I was hoping to make this year my return to a healthy relationship with running. No longer content with just swimming, I wouldn’t mind getting out in the the fresh air and beating the pavement with my own two feet. Not that I want to return to mega-mileage races, I wouldn’t mind making it a natural part of my life.

All though I eek’ed in 100 miles (counting dog walks) in Round 1, I haven’t made it even halfway in either Round 2 or 3. Today starts the 4th round of Run-a-go-go, Rachael‘s fabulous idea (and Scout‘s blog-tastic community building and Adam‘s funky programming skillz). Wanna go 100 miles between today and December 31st?

In perfect timing, Threadless.com printed a lil’ bit of inspiration today. Sadly, it’s sold out in a Men’s M, so it’s gonna have to be a large for me. It’ll match the new ‘do. Even sadlier, I didn’t get outside today.

How come you can never get the runs when you want ‘em?

Last year at Walzwerk‘s anniversary party, my car was totaled by a hit-and-run. Last night was their 8th anniversary party.

I was against driving to the evening. Superstitious, I guess. I even fought about it with C. As he pointed out, we’ve driven to the restaurant many times since then. But I finally decided to drive, as we picked up a friend. We didn’t park on the same street, and, this time, we were in the middle of a block.

This year, the rear passenger-side winder was smashed. What makes it more ironic, is that where we parked, C said, “It might get broken into here,” but we still left it there. Once in the restaurant, the owner Christiane asked if we rode our bikes. C told her we drove because lightening doesn’t strike the same place twice.

It did.

Only thing stolen: a bag of blue plastic New York Times newspaper bags, aka poopy bags for Janie Sparkles. I only wish they were full of poo.

I’m feeling pulled in may directions by my knitting. On the precipice of feeling scattered-brained and wanting to start three new projects. Torn between design, production, gifting and being selfish.

I have three active-ish socks, a truckload of yarn to photograph for Ravelry and re-organize by weight, new yarn sitting at work awaiting my first issue of IK that I’m buying tomorrow night, Cat’s new book (who’s two baby socks samples I’ve already knit) begging to be begun in earnest, the imminent arrival of BMFA sock club shipment, as well as Scout’s. And I still haven’t sent my sister her package of socks, Knitty Gritty half-done bag to finish, and her xmas presents.

On top of all that good friend at work is leaving to focus on his art career who deserves this (and for which I’ll have to buy a US3 circular. Dear friends (her blog, not his) just had their second son (BSJ in STR? need another circular US3). Luckily they are both easy knits, and only Brancusi 2.0 is competing for my immediate attention (about to start on the heel flap).

If anyone would like to win the lottery and sponsor my life so I can devote more time to knitting, I’d greatly appreciate it. Working 9-11 hours a day really cramps my style.

For the past two Sundays (as well as Monday the 16th), I’ve given up hours of my life for a friend of a friend’s art project. He’s making a feature-length movie for his MFA that has no dialogue, is shot in HD, and uses synchronized swimming both as content and metaphor. I don’t pretend to understand, I just look good in a swimsuit. (Or better than pasty art school kids who don’t know how to swim.)

A handful of us from the swim team are playing a swim team in the movie and we practice, walk, swim laps, perform and ignore the main characters. Pretty much true to life. It was fun the first day, as there were two elite-level swimmers from the Aquanuts. Monday night ran late, with just me swimming laps in the background. (Out past 12:30 on a school night, oh my!)

This past Sunday was supposed to be 8 hours of shooting, but my time at the pool was cut short. In practicing a lift, where we raise and then throw the main character (a non-synchro swimmer) out of the water, the guy came down on my head, snapping my chin into chest and neck down. When I realized it wasn’t a simple injury (and when no one came over to see if I was OK), I changed in the locker room and walked off the set. Every bump of the road hurt as I drove myself home.

Today, three days later, all that remains is the stiffness. I’ve recovered my range of motion, albeit slower and not “normal.” My mid-back still aches, probably from holding my shoulders up to protect and support my neck. There’s a dull ache at the base of my spine, but it’s not like the initial hurt. Tomorrow I’m seeing an accupuncturist to see if getting my Qi flowing helps. It’s my first time, but, hey, I work in Berkeley, so when in Rome… besides, I don’t want a chiropractor to adjust me, nor a body worker to squeeze and wring out the area, nor a “regular” doctor to tell me to rest.

Needless to say, I won’t be going to swim practice tonight.

I’m sorry.

I’m curled up in an intellectual fetal ball, hiding from my Internet responsibilities of writing about so many wonderful things (BMFA sock camp with my Mom, Scout’s Indie Swag first shipment, my finished Monsoons, Ravelry—see, I’m so busy I don’t even link anything!). I’ve also been a terrible friend, not replying to emails, or calling or letting people know I’m drowning in work stress and unable to get back to them. (Not a cry for help or pity.)

To make matters worse, I don’t foresee a break to this silence for at least another month. It’s two weeks before a two-week vacation to France, doubling as a synchronized swimming competition. As a gesture of apology, I’m handing you this sunny, candy-coated clip from a French movie (not set in Paris), starring a 24 year-old Catherine Deneuve with a small role (and lots of dancing) by Gene Kelly.

Les Desmoiselles de Rochefort (1967).
If only my life had this much song and free-wheeling spirit! More to come…

My boss just sent this to me. While we don’t do TV commercials, I can see web design work echo’ed here. That said, I do love my job, and our marketing issues aren’t this bad. Warning: naughty words are said.

That’s just a snippet. The entire twelve-minute video can be viewed here.

No, no, Scout, as a matter of fact, they don’t stretch very much. Sure, I had tried it on earlier, but thought that I could squeeze into them. But anything that’s only a few inches of cuff can be wedged over a heel. (You’ve already called me old today, so don’t call my ankles fat!)

Now that I’ve started on the heel flap, I realize this is a lost cause. I already did 84 stitches. Should I go up in needle size? Maybe cast on another 16 or more stitches? I wonder how that will change up the color striping… Why didn’t I read your post on the pain that is Jaywalker?

At least, I’ve enjoyed myself using the yarn. This is the first time I’ve ripped back, nay, scrapped an entire project.

What do you do when your best friend and her fiance are asking you to play hooky to run away to Vegas for a few days? What do you do if they are offering you the chance to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O” for free and see Le Reve for half-price? What do you do if it’s going to cost under $300 for airfare and hotel for three nights? And, what if this was all instigated by the fact that they have not one, but two friends who are in the cast of “O,” one of whom is arguably one the best synchronized swimmers ever, male or female?

Now, keep in mind, you and this best friend are both synchronized swimmers and water is the medium and stage of both shows. It’s true that you’ve already had the pleasure of seeing “O,” but your friend hasn’t and you’d love to share the magic of that show with someone who devoted her childhood to the sport and now is exploring it in her art. Oh, don’t forget that you did a couple of months playing aerialist (rope) at Trapeze Arts circus school. Basically, it’s been your dream to be a performer since you were a child and, ever since you saw it, you’ve wanted to see the backstage and inner-workings of this Cirque du Soleil show.

Sadly, I think my sense of work responsibility and fiscal wisdom will win out. I hope this isn’t a once in a lifetime opportunity. If I don’t write in the next three days, you can find me in Vegas.

…meaning congested. Being judgemental is a permanent condition (ask Scout). I feel a bit better than I did at this time last night, but I suspect I’ll have another few mornings of sore throats and phlegm before this is gone.

Today was the all-day portion of our day-and-a-half company meeting. Now, I don’t mention my company’s name here, but those who know or write me mostly likely know where I work. Suffice to say, it’s a pretty damn cool place. I’m the online marketing department, just a meager manager-level position, nothing too fancy—only me and my staff of one. It’s a friendly place and we get along super well with one another. I’m well-liked and well-known, and not just for being the wacky gay guy who knits (just a few rows on a heel flap in the minimal downtime of the day).

Nonetheless, it’s been a tad stressful this past week rehearsing with the CEO (a lovely woman), the VP of HR (a fabulously biting and dry wit) and working out all the sound, light and stage cues. Knowing the owners and 177 co-workers would be sitting in our auditorium to witness the production made the stakes seem that much higher. When today ended with a sushi and sake/beer/soda hour, I was proud of how the day went and relieved that all the bigwigs and smallwigs were happy with the day. (And it was nice to have sushi!)

In addition to a review of a killer year, an inspirational address about dreams, company awards, a lunch that’s made me farty, videos that ranged from a fancy commercial-esque piece that kicked off the day to a silly, fun-filled recap of events and such, we watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Bad leftie that I am (and our company is based in Berkeley!), I hadn’t seen it yet. While I’ve learned a lot about global warming through programs we sponsor (carbon offsets, recycling, composting, worm bins, organic ingredients, sustainabililty, biodiesel, alternative energy, etc.), it was still inspiring. Please rent the DVD if you haven’t already seen it. But, what impacted me more, was how sexy it made Apple Powerbooks look (and Treos).

[It also made me want to go to Mac World next year so I can make such pretty presentations. All of my audio-visual-digital has been self-taught. Trial and error has been the motif for all the mixing/music cutting, podcasting, and video editing. While I could get work to pay for such training (and my work would benefit), wouldn't it be fun to add some more pizazz to these here Internet tubes?]

Enough about me… please learn how you can make a difference.

I thought I didn’t have anything knitting to share. Technically, I don’t since I haven’t knitted today. I should be working out some hat designs on the new yarn I bought this weekend, but I’m not. They’re sketched and work conceptually, but I haven’t even swatched this wool. I’d like to bust them out by the weekend… but we’ll see.

But then there’s that photo here. Notice how it matches my banner up at the top oh, so well? That’s some custom-dyed sock yarn from Scout of Scout’s Swag. She and I got to talking because of KG. She’s going to be a guest and demo’ing dying your own yarn. From the looks of her work, she’s an expert and I can’t wait to get my hands on that merino!

Other than the anticipation, I’m pretty darn tired… and it’s not terribly late yet. My throat hurts and my body may be hoovering on the precipice of a cold. Stress has got me run down, that and late nights at the office. I skipped swim practice tonight—don’t tell my coach.

Originally, I was supposed to have a dress rehearsal for our company meeting tonight. We had it last night instead, but I just wasn’t in the mindset to hop into the pool. Now that I think about it, I’m not going to be in the mood to swim Saturday, as I plan to have a good time on Friday night at our holiday party.

Paul, 900 yards is great! Drink lots of water and keep moving. Maybe swim again in a day or two? When I was running tons, a swim the day after was my favorite thing for helping sore muscles. But, since you’re just coming back, watch out for the shoulders and increase your distance gradually. A little bit more regularly is way better than a whole bunch and getting laid up with injuries.