I have a history of taking off my shirt

Closed the 5s and 10s, working on the 8s.

I have snot crystals on my face. Mmmmm. Snot crystals.

1998 Playlist
Iris * - Goo Goo Dolls (Awesome BPM - in 3/3 time, no less!)
Cadriopo - Stereolab
Velvet Pants - Propellerheads
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
Outside - George Michael
Random Number Generation - Hedwig & the Angry Inch
Torch - Sister Soleil

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 23º
Weight: 153 lbs.

What you give is what you get

1980 Playlist
Girl U Want - Devo
You Make My Dreams Come True * - Hall & Oates
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) - David Bowie
Another Nail In My Heart - Squeeze
C30, C60, C90 Go - Bow Wow Wow
Start! - The Jam
Whip It * - Devo
Driven To Tears - The Police
Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) - Squeeze
Take This Town - XTC
All Over The World - ELO
Go For It - Graham Gouldman
That's Entertainment - The Jam

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 42º
Weight: 153 lbs.

Don't believe in anything that you can't break

Nothing like a demented dash through the darkened, sub-freezing streets.

Applications for the 2009 NYC Marathon are now open. I deferred last year due to blowing out my left knee. I can receive automatic entry if I re-apply before midnight on May 1. The question is: will I blow out my right knee before or after I apply?

And speaking of injuries ... my right foot. Big sigh. I used to have plantar warts, and much to my continued disbelief, they are gone. But I do have (I shudder to state this) a bunion.

When I think of the word bunion I think of words like goiter and cancer of the lip. Crackers get bunions, or at the very least, old people.

It's basically like this, my big toe is bending towards my others toes, and the major joint of that toe is beginning to jut to the other direction, towards my left foot, to compensate. Sometimes it is more visibly noticeable. Sometimes it tingles in a disturbing fashion.

I use toe separators, which helps. I concentrate on rolling properly through my foot. It goes away from time to time. It comes back. It's back.

As in all things, I blame my parents. I broke my leg in seventh grade, and used a walking cast for a while. Those are dumb, they shouldn't make those. I am pretty sure they don't anymore, at least not like this. It was like having a pivot on the base of my foot, which encouraged me to twist my foot to the outside - because I was wearing a cast. I couldn't bend my ankle.

So my right foot naturally splays out to the right when I walk, run or do anything, really. I didn't know any better. Where was the physical therapy?

God, what would have happened to me if I had been in physical therapy. Might have changed my life. Or maybe just another thing to strenuously avoid doing.

1995 Playlist
Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - The Wolfgang Press
Making Plans For Nigel - The Rembrandts
Under - Filter
Stupid Girl - Garbage
Girl U Want - Devo
Cupid DeLocke - Smashing Pumpkins
Big Apple Boogaloo - Brooklyn Funk Essentials

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 21º
Weight: 152 lbs.

Let the world know you're alive

Nineteen-Seventy? Really? Why not. I suppose to goal is forty (or forty-one) years of playlists, but it is not easy to find music from the early 70s that keep my heart-rate up. If it weren't for soundtracks from musicals, television programs and period films, I don't know what I would do.

1970 Playlist
Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night
Let Go (canto de ossanho) * - Astrud Gilberto
Who Loves the Sun - The Velvet Underground
ABC - The Jackson 5
Judas' Death - Murray Head & Company
Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
Instant Karma! - John Lennon
Snow Flower - Ananda Shankar
Another Hundred People - Company
Everyone - Van Moondance

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 30º
Weight: 151.5 lbs.

This cocky Causcasian

2000 Playlist
The Way I Am - Eminem
Everybody's Going to the Moon - Jamiroquai
Music - Madonna
The World Is Made Up For This & That (Fatboy Slim Mix) - Fatboy Slim
Someday - The Strokes
Do It Now - Dubtribe Sound System

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 31 degrees
Weight: 152.5 lbs.

Gee, my life's a funny thing.

Knees. Didn't get to enjoy this playlist last year. I went in reverse chronological order, and blew out my knee in 1980 or 1979. In other words, the 70s were not good for me.

Recently ... well, since I resumed running, actually, I have been painfully (hah) aware of any little kink or pain in my knee. Either knee. And there have been many. A running expert said pain is normal, and as long as the pain is not in the same place, you should be all right.

And they are not, they keep moving around. Still. There's that word. "Should."

1975 Run
Rhiannon - Fleetwod Mac
The Time Warp - Richard O'Brien & Company
Love Rollercoaster - Ohio Players
Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS
Mamma Mia - ABBA
Young Americans * - David Bowie
Tush - ZZTop
You're My Best Friend _ Queen
Cooldown: Stand By Me - John Lennon

"Much" does not rhyme with "tush."

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 37 degrees
Weight: 151 lbs.

His hat attacked him.

53 degrees and rainy today, all the snow melted, a perfect day for a run. Except I have a catch in my throat and feel weak as a kitten. To wit; I have a cold.

Still and all, things could be worse. Got this email from Brian yesterday:

So, don't know if you heard yet, but I had myself a little heart attack this weekend. It happened just like they always say - pressure, squeezing in the chest, not real pain to speak of. You think maybe it's heartburn or indigestion.

I wasn't sure what it was, but knew something just wasn't right, so about 2:30am Sunday morning I decided to take myself to the hospital. A little Nitro, a little blood thinner, a handful of baby aspirin, some other stuff, and bada-bing, I'm feeling good again. But they tell me I definitely had a heart attack so I've been kicking back in a hospital bed for two days now, waiting for my bloodwork to come back clean and the cardio doc to OK my release. In the meanwhile, it's bad daytime tv and forming plans for how I'm finally going to get my ass in gear and start exercising regularly. I definitely won't be running any marathons soon, but should be working on shedding this ridiculous belly I've got.

Speaking of marathons, here's your depressing news item of the day:

Man runs seven marathons in five days.

Bastard.

So yeah, I'd already started considering a change in lifestyle, especially after seeing your play. This is just a major kick in the ass in that direction.

Looking forward to catching up with you soon,
Brian

Knew he'd mention the show. It's all about Dave. Get out of there soon, man. We'll get smoothies.

I can't eat, I can't sleep

NY Fringe app. is in the mail. Wish me luck.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 45 degrees
Weight: 150.5 lbs.

2005 Playlist
Solsbury Hill - Erasure
Sympathy for the Devil (The Neptunes Remix) - the Rolling Stones
Love Me Like You * - The Magic Numbers
I Predict A Riot * - Kaiser Chiefs
Like Eating Glass * - Bloc Party
Your Thing Is A Drag - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand

Around the world and back

Route

Wow. I really hated that route. Took my regular way, then kept going up Lee to Cain Park - such a nice day, thought I would take the scenic route.

Well. Though the park has been plowed, the snowbanks at the sides of the paths cause meltwater the pool. Then I ended up on Taylor Road, which had unshoveled sidewalks, and so had to content with driving blockheads. I took side streets with which I was unfamiliar, and ended up taking a dispiritingly winding trek back to home.

Best laid plans.

Distance: 4.35 miles
Temperature: 49 degrees
Weight: 150 lbs.

Sinuses

With the exception of one day last week, we have been submerged in sub-zero temps since New Year's. Last weekend my right sinus collapsed and I was spiraling into migraine territory. Cahs-strapped, I have been avoiding the prescription stuff in favor of Sudafed, though I needed an Imitrex following the girl's sixth birthday party.

Yesterday was another ugly one, though the OTC stuff did the job. My entire being sudders with relief over the respite from the deep-freeze that began today and will, hopefully, continue until next weekend.

Playwrights Unit

&TYD got its post-mortem from the Unit last Tuesday.

SG said it was longer than it needed to be ... but has no idea what is unnecessary. This was the general feeling about the piece. Nothing is boring, or uninteresting, but it does (ha ha) cover a lot of ground.

Some suggested MARATHON is too long ... but it keeps making Josh cry, so I am loathe to change it.

The Unit had said previously that we don't need two pooping scenes, and the second one seems "unfunny" though I do remember it getting a big response. Remember - hell, I have video! But I do understand, and I have been thinking long and hard about the S.O.S. scene.

SG was wild about the projections, especially Josh's maps, they really give the audience a sense of scale. The music, he said, was not nearly as well integrated, and I am with him on this. I also take responsibility for it, and have loads of suggestions on how to revise them. The music needs to work with the slides better, ad they need to work better with the performer. We can make that happen.

ML is still confused by how many wives I have.

1990 Playlist
World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
Gonna Make You Sweat - C+C Music Factory
Never Enough [Big Mix] - The Cure
So Hard - Pet Shop Boys
Suck - Pigface
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
Here's Where the Story Ends - The Sundays
The Power - Snap!
Tom's Diner - DNA ft. Suzanne Vega

Too high. Too far. Too soon.

Hey, its February! You know what that means!

1985 Playlist
Jungle Love - The Time
Party at Ground Zero - Fishbone
Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
Are You Trying To Be Funny? - Everything But the Girl
Fortress Around Your Heart - Sting
The Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys
One Vision - Queen

XX Playlists for XX Years! Two years ago I tried creating a playlist for every year, going back as far as I could comfortably come up with forty minutes of running music. It gets me through the winter.

God, the past two days have been awful. On Friday, I was driving from school to school, and thought I would give myself a "treat." Fast food. I haven't had junk food for months, and thought what the heck?

BK double-cheeseburger, onion rings and a b.a. Coke. You ask Dusten and Allie, I was acting like I had shot heroin. And I felt like I had eaten a small child.

That night, my sinuses closed up. I woke in the middle of the night feeling like I had a nail in my eye, and took my migraine meds. I lived through the girl's birthday party all right, but by bedtime, my ears were ringing like schoolbells.

And so they have all day. Running, getting out into above-freezing fresh air. Man, that's the stuff.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 44 degrees
Weight: 152.5 lbs.



One flesh. One bone. One true religion.