Proud 2B Half Irish

One evening, twenty-two years ago, I was sitting in a classroom in Santa Ana and wishing I was in San Francisco. It was St. Patrick’s Day and I wanted to be celebrating with an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista. They specialize in Irish Coffee, making it with Tullamore Dew whiskey.
Instead, I went home from my night class and turned on a Clancy Brother’s special. I grew up on the Irish songs of the Clancy Bros. On my TV screen, Tommy Clancy was talking about the success the group and the toll it took. He talked about the parties every night and how much drinking he was doing. He knew he had to stop or it would ruin his life. Then he looked straight into the camera and said, “I haven’t had a drink in ten years.” Whoa!
I couldn’t believe someone could go a week without drinking, much less a decade. I quit drinking couple of months later and whenever I wanted a beer, cocktail, or glass of wine I would repeat Tommy Clancy’s words. The power of positive thinking: what the mind believes, it can achieve.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day and I’m sitting in Starbucks on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, kitty-corner from the Buena Vista. It’s the first time I’ve been in this city on this day. I’m going to go for a run to the Golden Gate bridge and when I return I plan to toast the Irish with an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista, hold the Tullamore Dew.
In keeping with my tradition of a joke on this day, I leave you with this.


What It Means To Be Irish:

1) You will never play professional basketball.

2) You swear very well.

3) At least one of your cousins is a fireman, cop, bar owner, funeral home owner or holds political office.

4) You think you sing very well.

5) You have no idea how to make a long story short!

6) There isn't a big difference between you losing your temper or killing someone...

7) Much of your childhood meals were boiled.

8) You have never hit your head on a ceiling.

9) You spent a good portion of your childhood kneeling in prayer.

10) You're strangely poetic after a few beers.

11) You are, therefore, poetic a lot.

12) You will be punched for no good reason...a lot.

13) Some punches directed at you are from legacies of past generations.

14) Many of your sisters and/or cousins are named Mary, Catherine or Eileen... and there is at least one member of your family with the full name of Mary Catherine Eileen.

15) Someone in your family is incredibly cheap. It is more than likely you.

16) You may not know the words, but that doesn't stop you from singing.

17) You can't wait for the other guy to stop talking before you start talking.

18) You're not nearly as funny as you think you are...but what you lack in talent, you make up for in frequency.

19) There was not a huge difference between your last Wake and your last keg party.

20) You are, or know someone, named Murph.

21) If you don't know Murph then you know Mac. If you don't know Murph or Mac then you know Sully. Then you probably know Sully McMurphy.

22) You are genetically incapable of keeping a secret.

23) You have Irish Alzheimer's... your forget everything but the grudges!

24) "Irish Stew" is a euphemism for "boiled leftovers."

25) All of your losses are alcohol related (loss of virginity, loss or drivers license, loss of money, loss of job, loss of significant other, loss of teeth from punch...) but it never stops you from drinking.


Ahem, I can relate to many of these! Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Vote for Waddler

Fellow blogger, Waddler 26.2, is trying to get a full Ironman sponsorship from Evotri. They are offering 3 sponsorships to the blogger with the most votes. Go to Waddler's blog (http://1waddler.blogspot.com/) to read her very compelling reasons for wanting this and if you agree then help a girl out and submit your vote. Voting ends March 21, so there isn't much time left. All you have to do is copy the URL of her blog and paste it in the subject line of an email. Waddler has all the links in her post.

She's the only one I know trying for this, but if YOU are looking for the same sponsorship, go ahead and mention it in the comments. And accept my apologies for not giving you a shout-out.

Sidelined

I can't run!!! Actually, I can, but I'm afraid hurting myself more. I'm fine when I run, but then the next day my foot hurts.

In the previous post, I mentioned that I thought I hurt my sciatic nerve--I had pain from my butt to under my big toe. That was about 3 weeks ago. After the 10 mile run in Minneapolis, I took a week off. I woke up on Sunday with not even a twinge and the next day ran 3.5 miles with my running group. After that run, I may have had a smidgeon of an ache in my arch. The next day (Tuesday) I ran/walked 3:2 for 20 minutes. That was my last run, because my foot hurt and my calf felt tight. My running coach advised me to take two weeks off; I'm in my second week.

This is making me very nervous for Big Sur! I have not run any further than 10 miles and although I gave up any delusions of running for time, I would like to finish and get a medal. Big Sur is 8 weeks away and Rock N Roll is 13. Yikes!

My shoes are new, so I don't think they're the problem. Although maybe they are. I actually have two pair--Asics Gel 3000, which are stabiity shoes that I wear on the road and longer runs, and Adidas Supernova Cushion. The Adidas don't offer any support and I was wearing them on that ill-fated treadmill run. I also wore them yesterday as I used the elliptical for an hour. I noticed that my foot starting hurting on the elliptical, even though there is no impact. I guess I'll just run in the Asics, when I start running again. I've been lucky in not getting injured and I hope this is a passing phase.

It was great to see AmyBee and go to Spirit of the Marathon with her. And it was cool to be in a theater full of runners! I loved that movie and got a kick out of how much of the lingo I got. I was amused how even Deanna Kastor got excited over a new pair of running shoes. And of course, I related to the back of the packers. But mostly I just related to the runners, regardless of their talent, and that was a good feeling.

In other news, Spring is coming to the Central Coast. The fruit trees are flowering; they smell great and look so pretty! And wildflowers are blooming on my property. Mostly lupine, but some California poppies. We haven't done any landscaping yet, and the weeds are coming up as well. I don't want to cut anything down, though, until I know what it is.

I spent the weekend taking care of two dogs for my friend. She had to leave for the weekend and I offered to feed them. They are not well-behaved so for the first couple of days I wouldn't put them in my truck, I just fed them at their house and walked them around their yard. But on Sunday I loaded them into the back of the truck and tied their leashes so they couldn't jump around. I let them run loose on my land, since it's all fenced. They loved it and never seemed to tire of running around. It's been 28 years since I've had a dog and I'm ready for one, but SD wants to wait a couple of years. He wants to be able to travel when he retires and doesn't want to have to find a caregiver for the pets whenever we want to go somewhere. And putting them in a kennel will be too expensive. Anyway, it was fun to have some canine company and to see how happy they were to run around. They're only a year old, so have lots of energy!

I allowed myself to go look at bikes the other day. I've been avoiding them, since we didn't have the money to buy one, but now we're getting close to having the money. I found a couple of Felt bikes that I'm considering. One is a women's specific bike, and has good componenets. I like the idea of women's geometry, especially since I'm under 5'4", but this bike has pink trim and I've never been a fan of pink and black. Pink and white, maybe. The other bike is an affordable all-carbon, but it's more unisex. I'm leaning towards that one, even though the WSD comes with slightly better components. I guess I'll just have to go for a test ride and see how they feel.