it’s been a while since i touched the blog. a lot his happened in the past month. so big changes in progress now. first off, i sorta kick ass on my first marathon. i ran it in 4:51 which was better than i hope for. the best thing was i didn’t feel totally wasted after it. it was tough but not actually worse then being on a bike for 8 hours. yeah, the AIDS ride a few years back set the bar for me. Don’t think i will do anything at that length any time soon but maybe a duoathonon next.

speaking of the bike, i pull the trigger about 2 weeks ago and got a new mountain bike. getting sort of addicted again and look forward to the next big fun ride. yeah, that’s one big difference between running and mountain biking. i rarely look forward to running. it’s definitely feels out of need that i do it. well, goes without saying why i love riding on the trail. also, it’s the first time in a long time that i felt that i was doing some ‘recreational’ on a ‘regular’ basis. we will see how long i can keep mountain biking in my schedule but it’s been nice riding with these meet up groups for sure. it’s not riding the same as when i was in early 30s but ironically i feel more in shape these days with all the running and now riding.

my theme this year of finding some new groups to be a part of also got some traction. i finally decided to join vistage after evaluating a couple of options. feel like i am going back to ‘school’ in some way because i am paying ‘big’ money for education/development. yeah, it’s so much cheaper than going to an MBA program but i am hoping to get quite a bit out of this group!

i started volunteering this week as well at the guna foundation. i must admit it was nice being around fellow Buddhist and being immerse in heavily decorated buddhist environment! there’s no doubt that just being around people/images of buddhism helps me remember what i need to really shift my focus to. it’s so easy to get pulled into gravity of non aware busyness.

lastly, i was in houston for a week and went on a ‘vacation’ with my dad and brother. i think it was our first family vacation as adults. although we didn’t go anywhere particularly interesting it was still nice conceptually to have uma be a part of it all. she definitely help bring us all together. my dad and brother adore her and it’s nice to see my own family soak in the wonderfulness of her. as i was working on uma’s book this month, i was looking over last year’s photos and it look like we didn’t really have a birthday party her last year. looking over the last several years of photos trigger the emotional roller coaster of marriage. naturally a part of me still want to have that family life but for the emotional price was more than i could bear. i know a part of me is trying too hard to ‘date’ people via these meet ups and online dating scene. i suspect at some point, i will just give up the effort and…