Here Comes The Sun

…and I say… it’s all right.

A job offer has finally come. The job I interviewed for back at the end of March came through and offered me a position last Monday. I’ve been hesitant to post just because I don’t want to jinx myself, but things have all come through and I’m set to start tomorrow. I’ll be working as a Code Enforcement Inspector for a city around where we live, which I’m very excited about. It’s actually very entertaining to see everyone’s reactions. Those who know me from just working at the home builder give me a puzzled look so I have to explain how it all fits together with my work as a lifeguard instructor. Those who know me from lifeguarding, instructing and pool audits just laugh and all say that it’ll suit me well since I’m such a “rules” person. In reality, they’re right. Rules are there for a reason, especially when it comes to safety.

I’ve taken this past week off from guarding the 5am shift so I can sleep in and get some stuff done around the house. I’m still teaching in the evenings and teaching a lifeguard class over the weekend, but I’ve been able to get a lot more done, which is nice. I’m planning on spending the entire day cooking tomorrow so I can have plenty of freezer meals for those first few weeks while I’m getting adjusted to my new job. I’ve been able to go get a haircut, go out to lunch with some friends, get some yard work done, and just…relax. It’s been so nice.

This job comes with some pretty huge perks, including a take-home car, a laptop and a cell phone. I’m pretty excited about the car considering my Accord has a tempermental transmission and the fewer miles we drive it, the longer it lasts. It also saves us a pretty substantial amount of money each month considering my commute will be 16 miles each way. With those savings, we’ve already started looking at putting our house on the market and getting something a bit nicer in a large neighborhood in a neighboring city. We went and looked last Friday to get a rough idea of what our price range would get us and we were surprised in some respects and dead on in our expectations in others. We’ve pretty much settled on an area, it’s just a wait and see game to see how quickly we can get our house on the market and how quickly it will sell. Every penny of savings will count for a down payment, so the car is a pretty welcome perk when it comes to helping us out.

My stint of unemployment will end 2 days shy of 16 months. I won’t be sad to finally say I’m employed full time again. I’ve gotten a bit spoiled with the free time unemployment has allowed, even though I’ve been working part time throughout it all, but I’ll gladly take a full time paycheck instead. It’s been trying, that’s for sure. I still firmly believe everyone should have to go through it at some point in time. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about your spouse. You learn a lot about your marriage. You get stronger. You learn to rely on people more for support, which isn’t always a bad thing.

Spread the Word to End the Word: The R-Word Campaign

No one gives much thought to using the words retard or retarded. Special Olympics is trying to save that.

Not too long ago, Special Olympics came out with a new campaign: Spread the Word to End the Word.  This campaign is bringing the “r-word” to conversations, which seems counterintuitive, but it’s working.  To date, over 10,000 people have pledged to end the use of the r-word in their conversations.  The official date of the r-word campaign was 3.3.10, but the campaign continues in full force today.

Words hurt.  As much as we hate to admit it, (“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” anyone?), words hurt.  They sting.  They boil our blood.  Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is developmentally delayed, has a disability, or is generally categorized as special needs.

Now take the definition of retard.  This word commonly means stupid, slow, dumb, etc.  What are the common assumptions about people who are special needs?  Stupid, slow, dumb, etc.  In the past, people with special needs were considered retards.  This word got a negative connotation and while it’s not a common connotation today, people are still offended by it.  Those people happen to be the people who are considered special needs in one way or another.

In the past I mentioned that I teach several kids with special needs how to swim.  Let me tell you, these kids are some of the most loving, caring, considerate kids that I’ve ever met.  They seek to please, they want to succeed.  They want to prove that they can do anything.  If they can’t do it, they give 110% while trying.

They have feelings, too.  People forget that.  They don’t want to be labeled as stupid, slow or dumb.  They want positive labels.  Everyone wants to be labeled positively, right?  Why would people think that those with special needs want to be labeled negatively or not have opinions on those negative labels?  That’s why this is such a big deal.  The r-word has such a negative connotation that Special Olympics is seeking to get rid of it all together.  Some might argue that this is all about political correctness, which, I guess is correct, but this is also about being considerate.  You never know who has a son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather or close friend who has special needs.  You never know who you’re offending.

Today I ask you to be considerate.  I ask you to remove the use of this word from your vocabulary.  I ask you to pledge to not use it again.  We don’t like being labeled, why should anyone else?  Before you argue about the use of stupid, dumb and slow, I ask you to consider this: would you like to be labeled as such?  Would you like to have that label to follow you or would you rather a label follow you that is less offensive and carries more truth?

Month 4: Catching Up!

April brought cool morning temperatures, which I love. My ideal run is during a sunrise, just above 40 degrees, on a nice, peaceful Saturday morning. Unfortunately I don’t get to do that too often, but this month I did get a couple opportunities. My other runs varied throughout the week, typically after I got off work at 9am. It was still reasonably cool out at that time, perfect for running.

With the 750/365 goal, I find myself worried about catching up from my early months of illness and injury. I caught up this month. A lot. In fact, I’m now 20 miles behind my goal. Not bad considering March 1 I was almost 40 miles behind. This catch up can be attributed to my record-breaking distances, 7 and 7.5 miles. Who knew I could run so far? I’ve always said that 6 miles (or 1 hour) would be my breaking point, that was enough. While I’m still unemployed from full time work, I figure I have enough time to continue running, so why not? I’m even toying with the idea of training for a half marathon. I know, I know, pretty crazy, right? But… if I have the time and energy, why not? It’s still up in the air, but we’ll see. I’m toying with the idea but there aren’t any half marathons in the area until October, so I might delay it a bit.

Overall, I feel good. One thing I need to work on a bit is my weight. I was reading an article by Leigh Peele, which basically says that over time, your body adapts to the form of training and you burn fewer calories during your run and then also fewer calories during the day. It makes total sense; your body adapts and becomes efficient when you do something over and over again, leading to less effort being exerted. That 4 mile run becomes easier over time. It’s time to switch things up a bit, including adding a weight program back in since I dropped out of NROL4W.

We’ll see where the next month takes me, I’m hoping to get my weight down a bit and get a good, solid training program in that includes a bit more cross training.