Mall of America!

Well after my 26.2 mile run I felt great so I went to the mall with my traveling companion. She asked if I need to rest after doing all that running (since most other mrathon runners couldn’t walk) at the race and I just replied “Can I have some Ms. Fields cookies?” She then looked at me for about 5 seconds and replied ” Something ain’t right with you in the head boy!”

Everytime I come to this mall I get lost. So this time I decided to take a photo over looking the amusement park on the inside just so I can have a fond memory when ever I find my way out.

After walking around the mall for two hours we decided to check out the huge Church I ran by mile 25.5 in downtown St. Paul. This Church was simply stunning looking!

By now it was about 6:00pm and time to eat again. I love running because after long runs I can eat as many cookies as I can fit into my pockets!

Jazz Gallery 37

This past week I spent in Chicago teaching and doing workshops for the best jazz high school students in the city. I have to say this was loads of fun working with them and learning new things about music. Their regular teacher Jarrad Harris was a great instructor and also was a master at his young age at playing the alto saxophone. I went in everyday for a few hours and we talked about the business of music, playing styles, future plans, New York, etc. I think I may have learned as much if not more then the students.

My first day there I thought I recognized the piano player for somewhere, so I asked him “Where are you from?” He then replied ” Lincoln park High School but I don’t recognize you.” On the third day of my teaching I was giving him a private lesson and he started telling me about this great band hat came to his school last October called the “Thelonious Monk Institute band” I then said, “I was in that band.” He said “really? I thought the piano players name was Doron Johnson and his website is doronjazz.com. I then said ” Hello, My name is Richard Doron Johnson and my old website was doronjazz.com. He then said “Oh man, that was really you, great. I guess you really did remember my face then. After that we really bonded and he said he would try and get me a skateboard since he was endorsed by a skateboard company (I used to be a serious skateboarder 15 years ago). I have said all of this to say, “Nicholas where is my Skateboard?”

Virgin Festival

Virgin festival on the 23rd of September was great. I have participated in numerous events but this one took the cake in Baltimore,MD. This festival was like a circus, music party, and a riot all rolled up in one. First of all let me start off by saying that 40,000 people showed up and most of them were already drunk upon arrival. The other half got drunk there listening to the great line up of bands they had. To name a few there was “Cnarles Barkley, The Killers, The Who, Red Hot chille Peppers, The brazillion Girls, etc.” I really enjoyed seeing people enjoy themselves since Baltimore,MD does not get this type of traffic every day or every year. I really enjoyed doing the Virgin Penny truck tour with the road team I was involved with. Over the past two months I learned alot more about touring and the production side of things. I would love to do this tour again if they called. I just hope Virgin Mobile does not send me 1 million spam e-mails since I am a member of their staff,well kind off!

Friends and Family

Having supportive friends and family is very important to respect and cherish because alot of people do not have that close relationship with anyone. My family is definately great at supporting me along with my close friends. I thought about this alot Sunday evening after I did my last 15mile long run before my marathon on October 1st. The night before I had gotten my friend and his significant other into the John stewart show because I was working the event for Virgin Mobile. That night I said to him “If you want to get on the bike with me and ride 15miles and pace me through it while I run that would be cool. The only thing is I run early to beat the heat. The next morning I called him at 6:45am and said I will be there in an hour if you still want to ride. He said “Sure come on I will be ready when you get here.” I am not sure if he woke up because of his own will or if his significant other constantly making fun of him because she new he doesn’t like to get up early. Either way he was waiting outside for me when I arrived. We drove down to the Baltimore Harbor and unloaded my bike and took off. This was a great time for me because I got to do my run and talk to my friend at the same time. I was able to make it through all 15miles in 1:58min and 30sec. with some pretty good hills and heat involved. When we walked into the house after the run his significant other and his other friend both said at th same time “We were waiting to see if you made it in one piece through the whole 15miles.” I promptly responded by saying “Yeah I made it !” Then they both said looking at my good friend “Not you, him? He began to laugh and said yeah now I am ready for the real work out this evening. They then looked at each other and said ” What has gotten into him!”