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Paul drove down from Northern New Jersey to carpool with Randy, Kelly, and I to a dinner Suzie was hosting. I smile at the implications of that sentence.

*Paul being close enough to drive down.
*Paul enjoying our company enough to drive those two hours.
*Randy and Kelly being together.
*Randy and Kelly getting along with me.
*All of us being friends with Suzie.
*Suzie being in the area.
*Suzie having her own place.
*Each of us being in good enough health and with enough free time to go.
*Wanda still being functional.

I could unpack that statement to further but I think that’s enough.

This blessed life.

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I had put off declining the statistical analyst position in favor of the actuary position for two days and called in this morning to formally statement my non-acceptance. They upped their offer and I felt like I was breaking up with someone but didn’t quite go so far as to say “it’s not you, it’s me.” I felt like I was about to throw up but eventually one must choose.

I made a cheesecake, did some push-ups, and headed into Philadelphia to pick up my race bib for the Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon this Sunday. I nodded off on the way in, quickly grabbed my number, and after lunch, returned home. On the way, I ran into an old Scout friend and we chatted on the ride home.

After getting off the train, a woman stood there looking lost and she asked for directions to a bus stop. I asked where she was going, indicated Forest Hills Station and I offered to drop her off there. She got in and we spoke. She was a statistician for a testing firm who was uncomfortable with the direction her career had taken. She expressed regret about having never become an actuary and I mentioned that I’d just been hired as one. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said statistical work for a pharmaceuticals company. I smiled and passed her the business cards for the people I had declined the job offer from and said “You have a background in data mining and know SAS, these people might have an opening.”

Some would attribute it to fate but I find this series of events much more magical as a straight coincidence. The idea that in accidents we find ways to go do good is far more satisfying to me than to think of this as a contrived way that some power came up with to test me.

I don’t know your name, you don’t know mine, but I hope you get the job, lady.

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I ran a half marathon today in 2:08. This is significantly faster than my best time so far and at the same pace that I could barely do 10 miles in while on a low carb diet. Besides vastly expanded cardiovascular capacity, I’ve noticed a few other changes after dropping low carb:

*A slight bump in mood. Sugars tend to make me happy.
*A return of the mid-afternoon nap-urge.
*Small increase in ability to lift weights.

Assuming the two were equal difficulty, I would stick to low carb. The level amount of energy throughout the day is wonderful as is the fact that low carb almost forces me to do low calorie. I will re-try on Monday.

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Kacey and I left for Wildwood at around 9am after I lost two hours of my life crossing Philadelphia. We talked during the ride out as we always seem to in a combination of catching up and diving into the question of “how are you?”. At Wildwood, we parked and popped enough quarters in the meter to give us 90 minutes of time or so and we went up and down the boardwalk. 11am struck and the National Anthem started playing where upon everyone stopped except us and we kept walking. We noticed everyone had stopped walking and felt like we should have too, but, having already broken the apparent reverence of the moment, continued.

We went to the beach and I failed to fly my kite and Kacey kicked at the ocean. We got boardwalk food and returned to Philadelphia.

There is a world-passed quality to Wildwood after Labor day as the piers are closed during the week days, 1/2 the shops are boarded up and the demographics skew decidedly older. Kacey and I were rare chunks of youth but there was a dignity present that isn’t always there such as the day after Christmas in some retail places or an area where the carnival has just passed. Wildwood knew that it was done for the season and it faced it gracefully.

What wasn’t graceful? Me on the ride home. While I was off low carb I figured I’d indulge a bit and purchased fried Oreos, something I never had and consumed four of them. About 20 minutes into the car ride back I felt nappy and my breath stank of fry oil. My head bobbed and I hit the good morning strips on the side of the road. I did this again a few minutes later and let Kacey have the wheel. Friends don’t let friends eat fried Oreos.

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I received an employment offer today from a reinsurance firm in Philadelphia. About this I am happy as I both like the firm and reinsurance. Once I received the offer, I forwarded the details of it to another firm who was trying to hire me but was having trouble getting a package through their HR department. This is when I learned four words that I didn’t expect to hear: “We can beat that”.

I don’t think I’ll take the counter-offer, but it make feel good.

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I stayed up until 4am talking with John and Val and then until 7am talking with Suzie. This is in no way a complaint, quite the opposite, I miss talking until dawn and am glad that while it is rarer it is not gone from my life. I took a nap and then attended to household chores for the next nine hours culminating with a run to the post office at 2am.

When I returned, I was a bit tired and decided to try my immersion blender for the first time. an immersion blender looks more like a torture device than a kitchen utensil and mine was this guy in a stunning spring pink. My first experiment was to shove it into some heavy cream. You know what happens when you whip the hell out of whipping cream? You get the most amazing topping in the history of human invention. I started with just heavy cream, but quickly graduated to adding sweetener and vanilla extract. I will never buy CoolWhip again and may never purchase whipped cream again. The product of combining 200 watts and 36% milk fat is heavenly and coats the mouth in way only rivaled by some mayonnaises.

Next, I add berries.

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I had a few people over this evening and my ability to gauge food demands for a group seems to have not improved much over time. While all 24 mini-cheesecakes were consumed, I still had 2/3rds of a golden cake, 1/2 an angel food cake, a lb of brownies, 11 2-liter bottles of soda, and an untouched bag of Doritos. I also have all the components to make a baked brie.

On the plus side, I’m getting really good at gauging meatballs. I prepared enough that everyone had their fill and there were enough left over for two days worth of leftovers.

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Yesterday’s return to sugar resulted in some neat ancillary benefits. My weight lifting capacity seemed to jump suddenly as I can now do a whole 2 pull-ups in reasonable form. Additionally, I’ve found my mood to be generally better although that may be other factors.

This evening, Randy and Kelly Booz held a game night where I took pictures and I discovered a wonderful game called Jungle Speed. It’s like a combination of Uno and prison rape or Egyptian Rat Screw meets rugby. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

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I intended to drop off of low carb eating in advance of the Rock n’ Roll half-marathon and have ended it a bit earlier than I intended. I thought I’d ease back into eating carbohydrates but, well, did not. Returning to sugar has triggered some things. Here are my notes:

  • Pears are f-ing awesome.
  • Bananas are f-ing awesome.
  • Apples are f-ing awesome.
  • A slice of cake after the above slows my metabolism down to the point where I can hibernate.
  • A second slice of cake slows it further to the point where I feel I can begin to see through time.
  • There’s a shift in bowel movement that accompanies entering and leaving keto.  Entering, I have a poop that looks like ground up mummies, exiting, I have a bowel movement so powerful it could chip porcelain.

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I returned home a little after 2am and set my alarm for 7am to make a 9am set of interviews with a firm in Philadelphia. I was interviewing for a reinsurance position, a branch of actuarial work I very much enjoy. The first four interviews were straight forward and I only made one or two small mistakes. After that, I was asked to speak with the hiring manager who had stopped in and then went to lunch with two more members of the department. Upon returning, I met with another actuary and then two more and in total met 10 of the 11 people in the department. I am happy that I was able to talk to almost literally everyone but this comes at a cost. I now have 10 thank you letters to write. Ugh.

The ride back to Trevose station featured another first. I sat in a three across bench seat on the West Trenton line and all three people in my row had space between them.