Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Redwoods, Weddings and more

Abbey and my Dad have been in town for the last few days. We've been having a great time....

Scoping out the vista just north of the Golden Gate Bridge...




Hiking through the coastal redwood groves of Muir Woods.

 

Celebrating with Stephie and Scott at their wedding in Napa...


Abbey and I played our first round of golf on Sunday evening, besides losing 4 golf balls, we managed to finish 7 holes before the darkness became too much. 6 racoons scrambled across the fairway at Hole #6. We were surrounded by squeaky little bats (literally dozens) on Hole 7...That was around the time Abbey asked to hold her driver to have a "weapon" on hand.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Vote O O Obama

A few weeks ago I stormed the Ferry Building with my awesome friends -we handed out voter registration forms, free Obama stickers, signs and buttons. It was a total blast. What was impressive was how many people were already registered. Multiple foreigners came up to us to express their support for Senator Obama, a few even bought signs to bring back to their country.

Obama stickers anyone?


Get out the vote!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Falls

Was running with Jay today, had a great run to the beach. Beautiful, warm evening. On the way back I randomly fell, caught myself, nothing too bad, pretty random. But then about 15 minutes later I tripped again, scraped my hands and leg up in a pretty mess. Still, no broken bones, no blood. But geeze, two falls in one run??? I have not fallen on a run ALL year. The last fall I remember was along the Charles River the summer after my sophomore year...

Now, 2 in 1 day? Both times my left foot tripped me up. Going up hill (the last 25 minutes of the run was uphill) I felt a little tweaky pain in my left achilles, not a big deal though. Think that could be the problem? I certainly don't enjoy falling though...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Running Parties

Yesterday commenced a new era of SF running buds. Amy, Eugene, Jay, and I teamed up for a 3.3 mile easy run in the GG. When we finished, I felt like we had just begun. I get so easily distracted talking with people, it really makes my runs fly by --another great reason for awesome running friends!

I truly believe that running with someone is the best way to get to know them. Suddenly your runs become a lot more memorable and a lot less painful too. Running parties can be a tricky thing to skillfully orchestrate. As a college-level track athlete, a lot of my friends and family have been intimidated to run with me. I understand the trepidation, but keep in mind that I want you to love running as much as I do!!! I don't want to show off how fast I am or make you struggle!

Here's some general rules of thumb I've found to be helpful in creating a non-threatening, fun, and highly entertaining running environment...

Running Parties Rules of Thumb:
1. The Golden Rule of Running Parties: Run as fast as the slowest person
2. Walking is always acceptable if needed, never ridiculed
3. Check-in with your buds throughout the run to make sure the pace/distance is still working for them!

Interval Parties can be really awesome too, they work a bit differently then Running Parties...
Interval Parties Rules of Thumb:
1. Finish the workout you set out to do (ie: set realistic distances and paces!!!)
2. Fastest runner starts first and gets the inside of the track
3. If you're running the same speed as your training buds, you should alternate who leads/follows (I'm bad at this part, I always want to lead...)
4. As courtesy, whoever finishes first encourages those still running

I'm sure I'll add to these, but these are decent points to keep in mind when you're running with other people. I totally recommend throwing running parties as often as possible!!!

Also, if you are training for something very specific, or you have different goals then those you run with, it's good to keep a balance between social runs and personal workouts. For example, you might want to push your 4 mile tempo run faster then others in your group -that's a good time for a solo run. If you have hidden agendas in your running parties you'll be in for a "world of hurt**"

**I can't believe S.P used that phrase on national television, repeatedly.

Batman

Last night I went to see The Dark Knight on IMAX. I was scared to my bones. It's true, Heath Ledger was ridiculously creepy as the Joker. IMAX movies are a bit unbelievable, the sound is so intense I could barely handle it. Overall the movie was really well done, I was captivated the entire time, literally jumping out of my seat.

I miss the POW, KaZAAM, BOOM Batman shows I used to watch when I was a kid.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Power of Humor

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.
Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken."
Then these three white boys came up to me and said, "Boy, we're givin' you fair warnin'. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you." So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, "Line up, boys!"

-Dick Gregory

God's Trombones

While we were watching round her bed,
She turned her eyes and looked away,
She saw what we couldn't see;
She saw Old Death. She saw Old Death
Coming like a falling star.
But Death didn't frighten Sister Caroline;
He looked to her like a welcome friend.
And she whispered to us: I'm going home,
And she smiled and closed her eyes.

Go Down Death, by James Weldon Johnson

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Sunday, September 7, 2008

SF Opera in GG Park

The San Francisco Opera performed a montage of vignettes today, right in my backyard! I was amazed with how many people were there, it was absolutely packed. Now I have a 30% coupon for tickets for the Fall Season. I really want to go to the premiere of The Bonesetters Daughter.

Here's the stage:

Here's the crowd, this photo doesn't do it justice unfortunately...According to the Chronicle, an estimated 20,000 people showed up.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

11

That's how many miles I ran today!!!!


I felt like the guy in lane 2 at the end of it... hehe

Friday, September 5, 2008

Get out the VOTE (part I)


I did the first step. I went to San Francisco City Hall on my lunch break today and got 200 voter registration forms. Should be a fun-filled weekend!

Voter reg 411:
  • Voter registration forms need to be turned in by October 20th if you want to vote for this election.
  • You don't even need postage to send in the form
  • You can get forms in many different languages, mine are english/spanish and english/chinese
  • If you change your party/address/state you need to re-register

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Dear Senator Obama,

Thank you for the way that you've campaigned for this election. You have maintained your integrity, ethics, and professionalism in an honorable fashion on the campaign trail.

Thank you for having such strong family values, I appreciate that you married a strong woman with a career who is also a great mother.

Thank you for appreciating and admitting the complexity of issues we face as a country, for being straightforward about your approach to problems, putting the American people's future as the top priority.

Thank you for asking more of us, of regular citizens, not all of us can serve our country in the military, but all of us can surely serve our country in our own way. I appreciate you bringing that point back into our nation's dialog. I appreciate being called to action.

Thank you for bringing more people to the voting polls then ever before.

Thank you for being educated and understanding the importance of education, for working your way from a small college in California to being President of the Harvard Law Review.

Thank you for your eloquent speaking skills, your grasp of the English language, your maturity as a speaker, your ability to rouse and electrify a crowd. A President should not just lead, but should motivate its nation. I appreciate your unique and seemingly natural skill to do just this.

Now I know I won't possibly agree with everything you do as President, but I trust that I will respect your decisions because you will make educated, reasonable, thought out decisions that you have figured to be best for our country in the long term.

As a thank you, I will do everything in my power to help elect you as President of the United States.

Slam Dunk

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

This is NOT even funny.

Is it not ironic that the McCain campaign ran a nationwide negative political tv ad against Senator Obama linking him to the celebrity stars of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears just to go off and find his own "celebrity" a week later? Here we have a made-for-tv drama, pregnant teen to marry boyfriend, governor who eats moose, husband who races snow mobiles.

You know what, I care nothing about any of that.

What concerns me about McCain's choice is that Governor Sarah Palin had ZERO experience in foreign diplomacy, and is not suited to fill the job of the presidency in the event that she needed to. I do not have faith in her ability to lead our country effectively if something were to happen to Senator McCain's health if he were ever elected. Oh and the latest news is that she's going to get a "crash course" in foreign diplomacy issues by Bush Aides. THAT WORKED OUT REALLY WELL FOR US DIDN'T IT? Maybe she can "learn" from their mistakes.


This hoopla was at first funny, to me it was a laughable pick, showing me that McCain truly feels that women in this country are morons if he really thought all the democratic Hillary voters would for one second vote for him because of the fact their gender is represented in the ticket, without their values or beliefs backed. Now it just makes me angry and sad to think this stunt actually happened during an election year when we are on the verge of a tipping point, having an engaging political discussion about what we can do to improve our country and the type of leadership we need to bring us all together.

This is pathetic, disgraceful and offends me as a woman and as a voter. Don't get me started on the fear-mongering speech President Bush is going to deliver tonight. My stress levels can't handle this. THIS is another great reason I want to go into medicine, medicine may have it's share of politics, but at least every single patient I treat can be better off because of it. As a doctor I can't talk about how good I am, but I can actually deliver excellent care to folks that need it. Enough of this.

I'm going to be registering voters this weekend so we can get out the vote for Senator Obama.