In your dreams!!!

I wake up every morning remembering that I was dreaming. But I never remember what I dreamed about(or is it dreamt about? English teachers, please forgive me). But I do remember a dream I had a few nights ago. I was racing in a triathlon and found my self up with the leaders. I was thinking to myself(in my dream)"Wow! I can't believe I'm keeping up with these guys, I'm feeling great, I think I can win this".

At that point someone told me I was in third place and we were in the last stage, running. Now, I can't name a lot of the elite triathletes in the world, but, I can name some of the top runners. In my dream I passed Deena Kastor, who was in 1st place in the womens division and then I passed Ryan Hall to move into 2nd place.

At this point the race went into a building and just as I was about to make my move to take the lead we went into a stairwell and I apparently got off on the wrong floor. Hall passed me but I caught and passed him just before the finish line, which happened to be in the office of the Assesor of Cook County Illinois. That is where the Police and military caught up to Jake and Elwood in the movie The Blues Brothers.

I think I was pretty happy with 2nd place. I'm not sure who finished first. Probably Big bird or Evel Kneivel.

And I say all of that to say this- Happy Monday! What a long strange trip we have before us.

Landmarks pt.1

I think from time to time about places I have been and places I have lived and certain images stick out from each of those places.


I spent about 9 years of my life in Tuscaloosa, AL. and I love that town. Iam so proud to be a child of New Orleans and am so proud of that heritage but a big piece of my heart will always be on the banks of the Black Warrior River.



One image that pops into my mind when I think of Tuscaloosa is the Moon Winx Inn. Located in the "Alberta City" aka "the ABC" section of town it was once one of the nicest places to stay in town as it was on the main highway through town before the interstate was built. These days it is often the butt of pay by the hour jokes(no, i don't know if you can actually pay by the hour). But the sign is true Tuscaloosa landmark. At night the sign is lit in neon and animated as the neon at the eye switches back and forth to make it appear the the moon is winking.

and the restaurant no longer exists.

One thing I never understood is why you would need an air conditioned telephone. HMMM?

It makes me wonder

I haven't been posting much as I haven't felt like I've had much to say. In truth, I don't feel like I have much to say right now so I am just gonna ramble for a few minutes. I remember an English professor of mine once say that when you can't think of what to write just start writing and eventually it will lead somewhere, then go back and erase the first half and you'll be good to go(paraphrased).

I wonder sometimes who reads this stuff and would anyone want to read this stuff? I wonder sometimes why there are so many religions and denominations. All of the believers claim to pray about their faith and believe that God has revealed to them that their faith is the true faith. It seems to me that not everyone can be right on this matter. If there is Only one God, as they believe, then only one faith can be right, right? This makes organized, doctrinal based religion difficult for me. Now you know.

I wonder how people that do Ironman triathlons do it. First, I wonder how they finish those races, any one part of that race seems like it would be all a person can do(2 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, full marathon). Even more amazing to me is how these people find the time to do the training for this event. It requires multiple workouts everyday for months leading up to the race. In my opinion, being disciplined enough to get in all the workouts is a greater accomplishment than the race itself. Not to diminish the race, that's super freakin awesome too.

I wonder why dogs and cats don't get along.

I wonder if the things I say about students today are the same things that my teachers said about my generation. And did my parents teachers say the same thing about their generation? Today's students don't like to work, they seem to want everything handed to them. They want everything now. they have no patience or no work ethic. They don't understand the concept of original thought. NO! young student, just because YOU used YOUR computer it doesn't make them YOUR ideas. Plagiarism is still illegal, and you are now a criminal, Jack@$$.

I wonder if there will ever be a day when my butt doesn't hurt after a 20 mile bike ride.

I wonder if I have rambled enough.

I wonder if I should have put question marks behind all of the "i wonder" lines I have written.

I wonder if Sadie and Lily are sleeping on my bed right now or are plotting their escape from the back yard.
I wonder how you managed to stay awake long enough to make it through this entire post.

Have a great day!

State Championship

Yesterday I participated in the OxBow Triathlon, which was also the 2010 USAT Louisiana State Championship race. But no, I didn't win any championship. I just wanted to race with some really great triathletes.

I finished the race in 2 hours 14 minutes, 10 minutes faster than last year. When the morning started I thought I might be able to beat 2 hours, but the fact that I was sick this week destroyed that hope. 200 meters into the swimm I knew it was gonna be a long day. It's never good to be weezing when swimming. I have had some type of allergy related cold thing going on this week, and I just couldn't get any air in my lungs. Any deep breaths were answered by fits of coughing, which doesn't help create a steady pace when swimming. So, the swim took 10 minutes longer that planned.

Coming out of the water I was considering calling it a day. But, I hate to waste an entry fee and since my brother took time out of his busy schedule to go to the race I figured I would go as far as i could. So off on the bike I rode.

2 miles into the 18 mile ride I was passed by a 50 year old lady. I don't mind being passed by women or people older than me, I go in with a plan and stick to it. today however, the plan was scrapped shprtly into the swim. So, I decidied to try to keep up with this lady. She was hammering away at a decent pace(in my mind I started calling her "the hammer") and i knew that if I did the ride on my own I would lose momentum. I would follow herfor the next 14 miles. She set a great and steady pace, I got about 15 yards behind her and held on the best I could.

About 3 miles from the end of the bike I passed her and gave her some words of encouragement and praise. she returns later in the story.

I made a quick transition to the run and got on my way. still, there was no air in my lungs and my legs felt like sandbags. But, I knew I could bang out the 3 mile run, I kept telling myself that its just a lap around the neighborhood. A mile into the race "the Hammer" caught me. When ran together fo a few minutes and chatted, it was a nice diversion. Then she pulled ahead and I was proud of her for doing so. A lot of guys might be disappointed or take a shot to their pride when passed by an older woman. Me, I was proud of her. "The Hammer" Kept me going yesterday. Here's to the ladies!

As I approached the finish I thought about future training and races, the training I've already done, the events of the past week, and the beauty of the day. As I crossed the line I high-fived my brother and thought to myself, "today I am victorious, I stayed the course, fought the battle, and finished the race". Isn't that really the goal of it all? I can and will improve my fitness and finishing times. Most of all, I will never stop fighting the battle I love.

sonuva.......

My first triathlon of the year is Saturday morning, so it only makes sense that I feel like crap. I seem to have sometype of throat/head thing going on, but worst of all it just has me feeling tired. I can hardly talk, in fact, today became video day in the classroom and instead of speaking to my students when asking them to be quiet, I'm using post it notes. It makes it more personal and seems to be very effective. I think I will keep it in my teacher toolbox.

At this point I am wondering if I will feel up to doing the tri on Saturday. Luckily I have a few more days so hopefully it will pass. If not, then I will do as much as I can but will drop out if I feel like I'm over doing it. Better to live and fight another day than really mess myself up.

And.....my wetsuit came in yesterday, so I really want to compete Saturday. I'll keep you posted.

Me in a wetsuitSexy, I know!!!