Free Will Rocks

I don’t believe in fate. I believe that we are free to choose our own destiny. I believe that where we end up in life is largely because of good and bad decisions we make.

Yet when it comes to my wonderful marriage to Marathon Girl, I sometimes wonder if it was some unseen power that brought the two of us together.

I bring this up because Wednesday’s episode of LOST (great episode BTW) was very fatalistic. (And for those who aren’t fans of the show, stay with me. I’m going to talk mostly about my courtship to Marathon Girl instead of the episode.) Desmond discovered that no matter what choices he made, it was fated to end up in the island pushing the button every 108 minutes apparently to save the world. If he didn’t break up with Penelope that day then something would happen the next day or the day after to make them break up. The universe, we are told, has a way of course correcting itself.

Back to my courtship with Marathon Girl: Had this been any normal relationship it never would have made it past the first date. But it seemed like some invisible hand kept pushing Marathon Girl and I together no matter how many mistakes and dumb decisions we made. Here’s just a small sampling of what happened when we were dating that makes me think the two of us were destined to be together.

• It was by chance that Marathon Girl ended up going to the same church as I. Where most of her unmarried friends were going to a church for singles, Marathon Girl chose to attend a church where I was the only other single person.
• For several weeks I tried to think of a reason to talk with her on Sundays. Unable to think of any excuse to start a conversation, her photo appears on the front page of the sports section of the local paper announcing she won the Ogden Marathon.
• Our first date was the worst date either of us had been on. It was so bad that Marathon Girl ended up going back to her parent’s house that night and crying to her dad about it. Her dad, who is really big on making sure his daughters are treated with respect, shocked Marathon Girl and the rest of her family when he said that she should give me a second chance.
• Our second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth dates were equally uninspiring. Yet I still felt that I should keep asking Marathon Girl out and she kept saying yes.
• When we started dating, we were both in other relationships that weren’t going anywhere and that we didn’t feel were right. Yet somehow those relationships never got in the way of our seeing. For example, when I would call Marathon Girl and ask her our, I’d happen to ask her out on the only day of the week she didn’t have something planed with her then-boyfriend.
• After six lousy dates we ended up talking about where this relationship was headed. We both agreed that we should stop dating each other and just be friends. On my way out the door, I ask Marathon Girl was she was doing that weekend. She said she wasn’t doing anything. I asked her out. She accepted. And we ended up having a perfect date. And the relationship took off from there.

So after LOST, I asked Marathon Girl, who is also a big believer in free will, if she thought we would have been together if I hadn’t stayed in Ogden after my late wife’s death or if she had chosen to attend a different church or one of us had made a different decision along the way if we would have ended up together. We talked for a good hour about it and both concluded that somehow the universe would have found a way to bring the two of us together.

Maybe some things are meant to be.

Be My Valentine. Watch LOST.

I’ve been too busy to write my thoughts on last week’s episode of LOST until my lunch break today. Sorry they’re a week late. Promise to have a write up about tonight's episode tomorrow.

• Thought Juliet’s flashback was great. I felt I understood her motivations for wanting Ben dead a lot better and it’s nice to know she’s not officially part of The Others.
• I see a budding (love?) relationship going on between her and Jack. They’ve both been promised the way off the island by Ben but I’m willing to bet they won’t leave unless they can take the remaining survivors with them.
• That room Karl was held in was number 23. Hmmmm. Where have we heard that number before? Oh yes, that’s one of the numbers that had to be entered into the computer. Since the hatch imploded the writers have dropped at least one hint to those numbers in every episode.
• One blogger has done some audio work and discovered there was some clever backmasking going on in the audio in the brainwashing room. Apparently one of the things that are being said on the film is “Only fools are enslaved by time and space.”
• Having Juliet’s husband hit by a bus was great and creepy at the same time. I’d like to think it was an accident but The Others seem to have the resources necessary to get things done.

Have a great Wednesday. Celeberate V-Day by watching LOST.

To Aidan or Molly

I wrote the following poem in December of 2003 in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. Marathon Girl and I had been discussing what to name the baby if it was a boy or a girl. What follows just flowed from pen to paper. What surprises me on reading this again is that we ended up sticking with the first boy name we liked and using the girl name we liked when our daughter arrived almost three years later. To Aidan or Molly

The books say you’re the size of an avocado, and if we could see you swimming in a warm bath of amniotic fluid, we’d know if you’re a boy or a girl. In a month the doctor will strip away some of the mystery, but for now we like to lie in bed and imagine what you’ll be and give you names like Aidan or Molly.

And after the talk of names is done for the night, I’ll skip ahead a few chapters to see what you’ll look like nine weeks from now and read about the changes you’ll undergo before joining the family of a writer and a chemist.

But by the time you’re old enough to read this, I may not be a writer and your mother may not be a chemist and your name might not be Aidan or Molly but Jarom or Natalie or something that won’t be a thought in our minds until the moment you’re born.

– Abel Keogh 12/23/03

We Were Watching Unbreakable at the Time

Marathon Girl: "Have you ever met a woman that made you want to take off your wedding ring?" Me: "Yes"

Marathon Girl (appalled): "When did this happen?"

Me: "The first time I saw you."

I'm Alive

Yes, I’m alive. Been very busy with a sister-in-law’s wedding and work-related things. Will have a full review of LOST and catch up on a million other things soon.

Stay tuned.

It's Baaaaaack...

After being off the air since November, LOST returns tonight. I'm looking forward to watching it.  Hopefully its long hiatus hasn't caused a massive loss of interest. I’d like to see the show be around for another year or two.

I'll have a full review and thoughts on the episode tomorrow.

It Finally Warmed Up!

There’s nothing harder than running when temperatures are below freezing. For the last month Utah has been in a deep freeze and daytime highs have rarely risen past the 32 degree mark. When I run in the mornings temperatures have usually been around zero and my body never really seems to warm up – even after a long, hot shower. It doesn’t help that I have little to no fat on my body either.

Yesterday the temperatures finally broke the freezing barrier as temperatures shot up to nearly 50 degrees. Marathon Girl said her six mile afternoon run felt wonderful to not have to spend the first half of her run trying to warm up. It made it easier for her concentrate on speed and technique.

We’re hoping the warm weather stays as we’d like to take the kids on a run with us Saturday. It would be good for them to spend more time outside now that it’s warmer. I think long overdue trip to the park is in order.

My Super Bowl XLI Pick

I don’t have feelings one way or another for either the Bears or the Colts. I am a little partial toward the Bears simply because one of my good friends, Eugene, has been a Bears fan as long as I’ve known him and has suffered through a 21-year Super Bowl drought very patiently. This has the potential to be a very good game. If the Bears come out playing like they did last week, they could seriously give Payton Manning and the rest of the Colts some problems. The Colts need to make sure they’re not letting the hype about them being the team-to-beat get to their heads. Better teams have often lost the big game simply because they weren’t prepared mentally.

The problem I see is that the Bear’s quarterback, Rex Grossman, has been widely inconsistent all year. He’s had some good games but others where he’s been just awful. Manning, on the other hand, can have a bad game but still be counted on to score. The Bears have great defense, but against the Colts you still need an offense that can put points on the board. I just don’t see Grossman having the big game he needs to give the Bears their second Super Bowl title.

So, yeah, I think the Colts will win even though I’ll be cheering for the Bears.

Sorry, Eugene.

Colts 31 Bears 17

***

And speaking of the Bears, who can forget their Super Bowl Shuffle from 1986. Thanks, Jason. I forgot all about it.

Pencil

Does anyone use pencils any more or have they gone the way of the dodo bird? I have one pencil on my desk that I use occasionally for editing. I’ve finally worn the graphite down to nothing and can’t find a pencil sharpener anywhere. In fact, I can’t even remember sharpening the pencil or how this pencil even got on my desk in the first place. Time to call Mulder and Scully.

Until this pencil somehow arrived on my desk, I can’t even think of the last time I used one. I do most of my writing and editing via the computer and when I do take notes, I always use a pen.

Is it just me or are most people penciless?

And does anyone know where the nearest pencil sharpener is?

Super Bowls and Birthdays

After talking with a friend yesterday I realized that, outside my immediate family, no one friends ever remembers my exact birth date. For the last 20 years I’ve always celebrated my birthday on Super Bowl Sunday and people have just become accustomed to whatever day the big game is played is the day it’s usually celebrated. This means the week before the Super Bowl I receive a lot of emails and phone calls from friends wishing me a happy birthday usually included with some sort of apology for not knowing the exact day. Such was the case with talking to this friend yesterday.

The fact that no one seems to remember the exact date isn’t a big deal. The Super Bowl has only fallen on my exact birthday a handful of times in the last 20 years. And now that the game is played the first Sunday in February, it will never be played on my birthday again. For the last 10 years these big game parties have been more of a Super Bowl party than a birthday celebration. If it wasn’t for the fact that Marathon Girl wants to do something to celebrate me getting older, I probably wouldn’t make any effort to blend the two together at all. I’m perfectly happy with just having a big Super Bowl party.

So Happy Birthday to me…whatever day it happens to be.