The Zen Traveler

Eleven years ago I dislocated my patella on my right knee during a snowboarding accident.  The whole ordeal and the therapy afterwards, not to mention the years of random pain was no picnic.  I still have some pain when I play basketball and various other sports but if I’m careful and don’t push myself too hard, it’s manageable.

Last weekend I was invited to go ski/snowboard at some moutain I’ve never even heard about.  So for the first time since my accident, I strapped on a snowboard and slowly eased my way back into it… it was amazing.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being on that snow, with the wind rushing past you and the snow cuting from the twist of your feet.  I had lost quite a bit of mobility and wasn’t as comfortable as I was back then but I picked it up again quite easily.

I was terrified to get hurt again and my knee DID hurt after a while, but realizing that I would not be crippled by fear and pain was a reward well taken.  

I’m sick and I had a tiresome work day today.  Culminated with conference calls, meetings, a Q&A session with the Ottawa Team, e-mails and calls back and forth with the client, all this on top of my normal work in which we are way behind schedule.  So it’s safe to say that I was quite stressed at the end of the day.  Even with daily meditation it takes it’s toll on you.  So I get home and my sister asks me to watch my niece for a little while, of course I said yes.  Abby was in bed either way so I decided to catch up on a bit of reading.  Not ten minutes after my sister leaves, Abby starts crying.  I walk to the stairs and I see her at the top of the stairs, out of bed and crying like it’s the end of the world.  So I walk up the stairs, scoop her up and put her back in bed, she starts having a fit.  I am tired, too tired to even get annoyed at this point, so I make her an offer;  I read her a bedtime story and she promises to go to bed right after, she agrees amidst her crocodile tears and sniffles. 

I sit down next to her bed on the floor with my back leaning against the side of her little wooden bed frame, slightly leaning, I rest my head on the side of her bed, she lies down and pulls her small winnie-the-pooh blanket over her.  Of course I pick my all time favorite bedtime story “Green Eggs and Ham” to read and she concurs with my choice with an amused grin.  As I’m reading this story (with an utmost dramatic performance I might add) I’m thinking to myself, “my god, this story is longer than I remember”.  About a little more than half-way through the story I yawn, and I suddenly feel this little hand tapping the top of my head.  I slightly turned my head and it was Abby, as she was tapping me, she starred at me with her tired little eyes, having this look of “it’s ok, uncle..”  in them.  She then smiled, and I smiled back, closed the book and tucked her in.

Right now, all I can remember, was that this was an awesome day.

I am exhausted.  I got back last Monday from spending over 2 months in China, I had a blast working at our Shanghai office and get everyone set up.  The worst thing about traveling in my opinion is the waiting between connecting flights, jet lag sucks but imagine flying for about 12-14 hours and not get any sleep (I can’t sleep on a plane) then land at some airport for 4-5 hours. You’re tired, jet lagged and you can’t really go anywhere because it would be somewhat pointless to do so.  Why leave the airport?  You’ll only really get to see something for about an hour if you factor in the time it would take to get there and come back through the airport shit.

When I finally got home, I slept.  A lot.  I only had a day to settle in before I had to go to our head office and start my analysis reports.  I got done around 8pm last night had a beer and crashed.  Today is my first official full day off in 69 days.  I will be smoking weed and playing xbox.  yep sounds like the best plan. Ever.

mugglememoirs:

… is my page working? Every time I click it- it’s blank. 

What the fuck, Tumblr!?

 No it’s not working

debbbb:

rintintin93:

Day 1- Your Thoughts On The Economy

Day 2- Immigration

Day 3- Global Warming

Day 4- Capital Punishment

Day 5- Health Care

Day 6- The War In Afghanistan/The War In Iraq/ War in general 

Day 7- Gun Control

Day 8- Gay Rights

Day 9- Abortion

Day 10- Use of torture in interrogation of POW’s

Day 11- Affirmative Action 

Day 12- Legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes 

Day 13- Separation of church and state

Day 14- Dependence on foreign oil

Day 15- Physician-assisted suicide/”the right to die” 

Day 16- Welfare

Day 17- Space exploration

Day 18- An issue of your choosing 

Day 19- Legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes 

Day 20- Taxes 

Day 21- Censorship 

Day 22- Evolution vs. Creationism in schools 

Day 23- Global AIDS crisis

Day 24- Desecration of the American flag (or whatever country you’re from) 

Day 25- School uniforms

Day 26- Animal testing 

Day 27- Racial profiling 

Day 28- Obesity epidemic 

Day 29- Steroids in sports

Day 30- Partisanship in government 

It was kind of tough to only choose 30 issues, and I know there’s probably a lot I left off, but hopefully everybody likes this one. 

I saved this to my drafts a few days ago. I’m going to try and start it tonight, but we’ll see. Erin, I think this is a wonderful idea, by the way, and I’m looking forward to doing it!

oohhh this sounds like fun, I want to do this too.  I might start it but I’ll do like one or two per week or something, I’m a bit too busy to do it everyday though.

Well seems I’m not only going to Winnipeg, just found out today that I have to do Ottawa first, then Winnipeg and on my way back I need to stop in Montreal.  All in less than a week.  I leave tomorrow and I have to be back here by Friday.

On a lighter note, I need to get laid. :p

Went rock climbing this morning and now I’m relaxing and re-watching Blade Runner.  Going for a run later this afternoon, then dinner and drinks and perhaps catching The Last Airbender in 3D later tonight.  I’m going to enjoy this weekend without work, they don’t seem to happen often enough nowadays.

14 hour plane ride, 4 hours stranded in various airports waiting on flights, and working 8 hours at the office upon arrival.  This has been a long fucking day.  I took the day off tomorrow just to unwind a bit, then office on friday.  I also get the weekend off but I leave for winnipeg early next week for 3-4 days (I think).  If I’m not too tired on Saturday I might go do a bit of rock climbing.