Oh, that’s supposed to be west. Got it. Well I didn’t primarily go west or north today — my normal walking habits. Today I went south.
Side note: if you haven’t yet discovered Kate Nash or Yael Naim, download both artists on iTunes immediately.
So that’s officially 10 pounds in two weeks. I’m feeling better, though I still have a ways to go. But I’m not burned out yet — so I’ll keep going! Depending on the weather, I’m probably going to add the bike riding to/from work next week.
I don’t know what day I’m up to. And my lack of posting hasn’t been a lack of walking (well, mostly), its been a lack of new or unique routes. Since the snow came, getting around without running into a big pile has been a little difficult.
If you haven’t shoveled the sidewalk in front of your home or place of business by now, and I have to walk through snow, I’m going to start calling DPW to report you tomorrow. Be warned. Be afraid. I’m sick of falling knee-deep in snow because you’re too much of a lazy ass to do your responsibility as a property owner.
Now that that’s off my mind, my walk today was a little abbreviated — only 45 minutes — because I have a pile of homework and laundry to get done, in addition to some consulting work, and there simply isn’t enough time in my schedule to play. Too bad — its a beautiful day to walk. The air is crisp, the sun is shining, but then there are knee-deep piles of snow to climb through because of lazy people.
I walked again yesterday (Thursday), after taking two days off. I know that was a hiccup in my original plans, but on Tuesday my legs were so chaffed and sore that I had to take the day off, and on Wednesday I worked late and my evening plans conflicted. Everything else is on the up-and-up though, especially the diet part of my plan.
Here’s the route I took — I had a little less time than I wanted, so it was an abbreviated, repetitious path.
Will I walk today in the weather mess? Probably not. In-apartment exercises, anyone?
So, because Tray would know where I am, I decided today to walk far away from the old Sam’s… 
VERY SORE!!! This silly game is catching up with me… and I can’t type right now, because my fingers are numb from the cold. Oh — but lots of cute places to check out someday in downtown West Allis that I didn’t know existed until I walked down Greenfield today.
Here’s (roughly) the route I took today.
I say roughly because of two mishaps: first, I got turned around a bit in the VA Center grounds. Secondly, as a result of that mishap, I cut across a median to walk back up through Miller Park. So from Washington Dr. & General Mitchell Blvd. to where Mitchell joins up again with the service road to Miller Park… that all is an approximation on this Google map.
I’m going to start tracking my walking on here. My goal is to lose 40 lbs by basic lifestyle change. There are any number of reasons for this:
I’m not one to join and/or use a health club, but I do enjoy walking and biking, so I’m going to do them in a way that will be beneficial to my health and morale.
Some basic “rules” that I’ve set up for myself:
I’m combining this with an effort to eat healthier, but one step at a time.
I’m also going to track some of my routes on here, so I can refer to them later and see how much of the west side I discover through walking. This was my route today.
I had to do a little backtracking on Washington — I thought the road would connect me back to Hawley, or even Greenfield at a minimum, but no dice. Oh well; it added on some mileage!
Last week, Penelope Trunk (of the Boston Globe) posted one of the most interesting blogs I’ve read in a while related to generational differences in today’s society and workplace. An excerpt:
The victories of Generation Y will not look like the Boston Tea Party or Kent State. They will look like this Iowa caucus: Gen Y, playing by the rules, and winning.
My friend Alicia had forwarded the posting on to me, and it was so strange that it came following a long conversation just a day earlier I had with a colleague about generational differences particularly in the area of racism and systemic change. In fact, it was that colleague who had the best summation of today’s change:
Many baby boomers have been ‘fighting’ for so long we don’t know how to stop and assess the ‘victories’ and ‘changes’ that have already occurred in our society.
I see it at work. I see it with my friends. I’ve seen it growing up — my mother’s best friend likes to poke fun at me for a remark I made when I still required others to wipe me: “Does it matter?”
Of course it matters, but that gets followed up by another question: “So what?” And there’s the root of the friction between the generations. The outgoing Boomers think the so what means a fight. The Gen Xers think the so what means proving themselves on the backs of others. And the incoming Millennials think the so what is working together with what is, imagining what can be from it, without spending a dizzying amount of time decrying what it isn’t. In the words of Trunk, GenY is seeking its mandate to “do things differently, within the established structures of power.”
I’m impatient. (Why is no one even pretending to be shocked?) The combination of my carpe diem attitude, wound up in ADD usually spells disaster for me to wait for something. Which is probably why this whole discernment about ministry process is so bleepin plagued with internal difficulties.
I’m recognizing, more and more, that God’s pathways are made clear… eventually. But I’m also seeing ahead further and further. I think its appropriate that I work on finally accepting some of these realizations during Advent. First, I need to wait out until March and the first draft of the ELCA statement. Then, based on that outcome, I regroup and focus on my next steps.
Of course I’m looking six steps down the road…
So I’m going to start even smaller. I’m not going to anticipate Christmas. I’m excited because this year I’ll get to worship at the church of my childhood on Christmas Eve. I’m excited to see the live nativity, to hear for the first time the “new” pipe organ installed after we left, to be in a space where I first felt God’s call on my heart.
In short, I’m going to prepare during Advent. I’m going to wait. And I’m going to not be impatient. Above all, if I tell myself this enough, it just might happen…
If chaos theory is true (which I believe it to be), then I think the reverse must also be true: in what appears to be order and beauty, there exists completely unintelligible, inexplicable chaos.
Life is a mess, but people wouldn’t know that looking at me. A soul searching road trip is absolutely a necessity at this point. Defining my own goals is a pipe dream — I don’t even know what I should venture, or what I need to wager in return.
I spent $200 yesterday, when I thought I’d only spend $100. The ADD is out of control. I can’t focus on a single thing for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. I have so many balls in the air, I don’t remember what I was doing when I threw each of them up there. Without Tylenol PM, I wouldn’t get an uninterrupted night’s sleep. The twin curses of anxiety and depression are circling around me.
I search for approval, for validation
For the proof that I am alive
I’m looking in all the wrong places
But where I crave them the most
There is where I will never find