On to the Post Season!

They did it!

Must have been the power of the 'staches

The Little Things.

As you've probably noticed I've been limited to fairly short posts about once per week lately.  I've been way busier than I imagined I would be now that I'm finished with grad school, but apparently when you're a part of every committee, team, and meeting one year it's pretty difficult to bail out of all that responsibility.  I've tried, but it seems like in education today every issue is resolved with a meeting.  Throughout the course of a week I am expected to meet as a team, a content twice, for 504s, IEPs, as part of the child study committee, and with administration for lead teacher responsibilities.  At various times throughout each month I am also expected to meet with the school improvement team, as the head of the math task force, with my grade level, as the leader of school-wide vertical math meetings, and of course the ever-popular "faculty meeting."  Now any number of other meetings can pop up without warning.  For example, I am usually asked to help organize professional development (which is incredibly time consuming), lead teachers are expected to drop everything and run to meetings at the drop of hat, and you never know when a parent will call with a concern that trumps everything else in your life.  When it gets to the point that your meeting about meeting, you know there is something fundamentally wrong.  Also, when you're in my position it's impossible to ignore the time it takes to prepare for, and then follow up with all of the items discussed in these meetings.  Oh, did I mention that I need to perform the duties of a teacher too?  I need to squeeze teaching, planning, grading, and general upkeep of my classroom somewhere in there.  Anyone that knows me professionally knows that I strive for positivity at work and I do everything in my power to shy away from the "complaining bug," so I write these things not to complain, but to illustrate the difficulties I face in trying to do my job well.  When the hectic schedules become way too much I need to take a step back and think about the little things in life that keep me going.  It's these little things that I'd like to dedicate the rest of this post to.

The Dodgers are currently winning 4-3 and there magic number stands at 2 because of a D-Backs loss tonight.  They are on the verge of a playoff birth and you can barely even imagine how excited that makes me.

The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and Entourage are back.  I go though major cycles with my TV watching diet but these 3 are all staples.  I'm pretty pumped they're all back!

31 days remain until the marathon and I'm starting to get really excited.  I'm ripping off 6 and 8 mile runs during the week like it ain't no thang, and the long runs on the weekend are increasing my confidence that I can finish with some gusto.  

The weather is getting cooler outside which is signaling the onset of fall, my favorite of all 5 seasons.

Amanda and I are finally almost settled in our new place and it's a great feeling.

Manny just hit his 17th home run as a Dodger and we're now leading 6-3!

AND last... in just 40 days I get to cast my vote for Obama.  

I've got lots to look forward to over the next six weeks as long as I can keep my head above water at work.  It's the little things that keep me going and I know I'm fortunate that I can find solace in these seemingly minor things.  As I mentioned last week, stay tuned for my political series, I promise it's coming up.  

I leave you with a quote that my boy Sean claims he is going to live the rest of his by:

"Stop bitching and start organizing!"

Amen Sean, Amen...

 

This Weekend's Magic Numbers.

18 and 10 were this weekend's magic numbers.  18 was the number of miles Amanda and I ran on Sunday morning, and 10 literally is the magic number for the Dodgers with 13 games left to play in the regular season.

This was a great running week for both Amanda and I.  We ran separately during the week but we both had some really good 6 and 8 mile runs.  They were all in preparation for the longest run either of us had ever tackled.  We knew the temperature was supposed to reach the mid-90's today with a heat index hitting at least 100 so we were up at the butt-crack of dawn.  We had been mentally preparing ourselves for a few days and we knew that we were physically ready; no ailments this weekend like there were last weekend.  We hit the road around 7am and clocked in at about 2 hours, 50 minutes for the 18 mile run.  Finishing today without any battle wounds to speak of gives me a lot of confidence in our ability to push through 26.2 in about 6 weeks.

As for the Dodgers, we took 2 of 3 games from the Rockies this weekend, making it 12 wins out of our last 14 games.  Our magic number is now 10, which means any combination of 10 wins by us and losses by the Diamondbacks clinches the division for us.  I think things are clicking at just the right time for LA and I'm really looking forward to the playoffs.  I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but we certainly have a better chance of at least winning a couple games in October this year than we have in a long, long time.  In fact, Peter Gammons even wrote about it on ESPN today (the link may not work without an insider subscription on espn.com).  If things ended today we would be playing against the Brewers in a 5-game set, however the Phillies are creeping up on them in the wild card which would result in a 5-game series against the Mets instead.  Either way, I'm excited.

Keep an eye out for my upcoming blogs.  I'm going to put together a multi-part political blog over the next couple weeks dealing with a lot of issues that have been on my mind.  I'm sure you can't wait ;o)

Have a great week!

A Deep, Cleansing Breath.

This weekend was exactly what I needed to re-charge my batteries. I finally got a few days to simply relax. No rushing around, no long car rides, no moving. Just relaxing. I watched all 3 Dodger games. All 3 were wins. We now have a 1.5 game lead in the West which a pretty great feeling. I got to see the Eagles dominate the Rams. I won both fantasy football leagues I'm in. Watched a movie. Layed on the couch all weekend with Amanda. Drank mimosas on Saturday morning. Life was very good.

The only thing that was a slight bummer was my run on Sunday morning. Amanda and I had planned on 18 miles. My longest so far has been 16 and I've done that twice. I know I'm ready both physically and mentally for 18 but my left quad wouldn't let me finish. It felt fine last weekend after the race but I tweaked in during Tuesday night's 6 mile run. It felt sore all week, including my 6 mile run on Friday night. I had a feeling it wouldn't let me finish 18 miles and I was right. After about 8 I knew that if I pushed myself any further I could potentially put myself out for longer than necessary. I'm glad I decided to call it quits because I'm feeling better today and I think after another day or two I'll be back to 100%.

And now it's back to reality. Another busy week, but another empty weekend to look forward to in just a few days!

A Whirlwind Week.

Get ready for a long one, because the past 9 nine days have been pretty eventful for me, and I'm finally getting some time to sit down and relax with a beer and the Dodger game.  Well, I guess this is kind of the 2nd time this week I've been able to do that, but lets begin with last Saturday.

After 4 years in good ol' Pemberton Village my time had come to finally move on.  My little 2 bedroom apartment was the very first place I looked at way back in 2004 when I came to Winchester to interview for what would be my first real job.  I lived in 1980 #12 for about 6 months or so until Jeff decided to move in.  The next 2 and a half years were pretty damn awesome.  It's tough to recount all of the great times we had in that place, but I promise you, we had some pretty great times.  The final year was mainly just Amanda and I because Jeff was basically moved out and living with Michele.  It was weird at first because him and I had spent so much time together, but life happens and "the two greatest guys in Winchester" are now living with the loves of their lives ;o)  

Now that Pemberton has come and gone, 206 Stratford Drive is here.  It's a nice 3 bedroom townhouse with a tiny backyard, a nice little deck, much more space than I'm used to, and my favorite part... my very own washer and dryer!  My mom has been telling me for 4 years now, since I left college, that I won't be a real adult until I come home to visit without bringing laundry.  Well guess what MOM, you can call me a REAL adult now!

An incredibly long and tiring day was made much more bearable by my boys Sean and Jeff.  Sean was such a huge help, showing up early in the morning and helping all damn day.  Jeff made his appearance in the afternoon and kicked our asses back into gear when we started to slack.  Here are a few pics of the new place... 

No neighbors to our right

Backyard with our deck

Standing in the empty family room

As if moving wasn't enough, Saturday was actually much more meaningful than that.  Amanda and I have agreed, we couldn't have picked a more fitting day to move in together considering it was our 2 year anniversary.  That's right, on the day that officially marked 2 years of dating Amanda and I took huge step.  I don't think I could have picked a more perfect way to celebrate.  Although it wasn't typical, romantic, Matt Court style, it was perfect nonetheless.  The romantic part would come several days later.   

After a physically exhausting day I somehow found the strength to wake up at 7:30am Sunday morning and tackle a 16 mile run.  Let's just say the rest of my Sunday was consumed with naps and lounging around!

Wednesday was day #1 of year #5 in my teaching career.  I met all 115 of my new students and things went as smoothly as one could expect.  I keep telling people it's difficult to get a real read on the kids the first few days of school.  It takes another week or so for them to show their true colors, but so far so good.  I'm really looking forward to another exciting year!

Thursday was finally a chance to relax and have some fun for Amanda and I.  Our friend Bob gave us Nationals/Dodgers tickets way back in December for Christmas and I've been looking forward to the game ever since.  Of course it poured rain all day and I was nervous the game wouldn't be played.  DC hadn't had a drop of measurable rain in 13 days until the day we were supposed to go to the game.  Luckily, the weather held out for us!  We hit the road as soon as Amanda got out of work and made it to the game in the bottom of the first inning.  No big deal, we only missed the first half inning of the game right?  Wrong!  We missed Manny's 2-run homerun and the only Dodger runs of the game!  Our boys got smoked 11-2 but we still had a great time.  Beers, italian sausage, Amanda's first veggie dog, nachos, peanuts... we definitely made the most of the game!  Thanks to Bob-O for the tickets!  Here are a few shots from the game...

Love the new stadium

I always watch in amazement

The biggest fans in the stadium

Manny at the plate with Ethier on 1st

After a long week Friday finally came.  I had made reservations at a highly recommended restaurant in Front Royal, VA called Apartment 2g to celebrate our 2 year anniversary in traditional Matt Court style.  The restaurant was great, the food was incredible, and Amanda and I finally had a chance to celebrate for real.  Here are a few photos from dinner...  

So beautiful

Us with our delicious dinners!

Saturday morning we woke up early once again and headed down to Virginia Beach for the Rock and Roll half marathon.  We ran this race together last year and followed it up last October with another half marathon in Baltimore.  This was my 3rd half and Amanda's 4th.  You probably know that we're training for a full marathon, so I didn't have too much trouble with Sunday's run except for the brutal heat and humidity at the start of the race.  It may have been 7:30am when we finally started but boy was it hot.  Everyone was drenched in sweat by the end of the first mile.  Amanda fought through the pain to pull out a great finish and I was really proud of her.  I know it's difficult for her to run in extreme temperatures and there is no doubt in my mind she gave it everything she had.  Here are some pictures from race day...

Mile 1.5

Mile 13.1

Mmmmm, tastes like victory

Phelps aint got nothin' on us

So that was an incredibly brief, yes I said brief, overview of the whirlwind week.  This week should be much lower-key.  Next weekend we're going camping which should be fun!  If anyone wants to volunteer to come help us unpack boxes, we'd graciously accept your offer.