Reverend Ken's Blog: June 5, 2012: Post 512 (2012 Day 157)

June 5, 2012

Daily Comment

I have changed my plans, slightly, for the weekend: I will be coming home Sunday, in time for some jamming. Unfortunately, my NYC friends' schedules don't permit much visiting that weekend. So it goes.

That's the thing about my visits to NYC: I am always forced to make tradeoffs. Sometimes, all my friends are around and available. Now, I love the City, and one of the few disappointments/gripes I have about living in Syracuse is that I don't get down to the City enough.

I am a born New Yorker, and I love New York City. There has never been a time in my life when I thought it wasn't better than any other place, even if the opportunity to live there is non-existent for me (too expensive).

But getting there takes 8+ hours driving time and costs about $150 round trip. That, plus any other expenses while I'm in town, makes visiting too expensive to be done casually.

That doesn't mean it isn't worth it. To me, it always is. Seeing my friends and my brother while I'm in town means so much to me. These are people I love, and seeing them is no optional ingredient in my happiness mix.

For more than three decades, I have had to travel to see my NYC friends. When I first moved out of the City to Duchess County, NY in 1978, I was so homesick I used to travel back after work almost every night and weekend. I had very few visitors.

Nine years later, when I moved to North Carolina, I initially had some friends come by, but that flow dried up in only a few years, and it was up to me to travel 8 or 9 hours each way to see people, which I managed to do a few times a year, and I got to spend more time visiting my friends than I do now. Which saddens me, a little. I do wish it could be more.

There was a time when I felt like I had New York City 'wired'. Anywhere I went I would meet people I knew, people who recognized me. And I always seemed to know what was going on, when, and where. I was always out and about. This led to a number of serendipitous happenings, meetings, events.

That was then. Now, when I visit, I rely on a few friends who are culturally aware and enjoy going out and doing things to get me in the flow. It's a smaller number now than it was, thanks to people's movement, and changes in lifestyles over the years. Also, the places I knew are more or less gone, or mutated into something I don't remember back in the day.

Dining is a more-important activity than it used to be back then. And, of course, everything that isn't free (thank goodness, that isn't everything) is more expensive.

It is all worthwhile, but all these factors have made my visits to New York, New York more infrequent, and more precious.

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Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight: 202.8 lbs
Yesterday's Weight: 204.8 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain: - 2.0 lbs

Year 2012 daily weight from December 31, 2011.

Diet Comment:

The only thing that could have made yesterday's normal eating day more successful, from a weight-loss point of view, is if I had done it with breakfast eggs, instead of a protein shake.

I dislike drinking breakfast. Even though I actually find my new formula cocoa-kale shake good-tasting, I think calories should be eaten, not drunk.

Also, I think that protein powder, even the natural, seemingly benign brand I use, is still processed food, and should not be part of my diet. As soon as I finish the huge bottle I just started, I'm going to cut that out of my eating plan.

Food Log

Breakfast
A cocoa-kale protein shake (almond milk, vanilla whey protein (36g protein), kale, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, stevia-inulin blend).

Lunch