Friends

Recently I had a conversation with a friend, concerning the ease in which others meet people and make friends. For arguments sake, we're assuming that these friends you make are not robots, clones, or other artificial constructs. :P

I know a few people who are highly gregarious; making friends and meeting new people comes to them as naturally as breathing. Some of this may stem from the line of work such an individual is in (some vocations involve much more human contact than others), but that does not account for it alone. I question whether this ability is a result of their upbringing, an inborn characteristic, or conscious choice?

I know more people who have difficulty making friends and meeting new people, as well as many others who fall somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. Personally, I sometimes have difficulty meeting new people, particularly in a setting where I don't know anyone else, and there's no obvious common ground between you. If I'm out shopping for books (which I do with some regularlity), I'm unlikely to start up a conversation with the other customers; it is even more unlikely that any such conversation will lead to continuing contact and friendship.

In particular, since I've moved to Saskatoon, and away from the group of friends I had back home, I've found it difficult to meet new people. Certainly, I've met quite a few people through the church here, but only a very small number of them would I consider to be friends. Outside of this, I have few avenues to meet new people. My work has few employees, so the opportunity to meet new people there is limited. The frequent absences required by my work also limit the extracurricular activities I can get involved in, as many require more of a commitment than I can make. Where does one go to meet people (not speaking in a dating sense here, although that certainly can stem from friendships)?

Last year, I joined the Brainsport running club. I was tired of running on my own, and it did not require any great commitment. They meet every Wednesday night at 6:00, go for a run, and go to supper afterwards. On the surface this sounds ideal. However, it's more complicated than that. The club is divided up into groups, based upon the sort of pace you expect to run. I, naturally, ran with the advanced group, which has at best half a dozen regular members, all of which are male and for the most part considerably older than me. Also, I have yet to be able to attend one of the suppers, as I attend prayer meeting at the church, which begins at 8:00. I have come away from the experience with a friend and training partner, but this friend is older and has a family, so our time together typically is limited to one or more runs together each week. Now, if I really wanted to meet more people there, I could run with one of the slower groups, or skip prayer meeting. However, this would compromise my own running, and prevent me from participating in a part of my walk with God.

It is (relatively) easy to make friends in school, at a technical institute, community college or university; in those places, there is a large group of people who have come together for a common purpose. However, once you leave these institutions, the opportunity for new friendships seems to dwindle. Am I alone in feeling this way? I don't know.

My apologies for a somewhat rambling post. To this issue I bring no answers, only questions. To my small readership, I ask you to comment and share your own thoughts on this.

I had a good day. I caught a new fish

Well, really my good day started last night around 11:00. I got to talk with the lovely Ariann over Skype, which was great fun, got to talk with my friend Tennille as well, and still managed to get in 5 hours of sleep or so.

Work went well, I got everything accomplished I set out to do, and the day seemed to go by fairly quickly. I just got some good news from a friend, so I'm happy.

To make it better, I'll be having Karl staying with me overnight before we head to the wedding of Saryn and Dan tomorrow in Rosetown.

Matt is happy. All is well with the world. That is all.

On Running - A Minor Rant

On a number of occasions of late, someone has learned of my running, and subsequently referred to it as 'jogging'. Naturally, I protest the use of this term to describe my sport. I don't 'jog', I 'run'; there's a difference, to me anyway.

I began running seriously at age 16, and as of this coming September will have been at it for a decade. I competed for my university track team for five years. I have, as a conservative estimate, run in the range of 25-30,000 km, and that number may be low. I have put thousands of hours into my sport.

In my mind, 'jogging' is what casual runners who are trying to get into shape do. 'Running' is something that requires effort, that takes you out of your comfort zone, and is fast; what constitutes 'fast' is a matter for debate, but even my resting pace at ~12 kph is faster than many people can do.

Please don't mistake this for arrogance on my part. I don't think of myself as being a great runner. I know, and am friends with, people who have competed on a national or international level; I can do respectably at local road races and such, but I can't aspire to that level of performance.

Up until I began my job, it was unusual if I wasn't running six to seven days a week. Now, with the amount of time I'm away for field work, I find it hard to stay in the same level of fitness, but when I'm back in the same city I'm still at it everyday. When someone calls me a 'jogger', it seems a diminishment of all the hard work I've put in, and of all the sacrifices I have made for my sport.

To sum up: please don't call me a jogger; I'm not. I'm a runner.

The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

The following quote is from "Life, the Universe and Everything", a work of one of my favourite authors, Douglas Adams:
"In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in about 2.55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers that you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."

I find that I feel a similar way about Sunday evenings; it has rapidly become my least favourite night of the week. Usually by this point I've had a busy weekend, I'm tired and not particularly motivated to do anything productive. Often I feel it would be nice to hear from someone, it would be particularly nice to receive a phone call from a friend or something, but that usually doesn't happen. Now, you might say, "why don't you call up someone?", and my answer is that one gets tired of always having to initiate such conversations.

Perhaps I'm feeling it this weekend in particular, having spent the last several days with several hundred other people, at Feast; the weekend was sometimes exhausting, but enjoyable and encouraging. In general though, I don't usually get a lot of chance to socialize during the week, so the end of that period can be a bit depressing. Also, when I don't have much else to occupy my attention, I tend to become introspective. Sometimes too much thinking is bad for you.

I try not to indulge in self pity overly much, nor am I hard done by. There's just something about Sunday evenings, when I have a week of work ahead and many things to get done in the evenings, that leaves me feeling somewhat despondent.

...maybe I can squeeze you in for June?

Although I don't have a whole lot to say about me right now, someone has been bugging me to contribute to this construct we call a blog. I was thinking earlier of how busy my life is until I go back into the field again. Literally every weekend until the end of May is booked, and two of the (likely) three I'll have in June are also spoken for to some degree. This weekend I'll be going to Feast. After that, I have, in order:
-The wedding of Saryn and Dan
-A friend coming to visit, as well as organizing a GPS scavenger hunt for the YP.
-My trip to England and Ireland, from May 3rd to the 15th.
-Drag-racing with my dad in Gimli, MB
-My professional practice exam and the Saskatchewan Marathon.

Now, a lot of this stuff will be great fun, but it seems like there's too much to do. This is sort of how my life has been since I started this line of work; because I'm away so much, when I'm not in the field I try to cram in as much other stuff as I can.

Oh well, busy is better than bored.

Here's a bonus: I really don't "get" blogs. A lot of the time, it simply seems to be people sharing the fairly mundane details of their lives. Anything really important to me, I tend to discuss with a small circle of trusted confidants. I have trouble seeing how much of the stuff that goes on in my life would be of interest to anyone besides myself (and often not even me).

I have heard of those who have a dedicated fanbase that check their blog regularly. And of bloggers who fanatically document every detail of their life, no matter how personal, or how utterly mundane. On the part of the readers, this seems to be a form of voyeurism, although 'voyeur' isn't the correct word; after all, you have been invited to peer into the bloggers life. On the part of the author, it would seem to be a form of exhibitionism, but with minimal risk on their part.

I created this blog on a whim, and imagine the main usage I will have for it is to share some of my experiences and adventures with some of my more distant friends. That's good enough for me.

So it begins...

Well, due to popular demand (and by that I mean a single comment by Ariann to that effect), I have created a blog. If you are looking for daily updates and a fanatical commitment to keep the world informed about my doings...look elsewhere. Those who know me are aware that I'm away a great deal, and that I'm not the most open of people.

However, I'm fond of many strange things, and in my travels have encountered some items of interest, to myself if no one else. I will post when I have the time, energy and inclination, and presumably some of my friends will find this enlightening, entertaining and uplifting. If anyone else stumbles across this and finds it enjoyable, all the better.