Week 17 of 2025

I'm really really really really tired for it being the beginning of the week. Yikes. That doesn't bode well for everything I have to accomplish in the coming days and weeks. But here we are, all of us: exhausted.

I'm not surprised I'm tired. I had to rearrange my workouts last week to accommodate my volunteering at the NYRR Women's Half Marathon yesterday. That meant getting up at 4:45 am so I could eat some breakfast before walking over to the park, to hand out water and Gatorade to thousands of women runners all morning. Thankfully, I was placed at the first water station, which meant that we were the first to see the runners all go by (twice), and that meant I was actually done far earlier than expected. Even so, I had to come home and finish up the Second Breakfast newsletter that went out this morning -- a bunch of not-very-well formulated thoughts.

But the rescheduling meant that yesterday's long day was also ostensibly my rest day -- at least, it was a no-running day. I hit almost 48 miles of running last week, the highest I've ever done, and I think that's about what I'm set to run this week as well. Saturday's long run -- 8 miles easy and then 4 at race pace -- was pretty grueling because of the humidity. It's definitely spring, and it's getting pretty warm. I have no expectations for race day, as the weather will really determine how fast I'm able to go. I'm in great shape physically, but as my performance at the NYC Half demonstrated, it really comes down to the humidity, I reckon.

We ate out a couple of times last week -- we had banh mi delivered from Saiguette on Monday and walked down to EZ Paella on Saturday for a bunch of tapas. We saw a concert on Thursday at Birdland, which meant eating out there too -- the usual cheese plate. Kin ordered tiramisu for dessert but it looked far too gelatinous for me to even want to try a bite.

It was an Emmett Cohen Trio show -- we always try to catch him and/or Ron Carter when they're in the neighborhood. As Kin noted in his newsletter (which I should link to, I guess), Cohen had Joe Farnsworth with him on drums this time around, and I honestly can't think of a better drummer I've ever seen live. I mean, he just handled the whole drum set masterfully with sticks and brushes and hammers, switching hands and covering every surface (including the cymbal stands) with the beat. It was really glorious. His playing sort of reminded me of Buddy Rich. Dad would have loved it, for sure.

On Wednesday, I participated in a Resisting AI roundtable conversation, put on by Liz Losh from the College of William & Mary. I sat and listened to all the different panels and all the different speakers throughout the day -- the talks were great, and I definitely feel less isolated and alone in my criticism of AI. I mean, I'll keep saying what I think. I'll keep speaking out. But damn, so many people right now seem so ready to embrace the end of the world -- certainly the end of public education.

Or maybe I'm just winding up / winding down as the fifth anniversary of Isaiah's passing approaches. Everything is heavy. Everything. My legs, my heart, my brain, my soul.

I keep trying to be generous with my thinking, knowing that not everyone has lost everything yet and some folks are just trying to build a little moat around their privilege, hoping it'll keep them safe from the looming fascism.

We watched a bunch of TV over the weekend. A couple of episodes of the new season of Andor. The latest Captain America movie. I noticed on the Apple TV log in screen that the most popular TV shoes are ALF and Quantum Leap. For fuck's sake, people. No wonder everything is so absurdly stupid if people would rather watch some terrible TV from the Eighties than read a goddamn book.