No, not because I just turned 28 or graduated or had any other life-changing event. I believe I am now officially old because of this past Friday night. This was the first weekend in a while that Christy and I had nothing really planned and so we were just going to chill out all weekend long. We ended up deciding that on Friday night we would go out for dinner and then go to Barnes and Noble because we both wanted to pick up some books to read on our Hawaii trip. Now, it's not the act of going to dinner and a bookstore on a Friday night that I think makes me old. It's the fact that I was absolutely, genuinely excited to be doing that rather than anything else. So now I am officially old.
Anyway, as tends to be the case everytime I go to a bookstore I ended up buying way more than I planned. I decided that my summer project is going to be War and Peace, so I bought that. At 1424 pages, if I finish it will become the longest book I've ever read, topping The Stand (1138 pages) and Atlas Shrugged (1096 pages). By all accounts it is a classic and I bought a newer translation that should make it easier to read, but of course anytime you are reading a book that is over 50 years old there is going to be an adjustment period while you find the author's pulse. I also decided that I wanted to get a couple more, shorter, classics to add to my library. I bought Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, and Lord of the Flies (which I was supposed to have, but never did, read in high school). I've already finished Of Mice and Men (seeing as it's only 107 pages) and I don't have a whole lot to say about it. On one hand, I can see why it's a classic, but on the other hand there's nothing in it that absolutely blew me away. Plus it's Steinbeck, so you know it's going to be depressing as hell going in. I also picked up American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. I'm not sure how exactly it caught my eye but I just picked it up and started reading it in the cafe area and couldn't put it down. I'm now on page 102 and it keeps getting better. I had intended to go back to the Einstein bio after this weekend but I guess that'll just have to wait. Finally, I picked up two non-fiction books. One is called The Philosopher's Handbook and is just a collection of western philosophy writings pretty much from Socrates through Nietzche. I've always enjoyed philosophy but don't have the time to read 50 different books to get a well-rounded education in the subject, so it's nice to have them all compiled in one place so I can at least get a taste of them. The other book I bought is a zen book called Not Always So. It is a collection of speeches given by Zen master Suzuki (who died in the 70s). I have his other book (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind) and really enjoyed that, so thought I'd pick this one up since I have been looking to get back into Zen and Buddhism. On a related note, I decided to take an introductory meditation course at the Buddhist temple up in Lakeview. It's 5 Tuesdays for an hour and a half each week and starts July 17th, right after we get back from Hawaii. I'm excited to do it; it's something I've been meaning to do for a long time.
In other news, I was very happy to see a story on yahoo news this morning. A while ago, I posted about some insane judge that was suing a dry cleaners for $54 million for temporarily losing his pants. Well, the case was finally resolved today in favor of the dry cleaners (http://tinyurl.com/ywmc8v), so at least some form of common sense prevailed in the end. The judge has also been ordered to pay their court costs, although the matter of their legal fees is still being decided.
On the marathon front, I got off to a rough start at the beginning of last week. On Tuesday night at 9:40 I was all set to head out and do my 4 miles, when I suddenly remembered that the fitness center was now operating under summer hours and closed at 10. In theory I could have just done my running outside but, well, I didn't. I did end up rebounding nicely, though, by running 5 miles on Thursday (1 hour); 4 miles on Saturday (46:30), and 6 miles yesterday (71:57) for a total of 15 for the week. I realized after I ran yesterday that it was the first time in my life I have ever run 6 miles without stopping. I have actually run 10ks before, and run them faster than 72 minutes, but it was always a combo of running and walking. This week I have pretty much the same routine to look forward to, except I have a 7-miler on Sunday. It's starting to get serious now. If I can eventualy get up to doing 10 miles at a 12 minute mile pace without stopping, I'll be really happy.
Christy and I are going to Second City this Thursday night, and then the Cubs game on Friday afternoon. At present I'm excited about both of them, but of course my excitement for the Cubs always hinges on how they do the preceding day.
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American Gods is an excellent read. I've had the sequal sitting on my shelf for a few months, along with Gaiman's Stardust which will be his next movie. I also have Neverwhere which I read a few years ago and remember liking, but without any details.
I feel old because I drank at various events on Wed, Thur, Fri, and Sat. I used to be able to do this with ease, but now I was forced to basically sleep-walk through a graduation party on Sunday.
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