I've moved

I decided to move here....

http://willjurkowski.wordpress.com/

Early Airport

Setting my alarm for 4:20 in the morning was not something I'd like to get into the habit of doing. But Dad and I got to the airport at 5:10 or so and I made it quickly through security. Westchester airport is a small, one terminal place where, while there are multiple gates, they all leave from the same room. On the first flight, from Westchester to DC, a woman told me that it was great to see a man knitting and asked if I knew that the best knitters in the world happen to be men...I didn't but listened eagerly as she told me his name (I do plan to look him up). A second woman, this time in the DC airport asked me what sport I did because I was carrying my brothers backpack from the 2008 Olympics, I said that I did track but that the bag was from rowing, earned by my brother. Needless to say that when I finally got home and Kate picked me up at the airport, I was ready to be done traveling. Even eating some donuts from Washtenaw only perked me up for a few hours before I took a nice afternoon nap. We made some pizzas that turned out most excellently, watched Salt via a thumb drive plugged in to the TV, tried on the USA gear I got for being my brothers Coach for Worlds and I'm not ready for bed. I'm scared and excited to go to my follow up with Dr. Miller tomorrow, it's been nine months since I had surgery and just want everything to be alright.

To New Zealand?

Since the plumbers left this morning after they replaced a number of pipes in the ceiling...apparently the water is hard and corrodes the pipe. Maybe that's why I'm so tough...oh wait. But anyway, we've spent the day trying to figure out when and how we're going to get to New Zealand, what flights we'll be on and how to make sure we're all on the same flight which I guess could be good or bad. I guess sitting next to my brother on a plane could work out well for him since I don't take up as much space and he takes up more, but that means he'd be taking up my space. In any case I'm sure it'll all get worked out so we can get there around the same time and then get back.

And for dinner my Grandmother and one of my Uncles came down for dinner, not an all out celebration but certainly nice to see them and toast what Ken and Julie have done and what they will be doing soon enough down in New Zealand. It's been a good day.

Rowing

It seems like the whole week I've been home it's just rained everyday, probably because it has. But even though it rained all day, the day was not without excitement. I woke up to finding out that both Ken and Julie had won this morning in Princeton NJ. For Ken this means that he is the USA M1X representative at World Championships in New Zealand. For Julie this meant that she had won one of the finals and the other girl had won the first one and that there would need to be a third final (best of three). But hours later I found out that the other girl had withdrawn (Julie is pretty intimidating) making Julie the winner. All of this also meant that they'd be up in NY today instead of tomorrow and I'd get to spend more time with them both. Ken called me shortly after I woke up and asked me if I would be his coach for Worlds, take care of everything for him so he could just focus on the rowing part. Of course. It means I'll be away from the training group...and unable to talk on the phone with Kate every night, but a trip to New Zealand with my brother isn't something I can pass up. He also told me that I got a gear package which is really exciting because now I have a rain jacket, and I didn't before...all about the little things.

Back to school

I consider myself able to do most things, not that I'm the best handyman in the world by any stretch, but certainly capable. And if nothing else, I can figure out a way to get to a solution. But being home, there are just a lot of things I can't do. I want to be able to do all the things my Mom needs, especially when she's not feeling well. But I can't do an ultrasound even if I did figure out how to use the machines in the training room well enough to set it up for myself. And when I found that the carpet in the basement was soaking wet with water dripping from the ceiling, but I'm no plumber. When he got to the house an hour or so later I helped him out a good bit and though I could probably have done what he did by cutting out panels of the ceiling (soaked drywall) which would need to be replaced anyway in order to find the leaking pipe and put a clamp on it. At some point I want to be able to take care of things that come up at home and I think I can but without a stable of tools I'll just have to wait and learn over time how to do more and more.

Before all of the excitement with water coming out of the ceiling but after a trip for an ultrasound I went in to my High School. I haven't been back in at least a year and maybe two. I hadn't seen Mr. Broderick or my track coach in a while and was in the area so I went in to say hello. Mr. Broderick helped me with plyos when I was in high school and when I left for college I would come back in and we'd play badminton together. I think I'm the only person who's ever beaten him. We haven't played in a while and probably won't because of my knee and his shoulder. Those were some of the most intense games I've ever played in probably any sport, his preciseness and my long reach and quickness was a pretty even match. It was always a lot of fun, giving each other a hard time but always knowing that we respected one another and were and are good friends at the end of the day. We caught up on what we've been doing recently but I came in towards the end of the day and he had some classes so I headed up to see Colm O'Callahan. I knocked on the door for a while before he heard me since the air conditioners in the classrooms are so loud. I hadn't seen him in longer than it'd been for Mr. Broderick and I. He told me what I'd been thinking about the new training group I joined towards the end of the summer in that it's an opportunity that you have to take. No matter what happens, as he said, I'll likely run some fast times and learn a lot in the process. It's great to have their support. I also saw Ms. Sireci who has actually worked with my Dad on her swimming, as well as Mr. Sassone the AD.

As a result of all of this happening during the day, my run didn't happen until six o'clock tonight. The weather is crazy with intense wind but I was content to run easy, sore from yesterday and not wanting to pound my legs on the pavement that is mostly what's around here. I found some dirt roads and had a nice day of it, having to resort to the light on my watch towards the end of the run just to see how long I'd been out. That was a good indication that it was about time to get back.

Ken and Julie are doing fantastically down in Princeton and I wish I were down there to watch but it just isn't going to work out with being here with Mom. Additionally, the weather is crazy both up here and down there, so even if we got down there to watch them, they might not even row. But they plan to come up and be here this weekend after they're done so I'll get to see them for sure. I had talked with Erin a few days ago and told her I'd be down there but now it's looking like I won't get to see her. It sounded like she might like to see a friendly face, but I'm sure she has made lots of friends down in that silly state of NJ.

Three down, three to go

I hadn't really been thinking about how much I like having someone to run with until I got home and realized there wasn't anyone around here that I knew of to join me. So I figure I've done three runs and I've got three more before I'm back in Ann Arbor and running with Brandon again, then soon after, I'll be running with Lee and Nick when they get back from India for Commonwealth Games. You can check out Brandons blog here http://brandonbethke.wordpress.com/ it's worth a read, plus he's one of my roommates and a great guy.

Today though, Emily and I drove over to my Dads where I lifted for a while. I never realized that the ceiling in our basement is low, or well, eight and a half feet or so until I wanted to do some olympic lifts as per Bo's training schedule and was hitting the beams with the bar. So as with Monday when I had to do overhead walking lunges, today when I needed to do Power Snatch and Power Jerks, I brought the weight outside, though today it was not raining and lifted in the backyard. It was really nice to be out in the sun as opposed to in the basement of Dads house or the Nat weight room. Natural light does wonders. While I was lifting Emily ran down the road, a tough run to be sure. No matter where you go from the house, after three quarters of a mile you go down hill. She ran down to Route 37 and back, but when you turn around, it's straight uphill.

We headed to Lowes and BestBuy to pick up Water Softner salt and a TV for my Moms house. When we got back, I ran another loop around the reservoir which serves as drinking water for New York City. I wish there were a larger shoulder next to the road though so that I wouldn't have to deal with the camber of the road or the cars on the near side. But on the back side I run mostly in the middle of the road or just run on the right hand side to, sort of even things out. Thankfully I ran the loop more than two and a half minutes faster than I did on Monday, but it was much nicer out today and my cold has gone away for the most part. It's been a nice day, but I'll be glad when we're all back together.

Rainy Day

A scheduled visit to the doctors office for some hydration this morning in the rain got us up a little earlier than we both would have likely woken up naturally. And while I'm not a fan of the doctor, I'd rather take my Mom when we're supposed to go rather than when we all of a sudden have to. After the first hour I went outside, dropped my sweatshirt in the car and left the parking lot for a run. I didn't know of anything in the area and just headed down the street but found a park only minutes away. A loop of the fields there was only a few minutes and even though previous summers would have seen me running loops of fields at the local high school, I wasn't in the mood and explored the woods nearby where there was a frisbee golf course set up. But the paths were faint and with the rain and slippery leaves, I spent most of the hour out on the grass. It was a relaxing day, sore from lifting yesterday and still trying to get over this cold, only four more runs before I'm back in Ann Arbor and people to run with.

As a bonus to the day, Emily Witsil made an appearance this afternoon after (sadly) being stuck in massive traffic on the George Washington Bridge (something I've been through and not enjoyed in the least) but she persevered. We had a bit of an adventure in the back yard being quite childish but helping my Mom out in the process. That's probably as far as I should go. But we went to the store and picked up some supplies to make dinner, had to get to three stores before we could get everything. We made carrot noodles, chicken and cous cous which turned out really well and for the most part all went together. I need to remember how to make it so I can do so even when Emily isn't around, even though it'd be better if she were just around. It makes sense but I don't like that often the friends you make in college aren't going to be in the same place that you are afterward. Since I graduated and went seven hundred miles across the country, I guess that's how it goes. But when your two best friends end up hours away from you, it's just hard but makes it that much better when you get to spend time together.