way off target. Oh well: one day of less than stellar eating isn’t so bad.
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