Tag Archives: personal

AUGUST 2008: BEST MONTH EVER?

On the beach, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by Black­mail Is My Life.

August was almost inde­scrib­ably awe­some, but I’ll try to remem­ber just what made it so great anyway.

I turned 31 and got my name on the Phillies score­board. Helen and I cel­e­brat­ed our third anniver­sary at the Water­works Restau­rant. I joined the guys in the Poconos for Mikey’s bach­e­lor par­ty. We cel­e­brat­ed Helen’s 30th twice! First at James in South Philly and again with friends on the Atlantic City beach! Cathy, Sarah, Maris­sa and Rick had birth­days, too! Our friends Cathy and Mikey got mar­ried at Tyler Arbore­tum! We went to Corol­la, NC for a week’s vaca­tion. Kristy and Pre­ston got mar­ried! So did Josh and Suzanne! On the same day! It was crazy!

Sure, I added the first week of Sep­tem­ber. I’m treat­ing the short work week as con­tin­u­a­tion steps from an August that just did­n’t want to end.

MY VACATION IS ALMOST OVER

Sun­set @ Sun­set Grill, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by Black­mail Is My Life.

Our sec­ond, tri­umphant trip to Corol­la, NC, is com­ing to an end. It’s very windy and the surf is rough. Hur­ri­cane Han­na’s arriv­ing just in time to wish us goodbye.

We had a love­ly week here. We caught up with friends, ate a lot of great seafood and BBQ, relaxed on the beach, and duked it out with some rough waves. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

I took this pic­ture at the Sun­set Grill in Duck on Wednes­day night with my iPhone. It may not have a flash, but if you get the light­ing just right, it takes some awe­some pictures.

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATE: VACATION EDITION

The last time I was in Corol­la, NC, I’d just been laid off. It sounds bad, but the tim­ing was per­fect. The imme­di­ate after­math was so grat­i­fy­ing. It was the start to the best vaca­tion I’ve ever had. Seriously.

This time things are a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. After a fran­tic week spent cov­er­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion from the com­fort of my couch, I’m try­ing to unwind a bit and soak up some sun and surf. I think it’s working.

Unlike our last trip down here, I’m keep­ing up with my train­ing. It’s been a test. My first run in the swel­ter­ing North Car­oli­na heat was a bru­tal sev­en miles along the side of the road. It was a lit­tle scary, but I man­aged to fin­ish in a lit­tle more than an hour. It’s got­ten bet­ter over the week.

The biggest prob­lem I’ve been fac­ing is the ongo­ing bat­tle with my calves and shin splints. I had the same issue dur­ing the fit club train­ing. I keep tying my shoes too tight and it restricts my range of motion, lead­ing to a great deal of stiff­ness and pain. Worse, it pre­vents me from run­ning nat­u­ral­ly and my gait is real­ly messed up. Now that I’ve sort­ed it out, I hope I’ll be able to start run­ning more com­fort­ably before the Philadel­phia Dis­tance Run on Sep­tem­ber 21!

A CALL FOR iPHONE APPS

My iPhone, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by Black­mail Is My Life.

I need your sug­ges­tions, specif­i­cal­ly for an all-in-one chat client that can com­bine my Gmail and AIM con­tacts. One pro­vi­so: I’m not real­ly look­ing to turn my iPhone into a gam­ing plat­form yet. What iPhone appli­ca­tions do you like? Which do you use most?

I’m updating my wardrobe.

One of the ben­e­fits of train­ing for this marathon is that I’ve been los­ing a lot of weight. Unlike my Philebri­ty Fit Club expe­ri­ence, this has been a grad­ual, grat­i­fy­ing process, rather than a sprint to the fin­ish. I’m much hap­pi­er with the results.

Why? Los­ing 16% of my body mass in two months did­n’t do won­ders for my health. As an added bonus I was laid off short­ly after win­ning Fit Club. The wear and tear from run­ning and diet­ing, plus the added stress of need­ing to find a new job was just too much. I came down with some nasty bronchial some­thing that the doc­tor swore was­n’t pneu­mo­nia. I was cough­ing so much I bruised my ster­num. It was bad.

As I peel away the pounds this time, I’m find­ing that my biggest prob­lem is that I have no clothes to wear. When I start­ed train­ing, I looked in my dress­er draw­ers and was sad­dened by what I saw. I still have clothes from my days as a St. Joe’s under­grad! They are nei­ther pret­ty nor do they scream “media pro­fes­sion­al.” It’s time for a major update.

Last night I took a bold step and bought a pair of jeans. I’m back down to a 34″ waist after push­ing the lim­its of 36″ two months ago. They’re noth­ing fan­cy, just a pair of deep blue Lev­i’s I found on sale at Macy’s down­town. I did­n’t want to go too wild as I have thir­teen weeks of train­ing before the marathon and I fig­ure that I’ll prob­a­bly keep slim­ming down until the race. That got me think­ing: what should I get when I reach my goal?

If you have any sug­ges­tions, leave them in the com­ments, or, if you use Delicious.com, send me sug­ges­tions here. I’m look­ing for places to shop as much as pieces to buy, so all sug­ges­tions are wel­come. In the mean­time I’ll be the guy wear­ing a bar­rel to work. If you see me around 17th and JFK, be sure to say hi!