I Live in Iowa: Week 12

Am I living the dream? I don't know, but it is probably as close as I have ever been.

Independence day was a great way to start off the week. We should do that again next month... I went to a potluck and met a few people including three people my own age. All of whom I saw at some point later in the week. I watched the fireworks in Dubuque from the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi river. Since I prefer not to talk about other people without their permission I'll just say that I had a very nice time at the potluck and I expect to see many of those people again, possibly frequently, in the future.

July 4th was a quiet day for me. I watched three hours of the Tour De France and went for a 14 mile run. I spent the rest of the day with one of my new friends and saw the new Pirates of the Carribbean, which is still good. Not many fourth movies in a series are good.

The working week was shorter which was kind of nice. I have a great job but a three day weekend is really nice as well. The idea of paid holidays is great. I hope no one at the top figures out you could make us work those days and we would still have great jobs.

I started a new project at work this week which is always exciting. It is very similar to one that I finished earlier so I am working through it very quickly. Industry is nice because the projects are less intense than grad school and I get paid more. Every few weeks there is something new to work on. In grad school I worked on the same problem for a year and a half.

I ran 43 miles this week. I had one 6k tempo and a medium long run. Still what I would consider an off week, but the running bug is coming back to bite me and larger numbers and hard workouts are not far away. The thing that is holding my running back now is my new road bicycle. I have 480 miles on it and in the heat it is more fun to ride and drink from my water bottles than sweat on a run. Bicycling always involves a breeze because you are moving so fast.

On the social side one of my Indian coworkers had a first birthday for his baby and I went. It was like going to India for the evening, complete with curry. It is interesting to see their traditions and funny to find out that not every Indian knows the meaning of the red dot on their foreheads.

Also on the social side I hosted a backyard party Friday night. I invited a number of people and I feel it was a huge hit. I'll be doing it again. Six hours of fun and it only cost me about $30. I have felt really lacking in my social life so I finally realized that if I wanted to hang out with a number of my friends I needed to create something to do. A simple concept but it took nearly three months for me to get it.

I hope you had a good week because I know this week was in many respects a great week for me. I may even look back on this week some day and say that it changed my life. We shall see.