madness, indeed

well first off, thanks very much to everyone for their comments on my last post!!  Really appreciated 🙂

So I was sure that once Kansas lost, that my bracket was done for?  In addition to 90% of the brackets in this nation?  Guess again!!  Thankfully, this was the Tournament of Upsets…and others had worse bracket scenarios…and I actually picked Cornell to go to the Sweet 16!  Whatever the series of events, it meant I actually wound up 2nd in my office pool, and winning a cool $200!!  And-even funnier-my brother wound up in first!!  And NO, we were were NOT in cohoots!!  Did not copy each other’s brackets or anything like that 🙂  But I’m glad I kept up my streak in the even years, of finishing in the top 4, hence in the money…

And that fate was decided before the final game…so Monday’s final was sorta anticlimactic in terms of the final pool standings.  (Though Butler fans would think otherwise-oh, SO close to beating Dook at the buzzer!)  Did the usual “First Monday” thang with the Flyers…thankfully there were a coupla others who were up for a shorter route, as my legs were still tired from Saturday’s race.  But the Blackberry Wheat beer at Chelsea Brewery was worth it.

What else…oh yeah, my WTF work moment of the week (well actually a carryover from last week.)  Tell me, who actually says when they email their group that “due to deadlines and priorities, I will not be taking today as a vacation day.”  Guess what-we all take days off during crunch times.  Nature of the beast.  No need to invoke a guilt trip or anything like that…

And another WTF moment on Dancing With the Stars.  How-I repeat, HOW-did Kate avoid the bottom 2 AGAIN?  Whoever is skewing the votes in her favor…you’re on my list!!  And if Evan ever gets cut to save her, there will be hell to pay!! 😛

Finally, Brightroom actually got decent pictures of me from a race for a change!!  Check it out…

in the last mile and working hard!

finished!

the "after" pic

the momentum shifts?

So I’m sure the lack of posting this week signaled that it was a very hectic week in Flygirl-land.  Well on the work side, definitely was…had at least one meeting, if not more than one, seemingly every day this week.  (oh, and the same person who endorsed weekend work here also wondered if someone who had taken a sick day was gonna still call in for a scheduled meeting.  what you see is my eyes rolling.)

Of course, this meant I was one tired chick this week, and it showed in my workouts…Tuesday I just did some easy miles before meeting the Flyers at a bar on the UES after their speed workout.  Thursday I put on the DS-Trainers, hoping to inject some speedy pickups into my run, but the legs were not having it…everything just felt tired.  Thankfully I ran into Flyer PD near 102nd and he kept me company and we chatted for about a mile or so.  Always nice to have unexpected company 🙂  And Wednesday I had planned to hit up a yoga class after work, but was absolutely beat and decided to just call it a night.

Needless to say, the batteries needed recharging this weekend.  Which started Friday nite at Tortilla Flats with some margaritas and girl talk 😉  Not to mention a, uh, amusing soundtrack of sorts in the background courtesy of the restaurant.  By the end of the night, I was inspired to dig up some of my old MTV Party To Go mix CDs and had memories brought back of of a certain someone in college who would blast “I Wish” by Skee-Lo constantly (and annoy the hell outta his suitemates.  I just found the whole thing amusing. 🙂 )

And even though I didn’t feel the drinks were that strong, I guess they did a little bit of a number on me, cuz I crashed not too long after I got home.  And I definitely needed a day to actually sleep in and not set the alarm…as my quickie on Saturday felt better than most of my others this week.  Quickie run…what were you thinking? 😉  3 miles and change on the bridle path, and I’m glad I never put the tights away because I needed them for this run!  (When did winter decide to come back?)  Topped that off with a yoga class to stretch everything out and prep for a long one…

So today, EG had arranged a long run with both 20 and 10-mile options down the west side to Brooklyn…the 10-mile option was perfect for me!!  Now of course the wild card, will the (sh)IT Band hold up?  Well as it turned out, it did. 

Was a nice crew running…some peeps I already knew in real life, others that I knew in the virtual running world and finally put a name to a face, and others that were brand new to me.  The weather was kinda crappy…capris and long sleeves were the order of the day as opposed to the shorts and tank tops of the previous weekend.  Oh and the weather people LIED!!  As it was rainy and windy during our run and didn’t wait for the evening.  Guess I should have wore the hat instead of the sunglasses?  Kept a nice relaxed pace of around 9:00, give or take a few seconds, and every few miles someone would ask if my knee was holding up ok-which I thought was nice.  And before I knew it, we were crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, running along the promenade, and down a steep hill to our final destination.  Nice run, and look forward to many more in the future…

So…close to 11 miles done.  And the (sh)IT Band seemed to hold up…legs did feel tired in the last few miles, but more endurance tired than hurting tired.  But just in case, the (sh)IT Band was still gonna have a date with some ice and the Quadballer later.  (Well after my hot shower…best hot shower ever.  Well, since this run.)

So maybe the momentum has shifted?  I can only hope it stays in this direction…gonna keep moving but still with a little caution.  This week looks like a little bit of a cutback…partially because of celebrating passover the next 2 nights with la familia, makes it a little tough to get workouts in unless I wake up early (doubtful!)  Plus the next 2 days look to be washouts anyway.  But on the other hand, may be a good thing to let the legs rest a little before Saturday’s 10K. (Though I never seem to run well on that course-rested or not!)

And on another topic-who would have thought that my bracket would still be in the running (ha ha) to finish in the money after Kansas was knocked out of it (and screwed up 90% of this country’s brackets, I’m sure.)  It sure has been the Tournament of Upsets…Saturday’s games are gonna be interesting!! 🙂

feelin’ spring-y

Three days (and a possible fourth) in a row of spring weather, even before the official start of the season?  Hey, the weather gods owed NYC a lot after this past winter…

So Tuesday night was my first run in my new lightweight trainers…yep, after a coupla years, it was time to bid the Asics DS-Trainers farewell…as a matter of fact, seems like I’m moving away from Asics completely…I just don’t like what they’ve been doing to the shoes…making the heel units too “busy” or something…it just completely changes the feel of the shoe.  So last week, I had stopped by Urban Athletics before the Flyers‘ board meeting, and tried on a coupla pairs of lightweight trainers before ultimately deciding on the Adidas AdiZero Tempo.  Hey, I like the name already…and look nice too.  Now all I needed was a non-rainy day to road test them, which turned out to be Tuesday.

So I had a hunch that the park was going to be a zoo, due to all the hibernators in addition to the teams who were regularly there on Tuesday nites.  Whatever, I’m running anyway 🙂  And I don’t know if it was the great weather or the new shoes, but this was the best run I had since before my injury.  Was listening to my playlist from Grete’s 2008…ahhh good songs, good memories.  I also worked in 5 x 1 minute fast (w/ 3 min recovery) to test the shoes and the waters with speed/pickups…paces for the pickups were 6:54, 7:15, 7:58 (had to do some dodging on the very crowded lower loop-slowed me down a little), 7:21, 7:04 (which included part of the hill by Tavern!)  Even a friend who saw me in passing during one of the non-pickups said it looked like I was “cruising.”  And once again, the (sh)IT band stayed quiet…maybe, just maybe have I turned a corner?

So yesterday, even though the weather was great again, I had planned to make it a gym day.  I think this is gonna be the toughest thing-forcing myself to cross-train indoors when the weather is nice but I gotta stick with it if I want to stay on the road to recovery.  So I planned to do a yoga class yesterday evening, as I didn’t have any St. Patrick’s Day plans-honestly I can take or leave it (unlike my brother, who took the day off from work-and he’s not even Irish!).  But the co-workers decided on an impromptu get-together at our usual favorite Brass Monkey…as it also was a perfect day to have beers on their roof deck.  So…compromise-I only went for one beer, and stuck with that plan…and was still able to make it to my class (well the fact that it was at 8:15 helped).  And surprisingly, the pint of Blue Moon consumed didn’t affect my balance at all…or maybe it wore off by then 🙂

And can’t have March without March Madness!!  Kicks off today (and my brother not only took yesterday off from work, but today and tomorrow…not just to nurse his hangover, but to watch the 1st round games!  talk about taking this stuff seriously…)  And yes, doing another pool in the office…and as it’s an even year, I hope to finish in the money once again 🙂

being a mid-packer

when it helps being a mid-packer…
surprisingly enough, the office march madness pool. i thought my bracket was dead in the water by the final four. however, i forgot that whoever winds up smack dab in the middle gets a small payout. and guess who that was? yeah, the payout was pretty small compared to the top 4 (especially the winner, who won $675!) but can’t complain about getting my entry fee back. 🙂

when it doesn’t help being a mid-packer…
OK, i’ve been annoyed at brightroom in the past for never getting any pictures of me at NYRR races, most disappointing being the 2006 NYCM, since that was my first marathon. But MarathonFoto didn’t get a single running picture of me from Cherry Blossom!! And honestly, I don’t understand it, since they seemed to get a ton of pictures of my other friends. And I was hoping for a nice running picture with the cherry blossoms in the background. talk about adding insult to injury…guess it really wasn’t my day!!

done writing for now. time to get back to watching the Dancing With The Stars results show!! 🙂

ankles are the new cleavage

yes, i figured the title would be good for a laugh or two. that is in reference to the latest ridiculous thing from office life. luckily, the reprimandee wasnt me this time, but another girl. her crime? showing too much ankle. i kid you not. capri-length leggings and a dress over it, which actually looked nice, but apparently, too revealing. can someone please explain to me, how is this more revealing and offensive than wearing dresses, skirts or capri pants? i don’t get it. needless to say, that was the latest joke on facebook amongst the work crew.

the rest shall be another mishmash post…

my ncaa bracket is officially dead in the water. shoulda picked louisville to win it all instead of pittsburgh, but hey i listened to my mom, who correctly predicted kansas last year…

now that march madness is all but over, i think there should be a new pool…
“when will brooklyn half registration be open?”
whoever guesses closest should get free registration courtesy of nyrr 🙂
speaking of the brooklyn half…i am…actually…considering this one. only thing standing in my way besides there being no set date, is not knowing how my calves are going to behave on the boardwalk (if they are going to cramp up again like they did both other times.)
and whats up with the rest of the calendar? no more NYC half (not that that one was a big loss for me), the queens half got moved to september 20th which conflicts with both the 5th ave mile and rosh hashanah. at the rate things are going, i am not getting in my 9 races this year…but thats ok because if things go well, i wont be doing a fall marathon in 2010…

the hills season 5 starts a week from tomorrow!!! yay for trash tv being back on monday nights. unfortunately the premiere clashes with the march madness final (mtv, what were you thinking?). thank god for dvr…

3 more days… 😉

not doin’ the shuffle

so i stopped by the Apple store by work today to check out the much-hyped new Shuffle.

Now it may be little and cute, but I dunno…don’t think I’m sold on that. I don’t like how the controls are in the headphones-since I hate the white headphones and wind up using different brands. And I even tried out the controls…meh. If I needed to play with the order, it could get annoying. Sorry Apple…as with certain other things, smaller isn’t always better 😛

In the meantime…getting a new iPod nano is very tempting…I do like the 4th-generation upgrade…

Other news-March Madness so far is breaking my heart…my bracket ain’t faring so well. Yeah it’s still early, but I’m doubtful my bracket is going to repeat last year’s glory.

And was Mother Nature f*cking with us today? First day of spring? Snow? Haven’t we suffered enough in the Northeast this winter…

12 more days…

10-mile dress rehearsal

nope, didn’t run 10 miles at speedwork!! but did 3 x 1.05 miles (1.05 mi=5 laps of the Great Hill track) at 10-mile pace. Which was honestly a perfect workout for me with Broad Street in 2 1/2 weeks. The McMillan calculator suggested a 10-miler at an 8:10 pace based on my last 4-mile race…so tried to aim for that, give or take and wound up with this…

1st “mile” 8:31 (8:05 pace)		2nd “mile” 8:28 (8:02 pace)		3rd “mile” 8:15 (7:50 pace)
Time	Pace	Time	Pace	Time	Pace
1:43	8:09	1:43	8:09	1:40	7:54
1:40	7:54	1:42	8:05	1:39	7:50
1:43	8:09	1:41	7:59	1:40	7:54
1:43	8:09	1:41	7:59	1:40	7:54
1:42	8:04	1:41	7:59	1:37	7:40

Not bad, right? And no being the rabbit this time too. 🙂

In other news, I finally got my March Madness payout!! A cool $150. Of course, I would have gotten $350 had I only picked Memphis over UCLA to make the final…but still, $150 is nothing to sneeze at!! 🙂

rock chalk jayhawk

Seems that in the even years, I have decent luck in my office’s March Madness pool!!

In 2004-I was tied for 3rd, but got bumped back to 4th via the tiebreaker…which was fine, as 4th still got a payout.

In 2006-I was tied for 4th-but as I mentioned back then, I got the payout as the guy I was tied with didn’t bother to pick a score for the final game tiebreaker.

And this year, going into the final game, if Kansas won, I’d win 2nd in the pool. (If only I had picked Memphis over UCLA…but what can you do.)

The plan last nite was to do a run with the downtown crew, then hit up Chelsea Brewing Company to down a pint (or 2, or 3) and watch the game. And in the meantime, the Yankee game was on and they were winning yet again…cool 🙂

And the game started and boy-it was a real close one the entire time. Stressful!! Cherry Wheat beer and Checker Cab Blonde Ale helped with that-but not enough 🙂 When Memphis started really building up their lead late in the 2nd half, I thought it was over…with about 4 minutes to go, I was like “I can’t watch this anymore…too heartbreaking” and left to find a cab home.

While in the cab, I checked espn.com on my Treo and saw what I couldn’t believe…the game was going into overtime!!!! What did I miss? A 3-pointer with 2 minutes to go. Wow. Holy sh*t, I still have a chance!! As soon as I got home, I immediately turned on the TV and stayed glued to it til the end…and what I saw was that Kansas took the lead and didn’t let it go til the final buzzer!!

And that, my friends, made me richer by a yet-to-be-determined amount (the pool man hasn’t let us know yet what the payout breakdowns are…)

However, I do have to give a little something to my mom, as she suggested I pick Kansas for the final. As my brother says, “usually those who know the least wind up doing the best in these pools.” And as my mom was the only one who picked Kentucky to win in 1998 (and wound up winning a pool that my brother was running!)…maybe there is something to that!!

(disclaimer-we have no affiliation with any of the mentioned schools in this blog post!! the choices were just dumb luck!! 🙂 )

hot and cold, less and more

another mishmash post!! sorry, just full of em these days 🙂

• UCLA kinda sorta broke my heart yesterday. And Kansas did give me a tiny but of a scare, but prevailed. If Kansas wins tomorrow nite, then I get 2nd place (and some $$$-actual amount TBD) in my office pool. I will be watching nervously while sipping on a pint of beer.
• Did my longest run in awhile yesterday, 10.1 miles (full 6, 2.5 mi bridle path, and 1 reservoir loop) and felt just fine-Philly I’m ready for ya (will sneak in one more beforehand though.) Was so nice out yesterday-shorts and short sleeve weather. Which of course crowded the park drives, bridle path-and especially the reservoir. No wonder each half-mile of the rez (which was the end of my run) got progressively faster-the last half-mile was at an 8:15 pace!-because I just wanted to get the heck away from the crowds so bad!! (I don’t intend to make a habit of doing that though.)
• The weather was the flip side today-chilly!! Good for those running the More marathon and half-yet a wee bit nippy for those volunteering, including yours truly. But did the water station thing for a coupla hours-this year got there early enough to see both the full and the half marathon runners!! And got in my volunteer requirement for next year’s NYCM guaranteed entry, yeah!! (now I just need to get in 7 more races this year…)
• And headed off to Yankee stadium after my volunteering stint (well, after I got some Starbucks to warm my hands up!) to watch my guys kick the crap out of the Devil Rays-I knew they would since I was there :-p Was a fun game, though a bit chilly. And oh man-the crowds were ridiculous when leaving!! Here’s hoping the new stadium will have more room to move…
• But I stopped by the Yankee clubhouse store yesterday because I didn’t want to wear my ARod shirt. While I was there-I was so glad to see that my team will never lose its sense of humor…

number ones

Well apparently this is a March Madness first!! All four #1 seeds in the Final Four!! And even better yet, that means all my Final Four teams in my bracket are still in it 🙂 Kansas over UCLA in the final, let’s make that happen!! C’mon, I can use the $$$…

The rest of this post shall be a mishmash of things…

• Had to go to DC for the day last Monday for a client pres that one of our salespeople was making. What a long day-spent more time on the train than we actually did with our client. But thankfully got an earlier train home…the Acela rocks!! As did kicking back with Coronas and pretzels
• The Hills? To quote my brother “Whenever a show goes to Paris, it’s usually bad (a la The Real World)” As usual, Gawker sums it up just nicely.
• For a change, I’m not listening to my commenters. In the whole Brooklyn-Broad Street debate, I am going in the opposite direction and leaning towards Broad Street. Brooklyn will just need to talk trash about me for another year. But honestly, I’d rather run a good 10-miler than a mediocre half-marathon, and seriously…is it really a smart thing to run on a surface that has caused calf pain in the past (the boardwalk) while coming back from a calf injury?? Didn’t think so.
• me and some other Flyers did some volunteering work in Central Park yesterday morning…a little raking, weeding, bagging and other cleaning stuff. And couldn’t believe some of the things we came across…including a syringe. yick. I know this is NYC, but still…
• Took pictures at this morning’s race (the Scotland Run)…got another kilt picture for Crazy Bandana-head…not a huge Flyer turnout (either that or a lot of Flyers may have been running incognito) As the boyfriend of one of my teammates said “How much did the Flyers have to drink last nite?” But damn…was there really about 7000 runners there?? (It did sure seem like it…)

"we hope this letter finds you in last place"

Episode 4 of Amazing Race All-Stars will forever go down in history as the best.elimination.ever.
(Moz…I know you agree!) Talk about karma being a bitch…now just please stay off the TV screen forever.

And let’s see…the Great Danes have bettered last year’s 16 seed, and the Terps have a better seed than Dook!! should be one interesting tournament…

hmmm…both of these things almost make up for the craptastic performance this morning. in case anyone is wondering, i am not doing a re-crap, it’s not exactly something I want to “re-live.” All I know is I am calling the doctor this week, as I cannot take any more of this crappy running…

why you should always read your emails carefully

well just as i predicted in Sunday’s post, our office’s March Madness pool had the order virtually unchanged by the outcome of the final last nite, and I was tied for 4th, with the tiebreaker being what each of us picked for the final score and whoever comes closest I guess.

but wait a minute…you’re saying the guy who’s tied with me just ignored the email sent out last week asking for a final score prediction in the case of a tiebreaker?

our final email update from my colleague who’s running the pool included this:

“Check out 4th Place, it pays to read your email and follow directions!
DK – flygirl thanks you!”

(names changed to protect the innocent, of course)

so yep, i won a cool $24. i’ll try not to spend it all in one place.

went out to Blondies to watch the final game last nite with HC and a few other Flyers…tradition!! Apparently it wasn’t as crowded as it had been in the past-guess that’s what a lot of upsets during the tourney will do (in addition to a final game that wasn’t even close!) was a good time though. and i got to see part of the Yankees’ opening day blowout too 🙂

spring forward

while i’m loving that it’ll now be light out when i leave work, i wish we didn’t have to lose an hour’s sleep in the process…especially since weekends are my “catch-up time.” (plus feeling a little under the weather…due to the weather not making up its mind recently!!) so this morning, despite my plans to do a long run this morning…i almost just rolled over and shut off the alarm thinking “oh i can do the run this afternoon, it will be nice then.” but i thought, nah, i’ll do it now, i’ll get to see everyone and have company that way.

so, around 8:40-8:45 ish, i ran the 1.2 miles to where the start line of today’s Scotland 10K was, and kept on going for 1 easy 6-mile loop. the park was also filled with those that were participating in the March Madness Biathlon…saw a couple of my teammates and cheered them on. so, the first loop was pretty easy, but i was getting pretty hot wearing my long-sleeved Flyers shirt…good thing I wasn’t racing! i didn’t really keep time except for a couple of miles, but i think this loop was a little over a 9 minute pace.

and it perfectly timed for me getting to the race start…but man, with the nice weather, the race was so crowded (over 5000 finishers!) i could only find a place to line up on the sidewalk. (but did see a few teammates so I lined up near them.) i reiterated my plan to not race this 🙂 (after all, i didn’t even have a bib or chip!) not that i could really “race” it with 7 miles on my legs, but what i could do is make this loop a little faster than the previous loop, and try and pick up the pace a little with each mile. i sorta succeeded in that regard-the mile splits were 9:19 (very crowded start), 8:46, 8:45, 8:51 (Harlem Hill), 8:32, 8:24, then 1:45 for the final .2 mile. All together, it was 54:22, 8:45 pace-mission accomplished, 13.4 miles under my belt for the day.

One observation from the race-you know i’m all about the running skirts, but man oh man, I don’t think I saw so many runners wearing them in all one place 🙂 Kilts, in honor of the Scotland theme. One of my teammates was actually playing the bagpipes to entertain us up near the 102nd street transverse (but also cheered for the Flyers in between playing-thanks!)

So, i think this worked pretty well for doing a long run!! I think I might do the same before the Adidas Run for the Parks-though it’s my “anniversary” NYRR race (2 years ago when it was the Niketown Run for the Parks) it’s gotten way too damn crowded to be enjoyable. But this way, if I do a loop beforehand, I can still participate and get in my last long run-10 miles-before Queens. However-I throw out this question to you all-as that race is on a Sunday, and the half is the following Saturday (so 6 days before)-would you recommend me doing that last long run then or should it be on Saturday (1 week before) or does it even matter?

Next up is next Sunday-the Labrecque 4-miler…a points race and hopefully I can see where I stand with my prep for Queens…then 6-7 easy miles later that day…

And in March Madness news, I am currently tied for 4th in my office pool. The outcome of the final won’t change the rankings, so the final score is gonna act as the tiebreaker to determine if I win $24…or not!

now playing: “red blooded woman” ~ kylie minogue

more more more

yep, today was the day of the masters woman.

so today was the annual More Marathon and Half-Marathon in Central Park. every year, the Flyers run an aid station there…the last 2 years they had us on the 102nd street transverse, giving out water and bananas to the full marathoners…this year we were “upgraded” to a location that served both the half and the full marathoners-across the park drive from the Met, around 84th street.

so, the morning dawned on the chilly side-good for the runners, less than ideal for the volunteers! thats ok though. i was put right to work getting cups of gatorade ready to hand out to the runners and handing them out too-and cheering everyone on in the process 🙂 a bunch of our ladies acted as pace leaders for the full marathon and the buzz is that they did a great job! our veteran superstar won her age group and ran a fabulous race in the full marathon. (actually-i give all the marathoners credit-i’d go loopy after 5 loops in Central Park. granted, they were 5 clockwise lower 5’s…so no Harlem Hill or Cat Hill!) But, it was a great experience helping out, and all the ladies were very appreciative…lots of thank yous from them, and we gave thank you’s back to them…was nice tobe even a little part of helping these ladies achieve their goal…be it a first marathon or half-marathon, or bettering their time, or whatever else.

later, i met up with la familia for a b-day dinner for my grandmother-she just hit the big 8-9. i guess it was fun, except…i dunno, i always feel when my family gets together…for one thing, when they talk about who’s getting married or engaged i’m always afraid of hearing the dreaded question that I always have to answer “no” to-“so, are you seeing anybody?” not to mention feeling like i pale in comparision to my good-looking, popular, successful cousins. sometimes i really wonder if i was adopted. i used to have running as the one thing i sorta excelled at, but that’s gone now. i’m just praying what i have going on will work out…sooner rather than later…i’d love to have some good news to tell about myself for a change…ok, rant over.

in NCAA news, though my final 4 are kaput (but how about that UConn/George Mason game? wow-now that was great basketball watching!) but i think i’m tied for 2nd in my work pool-now hoping that everyone else’s final 4’s are done for too!!

transitionalizing

ok, i don’t know if that’s even a real word. but i just feel like using it.

historically (well if you count the last 3 years as historically,) i’ve found winter to spring to be the hardest of the seasonal transitions…spring to summer is usually easy, summer to fall-that’s easy as well, as fall brings nice temps and fall marathon mania. even fall to winter, as that period falls amidst a lot of holiday madness and festivities.

but this year and the last 2 years, i’ve always felt…kinda blah in march. very cranky and tired and desperately needing spring to come…and the spring fever that comes with it. c’mon, gotta break out the warm-weather wardrobe and the singlets-none of this “convincing” myself it’s shorts weather! 🙂 i guess this is a little bit of a letdown after january and february being pretty active months…and at the beginning of this month i thought the dating gods had cut me a break, but wasn’t meant to be, i guess. plus other stuff going on as well…

i’m really hoping the change of seasons will bring other changes with it…including the certain something i’ve hinted about in previous posts. now if only both can happen sooner rather than later, i will be a happy girl.

at least i had a good run tonite…lower 5 in great weather and great company along with it, especially the end of the run-i had to say it because i know you lurk 😉

(and at least Dook lost. though it totally screwed up my bracket. go UConn.)

now playing: “bette davis eyes” ~ kim carnes

random tuesday tidbits

yeah, i feel like being sorta random again. forgive me. 🙂

• how ’bout those Great Danes, the little team that could? anyone else think they could possibly have pulled off the upset of all upsets on Friday nite-and wrecked everyone’s brackets (mine included, I had UConn winning it all!) in the process?
• so, the biggest weather news of the day is that the northeast is due for a Katrina-esque hurricane. Gothamist was nice enough to post the link to the map of the hurricane evacuation zones. My apartment does not fall in an evacuation zone, but my office does. Doesn’t surprise me, considering how many times our office has been evacuated in the last 3 years (plus the fact that we’re pretty close to the Hudson.)
• is it like, supposed to be spring or something? doesn’t quite feel like it. was it canceled or postponed or something?
• for those watching the Apprentice this season-how sweet was last nite’s firing? without spoiling, i’ll just say, long time coming.
• i let my match.com subscription expire. no luck there. so to JDate again or not to JDate again? (although i care a lot less now about finding a “nice jewish boy”…i mean, yeah, he’s got to be nice but i’m not sure i want to let the religion issue limit me…)
• today i got an email giving me a heads up that registration is open for this year’s JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. i was captain for my company’s team last year…and honestly, morale to sign up was pretty low-between people being away and the historically freaky weather (rainy in ’03, 90+ degrees in ’04.) only 9 people signed up, of those 9, only 6 showed up on race day. so i’m not too sure if i want to be a captain again this year. besides the fact i dont even want to run this “race” since it’s so always so damn crowded…but right now i’m at a point where i don’t want to commit to being either a captain or runner for my company…

now playing: “i wish i wasn’t (remix)” ~ heather headley

bubble bursted

That was the text message that my brother answered me with on Sunday evening. The question was “Any word on the Terps yet?” Tough news for him to take for the second year in a row, especially after being so used to the Terps being so dominant in basketball season. We have fond memories of drinking it up at ESPNZone and watching the Terps win the 2002 title…

But what he didn’t expect to happen-and a sign that we truly are in an alternate universe, was that my alma mater would be in and his not! Yes, the Albany Great Danes are making their first March Madness appearance-albeit a 16 seed that will most likely get blown out by UConn in the first round (hell, I’m not even choosing them in my March Madness pool!)

You’d think I’d be more excited about it but honestly I’m not. (Don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s a great accomplishment for them!) Maybe it’s because I feel like I’ve really moved on from the whole college scene. Plus Albany was never a real “school spirit” school when it came to athletics-at least not when I was there…we didn’t go Division 1 til after I graduated. I guess I don’t see the same passion that other schools’ alumni have for their sports programs.

But I do always think March Madness is a fun time of year…the packed bars, the annual office pools…good times 🙂