Fynn
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: happy b-day
Topic: Friends
my unkle Dmitri's b-day. Also a B-day for Jackie'n'Dan's firstborn "Fynn was born on Monday, Aug 23 at 10:07pm. He came into the world weighing
6 lbs 9.5 ozs and was 19.5 inches long" Mom and kid doing well.

Shail away
Topic: Active
Went sailing with Terrin in nasty wind. Passed my man overboard, which is sooo freakin hard to do! I hope I never ever have to do it for real. In the ocean/or sea, I guess according to Terrin, if someone falls overboard, you only have a 20% chance of finding them again. Racers wear GPS to increase the chances. There's some movie out about that now, lost at sea or something. Hmm. I also learned how to do a quick stop. Hope never have to do that either that's freakin hard too. You break by creating tension between the Jib and the rotter. Yuck. I did get better with the whole thing and the driving of the boat. I didn't screw up on rigging the boat either, and I'm approved for the big racing class now. Yippie!

Weekend roundup
Mood:  blue
Topic: Friends
Went out to dinner for a friend's b-day last night, heard a bizarre story of betrayal and unfaithfulness from a girlfriend who it happened to the day before, and went to the Rainforest Caf? for a friend's daughter's b-day, watching the 9 year-old get more clothes then I think I currently own and about $300 in cash along with other stuff too. Wow kids get a lot those days. It cracks me up to have like 15 small Philippino children run up to me and say Tita Irene, could you please this or that? Too cute. Had to keep my distance so that I don't get them sick.

Did very little cuz I've spent the weekend being sick at home. No blueberries, no air and water show, no excersize, no clubbing. nothing.

I am the neighborhood watch
Mood:  blue
Topic: Day to Day
I need to move to a more peacefully neighborhood. Molly is psychic. She was lying down and all of a sudden started growling. She ran to the back then to the front. Acting stranger then if there was a dog nearby. I went to the window to look. She must have heard it coming. I stood there telling her she's crazy and there's nothing there, while she continued to growl. I saw a car go through the stop sign and crash into street across the way. By the way, if it turned the other way, it would have been on top of my car or in my living room. 5 teens. Called it in like a good citizen, cops came, fire department came, they were at it for hours. Kids are all shaken but OK. Bad thing is they don't think it's a big deal. They were chasing another car because someone in it had someone's cell phone or something stupid not worth dying over. Yeah.

Olympics - scoring, sportsmanship, challenge
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: the greek national anthem
Topic: Day to Day
I was mesmerized by the lords of the rings, but I thought the winner was political, not real. There is such a small difference between the top gymnasts, that it really comes down to the preference. Wouldn't it be "nice" if the Greeks won? I thought the other guy was better. 8.62 was what the Greek guy got, and 8.50 is what the Bulgarian guy got. The Bulgarian guy should have won. Also another one that really really bothered me was the men's horse - Marius Ursica should have won that thing. Instead they gave it to this stupid Chinese guy who had no heart in his routine, no finesse. Again, by fractions, thousandths. 9.837 vs 9.825. Marius is one of my favorites in the summer Olympics. I like watching him prepare for the routine. He comes up to the horse. He looks jittery, energetic, nervous. He pauses and kind of rolls his eyes into the back of his head. I don't know if he's praying, or counting, or thinking, or clearing his head. But then he sharply looks to the side and you can tell there's no fear, he's fully composed. He gets on the horse. He is not just technically perfect, he has rhythm and passion. It's like watching a fish in water or a bird in the sky, there's nothing that's more natural. He's got speed and inhuman grace. He is the definition of why they call this an "artistic" event. And here comes this purely technical, fully analytical guy who has no rhythm and has a slightly easier, but virtually the same routine, only not as fast and not holding his body nearly as high and face totally emotionless. And he wins? Pisses me off. GRRRR.

I love watching the athletes faces during and before each exercise. I don't like watching the after, because then the vices of being human take over. Jealousy, defeat, anger, self-pity, benevolence, fake sportsmanship, in some cases. Not everywhere, but it's a turnoff to see.

The brady bunch
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: the brady bunch
Topic: Joblog
Me and my coincidences. The last 5 HR persons I spoke to were cindy, marsha, and jennifer, greg, and mike. Notice a pattern here? I'm only missing one, Peter. NOT KIDDING!!!! isn't that freaky? They say if one looks for patterns, one will find them. I'm not exactly looking, this is pretty obvious: the Brady Bunch owns HR. The weirdest thing about this is that jennifer's last name is ....BRADY. Hah! Which reminds me, I got to send Cindy a follow up note before it gets too late in the day. I don't know what I'm writing, my fever is rising.

I had two interviews today, shouldn't write which companies. Even though I am sick. I'd have to move to a rural place for either job. I'd be payed more then now. I'd be able to get any house I want and go to school nearby to get my masters, not in the best schools in the world, but still. They'd be far away from everything, but they do have airports there. I dunno. They are driving distance from Chicago.

olympics
Topic: Day to Day
I was watching the final women's volleyball USA vs. Russia. What a great exciting game! Maaan those women are TALL! Gorgeous too, most of them. Every time I watch russia vs. us, I'm torn as to who I want to win. This time I was rooting for Russia... This is because these girls don't have all the comforts and lifestyle the Americans have here. There, athletes are not raised to superhero status. They don't get cars or endorcements or special treatments. They have to give up a lot more to get a lot less in return. So I was watching with mixed feelings, and every time anyone scored, I didn't know if I should be happy or sad. At the end when Russia won I almost started crying. This is because I was happy for them because you could tell they wanted to win more then the Americans, but also because I didn't want our team to lose. I'm more emotional when I'm sick. I also watched the trampoline for the first time ever, and the men's swim relay, and the women's 10ft platform qualifying rounds, and the 100m qualifying rounds. Man the olympics are tearjerkers - the 20-year-old Miami runner and her leukemia dad, the US diver and her marine husband who's about to be deployed to the middle east. I think that the olympics is the #1 thing that teaches the world how to be one. I just wish all the fighting in the world would stop at least during the event to honor it.

spin class
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Ok, went to my first spin class in an effort to get better at biking. learned hand positions and body positions. Did jumps, runs, and rides. It was challenging, I pushed myself, and it was fun. I'm already more confident about my race. But I now realize biking is an art and a science, not just something that should be taken for granted as far as classes. It was great, will do again soon's this cold is over.

cross country 5K
Mood:  hug me
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Ok, another day another run. got rained on, so the result is err, i'm sick.

according to the heartrate monitor,

29:04 was the time (i forgot to turn it off right away), 2 minutes in zone 186 ave bpm.

I was real nervours about the race, saw the last race's results and was intimidated. Only a few people did worse then my average time. So I really pushed myself. Gina came to watch, thanks Doll!

Official race results:
overall place 68 out of 80 time 28:49.7 13TH W'S OPEN

10 Mile
Mood:  party time!
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Today I ran my first 10 Mile race. 1st annual Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10. It was a very well managed race. I guess they always call it extreme if there are hills or trails or something.

It was AVESOME! And easier then I thought it would be. I had the usual "I'm not goinng to make it, might as well quit now" within the first mile, but it went away quickly and from that point on it was fun. I got there late but caught up.

A really nice and cute guy named Kevin kept me company for a good 20 minutes as we caught up to everyone - he was the tail bike patrol. I tried to find him to talk to him after the race but lost track of him. I may have been the last one to start, but I was certainly not the last one to finish. And he had to stay with the tail. I wonder if he was married. But that belongs in another section of this journal, doesn't it?

Anyway, the shoes and the socks and the clothes held. Gotta remember to maybe not wear a g-string next time though. Also, my heart monitor band, as I found out when I got home, has cut into my chest and now I have a 3-inch long gash to the blood! Can't believe I didn't feel it during and after the race! Not till I took the monitor off. I'll loosen it for next time.

Personal results according to my monitor:
98 minutes, 177 ave heart rate, 30 minutes in zone.that gives me a mile time under 10 minutes, which is great.

Race results:
278 235 11 W25 Chicago, IL 1:41:41.6 10:10

Really sore now, and tired. Will take a nap. The body made a huge poop after the race. I heard the body does nasty things during the marathon. Maybe I shouldn't find out. But I'm beginning to fathom doing one... SOME DAY. See if I feel the same in the morning first!

There were a lot of people in this race from the trail challenge I did two weeks ago. We got dry t-shirts at the end, and there was great food, massages, and giveaways.

The trail was really pretty. There was one NASTY hill they dubbed "big bertha" - It was a monster. They even wrote "almost there" near the end of it.

I'll definitely try to do this again next year!