Ok, enough already

Ok, I’ve decided that I’ll probably sign up for the Houston marathon.  Here’s the thing…

 

The week before the marathon is a very important part of the preparation period.  No doubt.  However, if the last week before a marathon is the make-or-break period of your training, which is to say that you finally become READY in that last week, then you’re doomed.  The way I see it, there’s a 6 month process of preparation that transforms a runner into someone who is both physically and mentally prepared for running 26.2 miles.  If that preparation is done wrong, no amount of work in that last week will get you there.  Sure, there may be some last minute stuff, but it should be in support of the work already done.

Something like the difference between cramming for a test, and being prepared for a test.

 

I think I can do both the training AND the trip, AND run the marathon.

And if I can’t, it’ll be money sent for a good cause and I’ll just run the next marathon on the schedule.

 

***

Governor Palin, dear heart, hot Alaskan mom, moose hunter extraordinaire, please shut the hell up.  You’re not making it easier for yourself or your party.

 

Yes, the media was gunning for you on day 1 because you dared to be pretty and conservative when everyone who’s pretty should be liberal (lest they be demonized by the media).  It didn’t help that you brought a small-town mentality to a big-city stage.  Not that there’s anything wrong with a small-town mentality. 

 

It works just fine for yourself and your community.  And, yes, Alaska may be the largest state in the union, but population wise, it’s a small town.  The challenges of the folks in southern Alaska aren’t too different from the challenges of the folks in central Alaska.  So, too, are the people.  It’s a pretty homogeneous population up there on top of the country.

 

But when you’re going to be expected to advise policy decisions for the whole country, that has disparate populations like those in Miami and Kansas City and Honolulu and New York City and Cut ‘n Shoot (in Texas, population of about 500) and Los Angeles and Dallas and everywhere else, where challenges and concerns and backgrounds and values are different, small-town mentality doesn’t quite work.  “We are all just folks” works just fine in Alaska.  In my neighborhood it works fine, too.  In fact, when New Orleans came to Houston, it worked just fine for awhile.  But when you get to specific folks with specific needs, “we’re all just folks” doesn’t work quite so well. 

 

Yes, I believe there is still such a thing as “universal American values” and “universal American mentality”, but the days when the small town values and small town mindset were synonymous with those are long gone.  In my small town, I don’t always have to remember to lock my door.  That’s very different from someone who cannot go out alone at night due to pervasive urban violence.  Please, before you keep talking and insisting that David Letterman owes every little tramp in America an apology, just think a little bigger.  I’m just sick and tired of seeing you on my news being a hot bitch.