the ramblings of a community college mathematics teacher
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Power of Football
"Without sport - without football - there cannot be South American unity. It is not possible that through some shady actions of FIFA we will see the division of South America and the division of Latin America." -Bolivian President Evo Morales, reacting to FIFA's (the international soccer governing body) implementing a rule prohibiting games taking place at altitudes above 2500 meters.
Bolivia's capital, La Paz, is at an altitude of 3600 meters, and has the distinction of being the highest national capital in the world.
Today was the first day running, where I felt sick afterward. I felt a little nauseous, and for a few minutes, I thought I was going to throw up. I'm not really sure why. I guess I ran a little harder in segments, but nothing crazy. I never felt sick while I was running, it was only after I got home. That's the running update.
Also, running today, there was this feeling of not wanting to go home. Usually, I'm all about home. I like songs about going home, movies about going home (Home for the Holidays is a great movie, if you've never seen it), but home also means responsibility. I have a fair amount of things to do today, and running was a way of procrastinating. I never thought I'd use running as a way to get out of doing work.
I have never liked going to dinner at other people's houses. As a kid, I don't think I ever ate at my friends' houses, mainly because I'm a shy person. Being a vegetarian for almost 8 years has compounded that dislike. Going to eat at a restaurant is not as much of an issue; i can order what I want, but going to eat at someone's house, not so much.
Most people in this country have meat as a major part of their meals, so having a vegetarian over for dinner can cause "problems". The vegetarian can either tell the host that they're vegetarian ahead of time or not. Both of these can be problematic.
By not telling the host ahead of time, I am left with two options: Pretending to eat meat that is served....
...or refusing to eat meat that is served, which can be awkward. Last summer, I ended up not going to two dinners, because I knew that meat would be a big part of both them. One was a barbecue, and I was told later that I missed the great burgers that were served. I can't say I did.
By telling the host ahead of time, they feel obligated to alter their menu, either by changing a portion of what they were going to serve, or by creating some small dish for me. I don't really like putting hosts in this position as it creates more work for them, and I feel like I become somewhat of a burden.
Everyone says how open the food industry is to vegetarians these days; you can get a veggie burger at Burger King, and there are vegetarian restaurants all over the place. While I think that's true, I don't think the average person's home-made dinner is very open to vegetarians. I can't tell you how many times I've been put in a situation (even at restaurants) where someone says "I'm sure they'll have stuff for you to eat", and I leave the dinner eating a small salad.
Why have I been going on about this? Two reasons. I realized last night that I've been a vegetarian for almost 8 years and it blows my mind because I never thought a 3-week bet would become a lifestyle. Also, I've been invited to dinner at someone's house and, because I don't eat meat, I can't say I'm looking forward to it.
There are a number of things I say I want to do before my time in the Bay Area is over. Tonight, I got to do one of them. Lauren and I went to the Stanford Theatre to see The Philadelphia Story. shortly after the movie started, I realized that I had seen it before, but it was just as good the second time around.
The theater is a fantastic classic movie theater with an organist that plays before and after the movie. Right before the movie begins, he is lowered beneath the stage, and the curtains open up to project the movie onto the screen. He comes up from beneath the stage as the movie comes to and end. Pretty cool.
It's a very different movie experience from going to a multiplex or the Speakeasy.
I think the only times I've seen classic movies on a big screen was when I took movie classes, which is not quite as fun because you're getting graded on watching the movie.
There are other things I want to do before I leave the area, but I won't list them right now.
During my senior year in high school, I was the fastest sprinter at my school. I took several relay teams to the state championships, won a few medals and ribbons, and got my name in track listings in the Baltimore Sun a few times.
Thing is, I hated running long distance. My coach used to say that sprinters are born, but distance runners are made. This was his way of saying that I could run long distance, I just didn't want to. I could build up my distance running, but a distance runner could never become a sprinter. I hated running distances so much that when we did our warm up everyday, which was the whole track team running around the school 4-5 times, I would get to the other side of building from coach Stange, sit there until I knew the rest of the team was on their last lap, then join them for the finish.
Now, 13 years later, I can still out-sprint most people (even those much younger than me), and opponents have a hard time keeping up with me when I play soccer, but I've come up with this idea that I want to run a marathon; definitely not a sprint. I've always thought it would be cool do run a marathon, but my dislike of distance running has kept me from really thinking about it.
A few weeks ago, I did some research, found some marathon training websites, and I'm started running more than 400 meters at a time. I'm still a LONG way from running a marathon, but if I can keep it up, my goal is run one before I'm 35. I have 4 years.
