Excuses, Clunkers, and the Final Miles

Mea Culpa
As was pointed out pointedly by one of the many faithful readers of this thing-which-is-not-a-blog, I've already failed to hold up my end of the bargain when it comes to posting entries here, which I said I was going to do (and it's not even the end of January yet). I have absolutely no excuse, other than a new season of 24 started and they cram the first four hours into two days, which not only takes up that four hours, but also requires at least that long to recover some semblance of normalcy as my adrenaline level comes back down to normal. I should point out, though, that this isn't the only area where I've fallen behind. We still haven't gotten out all of our Xmas cards (they're on their way, though, I swear), and the Xmas lights are still hanging from the house. Somehow, I've become that person I always kind of sneered at as I drove through the neighborhood - the one with an old junky vehicle parked out front and Xmas lights up year-round. Oh well.

Speaking of junky vehicles…
And of getting things done after putting it off for way too long. Six months after purchasing our new vehicle, we finally sold the old one it was replacing. We dithered, we dallied, we procrastinated, and we made up excuses for week upon week, until finally Katie took the bull by the horns and placed an ad - although I do feel the need to point out that she told me, "This is a waste of time, nobody's going to want a '94 Dodge Caravan. We should just donate it to charity and get the tax write off." But I, being the the eternal optimist (and miserly miser) insisted that we give it a try. Lo and behold, we received a call from an interested buyer almost immediately, set up a meeting, took a quick test drive, and it was a done deal - for our original asking price (which was, admittedly, a bargain). And once the vehicle was sold, we continued to receive call after call (according to Katie somewhere around 120 of them). Which is kind of scary, when you think about it. Who knew '94 Caravans were in such demand? Here I was thinking it was a piece of junk, when all along it was a vintage vehicle. But I'm just glad it's no longer parked in my driveway.

In my defense
I have been fairly busy with work and helping my team get ready for the Phoenix Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, which was held this past weekend. 536 TNT volunteers from all over the country converged on Phoenix and we found out that as a group, we'd raised around $1.6 million for the fight against cancer. As always, I came away from the weekend feeling a huge sense of accomplishment as well as a renewed sense of purpose. There is nothing like running the last few miles of a marathon with people who are struggling to finish (and if you've ever run a marathon, you know that pretty much everyone is struggling to finish over the last few miles). Whether is was finishing with Katie, who was suffering from cramps, or jogging/walking with Jerry, who lost his 18-year-old daughter to cancer ten years ago and has been fighting against it ever since, or watching Elba cross the finish line with her arms held high as her family, the announcer, and the rest of the crowd cheered her on like she was the winner (and she was the winner, even though she finished long after the elites). There's nothing like watching them struggle to keep going when everything hurts and everything is tired, but there's no way they're going to give up. It's inspiring, it's humbling, and it's an honor to be allowed to be a part of it.

Next up
We've already started holding information meetings for our next season, which starts in just a couple of weeks, and we'll have a whole new group getting ready for San Diego and Seattle. In the meantime, I'm training for Boston in April and raising money for the Arizona Distance Classic in March. I decided to do a fundraiser with my students, so I put together a presentation and encouraged them to donate if they wanted to help out. In return, I told them I'd turn myself into a running billboard by writing the name of every person who donated on my arms and legs on the day of the event. I also promised to chip in a dollar for every person who donated. I gave the presentation on Thursday last week, and as of this morning, we've already raised over $700 (and it's cost me around $50 so far). It always amazes me how people stereotype middle-schoolers in such negative ways (the typical response I get when people find out I teach middle school is, "You must be so patient," which is so wrong, because I'm not a particularly patient person and I'm always thinking, "You know, if I had to deal with adults all day, I'd probably go crazy.").

That's all for this edition, so until next time, may your days be filled with 24 hours of reasonable, but not overwhelming excitement, may you complete all your chores in a timely manner, and may your driveways remain cleared of debris.