Still sick

Seriously.  Not cool.  I was sick for a few days, felt better for a couple, and then a new cold decided to piggyback itself onto the old cold.  The second one is definitely worse than the first.  The first time it was basically just a chest cold, this time it was a full blown fever/congestion cold.  Basically what it boils down to is that I haven't been for a REAL run in over a week now.  I went for a short one last week, on one of the two days that I was feeling better, but I didn't want to over-do it, so I only went about a mile.  Looks like it didn't matter how far I went though, as I got sick anyways.
Yesterday I was feeling completely miserable and I didn't know how I was going to make it through the day today.  Luckily, we had ANOTHER snow day.  This time though, I was actually looking forward to it, because I really wanted to just sleep.  I actually got up at 6 and found out that school was cancelled.  I did a mini-dance inside my head, put on my humidifier, brushed my teeth, and went back to bed.  Jealous? I bet.  Then I woke up around 10:30 and felt 10x better, but not great. Took a ridiculously long shower to absorb the steam into my membranes, took some medicine, went grocery shopping, and then shoveled.  Later, I even walked the dogs.  I think the sleeping until 10 really did it.  I was able to sleep off that extra bit of fever that was hanging around.  Hopefully I'll be able to run again this weekend.  I never thought I would say this, but I miss it!  I was just about to start interval training, and I was pretty excited about it, so I really want to get back at it.
Since I don't have any Charity Miles to share with you, I'll share this lovely picture I drew instead.  I thought it might be fun to put The Outsiders into comic book/graphic novel form, so I've been (sort of) working on that.  It's only chapter 1, and I'm not sure I really like the way my faces are coming out, but it's something, I guess.

Oh, and one more thing.  Remember those zip-ups I got?  Well, the other day on the T, I noticed that only the left side was working.  Seems to be a loose wire connection in the right side, because it comes and goes, depending on which way the wire is turned.  I have to say that I'm fairly disappointed in that.  This is supposed to be a great product and yet they're broken on me already.  I'm not sure how the company is going to handle this, but I imagine it's going to be tough to get a replacement without it costing me an exorbitant amount of money, considering it's an overseas company.....

Deviation

I've been sick this week, chest cold akin to bronchitis, so I haven't been running.  What I have been doing is reading books.  Mostly the same old books I always read when I feel like running away to a different world, but I did read Rob Lowe's autobiography as well.  It was interesting though it felt a little short.  What I really liked about it was his in depth account of making The Outsiders, beginning with casting all the way up until the premiere. Turns out, he was pretty disappointed with the original cut of the movie as well.
Now, if you've never read The Outsiders, or seen the movie, stop right here, go buy the book, and come back to me in two days.  Seriously.  It's a short read and it's fantastic.  Don't worry, I'll wait............................................................................................................................................
Alright, if you didn't bother to do that, then get ready for some serious spoilers. As in, I'm telling you basically the whole story line start to finish, deal with it.  Well, the book begins with Ponyboy Curtis walking home from the movies alone and getting jumped by the Socs, only to have his neighborhood greaser gang come and rescue him.  The greasers include his brothers (and only family he has left,) Sodapop and Darrel, as well as Two-bit, Steve, Johnny, and Dallas.  As the story goes on, Pony and Johnny commit manslaughter, go on the run, save some children from a burning church and get rushed to the hospital.  Johnny dies, Pony and the gang rumble with the Socs, Dallas dies, Pony falls down sick due to exhaustion, shock, and a minor concussion.  Pony wakes up, goes to juvenile court to testify and try to stay in custody of Darry.  Pony gets acquitted, finds out he's flunking English, gets in a fight with Darry, both chase down Sodapop who can't stand the fighting anymore, agree to be a big happy family, decides to write about his previous few weeks to pass English, story begins all over again.
There you go.  30 second rundown of The Outsiders.  All the important information, none of the back story.  But seriously, the book is amazing, so this 2 second tale doesn't do it justice.  When I was a teenager, I was pretty interested in the fact that they had made a movie about the book, even though my mom always said it wasn't as good.  This was back in the days before On-Demand and Netflix, and we didn't have a Blockbuster card, so there was really no way to see the movie unless it happened to be on t.v.  Which it actually was, more frequently than I thought it would be.  Turns out, my mom was right.  Where the book spent so much time developing characters and setting up the reason for the trouble with the Socs, the movie skipped right over it.  If you watched the original cut of the movie, it doesn't begin with Pony being jumped, but at the next chapter, where Pony and Johnny meet Dallas for a night out at the drive-in.  While that might not seem like a big deal, it really is.  The first chapter, with all the introductions, is key to the plot line.  Plus, without seeing Pony jumped, you would never have known that the Socs cut his neck with a switchblade, leaving him with a scab.  In fact, for a long time, it always bugged me that there was something on Pony's neck that was there half the movie and then suddenly disappeared.  It looked like a birthmark gone missing.  It wasn't until years later that I finally realized it was a scab from the jumping.  (In the book, he cuts his head, not his neck, so the only way I put the two together was with the first scene of the movie in place.) It was actually a huge relief to find out what that spot was.... The story goes on, pretty much follows the book up until after the rumble, when Dallas is running to meet the gang after holding up a gas station.  In the book, Dallas goes down, Pony passes out, and then the rest of the story unfolds.  In the original cut, Dallas goes down, Pony begins his English assignment, movie over.  Seriously.  I don't know who thought it was a good idea to cut out the entire beginning and the entire end of the story, but it was a terrible one.  Part of the reason I love the story so much is the back story of the three Curtis brothers and all that they go through to stay together as a family.  The movie took all the emotional feeling out of the movie and basically made it about some teen thugs who can't handle life.
Until 2006.  Finally, Francis Ford Coppola wised up and decided that perhaps he needed those original scenes back in the movie.  When The Outsiders: The Complete Novel came out on DVD I knew I had to have it.  I always wanted to see that end part with the Curtis brothers and I hoped the movie would actually touch upon it this time.  Thankfully, it did, and it definitely made the entire movie so much better than it was before.
Rob Lowe was a bit disappointed with the final cut  not only because it didn't follow the book, but also because his major scene got cut out.  (I don't know the guy, but I'm betting that cutting his scene weighed more heavily on his mind than the fact that the movie didn't follow the book, but I could be wrong.)  So, after years of being angry at FFC for destroying a wonderful book, I was finally able to find out why.  (Thanks Rob!)  The reason was pretty lame, they just felt like the movie didn't need those scenes to be a success. WRONG!  Ok, not wrong for the most part, but to me, WRONG!  I still have some issues with the casting; for instance, Matt Dillon as Dallas and Tom Cruise as Steve, but hey, you can't win them all right?  Plus, Rob Lowe and C.Thomas Howell made a perfect Sodapop and Ponyboy respectively, so that kind of cancels it out.
The title of this post was chosen for a reason so I hope you aren't to thrown off by my side story.  I'm sure I'll go back to running posts soon enough, but in the meantime, now you know a little bit more about me.  Or at least, more about the kind of books I read.

The Curtis brothers.  I'm sure the biggest swoon-fest of '83. I wouldn't know. I wasn't there.
(This picture isn't mine, I found it online, please don't take me to court, I'm a teacher, I have no money anyways!)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside

More snow.  Seriously.  Another foot or so fell on us today.  Right after almost all the old snow had melted away and it seemed like the weather was turning into perfect spring outdoor running weather. Now we're right back at square one.  Sidewalks are slushy and icy again, and everything is gross out. It's too bad though, because on Tuesday I went for a 4 mile run down the beach, and it was actually starting to feel like Spring!
However, yesterday, before the snow started to stick, I took Nala for a run at the beach.  We went 3 miles, which doesn't seem like much, but it was windy and rainy and icy and snowy all at once.  Good thing it was low tide, or we would've been destroyed by the 15 foot waves.  I can't honestly say that Nala enjoyed the run, but once I stopped running against the wind I actually did sort of enjoy it.
Today we had ANOTHER snow day.  Yay! Seriously though, I'm sick of snow days.  Along with the hurricane days, this makes 6 and I'd rather be in school in the winter when the world is miserable, than in June when it's gorgeous out.  On the plus side, staying home gave me a chance to watch my way through all the S.E. Hinton book to movie adaptations I could find. I started with The Outsiders (last night) because that's my all time favorite S.E. Hinton book and I could seriously watch that movie/read that book a million times and never get sick of it.  Not a million times in a row, but definitely a million times.  I think I just love how well C. Thomas Howell portrayed Ponyboy.  I really like Rob Lowe as Sodapop too, but the rest of the cast I'm not too fond of.  I suppose Patrick Swayze made an ok Darrel, though I don't picture him like that.  But Matt Dillon just does not fit Dallas Winston, and I HATE Tom Cruise as Steve Randall.  I suppose Emilio Estevez and Ralph Macchio are okay as Two-Bit and Johnny, but again, that's not how I picture them.  Anyways, after I watched The Outsiders I moved onto Rumble Fish, which I actually did not enjoy one bit.  I just couldn't get into it.  I think that was also my least favorite book, looking back.  Next I went looking for That Was Then, This is Now, but it wasn't available for instant streaming.  Finally, I found Tex.  I was actually pretty pumped.  Tex runs a close second to The Outsiders and I can't believe I never knew there was a movie made about it.  The movie was pretty good too.  Matt Dillon made a much better Tex than he did Dallas Winston.  The guy playing Mason was a bit too old, but other than that, I really liked it. I'll probably add it to my movie collection at some point.
Alright, I know I got off the topic of running for a moment, but I couldn't help it. I just wanted to share my love and excitement of The Outsiders and Tex for all of you. Now I'm back on track though.  I've been thinking about cutting down on the 5Ks actually.  They've been fun and I love getting the medals and t-shirts, but they're getting pricey.  I'm set up until June, but I think after that, I'm going to knock it back a bit.  I can run 5Ks without paying, why bother paying?  For a while, I think I'll stick to one race a month, and only a 10K or higher.  My only disclaimer is that if it's a fun-run, like the Color Run or Foam fest, I'll make an exception.  No more race series though.  I just want to save some money.
One last thing before I go.  For those of you who don't know why snow being on the sidewalks might be a big deal, let me put it out there for you.  My 4 mile run on Tuesday took 37 minutes and my 3 mile run yesterday took 30 minutes.  Today, I took a 1 mile walk around the neighborhood.  It took me 30 minutes to tromp through all the snow and by the end, I was so sweaty, I felt like I had been working harder than I have been while running.  That's why it's so miserable.  Here are some Charity Miles for you to enjoy now.