so here it is, a full week into 2004, and i still haven’t really done a wrap-up of 2003, save the stats i posted about how much i ran, biked, and swam last year. odd, since i am usually big on quantifying and categorizing things. so let’s see…
2003 started off beautifully with a trip to france, which was a lot of fun. but on february 1, columbia broke up and the days from then until the end of june were a blur of sims, presentations, questions, and trying to find answers. the only way i can keep track of those five months is by the things that squeezed their way around work–my first 10k in february, a trip to atlanta in march, ron and buzz’s wedding in april, and winning unexpected money with my camera phone.
in june, i emerged from the work fog and checked fenway park and yankee stadium off my list of stadiums to visit. on one of those visits i saw the astros no-hit the yankees using 6 different pitchers, which was both bizarre and a thing of beauty. i had a steady stream of activity in the summer, with a triathlon, mom and david coming at the end of june, a trip to atlanta to run the peachtree 10k for independence day, buying a sailboat, katie here for a post-mexico weekend in mid-july, leila here for a concert at the end of july, a trip to atlanta for james and chrissy’s wedding, a professional conference in austin, and moving to a new apartment less than 300 feet from my old one. september brought a camping trip to enchanted rock, an unexpected phone call from the newly-engaged katie, and the beginning of a new soccer season, when i suddenly was playing on three different teams. in october i was out of town every weekend–an adventure race followed by 9 days in greece followed by daniel and virginia’s wedding. by the beginning of november i had begun training (with the help of “coach” buzz) for my first half marathon, which is now only 10 days away. the rest of november was the calm before the storm of activity in early december. i finally got to escape for two wonderful weeks in charlotte with my wonderful family, where i made a wonderful quilt, and then rang in the new year in atlanta with two of my wonderful friends. wonderful.
so that’s the quick recap. i’m sure i’ve forgotten stuff but wow, the year really flew by. here’s hoping for a great 2004. i’m going to simply reuse my one resolution from last year: keep running. carter lost 25 pounds in the last year, which is amazing to me. but then i realized that i’ve lost 25 pounds in the last two years, which is also pretty amazing. not to mention that i actually have muscle now. hurrah. linda hamilton in terminator 2, here i come. (ok, yeah, right. hee hee.)
on to other things. mars continues to amaze me. i was talking to a friend about it last night, and my wayward attempts to construct 3d glasses here in the office yesterday out of a transparency, a file folder tab, and a lebanese flag, when i had a revelation. i had a national geographic from 1998 that had 3d pictures from pathfinder, and included in the magazine were two pairs of 3d glasses! hurrah! as i told becca this morning, you can make fun of me all you want for being a packrat and using the “shifting piles” method of organization, but give me credit for one thing: when i remember that i have something, i know right where to go to find it. once i remembered i had the magazine, it was in my hands in less than a minute. score. so this morning, armed with real 3d glasses, i checked out all the anaglyphs (anaglyph, noun: a moving or still picture consisting of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colors that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly colored filters) from mars. very cool, very cool.
i also called t-mobile yesterday, and am disgruntled because i haven’t talked them into giving me the phone that i want for less than $250 yet. i’ll pay $100 for it. but not $250. grumble. i could get it for $100 if i weren’t already a t-mobile customer, but since i am their customer, i can’t. or i can, but only if i’m willing to change my phone number, again. something about that doesn’t make sense. grumble grumble. any suggestions?