An Abundance of Reading Material

Forget books. I manage to sneak in one every two weeks but the majority of my time is spent trying to keep up with my magazine reading. Anyone else have this issue? It's not a matter of wasting my time reading material I'm not interested in. I truly want to read all the magazines I subscribe to. It's just there's so many of them. In no particular order, I subscribe to:

• Newsweek
• The New Yorker
• Runner's World
• Writer's Digest
• Poets & Writers
• Catnip
• ASJA (American Society of Journalists & Authors) newsletter
• Toastmasters International magazine
• Log Home World
• Cooking Light
• Travel & Leisure
• Magazines I publish in that are sent to me and I feel somewhat obligated/interested in to read

Every magazine has its place. By far, my favorite magazine to receive is Runner's World and I rip through it the day it arrives, reading everything. Newsweek is read at breakfast over the course of a week. New Yorker articles are read at night in bed before sleep.  Cooking Light, Log Home World, and Travel & Leisure are more skimmed than read. The other magazines get carried around in my bag, to be read in snatches between appointments or while waiting to meet someone OR in bed a night once The New Yorker is finished.

Right now, I'm backlogged on Writer's Digest magazines having not read the last two issues. This is giving me heart palpitations but I'll catch up. I  always do.

Exhausted

Please bear with me if I indulge today in a bit of a whine. (I know... it's so out of character for me.)

I'm tired. Mentally and physically. Especially physically. The humidity here has been relentless and that combined with an increase in running mileage is taking its toll. I came home last night from a 7-mile hill run and pretty much collapsed into bed. Thank heavens I didn't have to do any work last night as I just don't think I would have been capable of it.

I read months ago in a runner's magazine that once your Sunday long runs move past 12 miles, you can pretty much plan on running that day and doing little else. I'm finding that true. I ran 14 miles on Sunday (and a big shout-out to me for that) but did little the rest of the day. Just too damn tired. 

Aside from being tired, I'm finding the running is taking up a big chunk of time.  For me, drive time is more the issue than time spent running. It's 40 minutes to and from wherever it is my group usually runs and that eats into the schedule. Sunday mornings used to the time Blair and I enjoyed some couple time together, relaxing and reading the Sunday paper, but I'm gone now from about 6:30 AM to close to noon.

All that aside, I'm still really enjoying the runs. The hills last night were brutal and I was sweating and tired and my thighs were shaking and I was wondering why on earth I put myself through this. But finishing the workout is such a feeling of accomplishment. Yes, going through the motions suck and that's why so many people don't do it. That's also why I enjoy doing it. It's pure ego--the knowledge that I can make myself do this when others can't.

I'm also tired mentally. Big projects all with tight deadlines. However, I'm enjoying every assignment I have and find the work interesting so I can't really complain. I will say I'm looking forward to late September when my schedule--somewhat--clears out.

Until then, I'm grateful for family that doesn't mind not hearing from me for weeks at a time, friends that encourage me and listen to me whine with (real or faked, it doesn't matter) looks of sympathy on their faces, and a husband who simply must at some point in his life be awarded the "Most Tolerant & Supportive Man EVER" lifetime achievement trophy.

I'd write more, but I'm just too tired.

Dena

End Result

The result of the conference drama from Thursday's post is that Council voted to rescind our invitation to the speaker. Although what really happened, and the way we publicly explained it, is that we explained to the speaker what was happening within our group and the speaker graciously offered to step aside and we took him up on it. Whatever. We still caved.

I'm glad it's over. We posted a notice on Friday and there has been very little list-serv activity or comments on the decision. Long may it last.

My focus right now is on running. My group did a 10-mile run this morning in thick, enveloping humidity and I am weary to the bone. Not to mention wringing wet. I am not one of those charming Southern girls who don't sweat. You could use me to mop floors.

I did great the first 5 miles out then got a cramp in my side around mile 6 and ended up having to walk/run the last 3 miles.  Bummer. But our coach pointed out that while running in this sort of heat is never fun, it really helps because when we do our longer runs in the cooler fall weather, they're going to feel so much easier compared to what we're going through right now. I'll cling to that thought.

Meanwhile, my plans for the day include a shower, reading the paper, a long nap (perhaps two), 1-2 work on an article, grocery store, and that's it.  If I have to move much farther than from the couch to the kitchen, there better be a darn good reason why.

Enjoy your Sunday.

If You Have Time for This Much Drama In Your Life, Count Your Blessings

My head is going to explode. Drama, drama, drama! If you click on the side link to your right that says "Why This Blog," you'll learn that I process life intellectually. Not meaning I'm smarter than anyone, but just that when dealing with problems or issues, I use logic to arrive at my conclusion. So it completely flummoxes me when people hurl emotions at me as their reason for acting a certain way.

I'm a board member of an organization that holds an annual conference. TWO YEARS AGO, our conference planners invited the head of an organization related peripherally to the work of our group to give a keynote speech at our banquet dinner.  In the time since the invitation was offered and accepted, the organization this individual heads has supported a state legislative bill that many of our members find highly offensive and morally reprehensible, to say the least.

So these members are now screaming for blood that we're having this guy as our keynote speaker. They're not coming! They're leaving the organization! It's bad PR--we need damage control! Having him as our speaker is the same as announcing our support for him and his devil organization. On and on... you get the idea. Journalistic principles of hearing the other side of an argument be damned--they want him gone and they want him gone NOW.

Then a few sponsors jumped in and pulled their support for the year. That's bad, but we've got enough funds that the support we lost won't undo us.

So the question Council has been tossing around (One of about 50 questions. I get about 1o e-mails a day from the Board and have for about a month now) is: Do we:

1. Just continue on with the program has planned and lose sponsors and possibly fracture the organization?
2. Invite the speaker to present a seminar Q&A or debate instead of a keynote. This has it's own problems, way too long and numerous to go into here.
3. Un-invite him as a speaker

Up to this point, I've dug in my heels that I will NOT uninvite a speaker. Tacky, rude, unprofessional...to the Nth degree. But I am so fed up I'm almost ready to cave. I've tried to put it in an emotional light I might understand. Like, let's say I went to a Democratic conference and the keynote speaker was Cheney. I would not be a happy camper. And so I try to have some sympathy with the people who are feeling like having this speaker is trampling on their work and morals.

But I keep coming back to logic. We invited him 2 years ago! He's a supporter of the bill, not the originator and until OUR members raised the dust, I don't even know that he would have used his speaking time to even bring up the issue of the bill. And I feel like now we're being held hostage by a very vocal group of people that may not speak for the majority of our members.

But isn't my duty as a board member to do not what I prefer, but what is best for the organization I represent? Not having the guy at our conference would probably recenter our group. But I can't help but suspect I'll be left with a really icky feeling of having slime dripping from me if I agree to uninvite him.

Part of the problem is that when I get around too much drama, I disengage. It's already happening. Not that everything in life must be fun, but the value of what I'm getting from this group is now outweighed by the drama I'm having to deal with by being in it. I'm very, very close to declaring my "I just don't give a shit" threshold has been breached. And walking. Nothing is forever.

Sigh. I'm trying to maintain and do the right thing. But oh my God--why can't everyone be rational like me?