Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Stupidest Question Ever

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I was driving home from work one day last week and I had a flashback to a party I went to in about 2000 or 2001. Some guy there asked me the Stupidest Question Ever and as I thought about it, I thought, “hmmm, I could write a blog about this one.” Me and Tiff laugh about it all the time. Now, the challenge is to convey it well, better than a “you-had-to-be-there” punch line. So, here goes …

We were somewhere around 25 and at a party at the house of one of her friends, who was also her boss at the time. There were probably 40 people there, quite a few from her work. Since she worked at Victoria’s Secret, it was a bunch of women co-workers gabbing and a bunch of guys drinking beer and talking to the other husbands/boyfriends who didn’t know anybody there.

I was standing there in the back yard with Tiff and there was a nice-sized pool. It was nighttime and there were these plastic floating thingies in the pool with lit candles in the middle. They were kind of nice and were a nice touch by the host.

I’m in the middle of talking to a few people, and a guy walked up and broke into the conversation with the Stupidest Question Ever. No, “What’s your name?” or “How’s it going?” or “What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this.” His icebreaker, the Stupidest Question Ever, was, [Read more…]

Three Things Thursday

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Oh how I love the ease of composing Three Things Thursday. I wish it was Thursday every day. Well, except for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

1. My oldest kid, 10-year-old Benjamin, is graduating from elementary school this morning. Out here in Colorado, that’s 5th grade. In California, it would have been 6th. But whatever. I have a kid graduating from grade school. I’m old. Really, really old.

2. Yesterday was my wedding anniversary (as evidenced by my Wordless Wednesday). You want the exciting? My mom came in to visit from Atlanta for four days, landing at 8:15 a.m. She’s staying at the house. Tiff couldn’t come up to my work to have lunch with me because she had a two-hour appointment with one of Jack’s therapists. We couldn’t go out to dinner because Jack was super cranky and wouldn’t go to sleep until 9 (normally it’s about 7:30). Tiff was crazy tired from being up for three hours the night before with Jack, so we didn’t even go out to get some dessert. I spent the evening talking with my mom. Tiff spent the evening laying with Jack, trying to get him to go to sleep. Good thing it’s not the anniversary that makes the marriage. Sometimes life is like this.

3. Don’t ever run a marathon on a bad hamstring. That’s what I did last Sunday and now I’m paying the price. I haven’t run this week — all I get is the spinny bike at the gym, and while it’s fun to play on Twitter when I’m working out, it’s not making me any faster for June 9, when I run the Utah Valley Marathon in my only shot at getting back to Boston next year.

That’s three. Yay me, I can count! What are you doing this long holiday weekend? I know what I’m doing … whatever Tif says I’m doing! See you Tuesday …

Worst Hangover Ever

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13 years ago today, I woke up with the worst hangover ever. I felt like my head was going to explode out of my eye. The night before was my bachelor party and I drank like a rock star. The problem is, I had dropped about 20 percent of my body weight and had zero alcohol in the 2 1/2 months prior to that night.

To look good for my wedding pictures, I went on a very strict diet and exercise regimen and dropped my weight from 245 to 203. Zero alcohol. Zero meals prepared outside of my kitchen. Nobody saw me (not even my fiance/now wife) during those 2 1/2 months and they were all shocked by my transformation! They couldn’t believe how much I’d slimmed down. I was going to look great for those pictures!**

I’ll skip through most of the details of my bachelor party, but I will give you two important lessons:

1. If you drop 20% of your body weight and have zero drinks in a 2 1/2-month time frame, your tolerance will decrease.

2. Don’t have your bachelor party two nights before your wedding. [Read more…]

100th Marathon: Colfax Marathon Recap

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In and of itself, my running of the Colfax Marathon on Sunday wasn’t much of a big deal. I went in, I had a tough run and I was done. Done that plenty of times before and I’ll do it plenty of times again. However, this was my 100th lifetime marathon. The milestone was a bigger deal to my family than to me, but this gives me an opportunity to do a retrospective and I won’t get many more opportunities to do that, so I might as well.

I didn’t originally have this race on the calendar, but my wife and kids wanted me to run it so they could see me finish No. 100.** Even though it interfered with my training for Utah Valley (which would have been my 100th) on June 9, I didn’t mind running it. For as excited as my wife and kids get about some of the things I do running, there was no way I wouldn’t run this if they wanted me to. Utah Valley is a bit of a big deal to me on an individual basis, because it’s probably my only chance to qualify to run the Boston Marathon next year. I’ve run Boston each of the past five years and I can’t imagine not going back. Aside from the Operation Jack Marathon, it’s by far my favorite race. But I’ll adjust and do what I can to make it happen out there in Utah. Can’t skip Colfax out here in Denver and deny the fam, right? Personally, I don’t care a ton about the round number the way they do. A little, sure. I won’t lie. But not a lot.

** Two of my kids, Benjamin and Ava, were excited. The third, Jack, has no idea that I run.

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