Quadsville

I had just spoken with John a week or so ago outside the Bucktown Center for the Arts, which is, I believe, where I first met him about five years ago. I knew him as a runner and as a volunteer for MidCoast Fine Arts and Venus Envy, the annual women's art festival I help plan.

Of course, I knew his official titles at the United Way and the diocese. But John had little use for pretension. He was just as happy to help out a worthy cause by approaching a big wig for a large donation as he was by hauling tables and setting up chairs, which we did, side by side, many times.

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death is the ceasing of your own brand of magic, which took a whole life to develop and market --

the quips, the witticisms, the slant adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,

their tears confused with their diamond earrings,

their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,

their response and your performance twinned.

The jokes over the phone. The memories packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act. Who will do it again? That's it: no one; imitators and descendants aren't the same.

Those of us who experienced John Kiley's "own brand of magic" would disagree with the poem's title. His time with us, though too short, was not wasted in the least. And although he was as human as the rest of us, his humble example was closer to perfection than many of us can hope to achieve.

He will be missed and mourned by many.

Gwen chose to volunteer our time to help paint a domestic violence shelter run by Christian Care in Rock Island. We signed up Friday night, and I confirmed with the coordinator, Roland Lamantia, that kids could help. We had to be up and at 'em at 8:45 a.m. Saturday. Roland sent an e-mail that night that they were also accepting donations of cleaning products, toiletries and toys for the shelter, so Gwen packed up part of her overly large stuffed animal collection to donate to the kids at the shelter.

Gwen LOVES to paint.

Pastor Gary put us right to work when we arrived. There were at least 15 of us, including some Augustana students. Gwen and I joined Mary, Bridget and Rob in painting over the bright aqua paint in an office. It is now a warm, light brown. Gwen said it made her hungry for chocolate. :-)

Pastor Gary gives instructions to the Augustana students painting the kitchen.

I had such a great time working and talking with everyone that morning. We didn't know anyone going into the project, but everyone was cheerful and friendly, and it was rewarding knowing that we were just one little pocket of people all pulling together this weekend to do something for their communities.

Once all of the low parts were painted, Gwen took it upon herself to document the experience with mom's camera. She loves to take photos almost as much as she loves to paint.

Gwen wants to go back and do some more painting this weekend. She stuck with it for the whole three hours, doing trim work and then getting in on some roller action. She was thrilled to be pulling her weight on a team of volunteers.

Anyone else have stories of service to share?

I have been running on the treadmills all month, but today, the cardio room was packed with all the treadmills booked for an hour or more. So, I warmed up for 10 minutes on one of the exercise bikes, stretched and hit the track.

I had one of the best runs of my life. I ran four miles in 44 minutes. That's one minute off my 10-minute mile goal for Bix and a minute, on average, faster per mile than I usually run when there's not a moving belt underneath me. I felt great the whole time, and I'm hoping I can get whatever magic happened today to happen at least once a week.

I have a theory that soy milk is my secret weapon. I was out of regular milk this morning, so I used the Very Vanilla soy milk (normally reserved for my coffee) instead. Usually, if all I eat for breakfast is a bowl of cereal, I'm starving by 10 a.m. But today, I didn't even get to think about lunch until 2:30 and I was fine. I'm going to keep up this cereal and soy milk thing and see if it really is the wonder food it appears to be. Even if it's not, it's probably better for me than the egg and cheese sandwich I usually fix in the morning.

How's your training coming along? Anyone else out there bothering with resolutions? And if you are, have you managed to keep them so far?

I'm really tempted to make a fitness-related New Year's resolution, but those always seem to result in FAIL by about March. I just got the group class schedule for the Davenport YMCA from Kay Luna. We are both intrigued by the Zumba class that our coworker Deirdre Baker tried out a couple weeks ago.

I definitely need to mix some classes into my workout routine. Right now, I'm getting back into running in the cardio center and doing some assisted pull-ups and dips with the Nautilus machine. Stretching is always a part of my workout, too. I've take one Body Pump class and enjoyed it. So I think I need to start doing that once a week or so.

I'm also considering trying out some yoga and Pilates classes. I've never done Pilates. I have done yoga on my own, but (sadly) not for awhile.

What classes do you like at the Y? What should I try? I'm not at all looking to build up muscles, just to tone them and slim down a bit. I'd also like to run the Bix in 70 minutes. A 10-minute mile doesn't sound so very difficult, does it? But for some reason, I am constantly stuck at 11. 

So there. I've stated some goals in public and you can all harass me if I start to slack off. I'm going to try to work out three times a week and run the Bix in 70. Hold my feet to the fire. Or to the pavement. :-)