Lists

I like lists. Every day I make them. I particularly like “to-do lists”. There is something strangely satisfying about making a to-do list, then checking off each task on the list after having completed it. When you check off something on a to-do list, a chemical called serotonin gets sent to the brain, making you feel happy. But I like lists of all kinds: bucket lists, grocery lists, music playlists, Christmas wish lists, short lists, long lists, naughty lists, nice lists… etc.  Before starting this post, I even made a list of the lists I’d planned on writing about. Here are some of those lists:

List of books I read this year:

• Run to Daylight! by Vince Lombardi

- I got the idea for the title of this blog from this book.

• Stop Feeding Us Lies: How Health and Happiness Come to Those Who Seek the Truth by Charlie Spedding

• If It Bleeds: four novellas by Stephen King (“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”, “The Life of Chuck”, “If It Bleeds”, “Rat”) 

• Training on Empty: A frank memoir of an elite runner who nearly perished from anorexia - The true story and triumph of athlete Lize Brittin by Lize Brittin (forward by Lorraine Moller)

- I am not anorexic and have never had any kind of eating disorder, but I like reading and learning about this kind of stuff. The story was very inspiring and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is struggling with an eating disorder.

• On the Wings of Mercury by Lorraine Moller

- I read this the month before running Grandma’s Marathon. (Lorraine won Grandma’s in 1979, 1980, and 1981). Not only is Lorraine a phenomenal runner, she is also a very creative and talented writer. 

• The Roald Dahl Omnibus: A diabolically irresistible collection of 28 of Roald Dahl’s best stories

- I had already read most of the stories in this collection before but many of them are worth re-reading. Some of my favorites in this collection include “Taste”, “Man from the South”, “William and Mary”, “The Great Automatic Grammatizator”, and “Bitch”.

• Misery by Stephen King

- Finished reading this on the way to Boulder, Colorado this past summer. Misery is set in the town of Sidewinder, CO, just outside Boulder.

• Fire Starter by Stephen King

- I really liked the first three-quarters of this book, but it kind of burned out towards the end. I think I can relate to the way Annie Wilkes must have felt after reading Misery’s Child.

• Thirty Phone Booths to Boston: Tales of a Wayward Runner by Don Kardong

- Don Kardong is another good runner who also happens to be a good writer.

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

- I read this before during my Sophomore year of high school. I’d forgotten how fucking depressed it made me feel.

• Dancing Carl by Gary Paulsen

- Found this in a little-free-library. I’d read a number of Gary Paulsen books when I was about ten or eleven and I remember liking them. This one wasn’t terrible but I didn’t care for it as much as I liked some of his other books, such as “Hatchet” or “Dogsong”.

• Different Seasons: four novellas by Stephen King (“Hope Springs Eternal” aka “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, “Summer of Corruption” aka “Apt Pupil”, “Fall From Innocence” aka “The Body”, “A Winter’s Tale” aka “The Breathing Method”) 

• The Lonely Breed by Ron Clarke and Norman Harris

- A collection of 21 of Ron Clarke’s running heroes. Many famous runners are covered—Peter Snell, Abebe Bikila, Paavo Nurmi—as well as some lesser known figures dating back to the 1880s. Very cool.

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

• The Silence of Great Distance: Women Running Long by Frank Murphy

- This was another little-free-library find. The picture of Stephanie Herbst on the cover caught my eye. Most of the book revolved around Stephanie and other Badger greats from the Tegen era. Also, some fascinating insight into the lives and training regimen of early women runners like Doris Brown and Tatyana Kazankina. There were, however, some boring sections that I had to skip over as it went into great detail about times and splits—numbers about which I could care less.

• Juggling for the Complete Klutz by John Cassidy and B.C. Rimbeaux, Illustrated by Diane Waller

- Yes, I am a complete klutz and I’ve been trying to learn how to juggle. If I ever get the hang of it, I would eventually like to learn how to joggle (jog while juggling).

List of books I want to read:

• I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing

• The Secret Goldfish by D.B. Caulfield

• My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant by Uriah C. Lasso

• Fast Cars by Paul Sheldon

• Austerity/Binge: The Decorative Arts of the Forties and Fifties by Bevis Hillier

- I’ve spent several hours gawking at the colorful pictures in this book, but I haven’t yet gotten around to reading any of the words.

List of things I collect:

• Bottle caps - I (probably) have the world’s greatest collection—I’ve got millions!

• Candy bar wrappers

• Rocks

• Beer mugs

• Old coins

• CDs and records

• Race bibs

List of Great 90s albums:

• Everything But the Girl - Walking Wounded

• Walter Becker - Eleven Tracks of Whack

• The Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

• US3 - Hand on the Torch

• Joni Mitchell - Night Ride Home

• The Pet Shop Boys - Very

• Fatboy Slim - You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (This contains only 3 or 4 great tunes, but the album cover is absolutely beautiful)

• Elliott Smith - Either/Or

• Joe Jackson - Laughter and Lust

• XTC - Apple Venus Volume 1

List of pastry club route themes:

Every Wednesday morning when I’m able to, I run with a group called the Pastry Club. We go for a nice leisure run, then stop at a bakery or coffee shop and eat pastries. Each week, a different member of the club gets to be the “route leader”. The route leader has to come up with a unique route and a certain “theme” for the route. They also get to choose the bakery or coffee shop we stop at. I have a whole list of themes to use for when I get to be route leader. But I will not be listing any of them here in the case that any pastry clubbers happen to be reading this—I wouldn't want any of you snitches stealing my themes! So, the following is a list of themes that have already been used:

• “Presidential route”: This was my first route as leader. It was on Feb 21- two days after President’s day and the day before Washington’s birthday. We ran up and down all of the streets in Madison that were named after presidents. I think we got at least half of them.

• “Baller route”: This route was in March, just before the start of the NCAA March Madness Tournament. We dribbled a basketball during the entire run and stopped at each b-ball court on the way to shoot some hoops.

• “Reading route”: For this route, we stopped at each little-free-library on the way. One of the members would get to pick out a book, read part of the book (while running), until we made it to another little-free-library. Then, the book was dropped off and another member would get to choose a book to read to the rest of us until we made it to the next little-free-library. Reading a book while running is much more difficult than you’d expect.

• “Rebel route”: I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed the morning we did this route. Feeling very rebellious and mad at everything, we had to disobey every sign we came across. When we came to a stop sign, we’d run through without stopping. For all those “Slow Down” signs, we’d speed up. We came to a sign that said, “No dogs allowed on these premises” and let Monty, a dog, run around in that space. We ran past a “No Smoking” sign and lit ‘em up. We ran past a “No F-37s” sign and we all turned our noisy engines on, spread our wings, and pretended to be F-37 fighter jets. We ran past a sign that said “No left turn between 5am-11am on Wednesdays” and what did we do? We turned left. Fukitol.

• “Colorful route”: This route was in mid-October, probably the most colorful time of the year. We ran past each establishment that had a color in its name: the BLUE lotus tattoo, the RED gym, the GREENbush bakery (where we stopped for pastries), PURPLE door pilates, hotel INDIGO, the SILVER dollar bar, the BLACK moon tattoo, ORANGE shoe fitness… etc.

• “One-Star route”: This was one of Bernard’s routes. He found several establishments that had one-star reviews on Google and Yelp. We’d stop at each of the establishments and he would read the one-star review for the place. Some of the reviews were quite hilarious.

• “Short route”: Another Bernard route. “This will be a very short route,” he told us as we started off. He led us down Johnson Street and we ran past the “Short Stack Eatery,” a breakfast restaurant. After that, we passed by “Taiwan Little Eats” and Bernard stated, “this is just going to be a little route.” We passed some establishment that had the word “small” in its name and were told, “this will be a small route.” Past the Kwik Trip—“this will be a quick route”. After a few stops we got the idea. I think the route ended up being a little longer than an average pastry run.

• “Flashing route”: No, we didn’t flash anybody. For this route, we ran through each intersection in town that has those flashing lights that alert cars of crossing pedestrians. Every time we crossed, someone would have to push the button and make the lights flash.

• “The Many Moons of Madison”: No, we didn’t moon anybody. I think this route was on the day of a full moon, but unfortunately it was cloudy and the moon wasn’t visible. For this route, we ran past each of the moons in Madison: the black MOON tattoo, the ritual MOON tattoo, a light-up cookie that’s shaped like a moon in the window at Insomnia Cookies, Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream (where you can get Blue Moon ice cream), a mural painted on State Street that depicts each phase of the moon… etc. After the run we split up into two teams and did a relay race. One team had to carry a moon pie, while the other team had to carry a bag of moon cheese. I was the anchor for “Team Moon Pie”. At the end of the race, and with a 30-meter lead on Alex (of Team Cheese), I did a “moon walk” across the finish line to celebrate the victory. Of course, everybody then ate plenty of moon pies and moon cheese. 

•  “Ghost sign route”: All over Madison are these old signs painted on the sides of brick buildings. Most of the buildings have since changed occupancies, but the painted signs have remained, though some are quite faded. During this run, we passed about 15 or 20 of these “ghost signs”.   

• “Are you smarter than a first grader?”: Greta, a first grade teacher, was route leader for this run in either late August or early September. We stopped at different elementary schools and Greta quizzed us on questions that first graders are supposed to know, such as “What is a digraph?” or “What number is a first grader expected to be able to count up to?” The correct answer is 120. Whoever scored the highest on the quiz was awarded a free pastry on Greta. I think I flunked out.

• “Hot Route”: On a cold day last January, we ran past several establishments that had the word “Hot” in its title, such as “The HOT Pot 608”, “Dragonfly HOT Yoga” and “HOT Lunch”. I think Sydney, the route leader, thought that by running past all these “hot” places, it would help to warm us up.

• “Old folks route”: This run was on June 19. Alex, the route leader, took us past several nursing homes and assisted living units, a place where one can sign up for an AARP membership, and other locations where old people tend to hang out. Half way into the route we thought we’d figured out the theme: “Are you implying that we’re all old?” “No,” Alex replied, “It’s Grandma’s week!” Most of us in the group would be running Grandma’s Marathon on Saturday, June 22.

• “Choose your pastry wisely”: For this route, we stopped at several different bakeries and coffee shops. But there was a catch—you could only get your pastry at one of the stops. And nobody, except the route leader, knew which bakeries or coffee shops we’d be stopping at next.

List of ideas for stories to write (if I ever find the time and motivation):

• “Permanently Drunk” - A world where everybody is permanently drunk. It is illegal to be sober. If your blood alcohol level drops below 0.08 for more than 30 minutes, you are fined $1,000. If it remains below the legal limit for more than an hour, you die.

• “The Shitter” - A story about a man who shits ten times more than he eats.

• “No Time” - A world where the concept of time doesn’t exist. People wake up when the sun rises and go to bed when the sun sets. There would be no seconds, no minutes, no hours, no days, no months and no years. No birthdays, only aging.

• “The Man in the Rocking Chair” - While visiting his grandparents, a little boy goes into the attic and, to his surprise, finds an old mysterious man sitting in a rocking chair, rocking.

• “The Boy Who Lost His Marbles” - A boy has a magnificent marble collection. One day he wakes up and his marbles are no longer there. The boy gets so worked up trying to figure out what happened to his marbles that he loses his mind.

Liszt of my favorite Franz Liszt compositions:

• Liebstraum

• Un Sospiro

• Mephisto Waltz No. 1-4

• La Campanella

• Dante Sonata

• La Lugubre Gondola

• The Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 2, 7, 8, 15

• Transcendental Etude No. 5

• Totentanz

• Piano Concerto No. 2

• Orpheus Symphonic Poem No. 4

• Nuages Gris

This week’s Grocery List:

• Bread

• Milk

• Eggs

• Cheese

• Butter (sticks)

• Steak

• Roast beef

• Ham

• Salmon fillets

• Peppers (red and green)

• Onions

• Tomatoes

• Spaghetti noodles

• Pasta sauce

• Bananas

• Peanut butter

• Dark chocolate

• Seltzer water

PR List:

• 1609m: 4:55 - (Subzero Mile - Feb 18, 2023 and Feb 17, 2024)

• 5k: 16:48 - (Subzero 5k - Jan 6, 2024)

• 10k: 33:42 - (Houdini 10k - Nov 2, 2024)

• 21.0975k: 1:15:34 - (Apple Dumpling Half Marathon - Sept 7, 2024)

• 42.195k: 2:40:10 - (Madison Marathon - Nov 10, 2024) 

List of things that make me cringe: 

(I came up with the idea for this list after reading this cringy blog post by Lize Brittin)

• Penetrating eye injuries

• Finding hair in my food

• Finding food in my hair

• Eating live insects. Just the thought of this bugs me out- I could never make it on Fear Factor.

• Brown bananas

• Overflowing garbage cans- I could not stand to live with (or anywhere near) Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout

• Young kids running marathons

• Mispelled wodrs tpyos and bad grammer

• The J-word

• Hearing recordings of my own voice

• Essays and poetry I wrote in high school

• Essays and poetry I wrote yesterday

Tomorrow, most of what I wrote today (including each of these lists), will likely make me cringe.