Six on Saturday

Yes, I am again cribbing from the TGO's blog.

1. I ran 16 miles today. My legs were pretty much dead for the last two miles, and so I walked them (like... really slowly), but I got it done. Coach Ronnie asked how I was feeling, and I mentioned that I hadn't had a long run in three Saturdays, and my last run period was last Sunday (for the Carlsbad 5K). He told me that the lack of training this week just threw me off rhythm, and it's not a big deal and that I can shrug it off as a bad day. Although, 16 miles on a bad day is still cool -- because who does that on a regular day, right?

2. While on those 16 miles, I had to amuse myself. That's a long time that we're not allowed to wear headphones or have mp3 players. (This is because we're not in an official race, but training on the streets, so we need to be aware of our surroundings). I ended up making a Taylor Swift parody (?) to her hit "You Belong With Me", but from the perspective of a guy singing to a girl... (And no, I'm not a Taylor fan, but darnit, this song was all over the place and is catchy.)

You're at the bar with your boyfriend, you're upset

'Cause he ignores you for all his friends that you've met

He doesn't appreciate you like I do

You're dropping hints that you're ready to go home

But he's drunk and he is talking in loud tones

He doesn't think about you like I do

But he wears jerseys, I wear polos

He's into beer pong, and I play piano

Writing out a song that expresses exactly how I feel inside

So I'm singing out now

If you could see that I'm the one who'll be there for you

Do the things you like

So why don't you know

That your man's a schmo

That your man's a schmo

And when I got to that point, I thought that was enough ridiculousness for the day. And so I moved on to focusing on the cute girl running in front of me... (Just kidding.)

3. This is my medal and bib from the Carlsbad 5k. Pretty cool, yeah? I feel.

4. My delicious dinner at Hash House, where I was with The OSFs and some of Chris' family. This was a mashed potato and bacon burger. They know how to serve you up at this place, that's for sure. I ate half and saved the other for tomorrow. It was filling, and I didn't wanna stuff myself completely. Plus, Jordan's trying to get me to lose, and I gotta stay strong.

5. Apparently I have guns. Or am starting to have guns. As in my arms. I say this because I caught up with some friends tonight that I hadn't seen in a few months, and the three girls were all "whoa, you are looking buff!" Then they asked me to flex my biceps. And I did. And they felt them. And they said "oooooooh"... And then we moved on and chatted about real things... And then when our time was over and we had to split up, we all hugged and they asked me to flex one more time. I obliged, and they felt me up. It was just a funny moment to me, as this has never happened.

6. This video is one of the reasons I love Lea Michele. If only we had gone to see her at this cabaret before "Glee" had taken off! Now an intimate event like this with her there will never happen... But still, she amazes me, and this song from Spring Awakening reminds me and re-affirms my love of the show.

Glee

I don't think I've ever been this amped with anticipation for a TV show before, but thinking about and watching previews for Fox's new show "Glee" fills me with such... well, glee.

I can't watch a promo and not smile. They always seem to air the "Glee" commercials during "American Idol", and while we always fast-forward through the commercials (thanks DVR!), if I ever spy a promo for the new show I have to rewind and watch. I even downloaded the extended promo (over 4 minutes long) and will watch it a few times while doing my cardio workouts at the gym. Andy called me a nerd, and that's totally right. The show's become more to me than getting to watch Lea Michele (the beautiful and amazingly talented star from a certain Broadway musical that I love) on my TV on a weekly basis, although she was my main draw. But it's taken me back to my junior high (and part of high school) days when I was a musical theatre nerd.

In junior high, I was in our school's small choir that every spring went to this annual competition in Santa Maria that some school's from the GSACS (Golden State Association of Christian Schools) participated in. We'd compete in the fine arts (like music and drama) and also in academic subjects. I think in 4th grade I won in the writing category, and from 7th-9th grade I won the spelling competition -- fun times, those were. Anyways, our choir was awesome back in junior high, I remember our choir won when I was in 7th grade. That same year I was also in the boys ensemble. It was 5 of us, and I was the #2 tenor (#1 being the choir director's son) and my voice was able to reach those high notes. We sang "How Majestic Is Your Name" (I think I can still remember the words), and we won 1st place too. The readers theatre group I was in also won, so it was good times for our school. I didn't do sports, so this provided the thrill of competition for me.

Later in the spring, we also had a concert at the school, which was a much less formal affair than the earlier competition (where we had to dress up - guys in ties, etc). But the spring concert was fun. We sang this song our director wrote called "Lazy Summer Days", where we got to wear t-shirts and sunglasses and I wore a hat backwards for probably the first time in my life - it even had light choreography too. I miss those days so much now...

Anyways, like Lea Michele's character says in the "Glee" promo - "Being a part of something special makes you special, right?" And her question resonates with me, because being in choir and drama gave me that rush and it was nice to not feel so anonymous and boring but to be part of a special team - it was exciting. Singing, acting, choreography... I need to get back into that.