My friend Sarah

This is my friend Sarah, Alva as I like to call her. (Sorry for stealing the pic Alva)


I've known Sarah since her freshman year in college when she was 18 or 19 years old. I think more like 19 since if my memory serves me well, she started school late or was held back a year (Alva, you will have to clear that up for me). Anyways, we got a long great. Many nights were shared talking about family issues, love lifes or lack there of. Sometimes we even had drinks although she was never very good at holding her alcohol back then. Our friendship grew as we traveled for races together, chilled at Atherton Hall or the 902 house. Then I graduated. Little by little the phone calls, emails and IM's became less and less frequent. I never thought much about it since I always figured there would be some people I would keep in touch with and others I wouldn't. Time went by and Sarah just slowly faded into the past that was my time at Penn State.

Earlier this year, a friend of Sarah's fired up the conversations again. I won't go into the details but we started talking again. Text messages, IM's and emails became a regular thing. Phone calls would last upwards of an hour. Sarah was back in my life. I realize it might seem weird bringing this up but as my only sibling is my brother, Sarah is in a way like the younger sister I never had. She's grown up a lot since I first met her back in her freshman year. I think that this is an appropriate time to mention her since it is the holidays after all and like I said, I'm extremely grateful she is part of my life again. Alva, I got nothing but love for ya and appreciate all that you've done for me. I hope that we'll remain friends for many years to come.

Trailer Trash 101

Kiddies, whatever Britney does you should definitely NOT do. Shaving your head, coking up, getting hammered and doing it around your kids is irresponsible. Assaulting people with umbrellas... just plain stupid. Many have made the same judgement that I have and that being she is trailer trash. A washed up, piss poor excuse of a mother. Brit, your mom should be appalled.

Today it got worse for the clan. In case you haven't heard, said ex-superstar's younger sister is now knocked up. 16 years old and carrying a child. Your mama must be proud. Two immature, daughters smearing what might have been a good family name. I applaud you this holiday season as your family once again seems to have tarnished its image.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!! (sigh)

Nothing has changed...much

No pictures this post. They're really not need.

It's going on nine and a half, count 'em nine and one half years since high school graduation. I've put on 2 maybe 3 lbs. Sick, right? Granted, my weight has gone up and down during that time. Those of you who remember me the last year in college - circa 2004 remember my fat (relatively speaking) ass. I couldn't get into a 32" waste pair of pants. No belt was ever required. I may not have been "fat" but I certainly had a belly full of jelly. And beer, nachos and late night cheesesteaks. You get the point.

Saturday, I decided to look for new pants for work. Some nice dress pants for all those shirt and tie days in the office. I figured I would be a smart ass and try a 28" waist to see if I could fit in. Well, there was room to spare. A whole LOT of room to spare. My best guess is a 26" waist would have been a good fit. Problem is, 28 is the smallest they sell in the men's department. Ah shit. Looks like I'm gonna be spending lots of time at Dunkin' Donuts and the bar now that 'cross season is over. Time to plump up just like Santa. HO HO HO!!

Actually, I'm pissed now that I just brought that up. Do you know that it may be politically incorrect to say HO HO HO at the holidays in the near future? I am all for equal rights with women but come on ladies, you have got to be fucking kidding me if you have a problem with Santa's trademark saying. What is the world coming to?

finished...at last

The picture says it all. I can only think back to one other time this season where there was a look on my face like that. At the time, I was suffering from a really nasty stomach virus that ended up putting me down for almost two weeks. This past weekend, I was suffering from a severe bought of mental exhaustion. Don't get me wrong, I love racing. I love it alot but at some point all the training, all the worrying about the weight and the sleep finally gets to you. I could not focus last weekend. I don't know if maybe the legs were just not there but I knew that it was time to hang it up for the year. At the end of the day an 8th place in the 1,2,3 race is not exactly where I had hoped to finish let alone should have finished. I know damn well I could have been in the top 5... That's life.

Later on that very same day, the team (Skylands Cycling) had its annual awards banquet. Normally, I probably wouldn't have attended but seeing as I was up for an award I thought it would be respectful if I showed my face. It was a nice event, cozy little restaurant/bar place on the other side of the mountain. Never really knew they had a banquet room but it was very nice. Christmas tree in the corner, fire burning in the fireplace (it was one of those fake gas fires) but very cozy nonetheless. We shared stories of our victories and defeats. Talked of where our travels had taken us this past season and where we plan to go in the year to come. Friends, family and teammates sat together and shared one last feast in cycling season 2007. Our race director then presented awards to some very deserving athletes. Skylands Cycling happens to be one of the strongest masters racing teams in the garden state (that would be NJ folks). So, needless to say, two very deserving individuals received awards for their accomplishments. I can't really remember all the categories that had awards but there were seven altogether. Yours truly ended up bringing home some hardware as I was named the Skylands Cycling "Best Cyclocross Racer" of 2007. Acknowledgments like that don't come to often for me so it was something that I will not soon forget and will continue to cherish.

Just around the corner

It's that time again. The door on the cross season is about to officially close for me Sunday. I have no complaints or regrets. This season has been good to me. I made some huge strides in my racing over last year and it hasn't gone un-noticed. A silver medal in the NJ state championship race my first season racing the 1,2,3 race. Top 5 overall ranking in the NJ Cross Cup series in the 1,2,3 category. Top ten results for the first time in a MAC race. Yeah, I can say it was a good year. Just wish I could have gotten one win...


With the ceremonial sadness that accompanies the end of 'cross season there is also some joy as the holidays are right around the corner as well. I realize that this year I have a lot to be thankful for even though there have been some hardships. Won't go into detail but lets just say somethings could have been better. Ok, enough of that. On to the shopping since thats the only thing you really care about anyways, right? What to buy, what to buy...? The lady parental unit is always the hardest to shop for. It always ends up being a cheesey gift or something that she needs rather than wants. I hate doing that so this year I refuse to. It's hard since my brother relys on me to do the shopping for the parental units due to his incredibly hectic schedule with law school. Hence, all the shopping falls on me and so does the criticism when I happen to fuck up. Oh well, it is the holidays, they'll get over it.


One final note: I am glad I am not going to make the trip to KC for nationals since I found out indirectly through the Von Dieterness' blog that he ain't going. Man I would have been fucked if I had gotten a ticket out there and the captain of coolness himself wasn't attending.


Check out this pic, it's from my first 'cross race in the snow last weekend.

Tis the season... for 'cross

Ladies and germs, i'm proud to say that last weekend i netted my first top 10 finishes EVER in a MAC race!! Note that I said "finishes" being the plural of "finish". For some of those that may be a little slow, that means two times I was in the top ten. Yeah for me!

Saturday we saw a real douchebag of a man sport his true colors. I won't name names but said douchebag chopped my man Von Leech and crashed him pretty good. Ry definitely rode an awesome race coming from dead last to finish 11th. Way to go man. Spent Saturday night in a swank hotel which was pure sweetness. Getting to sleep in and only having to drive 10 min to race is real livin'. Thanks to Bob for putting us up in the room.

Sunday was a rough day. Half the course went up hill and half was down. If the climbing legs didn't show up it could have been a really rough day for most. Luckily, my 132 lb ass is relatively easy to carry up a hill even when the legs aren't firing at 100%. I'm hoping to get up to the top 5 the last MAC weekend in a few weeks time.

Finally, for those of you reading this who think I only talk about riding and racing I figured I'd put this one picture in here for your viewing pleasure. You see, even though we are racing cyclocross, we are living a lifestyle. We're all family when the leaves start to change and the temperature starts to drop. We know how to have fun even though we constantly push our bodies to their physical limits. In case you don't believe me just look at this pic

Video Chats

Wow, I did my first real video chat last night. I must be way behind the times since it seems as though almost everyone has done one but me. It took me a while to realize that even though I covered the video window, the camera was still on and the other party could still see what I was doing. Technology... go figure. Anyways, what an awesome way to talk to someone 2/3 of the way across the country. It's like being with that person even though your not. Very cool indeed.

Ok, I know what your thinking... " Video chats are for pervs that do nasty things over the internet." Well my friends, I behaved. Nothing was exposed, nothing naughty was done. I don't see why I would have such a bad reputation. I would never do anything like that, it would be just plain wrong.

I need to get back to work, or at least look busy.

Cheers!