Still Alive - July 2010 Edition

Still alive... It's been a pretty good summer. I wish I had written more about everything that's been going on, but sometimes in the midst of busyness, I forget to write.

The most interesting thing I omitted was going to Tybee Island, Georgia in May for a week. That was awesome. We biked everywhere, the beach was cool, the beach vibe was awesome, the ocean was cool if scary, and hanging out with good friends for a week - well, nothing beats that. Too much cool stuff to list it all, but we went hung out at the beach, biked, went to Savannah, saw sting rays and hermit crabs and other stuff, hung out, watched the ocean and stared up at the night sky. It was really a great time.

Been running a lot - signed up for the Indianapolis Mini-marathon in October. Had some trouble with my ankle again, but it seems to be okay, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem - going to check with the doctor, just in case. I haven't broken 7.4 miles, between the weather and my ankle (I wanted to be at 10 already), but I figure it will happen when it happens; I haven't started training "for real" yet, too.

Doing more reading than usual, finally. Just finished The City & the City by China Miéville. It was interesting: a fantasy of sorts but also a detective novel, a murder mystery set in two cities located in roughly the same geographic location but separated by the collective agreement, will, and psychology of the cities' residents (and a shadowy organization). I wish the mystery side of it was more solid, then I think it would have been an awesome book, but as it was it was pretty entertaining. Reading some other stuff too. Still working on The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Started reading the first of the Dresden files novels, though I set it down about a third of the way through and haven't read much since (I started reading it because I watched all the episodes from the TV show on Hulu, which I liked ok, so I was curious - the TV show grabbed me more...). Also reading other random stuff. I need to read more non-fiction, though, really.

Also watched some random stuff this summer. Went back and watched "Birds of Prey" - eh, it was entertaining, but not really brilliant. Hannah and I discovered an old '80s action cartoon - "Thundarr the Barbarian." We were having some fun with that one - quoting Thundarr all the time: "Demon dogs!" and "Lords of light!" and other random things that make even less sense out of context. Watched some "Lost" with the friends - still slightly skeptical but giving it a try. Went to see a lot of movies, too. Just saw Despicable Me last week - that was pretty good; the minions are hilarious, as is the book "Three Little Kittens" (at least as read by Gru), as are references to things being fluffy. One of the kids looks just like Boo from Monsters, Inc., though - weird... Saw the new Karate Kid and the original one, liked the both. Saw Toy Story 3 too - not as good as the first two, but not bad.

Other than that, not many individual things of excitement. Just enjoying spending time with friends and family. Been doing some reading. And work's been good too.

As of three weeks ago, my parents and Hannah are no longer in Bloomington, they're hiding out in Michigan City for a while. It was fun to have them here, for sure, though things did sometimes get a little busy - but I think I like it that way...

Other random stuff: First trip to the Farmer's Market after years and years of living here... Where I acquired a jelly-bean tomato and an ornamental sweet potato, to add to my collection of husky cherry red, jolly, sun sugar, tomatoes and my cayenne pepper plant. Not much of a harvest off the plants yet though...

And I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things.

But, anyway, like I said, it's been a fairly awesome summer, on the whole...

I wish

I wish that I could live without worry, enjoying what I do have, and not fearing that my hopes or even needs will go unfulfilled. That I could trust God enough with where I am at and where I am going to get on with my life, and not be constantly looking over my shoulder to see if my security blankets are still there. [How's that for mixing metaphors?] I wish that I could take all the energy I waste on worrying about myself, and put it into doing things, and remember others both prayerfully and practically, and bringing glory to God verbally and in actions. I really wish that's that how it was. Instead, I am where I am - and I can only pray that someday, things are different. (And I'm confident that, someday, they will be - but getting there is not always easy.)

A Simple Update

Hmm, haven't written anything lately... I feel like I've been fairly busy, in good ways lately, so that's part of it.

Let's see... Still doing salsa, that's going well. Running, of course. Ran 5 miles the Saturday before last, which was my new record. It was a little slow, and I was a little sore, but I ran 4 on this Sunday at a faster pace (10:45 at the slowest) and felt great afterward. This Saturday I might run 6 miles. Though, my left Achilles' tendon is a little annoyed today for some reason, so I may have to keep an eye on that. Haven't been having much pain lately at all, and never there, so it's a little weird.

Speaking of running - went to go see two of my good friends run the IU Mini-marathon on Saturday. It was very exciting to see them run it, and cheer them on. I was really happy for them! And also maybe dreaming a little bit of the day when I can do that. (We're planning on a half marathon in October...) It was clear before the mini, and cleared up soon after, but it rained all the while during it, so we all got pretty wet. The course was pretty convoluted, so by some careful route planning, I managed to catch up with them several times, even though they were moving a lot faster than me. It was, as I said, really cool.

I've been reading After You Believe by N. T. Wright, which is about Christian ethics - I'll do a full review eventually, but I'm not very far yet. It has been interesting so far. Also reading The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which is a collection of stories written by contemporary authors using Holmes and Watson as characters. Some of the authors are horror, fantasy, or science fiction authors, and some are mystery authors; similarly some of the stories contain fantastic elements and some do not. I don't usually go for pastiches and such, but I was in the mood for this book. Some of the stories are not bad, some are pretty mediocre, but most of them are interesting in some way or another. At any rate, it makes good bed-time reading.

Hello March, and a broken foot (not mine)

I know I've been quiet, but mostly up to the same old stuff. Still running - getting back into that. Ran four times in a little over a week, and ran more than 3 miles, so I'm getting close to back to where I was in December. Took off most of this week though, since my Achilles' tendon has been sore. Been hard to work out too since my family's here. Still dancing too - just doing salsa right now, and enjoying it a lot (it helps to have an awesome dance partner!). May do some West Coast though.

Went to see Avatar last week. Eh, looked great, but didn't have a lot else going for it. The violence was fairly disturbing to me too.

Went ice skating last week with Hannah - turned out it was her first time doing any kind of skating! She was so gung-ho about going, we went today too on what is apparently the last day of their season (their web site said it was last week...). Mom and Dad came this time. Unfortunately, Dad fell just as we were all getting about done - we had to help him hop out the locker room hallways, and drive him to the emergency room. He was able to get in right away, though Hannah and I had to wait a couple hours in the waiting room, for them to get everything taken care of. Turns out his foot's broken. Going to have to see how that affects their plans to fly back to Latvia on Thursday...

We all kicked off the bacci season yesterday, Hannah joined in too, and threw in some frisbee and Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Going to Tybee Island, Georgia in May. More about that later, for sure.

Back

Wow, it's been a while. I didn't even say anything about going to Seattle for Christmas. Or New Year's eve celebration. Or running in all kinds of bizarre weather. Eh. Not going to even attempt it, either.

Still dancing - taking salsa lessons right now, and that's been good. I'd like to get out to do it more, though. Still running, though sometimes I need some extra prodding.

The family was down here last weekend. Got to hang out with Hannah some.

I've been watching a lot of the winter olympics. I've discovered that the strategic nature of curling appeals to me. Though, it's really a little slow for television. I think I'd rather play it than watch it. Same thing for biathlon which is really cool, though it doesn't always make for the most entertaining viewing (except sometimes for the scenery - the mass start track looked nice, with the pine trees and snow). I've decided I'd like to try speed skating for sure.

Things going well, for the most part I guess. I felt until last week that some things have been missing. Some conversations about priorities, especially spiritual, led me to do some thinking, and then Tuesday I got to hear a couple spiritual pep talks (of sorts) ostensibly on prayer, but also about trusting God and again about priorities. Was kind of a booster, to both my mentality and practice, and I think that helped a lot. This week feels more like before, but there's always an up and down to things, I just want to trust. All the same, feeling a little burned out lately, but hoping things get better.