Sunday, March 20, 2011

A Trip Down Memory Lane

My journey has brought me to so many new places and experiences, that every now and then it's cathartic to be reminded just how far I've come. St Patrick's Day was this past Thursday which also coincided with the first day of the NCAA Basketball Tournament - if you think I'm calling those play-in games Round 1 you're crazy!! Ever since I was in college I would watch those Thursday and Friday games with buddies and have a great time. I wasn't able to round anyone up for the tournament but I did head downtown for some drinks with a couple friends to exert my inner-Irish.

The guys I went with are the two guys I do my annual Good Friday Hike/walk into the woods, drink a bunch of beer, go to someone's house and drink more, with. I don't see these guys as much as I'd like to during the year - busy lives and all that crap - but we always have a great time. We got caught up on families and work and talk drifted to my weight loss and all the resulting changes.

While the Hike is truly about getting together with friends and enjoying a few beers, there is an actual walking element. We talked about how I had to stop numerous times last year and even had to get Zack to carry my knapsack (it's a fathers and kids hike). By the time I got back to our spot I was sweating profusely and could hardly catch my breath....it was really bad. This thing was barely 3km and I couldn't do it and this was less than a year ago.

We stayed at that downtown pub for awhile and headed to another one which was a quick, short walk - which reminded me of another bar-to-bar short walk not that long ago. I was in Toronto with my brother and some of our Barrie friends. Rather than jump in a cab we decided to walk to the next bar on our list. While all the guys were getting ready to go, I started to sweat and freak out - I knew there was no way in hell I was making this short walk without needing a shirt change and a shower.

Well, true to form, five minutes into the jaunt I was sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee. I must have stopped three or four times before making it there and the level of embarrassment was of the charts. I can tell these stories now, only because I'm far enough removed and can walk a fair distance without needing to stop repeatedly!!

It was a sobering - not literally sobering, as I was quite proficient with the green beer that evening!! - trot down memory lane to recall just how horrible my life was, not that long ago. The worst part is that there are so many stories like this. Our family vacation to Florida, our week away in Mexico, our summer camping trips, all of them could have been so much better if I'd made my journey a long time ago. I don't dwell on these kinds of thoughts as much as I would have even just a year ago, but it's ok to think about where I was and really fight to never go there again.

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