Runners

This particular Sunday finds me feeling pretty tightly wound. I don't know what it is - if it's been a hard week, if my mood is being affected by the stress of work (I ran five meetings last week but the way those go is that you learn all along the way so that by the last meeting, you're completely educated on the subject, which is good) or perhaps it's the fact that November is flying by and I'm feeling like time is out of control and out of my hands. Anyway, last Sunday we headed over to 1st Avenue to watch the crowd gathered to observe the New York City Marathon. Craig persuaded me that it would be cool, and in fact it was pretty amazing. First we left the apartment mid-lunch because the tv told us the leaders were headed north on 1st (they run a little in all five boroughs, beginning in Staten Island, crossing the Verrazano Bridge, running through Brooklyn, running into Long Island City, Queens, crossing the 59th Street Bridge and running north along 1st into the Bronx, finishing up somewhere in Central Park.) We wanted to watch the leaders cruise by just to, well, say we saw the leaders. After that we returned here to finish our sandwiches then left the apartment again to join the onlookers on 1st. The crowd was wild - very enthusiastic, very supportive, smiling, spilling out of bars. People wore themed t-shirts for runners they knew, and many held signs cheering on the athletes. Katie Holmes ran but we didn't see her. Lance Armstrong finished in something like 20 minutes better time than he did last year. The first place woman finished in 2 hours and 20-something minutes - good God! Running for 2 hours +? Please. She's insanely fit and the astonishing thing you'd not know by looking at her cut flat torso is that she gave birth to a child just 9 months prior. The human body can be such an enigmatic machine. So, the race itself was pretty inspiring
in that these people committed themselves to quite the feat. Craig and I observed that while we stood by and had a few beers, these people were accomplishing a hefty goal, one for which they had trained aggressively in attempt to accomplish it. I told him maybe we'd run next year. Please. Right.*So, another week is down as is another weekend. We went to see a few bands Friday night, one called Razorlight, a British pop rock band Craig loves. Saturday we hung around the apartment and then left to meet our friends Alison and Scott on the West Side to drink beer and watch college football. Illinois beat #1 ranked undefeated Ohio State. Then our co-worker Paul and his girlfriend Stacy joined us, along with Stacy's two girlfriends from Southern Illinois. It was fun but today we paid for it. This week's menu has me excited: Thai-Style Beef tonight, which is going to be fun considering I've never cooked with fish sauce, curry paste and coconut milk before, and I'm looking forward to that, andouille, red beans and rice another night, penne with turkey sausage, zucchini and feta another night, and a tasty turkey and white bean chili that is going to be a staple for the winter months. The shopping is done, football is on, and I'm feeling like bedtime tonight might be an early one and might consist of me propped in bed watching whatever TNT Sunday night movie might be on, or maybe I will burrow into the blankets with some poetry. In a week we fly to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We are finally, finally introducing our parents to each other, which will be an interesting occasion. Craig's sis Kara and her husband Ben are bringing their new baby for the day. We fly out of LaGuardia at some ungodly hour the morning of Thanksgiving, and then we're returning Saturday morning so that Sunday can be ours. It's going to be intriguing, to say in the least. Then, let the countdown begin to Los Cabos! I ordered some resort wear from Victoria's Secret - ordering clothing online is never the smartest thing to do but I've got my fingers crossed. I ordered a pair of platform flip flops that have me pretty darned excited. Our resort just opened this weekend (it's an International chain all-inclusive resort, so I'm confident that they know what they're doing) so I'm looking forward to what I hope are rave reviews. How excited are we...also, since I haven't said so already, warmest congratulations to the Long Family as they have welcomed a new baby boy to their threesome: Ashwin Marcus.