Category: Personal

Out of Body Autoreply

Wow. For the past two days, I’ve been keenly aware of a feeling of disconnection between my mind and my body. It’s been quite a long time since I felt it this strongly, but I know that there are a number of factors that are causing me to feel this way. I began a new job just over two months ago. From working in a small and casual office environment, I’ve moved to a large and rather impersonal corporate office. New clothes, new space, new people (and lots of them). Sometimes I feel like I’m just carried along on the tide of people during the morning and evening rushes, or at lunch in the cavernous “food court”. As well, I just returned from a week’s holiday in Cuba, a place where it would be very difficult indeed to separate your mind and body, for a variety of reasons. Coming home with a flu bug has only increased this feeling of my mind floating above my body like a balloon in a hazy sky. And I think the cold weather and early darkness also make it easier to forget about having a physical presence in the world.

I’m going to check out the local YMCA in the next few weeks and will probably join. It has a running track and is closer to my new job than the University of Toronto Athletic Centre where I usually run in winter. I’m realizing that I need this physical activity for more than just physical health. I think that running will help me to reverse this feeling of unraveling. I hope so, because it’s really beginning to creep me out.

On The Move

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Brooke and I moved on July 31st into a two-bedroom apartment just three blocks west of our old place. We have a great south-west view from the 27th floor and can see Lake Ontario! But the move was really stressful, as all moves are, and we’re still unpacking and getting used to the new space. I think this weekend might be the first time in a month where I wasn’t either painting, packing, shopping, or assembling crappy IKEA furniture (though there are still a few pieces waiting in their boxes for me).

On top of all that, I was in the midst of several job interviews. I had second interviews with two places right around the time we were moving. In fact, I had my final two and a half hour long interview on the morning we were moving. The movers were scheduled to arrive at our place at 1:30, and I got home at 1:20. It was a crazy day. The good thing is that later that day, after we’d finally moved all of our stuff into the new place, there was a message on our phone. I got the job.

So, I’m happy to report that on Monday August 27th, I’ll start my new position as Web Producer/Writer with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the biggest accounting and business consulting firms in the world. It will be a big culture change from the small office setting I’m used to (and, ulp, I’ll have to use a Windows PC again), but it will also be really nice to spend my working day doing what I love, and as part of a team of other people.

I will really miss the people I worked with for the past four years at Lifford Wine Agency, and I’ll especially miss all the great wine events I was able to attend, but I’ve promised to keep volunteering at their big annual portfolio tasting, an event that I wouldn’t miss for the world.

Nissan Toronto 5K 2007

Brooke was running the Nissan Toronto Ten-Miler this morning in the Distillery District, so I entered the 5K because I don’t enjoy anything longer than 10K. It was a perfect day, cool and sunny, and the race started very early at 8:00am. Getting up at 5:45am was not fun, but it was a decent race for me. Not my best time this year, but I didn’t go in with any expectations.

Kilometre 1: 5:06.9
Kilometre 2: 5:11.6
Kilometre 3: 5:11.7
Kilometre 4: 5:08.0
Kilometre 5: 5:03.4

Chip Time: 25:35.8
Gun Time: 26:06.8
Overall Place: 111/425
Gender Place: 75/174
Age Group (M40-44) Place: 7/16

P.S. Brooke took three minutes off her previous time at this distance, so I’m very proud of her!

Official Results from the 2007 Nissan Toronto 5k

8 Things Meme

Documentary film blogger Pamela Cohn has tagged me with the latest blog meme. This one requires me to tell you eight things you may not know about me. I’m also required to post the following rules:Rules:

  1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
  2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
  4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and that they should read your blog.

Ok, here we go:

  1. I have a thing for visiting obscure countries. In the past two years, my wife and I have vacationed in Uruguay and Slovenia. Iceland and the Baltic republics are high on the list for future trips.
  2. I’ve formally studied French, Italian, Spanish and Russian, but can speak none of them even passably well.
  3. I still don’t have a driver’s licence, at the age of 42.
  4. I have a Bachelor’s degree in theology that so far hasn’t come in that handy.
  5. As a teenager I had a pet hamster named Fergus.
  6. The first rock concert I attended was Queen in 1978. Freddy Mercury in a leotard. Yikes.
  7. I once played drums in a bad “Christian” rock band. Our gimmick involved wearing underwear over our pants. That was my idea.
  8. When I was visiting Finland in 1989, I took a 36 hour round-trip train journey so I could say I’ve been north of the Artic Circle.

One more thing that Pamela might not have known about me was that I actually have two other blogs. She knows me from Toronto Screen Shots (my film blog). But this one was first (established AD 2000!) and there’s also Runner-Up (mostly sports-related stories about “non-winners”).Next victims:

Pride and Remembrance 5K 2007

I always seem to have trouble with this race. It might be because it’s just two weeks after the Toronto Challenge, or because the weather is generally warmer, or because it’s generally a very fast field. But I think it’s because the course involves running two loops of Queen’s Park, and I find that particularly demoralizing, for whatever reason. But despite all that, I had a good run this year, though not my fastest on this course.

Official Time (Gun): 24:50.4
Official Time (Chip): 24:28.5
Overall Place: 189/658
Gender Place: 161/368
Age Group (M26-49) Place: 134/298

My 2006 Time: 25:08
My 2005 Time: 26:06
My 2004 Time: 24:10
My 2003 Time: 28:45

So far, 2007 seems to be shaping up to be a good year, which is odd because I’m generally running less. Just one longer run a week on Sundays with Brooke. It seems to be working so far.

Official Results from the 2007 Pride and Remembrance 5K