No, sorry I didn't run it; yet. My friend Cole who was in town to run the Marine Corp Marathon ran it in just over 4 hours yesterday and was even up for a bit of tourist walking today! I'm sold, I wanted to have run it yesterday so badly, especially when I saw people walking at a five hour pace which I knew if nothing else I could at least finish it by doing that. So, it's on; March 18th in Virginia Beach here I come!
Went for my first training run today, hah I'm obviously overly pumped up for this. I ran about 6 miles up Conn Ave and down through the Zoo then along Beach Dr and back up through the Zoo and back home and felt great. Its nice to see that the other training I do certainly effects the shape I'm in (sometimes I wonder when cycling doesn't really kill the love handles like cutting weight for lightweight rowing used to). Now I just need to figure out how to keep myself excited about this and keep up the training until race time. Pat has offered to at least run with me though he says he is not going to do the marathon. We'll see about that. I think the goal here will be to complete at least one marathon a year and maybe do more if the firt one goes well. It seems like a ton of fun and watching some of the people cross the finish line on Sunday I just wanted to do it so badly.
The bad parts of the marathon: We went to Madison Ave. in front of the National Gallery of Art to watch the racers and cheer Cole on at about the half way point but after watching almost the entire marathon go by (I literally watched the first place runner go by with the police escort and then saw some of the people who looked like they would walk at least half of the marathon) and still no site of Cole or either of the other two people I knew that were in the race we decided to go to the finish to try and salvage our watching experience. We did get to watch Cole across the finish but it really sucked that we missed him running by. We decided that when we run the shaqmrock one we'll be wearing something that makes us stand out; one guy yesterday wore a big foam cowboy hat throughout the enitre race. We'll see about that, we may just go for bright pink shirts since everyone else will be in green. Plenty of time to figure it out.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Marine Corp Marathoners
This weekend my good friend Cole from my college crew team is in town to run the marathon so naturally he is crashing with my roommate and me. Last night we hung out and had some great italian at this place called San Marco down the road (highly recommended) and then watched a movie back here. Today we got up slowly and eventually went down to the naval barracks to pick up his race packet and see what kind of stuff they had set up. The scene was pretty crazy down there; there were thousands of people all over the place and the line seemed never ending when we got there. When we first walked off the metro the line started imidiately but we just figured we'd loop around the corner and head in. The we saw it looped back around the corner towards us and then back; ok so it's a little longer then that...
Next thing we knew we're around the corner and the line loops all the way down almost to the stadium and then back nearly to the metro and then back down half way to the stadium and then finally into the complex. Wow, that's like theme park long. Luckily the weather was reasonable though a bit windy and the time went by quickly. We got inside and there were people every where and vendors galore. Got some free stuff and was handed more marathon flyers then I even knew exhisted and was pitched a totally new type of running shoe where instead of heal shock absorbing shoes you role over on your toe... Sounds fun, but the guy seriously needed to chill; he was trying a bit too hard.
Came home after that and started drinking and playing (or rather getting my ass kicked) in boggle and now getting ready to get all dolled up for halloween and do it up. Hopefully I'll be alright to get out of bed tomorrow and see Cole run, and of course hopefully the 16 miles of prep he's completed in training will be enough to get him thru the 26.2 miles of the marathon tomorrow... fingers are crossed that I don't have to go meet him at the hospital tomorrow...
Someday I'll run a marathon... yuengling sponsers one on St Patty's day, of course with a huge party afterwards... :)
Next thing we knew we're around the corner and the line loops all the way down almost to the stadium and then back nearly to the metro and then back down half way to the stadium and then finally into the complex. Wow, that's like theme park long. Luckily the weather was reasonable though a bit windy and the time went by quickly. We got inside and there were people every where and vendors galore. Got some free stuff and was handed more marathon flyers then I even knew exhisted and was pitched a totally new type of running shoe where instead of heal shock absorbing shoes you role over on your toe... Sounds fun, but the guy seriously needed to chill; he was trying a bit too hard.
Came home after that and started drinking and playing (or rather getting my ass kicked) in boggle and now getting ready to get all dolled up for halloween and do it up. Hopefully I'll be alright to get out of bed tomorrow and see Cole run, and of course hopefully the 16 miles of prep he's completed in training will be enough to get him thru the 26.2 miles of the marathon tomorrow... fingers are crossed that I don't have to go meet him at the hospital tomorrow...
Someday I'll run a marathon... yuengling sponsers one on St Patty's day, of course with a huge party afterwards... :)
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
More on the hopeless part
I agree entirely with the two commentors on my post yesterday; however the other part of the post which I couldn't quite get out in any kind of organized fashion deals with the type of people that even now think Bush is entirely correct and would follow him with blind ignorance off the face of a cliff.
What bothered me most in what I found was that people who are my age; generation y or whatever you will call us still seem to be unable to grasp that the world is changing and so much of what the Bush administration stands for is what is wrong with this world. I always thought that my generation would be the most open minded and understanding generation from all the exposure that we have had to the world and the war and everything else that is going on.
Instead what we find is that the American people are so fat on their own lives and things that as long as it doesn't hit our pocket books too hard then we'll just keep our voices and our actions to ourselves (though after $336 Billion and counting for the war, I'm not sure what other then the price of a gallon of gas could possibly effect our pocket books that much).
That statement goes for the corruption and overall bullshit that goes on in congress everyday as well. I'm not claiming to be louder or more active or anything here and quite frankly I wouldn't know where to start, especially with a president in office who apparently can get away with anything he'd like no matter what the people who elected him say. If only they could plant a 16 year old boy scandal...
This is what leaves me feeling hopeless; Barack Obama on the other hand shines as one of the few tiny glimmers of hope our entire political system has.
What bothered me most in what I found was that people who are my age; generation y or whatever you will call us still seem to be unable to grasp that the world is changing and so much of what the Bush administration stands for is what is wrong with this world. I always thought that my generation would be the most open minded and understanding generation from all the exposure that we have had to the world and the war and everything else that is going on.
Instead what we find is that the American people are so fat on their own lives and things that as long as it doesn't hit our pocket books too hard then we'll just keep our voices and our actions to ourselves (though after $336 Billion and counting for the war, I'm not sure what other then the price of a gallon of gas could possibly effect our pocket books that much).
That statement goes for the corruption and overall bullshit that goes on in congress everyday as well. I'm not claiming to be louder or more active or anything here and quite frankly I wouldn't know where to start, especially with a president in office who apparently can get away with anything he'd like no matter what the people who elected him say. If only they could plant a 16 year old boy scandal...
This is what leaves me feeling hopeless; Barack Obama on the other hand shines as one of the few tiny glimmers of hope our entire political system has.
Monday, October 23, 2006
A more normal post
Now that I got that last one out of the way... Went out for a nice easy spin with Andrea yesterday up through Rock Creek Park and over to Bethesda and then back down the Capital Crescent trail and over to Eastern Market and finally home. Was probably around a total of 20 miles but at our pace took about three hours so it was a nice afternoon of riding. We had a really good time even though it was a bit chilly (though not nearly as chilly as today) but I think we had some good conversations and had a nice and easy Sunday workout. WHen we got to downtown Bethasda there was a big street art festival going on so there were a ton of people; all of which thought I looked funny in my cycling hat apparently since they all stared at me. We stopped in at the Bethesda Bagel shop for a bagel and sat and ate while watching other people walk by with the dogs and their kids (and some plaid shirts that probably got more looks then my little hat)... The Bethesda Bagel shop is my new favorite place.
Today since last week was so crazy I decided to take a half day and spent the afternoon down at hains point (freezing) with the normal lunch time cyclists eating Brats and chicken provided by Scott and the Racing Union. It was a really nice thing they did and people really seemed to appreciate it; most of these guys have never seen each other without a helmet and oakleys on so that was also a bit different. One of the members of the racing union named Josh recently began chemo therapy and has just finished his second round and managed to make it out for the event. What an amazing guy; a few weeks ago, right before he started he came out on a Thursday evening and we spun around at Hains Point for a while just chatting and enjoying the day and then two Fridays ago, after his first chemo session he made it out and we rode up to Bethesda for a bagel run (Bethesda Bagel shop baby). Absolutely amazing. It looks like we'll hopefully make it out for another run later this week and he is eager and raring to go again.
The emotional stregth this guy has is incredible and more then a little bit inspiring; I know he will slow down as the chemo progresses but the fact that he is coming out right now and with spirits as high as his are it's just incredible to see. I wish him the vary best and can only hope that I can someday be half the person that he is.
Today since last week was so crazy I decided to take a half day and spent the afternoon down at hains point (freezing) with the normal lunch time cyclists eating Brats and chicken provided by Scott and the Racing Union. It was a really nice thing they did and people really seemed to appreciate it; most of these guys have never seen each other without a helmet and oakleys on so that was also a bit different. One of the members of the racing union named Josh recently began chemo therapy and has just finished his second round and managed to make it out for the event. What an amazing guy; a few weeks ago, right before he started he came out on a Thursday evening and we spun around at Hains Point for a while just chatting and enjoying the day and then two Fridays ago, after his first chemo session he made it out and we rode up to Bethesda for a bagel run (Bethesda Bagel shop baby). Absolutely amazing. It looks like we'll hopefully make it out for another run later this week and he is eager and raring to go again.
The emotional stregth this guy has is incredible and more then a little bit inspiring; I know he will slow down as the chemo progresses but the fact that he is coming out right now and with spirits as high as his are it's just incredible to see. I wish him the vary best and can only hope that I can someday be half the person that he is.
Hopeless
I'm currently feeling a pretty strong sense of hopelessness with the current government and state of the country. This feeling today was heightened by a glimpse into an area which I would have expected to be just the opposite of what I saw in it. While I know I simply looked at a very small part of this area, it was more then disheartening to see the hard headed arrogance and irrationality that I saw. Before I go on here I warn that this post will likely be very poorly written and very jumpy as I seem to have trouble keeping up with thoughts when I get into this type of issue and tend to jump from one idea to another without realizing it. If you can follow these ramblings then have at it and I will do my best to remain at least somewhat coherent through this. In a previous post I mentioned I wanted to write about more substantial issues but have yet to make it into any of those issues; at least in a public posting. I have many saved drafts which simply did not work so hopefully this post will actually make it live...
Today I took the second half of the day off after a long and busy week of work last week. After reading an article in TIME magazine about Barrack Obama possibly running for president (yes I know it is more of a pr stunt to help promote his book and probably means nothing at this point) it got my mind working a little bit. When I got home from work I logged into good old Facebook to see what kind of groups there might be in the younger social networking scene in support of this truely up and coming congressman. I found one group titled "Barrack Obama for President 2008... If Only" with less then 100 members in it... If only??? Come on; and this is the only group I could find with even this kind of idea and this is supposed to be the "rock star" of the Democratic party according to the TIME article, yet college kids don't even give him the time of day on one of the most popular social networking sites which includes groups such as one with several hundred members claiming that President Bush should have his face added to Mt Rushmore... WTF!!! (I'll get back to that...)
While it is probably a long shot and while I also can't claim to know where he stands on many of the issues (his track record in this do nothing congress doesn't help with this) I think Barrack could just be the fresh breath this country needs after what I think could be the most disasterous and dangerous 8 years of foreign policy this country has ever seen. Maybe we need someone young and "less experienced", especially if less experienced means less corrupt and ruined by our current political environment (this is a nonpartisan bashing at this point). A "young man" who is not yet bought out by the major corporations of our society and steal believes he can change the world (or at least our stumbling country). He's certainly got a far better start then the Cheney administration with Bush and his hands in the oil industry and Cheney and his with Haliburton...
At this point in time I am ready to beg Mr. Obama to run for president in 2008; while the democratic party has a number of very strong candidates possible I think the strongest of those would still remain a long shot. Hillary I believe is seen as too extreme and I am afraid many people would still be unwilling to embrace the isea of a woman president which in this upcoming presidential election would be a tremendous risk considering the possible alternative. Barrack appears to appeal to such a wide range of people and he seems to have proved he has the ability to bring the sides together through his work in congress. I think that a fresh new face for America could work wonders for our world wide image and a new foreign policy with a little less emphasis on whats best for us and a little more emphasis on the world in need could be just what the future of this country needs if it is going to survive to see my generations grand-children. At the rate we are currently going though there is too much ever growing hate for America to have any faith in the safety of our children in this country.
Ok, I'm stopping on this here because I can't even get to the issue I wanted to discuss without getting so frustrated that I fail to make sense and fluster from topic to topic... Maybe some day I'll manage to make it all the way through and maybe I'll even make a point.
Today I took the second half of the day off after a long and busy week of work last week. After reading an article in TIME magazine about Barrack Obama possibly running for president (yes I know it is more of a pr stunt to help promote his book and probably means nothing at this point) it got my mind working a little bit. When I got home from work I logged into good old Facebook to see what kind of groups there might be in the younger social networking scene in support of this truely up and coming congressman. I found one group titled "Barrack Obama for President 2008... If Only" with less then 100 members in it... If only??? Come on; and this is the only group I could find with even this kind of idea and this is supposed to be the "rock star" of the Democratic party according to the TIME article, yet college kids don't even give him the time of day on one of the most popular social networking sites which includes groups such as one with several hundred members claiming that President Bush should have his face added to Mt Rushmore... WTF!!! (I'll get back to that...)
While it is probably a long shot and while I also can't claim to know where he stands on many of the issues (his track record in this do nothing congress doesn't help with this) I think Barrack could just be the fresh breath this country needs after what I think could be the most disasterous and dangerous 8 years of foreign policy this country has ever seen. Maybe we need someone young and "less experienced", especially if less experienced means less corrupt and ruined by our current political environment (this is a nonpartisan bashing at this point). A "young man" who is not yet bought out by the major corporations of our society and steal believes he can change the world (or at least our stumbling country). He's certainly got a far better start then the Cheney administration with Bush and his hands in the oil industry and Cheney and his with Haliburton...
At this point in time I am ready to beg Mr. Obama to run for president in 2008; while the democratic party has a number of very strong candidates possible I think the strongest of those would still remain a long shot. Hillary I believe is seen as too extreme and I am afraid many people would still be unwilling to embrace the isea of a woman president which in this upcoming presidential election would be a tremendous risk considering the possible alternative. Barrack appears to appeal to such a wide range of people and he seems to have proved he has the ability to bring the sides together through his work in congress. I think that a fresh new face for America could work wonders for our world wide image and a new foreign policy with a little less emphasis on whats best for us and a little more emphasis on the world in need could be just what the future of this country needs if it is going to survive to see my generations grand-children. At the rate we are currently going though there is too much ever growing hate for America to have any faith in the safety of our children in this country.
Ok, I'm stopping on this here because I can't even get to the issue I wanted to discuss without getting so frustrated that I fail to make sense and fluster from topic to topic... Maybe some day I'll manage to make it all the way through and maybe I'll even make a point.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Friendly Ride
Just got back from seeing my first movie in a theater in probably close to a year. Saw Prestige and would highly recommend it to anyone interested.
I rode my bike down to Gallery Place to meet some people though and when I left after the movie I passed another cyclist going up 7th and then met up with her at a light. She asked a question about what was going on down there to make it so busy and we ended up getting into a little bit of a conversation and then when it turned out she was going to Columbia Heights, just up the road from me we ended up riding to Adams Morgan together where we went our seperate ways. I thought that was pretty nice; not your typical everyday situation that you would come across during a bike commute, at least not in my experience at least.
There is where I would like to steal an approach which I really like from Grateful Dating...
Tonight I am Grateful for: Friendly People and Cycling
I rode my bike down to Gallery Place to meet some people though and when I left after the movie I passed another cyclist going up 7th and then met up with her at a light. She asked a question about what was going on down there to make it so busy and we ended up getting into a little bit of a conversation and then when it turned out she was going to Columbia Heights, just up the road from me we ended up riding to Adams Morgan together where we went our seperate ways. I thought that was pretty nice; not your typical everyday situation that you would come across during a bike commute, at least not in my experience at least.
There is where I would like to steal an approach which I really like from Grateful Dating...
Tonight I am Grateful for: Friendly People and Cycling
Friday, October 20, 2006
Forgotten post
A quick shot from a few weeks ago in Alabama... Apparrently a daily scene from Jeff's back yard.
Long days and Great Rides
Whew! Long week...
I guess I can now understand a little bit about what it must be like to be a lawyer. Longest and busiest week of my career that's for sure. 10 + hour days are tough man!
Wanted to post all week but by the time I got home from work all week I had no desire to sit and actually do it so here I am a week later. Last weekend was pretty sweet. Friday and Saturday were fun, the highlight being a wine tasting fundraiser for my friend Lauren who is in training with a group (benefiting the lymphoma and leukemia foundation) to do a century (100 mile) bike ride in Arizona. It's a pretty sweet thing and I definitely think I'm going to get into it some day soon.
On Sunday I went out with some guys from the Racing Union for a great ride out in Loudon County VA. The weather was great even though it was a chilly 34 degrees when I left my house at 7:30am for the ride. I ended up meeting one of the guys out at the corner of Columbia and 18th street to ride out to Vienna, VA where we would meet Scott and would get a ride out to the house where the ride was leaving from, but I was late and then had to stop to flip my wheel over from fixed to free wheel and Scott picked us up a little bit before Vienna. The ride itself was great and I found the Custis Trail is a great ride and goes out quite a ways. Will keep that in mind for future rides (though I can see where it'll get pretty over crowded on weekends and what not).
The Loudon ride was great as well; miles on miles of rolling hills; chasing geared racers on my little sinle speed... I kept up pretty well and really think I could almost hang with these guys on a bike with gears. I'm all about getting on one and getting out there with one. Scott proposed I join the Racing Union and so now I am considering joining; the guys are all really cool and really nice and seem to be more then happy to welcome me to the group and basically just support the bicycle cause which is great. I think I've got a ways to go on the rhetoric and "language" of of the Union but I think I could learn... If nothing else I'll definitely continue to ride with these guys and learn the basics, not to mention the Friday Bagel rides...
I guess I can now understand a little bit about what it must be like to be a lawyer. Longest and busiest week of my career that's for sure. 10 + hour days are tough man!
Wanted to post all week but by the time I got home from work all week I had no desire to sit and actually do it so here I am a week later. Last weekend was pretty sweet. Friday and Saturday were fun, the highlight being a wine tasting fundraiser for my friend Lauren who is in training with a group (benefiting the lymphoma and leukemia foundation) to do a century (100 mile) bike ride in Arizona. It's a pretty sweet thing and I definitely think I'm going to get into it some day soon.
On Sunday I went out with some guys from the Racing Union for a great ride out in Loudon County VA. The weather was great even though it was a chilly 34 degrees when I left my house at 7:30am for the ride. I ended up meeting one of the guys out at the corner of Columbia and 18th street to ride out to Vienna, VA where we would meet Scott and would get a ride out to the house where the ride was leaving from, but I was late and then had to stop to flip my wheel over from fixed to free wheel and Scott picked us up a little bit before Vienna. The ride itself was great and I found the Custis Trail is a great ride and goes out quite a ways. Will keep that in mind for future rides (though I can see where it'll get pretty over crowded on weekends and what not).
The Loudon ride was great as well; miles on miles of rolling hills; chasing geared racers on my little sinle speed... I kept up pretty well and really think I could almost hang with these guys on a bike with gears. I'm all about getting on one and getting out there with one. Scott proposed I join the Racing Union and so now I am considering joining; the guys are all really cool and really nice and seem to be more then happy to welcome me to the group and basically just support the bicycle cause which is great. I think I've got a ways to go on the rhetoric and "language" of of the Union but I think I could learn... If nothing else I'll definitely continue to ride with these guys and learn the basics, not to mention the Friday Bagel rides...
Friday, October 13, 2006
Sweet Rides...
Today, was pretty sweet. Fridays are always good but today was making up for the shittiest week I've had in a long time. Went in to work to relatively slow (for me) day while everyone else flipped out about an upcoming seminar we are hosting and spent the morning working out dinner plans for the group. (not my typical job description but a nice break from the ordinary for me). Left the office at about 11:30 for "lunch" during which I took a bike ride to Bethesda for bagels with four other guys, all members of the Racing Union bicycling team (the blog link included to the right...) The ride was great; a nice easy pace up the Capital Crescent Trail which I've never been on and the bagels... Fantastic. I didn't get back to the office until almost 2; 2 1/2 hour lunch break baby and then managed somehow to not even get yelled at! What a great day. The rest of the work day was a breeze and I had a good ride home.
Now it turns out I'll be joining a bunch f the same guys for a longer ride on Sunday out in Loudon County which should be pretty sweet. It does mean I'll have to get in relatively early on Saturday night and forget the debauchery which I was planning after my shitty week but, all in all this is probably a good thing. Besides, tonight I'm already nearly a bottle deep tonight and plan on heading out with the roomie for a wild night tonight.
One of the coolest things though was the email I was CC'd to by my coworker Scott who said to his team he'd like to propose I join his bike club; pretty sweet and somewhat unexpected, though I was thinking of asking about it sometime soon. The fact that he'd give me that kind of recognition was pretty sweet and I have no doubt I'll probably join. I've thought about that for the last year wondering if I would be able to join his team but never thought it was something he thought about so that was a pretty sweet feeling for me. At least a slight ego boost for me here after my second dumping in a row is a good thing...
Now to continue with my boozing...
Now it turns out I'll be joining a bunch f the same guys for a longer ride on Sunday out in Loudon County which should be pretty sweet. It does mean I'll have to get in relatively early on Saturday night and forget the debauchery which I was planning after my shitty week but, all in all this is probably a good thing. Besides, tonight I'm already nearly a bottle deep tonight and plan on heading out with the roomie for a wild night tonight.
One of the coolest things though was the email I was CC'd to by my coworker Scott who said to his team he'd like to propose I join his bike club; pretty sweet and somewhat unexpected, though I was thinking of asking about it sometime soon. The fact that he'd give me that kind of recognition was pretty sweet and I have no doubt I'll probably join. I've thought about that for the last year wondering if I would be able to join his team but never thought it was something he thought about so that was a pretty sweet feeling for me. At least a slight ego boost for me here after my second dumping in a row is a good thing...
Now to continue with my boozing...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Damn
Well I knew it was coming but no matter what it still hurts like a bitch. I got the infamous "it's not you, it's me" and damn does that suck. I don't think I've ever been on the receiving end of that one so I never knew what it was like; come to think of it I have only been dumped a couple of times and even those were more that I just got the picture type situations. It's tough to sit there while she says she's sorry, her head is all messed up and that she's "an idiot" instead of the other way around. I know I've said those things before and usually mean it but being on the receiving end I just told her she's not an idiot and that it's ok all with a big stupid smile on my face when all I want to do is head let go of the smile and just go back inside my head and be alone.
It hurts no matter how long I've known it was coming; even though I've been saying since Alabama that it was coming. It would have been so much easier if I just could have known sooner, then I wouldn't have had to wait for two weeks expecting it but every once in a while getting that little bit of hope inside and a flutter in my stomach thinking that just maybe it's cool. I said maybe she's just really comfortable with me and is not worried about it all... what is she not worried about because she is so comfortable, not caring to see me? Yeah that makes since, oh well the achey heart will take any side possible other then the one where it breaks.
The worst thing about this one is that it really does hurt; I was straight up nervous when I was waiting, I guess just because I knew but I think also because there was still some hope in there too. But now she's releived and I'm just here not really able to do anything to feel better; I became a woman and ate a half a thing of sherbet but apparently that doesn't work. TV helps cause you don't think about it but tv sucks tonight, so I'm going to bed hopefully to sleep. I think it's time for that hiatus I told someone else about recently.
It hurts no matter how long I've known it was coming; even though I've been saying since Alabama that it was coming. It would have been so much easier if I just could have known sooner, then I wouldn't have had to wait for two weeks expecting it but every once in a while getting that little bit of hope inside and a flutter in my stomach thinking that just maybe it's cool. I said maybe she's just really comfortable with me and is not worried about it all... what is she not worried about because she is so comfortable, not caring to see me? Yeah that makes since, oh well the achey heart will take any side possible other then the one where it breaks.
The worst thing about this one is that it really does hurt; I was straight up nervous when I was waiting, I guess just because I knew but I think also because there was still some hope in there too. But now she's releived and I'm just here not really able to do anything to feel better; I became a woman and ate a half a thing of sherbet but apparently that doesn't work. TV helps cause you don't think about it but tv sucks tonight, so I'm going to bed hopefully to sleep. I think it's time for that hiatus I told someone else about recently.
Monday, October 09, 2006
HOTO
Never expected to have one of the greatest weekends I've had in a long time this past weekend in Pittsburgh. I went up with Pat to row in an alumni 8 at the annual Head of the Ohio river on Saturday and to catch up with all my old crew buddies. We ended up having a great race (8th overall, but we beat our current Varsity boat and the most important thing we beat our longtime rivals Carnegie Mellon in their alumni boat as well) and I spent a ton of quality time with all of the guys who I rowed with for the majority of my rowing career there at Duquesne. For most of my time there my main boat was lightweight four and over three years we basically had the same guys in the boat so we became pretty close and rowed a lot together. We spent the weekend talking about what people are doing, joking about future rowing plans (alumni boat at the head of the charles...) and remeniscing about the "good 'ol days".
I haven't had a trip to Pittsburgh that was that much fun for over a year, especially since last year my car broke down half way there and then I proceeded to get trashed after the race and not remember the majority of the night. In a couple of weeks three of the guys from the boat will be in town to run in the marathon here in DC so two will be staying here at my place and so I'll be looking forward to hanging out with them again. I really wish I could be closer with these guys though; they really were by far my closest friends in college and I just enjoy their company so much. I'm jealous of the guys that live there in Pittsburgh but know I couldn't stand moving back there. There probably wouldn't be any jobs for me there plus the weather is so hard to deal with. It is always cloudy and rains so much, that said however I could get a place just like mine in a similarly amazing location for about half the price I pay... Ah well, I guess I'll just have to convince some people to move to DC/VA/MD or something.
I haven't had a trip to Pittsburgh that was that much fun for over a year, especially since last year my car broke down half way there and then I proceeded to get trashed after the race and not remember the majority of the night. In a couple of weeks three of the guys from the boat will be in town to run in the marathon here in DC so two will be staying here at my place and so I'll be looking forward to hanging out with them again. I really wish I could be closer with these guys though; they really were by far my closest friends in college and I just enjoy their company so much. I'm jealous of the guys that live there in Pittsburgh but know I couldn't stand moving back there. There probably wouldn't be any jobs for me there plus the weather is so hard to deal with. It is always cloudy and rains so much, that said however I could get a place just like mine in a similarly amazing location for about half the price I pay... Ah well, I guess I'll just have to convince some people to move to DC/VA/MD or something.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Bent fixies and Smacking Bulldogs
Well it has been a while since my last post; kind of a combination of me having nothing interesting to write, a bit of worry about the effects blogging can have on employment and getting a bit busy. So, finally I have a few things to say and as dumb as it sounds I'm contemplating starting another blog. This being just a basic blah blah type of blog I'm starting to feel like I'd like to write about some other things that maybe mean something not only to me but actually just may find an audience that finds them interesting as well... We'll see about that. I probably should prove to myself that I can actually keep up with posting in one blog before I start thinking about starting another.
So, a couple of recent things... Last Friday I was hit on my bike (new fixie : ( ...) while riding to work (hung over of course after two of the large beer steins at Gordon Birsch and then multiple pints at the Reef after that). It was entirely my fault and in all honesty I should probably be dead but luckily an attentive driver was behind the wheel of the U-Haul sized truck that hit me. As I rode down 18th street before getting hit I was thinking about how dazed and out of it I was and that I needed to be extra careful but I mean c'mon, it was a beautiful morning and I couldn't pass up the ride into work.
When I was about 2 minutes from work I decided to drive through a lane of grid-locked stopped traffic to ride down on the far side of them when suddenly there is another lane and this truck bearing down on me, or actually more correctly hitting me since that was the first time I noticed it. When he hit me I somehow managed not to fall off the bike or anything but just kept riding where I wanted to go then looked back at him like he was crazy and rode away... Obviously still dazed and not realizing what really happened till a minute or two later. Later on Tuesday morning after being out of town for the weekend I realized that I had bent the crap out of my back wheel in the process of being hit... Damn, here comes a new wheel set. The bike is ok right now but when I got the wheel straightened the mechanic told me that my hub was completely ruined anyway (which I sort of have been suspecting) and I needed to get a new wheel and hub at this point.
Over the weekend a group of friends and I drove 13 hours to Alabama to visit our good friend Jeff who moved down to the south a few months ago and spent a nice relaxing country weekend there. Perfect weather, amazing sunsets and of course, "Bull Dog Smackin' Good BBQ". (Sorry I can't find the restaurant anywhere online but it was damn good...)
This weekend it's off to Pittsburgh (for my third weekend off traveling in a row, another reason posts have been lacking so much) to race in an alumni 8 at the Head of the Ohio on Saturday. I'm a bit nervous about this considering I have only rowed twice since I graduated in May of '05 though both of those times things went well. I guess I'll just hope I can make it the 2.6 miles without croaking. Alright that's it for now, hopefully I'll manage this blog a bit better for a while and maybe I'll just start using this to post about all the other things I'd like to go off on... We'll see.
So, a couple of recent things... Last Friday I was hit on my bike (new fixie : ( ...) while riding to work (hung over of course after two of the large beer steins at Gordon Birsch and then multiple pints at the Reef after that). It was entirely my fault and in all honesty I should probably be dead but luckily an attentive driver was behind the wheel of the U-Haul sized truck that hit me. As I rode down 18th street before getting hit I was thinking about how dazed and out of it I was and that I needed to be extra careful but I mean c'mon, it was a beautiful morning and I couldn't pass up the ride into work.
When I was about 2 minutes from work I decided to drive through a lane of grid-locked stopped traffic to ride down on the far side of them when suddenly there is another lane and this truck bearing down on me, or actually more correctly hitting me since that was the first time I noticed it. When he hit me I somehow managed not to fall off the bike or anything but just kept riding where I wanted to go then looked back at him like he was crazy and rode away... Obviously still dazed and not realizing what really happened till a minute or two later. Later on Tuesday morning after being out of town for the weekend I realized that I had bent the crap out of my back wheel in the process of being hit... Damn, here comes a new wheel set. The bike is ok right now but when I got the wheel straightened the mechanic told me that my hub was completely ruined anyway (which I sort of have been suspecting) and I needed to get a new wheel and hub at this point.
Over the weekend a group of friends and I drove 13 hours to Alabama to visit our good friend Jeff who moved down to the south a few months ago and spent a nice relaxing country weekend there. Perfect weather, amazing sunsets and of course, "Bull Dog Smackin' Good BBQ". (Sorry I can't find the restaurant anywhere online but it was damn good...)
This weekend it's off to Pittsburgh (for my third weekend off traveling in a row, another reason posts have been lacking so much) to race in an alumni 8 at the Head of the Ohio on Saturday. I'm a bit nervous about this considering I have only rowed twice since I graduated in May of '05 though both of those times things went well. I guess I'll just hope I can make it the 2.6 miles without croaking. Alright that's it for now, hopefully I'll manage this blog a bit better for a while and maybe I'll just start using this to post about all the other things I'd like to go off on... We'll see.
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