Coming Up for Air

The Chicago White Sox are in the World Series - they haven't made it this far since the '50s, and they haven’t won a championship title since 1917. I’m not a big sports fan, but I grew up on the South Side. The White Sox was “our” team - the Cubs didn’t even exist - and this is historic, a once in a lifetime event. Plus, the older I get, the more I appreciate how watching underdogs slug it out can inspire us to try harder, to reach for that brass ring.

Sometimes it feels really good to push yourself to the limit, just to see what you can do.

Ali went hiking by himself last week and, after coming down an impossibly muddy trail for two hours, found himself stranded. The trail ahead was completely underwater, flooded out. But the steep trail behind was too slippery to go back up, so he stripped to his skivvies and pushed forward, through chest-high water covering heaps of prickly gorse. Two and a half hours later, he’d made it through, soaked to the skin and legs scraped raw, to collapse, exhausted, on the beach. Luckily, a friendly tourist gave him a ride back to his car or he’d have had another 10 kilometer walk to top it off. As Ali was telling Apameh and me his story over dinner that night, it was clear he’d had a wonderful time.

I survived my own ordeal last week. The climax was Thursday, when I had back-to-back tutorials at 9 and 10, a lecture at 11, another tutorial at 2pm, and my 15,000 word paper due at 4:30. Tutorials are old hat, so no problem there, but this was the first lecture I’ve ever given in my life. The course coordinator was supposed to meet me there, to help set up and also to observe, but she never showed. And I forgot to bring a printout of my lecture notes. Fortunately, I had my trusty memory stick, and one of the students was able to get the the lectern computer working, so it all turned out ok. I even managed to turn in my paper on time, or close enough - just 15 minutes late. Considering I’d only slept four hours the night before - there must be a special place in Hell for the programmer who designed Word’s formatting system - I felt pretty good about getting through the day.

On Friday I did two more lectures in the morning, went to the gym for an hour, and then came home to greet our new arrivals. Armaz and Angelique were “fresh” from their own ordeal: a 30+ hour trip from Cologne, via Dubai and Melbourne. They were in good spirits, with high praise for Air Emirates, and managed to stay awake until about 8:30 that night. They had rented a car, but we drove them to their hotel in Albany, 17 kms north of central Auckland, so they wouldn’t have to start driving on the left side of the road before getting some sleep. Their next challenge will be to find a place to live and a car before Armaz begins working at Massey University in two weeks.

I took the weekend off, including Monday’s Labor Day holiday, but now it’s back to work. I’ve got one more paper to write and I’ll be finished with this term at U of A, but I also need to start preparing for my lectures at UUNZ which begin the week after next. And yesterday I found out that I’ll have to help mark exams a couple days next week. I’m not sure I ever worked this hard at the bank, but it’s ok.

The White Sox are leading the Series, 2-0.

Sometimes it just feels good to push yourself, to see what you can do.

Cheers,
Sandie