Looking Up

I did miss my usual Sunday evening Gamblers Anonymous meeting last night since I took my mother to the airport but this was okay. It was okay because tonight would be my first meeting as Secretary of the Monday evening Speaker’s meeting. I would still like to keep my commitment to the Sunday GA meeting even on those weeks I Secretary the Speaker’s meeting; however; this week it just seemed “right” to take my mother to the airport. Next week I will miss the Sunday meeting again as we will be in Arizona. I have had a friend who lives in the area we will be in next week that offered to take me to a GA meeting next week. This is the “power” of the program and I am blessed to know people all across the country who are members of this wonderful fellowship. I am not sure if I can fit this in or am I sure if I will be in any shape to attend a meeting after running 26.2 miles but the option certainly exists.

As we drove back from the airport I had promised my son to stop at a store to pick him up something I promised I would buy him and of course since my daughter was with us I couldn’t leave her out. I didn’t leave her out and she did add to her Webkinz collection which incidentally my dear friends who are so thoughtful also added to both my daughter and son’s Webkinz collection the other night. (Thank you so very much!!) We made the stop and both of my children were very grateful for the items. Incidentally my son opted for the Pokémon cards instead of another Webkinz. I sort of don’t get the whole Pokémon card “thing” but I noticed there is some type of “game” the children play. It isn’t like when I played baseball cards as a child because I would “lose” those baseball cards which were an early form of gambling. This appears to be an early form of “collecting” which is so much better than the alternative.

The evening went very well and we did our best to get the children to sleep at a “decent” hour as they finally go back to school tomorrow. They were in bed at that decent hour and I made it a point to wake them up early this morning in hopes they would get to sleep early tonight. My son has no difficulties in getting up or going to sleep; the problem is with my daughter who has difficulty in both areas; getting up and going to sleep. This appears to be the nature of the “beast” and something we are going to be dealing with for the near future. The only concern I have is the fact that my daughter is getting enough sleep because I would swear she falls asleep much too late for someone her age. There are days we she is very active and still has difficulty in falling asleep. I guess there is something in her “make-up” that establishes her as a true night person whereas my son is clearly a true morning person.

I can draw parallels between my wife and me as I am the morning person and my wife is the night person so all of this shouldn’t be a surprise. It really isn’t a surprise and I surmise that this may change over the course of time since both of my children are still young. Whatever happens I will continue to monitor the amount of sleep my daughter gets and hope she does receive the requisite amount.

This morning I was scheduled for an off day as I really prepare for the upcoming marathon. This is a very easy week when it comes to the training schedule as the real test comes on Sunday. I often wonder if those elite athletes taper this much into a race because those folks are running three times as much as I do and I have a hard time understanding how they can go from running nearly 200 miles a week to running “only” 120 miles a week. I guess it is all relative as my mile total will be 35% less than my average mileage over the course of this particular training program.

I did welcome the day off since I had to make a very long drive to a very important meeting this morning. I made this drive even longer because I input the incorrect zip code into the GPS and was routed 30 miles off course. I finally corrected myself as I realized that the meeting wasn’t being held in a parking lot for a shipping container!! I arrived almost an hour late and yes, most of this time was spent with my “detour” but the traffic was horrendous. I have no idea how people commute in Southern California on a daily basis. There was one point where I went 30 miles in an hour and fifteen minutes. I did state the “Serenity Prayer” often this morning since there wasn’t much I could do about the traffic.

I finally made it to the meeting and yes, the information was very important. My company is embarking into a very significant endeavor and this endeavor was issued a slight set back this morning. The information we received was not exactly positive and did conflict with our time goals. I have faith that there is an alternate plan and everything will work out for the very best. The people I work for are very creative and thankfully I have friends who are extremely knowledgeable in the areas where I know basically nothing. I wasn’t deterred with the information and will continue to move forward.