BLOG-ojevich

*Idiot

"BLOG-ojevich": My creativity is endless people.

We otta baby eets aboy...

*Oh yes, today is that day that we each long for when the calendar is flipped once more (yes, my calendar year begins on January 29th so back off) and we can say something that most others cannot say on this same day. "Today is my birthday." I know I seek out that point in every conversation where I can just drop it on them like "oh, I wasn't going to bring this up but since you asked what the date was I figure I might as well also tell you that it is my birthday. Weird, huh?"
I do want to drop you some stats and you tell me where the future in communication is:
I recieved "happy birthdays" in the following mediums:
0 MySpace messages
2 Instant message
4 Letters/cards
6 Text messages
6 Verbal (face to face)
8 Emails
8 Phone calls
42 FACEBOOK posts
Thanks to all 76 birthday wishes.

First place goes to Mom with the 6:34 a.m. phone call.

times a changin...

*Pretty mellow weekend this past weekend but that was definitely in order. We did drive out to Barrington again to get the final long run in for those that will be marathoning down in Austin. We watched the temperature drop from a balmy 7 degrees in the city to 0 out in Barrington by the time we started. It took me about 7 or 8 miles before I actually felt like I had warmed up and pretty much just plain out had a terrible run. Still finished hard for a good effort and 14 miles-esque. Then Egg Harbor for breakfast again and some great discussion. I learned to keep my lies short and simple when explaining why the rest of our group was not there.

*Monday started off with bad news as I found out that the camera that was holding the pictures of me and all the Cubbies was pick-pocketed while at the inaguaration. For some reason that doesn't really surpise me. But the convention was still awesome and this only gives us another reason to get invited to something like this again. But now, my facebook reputation is ruined as I had been bragging about these photos for a week now.

*Then Monday night after a fairly decent ~5.2 mile tempo run in 29:34 to average 5:40's, a bunch of us went out to celebrate the birthdays of Aquarius' with 1/4 price appetizers. That's a ridiculous amount of fried food for very little guacamole. Went home about 9:30 little a good schoolboy as there are a big couple of days ahead of me.

Expect the unexpected...

*Friday, 2:00 p.m., Holiday Inn: So this weekend started off early on Friday when my boss and I were invited to the Cubs Convention. I wasn't orginally sure what this was all about but it turned out to a very cool experience. Prior to the initial kick off rally of the convention there was a reception of about 100 people that my boss and I were invited to. Free drinks, food, etc... but also several all star players, Pinella and HOFs. This wasn't your traditional scene where these guys are sitting behind a table and you wait in line, get something signed, and you're on your way. This was very interactive with everyone where you could literally have a conversation and a beer with Carlos Zambrano. Very cool and a great way to start the weekend.

*Saturday, 5:30 p.m., Shoe's Pub: We were looking for somewhere to kill brain cells and we get this text from AA of whom we have not seen hide nor hair of for approximately 6 months to head to "Shoes Pub". Free pretzels and taffy can't be beat. Taffy can be used as an ice breaker and chicks dig it. Also, the guy Kyle Orton replaced was at Shoes playing flip cub with a few buddies. I did get a picture though, so i can't make too much fun. After the picture, the woman who suppose was his mother said "At least someone in Chicago still loves him." I, in my awkwardest voice, replied "oh we all do."

*Saturday, later, Zella's: After pictures with Sexy Rexy we headed around the corner to Zella's where some chick and I broke out into some sort of swing / hip hop / break dance. The crowd circled back and this girl and I got after it for a little bit. Then we ran into Ron Hutch (Indianapolis Colts) and we hung out with him and his publicists for a while. After dance party, Ron, Lynn and I went to some Mexican burrito place for late night food, and then to Big Ben's to finish the night off.

*Sunday Funday, 2:30, Victory Liqours: Yes, it continued for another 9 or so hours. Ouch, thank god the weekend is over.

You know you're hardcore when...

*you leave work at 2:45 p.m. and pay $22 for an hour and a half train ride up to Milwaukee to run a track workout and not get home til after 8 p.m. Yeah, I'm not sure that i'm good enough of a runner to be making this type of commitment. This is pretty serious folks, but this really tells you how inaccessible indoor tracks are and how terrible the footing is in Chicago during the winter. Not to mention that we have -20 degree windchills right now. Not good and not too productive. Its cool though (no pun intended) cause it is sort of a mini-trip, get outta town, have a good workout and good time with my bud Verdo and Claudia. Claudia is actually up there for work and will be driving us home afterwards. Let's hope for the best.

Other than some real quality workouts, my running is going fairly well. I hit 71 miles last week and am going to be right around there again this week. I registered for two races that I will be taking pretty seriously this year.

Shamrock Shuffle - Chicago - March 29th - top 100 entry

Indy-mini marathon - Indianapolis - May 2nd - Front of the pack entry

I'm pretty pumped and motivated to train for both as I really don't want to be that guy that starts up front and has a seeded bib and runs terrible. We will see. Goal is to be running in the 85 to 100 mpw range.

Soo...Do you workout here?

*So I think that I am finally convinced that Chicago's weather is worse than Cleveland's. It is consistently 15 - 20 degrees colder and almost always has a nasty wind to accompany it to consistently produce single digit and often negative windchills. This doesn't make it very easy to play the "tough guy" to all of my work friends and run outside so I've been finding myself spending more time on the treadmill than I really like to. I am however getting more motivated to start "training," so we will see how that goes. I hit 71 miles last week with a fairly decent tempo run on Monday. Six miles averaging 5:41 although there is some skepticism about the mile markers on the path. Damnit CARA (sarcasm). Also, Saturday a really good group of us drove out to Barrington (~45 NW of Chicago) to get a nice long run in. Groups ranged from 10 - 20 miles on a nice hilly, traffic free loop course. There are several loops that made it easy for people to cut off when ever they liked while others continued on. The footing was not great because of the 8" the night before but it was a good time and a great strength building run. Breakfast afterwards as usual was fun as well. Total trip time from home to home: 7 hours (ouch). I actually like these longer get aways as it gives me a chance to get to know some people that I have only heard their names and really made no connection with.

*Work is driving me a bit crazy right now. Not a lot of things going on since it is the winter and we have also just recently been acquired. The new acquisition sort of drags out many of the decisions and just adds more frustration because of the uncertainty of everyone's roles. I think this acquisition is going to be very interesting in many ways. I'll be interested to see and be a part of (maybe) how PNC moves into a market that they have zero presence in. How will they introduce the brand, the products, the systems, training, and even the PNC culture to our corporate offices. We are told that we will not be converting our retail stores until October 2010 so on that front things are moving pretty slowly. However, I am already beginning to see the cut-throat nature of people you work with when their jobs are in jeopardy. Don't get me wrong because I am definitely a gamer and love a good competition. I have and will make sure that I don't cross my own ethical and moral boundaries throughout this thing, but I will also make sure I get a fair shake and they know what I can do. Good times...more updates til October 2010.

*Another quick work update. I've been working with Fox Chicago the last couple of months on a sponsorship of the St. Baldrick's Foundation. It's been pretty cool and a lot of great experience working with a first class organization that is real deal. They've tons of capabilities and resources to produce some really awesome stuff that I've never had the chance to work on yet. I've got to meet some pretty interesting people as well. more to come.

First attempts always suck...

So this is definitely my first attempt to blogging. I've been increasingly becoming more interested in this whole twitter / blogger age and feel like I may have something interesting to say. Interesting to who? Maybe only to myself and those that are bored at work but blogger.com has so kindly created this website so I'm going to use it.

I'm also not sure how to start a blog. I feel like I should give ya'll a background of myself but more than likely if you're reading this its because you already know me. But if 1 of the other 13 Jason Reams out there (http://howmanyofme.com/) googled themselves and came across this blog here is a brief profile.
26 for now, Chicago, professional more or less, runner-esque, drinker some times, curser (the bad words, not the blinking line) often, edgy, openminded, thoughtful, good friend, hilarious always, judgemental sure but I try not to be sometimes, etc.... You decide for yourself.

For the rest of my biography you will have to facebook me. I'm not going to enable identity thieves without approving your friendship first.