Tip Your Waitstaff

Eggs, Hashbrowns, and Firearms:

"I said what is your fuss about. I said we haven't paid for our food. She (Ward) said well you all got to leave. How you want us to leave and we ain't paid for the food yet," says Samuel.

That's when it got ugly. Samuel says she threw a waffle at the waitress. "I did actually throw some food but it didn't hit her," says Samuel. "That's when she (Ward) jumped across the counter and we got into it," says Samuel.

Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett says the altercation continued outside where he says Ward got a gun from her car and a gun magazine from her trunk.

Investigators say Ward's gun discharged during the altercation. They say a bullet fragment struck Samuel in the arm.

I've been working in the service industry since I was 16 years old. Whether it was (this is chronological) working behind a wench at the Renn Faire, singin' happy birthday over red and white striped suspenders (flair), or slinging boozey treats in a yuk-yuk dungeon, I've seen all manner of jerk.

I've never shot someone. Remarkably.

Avoiding Apathy: An Intro

"Apathy is a sort of living oblivion" -- Horace Greeley

Between the school, soccer (whence the moms get their kitchy nick), and piano lessons, it appears kids are being worked too hard. I may be a little older than the grade schoolers this article speaks towards, but I too have begun to feel a sense of fatigue. My weekly schedule is busy: running 40 miles, lifting and practicing yoga at a minimum of three times each, and volunteering for five hours; all of this on top of the things that are supposedly "essential."

Depression becomes a concern when speaking about being "run down" all the time. Fatigue and depression, as it turns out, are clinically linked-- they're each part of a vicious cycle. Those who are depressed are four times as likely to experience bouts of fatigue, and those with fatigue are three times as likely to find themselves depressed.

Who'da thunk it? Over scheduling really is dangerous! In my personal life, I must confess, my own fatigue has begun to make me apathetic (and sort of a lousy friend).

I've been too exhausted to make it to birthday parties, dinners, and just about anything social. I've simply not had the energy, and on top of that, my energy level has been steadily going down, not up. And if Danielle is to be believed, Mercury is going to be in retrograde soon, adding to my trials. I noticed that I was beginning to not care about anything: not my nutrition, my running, nor many of the other things about which I supposedly care most.

What is interesting (especially to me, someone who has suffered from depression) is that the doctors are now citing fatigue and depression as independent risk factors for each other. I'm not experiencing depression, but I am most certainly exhausted.

I know I need to do something about it, lest my fatigue become depression; depression being, to me, a fate much worse than simply not caring about all the common crap I normally give a care. Then I'm not even apathetic anymore, I'm just kinda pathetic-- and not even in a pejorative sense.

I will not allow my fatigue to become depression!

I don't really believe that kids here in the States are really that over-worked (go talk to a kid in Surinam), but one of the suggestions that Kathy Lee and Hoda's guest shared rang incredibly true: eliminate 10% of your child's schedule-- today!

I did, and so far so good.

There, of course, is a cavaet: "Physical activity is known to have a protective effect on depression," writes researcher Pertos Skapinakis, MD. "It has also been suggested that physical deconditioning might be an important factor in the development of unexplained fatigue."

Such tricky buisness, fixing these feelings of apathy! You take away activity for fatigue, and you add activity for depression... unless you're slowly getting out of shape, which could lead to further fatigue! Ugh! How to tell?! If you're experiencing apathy or fatigue, be aware that there is no band-aid or single solution for everybody. Everybody's body is different, so choose your 10% carefully.

Or not at all.

I'm trying to be cautious in my personal solutions. If you, too, are experiencing some of these feeling of detachment, it is important to be sure you're apathy isn't coming from a different place: go volunteer, or visit an orphanage, and check back. See if flexing some empathy can "snap you of it," as it were.

And if not, come back here and compare notes. I'm sure I'll be going on about this stuff for a while

Michael Corps Marathon: Gettin' Ready

I have a dirty confession (that you may have heard before). I slept through the Marine Corps Marathon last year.

Oh sure, if I were to catalogue things in my head neatly, I have unquestionably been more embarrassed than I was on race day morning, but I don't know that I've ever been more ashamed. I'd never been so, I don't know, disappointed in myself than I was in those frantic, awful hours. My parent's came up from the country to cheer me on, for crying out loud. I'd trained all those months! How would I face up to such a failure?!

I decided to take the unfortunate peck of lemons foisted on me by my own bollix and challenge myself: I was going to run a marathon that day!

And so I did.

Whenever a coworker or colleague that didn't know of my forty-winks foul up asked for my finish time, I gave them the time my GPS tracker gave me: 4:05. Not my best overall marathon time, not my worst. I didn't bother to correct them when they called it the Marine Corps Marathon.

Amongst friends, we called it the Michael Corps Marathon.

The best part? Those wonderful friends of mine rallied at the "finish line" (read: my fire escape) with boozy treats, streamers, and convivial hoops and hollars. I guess in some ways, it was a better success (to me) than a sub four hour time would have been.

After all, it was the first time I've ever come in first!

We're more than six weeks away from the second Michael Corps Marathon, and I'm up to nineteen mile long runs. Here was this week's.

First Day Back

Somewhere, cast adrift in the ever changing tides of time, there is a yogi enjoying a cup of tea. Har har. Really, its just me, being a little bummy-bummed.

It's sunny and a little warm, but not a lot of either. Certainly not the proud, oppressive heat that early August brings. The bulbous garlic clove of clouds lull in and the half-hearted sun lazes out; sort of how I feel today. The weather isn't bitterly cold, no, but it's quite bittersweet for this yogi. I'm sitting indoors today at the coffee house.

I'm quite fond of Summer (as those who follow this site can attest). Not unlike the sun and cloud's gentle dance, I'm reminded to be glad that the slide towards the inevitable equinox means more time to spend with all of you. Less time spent outside at the pool inherently means (for me, at least) more time clicking and clacking away here.

I'm so glad to be back! I learned a lot this summer... I'm sure you'll hear all about it!