Gasp!

I just had the urge to go running, during the nine o'clock hour, while snow and ice cover the ground where is there is not pavement. So what does that mean for me?

I'm going running! For the first time since December! Hopefully my stress fractures I suffered do not recur. My new running pants will finally get their store tags snipped off. Imagine that. My new Asics had only gotten one two-mile run before the pain caught up with me. It's time to get back to a routine.

Gasp, indeed! A run is probably the best thing for how I've been feeling lately.

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One word: painful. It wasn't pain due to an injury but pain from the cold air. I don't regret my run, but I do hope that more snow melts tomorrow (a high of 50 degrees). I had to slow to a walk a couple times when snow covered the pavement. Overall, it felt really great, except for the lazy college diet that has consumed me lately...along with the abundance of coffee, pizza, and other speed bumps . Long hours and a few all-nighters doing work doesn't give much time for eating healthily. Not having any groceries in my apartment doesn't help the cause either!

I hope to get a mile or two out of my system tomorrow. First, I must remember to take it easy on my legs for a week or two. It's been nearly three months since I incurred my injury, and I would rather not reignite it.

Pictograms! and the love for cities

Most of my day today was spent not doing work but giving into a growing obsession of pictograms. They simply soothe the minimalist aesthetic love deep inside me. As young as I can remember, I have always loved interstate signs, road signs, wordless traffic and pedestrian indicators. I loved the clean fonts used in transit stations and on subway maps. My obsession for transit, big cities, and even the American highway system ensure that I will always live where the buildings scrap the skies (the latter: up until about a couple years ago--I encourage more eco-conscious infrastructure these days). Like urban planning--never knowing it was even an option as a career choice until about three years ago--the silent presence of pictograms has finally spoken loudly.

My friend "Ion" shares some of the same love for cities as I do. We have gone out on photographic expeditions downtown and out of town many times. Even my ex-girlfriend Kate and I went on nearly frostbiting shutter-clicking sprees in the Chicago Loop. I have photos of us at the Lake Street Red Line station at three in the morning, documenting urban still-life. I'd rather walk the steep grades in San Francisco than a grassy hill in rural isolation. My dream is to live in the old city in Montreal, enduring cold winters with shoddy windows--all to be one cell in the lifeblood of a metropolis.

Earthquake weather

I have had an insatiable urge to blog lately. There has been so much on my mind, and only so much of it can be expelled through social interaction. My school obligations are continually prodding me. If only I had time to exercise or conduct some sort of physical activity. Instead, I have been frequenting coffee shops nearly every day, trying to remain driven. The blood in my vessels are contending with a new kind of cell--the coffee cell. The good old red, white, and coffee. Wave that flag...

Even though the speed at which my life is traveling now requires a coffee bean remedy and medical assistance, I seem to be at equilibrium socially. I might not be able to shoot a couple rounds of pool with one friend. I might not be able to wander an outdoor mall with another friend. My encounters primarily consist of mutual agreements bound by contract of "fuck off please while I..." I couldn't thank my friends enough of cooperating with the demands that tax me, joining me frequently at Taza or Highlands during my inundation.

It's currently storming heavily. My friend "Lucille" has been sitting to my right for a couple hours, nerding out on our Macs, occasionally pausing to talk about how we're going to die from a giant dog in the sky...or something rather. Somehow I'm growing closer to my friends than ever before, even in times of ridiculous educational demands. It blows my mind, but I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile, I have also been in pursuit of an fascinating woman. "Eloise" happens to be my same age, in fact. We've been through similar trials. She recently started college, even though it had been nearly five years since graduating high school. Her aspirations simply astound me--eventually studying the Ebola virus. It seems that she will stop at nothing to pursue her dreams, after a few bad relationships, several bad life choices, and the like. I told her tonight that I "think she's amazing", but I made sure to expound that the basis of my expression is only of the little I know about her. Assumptions and expectations are not part of the formula anymore. I am simply looking forward to another hour or two over coffee or beer. I would like that.

As Guero breaks between songs, the only sounds I hear are the raindrops on the rooftop and the tip-tap of our keys...