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Two Notes and I Bolt    Jul 03, 2008
Hey there. Good to see you! I am heading for a long weekend at Acadia NP on the cost of northern Maine. Am I pumped for a weekend of camping and hiking? Hells yes! Anyhow, no update are likely between now and Sunday evening or potentially Monday, if I want to add pix.

Two asides. Starbucks is closing 600 stores. It's obviously a bad sign that disposable income is down. My question is this. How likely is it that they will close stores like that in my hometown, where it is a shop inside a Target? It seems pretty likely because those would seem to be the areas hardest hit by a jump in gas prices. If you have to drive to someplace that has a Starbucks you are most likely going to try and cut out those trips because in addition to the price of a coffee (or a friggin latte) you are going to factor in the gas it takes you to get there. I could be wrong but I kind of expect it to be gone when I get back to IA.

I really like this idea Obama is throwing around. I had a similar one 5 years ago but somehow got much less attention. From what I understand it is relatively common in European countries. You finish high school and take a year of 2 of volunteer or military service. Flesh out what you want to do a bit more before you start college and do some good for the country in the way you see fit. It's win/win.

This is an unrelated but also fascinating article...I spent the end of my work day browsing news as I awaited a call from a freelancer which never came.

Adios Boob Tube    Jun 30, 2008
Sunday was awesome. So much in fact that I took off Monday to prolong the weekend. And thus far Monday has been pretty spectacular as well.

I walked the 3.5 miles to Harvard Sq and for Ann's birthday party. It was a noon screening of The Big Lebowski replete with Creedence mix tapes as souvenirs and all the cake and white russians you could eat or drink. I went with 0 cake and 1 white russian. I couldn't go crazy at 11:15 on a Sunday morning. Anyhow, it was the first time I had seen the complete movie and now I understand what the fuss was about. With the movie over I walked back home, though it was much warmer by that point and I was sweating pretty good. I stopped at a supermarket (as opposed to the smaller grocery store near me) and picked up some provisions and laden down with all that I walked the remaining 3 miles home. It was kind of dumb I admit but it felt good too.

I got home around 4 and ate my fill of cheese, crackers, and turkey. I was having a craving, what can I say? I started picking up my room and as I pulled out the vacuum I decided to do something I had been toying with for some time. I unplugged the TV in my bedroom. For the greater part of this year I was wavering between getting rid of it and buying a new HD one...yeah, they are kind of on opposite sides of the spectrum. The TV I had was a hand-me-down and the tube has been going for about a year. The screen spins like a slot machine tumbler for a solid 30 minutes as it warms up (20 minutes when the temp is above 85) and after that point if there are too many light colors on the screen it will spin until the brightness comes down. So I removed it, the DVD player, cable box, and finally the TV stand, opening up a nice sized part of my room. I promptly vacuumed and then filled the space with one of those collapsible camping chairs and sit down to read with some music on. It was wonderful. The room just feels like it has more energy. I'm quite happy with the decision.

Today I awoke late because when I moved my alarm from the top of my TV I had accidentally moved the dial and so while the alarm turned on there was pretty much no noise. I scrambled to get ready and got to the point that I had showered and my pants were on and stopped. "I'm going to take the day off." The last three weeks had been very long and my projects are all moving along nicely so I was able to justify it. I hopped on my bike and headed to Target but decided I preferred to read. So I grabbed a coffee, walked home (can't remember why) and then headed back to Coolidge Corner, where I had left my bike locked up. I grabbed some lunch at Panera and sat down outside and read for a couple of hours. I then came home, watched a couple of short movies, and did some gardening. It's been pretty excellent. Now I am just hanging out until I get to go volunteer.

Get Your Carbon Offset Here!    Jun 25, 2008
I purchased my first carbon offset today. I booked a flight to Chicago for some mid-summer R and R. On the last page, after you have selected your seat but before you confirm they have all those offers for you. The list had certainly grown since the last time I bought tix off of Orbitz. They offered hotels, cars, tourist passes, subway passes, traveling insurance, mail order meat, and an escort. I think I remembered that list correctly but don't quote me on it.

Anyhow, I was numbly scrolling through the crap and saw "carbon offsets" and paused. $5.50. Hmm. How legit is it? I clicked the link and read a bit more on it, the $$ goes to carbonfund.org. "Carbonfund.org supports carbon-reducing projects such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects." I wondered how much of a cut Orbitz took. I wondered how they could issue a flat fee for all domestic travel and double that for all international flights, knowing my flight to Chicago would use fewer resources than a trip to LA or Seattle.

Ultimately I just decided to do it, I didn't see a huge downside. $5.50 was approximately one half of one percent of my ticket. OK, maybe not, but I have given up with the idea of ever getting a sub-$200 ticket into O'Hare.

Has anyone else done this? I hear about it a lot on NPR and in some more alternative media sources but I don't know anyone that has done it.

Friday Run    Jun 22, 2008
As I set out for a run around 8:30 this evening (yes, I started this 2 evenings ago) the Rolling Stones' Sympathy For the Devil was on the radio and as I turned the corner onto Washington a bright azure sky opened up to me. OK, I don't even know if azure is a color that means blue, orange, and pink but if it is that is most definitely the color of the sky. If not, the sky was my grandfather's favorite color, sky-blue pink. Anyhow, it was a splendid moment. I was running, the sky was beautiful, and the music was invigorating.

That pretty well sums up my entire day. I woke up a shade earlier than normal so was a bit more relaxed in getting ready but still arrived to the train station early, under bright blue skies. A nearly empty train arrived 30 seconds later and I disembarked at Hynes to take a longer walk to the office. Hey, I had the time. Work was much less stressed than the previous four days and I got some very good news about a project I was working on. Christine, Ashley, and I actually left the office for lunch and picnicked in the Public Garden. A few more hours of productivity and we took off a few minutes early and headed to the Top of the Hub for a drink. They had never been and it had been years for me. It was my idea and decidedly unlike me to suggest a nicer place. However, it was glorious. I felt all the stress of my week absolutely drain from me as soon as we set foot on the 52nd floor and beheld the view of downtown and Logan Airport to our east. A storm moved through the area and provided some pretty cool picture opportunities.

So I arrived home and had a small dinner and around 8:00 I decided to go for a run. As I said, the night was beautiful and despite the drink and the dinner, I had that urge, which I hadn't had in a long time. It was about 2.5 miles and I felt good. It was a bit more difficult to finish 2.5 miles than it had been in the past but that was kind of expected. I then showered and wrapped up the night with a very nice marathon phone call and fell peacefully asleep at 3:30.

I was going to write about Sat and Sunday (since I didn't get this posted on Friday due to the marathon call) but instead I will say they were almost on par with Friday. I got up far too early on Saturday for the amount of sleep I had and walked to get a haircut, around 4 miles away. Then I ran some errands and hit the Sox game and walked around Boston, feeling a bit like a tourist on a Saturday evening. Today I slept a bit later than anticipated, but it was evidently what I needed so I was fine. I then headed into work to prep for a video shoot Monday and Tuesday and headed to Government Center for a BBQ festival. I expected local BBQ places but was quite pleased to find they were from all over, including Australia. Two of the three places I tried were very good and very filling, my only meal of the day was pure meat (I guess I can still do it!).

It Isn't A Stretch...    Jun 15, 2008
...to say I had a good day. I had my first appointment with meridian stretching this AM, followed by moving Rob, Ginger, and the triplets to Needham, and finishing up with dinner at Christopher's with Samantha.

Stretching was very interesting. I went into it with some...I hate to use the word skepticism because that seems stronger than the sentiment I would like to convey. It is fair to say I had doubts. In a nutshell it is resistance stretching with a nod towards the Eastern belief of energy flow within the body. I'm open to the ideas of many things but kind of require seeing it for myself before I am able to formulate any real opinion on it. I absolutely felt positively affected by it both physically and mentally. However, after one session I am not ready to say I am a convert.

Before I get into this I should mention that it was a pretty intense 90 minutes. There are details, especially in the actual stretching, I probably have wrong. No, I know I have wrong. I was so focused on doing it at the time and my head was spinning (in a good way) after a few of the stretches that I don't have a clear picture of which parts were me resisting and which parts were warmups.

Paula worked on me in her home, which is in South Boston, literally as far from my place as possible while still being in Boston proper. OK, I guess there is a half block from her place to the harbor so it could theoretically be farther. I awoke at 6:15 with anticipation and rather than fight it I spent some time with my fantasy leagues and getting ready in a leisurely manner rather than being rushed. A train and bus ride and a 3/4 mile walk later I arrived at her place in southie at exactly 5 minutes to 8:00. There was some relaxing music playing and the scent of incense in the air as Paula and I sat down and discussed my knee, resistance stretching, etc. She then had me take off my shoes and lie on my stomach and began 'mashing' me, a process of loosening up the muscles with her feet. She supported herself on the backs of two chairs so all her weight was not upon me (though I am pretty sure I could have handled it) and to provide herself with a larger range of movement. At a few points it was almost like her feet were moving like an electric mixer on my legs.

With the mashing complete it was time for the heart of the workout, resistance stretching. In a nutshell we would warm up with a few reps of a stretch and once I was warmed up Paula would apply resistance and I would press against her force, working the muscles while deepening the stretch. For example, while lying on my back we would stretch a leg straight up and then when it was ready she would apply resistance and I would stay in the stretch but push down against her, lengthening the muscles in a way I could truly feel. It felt excellent. There was one stretch towards the end where it just felt absolutely amazing. I had my left leg crossed in front of me and my right extended behind me and I laid across my left leg. Paula stood on my lower back and I pressed the left leg into the ground and kind of raised my hips. It was feeling so excellent that on the last one she told me to stay as long as I could hold it (maybe because it was easy for her to just stand on me and not really push against me!). I stayed in that position for what felt like forever because it just felt so phenomenally good. I finally just had to stop and when I did so I sat up in kind of a daze and just looked around with a smile on my face. Paula got a tear in her eye, which was pretty cool.

So anyhow, that is what stretching is. How do I feel about it? I'm still evaluating. I absolutely felt fantastic after leaving. I looked different in the mirror. I can't identify why. Maybe it was my energy level or endorphins or maybe it was that my body was relaxed but I truly feel as though I looked different. I walked away at a much quicker pace than I had come. I wasn't trying to walk fast, it just felt natural. If I wasn't due to help the Bunns move I may have walked all the way home. My knee didn't hurt, I had no desire to pop it the way I have for at least a year. Thinking back to the walk away from the appointment puts a smile on my face. I've had many good workouts but cannot recall one that had that effect.

But as I said, I still have questions about the mind/body connection. It makes it harder to have these doubts after experiencing a sense of 'stretch euphoria' but I am kind of cerebral so it is hard to accept the energy flow thing in my own body, though I totally support it in others. Also, while I physically felt different I had been so used to feeling tight that it was hard to precisely identify the difference I felt. She would ask about my quads but it was hard to isolate the feeling of my quads because everything from my hips down felt completely different. I think continuing this practice will make me much more aware of how my body feels.

So yes, it was pretty awesome. Awesome enough that I am going to go back in two weeks and I expect I will be more prepared to define how I feel differently.

So after that I helped Rob and Ginger move. They had some friends from church helping as well and as the saying goes, many hands did make light work. Things were well underway by the time I arrived and we finished packing the Uhaul, minivan, truck, and Jeep and took it to their wonderful cape-style home in Needham. Unloading was a snap and we spent some extra time putting the house together, not just dropping the boxes in the appropriate rooms. By the time we left there was food in the cupboards, their dining room table was prepared for the first feeding, there were blankets on the cribs and sheets on their bed. At bare minimum they could decide they were pooped and crash without worrying about having to prepare a place to sleep.

I was home for about an hour, long enough to shower, watch the national news talk about Iowa flooding, and head off to meet Samantha for dinner. We met at Christopher's, a haunt of mine from the days I lived in Porter Square that is known for their vegetarian fare (though they also have dang good burgers) and is close to Samantha's new apartment. We caught up over buffalo tofu and some nachos which rival the awesomeness of their burgers. We ended up killing over 2.5 hours before ambling down towards Harvard Sq. and grabbing a Starbucks within minutes of it's closing. We finished strolling to Harvard and she hopped the train back to Davis as I caught the bus back across the river and home.

I was wiped but exceedingly happy. It was just a fabulous day all around. Two great workouts, a lot of great people, and a tasty meal. I'd take that for every Saturday, even the moving!

The Sweetwater Cafe    Jun 12, 2008
Lance and I decided to grab a drink after work on Wednesday. He was granted permission to stay out late away from his wife and twins because of a work dinner he was bailing on. I say granted permission in jest but it is kind of true but is understandable based on his situation.

Anyhow, he wanted to go to this place in "The Alley" with outdoor seating because it was on his way to the train. I had no desire to set foot in the alley because it is a college and bachelorette party scene and in general it does nothing for me. I agreed on the condition that after a beer or 2 we could go somewhere else.

We arrived and found the outdoor seats were taken so grabbed a spot as close as we could to the patio. Around the time our striking waitress arrived with our beers a table opened up outside so we moved and caught up about both work and the more important parts of life. There were a couple of guys at the table next to us whom we chatted with a bit, they had been working on a new tower for one of the nearby colleges.

A short time later two women arrived and asked to sit at their table, between the guys and Lance and I. They were attractive and considerably younger than the two men and so of course they obliged. From that point on it was mainly one big conversation between all of us, or 2 when the girls talked to either us or 'them' because the distance made it a bit difficult to hear everything from the far side of the table.

It was a pretty odd evening for many a reason. Lance and Sarah had an instant love/hate relationship because they are both strong Saggitari-i(?). Whatever, two people who really like to talk and command attention. At some point Lance sent a picture of (ahem) himself to her exes phone. I never asked why he would have a picture like that in the first place nor do I ever plan to find out. Kate warmed up to one guy, which was evidently a big deal because she had a friend pass away around a year ago and had been pretty shut off since that point. Eventually Sarah and I began to have a more one-on-one conversation and as a result we didn't move to another bar, even though at this point Lance was ready to move on. It was kind of ironic and I reminded him that we wouldn't have been at that bar in the first place if he hadn't forced it upon me.

So we drank way too much and then Lance headed for his 8:00 train. I stuck around for a bit longer and ended up getting Sarah's digits. Two numbers in a week. That is like my yearly quota in five days. Hey, it's feast or famine so I may as well enjoy the feast.

Now I shape up for a potentially long weekend. I am already tired (a bit sick and up late last night, even though I was home early) and am meeting Ann and Jaime for drinks after work tomorrow evening. Saturday at 8 AM I have my first stretching appointment but it is about 45 minutes away by train and bus. Not ideal. Then I help Rob and Ginger move to Needham. I guess Sunday is free at this point but it might be spent napping. :) The positive is that between stretching and moving I don't have to worry about hitting the gym.

Take A Hike!    Jun 08, 2008
Erin, Cordt, Mike, and I had made plans to hike Mount Monadnock today. We were (basically) undaunted by mother nature's threat of temps in the upper-nineties and decided we would be fine if we just consumed more water.

I arrived at the Walgreens around the corner from them at 8:30 and grabbed a few Gatorades to supplement the two liters of water already in my backpack. I got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. And this is where I had one of those fun instances where I was simultaneously frustrated and in admiration of a fellow human being.

I was the second customer in line, not counting the woman who was being rung up. The woman was in a motorized wheelchair, and a pretty substantial one at that. It was just pretty darn huge. It was taking a while to ring up her order and when the cashier finished scanning the items the disabled woman asked that the cashier open up the small, hand-held fan she had purchased. The cashier obliged and reported that there were no batteries. So the woman asked her to check the flier for batteries which were on sale and then add them to her order. So the woman lazily flipped through the flier and found some batteries, ripped out the coupon, grabbed teh batteries, etc. The fan was reassembled and then the cashier helped her use her credit card, etc.

I was pretty frustrated with all this but in part frustrated by my own frustration. The woman clearly had special needs and I was genuinely pleased to see the cashier making the extra effort to meet those needs, especially when concerned with cooling her on what was already a hot morning. I have seen far too many surly cashiers, especially at Walgreens stores. However...they really had nobody else available to serve as a backup cashier as the line grew behind this woman with needs? I really can't stress it enough, there was something about having the cashier go so far out of her way that really made me proud for her, especially after the handicapped woman thanked her and those of us standing behind her (I had tied her bag to the back of her wheelchair).

So we loaded up Cordt's truck with water, Gatorade, and food and then piled in with Mike and I unlawfully sitting in the back. Cordt had some makeshift chairs for us but it was really uncomfortable. There was a topper, which made it much safer but as a result I could not sit up straight for the 2 hours and there was a definite lack of airflow. This was most noticeable on the way home when Mike and I both smelled pretty foul.

On the way up the mountain we played a game they called "Movie Pong" which was pretty irritating to me. Basically we went in order with one person naming an actor and the next naming a movie that actor had been in, then naming another actor from the movie, lather, rinse, repeat. My knowledge of pop culture and especially movies is slightly greater than my knowledge of how cold fusion works so most of my turns were spent with Mike whispering "Mary Poppins" or "Elizabeth Berkeley" or some random actor/movie I had never heard of. I had one good response where I named Amy Ferguson as an actor in Garden State but everyone was less impressed that I stumped Cordt, though I had no choice in the order.

We took a pretty arduous path (by New England standards) on the way up and I was pleased my knee showed no signs of wear. It had been nearly two years since I had hiked so I was out of tune with how long .7 miles was on a mountain as compared to walking around Boston. We all made it though and the biggest complaint was some stinging from sun screen which made it in our eyes via sweat.

On the way back down we took a less strenuous path but Erin pushed forward at a rather aggressive pace. I was a bit frustrated with this because it really is much more difficult on the knees to go down than to go up and I was trying to watch myself. However, as we hit the last long straight path and we saw Erin sprint towards the restroom at the trail head all frustration was forgotten. She clearly had something more important on her mind.

The ride home was uneventful. We eventually figured out a way to prop the windows open a crack which alleviated some of the discomfort, but not much. It was a good time and we might go again in 2 weeks.