on ice. almost.

fenway park will be the sight of this year's winter classic - the new year's day hockey game played outdoors. not only will the bruins play, but boston university is set to take the ice on the 2nd of january. i was hoping to be one of the lucky 3,000 that got to skate on the ice on the 3rd or 10th.

earlier this week the city of boston announced they would be giving away 3,000 tickets on saturday morning at 13 locations. the only catch was that you needed to be a resident of boston (and show proof of such). also you need to bring your own skates if you receive a ticket. unfortunately, living in brookline doesn't qualify me as a boston resident even though boston completely surrounds my town. brookline never got on that boston train. but thankfully, my girlfriend's recent move into the city allowed us the privilege to wait in line this morning.

armed with our starbucks coffee and gloves and hats, we made it to the community center in the south end where they were distributing tickets 20 minutes before 9, which is when this process was to begin. my best guestimate was that we were between 60 or 70th in line, but the fact that each resident was allowed up to 4 tickets should have deterred us from waiting. but with a friendly "line family," as one person in front of us put it, we waited. and waited. and waited some more. and we got cold. then colder. then froze.

over an hour into the wait, w/ the worst part being the boston police not allowing the entire line inside due to space restrictions, murmurs of no more tickets started to rise. still 25 people deep, the police announced tickets were gone, but we could sign a waiting list. we had already invested so much time and hope that it would have been foolish leave so we waited a while longer to sign the waiting list. This now seems ironic.

the city of boston, the redsox, the bruins, and sun life financial corporation have put so much into this winter classic. it'll be a treat to watch the games on tv (i didn't even attempt to purchase tickets for the games) and a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who did get tickets today to skate inside historic fenway. hopefully those that made this happen see the interest in the public from today and announce another day or evening skate is available. i'd be happy to wait again for a chance at those tickets.

run rudolph run

i haven't gotten into the christmas spirit yet this year. i think a major reason why is that i'm not working and that excitement in the air that's so contagious is something that i haven't found. but i did buy some christmas presents on thursday and i think that might have helped. also i visited a friend's place on thursday evening (after that awesome pens' win) and saw his perfect live tree decorated w/ care by him and his 2 young kids. it was funny to see some branches sagging w/ the weight of 3 ornaments. when a kid sees a good branch he's gotta give it some love.

so today i finally felt a little of that christmas spirit so i ran w/ it. i found the radio station in boston that was playing christmas music, and although i didn't purchase a tree this year i decided to string some lights around the apartment. so now my back windows are lit up and garland is hung from the window frame in the family room too.

and after putting off working out for the past several days i forced myself to do something. especially as this weekend looks to involve lots of going out and consuming adult beverages. while i could have gone to the gym and ran on a treadmill in shorts and a short sleeve shirt i decided that the drive to the gym would be too much hassle. i instead got dressed in my warm weather gear and proceeded to sit on my couch and start pounding beers. just kidding. i braved the elements, including the concrete sidewalks, and ran 3 miles! the distance isn't the big accomplishment, but rather the fact that i ran outside and in the cold. i haven't run outside for easily over a month, and that's even w/ some 60 degree days. the biggest reasons were some injuries, including a tweaked lower back. but as of now, a few hours after the run, i feel tired but my back feels fine.

steelers who? let's go pens!

thursday evening was the first time this season, and actually in the past 4 years since i moved to boston, that i went to a bar to watch the pittsburgh penguins. on tuesday the pens played their cross-state rivals the philadelphia flyers who they handily beat that evening 6-1. thankfully that game was on nationally on versus. however, thursday evening's game which was again against the flyers, this time in philadelphia, was no where to be found on cable. my plan was to check out the coolidge corner clubhouse - one of 2 bars (previously it was the only one) that i would visit in the immediate vicinity - and hope they had the game on one of the numerous tv's they had.

when i walked in and took a survery of the stations and games that were being shown, i didn't see any hockey let alone the pens. i stood at the bar - as i wasn't ready to invest in a seat in case they couldn't show the game - until i was able to ask if it was possible to show the pens @ flyers game. the new bartender wasn't familiar with what was available so she asked me to wait for a couple of minutes while she inquired w/ the manager.

i was standing 4 seats away from the corner of the bar when the bartender informed me they would infact get the pens game. does this mean i should go to the clubhouse for every pens game going forward? or i could just pay for center ice from my cable provider, right? so when i learned that they would have the pens game my evening got infinitely better, but that's also when i learned my negotiations weren't complete. and by negotiations i mean how i would be watching the games. they said they'd put the game on the corner tv even though i was sitting directly infront of one. by the way, the tv infront of me was showing highschool basketball. also by the way, i believe northland upset findlay. if you're really interested, check it out on espn.com since they were the ones broadcasting the game.

while enjoying ipswitch winter ales, and a free guiness, and some delicious chili on a cold winter evening i watch all 3 periods of the pens game. plus the overtime and shootout! after fluery stopped the second penalty shot and the pens had scored on their first, they had sid "the sniper" crosby take their second shot which he promptly put in the back of the net. pens beat the flyers for the 2nd time in 3 nights. i think it might be time to purchase center ice - seems like another stanley cup year!

keep things short, including the espresso

short. quick. brief. i need to remind myself of this before i start writing a dissertation on retirement savings. now knowing the details of tuesday's post i hope you turn to it in the future if you ever have trouble falling asleep. no promises that this one keeps you up, and if not i suggest trying some espresso.

year's ago i found a starbucks espresso machine on craigslist. after experiencing first-hand that the machine worked properly, although the espresso the seller pulled tasted like crap, i quickly handed over my money for the machine. it's been one of the best investments. the only issue was when i purchased beans that were too finely ground and they clogged the filter. This was easily, but painstakingly, resolved but pushing them out w/ the use of a safety pin.

since i've had more time on my hands during the mornings (a benefit of not working), and no espresso blend, i've been making and drinking regular coffee. but wednesday i exhausted my coffee bean supply and knew i needed something for the next morning. so the need for caffine and the promise of a free afternoon coffee enticed me to plan a stop at peet's in coolidge corner. on my way i remembered i no longer had any biscotti which is the perfect compliment to an espresso. even though it required a double-back from where i came i headed to trader joe's and picked up some. a few hundred feet later and i was at peet's w/ a half pound of italian roast and a free medium coffee. they never disappoint, and i'm sure my espresso on thursday morning won't either.

retirement already?

surprisingly, no one sent me a message saying they no longer wish to receive emails of my blog. victory! in fact, i even received some positive feedback. i bet this was the case because no one thought that i would post again till 2010. but here i am.

so during my unemployment stint, i tried to ignore an important financial area - retirement savings. i did this because i was confident that my skills and experiences would land me a job before anything got out of hand. this almost happened - twice. but unfortunately, investing money from my savings and leaving my 401k just sitting around in my former employer's plan weren't the best ideas.

i had been putting off talking w/ my financial adviser for months. events such as my initial lay-off, the end of my severance pay, or a return trip home would have all been good opportunities to have the necessary investment discussions. but i really thought i'd be able sneak by until i was once again gainfully employed. i realized after my latest near miss of employment, last thursday was when i was informed the company was "passing" on me, that i needed to talk to my financial adviser.
 
my call from monday was returned, and we spoke for over an hour and a half on tuesday. while these aren't necessarily the worst calls to have, especially if the market is improving like it has been since 2008, they're also not the most fun. i was able to suspend my investments in the mutual funds i hold for 3 months. i thought this was a good timeframe - enough so i wouldn't be worried about how rent's going to get paid, but also good motivation to get back to receiving a pay check and to go through the big process to get there. however, i always have the safety net of suspending things a few more months. 

and as for my 401k, while i knew there were a couple of options i really wasn't sure what the best was - though i did know that cashing out was the worst. shortly after telling my financial adviser that i hadn't done anything w/ it, he started his pitch to open an IRA at his firm. it actually did make the most sense for the long run, but the 4.5% that gets chopped off immediately to have them manage my money was tough to swallow. and then i started wondering if he had my best interests in mind or was trying to make a quick buck for him and his firm. i think it's a little of both, but i've been w/ them for over 6 years so i feel pretty good about him as an adviser. in the end i was just glad to have done something "proactive" with my money, finally. now if only i could comfortably add more. hopefully soon.

time for my monthly post

i don't think i'm quite made for this blogging thing. not sure exactly why not, as i post to twitter which only a few of my friends/family would read, so you'd think that writing a few more characters than the 140 that twitter allows wouldn't be difficult. i think that some of my writing is verbose, and this blog doesn't really have a theme anymore, so i'm gonna try to change things for the remainder of 2009.

with being out of work for a long time - much longer than i expected - and having the chance on a daily basis to look at what i've done w/ my time off i've been frustrated and disappointed that i haven't taken advantage of it. perhaps i think i should be traveling all around the world with this time off, but of course that costs money, and mine is slowly dwindling. it seems like a lot of the experiences one dreams of cost money or would be better appreciated if they were enjoyed w/ someone else. so maybe i shouldn't be so hard on myself?


as i was heading to my car to go to the gym on monday evening, i realized that i hadn't been out of the house all day. i was disappointed in myself for this. all this free time, and i'm seemingly wasting it. this feeling was in spite of the fact that i recently did something pretty awesome - taking a wonderful trip to new hampshire this weekend with my girlfriend, jen, to relax and snowboard/ski. so i thought to myself: self, wouldn't it be motivation to do something new / that i was proud of / great if i would post about it that day (or the next day in case it takes me the full 24 hours to do this thing). sort of like the reason this blog was initially developed: to help me train for the chicago marathon. it would also be a way regularly post to this blog instead of just writing a post once every month or two.

so here goes... the new thing: on sunday, while in new hampshire, i attempted cross-country skiing for the first time - specifically the "skating" style (as opposed to "classical"). i had always heard that xcountry skiing was a terrific workout, and watching the winter olympics it was easy to see these guys were studs - especially the ones carrying a rifle and shooting five targets throughout their race (technically the biathlon). anyway (gotta work on this verbose thing), i was terrible at the skiing. at the first turn, which was the one to get on the actual trail from the center, i bit it and tweaked an old should injury. that was one of many spills. though i did handle the downhills pretty well. jen tried her hardest to teach me how to skate on my skis, but i wasn't the best of students. it was pretty frustrating, and you quickly realize how much technique is involved in this sport. i would definitely be willing to try it again and hope the next time i do a little better.

and on monday i was proud that i already posted the pictures jen and i took during our weekend on facebook. usually it takes me a few days to take the pics off my camera's memory card, and then a few weeks to upload them for sharing. my normal timeframe is about three months to get them onto facebook (and in the correct order w/ interesting captions). for instance, when the legend and his wife came up in march 2009 for his 30th birthday it took me till my last day of work in june to get them onto facebook. and that was only because my computer was being confiscated! check out the pics of this weekend's adventure here.

i hope i'm able to keep this up and i hope you enjoy it. if you get the emails of the blog, but no longer wish to just let me know. i promise it won't offend me (for more than a day). and it'll free up a space for someone else. and if you feel like making a comment, come to the blog and post it here instead of sending it directly to me via email. of course, if you do just send it to me i'll be sure to post it on here for ya.

rainy days

i got some violent hate mail today. you should really check out all the comments from my previous posts. unbelievable stuff - really. like the one that shook me up was : "it's time that you publish a new post, homeboy." you can imagine what it's like being called a "homeboy" right? it shake's your shit up! it leaves you questioning who your fans are. so without further ado to my "homie" friends...

this saurday while seeming like any other saturday ended very much like i would like. first, it was a birthday brunch. i didn't know the birthday girl, though i know her husband very well as he's a key member of our trivia team, but who's to say no to brunch food? not very many, but my catholic guilt and semi-sense of style told me not to come empty handed so i stopped at party favors, a local bakery, for a delicious cupcake to present upon my arrival. the brunch was good... good waffles, good fruit salad, good mimosas, good company, and good video games. when i returned  home i started checking out gamestop online and craigslist.com for the best prices of guitar hero and rock back. i never played one of these musical games until earlier this afternoon, and sucked at it, but was hooked. i wanna be a rock legend, as xbox would consider, and am interested in buying the equipment. i haven't purchase anything as i was pre-occupied with episodes of "entourage" and then the boston university and michagan hockey game.

craig and i meet up for the game and after getting near the arena discovered that any place would be a wait for dinner - including sunset cantina which was an hour so off to 937 commenwealth. after a bit of waiting we found a spot and were able to order a tasty dinner and a few beverages. it was off to the arena to watch bu pound michigan - and vice versa - as there were 2 game misconduct penalties which in college hockey is a rarity! so after bu scored the go-ahead goal on a stupid clearance by michagan's goaltender, who was way out of his crease, craig and i headed to the coolidge corner clubhouse for some drinks.

oh, yeah, we walked in a downpour - it was terrific. sarcasim, of course. one of those weather nights when there's no way you'd leave the house, which a few buddies texted, and rightfully so. but the clubshouse has beers so that's where craigers and i celebrated while he hit up the jukebox. now, back home, it'll be a little entourage with hopes of the steelers winning tomorrow against favre's vikings, as well as buddies coming over for a drinking game conceived around nesn's "the batter's box," and of course my own guitar hero - whether it's from gamestop or craigslist.

Strongest Man Competition

Remember those World's Strongest Man competitions that they used to show on ESPN? I think they're probably airing on ESPN Classic now. The ones where they'd hollow out a VW Bug and the guy would stand in the middle of it and try to walk 25 meters before his back broke!

Well, on my way home from the dry cleaners where I picked up over 40 shirts that were pressed (yes, I have that many dress shirts) I decided it would be quicker to walk the four minutes home instead of throwing the shirts in my nearby car and driving. With each arm carrying 20 shirts I thought the first minute was a cake walk. By the second minute I was thinking about this post and how this could be a new competition - World's Strongest Business Man! Men would compete in numerous events like the dry cleaning walk, the paper ream dead lift, and the printer toss. By the time I was at three minutes I was grimacing and reminding myself to breath. I felt like Mangnus Samuelsson and wondered when the exhaustion would hit and I would tumble to the ground along with all my clean, pressed shirts.

And then I got to my apartment's front door, held all the clothes with one arm while getting my keys, and made it into the door. Only to realize that I had three more sets of stairs to climb. This was a decent first training session, but my sights will be on the 2010 World's Strongest Business Man competition! Where's my masseuse? My traps are killing me.

karama

Wasn't there a story several years ago where an old lady would go around w/ her bag of spare change and fill expired or close to expired parking meters? I think this was in Pittsburgh and if my memory serves me right, I think that the old lady got a ticket herself for obstructing justice or at least obstructing city revenue.

As I was walking down Beacon St this afternoon on my way home, I noticed the meter maid in front of me. She was doing her job - checking for the desired red notification so she could break out her pen and pad and write a ticket. It just happened that she found one and stopped to fill out her paperwork. I kept walking and noticed only a few cars ahead that there was another expired meter. Instead of giving the meter maid joy in writing another ticket, and extending her quota by 1 more today, I reached into my bag and dropped a quarter in the meter for an additional 20 minutes. I'm hoping that my good deed brings me good karma - I could use some!

RTB, Part I

So here's my attempt at a mobile post as we're currently enroute to finding some food and rest after our van's first segment at the RTB. For more info on the relay itself, check out the right hand side for a link to their website. But the gist of it is that groups of no more than 12 people run approximately 200 miles in total as fast as they can. We've split our group of 12 into 2 vans, and I'm in the second van which takes legs 7 through 12 initially, 19 through 24, and 31 though 37.

I ran leg 9 which was 3.5 miles. Before I took off, as we were trying to get to the transition are where I would meet Artie who's running before me, we hit some traffic in the small town. We thought we might have been late, making Artie wait, but as we pulled into the parking lot I jumped out and sprint towards the transition are to catch Artie and get our wrist band to continue on. It was a much better hand-off then the American women's 4x100 team has been doing of late.

The beginning of my run was fine, nothing remarkable, though I did pass a nice looking restaurant w/ outdoor seating called "Almost There" and then caught my first runner. As I kept chugging along, I saw my first hill and was ready to eat it alive. After getting 100 or 200 meters up the hill, I realized there was someone honking. At first I thought they were honking at me to let me know that I had dropped a blinker from my night gear, which I wouldn't have cared about since we had plenty of extras. But then looking back I realized they were honking at me because I had missed the turn and was running the wrong way! D'oh! I didn't feel too bad after my leg was done, which I ran @ a 7:19 / mile pace, and my team said they missed the turn too, but ended up driving the wrong was for about 3 miles. Glad someone helped me out - I owe them a beer.

We're back home and have about 3 hours to get some food and rest. Not sure how much I'll be able to sleep as I'm not much of an on-the-spot sleeper, but hopefully the Harpoon Brown Ale I'm enjoying now will help tire me out as much as the run. I've got a 7+ mile run tomorrow @ 4 in the morning... So until then.

parking

as i mentioned in an earlier post, parking in brookline where i've resided for the past 4 years can be nightmarish and deserved it's own post. well, this is that post.

a little background for those unfamiliar with the laws of parking a vehicle in brookline, ma. first rule is think of the most absurd general parking law (not like street sweeping first friday of every monday from may through november, though this is a law in the city of boston itself). so have you thought of that absurd parking law? well, make it three times worse and you're getting close to being able to be a lawmaker in brookline. the first and most ridiculous law in brookline regarding parking is no overnight street parking. so this should read that unless you have a driveway or your enormous apartment complex has a garage, you're screwed. the second bogus law is that you're not allowed to park in the same on-street parking spot for more than 2 hours. brookline actually did a nice thing for residents by selling an annual daytime parking permit for only $25. this solved that issue for probably about 90% of residents. the other 10% live on certain streets (or even certain parts of streets) that do not qualify for this resident permit parking. guess into which group i fall? i live a block and a half from the largest commercial section of this town and for that reason or some other crazy one i don't qualify for a permit. oh, and the 4 floor, 16 unit, no elevator apartment building i live in doesn't have a garage where its tenants can park.

but it does have a parking lot. unfortunately, it's owned by the town of brookline, and furthermore it's only an overnight parking lot! so during the day its reserved for employees of business in the area, meaning you need to move your car. oh, and the town charges $100 / month for this luxury. in all honesty, only about 5% of residents are affected by brookline's absurd parking laws (guests can be as well, since remember, there's no overnight parking. but don't worry, you can buy a one-time guest overnight pass for a mere $10!) but for me it's been a perfect storm. i need to park overnight and i moved to brookline for the convenience of public transportation so i can't leave my car anywhere for more than two hours.

the only solution for people like me is to rent a parking spot from someone else. i was actually able to survive the first couple of years without having to pay a dime except for the occasional parking without a permit ticket. and then finally my little tricks started to run out and luckily i found a spot very close by and for a more than reasonable price. unfortunately, the spot was connected to a condo that was for sale so after several months the it was sold and so was my parking spot. though i have yet to see anyone park in it. i've noticed this as i've walked by it many a times in the last few days having to move my car. after being in complete limbo for the past two weeks, parking in the lot behind me without having a permit, i finally found my spot, and a stable one at that. i'll be shelling out $165 per month for this spot, but the good news is that it's 24/7 access, non-tandem, professionally snow plowed lot only three minutes from the door of my apartment (i timed it three times today). although the other spot i was considering was an underground garage, 24/7 access, non-tandem, but asking was $210! that's a lot of money, but hopefully this winter won't be making me rethink my decision.

beautiful day wasted

so last i wrote, almost 6 months ago, i was training for the pittsburgh half marathon and hoping to break 1:40. my race weekend preparation wasn't the best (primanti brothers for dinner and the bucco's game for entertainment) and at the start line i felt i was still carrying some of that turkey and cheese sandwich. the one time i saw a set of porta-johns around mile 6 i strongly debated whether i should stop and relieve myself. while i would have felt much better, i would have lost a ton of time and not been anywhere close to my goal. as it turned out, i finished in 1:41:28 (that's 7:45 / mile pace) and got to see jen and dave twice cheering me on as well as chris and erin in the south side! it was great to run in my hometown city and if i didn't want to run a half in every state, then i'd consider running pittsburgh again.

so this year's fall marathon will be the hampton rockfest sponsored by smuttynose brewing co. in hampton beach, nh. the race is two and a half weeks away, and i think my longest run (and i won't even call it a training run) was 8.1 miles back on july 31st! i've been logging mostly 5 mile runs, but this weekend i'll definitely be doing a 7 miler, along w/ a 3 miler and a 2 miler - all in the same 24 hour period. jen and i were lucky enough to grab two open spots on a relay team that's running the reach the beach relay that takes place in nh. i actually don't think the running will be the toughest challenge. i'm betting that it's all the logistics and situations that occur as part of a 12 person 200 mile 1 day relay!

i've actually wasted away a beautiful boston day. maybe one of the last nice days of the year until may peaks it head out from the 4 feet of snow that boston is sure to see this winter. most of the day has been spent in doors, searching for jobs, though i have been able to get out to move my car from parking spot to parking spot. it's been weighing on me heavily - the fact that i haven't been taking advantage of my time off, and this gorgeous day especially. but, i'm also waiting on a pair of new asics trainers to be delivered by ups (who i did see a job posting for, but didn't apply - it was for a driver!). hopefully my increase to a size 10 gives my foot a little more room as my 9.5's have been tight, and i can get out for a run this evening w/ jen and a couple of others on our relay team.

maybe this relay is what i need to get me started blogging a bit more. and perhaps i'll tweak the content as well, though my blog's name is "runstrong." i'm sure hearing that my last four holes were bogey, bogey, par, birdie wouldn't interest you as much as it would me.

summer in april

this blog has fallen by the waist side. my last post was at the end of december - almost 4 months ago. a lot has changed, while a lot has stayed the same. i'm still in boston; i'm still employed at the same firm; and i'm still running. actually, a lot has stayed the same. same apartment; same cat; same love of upper crust pizza. the major change is a new girlfriend - jen! :-) like i said, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. haha! more than actually change, i've experienced a lot in the last 4 months including my first time in seats on the green monster at fenway park to watch the red sox, a relaxing weekend in maine with stops in portland and portsmouth, nh; best friends visiting for an awesome weekend; and the annual marathon monday party on beacon st.

in those last 4 months i've continued training, specifically for the pittsburgh half marathon. actually, i wouldn't classify it as training, though i ran a couple of sunday long runs with jen's training team, and did a speed workout as well as a hill one. regardless, i feel pretty good though physically and during my runs my goal of 1:3X:XX seems possible. but i'm still nervous. this is going to be my home race, and while the legend will be there cheering as he's done for a bunch of races, there should be a few more familiar faces in the crowd - or at least i hope so.

last night i did a 4 mile loop that combines a few hills. i ran it at an easy pace, and enjoyed the warm weather (it was in the mid 60's) and crowds of people around the neighborhoods. though at one point, coming down com ave and running near some buildings i imagined myself running in the half and the building the crowd coming out into the street and being right next to me. if the crowd is anything like building, i should feed off them and feel like i'm running on a cloud. a peak at my watch showed a 7:19 pace at one point, and i had to pull on the reigns to slow down and remember this was just a tapering run.

i'll probably go out for one more run on wednesday, and then rest for the remaining days till the half. i usually run pretty well after a long rest, so 3 days of no activity won't hurt - hopefully. ask me that question at mile 12. actually, forget the questions - just shout my name!