Relay for Life California 2011

I got back from another Relay for Life conference on Saturday called the Relay Committee Academy in Gilroy.  It was pretty much the exact same stuff I learned at the conference in Anaheim a month earlier but on a much smaller scale.  This one was just for the relays in the Silicon Coastal North region, about 15 or so relays.  I learned a few new things and a couple new ideas but they also went over the final numbers for the state of California (not each individual team, but just the state as a whole).

I did find out the week beforehand though that my team, West Coast Family Ties raised $3,515.50!!!  That was 3x our original goal and we are aiming even higher this coming year.  A ginormous thanks to everyone who helped us achieve that number last year!!!  The fundraising has already begun for 2012 and ANY help would take us a LONG way!  You can also join our team as a VIRTUAL TEAMMATE and even if you are on the other side of the country you can join up with our team and start raising your own money...give it a try, the more the merrier!!!

nk you to all the volunteers, donors, supporters, and survivors who helped to make this year a success!

$31.7 Million raised 427 Relay For Life events 32,275 Cancer Survivors honored 214,572 Participants 16,960 Teams

Seinfeld

As a (very) belated bday gift for Megan I took her to see Jerry Seinfeld who was performing here in Monterey last weekend.  It was worth every dime.  Mario Joyner opened up for him and was also pretty funny.  Mario Joyner has been in a bunch of different movies and tv shows but never as a lead actor.  Jerry came on after 30 minutes of Mario and he came out swinging!

He started off by talking about how much of a process it is to physically end up at a comedy show...the purchasing of the tickets, finding people to go with you, where's the venue, where to park, what to eat beforehand, what to do afterwards, where are we gonna sit, etc...and that every person at some point was realizing how much of a pain in the ass this entire process is!!!

He covered other topics such as energy drinks (5 hour, redbull, coffee), social media (FB/twitter), playing shows in small towns, being a dad, playing golf (or NOT playing) and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.

Some Memorable Quotes (not exactly word for word but you get it)
- Facebook is really whoring out the word book.  As if Tommy and Donna's drunken vacation to Cabo is anything like Moby Dick!
- Talking about coffee: Yeah go off and enjoy your 3rd world dirty bean water!
- I hate it when I go to a new town/city and some [pause for moron yelling out the name of a local restaurant]...A-hole tries to tell me a GREAT place to go eat...You gotta go here, it's GREAT!!!  It's never great...it's never even really that good.  Have you ever been caught between that place where something is great and crappy at the same time??  You go to a ball game, get a cold hot dog on a bun that's not toasted from an ex-con...what do you say when you eat it???  This is GREAT!!!
- 5HR energy:  Why do we need 5 hours of energy?  Who's working from 1-6???  And why is it so small?  As if you are SOOOO tired, all you can physically handle is something THIS small.

I'm having trouble remembering a bunch of other stuff but as it comes to me I'll keep making additions.  He was absolutely hilarious though and had me off my seat for the hour he was performing.  I highly recommend going to see him if you get the chance!

Halloween is Here!!

The Halloween season is here and as one of my favorite times of the year I will be attending at least three costume parties!!!  I'm pretty sure I'll be going as the same thing to all of them as the audiences will most likely be different.  The original idea was for me to be Superman (up there in the mix of my fav. superhero) and Megan was going to go as kryptonite.  Unfortunately for us a Superman costume was harder to find than expected and had I ordered it online it wouldn't have arrived before our first party.  SO the second idea was from Megan and she wanted to do a Barbie and Ken theme with the possibility of adding her friend Mel to the mix.

At first I was a bit hesitant but then thought well if we are going to do that then we've gotta have a sub-theme as well.  At first it was going to be Barbie and the Rockers but then I suggested doing Barbie and Ken from Toy Story 3.  If you haven't seen the movie don't worry I'll post the clip on here.  Anyway, we went to Goodwill to find either rocker costumes or Toy Story costumes and Megan immediately landed a solid piece of the Toy Story Barbie, so that's what we went with.  After a couple more stores to add some final touches we came up with this:

What you cannot see are Barbie's bright pink high heels!!!

We went to our first party on Friday night; it wasn't a late night as Barbie had a 100-mile (yes 100 MILE) bike ride Saturday morning and I had a 14 mile run.  We will most likely be attending another party this Friday and then one on Monday, Halloween day.  I've been told that I need to show more chest and I also need to pop my collar more...by Monday we'll be totally in character!

It's Official!

I am officially a California resident.  It only took a bit over a year but I finally caved and got my license and new Cali plates.  Technically I don't have the license yet but it should be in the mail this week or next.  I had to take a 36-question written exam that I thankfully passed but that was the only thing that took long.  This is the Focus' 3rd state plate in 6 years and is not the 4th only because I moved out of New Hampshire right before I was going to go get it.  The Focus has almost 140,000 miles on it and still going strong (knock on wood) but hopefully will not be taking any other state plates anytime soon.

Long 4 Weeks!

Boy have I been busy over the last four weeks.  Since it's been a while I'm going with the Cliff Notes version of my last month...I got back from Hawaii on the 12th.  That trip ended on a very high note as my last small boat fishing trip involved a plethora of fish, one last tiger shark, and of course getting snagged on the giant island of Hawaii.  I got back from Oahu later in the evening on a Monday night and had to be back at work Tuesday morning.  That first week back was tough catching up on everything, including sleep but it was also very nice to be back to reality.  I think I was getting too comfortable with life on the ship so the timing was perfect for a reality check.

The following weekend, Sept 16-17 Megan and I drove up to Lake Tahoe for the Tough Mudder, Nor Cal.
She was volunteering and I was running the race on Saturday the 17th along with my friend Brad who I know from college.  We ran together at UNE for a couple of years and this was the first race since then.  I can't really call this a race because it was a team event that was untimed.  There were 8 of us and we tried staying together as a team but half of our team was incredibly out of shape and probably shouldn't have been doing this event.  After mile 5 it was just 4 of us and that's pretty much how we finished it out.  It was 12 miles long up a mountain climbing in elevation from ~6000ft - 9000ft.  The obstacles themselves weren't very tough and involved anything from jumping into an ice bath, 10,000 volt wires, a 15-ft. plunge, wall climbs, barbed wire, and even some snow!  It was a great time, I'm glad I did it, but it was more hype than tough and I probably wouldn't do one again.

The weekend after that was the California Relay for Life Summit in Anaheim.  Each team in the state sent two representatives from their committee to this conference.  I was asked to go and represent the Team Development member of our Monterey Peninsula Relay.  This 2-day conference was such an experience.  I truly wish I could be around people with the same positivity all the time!  There was a lot of information thrown at us but I learned a ton about working with team captains, my teammates, sponsors, and how to fund raise more efficiently.  At times it was an emotional rollercoaster due to the speakers and stories that were being shared but there was a ton of energy with over 900 people together for the same cause...more birthdays!  Please help me out again this year by donating to West Coast Family Ties!!!

The next weekend was a long, somewhat brutal hike from Big Sur Station into Sykes Hot Springs.  Megan and I had never been backpacking before and this was one heck of a way to get started.  I had run 10 miles in the morning before we left which didn't help much.  It was 10 miles in and took about 5 hours to traverse this huge mountain and get down to the river.  It was a bit frustrating at times but luckily we didn't kill each other, we eventually landed a place to pitch our tent and then enjoyed the hot, sulfur-smelling water for a while before heading to bed.  We awoke at 6:30 and did it all over again only the way back was only 4 hours.      We were exhausted when we got back and it was nice to have gotten it done but we probably won't be doing it again.

This past weekend was the first weekend I had to just relax and not worry about having to be anywhere at all.  So Friday was a chill day and yesterday we took out the stand-up paddleboards and then I chillaxed the rest of the day...so THAT is a quick summary of what I've been up to over the last 4 weeks.  California still amazes me every time I get to go out on a new adventure...

Life is Good!

up next: It's Official!