It’s late on Wednesday night, and I’ve been sitting in my kitchen by the window watching the snowfall intermittently. It’s mostly tailed off by now, but there’s a stray lost snowflake here and there.
I woke up late today, around 2pm, after staying up the entire night before writing. I published three stories for my website, genxchronicle.com. The one that was the most important to me was about the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, which was yesterday. It’s here.
The schools are closed on this snow day, and the subways and buses are on limited schedules. So I stay in Astoria, my home neighborhood in Queens, and I work from home. At 3:15 I race to my doctor’s office for an appointment for a check up, only to find that they’re closed. I then check my phone and see that they called at 10:30 am and said the office would be closed today due to the weather. Oops! I blew that one. I created a lot of stress for myself when I could have just lounged around my apartment and worked and chilled from home on this nor’easter day.
It’s now 3:30 in the afternoon, and I’m hungry. I stop at a Subway shop on 30th Avenue to get something to eat. I used to eat Subway a lot, but now I usually buy my own cold cuts if I want to make a sandwich. I also cook a lot.
Still, I’m psyched to have Subway, because it’s been about a month since the last time I’ve had it. It’s pretty crappy stuff, when you get right down to it. I mean bland bread, cheap salty meat and some washed out vegges. But every once in a while it hits the spot, like a guilty pleasure.
So I get the footlong Turkey and Ham on Honey Oat bread, and I add American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, olives, and sweet peppers. Gotta have sweet peppers, I love them. I have it with light mayo, and salt and pepper, and oil and vinegar. I get the combination, which includes a bag of baked sour cream and onion lays potato chips and a diet Coke fountain soda, and I’m set.
I sit in the Subway for a good half hour and eat my sandwich in blissful solitude. Because it’s so snowy outside, there are no other customers in the place, so I have it all to myself. Subway is obviously not upscale, but it’s still nice to have a restaurant, even a fast food restaurant, to yourself for while. One customer comes in and gets a sandwich to go, and that’s it. I’m the only one eating in. In a crowded city like New York, and a crowded neighborhood like Astoria, it’s a simple yet rare treat.
After Subway I decide since I’m already outside in the snow, I may as well hit the gym. I had tossed my gym pants and my sneakers into my backpack just in case, along with my lock and a weightlifting brace for my right hand, which is slightly out of whack.
I walk north along 30th Avenue from the doctor’s office on 22nd Street to 38th Street, where the gym is, and it’s a pretty beautiful walk. The snow is falling hard, and it’s sticking, and the whole neighborhood just has a misty white glow.
I reached the gym around 4pm, change in the locker room, and make my way to the weightlifting area.
Jesus, the place is packed! I had figured that on a snow day like this, very few folks would trek to the gym. But it’s chock full of dudes, Tony’s and Vito’s and Spiro’s and Costas’s. With the occasional Jose, and Daekwon, thrown in for good measure.
There are women here too, don’t get me wrong, but they mostly hang out in the cardio machine area. If it’s weightlifting day for me, I’m usually hit with an unrelenting sausage factory of grunting dudes and testosterone flying around. It’s just tiring, is what it is.
When I do cardio, I get to look at all the pretty ladies, but when I’m lifting, there is only the occasional female body to break up the dudedom.
I go through my upper body workout fairly quickly. I hit the chest press first. I haven’t lifted in about three weeks, and before that I slacked even longer. So my chest press max has dropped from 200 to 180, and today I struggle to even get 170 up. Man, I need to hit the gym more, is what I’m thinking.
I do five sets of chest press, then hit the shoulder press. I do three sets at low weights, 70 lbs max, and I’m exhausted and spent. I realize then that I’m just not coming to the gym regularly enough, and if I really want to get into the kind of shape I’ve been in most of my life, which is very good, I have to commit myself to the gym, as well as to eating better.
It’s an old story, there’s really no mystery to it. The better you eat, and the more you work out, the better you’ll look, the better you’ll feel, and the healthier you’ll be. There are no shortcuts. I mean you can do one of those liposuction things, but then you have crazy scars and flaps and it just doesn’t look right. Plus it’s unnecessary. Just lose weight the natural way, through diet and exercise. That’s how it’s been done for a hundred years now.
On the other hand, if you’re living the 600 lb life, like that horrific show on cable, then maybe you do need the surgery. But if you’re 30, 40 or 50 lbs overweight, just suck it up and do the work. That’s how I feel about it, anyway. Maybe I’m old school, but that’s how I was taught.
I finish my shoulder workout and make my way to the tricep extension machine. I do a set at 130, a set at 140, and a set at 150. I usually go up to at least 175, but since I’m kind of out of shape I stick to a slightly lower weight.
It’s amazing how quickly one loses strength when one stops lifting weights. Within a month, you might lost 20% of your total strength, which is absolutely crazy. And I like being strong. So it’s time to hit the gym more, Mr. Tanzer, I tell myself.
I head over to the free weight area and grab a bench. My plan is to do bicep curls, and then traps. I want to start with a light weight, so I scan the area for a 50 lb barbell, but I can’t find any. I take a 55 lb instead, and bang out two sets of ten reps. Then I grab a 30 lb barbell, and bang out two sets of six reps for each arm.
I finish the weights by doing trap pull ups. Traps are the trapezius muscles, the ones above your shoulders and around your neck. They’re the things that look like grapefruits on WWE wrestlers. I do a set of ten at 60, then a set at 65, and then a set at 70bs. Man I am beat now.
I stagger over to the stretching mat, and I bang out 100 reps of crunches. Boom! My workout is done.
I change in the locker room and head out.
The snow is coming down fairly hard on 30th Avenue by the gym on 38th Street. It’s beautiful, it really is, but it’s also kind of slamming into my face and making me cry a little with all the moisture and cold in the air.
So I love it, but it’s a nuisance too. I put on my wool hat and make my way South on 30th Avenue toward Key Food, my local supermarket on 33rd Street. It’s a decent supermarket, and it’s only a block from my house, so I can’t complain. I mean I guess I could, because it’s not Zabar’s, or Fairway, or West Side Market, which were shopping mainstays on the Upper West Side, where I grew up.
But I’m in Astoria now, and for this neighborhood, Key Food is pretty darn decent. I enter the supermarket with a vague plan of buying some chicken breast to saute. I figure I’ll have some lean protein around for a few days to eat while my muscles recover from the workout, maybe I’ll make a sandwich with it or something.
When you lift weights, you are essentially tearing your muscle fibers. They then regrow and regenerate, and if you eat enough protein and other nutrients during this time, your muscles can regrow bigger than they were before. That’s how weight lifting works, folks. It’s not rocket science.
So I head over to the meat section first, and I check out the poultry. I grab 1.5 lbs of thin-sliced chicken breast, figuring I’ll make enough for a few meals.
Then I get a little more ambitious and I think, instead of just making chicken breast to eat plain or on sandwiches, why not make chicken salad? The only other ingredients that involves are mayo, celery or onion, some spices and some lemon juice. I have all of that at home, except for the onion, which I grab from the produce department.
I’m all set, and I start to make my way to the checkout area. But then I pause for a moment. I mean it’s a snow day, and I’ve already gone to the gym, and I’m going to work on my website from home, so I’ll be home for the rest of the day and evening most likely. Why not cook a real dinner and have something to look forward to?
But what to make? In literally ¼ of a second, chicken with peppers and red sauce, Italian style, pops into my mind. Who knows why? I mean I made this dish once before, about six months ago, and it was fantastic, one of the best things I’ve ever made. But why would it suddenly pop into my head now? Who knows how the mind works, honestly.
So I go ahead and get two cans of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, a red pepper, a green pepper, and some sliced mushrooms too. I figure the mushrooms will be a new, added element to the dish. I’m also thinking I’ll throw the onion as well. I mean live a little, right? I get some chicken stock from the last aisle, and now I’m really ready to go.
I head to the cash register, but the ones with cashiers all have lines several people deep. I guess a lot of people are off from work today and have decided to do their shopping in the afternoon.
So I use the self-checkout machines, and I ring myself up. The grand total is $52, which is more than I expected. But I did also get a lot of deli stuff, from Maple Turkey to Homemade Roast Beef to Low-Sodium Ham to Land O’ Lakes white American cheese. I also got two oranges, and a banana, and a 24 oz can of Corona Beer. And a package of bagels. Plus a tomato. So when you think about it, I got a decent amount of stuff.
I head out of Key Food and walk the one block to my apartment on 34th Street. I walk up two flights to my third floor apartment, throw the bags on the kitchen counter, make my way to my bedroom, climb onto the bed, and collapse. I mean I really freaking collapse.
No joke. Not in a bad way, like I collapsed from injury or sickness or something. I’m just so beat from the intense workout, my first in nearly a month, and then trudging in the snow, and then shopping and carrying the bags home, that I just need to be on the bed right now.
It’s a feeling I think most people can relate to. Sometimes it hits you by surprise, like today. I was feeling fine on the way home, but the second I entered my apartment, the bed called out to me. I think it’s just a way for the body to tell the mind, hey, we’re really worn out right now, let’s just rest, preferably prone, on a bed for a few minutes.
So that’s what I do. For about twenty minutes. Man, does it feel great. My muscles just relax and chill out, and my whole soul takes a breather. The act of just laying in a bed can be a really rejuvenating thing, I believe.
Eventually I get up, feeling about a thousand times better than before I lay down. I’m rested, I’m recharged, and I’m ready to do battle with the groceries. I unpack everything, put it all in the fridge, and go into the living room to do some work.
I reply to several people’s Facebook comments on a couple of my genxchronicle.com stories, including the Iraq one that I put so much work into it. The cool thing is, I had publicized the Iraq story around the world, including in a lot of Middle Eastern countries. So people from all over the Middle East are chiming in, some in Arabic, and some in English, saying that they liked the story, and that they hated George W. Bush as much as I did for what he did to Iraq.
But the best comment from the Middle East comes from a guy in Libya named Ismail. Libya has been wracked by civil war since 2011, when the US invaded and toppled Gaddafi, leaving a power vacuum in its wake. So obviously this dude is no fan of America.
He posted a photo of Clint Eastwood, from one of Clint’s cowboy westerns from the 60’s, which were all directed by the Italian director Sergio Leone. They’re kind of cult classics, but they’re also just great movies. The photo was of Clint looking mean, wearing a cowboy hat, squinting into the sunlight, and holding up a noose in his hand. Next to the photo Ismail wrote:
We wants the justice
Wow! I mean the English isn’t perfect, but I totally get what he’s saying. Because there’s just so much collective anger in the Middle East toward America, for what we did to Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Libya, and now Syria too. Throw in Yemen, and we’ve invaded or intervened in nearly half the Middle East.
I love this guy’s comment, I really do. We wants the justice. I believe he’s speaking for a whole region, and a whole group of people, with his comment.
I debate for a few hours whether to “like” his comment, or to let it go because maybe I don’t want my website to be calling for the noose for George W. Bush.
But then I realize that I’ve just written an 1,800 word piece calling Bush a murderer and saying he ha\s the blood of a million Iraqis and thousands of Americans on his hands.
So why not let it rip?
I “like” his Facebook comment, and I reply to him with: “I hear you!”
I want to let him know that I’m on his side, and that most Americans are not proud of what our government has done in the Middle East, and especially in Iraq.
Having replied to Ismail from Libya, I feel a sense of great relief. I got my Iraq story out there, and some people in the Middle East noticed it, and Ismail and I connected.
Despite all the negatives of Facebook, not to mention this week’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, it can still do great things, and connect people across continents.
Then I kick back, make a roast beef and American cheese sandwich, and sit by the kitchen window to watch the snow fall. I play a couple of 80’s songs on the Google Home. The snow is falling slowly now, but it’s already covered the large tree’s branches, and it’s just beautiful.
I worked out today, and I ate some good food that’s chock full of protein, so my body feels great. I connected with a guy from Libya about my Iraq story, so my mind and spirit feel great.
On a whim, I say, “Hey Google, play Never Say Goodbye, by Bon Jovi.” On comes the song, and I’m immediately transported to the 80’s. It’s a classic song from my youth. Bon Jovi sings about teenagers who are on the verge of transitioning from adolescence into adulthood, and moving from one group of friends and lovers to another. It’s powerful, and it really resonates with me. Bon Jovi is a rock God, IMHO.
The song was played at all the proms I went to during my senior year of high school, so I associate it with a meaningful, important, emotional time in my life.
Halfway through the song, “End of the Road,” by Boyz II Men, pops into my mind, so that’s what I play next. This is a great R & B song from the early 90’s, and it was also in heavy rotation at proms during my senior year.
The song is about love, and loss, and not being able to let go of a lover, and it’s just beautiful poetry. I danced to this song at my own prom at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, with a lovely lady who shall remain nameless.
She was my prom date, but things didn’t really work out between us, and I didn’t see her much after high school. But I remember dancing to “End of the Road” with her, and feeling a strong connection, so I still get warm feelings when I hear the track.
After the song ends, I start to think about cooking that chicken. But I’m also super beat, and I think maybe I’ll just make a tuna melt or something, and cook the chicken for lunch tomorrow instead.
All in all, it was a fun snow day. I worked out, I got some work done, and I saw the snowfall, which might have been the best part of the day.
In this giant megalopolis we all live in, also known as New York City, life can be kind of cold and lonely, especially if you don’t have a family. So you have to find joy where you can, in places large and small, near and far.
On this day, I found my joy.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
