Bad Halloween Costume

This past weekend I stumbled upon a Halloween party already in progress and wound up partaking in some festivities, sans costume. At first it felt a bit weird being the only person there without a costume but I really didn't care. Halloween: not my thing. After numerous drinks and being asked several times either "What are you?" or "Why no costume?" I decided to start replying: I'm a serial killer. I was in jeans, t-shirt and baseball hat. Apparently, girls find this creepy as hell. Go figure. Whatever, I had the scariest costume at the end of the night, after scaring everyone off.

The Biggest Red Sox Fan

While dancing around the living room in my pajamas over the Iowa Hawkeyes 2nd OT victory over the MSU Spartans, the next ESPN sporting event began immediately. When I began to pay attention to what was being said I heard, "and now we go to *some sports pundit* who is with one of the biggest Red Sox fans ever" and so I thought, what's Rudy Giulianni doing on ESPN?

Petrol, Gas, Fuel - Call It What You Will, We Are Its Hyper-Consumers

This about sums up my head scratchings of the last couple weeks/months (and years). This chart is based on 2003 data. At that time the U.S. had under 300 million people and consumed nearly 1.4 million litres (368,906 gallons) of gasoline each day. On the other side you have a sampling of countries that add up (by my quick estimate) to almost 3 billion people. Thats practically half the worlds population using less gasoline than the whole of the United States. This includes other western nations where it could be argued that standards of living and quality of life are better.

Four years on I would not be surprised that the bar on the right has overtaken the US indicator due to increases in domestic demand in countries such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Russia and Iran - several of these countries subsidising gasoline to its citizens thereby alleviating the effects of increased per barrel oil prices.

The stats are no less shocking, however.

*Image is originally from the economist and taken from the oil drum.

Time Flies

In addition to being a sweet hardcore band on Indecision Records in SoCal, this is pretty much what has happened over the last year. The last time I experienced an October 24th was in 2005. Last years was gobbled up by the flying spaghetti monster who lives at the International Date Line. A year ago yesterday I was on my way to Australia for my second working holiday and just the same as London, a year later seems only a few weeks later. I can constantly remind myself with memories, products (ginger beer!) and photos from this era, as well as getting ready for Pat to come visit soon enough. And facebook, sweet sweet facebook.

A time to catch up. The first weekend in October is Marathon time for the Twin Cities. I ran the TCM for the first time and had an absolute blast. While not being able to sleep in on a Saturday isn't the best way to start a weekend, all was made well while 7 thousand people ran screaming underneath the Gov't Center building in downtown Minneapolis. I saw my family and friends, live bands and spectacular views of the TC. I had trained all summer (and had been running in London and Sydney) for this. I finished! That was the utmost goal. And with a time of 5h20m. I thought I would do a bit better, but given the conditions of that day, I am more than happy. Upper 80s and 88% humidity. It seems that everything that could go wrong during the race did, and a lot of it happened for the first time: the top of my left foot hurt like hell, I developed massive blisters on the balls of my feet at my 13, I cramped up at mile 16 and walked almost the entire length of miles 17-25. Once I hit that last leg down John Ireland Blvd. I had the biggest, goofiest smile on my face and could not have been happier.

The next weekend took us down to Rochester, MN to visit a friend. What can I say about this? We watched MTV and went home. Gossip Girl! Like OMG LoLeRz! OK, there was surely more than just that. Hit up some bars, went out, played soccer, talked sports, politics, people, etc. I had the opportunity to get pregnant. I think it happened at the Aquarius when I was dancing on one of those elevated platforms above the dance floor with some girl. Pure sleeze fest... but fun! One other interesting anecdote: my very own automobile made it there and back without breaking down! I'm beginning to even out the number of times broken down outside the city vs. made it back in one piece.

Last weekend saw me at the other end of the state: Jay Cooke State Park. Went camping with some friends and had a weekend of high fives, beer drinking, hiking, sleeping on the ground, camp fires and trail mix. We had been intending to go all summer but never made it. An open weekend for all of us came up and away we went. I've recently read in the paper that the Superior National Trail is nearing full completion of its 239 (?) miles. After walking the Overland Track, walking from (basically) Duluth to the Canadian border has its appeal. As does the Appalachian Trail. (And many, many walks in Aotearoa =))

One of the bits about the post summer/fall season is league ultimate. I play on a fantastic team I wish I could take with me wherever I went. For three years it has been awesome watching us grow from a mostly inexperienced group of people struggling to even have a full line in bottom brackets to an athletic and focused team. While we have less than a winning record (3-4) we have played like a team 7-0, competing against the top flight teams this year. There have been weeks where all I wanted to do was make it to Sunday and play, then spend the rest of the week going over that weeks game and thinking about the next. Frisbee-centric? Maybe.

Now my options grow rather than shrink. As previously blogged a few months back I was thinking NYC or NZ as the next move. Perhaps I will stay around in the TC? Maybe start planning those walks mentioned above (they have been in the back of my head for years now). Perhaps back to Australia with the new Visa laws in effect? What an amazing quality of life there. (Never mind the increased coal and uranium mining, wheat harvest shortfalls, petrol shortages in Victoria, severe drought, water shortages for 98% of the people, etc.) Vancouver? Somehow back to London? We recently took Myers-Briggs tests for work, and while not having changed personality preferences since the last time I took the test (college), one particular pitfall/weakness caught my eye. It basically said something that I fail to "close the book" on my decision making process. I keep things open too long as I gather data to make decisions on plans of action, and therefore may pass up potential opportunities. I am also poor at setting goals and at making plans of action to achieve a goal I do happen to set. I read that and think it is spot on in all aspects: work, life, relationships (girlfriend(s)!). So there is a goal. Figure shit out! But do I really have to? I've got it pretty cushy (though not ideal in terms of my beliefs) at the mo. Aside from the lack of health insurance.

Did not expect to ramble on this far, so good for me! I do eventually intend to get around to following up on some of the other items from below. Soon!

The New Candidate

Stephen Colbert for President, 2008!!!

Lazy and Unmotivated

I've been really bad about posting ever since returning to the US. Not that there hasn't been anything I have wanted to put up here, just that there has been a long-term lack of posting motivation all spring and summer.

So instead of trying to write up individual posts one after the other I'll just throw out a few ideas of what I have wanted to post in the last 2 months (and in one case, 2 years) and maybe I'll get around to writing more substantially later on.

-An epiphany I had driving through the area near where I work looking for lunch one day during the period that I had to use my dads car because mine was broken (and still is).

-Why TSHTF* in 2015. Causes and effects. And why the time between now and then will be volatile, chaotic, destructive and uncertain. Conclusions I've come to after 2+ years researching PO + GW**

-My anger/frustration over peoples' refusal to acknowledge and pay for the true cost of things. And to define "things" I guess the best word would be lifestyle, or maybe infrastructure. One day at work I just started writing on a yellow post-it note, most of it stemming from staring at my computer screen of sales tax rates and numbers while I thought about the 35 W ridge collapse.

*The Shit Hits The Fan
**Peak Oil and Global Warming

Marathon Info

Less than 6 days until I push my body as far as it has ever gone! I'll be running in the Twin Cities Marathon Sunday, October 7th - 26.2 miles / 42 kilometres through what has to be one of the most beautiful urban courses in the US. Over the last week I've had a lot of people ask me if I am any of the following: nervous, scared, anxious, pumped, excited, ready or any other similar feeling one might have a week before his or her first marathon. The answer is d. all of the above. Right now I am ready and waiting but I can feel the anxiety growing each day. It kept me up last night. A bit over a week ago I ran 22 miles, so I know I can do it, barring any surprises (injury, illness, etc.) and it is just a matter of when I finish. My heart says just over 4 hours, head says just under 5. Though I do look at the route map and think "that is a long ways!"

Here is some info you might want to know if you are planning on coming out to cheer us all on. First, a map (PDF) of the route. The race officially starts at 8 in the morning. I start in wave 2 and am aiming for 10 minute miles or less for most of the course. I will be wearing my white running shoes, black Adidas shorts with white stripes and my purple ultimate jersey (purple reign). Bib # is 2899. There are 10,000 people running and even more spectating but there is plenty of curbside for all of the action. Post here, facebook, txt me, whatever if you are gonna come cheer. Let me know where you will be so I can maybe keep an eye out for you. Though with an 8am start time I might be just waking up as I come into mile 15 or so.

I don't know my splits, I am just going to run.