It is the first snow day of the year. I had many hopes and prayers last night that this day would come. I am, alas, sick as a dog.

I’m so grateful to have a day to rest without having to take an official sick day and write sub plans. I hope my students are having a lovely day off.

I’m sorry for my friends and family who do have to work today. I know that being the friend or family of a teacher who “gets lots of time off” can be annoying, but at the end of the day–its not like we make the decisions.

I am grateful for the day and now shift my selfish prayers for health so that I can get back to training. Being out of commission is frustrating.

For now, I look out my window, furry love at my side, and feel grateful.

In my sadness at having one more friend live in the midwest and one less live in Maryland, I think back to one of my favorite friend moments ever, a la Charlie Brown.

+Gene Robinson’s Prayer

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future. Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world. Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people. Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times. Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead. Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States. Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims. Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods. And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Over the break, I took a lot of rest. I mean a lot. There were times when I slept until mid-morning and took a nap in late afternoon. I didn’t really work out as much as I should have but I really engaged in super-sloth behavior.

Now, as I reach the last day of a four day weekend, I’m finding that I have been just as sloth like. Sleeping late and taking naps without exercise. I’m starting to really worry that something is messed up!

But after 7 years of training 8 months out of the year for marathons, maybe I need a little bit more rest before gearing up for Ironman? Alas, back to the roads (snowy though they may be) in the morning and hopefully, a normal amount of rest and significantly less sloth-like behavior in the weeks to come.

In honor of today’s memorial and tomorrow’s new beginning, I re-post a great tribute to hope. Will.I.am–Yes We Can!

Yesterday was a really stressful day at work. Very difficult to process all of the different things going on in the lives of the people being negatively effected by the economic state. Also, wrapping my head around a new grading policy in the middle of the trimester which is very a 180 shift in philosophy. (Oh, and then there was clss for which I had to read a 94 page good in one night!!)

So now I am up on this very ephing cold Friday morning. Lovebug has been walked and fed. First cup of joe has been downed (while watching Morning Joe, of course) but to the gym I did not go. I didn’t even sleep in. I was up, I walked a half mile in the freezing cold with the dog. But getting up and going and spending 45 minutes on a treadmill was not in my world today.

I think I’m in a ho-hum state realizing that the world’s best running partner ever is moving in six days. After three years (almost exactly) of laughter, tears, sweat, cold, hot, fast, slow, and probably hundreds of miles our weekly time together has to come to a abrupt end.  This, on top of all the other stuff, has put me in a major ho-hum. (More about how awesome my RP is on another post)

I’ve had a good week-two runs, two swims. And a plan-saturday run, sunday spin and run. So I’m not too worried about the day off, but there is the inevitable guilt and stress that I will ensue from it later today. But hopefully the busy stress of the day will eliminate that factor.

For now, I will enjoy the dwindling minutes of ho-hum with love bug asleep at my side.

Found this today. It is lovely and just what I needed. It reminded me that God is here.

http://holyfoolishness.wordpress.com/

Ok, ok, before you think I’m going to get all political…relax, I’m not. (Though torture of another human in any form is horrifying but that’s not the point of this post.)

Tonight at swim practice we copious amounts of drills–high elbow, fingertips, catch-up, kick/swim. But the true highlight was the 25y underwater, 25y swim. (six times). The goal was one breath for the length. Let’s just say my lungs don’t have that kind of capacity. It was up four times in a total sense of asphyxiation. Needless to say, i feel as though I know now why waterboarding works. (It is WRONG, but it makes sense). The lack of control as you reach the end of your oxygen capacity is a frightening feeling, particularly for this Type A blogger. Thankfully, it ended with flippers which is a freeing,  dolphin like feeling. Ahhhh.

Happy Breathing Dear Reader.

I’m taking a quick break from a ginormous amount of reading for class tonight (and watching Rachel, of course) and hopped over to Ana Marie Cox where I proceeded to find the most adorable way to waste time EVER.

http://cuteoverload.com

Happy Cuteness.

It is a new year and with that comes a new training plan. This year much of the plan revolves around prep for IM Wi. I have trained for lengths of time for a pinnacle before but never have I trained for 9 months for one event. According to my igoogle page there are 251 days until the event. In the days leading up to it I will put in a ridiculous amount of work, probably have more than my share of breakdowns (literal and figurative), and learn a thing or two about myself in the meantime.

I embrace the last element the most. It is not just to say I’m an Ironman. It is to go through the process of what the body and mind can take as one pushes to the outer limits. For someone who until 6 years ago would have been considered “primarily sedentary”, I think I’ve come a long way. For someone who did not like change in anyway until about 2003, I relish this time to change my mental discipline.

Here is the plan for January (for those who wish to keep me accountable):
Monday: am run/pm swim
Tuesday: am run (pm class)
Wednesday: am swim/pm body pump
Thursday: am run (pm class)
Friday: rest (pm yoga, perhaps)
Saturday: am run (class)
Sunday: am spin

Once my Jan. term class is over, this will change up a bit as I will re-take my Saturdays and get back to Tues. night spin (thank goodness). In the meantime, I start week 1 with hopes of not pushing so hard that I get hurt off the bat.

Off to the adventure.