A few words about respect, or lack thereof

In case I don't have time later, I just want to get a few things off my chest while I have the chance.

1. I respect self-confidence, even to the point where it might be called cockiness. Nothing wrong with that. It ain't bragging if you can back it up.

2. I also respect humility. Humbleness can be an eerily silent killer.

3. I don't respect narcissism. Trust me, the mirror doesn't always tell the truth.

4. Acknowledge those who helped you get to where you are. I respect that too.

This will have to do for now. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

I think your generation has found its Jerry Lawson.
- A wise man who shall remain nameless

Where do I start?

First day back at it after a brief hiatus, so let's not waste any more time.

1. Fernando Cabada. Cocky sunavabitch, but he has every right to be. Hell, I like the guy. He's confident, fearless and has been on a silent tear of late. I think this weekend's pending American Record in the 25K is gonna make more than a little noise. From what I understand, a lot of people aren't too fond of him, but his results speak for themselves. And you know what I like to say, you can't argue with results.

2. Speaking of cocky sunavabitches, get a load of a recent brief chat with this guy. The man they call "Fam" has got to be the most eccentric character in a sport thats full of them -- and that's why I like the guy. He says and does some pretty outlandish stuff, but that's him and he doesn't apologize for it. That's cool. Personally, I think Craig Mottram is gonna obliterate him - and the rest of the field at the Healthy Kidney 10K this weekend, for that matter - but I admire Fam's chutzpah and fearlessness. We need more guys with attitudes like him and Cabada on the American running scene. Just my two cents.

3. Check out an excellent interview with this affable Australian, written by this bloody bastard. Lots of good stuff in there. Get out your Hi-lighter.

4. And when you're done with that, check out this Web site, created by a good pal of mine. Kid's talented!

5. Moving on to more mobile activities, here's a brief synopsis of my training last week:

88 miles in 10 runs. Went long with Ryan, Adam Stu and Paul Ryan in the Lincoln Woods on Sunday, ran 5 x 2 minutes up Heartbreak Hill in Newton on Tuesday and got in a hilly 5-mile tempo run in 27:40 on Saturday. The Achilles problem seems to be completely behind me and my training is progressing nicely. Hopefully I'll round into pretty good shape over the next few weeks and be ready to pop some good races this summer.

6. Recently I've had the all-too-uncommon luxury of a mid-week training partner in the form of Adam Ten. Since he redshirted this outdoor season at W&M, he's been pounding out 120 a week rather than taking the post-track downtime some of his fellow Tribesmen are currently engaging themselves in. As a result, he's been wailing on me two or three times a week, which should speed the progression of my ever-improving fitness level. So far he's held back on me, but one of these days I'm sure he'll unleash his fury. He owes me for all the times I dragged him out on 16-mile slugfests when he was an up-and-coming, but unsuspecting 16-year-old HS stud. As they say, what goes around eventually comes around.

7. So it's been raining a lot here lately. Seriously, I don't even remember what the sun looks like. It's more than mildly depressing. Runs are that much more miserable, the Sox cancelled both games this past weekend and there's just an overall feeling of dampness in the air, literally and figuratively. And to think I actually wanted to live in Oregon.

8. Speaking of places I want to live, I think it's about time to start exploring a few different options. I've got nowhere specific in mind, and in all honesty I've got very few complaints about my current living situation, but I'm always up for a change of scenery. The view from my basement suite is getting old.

9. Ridiculous sign from the past few weeks, courtesy of the 7th Day Adventists in Sterling, MA:

May is God's apology for February.

Well if that's the case, then He's got some explaining to do.

Quote of the day:

I have the attitude. I'm not afraid of anybody. I tried to break (the Kenyans). I looked at their faces. I thought they were weak, so I pushed them, tested them, messed with them. Then, one by one, I ran away from them.
- Fernando Cabada

Happy to be ripped off

I apologize once again for a complete lack of entries recently, but that will change starting tomorrow. I promise. Thanks to Matty Mulv for the much-need kick in the ass. I'm mildly flattered.

Quote of the day:

I never learned I was supposed to be intimidated. I always assumed when you line up, you line up to try to win the race.
- Craig Mottram

Training Log (4/30-5/6)

SUN - AM: 95+ minutes at the Rail Trail, calling it 13 to be safe. First 42 minutes solo - easy to the gate (2.75 miles) in 19:08, came back comfortably hard in 14:38 [5:30, 3:59 (3/4), 5:09], followed by 6 Driscoll strides and some light jogging till Hodge showed up. Last 7 miles or so nice & easy in 53:55 with the old man.

MON - AM: 50 min nice & easy at West Hill along the canal. Monday's will be reserved for recovery from here on out.

TUES - AM: Morning four-banger in a shade over 28 minutes. Nice & moist out, just how I like it. PM: 60 minutes at Bentley with Adam Stu, followed by six strides on the track. We'll call this one 9 miles.

WEDS - AM: Stone Church fartlek solo, 51:30. Ran the four hills pretty hard and finished up the last 5 minutes on the uptempo side of things. Displayed Hulk-like strength for the first time in a long while this morning. PM: Easy does it on the 'ol four-mile road loop from home, 28:15. 12 for the day.

THURS - AM: Bike Path out-n-back 10-spot from home, 68:15. Did not feel good, at all. Hulk-like feeling of invincibility was apparently a short-term phenomenon.

FRI - AM: 56-minute two looper at West Hill, finishing up with four Driscoll strides. 8 miles, not much more. Not as near-death as yesterday but still a pretty morbid run. Gotta resurrect myself before tomorrow.

SAT - AM: Fresh Pond 'Almost-5-Mile Jump-Over Small Dogs Tempo' in 26:40. Lived up to my metronomic reputation with a dead-on nuts 13:20 clocking for each loop. 5:23/avg. mile, a touch faster than goal pace of 5:25-30 but I'll take it. Solid effort; felt like my first tempo run in 10 weeks. Oh wait, it was.

WEEK TOTALS: 74 miles on nine runs. Bailed on Friday's PM shakeout, which was probably a wise move considering the self-inflicted ass-kicking I gave myself on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, next week should look eerily similar to this one.

Quote of the day:

I don’t want you to leave here smashing your head against the wall. Be businesslike, patient, and methodical. Do a little head smashing every day for one hundred days.
- Mark Wetmore

I'm baaaaaaaaack

Well, sorta. I'll probably have more to say later, but for now I'd like to apologize for a complete lack of entries over the last week or so. A few unexpected things came up and a Kemibe-like blogging hiatus was one of the unfortunate results. All is well however, so no worries. Hope ya'll didn't miss me too bad. Take it easy.

Quote of the day:

I’m not going to let him get it that easy. It’s my course; I run on it every day.
- Anthony Famiglietti

State of the Running Address

Friends, family, co-workers, current teammates, former teammates, coaches both past and present, wayward runners, fellow bloggers and whoever else may frequent this space on a quasi-regular basis:

Other than a weekly summation of my daily toils, I've refrained from going into detail about my own running in these entries, mainly because I wasn't doing too much activity resembling forward locomotion and secondly, I wasn't writing about much else other than my pathetic attempts at cross training and the occasional hobble on a bum Achilles. In hindsight, I think it improved the quality of some of my general entries, but took away from chronicling my personal running journey, which is what this blog was originally intended for in the first place. Funny how things change sometimes.

Speaking of change, a lot has occurred in regards to my running over the last five and a half weeks, much of it positive. After battling a nasty achilles injury that shelved me for just about the entire month of March, I've managed to gradually work my way back into a consistent pain-free running routine during the month of April and believe that May will mark my return to the serious training necessary to ready me for a handful of track races in mid-June and early July. From there, it's full steam ahead to Chicago on October 22nd where I'll take a shot at sub-2:22 and a Trials qualifier in the marathon. Of course, this is all just pencilled in at this point, but if all goes well, hopefully I won't have to use the eraser too much.

My approach at this point is somewhat Alan Culpepperish, which is to get in as good of 5K-10K shape as possible within a limited time frame and then begin my marathon-specific preparation. I've talked things over with both Kevin and Hodgie and they seem to agree that it's not a bad route to take. With that being said, the target races this summer will be the New England Championships 5K at MIT on June 18th and Club Nationals in San Francisco roughly a month later. The idea is to get into some sort of decent shape by those dates without rushing it, if that makes any sense. More than anything, those races will give me a starting point from which to base my fall training off of. My optimistic - yet admittedly conservative - wild guess is that I can get down to 14:45/30:30 track shape by mid-July. If that's the case, then I'll be on track for where I want to be in October.

As for what it will take to get there, I think I've finally put myself on the right track over the last five weeks. My mileage totals have evolved from 29 miles of slow shuffling during the last week of March to 66 miles of relatively steady running and the introduction of some snappy strides and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants tempo runs this past week. The plan is to gradually increase my workload over the next two months and begin incorporating a Tuesday hill workout and Saturday tempo run into my routine starting this weekend. I'll likely follow this pattern until early June and then ease myself into a few track workouts to get my rhythm back before toeing the line. Then it's time to race, ready or not.

So that's where I'm at: happy, healthy and heading in the right direction. Watch out.

Quote of the day:

We have got to have a plan. We must have a plan even if it is wrong.
- Once A Runner (thanks to Ryan for reminding me of this one)

Swinging away

Gotta break outta my recent slump with these entries; not sure how I'm gonna do it or if I'll succeed, but here goes...

1. Read this article. Comment on it. I'm interested in what you have to say. Seriously.

2. Sox got rained out tonight, which is too bad. But so far we're 1-0 on the year vs. Johnny Demon and his minions, which is the only record I care about to be honest. That leaves 18 more regular season games versus the Bronx Bungholes, and if we went 19-0 againt those clowns while losing the other 143 games, well, I'd be fine with that. OK, probably not, but it would likely be enough ammo to keep their fans quiet, which is half of my battle in life.

3. Stanford 10K. Fast, fast, fast. Not American-record fast, but when was the last time you saw three Americans in the same race around 27:30 on domestic soil? I'm not sure myself to be honest, but I believe it's been a while. A long while at that. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

4. I just saw on the news that there's a new musical in Boston replaying the whole Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan fiasco/saga from many years back. It's mildly amusing but overly pathetic, sad and disturbing at the same time. Not to mention grossly outdated and seemingly pointless, which leads me to ask, why?

5. Back to the Stanford 10K. Did I mention that I was impressed? That Webb guy sure has some range. Not a bad 25-lap debut. It will be interesting to see if he sticks with the 1,500 or moves up to the five this summer. Personally, I'd like to see him focus on the 'ol 12-1/2 lapper and take a crack at King Bob's American record. I think he's got a damn good shot. Mottram's run mid-12:50s and I think him and Alan are pretty comparable at this point. Just my two cents.

And let's not forget about Ritz. From what I understand, he led a bulk of the way on Sunday night. This guy's an aerobic monster - the longer he goes, the tougher he's gonna be to beat. I think he's got a shot at possibly going under 27:20 later this year, but I'm not sure if he's got an American Record up his sleeves just yet. Not that my opinion matters, but hopefully he proves me wrong.

Last, but certainly not least, Fam the man had a helluva debut for himself as well. I don't think anyone saw this one coming, perhaps not even the man himself. Then again, I don't know for sure, but I do know that he opened more than a few eyes with his 27:37. I can't help but wonder if this was the beginning of the end of his love affair with the steeplechase or what. If he's gonna move up to some longer flat races though, 27:37 isn't a bad place to start.

6. Everyone take cover and watch out for remnants of broken records being shattered at a dizzying pace by the trackies over at Stonehill College. Personally, I lost another one this past weekend, as super sophomore David Metzger had a rough night at the Penn Relays on Thursday and still managed to slip under my old 5K mark with a time of 15:09. Just so you know, he ran 14:37 indoors this past winter, so that sucker is going way down sooner than later. Trust me. Also, sophomore stud #2, Keith Gill, who actually broke my 1,500 record by .2 a couple weeks back, brought that mark down to 3:52 and some change at Brown on Sunday, taking a full two seconds off the 3:54.48 I ran as a sophomore. On the women's side, Dana D. broke through in the 1,500 at Brown, popping off a 4:38 (a school record by 2 seconds) to provisionally qualify for NCAA's. Girl is rolllllllling. On the whole, these kids just keep raising the bar and dropping times like it's going out of style. It's great to see. And as always, KcoachB is doing a helluva job.

Anyways, that's all I got. Take it easy.

Quote of the day:

He eats and runs, that's all.
- Article about Budhia Singh. Read it.

Whole lotta nuthin'

No pathetic excuses today. I gut nuthin'.

Quote of the day:

Damn those milers.
- Dathan Ritzenhein

Weh, weh, weh

Call me a baby - or a lazy ass, either one will suffice - but I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, so instead of putting even more pressure on my already imploding brain, I'm gonna head home and get some much-needed rest while putting off writing something quasi-intelligent until sometime tomorrow, if I make it there that is. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

Any player not on our team is not on our team.
- Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the NFL's most quotable smartass

Training Log (4/23-4/29)

SUN - AM: Solo 44-minute jaunt at Northwest Park in Portland while Oscar and Carrie took a hike, literally. Calling it 6 miles. Finished up with four strides of 20 sec. on/40 sec. off, which will be called Driscoll strides from here on out. If I do nothing else in life, I'm gonna make the kid a legend.

MON - AM: 6 miles, 43 minutes. Looped around Westmoreland Park in Portland a few times before catching a plane back East. Managed to avoid stepping in the goose poo.

TUES - AM: 4 miles from home in 27:55. Out the door only 40 minutes after waking up - now that's making progress. PM: 55 minutes at Bentley, starting off with Ryan & Co. on their warmup and finishing up solo, including a mile of strides on the track in 5:36.

WEDS - AM: 70 minutes at West Hill all by my lonesome. Easy does it.

THURS - AM: Out-n-back Rail Trail 10-spot from the Stone Church. Out nice & easy in 35:08, back in a relatively swift 29:22. Hit the last few miles on the way back in 5:48, 5:33, 5:21. Solid effort, comfortably hard I'd say.

FRI - AM: 57:45 from home. Legs don't like the roads, but otherwise they dealt just fine. PM: 29:20 on the dirt at Lake Park with 6 Driscoll strides mid-run. Legs seemingly in a much better mood. Nice, soft dirt will do that, I guess.

SAT - AM: 68 and change with Old Man Willy at the Rail Trail. Out in 7:10 and hitting 6:30's by Mile 3. The old bastard can still crank it.

WEEK TOTALS: 66 miles, 9 runs. Good week. Fitness is on its way back, albeit slowly. No rush though.

Quote of the day:

Everyone thinks he can be Brian Sell.
- Mary Wittenberg, race director of the New York City Marathon

Relay this message

It's time for Penn!

The fun started last night with the distance races and continues through the weekend with all sorts of wacky relays, invitational races, et. al. My personal favorite are the "U.S vs. The World" relays - I always get a kick out of those. For some reason it reminds me of American Gladiator, don't ask me why. Like the rest of the world even stands a chance.

Anyways, back to last night and a few performances of note. Good pal Katie G. narrowly missed nabbing a Penn Relays watch in the Collegiate Women's 5000-meter Championship, finishing second in a new personal best of 16:12. I can say with confidence that she would surely kick my ass right now.

Also riding the personal best train was occasional training partner and all-around good guy Nate Jenkins, finishing 6th in the OD 5K with a nifty 9-second PR of 14:22. Rumor also has it that he just signed a little deal with Saucony, a well deserved deal, I might add.

And that's gonna do it. My self-allotted online time is up for the day. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

It'd be nice to see a goofy white guy win it.
- Brian Sell on the Boston Marathon

Better off dead

Headline in this morning's T&G, the publication that helps fund my existence: "Study shows death is painful"

Well no shit, you don't say. If the experience was all rainbows and butterflies, I suppose people would be lining up by the dozens to put an end to their corporeal misery, which would do wonders for tackling the problem of overcrowding in the city of Worcester now that I think about it. Apparently, for 80% of Worcester's dying population, "DNR (do not resuscitate) orders make a huge difference in ensuring that you will die a comfortable death, and they will also ensure you have more autonomy, more information is shared, and your wishes are more likely to be expressed and followed," says Dr. David A. Kaufman. Also, "We still have things that need to be done better...the goal of the partnership is to try and provide support in those areas that can lead to a better dying experience for the people of Worcester."

Call me an insensitive asshole, but reading this article provided me a good laugh this morning. While the main objective was to highlight the fact that 1 out of every 5 people who die in Worcester don't do so comfortably - which it accomplished, to some extent - the headlines were a tad misleading and the quotes just utterly ridiculous. Remember, we're talking about death - the end of all ends - not crazy orgasmic sex. Naturally, it's supposed to hurt, but then again who knows for sure. When it's all said and done (both literally and figuratively) the person is D-E-A-D. They're not in any kind of shape to tell you if it hurt or not anyway.

Moral of the story: When it's time for you to go, come to Worcester. There's only a 20% chance that it's gonna hurt.

Quote of the day:

You know when I need to die? When I'm done living. When I can't walk, can't eat, can't see, when I'm a crotchety old bastard, mad at the world. Then I can die.
- Lance Armstong

Get real

Perhaps the biggest realization I came to while in Oregon last week, aside from the fact that it should be made federal law that all women shave their legs and armpits, is that I spend way too much time in front of the computer. Granted, I usually don't have much of a choice because of my job, etc., but I calculated that I tend to spend upwards of 4+ hours in front of this silly screen sometimes, with no good reason at all. It's time that could be much better spent for sure. With that being said, I'm limiting myself to no more than 90 minutes of non-work related Web time a day from now on, so don't be surprised if the quality of these entries takes an abrupt nose dive, if they haven't already. Time to head home from my first night back on the desk. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

I wonder who would win in a pissing contest....you or a Saudi-Arabian camel?
- An apparently amazed co-worker who asked to remain nameless

Gimme some cheese with my whine

Please forgive my sleep deprived, internet-lacking, still quasi-gimpy ass for bombarding ya’ll with this smorgasbord of entries all at once. I sincerely apologize for sucking so bad. Actually, I take that back. Lack of free wireless internet in the state of Oregon sucks. Damn free-loading hippie bastards. I’ll let them apologize. It’s all their fault.

Anywho, now that I’ve got my whining out of the way, lemme try to fill ya in with some commentary few days spent in The Beaver State. And what you'll find below this entry is just the tip of the iceberg. I've got some more stuff in my notebook about the meet, etc. that I've yet to transcribe electronically. I do apologize for the very unchronological order of these entries - everything is ass backwards right now. Perhaps later I'll have the time to fix it, but for now, you'll have to deal. Enjoy!

Super signage

A couple quality signs I saw on my trip...

This one courtesy of The Mudhouse Tavern in Portland:

If Paul Allen [owner of the Portland Trailblazers] didn’t know Bill Gates, he’d be here cleaning toilets.

And my personal favorite (go ahead, call me an asshole):

Young bum on the corner of Willamette and 29th in Eugene...Poor, hungry, homeless. Just run me over.

Training Log (4/16-4/22)

SUN – AM: Pakachoag 5 solo, 34:50; last mile in 6:05. NOTE: Last mile is equivalent to falling off a cliff. PM: 40:30 out-n-back on the Rail Trail to cap off an 11-mile day. Man, that sounds pathetic.

MON – Rockland 7 solo in 47:50. 35:07 through 5 and I thought I was flying. Guess I better think harder next time.

TUES – PM: 36:45 solo at WEST HILL. 5:56 for the 4th mile, dead-on nuts 8 flat for the last one. PM: 54:45 with Hodge in Clinton. Felt pretty good, as 7:30 pace should.

WEDS – AM: Fallon 6 solo from home, 42:45. 7:29/6:47 on the way out, 6:37/6:06 coming back. I remember when this used to be easy.

THURS – AM: 45 min easy with Oscar through suburban Portland, 6 miles tops. Emphasis on easy.

FRI – AM: 70 min solo on the wacky woodchips of Eugene, Oregon. Man, I forgot how much I hated running on that shit. Started out running 7:20s on the Rexius, finished up with a couple 6:45s on the Amazon. First double-digit run in a long while.

SAT – AM: 67:30 with Oscar and his CU buddies in Eugene, none of whom he was actually teammates with, but Ponce is something of a legend in their eyes. Annnnnnyways, the plan was for an easy 30-40 minutes, but as you might have guessed by now, neither of those things happened, Hey, it’s not every day I get a chance to go running with the Buffaloes. Good run, devoid of those damn woodchips.

WEEK TOTALS: 63 miles. Good week of training. Yes, training. I think I’ve finally got this Achilles thing licked. Knock on wood, anyways.

Quote of the day:

I might not know karate [slicks hair back], but I know karazy.
- Mark Wetmore (or more accurately, Oscar Ponce impersonating Mark Wetmore)

Top-10 reminders that I'm in Eugene, Oregon

1. As I wait for my ride here downtown, I’m sitting in a Starbucks and sipping on a latte amongst an army of mostly unemployed modern-day hippies. If this isn’t a stereotypical representation of life in Eugene, then I don’t know what is.

2. Quote from an article in today’s Eugene Daily Emerald entitled, "Hippie culture’s still here, man": “Hippies want to safeguard our planet and make sure the world is a safe place for future generations.”

3. The Oregon Invitational preview is the centerpiece article on the sports page of The Register Guard, and the meet isn't even until tomorrow. Now that’s cool. I saved a copy for my boss, maybe I can sell him on the idea.

4. I just saw my fifth VW conversion van. I haven’t even been in town for an hour yet.

5. On the subject of transportation, I’ve seen just as many bikes on the road as automobiles, or so it seems.

6. Make that six and seven VW vans. I've been here exactly 49 minutes.

7. 83% of the girls here might be hippies, and who knows what percentage of them actually shave their body hair, but man, the girls here are beautiful.

8. Judging by the number of long-haired, bearded Vietnam veterans that roam the streets in Eugene, it wouldn’t surprise me if Forrest Gump retired here after his next run across the country.

9. In two trips to this city, I still haven’t met anyone native to Eugene. One way or another, they all just seem to have ended up here. Weird.

10. What is with the drive-thru coffee shacks on every street corner? Seriously.

Bus Blogging (4/20/06)

Random observations from the back of a Greyhound bus as I made my way down I-5 from Portland to Eugene. My computer battery isn't all that great, so I wrote all this down in my notebook and transcribed it all afterwards. Some of this stuff sounds pretty ridiculous, but believe me, I couldn't make any of this up if I tried.

12:58 p.m. – Scraggly guy with a ponytail, dark sunglasses and a tattoo of a marijuana leaf on his forearm just boarded the bus. Picture the Unabomber as a hippy. Trust me, it’s as frightening as it sounds.

1:06 p.m. – Sitting here I feel kinda like Forrest Gump when he joined the Army, only I’m not on my way to bootcamp and eventually Vietnam. The prospects here are much more frightening.

1:08 p.m. – Oregon may have the coolest license plate of any state. Seriously. Maybe except for the Red Sox vanity plates back home, that is.

1:20 p.m. – Big sign off the highway: “Jiggles Dancers”. Something tells me it's not a ballet studio.

1:51 p.m. – Taking in the natural scenery as we make our way down I-5, I’m reminded of Oscar’s earlier revelation. It sure is green out there. And I’m colorblind.

2 p.m. – We just made a 5-minute rest stop in the small shit town of Salem. I think I’m the only one who didn’t get off the bus to light up a cigarette. And apparently forearm tattoos are a status symbol round these parts.

2:04 p.m. – An overweight kid with long hair, two lip rings and an Army knapsack just boarded the bus. Something tells me he didn’t just get back from Iraq. Or maybe he did, who am I to judge.

2:09 p.m. – Big yellow lettering on a building in downtown Salem: ADULT SHOP. A for clarity, F for originality.

2:23 p.m. – With each passing minute, I’m realizing more and more that this truly must be the grass capital of the world. And I’m not just talking about the kind that makes up your front lawn.

3:11 p.m. – Just woke up from a lil catnap and saw a sign that says we’re only seven miles from Eugene. Sweet. Also just saw my 5th Denny’s between Portland and here. Who knows how many I missed while I dozed off.

3:19 p.m. – Spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch. Made it to Eugene with everything still intact, I think.

Thursday, April 20th - 12:09 p.m.

Greetings from the Rose City. This update is brought to you from the discomfort of the Greyhound station in downtown Portland. My bus departs for Eugene at 1, so I’ve got a little time to kill before boarding. I’ll take this opportunity to provide a lil synopsis of my trip thus far.

Yesterday’s travel went off without a hitch. We arrived in Portland at 8 p.m. local time, where Oscar, Carrie and I were greeted by Carrie’s mom. Mrs. Zografos shuttled us back to their humble home to drop off our bags before heading out for some fine Mexican cuisine of tortas and cinnamon rice milk. Good stuff. By 10 p.m. we were all pretty wiped, so after catching the late edition of SportsCenter, the three of us retreated to our respective rooms and slept like wintering bears.

Rolled out of bed around 8 this morning, and soon afterwards went out with Oscar for an easy 45-minute jaunt around suburban Portland. T’was a rather pleasant experience I must say, full of fresh air and breathtaking scenery. As Oscar remarked about 127 times during the course of our lil stroll, “It’s green out here rookie. Real green.”

This brings me to where I am now, in this unsanitary shithole. After scouring the terminal for an outlet to plug my laptop into, I managed to find one in this little café set off to the side of the station. Good thing, too, because I was growing a little uneasy amongst the gathering of scraggly folks making their temporary (or permanent, I’m still not sure) homes on the benches of the main terminal. I went to the bathroom to relieve myself – both literally and figuratively – and happened across a large, shirtless man shaving in the adjacent sink. Suffice to say, I was more than mildly disturbed. After having my fill of fuckedupedness for the day, I’m glad to have found some temporary refuge in my haven here off to the side. From my few experiences in these types of transportation venues, it seems to me that they’re all more or less the same – unsanitary bungalows teeming with smelly, toothless folk who are as adept at asking for a buck as they are anything else.

Anywho, they just made the first call for boarding so I’m gonna get my ass in gear. With any luck I’ll get my own seat and avoid any more potentially scary situations with the local folks. Adios for now.

Back from The Beaver State...

...and plenty of new material for ya'll to read, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow, so keep your eyes open. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

Jorge would take two, three, maybe four miles to get going. With Dathan it was usually two, three, maybe 400 meters tops.
- Bret Schoolmeester