Day 38

The building where I work is fairly high security. The security guards are actual gun-toting law enforcement professionals. You can't even get in the parking lot without a badge, and I have to use my badge a couple more times after that just to get to my desk.

But the thing is the security folks are always so cheerful and friendly, even when I've forgotten my badge for the hundredth time. There's one woman in particular who says hi to you in a way that makes you feel like you've been friends for years, even if you've never met her before.

So today I dropped off a dozen donuts -- for them, and for whoever else comes through the front door.

I know... cops, donuts... a bit of a cliche. But you should have seen the size of the smile I got when I dropped them off...

Day 37

One thing I've noticed is that sometimes people are suspicious of kindness. They think it's a trick, or that the person being kind must have some ulterior motive. To be honest, there is a bit of motive behind it: It makes the giver happy. Hopefully it makes the recipient happy too, and it pretty much always does I think, but you have to get past the suspicion sometimes.

One of the ideas provided to me in the "Inspiration Box" was to leave free popcorn at a Redbox video rental kiosk. But I was thinking, popcorn with no note would be kind of mysterious. Popcorn with a note in my handwriting might look a tiny bit sketchy, but it'd probably be fine. But free popcorn with a note in a kid's handwriting would probably be irresistible. And the point is for somebody to take up this offer, right? So I had my boys write some notes for me.

 ... then I distributed them to a few local Redboxes around town.

Day 36

Today was a pretty basic one. I gave some money to a homeless woman. Her sign said, "I just need a little help."

Day 35

More armchair kindness today, and sticking with the theme of donating to organizations who have helped us, I sent money to The Arc of the Triangle. They help out and provide services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Day 34

I pushed myself harder than I thought with my run over the weekend, because let me tell you, my legs are killing me. Going up, or especially down, stairs makes me grimace and groan. So for the next couple days I think I'm going to be practicing some armchair kindness...

Today I donated to Disability Rights NC. They have helped us in the past, and they do fabulous work for those with disabilities (and their families). It's a shame we need them, but sometimes society needs just a little push.

Day 33

Today I volunteered to represent my son's Cub Scout Pack and do a paper airplane workshop the Big Fall Play Day at a local elementary school. Of course I didn't realize we'd be doing this outside, on a cold, windy day, in the shade.... But it was actually a ton of fun. I must have made a couple dozen paper airplanes of all different designs, from simple darts to complex origami-like planes that required tearing parts of the paper off, to unusual stunt designs that didn't look like they should even fly.

We had a lot of kids stop by the table, and I'd always fold one of my own along with them, so that a) I could help if they got lost, and b) provide backup if things went horribly wrong. And that left me with a pile of spare planes for those who couldn't (or didn't want to) fold their own, but still wanted to decorate and/or throw paper airplanes.

Some great volunteers from the YMCA were on hand to help out, and to run adjacent tables and return errant planes to their owners.

And after my run yesterday, I was glad for a chance to do something that involved sitting... even if the metal folding chair was on the cold side.

One nice bonus was that with extra volunteers on hand, my boys could take advantage of the all-access wristbands we got for volunteering. So they got to run the full gamut of balloon animals, face painting, bouncy castles and other festive activities.

Day 32

Today I ran in the LUNGe Forward 5k, a fundraiser for the Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina. My mom's battling lung cancer for the second time right now, and I can tell you it's no picnic. (And if you feel like helping someone with lung cancer who could really use some help, consider this.)

Along with all the other runners and walkers, we collected almost $130,000 in donations for this event.

For my last 5k, I walked as part of a team. Today I ran. I wanted to really push myself. 

The only problem? I got there late and missed the start. I'm almost positive the materials for the race originally had said it was in Cary, but that was out-of-date because I discovered this morning that it was in the North Hills area, which is an extra 20 minutes away. So by the time I got there, the race was already underway. I was seven minutes behind before I even started. Not that I was running for time, but I didn't want to be dead last.

Plus, it was about 42ºF and raining when I left the house. It did stop raining for the race, but the air was still chilly and the road was wet. But too bad, it was time to play catch up. 

So my first goal was to catch the pack. I found them after about 5 minutes, trailed by a police car. Thankfully there were a lot of walkers, so they weren't too hard to catch. Once I caught the tail end of the pack, I decided I wanted to pass as many people as possible. I'm not in good enough shape to run the whole way, especially on some long inclines, but I ran until I couldn't and then walked until I could run again.

Then I decided my next goal was to not let anyone pass me. I wanted to keep moving up. But as the route wore on, the combination of jogging and brisk walking was starting to take its toll, and ambitious people started passing me. I did get passed by a handful of people. The guy with the stroller passing me was a blow. But then I remembered that anyone who passed me had to be someone I had already passed first. So, like, it cancels out, right?

I continued to alternate between walking and running, but the stretches of running were getting shorter and the walking was getting longer. But if a volunteer along the route said any words of encouragement, I decided I had to start running again, at least for a little while.

At last I got to the home stretch. And about 200 yards from the end of the route, you turn a corner, and there's the finish line right out in front of you. I decided to do an all out sprint to the end. I mean, I figured there were people on this 5k who didn't even have two full lungs, people who had been to hell and back just to be alive at all. I could run 200 yards.

I did it. I almost threw up at the end, but I did it.

And somewhere right after I started sprinting, the free t-shirt I had gotten for participating in the race fell out of my pocket. I was completely oblivious. And after nearly collapsing at the finish line and spending a good 10 minutes trying to get up and walk again, I wandered in the general direction of my car. And I heard somebody say, "There he is!" and I looked around me to see who she was talking about. She was talking to me -- she had my t-shirt that I had dropped.

Sometimes people are awesome. The t-shirt isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I'm really glad I got it back. And if anybody needs me, I'll be right her. For a while...