Like I said in a previous post, the last time I pushed myself to 1.5 miles “barefoot,” I had to take a two week break to recover. After my half-mile run the other day, I did a one mile run two days ago, and today I pushed to almost 1.5 miles. I feel pretty good right now, so I don’t think there will be a two week break like last time. Woo hoo!

My favorite part is that I feel like I’m putting my body in better shape. Right now I’m held back by getting my feet/ankles/calves in shape, but aerobically I could probably do 5 miles. When I first started out back in February, I could barely do a half-mile without huffing and puffing. Being able to do 1.5 miles and I’m barely breathing hard is very cool.

Doing a marathon would be really cool. Right now I just want to push myself and do as much as I can, but why not a marathon? Bad joints in the family or not, I might as well set the bar high and go for it. It might take a year or more to get there, but I can dream big.

I started to include this in my Day 12 post, but it warranted a separate post of its own. And heck, I’ve got a writing category even!

I’ve decided to write every day, otherwise this book won’t be done for five years. Even a small goal of a few hundred words a day will get the book done in a year (which doesn’t sound as long as it once did). I find myself having a better idea of where the story is going, and the words are jumping onto the page faster, which makes it a lot easier. I hit 25,000 words the other night, which felt good. You can only read so much about “how” to write a book, because once you actually start writing it you learn so much. What makes for an exciting series of events, how characters should react to different scenarios, and most importantly pace. A book is a marathon when it comes to writing, and it’s hard to figure out at first how fast or slow you’re going. Go to slow, and you’ll have a Harry Potter length book but only half a story. Go to fast, and events will jump around too quickly without giving readers a chance to relate to your characters.

If I’ve learned anything though, it’s that you don’t have to be a genius with the written language. Sure you need to be able to form a sentence and use grammar correctly, but it’s all about the story. Is the reader interested enough to keep turning the page? When something happens to a character does the reader care? Can the reader picture in their mind the events unfolding on the pages in front of them? That’s what makes a book a good read.

The last week has been jampacked with graduation fun! Last Wednesday we went out to eat with Kevin to celebrate his graduation from CSULB and starting his new job. Not only did his parents treat us to delicious Lonestar, but we saw some friends we hadn’t seen in a while. Once you get married and start spending 90% of your time with your spouse, you really start to value the small amount of time you spend with your friends.

Then on Friday night we went to CSULB to watch Andrew graduate. He’s got a picture on his website, but here is one I took.

It was really cool to see my little brother achieve such an awesome accomplishment. He’s starting his first real job next week, and I’m sure he’ll do awesome. After graduation we went out to Ruby’s in Long Beach, and then headed over to Marina Pacifica to see X-Men 3. Saturday evening we went over to my parents for Andrew’s graduation party with friends and family.

On Sunday I woke up at 6 am to go to Stacie’s graduation at CSUF. She graduated with her MS in Education with a concentration in reading. Long Beach and Fullerton have very different graduation setups. Long Beach had 9 separate ceremonies for each school in the college, while Fullerton only had two big ceremonies, followed by a second ceremony for each school. Basically what this means is Fullerton’s was a lot longer and much more crowded. All my complaining aside, it was great to see the love of my life honored for her accomplishments. She is one of the hardest working and most dedicated people I know. After the ceremony we had a party at the in-law’s house with some friends and family.

Unforutunately about halfway through the Fullerton marathon ceremony I got sick. Sunday night I hardly slept at all, which resulted in me lying on the couch all day Monday. I never even changed out of my pajamas from Sunday night to Monday night, gross huh? Luckily Monday was Memorial Day and I didn’t have to go to work. This morning I was still only about 75%, but I went to a workshop instead of teaching, so that worked out. Spending all day Monday on the couch gave me time to finish off the final episodes of CSI:NY and One Tree Hill. I started to finish Smallville, but I still have a few episodes left from the end of the season.

So that was my long weekend full of graduation mayhem. Congrats to all the other recent graduates (Mike and Amy) I didn’t mention.

My wife is gone at Girl Scout Camp. I chose to stay home and keep the puppy company (she’s almost 3 years old, but she will forever be a puppy, weird). As this monumental weekend of aloneness approached, I began to brainstorm different activities I could partake in without the wife. While she loves to do things with me, there are certain things that would be lower on her list, yet high on mine. These are the types of activities I have focused on for today.

Last night I went over to Chris Luna’s new pad and hung out. We watched Ferris Bueller, random SNL dvds, and played Karaoke Revolution (cool game!). I ate Little Ceasar’s pizza and KFC chicken, mmmm.

Today I have decided to embark on a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Marathon. The running time of all three extended editions is 11 hours and 22 minutes (not including disc changes). My original idea was to watch all 3 films including extras, but that might be a little long. It is now 11 am, and if I start soon, that has me finishing about 11:00 pm tonight, not including bathroom breaks and eating. There are easily 2 hours of extras per film, so those might have to wait. Here is a rough schedule of my day:

11:30 am – 3:00 pm : Fellowship of the Ring
3:00 pm – 7:00 pm : Two Towers
7:00 pm – 11:00 pm : Return of the King

UCLA plays Memphis at 4:05 pm, so I may switch to that for the duration of that game. I watched the game on Thursday against Gonzaga, and it was amazing. While I didn’t attend UCLA, I did look into going there in High School…so it’s behind CSULA and CSULB for schools I actually care about.

If you want to watch a LOTR film or watch UCLA in HD, you know where I’ll be.

Stacie and I are going to walk through our townhouse in an hour the last time before it’s ours! We have to make sure it’s the same place we bought, i.e. they didn’t tear out any walls, or paint the ceilings black, etc. Much of my time of recent is spent obsessing over what TV to buy, so I’ll be measuring the approximate viewing distance in our living room; a vital piece of information when selecting the proper screen size.

I only have 75 pages left in the 3rd book of the George R.R. Martin series I’m reading. The 4th book isn’t scheduled to come out until late July, so I’ll have to find something else to keep me occuppied. There are a couple Michael Crichton books I haven’t read yet, so I’ll probably read those. I fear I’ve read the best fantasy series ever first, and all others will pale in comparison.

I’ve yet to mention the Dodgers in my blarg for fear of jinxing them, but that is no longer a fear. At 12-3 they’re off to an amazing start, but baseball is more like a marathon than any other sport, aside from a marathon. Brad Penny is scheduled to start on Sunday, with other key players returning from injuries shortly after. The best will just get better.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Eat some peas.