Black Friday

Most people think of shopping on Black Friday. I just think about the time I quit my job after showing up at work that morning and finding out I had FINALLY gotten my raise for my annual review (I was an assistant manager for a small bookstore chain) and found out my raise was a nickel. Considering inflation, it was actually more like a salary cut and I was making crumbs as it was.

Anyhow, I quit on the spot, with no dea what I'd do for a job. my boss and the big boss called to try to get em to come back, I said no. The next monday, still with no idea what I'd do for a job, a friend at school came up to me and said her company was hiring and she thought of me and would I like to come in for an interview. I ended up getting the job, working with great people, doing interesting work (particularly compared to retail) that was really helpful to my career and made 50% more an hour right off the bat than i had at my old job. She didn't even know I had quit my job, I just straight up lucked out.

Thank you Anne, I will always, ALWAYS, be grateful for the chance you gave me!

Howdy Strangers...

It’s been a while since I posted, I’ll run through a few things real quick.

 

Winter is coming here in Boulder. There’s a nip in the air most mornings and the scent of snow, though it’s only snowed once so far. I see ice forming along the banks of Boulder creek and I’ve turned into an utter wimp when it comes to riding outside. I may start going in to work early so I can take a longer lunch and ride at lunchtime.

 

I found out my office encourages employees to decorate their desk for the holidays…. This could be dangerous.

 

I was in the pool a week or so after my swim lesson with mark, focusing on driving from my hips, reaching as if I was punching when I noticed that the punch/reach was leveraging my other arm that was already in the water doing the stroke. I wasn’t sure that was supposed to happen as I didn’t recall Mark mentioning it, but as I thought about it, it made sense. Sure enough, when I asked Mark, that’s exactly what I should be feeling.

As I think about it now, I remember back when I took Tae Kwon Do, every punch you throw is balanced by snapping back your other arm (and shoulder) which prepares you to punch with the other arm as well as generating more power.

 

Training is going fairly well. I’ve felt particularly good running lately, though my bike on the other hand kind of feels like it has plateaued. The swim is solid, Mark has me doing a lot of sprints to focus on improving my form and getting FASTER. It’s generally kind of boring (it’s laps in a pool after all), though the occasional breakthrough like I mentioned above is very exciting and I know it’s all working to make me faster.

 

I’m still figuring out my race schedule for next year aside from the IDT. I’m thinking about doing Wildflower, but I think I might be better served doing that the following year.

 

Mark had a great race at IMAZ, putting up a PB and finishing 13^th among the pro men. Good on ya man!

Basking in the afterglow...

Last February I spent several jubilant hours waiting in the freezing cold of an Ohio winter on the University of Cincinnati campus to hear a man speak for hardly 15 minutes. A man who I had seen reach out and inspire the apathetic and give hope to those who felt hopeless.

Last night, I watched that same man address his supporters and the nation as the President-Elect of the United States of America while I watched from my living room. The fear that had crept over me the few days prior, born of memories of a cold November night in 2004 when I waited in a windy Copley Square for a similar speech that would never come had left me apprehensive and nervous.

But there he was…

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

An answer that I and so many others have been awaiting for so long. A man who is not just a President, but a leader… an inspirer. "All things are possible…"

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

Hail to the Chief, God bless America, time to roll up the sleeves and get to work.

For almost 40 years my grandfather has sold Christmas trees on his front lawn to raise money for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He started this tradition as a thank you for the treatment his youngest son, my uncle, received for Leukemia.  He wanted to give back and, not being a wealthy man, this was the way he found to do it.

My grandfather is in his late 80's now and it's likely that this holiday tradition will end this year since it's getting harder for him to do and there aren't as many people around to help him do it. It breaks my heart to see this happen, selling Christmas trees and raising money for the Jimmy fund has been an important part of my holiday season for my whole life. If I had the means to continue it, I would in a heartbeat, but I don't have a place to sell them, the money to get started, or the time to manage it.

What I do have is an upcoming Ironman triathlon and 10 months to fundraise, so that's what I'm doing. In the upper right hand corner of my blog you'll notice that I've added a logo/link to Running the Race Against Cancer. I've set a tentative goal to raise $5000 for the Jimmy Fund, but I hope to go beyond that.

I'm doing this for my grandfather, who can't do it anymore. For my uncle, who benefitted so much. For my great aunt, who lost her battle against cancer last year. For my aunt Pat, who won recently won her battle. And finally, for my father's mother, Phyllis Schareg Dillon, who lost her battle with breast cancer when I was so young that the only memory I have of her was sitting at her bedside not long before she died.

About the Jimmy Fund / Dana Farber Cancer Institute

The Dana-Farber Cancer institute is on track to conquering major forms of cancer within this decade. Home to many of the world's groundbreaking discoveries in cancer research and treatment, Dana-Farber is uniquely primes to transform this vision to a reality.

The Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a place where children and their families find hope.

For people in New England and around the globe, the Jimmy Fund Clinic is one of the world's premiere centers for pediatric cancer research and treatment. Starting in the 1940's, when the Institute founder Sidney Farber, M.D. used drug therapy to achieve the first-ever remissions of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Dana-Farber researchers have made strides against virtually every type of cancer that strikes children, from solid tumors that involve individual organs to those that effect blood or lymph.