Changing the Outgoing Phone Message

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For reasons too long to go into here, we've decided to drop our land line and switch our existing home number over to a cell phone. This morning as I lay in bed, I could hear Blair in the next room selecting ring tones. Then he recorded the outgoing message.

Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. We're not in to take your call. Please leave your name and number and we'll return your call just as soon as we can."

"Can we do something less formal?" I shouted from the bedroom. 

Blair walked into the room. "Such as?"

"How about just, 'Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Leave a message.'"

Blair dialed into the phone to re-record. Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. We're not in to take your call. Please leave your name and number and --

"You're recording the same message," I said. "Try again."

He made me repeat the short message, took a breath, and began recording.

Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Please leave your name and phone number and... he trailed off and looked at me helplessly.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked. "This is not hard."

"I always leave the same message. Here, you record it."

My voice has been our answering machine for 16 years. It's time to mix things up.

"You do it," I said. "Hi, you've reached Dena and Blair. Leave a message." 

I swear to you, it took four more attempts to get it right. Once he had it recorded, he grabbed my cell phone and called the home number, just to make sure it worked. The recorded message played and Blair left a message: "Hi, this is Blair. Call me. But I'm not leaving my phone number because you didn't tell me to in your message." 

I'm still laughing.

Freaking Out

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I've been visiting the blogs of runners who have run Boston. I thought I'd calm myself down, maybe discover some posts that talk about the "hills of Newton" being overhyped. 

Not so much. Instead, I've discovered the vast majority of the course is rolling hills and the advice of every runner I read was "Do your hill work." 

Just how many hills do you think I can run in the next 10 days?

Some Thoughts On Discipline

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Okay, so I wrote this blog post that's really whiny and boring. If you have trouble sleeping, click on the "Read More" link and view the original post. Really, all I wanted to say was this:

I wish I could lose 4 pounds before Boston. Doing so would require me to alter my diet. I lack the discipline to do so. I wonder why? I can run 20 miles and not eat meat for 22 years but not eating rice or bread (or eating less of them) for three weeks is out of the question? 

How is that possible? Why can I be so hardcore disciplined in some areas of life and feel I have no control in others? 

That's all I really wanted to say. 

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A Character Building Run

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"That's a character building run." Those are the words my Boston marathon training partner Michael used to sum up today's 76 degree, full-sun, 13-mile run. They're much more positive and uplifting than my summary statement upon finishing which was, roughly, "F*@%." 

Two weeks to Boston. Am I ready? I approach any race with three goals - baby goal, do-able goal, and "the stars and planets must align but there's still a shot" goal. My goals for Boston are thus:

  • PLANETS ALIGNED: Beat my time in Chicago, so anything under a 3:44:02
  • DO-ABLE GOAL: Come in under 4 hours
  • BABY GOAL: Just finish
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