1) mostly for you chicagoans: my new favorite photo blog: ihateclarkstreet.blogspot.com
2) the first of september, and the first hint of fall in the air. some perceptible transition from the humid, languid days of late summer to the warm, golden afternoons of approaching fall. the sky is a darker shade of blue, the sunlight golden instead of hazy, bringing everything sharply into focus. it’s heartbreakingly beautiful, and yet,or perhaps because, there’s an inexplicable melancholy that settles over me about this time of year. maybe it’s the beauty of late summer juxtaposed with the inevitable approach of winter. but i’m not sure it’s anything as concrete as that. fall just makes me sad.
3) as of monday, i’ll have lived in chi-town for four years. that means i’ve spent more consecutive months living here than in any place since i left my parents’ home at age 18. never in a million years did i dream i’d end up living in the midwest, voluntarily, for a significant period of time, and yet, here i am, and it feels like home.
4) i haven’t even blogged about my weekend yet, and it’s nearly the next weekend. i marked the approaching end of summer with an impromptu trip to the bay area (thank you frequent flier miles): zipping down the 280 in my speedy rent car listening to kfog. visiting the expectant vant. seeing my brother and sister-in-law‘s new house (their very own orange trees! how jealous am i?). browsing used bookstores and drinking coffee on the patio of a berkeley coffee house with the good people behind metameat and 13 ways of looking down. on sunday i ran a 30k trail race in the oakland hills, then met H for a very excellent meal at universal cafe before catching a redeye back home. arriving at o’hare at 5am, post-run muscles stiff after having been cooped up in a center coach seat for several hours in lieu of sleeping in a bed, i was so out of it i felt drunk. dragged my sorry sleep-deprived ass home and napped for a few hours before i could face my monday. when i’m in chicago, i’m mostly happy to be here. but whenever i go back to california, i feel the pull of bay area very strongly. i’d really like to live in berkeley. i’d like to have more access to outdoorsy stuff like hiking and trail running. i want a cute little house somewhere near the university where it fogs in sometimes but never really gets too cold in the winter, and to own a chocolate lab i can take on runs with me. the thing is, none of that is out of my reach, if that’s the path i chose. but i don’t want to give up what i have here, is the thing. i very nearly packed my bags, put the cat in the car, and hit the open road when my life came apart last fall. if i’d wanted to make a fresh start, in california or new york or somewhere new, that would have been the time for it. but instead i dug in, invested, and now that window of opportunity seems to have passed. i could still go, but it would be harder now.
5) re: marathon training, last week was a big one for me; it was my 500/30/18 – that is, 500th mile run since the start of the year, the first 30+ mile week, and my first 18+ mile run. we’re honing in on both the fund raising commitment (bless you, all of you, who have made donations) and the actual race; i can count down the weeks and the long workouts remaining: this weekend it’s a 10-miler, then the next week i’m running the half marathon and tacking an extra 7 miles on to make it my 20-mile day, then the following week it’s 120-min run, then a 16-miler, than something easy like 8 or so, and the week after that is the marathon! to be honest, i’ve been training for eight full months now, and i’m starting to approach burn out. enough with the thinking/talking/dreading/planning/working; lets get to it!