Archive for the 'Platitudes' Category

Gellin’ Like a Felon

Monday, October 27th, 2003

Ever since I moved to Pensacola, I’ve been dealing with stress. First it was moving, then it was starting classes, then it was being sick, then it was more class, and now, it’s just a ridiculous amount of work. What with one thing and another, I have been wound too damn tight for too damn long. I didn’t even realize it, but I spent Saturday reading webcomics and watching the History Channel, basically wasting time in the most chill and enjoyable way I know how, and at some point, something clicked inside me and I just relaxed. It was like a sudden silence when you’ve become completely adjusted to noise, and right now, I feel great. Stress can only get to you if you let it, and right now, it can’t touch me.

Speaking of the History Channel, I would just like to point out how incredibly cool it is that my B.A. advisor, Richard Hellie (who appeared in the miniseries Russia, Land of the Tsars) now shares a network with R. Lee Ermey, Roger Daltrey and Alice Cooper. Think about it: Two rock stars, one badass, and the most badass rock star of Slavic History have joined forces to rock our faces with education and make ignorance crush its own windpipe against their respective rock-hard hands. Life is good.

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A Thought

Monday, September 29th, 2003

It’s funny that they call it a happy sock. Really, when you think about it, it’s probably the least happy of your socks.

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A Humbling Moment

Thursday, September 25th, 2003

This morning, I went for a run with two lieutenants in my class, B. and W. B. is a serious runner, and W. is in training for the Marine Corps marathon. I haven’t gone running since I got sick about a month ago. Still, I decided, based on no evidence, that I could probably keep up with them.

It was a four-mile run , and for the first two miles or so, I did fine. When we hit the turnaround point, they seemed to speed up, and I started to drop back. Eventually I was a good hundred yards behind them. I tried to catch up, but I couldn’t. My lungs were burning. My joints were aching. It was bad. Finally, they got so far ahead of me, I lost sight of them around a corner.

When I came to the corner, they were waiting for me there. They ran with me on the last half-mile or so, and W. ran next to me, giving me encouragement and advice. Stuff like “You’re setting the pace now,” “Don’t move your head so much. Keep your chin down,” and “We’re almost there. Just keep it up.” Even though this kind of thing really pisses me off, I had nothing to say. I felt like a punk for holding them up, and it was clear that besides being faster than me, W. knew more about running than I did. It was humiliating to be so clearly out of my league, but that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part is that W. is a girl. Not only that, she’s about eight years older than me.

I got my ass handed to me by a girl.

I have got to start running again.

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