Vikings!

The Vikings had their last preseason game tonight that meant anything. Friday is their official last, but starters wont play in that. Now it is 13 days of waiting until they start their mission miami run which will commence with the super bowl parade in Minneapolis. I really can't wait for the start of the season.

This Thursday night is the first college football game, Saturday is the first gopher football game (I am very excited to see coach brew and the boys this Saturday! Big things planned!). Basically there is college football all weekend and then its a short work week and Thursday night we get NFL kickoff and then the weekend with USC at Ohio State and of course got my football on early in the morning. The premier league is solid this year. Its sweet that games are on ESPN so America can see what it means to support a team. Soccer haters are getting weeded out of America too and it is nice to see. I thank the fifa video games for a lot of this.

The fall tv schedule is looking solid at the first glimpse. I haven't received my EW fall preview issue yet, I know that Sons of Anarchy is back a week from tomorrow and there is that new show on ABC about everyone blacking out for 2 minutes that looks like it could be really good. I'm gonna need another mindfuck/reward the viewer for watching every episode once Lost is gone.

I have been reading a decent amount again. Vince Flynn is the man of the moment. I have Dan Brown's new book on pre-order which comes out 2 weeks from tomorrow and there is an author called Lee Child who Andy's mom recommended to me that I am waiting for his 1st book at the library (42/67 on the waiting list, been on it since August 6). Molly (Andy's Mom) borrowed me the 2nd 3rd and 4th books, and I am really showing restraint not to just rip into the 2nd one and say fuck it. Since I have other good reads I can wait for it. Dan Brown's new one The Lost Symbol should be damn good not just because it is Dan Brown, but because it takes place in Washington DC. It will be interesting to her about the different symbolism that he can come up with that is actually in America and not London or Rome.

Coming soon: NFL predictions

child please

Today is August 22 and I don't know how I got here. I have been working rather steadily since about the middle of May. First landscaping with Tyler, and then MYSA since then. I am working at MYSA until October and then we will see what happens. It would be fun to move somewhere else (california or CT possibly) but I don't know if that is the smartest choice in these rough economic times. If things were a little better and the economy was stronger I would leave without a doubt (very easy thing to say, though I don't know if I even believe that).

Things are ok with me. I am in a routine that I used to be in in summers past of working 40 hours and then getting drunk Friday and Saturday nights, while Sunday was a day of recovery. I don't drink much anymore (of course I was just an integral part of a drinking event last weekend in which we won, but for the most part I rarely drink these days. Some will say its a sign of maturity, I will say that it is a sign of immaturity for the fact that I am just reverting my ways back to my early years of high school.

I feel like for the last 14 months I have had no direction in my life. I could go even further and say that for the last 5 years I have had no direction in my life. I was told to go to college so I went to college. I graduated college and had no idea what I wanted to do and when people ask me now what my ideal situation is for a job I still have no idea. Its a rather empty feeling when you got $20,000 in student loans, don't have a job that pays well and (still) have no idea what I want to do. I guess thats where the thought of just moving comes into play. Going to start somewhere new and see what happens.

I can say that I am happy to see summer head out. It was fine, nothing eventful happened, and it went by fast. Once again I did not go camping, I did not go on a bike ride down the luce line with friends. These are things that I have wanted to do for a long time now (5 summers) and it has never happened. Am I surprised? Not at all. Am I disappointed? Very much so. It seems as though it will become harder and harder to fathom doing a decent sized group outing for something of a camping nature just because everyone is growing up and doing their things. Unfortuantely (for me) my mind is still stuck in 2005 when I hung out with a lot of people every weekend and every weekend was an adventure. I sincerely need an adventure.

Football starts 3 weeks from today. Golly I cannot wait. It feels like 5 years since football season ended and it feels like 5 months since training camp started. It doesnt help that I listen to sports radio for 6 hours at work everyday, but even still I cannot wait for it to come. Needless to say 3 weeks from today at noon I will be a very very happy fella. Of course college starts in 2 weeks and that is very entertaining too, but my love resides with the nfl.

Soccer started last weekend. It is nice having that back in my life. Games are on ESPN2 every weekend which is really cool. It really puts the two tv setup to work and that is a good thing. When the nfl starts I will be putting in 12 hour days of sport watching on Sundays. That is just simply amazing and I will cherish each and every saturday.

Fall is around the corner and going back to the "i'm sick of summre rant" I do look forward to fall. It is just a brilliant time of year. The weather is perfect and the best sports are in season, that makes a perfect time of year. I haven't updated this in a while so I will try to do it more. I really do try, but not much is new in my life. I feel like I'm constantly in a holding pattern and waiting for something exciting to happen to me.

I just started a diet. I will let you know how it is going on September 29th. I'm doing it so I can fit into my jeans again, without needing to buy new ones. It is interesting though so we will so how it goes.

That is all for me. Happy end of August. I bought some hope from the Vikings last week when we got Brett. Can you say 13-3? I can. Superbowl homeboy!

Its been too long

Well I have been meaning to write my marathon wrap up post, but dont have pics from it yet because I never have my comp around when chris has his camera. The marathon was satisfying in a sense that I could have never done it 4 months ago. I did complete it though and a whole post dedicated to it will come hopefully sometime soon.

Today was actually the first time I did anything active since the marathon. I went swimming, and holy fuck swimming is tiring. I probably swam about 400 yards or roughly 10-13 minutes and then left. This wasn't non stop, I definitely rested because, once again, swimming is hard as fuck. I also haven;t swam legit freestyle for probably 10+ years. I couldnt get my breathing down at all. I don't think it helped that I was so out of breath while doing said exercise.

The 4th of july came and it was a spectacular 3 day weekend. The 4th itself was amazing going out to Mark's cabin for a good 12 hours and doing all the fun things that you can do on a saturday on the lake. About half of my time was spent in the lake even through a nice down pour that lasted about 45 minutes.

Work is going well, but it is probably going to end sooner than I think. I thought it went through august but apparently it might only be through early august. Whatever, I'll find a job somewhere if its using my degree or not. Just the concept of work has been nice. Set hours, making money, normal eating habits, all those things are good for me.

I think a year ago today is when I got home from school. What a waste this past year has been. That won't happen again. If I ever am out of work for that long again I'm moving somewhere (still pondering moving anyway) because looking back on the last year it has been so unfulfilling. Yikes, truly a year to forget.

Well I figured I would write something because I can't sleep. I really dont know what the deal is. It sure does suck though.

Until next time in which there will be marathon and 4th of july pics... Goodnight

I am getting more and more nervous. I haven't taken a nap all week yet which is good. The less napping the better I sleep at night. The day is coming to run the marathon and it is really a big unknown. I am, overall, a very positive thinker and am a strong believe, as many of you know, in the power of mentally preparing and mental toughness.

The thoughts start coming back into my head though of skipping about 4 weeks of training. Is it going to come back to haunt me? Is my left hamstring/knee going to be a pain in the ass like it has the past few weeks (quick side note; For some reason my left knee, which was reconstructed, feels like it doesn't want to bend once I get into a longer run. My hamstring just above my knee (in back of course) becomes stiff. This is something that is not cool and I am hoping will go away once adrenaline kicks in)?

I am at the point now where I have done all I could have to prepare for my first (but not my last) marathon.

I will check in tomorrow after my kickball game for a last post before my run saturday. US plays Brazil in soccer tomorrow. Will they win? No, they won't. Hopefully they can have a decent showing though. Goodnight. I will have pictures with my post tomorrow, thats a promise.

The 40 hour work week

I am a big fan of the 40 hour work week. It sucks from Mon-Thursday, but once Thursday night hits it is rather amazing. I am slowly getting back into my mode from 2005 and 2007 which is work 40 hours m-f and then party on the weekends. These days the partying is scaled back big time to a more hang out by myself (stupid botham :-() but its still nice to think I have solid work for the next 3 months. I dont want to think about after the end of august jobwise, but at least football will be back on, though that could be one of the only pluses as I have the whole life thing to sort out. What a mess. Things to do: buy car, find place to live, decide where I want to live ????. Like most other tasks that suck I will leave it until the last minute...

Gophers football plays mich state halloween night at 700 at the new stadium. Tickets go on sale july 13. I am going and would enjoy company. Imagine how sick that atmosphere is going to be!? God knows how much the tix will be, but it cant be more than $50 for upper deck. Should be a good time though.

Gotta hit up the drive in sometime in the next few weeks. This weekend I got nothing, next weekend marathon, and then maybe then next weekend after that? We kinda are losing our pick up trucks so might need to go the lawn chair method, but whatever its the drive in and its raelly hard to make it a bad experience.

I just wrote this quickly because I wasn't tired, but now I am. Time to listen to http://www.1029litefm.com/ while thinking about pwning in kickball in 66 hours!

I promise to start taking pics this summer. This blog is so bland without pics. That will change starting very shortly...

summer job and running

I start a summer job tomorrow that will run through august. It is at the minnesota youth soccer assc. office. I worked there 2 year ago and will be doing the same thing this time. It is a job and I will have consist 40 hour work weeks for 3 full months so I cannot turn that down.

I logged 29 miles of running last week. I honestly didn't know if I would be able to bounce back into training for my marathon after barely running for 4 weeks, but I got through a good week of running and start to taper down now. I am definitely nervous for the marathon because the furthest I have run is 15, and i need to go 11+ miles further. I have a feeling that the adrenaline from race day and the crowd and having a lot of my friends up there should be enough motivation to finish. I was very nervous a week ago about even attempting to run it. I was thinking of maybe just not even doing it because I didnt want to be that person that runs 5 miles and walks the majority of the race. Thats just pathetic and sad and not what I'm about. So I had a good running week and got my miles in even through some adverse issues. 1. negative thoughts; I started to doubt myself and doubt spreads fast. I manned up and got the runs in. 2. Working; landscape kicks my ass and I am tired after, but I had to go out and get in the runs. 3. kickball; we played at 7:15, but coming from work I had to run at the park, so I went for a 4 mile run to downtown minneapolis and back. I honestly think it was the most enjoyable run of training until... 4. satuday's cold, windy rain; I went to bob's fire on friday night and had about 8 beers or so and hot tubbed and didnt leave until 5am. Got home and had a great sleep to wake up at 11:45 to pouring rain. I knew the rain was coming and was excited to run in it. It was about 50 with pouring rain and wind. It was just another mental barrier to scale, and I did. 12 miles in that shit weather that felt like october felt a lot colder when I went out for malts and burgers with ty and dave afterwards than before. I do love that I didnt see a single soul out during my almost 2 hours outside. I was that moron running in the cold rain to all the passerbys in their cars.

So even though my max run was only 15 and not the rx'ed 20 I still think I will be ok for the marathon a week from this saturday, Jun 20. I am excited.

Thanks for the fire bob, those never get old and I get to go to my favorite fire area of all: andy's mom's backyard. So amazing.

I just want to say that I already feel like this summer is so different from the others. I guess last year was kinda different, but this year seems to feel really different, and not for the better. Tyler brought up a good point, that Tom brought up as well that we don't have a central hangout place anymore. It really does kinda suck. Nowhere to go on the weekend to pregame or just play beer pong or something. I will try to change this...

my yesterday and tomorrow

Thursday: Go to sleep at 3:30, wake up at 6:30. Work 8-4:30, go home, change, go to bryn mawr park off of penn and 394. Run 4 miles in 37.15. Play kickball against assholes. Win kickball 3-0, go 2-3 with an rbi and the game winning run. Go to the bar with buddies. Leave the bar at 12:15. Go home and eat sandwich. Lay down.

Work 8-4:30, go home and lay down from 5:20-6. Run 12 miles from 6:10-8:10. Go to package store. Buy case of bottles. Get ice. Put bottles and ice in cooler. Go to bon fire at bob's. Love life.

I am so excited for bob's fire tomorrow. Work can't stop me and neither can the 12 mile run that I am supposed to run saturday, but will get it out of the way tomorrow so I can get shitfaced for the first time since new years. Wow I am excited for this fire. It is comforting to know that 19 hours from right now will be bliss.

I got a job and am employed. Goodnight, about to have a lot better sleep than last night, thank goodness. ;-) Kisses Goodnight