Stairway from Hell and a Message from God

See, the problem with Halloween candy is that people who have a surplus after all the tricking and treating is over end up bringing it all to the office to save them from eating it all at home.  Good for you for not binging on post-Halloween candy – but guess who is now eating all the candy you purchased and want to save yourself from eating??  ME DAMNIT!! – someone who didn’t buy tons candy in the first place because I can’t be trusted to have bags of candy laying around the house!!!!!! I guess the trick’s on me.  Next time please donate it to charity or just throw it away, mmmkay.  Needless to say I have stuffed my face for the past week on everyone else’s surplus Halloween candy.  On Friday CONTRACTOR Juniata and I had the brilliant idea that we would walk down the 40 or so flights of stairs leading from the 36^th Floor of the SunTrust Plaza building to the street.  You might wonder where I get 40 flights when we are on floor 36 – well, unbeknownst to us, there are at least 4 or 5 more flights to get from lobby level to street level and THEN, when your knees are knocking and your legs are shaking like Bill Cosby’s J-E-L-L-O, you have to actually climb a flight of stairs to get out the door.  It took us fifteen minutes to make it all the way down.  I wasn’t necessarily winded when we reached the bottom, because we took out time going down, but I was sweating (of course – I am a sweater – we’ve established that), and as mentioned, my knees were hurting and my legs were very shaky - much like the Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese guy on the School House Rock cartoon (if you remember that, if not, I've pasted a link below - check out his wobbly knees - I love the Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese guy!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jgo5ea_zc   (Link to YouTube School House Rock clip)

Usually the soreness won’t really manifest itself until the next day, but by the time I reached my car after our fifteen minute descent from floor 36, I could already feel pain in my thighs and calves.  By the time I woke up Saturday morning I could barely move and had to get the rolling pin out to rub my legs (front and back).  It’s times like this that a husband would come in handy.  Anyway, Saturday night as I was nursing my wounds, Lawrence texted me to ask if I wanted to go on a 20 minute jog Sunday morning.  I asked what time he was thinking of running because I already had 9:00am breakfast plans with my friends Jill and Andrew (followers of this blog of course!).  Surprisingly Lawrence suggested 7:00am (this is surprising because Lawrence is not typically an early riser).  Given my new goal to accept as many fitness invitations as I can (and since I previously committed to running with Lawrence on his 20 or 30 minute running days during his marathon training), I said “Let’s do it.”  Lawrence later confessed that he was hoping I would not accept this early morning running rendezvous.  I set my clock for 6:30am (keeping daylight savings in mind) and arrived at Lawrence’s house just shy of 7:00am.  I won’t lie and say I was able to run the whole 20 minutes without stopping, but I did manage to run at least half of the time if not more.  I would run until my lungs were screaming and I was about to hyperventilate and then I would walk for a spell.  Lawrence mentioned that he told Darryl (who lives across the street from Lawrence) that we were running in the morning and that Darryl's response was “Amy’s running?  Does she have a sports bra”?  I’ll have you know that I have several sports bras and I wear at least two of them while doing any vigorous exercise!!  The problem is not “do I have” – in the words of Little Mermaid, “I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, I've got whozits and whatzits galore.  You want thingamabobs? I've got twenty! But who cares? No big deal. I want more!”  I’ve got exercise videos (VHS and CD), hand weights, leg weights, a 20 pound weight vest (yes, really, it looks like a bullet proof vest), jump ropes, tension bands, thigh-a-mabobs, exercise ball, 5 pound kettlebell, treadmill, bicycle . . . . .   the problem is not “do I have,” but “will I use.”  If there was a full scale fitness crisis in the US – I’d be ready!!!

So, what was the message from God?  I’m not sure if any of you know why I went to law school in the first place, but I assure you it was not to make tons of money in the high-powered world of big law. Yeah, I knew there were lawyers in the world who made tons of money, but I never imagined myself in that world.  Some of that might have something to do with a lack of confidence in myself, but mostly I just saw myself doing something different.  I got the idea to go to law school while doing an internship in 1999 at the Mediation Center of Asheville in connection with getting my Masters in Counseling.  Most of the mediators were lawyers and I thought it would be an rewarding career.   So I went to law school.  Now, most lawyers will say they originally wanted to go to law school to “help people” – a few of those folks were telling the truth, but a good number were just saying what they needed to say to write their personal statements for law school applications – no one wants to say they want to go to law school to make lots of money or because their parents are both lawyers – so what the heck.  But I really did want to help people – I wasn’t opposed to making a decent living while helping people, but helping people was always the goal.  When I ended up doing very well in law school and getting swept off my feet by big law, I sort of lost sight of that original goal (as many of us do).  Yeah, I did pro bono when I had the time, but, believe it or not, real estate was very busy once and I didn’t have a lot of spare time.  Even after being swept off my feet I always knew that I would not stay in big law forever.  I often said I was on the “five year plan.”  Again, when you are really busy and don’t have much time for a breath, five years goes by in a blink (scary, I know).  So instead of five years going by, eight years went by. I guess when the real estate world came to a screeching halt, it gave me time to take a breath and evaluate my career goals.  Hence the turning in of my notice and self-evaluating sabbatical to Ireland.  Anyway, my friend Robin called me the other day and mentioned how she had taken this great course to get certified in mediation.  It got me thinking back to 1999 when I decided to go to law school and my original goal of doing mediation.  So, I am not going to ignore the message.  Mediation courses are not cheap and it is not easy to get started in mediation, but it’s along the lines of what I always saw myself doing and it’s worth looking into.  I wanted to pass this along to my faithful followers who wonder what the heck I am going to do with myself.  Just when you think the light at the end of the tunnel has been temporarily turned off, you get a spark!!  Thanks for triggering my spark Robin!!!  I will keep you posted on this front. 

Ciao, for now..  



Heading out for our 7am jog!!!!

  

My gadgets and gizmos a-plenty!


 

Alternate view of my gadets and gizmos!