March 2007 Archives

We had a very bad storm here in the Bay on Sunday night complete with lighting and heavy winds. One crash of thunder woke me up. I didn't mind this so much since I had to pee anyway. The window from our bathroom looks down on the deck and as I looked thourgh said window I noticed our patio furniture umbrella had blown away.

Now, being lazy I thought that I would find it in the morning and went back to bed. But, hearing the wind howl and the thunder roll, I was accosted by visions of a large canvas umbrella with an aluminum pole flying through my neighbor's picture window followed by visions of me writing checks to pay for the broken window with money I don't have.

So, WoFR and I sauntered downstairs and outside, both in our respective underclothes, and scoured the back yard at 2:30 in the morning with a flashlight looking for the umbrella. We found the umbrella in an unrepairable state among some trees. Good thing it was relatively warm outside.

It would be overstating the matter to say that you make friends out here in the blogosphere (especially among the niche community of running bloggers), but you do meet people and you do learn about them. One in particular, Juls, has made it to every running blog out there and left some manner of inspiration. If you look back over the archives of the Fat Runner, you'll see she's been lurking around here since the beginning.

She's now going through something about which I cannot even fathom. All I can say is that I hope each day is better than the last and I admire her courage.

It's about 6 weeks until Pine Line. My nipples are sore. My thighs are chafed and raw. Decending stairs is painful. Physically I feel like a low-rent marathoner or a high-price prostitute. Either way, the symptoms are the same and I'm not getting paid enough.

I'm at a weird point in training where the initial enthusiasm has worn off, but the actual event still seems far away. Chicago in the fall seems like an eternity. We'll see how I feel in a few weeks after I have marathon #2 (the first of this year) under my belt.

For the duration of one whole day, listen for the following situations in your normal conversations:

• Misuse of the word "actually." This word is generally used to clarify a misconception or to correct a misstatement. For example, if someone were to come up to me and say that they heard I went to college in Ohio, I would reply with, "Actually, I went to college in Virginia." That's fine. What people are doing these days is answering straight-forward questions with a totally inappropriate use of "actually" and it drives me up the freakin' wall. You are bound to hear a Q-and-A similar to the following at least twice in one day:

  "Katie, what is your middle name?"
  "Actually, it's Samantha."

  See what I am saying? It's asinine. If person A had said, "Katie, is your middle name Pamela?" THEN it would make sense to reply as person B did. As it stands, person B is a moron.



• Overuse of the word "basically." Keep an ear open for the number of times you hear a sentence start with this word. I hear it so many times a day I'm beginning to think people are just insulting my intelligence. Seriously, if everything is so basic, I shouldn't need it explained to me. For a number of people, if the sentence doesn't start with "basicially," it sure as hell will contain it.

Major Annoyances - Part II is coming sometime.

It's hard to stay motiviated when you can actually sit and watch your job turning to crap. I used to hate my current job. Then, over the course of months, it got better. Now I like my job and am glad I stuck it out at this company. Unfortunately I can now see that my job will soon both suck and blow (yes, it's possible for both conditions to exist). This is caused by organizational changes, but mostly due to an over-zealous (yet good-intentioned) new manager.

Why stay? 1. Free gym with good-looking personal trainers. 2. Pension plan. 3. They will be picking up 80% of the tab for my graduate education. You can't beat those benefits with a stick. Once I have that masters I'll blow this toilet and be primed for the big dollars.

According to calculations fed to me by BTT, I spent 24.5 hours training (running) during the month of Febuary. Rounded down, that's one whole day/month, three eight-hour work days/month, over 12 days/year. If a short month like Febuary can produce over one whole day of running, I would imagine that if I kept the same weekly mileage I would go over 2 weeks per year spent running.

Is the time well spent? Like so many things in life, it depends...what do you think?

I'm still alive. More to follow in the coming days. But, I will leave you with this thought: when the HELL did it become acceptable for men to stroll around naked in a locker room? Once was a time where personal pride dictated that you at least wrapped a towel around yourself. Seriously...this is a national emergency...