Posts (page 2)
Suddenly I feel very alone. Brian has just left to catch his flight back to London where he will stay for two nights before returning to St Louis. Meanwhile, I'm feeling exactly how I felt 5 years ago in Paris when my friends caught their earlier flight back to the airport and I had to kill a half a day before it was time for me to leave. I could have and should have gone with to the airport because it would have been easier than the ordeal I went through with the Metro system to the airport, but I didn't know that at the time.
I'm a big boy and I can handle two days in Warsaw by myself. I do have the contact of someone who is a relative of a friend so I do have options. I can also walk around on my own and find a tour to pass the day tomorrow.
When I plan my next trip to Europe -- and it is looking like there will be future trips -- I'm gonna make sure that I have traveling companions during the crucial transistions. I can deal with arriving a few hours or even a day ahead of others, but when it comes time to leave, I want to share a cab or train to the airport and maybe even the same flight back. Because even if you are starting to get on one another's nerves, at least you have someone to talk to while you're waiting for your luggage to arrive.
Today I woke up very early and went for my first post-marathon run. It's really cool to run through a city or town before the vast majority of its residents are up and about. I decided to revisit Wawel Castle and the Old Town area. While I didn't find the Chakra, I did find the restaurant my girlfriend recommend I go to find my favorite breaded pork cutlet. We will hit this place for lunch after we return from the Wieliczka Salt Mines. After lunch, we'll probably just chill out and walk around the Old Town grid or come back to our fancy room and take turns in the fancy whirlpool. Brian isn't a big partier but maybe I can convince him to hit the town and see why my Polish friends thought we were crazy for not staying longer in Krakow.
We arrived in Krakow yesterday morning and it was a bit of an adventure getting to our hotel. As part of the expensive hotel package Brian and I agreed to purchase from Kirker Travel Agency, private transportation from hotels to train stations and airports are included. However, this means using locals in each city and sometimes that can mean working with unreliable, flaky individuals.
In Prague our driver was at the baggage claim area with a sign with our name on it and we assumed a similar situation here. Instead, our driver was no where to be found. We dragged our suitcases from one end of the station to the other, checking where the buses arrive, and all the parking lots and taxi stations. After a call to the agency, we finally tracked him down and he returned to the station.
Our driver claimed he was waiting for us at platform three. The only problem is we arrived on platform five! And every board in that train station said as much. Yet he still insisted that we should have arrived on platform three. So we lost 90 minutes of our vacation time that we will never get back looking for a driver who probably was never there in the first place or was at the wrong platform and gave up too quickly.
I will say this about Krakow. I like it much better than Prague. It's less pretensious, money goes further and they don't seem to hold Americans in contempt. And Wawel Castle can hold its own against Prague Castle any day.
When I last wrote, I was on my way to the Marathon Expo. Keep in mind that I had very little sleep, my luggage was still en route and I still wearing the clothes I put on Thursday morning stateside. It took me two tries to get to the expo on the Tram system, mostly because I neglected to ask the hotel clerk which direction to take the Tram.
The Prague Tram system is actually very efficient and easy to figure out once you take a couple of minutes to figure it out. I would say it is even easier than the Paris subway system which I only had to figure out once since Betsy took care of our transportation needs when we did the Paris Marathon five years ago.
At the Expo, I was shocked to learn that runners were required to put down a deposit of 400 ck or 15 euros for their chip. I was certain that my online registration covered the chip but the only person at the booth who spoke english assured me that this was the system and that at the finish line, there would be a booth to get your money back.
"It wasn't my idea, I only volunteer here," he said. I'm gonna call him Radek since that's fairly common name in these parts.
Like many of the international athletes -- the ones not from Prague or Czech -- I was caught off guard with no local currency. I asked if they would take a credit card or American Currency and he said cash or czech only, meaning czech money (crowns or cz) or euros, no american dollar or British Pound accepted. My temper was starting to boil as the Common Sense Meter trickled to zero. I asked where the Bankomat machine was and he said that it was outside the Expo compound, a 5 minute walk.
I unleased a little more rage, screeching "didn't it occur to anyone that if people need money for chip deposits, that putting a freaking ATM machine nearby would be a good idea!" My new friend Radek looked at me like I asked if I could sleep with his sister without buying his family a farm animal first and said "it's only five minutes away."
I would later realize that to Czech, a five minute walk is what we in the states would call a walk around the block. The ATM -- Bankomats as they are referred to here -- wasn't hard to find and withdrawling 400 crowns (about $25 american) wasn't a big deal had I more sleep and fresh clothes.
When I went back to the booth, I asked if 400 cz equals 15 euros and he said that it was approximately the rate. I was going to say "do you know why it takes so much of your currency to equal a euro," but decided not to create an international incident on my first night in Prague.
This has been one long day. In fact, it has been two long day. I started my day Thursday waking up in he arms of my girlfriend. yah! Unfortunately, I had toget up and get packed for my trip to Prague, Republic of Czech. I haven't thought of a good code name for her, but my girlfriend is so wonderful. Not only did she volunteer to drive me to the airport, she actually parked the car and came in with me so I wouldn't have to sit for two hours by myself.
I wasn't able to fall asleep on the plane. Guy next to me, Jeff, did not need to get up once during the trip. for an antsy guy like me, that was a ordeal. I need to stretch my legs but didn't want to bother him each time, so I usually sat there festering. And to top it off, when we land, he went through the trouble to make sure I got to my connecting flight terminal. Dammit, how can you not like someone like that!
One time that I did get up, I tried to use the lavoritory and a flight attendant told me that since I wasn't in business class, I had to use this other one (with a longer line). I was tempted to do a bit about how Austria would be the outermost suburb of Nazi Germany if it wasn't for America but considered that was insensative and George Bush has long since damaged that card. The funny thing is, just before it was my turn in the long line, the FA said I could now use the BC lavority. I guess it was a time range thing.
My luggage did not follow me to Prague from Vianna. Given the size of the plane, i'm not surprise. I really thought I
was gonna be asked to either 1) help load the luggage, 2) take the wheel for 20 minutes while the pilot used the bathroom, or 3) help wash and wax upon landing.
My room was not ready when I arrived. Apparently checkout is noon and since I got here before 1pm they were not ready for me. I would have been fine if someone had told me...oh i don't know, when i booked the freakin hotel.
So while I've been up for almost 24 hours, I 'm gonna try and push through it and go to the Marathon Expo now. I want to get that out of the way before I crash and sleep the sleep of the dead.
Observations
Currency: They prefer crowns here. They will take Euros and in some places British Pounds. In most places they will resist the urge to laugh uncontrollably if you offer them American Dollars.
Smoking: A lot of Europeans smoke. It's a given, like most humans breathe oxygen. However, most Europeans seem to realize its a disgusting habit and they do their best to stand away from the crowd or hold their cigarette in a manner such to alleviate smoke. Most do anyway.
Music: You haven't heard Bryant Adam's "Everything I do" until you've heard it in Czech. Or Don't Stop Believing sung in English, but by an apparent local Czech band.
Language: Czech stems from Slavic but with a Germanic influence. Some of the words are very similar to Polish, so I've been doing my best to try and sound like a Pole on Holiday butchering the Czech language instead of an American on vacation butchering the Czech language.
It's 11:53 am local time and the Indy Mini is over, at least for my friends and me. I did a 1:36:31, which is about a minute slower than last year. However, I felt like I ran a stronger race with an easier start and negative splits this year.
Last year I started in a lower letter chute and got off to a fast start but faded a bit after the 6 - 8 mile leg that runs through the Indy 500 race track.
This year I started in Chute H and took it easy until I was able to find a good running lane. My friend Lisa O was in Chute D and it took me until Mile 3.5 to catch up to her. When I happened upon her, I said "hey where are all the sexy Chicago runners...oh there's one." She pinched my butt for my efforts. Then she introduced me to her friend Amy whom she found on the course and pulled through Mile 12.
I didn't stay with them long, opting instead to just enjoy what seemed like a natural pace. At the race track I picked it, probably because they were blasting Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin Something. For some reason, that just picked me up. It could also have been the Shot Block I popped at Mile 6 finally kicking in.
Another difference between this year and last year is that I was passing more people than passed me. The really cool thing about this course is that the final mile is marked off with 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 marks to let you know how much you have to run. I was trying to push myself to match last years time, vaguely aware but not absolutely aware of what it was. Unfortunately, I felt the same uneasyness in my stomach as I did during the last half mile of the Shamrock Shuffle. That feeling that if I try to go even a slightly bit faster, I'm gonna toss my cookies, so I backed down a bit.
The big draw for this race is the post-party, which I got to enjoy a bit last year because a whole group of Chicago runners were there and staying through the weekend. This year it was cut short a bit because I didn't know a whole lot of people who were also signed up. The people I did know -- Lisa O and Steve C -- were not interested in hanging out pre or post party. My roommate Ginger didn't finish the race until an hour after I did and we had agreed that we would prefer to get back to Chicago as quickly as possible rather than incur another day at the expensive hotel we rented.
In the Final Analysis, I'm glad that I didn't give into temptation and sell my race entry. While I'm not really setting any new PRs this year, I am at least producing race results similar to my past performances which means I'm not quite ready for retirement. I just have to work harder this summer if I want the Chicago Marathon to be my next Personal Best
I'm in Indianapolis getting ready to run the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. It's 6:10 am and my roommate and fellow runner only got about 5 hours of sleep since we are still on Chicago time. This is a very popular half marathon, 35,000 people sign up and the race closes before Thanksgiving each year. This seemed like a good idea last fall: run a half marathon a week before my international marathon in Prague. The reality is that I've done very little running since the St Louis marathon a month ago. In fact, this is going to be my longest run since that day.
Fortunately, I didn't pack any expectations with me for this one. I'm just gonna go out and let my body run at whatever pace it feels like. If I'm having a good day, I'll cruise through the almost 60 degree morning without getting exhausted. If it's not my day, then I can drop back. Of course I want to finish under 1:45, I can't help but bring that expectation to the table. Last year I ran this course in 1:35, and I didn't even have my best stuff. It's a little warmer this year and I'm not in as good of form and shape so I'll have to adjust my expectations.
So it's official: Icarus has a girlfriend. I couldn't be happier and am enjoying spending whatever time I can with the new lady in my life. But I do find that I'm oscilating between wanting to tell the world and wanting to keep this news a secret as long as possible.
People ask me how long we have been a couple. It's one thing to ask how long we have been dating. That's easy; our first date was March 15. But when do you start the clock on when the relationship began. Was it after the date where she admitted she liked me? Or was it when we had our first kiss?
The other question that most ask is how did we meet. We actually met a few years ago and went on a date. It was a good date and I wanted to see her again so I called. She never called back, though she did send me some emails asking about the marathon. She said that it was probably because she lived in Joliet at the time and the distance would have been too much.
Fortunately, we ran into each other at a social function in February and I mustered all my courage to ask her out again. Luckily, she saw something different in me. She said that I seemed more sure of myself than I did years ago. So a little dump pass turned into a dinner date. Attempts for a second date seemed to be stalled but going for it on fourth and long moved the chains and kept the drive alive. A few bumps along the way came from my crazy work schedule sending me to Miami for a week, but by then we realized we wanted to keep seeing each other.
So now it's a matter of gradually introducing her to my friends and meeting hers and seeing what the summer holds in store for us. The Adventure begins....
It's been a while since I wrote anything about the Judas-Jezebel Saga and I may not have written about post-Krazy Guatamalan's Birthday party events. She and I chatted over IM a couple weeks after that and met for tea in person. It seems that after I left KG party, she and her friends started talking about So-Suede's unusual behavior toward her and she decided to get out of there too and not look back.
She told me that he said that he wasn't ready for a relationship, and was depressed. He's also got a long commute to work since they closed his downtown location and he has to drive out to Aurora. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!
This is a conversation we had a few days ago. I removed some of the extraneous banter but she brought up So-Suede so I decided to ask a question that has been on my mind for a while.
Angela (3:38 PM): just for the record... i don't think i count as one of So-Suede's girlfriends
Icarus (3:38 PM): fair enough
Angela (3:41 PM): well, at least you guys can hang out again
Angela (3:41 PM): i don't ever want to be even a slight reason to your falling out
Icarus (3:41 PM): can i ask one more question about the whole thing
Angela (3:42 PM): go
Icarus (3:42 PM): did you really think it would be okay to date one of my friends after telling me that we, how did you put it, shouldn't date
Angela (3:43 PM): i felt that way before i met your friend
Icarus (3:43 PM): that's not what i'm asking
Icarus (3:44 PM): i mean did you think i was gonna say "hey great you two krazy kids should get together"
Angela (3:44 PM): well, i will say that i was unsure about it at first
Angela (3:44 PM): and so was he
Angela (3:44 PM): which is probably why it didn't work out
Angela (3:46 PM): and honestly, if i didn't know you liked me "that way" until "that night" then how would he and i dating be an issue?
Angela (3:46 PM): cuz i didn't know you liked me
Angela (3:46 PM): "that way" until "that night"
Angela (3:47 PM): then yes, i said yes to your "we should date" question
Angela (3:47 PM): so, i'll say once again (and I hope this will not affect our friendship for the future) I deeply apologize for it all and wish it never happened
At the time I knew that in six months I'd probably not care but when everything first came down, it was painful. Because she wasn't just some lady I met at a party. She was a friend who I started hanging out with and, through misinterpreting some signals, started to have actual feeling for. Of course after IM"s like this one, I have to ask, what was I thinking!
Then again, I also have to remember that we are all fallable human beings and while most of us are generally good, we do have our moments of weakness when we let others and ourselves down. And in February when we got together for tea, we went over what had happened between us and she apologized for hurting me and for her part in everything.
And now enough time has past that I don't feel the way I felt anymore. At Guy's Night Out the other week, the desire to punch So-Suede was completely absent. It's a factor of at least three things: 1) enough time has passed to ease the pain; 2) it's finally sunk in that she wasn't that great of a catch, and he's got nothing on me; and 3) someone else has come along. Someone who appreciates me and all that I have to offer.
While Angela got a Cade McNown draft bust, I traded up and am thinking Superbowl.
I'm headed to the LawFirmClient's Ft Lauderdale office today and will go to their Miami office tomorrow. My Southwestern flight is underbooked so I have the entire row of seats to myself. "Welcome to Southwest," says a flight attendant. "If you are unhappy with our service anytime during the flight, there are six exits off this plane."
Behind me is a kid who was crying bloody murder but has calmed down. If she hadn't, If it wouldn't technically have been a felony, I would have asked if I could buy her a cheap glass of wine. Across the aisle and one row back from me is a lady who appears in her late 30s maybe early 40s who doesn't seem to believe in buttoning her shirt. She cut in front of me as we were boarding and I figured since she was kind enough to flash me, the least I could do was let her on first.
****
I can't quite talk about everything just yet but I can say that Good Things are on the horizon. I'm seeing someone and it is going very well. The only things stressing me right now is that I technically do not have a place to stay in Prague, Krakow or Warsaw next month.
Forgive me if I've used that title before. For the first time since December, So-Suede, the Krazy Gautamalan, QK and me got together. So-Suede sent the invite last week but I was out of town so I suggested tonight instead. It seems everyone was available. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be.
For one thing, I didn't have the desire to punch him like I did at Krazy Guat's birthday party a few months ago. My feeling was pretty neutral. I guess I'm over it except for the part about not wanting to give the appearance of condoning his actions through moving on without any acknowledgement of what happened. I foresee that GNO will reappear on my calendar and when the warm weather finally gets here, Bacci playing in the park will resume, but our friendship will never quite be the same.
There were a couple opportunities for me to take some digs at So-Suede, but I let them slide. Like when he wanted to know how he could get the phone number of a lady at the next table whom he thought attractive but didn't get to talk with all night. I could have said "well I could go out with her and you could start having secret coffee dates!"
Toward the end of the evening at Peace, I struck up a conversation with the ladies who were seated at our shared table. I wasn't interested in any of them, just merely trying to practice being more engaging but there was one who I found cuter and I did talk to her a bit more. It probably is a coincidence but it seems like the moment I showed more attention to one of the ladies, was the moment So-Suede came over and started chatting her up.
At the Hidden Cove, So-Suede was trying to figure out the last time we were there and I reminded him that it was the night with Angela.
I find myself wonder what it is that make him so special...what he has that I don't. Not in the pathetic, depressed way I did a few months ago but more in a "seriously, what's so great about him" sort of way.
