A Carless Weekend

I didn't have any plans for Friday night, but I was looking forward to spending a relaxing night with Jon.  It had been a busy week - dogsitting in Gaithersburg, fundraisers, etc, so a night of catching up on Glee sounded perfect.  (I admit - up until two weeks ago, I had never seen an episode of Glee in my life.  I can now say that I'm hooked, my favorite character is Rachel, and that I intend to watch the Rocky Horror episode next week even though I'm only half way through the first season.)

I took RideOn Route 47 from my office in Rockville to Bethesda.  Route 47 winds south past Montgomery Mall before hooking back east to the Bethesda Metro.  It was a great evening for a run, and after another unsanctioned pitstop at Starbucks, I took off for Van Ness.  I was pumped for the new running playlist that I had put together on the bus ride down to Bethesda.  I like routines (more on that in a later post) and I've got a running playlist of about 40 songs that I usually listen to in the exact same order.  In fact, on my normal run on the Sligo Creek Trail near my apartment in Silver Spring, I know exactly where I should be when a certain song comes on if I'm maintaining the pace I want.  (Of Montreal's "The Party's Crashing Us" comes on when I turn around at University Boulevard if I'm maintaining a 9:30/mile pace, for example.)  But it was time to change things up, so I rearranged and added some songs and put together the playlist to the right.


I was so zoned out that when I got to Chevy Chase Circle and crossed into the District, I exited the Circle too soon and took Western Avenue out instead of following Connecticut Avenue out.  I realized this... eventually... and checked the map on my phone to right my course back to Jon's apartment.  I ended up taking Reno Drive most of the way, which is a nice quiet street that I'll probably use in the future.  It's definitely less busy and I also found it to be a little less hilly than Connecticut.  It took me about 33 minutes to get down to Jon's.

Saturday morning I got picked up by Roger's campaign manager Heather to meet everyone in Potomac for the Potomac Day Parade.  It was a beautiful day, and the parade had a great turnout.  It marked one year since our first real campaign event, and I feel just as good now about being part of Roger's campaign as I did then.  I was grateful that Heather was able to pick me up and give me a ride back to Silver Spring - I could have ridden my bike but given that I had to get several things done that afternoon I was appreciative of the ride.

Saturday night Jon had box tickets to the Capitals game against the Atlanta Thrashers.  I was psyched, since I'd never been to an NHL game before.  It ended up being a great game:  Alexander Semin recorded his fourth career hat trick and the Capitals won 4-3 in overtime.  We took the metro both there and back - I forget that sometimes the metro actually is affordable.  Since for once I found myself actually riding the metro during "reduced fare" hours, it only cost $1.60 each way.

The coming week is my last week of carlessness.  Can't believe how quickly it's gone by.

"A Run to White Flint" or "Thoughts on Running Songs"

Having so much fun biking everywhere I go, it's been a while since I've run somewhere.  I know tomorrow I'll be biking here there and everywhere to get to an event with Roger at the Davis Library, so after work today I decided to run from the office down to the Twinbrook metro (about 2.4 miles) and take the Route 5 home to Silver Spring.  I was sort of grumpy when it came time to leave work... my office had been cold all day and I was worried that it was - again - going to be raining.  Not the best mood for a run, but I was rolling with it.

Have you ever had one of those runs where starting out you weren't really feeling it, but the further you went the more you couldn't get enough of it?  That was me, today.  Not sure if it was the perfect temperature for running, or if it was the awesome music selection my iPhone was choosing for me on shuffle.  I have about 40 songs on a "running playlist" but today all of the best were shuffling one after another.  Boom, Matt & Kim "Good Old Fashioned Nightmare".  Boom, Jay-Z "Off That".  Boom, Taking Back Sunday "MakeDamnSure".

My all time favorite running song isn't a likely one: "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers from their album Hot Fuss.  It's not particularly upbeat.  It's not high energy.  But this past May when I ran the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia, I was really dragging around Mile 6 as the course takes you over a slight hill and past City Hall.  Just as the song was getting to the crescendo of the "I got soul but I'm not a soldier" part, City Hall came into view, and something about how the song built to the final chorus proved to be such a pick-me-up, my whole energy changed.  So when that song came on just as I would have been pulling into Twinbrook, I knew that I had to extend my run down to White Flint.  I ended with a great time:  I ran the distance of 3.3 miles in 29:55, just in time for the 5:45 Route 5 bus.  I didn't have much time to stretch out before I got on, but it wasn't a big deal.  The 5 got me home to Silver Spring by 6:30, per usual, and the bus driver recognized me from yesterday (SWEET!).

Some other music I've had in the earbuds (running or riding on the bus) this week:

Ben Folds, Lonely Avenue.  Just released September 28, graciously came my way from Roger's awesome Chief of Staff, Cindy.  There are some duds, but overall the album is what you'd expect from him.  "Claire's Ninth" is Ben Folds does the Beach Boys, "Levi Johnston's Blues" is standard Ben fun, and "Practical Amanda" is as close to "Fred Jones Part II" as you'll get on this album.  "Picture Window" is probably the favorite for me.

 Avett Brothers, I and Love and You.  This album is so good.  I've been playing it constantly since I saw them at Bonnaroo in June.  "January Wedding" and "And It Spread" are two great songs about being in love, "I and Love and You" is the fantastic title track, and "The Perfect Space" seems to touch on everything I've wanted before and everything I want in the future.  "Slight Figure of Speech" and "It Goes On and On" are Avett appalachian fun.

Dashboard Confessional, Swiss Army Romance.  I pulled this one out from the archives when Chris announced he'd be going on tour to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of Swiss Army Romance, performing the album in its entirety at 17 tour dates.  After I told Jon about the show at Towson on December 3 and how excited I was for it, he went and got tickets for it, because, well, he's the best boyfriend ever in the history of boyfriends.  But seriously - this album, I think, will go down alongside Weezer's Pinkerton as a favorite of people my age.  Does angst get better than the 1-2 of "The Sharp Hint of New Tears" and "Again I Go Unnoticed"?  No, it does not.