Courtneyspondence

Rwanda Rwithdrawl

2012-01-26T23:13:00.007-05:00

Here’s a recap of my trip to Rwanda. If you don’t want to read this all, the nutshell is that it was really awesome, and surprisingly nice. There was nothing difficult or “developing” about this trip. Kigali is a modern city and the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village treated me, and all the volunteers, like royalty so it was a really cushy, easy trip with none of the expected complications of traveling in Africa. The kids were amazing and I hope to go back one day. I wish I was there right now.

I took a few photos and you can see them all here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/114082577817315830703/albums/5697450926261234177

Now that I’m home I wish I had a lot more photos, but you have to choose to have the experience or document it. At the time, having my camera out was often a distraction.

Getting there:

I flew from CHO to Dulles to Brussels for 8 hours, then had 5 hours in BRU waiting to fly 8 hours to Kigali, so the whole trip was long and tiresome and I didn’t know if it was day or night when I landed. The most unpleasant part of the entire experience was the flight to Brussels. I was in “deep coach” seated next to an old, skinny middle-eastern guy. He moved and tossed and turned constantly, elbowing me with every motion, but what really bothered me was what I’ve termed his “TB-Rag”. He had a stained handkerchief that he coughed productively into every few minutes. In between hack sessions he tucked this rag into the seat back tray table and then closed the tray, leaving the cloth dangling by one edge. Then he would take the other edge and fluff the fabric, as if to best spread his germs throughout the plane (or perhaps to dry it out.) It made me gag and compulsively use my hand sanitizer for the entire flight.

I had inadvertently told Orbitz that I wanted vegan meals for the trip when I purchased my ticket. This was awesome and I totally recommend it for anyone traveling internationally. First off, ‘special’ meals come out first, so I got my meal before anyone else and the selections were really good and much better than the rubber chicken pasta everyone else was offered: Bulgar wheat and grilled veggies, soy chocolate pudding, fresh fruit. I’ll be flying vegan from now on.

For some reason, the sun comes up in Belgium at about 9 AM this time of year. That was pretty disorienting.

The flight to Kigali was uneventful. I reread Night and The Diary of Anne Frank. I was trying to remind myself about children’s first person reflections on the Holocaust as a sort of perspective for the upcoming trip for the Genocide museum in Kigali. I had recently read a couple books on the Genocide to be a bit more informed before my trip: We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories From Rwanda and As We Forgive. I knew the trip to the museum was going to be difficult. Humans really are the worst.

Kigali:

Once I arrived in Kigali, I went through passport control easily and then retrieved both my checked bags, which is pretty good luck. 3 of the 4 short term English volunteers had all their bags make it. (One volunteer had one bag, unfortunately for James with most of his clothes, delayed about 5 days.) For whatever reason, we were warned that flights into Kigali are a bit less reliable with luggage than you might be accustomed to. The Kigali airport is not unlike the other airports I am spending a lot of time in these days: Knoxville, TYS and Charlottesville, CHO: small, tidy, and efficient. Kigali Airport has 3 gates, elaborate security and a Bourbon coffee shop. (Coffee is a big export of Rwanda, but Rwandans typically drink tea so coffee shops are something of a novelty and are filled with mostly tourists and expats.)

After I got my bags, I was picked up by Mara, the volunteer coordinator, and met the other volunteers. Mara had a van waiting for us to take us to a house the foundation uses in Kigali. It was about 9 PM. After dropping off our luggage we went right across the street to Dolce Bar for pizza and beer. At this point, Kigali felt a lot like any US city in the South. It was warm out. The pizza was good. People were out drinking beer and eating pizza at 10 PM on a Thursday evening. After the food, we were all exhausted from the long travel day. We went back to the house and went to bed. I quickly passed out but woke up with a headache* at 3:30 AM for the day. (For more on this headache and many others like it see my separate section below on Malarone.)

We had a day to explore Kigali before our planned short van ride east to Agahozo Shalom that evening. Mara got us some treats for breakfast that included Rwandan style donuts (not as sweet, 5 times as heavy) bananas and yoghurt.

We spent the morning walking around getting a sense of the city. We changed money. Rwanda is a little behind on the ATM network. Anywhere else you travel in the world, avoid exchange bureaus that usually charge you a higher fee than your bank will, and often don't have the best rates and just use the ATM at the airport to withdraw local currency. It works in South Africa, all over Europe, Australia. In Rwanda the ATMs aren't connected to the intentional network (that Pulse or Cirrus icon on your bank card.) ATMs in Rwanda are for Rwandan bank accounts. That's it. Not you. So you have to go to one of those sketch little exchange bureaus. I did that. It was fine.

Walking around Kigali was really pretty. There is no trash. They have no fast food or plastic bags and as a result I saw almost no litter. The gardens are all very well manicured. There were a lot of people employed in Kigali to work on the gardens and lawns. Most of the people I saw working were trimming lawns and weeds by hand. It looks painstaking. I'm not sure if this is because the implements of the genocide were mostly common lawn machetes and no one wants those tools around in plain view to bring back up the memories, or if because it takes a lot longer to do the work by hand and the government wants to create as many jobs and keep as many people busy as possible.

Kigali is very hilly and the homes are built precariously up the steeps slopes of the hills. There are green lawns and flowering trees everywhere. The streets were crowded with people going to work or going to lunch. Rwandans dress more conservatively than Americans, even with the heat. Some women had silent babies tied to their backs with a bright piece of fabric. Some men were carrying goods on their heads.

We went to a buffet style restaurant for lunch that had rice, beans, potatoes and various cooking bananas and some stewed beef. This is a fairly traditional fare for Rwanda. They will also eat goat brochettes. Baaa. (Not pets.)

There are a lot of transit options in Kigali that range from more to less formal. There are large buses that go to all parts of the country and sell tickets. There are hotel-type vans that go to specific parts of the city and are covered with totally random advertisements to encourage use (images of Eminem, Kanye West, Manchester United and Arsenal were common choices). These vans are cash only and will wait where they are until they are full, and by full Rwandans mean so overstuffed that no one can move or breath. There are also Motos everywhere. Moto drivers drive mopeds around with spare helmets and will give you a lift for hire. You can describe how far something is by the cost of the moto ride. "It's not far, about 500 Francs on the moto." Motos observe some traffic customs and eschew others (waiting at lights) and are, of course, totally unregulated so sometimes break down or run out of petrol or get lost enroute. I only took one moto ride and it was super fun and more than a little exhilarating, especially on the steepest hills.

We took motos to the Genocide museum. [This is that part of the movie where the needle scratches the fun pop song that was playing while the tourists weave in and out of traffic. Obviously, the genocide museum was a tone change.]

That's me reflected in one the numerous unfathomable vignettes around the grounds of the Genocide Museum.

I thought I was prepared. I had reread historical summaries. I had learned about the root evils of colonialism and the short term political power struggles. I knew about the massive hateful national media propaganda campaigns. I knew that nearly a million people had been murdered brutally in about 100 days. I even knew that the US and the UN had good awareness of what was happening and did nothing to stop the slaughter. Of course, one cannot be prepared for the unimaginable.

The Kigali Genocide museum is on the site of a mass grave for a quarter of a million victims that were Tutsi, or Hutu moderates, or unwilling to commit murder themselves or simply in an unlucky place. The grounds are decorated in beautiful gardens in tribute to all those who lost their lives. The museum lays out some historical background about Rwanda, describes the events that led up to the genocide and then details the scope and breadth of the slaughter. I was prepared to learn about killing. I was shocked to learn about so much torture. So much willful pain added to the process. So much suffering.

When I think about the worst, most gruesome horror of fiction, it really can not come close to real life. There were organized efforts for those infected with AIDS to rape Tutsi women and and let them survive so that the community would be burdened by the AIDS epidemic for generations to come. Radio stations blared that anyone seen taking pity on children was weak, untrustworthy and should be killed. There are victim testimonies of bands of genocidaires finding a clutch of hiding victims and chopping their feet off with machetes first so that none could run away and then slowly, inefficiently hacking them to bits to exact as much pain as possible. That is even why the testimony exists at all, because instead of killing the group quickly and moving on, the genocidaires, in this instance, took so much time torturing that they actually ran out of time, and didn't finish everyone off. Something else interrupted them and they were force to leave and search a new location and some of the now footless victims crawled away and somehow survived to describe recount the ordeal. Incomprehensible.

There are many stories of people trying to take refuge in churches. Rwandans are very religious and observant. They went and holed up in churches, so churches are the sites of some of the largest massacres. In most cases their priests and leaders did nothing to protect them when the killers came. In the worst cases they took up the cause. Here's a quote from the museum that is one of many troubling examples, "In Nyange, two thousand congregants were sheltering in the church when Father Seromba gave the order to bulldoze the church building. He murdered his own congregants in his own church." This or worse happened in case after case. I was shocked throughout my visit about how religious and observant Rwandans still are, despite how badly their churches failed them in their most dire hours.

The thing that really strikes me about all this is that I know from my basic corporate work how hard it is to get anything done. Even when everyone agrees something is a good idea there are usually several meetings on plans and strategies and another follow up meeting to see why it still hasn't been implemented. This kind of massive suffering, enacted on such a scale took planning. Lots of planning. There must have been meetings of the AIDS spreading committee. Strategic goals for the machete distribution task force. There were action items. There were follow ups. This was not a horrible, impulsive, crazed act. This was a careful plan, that 'worked' incredibly effectively. It is really hard for me to imaging human beings attending those meetings. Working on their action items. It goes beyond the lazy kind of evil and ignorant kind of evil that I can comprehend. This busy, productive kind of evil is much more frightening for me.

The Genocide Museum is hollowing and shattering. There are rooms of victims' skulls and bones. Rooms of vignettes of what happened to children. There is also an interesting effort by the Aegis Trust to place the Rwandan Genocide historically among the great atrocities of the twentieth century in Armenia, Cambodia, Nazi Germany and the Balkans. This section for me was particularly depressing. Genocide felt common, probable. It felt like rolling doubles in Monopoly. Sadly, a common response to this section of the museum, which is not intended to be exhaustive, is that some other candidate event was not represented. There are a lot more genocides than space in the museum...

I cried a lot and it was time to go.

Malarone:

Malarone is a common malaria prevention medication. The guide books list malaria as the biggest health threat in Rwanda because the country has a tropical climate and plenty of mosquitoes. Travel doctors recommend you take a malaria prevention medication. I was offered three choices, one that causes depression, paranoia and vivid nightmares (Mefloquine), one that causes extreme sun sensitivity (Doxycycline) and Malarone, which can cause stomach upset. I went with the Malarone. You’ll recall I have something of a tendency for headaches and stomachaches. I had a splitting headache pretty much the entire first 4 days of the trip, which was increasingly accompanied by nausea and sour stomach. I was exhausted each day, and would pass out for an hour or two when I went to bed, and then be awakened with a railroad-spike-in-the-brain style headache that kept me up from 1:00 AM all night, tossing and turning and sweating and listening to mosquitos buzz. I was really worried I would feel bad my entire trip and also it was a little harder to feel I could get control of the headaches than at home. At home, for a headache like this I would take some Tylenol, drink a cold ginger ale and watch Sports Center. By the time the Top 10 plays comes around I'm usually feeling a bit better. Here there was no cold drink and no Sports Center on ESPN, and the Tylenol didn't seem to help. I decided to quit taking the Malarone. (Sorry Mom.) I felt better pretty much right away. I decided that if I got Malaria, I would't have symptoms until I got home, and I would get treatment easily in the US and it would be easier to deal with. I never really had that many mosquito bites anyway. I hope I didn't catch Malaria, but I'm glad I felt better for the rest of the trip.

Agahozo Sholom Youth Village:

After the Genocide Museum, we went back to the Kigali house for our luggage and loaded up in a van for the ride to the village. The countryside is lush and beautiful the entire ride and we saw simple homes and crops being cultivated in the fields: sorghum, corn, bananas and coffee.

I was so impressed with the village. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the village is really, very nice. I stayed in a guest house that was a lot like a nice college dorm room. I had a twin bed with mosquito netting and storage space in a cabinet in a clean spacious room that I shared with two other English volunteers. We had our own bathroom ensuite. Everything was clean and new. The entire village is landscaped with beautiful flowers everywhere. The students stay in 16-person houses, four to a bedroom in bunk beds with another room for their house mother and a group living room. They will live in that house all four years they are in the village together with their new family. All of the structures in the village are new and in good repair.

This is the gorgeous guest house I stayed in.

The village is an amazing facility. It covers everything these kids need to be healthy and heal and visualize bright futures. The kids live in furnished homes in the village. There is a health clinic to care for the students. There are music and art enrichment centers, a science center and a computer lab. There are basketball courts, volley ball courts and soccer field and a track. There is an outdoor amphitheater for performances.

The village has a working farm that grows bananas, pineapples, beans, avocados, coffee, corn, chickens for eggs and cows for milk. The farm doesn't quite grow enough to feed the 500 or so students and staff that eat three meals a day at the village, but it is a strong supplement and the farm is still expanding and becoming more productive. {There is an effort at bee keeping on the farm that is struggling a bit at this point. I was able to go on a fascinating bee keeping demonstration to see the hives, several of which had been infested by a pest and no longer had bees. Another challenge to be addressed by the staff and volunteers at ASYV.}

Meals are served at a large dining hall that also functions for assemblies. Meals are served family style. I got to sit with the kids at meals and they were a lot of fun to talk to. Breakfast was a roll, tea and some porridge. Lunch and dinner were typically some variant of rice, beans and potatoes or cooking bananas, though occasionally there was salad or a vegetable stew. Some of this kids were not used to regular meals, and being able to serve themselves and would pile their plates unimaginable high with rice. The staff would just remind them that the meals would be there again, three times a day every day, but since these students had just arrived they were still getting acclimated and learning to trust.

When I arrived on Friday January 30, the newest students had just arrived at the village from all over Rwanda. They were meeting each other, fitting in to new families and learning about Agahozo Shalom. They had only been there for three days.

Somehow, the next day, for New Year's Eve they were able to put on an amazing talent show in the assembly hall. There were several traditional dance performances, traditional drumming, singing and sketches. It was incredible to see how talented these kids were, and how quickly they were able to work to pull together their acts to bravely put on for their entire class. The director of the school gave an invocation wishing the students the best in the coming year and hoping that they would make the most of the opportunity available to them at Agahozo Shalom. There was a traditional count down (Ten! Nine! Eight!) and then much hugging and celebrating about the new year. The kids had a dance party. Its funny who is popular in Rwanda from America, the kids all seem to like Justin Bieber (even the boys) and Rihanna and Chris Brown and Jay-Z and Beyonce.

Two boys dancing traditional at the New Year's Eve Celebration

On Sunday, New Year's Day, most of the children when to a nearby church of their denomination and the volunteers worked on our English curriculum for the next week.

The school in the village has a three year high school curriculum that is preceded by a single enrichment year that helps all the students get to a similar academic place so they can do the coursework for the school. They have widely varied academic backgrounds coming in to the program. The students have different levels of comfort with English, which is especially critical, since all of the classes in the high school are taught in English. {Rwanda recently went from teaching most classes in French to English, so some of the children are more fluent in English than others. Some are more comfortable in French. Rwandan's all speak Kinyarwanda at home, so these students would all be working on a third language.}

All of the new students were divided, based on a brief assessment, into three levels of English speakers (introductory, intermediate and advanced). I was assigned to a group of introductory English speakers with two of the longterm volunteers. We had about 22 students in our group. We worked with the students for 3-4 hours per day. My group was very new to English and was working on the Alphabet, basic vocabulary for around the home, school and village, and basic verbs. Over the course of the week the students all worked very, very hard and improved to be able to have a basic introductory conversation. In contrast, some of the other sections were so advanced they were discussing world leaders and different concepts of power. For our section, obviously we were't going to teach them English in one week, but my goal was to give them some confidence and extra practice on a few vocabulary ares that would be really useful to them. I also really wanted to focus on having the students practice and work with each other. A lot of Rwandan school is traditionally lecture based and does;t have that much participation. This was an opportunity for the students to get some comfort in expressing themselves and working with each other. Some were just so quiet and shy. It was great to see them practice brief skits in English by the end of the week. We also had some fun drawing pictures and labeling things, playing Simon says, playing bingo and dancing the hokey pokey.

School Vocabulary Bingo

Each class, I was amazed how positive and friendly and earnest all of the students were, despite having had such instability in their lives. I really doubt any class of 14-16 year old American students, any honors class, could have been that well behaved, that focused and on task and willing to try anything. These kids had only been at ASYV a few days! I am sure when they graduate in 4 years they will be ready to take the world by the tail.

Even though I only worked with them for a few days, I became really attached to my students and quite proud of them. It was very sad at the end of the last class and several of the students made me farewell cards that I adore. I wonder what they are doing now.

ASYV is a truly amazing place. They give children a life and a future. If you have any interest in helping support this foundation, you can donate here: http://www.asyv.org/donate.html.

Here's me with most of the students from my English section and the two long term volunteers who also taught my section.

A bit more time in Kigali:

On the way home, I spent another night at the house in Kigali. I went out with several of the volunteers for delicious and super-cheap Indian food, better than anything I ate when I lived on E. 6th St./Little New Delhi. Before flying out the next day, I went to a crafts co-op to get some jewelry and cute little things for my nieces. I also got a painting of sorghum being harvested that I am having framed for the apartment. There was time for one last farewell lunch at a really nice western-style pizza place, New Cactus, and then I headed out to the airport via a taxi.

The trip home:

I was sad to leave. I was just only well and truly over my jet lag and Rwanda is a really nice place to be. The flight boarded a bit late. Some people flying out of Rwanda are taking every possible thing with them, so there are lots of over-sized carry-ons spilling out their contents on the floor and in the aisles. There were the usual spate of crying babies.

On the plane, the flight attendants spray bug spray inside the plane after the doors are closed but before take-off to try and stem the spread of malaria. It smells like cherry flavored baby-aspirin. My route home from Kigali stopped over for a couple hours in Entebbe, Uganda. Then back to Brussels. More vegan food and silly movies (The Help, Dolphin Tail). I had 6 hours to kill in BRU. I had some breakfast and hung out for a long time in duty free, browsing to kill time. They have many varieties of foie gras in the Brussels duty free. Imagine boarding the 8 hour flight home with that, and a spoon?!?!?!?

The flight back to Dulles included several moms flying with 4 or 5 kids each under the age of 8. The moms were outnumbered and quickly overrun, as was the plane. I gave up on sleep or concentrating enough to read and watched lots of movies: (Contagion, Cedar Rapids, Crazy Stupid Love, Horrible Bosses). I was stuck in the Cs.

After I landed in Dulles, passport control took over an hour, just because it was a long line. I was at the desk for 5 seconds and they didn’t ask me any questions. Customs was even quicker, grab bags, no questions. No sniffer dogs, which surprised me. Instead of taking my connecting flight to CHO after another 4 hour layover, Dave offered to come pick me up (which was more than 5 hours of driving for him)! However, even though I was leaving the airport, you have go back through security to get into the airport to leave. (Thanks Dulles!) That took another hour or so. I was so tired from all the traveling. Finally, I am dumped into the C terminal and can take a train to the exit. I was really glad to see Dave and glad to ride home in a car instead of waiting more at the airport. It was wonderful to not be in a plane.

It was great to get home and take a long hot shower, do my laundry and work on getting back on Eastern Standard Time. I came down with a nasty cold (fever, cough, headaches) about my second day back in the country. I’m not sure if I caught that on one of the fights or when. I’ve felt pretty crummy since I’ve been back, hence the delay in posting my recap here on the blog. I think I am starting to get on the right side of it, but still feel pretty icky. Maybe that is just my Rwanda Rwithdrawal.

"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!"

2011-12-17T16:09:00.015-05:00

Happy Holidays 2011! I hope this annual missive finds you healthy, full of joy and full of purpose.

Much in the same way that I am surprised every time I over-order in a restaurant how full I already am two bites into my main course, I am somehow, once again, astonished at how quickly the year has gone by and that it is time for the holidays again.

2011 involved a major relocation for me as I left my beloved NYC. I now reside solidly below the Mason-Dixon line in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville is a town so small it isn't in SpellCheck. It's the home of UVA so there are tons of college kids everywhere. C-Ville, as the locals abbreviate it, is pretty, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and only minutes from Shenandoah National Park. It's a great place for hiking, biking and running. While I enjoy what the outdoors in Charlottesville has to offer, it has taken some getting used to. Businesses close a lot earlier here (or rather at all) and I learned the hard (hungry?) way that if you have not made it to the restaurant by 9 PM on Sunday, then you are not getting dinner. I am also intimately familiar with the tiny airport which flies direct pretty much only to Atlanta and Charlotte and even there at infrequent intervals.

Southerners are a friendly lot and I have met a ton of nice folks, but it was difficult to say farewell to so many friends after more than a decade in New York. I had a fantastic and wonderfully well attended goodbye send-off where I was presented perhaps the most amazing cake in the history of time:

Thanks Guys! It was delicious. I miss you too.

Professionally, I am still working for Perfect Sense Digital, and my client is still Scripps Networks, parent company for FoodNetwork, Food.com, HGTV and HGTV Remodels. I split the year between working in the Scripps Knoxville, TN and Chelsea/Lower Manhattan offices. My work involves assisting the Scripps websites with tracking their online assets, and optimizing those assets as advertising inventory. All the travel is really getting to me, but it was nice to make it back to NYC periodically to ease my homesickness/culture-shock.

This summer, as most of you know (because I hit you up for money), my mom and I held a lemonade stand to raise funds for pediatric cancer near her home in Myersville, Maryland. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation is a wonderful charity and the lemonade stand was a good time and raised money for a cause that is near to all of our hearts. Thankfully, my niece Lindy's scans remain cancer-free but there are still so many children hoping for a cure. Here's Mom and I and a couple of wonderful kids from her neighborhood who volunteered (were coerced) to help us out:
It's a really easy fund-raiser, they send you everything you need, so you might want to consider it if you are looking for something rewarding to do as a family, class or youth group and you like lemonade.

Mom is doing as well as she can in what has continued to be a hard year for her. Of course, we all still miss Dad terribly. She is keeping the menagerie up and still has two horses, two mini-horses and three golden retrievers. Recently, she sold the house in Myersville, MD and is excited to be moving all the animals to Selma, NC where she will be close enough to Raleigh, NC to attend all my niece's dance performances and birthday celebrations and to drive my sister certifiably

insane. Good luck, Lynn!

I got to see a fair amount of my extended family this year, which was great. I was hosted at the Kentucky Derby in Louisville on the first Saturday in May by my cousins and aunts and uncles. We got dressed up, bet on horses and drank bourbon. It was a great time. I saw most of the Louisville clan again in July when we descended on Oak Island, NC for our annual family reunion beach trip. It is especially fun to see all my little second cousins who are growing up so fast and getting better all the time at hunting for ghost-crabs at night.

I have played a lot less Ultimate here in Charlottesville, because there is not really a women's team here for me to play with, but I did captain a summer league team, and I'm playing winter league and some pick-up. This summer, I also got the opportunity to play in the Women's Masters National Championship (30+) in Ohio with a team called Lady O from New York and

reunite with many of my friends from the old Ambush days. It was great to see everyone and play a little disc, even if we are all out of shape and Ultimate for the Elderly looks about as good as it sounds. No holiday letter from me would be complete without a soccer-style photo of me at a tournament with 18 other people you don't know:

I'm on the bottom row, second from the right.

In October I got the opportunity to spend a week in the North Carolina Outer Banks with Dave and a large group of friends from Charlottesville. The off-season beach was not crowded, we stayed in an amazing house on a steal right off the ocean and had perfect weather. It's certainly not breaking news to say that OBX is awesome, but let me go ahead and strongly recommend that as a vacation spot if you have it under consideration.

You know I love Halloween and this year I was invited to a costume party and attended as one of my favorite Sesame Street characters:

One fun Halloween costume! Two lavender fingers! Ah Ah Ah!

My big project at this moment is that I am getting ready for a trip to Rwanda. Right after Christmas I am flying to Kigali (through Brussels) to volunteer at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village. I'll be there working with high-school aged orphans on their conversational English, to help them prepare to catch-up to a standard high-school curriculum and in the hopes of attending universities and being the future leaders of Rwanda. It has been 18 years since that nation was rocked by ethnic genocide, but continued instability, crippling poverty and limited international response has meant that youth continue to be at a very high risk to become orphaned. I'm excited to be returning to Africa and thrilled at the opportunity to give something back and make a meaningful contribution. I've had every conceivable vaccination and I am so inspired to meet the kids and volunteers at the village who have encountered so much. It is a pretty amazing story if you have time to check it out. I will let you know how it goes.

I hope you've also have a wonderful year. If not, heads up! You never know when you are going to stumble upon a beautiful day. Here's me and my friend Taliesin after a workout in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on a gorgeous fall day:

Happy New Year!

Stay tuned here on the blog for photos and details of my trip to Rwanda and other updates. I wish you a Happy New Year and the best of luck in 2012. Please, please let me know if you will be swinging through Charlottesville for any conceivable reason.

Novemories & Rwanda

2011-12-11T18:52:00.011-05:00

November was busy and went by in no time. (Hence it being Mid-December before I even get to my November write up.)

For Thanksgiving, I went up to my Mom's in Myersville. She is selling that house and packing up for a new home in North Carolina. We spent a lot of the time packing and taking trips to the dump and Goodwill. It was fun to see the nieces (Kate and Lindy) and say goodbye to that house.

The previous weekend I had my first house guests in the south. (It only took me 10 months...) It was great to see the Stouts who swung through C-ville for an evening. We had a fun dinner and mini-pub crawl as well as a trip to my favorite diner for brunch the next day. Jen & Brian continue to be a shining example of people making a difference and doing meaningful work (for the Gates Foundation & US AID). I am hopeful that one of them will need an intern at some point. Check out the view at a nearby apple orchard:

Earlier in the month, I had a chance to get up to NYC for a weekend and went to a fun birthday dinner in Brooklyn:

Happy 30th Erica!

I also got the chance to go for a run on a glorious fall day in Prospect Park:
I miss the park. I haven't found anywhere that beautiful down in Virginia yet.

Thanks to everyone in NYC who swung by the bar in Brooklyn where I watched NFL all day. It was great to catch up with everyone during my 'office hours' and you almost cheered me up from another dismal Eagles loss.

My big news at this point is that after Christmas, I am going on a trip to Rwanda! I am flying in to Kigali and heading to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. I'll be volunteering there to teach English to high-school aged kids in the orphanage. I am looking forward to the trip because I know I'll learn a lot and hopefully improve conversational English for some kids who could be future leaders of Rwanda. The village is an amazing response to the orphans left after the 1994 Genocides. Check out more details on the charity here. I'm honored to volunteer for them.

I've never been to Rwanda, and it takes a fair amount of preparation. I've been getting shots for Yellow Fever, Polio, Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid and the Flu, all of which makes me cranky and sore (more evan than usual.) While I'm there, I'll take anti-malarial pills. I'm taking art supplies to donate to kids who paint in the village as art therapy.

I always enjoy travel, so I'm sure this trip will be interesting but a few points in my preparation manual stand out and make me particularly enthusiastic:

"Non-biodegradable plastic bags have been banned in Rwanda, and any found on you at the airport may be confiscated and replaced with reusable cloth bags for a small fee."

Rwanda is aware of the environmental impact of plastic bags and is taking this strong stand to get in front of the problem. I love it!

The only thing I love more is this programming announcement:

"There is one television station, Television Rwandaise (TVR), which is state-run. It airs English news at 2:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. There’s a chimpanzee show at 10:00 a.m. and an African soccer feature at noon."

My only concern at this point is how to sneak out of teaching every day at 10:00 AM. I'll let you know how that works out.

Coming soon will be the 2011 Holiday letter. To get you in the mood/up to speed here's a refresher of from last year: 2010 Happy Holidays: With a Little Old Driver So Lively and Quick...

Happy Halloween from the Count and Kermit

2011-10-30T18:39:00.003-04:00

Falling down on the job

2011-10-22T20:51:00.005-04:00

Sorry, meant to post ages ago. It's a vicious cycle, the longer I wait the more I have to post so the more time I need to write it up so I don't even want to think about it. In order to get over that hump here is a jumbled up update of some of the things that have been going on:

Still living in Charlottesville, VA - the fall foliage is gorgeous.
Still working crazy nuts and flying every week and getting very sick of that.
Conducted a Georgetown University Alumni Interview yesterday. Man, applying to college seems like another lifetime ago. Kids are so hung up on and so stressed by their SATs.
Went to Corolla, NC on the Outer Banks for a week and had an amazing time. Perfect weather the first week in October. Great off season rates. Ridiculous house had 9 rooms and baths, a pool, hot tub, pool table, foosball table, poker table and 12 plasma screen TVs. And a hammock.
Just learned to play KanJam (at said vacation and like it a lot.)
Still going to Cross-Fit. I am still terrible. I am learing to dead lift and over head squat and do chin-ups and squats with a kettle ball and "farmer's carries". If none of that makes any sense, I know. I do. That is normal. It is something of a cult and the espouse eating the paleo diet and work out like maniacs 6 days a week. I am usually the weakest kid in class, but not always. I can't get any worse.
Got the new iPhone 4S. Love it. Much faster. RIP Leroy, Long live Clarissa.
I was in NYC for Hurricane Irene and it was insane to see all the stores and restaurants and everything in NYC closed. I walked down the Broadway sidewalks in Soho alone. Incredible. Very weird. Very vanilla sky. I strongly recommend the jalapeno tequila cocktail at the Bowery Hotel for assisting with the passage of a hurricane.
I went to Dave's sister Catherine's wedding in Roanoke VA over labor day weekend. Big elaborate affair with super fun Indian rehearsal dinner. Congrats to Catherine & Rohit.
Played the fall series (again!) this time with Crayon Pony Fish, some girls from UVA. My back is getting pretty bad and I need to retire, but they were nice and it was pretty fun.
VA fusion was at an incredible sports complex near Martinsville, VA with lights and bathrooms and concessions and we all felt almost like real athletes. It was a lot of fun.
Went to Fayetteville, WV for Bridge Day and incredible White Water Rafting, (but saw neither). The fall foliage out there was incredible too and the campground was pretty nice.
My mom is working on selling her house in Myersville, MD and looking to head to North Carolina. Say goodbye to the mountain.
Still working in Knoxvegas, NYC, and Reston, VA at no predictable interval.

Hope you are well and having a great fall. I'll try and sync and post some photos once i figure out how to work my iCloud.

Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky

2011-08-24T12:18:00.004-04:00

I totally gave up on Austerity August (Augusterity). Maybe next year. Sorry.
I joined the Cross-Fit gym in town (total cult).
Green made it to the summer league finals.
I saw Neko Case and she was amazing as ever. She has new tattoos.
We threw a birthday party for Dave and I made him this cake and it fell apart. Catistrophically.
I felt the earthquake in Knoxville.

That is all.

2011-08-02T10:43:00.001-04:00

Austerity August is underway!

Ultimate for the Elderly

2011-07-16T15:30:00.008-04:00

Hey. The summer is going by quickly. I just got back from Lebanon, Ohio where USA Ultimate was holding the Grand Masters Open and Women's Masters tournaments. I played with Lady O, mostly from NY, and we finish 11th, but we came in seeded 12th, so lets call it a victory. I got the chance to see a lot of my girls from the Ambush days, and we had a good time. I'm on the bottom row above, second from the right.

Watching the Open Grand Master's final was pretty incredible. Those guys over 40 can still play. Congrats to Arnie for winning it all with Scrapple from PA.

Next weekend I'm off to Oak Island to see the whole extended family at the beach. I can't wait.

Also, despite all of my natural suspicions, I've joined Google+. Go ahead and look for me there if you're the type of person who likes to put people in circles.

Also get ready to Watch the Throne.

2011-07-16T15:30:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the future. I can post from my iPhone.

2011-07-16T15:29:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from my phone! Hello!

Delinquent Blogger

2011-06-14T13:53:00.007-04:00

Hi. Sorry I have been so delinquent. Happy hot summer. May was a blur.

Things have been pretty busy. I have been spending a lot of time in the Charlotte and Atlanta airports. I am so over business travel. Calgon take me away!

In early May, I went to the Kentucky Derby with my Cousins and Aunts & Uncles. It was a lot of fun. I did not foresee the winner, Animal Kingdom, but I did win on a couple of earlier races so I came away ahead for the day.

Last weekend my Mom & I had a lemonade stand for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
It went pretty well and I am glad to be able to give something to a good cause. It's not too late to pledge us if you're interested in supporting pediatric cancer research:
http://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/72432

I had a great birthday out on the Del-Mar-Va peninsula with Dave. We went to the beach. Except for the mosquitoes, it was a great time. I can confirm that I am still terrible at Putt-Putt.

I have been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs, and I am glad the Heat did not prevail. Someone get a Binky for baby Bron Bron. I doubted Dallas from the Portland series and I was surprised when they won it all. I am not sure what I will do for sports now. Baseball is so baseball and NFL continues to have labor hesitation. Luckily, Wimbledon starts soon.

Friz-wise I am the captain of a summer league team (Go Green!) in Charlottesville and I am trying to get in shape for the Masters National Championship (Ultimate for the Elderly) in Ohio in July. Look out.

I'm looking forward to a beach trip in July to Oak Island, and Neko Case is coming to town, so things are looking up. Have a great summer.

Spring a Leak

2011-04-13T16:12:00.008-04:00

Hi. Happy April.

My trip to Vegas for the first weekend of March Madness was fine. Georgetown lost in the first round again, but at least VCU, who beat them, went on to the Final 4 and proved they had some game. Improbably, I won my bracket pool, mostly thanks to Kemba Walker, as UCON was the only Final Four team I selected correctly.

There was some late snow here in Charlottesville, that caused snow to fall on the trees blooming outside our apartment. (photos pending) .

Again this year, for April Fools weekend I joined the ladies of Flash Taco at the Fools Fest Ultimate Tournament in Fredericksburg, VA. Much fun was had. This year was quite a reunion and I got to play with a number of people I hadn't seen in ages, some of whom were new moms that brought the babies. We also had a bachelorette weekend to celebrate, so antics were at max capacity. Dave came to watch for a day and see what all the insanity was about. I had a lot of fun.

Me & Dave.

Me (in the Taco) running down to get on D.

Jen, baby Bella and the Taco

This weekend we are headed to Charlotte to see a junior girls soccer tournament. Go Lucy! Coming soon is Derby in Louisville. Hope your spring is going well.

Your Humble Courtnespondent, Reporting On Location...

2011-03-12T22:14:00.009-05:00

Howdy. Against all odds, I am still surviving south of the Mason-Dixon line. Apparently one can breathe down here. I have some cred, since I was actually born in North Carolina, but after 11 years in NYC that hardly counts.

Charlottesville is fine. There are plenty of restaurants and bars, so I'm fed, and watered. I've been cooking a bit more than I used to, since we have a big kitchen. I'm luxuriating in doing laundry at any hour of the day in my own home. I thought I would be really excited about the microwave too, but I haven't used that yet.

Here's how Dave is doing, after living with me for almost two months. I'm looking into a prescription for Levatol for him:
And maybe some Paxil.

We're at a tourist trap on VA-I64 between Charlottesville and where Dave's parents live called the Natural Bridge. It's a tall gap carved into the limestone by a stream. It's actually really pretty:

Dave took me to Blacksburg, VA to see College Game Day when Duke was ranked #1 and came to VaTech. It was a crazy time. The kids jumped around and screamed the whole game. It was hard fought and a close game all night and the 'Hokies*' pulled out an upset victory. (*As far as I can tell, Hokie is a hillbilly term for turkey.) Here's us at the game:
The whole stadium was shaking. After the final seconds ticked off the clock, the kids stormed the court. They danced and cheered for ages:
The Turkeys went on to lose their next two games, but beating Duke was an ACC conference grudge match, so they were happy. They'll likely get their first bid to the NCAA tournament in years, largely due to the expansion from 64 to 68 teams.

Speaking of the tournament, I am all jazzed about the Madness of March. Look out for the Big BEast!! This year's tourney at MSG was great. Kemba Walker could be this year's Carmello Anthony so be aware. Of course, I was disapointed in the Hoyas showing, but they may be a bit better in the NCAAs when Chris Wright comes back. Then again, I am still smarting from the round one-and-done exit last year, so I won't count any chickens...

Once again, I'll be watching the first weekend of the tourney in Las Vegas, so I can bet on all the games. I'll let you know how that goes.

After that, it's not too long until Fools and the Derby. Get amped.

Don't Look Back Like Dylan in the Movies

2011-02-13T16:28:00.006-05:00

So, I had an amazing going away party at Blue and Gold. There was strong representation from many friends old and new and many, many PBRs were consumed. Thanks to everyone who made it by. I'll miss you! Let me know when you are coming to Charlottesville!

At the going away I was presented with a pretty Fing awesome cake. Yep, that's me. And me again wearing a taco costume at Fools (which has been tucked into a spirit award in the form of tie-died tighty-whities) and me again in Copenhagen in 2006 with Ambush. I've had some really amazing times with my ultimate ladies in NYC and I will miss them so much.

Here's me and the amazing cake:
And me and Erica and Tucker (and some of Ali):

And me and Ali, Georgia, Erica and Tucker:
Me and 55:

And me with Taliesin, Erica, Ali, Georgia and Tucker:
Thanks Guys. I had a blast!

That was Thursday.

Friday, I packed all day, (with a hangover, thank you shot buyers) and Dave took the train in around midnight. Saturday, we rented a U-Haul and drove to Charlottesville. The drive went pretty well. (Thanks to Dave for doing all the driving.) Sunday, we had movers help us with all Dave's stuff from his other apartment and also unload the Uhaul. Worth every penny! Then there was much unpacking and picture hanging. I like the place a lot. Here's two views of the living room from opposite angles:

We get a lot of light and there is a nice spacious kitchen. We have a spare bedroom so be sure to let me know when you are coming to town.

So far, I have been traveling for work to Knoxville, Reston and New York. When I'm home I've been getting settled in. Since most of the boxes are gone, I've really been enjoying Charlottesville. I've been running. I took the bus to give blood. I ran a track workout (8 200s) and today I crashed the winter league and played a game. It was a nice bike ride to and from. I've been cooking a little more (I made some pretty good chili.) So far, so good. I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-07T18:24:00.002-05:00

Hey there. I hope your 2011 is going great so far. I had a nice Christmas at my sister's house in Raleigh, NC. Due to the blizzard in NYC, I changed my travel plans and got to see Dave for his Grandmother's Christmas in Virginia. We took the train up to have New Year's Eve together at my place, where a game night was held. (Apples to Apples, Wii Boxing, Celebrities.)

I have very limited recollection, but apparently I had a great time:

(Thanks to Jesse for my awesome new jacket for Christmas.)

This weekend I am excited about the NFL wildcard games. My pics are Saints, Ravens, Colts and sadly, the Packers. Go Eagles! Prove me wrong!

Things are very busy. I just got back from working in Knoxville, TN and next week I am off to Reston, VA. Next Thursday I fly to Louisville, KY for my Grandmother's funeral. After that I'll be back in NYC for packing and a final send off. What?!?!? Oh yeah:

I'm moving to Charlottesville, VA. I'm moving there on January 22. Sorry, if you were planning on visiting me in NYC, you will just have to visit someone else. Charlottesville is the home of UVA and nice fall foliage. I'm sad to be leaving NYC, but it had been 10 years, and NYC isn't going anywhere. I may be back.

Come and see me in Charlottesville after I get settled. It's a nice little town.

Courtneyspondence will take a turn again. What was once a travelogue for my adventures in Melbourne will now be an ethnography on life in the small town south and a withdrawal journal on going cold turkey on the convenience of NYC. As always, please stay tuned.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick…

2010-12-17T18:38:00.016-05:00

Greetings all and Happy Holidays! Here’s hoping this annual letter finds you healthy, happy and well. I’ve been writing holiday letters for a long time now, and this is the first year I have ever considered giving it a pass.

As many of you know, this has been a tough year for the Kellys. In August, my father Mike died suddenly in Maryland from epilepsy. It was quite a shock and has been very sad. We miss him terribly. This December, his mother Mary Kelly also passed away. Losing my father, and subsequently my grandmother, has cast quite a shadow over this year.

However, the holiday letter tradition was one of the many important things I learned from my dad. As children, all year long, my sister Lynn and I were motivated to try and accomplish things that might make his annual family year-in-review. (Looking back, I think it was the only reason I won the science fair in 7^th grade.) Total number of mentions was the best way for me to take the measure of a year. (Even a major illness was worth it; any press is good press.)

I think my Dad thought that a holiday letter was a good way to stay in touch with friends far and wide, and to show that he cared enough to reach out with glad tidings. I agree.

To that end, I offer this 2010 edition:

This year, I continued to live in Brooklyn, NY (in Ft. Greene) and take advantage of the proximity to the park, the shops and restaurants. I love this neighborhood.

I am still working as a consultant at Perfect Sense Digital, and my client is still Scripps Networks (the parent company for Food Network and HGTV). I am still traveling to Knoxville, TN regularly and my exhaustion with spending time in airports is exceeded only by my respect and fondness for the folks I work with down there in that beautiful city. I still work Monday-Wednesday, and I strongly recommend that.

In my free time, I had the privilege to coach the Beacon High School Girl’s Ultimate Team (with my co-coach Dave, who I would not have survived without). I learned so much from coaching. It’s harder than it looks! The dedication of those girls, who practiced at 6 AM on Thursday mornings in the cold and dark, was a source of inspiration. We had some great tournaments and the highlight of the season was a trip to Vermont where the team beat their cross-city rivals (Stuyvesant HS) for the first time in many years. Why drive 9 hours in a mini-van full of screaming girls to play a team who is also based in NYC? Why indeed!

This summer was a blur and I was almost never home.

I attended a beautiful wedding in Kennebunkport, Maine. (Congrats again to Ali & Dave!)

(Here's me and Emily, another guest, at the wedding.)

I had a great trip with my extended family to Oak Island, NC in July. It was wonderful to see all my aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins, and the trip is now an especially cherished memory of my dad enjoying time with the whole family.

In August, my niece Kate came up visit the big city for a weekend and wore me out, dragging me to dance performances, art museums, restaurants, musicals, Coney Island and Central Park. It’s pretty awesome that she’s old enough to be an independent person and fun to hang out with. Look out world. Her parents and her sister Lindy still live in Raleigh and are all doing great. I expect a visit from Lindy any day now when she hitchhikes up on her own and tells me she is starring in her own one-woman show on Broadway.

(Here's Kate eating a Famous Fry at Nathan's Famous on Coney Island)

This year, as usual, I also spent a lot of time and energy on Ultimate. I became a certified coach, hosted a coaching clinic, and I volunteered to be the Metro NY sectionals coordinator.

I also started a second women’s club team in NYC, Women’s Team Frisbee. We hadn’t had a second team in town in years and it was a lot of work coordinating tryouts, practices, rosters, tournament entry bids and jerseys. As a team, we traveled to tournaments in Devens, MA (twice), Ottawa, Canada, Philadelphia, PA, and Connecticut (twice). We qualified for the North East Regional Tournament and had a lot of fun playing all season. I enjoyed competing in the Womens’s division again and playing for the first time with so many new faces.

(Here's the team, me in the bottom middle with visor.)

(And here's me Narrowly throwing over the mark.)

In September, we had a Funeral Mass for my father in Maryland where I saw so many long time family friends, and in October we had a small ceremony on his birthday at Oak Island, NC. Thanks so much to everyone who attended, wrote or called to express his or her sympathy.

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Mom’s house in Maryland, and I’d be lying to say it wasn't weird or hard, but we got through it with help from my friends Dave and Sarah (who brought reinforcements in the form of her sister, sister’s fiancée and beagle, Annie). It was very sad, and concurrently quite fun, in the impossible way that those things often are.

December finds me planning to head to Raleigh, NC for Christmas as usual and reflecting on a hard year. I feel fortunate to have such wonderful people around me. Thanks to all of my friends and coworkers who have given me so much love and support. I do plan to return the favor, so consider this an IOU.

Wishing you the best in 2011! Happy New Year!

Prepare!

2010-12-16T21:38:00.002-05:00

It's almost time for the 2010 edition.
Here's a refresher on 2009:
http://courtneyspondence.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-creature-was-stirring-not-even.html

2010-11-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

It seems that despite my expectations, life goes on. We've had a funeral mass in Myersville, MD in September and commitment ceremony down at Oak Island, NC last weekend on his birthday. Both were very sad.

So many of you have called, written and sent cards. Thanks so much. I haven't replied to most of you, I just don't know what to say and I don't really like talking about it. Of course we miss him terribly. The initial shock is wearing off and the dull realization of the new reality is setting in. I still forget most of the time, and catch myself thinking that I need to tell Dad about something I saw on Sportscenter. Support from so many people has really meant a lot and made this time more bearable.

Mostly, I feel tired and listless and not interested in much, so there's not much to blog about. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving, which will be at Mom's house and will certainly be very strange.

I am on the floor.

2010-08-29T23:42:00.003-04:00

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/louisville/obituary.aspx?n=michael-william-kelly&pid=144989863

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lVgHisHgK2g/RwYgEk6PBfI/AAAAAAAAAPU/SejYAQD47eE/s1600-h/barbandmike+031.jpg

kate. books. links.

2010-08-10T00:21:00.013-04:00

This is the view from the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island. I was out there with my niece Kate. She came to NYC to look after me for a few days.

Here she is eating a famous fry at Nathan's famous:
Needless to say I was quite complimented whenever anyone asked if she was my daughter. We had a pretty fun time. We went to a dance performance by Pilobus. We went to the Broadway Musical Wicked. We did some back-to-school shopping. We took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and saw polar bears at the Central Park Zoo. We saw Despicable Me in 3D, which I liked a good deal. She had to get back to Raleigh to take a babysitting course, but I'm pretty sure she knew everything she needed to after taking care of me for four days.

In other news, you know I've been flying around and running around a lot, like I do.

I was in Ellington, Connecticut last weekend with 15 fine women from Brooklyn's Women's Team Frisbee. We had a rough go of it, but had fun nonetheless.

All the flying for work and play has me madder than ever about the freezing temperature on airplanes. I'm planning to get a thermometer and keep it with me at all times. Take that airlines, I'm taking readings. And recording them. So there! (I'm too busy to start that project up right now, but consider yourself warned.)

One upside of all the time on planes and at the gate is a bit more time to read.

I finished David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster essay collection. It was fun reading that on the plane to Ali's wedding and getting dirty looks. I had always though of DWF as too condescendo and cute with all the footnotes of footnotes, and I'd pretty much dismissed him as a dry pedant. I had based that on one essay, "Host" which I had read years ago. That essay is particularly heavily footnoted, and in an artsy, postmodern way that really does not work in print format, but should be a linked webpage. I'm really glad I gave him another chance. While some of the essays in the collection are pretty dense and would at best only interest those already intimate with the subject on which he is training his microscope, others are hysterical, touching or both from the first sentence. "Big Red Son" in particular was fascinating. My take away from finishing the collection was that each essay pretty much holds it's tone and form, so if you hate the first 3 pages, skip it, it's going to be more of that. Skip to the next essay right away because it might make you laugh and cry at the same time.

On books that elicit both tears and laughter, I urgently implore you to get your hands on a copy of Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You as fast as you can. I cannot recommend this strongly enough. I got this book from a tip from a friend at work in Knoxville. She was right. I laughed out loud on the plane and people looked at me funny (like reading Sedaris). This might be my Corrections for this year, a book I give everyone for Christmas. It has a dysfunctional family in common with Corrections, but one not quite so dark.

I also quickly finished Paul Harding's Novella tinkers. This was trying a bit too hard to be Faulkner and missing for me. The Pulitzer Prize winner segs seamlessly between three generations of Crosby men and their musings and hallucinations, with lengthy nature description passages and detailed clock repair passages woven in between. The novella was like a pretty quilt, but I like my fiction with a bit more plot and purpose.

Odds & Ends:

Jesse just reminded me to stay up on Zach Galifianakis.

No one needs to remind me to stay up on Kenny Powers. He's keeping the pen.

Dorks sent this along, which reminds me of my flying adventures. I wish there was a cartoon of him trapped in a block of ice.

Periodically the NY times runs a story, the gist of which is, "people play ultimate." I think we all recall in May of 2009, when they broke the story "ultimate is a sport and girls can play it."

Someone just anonymously posted this picture of me to my other blog as a reminder. I'm playing that game where the last one to touch their nose is it. I was not it!

The Gastronauts were in the New York Times again too. Breaking News!

14 years later and they got a hit on me in the Bone Marrow donor registry. Thanks Charlotte! Stay tuned for how that progresses.

Platinum Elite?

2010-07-25T13:37:00.004-04:00

8 flights in 9 days. 6 of them were late. 8 of them were freezing. Why does it have to be so cold on planes? Every flight I wear a long sleeve sweater or hoodie and every flight I almost cry from the cold and it is July and otherwise I would be wearing shorts. Why airlines, why? I got stuck in Atlanta overnight when my 'on time' flight sat on the tarmac waiting for a gate until my connection left. There are about 35 hotels that function to serve the rotisserie city that is comprised of stranded travelers from that airport each day. I couldn't believe the scope and scale of the operation.

Ottawa was tough. It is far away. Everyone was exhausted from the 8 hour drive. We had a torn ACL in the second game of the weekend. It seems like there is one every year and I just hate it. I am so sorry Cash Money Smith.

I went to Oak Island and got to see most of my extended family. It was great to see everyone. I always forget how much I like it at the beach house. I like biking around. I could stay there all summer, but as soon as I leave, I can't find time to get back for a year. Ultimate ate my life.

At the beach I borrowed my sister's Bonobo Handshake. I had been a close follower of the blog so I thought I knew it all, but the book was still a compelling read. If you have any interest in animals, African politics, humanity or sex you should check it out.

My niece Kate will be here in 4 days to visit NYC for the first time. Should be a lot of fun.

As the saying goes, "Don’t let it hant you in the dills."

2010-07-14T11:19:00.008-04:00

I have been playing some iPhone fake scrabble and it is making me much stupider. Some “words” that I have successfully played this round include “Hant” “Dills” and “Berg”. Look out.

Whirlwind summer persists with much travel and much airport time. A few quick notes.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Frank's and Habana for my birthday. I’m told I had a lot of fun.

WTF!!??!?! had tryouts, and went to the Boston Invite, where we had fun and lost all our games.
Thanks to Jesse for helping me understand the what the deal is with all that twilight nonsense.

I don’t really care about Labron free agency, he had to go somewhere. I’m not so sure he’s made a dream team, but I guess we’ll see. TG is pretty mad at him for some reason and did this: http://www.lebrontwitter.com/.
I spent July 4 at the lake in Virginia. Lots of fireworks and lots of fun.

Ali & Dave’s wedding in Maine was beautiful and fantastic. Maine’s rocky coast was just as picturesque as the cliché. The Wedding was in Kennebunkport and I ran past the Bush family compound several times. We ate delicious lobster and had lots of fun. (Maine mosquitoes are lobster sized and much more vicious.)
Here's me and Emily before the ceremony:

And me just after the ceremony, doing what frisbee people do at weddings. What nerds! Really, everyone was playing, it's just me in this shot though...

Oh yeah, and here's me getting busted getting Betsy's help with afore mentioned iPhone scrabble. PBR!
I just finished reading the Stu Ungar biography . The guy was clearly a genius, maybe the best Gin player of all time and a storied poker champion, but also a total degenerate that could lost everything he made just as quickly. I love that he never had a straight job in his life, so when he won a legit tournament, first had to go to get a social security card to collect the winnings.

Before that I read the really long and really funny Blue Latitudes. I never really thought I cared about Captain Cook, but I guess anything that Tony Horwitz writes is funny and moves well. He retraces Cook's 3 voyages, seeing the impact that was had on the places Cook "discovers". Part anthropology, part extended drunken road trip, neither part sounds good I know, but I think I just found Horwitz' voice resonated.

WTF, or at least 8 of us, are off to Ottawa this weekend. Should be grueling and fun.

After that I’ll go to Reston and Knoxville for work before I head to the beach for a few days to see the extended fam.

Note to humans loitering inside Chelsea Market, on NYC sidewalks or in the Subway – Try this: Ask yourself, “Am I in the way?” If answer = yes, then GET OUT OF THE WAY. If answer = no
then continue on with your ‘life’.

Compensation

2010-06-16T17:17:00.007-04:00

I have been thinking about meaningful work and jobs and salaries (and their apparent inverse correlation) a lot lately. It seems clear to me that the more actual value you deliver, the less one is compensated. Why has our society developed in this way? Why is there no financial incentive to do anything good, or even worthwhile?

I think meaningful work exclusively exists below $80K/year. Let me know if you can think of an exception.

I have been thinking about quitting my job to go clean up oil in the gulf. I don't love the idea of being poor though... I need tickets to sporting events and sneakers.

We on award tour with Muhammad my man...

2010-06-16T17:14:00.001-04:00

My summer tour schedule:
Reston
New York
Knoxville
Boston
New York
Charlottesville
Knoxville
Kennebunkport
New York
Ottawa
Knoxville
Oak Island
New York
Ellington (CT)
Charlottesville
New York
Myersville / Poolesville, MD

Will someone please make me one of those band tour shirts? Be sure to catch me when my tour swings through your city.

Ugh. Individually I am looking forward to a lot of the things above. Collectively I HATE the idea of having this busy a summer and no down time and almost no time in NYC. Don’t expect to hear from me. Catch you in October when things should settle down.

Memorializing the end of May

2010-05-30T20:57:00.006-04:00

My new women's team is really taking off. Brooklyn's Women's Team Frisbee had tryouts this weekend and announced a roster of 18. There will be 9 more players added through June. We will be a pretty young team. It should be a lot of fun and also a lot of work I cannot really believe I signed myself up for.

Beacon High School Girls Ultimate is pretty much wrapped up for the year. I survived the trip to Vermont. I drove 14 hours in 3 days in a giant SUV packed with screaming girls. It was pretty much hell. We all slept on the floor together in our host house. There is no predator as vicious as a high school girl. The girls actually did pretty well, finishing 7th in the tourney and 8th in spirit. 7th out of 10 might not sound so great, but they beat their cross town rivals from Stuyvesant for the first time in years. They all seemed to have a tolerably good time, though you'd never know it from their permanent scowls.

I recently finished Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and of course it was incredible. That's all I can really say. I love the chapters by each character, the changing point of view. I especially love the chapters from Vardaman the 7 year old son. Faulkner had a lot of courage. I could never write something that leaves so much out at the beginning, that requires the reader to work so hard. I would be afraid of readers giving up or missing my point. (Of course it goes without saying that I could never write anything like Faulkner could write, but I'm specifically pointing to this one aspect of his writing, which is this deliberate and bold choice to slowly dribble the details through a murky filter, heightening the suspense.) Five Stars.

Other news:
Well, I gave blood again. My hemoglobin is still low, but I found a guy with a broken meter!
I am pretty amped about the NBA finals: Celtics/Lakers. Go Rondo!
I am looking forward to the world cup as well. Should be alright.
Went out to the Frying Pan for Tim Barbie Dahl's birthday, which was a great time.

Let's Hear it for the Girls!

2010-05-07T19:18:00.011-04:00

We're #7! We're #7!

On April 24 & 25 I traveled to Springfield, PA with the Beacon High School Girls Ultimate team to compete in the O'Hara Invite Girls Ultimate Tournament. You'll recall I'm coaching the team this season with O-Town.

I was very nervous. Being responsible for 16 high school girls for an entire weekend petrifies me. My goals were straight forward: I wanted to return 100% of the girls to their parents by EOD Sunday with none suffering from exposure, dehydration, sunstroke, starvation or major injury. I hoped to avoid felonies and unintended pregnancies for all 16, and was really aiming to have none of them run off to Atlantic City or join the circus.

By these metrics the weekend was a rousing success. At this very moment I believe the are all alive and in relative good health. VICTORY.

By some other standards, the results for the weekend were a bit more mixed. We lost all 4 games on Saturday, at a combined margin of 8-49. We were destroyed. Our girls are just not in the kind of shape the other teams are in and we cannot match the skill level in throwing and catching. This game of ultimate is pretty much no fun at all if you cannot catch.

It was a hard day for the team. Most of them got up around 4 am to get their rides to Philly. They lost 4 games in a row badly. They were in no mood to listen to my tips on swinging the disc off the line, or preventing ACL injuries. When hotel rooms were assigned there were tears, actual tears. You would have thought I was arranging marriages, not assigning 4 teammates rooms for one night in a Howard Johnson.

That evening I had this telling exchange with one of the girls on the team:

Team Member: Boys are so weird.
Me (nodding, grateful to have identified any common ground): They sure are. It gets a little better after college, but not much.
Team Member: Like, take for instance our Boy's ultimate team. They get so mad when the other team scores or they make a mistake.
Me (still nodding, quizzically now): mmm-hmmm.
Team Member: What are they so mad about? Don't they know it's just a game? It doesn't matter.

As you know, I'm not often silenced, but this had me speechless. I nodded dumbly and felt around the table for another breadstick.

Sunday was better. We played two games in the losers bracket and won them both. They were the first wins of the season, and the first back to back wins for the club. We earned a 7th place in the tournament (out of 10) which beat seed and made the long congested Sunday drive back to the city more tolerable for everyone.

Yesterday, the team scrimmaged downtown rivals, Stuyvesant HS in Prospect Park. The team was down 7-1 at half and got the game back to a much more respectable 8-5 final, so we'll count that as progress.

I'm driving them to St. Johnsbury Vermont in a couple of weeks. I just may find religion.

In other news:

Book Reviews:
I have been reading, but a little slack about telling you what I was reading.

A while back, I read the recently released short story collection Look at the Birdie from my beloved Vonnegut. The book's full title is actually, "Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction" which pretty much makes no sense at all and I'm sure Kurt would have edited, but I know what they meant. I was a little leery. I love Vonnegut like no other author, but he's published more posthumously than Tupac, and I was concerned that the stuff getting churned out after his death was stuff that he wouldn't have published while he was alive for a reason. Maybe there was some reason, but it isn't that this is poor quality work. It's vintage Vonnegut. I was delighted to find a little bit more of something that I thought had been all used up forever. My favorite short story in the collection is Ed Luby's Key Club, which really should be a movie, likely starring Bruce Willis.

I finally read Letham's Motherless Brooklyn, which I guess Ed Norton is turning into a movie now. I've loved Letham for years. Girl in Landscape and Gun, with Occasional Music were favorites of mine in back in college. I loved Fortress of Solitude. For some reason I just skipped Motherless Brooklyn. Maybe it was that it seemed MB was when Letham really blew up and I wasn't ready to share just yet. At any rate, it's great. Not as good as Fortress, but compelling and quick paced and worth your time as a read. With a protagonist with Tourette's I found myself observing everyone for tics. Maybe we're all on the Tourette's spectrum somewhere and it's amazing how common these little involuntary urges appear in folks when you watch for them. There are all kinds of clicking, tapping and jerking on the plane when it's time to touch down.

Speaking of the plane, for the second time, some jerk sitting in the seat next to me has woken me up, to tell me I was nodding off. "No Kidding, sir! Thanks for the update. Keep me posted as this story develops." This is baffling. We're adults traveling. Having been randomly assigned the seat next to me does not make you my buddy for the field trip. This guy, a fat guy in his 50s or early 60s, had the nerve to wake me up, tell me I was nodding off and then offer that, if I wanted to, I could lean on his shoulder. Grrrr!!! My birthday is coming up, so whoever is getting me that large engraved, "Leave me alone!" sign to wear around my neck, maybe we could accelerate that.

I hate cops. I always have. They are just a violent gang that is funded by my taxes. Other violent gangs at least fund themselves. Here's a VERY DISTURBING video I can't recommend where the cop gang shoots some dogs on a drug raid over possession of marijuana. The shoot a corgi. A corgi!

Links: Thanks to Kalb for this democratic way to determine the most awesomest thing ever.

Fitness-wise, I did another SNERTZ about a week ago and my times continue to improve, though it is leveling off a little. This time I was about two minutes faster overall than the last time. I finished the whole workout in 49:35 (first set = 12:10, second set = 25:40, third set = 37:20). I'm planning another one on Sunday with Erica, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I ran a 10 hard minutes today in the park. That went pretty well.

I've been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs. I'm pretty much in anyone but the Lakers mode. Right now I feel like the Magic are my best hope.

Best to my cousin Madison who is recovering from a major surgery. Hang in there, my dear.

30 for 30: No Crossover – The Trial of Allen Iverson

2010-04-17T20:01:00.011-04:00

Special to you for my bicentennial post, and just in time for NBA playoff kickoff weekend:

I love Allen Iverson. A search on this blog for Allen turns up a mere 5 mentions but he is always on my mind.

You know this. If you’re reading this blog, you know how I feel about Allen Iverson. It is probably one of the first things I ever told you. Chances are even if you found this blog from a link of Chip’s blog, or Mara’s and you barely know me, you know me as that girl who tells stories about Allen Iverson.

Allen & I were freshman together at Georgetown, and I loved watching him play my first two years there. I remember so clearly watching him down at McDonough Hall during ‘Midnight Madness’ which was at 7:00 PM the day after NCAA basketball practice was opened, and quite orderly. The scrimmage against the Armenian national team (or whoever was in town) was my first glimpse of this controversial young man, alleged to have taken the SAT 3 times and only nearly achieved the minimum, (with assistance?) on the final try. Our college newspaper reported he was just out of serving federal prison time for his participation inciting a race riot. The sports pages said that perhaps he would be the best ever. All of that could be true, but it is the last point of which I am most certain. I became sure of that the first time I saw him move up and down the court and I have never wavered in that conviction. Inch for inch, this is certainly true, and he has the most heart.

It’s an understatement to say I followed his career intently at GU. I sent flowers for home games. The term stalker could probably be fairly applied. I loved him like a 1956 teenager loved Elvis, but my Elvis was almost near enough to touch. I watched him on campus and in the dining hall as closely as I watched him on the court. The Hoyas never got beyond the Elite 8 with Allen, but he never really had much help. When he was drafted first over all by the Sixers, already my favorite NBA team, my lifelong dedication was sealed. I followed his NBA career ravenously.

He is the fastest that I ever saw; the best at slicing and driving the lane, the most exciting. He was so tiny among those giants and he was the toughest player in the NBA, driving the lane again and again, drawing hard fouls and getting up to swish the free throws.

I still love him, and though I am loathe to admit it, the additional highlights are likely to be few and far between. He is becoming a creature of the past (those with less attachment to him and more access to reality would say this has already occurred). It is with genuine sadness that I am coming to grips with likely never seeing him play again. (Though I still believe he should go live in Greece and play for the A1 Ethniki and be the best player in the league and highlight reel every night all night. Why not? Go live on an island and get paid Allen!)

So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that ESPN was doing a 30 for 30 on Allen.

Here for you, blogged in real time is my reaction to the program:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Baby Allen. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Oh my. I wonder if I will have anything more to say. He was a beautiful child. And amazing. This might not turn out to be any more substantive than a 6^th grader blogging about the Jonas Brothers.

I’d seen much of this high school footage before, but it is delicious to see again. His football plays, returning kicks for touchdowns, are impressive. He is so much faster than everyone else. The aired-out, windmill dunks from his Bethel games are better than anything from this years NBA all star dunk contest. The alley-oops, too. These are pro-level highlights. Dun-nun-nunt, Dun-nun-nunt!

The film focuses on Hampton, VA as a racially divided community. The film posits that the Allen Iverson trial is simply a lens that depicts the racial tension of the community. Race is something I’ve never felt comfortable commenting on. As privileged and white, I’m probably wrong on race and willing to let those with firsthand experience comment on the subject. But this is a 90 minute film, and it’s about race. Shift nervously on the couch.

I wonder why he wears #10 on his Bethel HS football footage. Is #3 not a QB number? Maybe someone already had that on the football team.

The commentary on his childhood is stuff I had heard before, but really makes me laugh at the college me. What was I really going to say to this kid if he ever did talk to me? I didn’t understand how different someone could be. He lived in a 2 room house with 14 people. He missed school to take care of his baby sister when his mother didn’t come home for days at a time. Everyone had to wear boots in his house because the floor was covered in raw sewage that backed up from the faulty plumbing. Seriously, what were he and I going to talk about? I bet Allen was real worked up about who was running for GUSA. I bet he cared a lot that my college humor newspaper had satirized the student health and financial aid departments. (“…And if you do have these calculators, as you say, why is that you do not use them?)

His mother was 15 when she had him. 15. I’m trying to imagine the type of mother I might have been 19 years ago. I know that sack of flower I carried around for home-ec didn’t survive the 6 week term. Mike Brick stuck a fork in it when I left it in the debate room unsupervised.

The bowling alley brawl: this film tries to bring all the angles and conspiracy theories to light. What do I think now, having seen this? That Allen’s status as an elite athlete hindered him and then helped him at every turn, doubling back on itself like a shoelace. The fight seems like no big deal really. A standard high school squabble. Chairs are thrown. The biggest injuries are 6 stitches, a concussion and a broken arm. Stuff like that happened at my high school all the time, in the halls. This is misdemeanor disturbing the peace at max, disorderly conduct, (I don’t know what any of these terms actually mean, but I watched a lot of LA Law growing up.)

Who started it, the blacks or whites? Who knows? Was the N word-used? If it was, does that justify the violence? Who knows? This just seems to me like a not-that-big-a-deal fight in a bowling alley. They all probably should have been given tickets and a 1-month ban from the bowling alley, and no more free shoe rental for life.

I guess a bunch of white people in a predominantly black bowling ally shouldn’t start trouble and then be surprised when trouble goes down.

But Allen was famous, and it seems this was a chance to make someone famous pay. It was a fight, and fights have 2 sides, but there were only blacks charged. The only reason he was singled out was because people knew who he was and could identify him.

The night of his arrest Allen Iverson scored 42 points, and weeks later won a state championship. (Damn!)

Director Steve James spends most of the film interviewing columnist and local activists on either side of the story from the trial. What stands out the most is that the introduction of race forces everything, excuse the phrase, into black and white. There can be no middle ground. For the whites, Allen Iverson was a felon that should serve 15 years for inciting a mob. He swung a chair at a defenseless white woman, and he should be held responsible for this evil act. For blacks, he and his friends also charged were persecuted angels, innocent 100%. It’s probably somewhere in between. Maybe they shouldn’t have been in a fight in a bowling alley, but as the white trial photographer said, they probably should have done a week picking up trash, not been convicted as felons. For most people in either camp, there are only the two extremes and no middle ground.

Pow! There is a black and white close-up still of Baby Allen’s face that fills the entire screen at about the 20-minute mark in this film. If the TV broke right then, and never changed again, that would be a fully valid use of the technology.

Allen was charged with “Maiming by mob”. All that had to be proven was he was present, as a member of the ‘mob’. The charge is abusive. But it was on the books, because it had never been repealed.

Terrible mistakes were made at trial. A judge trial rather than the jury trial was chosen, by Allen’s pro-bono attorney and this was a major disadvantage. One of the judge’s defenders describes Judge Overton as, “not particularly bigoted.” Oh okay, just the typical amount of bigotry for a white Virginia judge. That is the best thing you could say about this judge. I learned working for a law firm at Georgetown that a jury of your peers could be a critical tool in the justice system, especially in matters of race, and Allen was deprived of a jury trial.

To me, the most powerful footage of the film is of the sentencing. Imagine being 17 and hopeful of a NCAA scholarship to a big program, followed by a career in the NBA, and hearing that you were going to serve 15 years in prison and lose it all. At that moment, I would have vomited, and then cried out. My knees would have buckled, I would have wept. I would have torn at my clothes and hair. The toughest player ever to play in the NBA just swallowed hard and stood there, like a little man. I cried watching that.

But as much as his fame and talent got him into this mess (he never would have been identified if everyone didn’t know who he was, never would have been charged if he weren’t worth making an example out of) his fame then came to his aid. Community activists rallied, marched, raised money, recorded rap songs, and generally did everything they could think of to get him out. It’s hard to think this kind of groundswell would have occurred if Bubba-Chuck weren’t shouldering the hopes of the entire community. The biggest town halls in the history of Hampton were convened in Allen’s name.

Now half-way through, at the 46-minute mark, director Steve James is reflecting on the racism (both latent and overt) in his hometown of Hampton when he was growing up, twenty years before the Iverson trial. Maybe this is news to him, but I’m not at all surprised that Virginia was really racist in the 70s. I’m pretty sure it’s really racist now as are most states in the South, and to be fair a lot of places in the North.

Now at the 52-minute mark, James is listing folks that are unwilling to speak to him on the record about the trial. One person who does reluctantly come forward asks what the purpose of digging all this up is again could possibly be? What really could be gained? That seems like a fair question. Sensationally, this is interesting and ESPN will sell some ads. I’m naturally glad for any airtime for AI, but I doubt any additional reflection on the past will lead to apologies or racial healing.

At the 53-minute mark, there it is again. The glorious, angelic, black and white headshot of baby Allen (mentioned above at the 20-minute mark). It’s by far the most visually compelling thing in this documentary and James knows it.

58-min: Tom Brokaw interviews Allen in prison. Hampton takes some PR lumps when the sun shines on the kangaroo court they are running down there.

60-min: The film advances that Allen was done in, or at least not assisted by, not only the white community, but upper class blacks that didn’t want to rock the boat for this lower class, street kid. House help. Uncle Toms.

64-min – Allen Iverson is denied bond. This is unheard of for this type of crime.

71-min – In one way, Allen is lucky: in his timing. The first elected black governor, Douglas Wilder is nearing the end of his term. Community activists (and Bruce Hornsby! Mandolin Rain!) petition Wilder to pardon AI. He does, and later the other convicted young men. Allen is now free.

73-min – Allen is tutored extensively by Sue Lambiotte to get his GED, as he is not allowed to return to Bethel High School. The footage of his mock high school graduation ceremony from the learning center is of a proud and happy young man. He laughs genuinely and smiles broadly.

77-min – Allen is chosen #1 overall in the NBA draft. After dragging Allen Iverson behind a truck, the city of Hampton has the gall to host Allen Iverson Day and a parade. Since they didn’t kill him, they might as well cash in.

83-min – Snap back to the present, Allen weeps openly when thanked for granting a college scholarship. The toughness and the rawness when he speaks makes it all so clear. He’s told himself he didn’t need anyone or anything since he was a little kid, that he could do it all alone, and he pretty much has. Fine, now you’re gonna put me in jail, now you’re gonna hate on me, go ahead. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone. I don’t need to listen to coach.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

James justifies the film in hoping that viewers will give more consideration to the struggle around race and sports. What does it mean that the NBA and NFL are dominated by black athletes? Does this actually condemn scores of children who hope to succeed in the way of their heroes? I never for one moment thought that I could be like Dr. J, or Charles Barkley so I never could have traded time doing my homework for taking extra free throws, but maybe for some kids this distant, improbable goal serves as an out for pursuing more realistic endeavors.

I think it’s telling that even that tiny fraction that do make the pros, don’t really succeed in the way we imagine. Many (60%?) NBA stars live paycheck to paycheck to support the superstar lifestyle, play short careers and end up filing for bankruptcy. Right now, no one knows the extent of Allen’s gambling debts and if he is financially secure. Even the way out is no way out.

Yet another lesson I am incapable of learning...

2010-04-16T20:29:00.016-04:00

There are some things I just cannot learn. I have some kind of psychological block. I've told myself many times, and I continue to repeat the mistake.

Pretty much every time I vacation in a warm place, I forget to bring any kind of hoodie or jacket and have to buy one there on a chilly evening.

Similarly, when I am guarding the dump/bail, I often over-commit to the swing side and let off the much more dangerous cut up the line. I see this develop in front of me one moment before it occurs in that sickening way that you might realize you are locking your keys in the car a split second before you actually do it, but too late to stop your arm from clicking the door closed. I see that I am out of position and lean in to chase, but the cut is made, and the throw is usually off before I set the mark.

Yet another disappointing recurrence is my ordering of custom kicks, waiting for their delivery with increasing anticipation and my crushed expectations when they finally arrive. I just did this a third time with Mi Adidas. Every shoe company has a program like this. First I ordered Nike ID Dunks years ago. They were shoddily assembled and poor quality materials. A couple years later I remade the mistake again with Puma's Mongolian Shoe BBQ.

Just today I got my CMFK 55's out of the box from China. This is what the website led me to expect:
Hot!

And this is what I got:

Basically the same shoe, but everything is a touch off. The CMFK is a bit too small. The light blue is more smurf puke than robin's egg. The dark blue is more navy than royal. The tan is too dark. The eyelets are metal, not royal. Most bothersome, the assembly is poor. There is a large gap between the body of the shoe and the heel cap. The toe cap isn't actually a separate piece, but a false seam.

Despite my long term love of nice kicks, I don't really have the vocabulary to explain why these are shoddy, but I see it in a second, and it disgusts me. Seams that should be sewn are glued. The synthetic upper is stiffer and shinier than typical material. The seams are clumsier. They look a bit like shoes you would expect to see on a Cabbage Patch Doll.

Today, I've given a lot of thought to why this happens. This could be so great, and instead it is such a kick in the gut. Seeing your dream shoe poorly executed is much worse than never seeing it.

I think it's a function of two causes. One, there's clearly more labor involved in this type of custom shoe and I'm always surprised that the price point is about the same. My Nike ID dunks were much cheaper than any LE dunks I'd purchased. Same price, more labor means they need to make up the margin somewhere, and it guess it's done on shoddy materials. Second, the lego- style swap assembly required to customize every component seems to mean that the overall assembly is substandard. The pieces don't fit as cleanly together as they would on a large scale run.

Ah well. I'll be rocking these. I mean, they are CMFK-55s, but I won't enjoy it like I could. Stay tuned here for me complaining about some crappy custom Reeboks in about 18 months.

In other news, Deirdre has shiny new tires. Jesse said I needed them. I don't really know why. It is probably a conspiracy with the local bike shop and he gets a cut.

At least once a week, I take a flight that takes off at 6:00 AM. This has me getting up at 3:45 AM a little more than suits my constitution, but I do see more sunrises than I would otherwise. Here's one my iPhone camera doesn't quite capture but I thought was pretty:

Next weekend, I am taking the Beacon Girls to the O'Hara Invite. I am very excited for them and also sick with worry about keeping an eye on the girls in the hotel.

There's been more running, SNERTZing and Tabata. I'll let you know when the Mets call me up.

Tacos Fooled, Scheme Hatched

2010-04-09T22:08:00.014-04:00

Happy April. As much previewed, last weekend I went to WAFC's Fools Fest with my girls from Flash Taco. It was pretty much a perfect time.

Here's the gang:

Yes, I am wearing a taco costume. I wore it for every game. I threw the first goal of the tournament, and I caught a score in every game. We were a fun group.

I've spent my fair share of Fool's Fests huddled in a car during byes, cursing the rain, but this year the weather was just perfect, sunny and warm all three days. It was great to play with everyone. Maximum fun was had.

There are about 700 pictures of the weekend. Here's a few of my favorites:

I had so much fun at Fool's that I didn't vomit fire later that day when I learned that the Eagles had traded away near certainty of making the playoffs and one of the top 5 QBs in the entire NFL, inside the division, for the 37th best draft entrant in 2010 (read NOBODY). What am I supposed to do with this? Seriously, Donovan, who I love, is going to get shredded by that nonexistent offensive line in Washington. And how is that supposed to make me feel? I hate the Redskins, so I should be glad when their QB gets sacked, but I won't be glad about Donovan. And what about the Eagles? Should I be glad when they go 4 and 12, because they made this terrible decision? What about the Eagles/Giants games? I may need to move rather than bear Jesse's gloating about this. What if this means a bigger role for Vick? Getting sicker. I have been an Eagles fan since I was 7 years old. I have a poster of Randall Cunningham in my bathroom. I am so sick about this, I feel so betrayed that I may have to forsake the Eagles entirely. I am thinking about being a full-time Jets fan. This should provide about the same level of gut wrenching pain I've come to expect from the NFL.

Speaking of nausea, I did another SNERTZ on Thursday. You'll recall that last time I puked twice. This time there was a considerable improvement. I finished the whole workout in 51:35 (first set = 13:30, second set = 28:00, third set = 40:00). That's about 8 minutes better, which is a huge improvement, but really only shaves off the puking time. Saturday I'm playing women's pickup. Sunday I'm planning some horrible sprinting before a game of pick-up.

Spring is for real here in NYC and I am loving it. Looking forward, this weekend I'm coaching Beacon on Sunday morning. The girls have an overnight trip to Springfield, PA coming up April 24-25. You know I'm not religious, but if you pray you might consider praying for me about this. 16 high school girls with me in a hotel. I am terrified that I will lose one of them, or one of them will try to run away and join the circus or get married or something.

Next week I'm working in Reston, VA. This week I worked in Knoxville and Reston and took two 6 am flights. Killer.

I am still reading for the 20 minutes each flight before I'm allowed to get out my laptop. I recently finished A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I liked a lot of the prose and descriptions, but in the end the plot proved a bit to metaphysical for me. It was as if Murakami wanted to write certain passages, but couldn't be too bothered to put together a narrative that those passages fit inside.

Oh yeah, This just in: I went ahead and hatched the scheme to form my own women's team: WTF. After talking smack about it all off-season it was time to put up and get serious, and how do you show you mean business, by starting a blog of course. Here's my blog for Women's Team Frisbee.

Thanks to Benji for sending along this pretty awesome clip:

March Madness Effectivly Treated with Zyprexa

2010-03-25T19:20:00.012-04:00

Things are looking up.

I had a great time in Vegas for the opening weekend of March Madness, baring the catastrophic, gut-wrenching opening round losses by my Hoyas and U of L. I pretty much did not leave the Sports Book at the Red Rock, but here's a picture of the fountains at the Bellagio.

Speaking of water, like the first robin of spring, the city has turned the drinking fountains on in the parks. I'm always glad about that. Much improved runs around the park and Nalgene refilling at pick-up. Today I did a lap around Prospect Park and Forsythia bushes and Tulip trees were blooming. It was gorgeous out.

In other local news, we've had a bit of wildlife around the city.

This Thursday morning with Beacon went really well and the girls ran their offense and looked a lot like an ultimate team. We are making progress.

Afterward, I stuck around the field and did another SNERTZ. Total time 59:33. That is pretty bad but includes not one, but two separate instances where I had to stop and puke in a trash can. (First on the ground jump + 40 yard sprints, and then halfway through the 5-10-5s.) You know it's bad when the homeless people who sleep in the park are concerned for your well-being. The second time I spewed, a guy dozing on a bench asked me if maybe I should call it a day. He's no trainer! I gutted out the end but the last few 'sprints' were anything but.

I'm planning another SNERTZ for Saturday. I'll let you know if I can bring that time down a little (but it'll be after two hours of pickup with the rockstars from Bent, so who know what kind of shape I'll be in.)

This weekend is about watching the NCAA, doing some cross training, and women's pickup on Saturday with the ladies from Bent. Tucker's birthday is on Saturday night so that should be fun.

Great news that Lindy's latest test showed no evidence of the return of cancer. Thanks to all of you who continue to ask how she is doing.

6 days to Fools!

Life Fail?

2010-03-12T16:35:00.008-05:00

There's nothing like running intervals by yourself in the rain to make you take a little life assessment.

Things are not going well.

I lazed out again today and did 10 hard minutes, which is apparently my favorite way to limp through pretending to cross train. Not sure who I'm fooling or why I bother. I guess since all my friends moved away or got hurt I need to get a trainer. I hate having to pay for friends. Doesn't anyone want to get into game shape?

Tomorrow I am doing a Snertz, in the rain. By myself. Hoo-ray. Maybe I will try to get the slumlord in on that, but he says he is 'retired'.

I got fired. I am no longer a famous west coast internet personality. Now I am just a schmuck like all of you. The slumlord is still working on my new business cards, so I guess I'll still get ones that say, "Famous West Cost Internet Personality" with a strikethrough, and "Just a Nobody Like You" below that. My editor tells me that there is no more money for freelance writers and I have heard enough about the death of the newspaper to believe him. It was really fun while it lasted and thanks for checking out my posts.

Yesterday at 6:30 AM at practice some of the girls on my wayward High School team asked if we could just stop practice and watch the boys. This makes me sick and sad. I cannot imagine asking any of my high school coaches this. What are they thinking? They must think I am such a joke, and they must also not want to get any better which is at least part of the reason we are so much worse than the Bad News Bears.

I hate the off season! 22 days until Fools with Flash Taco.

That reminds me of the old days and made me want to throw this up:

Oh My! Mel feeding baby Ezra who is now 5?!?!? Since then Goldy's married and knocked up. And Tucker is married?!?!?! And Brenda is married!!!!! LP and Jess have both gone off to and finished (?) med school at Emory. Taliesin is married and Michelle had a baby and got married. Kim Koo and Becca got married and retired. Crystal tore 2 (TWO!) ACLs. Erica retired and Redhook got an IKEA. RIP Ambush.

Tonight I am going to MSG to see the Hoyas play Marquette. Hoya Saxa! I am getting all geared up for March Madness.

2010-02-28T14:09:00.005-05:00

There are a couple more Olympic hockey posts up at the Stranger here.

This has been the most prolific month for 'Spondence since its early days. I think there are several factors contributing to this. One, I've been traveling less as I've been working in NYC some and ultimate is in the off-season, so I have more time for you. Also, writing for the Stranger has made me feel like I need to set the record straight about what is really going on in my life somewhere else on the internet.

Last night at Marino's birthday Ali reminded me of this near-perfect literal video interpretation, which I've posted before here, but I just watched it again and laughed out loud and you should too. There's nothing wrong with reruns if they are awesome.

Also, you know I love viewing gruesome sports injuries and yesterday's hit by Ryan Shawcross on my beloved Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey is one of the worst I've seen in Premiere League, though this you tube clip really does not do it justice.

Today I went to the park to run a fartlek pyramid and I could not make myself do it alone. I did 10 hard minutes again instead. I thought about it and I would rather get in a barrel of snakes than run that workout. I would rather you put that mask from 1984 with the rats that eat your face on me, so go ahead. I will not run that workout alone. So there.

My Hoyas are wildly inconsistent so I can't be too shocked about the loss to Notre Dame and this weekend was no better for U of K. Syracuse is really scaring me as we near the Big East tourney.

Saving your life, only so I can control it

2010-02-26T18:18:00.010-05:00

Apparently, I have become the man. Look out. I am now the New York City Metro Sectional Coordinator for the women’s division for the UPA. (Thanks a lot Dorko!)

I’m a known UPA loather. They are well established as consistently taking the ultimate out of ultimate, being pedants for pedantic’s sake and generally not supporting the members. I think you remember when they banned Ali and Amanda for ALL OF NATIONALS for what they agreed was a typo. They even suspended their own rule, I. C:

“Captain’s Clause: A game may be played under any variation of the rules agreed upon by the captains of the teams involved. In tournament play, variations are subject to approval by the event organizer. Such things as game length, field dimensions, number of players and stall count can easily be altered to suit the level of play. Before a game starts, each team designates one captain to represent them in disagreements and arbitration.”

The point of the captain’s clause is that our sport is THE ONLY sport where the players have all the supremacy. Not coaches, not referees or officials. Not jackasses in Boulder. Players. Calling rank with the ‘event organizer’ term about an irrational suspension served only the UPA’s need to be in control and ‘right’.

Not top be outdone, last year those jackasses made the cool kids from Bashing Piñatas play in beaters because a few of the jerseys did not have the same sponsorship on the back. Nice work UPA. You’ve got that Letter of the Law down. Now if you could ever learn the spirit of it.

I think there’s an inherent tension between the core feature of our sport being player supremacy and an overarching body making decisions. The UPA is definitely a necessary evil. It’s nice to have insurance. Someone has to organize the national qualifications. But just like politics, egomaniacs that like to be in charge are the ones who run for positions and then act exactly like you would expect.

Anyway, now I’m one of those egomaniacs, but on a local level. Look for me to wield my power with a clenched fist and a bloody disc. I’m thinking Sectionals will be single elimination, losers put to death on the field by the winning team. Might help hold registrations down to a manageable number.

Last Sunday I took an 8-hour CPR and first aid certification course recommended, but not required, for my coaching position. I am ready now, so do not give me an excuse to compress your chest. I learned a lot but here are a few things to keep in mind if you don’t have time to take a course:

1) Get help first. Someone who’s lost consciousness, isn’t breathing or doesn’t have a pulse needs to get to a hospital ASAP. If you are alone, you need to call 911 first.

2) If you know help is on the way, you can try to keep a person’s brain from dieing using rescue breathing and CPR.

3) Give two 1-second breaths into the person’s mouth (after opening the airway and sealing the nose). You’ll see the person’s chest rise.

4) Give 30 hard chest compressions right on the sternum. Pretty fast (a rate of 100 per minute). You need to push way down (2 inches) to actually compress the heart to make blood circulate, so you’ll likely tear the cartilage around the breastbone and maybe break the sternum. That is the least of this person’s problems, so don’t let that stop you.

5) Keep up the cycle of 30 compressions and 2 breaths until real help arrives or it is no longer safe to continue.

This is no alternative for taking the course, but the way I see it, if you are around someone who is not breathing and no one else is better equipped, they are going to die soon, so you might as well try to help. The outcome of trying and doing this wrong won’t be any worse than not trying.

Today we got 17 or so inches of snow. It is pretty out, but has delayed my getting into shape. I was going to try and rally folks on Saturday for a cross-training and ACL tear prevention session but something tells me that more than a foot of snow on the ground is going to put a damper on attendance.

Also a problem is that usual support structure is not in place. Dorko moved to Philadelphia after she finished laundering drug money for the Mexican drug cartels . Ali played on her plantar fasciitis too long in cleats and has been recovering FOREVER. P-Funk hurt her hammies at Kaimana. Kate has some cocktail of hamstring injury and Sciatica that threatens to sideline her for too long as well. Mara is in Rwanda. That is no fair. I cannot do this on my own. I need you there to watch me or I will slack.

All of this is to begin the long process of making excuses. I did a hill workout in deep sleet yesterday. I ran the Prospect Park hill stoplight to stoplight 6 times. It sucked and I ran slow. Though I told myself I was going to run each of them ‘all out’ I ran them all in about exactly the same time which, of course, means I was dogging it. If you run hard, your times increase. If you don’t run hard, you’ll stay the same, which is a complete waste of time.

I had the exact same time on the first 3: 60 seconds on the first part to the fire hydrant (where slacker slumlord Jesse begins his hill) and 2:40 total. All 3 exactly the same, to the second. On the fourth one I passed a guy so I had to run hard to keep that up, and finished 2:30. On the fifth one I did the universal 'next to last one let up' and ran a 2:55. On the 6^th I think I have the Hawthorne effect to thank that I did the 6 reps at all, because I was all alone in that park, and if I didn’t have you to tell about it, I probably would just have run home. and final one I tried to psyche myself up as much as possible and ran, you guessed it, a 2:40.

Here we are on Day 18 of the month-off drinking. So far so good. It’s nice to be one the second half. It has mostly been annoying to hang out in bars with my friends and not drink. Saturday is Marino’s birthday and I’ll be there for a while so maybe I’ll try O’Doules.

Maybe you don’t need to know about every one, but I’ve had another Stranger post. You can see all of my posts here sorted by author.

Tonight I’ll write some kind of preview for the gold medal game. Oh Canada!

My Fame Continues to Expand

2010-02-21T16:06:00.000-05:00

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/02/21/olympic-hockey-the-best-all-star-games-ever

The Finer Points of Time Travel

2010-02-19T18:46:00.011-05:00

Hey there. Here's a few recent pics off Leroy:

Sorry I had my finger over the lens and I am too lazy to crop it out. This is a new program to allow people refill water bottles rather than buy new ones. I love it. Thanks Aveda!

This is your typical truck in NYC. What you got Vancouver?

This is Prospect Park, and that is a giant snowball Stonehenge fort.

That's me by the subway by my apartment. The sleeping bag coat is really warm, and has recently been named Sheila. Person-sized, Sheila is my quiet friend who tags along with me when it's cold out, and who needs her own chair.

A few notes on time, and its passage. I ran around the park again today. We all know that doesn't make you better at anything, not even running around the park. Maybe it makes me a little better at singing along with my iPod shuffle. Practice makes perfect.

No, it's the second half of February and that means it's 'time', (Maybe way past time, folks?). Time for intervals. Time for fartleks. Time for pain. Today I ran the '10 hard minutes' workout for maybe the 100th time in my life. I've written here before about my ability to be re-astonished about the same things, and my inability to learn certain things (Pack a jacket! Bring a jacket, even if you think it will be warm: Vegas, West Palm Beach, LA, Miami, Adelade, Howth. Pack a jacket. Why is that so hard?!?!?)

This is another example of the phenomena. You know the workout: run for 10 minutes to warm up and then run '10 hard minutes', with a minute off to recover in between each off them. I like to tell myself that 'the odds are on.' So I ran hard the 11th, 13th, and so on until the 29th minute. It went okay, but every minute of the workout, I was re-astonished about time. Every minute! Fool! Every 'on' minute I try not to look at my watch until I think it must be almost over and every on minute I look at about 20 seconds in. Even when I count. Every 'off' minute, I look at my watch at what I think is the half-way point, and instead it's about 53 seconds in and I have finally stopped gasping like a fish in the boat and just about have to start running again.

How can I be unable to learn that? How can time in pain run so much more slowly than time out of pain that even when I tell myself that it just seems like time the minute is up and really I have to wait longer, that still doesn't get me close?

One thing I thought on the 27th minute was that, it does seem that the best way to slow time down is to go as fast as you can, which made me smile and I think is perhaps good approach for living your life. Give that a go and let me know how it works out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brief update on the month off alcohol (which is actually passing fairly quickly): So far it's going pretty well. I don't really miss drinking. 10 days down. There have been a couple of annoyances. Twice since the start of the month on the wagon I've gotten the Delta complementary upgrade to first class. I typically take this as a personal challenge to drink as much Woodford as they'll give me. Anything else is like leaving change in the ashtray of a rental when you return it. Take what is yours! Instead I've sipped my club soda and it's never tasted so flat.

Socially, it's a bit of a bummer as well. I went to a birthday party that would have been a lot more fun if I had been drinking. More bothersome, I just don't have a way to see people as I mentioned a couple posts ago. I now have two more folks on the 'let's get a drink' backlog, waiting to catch up when I start acting like a normal adult again. See you in 20 days Matthew and Erica. Have one for me.

And finally, I'm adding a category I didn't cover in my Julie Andrews post, this is my favorite ever ultimate jersey (Ryan Scribner, designer). Hot!

rejected

2010-02-19T18:05:00.006-05:00

Here's something from last week that my editor rejected as stiff and too long. (Insert your own Beavis & Butthead joke here.) It might not be good enough for the Stranger, but it's good enough for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was a tough sports viewing weekend.

I guess Seattle can be forgiven if you’re not exactly excited about watching Oklahoma Zombie Star Kevin Durant win the NBA H.O.R.S.E. competition and then represent his new city in the NBA All-Star Game.

Never fear. Bite back that bile and tune to NBC. The international spectacle that is the Olympiad is here.

If the Olympics are an excuse for rampant, irrational nationalism (think chanting if U. S. A.! U. S. A.!) and yet another kick in the gut to ‘have-not’ countries, the Winter Olympics take that all a step further. There’s not a lot of pick-up ice hockey played in Bogota or in Asmara. Events like Curling, Skelton and Biathlon have limited general appeal worldwide. Doubles luge has me questioning what is sport and what is losing a bet.

The Winter Olympics lack the star power and name recognition of the Summer Olympics. One possible exception to that is US Speed Skating Star Apolo Anton Ohno but he has forfeited any respect or admiration from me as long as he has that ridiculous facial hair.

SI Cover Girl Lindsey Vonn has sparked Shin-watch 2010, but if you are like me, you are finding it hard to stay focused on that particular injury vigil.

Instead there are a couple other items I’ll be paying attention to in the Vancouver coverage.

One of these will be the riveting Biathlon (cross country ski and then shoot). Keep an eye on Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who should bring the traditional Norwegian pizzazz to the chocolate/peanut butter perfect combination of cross country skiing and shooting. Hungry for more of this same type of drama, I’ve made a petition for more combined-skill events. What about a downhill toboggan race and chili cook-off? What about a 400-meter speed skate combined with an ice-fishing competition? Perhaps a 24-hour ice-dancing marathon crowned by a synchronized ski jump for any couples still standing? These are the type of ideas that could save the winter Olympics for me.

Also garnering some of my attention will be men’s figure skating. What will Johnny Weir wear? The Lady Gaga of the US figure skating team, Weir has already been forced to change his accommodation plans due to his flamboyant costumes outraging animal rights activists. Weir is known for skating in corsets, feathers, fur and all manner of bedazzling. I think this is the type of thing that the judges will take in to account when evaluating not only the artistic interpretation score but also the of difficulty score. I know it would be a challenge for me to be seen in front of a crowd wearing any of the above and I cannot fathom how he keeps his concentration, but I’m glad he does as it is certainly a good show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post script is that I thought Johnny won the whole thing last night, though people say he didn't have the degree of difficulty he needed.

words and their 'meanings'

2010-02-19T16:13:00.005-05:00

I wrote this to someone else recently, but later thought you might want to know it too. (Yes, this is why I chuckle every time you say we need to "eliminate more waste".)

My dad gave me this baby physics book when I was 4. I remember it so well. It had a chapter on simple tools like levers and pulleys. It also defined some basic terms like mass and work. (Do work, son.)

I can still see so clearly the drawing that accompanied 'work' with two clowns. There was a happy clown lifting a feather and a sad clown pulling on a chair that was nailed to the ground. As work is the movement of an object through space or some such thing the happy clown was the only one doing work. I felt so bad for the sad clown then. When I go to 'work' I am the sad clown pulling on the chair in so many ways. (Hence the part time track...)

I had this book on raising a healthy puppy when I was 8 (for Penelope Lane who was my dog almost my whole life in Cherry Hill, Dallas and Rochester). The term the book used for potty training was 'eliminate' as in 'how to train your puppy to eliminate outside'. I like to pretend this is the ONLY meaning of the word, which is a little joke only for me. Every time I see or hear 'eliminate' I imagine the object is being shit out by a dog. Risk is often eliminated, also positions and sometimes individuals. The mental image this creates for me is hilarity.

Also 'terrific'. I used terrific a lot at work with people who worked for me to mean adequate. I would ask for a status on x and they would say they did x and I would say 'terrific' by which I meant, "I will not have you fired today, you imbecile."

I use 'interesting' to describe pain, as in 'interesting meetings' or 'interesting ideas' both of which are actually unbearably stupid.

I use 'high energy' as code for a total loathsome jackass. That I stole straight from Accenture. If you ever read a review of a person that had 'high energy' in it you knew to steer clear. It means moron.

So there, maybe that will help you to crack the code.

Poor Man's Space Camp

2010-02-13T19:22:00.003-05:00

Only in Brooklyn: In my lap around Prospect Park today I saw I guy jogging with a pit bull. It was 25 degrees out and pit bulls have short, sleek coats. Instead of a more traditional doggie jacket, the pit bull was wearing a Mike Vick Falcons jersey. I guess he is a big fan. Woof! (I am almost always with Leroy, but I don’t run with him, or I’d have a photo.)

I had started my run HATING the October Courtney that wouldn’t commit to Kaimana. Why am I not in Hawaii right now?!?!?!?! Seeing the Mike Vick dog took some of the edge off.

I gave blood today. All the snowstorms have canceled scheduled drives and reduced walk in donations, creating quite a shortage. Be sure to make an appointment and give soon!

On loving 55s: I have such an affinity for people wearing my number. I am just sitting around and Xavier is on the TV. I am only half-way paying attention and suddenly I cheering for developing a sports crush on Jordan Crawford every time he drives the lane (about half the Musketeers possessions.)

Last night I watched the Hurt Locker, which is getting a lot of the Oscar buzz. I felt a little beat over the head by the heavy-handed message. (Spoiler Alert? I don’t think I’m giving anything away that isn’t in the preview…) Every single scene tells us that the inherent risk in his work has made the highly effective James a cavalier cowboy. The dark, brooding bomb-specialist can’t get the adrenaline rush he needs from anything but the high-pressure situations of defusing IEDs. His addiction ruins him for civilian life and endangers his fellow soldiers. Maybe it was all the hype, but I feel a little let down. The subject of the Iraq with and all the hardships and chaos seems like fertile ground for incredible drama and this was more of a weak sauce 24. For me, Hurt Locker never approached the drama of the climactic scene in Space Camp where we all watch nervously to see if the teens will trust Rudy to correctly rewire the circuit.

Yes, I am posting more than usual lately. I’m procrastinating my next sports blog post for the Stranger. I don’t feel guilty because I’m at my laptop, ‘working on it’. See?

Good enough to merit its own post

2010-02-12T19:53:00.001-05:00

http://wildammo.com/2009/08/09/what-stormtroopers-do-on-their-day-off/

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

2010-02-06T00:24:00.009-05:00

Well I am a famous Internet personality now, but don’t worry. I know you knew me when. Slogging the Super Bowl had almost nothing to do with the Super Bowl and was pretty fun. I lost all my Super Bowl bets, but was glad that the Saints won, which served as a decent hedge. It was no Eli face but any time we get to see a Manning face is a good time.

I went on yet another Gastronauts dinner this week and as the photos indicate I was pretty miserable. I almost heaved up my Natto, and that was the least gross thing we ate. Hipster Fear Factor was fun anyway; it was good to hang out with Curtiss, Benji, JK, Arnie and Rachel. Nice work Arnie on the snowy ride home.

On the woozy heels of all that sake and cod milt I made a decision. It’s risky for me to declare this early, but I’ve kicked off another ‘month off’. It is time for the 2010 edition. Once we get to April its time for Fools Fest (Flash Taco!), and the spring tournaments and before you know it baseball, and you know the Mets will drive me to drink. I’m sure it will be tough, but looking at the calendar, this was the time with the fewest landmines. I’ll let you know how it goes. 3 days down so far. Heading for March 11.

Already I’ve almost failed twice. It’s just social. If I want to see anyone, I meet them for a drink. I wanted to see Tim “Baby” Dahl (fellow Tesltra Alum) who is working in the big city for once, so I was halfway through sending him the, ‘Let’s get a beer sometime’ e-mail when I remembered I was out of commission. I tried to imagine fashioning the e-mail some other way. Tim, let’s get some soup? Tea? No. And showing up and watching him drink is a set up. I’d be pissed if he did that to me, so I’ll try to sync up with Tim next month and hope he isn’t ‘Into the Wild’ yet. Same with P-Funk. I want to see her, but it’s just too weird to invite her over for a biscuit. Maybe we can go for a run.

One of the best things about being in Ft. Greene is being a short jog from Prospect Park. I like to run a lap around the park on days I am in town. You know I am always posting my +/- here.

Today I ran around the park and looked at all the snowmen and forts. I love Brooklyn. A guy ‘Hey-Babied’ me today, while he was pushing a stroller. How was that going to work, exactly? Is he looking for a sitter?

My favorite part of the run is just at the foot of the big hill when I run past the mini-zoo where this happened. I’m transfixed by the story. Those kids were 11 in 1987, just like I was. What fascinates me about the story is the three boys hatching the plan, but only one being eaten by a polar bear. The New York times story explains that they folded their clothing in neat piles, which I might do too while I was stalling, but is pretty thin on how this actually went down. Either there was some group think and team daring and the boy who went first was just the bravest and got into trouble before the others had entered. Or maybe, he was the dumbest, and the other two 11-year-old boys were picking on him, goading him and never planned to go through with it at all.

Now as men, the surviving two are somewhere right now, and they still know and maybe those two alone, if they tricked that boy into being eaten by a polar bear, or if they were only luckier co-conspirators in the same poorly considered scheme.

I think at 11 I was pretty aware of consequences and dangers. I think I knew predators in the zoo would attack humans if they had the chance. I think I knew I couldn’t out run a polar bear. I don’t think I would have wanted to wade in the water enough to get in a bear enclosure (and you know that I really do want to get in the bear enclosure).

I think that at least one of them knew what was going to happen, but that it would have been easy for them to lie that they didn’t because adults would prefer to believe that to some juvenile manslaughter attempt gone ‘wry’.

“The third boy decided not to go wading in the moat and remained outside the enclosure, although he had taken off his trousers.“ You guys go ahead. I’ll be right there. See, I’m taking my trousers off.

RIP Teddy and Lucy.

When I go run in the park, I have to wear gear. I am on a team. I am training for something. I am not just out for a jog. I am running intervals and fartleks for a reason. I don’t think I could make the full lap without my 55 on display somewhere. It’s an excuse and a crutch, like I need my headphones on the airplane. I just don’t have the motivation to go out and run 6 miles if I can’t tell myself I have to try hard for a team, or for an event. I wonder if I will even be able to run after ultimate.

I was on the way home from a lap few weeks ago, when I had a mini incident I was meaning to tell you about. I was running on Vanderbilt, downhill with the light. I ran into the crosswalk about the same time as another person running uphill entered the crosswalk. Just then a speeding car heading up Vanderbilt made a right turn into the crosswalk. I screamed and jumped back and the other runner yelled as well. We both yelled at the car. I quickly slipped right into my “4 Wheels Bad, 2 Wheels Good” bleating mode.

I was jangled. I had been wronged, and frightened. In an instant, I reacted by forming an alliance with my fellow runner. We had been wronged. We had nearly been run over. The other runner banged his fist down loudly on the trunk of the car. “He could have killed you!” I encouraged. Teammates.

The car pulled over to the side. The other runner was yelling. “You have to stop, man. You have to look!” I was nodding from the curb.

Then the other runner spit on the windshield of the car.

Oh. Uh oh. We were right a minute ago, but we just lost ‘right’ and CMFK loves to be right like she loves brunch.

I stepped back and looked around. I looked at the allegiance I had so quickly joined. Two yuppies in performance gear, iPod shuffles and running shoes from Jack Rabbit Sports yelling in the street. And who were we yelling at? A middle-aged black man.

Now the other runner was waving his finger in the drivers face. Some people from the neighborhood had stopped to see what the shouting was about. Some other locals. Some black people. Who were these two gentrifying yuppies dressed like EMS devotees and why were they yelling at that middle aged man? Why indeed! I ran off. Ran home. I’ll try to be more choosy when casting my lot in with strangers going forward.

A few contributions for the links share program:

In the new entrant category:
http://hipsterpuppies.tumblr.com/
The trick is to figure out which one your friends are. Jesse says I am Gus.

Jesse reminded me that these guys are still bringing it strong:
http://straightcashhomey.net/
I need to get my Alabama State Chief Kickingstallions jersey made so a can be famous here too.

Kate sent along this website of blizzard instructions from the DC government:
http://snowpocalypsedc.com/

I love you Tobias, I love you Dr. Manhattan. (Thanks to TG)

I know I say this all the time, but if you have not be staying close with Awkward Family Photos, then you have been missing out. I check it every day and every day I laugh, and since laughter is the best medicine, I no longer need to worry about the death of the health care bill.

One more for the why Terrorists Hate our Freedom list: Yale.
(You may not believe it, but all my research indicates this is NOT a joke.)

Finally, in the file under good ideas category:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30s6d67xCFA
Think it over.

I'm gonna live forever!

2010-02-05T21:05:00.000-05:00

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/02/05/stalking-allen-iverson-felching-for-the-mets

It's a Slog!

2010-02-05T17:50:00.004-05:00

Check it out:

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/02/05/live-slogging-the-super-bowl

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/02/07/3380049-super-bowl-live-slog

Snail Herding and other Professions

2010-02-05T02:31:00.009-05:00

For your days at work when “herding cats” just doesn’t cut it.

Often I tell you I don’t have much to report. This is not one of those times.

Since I last updated, I spent an uneventful (for once) Christmas at my sister’s house in Raleigh, NC. The girls got touch iPods for Christmas and seemed to like them pretty well. I got some sweet running gear (thanks Mom and Dad) and my sister and I had an aneurysm in a shoe store and I bought 7 pairs of shoes in 10 minutes. Thanks Lynn, that was fun.

For New Year’s I played some serious Pictionary with Erica and Tatiana. Who knew “earthquake” was such an abstract concept? Much fun was had.

More critically, I was in good shape (for once) for the New Year’s Day Hat. Thanks to the Sultan of Tim for organizing again this year. I showed up at 12:15, about 90 minutes early for a noon start time. Ultimate players know what I mean. Thanks to Rebecca for getting me a coffee and Pat Stoltz for giving back my megaphone and for bringing the handle of Makers. It’s my megaphone. For the first time ever, I had captaining duties (calling subs, telling lies, placing bounties) and it did not really backfire. We (representing Brownsville) won the whole party with major contributions from Scott Arnold, Dave Cheiken, Talesin Thomas and a wide cast of Saturday players. I caught some goals and had a blast. The prize money was split equally.

I went to see Of Montreal at the Highline Ballroom. The show was a good time. Susan Sarandon was nuts but I didn’t take any pictures.

I also need to get off my chest that I’ve had a concept shared with me that I just have to share with you. I can’t take credit for it, but I can’t hide it under my bushel either. We all endorse Flipping the Script, but I’d never heard of using the concept as a noun until a recent and life changing story. Let’s just say that the use of “Script-flipper” as a noun is now so mandatory it hurts. I feel like there are limitless applications, but the most obvious is a game-changing rookie. Think Joe Smash’s first year with PONY. He’s a Script-flipper no doubt. Joe Smash! Skyla Sisco is a Script-flipper. Likely so is John Wall. Genius. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Book Reviews: Over Christmas I finally finished the Mildred Burke Story The thing is (Spoiler alert!) it’s just not that good a story. Aghast! A young, woman in the 50s was manipulated by a man? They all were?!?!?! The book creeps at a snail’s pace through all manner of wresting minutiae (E.g., Then A was in a fixed match with B, then B was in a fixed match with C, then D was in a fixed match with A, then E was in a fixed match with B, B grew up in Louisiana, Louisiana was acquired…). The book is supposedly working towards the greatest female wrestling match of all time, but the payoff match is a snoozer and a disputed draw, depending on which media reports you believe. This, ladies and gentleman, is not Super Bowl 34 coming down to the last play (One Yard Short). This is a series of yawns and disagreements in a fake sport. If anything, it’s a story about the lack of talent representation. Mildred Burke’s life would have been very different in the era of Drew Rosenhaus. I would give this book a pass.

Last weekend, I hosted a UPA coaching clinic led by BVH. It was a bit of work, but a pretty good deal. I got to sit near Linwood, so that’s payment enough. I should be a more ethical coach now, post clinic, or rather I should have less excuse not to be. I'm certified now, so treat me with all the respect that affords me (none).

And where are we now? We are in a coffee shop on 13th street. Two hypnotizing things have just occurred: First, the DB in line in front of me in a European suit and a San Diego accent just ordered a small skinny latte with ‘half an equal’. He’s working on some Michael Bolton hair. Go ahead and splurge Mr. DB. Go ahead and have a full equal packet in your latte. He has looked back at me at just the moment to bust me at laughing at him. He knows I think he is ridiculous. He is unphased.

Only moments and a few feet away I'm settled in at my table for a long session of returning e-mails. The following conversation is observed two tables away:
Business schoolie 1: “So Rap, the music, what does that stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: “what? “
Business schoolie 1: “Rap. What does Rap stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: “uhhhh… well most Rap is about self promotion, and crime… (??!?!?)
Business schoolie 1: “No. RAP. R-A-P. What does that stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: long pause. “ uhhhhhhh. Well, I’m not sure that is an acronym. I think it just means 'talk'.”
Business schoolie 1: “Rant About Parties? Rage Against Parents? Read Aggressive…..”

All that aside, what I really wanted to tell you about in this post was my myriad of fake friends in Knoxville, and my deep appreciation for them:

I love you, fake friend at the Avis/Alamo counter in Knoxville TYS with the Redwings watch. I love how you don’t ask me about the car seat or the GPS anymore, even though I know you are supposed to read the entire script. Just for you, I am going to look up the Red Wings. (9th place in the West? 3rd in the central? Tom Holmstrom looks allright…)

I love my fake friend at the Kroger checkout. Yes, that is a fruit salad and some snow peas again. Now you know that I do not have a Kroger card, and you don’t ask me about it any more. You also please have a wonderful day. Is your hair like that accidentally or intentionally?

I love the hotel room service delivery guy. Yes, ESPN again. Yes, college basketball. Yes, I would like it on the desk again just like every other night. Yes, pasta again. What do you know? I love how you pick up railing on your wife just where you left off the night/week before. (I’m sure you never annoy her at all.) Thanks so much.

I love the Avis rental return guy. Yes! I am back again! Me! Again on Wednesday! Yes, the car was fine thanks. Yes, I would like to leave it on the card. Thanks for the receipt. Thanks, I will do my darndest to have a safe flight, to the extent it is in my control (none).

These are the people that comprise my life; that actually make it much better. Days with them are much better than days without them. It’s a nuanced social contract for the transitory. Don’t give me much, but give it to me every time. Fake friends!

Open about the Process...

2010-02-04T22:33:00.009-05:00

You have Brendan to blame for encouraging me to record a video response to this Stranger slog question.

(British Knight, Sorry it was 4 days late. I was a bit tied up...)

My reaction is such a classic case of overkill, with a touch of overreach.

For those of you who don't click links (Hi Mom!) the gist is this:
"Is the Super Bowl a legitimate sporting interests for many, or is it just an example of everything that is wrong with the USA?"

First I wrote out this response:

Listen:

I'm gonna have to throw my lot in with the both answer.  Yes and yes, the Superbowl is a legitimate sporting interest and also one of the many signs of our declining US Hegemony

The Superbowl is the tail end of a football dependency reduction program that seems carefully laid out by a methadone clinic official. The entire football season culminates in two wonderful weekends where first there are four meaningful wildcard games where heroes rise and anything is possible.  followed next weekend by four divisional playoffs where we are reminded both that there is a reason that those teams earned the bye, and that Norv Turner is who we thought he was.

At the end of that Sunday, we are tweaking.   We can’t fly closer to the sun.  The gradual weaning begins.  The following weekend is just two conference championship games.  Then there’s the long two week wait for an overhyped game that more often than not is a blowout, and is really only interesting if you’re a fan of one of the remaining teams.

The actual game is pretty lame, but the promise of one more hit is essential at the end of the conference championships or hard core fans like myself would riot like Walmart ran out of Blu Rays on Black Friday..

The two weeks of hype is perfect too.  It’s long enough that I have to really focus on college basketball and start asking questions like is John Wall getting all the hype while DeMarcus Cousins is doing all the work?  Do work son!

On the other hand, for those of you who can’t tell a field goal from a free throw, and never want to be able to, the SuperBowl offers you something as well.  The chance to get bogged down  in the crowd favorite Abortion debate.  In one of the planned commercials, Tim Tebow* is going to explain how his mother chose to have him against medical advice.  Cincinnati fans who traveled to New Orleans this year for the Sugar Bowl (and pretty much the rest of the SEC) lament her decision.  Tim, no one is trying to make abortions mandatory, and I think going out of your way to cast dispersion on women who might make that choice in life of the mother, health of the mother situations is despicable and inexcusable.  Those women are already in an incredibly difficult, personal situation and drumming up public disapproval helps no one.

That, and usually there are some commercials with monkeys.  Monkeys.  I'm gonna set the Monkey sitings  under/over at 3 and half and watch expectantly.

Later on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Those of you not up on your Tebow might read this to get some background.

Then, I took a stab at recording my video response. I think writing it out first actually made it worse. I tried to record it a couple of times. It was really annoying. I just kept trying to imagine sitting across a bar from Jesse and discussing this stuff I rant about all the time, but watching myself on my MacBook was really distracting. This is what I finally posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfHM1hcKY0s

The finished product comes across much less funny than I was going for and much more moralizing and Conscendo.

I hate it of course, but I won't bother to try again (like some terrible college papers I wrote, I'm not proud of the end product, but I'll be damned if I'm going through that again.) It's interesting when two ingrained traits but up against each other. I'm vain, and I'd prefer to look smart and well spoken (instead of slurring Norb Turver and watching with, "Baited Breasts?"). But I'm lazy enough not to try again. And (surprising me) paramount here is my unwillingnes to fold.

Anyone who's played hold'em with me is nodding right now. The right answer might be to bail, but I wanted to at least try for Brendan, who, I like to think, wanted me to try for me. I'm lazy enough not to try hard enough to get it right, but not lazy enough to bail entirely. I guess I'll just have to fess:

That is me. Nervous, alone in my Ft. Greene apartment, just because the green light on my MacBook is blinking at me. Luckily for me, it's the four of our's little secret.

Also, based on this effort, he might retract it, but if he's too polite, I'll be live blogging the Super Bowl with Brendan and some other straight Gs.

Commenters: Do you like the written version better than the live version? Does that mean I'm better off writing, or should I just shut it down?

Look out Stewart Scott, this is just the beginning.

Not a Creature was Stirring, not Even a Mouse

2009-12-22T00:50:00.013-05:00

Here we are again in December with my annual holiday letter for 2009. I hope this finds you well.

You’ll note that this edition has less ‘stirring’ than I typically report out. I just reflected on the year and realized I didn’t travel internationally once! Not even Canada! I guess I am falling down on the job. I do have a few minor updates to share.

In July, after 8 and a half years in lower Manhattan, I moved to Brooklyn. The borough of Kings has fewer tourists, fewer NYU students and more parks. I do a lot more biking now and I’m closer to most of my friends. (I do miss 29 occasionally, especially my pigeon watching efforts.) I’m still only 20 minutes from midtown by subway, but the vibe is much more local. It was a tough decision for me and so far I’m pleased with it.

Another difficult choice I made in July was to leave Accenture after 11 years. For all my colleagues still there, “Go on! Be a Tiger!” I realized I had no interest at all in the partner track and it started to feel to me that the part where you do good work is over and the part where you focus on sales was going to take over my life.

In some ways, the change is barely noticeable. I’m working for Perfect Sense Digital now, a tiny boutique internet consultancy. My client for them is Scripps Networks in Knoxville, Tennessee (FoodNetwork.com, HGTV, etc.). So I’m still a contractor working for a remote client, traveling back and forth each week. The actual work is pretty much identical to work I would have done on a project for Accenture.

In other ways, it’s a big change. The company has about 40 people, not 140,000, so I’m not on any task forces, saleable units, communities of interest or other total wastes of time. I’ve also decided to work Monday-Wednesday, which works for PSD, and for my client. Working 3 days a week is much better than working 5. (On that point I’m uncharacteristically resolved.)

In my spare days, I’ve started doing the things I always wanted to do if I had a bit more time. I’m coaching the Beacon High School Girls Ultimate Team. I’m really enjoying coaching because the girls get so much better every single practice. I start with them at 6:30 AM on Thursday morning and they are always enthusiastic at that hour, which is something of a miracle for 14-18 year-olds.

I’ve also spent a fair bit of time this year walking dogs and socializing cats at a Brooklyn Animal Shelter, Animal Care and Control. Please spay and neuter your pets! Please never buy puppies from farms and breeders that exacerbate the problem. Trust me, there are plenty of good dogs around, and if you ever need one, I will help you get one. Walking a great dog on his or her last day at the shelter has been one of the more bittersweet experiences of the year.

In November, I had a wonderful time visiting my entire extended family in Louisville, Kentucky for Thanksgiving. It was great to see all my cousins, aunts and uncles. In addition to the traditional over-eating, we took group trips to historic Churchill Downs (I won!) and the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum. I also attended my first ever college football game (UK vs. UT) with 70,000 of my closest allies. Special thanks to my cousins Matt & David who kept me housed, fed and flush with activities.

Ultimate-wise, this year was a bit strange. My beloved club team, Ambush, folded and I decided to try my hand at co-ed. I played for Zojirushi, which was full of nice people, but co-ed ultimate is really not for me, so it was a tough season.

This June I went hiking in Zion National Park in Utah. One of the hikes we did was 14 miles down a cold river with a current and steep rock walls on either side! In the river! I was scared and cold but the scenery was amazing. The highlight of that trip was seeing a pair of reintroduced condors.

My family is all doing well. My parents are still in Maryland and once again hosted most of one of my ultimate teams for a tournament in August. The ‘Ark’ seems to grow larger every day. There are 2 horses, 2 mini-horses, 2 cats and now 3 dogs in the Kelly Maryland compound. Do plan to shower there if you are hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Thanks to all of you who continue to ask about my niece Lindy. She is doing just great (happy, healthy, in first grade) and pretty much about to take over the world. I suggest you get used to the idea. Resistance is futile. She lives with her parents and older sister in Raleigh and all are doing well.

I am sure you all have causes that are important to you in your lives. I’ll just remind you that Pediatric Cancer Research is very near and dear to my heart and recommend Alex’s Lemonade Stand as a great charity to consider. A more tactical (and less costly) approach is to be a platelet donor. If you’re eligible to give blood, you can do it. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes and is just as easy as giving blood but helps cancer patients more than you can imagine.

What will 2010 hold? The crystal ball is a little hazy (try again later), but I expect to continue coaching girls ultimate and perhaps captain a (relaxed) women’s club team of my own. There is also a possible trip to Rwanda on the horizon. Please let me know if you will be in NYC as I’d love to see you.

As always, those of you seeking more frequent updates should bookmark my blog: courtneyspondence.blogspot.com. Best wishes for 2010 and for Peace on Earth.

Decemberists

2009-12-17T20:34:00.007-05:00

Hi there.

Just a few quick notes. First, it's almost time for me to draft this year's holiday letter. To make sure you're caught up you might want to review last year's edition.

Last weekend I went to Chattanooga to see Paige and Marc. I had a blast. I had the chance to meet Sawyer for the first time and I spent a lot of time playing with Olivia. She is a shark at memory and I am working on Paige and Marc to let me take her to Vegas. We went to the Chattanooga Aquarium which has a great Jelly Fish exhibit. We also went to an ugly sweater Christmas party. That was a blast, though I was unprepared. Sunday we had some great brunch and I got on the road. It was great to see them and I am amazed how big the kids are.

A note on driving in Tennessee. NO ONE uses turn signals here for changing lanes or turning. Ever. It is very strange. I read it as a last holdout of Confederate separatism. "I don't have to tell anybody my business about if I am going to change lanes or turn. That is between me and the lane."

I'm scheduled to donate platelets again tomorrow. I'm working in NYC next week, which is great. I'm off to my sister's in Raleigh to wait for Santa with Kate and Lindy.

The Eagles beat the giants again. David and Goliath. I very much enjoyed the game but our defense could use a boost. We can clinch a playoff spot this weekend at home against the Niners.

Allen is a Sixer. Back where it all began. I'm getting tickets to a Sixer's game at the garden in March. I just hope he is well enough to play.

I recently finished reading City Behind a Fence about the work at Oak Ridge to create the nuclear material for the bombs dropped on Japan in WWII. I never really considered the herculean effort that went into creating those. I had pictured a few scientists squirreling away. There were 80,000 people that worked in Oak Ridge in construction, in the reactors and in all the other normal facets of a town (school teachers, security, retail) all for the single focus of creating this weapon. It's an amazing story of taking the land and creating a huge operative town-base in no time. I was so impressed with the speed and direction of the effort. I just don't believe that if we needed to send 80,000 people to work in the creation of solar farms in Arizona and Utah to save us from Global Warming and oil dependence, that we could ever get it done, let alone in 4 years.

Extended Family

2009-12-06T16:38:00.008-05:00

At the Louisville Slugger Museum

Out to Lunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe

At Churchill Downs, picking a winner in the 5th

Thanksgiving was great. I went to Louisville, Kentucky to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a lot of fun. I went to Churchill Downs for some racing and to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Much good food was eaten and fun was had by all. Special Thanks to Matt, Mary, Claire, Gracie and Elise for putting me up.

I also went to my first college football game and saw the UK vs. UT game with 70,000 or so other people. We did a lot of tailgating, cheering and though the game didn't go our way in the end, it did go to overtime and I had a lot of fun.

My parents got another rescue dog. She is a cute baby golden and they are calling her Penny Too. Current score: Humans 2, Varmints: 9. I'll keep you posted on the uprising as it develops.

Please check out my friend Danielle's amazing website Toomuchtodo .org. This year especially nonprofits are really suffering with cut budgets, reduced donations and increased need. Danielle has researched and identified 40 really great causes. The site highlights organizations where the rubber really hits the road and people are doing meaningful work for change. In Danielle's words, "Throughout the site you will find statistics on the overall issues and needs here in the United States. I have tried to match the areas of need with organizations that are committed to fighting the issues that our communities are facing everyday. " My favorite so far is an organization to help homeless veterans in the New England area, but I'm certain that if you check the site you'll find at least one organization you can throw your support behind.

Shorts: I'm off to Knoxville for work. Coaching Beacon is still going well. I saw Almodovar's Broken Embraces and found it indulgent and navel-gazing. Eagles win big today and are still in the playoff hunt. I went to this great play(?): Dutch AV.

Be well.

I guess we just can't have nice things

2009-11-13T17:46:00.010-05:00

I've been a bit slack about posting photo's lately. Here's a few I've been meaning to share:

I recently did 8 flights in 3 days. I think I mentioned that. It was hell, but I did see the Eagles plane:

I went to a roller derby with Sussman. It was tons of fun. She thinks she would be good at this but I think she is waaaay to tiny and would get beat down. It was pretty rough.

This one isn't from Halloween or anything. This is just the type of thing you see near Union Square. Of course. It's also not a protest or anything. That sign was all gibberish.

Do you also have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy? If so, you might also enjoy this:
http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/sporno (Thanks Sipper)

Do you also hate the dancing mucous commercials? Why? Why do we need this?

I am so excited for Mara, who is leaving soon for this program:
http://www.agahozo-shalom.org/blog/2009/10/24/success-at-asyv/
Sounds like such a dream. I would love to work for a year in an orphanage in Rwanda. Maybe I could convert to Judaism to apply... They would probably see through that. I'm going to try to get to Africa next year while Mara is over there (after she has a chance to get settled.) I know she is going to make a huge impact in those children's lives.

Padamosh last weekend was lots of fun, the bits of it I can recall. Next weekend we'll celebrate Kalb's 40th in Little Russia, Salsa dance with Chip & Jen and coach the Beacon Girls in a round-robin in the Bronx. Look out!

Fall on Me

2009-11-06T22:42:00.004-05:00

Ok. So it’s been a while. What can I tell you?

I was shocked recently when I was told that my blog was hopelessly out of date. I had no idea there were still any readers. Keri, this one’s for you.

The past 6 weeks or so has been a blur of regional jets. I’m mostly between NYC and Knoxville, TN but it’s hard to do that directly, so I’ve had my fair share of time in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland and once even Detriot. I’m trying to limit myself to one Cinnabon per flight. I’m working on an endorsement deal there, so I’ll keep you posted as my fame expands and eventually precludes my interaction with the common folk. Just remember you knew me when…

Speaking of Cinnabon, I’m mildly addicted to this web site This is Why You’re Fat . I’m thinking of submitting a recipe where I make a layer cake out of Cinnabons, heavy cream, and butter. I’m not sure but I think the purpose of the website is to remind the rest of the world why they still hate us now that Obama is President. Can you imagine seeing these photos in Malawi? It is a purposeful, willful abandonment of those people we all practice.

It’s only been about 5 months since my trip to Zion national park in Utah. Take a look at the photos of the trip through the narrows and also a 2 day hike in the back country. I am pretty much recovered from the mountain exposure.

Book Review: I just read Alex Stewart: Portrait of a Pioneer . It is pretty much just a loving devotion about an old mountain man who could do a lot of things none of us still can, like make butter churns and buckets and build his own house and deal with snake bites. It’s pretty amazing how much better at stuff it seems everyone was back then. I need to check three different DIY websites before I try to hang a picture on the wall. Pretty much everyone living on this mountain in Tennessee could build a house, build everything in the house (furniture, kitchen items), hunt, gather forest edibles and raise crops. None of them really went to school, but when was the last time you used trigonometry or debated the tension between liberty and nationalism. I think if you teleported the members of subway car I was in this morning (Q to 57th street) back to 1920s Tennessee everyone in there would be dead within the week. Conversely, if you brought those mountain people to the present they would probably hunt us, skin us, and use our ‘tallow’ to make candles and waterproof their shoes, and that would be a considerable improvement in our contribution to the human race.

Ultimate: Regionals occurred in Devens, MA. Zojirushi lost all our games and finished 16th, clearing my schedule to be a spectator all day Sunday. I had a pretty good time. This means ultimate is over, except for the fun winter tournaments (like PadaMosh this weekend) Turkey Bowl and all the others that basically take us to the start of the spring season.

In the ‘off season’ I’m coaching the Beacon High School girls team. The girls are amazingly dedicated, meeting to practice from 6:30-7:30 am each day and also after school. The girls have great spirit and a long way to go. I coached them at their first Beacon Tourney for the season: KitKat outside of Philiadelphia. We had and lost 3 games, but the third was the closest, so I think we learned something. Hopefully they will all be much more motivated about doing sprints to get in shape and working on throwing and catching. Our game is a hard one if you can’t throw and catch.

Did I already show you this link? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erRqDpMDFFo&feature=related This is what real ultimate looks like. The girls don’t look like this, yet, but I’m working on it.

I got a flu shot. Later, I got the flu. Maybe it was H1N1. I don’t know. I seem to have survived. It was pretty bad. I cured it by taking a bunch of flights. I’m like Johnny Appleseed for H1N1. H1N1 Mary?

I’m all worked up about two articles I read recently that refer to being short: This one and this one. I’m thinking about applying for disability due to my short stature status. People of short stature are 1/5 less likely to graduate from college! At 5’3” I qualify. I don’t know how I did it. We’re also just as likely as the morbidly obese to die early. I never really realized how much I have to overcome. Go me. Every day I stand up is a victory.

I had a few people over to the apartment for brunch and a Bloody Mary competition. It was a lot of fun. I vanquished all challengers in a Bloody Mary Off. My secret: the more horseradish, the better. I recommend a 1:1:1 ratio of tomato to vodka to horseradish.

The Eagles game last weekend was great. I watched with Jesse as the Eagles ran up points on the Giants. Take that Eli face! (I am really glad baseball is finally over.)

I went to a reading last night for this book, Mildred Burke : Queen of the Ring. Amazing story of a woman wrestling in the 1940s. This wrestling wasn’t even fake yet. Look forward to this review. (She was of short stature too, so the story is all the more amazing.)

I went for a good run today in Prospect Park. (+7). It was really nice out. All the leaves are still changing and the park is gorgeous.

Up and coming: This weekend I’m off to Padamosh. Next week I’ll go see Art Brut. I have an appointment coming up to donate platelets. I’m helping to plan a UPA coaching clinic in NYC. I’m off to Louisville for Thanksgiving to see all my Aunts Uncles and Cousins. It'll be great.

Little to Report

2009-09-17T15:46:00.005-04:00

Fall is coming. I went to the US open 3 times and saw both Klijsters and Del Potro but not in the finals. I went to a Jets preseason game; it seems Sanchez may be the real deal (but I look fwd to this post being thrown back in my face after he starts acting like a rookie QB). New job is going pretty well. Zojirushi sectionals was rained out last weekend, but is on again now for this weekend. Despair was great and very suspenseful and as soon as it ended I started it over again because the beginning is packed with all these clues that doesn't really make sense until you read then end. This is a good review, so I won't bother. I am glad football season has finally started and that is about all I have to report.

Oh yeah, I quit my job...

2009-08-21T19:26:00.021-04:00

After 11 years, I am finally done with Accenture. It was pretty amazing how almost everyone in my life universally said, “Thank God! That was horrible. What were you doing?” I couldn’t believe how adamant and consistent the response was, even with today’s job market. (There was just one exception.)

I have a new job that is part time. It’s basically the same work, and not that glamorous, but the important thing is it’s only Mon-Weds and on Thursday I’ll be at the animal shelter, on Friday I’ll be coaching high school ultimate. I’m excited about doing other things, and willing to do the same old stuff for 3 days a week if it let’s me do stuff I like the other 4.

The good news is my first client is in Knoxville, TN. Knoxville is gorgeous. There is a river that winds though the town and there are all these gorgeous old homes and store fronts. The people all seem strangely, frighteningly friendly, like they are about to sell you something, but they never do. There’s no direct flight and that will be a PAIN, but so far so good.

The huge find for this week is that the new iPhone podcast software allows you to listen to the podcasts at double time. That’s twice as many slate daily podcasts for me. Emily Bazelon is so much more tolerable when she is talking twice as fast.

Zojirushi, my coed ultimate team this year, went to the White Mountain Open in Vermont//New Hampshire which was a very enlightening experience. We have a lot to work on. Next weekend is the Chesapeake Open down in Maryland. That should be big challenge. I’ll get to see my parents and all the varmints, which will be nice.

I’m reading Nabokov’s Despair which is making me identify with the protagonist way too much. But I should have a review for you on that sometime soon so stay tuned.

I went to see Animal Collective, at the Prospect Park Bandshell, courtesy of Stephen, who had to go out of town unexpectedly for a bachelor party. As pictured below, they went with a nautical theme and the huge shark moved back and forth in the waves.

I’ll leave you with this you tube saga (from Tatiana)which I found pretty amusing.

My Girl

2009-08-04T11:56:00.008-04:00

"The morning sun when its in your face really shows your age, But that dont worry me none in my eyes you're everything."

She was a good dog and we all miss her.

Iron Like a Lion

2009-08-04T11:55:00.006-04:00

Zion National Park in Utah was great. Beautiful. I totally recommend a visit. Jesse and I were there (and Vegas) June 12-21. I have been meaning to write this up for a while. A lot is going on. (The careful reader will note the foreshadowing)

Zion was not too crowded. We saw a pair of introduced condors, which was a highlight for me. By-and-large the two day hikes we did were pleasant and not too strenuous.

However, we did one two day trip called ‘The Narrows’ which requires 14 miles hiking down the middle of the Virgin River. When we did it the water temperature was 59 degrees which is colder than it sounds after the 4th hour submerged up to your waste. The river has a bit of a current and the riverbed is covered with slippery rocks about the size of thanksgiving turkeys, so every step is a turned ankle waiting to happen. I fell a couple of times and got wet down to my bones. My recollection of the trip is of being cold and wet and grouchy, but Jesse tells me it was beautiful and reminds me that we were passed by a troupe of boy scouts, so how bad could it have been. (I’ll post pictures soon that support his version of the story.)

I live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn now. The move was a bit of a pain, as they always are, but I survived. The new hood is great. I’m about a mile from Prospect Park and I run, bike and play disc in the park pretty regularly. Getting to practice is quick and easy for once. I live above a stop on the C, which I can feel gently rock my bed as trains pull in and out of the station if I listen carefully enough. The neighborhood has lots of bars and restaurants and I am very happy to finally be in Brooklyn where most of my friends live.

I went to see the Staten Island Yankees with Patricia for the 4th of July. That was pretty awesome. We rode the Staten Island ferry to the game and watched the fireworks from the ferry on the way back.

My fellow founding gastronaut Benji Pauker was on my favorite show, the Jon Stewart show. Check him out: (He’s the smart American at the end.)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=231547&title=jason-jones-behind-the-veil

I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . It was pretty good and reminded a bit of the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The book has some quirky affectations with pictures and edited pages and even a section in numeric code, but if you look past all that the story moves along at a good clip.

I went to see Wilco on July 13 at Coney Island. I love the new album. However, something about a title album at this stage seems odd. Even a title track. It’s like he’s painted himself into the painting. The show was the largest I’d ever seen and the band played for over two hours with lots of stuff from YHF, Summerteeth and of course the new album.

The Mets are KILLING me. I am done with them. The Wimbledon Gentleman’s championship was amazing. I’m going to the US Open in a few weeks. NFL training camps are underway: Go Eagles!

Goldfish Carry Disease!

2009-06-10T14:37:00.006-04:00

There were no pets allowed in the freshman dorms at Georgetown and a certain DOPS student guard I worked with used to periodically proclaim the title above.

That’s what first ran through my mind when I saw this photo in the Bodega nearest to my apartment:

I like to think that the sandwiches are labeled with which disease they carry. Here’s a pastrami and H1N1 on Rye. Here’s a BL (hepatitis) C.

I turned 33. Thanks for everyone who sent e-mails or someecards. 33 is terrible. I didn’t think anything could be worse than 32, but this is. When you’re 33 pretty much the next thing you have to look forward to is retirement, and that’s 32 years away.

Speaking of old age, I got cut from Bent, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. That team is going to be very strong and I wish them luck in the season.

Now, I’m thinking I might try to play coed. Last weekend at the Mixed Easterns in Devens, MA I played with Zojirushi who I’m now trying out for. We had a lot of fun and the team did really well, finishing 9th after being seeded 20th.

In other Ultimate news, ESPN is right on about the UPA being fools:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=buckheit/090529

I don’t know what I’ll do when the NBA and NHL finals are over. This is the most depressing sports time of the year. Wimbledon?

I saw Art Brut last week with Stephen. They were great except for the idiots in front of me who seemed really bored. If you ware bored, leave! We’re going to see the Decemberists tonight. I hope they don’t play too much from the new album, as I don’t love it, but they probably will.

I hope you are having a good summer. I had a great time at Oak Island seeing how big Kate and Lindy have grown and riding on Robbie’s new boat.

I’m off to Zion National Park in Utah for a week of hiking. I’m a bit nervous about the sleeping in a tent and the lack of sports talk radio but I expect to come back with some great photos.

There is still a great deal of ambiguity about where I might work next, which as you can imagine is becoming somewhat tiring for me.

Has anyone made it yet, that could use a personal assistant?

And finally, on the left here, you can see that our poll has closed. It seems I have 13 readers, 5 of whom are Internet stalkers and 5 of whom plan to excel in the next impromptu round of Courtney Kelly Trivia. Good luck! The integrity of the poll continues to be indicted by the fact that none of you are fessing up to being my mother. I'll see if I can come up with another poll question. Don't hold your breath.

Pants Optional

2009-05-22T14:14:00.006-04:00

I’m not sure what went terribly, terribly wrong, but suddenly NYC is pants optional. Every third person is running around the city in these leggings from American Apparel as if they were pants. They are not.
http://store.americanapparel.net/rsac306.html#i You should try pants!

I went to White River Junction, Vermont last weekend with the girls from Bent as a try out to play in the White Mountain Open. We lost to Godiva in pool play and Brute Squad in semis but other than that we won all our games. I had an absolute blast. Vermont was beautiful (as always) and all of the women on Bent are so great to play with. We went to the Harpoon brewery for dinner Saturday night after 4 hard fought games.

Here’s a couple pics Deirdre snapped of me playing on Saturday:

I’m also trying out for a coed team called Crafty/Zojirushi. Stay tuned for the exciting outcome.

In other ultimate news, the New York Times just broke this story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/fashion/30fitness.html
Tucker summed the article up pretty well: “Ultimate is a sport and girls can play it.”

Mainstream media continues to report on my life. The folks at Today ran another segment on the AC&C, where I volunteer on weekends. Yay! Watch it here:
http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/19/1937215.aspx

Thanks to Jordan for this (http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/) which makes me laugh every day.

Also Stephen for this the best of the Keyboard Cats:
http://videogum.com/archives/vlogging/dad-yells-at-son-for-crying-on_069712.html

The NBA is looking pretty good these days. Go Chauncey!

Finally, take a look at this summer tragedy I witnessed earlier today:

Happy Memorial Day! I’m off to see Lynn and her girls at Oak Island.

No news on my next work destination. Could be back to Minneapolis, Florida, in NYC or Bangalore. I’ll let you know.

If you love something, set it free...

2009-04-28T21:54:00.010-04:00

There’s nothing I love more than my apartment, 29, and that’s why I’m moving out. I spend 4 days a week in a Westin any way, so it make sense to save a little money on rent and since I spend all my time in Brooklyn (practice in Prospect Park, the animal shelter, watching Jesse’s cable) I spend the 3 days I am in NYC getting back and forth to Brooklyn, so this will save me some time as well. I will miss 29, that is for sure, but I tend to think that change is good, and this will be change. I’ll keep you posted.

Deirdre is at the vet. She was not put together properly after I got back from Melbourne and I didn’t use her all winter and when I took her down the chain just fell off, so she’s down the street at the bike hospital. Send flowers or grease.

It is 87 degrees today in NYC. So much for spring.

Last Friday, Jesse and I went to see the new Mets’ ballpark Citifield. The Mets won (over the lowly nationals) and the new ballpark is nice. My favorite part is the Jackie Robinson rotunda. This is the field from the left field stands where we sat:

Saturday I did this SNERTZ workout with Keri and Ali. It is almost impossible.

Then I went to the animal shelter. Uneventful.

I am so excited!!! Kimberly informed me that the first season of The State will be out on DVD on July 14. Sign up to be notified when it goes on sale. My excitement caused me to look up some old favorites, like the Schwam family.

Sunday, Keri took me on a tour of Brooklyn’s best Pizza places, with Drew and Adam in tow:
(I missed the first stop.) I went to:

Franny's (295 Flatbush Ave) - *****
Di Fara Pizza (1424 Ave J) - *****
L&B Spumoni Gardens (2785 26th St) - ***

I am still full, but it was fun.

This pic is from Di Fara’s where we waited 90 minutes for a pie at 3:30 PM in the afternoon:

This weekend is the first of the Bent tryouts. There are 60 or so women interested so this should be pretty great. I haven’t been this psyched since the training camp for Australian National Team try-outs. I love try-outs because you are bound to learn something new.

Speaking of Australian Disc, congrats to my sisters and teammates from Sporting Team Box Athletico United for making the finals at nationals an nearly getting over on those boring school marms from Wildcard. There’s no shame in second place and I know you will get them next year. It was a great tourney for Victorian ultimate with Honey making semis (yeah, Mama!) and my favorite boys from the Heads of State finishing third, due in some part to hot D from Mikey Stout.

How amazing is this Bulls/Celtic series? This could be the best series until the finals. Every game is a game winning last second shot or overtime. Great Basketball.

I owe you a book review. I finished Roth’s Exit Ghost. It's a painfully detailed look into the implications of aging, of losing your faculties and losing control of yourself and of your legacy, which might have been just an illusion anyway, but a comforting one nonetheless. The book is a quick read and I enjoyed Roth's take on the post 9-11 hysteria in NYC. I struggled with the crux of the main character's struggle. Aging is just such a sick joke, getting more broken and more useless every day, forever. I honestly don't know why anyone over 27 gets out of bed. I'm just trying to stay distracted by sports and entertainment. I hate being 32, but this book was a reminder that it will be getting worse, a lot worse. It's very well written and I enjoyed the characters Roth introduced, but it's hard to recommend unless you are pretty comfortable with your place in this world.

I’m presently reading Faulkner’s Light in August and I love it. I love the descriptions. I am deeply involved in the story and the characters. It is great.

Looking out a ways, I’m going to see my Brother-in-law’s new boat on Oak Island for Memorial day, and then hiking in Zion for a few days in June, and then back to Oak Island in July to see all the cousins.

Break's Over. Get Back to Work.

2009-04-22T17:14:00.004-04:00

Well, spring break is over. It was great, but it really only served to remind me how great New York is and how much I wish I lived there full time.

Keri and I went to the Bronx Zoo (I liked African Painted Dogs the best and resisted the perfectly understandable urge to jump in with the Polar Bears ) and to see the Younger Than Jesus exhibit at the New Museum, as well as a sweet Alife sale.

Jesse and I went to see the Felice Brothers at Webster hall. They were pretty rawkin'. Check them out. Their brand new CD is out now.

I also spent a couple days down near Dewey Beach, DE and that was really fun.

Please check out www.eatlowcarbon.org which is a pretty cool web app and serves as a good guide for how one can cut back and make meaningful changes in our diets. Compare sushi to steak. It’s pretty amazing how significant the difference is, and according to this Fruit Monday is holding up, but much better if you eat local, seasonal fruit than greenhouse grown fruit or fruit that is flown all over the world.

I am back in Minneapolis. At least it has stopped snowing here. This weekend I'm going to the new Citifield to see the Mets, cross-training, and getting my beer on while I watch NBA games. I am advocating the name change from the Cavaliers to the Labrons. Any objections?

Spring Break

2009-04-15T23:30:00.008-04:00

Hi. I am on spring break. I am taking a few days off in NYC. I was going nuts. I had tons of errands to do and mail to open and stuff like that and I am never home and I took some vacation days to get through it all.

So far I've worked out every day, unpacked my suitcase, done laundry, gotten a haircut, filed all my 2008 mail and made a mid-week visit to the animal shelter. This is my dream vacation.

Speaking of the shelter. The very place where I volunteer was on TV on the Today Show. Check it out:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30009467#30009467

There is a guy that they show at the 40 second mark or so that I work near pretty regularly.

Just today, he saved my skin when I lost control of a 50 pound Pitt. None of them want to get back in their cage. I can understand this. I wouldn't either. I had been walking this dog, Bingo for 20 minutes. He was great out of the cage, great walking around on his leash, when it was time for me to put him back in he freaked out and started biting my jeans and took hold of the leash. The worst thing that can happen is if a dog gets loose. (They wreak havoc and mess with other dogs or people and maybe cats). I lost my cool and quickly shut his cage to control the situation and get myself away from the dog. However, now I have an angry freaking out Pitt with his leash on (chocking hazard) in his cage thrashing around. I had to come find Larry and he saved the day by deftly showing Bingo another leash for a bait and switch and reneging on the trade after my leash had been extracted. It was a skilled move and not one I could have executed. He's a pro.

There were so many adorable dogs today. There was a 10 month old beautiful yellow lab baby girl that is so sweet and won't even walk on her leash, she just flops on her back and shows you her belly and wiggles.

Here's two pictures of my favorite animals today:

The dog is Frankie, a chow/lab mix. He is such a sweet dog, walks great on a leash, very friendly. He is on his 8th day and I am worried for him.

I know you are all on the edge of your seat for this one: Shit Mountain Update is that there are now two baby squabs (a hatched swan is a cygnet, a hatched pigeon is a squab) on the upper right nest of the duplex. The lower nest still holds the pigeon corpse I've been watching decompose for months now. It's a matter of time before someone moves in right on top of Bernie.

Here's another pic of my namesake: Courtney Kelly the baby girl Jack who lives with my Aunt Vicky:

She is a real character.

Fruit Monday persists. I was surprised there were no comments, but you, dear reader are lazy. Let me know if you give it a try, or if you think it is dumb. Whatever.

This weekend I'm off to Delaware for a coed tournament. Should be fun(ish). Next week I am back to Minneapolis, looks like at least through June. Boo.

I am reading Philip Roth's Exit Ghost. A review of that should be coming up soon. Stay tuned.

Will the Real Courtney Kelly Please Sit Down? Good Girl.

2009-03-25T21:35:00.010-04:00

As mentioned previously, my dear aunt Vicki has recently acquired a new baby girl Jack Russell Puppy and I have been informed that she has been named Courtney Kelly. She is clearly the more charming of the two and CKs and fetches much faster than I do. It is a matter of time before she is a better project manager. I think she is just adorable and I am quite smitten with her. See?
You’ll remember my Aunt Vicki from being the sole preserver of my sanity when I toured around Victoria, Australia with my parents, me driving the 5 of us down the left side of the Great ocean Road in a Minivan. John takes great pictures and I suspect I may have him to thank for the sweet one above.

Let’s take a moment (with only 72 days remaining in our poll) to note according to the current tally that 50% of you, dear readers, are Internet stalkers. None of you, however, are my mother, which is quite curious and quite frankly casts doubt on the validity of the entire poll.

Let’s also take a quick status check on some of the promises and declarations I’ve made here on ‘Spondence for 2009:

My commitment to review a book a month is ahead of schedule but significantly stymied with my current assignment. Look for the next review soon.
The month off drinking was pretty easy. Maybe I should do that again soon. July?

The 100 push-up project ended because it was taking up a lot of time and I couldn’t remember why I had ever wanted to be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups, except to prove some kind of point I had forgotten. 2 out of 3 isn’t terrible.

Next up, is an idea I’m still working through: Fruit Monday. For the last few Mondays I’ve been eating only raw fruit with no preparation or preservatives. The thinking isn’t gelled yet, but it has to do with how much I admire people I’ve known like Hussey and Emily who commit to being vegetarian. I do think being a vegetarian is the only ethical choice, if you care about the carbon load of your food or about how animals are treated on factory farms. I also know that eating meat leads to heart disease and obesity. I probably wouldn’t be willing to shoot deer for venison. Unfortunately I love steak. And buffalo chicken wings. And probably most of all Tuna sushi. Bacon is in there somewhere too.

So the idea of Fruit Monday, is not to leap into eating ethically or healthily all the time, but for just 1 day a week, for my food to have a lower than usual carbon load (local produce is best if possible) for it to be low cruelty, for it to be fresh and nutrient rich with no preparation or preservative. I’ve generally found so far that on Fruit Mondays I don’t get as tired as I usually during the day and I have a bit more energy than usual. I know it’s the only day a week when I get my recommended 5 servings of fruit and vegetables.

You might point out that I’m still eating unethically and unhealthily 6 days a week, but at least I’m, putting my toe in the pool here, and so far this seems like something I can actually stick to without feeling cheated. You might point out that I could have vegetables or grains. First off then it wouldn't be Fruit Monday and furthermore I need very clear bright lines and if I could have carrots, then the slippery slope to potatoes, to pizza combos to lobster would be sled right now. Fruit is simple enough to keep me focused. (Tomatoes are in). I let you know how this goes.

Want to give it a try? If you do, I want to hear about it. I think you know I'm not a dietitian. I hope this doesn't make you sick. I realize this is only 1/7th of the time, so for me to make any meaningful difference I need to keep this up for a good long while. The goal is a sustainable life change I can keep up. We'll see.

In other news, since my last post, NYC ultimate is starting to heat up for spring and I’ve already had an obligatory ankle roll. I’ve been scrimmaging with some of the women from the new team, Bent and it seems pretty cool. I’ll let you know how tryouts go. I’m off to Fools Fest in Virginia with the gals from Flash Taco as well, so that should be a good time.

I’ve been back to the animal shelter a few more times as well. The last time I was there some genius in a white Mercedes SUV rolled in to ‘drop off’ a dog. She was an adorable white Pitt puppy, maybe 8 months old. Very sweet and obedient. Sit. Roll over. The whole deal. He just ‘dropped her off.’ I hope his SUV gets Repossessed. I also walked a stray Pitt that was all ribs and spine and was as sweet as he could be. It was heart breaking. I do think a couple agreed to adopt a cat while I was there, so that was nice. I will try to remember to take some pictures while I am there next weekend.

Have you given blood lately? Accenture actually had a blood drive a work a few Fridays back, which was great. I was a bit sluggish at the first Bent scrimmage as a result, but I think a lot of us were just getting into shape anyway, so hopefully that will not be too big a factor. Giving blood is free and a huge way to give to people in need. You should probably open a new tab and click this link and make an appointment right now. RIGHT NOW.

I nagged Jesse until he finally got renters insurance. Don't think I won't nag you.

I am just back from a week in St. Charles, Illinois for ‘training’. I will not color outside of the lines any more and the accidents are pretty much under control as well. Actually, it was a week of client sales simulations and I guess I like my simulated work as much as I like my actual work. It was a long week. By pure chance, I did happen to run into a colleague who had been faculty with me at back in August, Patrick Warburton who has an unnatural attachment to Andy Murray.

As for my bracket, I have 11 of the sweet 16, which is not great, but has me in 5th place out of 12 in my pool. If UNC wins out I should finish up 3rd or 4th which is still just losing in the winner takes all format. Go Cards! The Big East is looking great, BTW. Mercifully the GU season is final over, with another lost lead late in the second half to Baylor in round one of the NIT. We’ll see if there is still a team next year or if they just dissolve the program. Maybe they will form a touring checkers team.

Of course you know my buddy Chip . His baby brother Michael is actually in Melbourne these days and playing disc with my favorite open team, the Heads of State. Do check out his blog of events which reminds me a lot of my first few months there so far (minus detailed recounts of dramatic layouts.)

Okay. Gotta run. It snowed in Minneapolis today. This weekend. Chip's wife Jen will be in town. I have dinner with Danielle planned. Saturday is another Bent Scrimmage and then off to the Animal Shelter. After that I'm scheduled at a W - Bachelor Party: White Castle, Whiskey and Wii. I CAN'T WAIT. Sunday is a hat tournament for Ultimate for Peace. I am prematurely exhausted.

Oh yeah, LSF was a pajama party. It was nuts. See?

March Lion

2009-03-12T14:32:00.002-04:00

Sorry it’s been a while. It’s been mostly work anyway, so you haven’t missed much. It is negative 2 today in Minneapolis. And snowing.

I got a chance to see the CEO speak last week. He was a piece of work. He blamed the current economic troubles on the Obama administration and the fact that they have done nothing to instill confidence in the market (over the last 50 days). He said his adopted Korean daughter should be good at math because of her genes (and shouldn’t waste time on subjects like sociology.) He asked if females in the workplace prefer to be called ladies, women or girls. He is steering the ship that I am riding on.

The past few weekends I have been volunteering at an animal shelter in Brooklyn. The animals are great but the people are a nightmare (the public, not the staff). I walk dogs that spend 23 hours a day in their cages. The shelter is under-funded, so the animals get food and water, but very limited socialization opportunities. Most of the dogs are pit bulls or pit mixes and they are so sweet. When I walk past their cages with the leash they all get up and wiggle and whine to tell me that they want to go for a walk and I can only take one at a time. Most of the dogs are great, but have not really been properly trained to walk on a leash and they are so excited from being stressed and pent up all the time that most of the dogs pull a good deal. My arms were quite sore the last time I left there.

I also help the public identify which cats are available for adoption and help them to try and find a match. People show up in this place with 2 or 3 children that they don’t watch and ask me where the little kittens are. Meanwhile the kids are sticking their fingers in the cages and rattling the cages and I have to try to explain that all the tiny kittens will grow up to be big cats just like the many available adult cats quite soon. Then potential adopters ask me questions like, “Why isn’t this cat more friendly?”Um. Well, it could be that her owner abandoned her, and she had to fend for herself in the streets until an animal control officer caught her and brought her to this place with 50 pit bulls that bark night and day and she is scared and lonely. That could be it. Or another favorite, “Can I see that cat hunkered down in the back of his cage, hissing? Will you pick him up for me?” Usually followed again, by “Where are the baby kittens?” I try to stay positive and my goal is to help with one adoption each time I volunteer.

The Hoyas are done for the year. I’m not as excited as usual for March Madness this year. Pitt looks pretty good. As does the perennial threat UNC.

I’m off to “Chicago” to have the key in my back wound for a week next week. I wish Amy & Simon were there, instead of Fiji so I could stop by and see them. Maybe I should stop by and see them in Fiji instead.

I am told I have a new namesake and that my beloved Aunt Vicki named her new Jack Russell puppy Courtney Kelly after me. She is MUCH cuter than me. I am working on some pics of her for you.

I’m going to see Les Savy Fav again on Friday and scrimmaging with the gals from Bent on Saturday.

The first weekend in April, Flash Taco is going to Fools Fest again and that should be a fun time. I think we are going to be secret service agents. I am looking fwd to playing in a suit and dark glasses I’ll try to grab some digi-snaps for you.

Happy Ides of March

Arbeit Uber Alles

2009-02-27T20:49:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the long gaps. All I do is work and fly back and forth so I don't have much time to post and not much to say.

I did get to volunteer at an animal shelter in Brooklyn. That was pretty cool.

Congrats to my Cousin Madison for making the Honor Roll, my Niece Kate for posting more beautiful art on the web and my Niece Lindy for loosing a tooth.

I got to see my parents and all their animals recently and as always that was an adventure. Everyone seems to be doing fine.

Take care.

Suffering

2009-02-09T00:57:00.005-05:00

Hey. I've been planning to read An End to Suffering by Pankaj Mishra for years. It came to me recommended highly and I moved a borrowed hard cover copy to Australia and back. When the loner insisted I return it (unread) after 3 years, I protested, but relented and ordered my own copy from BN.com. Motivated by the long flight to Minneapolis and the guilt of a task long procrastinated, I finally started in on this book.

I hate to go all Jean Teasdale on you, but finishing this book was an End to Suffering in it's own right. I know this will be perceived by some as close-minded and evidence of my lacking cognitive skills, or an open mind but it would be difficult to fake liking this book.

To be fair, as a disclaimer, I read this book in a series 20 minutes stints over a number of weeks from the time I board a plane until the time when electronic devices are allowed, and it has been pointed out to me that this may not be the most peaceful manner in which to contemplate the role of the Buddha in the modern world.

The first 150 or so pages are Mishra switching haphazardly between the history of Western Academic pursuit of Buddhism and his own wanderings as a young man infused with a heaping portion of self-importance. (Look, I don't miss the irony (hypocrisy?) of the last sentence being blogged about in my once upon a time semi-travel blog that is essentially now only an open-journal, but I readily acknowledge that this blog is only interesting, if at all, to people who personally know me, and I have no intention of having the blog bound and published by Picador.)

There is a tolerable stretch in the middle where Mishra summarizes the teachings of the Buddha. I find the part about life being filled with suffering pretty compelling. The bit about reducing the suffering by extinguishing desire seems about as probable to me as my working on my game enough that they draft me into the NBA, but I guess it's an admirable goal. There is an interesting summary of the core tenants of the Buddha's teachings and how he is reported to have arrived at these realizations.

Then around page 214 Misrha drifts back into travelogue, mentioning every detail of his trips around India and around the world to London and the US, intertwined with the journeys of the Buddha. This 'I travel, the Buddha travels' structure seems pompous and arrogant. Furthermore, Mishra's need for completion is his own enemy (or mine?). Buddha reportedly lived to around 80 (in a time when most died around 30) so he wandered around India a lot, receiving free alms meals from people, gathering converts and teaching lessons. 80 years worth of wandering around and it doesn't seem much was left out, and I'm left struggling to choose the most significant happenings.

Then there's all the Nietzsche. Mishar seems to think that throughout time, the most effective critic of the teachings of the Buddha was Nietzsche, so that if these criticisms can be countered all will be embraced. I've never bought in to Nietzsche well enough to need the dragon slain, so these sections tire me.

The book then makes its ties into 9-11 a bit awkwardly, seemingly to include the element of current political significance an editor might ask an author to wedge into a book to help with sales. The book ends up weakly. I read and reread the last 4 pages trying to take some significance out of them. Perhaps it is that all we truly have is our own state of mind in the present, and that this, anyone can have regardless of social status or political power, but I remain unconvinced that the mental proficiency required for this can actually be achieved by many.

So, maybe I just couldn't receive the message, or the level of argument was too academic, but in general I found each new page of Mishra's writing to be a painful chore and I would not recommend this to anyone with less than a serious interest in the topic. Fin.

In other news. Lots of work. Taxes. Running intervals. Bad hamstrings.

I went to see Wendy and Lucy which was beautiful and sad.

Breath

2009-01-31T21:44:00.003-05:00

So, on the plane back from Minneapolis I read Breath, by Tim Winton. You can read the first 26 pages here. It is one of the best books I have read recently. Bikash lent it to me and that was a good sign, cos he's pretty clued in. It was fun reading Australian dialogue because I had forgotten all the crazy made up words they use, and I was pretty psyched I could understand most of it.

It's a short novel. And mostly a teen drama. Winton is a master at building up the suspense. The only thing I'll say is that he likely builds the suspense up a bit too much, as I expected a lot more than what did actually happen, but hey, you can't always get what you want.

Cross training intervals, push ups, burpies, 7 min abs and ACL prevention at East River on Sunday mornings with Keri. Fun.

Ok, I have to get back to the land of Microsoft Office.

The Julie Andrews Post

2009-01-25T17:52:00.008-05:00

Favorite Hotel Chain: Westin
Favorite Restaurant: Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar
Favorite NBA Player: Allen Iverson
Favorite Drink: Maker's Mark
Favorite Bar: Blue & Gold
Favorite Movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, City of God
Favorite TV Shows: Arrested Development, The Wire
Favorite Author: Vonnegut
Favorite Bands: Wilco, Sufjan Stevens
Favorite Candy: Reese's Cup (original, frozen)
Favorite LE: Nike Pigeon Dunk
Favorite Podcast/Radio Show: This American Life
Favorite Device: Leroy (My iPhone)
Favorite thing in the entire world: Brunch

2 More Book Reviews

2009-01-25T17:18:00.002-05:00

I read Naked Pictures of Famous People. There are few people in this entire planet I love more than Jon Stewart, but this book is not good or funny. I guess maybe he deserves to cash in and make a little coin, or maybe he is funny on his show because the writers around him are funny, but I struggled to find anything in this book even smile worthy, let alone funny. Do not read.

My sister recommended (and gave me) Ha Jin's Waiting. Well, I read it. I am still not sure if I 'liked' it. I guess it is not really a book you are supposed to enjoy. I read it all pretty quickly and the novel held my attention. I was curious what would happen to the characters. The book is a sad story that keeps getting sadder with almost no bright spots. I guess what I took away from the story was that life in Communist China was hard, people are basically mean to each other and even if you do finally get what you think you want it will probably not make you any happier. I would recommend this book to someone who was too happy and looking for something to depress them a little.

In other news, I ran some more interval workouts (my hamstring is still my enemy). The Hoyas seems to suck all the sudden. Work seems more terrible than usual, but I guess I always say that.

War McCormick & Schmick's 9:30 snack happy hour at the Westin, which is by far the best thing going in my life these days.

I am "famous" on the internet!

2009-01-17T15:59:00.006-05:00

Remember back in October when I had Jury Duty?

I snapped a pic and sent it in to one of my favorite blogs, The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks and the pic was recently posted. Check it out! I am participating in the internets.

This week of work in Minneapolis was just as much fun as usual and also featured a day when it was -21 Degrees Fahrenheit. I thought my eyeballs might freeze.

I am super pyched about the Eagles game tomorrow. Go Akers! Go Westbrook!

I saw WALL-E recently. I loved it. Proably the best movie of the year. Anyone who does not love this is now my enemy. I wish people were more like WALL-E.

Stay warm!

Meatwad: Samurai Lincoln

2009-01-11T00:37:00.007-05:00

Hey. Saturday night I went to see La Boheme at the Lincoln Center. It was set in Paris, but those poor artists were singing in Italian. I was most impressed with the Chandeliers. Thanks to Keri for getting the tickets.

I finished the Elegance of the Hedgehog. I didn't love it. But I got through it. I'm going to try to read a book a month for 2009, which might not seem like much, but is more than usual for me so I think it counts as a stretch goal. Currently I'm reading Waiting bu Ha Jin, which Lynn sent me in the mail and is quite good so far, though a bit sad.

TPS Report

2009-01-07T22:56:00.004-05:00

31 Days - 100% complete - No Problemo, no big deal

100 Push ups - 19% complete; brutal; killer; at risk

Minneapolis - 2 degrees Fahrenheit

Westin - 9 stays from Gold status for 2009 (boo)

Westin Happy Hour: $2 Cheese burgers & Chicken Sandwiches!

Kiva: Issue resolved. Back up and functioning with new loans, so check back if you checked when they were fully funded

Eagles - 4 pt dawgs to the Gnats this Sunday, first hurdle to Super Bowl

Leroy (my iPhone) - still 100% rad and totally worth it, get Lux Touch App (Risk)

2009 - yellow status so far...

Roosting With the Dead

2008-12-30T20:55:00.005-05:00

Update for you on Shit Mountain. It seems that either the NYC pigeon housing market is just as tight as the human one, or pigeons are not all that fussed about ritual burial. This isn’t the greatest picture, but if you look closely you can see the pigeon that has been ‘napping’ on the right side, unmoved for over 11 days now, and a new SM resident on the upper left.
In an unrelated story, I made it back to NYC after 5 days in Raleigh. I am glad to be home. I saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. This year I gave the girls a Wii and many rounds of Wii bowling and Hanna Montana World Tour were subsequently played. I am happy to report that low-tech is still alive and well. Santa brought the girls each a Slinky and I think those coils were the hit of Christmas. Certainly no toy garnered more attention. I gave my parents and sister & brother-in-law a Flip video camera so look for them all up on You Tube any minute.

Everyone else got a Kiva gift certificate. Kiva is a micro-loan organization that allows members to lend directly to small opportunities in the developing world. The entrepreneur then pays back the loan and you can relend to another opportunity. I think this supports growth and is more likely to make a long term difference than traditional aid, which often begets the need for more aid. Check it out.

I’m presently reading the Elegance of the Hedgehog. So far I would give it just an *okay* rating. It’s a bit of a slow starter with tons of allusions to Japanese films I haven’t seen and Russian novels I haven’t read. In short, it seems to be a bit culturally snobby and I’m more of a Philistine, so maybe I’m just not the target audience. I’ll finish it out just the same and let you know if it picks up.

I’m 23 days into 31 days with no alcohol. It has been pretty easy, though I did really want a glass of red wine when I went to Frankie’s recently with Keri and being around my family was a bit of a struggle. Still, so far I would say that 31 days without alcohol has been much easier than the times recently I’ve tried to go a month with no meat (one success, one failure), but New Year’s Eve tomorrow may present a special challenge. Maybe I’ll take my flask (Blomus) full of water to seem like I’m participating.

Given that not drinking for a month was pretty easy so far, and looking for more of a test, I think I’ll try this 100 push up challenge that Jesse told me about. I'm just getting started and so far I’ve only taken the first test (30) but you if you really have an unnatural level of interest in the details of my life you can track my progress here . Sorry about that, but it’s only through public scrutiny that I’ll motivate myself to complete this. Lynn & Robbie have a friend named Andre that is performing a similar challenge, but with Chin-ups. I think he is a mad man. I am envious of his drive and I will not be picking any fights with him.

I have declared off season cross training offically underway. I've been running again and getting back into 7 minute abs. Some of Ambush is meeting on Saturday for a run, pushups, abs, throwing session and it will be good to shaek off some cobwebs.

Any and all theories on why I’ve had a splitting headache for the past week or so are welcome. I thought it was a gas leak in 29, but my head also hurt the whole time I was in Raleigh and I think they have an electric stove so there must be some other reason. I am trying to cut out caffeine to see if that helps. (No Makers Mark, No Coffee, No Meat? What else is there...? I hardly recognize myself.)

Last night my headache was super bad (railroad spike in the forehead bad) after the viewing of Slumdog Millionaire, which, conversely, was super good. GO SEE IT. It’s an impossible love story and a comment on urban slums. It reminded me a bit of The Usual Suspects and the child actors are incredible.

Speaking of 29 (scroll up, I was. Transitions are hard), no one told Stefan Slywotzky about the economic downturn. He’s raising my rent 8%. I love 29 but in this market rents should be stable or perhaps giving back some of the gains of recent years, (like everyone else) so perhaps it is finally time to move. We’ll see. The thought of packing and getting a truck makes my stomach turn.

It seems my Eagles were just waiting for me to disown them again, to prove to me that they deserved my love. It worked. I am so excited to be in the playoffs. I can’t really explain how we lost to Dallas in week 2 and scored only 3 points against the hapless Redskins in week 16 and then somehow laid 44 points on a Cowboys team that had everything to play for in week 17, but I don’t really care. This weekend takes the Eagles to the dome in Minnesota and I will be yelling at my TV all game.

Here’s another one of those stories that I think helps to answer the question, “Why do the terrorist hate us?”

Today’s Fun fact: 12 – The number of shirts I own with 55 on the back.

This is a bit dated, but here's a pic I took in the Fiji airport and meant to show you back in July but I lost track of it.

Keep that in mind. Happy New Year.

I could be the Jane Goodall of pigeons…

2008-12-23T21:53:00.008-05:00

So much more happens in my life when I get to work in town for a few days. It is great to be home in NYC.

I went to see The Wrestler (Aronofsky's new film) last night. Though it seems to draw its inspiration from the 1999 documentary, Beyond the Mat it somehow makes the story more real, by turning it into fiction. The film is intense. I had to watch several scenes through parted fingers with my hands pressed over my eyes. I would strongly recommend the film. The set and so many tiny costume details nail the desperate mood perfectly. Look for the duct tape patches on his vest to increase throughout the film. The van and trailer are depressing enough in a single shot to capture the mood of the entire film. (Todd Berry, who I once accidentally bought a beer for and subsequently, took said beer away from, turns in a spot-on performance of a prick supervisor.) I think you pretty much know the plot if you’ve seen a single trailer, and I won’t give anything more away, but I found Randy/Robin to be everyman, struggling to make our way in the world as who we wish we were, while being confronted at every turn with who we actually are, and while we wait for whatever means we use of earning a living to destroy us and leave us broken and hopeless. Merry Christmas.

In other news, I gave blood yesterday. Don’t forget to make an appointment as blood banks need you this time of year more than any other. I wanted to ask the Phlebotomist about the training course he’d had taken to be certified to draw blood in New York State (It’s a three week course that you can complete in 3 consecutive weekends and I’m considering as a test to gather some input about myself as to whether I could survive nursing school) but I thought he might mistake my curiosity about the course as concerns about his proficiency and I didn’t want to pry or seem rude while he had a huge needle in my arm.

Also draining my very lifeblood these days: the Philadelphia Eagles. I am actually jealous of Detroit Lions fans. At least they knew what was happening early on and didn’t waste all season to have their heart broken by a team that could only muster 3 points in a game against the anemic Redskins with the entire season on the line. The game made me sick. I guess we just don’t deserve to go the playoffs. I don’t know what my second team will be; I’ll hope the playoffs are just cancelled, like the year baseball went on strike. If that doesn’t workout, it’s likely that I’ll throw my support behind anyone playing the New York Gnats.
After that terrible Eagle loss, where they teased out hope until the very last second, I did not drown my sorrows, as would typically be my custom. I’m conducting a little experiment to take 31 days off from drinking. A search of this blog for the keyword ‘hangover’ yields 10 hits, and there are certainly others I haven’t even felt well enough to whine about, which is probably a bit more than recommended. To see if things are better sans hangover, I’m taking a 31 day hiatus from alcohol. I’m 16 days in and so far, so good. No major revelations or changes. One thing I have learned is that what I thought was being ‘hungover’ is actually the sensation of ‘waking up’. I wake up with a headache and a stomach ache every day. I think my body has an adverse reaction to morning. And to beeping. I hate beeping.

Not sure if this is a side effect from the ‘break’ or if I was briefly possessed by an alien life form, but I made soup the other day. A whole pot of it. Celery. Tomatoes. Carrots. Corn. Garlic. Pasta. Oregano. It was good. I don’t expect it to happen again.

Those of you who know me, know one of my favorite features of my beloved apartment is ‘Shit Mountain’. Two pigeon nests outside a window near my apartment that appear to have been built up out of decades of piled up pigeon waste. No other nesting material is visible. What an innovative use of materials to build a safe place to rear your young! I check the nests every day when I go in and out of the apartment. I’ve seen many generations hatch. I have never before seen what is happening now. There seems to be a perished pigeon on the right side of the ‘duplex’. He’s been slumped over, head hanging down low for days now. Maybe he got into some rat baited food and flew home before the poison kicked in. What I find so strange is that other pigeons seem to come and go from the ‘nest’ with little regard of this apparent detail. You would think they might find settling in next to a corpse, well... unsettling, but they don’t seem bothered at all. I’m excited about seeing this other end of the life cycle, since I’ve seen the beginning of the story so many times. I’m curious what will become of the dead pigeon. From where he is, wind wouldn’t blow him out, so it’s fairly likely he’ll just be absorbed into the nest and the next generation will hatch literally on top of him!

A quick check of the New York City weather tells me this: It’s presently 30 degrees and the High for today is 29, the Low is 26. Tomorrow’s projected low is 40, with a projected high of 49. Can anyone tell me how this is possible? If it’s 30 now, shouldn’t the high for today be at least 30? And if the high for today is 30 and the low for tomorrow is 40, then is the temperature going to jump from 30 to 40 at 12:01 AM? This infuriates me. Get it straight meteorologist!

Tomorrow I fly to Raleigh to see the nieces, my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Here’s hoping we have an ambulance free holiday (for once). Deck the Halls.

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly...

2008-12-19T22:04:00.009-05:00

Happy Holidays 2008! I hope this annual holiday letter finds you well.

2008 was a ‘Tale of Two Hemispheres’ for me with the first half still in Australia and the second half back home in NYC.

I’m still working for Accenture, now in my 10th year (can that be possible?) and now a Senior Manager. This year I’ve worked in Melbourne for Telstra, in Dallas for AT&T and in Minneapolis (where I am now) for Best Buy. In between Telstra and AT&T, this August, I got the opportunity to teach a new joiner school for a few weeks in St. Charles, Illinois and that was a great change of pace.

I started 2008 on a trip to Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa. It was an incredible trip. (I’ve done the scouting now, so do let me know if you want to join in on my return trip to SA for the 2010 world cup.) I enjoyed safaris in the Pilanesburg National Park, gambling at Sun City, climbing Table Mountain and touring Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned.

While South Africa was the most beautiful place I have ever been, the striking beauty was paired with unavoidable scenes of struggle and inequity. Millions of people live in Townships in abject poverty with few opportunities and little hope. Shacks like the ones below stretch for miles in all directions. It was a sobering reminder throughout my trip how lucky I am.

African wildlife isn’t fairing much better with continual reduction in habitat pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Outside of Cape Town, I visited a Cheetah rescue. While orphan cheetahs raised in captivity cannot be reintroduced into the wild, the funds raised from tourist attractions like this one (below) are used for conservation efforts. This cheetah was impossibly soft and shockingly, painfully beautiful. Being close to it was one of the highlights of the year.

In March I went to Rimini, Italy for the Paganello World Beach Ultimate Championships. I had a blast with my team, D-Rex. It was cold and rainy and we partied pretty hard. I think we finished 9th overall but none of us could still count to 9 when it was all said and done.

Back in Australia, the ultimate continued as I played a second season with the top women’s team from Melbourne, Sporting Team Box Althetico United. In April, I road-tripped to the Australian National Ultimate Championships in Coffs Harbor with my pal Lauren. Team Box is an incredible group of women and girls and we bring an irreverence to ultimate that is sorely needed.
Team Box (I’m in the very middle.)

All over the landscape of Australia there are these big tourist attractions like "The Big Banana" pictured below. They are hokey, quaint and a lot of fun, not unlike Australia itself.

This May, I made a trip back to the US for my sister Lynn’s 40th birthday. (Man Lynn, you are really getting up there!) Another reason for that trip was to attend my friend and Ambush teammate Jennifer Christenson’s wedding to Brian (Chip) Stout in North Carolina. They had a beautiful ceremony and we all had a wonderful time. Here is me as a bridesmaid on the far left:

In July, I left Australia and moved back to NYC and back into my East Village apartment. I had a great time while I was in Melbourne and I’ll miss all the friends I made there. There was a fun ultimate pick-up game send off my last day there, which was the perfect way to say farewell. I spent a few days in Fiji on the way home. Fiji was beautiful, but by that point I was impatient to get back to the city. I’ve really enjoyed being back home and getting reacquainted with the best city in the world. I’d say my favorite thing about being home is good places to get brunch.

As soon as I got back home I synced up with my NY Ultimate team, Ambush. This year we played tournaments in Ottawa, Vermont, Santa Cruz, outside of Boston and also qualified for the UPA national championship in Sarasota, Florida in October:
We finished up in 14th place and had a great time at the big dance. (I’m in the middle.)

With 2008 drawing to a close, I got the chance to spend Thanksgiving in Myersville, Maryland. Again I was surrounded by animals, but this time slightly less exotic ones: 2 parents, 2 dogs, 2 cats (not pictured), 2 horses (not pictured) and 2 “mini” horses.
We had a feast for twenty (divided by only 3) and I spent some time with my parents and all the animals. My dad and I caught a Wizards game as well. (Thanks to all of you who continue to ask about my nieces Kate & Lindy. Both are doing just great and spent Thanksgiving at Disney World with their parents.)

That’s about it. Look forward to next year’s letter when I’ll tell you about all my antics 2009. Happy New Year!