The Hungry Hungry Writer

My cousin Joshelen died tonight.

Her brother, Desmond, told me that yesterday was the hardest day of his life when the doctor asked Joshelen’s husband what to do if she codes. We thought she would pass last night.

Then tonight, at 5:39 PM, she took her last breath.

I was unable to be there at her side. I’m not sure if I wanted to. I’ve been in a daze during this whole thing.

I sit and try to think about our childhood and the memories and try to cry. But I’ve done my share of crying on my own in private already.

I can’t imagine what my aunt and uncle and my older cousin is going through right now.

Joshelen took care of me when I was young. I looked up to her in every way. She was an inspiration. She still is. I followed in her footsteps more than anyone realizes.

She’s been sick for nine years.

My mom was at the hospital with the family. I’m home sick. I was on the phone with my mom about an hour before Joshelen died. I heard everyone crying in the background.

I’m not sure if i wanted to be there… to watch her die… to say one last thing to her before she went.

I yelled at Jacob really loud tonight because he complained about getting out of the bathtub. I yelled, “My cousin is dying and you’re complaining about a short bath!!!”

Terms of Endearment was on HBO. I came in at the end. When Debra Winger’s character died in the hospital bed. All I could think was, how approriate for me to see this.

What is her husband, Drew, going to do… I thank him for loving her. I will always call him, “AN ANGEL OF A MAN”.

I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know what to say. I think I miss her. My cousin. Joshelen. My cousin “Otie”.

This is the sickest I’ve been all year. I can’t move. My body aches. I can’t breath, I can’t sleep… I’m down for the count and I can’t get up.

I have a triathlon in a week. Then another one a week after that. If I have to I’ll skip the Tri on April 30th because I want to do the May 7th one. It’s the big Triathlon I’ve been training for since I started so I definitely don’t want to miss it. Next week’s tri was one I signed up on as a whim and will eat the $45 if I have to. I want to be 100% for the first open water swim in May.

Anyway… that’s all I have to say today. Donna and the kids are at the Galleria, I’m at home with my stuffy nose and the Dodger game.

Nyquil, take me away!

You know what sucks???

Growing up.

Not me growing up but my kids. Just six years ago I was up in the middle of the night rocking my first baby to sleep. Jacob.

Now he’s rock climbing, playing baseball, going out on auditions, he’s into video games and reads books to me before bed instead of me reading to him as he did last night.

Next thing you know he’ll be drinking beer and going to strip clubs like his good old dad Uncle Dale.

Just kidding. Give me a break already. I drink beer. Dale drinks martinis.

But yeah… six years. It came and went WAY too fast in my honest opinion. Although he’s grown into the boy that I’ve always imagined, I still wish he was that baby who called himself, “DaCome”, and loved squash baby food and played hockey every single morning in the living room.

Here are some pictures of Jake as reflection of the years gone by…

Jake at 2 days old.

Jake kicking back - age 1.

A bad burn. Jake’s first trip to the ER.

Jake’s first day of school. Age 3.

Jake at age 3 - ready to go tobogganing in Sacramento.

Jake, right before his 4th birthday with his new bike.

Tee Ball - age 4.

Jake at age 4 with his baby Bella.

Jake’s head shot.

Jake being Jake - age 5 (at Uncle James & Auntie Jenny’s wedding rehearsal dinner).

Jake… one week before his sixth birthday.

I can’t believe he’s six years old.

Jacob - I LOVE YOU! - Papa.

I belong to a forum for Beginner Triathletes and every so often a post comes up about a cyclist being killed while biking. And sometimes it’s ‘one of our own’ so to speak - someone from the forums and a fellow Triathlete in training. Sometimes its just incidents of a car getting too close, or someone getting clipped, or someone getting run off the road. But this week a fellow Triathlete got nailed in a hit and run and is in the hospital due hip surgery. This just after running the Boston Marathon and going for a training ride yesterday. Hopefully he’ll be okay.

Just recently this cyclist was hit and killed by a car: April 17th - 2006 “Bicyclist Killed In Hit-And-Run Along Loop 360”

I rarely bike on the street. Sometimes I just have to get out there and pedal but my path is short and its up a wide road up a hill. Sometimes I bike up and down a very busy street - Verdugo/Glendale Ave - and this is scary. Cars get really close even when I’m in a bike lane. And when that lane ends cards zip by with no regard to bikers safety. I’ve been in a car next to these cyclist so I know to give them space and I move over if I have to.

I’ve been hit by a car once - many many many years ago. I had no injuries and didn’t fall… I just got clipped. I was young and on my BMX bike when a lady turned right at a stop light in front of me. I hit her bumper and left a scratch and gave her the bird. She saw me… she looked into her rear view, saw me flick her off and sped away. BITCH!

After being on a bike for the past four months I’ve gotten a feel for other cyclyst and what they go through. I dread that one day I’ll be hit by a car which is why I try to do all my training at the Rose Bowl - and its not always safe there but at least others are there to witness and come to your aide.

This year I will be riding in the “Ride of Silence” in honor of ‘fallen’ riders who have been injured or killed. It is held at night as a slow group ride. Here is more info: www.rideofsilence.org

Date: May 17, 2006
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: At over 120 U.S. locations and eight other countries

If you’re interested find a “Ride of Silence” location where you live and show your support!

I’d appreciate it… as well as everyone else who rides a bike or knows someone that does.

On a rainy Saturday morning this past weekend, we decided to take the kids to an indoor Rock Climbing facility. Jake has done it twice before… Bella chickened out those two times. And it was her interest in rock climbing which led us there. Yes, every time she sees those portable rock climbing walls at a festival or something she wants to climb. But she was always too small… except for this place.

This time she didn’t want to try it at all. I reminded her that she cried the last time we left because she wanted to climb but didn’t. So right before Jake’s hour was up, she decided to try.

Here she is testing the rocks out…

Getting started… She started to just use her arms without feet. Little kids are strong like that.

And finally, halfway up she wanted to come down… She climbed it so fricken fast it was funny. Coming down was tough as she kept holding on to the rocks and wouldn’t just hold the rope.

Jake climbed the wall 10 times with me at the belay helm. But here he is doing it without ropes.

I HATE IT WHEN HE DOES THIS. But he’s a boy and boys will be boys.

I learned how to Belay so I can stand there with the kids and help them climb. That way we don’t have to pay for staff to belay when they actually have to help others. Now I need to try to climb – and I’m afraid of heights. But I’m not a wimp like my cousin James who’ll quit just because he thinks he’ll die. LOL

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
My Rating: 6/10

I grew up watching “The Gong Show” and always loved seeing Chuck Barris on TV. He was funny and crazy. This movie is based on his ‘life’ or the book he wrote about his life. It’s a very dark tale. The performances were great. Sam Rockwell did a wonderful job portraying Barris it was uncanny. Clooney’s direction was awesome. He has a specific style and that style really works well with this type of dark, character driven storytelling.

The best thing about this movie (from a DVD point of view) was the interviews you’ll find in the special features section. Unfortunately it was too short. I would have rather watched ‘talk’ about Chuck Barris more than the movie itself. It did take me about four viewings to get through the first 20 minutes. Last night I forced myself to get it done and over with.

Entertaining? Meh… there’s better movies out there to keep you awake.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
My Rating: 7/10

I probably gave Ice Age (the original) a rating of 8 o r 9. It was smart, funny and entertaining. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown was funny… I guess… it was entertaining… I have to think about that… it was smart… NOT like the first it wasn’t. What I remember most about the first Ice Age movie was the internal conflicts each main character had. They tried to play that angle just a little in The Meltdown, the whole ‘family’ thing, but it really didn’t work that well.

Yeah, there were a few laughs here and there, but wheras I can sit and watch Ice Age whenever its on, I actually dozed during The Meltdown.

The kids enjoyed it. Sid is funny as usual. But there was no deep longing for something like they had before. All the characters had THE SAME goal - survival, but in the original Ice Age it really played the aspect of characters with different individual goals but coming together for one specific goal - survival - all brought together by a little baby.

The Meltdown dealth with survival but the pending doom was just pending. Seemed like they could have taken their time reaching their destination. The threat of attack was never that real throughout and they really didn’t fend for their lives all that much. It touched on Diego’s fear, Sid’s sense of belonging, and Manny’s existance or lack their of as far as his species was concerned. So they tried. But it only touched the surface it seemed.

In Ice Age Sid was the outcast who tried to keep the group together, Diego had a different goal - to lure and kill Manny, and Manny had another - to survive without his family with a touching moment of him seeing what had happen with cave drawings. It dripped with these interior conflicts. The Meltdown wasn’t ‘dripping’. It just dripped.

And that’s my review.

Wedding Crashers (2005)
My Rating: 8/10

Funny-funny-funny. Yeah, you got to get WAY past the, how would they get away with that angle, but after that, laughs after laughs after laughs. What more can I say about the movie except what its about.

Well, its about two buddies who crash weddings to get the girl. Except this one HUGE wedding, one of the buds falls for the girl. Which is a major rule breaker as far as their wedding crashing rules go. The movie then becomes boy chases girl. Of course as the formula goes, boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, it works. But then the movie also has that buddy-buddy movie aspect about it which also works. Buds through and through then something happens and they go their separate ways. The question is - does the boy get the girl at the end and do the buds get back together?

I wanted a light comedy. I got it. It was worth the watch and I recommend it… to adults.

My new Good Friday annual event… the “Glenn’s 1st Annual Good TRI-day Sprint Triathlon”

The plan was to go to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center to do 400-800 meters, transition to my car to get my bike and do 10 miles, then transition back to my car for a 3.1+ mile.

Then it rained.

So… I had to do it all indoors.

Thankfully the gym has a pool, stationary bikes and treadmills. Here are my times…

0:11:27 400 METER POOL SWIM
0:07:26 Transition to the locker room to get changed, run upstairs and figure out the stationary bike thing.
0:27:09 10 MILE BIKE ON LEVEL 7
0:00:47 Transition five or so steps to the treadmill.
0:29:34 3 MILE RUN ON A 1.0 INCLINE

1:16:22 FINAL TIME

The swim was one of my faster 400 meters which was encouraging.

That was a tough 3 mile run. The bike was at a low resistance but I spun at 110 RPM +/- an RPM or two for the whole duration.

The run was tough. I walked a fast pace to cool down from minutes 13:45 to 14:45 and minutes 22:00 to 23:00 and still managed an under thirty 3 miles.

I had a lot of fun doing all these ‘outdoor’ events even when it was raining outdoors. Just think, it was 90 degrees yesterday (Thurs) and on Friday it rained pretty much all day. It’s raining now which means I might not be able to do my bike ride at the Rose Bowl. Looks like Indoor Rockclimbing with the kids!

I’ll have to do this mock sprint tri every month instead of annually… But definately, the annual event will be held on Good Friday! Hopefully people will join me next year. It was fun!

Another Game…

I bought Jacob another game the other day for his audition a couple of weeks ago. He’s played it once since he was grounded from video games for three days. I’m not sure how he likes it yet but we’ll figure out how to play it tonight. I hope its better than the ratings GameSpot gave it a Rating of 6.1.

I’m also looking into an Xbox Golf game for the Jake as well. Possibly…

with a GameSpot Rating of 8.1.

or… this…

Since the reviews are better. Rating: 8.8.

Also, Jacob really likes Tiger Woods AND he has another audition today. If only he’d get hired. That would be good wouldn’t it?