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September 2003

Friday, September 05, 2003

It's good to be back in New York. After quite a trip over to London, where I practically started talking with a British accent by the end, returning home came with a great relief. "Nothing", I've always said, "beats Eastern Standard Time".

When I travel, and my schedule is changed around along with and adjustment of my body clock, I get a chance to see things in a different light. For instance, I caught myself doing things for no apparent reason, except that I have been doing these things for years and might as well continue the tradition. Like "why don't I take the steps this time?", I asked myself. "Why not? I'm feeling up for it". It never occurred to me that there may be times during the day or during the week that I could take the steps instead of the elevator. It's just a routine I've fallen into for the past, well forever, and it was time to examine the possibility of change. I had plenty of opportunity to take steps, especially around London, but it made me realize that we get into habits that aren't always the best for us, and for a change I could do something about it. It felt good. Especially the stairs going down.

Another habit which was more moronic than ironic, is "why do I always put my drink in the little circle on the tray when I'm on an airplane?" It's not like this is an industrial-size cup holder that will prevent my drink from spilling in the event of a crash. Rather, it's more of a suggestion of where to put your cup. And yet, I'm nervous my Diet Coke might spill if my drink is not settled perfectly within the confines of some little circle. So I moved my drink outside of the circle and I was finally liberated once and for all. That's two changes for the better in a single trip.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

The summer is definitely over. And if you need proof, travel during rush hour. The teachers -- and the busses -- are back to the daily commute of "life". Yesterday I had the good fortune of experiencing typical "rubbernecking delays". I find this kind of traffic especially interesting. One minute you're saying "this is ridiculous, the accident isn't even in this direction. Why am I being held up?" The next minute you're creeping along, straining your neck to get a gaze at the bloody mess across the median. We go from outraged driver to crime scene investigators, wanting desperately to figure out the cause of the accident and more importantly, if any injuries were sustained.

Anyway, for the first time in something like 18 years I'm not going back to school in September. Talk about a weird feeling? I think back to the smell of the 3rd grade hallways in the morning. The feeling in my stomach at the thought of how early class started in high school. The freedom of wearing pajamas to lectures in college. And all of it is gone forever. The reality is I might have slept through school. All of it. From the spelling quizzes to the history reports to the book reviews to the summer reading to the business reports to the finals. These were the things I will remember forever. What I fear I won't remember is that smell of the newly waxed hallway, the liberation of pajamas-in-class (and nobody caring), and being awake too early to even think about breakfast. The intangibles of a closed chapter in my life.

Who am I kidding? I never did summer reading.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

I can't be more glad that the middle of the week is coming! Usually it's Friday I'm looking forward to, but this week it's Wednesday I want. That means no more traveling for a few weeks. After a back-to-back trip, one to Cleveland and one to Chicago, it will be great to sleep in my own bed and not eat such large breakfasts at hotel lobbies. But the trips were very productive, meeting with over 200 doctors in hospitals, clinics and at dinners, to talk about CreakyJoints, the A-Games and of course the Arthritis Huddle. All this alongside Joe Namath. Could be worse I suppose.

This morning as I was checking the weather before I departed dear old Chicago, I consulted the Weather Channel. Why? I have no idea. God forbid I get something useful, like the weather in two of the biggest U.S. cities: Chicago and New York. Instead I got predictions about this hurricane, which were about as vague as a book report written by an illiterate. "Somewhere between South Carolina and the Jersey Shore" they reported. "That helps" I thought to myself, not believing my eyes. The next immediate thought I had was "why do they name hurricanes? Shouldn't they be spending their time more wisely, like learning how to actually predict weather better?" (And instead I relied on my intuition: Chicago would be windy today.)

What they really need are a bunch of arthritics working the Weather Channel desks. We know the weather. We feel the weather. And if you've made it this far, you'd agree we're literate, too.

Monday, September 29, 2003

I’ve got my Harvard knickers, my FBI T-shirt and my Newbalance old-man shoes! Gym: Here I come!!! It took a New Year’s resolution, albeit a Jewish New Year, to decide once again that it’s time for a change in my appearance and a change in my health. That’s one of the benefits of being Jewish. We get two New Years, a real one in January and a fake one 9 months into the regular year. So it’s just enough time to make a new resolution when the last one failed. And in my case, the time has definitely come.

Today I will restart slowly. I figure 30 minutes of cadio to get back in the swing of things, and some light weights and most importantly, good hardcore stretching, and I’ll be ready to do it again tomorrow. I’ve got my techno CD burned, I’ve got a fresh bottle of water cooking, and I’m really looking forward to starting fresh.

The only thing that can stop me now is any of the following: A sprained ankle. A flat tire. A closed gym. An expired membership.