My Life Blood

I don’t know what has gotten into me but ever since the children have been off from school I seem to linger longer in bed. I am sure there is something to the fact of having my daughter and son both in the room with my wife as they were this morning. My daughter has been battling a cold for a week and she wanted to stay with my wife and me last night. Normally I am opposed but had to give in to both cute faces. With my daughter already in the room and my son making his normal early morning appearance it was very difficult to get myself out of bed and make my way to the gym. This is a far cry from the 19 ½ months of waking up either by myself or with 200 of my “closets” friends!! I will take the smiling faces of my wife, daughter and son any day so being an hour late to the gym really doesn’t matter.

After goofing off with the children I did make my way to the gym and yes, I am feeling the full effects of the culmination of the running regimen. I am at the end of training schedule and last week and this week has put me through some serious rigors. These two weeks will encompass nearly 130 miles of running and yes, I know there are elite runners who run this amount in one week but for little old me it is a great deal of running. I am hoping this will finally put me below my time goal so I will qualify for the Boston Marathon. My daughter did tell me the other day that I “better make that goal” so I am doing everything in my power to attain this goal. Really my daughter isn’t putting pressure on me and I think I am the one applying the most pressure to myself. Whatever transpires in three week at the Arizona Rock n’ Roll marathon will be for the very best because this is what happens in my life nowadays.

I did make through another tough round of running and my legs were feeling better than yesterday and the little calf problem is healing quite nicely. I am somewhat figured out my IPod much better now that I have been using it for awhile. I do notice that it isn’t the IPod which causes the sound to fade but the earphones. As the sweat drips (yes, that sounds awful, sorry!) down and sometimes it drips right into the earphone itself the sound immediately fades. At first I thought it had something to do with the IPod itself but it have become apparent it is the earphones. There is not a great deal I can do about this other than just deal with it and this is what I do. I do like the IPod and like having music while I am running so a little inconvenience is no big deal.

This afternoon my wife and I had lunch plans with a very good friend of mine. This is a friend who has seen me go through the past few years and has been a great friend through and through. Oddly enough my wife had never met this friend until today even the two had spoken on the telephone several times during my incarceration. I was happy my wife could finally meet this friend and we had a very enjoyable lunch. The conversation was easy and although my wife’s lunch wasn’t up to par everything else seemed to go very well. This was a great way to spend the middle of the day.

I didn’t have much on the agenda so my wife and I took the time to do some shopping for our New Year’s Eve get together with our dear friends. My wife truly enjoys shopping and it really is the “act” of shopping not necessarily the “buying” of shopping. I hope that makes sense? My wife has always enjoyed shopping and really it doesn’t matter whether it is for her, me, our children or for food, clothes, toys and whatever else comes to mind; she really enjoys shopping. I on the other hand bring “balance” to the equation because I don’t like shopping at all. Our children have even commented on the differences when they shop with me and when they shop with their mother. They prefer going with me because it takes a fraction of the time!

This afternoon I did my best to balance the equation but my wife is very tenacious when she shops and I think I caved in somewhere along the line!! We were able to purchase the items for the get together along with the necessary food we needed since we haven’t gone food shopping in a very long time. I was reminded by my wife why she likes to go by herself as I hurried her along but again I am certain she got her way this afternoon.

This evening I made my way to the Tuesday Evening Gamblers Anonymous meeting. It was very good to go to the meeting and see some people I haven’t seen in awhile. The meeting was very good and was very well attended. I am always so happy to be in the room when the meeting commences because this is my life blood. I am glad to have finally found a place where I can recover from my compulsive gambling addiction. I realize that people come in and out of GA all the time and in my short time of less than 4 years I have seen my share of these people. However; for me there is the need and the want to come and be a part of the meetings. I will start my Secretaryship a week from Monday and I have lined up some very good speakers for the first two months already. Life is truly remarkable in recovery!!