Earth Independence

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! Mine began wicked early with a jolt from the alarm clock at 5am. I rolled out of bed and into some running gear, and made my way into Winter Park for the annual Watermelon 5K. After taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque, I backtracked and made it there with about 20 minutes to spare. Just enough time to take a few pictures and stretch. The only other races I have been in have all been in Brevard County, and that keeps the population down. I was not prepared for the sheer volume of people that would fill the streets during this race. There were approximately 2000 people there...and they were all squished into the square footage of a neighborhood block! I was already sweating profusely just standing there amidst all the other runners. Man it was hot! Around 7:30am the temperature had risen to 80F or so, and the humidity was unbearable. I got so used to the cross-breeze that is always present on the coast, that I had forgotten Orlando was like an armpit. The buzzer sounded at 7:30am sharp (though I could barely hear it cause I was so far back)...then I waited about a minute before I could even move. Jeff told me not to start my watch until I reached the starting line to get an accurate time. As it was, my watch ended up being behind their clock by about 2 minutes! The first mile was just frusterating as all hell. A lot of people were walking, and I couldn't get past them! I had to wait until I got an available window of opportunity, and then sprint past them. In other words, my first mile was a series of sprints and slow jogs. I really think this used up a lot of my energy. I just couldn't get a good pace going! After about 3/4 of a mile the herd began to thin out and I had a good piece of land to myself. So I'm running along at a steady pace, feeling pretty good about myself...and then I get passed up by a firefighter, in full gear, oxygen tank and everything. That's right, he was wearing about 70 lbs of extra gear, in July, in Orlando, and he was running a 5K and kicking my ass. Man I suck. I really did suck that day too because I ended up being about 2 minutes slower than my best time! How did that happen?! Two minutes is a lot! I was really tired after the race too. I couldn't walk straight and kept bumping into people. It took me a good 5 minutes to cool down and feel normal again! I was a little scared.
Bottom line, I didn't really like running by myself. I like having Jenn by my side, and I also like that someone would be looking after me in case I pass out or something.

The rest of the day I spent on the couch watching DVR stuff. I watched "100 Funniest Movies" on Bravo, and I have almost seen all of the movies they named, save for the Woody Allen ones which I never plan on seeing anyways. There were a few that I wrote down that I will try to convince Jill to get on Netflix, like Waiting for Guffman, and The Aristocrats. You know what though, I don't think Ace Ventura was on the list!? Quite possibly one of the funniest characters to come out of the movies, and he didn't even make the Top 100!!? I don't know what yahoo put this list together, bit he should be fired for having such terrible taste.

"T-Minus 10 seconds and counting..." was the last thing I heard before running outside to the end of my driveway to witness the launch of Discovery. How patriotic to send astronauts into space on Independence Day. The sky was very clear so you could see the shuttle for a good 6 minutes after liftoff. Then, through the magic of DVR, I went back inside and watched the launch again on TV :) I literally was jumping up and down with pride when I saw Discovery finally go. The fact that we can leave this planet amazes me so much. I can't understand how anyone doesn't think it's a big deal!

After Jenn finished up her post-flight work, it was time for her to brave the traffic and head home. She made it around 7pm and then came over to hang. We got out some lawn chairs and sat in the driveway drinking wine and watching the neighborhood fireworks...which were quite good. We got pestered by my drunk neighboor and had to send him home...twice. He was rude and obnoxious and had been drinking since noon. Dude, it's called self-control...look into it.

One other thing I forgot to mention that happened Monday night. After posting my last blog entry around 1:30pm that day, I get home around 4:15pm and there is an e-mail waiting for me from the author of the book I was telling you about, Stumbling on Happiness!! A personal e-mail from the Harvard Professor himself, Dr. Daniel Gilbert, urging me to buy his book! "C'mon...buy the book. You'll love it. I promise." was all the e-mail said. I don't know about you guys, but if I was a Harvard Professor, I would probably have a lot better things to do than to scan the web for mentions of my name or book in random blogs, and then shamelessly push people, via email, to buy my book. It kinda borders on poor taste, don't you think. You're supposed to pay someone else to promote you, right? So I wrote him back and told him I would buy the book if he signed a copy for me, but he didn't bite. Oh well, guess I'll just keep heading to Barnes and Noble and reading it for free :)