Instead of my usual, emotional and judgmental posts I think this post warrants more of a quick explanation of where I've been lately. In 30 seconds or more, depending on how fast I type.
Obviously we moved to Baltimore. I spent a good week not doing anything other than unpacking and putting stuff away. The down side is it was an entire, full week. The up side is that our apartment doesn't look like we just moved in. It just looks like we have too much stuff. But our too much stuff is at least organized pretty well.
Trisha ran her race in Leadville, Colorado. In the meantime I decided to read "Born to Run". I hid the book as much as possible so that all the real runners (pretty much everyone in the city on race weekend) wouldn't look at me in disgust. I have to say, I rather liked the book and McDougall's arguments. I realize there's great evidence against what he's got to say. I realize there's great evidence for what he's got to say. What frustrates me the most--as is generally the case in my life as a moderate--is that people on both sides of the various issues can't give the opposing sides a chance. They think they're right so they listen from that perspective alone.
Regarding the barefoot running issue among the various issues, for one of the few occasions in my life I am going to follow a fad. I'm not following the fad just to follow the fad. It took me years to actually give the Harry Potter shows a chance just because I hate following fads. And I'm not going to lance myself into the barefoot thing pell-mell. I'll be easing in. Please don't comment too much about how it's a dumb/great idea. PERSONAL experiences or actual articles on Pubmed would be more alright, though.
Anyway, I am also trying the running thing out for reals again. Post-mono, post-motorcycle accident rehab and such and I could start running again earlier this summer. To celebrate I am signed up for my first 10 miler in about 3 weeks. I'll be going for completion rather than a time, but I'm proud of myself for running a 7 mile training run last weekend. I'll be the tortoise in the race. But I'll be in the race.
I've been applying for jobs too. I've sent out applications to all sorts of different posts. The neat thing is that it's not out of desperation but because there are more things I can do with my experiences than I realized. The latest one is a bit intimidating and has set their bar for qualifications pretty high. I got a nice vote of confidence from people who have supervised me recently and in the more distant past and that helps. I'm glad Trish is the bread-winner for now.
Speaking of bread, we've been cooking lots of new things. We've checked out farmer's markets, pick-your-own berry farms and I've even started cooking dehydrated beans instead of cooking beans from a can. SOOOO much tastier! It's actually a pleasure to eat beans instead of a side thought.
I've also had a chance to read several books. I've talked about how much I love to read but never seem to get much reading done. Mostly they've been short literary pieces, but there's some variety. I expect I'll post something about my reading list at the end of the year.
Upcoming weekend is still a mystery. The Grand Prix is coming to Baltimore. It would cost too much to watch and it's not entirely our thing anyway. So the options thus far are: go camping for 2.5 days nearby, go to New York (I've never been, but it's still damaged from the storm, and family won't be in town), or visit D.C. in more depth. The options all have a lot of +s and a few -s so we're not sure. I'm sure we'll figure it out Thursday afternoon when the long Grand Prix weekend starts.
