Computer Drama

My laptop has been dying a slow death, and it’s dragging me down with it kicking and screaming. Despite having had the operating system reinstalled, as well as the hard drive, the motherboard, and the memory replaced (all under the 3-year extended warranty that expires in July, no less), it still dies minutes after I boot it up.

I’m gearing up to call Dell Technical Support again, but couldn’t quite face it this evening. I’m on a first name basis with several of those folks (who work somewhere in Idaho). They have been nothing but polite, but have thus far been unsuccessful at diagnosing the issue.

All the time on the phone with technical support has pushed me two hours over the edge of my cell phone minutes (which I haven’t done in four years on the same calling plan). Plus the fact that I can’t Skype with my computer down, and so I’ve needed to use my cell for the daily phone calls with mein Schatz. Yikes, I’m not looking forward to that bill.

Needless to say, all this has made blogging a little difficult, which would explain my prolonged absence. This weekend I borrowed a laptop from work, so I’m up and running for a few days anyway and I’ll see what I can do.

Hope all is well in your world!

May 5, 2007

Ocean

I grew up in a city on the water, and although it wasn’t the ocean exactly, the salty smell of the Puget Sound is comforting to me. And I didn’t realize how at home having water and that familiar salty smell made me feel until I moved away from the Northwest and discovered that people lived in landlocked states and landlocked countries!

Despite being close to the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, I craved the ocean and felt an important piece of me missing (not to be overly dramatic, or anything) while I was living there, that had to be supplemented by trips to Tanzania and the coast. When I was working in landlocked Port Loko, Sierra Leone, I needed to make several trips out to Freetown to keep from going crazy. Even standing near the harbor in NYC is almost enough to comfort me, though taking the Long Island Railroad out to Fire Island is the way I usually get my fix in the summer time now.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere where I couldn’t get to a large body of water within a reasonable amount of time!

More Sunday Scribblings about the ocean here.

April 14, 2007

Race Report: Brooklyn Half-Marathon

I ran my last half-marathon in July 2004, and descended into a summer of physical therapy afterwards to tame my rebellious IT band. My physical therapist had me stop running for close to two months, and I gradually built my mileage back up again once he had massaged and stretched my IT band back into submission, and I had built up the muscles around my knees to prevent more pain. To this day, I still do special stretches and use a foam roller to soften my IT band after every run.

But this post is not about my knee problems — it’s about the Brooklyn Half-Marathon that I ran this morning! Three years ago I thought I’d never be able to run that distance again without pain, and it was difficult to overcome my anxiety and decide to do it again. But what better race to do it with, in my home borough and ending in my own neighborhood?

The race started at 8am on the Coney Island boardwalk, with a three mile out-and-back along the water. At that time of the morning, the beach is empty and absolutely beautiful. Then we ran six miles north along Ocean Parkway, a long, flat straight-away, through a cool array of Brooklyn neighborhoods (like Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Bensonhurst, Midwood, and Borough Park). Loved the neighborhoods, but was so happy to see Prospect Park at Mile 9. The park is home turf for me, and the energy of the crowd and the runners noticeably picked up as we entered, so it was easy to pull myself through the last four miles.

Overall, I would say that I was pushing myself for most of the race, and totally running on fumes by the end — neither of which are my favorite running tactics — but this time around, I was just happy to break the three-year dry spell and put myself back out into half-marathon competition again!

P.S. Thanks Cari and Debi for pulling me through, and congratulations on a well-run race!

April 9, 2007

Year of Magical Thinking

I think I only briefly mentioned reading Joan Didion‘s memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking earlier this year. That brief mention in no way reflected my opinion of the book. In fact, my reluctance to address my thoughts in this blog probably stemmed from the emotional weight of reading it and my own inability to write about the topic at that point. Well, here’s my second chance.

On Thursday night, some friends and I, saw Vanessa Redgrave portray Didion in a monologue on Broadway, based on the book. Redgrave was absolutely lovely and a true artist, commanding the stage for a full hour and a half with no intermission, conveying utter grief and heartache throughout. An extremely moving performance.

If you read the reviews, like this one, you’ll discover that the book does not translate directly to the stage performance, and I agree. You can hear the calm and quietness of Didion’s voice in the book come through Redgrave on stage, but Redgrave also portrays the thing that is behind the calm quiet voice of Didion — the emotional pain that in the book she talks of silencing for the benefit of others. Here is the place where it is shown for all to see, and I found it to be beautiful. And because of this, I continue to rave about the performance, and so have the audiences.