weekend

Well this weekend was a rather busy one with plenty of fun, sweat, and blood. Thursday was softball night where we finally won our first game of the season... thank you jesus!! I was promoted (demoted) to third base where all the action was and the field kinda ate up my elbow. The girls played awesome that night and it was great to see people succeeding and having a good time. Friday was a cookout at mama Cindy's and of course things got a little out of hand. Me and Kyson went out a little early and did some lumberjacking before the party got started. Amber and Brandon where also at the party and Brandon got to meet the whole family and I think he had quite the experience. As usual drinking led to some more drinking which led to religion and eventually politics, which led to a catastro-fuck. However, I did get to drive a motorcycle for the first time and now I've officially got the bug (it's quite likely all elders will disown me if in fact a motorcycle ever falls into my posession.

This morning we had THE QC 1/2 marathon which went fantastic. I was shooting for a 2:10 finish and came in with an official time of 2:02:02. Shannan finished shortly after me with a 2:17 and beat her goal time of 2:20. The course was amazing and it was really something else to be able to run in areas where you've only previously been in a car. Running across I-74 in the morning fog felt like running through a painting or even an Ansel Adams photo where the mountains have been replaced by a giant green suspension bidge. The whole experience was very calming and the time just flew by. Now after completing the 13.1 I'm looking forward to the 27 mile birthday challenge run. With each increase in mileage comes a new goal and a new challenge. There are no more worries about what can't be done or what won't be accomplished, only the limitation of what my mind can conceive as the next challenge.

Helping others

I love to help people out when I can, especially when it's some type of existential life crisis that they're having, but in all fairness you can't help a person out of such a situation, you can only offer them guidance. As with many thing in life you must make the choice for yourself, no matter how much help is being thrown your way. Others can only show you the door, you are the one who has to walk through it... and sometimes there's not much comfort in that. Sometimes we already see the door, that god damn door that just keeps staring us in the face, the one that we'd rather just kick in than walk through... but there is comfort in knowing that other people are aware of the door as well. That your own situation is not all that unique from many others and in fact our lives are not all that unique from many others. The difference is in the details, not in the plot. We all experience degrees of happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, love, hate, elation, and disappointment. Why we experience them or from what they stem obviously differs, but the feelings themselves are what connect us. Feelings are what we have in common with everyone. I guess what I'm getting at is next time you're in the situation to help someone, don't get caught up in the details of the situation, but rather get down to how that person feels. We must first always recognize where we are before we set about getting to where we want to go.

Sept. 24

Last night was Shannan and I's 2nd anniversary. Two years!!!! I can hardly believe it, seems like just yesterday that we got hitched and had one wild and crazy night. Of course before the night got started Mama Cindy had to do a photo shoot at the new house to practice up on her photographer abilities. The first pic is one of our first official family portraits and the second is the super fancy sepia version (actually makes us look more tan). We headed out to Biaggi's for dinner, which was overall fairly disappointing and then made up for it with some Cold Stone Creamery, where we also met Brandon, Amber's new love interest (gentleman caller). Can't wait to hang out with them again on Friday night.

Only four more days till Shan and I run the QC half marathon and my nerves are starting to get on edge. I can't wait to get out on the course to enjoy the experience. This should prove to be the beginning of a long lasting love affair with long distance running... hopefully Very long distance running.