Hello Mathew, To be honest, i don't even know why i am on this website....but then again, who am i to judge? my dad was in jail a few times, almost my whole family. I feel deeply for you because i am straight but support the gay/lesbian/bi/transgender community. I can understand where you are coming from being someone who believes in god but i am not too religious. I know what the bible says but the lord is also very loving and excepting, please don't be ashamed to be who you are. Some people say they were born this way and some say it just happened. If the lord is truly perfect then he does not make mistakes, and he did not make a mistake in creating you. At first i hated people for being gay, but once i found out thousands of gay people kill themselves everyday over this- it just seems wrong to think that way now. Everyone is human and should be treated like one. People should not judge because they do not know what the other has been through. People won't except you for who you are until you yourself does. And you are not alone, millions of people go through this whether they share their problem with you are not. I hope i was able to ease your pain and when you feel lonely i hope you remember the many millions of people who are going through the same thing like you, be strong for them and they will be strong for you.
Dude! Congrats on graduating from BU! Yup, Dom pretty much ruined the parole process for awhile. I don't share your humanistic viewpoint of the guy, though. I thought he was pretty much a bag of S**t, though that's a personal viewpoint and not reflective of the realities of transitioning from prison to the outside world. I think if I'd been on parole, I would have been back in pretty quickly-parole seems geared to screw you over. I tried your email address, but it didn't work-resend it to me or have your sister shoot me an email, please. I'll send some pics of me and the wife...no not like that! We're buying a biz in NC. A night club/music venue. Should be fun, and it makes enough to live off of-not much more, but enough to eat. That's all you need in the end. So Check Point got arrested...AWESOME! Hope he ends up up sate! It would do him some good! I'm doing well, Jorge. Got my shit pretty much together, and once we get this nightclub, I'll have enough $ coming in to live by without having to bust my ass too much. I hope you get some leeway from FL on your parole! I'll send pics when I hear from your sister! Take it easy, Bro! And again, big props on your graduation! Your Friend, -Rob Fortini-
This letter didn't get posted until 6/11 which was about 2 weeks after VCM. I ran 2:21:30 and won by 5 min. I was on pace for the course record (2:17:03) at the 1/2 way point but realized it wasn't going to happen. I was overtrained I think. I ran over 100mpw from Nov. through May only coming down below 100 for one week (the week of New Bedford). My training hadn't been going very well the last few weeks before VCM, and I was just happy to get the W. I had plans for the money that comes with the victory. I used it to buy an engagement ring, and proposed to Jill on Block Island last week. Up on stage and everything, and made a complete ass of myself. You would have loved it. My parents and brother were there, as well as her parents, and her sister's family as well as about 100 friends, and coworkers...oh yeah, and 400 strangers. I knew the band that was playing so we had it all set up ahead of time. It surprised her, and that was the point.
Vermont City is held in S. Burlington, VT. It's on the UVM campus. It's a beautiful city, right on lake Champlain. I told the mayor at the awards ceremony that I would move there if he could get me a job. Too bad I couldn't afford to buy 1/2 a house in that city. Super expensive. I like rural VT cities and towns, but S. Burlington is the nicest of all of them. That's MY definition of why it's called "VT City".
Thanks for the well wishes before the race. Can I send you a magazine subscription? When I renewed my NE runner subscription, I can send someone a new subscription for $2. I immediately thought of you. I just sent it yesterday, but I know the magazine editor, and can probably get you added. I'm kind of a big deal, and can get stuff like that done :)
My mother lives by the theory that "When a door closes, you have to go through a window". I understand more now than I did when I was younger. Sometimes we're so focused on what we want or where we want to be in our lives, we don't think about how we're going to get there and ultimately stop living in the moment.
When it comes to rejection, those in marketing will tell you that "Every no brings you closer to a yes". I don't know how much I believe it and it doesn't apply to every situation but it is something I find myself saying every so often.
Unfortunately it isn’t summer here. I live in Australia so it’s winter now for us. It’s 12 degrees Celsius right now (which is 53 degrees Fahrenheit). So it’s a bit chilly but at least it doesn’t snow so I can’t really complain.
Living in Australia also makes the Pen Pal thing a little tricky. I have an automatic alert set up though so whenever you blog, I get an e-mail notification so it helps me keep track and read your blogs but I’ll definitely keep up the comments. I think I’ve read all your blogs but I will go back through them and transcribe the ones that are yet to be done.
I try not to live too much in the past...and the future is forever changing, so it does no good to look too far ahead. I like to live in the here and now...and if that ever gets too dull, well a nap usually solves that problem. :)
Naps solve a lot of problems.
The only exception I make to that rule above is that I enjoy writing about the past...specifically, mine. Its a form of redemption that some would mislabel as "cathartic" I don't write for me. I've already run the story over and over in my own head several times before committing it to text. The challenge now is to describe it...to build a seamless world of words and draw a reader in so that they see what I saw...feel what I felt...and then take it one step further. I want to put that past to good use, polish it up and relate it to a current event.
For example...I might point something out to you and say, "This is shit. It may be bad shit, funny shit or extremely wierd shit...but it's still essentially...shit."
But by the time I'm done playing around with it...compressing it, shaping it and polishing it....voila....a diamond! You can't really do this with fresh shit, by the way...it has to be old shit. It's that whole lemon/lemonade thing...but anyone can make lemons into lemonade...that's too easy. It takes a lot more work to produce a diamond from a bunch of shit.
:)
By the way...do they censor these letters?
Anyway...I think I'm pretty close to my 3000 character limit so I'd better hit the "Send Reply button.
RSS
To be honest, i don't even know why i am on this website....but then again, who am i to judge? my dad was in jail a few times, almost my whole family. I feel deeply for you because i am straight but support the gay/lesbian/bi/transgender community. I can understand where you are coming from being someone who believes in god but i am not too religious. I know what the bible says but the lord is also very loving and excepting, please don't be ashamed to be who you are. Some people say they were born this way and some say it just happened. If the lord is truly perfect then he does not make mistakes, and he did not make a mistake in creating you. At first i hated people for being gay, but once i found out thousands of gay people kill themselves everyday over this- it just seems wrong to think that way now. Everyone is human and should be treated like one. People should not judge because they do not know what the other has been through. People won't except you for who you are until you yourself does. And you are not alone, millions of people go through this whether they share their problem with you are not. I hope i was able to ease your pain and when you feel lonely i hope you remember the many millions of people who are going through the same thing like you, be strong for them and they will be strong for you.
Yup, Dom pretty much ruined the parole process for awhile. I don't share your humanistic viewpoint of the guy, though. I thought he was pretty much a bag of S**t, though that's a personal viewpoint and not reflective of the realities of transitioning from prison to the outside world. I think if I'd been on parole, I would have been back in pretty quickly-parole seems geared to screw you over.
I tried your email address, but it didn't work-resend it to me or have your sister shoot me an email, please. I'll send some pics of me and the wife...no not like that!
We're buying a biz in NC. A night club/music venue. Should be fun, and it makes enough to live off of-not much more, but enough to eat. That's all you need in the end.
So Check Point got arrested...AWESOME! Hope he ends up up sate! It would do him some good!
I'm doing well, Jorge. Got my shit pretty much together, and once we get this nightclub, I'll have enough $ coming in to live by without having to bust my ass too much.
I hope you get some leeway from FL on your parole!
I'll send pics when I hear from your sister!
Take it easy, Bro!
And again, big props on your graduation!
Your Friend,
-Rob Fortini-
This letter didn't get posted until 6/11 which was about 2 weeks after VCM. I ran 2:21:30 and won by 5 min. I was on pace for the course record (2:17:03) at the 1/2 way point but realized it wasn't going to happen. I was overtrained I think. I ran over 100mpw from Nov. through May only coming down below 100 for one week (the week of New Bedford). My training hadn't been going very well the last few weeks before VCM, and I was just happy to get the W. I had plans for the money that comes with the victory. I used it to buy an engagement ring, and proposed to Jill on Block Island last week. Up on stage and everything, and made a complete ass of myself. You would have loved it. My parents and brother were there, as well as her parents, and her sister's family as well as about 100 friends, and coworkers...oh yeah, and 400 strangers. I knew the band that was playing so we had it all set up ahead of time. It surprised her, and that was the point.
Vermont City is held in S. Burlington, VT. It's on the UVM campus. It's a beautiful city, right on lake Champlain. I told the mayor at the awards ceremony that I would move there if he could get me a job. Too bad I couldn't afford to buy 1/2 a house in that city. Super expensive. I like rural VT cities and towns, but S. Burlington is the nicest of all of them. That's MY definition of why it's called "VT City".
Thanks for the well wishes before the race. Can I send you a magazine subscription? When I renewed my NE runner subscription, I can send someone a new subscription for $2. I immediately thought of you. I just sent it yesterday, but I know the magazine editor, and can probably get you added. I'm kind of a big deal, and can get stuff like that done :)
talk to you soon...
I finished the transcription for your post.
My mother lives by the theory that "When a door closes, you have to go through a window". I understand more now than I did when I was younger. Sometimes we're so focused on what we want or where we want to be in our lives, we don't think about how we're going to get there and ultimately stop living in the moment.
When it comes to rejection, those in marketing will tell you that "Every no brings you closer to a yes". I don't know how much I believe it and it doesn't apply to every situation but it is something I find myself saying every so often.
Unfortunately it isn’t summer here. I live in Australia so it’s winter now for us. It’s 12 degrees Celsius right now (which is 53 degrees Fahrenheit). So it’s a bit chilly but at least it doesn’t snow so I can’t really complain.
Living in Australia also makes the Pen Pal thing a little tricky. I have an automatic alert set up though so whenever you blog, I get an e-mail notification so it helps me keep track and read your blogs but I’ll definitely keep up the comments. I think I’ve read all your blogs but I will go back through them and transcribe the ones that are yet to be done.
Naps solve a lot of problems.
The only exception I make to that rule above is that I enjoy writing about the past...specifically, mine. Its a form of redemption that some would mislabel as "cathartic" I don't write for me. I've already run the story over and over in my own head several times before committing it to text. The challenge now is to describe it...to build a seamless world of words and draw a reader in so that they see what I saw...feel what I felt...and then take it one step further. I want to put that past to good use, polish it up and relate it to a current event.
For example...I might point something out to you and say, "This is shit. It may be bad shit, funny shit or extremely wierd shit...but it's still essentially...shit."
But by the time I'm done playing around with it...compressing it, shaping it and polishing it....voila....a diamond! You can't really do this with fresh shit, by the way...it has to be old shit. It's that whole lemon/lemonade thing...but anyone can make lemons into lemonade...that's too easy. It takes a lot more work to produce a diamond from a bunch of shit.
:)
By the way...do they censor these letters?
Anyway...I think I'm pretty close to my 3000 character limit so I'd better hit the "Send Reply button.