Firecracker 5k or Bust!

It's official - I'm going to run the Firecracker 5k on Wednesday. I couldn't resist. It's a flat course and in town. I may not set a PR but at least I'll get a nice 3.1 mile run in first thing in the morning! I'm already nervous. Will I cramp? Will I go out too fast? Will I have to walk? Will I be last? Gotta love it. While I was at the running store I also signed up for the All Dirt 5k in two weeks. That should be interesting. My evening's plans kind of fell apart so I'm not so patiently waiting for the temperature to drop so I can go running. When all else fails - RUN! Niiiiiice stress buster.

Me and my cheese!

Most internet quizzes that determine your personality based on random questions are pretty laughable - and predictable. I once took one to find out which Gilmore Girl I was most like. Color me shocked when the person I was most like turned out to be the person I clicked to be my favorite character. I was impressed with the sandwich personality match up - it's like the internet read my mind...especially on the ham sandwich part - yuck!

You Are a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You are a traditional person with very simple tastes. In your opinion, the best things in life are free, easy, and fun. You totally go with the flow. And you enjoy every minute of it! Your best friend: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Ham Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Another craptastic day in the neighborhood.

I haven't felt this grumpy in a long time. I feel like death on a triscuit. I slept until 10:00 (oops) and all I want to do is go back to bed. It's cloudy here and lightly sprinkling, so basically the weather isn't helping my mood much. My run last night was great... at least in terms of me finally running 4 miles. Everything else about my run sucked. Along the way I thought I was going to die. At one point I stopped, bent over, fully expecting to leave my afternoon snack on some New Englander's front lawn. I'm sure they would have appreciated that. I really should have taken better notes the first time around because I know I had this same feeling once before. (Note to self: Just say no to bananas before ANY run.)

I stayed up too late watching The Departed. It's one long frickin' movie! Basically it's 2.5 hours of the Boston Mafia vs. Boston Cops - lots of rats, shoot 'em ups, whispering calls, text messages, and f-bombs. The Bostonian accents were probably the most entertaining part of the whole movie. It was predictable. I wasn't on the edge of my seat or anything. In the acting department, I was a tad disappointed with Matt Damon. Leonardo DiCaprio wiped the floor with him in that respect. They are in two different leagues in my opinion.

Naps should be mandatory.

I hadn't planned on taking a nap yesterday, it just sort of happened. There I was reading about the Korean War and enjoying the cool breeze from my air conditioner and then lights out! I couldn't have fought off that nap with all of MacArthur's army on my side. It was a good nap too. I didn't toss and turn. It was the nice deep sleep kind of nap. It really made me wish that naps were mandatory, like in preschool.

I'd be perfectly content with having to roll out a little nap mat every afternoon for a little timeout, refresher nap. Maybe that's what the world needs - just one mandatory nap everyday. It could have a domino effect ... less disgust and stress with work could lead to less road rage, fewer accidents and cheaper car insurance. People would be refreshed, have more energy to exercise and become healthier, leading to cheaper health insurance. People then could use their new healthy bodies to commute to work by bicycle, making us all less dependent on oil and ultimately ending the war and saving the earth from global warming!! We could all play and nap safely in our own separate corners of the world. Oversimplified and quixotic??? Just a tad, I know. Maybe I'll call up Obama or someone and tell them my plan to save the world. We could start with a grassroots campaign. "Stop the war. Take a nap." "Guns for pillows." "Have you had your nap today?"

The glass is half full...

While the working six days a week thing is getting old, I have managed to think of one upside to being stuck inside the office for 10 hours every Sunday. Working keeps me safely inside my climate controlled office - ok, freezing office - for a majority of the day. By the time I finally get home, it's a much better temperature for running. I had a great run this evening which is encouraging following my craptastic run yesterday. My pants are looser! And I'm not nearly as stiff and sore by day's end as I usually am. Progress! I love it! I finally broke 10 miles for the week. I came in at 11.3 miles!

Netflix rocks! Have I said that before?

The first movie of the weekend was kind of a disappointment. I'd heard such wonderful things about Memoirs of a Geisha that I probably had my expectations too high. It was good, just not excellent. In all of my Japanese studies it never seemed that there was ever anything close to resembling a fairy tale ending for any geisha. Entertainers yes, prostitutes no - that's what all the Ivory Tower types say. For once Hollywood probably tells the more realistic side with men bidding on a geisha's virginity. It's an odd happy ending in that geisha gets her man kind of way - kind of like Pretty Woman but with an eastern Asia, mid-20th century twist. It may be one of those movies that would be better upon second viewing. Only one worm thumb up.


I know I've already professed my geekiness once before in this blog with admitting my love for N'Sync and thus, Justin Timberlake, but in a totally unbiased opinion, JT can act! Ok, so maybe it's not entirely unbiased. It's hard to be unbiased when someone is that hot! Drugs, f-bombs, cigarettes, tattoos, guns, and one 15 year old kid that gets popped - perfect combination! Seriously, I had a glimmer of hope that Frankie (JT) would pull through in the end and save the kid from being riddled with bullets, but then the movie wouldn't be based on a true story, and we can't have that now can we? I actually felt sorry for Frankie. Me, sorry for a criminal?? Hmm, again, JT can act. And he's hot. All tattooed up and everything. Grrr. Two worm thumbs up!

Someone pass the Kleenex.

Bleepin' allergies. This is what I get for actually working. I set a deadline at work to get this massive project done before the fall semester starts, which ultimately means that I have to get my rear out of the office and into the field. Apparently the field wasn't happy to see me because over the past week and half my allergies have gradually been getting worse. A crummy night of sleep last night (thanks to my pain in the arse cat) probably didn't help my situation. Today has been, by far, the most craptastic of allergy days.

And it's dorrito casserole night at the folks' place. Basically it means the forces of nature are working against me for a run tonight. Not only will I be bogged down from the greasy, cheesy dinner, but I won't be able to be breathe through my nose - should be a good time, yeah? I'll just keep reminding myself that a short run is better than no run.

It's been a while since I've had a movie mention. No worries - Netflix and I still remain friends. I even bumped up to three movies at a time for the summer. Earlier this week I watched Blood Diamond. I'm not the biggest fan of Leonardo DiCaprio but usually end up liking whatever film he is in, Blood Diamond continued that trend. The rough Aussie accent was a bit distracting at first but by the end I thought the whole movie had been well acted. I don't normally just sit down and watch a movie, but I couldn't help but plop for the last 30 or so minutes of this film. It was a great story with a good message that wasn't overly preachy. I was never a big fan of diamonds to begin with, but if on the off chance I do end up getting married in this lifetime, I think I'll forgo the traditional diamond ring. That's probably not surprising to the people who actually know me.

Give me fuel...

I have no energy. Zilch. None. I'm munching on a PowerBar and hoping beyond on all hope that it's the magic ticket today. It's been almost a week since I ran. I have a charlie-horse pain in my left calf that's gradually been getting worse. I think it's my body protesting to my being a bum and half the last 6 days. Camping was fun but I ate too much junk food while I was gone. I'm sure that's going to come back to haunt me. I'm ok with that though because campfire smores are totally worth it!

And I'm now officially under the month-to-go mark before my second ever 5k. I better pick it up a notch if I don't want to look like a complete granny-with-a-walker when it comes time to run. I should probably try hitting a dirt trail or two before then too. I'm sure I'd run much faster when I started seeing all the rattlesnakes that hang out up by the reservoir. Four minute miles would be a snails pace compared to what I'd be running!

More Rain??

I got to take a trip down memory lane on Monday - literally. I'm house-sitting near where I used to live back when I first started running a few years ago so I decided to run one of my old routes. Even though I've only been running for a couple months now, I felt much stronger running the short route this time around than I ever did running it before. Maybe it was just in my head, but the 2 miles were easy, and I'm certain that I was running faster than I ever did back then.

Last night it was raining cats and dogs so I didn't get in the run I had planned. I'm really sick of the rain. So instead of running, I watched RV with Robin Williams. Hilarious movie! It makes me want to rent an RV and travel across the country with my family. I think we could put the family in the movie to shame though with the amount of misadventures my family would run into. Between my dad stopping to look at every animal we passed, my mom stopping to let the dogs out every half hour and me stopping at every coffee shop and bookstore along the way, it would take us weeks just to get out of the state.

Cancer sticks made pretty.

I can only hope that someday down the road, the greedy nut jobs that came up with the new color scheme for the Camel cigarettes realize just how much of a disservice they have done for society. Nothing says sleek and sexy like cigarettes marketed like the latest perfume. No.9? As in love potion number 9? Smooth advertisement. I'm sure the execs bought this one hook, line, and sinker. It brings back the days of Joe Camel and Camel Cash - explicitly marketing towards the younger generation. I could think of a handful of people who would kill to get their hands on these cigs just because the box would match the latest Razor phone. The sad part is that none of them are 18. I'm sure it will only be a couple months before the box is decked out in yellow or orange and has the stylish name of Deuce or Ace for the younger male crowd. The kicker - it's illegal advertising. The lawsuits have already begun but it's comparable to trying to put out a wild fire simply by spitting on it. Although to Camel, I'm sure it makes no difference whether the campaign sticks around or not because the 1,000s of new smokers they will gain just in the campaign's inevitably short life will far outweigh any legal costs.

Every 6.5 seconds, someone in the world dies of a smoking related disease - in the U.S. that means 340 people a day. 1/3 of all youth smokers will eventually die of a tobacco related illness. As long their customers keep dying, companies have to keep recruiting. Big tobacco spends $36 MILLION per day on advertisements. Sadly, the pink camel is but a drop in the bucket.

"Power Ballads" are the greatest.

Another close to a successful week. I'm pleased with how well my running has been going. I had a strong week. So far I think I'm sitting at about 7.0 miles total for the week. And I think I may have a few more left in me! I hope. I'm really liking the lake route. It's nice and hilly so it helps break up my stride a little bit and use different muscles. I'm still working on the new play list for my .mp3 player. It needs some serious work. I have my certain "power ballads" though. Yes, power ballads. What else should I call them? These are the ones, without fail, that give me the extra boot in the caboose and get me over the hill or to the next mile marker.

Worm's Top 5 "Power Ballads!"

1. "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel
Maybe it's the history geek in me, maybe it's the fact that this song inspired me to go grad school, maybe it's just that it's someone shouting really loud and the rythm is fast, but I love this song!! I know I'm holding pace if I struggle just a little to sing along.

2. "Jet Airliner" by Jefferson Airplane
This is the unexpected one. Thanks to the final season of The West Wing and a kick ass video montage featuring the hustle and bustle of campaigning for President, this song always gets me in a happy, funky mood.

3. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard
This is the cheesiest of all cheesy songs and I'm still trying to figure out why it always gets me running faster....and wanting to shout "POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME!!"

4. "Me and My Gang" by Rascal Flatts
It's like country N'Sync. As long as they don't start doing coordinated dance moves in their videos, I think I'll be ok.

5. "Lean on Me" by The Temptations
It's one of those determination songs. I just wish I weren't out in public when I was running so that I could belt out the lyrics! "We all need somebody to lean on..." Sometimes by the end of the run, I could really use somebody to lean on. This song usually fixes that problem!

One job that I would not want...

I will never be a morning runner. Ever. I'm just go to wave the white flag and say never again. I love sleep too much to disrupt it by bounding out of bed and running. I've skipped running the last few days because of thunderstorms in the evening. I think the weather will hold out today so I may be able to get back out there finally.


I've found a job to add to the list of ones that I would never want. I was reading news articles this morning and came across one about construction workers uncovering a mass grave in Ukraine. Not so surprisingly, it's from the Holocaust near an area that Hitler was using for a camp in 1941. I know construction is a great trade and all, especially here in the U.S., but I just can't imagine some of the things that have been unearthed in Europe. A construction worker in Europe would almost have to expect a discovery like that every time a project was started. Whether it was the millions that died in "no man's land" during the trench warfare of The Great War or the millions more taken during WWII, it seems that every area would have remains of some kind.

In the young life of the U.S., we've lost soldiers and civilians during war time but it's nothing like that of Europeans. And most of our casualties were overseas, in the same "no man's land," alongside the British and French corpses. The only significant loss of life on the home front would have been during the Civil War when streams and rivers literally ran red with blood. The bloodiest day of fighting on U.S. soil saw only 23,000 casualties at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. I say only because really 23,000 compared to the million or more casualties taken at numerous battles during WWII is just a drop in the bucket. Some 72 MILLION deaths are scattered across Europe from World War II alone. Add on the 19 million from WWI and it seems that not an inch of ground would go untouched by death.

What I find interesting though is the battlefields of the Civil War, Revolutionary War, and Pearl Harbor are preserved. The mass graves of Gettysburg, Antietam, and Vicksburg are hallow grounds, forever preserved from the forces of construction. Construction workers in a America typically don't have the problem of uncovering mass graves. If Europe enshrined all their battlefields, it seems as though no one would have anywhere to live.

Yes, one article made me think this much. I just think Americans take a lot for granted. Sure, we have had a rough and tumble history for only being 230 years old, but it's probably a walk in the park to what most countries have experienced.

"Pop" Coincidence

A hidden gem in the mass of romantic comedies, Music and Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore was funny and charming. I'd never heard of the movie, but based on previous selections, Netflix recommended it. So who am I to disagree with Netflix? Maybe they figured I needed some direction after choosing Tristan and Isolde and History Boys all on my own.

Playing a "has been" 80s pop star, Grant lands a duet with the teenie bopper of the moment who's similar to the psycho Britney Spears not the post Mickey Mouse club, JT's girl, Spears. Required to write the song they are going to sing together, Grant's character discovers his oddball plant waterer (Yeah, I said plant waterer. I so need me one of those!) has a hidden talent with words. He ropes her into being the lyricist for the song he composes. It's a humorous little adventure that has Grant pathetically shaking his booty around like a parent two generations shy of coolness while also playing the hero by writing his own song to get the girl. I'm still trying to figure out if Grant did his own singing. It kind of sounded like him. The songs were in good spirit. Certainly not Grammy worthy but for an unheard of movie, they weren't too bad!

One of the songs that had made Grant's character famous in the 80s was called "Pop!" The film even had a VH1 style flashback thing at the beginning of the movie with a cheesy music video and all. Anywho, the connection of the day - there always seems to be a connection - is two-fold. Stay with me here... remember, a movie about a has been and a song named "Pop!" So my family's annual garage sale was yesterday and an N'Sync shirt of mine was sold for the purpose of a white elephant present. I'd hang my head in shame but I have no regrets! The three concerts of theirs that I went to were incredible! Ok, laugh if you must. I'll wait. So, back to the connection...I'm almost certain that N'Sync can be considered a group of has beens, excluding JT, of course, AND they had a song named "Pop!" Coincidence much! And just for the record, N'Sync's "Pop" is way better than the one in this movie! For reals, y'all.

What day is it?

Ok, it's time for a collective yawn! Yaaawwwnnnn! Is it only Friday? This has been an incredibly long week. At least I can say that it's been a long week that included running!! I even squeezed in some biking, which was a painful experience all on its own. I'll hold that fun for later though.

I ran the same lake route again on Wednesday after work. Thankfully, it was thunderstorm free. It was so much easier the second time around. I dropped two minutes off my time! I'll just pat myself on the back for staying properly hydrated and fed prior to the run. My one recurring thought throughout the run was, "Different song. Different song. Mmmm, Boston creme pie. Different song." Ever since I got lost on the East coast on Monday, I cannot get Boston creme pie off my mind. If I knew how to bake a Boston creme pie, I'd do that. But I don't know how, so the goal for my lovely Friday night is to change the playlist on my .mp3 player! I sure know how to paint the town red.

I've decided that the saying about once you learn how to ride a bicycle, you'll never forget, or however it goes, needs revised. Sure, a person may always know how to ride a bicycle, but a person needs to be reminded of the pain it can cause riding again after a long, long time. I just think the disclaimer tacked on there would be helpful, you know, lower expectations. I had a goal - I'd get to a certain point and see how long it took me to get there. That way I could roughly estimate how long it would take me to ride to work. I figured it'd be a piece of cake, just a nice ride in the park. I was cursing the man who designed the bicycle around mile two! I'm convinced I was riding uphill both ways! The world must have shifted on its axis or something. I'm sucking wind, even some bugs, like no other. My legs were burning, and joggers were passing me... ok, so maybe it wasn't that bad. Runners were passing me! I've gained an entirely new admiration for Lance Armstrong after that adventure. I shall trudge on though.

Last night I watched Freedom Writers. Two worm thumbs up! By far, the best movie I have seen by way of Netflix this year. Pirates 3 was pretty great but that's a whole different category of movie. I like movies that are about inspiring teachers. Maybe that's part of the reason why I was disgusted with History Boys. Yeah, that memory isn't going away any time soon. Anywho, there's something about reading and learning and seeing the "light bulb go off" that is just really cool to watch on screen. It was nice to see history used in a relevant way as well. It always makes me cringe to hear someone say history doesn't matter because it was in the past and it's over. Well, using the Holocaust to teach about hatred during the L.A. riots makes history pretty darn relevant. The acting was excellent too. I'd never seen Hilary Swank in a film before and I was impressed. It kind of grumped me out that Patrick Dempsey's character had to be an ass but the world does have it's very share of meanie heads. Pair this one up with The Ron Clark Story and it would make a very inspiring night. Or at least make you have faith that not every kid from the hood is on a dead end path.

So, another week down. Another busy day off ahead of me. For now, I think I'll pop in my next Netflix movie and veg for a bit. I'm really enjoying this no classes, no homework thing!!