another day of crappiness, things are looking up a little though. after class and a lunch with jesse, josiah, & heidi i checked out a video camera and had some fun with that, driving around and getting some good footage to edit later. i've been working on it a little tonight.
jesse & i made it up to rusty's, then murphy's because it was crowded, and hung out for a while listening to jazz and trying to figure out whats going on with being a senior, trying to get the ladies, etc., you know the routine. that, and a nice 2 hour nap made the day a bit more bearable, i know its only the second week or school, but already i want to be outta here. i just hope i can find fun stuff to do for the rest of the semester since i'll be moving away in a few months, most likely.
if you get the chance, check out heidi's blog from earlier this week about her take on the future. its refreshing to read. and mike & justin's dad's blog from africa is cool too.
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thumbs up: nap
thumbs down: loads of homework
quote: "do you keep the boxes?" - jesse buying film
cd rotation: the get up kids: on a wire (the movie soundtrack, of course)
first a shout-out to heidi, rock climbers rule, i just wish my arms weren't the size of toothpicks or i'd do it more often.
i was totally impressed with h2o at the union, because there have been a lot of new people coming and hanging around. h2o is back to being a campus ministry again, for sure. and you should be impressed by our 5-on-5 basketball team because we're gonna bring the house down.
and i really hope my UT professor isn't mad at me for cutting an independent study short. its just been dragging way too long and i can't handle it plus my other classes right now.
missing california, i was only there for a days, but man, was it nice. there is something cool about a cold snow, though, and for the first time in a week i actually like bowling green. then a -15 wind chill breezed past me and i hated it again.
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thumbs up: pinewood again
thumbs down: friday 8am meetings (i hope you're reading this, brian)
quote: "don't be a human being, be a human doing"
&
"get into it into it not into it into it" - rick
cd rotation: radiohead: the bends
today started okay, then turned crappy for some reason, rebounded a little, then went back in the toilet. did you know the toilet was invented by a guy named crapper? i kid you not.
as i talked to kathy though, i figured out part of my problem. it's called 'post-race depression' and is what it sounds like. you spend a whole lot of time preparing for a race, visualizing a race, and then it comes, and then its over with, and then you've nothing to think about. especially since i'm resting my legs for at least a week or two. i'm trying to find other fun things to do with my time (like writing music) but for the most part things suck, so i'm kind of in a little funk. and the stupid part is that i almost want to stay in this mood and feel sorry for myself. i know that if i turn toward God, my day will be much brighter, but right now i feel selfish and don't really want to do that. i don't know why. it's been a sulky week so far.
i also got into a bit of a tiff with my professor over my independent study, i don't have the time to devote to it, and she says, "if you intend to complete your grade this semester, you must find some times
to spend on the project. It seems that you overload yourself every semester." that doesn't make me feel good, either.
and the hot girl isn't around.
so i hate to dump on you, the reader, but it happens. hopefully things will look up tomorrow & on the weekend.
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thumbs up: 11pm shootaround at the field house
thumbs down: lots of things
quote: i gave my ID to the lady at the field house to check out a basketball, when i return the ball with ben and ray, she says, "ok, who is this?" i say, "look at the picture on it." she gives me a face, and promptly hands my ID to ben, who looks nothing like my ID picture. you kind of had to be there, but this girl was seriously retarded.
cd rotation: coldplay: parachutes
in celebration of my half-marathon success, i went out and bought two 'new' cds: radiohead & coldplay, both of which i've downloaded part of, but its just not the same thing as owning the actual cd. i especially like the coldplay album, parachutes.
on a whim, i also almost bought the red hot chili peppers cd, but only because i wanted to make it seem (to a girl, of course) that i was mainstream and cool. but then i realized that, not only do i not especially like rhcp but i do not want to compromise my music selection over a girl. i'll be my own person, an individual, thank you, and i'll stick to what i want to listen to.
andrew, hope your doing ok.
mike, i am one of the hundred daily readers.
one of my UT professors thinks that our class, which is scheduled to run 11am-12:15, actually gets out at 11:50. so he said today, "well, someone told me that they wanted to get out a little early, so they can walk across campus to class, so how about we stop for the day?" the time was 11:45, a full half hour before the regular scheduled end to class. we've gotten out at 11:45-11:50 every class. nothing like getting 3 credit hours for a 2 hour class.
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thumbs up: cosmos hot chocolate
thumbs down: the low tonight is 1 degree. that's right, 1.
quote: "is that your real hair?" - jason slack, upon seeing the hair circa may 2001
cd rotation: coldplay "parachutes"
&
radiohead "the bends"
here's the trip rundown: (i was going to write, 'leaving on a jet plane' on my last blog but i thought it would get stuck in everyone's head, but now that i've already wrote it, let me finish the line: "i'm leaving on a jet plane don't know when i'll be back again, then lots of sappy lyrics")
i woke at 5:45am, left at 6 for columbus aiport, and if you haven't flown in a few months let me tell you something: security sucks. my bags were all checked (a mysterious lens took a little time to settle) and i barely made it to my flight. i made it to denver by noon (jesse called me, asking if i wanted to eat at the union for lunch, to which i said, "i'd love to, but i'll have to take a plane back from colorado. can you hold it off for a little bit?")
my flight came into san diego in the afternoon, and i took a shuttle to the U. of cali-san diego where i met with a few professors. it was great because they gave me a lot of info that i didn't get from their webiste. the campus was very open and well, warm. it was around 75 that day.
i killed some time at the airport waiting for jeff and kathleen to fly in, so i layed around outside in the sun because i had nothing better to do.
when jeff & kathleen came in, we met up with dr. browne & dr. kubasek from bgsu, and two other guys who i knew from the honors program, but that's about it. we drover around san diego and over our race course, then went to eat some pasta at a local restaurant. we got in a little after 12am (3am EST) so that made for a very long day.
saturday was spent on coronado island on san diego bay, walking on the beach and running a short 3 miles. we also picked up lots of free samples at the race expo and realized that the "flat" course was what ohioans call "hilly." we ate more pasta and hung out downtown carlsbad for the evening.
we woke around 5am on sunday morning and headed to the san diego marathon, aka "the longest lines for a porta-potty this side of the mississippi" and started racing at 7am. i had to stop after 2 miles and strecth my shins, because they suck, and so jeff (who had started the race with me) took off. after a few hills, and running in the mist by the ocean, i picked it up and averaged a 7:00 mile exactly for the first 6. i caught jeff at mile 7, we ran hard for 3 miles, then he had to stop and strech, so i took off. my last 7 miles were around 6:30 pace, and my legs felt absolutely great coming into the last few miles. the race had started to get old though, i was tired, but my stride was in good form & rhythm. i finished behind a guy with one arm, in a time of 1 hour, 27 minutes, 53 seconds, which is just under my goal of 1:30. i was 139 out of roughly 4500, so it was a good race. jeff came in a 1:30 after me, and the rest of the bgsu crew sometime thereafter.
and like andrew was guessing in his blog, i do have to beat the ladies off with a stick, esp. according to kathleen. especially the california girls, they were all like, 'oooh, he's from east' and i'm like, 'yeah baby.'
anyway, immediately i started thinking, 'could i do a marathon' because the race i had just run was actually enjoyable. so when i flew home that day into columbus, i asked my good friend kathy about it and she gave me some good advice. the marathon isn't just two halves put together, but a whole nother animal. because your bones hurt, your muscles hurt, and pretty much it sucks. so i'm still thinking about it.
kathy hooked me up with a shower (not in that way, but that'd be sweet too :) and i crashed at her house at osu. after eating a huge breakfast at bob evan's, i drove back to bg in the 10 degree weather. seriously, who wants to live in ohio after seeing california? i mean, sure, the seasons are nice, and the endless miles of farmland are visually appealing, and the gray snow on the roads & on my car are simply beautiful, and the 20 mph wind in going through my wool coat is refreshing, but besides that, why else would anyone want to live here? the high in january is 70 degrees. the high in july is 80 degrees. think how cheap your gas bill would be.
i was totally hooked up by God on this trip, i didn't have to pay a dime for lodging out in california or columbus, plus i was really worried about how my legs would hold up and that i would regret the 3 months of training. instead though, everything was great.
so here i am, procrastinating on homework, and just having a great talk with andrew. everything's an experience, how will you rebound? i think you'll do awesome, it'll force you to think about a lot (which sounds like you already have!) and at the very least open up a lot of communication, and andrew, the next time will then be a 10/10.
now that we've all caught up, i'm going to go do homework and try to get prepared for my (ugh) 9:30 tomorrow.
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thumbs up: absolutely, the california trip
thumbs down: low of 6 degrees tonight
quote: "is that one of those pocket buddy things?" kathy, on seeing my cell phone charger, in reference to a palm pilot
cd rotation: get up kids "on a wire"
&
weezer "maladroit"
