Lesson #48: Do Things with Purpose

August 30, 2013

I'm back from skipping a week of riding and it feel great to be back. It's just me tonight and no ADW to join me as he's returning from Calgary. It's the start of a long weekend and the end of a long week.  It's humid and raining today so we end up riding indoors. The day light is also getting shorter and we're finding ourselves in the dark during our lessons.

This lesson is spent indoors as it is raining and nobody likes to be all wet while riding. Our usual warm up is started to get our rhythm right--consistent and in control. Sheri tells us that the best way to get into things is to get into a consistent rhythm so that you can move forward. It's kind of like getting your land legs back, after disembarking a cruise. I notice that with Indy, my legs are secure and I use my inner thighs to keep myself balanced. This is an interesting discovery on my part: it's part of the eventual aim of a proper posture and correct muscles being engaged.

We continue to practice some work with posting and seated trot and also work on the balance by double posting up and once down. This is tricky to consistently do because if your leg position isn't right, then you fall back down. We work up to some very tricky exercises that really test your ability to quickly transition from one gait to another and direction as well. This is not my evening at all. I have trouble initiating the canter over the two ground poles and cannot canter through the X-jump at all! My posture is all over the place and I'm literally falling over Indy during transitions. What's wrong?

I reflect on the way home and I come to realize that I am genuinely tired for this lesson. Part of it is me just going through the motions and not really being "in it". Riding requires you to be actively living the moment and not thinking about what's happened or what will happen but to anticipate just a few moments before, in order to make a sound decision about what you'll do. That's the problem: because I was such a zombie, I wasn't in the moment and my mind was wandering around and I was drifting off into la-la-land all evening. It's time to ramp up my schedule and really buckle down on what needs to be done! After all, I have to work, in order to continue to do what I like to do in my spare time (at this time, anyways...) and so I've got to really pull myself together and not waste time.

Never Late, Always Remember

When I started this blog, I was on the verge of turning 30 and I wanted to reflect and focus on me. After all, that's the single most important relationship I will ever have in my life. I spent the previous years entrenched in things that I thought I needed to do and at the time, enjoyed but what started as desire became obligation. More than a year later, some things have come full circle but none, more than my return to FanExpo.

I started working FanExpo in 2000 when it was still in its infancy. To me, this was a time when the idea of a girl admitting that she enjoys the Star Trek franchise (most notably TNG), wasn't popular. It was one fateful afternoon when things changed. I left for various reasons and as I've gotten older, I've started to realize what's important to me and what I like. Maybe it was this mental growth but I'm not all too sure what made me decide to return and "work the con"; but, old friends (and new) quickly accepted me back into the fold.

Things have changed a lot: the show now spans the entire MTCC complex and there was a record attendance of over 100,000 patrons. What a weekend! I was assigned to the Premium Lounge where we oversaw the Premium ticket holders' swag bag give-away and helped maintain the state of the space. I don't usually talk to strangers and find that when put into social situations, I keep mostly to myself. However, I felt very comfortable among the crowds and was able to spend most of the weekend chattering away. I know... me, chatting with strangers like we're old friends! In fact, I would safely say I made some new friends this weekend.

Now to get to the fun stuff! What did I do while at the expo? I worked mostly. But I had the opportunity to walk the show floor when it was virtually empty and to see all the neat stuff that the different vendors brought with them after the show closed one of the evenings. It reminded me of an episode of "Today's Special" when they run around the mall at night. One of the highlights is when I met Tony Moore of the Walking Dead comic series. He is both the creator and artist (first 20 issues) of the story. In both instances, I "geeked out" and felt like a kid in a candy store again!

Although there is over 750,000 sqft of space designated for corporate vendors, independent artists, celebrities, workshops, seminars and many other events, any patron who goes will tell you that they go, for more than the cool toys and the opportunity to meet their heroes. This weekend is a chance to make friends and to be yourself among others who are doing the exact same thing. Since I started, the attendance has grown 9x what it used to be. That's incredible! It's encouraging to see the wide range of demographics and entire families dressed up together, to enjoy the weekend. Sure, you can think it's a cash grab but the expo is literally a chance for all the geeks and nerds to congregate in one place and socialize and do business. For us big kids, it's a chance to continue reliving and enjoying the stories, characters and themes of our yester-years.

Always the Optimist

I sneak peek people's reading material on the subway. While I usually have some reading material of my own (current: The Big Short by Michael Lewis), I periodically peek at what other people are reading--particularly when they're reading a paper.

This morning, I saw an article about Joseph Kony (more about this tomorrow) and the solar flares that will possibly affect our technology today. When I first heard about this news, I was really excited because I am an avid nature/space/science hobbyist (can you be a hobbyist in such an area?). This sort of thing interests me and that morning, I spent part of the morning reading about it instead of *ahem* doing what I should have been doing.

So, today I heard this news while trying to get out of bed. CBC often has great coverage on stuff like this so I checked out their website and found the newest coverage. Looks like the sun spot eruption happened on Tuesday and they were expecting the actual flare to hit Earth around 1am-5am Thursday (today). They're still waiting and nothing has glitched yet.

(on a side note, I found equally great coverage on BBC)

The reason people are generally concerned about the effects of the solar flare is because of the fact that it may or may not disrupt the technology we enjoy. When I think about people in (blind) panic, en masse, I remember the Eastern Seaboard blackout in 2003. I remember coming home from my coop in Burlington and the radio just went out. I wouldn't figure out what just happened and continued on my merry way. By the time I got home, I realized that nothing was working.

While part of me recollects the following few days of technology-free bliss, another part of me (the paranoid nutjob) imagined a zombie apocalypse (or any apocalypse, for that matter). I'd probably be the poor sucker who couldn't tell the difference and while fiddling with my radio equipment, get eaten while screaming for my life. Not a pretty picture.

Anyways, there's no need to panic since it's just a solar flare and not the end of our solar system as we know it. Though, if the sun exploded, it might just be fast and swift so there is no screaming for my life while a zombie rips out my insides and eats me alive.

Rich Girl Problems

Mondays are almost always a little more than just manic. I had the opportunity to test my patience and tolerance this morning after I was already running really tight with time and waited around (it's punishment for smashing the alarm so many times) for another 20 minutes of delays to clear up and the train to have enough room for me to get on without breathing the next person's armpit for a 10-15 minute ride south.

Kind of makes me wish I had just stayed at home.

While the weekend was filled with the death of Whitney Houston and the Grammys, I didn't have time to get too involved with all that jazz. Instead of the Grammy Awards, I was getting caught up again with the Walking Dead; this is the second season of the comic inspired zombie apocolypse drama series.

The Walking Dead has won awards (and been nominated) for various categories--one of them being the best drama on tv. As I mentioned, the series itself is not new; it's based on a comic book that was written in 2003.

I got into this series at the insistence of others... Usually, I find zombie themed movies or shows, too hopeless feeling inducing to watch. I mean the entire world is dead and it's very likely that there are only pockets of living humans left. What are you supposed to do? Everything you have ever known, is gone and whatever you have probably been working towards in your life, is now null and void. Actually, most stories that have to do with a type of apocolypse are intriguing. It really gets you to think about how humans innately are and forces you rethink your own life... what would you do if you were one of those few humans left? You're trying to survive everyday, in very challenging circumstances and maintain some of your humanity.

One of my coworkers told me, "I like you because you still do the right thing, even when nobody's looking". I think of Rick Grimes. While it's flattering that others deem me to be morally intact, I wonder what I would do if I was faced with the same questions that Rick faces throughout the series? He's their leader now... and doing the best that he can do, to keep them together and get them through to the next day; and if there's one thing that's struck is, that most people are self-serving sheep who don't actually have any morals.

While most people do the right/best thing these days (and that's easy when food, shelter and safety are not a primary concern), the real test comes when faced with all the tough choices or even worse, no choice. Sounds a little hopeless but early humans were prey to larger carnivores and had to survive on much less.