This afternoon I’m taking Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for my applicatioon to rabbinical school. I generally do very well at standardized tests; I took the SATs every year from 7th grade through 11th grade (not 12th…I’d plateaued), and I think familiarity with the test-taking environment is a big help.
Nevertheless, wish me luck!
It’s going to be a long day.
My wife and I woke up early this morning to vote. We walked two blocks to our polling place, arrived around 7:10am (ten minutes after the polls opened), and waited in line approximately an hour and a half. We conversed with a genial fellow in line behind us, and the weather was unseasonably pleasant (50’s, on the way to a high in the 70’s). Some ladies from a local coffee shop pulled up in a station wagon and handed out free cups of coffee to the waiting voters. Awesome.
I think this is the first time I voted first thing in the morning, and it was certainly the longest I have waited in line to vote. I wanted to get it out of the way so that I wouldn’t be scrambling to vote tonight, but mostly I wanted the “I Voted” sticker so that I could hit as many Starbucks as possible over the course of the day. See here for the low-down on local specials, and here for an interesting article in the LA Times on the commercialization of Election Day.
But now tht I’m done voting, all I have to look forward to is the results, and that’s going to take forever. It’s going to be more difficult than usual to concentrate on work, and with no polls closing for like 10 hours, the only news to watch will be stories about voting disruptions, long lines, and other totally predictable bummers.
Nevertheless, I’m glad I got it done. You should get it done, too. This past weekend I was in New York visiting the Jewish Theological Seminary, and I had the good forture of spending Shabbat morning at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. After delivering a great sermon on parashat Noah, Rabbi Bronstein exhorted the congregation to be sure to vote today, recalling his childhood in an autocratic and anti-Semitic Argentina, reminding us that as citizens of a free and democratic country, we are not merely able but obligated to cast a ballot.
Do it for free coffee, do it for Bronstien…I don’t care. For God’s sake, vote.
Right now I’m in the computer lab of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. I’m visiting the school as a participant in their annual “Taste of JTS” program for prospective rabbinical students. No time to elaborate, but what I’ve seen of the school, its students, and its professors has impressed me so far. More later.
I read somewhere that it’s okay to run while you’re sick, as long as the problem isn’t in your chest.
The sore throat I woke up with on Friday has officially evolved into a chest cold. As much as I wanted to run 20 miles in this weather (snow-rain mix, 25-mph winds) I’m totally sidelined, with 6 weeks to go until the Las Vegas Marathon. I hate this. Now I’m just hyperdosing vitamin C and zinc and fluids and hoping it passes soon, before I get too far out of shape.
On the bright side, I got an early birthday present from my in-laws — a gift certificate to the homebrew supply store, which I think I’m going to invest in an additional glass carboy (for productive capacity while my other two are tied up with mead and imperial stout) and the store’s new Surly Furious clone kit.
<cough>Cheers!</cough>
PS…if YOU would like to get me a birthday present, please click on the link below and sponsor me for the Las Vegas Marathon on behalf of Chai Lifeline. No donation is too small (or two large) and even a $1 donation will make me feel like you’re running with me the whole way. Thanks!
The day after running the Twin Cities Marathon, after properly rehydrating and recovering from a 5,000-calorie deficit, I got on the scale and saw that I weighed 250 pounds (or 114 kilograms, Frenchie). This is not my highest weight ever, but I’ve never crossed 260, and frankly, I was shocked that I hauled all that 26.2 miles in 5 hours, 6 minutes. I mean, just the sheer…physics…of it all.
Oh, did I mention I ran a marathon?
I thought I would have lost a lot more weight during the months of training. Even though I kept up with my longer runs on the weekend, I skipped a lot of the shorter weekday runs and speed work, and I think that prevented me from reaching a high enough metabolic plateau for any kind of sustained weight loss.
Now I figure the surest way to improve my time for the Las Vegas Marathon is to drop some pounds. Less weight to carry, less stress on my joints, and the same expenditure of energy should push me down the course faster.
In addition to being more disciplined about maintaining my weekday short runs, I’m trying to cut all “white foods” out of my diet, specifically white flour, white sugar, and white shortening. This means trading bread and pasta for whole-grain rice and quinoa — which take longer to metabolize and keep your blood sugar more stable — and chucking most processed foods. Pretty much the only white food I eat now is egg whites, which is among the purest sources of low-fat protein available without a prescription.
As of today, I’m down to about 240, and I’m shooting for 220 on race day, about seven and a half weeks away. I think I can do it.
Tonight I attended my first live political rally. I was there as a volunteer for the Franken for Senate campaign, wandering the hall with a clipboard, asking people to sign up for volunteer shifts over the final two weeks before the election. In the bargain I got a great spot in the crowd to see a galaxy of local, state, and national stars of the Democratic party. I only wish the camera on my phone wasn’t terrible.
You know who you are, Motorola Q.
Featured speakers: Chris Coleman, R.T. Rybak, Amy Klobuchar, Ashwin Madia, Hillary Clinton, and of course, Al Franken.
One thing I picked up at the rally that I didn’t consider before: Even if we elect Obama president, unless we have 60 Democrats in the Senate (enough to override a filibuster), it will be difficult for Obama to make the changes he’s running on.
I’ve come across a few people who are true-blue Democrats and planning to vote for Obama but are on the fence about Franken. Maybe they were keen on Mike Ciresi or Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Rather than pull the lever for they guy who beat their favorite, they might skip that section of the ballot, or worse, just re-elect incumbent Norm Coleman.
Look, people…if you like Obama, and you want to see him succeed, the most important thing you can do (after voting for Obama) is give him a strong Democratic majority in the Senate. For me Franken is an easy choice, but if you’re wavering, just remember that if Coleman gets re-elected and if that costs Democrats the 60 seats they need, it only takes one Republican knucklehead to filibuster any and all laws that need to get passed to see any real change in this country. This scenario doesn’t do you, me, Ciresi, Nelson-Pallmeyer or America any favors.
One of my goals for this year was to run a 50-mile ultramarathon. I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I do plan to run two marathons this year. A couple of weeks ago I ran my first, the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. One down, one to go.
Enter Vegas.
A few weeks ago I told my rabbi that I was training for a marathon. The next day he sent me a link to Team Lifeline, a training program that helps to prepare novice runners for marathons and half-marathons while also helping them to raise funds for seriously ill children and their families. One of the events they train for is the Las Vegas Marathon, this year scheduled for December 7. As it happens, I was planning to be in Los Angeles that week anyway — practically the same neighborhood — and I’m already in marathon condition. Well, 5-hour marathon condition, anyway.
The signs are too numerous and too perfect to ignore. So I signed up. The first marathon was for me. This one’s for the kids.
Please check out my personal page on the Team Lifeline website to learn more about this great organization, and if you feel compelled, please make a donation to help me with my fundraising goal. It maybe the most worthwhile money you ever spend in Vegas.
I am sincerely sorry for everything I have done or failed to do that may have hurt or offended you in the last year. If you are fasting tomorrow, have an easy one, and I pray for you to be inscribed for a sweet, prosperous, and healthy year to come.
Today I finished the Twin Cities Marathon in 5 hours, 5 minutes, and 58 seconds. Blessed is the Name of the Holy One, my King, my only Master.
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It’s 5:30 AM on the morning of the Twin Cities Marathon, which starts at 8 AM. Next time I blog, God willing, I’ll be a guy who has finished a marathon. Right now, I’m scared as hell.
I bottled my pumpkin ale last Thursday with the help of my sons while watching the vice presidential debate. The pumpkin ale survived fermentation; now it’s a four-week countdown while it conditions in the bottle to attenuate and bring out the flavor of real pumpkin used in the brewing. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, could use a few more years.
Last week I volunteered for a total of nine hours — two hours washing windows at the Ronald McDonald House, three hours entering data for Keith Ellison’s congressional campaign, and four hours making phone calls for Al Franken’s senate campaign. I feel pretty good about all of that.
This summer I mastered the equivalent of two college semesters’ worth of modern Hebrew in about 4 months with the help of an outstanding tutor. My rabbinical school application essays? Totally blocked, but I feel pretty strongly about getting a draft done for at least one school this week.
Right now I’m going to daven Shacharit and pray my heart out, thanking God for letting me live this long and begging for the strength and perseverance to cross the finish line sometime before 2 PM. If you’re local and want to cheer me on at some point, you can find the route map in this PDF guide for spectators. The map is on page 10, and page 8 has a chart showing where I will be when, based on my expected finish time of between five and six hours. You can also see my progress online at this cool site.
