And that's why you always stretch before IM softball games....

IM softball tonight: single, homerun, triple...pulled hamstring while tagging from third. I scored, but it also felt like someone punched the back of my leg. Hard. Pain. Probably not going to run in the half marathon on Halloween. Ice and Advil are in my future. Awesome!

Seriously?!

Basic rule of life #234: It is all but impossible for an adult, especially a male, to look anything but ridiculous when wearing face paint outside of proper context like a sporting event, a costume party, or a carnival where the individual is playing a clown or other jester-like character.

Corollary to #234: in said situation, trying to play it casual, contrary to normal human experience, just makes things worse.

Example:
Driving around downtown Minneapolis today in the drizzle at around 3:30 pm (or, 4.5 hours before game time) I saw a young man crossing the street with facepaint on that ostensibly was meant to make him look ghoulish in character but really made him look quite sad. It was apparent in his body language (slouched shoulders and shifty, downcast eyes, etc.) that the face paint was not his idea. Probably the result of an overbearing mother who, in return for signing the permission slip to get out of 10th grade biology early game day, insisted that he wear the skeleton-Adrian Peterson getup. "If you're planning on going to this Vikings game with this family, young man, you will dress up for it! And don't think you're not going to be a skeleton, even if Halloween is still three weeks away, because I didn't spend $15 at Party City to look at the black and white face paint as it sits on the shelf untouched by a bratty teenage boy who is suddenly "too cool" to apply random face paint as he is paraded around downtown Minneapolis by this mother. Don't think I forgot about your "call me Barbie and I'll call you Ken" phase." [A seething, "you wouldn't dare," face ensues, followed by a slow, reluctant unscrewing of the black paint and a defiantly harsh flip of the vanity mirror switch.] But nonetheless, this example proves that face paint outside of the proper context (and you could really put down a good argument that there is really no "proper" context for face paint on adults) looks simply ridiculous. A related example of this phenomenon of out-of-context absurdity occurs whenever a cyclist abandons his/her bike while still wearing spandex bike gear. Bike + biker = clothes ok (again, the argument could be made that under no circumstances should some people be in form fitting clothes). Biker - bike = clothes NOT ok.

Enough sitting around. I need to get up and run.

The biggest problem with law school is that it's needy. Every spare moment, you can feel its pull, beckoning you, making you feel guilty about not reading that next case or doing another brief. You can either succumb to this and feel pressured to go the extra mile -- the mantra "reach for the moon, because even if you fall short, you'll be among the stars" running through your head. [NOTE: I have such a major problem with this mantra. The premise is so fundamentally flawed. It's as if we're telling kids or corporate luncheon attendees -- whomever the typical audience for this saying is -- hey, underachiever, here's a cute little jingle, don't mind that it ignores the basic layout of the physical world; if you try hard enough you can be both burned out and ignorant of science! "Reach for the stars, because even if you fall short, you'll still be somewhere around the moon, or perhaps that middle distance between our star, the Sun, and the star you're trying to reach, some few million light years away, but either way, hey -- you gave it your best shot!" doesn't have that same pithiness but at least it gets the science right. See, America, this is why our children are failing out of math and science. This is why a mind-boggling, jaw-dropping number of Americans think humans walked with the dinosaurs (the History Channel series "Walking with the Dinosaurs" doesn't do a whole lot to clear this up, but at least there aren't little computer generated people walking with the Triceratops and early mammals). It's hard to do well in life if you're being encouraged by faulty science. Ok, enough rant.]

Or, you can consciously make an effort to take a break from the stress of school and go for a run. It's fall and my favorite time of year to get outside and jog by the river. The leaves are turning and sometimes when you are rushing through a tunnel of trees, bent forward with golden limbs and showering you with soon to be detritus, it feels like flight. This adjustment period to school has made my running so south. But that is soon to change.

The Twin Cities Marathon is tomorrow and, while I am not obviously running, I am declaring right now my intention to run it next year. I am also going to run Grandma's Half in June. There, I said it. Hold me to it.

I used to be a decent runner. Never fast, but not slow -- pretty good for a reformed baseball player/husky child. In 2006, I ran Grandma's Half in 1 hour 43 minutes. Now, I doubt I could make it in under two. I used to run all the time and eat Chipotle with careless abandon while weighing somewhere in the low-160's. Now, I don't run too often but still eat Chipotle like it's going out of style and I'm in the 180 range. Now, if that was LSAT score, thanks, I'll take it. Harvard, here I come! But it's not, and for that reason I must run.

Don't take this as anything but my personal desire to get back into shape and have fun running again. I'm not going on the Atkins diet nor do I plan on running 20 miles a day in this quest. I just don't want to be the guy who elicits surprise when he tells people he's a runner. "Oh, really? You run? Huh. [uncomfortable silence/stifled laugh]" Yeah, not going to be me...And please do hold me to it -- when you see me eyeing that third piece of pizza, poke my belly and give me a disapproving shake of the head or finger or both. I'll get the point. I'll try to update semi-regularly throughout the year.

Here's my first update: I'm planning on running a Halloween Half. I am picturing this as a horrible re-introduction to running races, but it will be good to look back and say, wow, I've come a long way since October 2009 in October 2010.

Stay tuned...

Proof.

Well, September has come and gone and I'm still alive and in law school. And I love it.

[Preface (although this really isn't a preface, is it? I've already begun the post. It's not pre-anything. Well, except for that weird middle part and, yeah, the end. But maybe "editior's note" would be a more appropriate title to this section? I don't care and I'm sure you don't either.): so I'm back posting tonight since I missed my bus that would have taken me to the bar to drink with my law school friends. So, instead of doing something social, I decided to do the most anti-social thing possible: blog alone in my room at midnight. The middle and majority of this post is really just rambling, so if you are pressed for time but still want to hear how my life at law school is going, just disregard the parts of this post enclosed in carrots, "<[blah, blah]>." I won't be offended if you skip to the bottom. But this is just proof that I'm alive and well. And still a little weird.]

<>

So in light of all this, yeah, law school still manages to be the most difficult thing I've ever done. But unlike eating a shitty burrito, it's also the most rewarding.

Ed. So this is a little hint for all you bloggers out there: if you put a portion of text in these things
"<>" whatever gets put in between is erased when you publish the post. A blogger black hole. Take, for instance, the last little comment about eating a bad burrito. You might have gotten this allusion if the point it was alluding to wasn't deleted when I pressed "publish post". You might have chuckled or even chortled when you read it, shaking your head as you remembered the funny, fantastical story I had just spun for your enjoyment. Well, maybe my rambling about wearing black jeans and a "Save the Tigers" long sleeved shirt and having a hissy fit in Chipotle wasn't fit for this blog that like 3 people read anyway. But I thought it was funny. Waay funnier than <>.

Ed. (2) Ok, this post just sucks. I'll try to redeem myself soon.