2009 In Review

Well, it's been a rather light year for me on the blog, but I wanted to go through 2009 and just hit the highlights. This will allow me to bring the year into focus, and also to briefly touch on a few events that, while important, for one reason or another never really made it into the blog. So, here we go, month by month.

January - 2009 was in many ways a year of awakening for me spiritually, one in which God really led me into a more personal, intimate relationship with Him, as opposed to one that was just based on what I knew about Him and what I did for Him. There were many significant events related to this throughout the year, the first one being a leadership retreat that I was on over the second weekend of the year. This also started a recurring pattern through the year of me taking many posts, and many more days than really necessary, to tell a particular story. This story can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The retreat ended on January 11th, and I only took until February 8th to finish blogging about it! In the interim, for the second year I became a "Partner In Hope" with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital via the BOB 94.9 Radioathon, and for the second year in a row, I won one of the big incentive prizes - a guitar autographed by Brad Paisley. We should only be a few weeks away from the 2010 Radioathon - I wonder what they've picked out for me this year :)

February/March - I didn't blog about much in these months, except the occasional musing and the day when my Brad Paisley guitar arrived. In March, there was of course, my traditional pilgrimage with my Dad to Clearwater, Florida for Phillies spring training, made more exciting than previous years due to the Phillies standing as reigning World Series champions.

April - The month began with a quick roller coaster ride in terms of my sports world. I was able to attend the game where the Phillies were presented with their 2008 World Series rings, which has to go down as one of the best moments in my "career" as a sports fan. Unfortunately, the euphoria of that moment had hardly faded when, a few days later, legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Somewhere in this month I also celebrated birthday #29.

May - May was highlighted by my heating/cooling system breaking down and taking 2 weeks and 3 technician visits to get repaired. I also discovered some "vintage" grape juice in a cabinet in my kitchen (and by the way, I still haven't gotten rid of it). Not to mention that early in the month, Messiah's softball team became the 3rd program to win a national championship, the school's 9th championship ever, all since the fall of 2000. For a refresher on May, you can go here.

June - What was unquestionably the most pivotal event of my year occured right in the middle of the year, and that was my family trip out to the West Coast - first to Seattle to visit my cousin, and then on to Northern California to visit my uncle and aunt and their family, and to attempt to climb Half Dome in Yosemite. From the plane ride out to the attempt up Half Dome and back again, it was a major event in my life, one that took me 9 posts over more than a month to blog about. Read about it here, here, and here.

July/August - Apparently I spent July and August blogging about the Half Dome trip, and not much else :) Actually, there was a lot going on during this time, however, much of it was of a more personal nature. Some will be covered in later posting, some, not so much. Most significant was that at the end of August, CrossWalk Community was closed after almost 4 years of ministry.

September - Spurred on by my desire to one day successfully climb Half Dome, I buckled down and began a regular workout routine, which coupled with some earlier and subsequent initiatives accidentally morphed into a full-fledged emphasis on health and fitness. Also, over Labor Day weekend, I made another trek to South Bend, Indiana to visit my dear friends, the Ritters.

October - The Phillies had another wild October ride, but fell disappointingly short of repeating as World Series champions, losing the Series to the Yankees in 6 mes. In one of my prouder moments as a fan, I did not join the parade of fellow Phillies fans who became loud advocates for a salary cap in baseball the day after the Series ended. Yeah, tell me THAT's not sour grapes. A summer spent wrestling with God over His plan and hand in the life of my friend Lynn, who is in the advanced stages of ALS, culminated with some realizations, some revelations, and even a bit of clarity, and led to me blogging the entire story of my interaction with Lynn's situation over the past two years. Those posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

November - My workout routine began to morph from daily elliptical workouts towards actual running. More on this later. The Thanksgiving holiday came, finding me with a really nasty cold, and also leading to the discover that my dog can actually behave around other people now. That report is here, and here.

December - I began a full running training program, leading to a rather nasty spill that resulted in some scrapes and scratches and a bruised ego, but no long-term damage. Overall, I've stuck with a regular work out routine for 4 months now, which is about 3 months longer that I've ever stayed with one before. That, coupled with my other health-related changes, has left me about 20 pounds lighter (still falling, though at a much slower rate), and on the basis of yesterday's 2 mile run time, in the best shape I've ever been in. This is both a testament to how well this workout routine has gone, and an indictment on my lack of commitment to fitness in year's past, even going back to high school when I was a soccer player. Predictably, the Messiah men's and women's soccer teams both win national championships, the 7th for the men, 3rd for the women, and the 3rd time in both Messiah and NCAA history that they've both won the championship in the same season. All in all, that makes 11 championships for Messiah in the last decade. Equally predictably, the field hockey team made the national title game, and lost for 7th time in 7 tries. Maybe next year...

So, that's 2009 in a nutshell. It was a great year on many, many, fronts - and it has me tremendously excited about what is to come in 2010. Right now, a few things are known. There will, of course, be another trip to Clearwater in March. After a year off, I expect to lead another team to Thailand for about 10 days late in the summer. Assuming I continue to enjoy and stick with the running through winter, I anticipate starting to run some 5k races come spring. Those are just a few things, and of course there are many other things ahead that I could never anticipate, much like many of the things above were to me on December 31, 2008.

So, with all that said, blessings and prayers to everyone for an awesome 2010!

So, here we are at the end of another year.

Another one bites the dust

And by "another one", I mean me. And by "dust", I mean "asphalt".

That's right, I've been a bit gimpy the last couple days because, well, I'm a klutz. Or at least, I was on Tuesday morning.

You may remember a while back I blogged on my new fitness kick. Well, that commitment has largely remained intact, and after a few months, I became bored of running on the elliptical day after day. There was also the fact that I have a cheap elliptical that's already underwent some modification to keep it together, and has variable resistance that long since stopped working - meaning my only option to increase workout intensity is to go faster. As I've gotten in better shape, I've had to go faster to keep the same level of work for my heart, and I began to fear I was getting to the point where it was just going to fly apart some morning, with me on it.

So, despite the fact it was already mid-November and we were about to head into the dead of winter, I decided that I was going to start running, using the elliptical as a lighter exercise on non-running days. I got started right before Thanksgiving while there was still some decent whether, and then as the weather got cold, I procured some appropriate cold weather gear and kept at it.

And really, it's been going well. It started out kind of rough, because I had zero clue about how to train other than just go out and running as hard as I thought I could for whatever distance I was running, so I always ended up completely wiped at the end of a run, and often played myself out before I got to the goal distance. But I did some research, got an understanding of where I was at with my fitness level and a decent training plan, and I felt like I was really going to get somewhere over the last week.

Which brings me to Tuesday morning. I was doing a workout where I would go really hard for about a quarter-mile, then walk/job back, then repeat. I was going for 3 reps. Bear in mind that I still exercise first thing in the morning, so I started out sometime just before 6 am. In central PA in early December, it's still pretty dark at that time. However, I'm in a populated area, and there's plenty of available light to run by - but you can't necessarily see every detail.

There's been a lot of newer construction in the area that I run in, and a couple of the roads have just been put in within the last year or so - so there's some areas where the sections of the asphalt come together that the road isn't especially even. My course takes me through one of those areas. What's probably worse is that it's near the end of the course, about the time I reach and look down to check my watch for my time. On my last rep, I was checking my time, took a shorter, more choppy stride than normal, and felt my right foot catch one of the seams in the pavement. I'm not sure I would have had a chance of staying upright under any circumstances, but with my right hand on my left wrist, I had absolutely no chance, and I pitched over forward to the asphalt at full running speed - knees first.

Obviously it hurt, but I didn't immediately sense anything serious had happened, so I started to collect myself and get up. As mad as I was at myself about what had just happened, there was one comfort. As I said, I had started before 6, it was about 6:10 am at this point and still plenty dark, so I was thinking to myself "At least no one saw that...". But then, as I started to stand up, I heard a terrible sound: "Are you okay?" You've got to be kidding me! There was a guy out walking, and I had gone down within about 20 feet of him. Being now mortally embarrassed in addition to the physical pain, I quickly responded "Yeah, I'm okay." Let's be honest here, I had no clue yet if I was okay. "Okay" at this point, was defined as being able to stand up. "Are you sure?" There was an edge in my voice this time "Sir, I'm fine." Then, thinking about it for a second, I quickly threw out a much softer "But thank you!" Seriously, what was I doing refusing potential help? But that was what I had done.

As it turns out, I was, largely, okay. I was able to get up and walk about halfway home, at which point I felt okay enough to jog the rest of the way. My knees were, obviously, very sore - but that was about the extent of it. When I got back to the house, I was able to more thoroughly examine myself and discover that the damage was limited to two bloodied and sore knees. I was probably very fortunate it was winter, because I was pretty much completely covered up, which probably saved me further damage to my knees, and any damage at all to my hands and arms. I didn't even tear my running tights, which was perhaps the thing that surprised me most. In reality, the worst injury was probably to my pride.

Anyhow, I've recovered pretty well. Yesterday was a lost day for running anyhow because we had had snow overnight and it was pouring rain in morning - but I was recovered enough to do a good hard session on the elliptical, and I was back out on the road this morning - still a bit sore but not really limited in any way. Tomorrow is a planned rest day, so hopefully by Saturday I'll be all but 100% again.

Thanksgiving Report - Part 2

Wow, only took me a week to get back to this :)

Anyhow, so Thursday was, of course, time for the traditional Thanksgiving feast. We always gather with my Dad's side of the family at my Pap's farmhouse for this, and this year was no exception. I think all told we had about 25 people this year, ranging in ages from 93 (my great aunt) down to toddler. It's quite an event when we all get crammed around the various tables in the house. Dinner is pretty much the standard classics (well, that, plus oyster stuffing, which I assume is NOT a standard for most families), and dinner is all well and good, but for me, it's all about getting to dessert.

You see, my grandma was ridiculous when it came to desserts, and especially pies. There would likely be pies around virtually anytime we would be there for dinner, but around the holidays, she'd outdo herself. And they were really good. Grandma passed away during my junior year of college, and I miss her greatly, but luckily in this regard, she passed her gift onto her daughters and at least one of her granddaughters (my sister). So, we've never been lacking for desserts, and this year was no exception. Of the top of my head, this year we had pumpkin, cherry, apple, black raspberry (my favorite), and coconut cream pies available, as well as our family's traditional coconut cake. It's always a good thing that we don't just go for dinner and then leave - Thanksgiving dinner gets to be much more of a marathon than a sprint. Along with the standard picking through the leftover turkey, and sampling through the various pies that couldn't be taken in with the original meal, there's also the big box of Kay and Ray's potato chips, and much Pepsi to be consumed throughout the rest of the afternoon and early evening!

Anyhow, after Thanksgiving day is over, it's on to the rest of the weekend, which I always stay with my folks for. The real revelation of this Thanksgiving was related to my dog, Chaser, who comes along for the trip whenever I'm with the folks for a couple days.

Chaser is (by best guess, since he came from the shelter and came into the shelter as a stray) about 4 years old, and a mix between a yellow labrador and a terrier. For those who have met Chaser, you know that he isn't really very social. Actually, that's inaccurate - he's actually so social as to be anti-social. Really, the issue hasn't been his behavior itself, but rather his size. When a little dog, such as my sister's pug, is all excited to see you and scurrying around jumping up at and on you, it might be annoying, but it's not really that difficult to deal with. Chaser, on the hand, is all of 50 pounds, so he makes an impact! He traditionally just gets so excited when there are different people around - more specifically when I'm around and different people around - he's always been good when I've had people take care of him.

Anyhow, I bring him along because I have to when I come home, but his presence has always complicated my visits. He stays down in the basement, which is finished and very comfortable, a perfect place for hanging out. Unfortunately, traditionally he's made it very difficult for the family to come down and hang out, because he just wouldn't calm down. Because he was so on edge, I was never comfortable leaving him uncrated down there unattended, and I didn't want him to be crated for the whole vacation, so I would often spend more time than I wanted to down there with him by myself.

I had had some hints in recent months that he had started to mellow some socially, so I was hopeful this trip might be a bit different, and man, was it ever. He still gave my folks a standard exuberant greeting anytime they came down, but once they got settled in, he did as well, just being very playful and social, but not nearly as jumpy and obnoxious. He would often even, get this, lay down and relax! It was crazy. We had gone from one extra person in the room being too much for him, to a Friday night where my mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law (and their pug) were all down there with him, and he was just great. I'm sure they all liked Chaser up to this point, but this time I think we were all able to actual enjoy having him around, in the way I enjoy having him around when its just me and him. It really made the time at home so much better, and more relaxing, since I didn't have to neglect my dog in order to spend time with the folks.

So, all in all, after the rocky start, it was a great holiday weekend with the family. Of course, since I was rendered pretty much sedentary while I was recovering from my cold, and had the traditional Thanksgiving gorging along with plenty of food the rest of the weekend, I was 2.5 pounds heavier when I got home. Totally worth it! :)