"I think you should do a blog about stairs. A photo-blog."

Way back on Day 1 of 30 Days of Blogging I talked about my attempt at giving up sloth for Lent. I've put on a lot of weight over the past few years, and recognize that this is unhealthy, so I tried to use Lent to introduce some healthier habits into my life, like taking the stairs. When I posted it, my friend Rod said:

"I think you should do a blog about stairs. A photo-blog."

and that's our topic for today.

Since Lent ended, I've kind of been backsliding a little. I've taken the stairs a few times, but fewer times than I've taken the elevator. Maybe revisiting the whole idea will help me to refocus on the idea that it might be better for me to be less enormous.

This is the outside stairwell on my building:



It doesn't look so terrible in that photo, because you're still down in the parking lot. It looks like a nice, long, slow ascent. This weird optical illusion is aided by the fact that the stairs are, for some odd reason, only about three inches high:



and also because the stairwell has a bend in the middle. It totally doesn't look like three stories worth of steps, right?

When you get on the stairwell and start climbing, you don't notice the first step:



because you're wide awake and full of energy and haven't started climbing yet. You will notice something else, though: For some random reason people seem to think the staircase is a perfectly acceptable place to stop and try to carry on a conversation with you. Hi, can't you see I'm wheezing here?

Anyway, the first leg of the stair case isn't terrible. Not only that, but it leads to a big step where the staircase turns and you get to walk on level ground for two or three steps:



but that's only for a second before you have to start the second, worse leg of the stairs:



This is the leg when your legs hurt. You get that slightly trembly in the knee feeling like your legs just want to give out, but you have to keep climbing the stairs because the shame of laying down and dying on them in full view of every coworker who pulls their car into the parking lot all morning long and then being picked apart by vultures and crows is too horrible to contemplate, and yet you somehow manage to contemplate that very thing anyway, and it keeps you climbing until you reach the third floor. Because our building is built on a hill, the third floor is also the first floor on the front of the building.

The third floor also presents you with options:



You can use the stairwell right there to climb to the last floor, or you can walk down to the one closer to your office. I always walk down to the further away one, because there is never anyone on that outside sidewalk between them. It means I can wheeze in peace without having to talk to anyone. The long slow stretch means I can catch my breath before the last staircase, and the outside sidewalk means I can do it without walking past the open doorways of all the neighboring offices along my hallway.

Eventually the sidewalk runs out, though:



and there's more climbing:





and then we're finally out of stairs.

Lent 2013: Stairway to Heaven

I've challenged myself to blog every day in April, and asked my friends on Facebook and in a few other places to suggest topics and ideas to inspire me for thirty days. Today I'm not using any of the suggested topics, because yesterday was Easter Sunday, and I gave up something for Lent this year, and wanted to talk about it.

Last year I gave up candy, and argued that it sort of made me a better person. The year before I didn't give up anything, but I explained why I didn't, and I still stand by that choice. The year before that I gave up pop tarts, and that had about as much impact on me as giving up candy did: I learned that sometimes I want something and can't have it, but I'm not sure that really went very far toward bettering myself.

With that in mind, I decided to be thoughtful and deliberate about my choice this year, and do something that might actually lead to self-improvement. After thinking about it right up until the night before, I gave up sloth for Lent. That's not as easy as it sounds, especially for someone like me, who totally loves being slothful. I gave myself some guidelines, and tried to follow them:

1) Take the stairs whenever possible.

2) At stores, park far away from the door, for more walking.

3) Walk to meetings on campus, rather than driving from one side of campus to the other.

4) Get on a regular treadmill routine.

Now that Lent is over, I can report on how I did:

Not bad, but not that well. I was not nearly as successful as I have been with past resolutions.

Taking the stairs: This is where I was most successful. I learned this year during Lent that there are 77 stairs between my parking space and my office, and most of the time they look like this:



While I did take the stairs every morning to work, I didn't always take them everywhere. I was successful here, but not always consistent. For example, last week on break I didn't take them in the church. I also didn't always take them at lunch.

Park far away: This worked when I remembered to do it. It wasn't always first in my mind, so it didn't always happen.

Walk to meetings on campus: I was pretty consistent here, with the exceptions being that I accepted rides when they were offered and that I drove a few times when I wouldn't have made it in time on foot. I learned that I don't walk very fast anymore, and that I don't always wear the best shoes for it. I also learned that getting from my office to the University Center is sometimes a pain with all of the campus construction, and have a much better understanding of why our students are so irritated by it.

Get on a regular treadmill routine: I'm sad to report that this was a complete failure. I'll keep trying, because I really do need to exercise more, but I just haven't gotten there with this yet.

Overall, like I said, I was only partially successful this year. I did lose some weight, but not so much that people are like, "Oh, wow, look at all the weight you lost." I tried to use this to spur some new habits, but will have to watch over the next few months to see if any of those habits stick.

The main question, though, is the same one I've asked every year that I've done this: What, if anything, did I learn? I learned that giving up something that requires deliberate thought and consistent consideration is actually really hard, and I also learned that keeping a vow like this requires deliberate focus. I didn't always have it, but I can work on that.

I can also keep taking the stairs.

Staircase Fail

What's wrong with this picture?

(Other than that it's a little blurry. I'm not Ansel Adams, ok?)



This staircase and bannister was installed on the end of the loading dock in the parking garage yesterday, replacing the stack of cinderblocks that people used for steps for the first three years that I worked here and probably a few years before that. This was probably a good idea, because the stack of cinderblocks weren't attached to the floor or to each other, so when you stepped on them there was always an immediate feeling of "Holy crap I'm going to fracture my ankle and land on the filthy filthy floor of the parking garage in the oil and dust and dirt and broken glass and then I might as well just be dead!"

Sparing people from that feeling was probably a good idea.

Installing the new stairs without taking down the railing at the end of the loading dock, rendering the new staircase both useless and absurd, was probably not a good idea.

It's like having ying and yang, all in one staircase.