bomf

You may remember that I volunteered last year for my 30 before 30. I had wanted to do something a bit more long-term, but the timing just wasn’t working out for me. II had wanted to do something with kids—either with running or reading and I ended up doing a one-day volunteer race with kids. Ever since September, I’ve been thinking of doing something more, but just didn’t commit to anything. Life got in the way.

However, a few months ago I heard that Back on My Feet was launching in NYC. I first heard of this organization a few years ago when I read a Runner’s World article. At the time, I was impressed with Anne Mahlum and wondered if I’d ever have the guts to start something like this. Over the years, every once in a while, I’d remember the article—about this tiny blond helping the homeless in Philly through running—but had mostly forgotten about it.

Earlier this year, BoMF came front of mind again. Over the last several years, the organization had expanded from Philly to all over the nation. The difficulties of launching in NYC caused a bit of delay, but on April 10^th, BoMF officially made its debut in NYC.

I decided to join my sisters and some friends in volunteering on a regular basis. It sounded like a great way to get involved, and why not do it through running? Since mid-April, I’ve joined other runners to help a great group of people from the Common Ground shelter get back on their feet. Waking up and running to Times Square bright and early at 5:30am is sometimes startling. Especially given that this is about the only time Times Square is deserted. I thought it was going to be harder getting up that early, but knowing that I made a commitment, I’ve managed to do it. Sometimes that particular day and the few days after are slightly rough. But it gets me up early and feeling like I’ve accomplished something way before my work day begins.

It’s been great seeing the non-res members get faster and increase their mileage. I’m looking forward to seeing them begin to love—or at least like a lot— running. Next month we’ll get to see them do their first race. I’m looking forward to it!

And if you want to support, get involved or donate to my sisters' Ambreleah and Alysia.

april book update

I only completed one book last month. I guess that’s what happens when you start a 1000-page book. It’s taking a bit longer than expected.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

This was a recommendation for book club. And since Opening Day was a few weeks ago, it seemed fitting. The book isn’t necessarily all about baseball, but more about the lives that are affected when a standard throw to first base goes off course.

You get to know various people at this small college on Lake Michigan, when Henry—who’s been errorless so far in his career—throws a ball that doesn’t hit the first baseman’s glove like it should have. You see how the lives of students, administration and outsiders are affected. I thought it was a pretty good book and would highly recommend it.

I started to read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet and have gotten to the middle—actually 49%. Next month (assuming I finish it), I’ll go a bit deeper into it. So far so good.

13/30 books in 2012.

kentucky

I checked off my 23rd state! After a brief detour to Texas (#22), I made my way to Kentucky to visit my friend Katie. The last time I saw her was at her wedding a couple of years ago. It was time to see her again and why not do it in her home state.

I spent 4 days doing lots of fun things, including those specific to Kentucky. First up was the Derby miniMarathon. This was the first big race since my marathon last October. It was difficult to assess how this was going to go. I got my long runs in but some of the training was a bit sporadic. But I went out and ran consistent 8-minute miles. I finished with 1:45:46, so I was pretty happy. Later in the year I would like to PR, but will have to see what race would be best for that and where I'm at with my training.

The race started in downtown Louisville, where I passed the Louisville Slugger Museum (which I went to later in the weekend) and made my way down to Churchill Downs. After seeing a horse running on the track, I turned back towards town while passing some of the U of L campus, and later on, Katie at mile 12. After the finish I celebrated with a beer (or 2) and a fried twinkie at the Chow Wagon. Delish.

On Sunday we made our way to the Museum where I tried out Jeter's bat. If there weren't any nets I'm positive I would have hit a HR. I got to see the bats being made—including the Mother's Day commemorative pink bats—and got a mini bat to take home with me.

On my last day, I had to try some straight bourbon whisky. We drove to Loretto, KY where we took a tour of Maker's Mark Distillery. It was very nice. We walked around the grounds to the various buildings to see the full distilling process. And of course tried some of the bourbon, including Maker's 49 and Maker's White.

All in all a very good trip. Catching up with friends, running, seeing new things, enjoying great weather (minus the hail storm), and so on. What more could I ask for?

 

march book update

I of course got some more reading in last month, but only got through 3 books. I was very busy with work, and took a vacation where I didn’t spend a lot of time reading.

Faithful Place by Tana French

I finally read Faithful Place, the 3^rd book in Tana French’s Dublin crime squad series. I read the last one a few years ago and really liked it. I do enjoy reading crime novels and especially like the Irish aspect of them.  

An undercover detective is drawn back to his childhood neighborhood when his old girlfriend’s suitcase turns up in an abandoned building. It was thought she had run off to London to start a new life. As the investigation starts, it’s quickly established that never made it to London. Since this is a murder mystery, I couldn’t put the book down. Now I need to get my hands on the 4^th one in the series.

Entangled by Barbara Ellen Brink

I read Entangled while on vacation and it was perfect for it. It was a quick read. Not the most well written book (I guess that’s why it was free on my kindle), but it did the job. This woman inherits her uncle’s winery and old childhood memories start to crop up. They had been blocked out for a few decades since it was pretty traumatic. Definitely some heavy stuff, but I thought it could have been a much better book.

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I decided to re-read Scarlet Letter since I remember liking it in high school. It took a little while to get through the old Puritanical English. Parts of it infuriated me and it’s kind of amazing that this is what it was like when our country was born. Damn Puritans. I don’t condone adultery at all. But I didn’t appreciate Hester taking all the slack for it. It was nice to read this book again. I enjoy having a new perception on books that I read over 10 years ago.

Now it's time to read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet!

12/30 books in 2012.

sxsw

I made it to Texas! First new state of the year checked off and now I've gone to a music festival. In typical spring break fashion, I met up with my college friends. Our friend Sara lives in Austin, so 5 of us invaded for SXSW—oh and to celebrate her 30^th and St. Patty’s Day.

It was 5 fun-filled days with music and beer. Just about every venue or open space had bands playing all day and night. Luckily we were staying walking distance from downtown, so we just music-hopped (or bar-hopped) all the way through Austin. The weather was super nice too—so shorts weather and drinking outside!

Band outdoors in Austin

Some highlights were General Fiasco—an Irish band—playing Wednesday night at a local bar. We also checked out an outdoor Shins concert. And even though it sucked getting up early, we went to the live broadcast of KGSR on Friday. We saw ZZ Ward, Graffiti6, and Fun. perform a a few songs apiece as we enjoyed chicken and waffles. I was a bit sleepy, but it was worth it. There were many other good highlights and a small number of not-so-good highlights. Overall good music all over the place.  

The Shins

My local Texan thing was going to Shiner, Texas to visit Spoetzl Brewery. My friends suggested kissing a cowboy, but all I saw in Austin were hipsters. It may have been possible that Brooklyn transplanted for the weekend. So instead of kissing a cowboy (or a hipster), I decided that drinking a new and local beer totally counted instead. Oh and we had some delish Texan BBQ to go with it.

Shiner, Texas

I spent the whole time goofing off with old friends, listening to music, eating Mexican and drinking too much beer. Bring on next year!

Always better.

spring training

I checked off another thing off my 2012 list! I went to a spring training game… well make that 3 of them. I’ve been to many Yanks' game and I try to visit ball stadiums when I get the chance. I do have a goal of going to all of them—assuming they are all still around. I figured it would be fun to go to spring training—and Florida was even better.

My friend Andrea and I made our way to Tampa this past weekend with the purpose of stalking Jeter, Swisher, and all the rest of the Yankees. We were somewhat successful. We left cold and sunny NYC and arrived in warm and cloudy Tampa—yes something was wrong with that picture. We relaxed a bit and had some delish brunch at Daily Eats to prep for the upcoming days of baseball.

Game 1

First game was against the Phillies. It was split team, so unfortunately Swisher and his fellow outfielders weren’t there, but we were able to get in some quality Jeter, Cano and A-Rod time in. And when I say quality time, I mean they ran by us very quickly 10 feet in front of us. Hey—I’ll take it. We got to George Steinbrenner Field about 2 hours before the game to scope it out and try to get some autographs. We were unsuccessful with the autographs, but did get some photos. We made our way to our section to relax in the hot Florida sun with a beer in hand. We went on to beat the Phillies 3-0.

Game 2

Second game up was against the Astros. Yeah, not too exciting you’d think, but it ended up being much better than the day before since we got some Swisher goof-off time and A-Rod’s autograph! We were literally right next them during batting practice. I got so many photos, it was ah-mazing. Unfortunately the Astros beat us 3-4. Even with the support of the 8-year old boy who was screaming his head off. He did get upgraded to first row though. I should try that at Yankee Stadium.

Game 3

Big game against the Red Sox. Ok… it’s not post-season, so not that big. Especially given we lost—in the 9^th inning. It was a slow start, but we got some batting practice time with Cervelli and Cano. It was another good night for ball. Granted the foul balls provided a lot of the excitement. But I’m now ready for April!

Next up—new state (Texas) and a little SXSW fun!

february book update

Time for my February book update! I had a nice mix of classics, young adult and comedic books to round out the month.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

I started Bossypants towards the end of January and finished it pretty quickly. It was pretty funny. I mean it is Tina Fey. Of course it was going to be funny. But as someone who doesn’t really watch 30 Rock or followed her SNL career too closely, I wasn’t too familiar with her as much as others. I of course have seen a few SNL skits, including her impersonations of Sarah Palin. You would have to live in a bubble if you've never seen them.

Tina puts a comedic spin on various points of her life and how she got to this point in her life. I did think she was funny before reading the book, but now I definitely need to catch up on 30 Rock. I guess it’s time to get my hands on the last few seasons.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I borrowed Slaughterhouse Five from a co-worker. This has been a book that I kept seeing at the bookstore and on various lists of books to read. I saw my co-worker Dan reading it, so I figured it was time to do it.

It was a pretty good book. Like with any book that has time travel or flips back and forth between different decades, it takes a while to adjust to that style. Billy Pilgrim is a POW of WWII and experiences time travel, or so he thinks, all the way from his childhood to the point when he is murdered. The murder isn’t really that exciting. Just some dude who vows revenge for his war buddy that falsely states that Billy had something to do with his death.

Not only does Billy time travel through his life, but he is also captured by aliens. Yup. Aliens. The story mainly centers on the bombing of Dresden during the war. Apparently this was supposed to be funny. I didn’t find it too humorous. I seriously considered Billy was experiencing post-traumatic syndrome. Or at least somehow it was a dream.

Fall Girl by Marybeth Smith

My theme has been reading a classic, and then reading some random easy book that I downloaded for free on my kindle. And this was one of them. This definitely wasn't a classic, and didn’t require much thinking. A bunch of teenage drama that was slightly entertaining. An interesting element was one of the characters had bipolar disorder. At the end of the book, I found that that author actually has bipolar. It was free and super quick to read so I didn’t mind it too well.

The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

This was suggested for my book club since one of the members knows the author. Again, this was another Young Adult book with some teenage drama. However, less drama that the previous book. It takes place in small town Kentucky, where a teenage girl is trying to fit in her high school. The small-town girl in me could relate to some of the aspects of the story.

We actually had a Q&A over Skpe with the author a couple of weeks ago. Which was pretty cool. It was nice to hear a bit more how the book was related to her own life. And I’m now headed to Kentucky in April. Bring on Derby Days!

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Ok. Enough with the teen drama. Time for another classic. Another dystopian book. I didn’t realize there were so many of them. All futures are apparently very bleak.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was also very quick read.  Literally, it was one page=1%. The shortest book so far on my kindle.

Like other Ayn Rand books, I liked it. I do feel it is time to re-read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I will plan to do that soon, since it’s been more than 6 years.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling

Another funny book! So I don’t watch The Office. I know lots of people who do. And apparently it’s funny. I believe them. However, I had never heard of Mindy Kalning before my friend recommended it for book club.

It was funny. Definitely some very humorous parts. My friend thought it was way funnier. She was laughing out loud when I was reading Slaughterhouse Five. Very rude I thought. I was reading something depressing and she was laughing out loud. Anyway I do recommend this book for a good laugh.

I’m currently in the middle of Faithful Place by Tana French. Another Dublin crime drama. The 3rd in the author's series and it’s a page turner. I’ll let you know how it goes next month!

9/30 books in 2012.