This is my 100th post.

Just thought you should know.

Everyone Counts

After yesterday's post I went out with friends until 3 AM. Now, while that might sound like a good time - and it was - it probably wasn't the good time that you think it was. I participated, with a few Flyers, in the HOPE 2007 New York Street Survey.

That's the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, where all homeless people are counted throughout NYC. One night of of the year, groups head out with clipboard surveys in hand to stop everyone they meet in the middle of the night, to estimate the numbers of those without shelter. We gathered at a public school at 10:30 or so in East Harlem for our review of the surveys and some simple training, and my group of four headed out to a neighbourhood not far from mine to conduct the count, shortly after midnight.

There aren't very many people out between 12 and 3 AM on a Tuesday, which is a big part of the reason HOPE is conducted on that weeknight. And it being winter, maybe it is felt that more homeless people would take refuge at a shelter somewhere, where I'd assume they could also be counted, reducing the numbers on the street. Or maybe it's done in winter to weigh the seriousness of the problem: how many homeless are out in the cold. And it was a cold night - well below freezing.

Even though we wore big stickers identifying us as conducting an official NYC Survey, we still ran into a small handful of people who were rude and wanted nothing to do with us. For the most part, though, people were pleasant, answered a few questions politely, and allowed us to move on.

I'm happy to report that we found no one on the street whom reported not having a place to stay. Most people cited an apartment as their home, and only man said he stayed in a shelter, that was all. We finished by visiting the 116th St. subway where we also found no one. We headed back to the school, submitted the results, had a donut (or two) and shared a few laughs before packing it in and heading home. As we left, we were given t-shirts... I refused mine at first - being a runner, I have more than enough free t-shirts - but then I changed my mind. It was a nice shirt that had the study's logo on the front and their tagline on the back: "Everyone Counts."

Even though we didn't find anyone homeless in our study area, we know they're out there. Last year's survey found over 3,800 homeless in the city, and you really do have to wonder how many more were tucked away in ATM vestibules or under private stairwells, undiscovered.

In light of my post yesterday, full of the trivial stresses of work and play, this type of activity can really put things into perspective. Not only do I have a roof over my head and wealth beyond what some people can imagine, but I also have friends with good hearts who are giving and caring people willing to help out when the time comes. These are the things worth living for.

Scatterbrained

This is a record low for me: my fifth post in a month. I do realise that I really need to blog though, and this is a break for me - a well-deserved break.

To think things were going to slow down and become more manageable after my posts of two weeks ago was so far removed from reality that it's not even funny. All I've been doing, it feels like, is playing catch up with everything. And from most people, it seems the common thread weaving through everybody's life is "being overwhelmed" by just about everything: work, relationships, responsibilities, etcetera. Isn't January supposed to be a slow month?

Granted, I have some friends who are in much more stressful situations than I. One of them is across the country attending to a very sick family member, and one is recovering from a tough c-section delivery following a stressful pregnancy. One even got mugged recently. Me, I just feel like the trivial aspects of everything are coming at me right and left: work, the new responsibilities of the Flyers' executive board, and even social commitments. In short, I feel spread so thin that I've become transparent.

Someone at the awards gala - a great Flyer and a well-meaning friend - asked me why I didn't have a girlfriend. This is a step beyond his usual question, which is why I'm not married. He and his wife debated, and she chalked it up to my being too picky. That may or may not be true, but the real question I find myself asking is: when would I date? I hardly have time to do my laundry. Cripes, I didn't even get my grocery shopping done this weekend...

It seems like even though I've been actively and consciously participating in all of this stuff, like going to the awards party, attending two friends' birthdays last weekend, meeting deadlines at the office, recording minutes at the executive meeting, and trying to compile a running club newsletter, there's a big part of me that feels separate from it all. I feels as if I've been somehow removed from the conscious world and I'm viewing it from a few feet removed from it. No, maybe more like a few minutes remove from it, like everything is happening a while before I'm aware it is, if that makes any sense at all.

The blog is a good outlet for this, I find. It somehow gives me a sense of control and it, in some way, orders my world a bit. And without it, it feels like nobody's listening. With it, I feel like I'm somehow a bit more present in the world. And what are we if we aren't somehow relating to each other, in a present, conscious way?

This might be all hullabaloo. Some people will blow me off, and some will tell me that I just need to relax. Whatever. Some will argue that I just can't handle the speed of NYC. I never bought that argument. I'd counter that it isn't the speed of NYC that's the issue here. It's the speed of life.

An awarding - but more importantly, rewarding - event

The New York Flyers Awards Gala was a fun Saturday night, although a bit too much fun in some ways. Note to self: open bar does NOT mean "drink as much as you can". Yeesh.

I recall dancing badly: inebriation and coordination may rhyme, but they don't give you good rhythm. A fellow Flyer told me I was dancing like a Ukrainian. She's good at making those little comments that don't quite insult, but definitely don't come off as compliments, either. Oh, and she, like myself, is of Ukrainian ethnicity. No comment.

I did get an award though, and it capped off a very good year with the club. There were friends I wished could be there but weren't, and there were others I hadn't seen in awhile that were good to see again and share the event with. It was a fine night. I even bought a new tie for it.

I needed the break from work. It's been so busy at the office these last two weeks, and on top of having to assemble the monthly newsletter, I've suddenly been deluged with e-mails copying the exec board on everything from the weekly Flyers updates, to member surveys, to comments on meeting minutes. I never thought I'd hear the word "policy" so much in my life, especially when it comes to what basically amounts to an athletic hobby. It's a running club folks, not Parliament! We're here to run and have fun!

I am partly kidding with those comments, of course. I do realize the huge effort involved in running the largest local running club in New York City, and that there are a lot of members to make happy. Everyone involved put together a hell of an awards party, and they've done a hell of a job with the club in its twenty years of existence. As our esteemed lifetime achievement award recipient said last night, "Look how far you've come."

Indeed, and I hope to also contribute, so as to take us even farther, wherever that may be...

The past week; a new life enters the world.

I most often fly to and from Winnipeg via Chicago, but this time I connected out of Minneapolis. Coming home last week, my flight was late on the first leg of my trip back, so I had a mere 15 minutes to run through the airport to catch my plane. Upon arriving at La Guardia, I arranged to have my luggage, which didn’t make the connection, delivered to my office the next day. They told me it would be delivered 6 or 8 PM at the latest. I thought this wouldn’t be so bad – I’d just stay a bit later at the office.

The NYC delivery service utilized by the airline is called Perfect Delivery and I cannot put into words just how unperfect they were. I won’t go into the long-winded, frustrating details, but after 5 phone calls over the course of the day to find out the status of my luggage, it finally became apparent to me that they weren’t being honest with me, were not checking my reference number when I gave it to them, and had absolutely no aptitude for customer care. I waited all day and half the night for my bag, which was finally delivered to my apartment at 3 AM the following morning. Yep, 3 AM. Now that’s just crappy. How do these places stay in business?!

Anyway, I had a harried few days back at work last week, catching up on things before what I expected would be generally a relaxing weekend, as I had made very few plans. It would be a welcome change from the craziness of the holidays and the recent trip to the Great White North.

I spent Friday working on the next running club newsletter and getting requests and reminders out for article submission. Friday night, I kicked back at home and got a good night’s sleep. At this point I had only gone running once since New Year’s, and not at all while I was in Canada, and was planning to meet friends for a long run Saturday AM, so I figured I needed the sleep.

I went up to Rockefeller State Park (photo) again with two other Flyers, and we did about 18 miles of hills and trails. I was trying out the new Nike+ iPod gizmo that I got for Christmas, and another friend was trying out her Garmin 205 GPS unit for the first time. We’re still not sure which was more accurate, as the Garmin measured 17.75 miles and the Nike+ measured 18.25. I called it 18 and could live with that.

On the drive back to Manhattan, no sooner had I answered the question of What-are-you-up-to-this-weekend? with “Not much”, when I received a text message.

My good friend, Beth, who was 8+ months pregnant, had been in the hospital for the past four days due to a dangerously high spike in her blood pressure and she was being released Saturday to go home. She texted friends to ask if they could baby-sit her for the next couple of days while her guy went to Jersey for a family funeral. She didn't expect that anything would happen, and she promised that she'd be "well-behaved". This sounded easy enough, so I took first shift, and arrived at about 4 PM to her Bronx apartment with some work in hand to kill time. The plan was simple – I’d stay over, and if she needed anything I could take care of it for her while she rested, and leave at 10:00 the next morning when the next friend arrived.

I did some work and watched a Scrubs marathon on TV, followed by the movie Miss Congeniality. Normally I hate this kind of movie, but it was Sandra Bullock, the setting was a beauty pageant, and Beth has a 40 inch HDTV, so can you really blame me for watching? In hindsight, I’m convinced I’d have enjoyed it more if the sound was off, though. Beth snoozed on the couch much of the time, and I helped her check her blood pressure later in the evening. I was ready to call it a night when she took another reading at 11 PM. Little did I know the night had just begun.

Her BP was spiking and she double-checked to be sure. She called the hospital and they told her to come in.

The next thing I know, we’re speeding down the Grand Central Parkway to Long Island Memorial Jewish Something Or Another Hospital in her VW. I dropped her off and headed back to Manhattan to pick up our friend, Katie. We arrived back at the hospital shortly after 12:30 AM. We were allowed in under Katie's (fake) title of Birthing Mother or some such nonsense, and found Beth in an isolated little room hooked up to a big machine taking readings and making all sorts of mostly annoying sounds, as well as emitting the unmistakable sound of a baby's heartbeat. And then we did a whole lot of waiting.

The nurses on duty would step in sporadically, take some readings, and say that they were still waiting for directions from the doctor. Most of the time we just sat there chatting about stuff. I filled them in on my hit-and-mostly-miss dating life, and Katie covered the topic of her new job. Beth tried time to time to get her guy on the phone with occasional success, which mostly resulted in her saying "No, we don't know what they're going to do yet. I'll call you when we know something." She appeared calm and sociable the whole time, but I can only guess that she was scared as hell. After all, what were we there for, but to keep her company and distracted from the issue at hand.

The hours ticked by. Finally a nurse came in and did an ultrasound. I looked at the baby on the screen and turned to Beth: "Okay, now I believe you. You're pregnant." The nurse put on some latex gloves and Beth asked me to step outside. I sat and played solitaire on my phone for a while. Eventually Katie stepped out and let me know I could come back in.

The plan was to attempt to induce labour, so we moved with Beth to a real hospital room, and stuck around, still chatting, while yet another nurse settled her in to get some sleep. At one point Beth looked at me and said "You look totally wiped." I told her that I had just run 18 miles that day (which was now yesterday) and hadn't got my usual nap in before coming to her place. This engaged the nurse in the discussion, who, as it turns out, had run half marathons, and we also found out that she was married to a football player in the CFL. Katie, Beth and I, by the way, are all Canadian.

Katie and I left shortly after 4 AM, and I got home by 4:30 (funny how light traffic is at that hour in NYC). Katie took the car.

I slept badly Sunday morning, woke up at 10 AM, had something to eat, and went back to sleep until 1 PM. I felt horrible and groggy. So much for a nice relaxing weekend.

I received a text message at about four from Katie, saying that Beth had delivered a baby girl after 2 PM. She was delivered by c-section. I was a little disappointed that she wasn't named after me (I drove her all the way to Long Island, after all!) but they came up with a pretty good name in the end.

Both mother and daughter are doing well.

***

Sunday night closed the weekend out with a meeting of the new Flyers' executive board at one of my fellow exec's apartment who also provided an excellent dinner. I didn't know some of the other exec members that well, but after our meeting, I'm very optimistic about this year's leadership of the running club. 2007 is looking great!

Winnipeg Wedding

I was in Winnipeg Jan 4th through the 8th. It was a pretty good time, but rushed and frantic. Part of this was due to having my flight bumped from 7 PM on Wed. to 6 AM on Thursday. Trust Travelocity to change a flight schedule without sending out an e-mail notification. Luckily I called to double check my departure status before heading to the airport that evening.

I went to Canada for a wedding, and skipped Christmas because of that. I explained to my family that Christmas comes every year and weddings, at least in theory, happen once in a lifetime. That is, unless you're Liz Taylor and hold them regularly. The biggest part of the hectic-ness of the trip was trying to cram in the family and friend visits around the wedding, and all within four and a half days. I managed it, but not without frustration.

The wedding was pretty good, but not without it's flaws. The ceremony was held in the main hall at the swanky downtown Winnipeg Art Gallery (pictured). It was a great venue for the event, after which we moved up to the penthouse level for the reception. The atmosphere over dinner was relaxed, the food was delicious, and I caught up with an old friend as well as met some other nice, new people. We then moved to another room for the more active festivities.

I would have thought the gallery had hosted lots of weddings before, and I’m sure this was the case, but they seemed fairly unseasoned at it. Specifically, when the DJ started playing Billy Holiday's "Strange Fruit" during the reception, we knew something was dreadfully wrong. The groom remedied that quickly, though, and people were shakin' it on the dance floor in no time.

I also had to care for a friend of mine who went a little over the top with the alcohol consumption. In a follow up e-mail to me the next day, she referred to herself as a “basket case”. I wouldn’t quite go that far, but to say that she was inebriated would be an understatement (and who could blame her – it was a wedding!). I saw her off safely in a cab before partying the rest of the night away without incident with the bride, groom, and their many friends and family. I made it home in the late hours of morning, and slept until early afternoon.

Overall, I was happy to see my good friend tied the knot with this guy. She and I have been friends for about 14 years now, and although I’ve never had a chance to get to know him so well (they started seeing each other just before I left Canada), I can tell they’re great for each other.

The rest of my trip I spent meeting up with many friends I had during university and high school, as well as relatives. Some of the people I saw I hadn't caught up with in years.

I had brunch with my family on the Saturday. Seeing the family always reminds me how much I regret not being able visit my nephews more than once a year… a definite downside to living so far away. The other downside was something new this trip, and that was seeing how much my mother’s health has deteriorated substantially over the past year. She was almost a different person, and that left me feeling helpless and mildly depressed, like there was something I should be doing to make her better, but I didn’t know what. It’s tough to watch someone’s health decline and realize that it’s out of your hands.

On the issue of health, I noticed a few friends and relatives have also put on a couple of pounds, which I guess is easy to do if you're not actively running marathons or anything. One friend has kept in shape by doing Jujutsu, although I think this also serves as an effective dual purpose of keeping her two kids in line. Two of my friends - a couple that I didn't get to see last year - had dropped a LOT of weight, and were looking healthier and happier than I had seen them in a long time. How? "A healthy diet and exercise", they said. I was very happy for their new, healthy lifestyle, which included eliminating a surplus of junk food and joining a soccer league. I’m sure we all know and can appreciate how important and difficult it is to keep that extra weight off when you’re on that slide towards the big four-oh.

I also did lunch with my best friend while I was there. He and I have been friends since grade seven. It always amazes me how, even after years living apart, and very different lifestyles, we always come back to each other with perspectives on the world that are interesting, enlightening, and respectful of each other’s differences.

Finally, I did breakfast with my parents on the Monday morning, and they drove me to the airport that afternoon. It was a good, albeit exhausting trip.

Resolving

One of the recurring conversations I've had over the last few days has been, of course, about New Year's resolutions. I've become a big proponent of making resolutions over the last few years. Generally I make at least three solid ones a year. Normally a couple of these are big decisions that I've been unable to commit to, but are essentially easy to execute, while others are much more challenging and ongoing.

I think this brings up an interesting issue in the perception of what a resolution is. I've found a lot of people think that unless it's ongoing and challenging, it's not a worthy resolution. Case in point: I used to be a crunchy-granola-hippy boy, through my twenties and into my thirties, and as an integral part of this persona, I had long hair. One of my resolutions a few years ago, after thinking about it for the last couple of years, was cutting my hair. Getting a haircut isn't necessarily a decision worth resolving about, but when a haircut is a sign of a larger, lifestyle change issue, it truly is worth it.

Another resolution I made in the past was getting a cat. It fascinates me that I have one friend who strongly opposes calling this a New Year's resolution: "You go out and get a cat and it's done. What kind of resolution is that!?!" Yet I have another friend who, when I told her I was going to get a cat, said, "That's a huge one. It changes your life. Part-and-parcel of that resolution is the fact that you have to keep it alive."

The key to making a good resolution is that it has to be goal-oriented and quantifiable. Saying you're going to eat healthier or date more are pretty vague resolutions unless you've done some kind of analysis or tally on everything you've eaten and the dates you've been on for the previous year. Great if you can do it, but frankly I can't spend that much time on an excel spreadsheet just to make a resolution. A better resolution is I'm going to not eat such-and-such anymore, or I'm going to go on x-number of dates per month, etc.

I do have resolutions this year. I have three of them, and I've considered adding a fourth, but the ones I already have are challenging enough that a fourth might overburden me. Most of them are career/job related, so I won't bore you with the details. I just have my fingers crossed that I can fulfill them all.

My Emerald Nuts

It's New Year's Day, and I'm at home attempting to load myself with caffeine so that I can actually be productive and get some work done.

Last night I did NYRR's Emerald Nut's Midnight Run in Central Park. I wasn't very excited about this event. I've always said that the last thing I want to be doing at the stroke of midnight on January 1st is running outside in the cold, which I can do anytime. My New Year's has always seen me with a group of friends, inside where it's warm, toasting the New Year with a drink in my hand. I actually considered bailing from the race at the last moment, but considering I didn't have a back up plan, had paid, and told everyone I was going, I figured I may as well go through with it. Plus there were a lot of Flyers doing the race, and I also thought that given the recent ridiculously warm weather, if there was going to be a year that I spent any time outside, this was the year. Plus, given my extremely low expectations, I was bound to be have a better time than I thought I would, right?

Well, sort of. The good time that I had was purely based on the company of friends that I shared during the pre- and post-race festivities. I talked to some nice new Flyers that I hadn't chatted with before, and caught up with other friends, while enjoying wine. When we made it to the park though, I got separated from everyone amidst the utter chaos of the event. I entered the field at the 7 min. pace marker and at the countdown to midnight had none of my friends with me. That truly sucked! The fireworks went off and the field started to slowly move, and I thought: Great -this is how I'm going to spend the first moments of the New Year: in a 4-mile race with none of my friends around... I had no interest in that so I stepped out of the pack at the 6 min. pace marker and considered just packing it in and going home. I didn't, though, and went to plan B: I stepped up onto the wooden guard rail and, steadying myself with the support for the NYRR pace banner, I surveyed the crowd for Flyers. I saw a couple that I din know early in the crowd, but waited to see some of the friends I had come in with. I was a long long time that I stood there as thousands of people passed by, and I was just about ready to give up, when right at the back of the crowd, I saw my friends. I hopped in and they welcomed me back.

Now, I'm not the fastest runner on the planet, but this was tediously slow. We were crwling through the crowd at the back of the pack. I saw a couple of Essex Runners and chatted with them for a bit, and while doing so, inattentively almost mowed down a pair of walkers at about a half mile into the race (I had been drinking, remember). I apologized, although at the time I also thought it quite funny. They were very pissed. Finally, one of my fellow Flyers was also growing more and more impatient and frustrated with the high density and snail's pace of the crowd and the two of us picked it up and separated from the group. Minus a couple of bottlenecks, we settled into a nice jog, and chatted about marathons, running, and her ex-boyfriend, who was also running the race. I didn't know her before the start of the night, so the viewpoint and stories were novel to me and made the time pass quickly.

We finished the race in with 49:27 on the clock. That works out to a 12+ minute pace, which is slower than a brisk walk for me, but considering I didn't cross the start line for over 10 minutes after the gun went off, I figure our pace realistically averaged around 9:30, and much faster in the final miles. Anyway, it was a PW any way you slice it.

There were costumes, though, which made the race somewhat entertaining. Some of our group participated in a spoof of Lance Armstrong's NYC marathon entourage, which was worth a good smile. I saw a lot of Santas, a spider-man, a skeleton crew, reindeer, and lots of other crazy stuff that left me not knowing what to make of it.

After the finish, the Flyers met up again at the baggage area, and after a few photos, most of the group parted ways and headed home. A handful of us went back with our host to the pre-party venue and chatted over beers until the early morning hours. Over all it was a fine time, but I think for 2008 I'll go back to doing my traditional indoors New Year's celebration.