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Thursday, January 29, 2004

airports see it all the time / where someone's last goodbye /
blends in with someone's sigh / cause someone's coming home

I realized about a week ago that I have no vacations on the calendar until July 4. (With the possible exception of the half marathon in Austin, but is running 13.1 miles really a vacation?) Anyway, this is bad. I am going to need to get out of this town sometime before then. There is the Ron and Buzz Elvis-Chapel-in-Vegas plan for the weekend of my birthday--or, more accurately, the weekend before their first anniversary--but it's also the weekend before our 5k, and I'm afraid I may need to be here taking care of last minute race details. I should plan a camping trip or something, for spring when the weather's still nice.

I'm still feeling out of it today. I haven't been sleeping enough lately, or I haven't been eating right, or something. I don't know. Last night I had this weird heart palpitation thing, and my eye has been twitching for the past few days. George says I've been exercising too much, but I didn't do anything for the entire week between the half marathon and last Sunday, so I don't think that's it. It's all very weird, though it didn't stop me from going climbing last night with Betsy. We enjoyed our ladies night at the rock gym, which was practically empty. We had our pick of any route at any time. We each did 5 routes, and my forearms were really feeling it. I will probably be sore tonight. But sore in a good way!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the best way to paint my apartment (meaning, which walls to paint) and can't figure it out. It's hard to picture without actually starting. I have heard many different opinions though. George says Home Depot has some sort of program that will let you virtually paint your house. Sounds cool.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

my brain is drawing a lyrics blank

This morning I judged science projects at Friendswood High School. It was pretty fun, and I was impressed with a few of the students and the amount of actual science they did--far more than I did when I was in high school! But now I'm somehow exhausted. I'm already aching to go home.

I had a decent run last night, 5.8 miles at about 10:40 pace. I am really horrible at judging my pace, and never really figure out how fast I was going until I'm totally done and can mentally do the math. I came home, showered, cooked myself a lovely dinner, and watched tv all night. I have become such a lazy bones when I'm at home.

This whole city is going Super Bowl crazy. All the local news stations are broadcasting from in front of the stadium, and there are all these commercials on tv telling everyone to "Smile Houston! Company's coming!" It's sort of freaking me out. I know it's a big event, and I know that it's bring 100,000 people to town or whatever, but do I really need to hear about how local hotels are upset because they were expecting more business? And how people thought they were going to be able to rent out their homes for thousands of dollars, but now they can't and don't understand why? Sheesh.

I had a very weird night last night. I'm probably exhausted today because I just didn't sleep well. I woke up at least four or five times during the night, for reasons unknown. It was just one of those tossy-turny nights. I also had weird dreams. I've been awake too long today already to remember what they were about, but I remember having them. Strange.

I feel so out of it today.

Holy crap. We got an announcement about our Yuri's Night race in JSC today (an email that goes out to everyone at the center) this morning, and I just checked the counter on my race webpage. 267 people have visited it today! Wahoo! Only 1 new person has actually signed up for the race, but I know it's only a matter of time. Hurrah!

Hee hee. The Houston-bashing has begun by the Super Bowl media, and I find it hilarious. One of the funniest:

Still, I can't shake something. When we landed in Houston on Saturday my buddy Sal asked an interesting question.
"Do you think anyone has ever spent nine straight days in Houston without actually living there?"
He was serious.
And I couldn't answer him.

Becca and I were laughing over another article from the San Jose paper where he said Houston was about the worst place on earth, when Becca said "it could be worse, it could be summer." Oh, how right she is.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

i will keep calling you to see / if you're sleeping are you dreaming? / if you're dreaming are you dreaming of me?

Two rovers on Mars. Amazing. Last night I was talking to my dad and he said "I'm just so happy for Rover!" I like how he calls them both Rover. Not "Spirit" or "Opportunity," or even "those two Mars rovers," but just Rover. My dad is so funny. Sometimes he's like a little kid. "I'm just so happy for Rover!"

I also was inducted into Debbie's geocaching cult last night. For those who may have never heard of such a thing, it involves you, your handheld GPS unit, and walking around in the woods and other various locations looking for hidden treasure. Last night we went to a park up by the ship channel and found a cache that had these cool walking sticks in it, free for the taking. Then we found another one at Bay Area Park. I'm thinking geocaching is not the best thing to do in the dark when the temperature is rapidly dropping and it's really freaking windy...but it was still entertaining.

So we just got this email, sent to all JSC employees:

AEROSMITH TO VISIT JSC

Employees are invited to a brief photo opportunity with the band Aerosmith -- Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer -- from 11:30 to 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the southeast corner of Building 30 A, looking out over the pond. Cameras are permitted and employees will be able to take photos of the band from a distance. Due to the tight filming schedule, there is no opportunity for autographs. Band members may speak to the crowd briefly before leaving for closed-door filming sessions on site.

Aerosmith is the headline act for the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. A portion of the pre-game show, including a performance by Aerosmith, will pay tribute to NASA and the crew of Columbia.

I find this hilarious. The best has got to be the "take pictures from a distance." I can't believe they had to send out an email out about this. It just conjures up images in my head of Steven Tyler standing on high giving the beauty queen wave (elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist) and saying "hello, hello" with a british accent. Maybe it's just me.

I finally got my package from mom this morning, the one I've been trying to get the UPS man to deliver since Friday. Silly UPS man. Anyway, she sent me a Panthers NFC champions t-shirt and two copies of the Observer from the day after the Panthers beat the Eagles. Very cool. I put up the "Go Panthers" poster in my office. Matt says I'm a fair-weather fan, to which I say...of course I am. I am not really into football, as most of you know. I mean, come on, baseball is so much more interesting. ;) But when I do pay attention to the NFL, I root for the Panthers, being from Charlotte and all. So I'm a fair-weather fan, but I don't care. Go Panthers!

Tonight Buzz and I go for a two-lap (5.8 mile) run. My plan is to do 6 miles this Tuesday, almost 12 next Tuesday, then 6 the next Tuesday. Those will be my long runs before the Austin Half Marathon on February 15. Combined with my 2-3 other ~3 mile runs each week, and soccer, and rock climbing, I should be fully prepared for another half marathon. I don't have a clue how well I'll do since Austin, unlike Houston, has those mysterious things called hills.

There are three people signed up for my 5k race! Hooray! Two of them are me and Jason. Minor detail.

Monday, January 26, 2004

don't you know that i'd go crazy / but you're on your own tonight / though you know i miss your smile

So yesterday as Becca and I were driving back to Clear Lake, we saw five large tour buses go by, one after another, in the opposite direction, heading into town. This morning, reading the local news, I realized that they weren't just any old tour buses--inside were the New England Patriots, freshly arrived for the Super Bowl. Cool. Though it would have been cooler if they were the Panthers (who came in to Intercontinental on the other side of the city). Go Panthers!!

Anyway. Becca and I were up in town for the infamous President's Scholarship interviews. (For those non-Georgia Tech people reading, it's a scholarship Becca and I had while there, and now we get to join the rest of the Houston GT Alumni Club in interviewing people for it, mwa ha ha!) We had nine high school seniors to interview, and the afternoon was a lot of fun, if a little tiring--I'm not even the one being interviewed, and the whole process still wore me out. I interviewed two students, one who would be a good PS and one who wouldn't, and talked to a few more. It was fun, but also sort of a strange experience. I alternated between feeling close to and then miles away from being a high school senior. There are some things they go through that I feel like I can still identify with...and then I remember how much I have changed in the eight years since I was in their position, and realize that they still have so much to learn and experience.

On Saturday, Becca and I test drove cars. The Jeep dealership, which we are convinced is smoking too much crack, was closed again, so Becca still hasn't test-driven the Wrangler. But we both tried out the Toyota Rav4, and then she came along while I test drove the Mazda Tribute and Ford Escape. The Rav4 was fun, but not very zippy (if only it came with a V6!), and small. Too bad, because I like the way it looks. Neither the Ford or the Mazda salesman gave me a satisfactory answer about the differences between the Tribute and Escape, and so I had to research it for myself. From what I can tell, they have the same frame and engine and transmission, and the interiors are practically identical, but the Tribute has a sportier suspension. The differences are in increments, not leaps and bounds.

If I were going to buy a new car tomorrow, it'd come down to the Escape or Xterra. I'd buy the Escape over the Tribute simply because I liked the Ford dealership better. But I am really tempted to go for the Xterra because I like and trust Nissan so much. It was amazing to me to see how little the salesmen know about their own product; I knew more about the Rav4, and about the differences between the Escape and Tribute, than any of the salesmen did, and I only spent a day on the internet doing the research. You'd think that if they were trying to sell them, they would have done enough studying to know the answers to basic questions like "what's the Rav4's towing capacity?" But no. I was amazed at their lack of knowledge. Anyway. We'll see. There are still more cars to test drive, and I'm not buying for at least another two months anyway. But it's quite fun to test them out. :)

It was also a weekend of movies. On Friday night I rented "All I Want" after seeing it on the shelf at Blockbuster and wondering whether it was any good. I'd never heard of it before, but it stars Elijah Wood (filmed post-LOTR), Mandy Moore, and Franka Potente, the girl from "Run Lola Run" that I like a lot. It turned out to be a sort of coming-of-age story. Pretty good. I enjoyed it. Saturday afternoon, Becca and I went to see "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" and thoroughly enjoyed the cheesiness of it, and commiserated over our mutual jealousy toward Kate Bosworth. Why? Well, if you know who she's dating, you'll understand. Saturday night, I watched my second Blockbuster rental, "SWAT." I missed it in the theater. I thought it was entertaining enough, but nothing special. There was surprisingly little at Blockbuster that interested me. I need to get out to the theater again though, as there are still a bunch of current movies on my list.

I got back from my weekly Monday lunch spanish class a little while ago, and it is so nice outside today. The weather in Houston this winter has been a roller coaster ride--lovely days like today followed by torrential rain, or cold, or a solid week of nothing but gray. A rainless cold front is supposed to come through this afternoon, and by tomorrow morning the lovely sunshine will have abated, and the current 70 degree temperature will have fallen to 35 degrees. Sigh.

Friday, January 23, 2004

fun with lists

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in, italicize
the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C.

Friday, January 23, 2004

i don't wanna be anything other than what i been tryin' to be lately /
all i have to do is think of me and i have peace of mind

Apparently my Friday night soccer team has forfeited the rest of the season, about six games. Seems no one saw fit to tell me about it though, as I had to deduce it myself from the league webpage. Slightly annoying, but no big loss, as that team was in complete disarray anyway. The first time I played with them, we had six or seven extra people on the sidelines, but every time since, we've been short people. (Which culminated in the half hour stand-in-the-cold-rain debacle before Christmas.) Anyway. That's that. Anybody want a too-big white t-shirt with the number "13" on the back? Katie?

I'm relieved to hear that the Mars rover sent something other than a beep; JPL got a half hour of comm this morning. Spirit has been doing so well for almost three weeks that it will really be disappointing if they can't diagnose and fix the problem. But in the meantime, opportunity is supposed to touch down on the other side of Mars tomorrow night. It's all so exciting! I hope the landing is as trouble-free as possible.

Last night Jen had a Yuri's Night meeting at Oriental Gourmet (a chinese buffet place). It actually turned out to be a good place to have the meeting, since it allowed us to eat dinner at the same time. I am not volunteering for anything related to the Yuri's Night party, since I'm organizing the race, but I go to the meetings to stay updated. When the discussion moved to venues, I started doodling race t-shirt designs on a napkin. I came up with one I really like, but it's going to be a challenge to draw. I'm going to attempt it and see what happens.

In the meantime, we opened online registration for the race yesterday, so if you are in the Houston area and want to run a 5k on April 3 and want to make me really happy, go here and sign up.

My weekend should be pretty nice. Maybe a movie tonight. Becca and I are going to test drive all sorts of cars tomorrow. And we're doing PS interviews on Sunday. Plus a soccer game sunday night, if it doesn't pour down rain like it did last weekend; the weather at the moment looks ominous.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

we were meant to live for so much more / have we lost ourselves

An array of thoughts today.

So I signed up for the Austin Half Marathon over President's Day weekend. Buzz talked me into it. (Or rather, she talked me out of attempting to do the full marathon!) In any case, I'm set to do another 13.1 miles.

When I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago, the girl styled it curly. You know, put some goop in, blew it dry, put some more goop in, and voila--curly hair. It looked good, and I liked it enough that I decided to try it myself. So I did, this morning. I showered. Combed my hair. Put the same goop she used in it. Blew it dry. Put some more goop in.

And now, those of you who tell me I should do more with my hair get to hear this: it's not that I don't want to do cool things with my hair. It's just that I am a miserable failure at doing it! I did the same things the hair girl did, and yet when she was done it looked great, and when I was done, it just looked frizzy and unkempt. Sigh. So I picked up the brush and straightened it all out. I will try again sometime, but no guarantees on the level of success.

Last night I went with Debbie to check out the Saturn dealership's stock of Vues. She wants to buy one, but has specific wants as far as features and packages go. The salesman there was most unhelpful, so we left without test driving, and without Debbie getting a straight answer on whether they had what she wanted. Instead, we went next door to the Nissan dealership, where I test drove an Xterra. Woohoo! The credit union is offering auto loans at 4% right now, which seems so good that it makes me want to go out and buy a car this weekend instead of waiting until April, as is dictated by my "master plan." The Xterra was nice. It rode more smoothly than I had expected, though it felt very large. But I suppose any of the vehicles I'm considering will feel large after driving my little Sentra for six and a half years. Anyway, the Xterra is on the long list of possibilities; others under consideration include the Toyota Rav4 or Highlander, Jeep Liberty, Mazda Tribute, Ford Escape or Explorer, Honda CR-V or Pilot. I plan to test drive them all over the next month or two, but the list can probably be reduced realistically to the Rav4, Xterra, Liberty, or Tribute/Escape. I plan to buy in late March or April. I will miss my little Sentra, but the idea of getting a new car is exciting.

I have been annoyed with work lately, lacking motivation/inspiration, disappointed that no one seems to care about what I'm doing, and tired of being subject to the whims of politics. But sometimes all you need is a fresh perspective. I was halfheartedly venting my frustrations over the phone to a friend last night when he jumped in to say that NASA is the only part of the government that is in the business of looking forward, of being visionary, of looking beyond ourselves.

And I realized he was right.

I may not be crazy about my day-to-day job, but I am still passionate about the space program, and about exploration. And that's pretty cool.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

you can play the game / you can act out the part / but you know it wasn't written for you

I have to preface this by saying that Becca gave me permission to post it!

I had a dream last night that I went with Becca to her dad's house. From all the stories I have heard, I must have a low opinion of her dad. There were four children under the age of two, the place was a pigsty, and there was nothing to eat. I relayed this to Becca this morning, who responded "that's pretty accurate," with a laugh. The only difference was that I felt like I was in a mobile home, sort of like the one my grandmother used to have at Myrtle Beach. And Becca's dad definitely doesn't live in a mobile home.

Anyway. That was my weird dream. If you are a member of Becca's family, don't kill me. :)

The older I get, the more I like to people watch. One of my favorite things about big cities like New York is that you can walk down quiet streets and look into people's homes. I know that sounds creepy and stalker-ish, but bear with me. Sometimes they'll be getting ready for dinner, or working on the computer, or walking out the door. Sometimes they're not even home, and in that case, I just look at how they've decorated.

Lately, I have been wanting my own house. not for the permanence of it, or for the tax benefits, or for the yard...but for the decoration potential. I want to paint my walls and have perfect spaces for my knick-knacks. Much of the time, I people watch and look in windows simply because I love seeing what people do with the space they live in. It's a rare occurance in Houston for me to do anything like that, especially living in an apartment complex. But last night as I was walking back from the mailbox in the dark, I saw an apartment that was brightly lit, blinds still open. One room had a pink glow, another was light blue. I wondered if they were using colored light bulbs or something to make everything look so calm and pretty. In any case, it all looked so inviting that I walked out-of-the-way to get a closer look.

And then it hit me. They painted their walls! Painted! They did that thing that the complex management told me a year ago that I couldn't do!

That's it. I'm painting. I can't decide whether to ask permission first or not. If I ask and they say no, then I'm knowingly violating something, which is probably not the best idea. But if I do it without asking... I need to find the copy of my lease so I can look and see if it says anything specific. I'm willing to lose my security deposit, or at the least, paint the walls back when I'm done. I just want to paint. I can't really explain it, but I want to paint!

So now I'm trying to think of colors. Maybe a yellow for the living room. Hmm. We shall see!

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

but this morning / there's a calm i can't explain

Ok, so I had an entry all written, but then this woman came in to check the configuration of a piece of software, and she restarted my computer, and poof! The entry was gone. So I will retype what I remember.

The half marathon gave us "finisher" sweatshirts, and I have been wearing mine pretty much non-stop since Sunday morning. Well, ok, I didn't wear it to work today, but I'll probably put it on again as soon as I go home. The design is actually sort of ugly (red and black on a white sweatshirt, who wants a white sweatshirt, I mean, that's just asking to get filthy), but I am so proud of myself for running the thing that I wear it proudly anyway. I am probably going to sign up for the Austin half marathon in a month, since Buzz and Ron are already going and have invited me to share the hotel room. I am really, really tempted to enter the full marathon. I probably couldn't run the whole way, but even if I walked some, I could finish well within the 8 hour time limit. I could probably keep pace with the 5-hour pace team... Very tempting.

My official time, as listed on the race website, was 2:15:01. I'm just going to round down to 2:15. :)

I had a wonderful MLK day off work yesterday, sleeping till 10:30 and staying in my PJs until almost 2:00. I bummed around the ol' apartment, vacuumed, straightened up, did some rearranging of the front closet to make it possible to find things in, watched Spiderman on HBO. I had very little post-race soreness, and by evening I was ready to get out of the house, so I went rock climbing with Betsy and Jason! I finally remembered to pull out the camera and take some pictures of us doing battle with the wall, so those of you who don't live here, or don't climb, can finally see the rock gym that I'm always talking about on Tuesdays. Last night was sparsely attented, so I'll have to take more pictures in the future when Buzz, Becca, Gavin, Fred, and others come.

That's it for now. This week is going to throw me off, since I keep forgetting it's actually Tuesday instead of Monday. But that's not really a complaint so much as an observation.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

run, run, as fast as you can

Last night I went to bed at 9:00 for the first time in ages, but because I did, I got almost a full 8 hours of sleep. I woke up at 5 a.m., got dressed, and ate a bowl of cereal with a banana on top. Buzz picked me up at 5:20. We drove downtown in the dark, parked the car, and headed for the bright lights of the convention center. We used the bathroom, ate a power bar, pinned our numbers carefully on our shirts, lubed up with the sportglide, and left our sweatshirts at the baggage area. We shivered for 10 minutes in the semi-darkness, the sun just beginning to creep up. Suddenly, there was a boom like a cannon (literally--it scared me) and we were off!

My plan was to start out running 11 minute miles, because that is the pace I know I can handle over long distances. At the first mile marker, I glanced at my watch. 10:50. Pretty close. I was feeling good, and kept plugging along.

All along, I have been saying that my first and only real goal was to finish the race. To give Ron and Buzz some idea of when to look for me, I told them that I should be done in 2:30:00, and maybe 2:20:00 on a really good day.

By the 10K mark, which I passed in 1:05:15 (my best 10K time ever), I realized that I was indeed having a really great day. I was averaging a 10:30 mile and was still feeling fantastic. The crowd was cheering, and I couldn't help but smile. I was going to finish in 2:20:00!

I saw Buzz heading back the other way around mile 8, and cheered for her. I reached the turnaround at mile 9 still feeling strong. When I checked my watch at mile 10 and saw that I was under 1:45:00 with only a 5K to go--and I still felt great--I started to get really excited. I turned my headphones on for the first time, Counting Crows singing in my ears to keep me going.

I passed mile 11 on Allen Parkway, and mile 12 just shy of downtown. With 1.1 miles to go, I pushed against the breeze that had picked up between the tall buildings, and could see the convention center looming in the distance. I was almost there! I never saw the mile 13 sign, but saw the still-covered mile 26 marker, and knew I only had 0.2 miles to go. I picked up the pace again.

I rounded the corner for the last tenth of a mile and could see the finish line ahead of me! I looked at my watch and almost fell over right then and there. Instead, I went from run to full sprint, breath heaving as I steamed toward the finish line. I crossed it and looked at my watch...

2:15:03!!!

My first half marathon ever, the farthest I've ever run, and I did it in 2:15:03! 10:19 a mile!

Ohmigod! I don't know if I have ever been so excited in my life. I am so pumped up right now! When I stopped running, my knees tightened up for a while, but it's been almost three hours now since I finished, and I'm feeling great except for one thing: my stomach is rumbling and I am famished. Off to make myself a great big celebratory lunch!

Friday, January 16, 2004

you think to yourself how good it feels / put away all your walking shoes / then you come running to me

i made the mistake of popping in my "pirates of the caribbean" dvd last night at about 11:00, and thus was up till midnight again. and i'm paying for it this morning. i didn't get to work until almost 9, and i'm still sleepy. this week has just been weird for my sleeping habits; i just haven't felt tired in the evening. oh well. at least the first 45 minutes or so of the movie was entertaining. johnny depp's character repeatedly cracks me up.

when i left work last night it was drizzling really lightly, and i was hoping that i could still run outside. i don't mind running in drizzle, but if it's hard enough to drip in my eyes and form puddles that threaten the dryness of my shoes, i won't go. by the time i had changed clothes, the drizzle had picked up to that point, so i hit the treadmill. there was one other guy in the workout room doing weights, but other than that i had it to myself. i set it on 5.5 miles per hour and started running.

god, i hate the treadmill. i read so many articles about how treadmill running is easier, and better for your joints because it's more cushioned and all. but every time i run inside, i find myself counting the minutes until i can stop. i just don't feel like i can run as fast or as well inside--case in point being that last night over 3 miles i only averaged a 10:40 mile, and felt exhausted when i finally stopped. and my lower legs ached more afterward. i have almost come to the conclusion that it's the environment. when i'm inside, in a climate-controlled area, i always get hotter and more sweaty than i prefer to be while running. maybe treadmill running would be better if i could do it in a 55 degree room instead of 75.

i don't really understand why i find treadmill running to be harder than outdoor, when it is supposed to be easier. but i do.

i have been thinking about training for a full marathon in either march/april or october/november. it seems to make sense, because i'm already halfway through the training that i'd need to do. march/april is tempting, but it would involve traveling somewhere. october/november would be good, especially since november is the beginning of the 4-month-long texas marathon season (san antonio in november, dallas in december, houston in january, austin in february)...but to be ready in late fall means training in late summer. late summer. in houston. UGH. which means i'd either be doing my long runs inside on the dreaded treadmill or outside in the 80-degree "chill" of darkness. so i dunno.

on tuesday, buzz mentioned interest in the marine corps marathon (in dc in october), which is supposed to be good for beginners and is one i would consider traveling for. not to mention i know people in dc. so that is tempting. but the summertime training might kill me!

we shall see. at the least, i know that i'm going to have to at least maintain my current level of training, which means probably a 1.5-2 hour run every other week. i think i can do that while i decide what my next step is.

anyway. i've rambled on about running enough for one day, but only because i didn't really have anything else to talk about. yesterday was uneventful, and the weekend is "quiet." soccer was cancelled for tonight by forfeit, though i don't know if it was my team that forfeited, or the other one. weird.

tomorrow morning debbie and gavin and i are getting up early to go to challenger park and map out a 5k race course using debbie's handheld gps. from there debbie and i are headed to reliant stadium for super bowl volunteer training--we are both volunteering to work at the nfl experience on the saturday before the game, so we have to go get oriented and get our t-shirts. from there debbie kindly agreed to go with me to the convention center to pick up my (and buzz's) half-marathon packet. then home to sit on my butt all afternoon in preparation for 13.1 miles on sunday morning!

we have monday off work for mlk day. good thing. i will likely be sitting at home resting my poor abused leggies.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

we drove out to the desert / just to lie down beneath this bowl of stars

people never look up anymore.

i know that light pollution is a huge problem, and is quite depressing, but even from major cities, you can usually see a star or two. people never look. i wonder why this is, and i wonder when people stopped looking.

i always look. i don't really know why, but i always do. perhaps it's just ingrained, from being interested in space, and from all those chilly nights lying under blankets on the tennis courts with dad, looking up. last night it was cloudy, but a few nights ago, as i drove home from ron and buzz's, orion was brilliant, and high in the sky. sirius was bright and steady. all the stars were twinkling like they always do.

gavin mentioned yesterday that we will have to study up on the southern sky before we go to peru. ee gads! i hadn't even thought of that yet! we'll get to see a totally different sky! the southern cross! it will be so cool.

last night, i vegged. got home from work at 6:30, popped in a tv dinner, and sat on my butt on the couch. i watched smallville. i watched the o.c. i contemplated doing my taxes, but didn't. i hung curtains in my bedroom. i didn't run. and i didn't shower till this morning.

it was great.

full-time life is hectic. my first few months of full-time, no-more-school work were slow, but the past year has flown by. it seems like i always have something to do in the evening, so going straight home from work and staying there feels like such a luxury. i don't think i have anything on the schedule for tonight either, except a leisurely 3 mile run (my last before the race), so hopefully i will just lounge at home again. watch friends. watch the apprentice. watch someone get fired by donald trump.

i never used to watch tv. when i was little, we were only allowed a half hour of tv per day. and now it's always on. sometimes for the shows, sometimes just for the noise. and i know what shows are on each night. how pathetic. it's probably turning my brain to sawdust.

three more days until the half marathon, on sunday. the webpage has this very cool feature where you can sign up to track any runner, and it will send a message to your email account, pager, or cell phone whenever the person crosses the splits, and the finish line. i don't know what the splits are, but i'd imagine it's probably 5k, halfway mark, 10 miles, and finish, or something like that. in any case, i already signed my parents up, but if anyone out there would like to receive emails or text messages on sunday as i am running, you can go here, put in my name, and sign up!

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

blind comatose monkeys

Mars Needs Dim Republicans / Dubya dons a shiny spacesuit, dreams of spending billions to meet little green men. The nation cringes

ok, so this article is pretty negative, but this guy still cracks me up every time...this time, the whole article was worth it for these 2 paragraphs:

"Look. NASA is wonderful. Space exploration is magnificent and essential and we learn enormous amounts about ourselves in the process. The Spirit rover on Mars right now? Breathtaking.

Astounding new technologies are developed during major NASA missions, ideas that trickle down into the cultural mainstream and make life, if not easier, then at least more interesting, or lighter, or thinner, or edible at temperatures down to minus 450 degrees with a battery pack that lasts 127 hours and a new infrared extrasensory ink that can be read by blind comatose monkeys. Space is good."

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

heeere fishie fishie fishe

last night i was treated to a delicious alaskan feast. nick and steph brought all sorts of food back from their trip home to alaska for the holidays, and fed us all at edgar and betsy's last night. there was alaskan beer (like 3 different kinds), two kinds of smoked salmon, blackened salmon, grilled salmon, king crab legs, beer-battered halibut, and moose. it was all delicious. i think my favorites were the halibut and the smoked salmon. the moose tasted pretty much like pot roast. the beer was good.

it was all good, and i was stuffed by the end. i had only planned on staying long enough to eat and chat briefly, because i was pretty tired. buzz and i ran last night (i went two laps, 5.8 miles), then i went home to shower quickly before heading over to the alaskan feast. add to that hecticness the fact that i haven't slept well the past few nights, and i was pooped. but the food was so good, and the people were so entertaining, and nacho was talking to me in excited spanish, and we were all having a good time...and next thing i knew it was 10:00, and so i am still sleepy today. i need to get some serious sleep before the half marathon on sunday.

i met with the people at challenger park this morning about having our yuri's night race there, and the news is excellent! they approved of our plans, and so we are truly off and "running" now. i'm a race director. yee! i am excited.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

but if you think it, want it, dream it / then it's real / you are what you feel

check it out. extremely cool.

i am going to be so sore tonight, after climbing last night. i am getting really close to conquering the yellow 5.9 in one go, and so last night i tried a new blue one. it was tough! it may be my new yellow--the one i keep struggling with every week, improving ever so slowly. after that, i climbed a red that the key sheet said was pretty easy, but i had to take like 5 breaks. i don't know if the marking was wrong (very possible) or if my arms were just too dead to do it late in the evening (also very possible). i'll have to give it a go again next week. last night i did warm up on my new favorite route thought--a green one that is mostly easy, but has one challenging move at the top. it's fun. my new rock shoes felt tighter last night though and were rubbing my heel, i banged my right knee into the wall multiple times (bruise), i took a nice layer of skin off my pinky finger, and i scraped the back of one knuckle. not the greatest night in terms of boo-boos gotten.

ok, so i have decided that today is my day to pat myself on the back for 5 minutes. why? because i forgot to mention the satisfying personal moment of sunday night's soccer game, and that was: it's always nice to find out that the other team is just a wee bit scared...of you.

now, i'm an average soccer player, at best. even when i do play well, i'm not the star because i play defense, and am never the one scoring goals or dribbling circles around the other players. i'm fine with this, in fact, i prefer it this way. my dribbling skills are actually pretty shoddy, which means that my saving graces are two simple things. first, i'm not scared of the ball. my reflexes, though very good when they absolutely need to be, are too unconcerned with things coming at me for me be scared of a soccer ball (but that's another story). second, i'm a "big foot" and thus have a good, solid, over-your-head, distance-covering kick. now, compared to men, or even to college women, my kick sucks. but compared to the vast majority of girls i've ever played against, it's pretty good.

i played for five or six years from about third grade to eighth grade, when i got up the guts to try out for my junior high team. i made the team, but the details are sort of hazy except for one play. we were at home, at sedgefield, and i was playing stopper. or maybe sweeper. point being, i was in the back, in the middle. the other team came charging down the field, but the forward with the ball kicked it just a little too far ahead, and i was able to get to the ball just a couple steps ahead of her. bam! the ball went flying in the air off my foot, booted back down the field. on the sidelines, as he was just hanging out after school watching the game, chris walker yelled something like "wow!" (only remembering chris walker, it was probably something much less geeky-sounding and more more profanity-laden.)

i entertained thoughts of trying out for my high school's soccer team, but i was young and naive and a really big wuss back then, and i talked myself out of it. i used some excuse about doing marching band in the fall, so i wouldn't want to have to go straight from that to soccer in the spring. looking back, i obviously wish i had tried out, because i think i had a decent chance of making the team. but i didn't. and i didn't play soccer again until my spring quarter at stanford, when i decided to buy some new cleats and play with the aero/astro intramural team. i moved to houston, joined the co-op team, found out from cari about the bay area soccer league, and next thing i know, i'm on three different teams and loving it. my favorite team is the women's team, despite my frequent little frustrations with how our games turn out. i like playing against all women, and one reason is that while we're playing, we talk to each other, and joke around a
little. it makes for some fun moments, and occasionally some unintentional
compliments, like those i got on sunday night.

the first time, the opposing team was running down the field, coming towards me and my defense. buzz marked the girl on the outside, maria marked the girl in the middle, and i was left with the girl coming between those two. the ball was kicked up from midfield, and rolled toward me. i was about 15 feet from the ball; the girl i was marking was about the same distance on the other side. i sprinted toward it, hoping to get there before she did.

she took a few quick steps, and then...she stopped. i reached the ball, and sent it flying up to our forwards. i had already taken a few good goal kicks, and gotten a couple other touches in the game, and i guess they had noticed. as i jogged upfield, i heard the girl call to a teammate,
"sorry, but i didn't want to get in front of that!!"

"ha HA!" i thought. "stay away from my kick of doom!" i laughed to myself for the rest of the half. then, in the second half, a loose ball came rolling toward me. the other team was pressuring, but not hard, and as i dribbed the ball away from the center of the field, i heard a defensive back on the other team yell all the way down the field, "don't give her time to set it up!" it was too late though, as i already had the ball where i wanted it. kick. back up the field it went. and i giggled again.

like i said: it's always nice to know the other team's a wee bit scared of you.

i like soccer.

Monday, January 12, 2004

thought i might get a rocket ride / when i was a child / but it was (NOT!) a lie

friday afternoon, chris, jason and i became season ticket holders for the houston astros. i was pumped for two reasons. one: ever since i really got into baseball, i've waited for the day i could afford season tickets (we got a 27-game mini-plan). and two: we get an option for the all-star game, which is going to be in houston this year. so it was friday afternoon, and i'm feeling good, feeling proud, feeling ready for april. and then i just get back to my desk today after a morning and early afternoon of meetings, and find out that the astros just signed roger clemens!!

holy crap!!

i mean, seriously, HOLY CRAP!!!

i had a nice weekend. get-together at ron and buzz's place on friday night; 4 mile run, errands, and settles/seafarers of catan on saturday; chatting, cleaning, errands, and soccer game on sunday. i did manage to forget to watch the panthers game (but fortunately saw the highlights on sportscenter), and couldn't watch the tech-carolina game last night because of soccer (oh well, tech got pummelled anyway).

and soccer last night was infinitely frustrating. we played incredibly well the first half, and it was a fluke that we didn't score. we played worse the second half, but the game was still tied 0-0 with 45 seconds left when the other team scored. i was so silently enraged for one simple reason: if my team had held the defensive line, the other team would not have scored. i'm the sweeper, thus i'm the "keeper of the line." so the other team is setting up for their kick, and i'm standing about 20 feet in front of the goal yelling "hold the line, yellow!" i turn to look at the girl on the other team. she kicks the ball, it goes over my head, i turn around, and BAM--two of my own teammates have run behind me, thus allowing three members of the other team to run behind me, thus allowing one of them to kick the ball in the goal just before megan, our keeper can reach it.

so maddening.

then, to make matters worse, as the game ended and we were walking back over to the sidelines, two of my own teammates started yelling at each other. i tried to calm them down, but they wouldn't listen. one of our others players turned to me quietly and said "it's not worth it sarah, they've been arguing the entire game." i couldn't get them to drop it. apparently each of them thought the other was getting in her way, but come on! we are the only team that fights among itself! how absurd is that!

so it was 85 minutes good, and 5 minutes bad. but those 5 minutes were enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth for a few hours last night. c'est la vie. we are improving, though, and at this point i think the thing that's holding us back is our communication, not our athletic skills.

Friday, January 09, 2004

talking about love is like dancing without architecture

i am disgruntled with t-mobile. they won't give me the phone that i want, the samsung e715. basically, if i weren't already a t-mobile customer, i could get the phone for $50 and keep my number. since i am already a customer, the only way to get the phone for $50 is to change my number. if i want to keep my number and stay with t-mobile, i have to pay $250. this makes no sense!! so now i'm debating whether to switch companies or not. if anyone wants to chime in with praise for cingular, verizon, at&t, or someone else, now is the time to do it.

last night i was really out of it, after staying at work late and then getting stuck in traffic on my drive home (which is rather absurd, seeing as how my drive home is only about 2 miles). i had planned to go to the mall, and to the grocery store, and ended up doing neither. there was enough in my freezer to make stir fry, so i did manage to feed myself for another day despite the desperate lack-of-groceries situation. i don't know why, but i just don't like going to the grocery store, and always end up avoiding it for as long as possible. so i stayed home, and watched friends, and watched that new show "the apprentice" with donald trump. i didn't really pay much attention to either, but just ended up sitting on the floor for two hours zoned out and thinking about things.

i often end up sitting on the floor leaning against the couch rather than just sitting on the couch. i can't really think of anyone else i know who does this, so perhaps it is a bit weird. i never really thought about it until last night when i realized i'd watched the entire hour and a half tv show from the floor.

anyway. at 9 i was aimlessly channel surfing when i came across the movie "playing by heart." it came out sometime during college, but i never saw it in the theater; i get the impression that it didn't do that well, despite having a wonderfully eclectic cast of angelina jolie (in my favorite of her many roles), gillian anderson, sean connery, anthony edwards, dennis quaid, jon stewart, ryan phillippe, etc. whenever i see it on tv, i always stop channel flipping, and i can't watch the movie without thinking of christina. it's one of her favorites. i can guess why she likes it, because it's probably for a lot of the same reasons that i ended up liking it when i finally saw it, and every time since. it's about love, and relationships. i guess if that sounds interesting to you, i'd recommend you go watch it, but i don't really want to try to explain it any more. i'm not really good with explaining movies, or why i like or don't like them. but this one always reminds me of one of my other favorite movie quotes.

i don't want to be in love. i want to be in love in a movie.

i'm glad it's the weekend.

Thursday, January 08, 2004

here at the end of all things

i feel crappy. when i am sick, it is usually in the half-sick sort of way, where i don't really want to go to work, but i don't really want to stay home. at work, there's at least something to do. at home, i'd just be sick and bored. so here i am. i actually feel better at the moment than i did this morning. becca must be feeling worse than she did yesterday, because it's 10:00 and she still hasn't shown up for work.

i'm foggy though. ray came in about half an hour after me and informed me that i left my headlights on. so i headed back out to the parking lot in the drizzle to turn them off. the weather is nasty, and depressing. i haven't seen the sun in the week since i got back to houston, and it's getting old.

yesterday i went to get my hair cut and dyed. i had considered cancelling because, duh, i felt crappy, but i went anyway. it turned out well. the guy i used to go to no longer works at the salon (i didn't ask why, so i don't know if he left, or was fired, or what), so i went to a new girl named amanda. i really liked her, and she did an awesome job with my hair. when i told her i'm trying to go back to my natural dirty blond, she had a great suggestion to lighten it up from its current dark brown. so three hours (yes, three hours, good lord) and about ten pounds of foil later, my hair is lighter, but not fake-looking. happy me. hurrah.

i was reading yesterday about a continental flight from tokyo to houston that developed an oil leak in one engine and had to make an emergency landing on midway island. now, mechanical problems on a plane over the middle of nowhere in the pacific ocean is nothing to joke about, but i do think it is sort of cool that the people on the plane got to stop at midway island! i mean, how often does anybody have a chance to go there?? random.

so the hour and a half run on tuesday night was probably not such a good idea. it certainly didn't help me get rid of this cold, or whatever bug i have. and my legs have been really sore ever since. odd. my legs don't get sore from running anymore, or so i thought. maybe it also has something to do with climbing on monday after not having worked my muscles for three weeks.

well. i think i'll try to get gavin's parameterized footprints ready by lunchtime, then maybe take the afternoon off. in the meantime, my ipod and complete lord of the rings trilogy soundtracks will comfort me.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

reliving 2003 in 10 short minutes

so here it is, a full week into 2004, and i still haven't really done a wrap-up of 2003, save the stats i posted about how much i ran, biked, and swam last year. odd, since i am usually big on quantifying and categorizing things. so let's see...

2003 started off beautifully with a trip to france, which was a lot of fun. but on february 1, columbia broke up and the days from then until the end of june were a blur of sims, presentations, questions, and trying to find answers. the only way i can keep track of those five months is by the things that squeezed their way around work--my first 10k in february, a trip to atlanta in march, ron and buzz's wedding in april, and winning unexpected money with my camera phone.

in june, i emerged from the work fog and checked fenway park and yankee stadium off my list of stadiums to visit. on one of those visits i saw the astros no-hit the yankees using 6 different pitchers, which was both bizarre and a thing of beauty. i had a steady stream of activity in the summer, with a triathlon, mom and david coming at the end of june, a trip to atlanta to run the peachtree 10k for independence day, buying a sailboat, katie here for a post-mexico weekend in mid-july, leila here for a concert at the end of july, a trip to atlanta for james and chrissy's wedding, a professional conference in austin, and moving to a new apartment less than 300 feet from my old one. september brought a camping trip to enchanted rock, an unexpected phone call from the newly-engaged katie, and the beginning of a new soccer season, when i suddenly was playing on three different teams. in october i was out of town every weekend--an adventure race followed by 9 days in greece followed by daniel and virginia's wedding. by the beginning of november i had begun training (with the help of "coach" buzz) for my first half marathon, which is now only 10 days away. the rest of november was the calm before the storm of activity in early december. i finally got to escape for two wonderful weeks in charlotte with my wonderful family, where i made a wonderful quilt, and then rang in the new year in atlanta with two of my wonderful friends. wonderful.

so that's the quick recap. i'm sure i've forgotten stuff but wow, the year really flew by. here's hoping for a great 2004. i'm going to simply reuse my one resolution from last year: keep running. carter lost 25 pounds in the last year, which is amazing to me. but then i realized that i've lost 25 pounds in the last two years, which is also pretty amazing. not to mention that i actually have muscle now. hurrah. linda hamilton in terminator 2, here i come. (ok, yeah, right. hee hee.)

on to other things. mars continues to amaze me. i was talking to a friend about it last night, and my wayward attempts to construct 3d glasses here in the office yesterday out of a transparency, a file folder tab, and a lebanese flag, when i had a revelation. i had a national geographic from 1998 that had 3d pictures from pathfinder, and included in the magazine were two pairs of 3d glasses! hurrah! as i told becca this morning, you can make fun of me all you want for being a packrat and using the "shifting piles" method of organization, but give me credit for one thing: when i remember that i have something, i know right where to go to find it. once i remembered i had the magazine, it was in my hands in less than a minute. score. so this morning, armed with real 3d glasses, i checked out all the anaglyphs (anaglyph, noun: a moving or still picture consisting of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colors that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly colored filters) from mars. very cool, very cool.

i also called t-mobile yesterday, and am disgruntled because i haven't talked them into giving me the phone that i want for less than $250 yet. i'll pay $100 for it. but not $250. grumble. i could get it for $100 if i weren't already a t-mobile customer, but since i am their customer, i can't. or i can, but only if i'm willing to change my phone number, again. something about that doesn't make sense. grumble grumble. any suggestions?

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

spinning around like nobody's watching / nobody else but me / so far beyond my imagination / if only they could see

two things. first, i need some 3D glasses. i wonder if i could color saran wrap red and blue and make them myself... second, just ridiculously hot.

now that that's out of the way...

i am ecstatic that the spirit rover landed successfully on mars, and i am anxiously awaiting color pictures (hopefully sometime today). if spirit had had problems landing, it would have a big effect on the 2009 mars science laboratory lander, the mission for which i'm now working on the entry guidance team. entry guidance! until this week, i don't think i had really registered how huge and important an issue that is. good entry guidance = successful landing. bad entry guidance = lost in space forever. anyway. i am incredibly excited, and incredibly relieved, that spirit is there (on mars! good lord!) and sending back incredible pictures.

so this morning it is 34 degrees outside, and i swear this weather is going to kill me. not the 34 degree weather, and not the 80 degree weather, no, not either separately. but i can't deal with the temperature dropping 50 degrees in 36 hours, then going back up in another 36. yesterday my throat was doing its telltale achy, scratchy, needles thing...and sure enough, today my throat feels fine, but my nose is slowly stuffing up. it's how a typical sarah cold always progresses, so maybe the cold that has been threatening literally since the beginning of december is finally here. oh well, at least i can finally get over it. i have been gulping the orange juice.

because of the cold (temperature, not virus), i pulled a sweater out of the closet that i haven't worn in, hmm, probably at least a year and a half, maybe two years. it's a green lambswool cardigan from old navy. i bought it one of my last years at tech, probably, so it's old, but not that old. however, when i went in to get coffee, george kindly pointed out to me that it has holes in it! on the back, and in the armpit, where i didn't notice them this morning. i am so embarrassed! i have no idea what happened, other than something must have eaten it. rich says ants eat clothes, which i don't know if i believe, but it certainly looks like something liked the taste of it.

colds are weird though. they make me uncomfortable, but usually not to the point where i want to stay home. last night for instance, despite the sore throat, i went climbing. i mean, i had to, i had new shoes and a new harness, and i couldn't wait to use them! i'm happy to report that the harness is quite a bit more comfortable than the crappy rock gym harnesses. and the shoes, though stiff because of their newness, are going to be great. it's funny--a lot of people at the gym have the same shoes, but you can tell that mine are new because mine are bright purple, while theirs have faded. i don't know why rock shoes are so colorful. anyway, climbing was excellent. i am getting really close to climbing the yellow nemesis in one go (despite the fact that i swear they've moved the volcano hold about 6 inches from where it used to be). and last night they had the coolest thing--a list that finally had accurate route ratings for each rope. the yellow nemesis is a 5.9. the green on the other wall that i can do pretty easily now is also a 5.9. there's a new blue 5.9 that i need to try. it's nice to know what you're climbing, and to use to list to determine what else you should be trying.

for anyone interested in structures, materials, or general engineering analysis, this is an interesting article in the new york times today about the analysis being done on the world trade center collapse, fire science, building construction, and more. i found it to be a really interesting article. things like this, and the fact that nasa can land a tiny robot on freaking mars, always remind me that there are some really smart people in the world.

Monday, January 05, 2004

it's only her first day

it's only her first day back at tech, and karen is already cracking me up with her 6:30 wake-up time and frustration at not being able to find the key man. hee hee hee. i don't know, i think i am just in the kind of mood this morning where everything is tickling me. especially the phrase "tickling me."

believe it or not, i was actually looking forward to getting back to work this morning. not for work, but to see my lovely coworkers. when you spend 40 hours a week with people, you start to miss their crazy antics when you don't see them for two weeks. i got off the elevator this morning and saw rich coming down the hall towards me, and just started smiling uncontrollably. it is nice to see him, and matt, and george (even though george has not officially come in to talk to me yet, punk). and that damn homer simpson rubik's cube, which still haunts me. becca is here of course, as she was on friday, and gavin will be back tomorrow.

so this weekend was lovely, except for the freaking weather. it was like 75 degrees and really muggy outside, with ominous clouds that never actually rained. i had all the windows in my apartment open, and my ceiling fans running, and i was still hot. i didn't turn on the a/c, but only because it was a matter of principle; it just would have felt wrong to turn on the a/c during the first week of january, but i was so tempted. but finally, the warm weather fever broke. last night after dinner with kennda, becca, and nick, i went to work out around 9:30. i did the elliptical while watching the third quarter of the sugar bowl, and when i walked back to my apartment, i couldn't help noticing that it was really windy, and that i was actually feeling cold again. miracle of miracles! a cold front rushed in with amazing speed--the temperature probably dropped 20 degrees in the 45 minutes i was working out. i had to close all my windows, and this morning i wore a sweater and a coat. hurrah. winter, or at least houston's version of it, has returned.

let's see, the rest of the weekend... friday night i joined chris, jason, and debbie for a trip downtown to see thoroughly modern millie. we have season tickets to theater under the stars (tuts), but originally our tickets were for december 22 or something when none of us were going to be around. so we rescheduled for friday. i really enjoyed the show! i didn't know what the story was about, and didn't know any of the music, but it was a neat story, and fun roaring 20's music. and there was tap dancing! hurrah. i loved it.

saturday morning i headed over to chris's new apartment to watch the tech bowl game on his gigantic new tv. ron came over too, decked out in more tech gear than i had! how embarassing. anyway, chris's tv is awesome. we watched the bowl game on one half of the split screen feature, and the unc-kentucky basketball game on the other half. (tech trashed tulsa. yay. but unc lost. boo.) it was a big day for sports--later, i watched the tech-uga bball game via internet. (tech lost. boo.) and then to top everything off, i watched the panthers beat the cowboys to move on to the next round of the nfl playoffs. so: four games, two wins for my teams. decent, though it could/should have been better.

yesterday i slept in, then attempted to test drive jeeps with becca, but apparently car dealerships are closed on sundays. who knew? we consoled ourselves with a trip to wal-mart, where i got embroidery floss to tie my quilt with, and something hilarious to send alex.

so i was reading an article about getting fit in the new year, and it had the following paragraph:

"Change is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either do it, or you don't. You can't just exercise for 3 times one week, once the next week, take a couple of weeks off, go twice a week, and so on and expect to reap all the benefits. Only a handful of people can get into a regular exercise routine by suddenly beginning to exercise. Something just clicks inside and they workout with energy, and they enjoy it. But for the other 95%, getting into a regular routine with exercise is not so easy."

it was interesting to me because 1) it's totally true and 2) i hadn't ever seen it written down before. for years and years, i was unhappy with my health and weight, but whenever i started to exercise, it only lasted for a few weeks. then suddenly, one day i started running, and for some unknown reason it stuck, and two years later i'm still running. i think part of it was gathering the courage to enter a road race, and finding that to be a really fun experience. i try to run at least one race a month to keep me motivated. and i think another part of it was that i was in california at the time i started running, and californians are big on exercise, and stanford was in such an outdoor-friendly environment.

anyway. off i go.

Friday, January 02, 2004

2003 summary

• 289 miles run
• 141.7 miles biked
• 3.75 miles swum
• 14 road races, 1 triathlon, 1 adventure race
• ~1 trip to the rock gym per week since august
• ~40 soccer games
• ~20 softball games

last year my resolution was to keep on running, and i did that. i lowered my 5k time from 30:09 to 29:18. by this time next year, i will have run a half marathon (coming up on january 18!), and i hope to have run a 5k close to 28:00. and maybe a marathon.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true

Friday, January 02, 2004

if i get home before daylight / just might get some sleep tonight

no matter how much i enjoyed a vacation, and no matter how much i wanted to stay there forever, there is one thing i always love about coming back to my little apartment by the bayou. and i always forget until i'm back, and it happens: after days or weeks away, i fall asleep in my own bed again.

after the squishy, trampoline-like springs of katie's extra bed, the odd feel and slippery blankets of james and chrissy's guest bed, and the rock solid mattress of rachel's bed at carter's parents' house, climbing into my bed last night felt like heaven. my bed is queen size, so there is plenty of room to sprawl out. it is the perfect softness, carefully constructed with a pillowtop mattress covered by a mattress pad covered by sheets that are juuuuust right. and my pillow has just the right amount of stuffing. my bed is perfect for me, and last night it felt so good.

it's been a couple days since i updated, so i guess i should recap my new year's. i spent tuesday night at james and chrissy's new house in athens. it is a really nice place, with hard wood floors throughout, and an amazing amount of furniture for a couple who just bought their first house. (as a side note, chrissy must be an obsessive cleaner, because the place was spotless!) it's a pseudo split level house. you come in the front door and go up half a flight to the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc. you go down a flight to get to the basement/rec room, where we spent most of our time. they got dance revolution for james's playstation for christmas, and good lord, that game is so addictive! i must have played it (rotating in and out with james, chrissy, kent, and occasionally anit or carter) for at least an hour on tuesday night, and probably 2 or 3 more on wednesday morning. i want to go buy a playstation just for that game!

we were up late on tuesday night, dancing, playing cards, and chatting. we finally crashed around 2:30, anit and i in the guest bed, carter and kent on couches. anit said she wasn't feeling sleepy, so we must have talked for another half hour at least before i couldn't stay awake any longer. it was really great to see anit, who i see less frequently than the others.

wednesday morning we had some delicious pancakes courtesy of chef james, and played more dance revolution. :) we had burgers for lunch, played a game of settlers, and headed down to atlanta around 5. multiple closed restaurants thwarted our plans to get together for dinner with chris and j.r., and it was just getting too complicated, so carter and kent and i just headed down to sharpsburg, which turned out to be lovely. we had pizza, played ping pong (god, i suck at ping pong, but with the help of dr. green, we beat carter and kent at doubles, woohoo), and barely made it to midnight. kent was falling asleep on the couch, and all three of us were in bed by 12:30. we are old now, i guess. ;)

yesterday we had a delicious chik-fil-a lunch and headed to the airport. my flight was at 3:30, so with the threat level at orange and all, i thought i'd need to be there at 1:30. carter said oh, no, you're fine if you're there by 2, so that's when i arrived. and i got through security quicker than i ever have before, i swear! by 2:25 i was sitting at my gate! there weren't enough chairs in the boarding area, so i made myself comfortable on the floor and called my mom and dad. while chatting with my dad, i look up and lo and behold, there's phil! i told my dad i'd call back when i got in to houston. "phil!" i said. he looked down, did a double take, and then plopped down on the floor next to me to chat. i asked who was picking him up at the airport, thinking we could save either that person or becca a trip to IAH, but alas, he was only connecting through houston on his way to snowboarding somewhere near salt lake city. he was like 15 rows in front of me on the plane, so i didn't see him again after we boarded, but it was fun to have someone to chat with in the atlanta airport. that's the second time in the past year that i've randomly run into someone from houston in atlanta!

the flight back was uneventful. i was in the very last row of the plane, and thus was the very last person to get off, exiting behind a young guy with a backpack the smelled really good (the guy, not the backpack). the clouds i saw yesterday as we descended into houston were some of the coolest i have ever seen from the air. there were layers upon layers--big puffy ones, and thin, wispy ones. we approached from over the gulf, and either the clouds were low on the water or the light was playing an optical illustion on me, because i could see cargo ships leaving long wakes in the water, but it also looked like they were plowing through the clouds. there were wakes in the fog, making the ships look ghostly. it was strange and yet beautiful.

i lounged around my apartment last night, watching a guilty pleasure tv show marathon while checking email, unpacking, and scavenging food from my bare cupboards. oh! i almost forget--my quilt is almost finished, and looks awesome. all i have to do is put some darts in the middle of each column/row intersection to keep the batting in place and it will be done. i laid it on my bed last night, and it's long enough to use there. not quite wide enough (another column of t-shirts would have done it) but c'est la vie. i love it. i sat on the couch last night under it feeling proud of my non-sewing skills. i have a few pictures of the quilt-making process (unfortunately not the beginning part with cutting and interfacing the shirts, only the sewing part, because that's when mom decided to start documenting things), as well as the finished product, here.

i feel like i had a lot more to say, but i've forgotten. so maybe more later, if i remember.