Things I Love: I Love Don Week, Day 5

We’re in the home stretch of “I Love Don Week”, that week leading up to my birthday on July 11th. It’s been amazing so far, but there’s always room for improvement. And don’t think this week is all about me …I’ve given you a gift as well. Yesterday I started running, again. 3 miles yesterday and 3 miles today. How is this a gift to you, you ask? Well, I’m working to give you a better version of Don and also extending the number of years the world will be able to enjoy Don’s existence. See? And you thought “I Love Don Week” was the ultimate exercise in self- adulation and arrogance. Just imagine the joy you’ll know when next you see me and I’ve lowered my body weight, my resting heart rate, and start sleeping 7-hours each night …it’ll be like looking at a work of art.

Critics of current parenting often point to the fact parents are constantly rewarding their kids for minor accomplishments or things that aren’t accomplishments at all. They say we give kids a sense of entitlement and importance they don’t deserve and haven’t earned. And I agree …this sense of entitlement and importance should be created on their own. Nobody gave me this current air of superiority …it took years of dedication to selfishness, disillusionment, and self-aggrandizement. I hope my kids look at me and this “I Love Don Week” and they grow up to be just like me. I’m not about to give them their own week …this was my idea. They can invent their own week.

Speaking of running …though today I feel like I was in a car accident, I can tell already, after only 2 days and 6 total miles, that my body is thanking me. This will be my 39th birthday and I’ll be marching swiftly towards 40 and a mid-life crisis, so at least I’d like to turn 40 living a life I control. I’m sure, a year from now, I’m going to have all sorts of regrets and be depressed as I face the reality of aging and mortality, but if I can be healthy …well, it will be one less thing for me to fret about.

Here’s the updated list. It’s still pretty much all my wife …so get on it. Start “loving” Don.

o Adidas or New Balance minimalist running shoes

o a burger press for my grill

o grill accessories (I got two meat thermometers)

o a Weezer vintage graphic tee

o the soccer ball from the Euro cup 2012

o $20 iTunes card

o iPad 3

o quality nose-hair trimmers (a sure sign I’m getting old)

o the men’s line from Arbonne (I’m almost out of everything)

o Fifth of Canadian Club

o 1 lb of Chazzano coffee

o a French Press (hey, I’ve never had one, and I’m a coffee snob, so …I should have one)

o Poland’s Euro/World Cup futbol jersey

o lottery tickets

o America’s World Cup 2014 jersey

o a Mac book

Oh, and here’s the beauty (and depression) that comes with running on a Sunday morning. Fire up an Alternative Rock station on a Sunday morning (on iHeartRadio, for example) and most will be playing “classic alternative”. It’s great to relive some old memories when They Might Be Giants, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Psychedelic Furs, and Depeche Mode come one …but it’s also one more reminder that, hey, dude, you listened to these songs 20 years ago. Haha, you’re old. Nice 10-minute mile, buddy.

That’s how my ego talks to me.

Anyway, this classic Depeche Mode song is, in my mind, their best song ever and turns out has a great tempo for running. And after the video, the recent commencement address by David McCullough that raised quite a stir when he told Wellesley grads, “you are NOT special.”