Your feet are going to be on the ground.

Late 1991

This past week has been an historic emotional epic. I was depressed and anxious in the lead up to these I Hate This house performances, which is entirely normal and to be expected, and then every single one of these performance was wonderful, and better than wonderful.

Diana came into town to see it. I can't begin to put into words how grateful I am.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:07
Pace: 8:45

And still. My wife and I are not out of the woods yet in this house, and I believe we never will be. I took a turn down a dark path to help someone very close to me. I told my shameful secrets. And I heard terrible truths. When, if ever, will we emerge?

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 42°
Climate: brisk, lovely!
Mood: troubled

We continue to run out of doors. I am not ready to commit to the rec center yet.

Yesterday

Fall 1988 Mixtape

What's the Matter Here - 10,000 Maniacs

Peek-A-Boo - Siouxsie & the Banshees

I Don't Want Your Love - Duran Duran

Stand - R.E.M.

Never Tear Us Apart - INXS

Desire - U2ny

It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock

Fall 1988 was my first great mental breakdown. So much anger, so lost. So much shit I had brought down onto myself. The music will always be my friend.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 164.8 lbs. (+0.2)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Whatever words I say I will always love you.

A Facebook post from East Cleveland Mayor Sandra Morgan:

The restoration work has started in historic Forest Hill Park! I’m thankful for our partnership with the Metroparks and look forward to our work together: taking down dead and vulnerable trees, repairing the boathouse, clearing away bramble and more. There’s so much more to come: stay tuned!🌳

Can't tell you how excited I am about this. The former administration had the opportunity to engage the Metroparks in managing the park, but those negotiations fell apart.

I am glad to say I have met Morgan, and was thrilled when she was elected. East Cleveland is a city with a deep history and many great obstacles to overcome but she engenders a great deal of trust and I am looking forward to good things from her.

Distance: 3.1 mles

Duration: 26:22
Pace: 8:30

Performances of I Hate This continue. The last three dates are sold and oversold. A few days ago I was questioning the entire endeavor, and now I so content. I have made people laugh at the worst time in our lives (they cry, too) raised a couple hundred bucks for the Preeclampsia Foundation (make yours today) and gotten to work closely with new people.

What is not to absolutely love?

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 47°
Climate: overcast, getting chilly 
Mood: good

Fall 1989 Mixtape

Shadrach - Beastie Boys

Blame It On the Rain - Milli Vanilli

Lovesong - The Cure

Love In an Elevator - Aerosmith

Fools Gold - The Stone Roses

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 164.6 lbs. (-0-)

Been the exact same weight for three days running so I think my new scale is broken.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

One week ago I was full of anxiety about this endeavor. Then it opened and I felt great. Now I am full of anxiety because my ex-wife is coming to see it tonight.

Just kidding, that's amazing. I am full of apprehension but also joy. I'm full of all kinds of good things.

I'm not the kind of girl who likes to be alone.

We begin. A five-night run of I Hate This hosted in our own home. I've been wanting to bring this back to honor the 25th anniversary of the birth of our first child, and some time over the summer (probably when I was running) I got this idea.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:08
Pace: 8:45

FOREST HILL PARK UPDATE: Things are happening! Negotiations with Metroparks have reopened, and this week there has been a LOT of activity, pulling down rotten trees -- LOTS of rotten trees.

I will keep you updated.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 54°
Climate: cool, baby. idealk.
Mood: good!

Fall 1989 Mixtape
Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears

Love Shack - The B-52's

Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Bust a Move - Young MC

One - Bee Gees

Miss You Much - Janet Jackson

Yeah, let's keep jamming with the seasonal playlists. Fall 1989, I was emerging into final form. Confident as an actor, as a theater artist, evolving as a cartoonist. A bit more responsible, living in a solo apartment, less anxious in my personal relationships. I was twenty-one, something resembling a man.

Then I turned a corner, in a moment of inspired self-confidence asked out a young woman, and the rest of my life began.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 164.6 lbs. (-1.6)

The Old Man (cat) kept me up a lot last night, which is okay. He's a sweet old cat. He sleeps with me under the covers but needs to go to the bathroom a couple times. Better to get out of bed than go in the bed, I guess.

But also, we have a neighbor up the street, I'd heard about him, but never heard hi, he revs his engine, constantly, at two in the morning. Crazy. 

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Never was a story of more woe, than this of Romeo ...

Keep going.

Fuck. I'll come in again.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:14
Pace: 9:06

Oh! What a week. What a month! And here we go. I have a week of house performances starting tonight. Then there's the series against Tampa. Oh! Writing workshops, supervision, got to organize props for that other play.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 67°
Climate: muggy!
Mood: good

Eric Lee & Tracey Gilbert
"Romeo & Juliet"
Guerrilla Theater Company (1994)

Fall 1994 Playlist

Undone (The Sweater Song) (160 BPM) - Weezer

When I Come Around (Live at Woodstock 94) - Green Day
Cadillac - Combustible Edison

Come To My Window - Melissa Etheridge

Picture This - Blondie

Fade Into You - Mazzy Star

Prayer For the Dying - Seal

So many endings, so many new beginnings. The 90s were in full swing, the Late 90s were only just beginning.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165.6 lbs. (-0.6)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Twenty-six years, on my way to hell.

Fall 1994 is about a lot of things. It's about both of them. Falling in an out of love again. Romeo & Juliet and walks though Harlem. Concerts and concerts and movies and parties and bad, bad acts. It was about being in my twenties.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:32
Pace: 8:52

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 59°
Climate: after the rain, just lovely 
Mood: good

This is what we listened to.

Fall 1994 Mixtape

Headstart For Happiness (162 BPM) - The Style Council

I Don't Understand Anything - Everything But the Girl

Gentleman Who Fell - Milla Jovovich

I Melt With You (156 BPM) - Modern English

Wish - Nine Inch Nails

Burn - Nine Inch Nails

Intermittently - Barenaked Ladies

As I cycle through songs from that auspicious season, you will notice they were not all released that season, but they were ours, at that time, as we shared them with one another (or angrily screamed the lyrics together in the car.)

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 166.2 lbs. (+2.6)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

And now the rains. Last night's game was very exciting. I am also very glad I was not there in person, I don't fare well sopping wet and shivering.

Still. Guardians!

Then he ran.

"Lapdog"
Peter de Sève
The New Yorker
Oct. 12, 2026

Twenty years ago, I took a 48 hour trip to London to share I Hate This with members of the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (SANDS UK). It was a conference where the director wanted to pitch a tour of the show around Great Britain.

Yes, in the midst of marathon training, I took a very brief transatlantic journey. 

"A small man, on the another side of the planet, going for a run. Different air, different land, same pair of shoes."

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:40
Pace: 8:55

I tried some of that British Lucozade, a "performance energy drink" much like Gatorade. The name was originally Glucozade, get it? 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 47°
Climate: cool & crisp
Mood: 

We are getting close to recreation center time. Not looking forward to it.

Fall 1983 Mixtape

Big Log - Robert Plant

Undercover (Of the Night)- Rolling Stones

Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes

Stand Back - Stevie Nicks

Puttin' On the Ritz - Taco

Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis Reservoir
October, 2023

Suddenly Last Summer - The Motels

I need to make a Fall 1994 Mixtape, full of all the things we were listening to in October 1994.

A lot of them would be from the mid 1980s.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 163.8 lbs. (-3.4)

It's weird we were in Arizona in early October, and then New York City in late October. Good times, for a few years there. Covid made us adventurous. I wonder if we will be like that again.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Went to see a show last night. So strange not to obsess about having a cocktail. Because I just wasn't going to have one. I also didn't clean my plate, nor that plate of appetizers. But I ate well, all day. And now I weight fewer than 165 pounds, which was my goal.

How do I maintain this? Maybe it helps to be entirely anxious an distracted by things entirely out of my control. I hate this.

I'll burn me through Ohio.

Josh Ritter at The Rialto (2023)

Fall continues. Summer fades. The other night I listened to the playlist I made from the setlist of Josh Ritter at the Rialto in Tucson, Arizona. We saw him in October 2023, when we took the train to the Southwest.

Distance: 3.15 mile

Duration: 28:06
Pace: 8:55

The wife was surprised that was already three years ago, but I'm not. The past three years we did all the things we had been waiting to do ... the boy left for college so we went south. To celebrate twenty-five years of marriage we took the QM2 and spent time in London, last year we finally took the children to Europe.

A train, a boat, and a plane.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 50°
Climate: cool, baby
Mood: getting there

But Josh Ritter. It was cool and dry when we arrived in Arizona, but it was still fall, you know? After the sun set the night we checked in we stepped out onto the street to look around. We had no plans for that evening, nor the next. The Rialto was right across the street, and I saw his name and said, we could do that.

And we did. It was a magical evening.

Pearce, AZ (2023)

Josh Ritter at the Rialto 10 04 2023

Bandits

Feels Like Lightning

Wolves

For Your Soul

Me & Jiggs

Folk Bloodbath

Young Moses

Truth Is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding)

Never seen anyone smile while singing in quite that way. He really loves this.

Our Southwestern journey, though. I have been many different places with my love but this was something truly unique. Like somewhere I had never been before. I had been to New Mexico, that's not what I mean, the atmosphere, but that's part of it. We found such strange and interesting places.

And it was so relaxed and peaceful. The skies were so wide and open, and so was the clock. It was intimate, expansive and amazing. 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 167.2 lbs. (-0.2)

I passed on cheesecake twice yesterday. Just got to say no most days. Not all days. Just most.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA