Creative block

I've run out of pithy observations. I've adopted my own metro stare and I'm avoiding elevators with a high rate of success.

My cleverness no longer impresses me. Fake mustaches stuck to my forehead and the line, "they'll grow on you," notwithstanding.

Generally, I feel heard. I don't need an outlet to share my thoughts, because I have people who are willing to listen to me, or at least "like" my Facebook status updates.

I stumble over words when I'm trying to write. This may be self-perpetuating. I don't write as much, so I don't practice and then I haven't practiced, so I don't feel like writing.

So much is being said. There are so many blogs, that have started and stopped, and started again. Sometimes I feel like every idea I have has already been spewed onto the Internet before. Probably in song and with better visual effects.

I want to write. At least I think I do. Yet, I'm impatient. I don't like to revise. I like to get it out and be done with it. I like to write something and smile a self-satisfied smile while I wipe my hands of it. Maybe I've become more critical. My internal editor has seen it before and he wants it to be better. The writer in me needs to step up and answer the challenge.

For now, he's going running.

Hey KIDS!

I thought I'd try to live blog the State of the Union address. I'll give my reactions as we go. A few disclaimers before we start:
1. I really just need a new blog post, I don't expect to pull out much insight.
2. I usually don't last the whole state of the union.
3. It somehow seems important to watch since I'm down the street.

9:13 It's nice to see the ceremony of politics sometimes. It gets so much more polite than the rest of the TV shows that I watch about politics. Let's go. (edited that comment a bit).

9:15 Is Joe Biden updating his Facebook page?

9:18 Xerox corporation CEO? It's been a busy day for Xerox in my life.

9:19 Nice. I like the spin on what the election meant. Figure it out together.

9:21 Oh. I just realized why there were so many police officers around the capitol tonight. (forehead slap).

9:23 "The future is ours to win." I missed the how.

9:24 Oh. That's the rest of the speech. Thanks, Obama.

9:27 Can't help but hope that the budget isn't out of this world, with all that space talk.

9:31 I won a science fair once. It was a tea-related experiment.

9:32 I like all these sports comparisons- race to the top, ours to win, etc.

9:34 Teachers as "nationbuilders". Wow. Makes me want to be a teacher and build a nation. Too bad I'm most interested in English.

9:39 Taking on the issue of immigrants seems like a massive undertaking.

9:40 Highspeed rail and highspeed Internet? Awesome.

9:44 Snack time.

9:46 Is our food safe to eat? Maybe our foodstuff is. I realize how lucky I am when I can make that snarky comment and also how much I've been reading about nutrition and/or watching The Biggest Loser

9:53 He's really pushing the bipartisan approach. He does it well.

9:55 YES! Simplify the tax code. Please.

9:56 Reorganization? I wondered if that was coming earlier when President Obama was talking about cutting the budget. I've been hanging around big companies too much lately. Sheesh.

10:00 C's home. I'm feeling a little sheepish about this project now.

10:03 "Begin" to bring our troops home. This seems like what's been said before...

10:05 I'm losing steam, but it seems rude to abandon the President. My landlord just started rocking out on his electronic keyboard. John Kerry would smile if he could hear it.

10:08 "One voice." The push for unity is everywhere around me too.

10:10 Selling messy democracy. He's at it again. Man, he's good. Somebody should elect that guy.

10:15 BAM. Let's do big things.

Well, looks like the VCR clock is running a couple of minutes ahead. That's the clock I was using. How embarrassing (right). That was an interesting way to view the address. I missed a few things, but it was also a bit like taking notes. I wasn't very clever, but I think this might be interesting to look back and read. In some ways, it made me feel shallow, but in other ways I felt good because I was really paying attention and being thoughtful. Several themes have emerged from my life of late. A number of speeches and books are on the motivational, even inspirational side. The reorganization, the budget cuts, the push for unity all keep cropping up.

I have high hopes for highspeed Internet and rail, as well as electric cars, alternative energy, simplified tax codes, and more. I'm ready for big things.

Don't be cruel

The following scene remixes my Saturday from a week ago. I couldn't find a way to include a memorial for my neighbor Yelba, but somehow I think that's probably for the best.

I glanced outside to find six snowflakes on a windshield. The track workout is on, I thought to myself. After breakfast, a toothbrushing, and some unrelated thoughts playing pong in my mind, I looked again to find the white coming down hard. I checked my phone. I checked email. No one was going to give up. With nothing left to check, I headed out the door. Purposefully overdressed, running ahead of schedule, I tromped down 14th on my way to the track.

With a Lincoln look-a-like in one cage and a cardboard Washington Monument dipping down to enter the other, round one of the Elvis Birthday Fight Club was all but underway. Lincoln would land the early punches and take control of the phallus. What looked like certain victory was snatched away when a trap door opened in the cardboard masonry and out popped a six shooter.

The track was white with snow. The quiet seemed more morning related than snow-related, but once my partners arrived it was obvious we'd have the track to ourselves. We warmed up slowly, our footfalls tracing the oval in shoe sizes.

Lil' Dutch and more than her fair share of make-up were disrobing. The poor seating arrangement blocked anything below waist level and for the most part this seemed ok. Out came the tassles, on went the twirling. What a curious talent. With a mixture of awe, horror, amusement and something not entirely unrelated to arousal, I watched spinning tassles with my head bobbing in time.

Paul went out too fast in the first half mile. I couldn't keep pace knowing that I was under-trained and we still had seven halves to run. I wanted to slow Paul down, but wasn't sure that my pace was the right pace, so I let him go and sought a realist's pace while trying not to slip on snow. The rest lap came quickly and soon we launched into another half and another round.

Colonel Sanders seemed to handle the chicken easily, he may have even choked it, but then just as the match seemed to be in hand, he took to making a racist rant. It wasn't long before the crowd turned on him and his goose was cooked. The chicken would live to fight another day.

By the third half, Paul had come back down to earth and I had sped up slightly. I felt ok at our 5:30ish mile pace, but was unsure how long I'd last. I lasted longer than the giant cross-dressing man. He won his early round, but then fell to a better-dressed opponent.

I made it through four and five before the personal bargaining began. I'd do one and sit one I thought. Or, I'd sit now, so I could finish the last one ok. Yet somehow, like the burlesque dancer on burlesque dancer fight that broke out in the middle rounds, it seemed like I just didn't know when to quit. As shirts and boots were tossed aside and as I seemed to recover just enough each time, I survived five and six, then happened upon half number seven.

A robot was fighting a chicken and technical difficulties ensued. I stayed close through seven convincing myself that I'd be done after it was over. Then I couldn't quite quit. I started eight. I tucked in behind Paul and ran strong for 400 meters. Chicken wings were flying. Robots were dancing the chicken. Chickens were dancing the robot. It was a back and forth battle and my mind lost. I slowed considerably, and fell off the pace. Way off. It's not how I like to finish a workout, not how I want to finish races.

I think the chicken emerged victorious. I don't think that was a metaphor. Thanks Elvis. Thanks Paul and Bill.

I'm one of 'em

I'm inspired by the new year, inspired by sitting around and doing little to nothing in the last week as I let a cough peter mostly out and let my social life do the same. Once 2011 hit and I finished my stockpile of Gilmore Girls episodes, I morphed into a man ready to take flight in all areas of life.

I'm ready to exercise, eat right, spend my time wisely, and on and on. Oprah magazine has the answers. Or the books I'm reading. Or the newspaper. I've got vague ideas and half-formed plans. I'm off to a good start and recognize that I cannot sustain this momentum completely, but I'm hoping that I can hold up enough to make a difference. When's the last time I was able to get a workout in, make dinners ahead of schedule, clean up, post to the blog(s), and still find time to bathe and read? Unheard of? Nay, it's 2011 and the new year shines with possibility.

I'm off to floss!

Happy New Year

1...2...3... Go. I woke up today, drove to Gaithersburg, got lost, managed a long line and an abbreviated warm-up and then found myself at the front of the starting group at a 5k. This is the third year of the last four that I've kicked off with this race, so the comparisons are getting a little too telling.

I didn't mean to start from the front. At some point, I had a conservative plan of running 5:50 per mile. In the front, that plan seemed foolish. Instead, I decided I should run with the gentlemen surrounding me. After all, I could keep pace, even if it was a faster pace than I wanted. I did keep pace, through most of a mile, which clicked off at about 5:27. Then my weak last few months of training and my ongoing battles with cold and flu-like symptoms kicked in and 10th place became 11th, became 13th, became clinging to 13th. The two mile came at 11:20 and the pain kept coming. I kept clinging to 13th place and finally sauntered home in 18:21. It was a battle and I probably cost myself 10 to 15 seconds with that start. The ego won out and I paid for it.

Now, I have all of 2011 to think about it. I didn't break the 5 minute mile in 2010. I've started off 2011 with the stuff of a freshman. It's time to get going again. Hello '11, here I come.