I Suck At The YMCA

last night, karen and i attended a staff meeting at the south shore ymca in quincy. the meeting was in regards to the upcoming workout classes offered by the ymca. every session that a workout program is offered, there is a general meeting to review things like the program protocol and whatnot.

as staff members, karen and i are required to attend. obviously, with our son's (braden michael) birth and passing a little over two months ago, karen and i have been away from the ymca for some time. so, the meeting last night marked our return to the ymca as staff members. too bad i suck at the ymca.

should karen and i be blessed again to conceive another child, this could very well be our last session at the ymca. the doctors have already told us that karen would probably not be able to do many things should she be pregnant again to prevent the possibility of another early birth. among those things would include standing on a hard cement floor in the ymca research area for three hours straight.

but i guess we'll see. in some ways, i would be relieved to leave the ymca. in other ways, i would feel saddened to leave. for anyone curious, i work part-time at the ymca as a research instructor. the core duties of a research instructor are to train the participants of the research program the proper techniques in strength training, make sure they incorporate cardiovascular exercise, and make sure they follow a sensible nutrition plan.

when i started working at the ymca well over five years ago, i always felt that the work was about the participants and making a difference in their lives. i got to meet a lot of interesting people. at the same time, it was quite rewarding to help the participants achieve their personal fitness goals... whatever those goals may have been.

as time went on, however, i felt that things at the ymca became less about the participants and more about the ymca itself. it was just how i felt and as more time progressed, i slowly found myself working less and less at the ymca. it should be noted though, that my feelings were in no way a result of my boss (rita) or any of the other staff members. rita and the staff are great. unfortunately, they have own marching orders.

looking back, i had a great time being a research instructor. if you have seen the show, the biggest loser, you would know the trainers bob and jillian. the trainers are sort of like good trainer/bad trainer respectively. similarly at the ymca, there were always two research instructors for each program. inevitably, i would always end up as jillian... just without the yelling.

anyway, the meeting went well. it was nice to see everyone at the ymca again... well... see everyone that i knew like my friends (rita, ally and tom). there were also a lot of new faces at the meeting that i did not recognize.

i actually almost started to tear when rita made an announcement about our return to the ymca staff. that probably would not have been good, considering there were many new faces at the meeting who have never met me before. they probably would have thought i was a nut. maybe it was thoughts about not having braden around during the holidays or whatever... but when rita welcomed karen and i back at the meeting, she almost alluded to the reason for our hiatus and i just started to think more about braden. naturally, that got me somewhat choked up.

the rest of the meeting went okay. as an added bonus, we did get free t-shirts... not just karen and i... all of the staff members. free t-shirts are always good. in fact, i would say the free t-shirts made the meeting.

after the meeting, karen had a nutrition counseling appointment. so while she did that, i decided to try to clear my thoughts and go running at the ymca. usually, i just put my ipod on and run. for anyone curious, the last time i ran... i ran to the new kids on the block... to their latest album. yes... strange i know, but it has good beats to run to. yesterday i ran to angels and airwaves... love them.

needless to say, i just ran to clear my thoughts. i ended up running three miles... which is not bad... but unfortunately, when all was said and done, i still thought about how braden was not around to enjoy the holidays with us. i definitely think it will be a tough holiday season this year... not having our little braden with us.