a productive thursday

This past Thursday was one of my most productive days in weeks.

First, my sister Laura and I went for a 6 mile walk in the morning around the central Park Loop. Then I met up with a guy from craigslist who wanted to buy my 13" TV/VCR for $15. You see, I am trying to get rid of a lot of the junk that has piled up in this apartment over the last few years. Before I even moved in there was a ton of stuff that was just left over from the previous tenants, but during my stay, all the roommates that have come and gone have also left some belongings. So I'm trying to clean out a lot of the apartment before Maddy gets here so she'll have a clean slate to begin her decorating. Anyway, this guy met me downstairs in his car. He was Asian, but I would actually bet money he was Chinese based solely on how rude and impatient he was. It's not that all Chinese people are rude (and I'm talking about Chinese Chinese people, not Chinese Americans), it's just that if someone is Asian and they are extremely rude, chances are they are Chinese and not Korean or Japanese.

After the transaction, I met up with Greg (who had his bachelor party this past weekend). He just took the bar exam and is looking for a place in the city to move in with his soon-to-be wife, and he just happens to be checking out a place two blocks away from me, at 106 and Broadway. The apartment looked pretty awesome, very spacious, great location, and just really nice. We headed down to the Museum of Natural History to check out the frog exhibit. I used my awesome Citigroup ID to get us in for half price. The frogs were actually pretty damn cool. There were a lot of poison dart frogs that are really small and very colorful.

We walked back up town and met up with Greg's friend Tali, who just happen to be checking out apartments with her boyfriend right around the corner from me. So I figured what the hell, I'll check out what these other apartments look like and what they are going for. There were 20 people waiting at the building for the broker to show up. It was a pretty unbelievable sight to see in a few dozen people shuffle into a tiny studio apartment. The prices seemed pretty reasonable for a studio and a one-bedroom, but they just weren't all that great and the second apartment was in a pretty bad location. You can kind of tell as we all walked over to it, as a bunch of kids were playing with a fire hydrant and spraying people with water as they walked by on the opposite side of the street. Also, the broker was a huge asshole, which I guess can be expected, but that's ridiculous.

I then headed back downtown to 57th street to pick up my race number and information for the half marathon on Sunday. I was waiting for the walk signal while walking west on 57th St and I just happened to turn around and look behind me, and as luck would have it my friend Nina was standing directly behind me! I looked at her incredulously and she looked at me and said "seriously?" So we chatted up for a little while since I haven't seen her in almost a year. I gave the usual spiel about how China sucks and don't ever go and visit. She said she went skydiving. When we were sufficiently caught up, she asked me if my sister was still cleaning apartments, because her apartment desperately needed help.

Then I headed over to the Nike store to pick up my race information, and walked down to 36 and third to meet my mom and sister at Patsy's pizza restaurant. My mom was in the city because she had just made her first digital camera purchase (from B&H). She explain how she spent hours in the store, armed with several issues of consumer reports and went through each and every model of the point-and-shoot digital cameras to find the best value and one that would suit her needs. It will probably take her about a year to figure out how it all works.

Next, I continued walking downtown to meet up with my friend Pete, who I hadn't seen since before I left for China. He is a lawyer and works long hours, so we just never got a chance to meet up. But he said he recently got on a kick of mixing drinks and making up interesting cocktails and that if I came by his apartment (in the LES, which is insanely far from my apartment) he would make me a few. So I picked up some lime and mint for his concoctions and we drank and played Guitar Hero on his Xbox. Guitar hero is such a whack game - you just tap the shit out of the neck of a guitar, just like clicking a mouse at a feverish pace. So obviously it made my hand hurt. But it was kind of cool and there was a lot of good music.

Heading back was a real trip and a half. Because of construction, the uptown A/C trains were not running local past 59th St. So I usually just switched to the 1 train, but that was out of service also. So I had to get out and take the M7 bus. The whole journey was about an hour and a half.

weekend in the hamptons

i went to southhampton this weekend to visit my cousin who has a house out there. we went biking, jogging, chilled on the beach, and dinner w my relatives (his brother and his parents all have condos in the same complex, so it turned into a little reunion with everyone!).

the hamptons is a whack place where you kinda need to own a german car or a lamborgini and be comfortable spending $20 for a bagel and $24 for a generic glass of wine. it is beautiful, yes, and very much like cape cod with the beaches and scenic roads, but it's a bizarro world filled with botox women and their dress-like-sluts 12 year old daughters all mingling at a night club at 11pm where dinner entres cost $80+. the town seems to restrict entry of any car under $100k and, uh, black people.

but it is the life if you don't worry about cost. only 2 hrs from nyc, it's a relaxing place and a perfect vacation spot.

hanging w my cousin was a lot of fun. i explained why we need to be concerned about global warming, how hybrid cars work, the value of raising fuel efficiency standards, and how carbon dioxide heats up the earth. my cousin is about to start as a top executive at a major investment bank so i see it as my responsibility to get him to think about the enviro side of things since he stands to make real differences in the way he decides to invest and focus resources. he said at the end that i made him think a lot more about this stuff and now he understands the issues a little better. score for the environment!

another highly productive day:

- went to B&H to say hi to the hassids and buy a case for my tripod

-met up w my sister at Macy's to buy stuff for Maddy -- I'm going to smother her with gifts bought in NY that were ALL made in China. why not just wait til I get to china? Because maddy is expecting presents, and lots of 'em, when i see her

- then we dined at a deli in midtown.

- I dispatched my sister afterwards to go back to my apartment with the stuff we had bought, drop it off and pick up my big jar filled with all my change. I said she could keep 10% of however much the quarters and dimes and everything amount to. It was $56. I told her she could round up to $6 for her hard work.

- then to tutor at the office, followed by tutoring on the UES.

-finally home to discuss business school essays with my cousin.

- and hammer out more of my crazy Australia itinerary.

-and see the apple keynote address on their new iPhone, which, I hate to admit, looks pretty sweet.

whew, time to sleep. more of the same tomorrow.

I had a wonderful evening with my two cousins - Dave (son of one of my dad's 2 brothers) and Lani (daughter of my dad's sister). It was a little Novich reunion at a kosher Deli. We gossiped a little, talked about our parents a bit, and ate some delicious food (cole slaw, pickles, french fries, bbq ribs, burgers, pastrami, and an amazing chocolate cookie pie thing at the end). It was great to catch up and it turns out at least one person reads my blog in addition to my mom... Dave!

Interestingly Dave is also my Google nemesis... when searching for 'novich,' I get reams of articles he's written for the Journal News.

Here's a funny photo of Lani and me on the bus ride home

Tonight I went with my cousins and aunt and uncle to the Jazz Standard at 27th and Lex to see the Robert Glasper Experiment. I have an interest in jazz whenever my cousin Ben (a real musician who is touring with "Hairspray") comes to town and wants to see a good show. These guys were just a little too far out of my comfort zone to be enjoyable. I like traditional jazz, but I just don't have the ear to appreciate stuff that is 'experimental'. But everyone seemed to love it so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Later we went across the street to Via 27, had some beers, then went over to Aspen to meet up with Avi. The place was filled to the brim with kids - NY prep school kids who had just finished their first semester of college and were back for the holidays. Everyone was insanely young, and very drunk and often belligerent. Ah the young-uns.

Well, I finished the marathon… in 4 hrs and 56 seconds. Let’s just round it down and say I did a 4 hr marathon. Hell yeah.

OFFICIAL RESULTS:
Here’s my official time breakdown:
Place: 12,495 (out of 37,000)
Official time: 4:00:56
Pace: 9:11/mile
Half marathon: 2:00:55

RUNDOWN:
The run went well. It was perfect weather. Cool, mid 40s to start, clear day and sunny. The first 10 miles were fine but I realize now I went a bit slow on them than I should have. Teresa was supposed to jump in at mile 11 but she wasn’t there! (I found out later that she couldn’t find where the mile 11 marker was and waited on Bedford and 5th, maybe 10 blocks from the marker. Oh well.) At the water stop around 70th street, some dude spilled a cup of gatorade on me from behind. He said sorry but that didn’t seem to make me feel better. I now looked like I had peed my pants, had yellow liquid running down my leg, which made my leg all sticky and on top of that, it was cold out so the liquid just made my leg even colder. Damn Gatorade. I managed to see my parents shortly after the incident at 1st Ave around 78th street. But I thought Jon was going to be with them because he wanted to jump in and run with me for a bit and I had told him to wait with them. I didn’t see him and scanned the next few blocks for him, but figured it was going to be another Teresa mishap and just focused on running. Out of nowhere, around 85th street, I hear Jon behind me say something. I can’t remember what it was, but I was elated he was there. He then ran with me for the next 8 miles, up until the last .2 miles where an organizer noticed he had no number and told him to get off the route. He was so helpful – I definitely would have slowed down if he weren’t running with me. Last year, my biggest mistake was stopping twice to walk a bit, thinking I wouldn’t lose much time. But this time, the last 4 miles I didn’t stop for water nor slowed down. I actually saw Teresa at Central Park South (about ½ mile from the finish), which was great. And I finished. Hopefully with a smile and a decent photo.

My nipples didn’t bleed, thank god, although I totally forgot to put Vaseline on them. I realized about 3 miles into the race that I forgot and it would probably be a problem, so I grabbed a stick of Vaseline from one of the medics on the sidelines.

The funniest part of the race was watching two guys dressed as the Blues Brothers take a piss on the side of the highway about a few miles into the race. They were standing there together, peeing on the cement on the side of the road. Hilarious.

Also hilarious is the video Jon took of me and him running. That is here for your viewing enjoyment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NsgziUyGaE



I had a slightly negative split – I ran the second half faster than my first half—which basically means I should have run a bit faster in the beginning. It’s a long race though, so it’s really tough to gauge how fast the first few miles should be.

When I finished, I waited with my dad, Jon and Doree for a while. My sister finished at 5:42 which is faster than her last marathon in Arizona. Pretty impressive since NY is a much tougher course (not flat at all) and she beat her last time by a lot.

BOBBY FLAY RUNS TOO:
My sister’s friend said something like “did you see bobby flay in the race,” which I thought was a joke, since I look like him. But she was totally serious. I said no.

Turns out, Bobby Flay actually runs the NYC marathon!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/468065p-393913c.html

This is funny for several reasons:
1) he is my doppelganger.
2) When I was on Iron Chef, Cat Cora (the female iron chef), would tell me I’m too skinny to be Bobby Flay. I told her it was because I’m training for a marathon.
3) I beat him by 10 minutes, but he’s older and wider than me so I probably should have beat him by more!

LANCE:
Lance just barely broke 3 hours and said it was the hardest thing he’s ever done. That’s a lot to say coming from him. Read what else he said. He’s cool even if he juiced up for this.

http://www.nycmarathon.org/news/story_27
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/468725p-394425c.html

COOL BAND:
There were some great bands that performed on the marathon route. Teresa said she really liked the one that she was standing near for a while waiting for me. I believe they are “Lewd Buddha,” a funk fusion band that rocks. I listened to some songs off their website and decided they were good enough to invest in. So I bought their album on CDBaby (one of the few albums I’ve actually purchased over the last 5 years) for $10 including shipping. I even emailed them to say they rocked. http://www.lewdbuddha.com/

On Sunday, I ran in the Mysic County Marathon in Mystic, Connecticut with my two sisters and my father. The four of us managed to finish in 4:17... not bad. I did the last 2 legs of the 5 leg relay, about 10 miles, in just under 8 minute pace, so I kicked ass. It was a fun family outing with the whole family including our dog, who posed in a few photos as well. Our team was "The Novich Attack" and my little sister made our shirts. We each had our "names" on the back of the shirts: Dr. Funk (dad), J. Funk (older sis), Ms. Funk (younger sis) and Funk, Jr (me). It was amusing to run past people as they would invariable say "go Funk, jr.." or "go team funk", believing that "Funk" was our family name. In fact, my little sister was approached by another runner who said "oh, is Funk your last name? My last name is Funk too!" haha.

The run itself was quite scenic, passing through quiet little roads and for a short stretch along a beach. The weather was perfect for running - calm, clear skies, low 50s. The problem was with the relay part. My leg was at mile 16 which means I had to wait about 3 hours for my older sister to finally arrive. Waiting around really sucked: I hadn't eaten or drank anything, expecting there would be at least some water at the waiting spot. No dice. There wasn't a single race person directing people or helping out (ie, telling you where the bus was picking you up), and there was ONE lone port-a-potty. There were a few tents and a small stage set up, but we came to the conclusion that this was part of last night's festivities with the church and had nothing to do with the race. So there I sat, on my PDA, chatting with maddy in china on skype while picking up some friendly neighborhood wifi from, perhaps, the church or bed-and-breakfast across the street. Finally around 1pm, still having not eaten or drank any water, I start my leg. I must have passed over 100 people -- sadly because they were all in the final 10 miles and I had just started. Those poor runners were saying things like "wow, you go!" or "boy you have some real energy, nice job!" not realizing i had just started.

All in all it was a beautiful day, a great run, and a wonderful weekend spent with family (and dog). We didnt' even come close to winning the "family relay" award. That went to a team of skinny people who did it in around 3 hours or so. A 75 year old ran it in just over 3 hours. But we came away satisfied with having accomplished something few families can do. Go team Funk.

I went to the Hope and Dreams Film Festival with my mom, dad and mom's friend. My mom and I had made a 15 minute documentary about the life of puppies that are raised to become seeing eye dogs, called "Blue Collar Pups." This was the only fest that accepted it. But we eagerly went to Hope, NJ to check it out.

Pulling up to the stone church/community center, I noticed the parking space would be limited (there were only a handful of spots on the tiny street), but that there were still plenty of spaces! Apparently, not a lot of people had arrived. yet. Seriously, only about 20 ppl showed up for our screening -- but that brings our grand total of ppl who've seen "blue collar pups" to about 25.

This little town was so cute. We had lunch at this house/diner down the road from the church. The festival director was so hospitable and called me to ask if I would be on time to our screening because she didnt want to start it until we showed up. We came and I got a tote-bag filled with small-town goodies like a t-shirt, coffee, tourist magazines and festival info. The director really wanted us to stick around for the filmmaker discussion and for the award ceremony -- she insisted she didn't know the winners, that this was not her decision. It was so cute!

We came for the 2pm viewing of our film along with a short animation before ours and a 1 hr made-for-tv documentary about 3 Canadian high school kids going to Tanzania to learn about AIDS in Africa. That was a pretty lengthy piece that could have been cut to maybe 10 minutes. It was a bit boring and the content was basically following kids around on their trip -- not much of a narrative, one minute they're in a village with orphans, the next they're on a safari. THe animation was absolutely hilarious.

The director asked my mom and I to come to the front after our film played and answer audience questions. One woman in the audience said she had come to the festival just to see our piece because she had a keen interest in guide dogs. People really enjoyed the film!

Then my dad was a pain and said we had to leave because he was bored. so we packed back into the car and left. I felt guilty for leaving the festival, even though I had only planned to stick around for a few hours, I feel like we should have stayed a lot longer. At 4pm when we were heading out, a crowd had gathered to watch the next batch of films.

I think we're going to submit the video to the animal planet and PBS and see if it can get some airtime. We'll see.

This is me just about to go to Yom Kippur services in Westchester. Probably an inappropriate time to be taking a photo but whatever, I was looking good. I went with my cousin to services - the social gathering that is shul - that reminded me of a cocktail party. Mingling, everyone catching up with everyone. It just lacks the drinking and has a sadder theme.


This is my dog Coral. She's a great dog!

After the run, I jogged home, took a shower, and headed out to meet up with my cousin, mother and my mom's sister for brunch at a wonderful place on the upper west side called Neptune. I had a very filling and very satisfying portion of French toast. Normally, the portions of French toast I get in any New York City diner or restaurant are far too small to be satisfying. So this was a real treat.