Friday was another day of conferencing, I rode down with Erica and Kerri and we spent the day going to sessions with some pretty interesting people. The Play On! Shakespeare project was the first thing in the morning, I read an article years ago about the work they were doing updating the language of Shakespeare. It was pretty controversial then and is probably just as controversial now, what they have actually done is work with contemporary playwrights with a set of rules (including things like preserving the meter) to clarify the language for a modern audience in a way that makes it about the drama AND the language rather than in spite of the language. The lady spearheading the effort was very chill and encouraged the 9 or so of us to read aloud some passages, it was eye opening. Sadly none of the work is published yet so it will be up to individuals to reach out to the playwrights for access to the work.

We did some other workshops and then headed back early. I ran 10k when I got home and packed my car for Saturday. Matty was headed out to Golden Boy for 90s night and I decided to pick him up when I walked over. It was nice to see some familiar faces and turn in early for the race on Saturday.

My alarm went off at 3:45, I’ll admit that I didn’t really sleep that well but it wasn’t hard to get up and moving for the drive. I remember it being a much longer drive last year but I also hadn’t done much timing at that point so it was all pretty new. I got things set up and live and then just hung out with the crew for the day. I met Liz out there last year and she has started coming out to runs and become a part of the DARC crew so it was nice to have a familiar face (Ray and Chad too, of course) among the hummingbird sized mosquitos and the humidity. The day was much less eventful than it was last year, runners were paying more attention and marking happened more clearly. Liz and I cleaned up the start finish marking so that runners knew where to go without having to explain everything to each runner and by the end of the day the heat was oppressive enough that standing out in the sun telling runners where to go wasn’t at the top of the list.

I broke things down after they took the final runner out in an ambulance (he’ll be ok) and headed back to Denton to make the birthday rounds with a couple friends who were celebrating birthdays. I took a quick nap and a shower and headed over to HarHo for Em’s birthday. Had a drink and some cake and ran into the climbing crew (well, one of them) and did some talking with Roz and Josh about making healthy lifestyle choices and how to make big changes that will stick. I convinced Josh to come out for Matty’s bowling celebration so we headed that way and bowled for a couple of hours before sleepily heading back to the house for some much needed rest.

Sunday I got up an did my first real long run of the “fall” with a half marathon around downtown and out to Northlakes and then back. I try to plan routes around water sources and I almost always don’t get water when I know that I should before leaving those water sources. The weather fluctuated a bit from cooler to really hot so by the time I made it home, I was cooked. Pounded a couple of liters of water and took a shower and headed out to meet Josh for a climb at Summit. We did some harder routes and I kept getting close enough to be frustrated by my lack of progress but we climbed for about an hour and then headed to Eastside for the Oaktoberfest festivities. We ran into Tasha and Jack from the climbing gym and hung out with them for a bit, went down to Oak to holler at Ben and Tyler who were working the event. John was down there and we were chatting, he was kind enough to gift me a stein to begin rebuilding my pint glass collection that mysteriously vanished in the split. My dad came out for a few and then we headed back to East to finish the day.

Monday was a rough wakeup since I realized that instead of just burning the candle at both ends, I found a way to burn it in the middle as well. I was out of coffee and reused the grounds from the previous day, it works in a pinch. Students were going a little bananas and I already regretted not taking Monday off too by 4th period. Somehow made it through the day and ended up with a great recovery run with Lauren and a trip to the grocery store for coffee, greens and a new experiment in tempeh. I’m trying to increase calories as my activity level increases so I don’t just waste away to nothing. I was talking to my dad about doing the Screaming Monkey 100 and asked him if they might be willing to bring the kids out on that Sunday to see me finish. This has already gone on long enough to get into this but I was talking with Lauren about the DMA show and how seeing people with support structures (people who give a shit) was a powerful reminder that as much as I play it off, it does matter to have people enthusiastically support me without having to pull teeth. Oh, and my cousin Russ hit me up about a collab for next year (Satori Circus, look him up) so I’m pretty stoked about that.

Also dropping some pictures from the DMA, I think you can tell I was a little overwhelmed by the look in my eyes but they are nice photos.