briansereno.com

West Virginia

BASS — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:49:44 +0000

On a borrowed idea from friends of one of my sisters, we have decided to visit a different state every year for our anniversary. So, as September 6th marks two years of marital bliss for the Serenos, West Virginia has the honor this year. At Hollywood Casino, formerly known as Charles Town Races and Slots, we lined the rails today with a gaggle of local handicappers and cheered our chosen horses as the galloped by. One such creature, aptly named Marital Bliss, paid off handsomely for us. Two years down, two states in the books (after we checked off exotic Virginia last year). The next 48 states have a lot to live up to.

30 Minutes of Daily Exercise

BASS — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:10:26 +0000

As you may recall, even prior to my marathon training, part of the new healthy lifestyle that I aim to keep includes a mandated 30 minutes of exercise at least six days per week. Since we decided that one hour of exercise one day doesn’t equate to a 30-minute session on two days, even as some of my runs nowadays occupy significantly more than 30 minutes of time, I still make time six days a week to exercise for 30+ minutes. Today, however, an interesting thought arose. On account of my diligent marathon training, I’ve found that the time that it takes to complete my shorter runs has gradually become less and less. This morning, for example, I breezed through four-miles in a personal-best time of 32:52. Is the day coming when I’ll be able to break the 30-minute mark on a four-mile run, and thereby technically not fulfill my prescribed amount of daily exercise since I completed the course too expeditiously? Now that will be a good problem to have.

Blogging and Spam

BASS — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:11:00 +0000

Throughout the course of the day today I had several conversations that led to this entry. First, a clarification: In two months time I am going to cease daily entries. That said, I highly doubt that I’ll be able to end my blogging career “cold turkey.” Simply said, I have too much fun taking advantage of a forum that allows me to express myself, share my thoughts, and poke fun at the lovable absurdities of life as a Sereno, to ever fully cut ties with my blogging identity. I just wanted to give fair warning that nightly entries will no longer be a priority of mine, while it remains to be seen if I’ll write every other day, once-a-week, biweekly, etc. (On a side note, does biweekly mean every other week or twice-a-week, because I think i could make an argument for both?)

Additionally, if you tried to leave a comment today but were ultimately unable, first of all, thank you. Please know how much I enjoy reading the comments. Second of all, my apologies. I have an explanation that might interest you. When this blog became overrun by spam I noticed some trends in the spamming practices. The majority of the unwanted comments contained words like “blog”, “website”, “site”, etc., as well as the names of dozens of prescription drugs and some words that I’m not going to repeat here. (I felt like I was on the school bus again, learning a whole new vocabulary in my middle school years.) Anyway, I reasoned that if I blocked comments using some of the aforementioned words, then it would significantly reduce the amount of spam that struck. It’s an on-going process. My rationale was that legitimate comments wouldn’t use those words regularly, since the topics covered herein seldom use Internet nomenclature, and tend to focus on GBM, running (and Jersey Shore). So, my apologies if an intended comment didn’t make it through, but perhaps that explains why.

Two Months Notice

BASS — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:15:31 +0000

It is with mixed emotions that I bring news and fair warning today of my plans following my Halloween marathon and two-year anniversary of my November 6th, 2008 craniotomy. Someday soon, in the early days of November - most likely on November 6th - my blogging life will come to a halt. I have considered authoring weekly updates, or otherwise periodic anecdotes about the things that I see, experience, read, think and hear - but I’m not certain if that will transpire. What I am sure of is that my days of daily blogging will come to an end in approximately two months time; a perfect time, in my opinion, as I celebrate my new life as a marathoner, 24-months after I learned of the 18-month prognosis for GBM survival. Since I’ll no longer be training for an endurance race, nor will I necessarily spend the same amount of time each day putting my thoughts into words, I have wondered how I’ll occupy my time. What excites me is the fact that I have many options, and I’m not quite sure which to pick. One day I want to write a book. I also want to author a movie screenplay, become fluent in Spanish, and learn to play a musical instrument (either the piano or harmonica). Which will I do come Fall? I haven’t decided, but I’ll have a good amount of free time on my hands that was otherwise occupied since November, 2008 - and I truly can’t wait to see what my future may hold. More to come, but in the meantime, please know how sincerely grateful I am for your support on this wild ride of mine.

Strange Circumstances in Silver Spring

BASS — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:12:49 +0000

Unlike the situation in April at our condo complex (http://briansereno.com/?p=1563), today’s living nightmare in Silver Spring, MD (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_discovery_channel_gunman) didn’t elicit the wide-ranging scope of emotions that I felt a few months ago. When one of neighbors barricaded himself inside his home and eventually took his own life because he couldn’t pay his bills, how could I not feel a great deal of empathy and sadness over that situation. It made me appreciate my own lot in life so much more. That said, the madman that was gunned down by law enforcement today elicited no sadness of any kind. Unfortunately this world is full of the deranged, but tonight there is one less to worry about. I wish it didn’t have to happen this way, and the loss of human life is never anything to celebrate, but I can’t think of any worse way to try to bring attention to a cause than to take innocent lives hostage. Amidst all of the things that I’m concerned about, television programming just doesn’t make the cut.

Two Months To Go

BASS — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:13:20 +0000

As I type this in August’s final minutes, we’re about to turn the calendar to September, with October looming not too far away. August 31st officially marked two-months-to-the-marathon for me, as Halloween once seemed far enough away to make my marathon dreams just that - dreams - while now the reality of my conquest is coming into focus. Unlike Halloween in 2008 (http://briansereno.com/?page_id=2), this time around I’ll be blissfully aware. Aware of my great fortune, aware of the tremendous legion of support in my corner, and hopefully aware that I’ve accomplished something that I previously only joked about. Imagine that - I’ll be a marathoner this Halloween. How about that? October 31st will mark the end of a two-year odyssey that I wouldn’t believe happened if I didn’t live it, and it can’t get here soon enough.

Hurricane Watching

BASS — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:23:13 +0000

Two years ago, during the final days of August and first few days of September, images like this haunted my dreams (http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/tropical-depression-seven-storm-hurricane-earl-swa_2010-08-25). The storm at the time was Hurricane Hannah, and while I’m typically not fearful of such events, our wedding day was scheduled for 9/6/08, and an uninvited guest threatened to roar in. Hour by hour we watched the weather channel, and drove so much traffic to weather.com that it’s a wonder that it didn’t crash and burn, all the while Hannah danced and darted her way towards us with a northwesterly spin. Ultimately, Hannah did hit us, but only as a Tropical Storm that quickly blew through with spare time for the sun to bless our wedding by day’s end. Two years later Hannah provides just a funny footnote to our special day. The moral of the story for those that are tracking Earl’s climb towards us out of fear that he might crash your wedding, fret not. All of the hurricanes in history combined can’t blow away the pillars of a strong marriage. Laugh your way through it. Try as you might, there is simply nothing else you can do.

Fail

BASS — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:39:14 +0000

We’ve celebrated my triumphs together. Now I ask for your support in my failures. When I was halfway through my 20-mile run tonight I thought about stopping, but onward I pushed, though something told me that I shouldn’t be doing so. My blistered right foot, perhaps. My left groin? My sensibilities? Anyway, I ran on. 11, 12, 13, 14…no mas. It was hot today, and by mile-14 I had already sucked down all of my rations of G2. I thought about how on race day there would be an aid station every few miles, but tonight I had to make it through miles 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 before I could quench my thirst again. The more I thought about it, the thirstier I got. The temperatures seemed to be rising too, so I stopped. I surveyed the scene and saw a California Tortilla beckoning like a city oasis. I pleaded for water with the cashier and was rewarded with a small plastic cup that I filled again and again from the fountain. I considered running some more, but I decided against it. Maybe a 20-mile run was too ambitious after running 18 last week, so I walked. I made it another mile, and stopped again. A Courtyard by Marriott shined down on me, but the lights in the C and the T were broken. OUR YARD, it read, surely there’s a marketing tag line in there somehow. I digress. I stumbled inside and asked to use their phone. It was a local call, I assured them. I called Jessie to come get me, and down the street she came to save her distressed groom. Failure. In two weeks time, I’ll try again. Thanks for your support.

6 + 20

BASS — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:17:36 +0000

Sometime on Sunday - exactly one year to the date that I first ran six miles, and suffered a rather unpleasant injury of sorts (http://briansereno.com/?p=1013) - I’ll attempt my first 20-mile run. I would suggest that it’s a) ironic b) poetic c) symmetric or d) symbolic that the combined total of my August 29th runs in 2009 and 2010 equals 26 miles - roughly the distance of what I am training for - but upon further review there really isn’t any irony, poetry, symmetry or symbolism in that fact. More likely, it’s just a coincidence, but one that I have noted anyway. Even if I’m not up for reporting with any great detail how much run goes tomorrow, I’ll certainly be sure to give myself a pass/fail grade. Stand by…

Thought

BASS — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 05:28:56 +0000

Oftentimes when I run I’ll experience lengthy periods of time in which I seem to be entirely devoid of thought. My iPod plays, my feet move in turn, and I travel forward at a steady pace, but my mind seems to be switched off. Suddenly I’ll snap to awareness, realizing that a considerable amount of time has passed since I last took note of where I was or what I was doing, but then I continue my run hoping to fall back into a similar trance. Currently, my mind is bordering on one of those trances, with few thoughts to speak of. Sometimes I prefer it this way, though I doubt it makes for good reading on this blog. Perhaps I’ll have something to share tomorrow.