Oh What a Night

So I had kind of a NIGHT last night.

As you may know, I planned to drive to Charlotte yesterday. Kirk and Liz are getting married on Saturday night, and Friday night, some friends are going out in Raleigh for Mike's birthday. Well, I wanted to get the seven-hour drive to Charlotte over with and then just drive the short 2.5-hour drive to Raleigh on Friday.

Well, I went to my interview yesterday morning, which I think went pretty well. I got home afterward and packed a few bags. I left my apartment around 3 p.m.

It was raining, so there was more traffic than usual. Just a miserable day, of course. But I got through the beltway and got to 95 without issue. I ended up making it to Richmond in 2.5 hours, which is a pretty good time -- it's typically a two-hour drive if you can hit it with no traffic.

It rained off and on, not particularly hard, but enough to be an irritant. I passed through Richmond and made it 85 in pretty good time.

A little while later, I was approximately 15 miles from the North Carolina border on I-85 south in Virginia. If you don't know, that stretch of highway is practically desolate. There are no lights, no gas stations, no restaurants, no hotels, nothing. If there aren't other cars around, it's difficult to see too far in any direction around you.

But it had stopped raining, so I didn't think anything of it. I was finally able to set my cruise control and relax a little. The only other car around me was several hundred yards ahead in the right lane. I was driving in the left lane.

All of a sudden, I saw something in the road. Because of the darkness and lack of lights or cars, it was too late by the time I saw it.

BA-BOOM BA-BOOM.

Oh good. I knew immediately the front right tire was done. I managed to pull over to the shoulder to assess the damage. Not only was the right front tire done, but the rim of the wheel itself more closely resembled Pac-man with his mouth open than a complete circle.

I looked toward the back. The back right tire also looked a little worse than I would have liked.

I called my parents to let them know what happened. I called AAA to get a tow truck. Then, not knowing what else to do, I called my friend Mike. To reiterate, Mike and I have hung out in person exactly twice, and neither of us particularly remembers the first time all that well. The other time? The insanity in Raleigh last month.

Our friendship prior to last month was entirely over Gchat. Lulz. And yet, he was the first person I thought to call haha.

I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know where I was. I knew I was still about an hour, maybe an hour and a half from Raleigh. I figured I'd get towed to some nowhere town in Virginia, and Mike would have to pick me up there.

Oh, also, I had Allie with me. So the poor dog is lying down in the backseat, super confused about everything. What a mess.

I waited on the side of the road for 30 minutes before the tow truck arrived. He hopped down and asked where I wanted to go. I said I didn't know because, again, I had no idea where I was. He said, well we can go to Bracey, but there aren't any hotels there, so I'll take us back to South Hill, just a few miles back north and you can find something there.

I told him it didn't matter, because I had a friend in Raleigh who agreed to pick me up.

Thankfully, the driver -- Roger, God love him -- was quick on his feet. "Well, if you want to go to Raleigh, AAA allows for free towing if it's less than 100 miles away."

I had no idea. So I did the math in my head quickly: 15 miles to the state line, probably another 40 or 50 miles to the exit I typically used, then maybe another 15 or 20 to where Mike lived. It would be close, but it seemed doable.

OK, let's do it. He loaded up the car -- thankfully, it was a flatbed, because the cab only had two seats and Allie is too big for that. I opened the windows in the car, and she must have figured it was just a normal car ride, because she ducked down and went to sleep after a few minutes.

I swear. That dog. I need to write a post about her. I've never known such a chill, laid-back dog before. She's the best. She rolls with it better than most people I know.

Anyway, Mike was relieved not to have to drive to the middle of nowhere last night. I was relieved the car was at least going to be in Raleigh, where I was familiar with the area, and where it's a manageable trip to/from Charlotte in case I need my parents to give me a ride so I don't miss the wedding.

Plus, holy hell. It could have been truly disastrous and tragic. I blew out two tires on one side of the car and somehow managed to keep control of the vehicle. Not only that, but if there had been cars around me? My God. Even when shit happens, I continue to be extraordinarily lucky.

So there you go. What a night. Mike met me at the car place where I left my car for the night, and he let me drive him to work today so I could use his car to go back to the car place to deal with this nonsense.

I'm not angry or annoyed. I'm a little inconvenienced, to be sure. But what can you do? Shit happens, man. C'est la vie. Keep calm, and carry on. And other sayings.

The car guy called me a while ago and said he ordered two tires and a new wheel. The tires are available today, but the wheel won't come in until tomorrow. All told, tomorrow is considerably better than I was expecting.

It's going to end up costing more than $550 for parts, labor and tax, but hey. Shit happens. Neither the dog nor I got hurt despite a situation that, in retrospect, could have easily led to serious injury.

Like I said, what can you do? We'll deal with it, and keep moving. I'm still looking forward to a fun weekend both here in Raleigh and in Charlotte! It's going to get nuts. CAN'T WAIT.

This will probably be the last post for the week, so I'll see you back here on Monday!

-BG

North Carolina

Sorry for the missed post yesterday. I spent pretty much all day driving to Charlotte. And then since I'm driving to Raleigh tomorrow, I probably won't post tomorrow. So this will be all this week. But! I am hoping to acquire enough material this weekend for some really great stories next week. I'm also hoping I'll be able to share that material publicly. We'll see how that goes haha.

I think it'll be worth it.

Anyway. If you're reading this, you probably know I was born in New Jersey. Northeast New Jersey to be exact -- approximately 20 minutes from New York City.

My family lived in New Jersey until I was 11 years old. In 1993, my dad took a job in Charlotte, and we moved away. It was devastating at the time, but that's a story for another day.

I consider myself a northerner. I always have. If you listen to me speak, you'll undoubtedly hear twinges of a northern accent. It's inescapable. Two years ago, my brother and I were driving to New Jersey to visit some family. We stopped at a toll booth, and the toll operator said hello, and I responded, "hey how you doin?" I didn't think anything of it. I didn't say it in an unusual way -- it was just the way I say things.

When we pulled away, my brother looked at me and goes, "Jesus, what's up Vito? What the hell was that?"Apparently, it came out in a very thick northern accent. I didn't mean to! It's just the way I speak.

And, of course, most of my favorite sports teams are New York-area teams. New York is my favorite city in the country. Etc., etc.

The point is, I self-identify as a northerner. I always have, despite having lived in North Carolina for 15 of the past 18 years -- more than half my life and more than the time I spent living in New Jersey.

The past two years, however, I've lived in the DC area -- definitely NOT the south. And now that I'm away from North Carolina, I find myself missing it more and more the longer I'm gone.

I guess I shouldn't find that to be so strange. I did almost all of my actual "growing up" in North Carolina. I went to middle school, high school and college in North Carolina. I worked in North Carolina. Almost every significant life event of mine up until now happened in North Carolina.

It's tough to explain. After spending so much time in downtown DC over the past couple of years, it just feels dramatically different being in North Carolina. I'm certainly not going to make any claims about one being better than the other or anything like that. That's ridiculous and pointless.

But I know I feel good when I'm in North Carolina. It feels like home to me. The air feels and smells different -- especially in the fall. The pace is certainly more in tune with my easy-going, laid-back nature (although I do really enjoy the faster-paced DC lifestyle). Also, they have sweet tea here. Everywhere.

I'll always think of myself as a northern guy transplanted to the south. But being away for the past couple of years feels like it has drawn me closer, and I miss it. Don't get me wrong: I love living where I live, and I don't intend to move away. Despite my intensely laid-back and relaxed nature, I feel like a city guy. So DC is extremely appealing to me.

But you know. North Carolina has its advantages, too. Especially this time of year. The humidity is fading, the air will be turning crisp and the leaves will start to turn soon. Fall in North Carolina is some kind of special experience. And the football. I have no problem admitting this: there is nothing like experiencing college football in the south. It's just different here. Definitely better, and that's factually correct.

So yeah. I'm pretty excited to be spending the next several days back home in North Carolina. I'm super pumped about spending time with friends I haven't seen in way too long. It just feels good here, man. I like it.

Brief Weight-Loss Update

I weighed in at 185 today before running, which is a loss of 42 pounds. I'm only 5 pounds away from my original goal weight. Incredible. I can't believe how far I've come. I can't believe how good I feel. I'm not going to say I look good, but I will say plenty of others say it for me and to me, and goddamn THAT feels good.

I can't imagine I'll stop at 180 when I get there. I haven't checked since last week, but my body fat percentage was still hovering around 22 percent -- down from more than 30 percent back in April. But I'm not satisfied with 22 percent. I want to get to 17 percent, ideally, but definitely less than 20 percent. Keep on truckin', my friends. No choice.

I ran another four miles today, and it was my best four-mile time ever. I did it in 36:38 this morning -- just more than a 9-minute mile pace. I don't have a stopwatch or anything, so to keep track of my pace, I have a playlist of running songs. I note the time of the song that's playing when I reach each mile marker, and then I figure it out when I get home based on how much time elapsed on the playlist.

So today, it went like this:

Mile 1: 8:31
Mile 2: 8:51
Mile 3: 10:46
Mile 4: 8:30

Mile 3's time is dramatically higher because I walked for around two minutes when I reached the two-mile turnaround point. The last quarter-mile or so of mile 2 was straight uphill, so when I got to the two-mile point, I gave myself a breather. After walking briefly, I picked it up again and ran the entire way home.

Some perspective: last year at this time, I needed more than 32 minutes to finish 3.1 miles. This year, I finished four miles in just more than 36 and a half minutes.

It's been a good day. Love seeing progress on the scale, in how my clothes fit, in the mirror, in my fitness level and running ability. I just can't imagine feeling better physically than I do right now. But I know I will as I keep this up.

And then combine that with going out with some of my oldest friends tonight -- some of whom have known me since I was 11 or 12 years old. And then this weekend of debauchery in Raleigh? Oh my god. You know what's coming now.

Man, let's GO.

-BG