Do These Pants Make Me Look Frustrated?

Ask Me About My Low Frustration Tolerance

This just in…I use steroids in 1998 so that I could finish my master’s thesis in Anthropology in time to graduate in May 1999.  Times were tough, there was no regulation, everyone was doing it.  The professors were doing it, so I didn’t really gain any competitive advantage.  I was just trying to keep up.

Okay, that didn’t really happen, but I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think that plenty of people in our everyday lives would look for an edge to be get ahead.  I guess I’m most frustrated of dealing with the fallout from everyone else trying to get an edge.  Have you read or heard the news these days? If not, you must be working on your cave art. Great googly moogly.

Here are a few tidbits you may have missed if you were putting the finishing touches on your bison.

So Alex Rodriguez, of the New York Yankees, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in 2004 when he was with the Texas Rangers. ARod has admitted to using steroids for 3 years. If he thought he had it rough with fans since he left Seattle to sign baseball’s richest contract in 2001, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As a Yankees fan (take it easy!), I follow Yankee news through three blogs: Bronx Banter, River Avenue Blues, and ShysterBall. The opinions floating around the blogosphere run the gamut from disdain to disappointment to anger to self righteousness to apathy. On MLB Homeplate on XM Radio there is a constant stream of calls from listeners who have a host of different feelings and, therefore, opinions on the matter. At the end of the day, this news sucks the pleasure out of root, root, rooting for the home team. Do you think curling players are doping?  Maybe I’ll root for them. Never mind.

Alex Rodriguez in action with the New York Yankees.

Flip on CNN or check out the NY Times and you’re likely to hear something about the bailout plan.  And it won’t be good. I’m not going to pretend to understand all that goes into the plan, but I do know that $2.5 Trillion is a boatload of dough and that I’m not likely to enjoy any of it. It’s tough not to be cynical at this point.  It’s tough to be surprised.

So what recourse is there?  Not too much in the way of direct, monetary relief for me and you.  Perhaps the best course is the age-old favorite – Escapism.  I usually go for reading a book, catching a movie, or getting outside.  Playing with my 3-year-old daughter is a good one, too.

Donny is Out of his Element, while...

John Muir is in His Element

I’ll bet John Muir could’ve kicked ARod’s butt. I’m just sayin’ is all.

Going the John Muir route is always effective because you truly separate from everyday troubles, breath in fresh air and smell good earthy smells. The New River is a nice place to escape as well.  I can think of nothing more Zen than paddling through a rapid like the Keeneys or Fayette Station.  My total concentration is on the water, the position of the boat and speed of the boat. I get to be truly in the moment.  I can’t look ahead beyond the end of the rapid because a slip in concentration can have interesting consequences that I’ll spend the rest of the run trying to correct or implementing plan B.

For the purposes of soul rejuvenation and escapism, I think whitewater rafting or boating on the New River does it for me.  There’s a pace about it that is a perfect combination of in-the-moment, visceral experiences and reflective, meditative interludes. Just perfect.

New River Panorama