Lucky 7

I successfully completed my first long training run for the marathon!

Woo-hoo!

Thanks to Molly Laufer for checking in on me and asking how it had gone. I waited until Sunday evening to attempt this run because the weather forecast indicated that the weather would be most conducive to running during this time.

Luckily I received my Garmin 305 in the mail yesterday afternoon and was able to fiddle around with it and figure out how to use it before the run today. Also luckily, Jeremy agreed to do part of the run with me. I ran the 2 miles to his house and then he came out with me for the next 3.5 miles. I dropped him back at his house and completed the last 1.5 miles back to my apartment alone (I had sort of run out of my way to get to his house on the way there in order to extend the distance). Having Jeremy with me for those middle miles was a HUGE help. It distracted me from the distance that I was facing and allowed me to break the run into smaller segments.

Having the Garmin really opened my eyes to how inconsistently I run! My pace was ALL OVER THE PLACE! Especially the first two miles prior to picking Jeremy up - I went out way too fast. I kept checking the watch and noticing that I was going too quickly but I had a hard time slowing down consistently. Don't worry - the miles eventually slowed me down and I finished the run just about on pace. The middle miles I ran with Jeremy were faster than I wanted them to be but he was slowing himself down for me so I was trying to keep up and meet him in the middle pace-wise. We stopped running to walk a few times. I had the Garmin set to automatically pause every time I STOPPED, but I think from now on I'll have it stop when I drop below a certain pace (and it's clear that I'm walking i/o running) because the setting it was on this time meant that my average pace per mile was 11:44, which I know is just significantly slowed down due to the segments that we walked.

I'm not really good at reading the Garmin information that was loaded onto my computer yet...but I'm hoping that over time I can learn to understand it better.

When I got home I was starving - it was about 8 pm - and I still needed to go to the grocery store to shop for dinner ingredients. I walked Mugsy, ran over to Whole Foods (it's 2 blocks away, love), and got some ingredients.

When I got back from WF I threw back a glass of chocolate milk (the fact that this is an awesome recovery drink is a huge bonus in my book) and showered quickly before making dinner. This is what I ate:

I know, I know. It looks DELICIOUS, right? Not at all, looks like vomit. Anyway, it's 1 whole tomato, 1/2 an avocado, about a cup of plain quinoa (thanks to the Whole Foods salad bar I didn't have to cook it myself which is the Yay), a few pieces of marinated mozzarella, and I'd guess 1/2 cup of plain chickpeas. I think it was full of protein and good fats (and some bad fats, whatevs), and the tomato would help re-hydrate me after my long run. I felt good eating it, at least! But lesson TOTALLY learned - in the future, make sure you've planned for dinner before heading out on your long run! In case there was any doubt - my motivation to train for this marathon comes 50% from the fact that I will be able to eat WAY MORE. I LOVE FOOD.

FOOD.

LOVE.

OK so I'm totally being verbose right now, maybe it's a post-run high, but all in all:

• I'm totally proud that I finished 7 miles tonight and did it without feeling bad at all during the run
• Having Jeremy with me for half of the run was a HUGE HELP and I hope I can bribe him to continue running with me
• Chocolate milk is The Awesome
• I need to hydrate better next time
• My right quad is The Pissed. I need to roll/ice it now.
• Garmin = also The Awesome

OK BYE THANKS FOR READING! :-D

Yeahhhhh!

I don't normally blog on the weekends but I just wanted to check in and let you know that I did my training run last night (well, yesterday afternoon prior to going out and getting le drunk...running is really good for drinking efficiency because you're already dehydrated and you get drunker faster) and it went really well! Yes, it was only 3 miles, it wasn't a long run, but it was a successful run, and that's all that matters in my opinion! :) So I'm feeling good. My Garmin should arrive in the mail today and I'm looking forward to using it when I attempt my 7 mile first-long-run tomorrow :) Wish me luck!

Lots of smiley faces in this post. Hmmm.

Well, that was the suck.

Did I do my run yesterday, you ask? I mean, I tried. Which I think counts for something. Right? I think you technically only "fail" at doing a training run when you don't even try to do it. I think given that I put my shoes on, trotted out the door, and ran a mile before I started walking (and then continued to run/walk the rest of the 3 miles fearing death if I tried to continue running the whole way)...I mean, I feel like that's something. A for effort, right?

This is where I was running:

Yes, that is what you get if you Google Image search "Surface of the Sun." It was 95* in Baltimore yesterday at 5 pm, but I decided, brilliant road warrior that I am, that I was going to tough it out. I was sufficiently hydrated, right? So my body would cool itself down with sweat, right?

I'm not entirely sure why this occasionally happens (maybe some of my running buddies can help explain) but my body started sweating...and then stopped. I think it was like "Well, this is clearly a losing battle so I'm just going to sit this one out and let you think about what you've done."

Why, body? I thought we were in this together.

Really, this is where I was running:

This is Fort McHenry which I'm sure is significant for many a historical and cool reason but really all I care about is the nice asphalt path along the water and the gorgeous views of the harbor it provides. Granted, yesterday I couldn't have cared less about either of those things because I was just thinking "don't die don't die don't die," but on most days it's a pretty nice view. One thing I should have thought about: not many trees along the path to provide me with any shade at all.

You know, maybe my body didn't stop sweating. Maybe it was just so hot that when I did sweat, it evaporated immediately. Uncool.

So anyway...it wasn't great. But not all of my training runs over the next few months are going to be great. I just. Want. To complete. The race.

In other news, I've started using Dove bar soap as my hand soap in my bathroom and suddenly my cuticles aren't dry and cracking anymore. Imagine that. Expensive, annoying cuticle creams be damned, Dove will do the job!

Don't worry, this won't last.

By "this" I mean the posting about running, not the actual running. I hope. Maybe both.

I did my first official training run last night on the treadmill at my apartment building. Highlights:

1. My french braid coming undone around 1.5 miles in and leaving me running with my hair loose like the female version of Fabio. I paused the treadmill and rectified that situation quite quickly.
2. Girl who got on the treadmill next to me when I had about 1 mile left who I'm pretty sure was trying to race me, although that may have just been the mid-run paranoia talking (don't act like you don't know about the mid-run paranoia).
3. My friend Katie calling to say she was on her way to pick me up for book club when I was about 0.2 miles away from the end of the run, and me answering the phone and panting into it with no explanation for her as to why I was breathing so heavily (that is, until I got into her car sweating (more than usual)).
4. Finishing!

Here's the thing people. This run was only 3 miles long and it made me SAD. Because when I finished, all I could think was "Only 23.2 miles to go! Yeah...I'm gonna take a nap."

Instead of taking a nap I went to book club, which was fun. We read Room by Emma Donahue (which I have yet to review on my book blog, sorry). I had a great time at book club (we had a picnic outdoors and I'm pretty sure I ate enough food for all the rest of the girls in the club, whatever, post-run metabolism high), but I did not have a great time reading Room. It's super depressing and slightly perverse.

So. Caveat emptor on the whole Room thing. But yeah, please keep pestering me about my runs.

New girl crush

So I e-mailed my friend Molly (I'd link to her blog but she HASN'T UPDATED IN A YEAR so I have decided not to in a passive-aggressive (heavy on the aggressive) attempt to get her to update it or start a new blog) earlier today asking for some of the blogs she read while training for the marathon she recently completed.

She sent me quite a few suggestions but I can already tell that my favorite is going to be Running off the Reese's. The author is awesome. Super snarky and hilarious.

Two of my favorite discoveries from her blog so far:

because I, like her, am the Good Luck Chuck of women.

And:

because, yes. Amazing. I don't care if you're a runner, watch the video. It's hilarious.

Also, I'm officially starting my training for the Baltimore Marathon today. It's in October. 10/16/2011 to be exact. I figured that since I get free registration through working for Under Armour, I could use the money I saved (plus other money that I have no reason to spend but I'm trying to rationalize here leave me alone) to buy a Garmin 305 and a hot pink iPod nano to keep me company on my long. Long. Long. Lonely runs.

Here we go!

Please make sure to ask me every time you talk to me from now on how my marathon training is going so that I am shamed into actually doing my runs. And after I answer you say "are you lying?"

Thanks.

Apparently I do this now

See mah puppeh on the interwebs.

He is the cute.

Huh.

Just a random thought - not much time to flesh this one out - but I'm wondering...

Are we only as mature as consequences demand in life? Is growing up a process of adapting to ones surroundings and becoming more mature in order to most likely guarantee success? Or is it a natural progression that results in the ability to confront more difficult situations and circumstances in life?

Does life whip us into shape or do we take on bigger challenges when we're stronger? Or both?

I'll be thinking about this for a while.

Something Borrowed

Last night I went on a date with my friend Karen. We ate mexican food and saw a movie. Really, what better way is there to spend a night than eating mexican food and watching movies?

I've really been wanting to see Bridesmaids but I had just leant Karen the book Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, so I felt it was appropriate that we see that instead. I never reviewed that book on my book blog because I read it before I started the book blog - but the short and sweet of it is that it's a great vacation/beach read. Not going to change your life but you will finish it very quickly, it's quite interesting.

I had heard the movie was terrible so I didn't have high hopes. I needed to see something mindless. I'm not sure if it was my low expectations that made the movie good, but it was good. So if you're looking for something to see and you have already seen Bridesmaids (I would have chosen that first if not for my friend having just finished the book), give Something Borrowed a chance.

Also, make sure you look out for the Emily Giffin cameo in the movie - she's sitting next to Marcus and Rachel in Central Park reading the sequel to Something Borrowed, called Something Blue (also worth reading). Thought that was a cute nod. Quite a quick shot though so don't blink or you'll miss her!

Are you there, Wufus? It's me, Bridget.

I love me some Rufus Wainwright, and I think you should too. Applicable lyrics today:

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

"cigarettes and chocolate milk
these are just a couple of my cravings
everything it seems i like's a little bit stronger
a little bit thicker
a little bit harmful for me

if i should buy jellybeans
have to eat them all in just one sitting
everything it seems i like's a little bit sweeter
a little bit fatter
a little bit harmful for me

and then there's those other things
which for several reasons we won't mention
everything about them is a little bit stranger
a little bit harder
a little bit deadly

it isn't very smart
tends to make one part so broken-hearted

sitting here remembering me
always been a shoe made for the city
go ahead, accuse me of just singing about places
with scrappy boys faces
have general run of the town
playing with prodigal songs
takes a lot of sentimental valiums
can't expect the world to be your raggedy andy
while running on empty
you little old doll with a frown

you got to keep in the game
maintaining mystique while facing forward
i suggest a reading of 'a lesson in tightropes'
or 'surfing your high hopes' or 'adios kansas'

it isn't very smart
tends to make one part so broken-hearted

still there's not a show on my back
holes or a friendly intervention
i'm just a little bit heiress, a little bit irish
a little bit tower of pisa whenever i see you
so please be kind if i'm a mess
cigarettes and chocolate milk"

And yes I'm using my blog as my new emo away message vehicle. YOU LIKE IT.

Another reason Grey's Anatomy is THE BEST.

"There's a reason I said I'd be happy alone. It wasn't 'cause I thought I'd be happy alone. It was because I thought if I loved someone, and then I fell apart, I might not make it. It's easier to be alone. Because what if you learn that you need love? And then you don't have it? What if you like it? And lean on it? What if you shape your life around it? And then...it falls apart? Can you even survive that kind of pain? Losing love is like organ damage. It's like dying. The only difference is, death ends. This? It could go on forever," Meredith Grey

Ladies and Gentlemen

Do you guys remember this? It's worth revisiting.

Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen) by Baz Lurhmann:

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99,
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your

choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…"

to my friends - thank you for working hard with me to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle. you're the best. remember that, because it's a compliment.

deep thoughts.com/young musings.

When I was in elementary school, I thought that when I was in high school I'd be driving a BMW convertible (I was an asshole in elementary school...just ask Lizzy).

When I was in high school, I thought that when I was in college I'd meet my future husband and I'd figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

When I was in college, I thought that after I graduated I'd love my first job, but I'd only be there for about two years before I'd move on. Where would I move on to? I figured by that point I'd DEFINITELY have met my future husband and we'd decide together where we'd go.

I was wrong.

About everything.

Well, except the BMW convertible, but it was about 10 years later than I thought it would be ;-)

Never have I felt like I've been headed down the wrong path in my life in general. In my professional life? Yes, for sure. I still think I'm on the right path, but maybe the space between milestones is just longer than I originally thought. Maybe the milestones are in a different order. You know what they say - and by they I mean John Lennon - "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

I'm not sure where I'm going with this - and by this I mean both this blog post and life in general. Is planning futile? Is it true that if you want to make God laugh you should tell him about your plans? Is it better to just let go and let life happen to you? How do you strike the right balance? To make sure that you're headed in the right direction but you're not marching forward so rigidly that you totally lose it if you get blown off path? That you're not focusing so intently on the goal that you don't see what you pass along the way?

No seriously, I'm asking you for answers here.

Is anything absolute? When I was younger I had all these thoughts of "I am this way, I am that way, I would do this, I would never do that." Some things hold true, others don't. If you define yourself by a list of things and one by one those things change...when do you yourself change?

I'm 27 now and maybe I don't know quite as much about who I am as I thought I did, but I guess I know more about who I'm not.

Quotes from The Magicians by Lev Grossman

This time with feeling. I reread The Magicians and thought you might like to see some of my favorite quotes so that maybe you'd want to read it too.

"He let himself unclench a little. Just slightly, he stopped bracing for the blow from above, and for the first time he seriously considered the idea that it might not come at all," p41

"His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he'd gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between" p64

"It occurred to him, long after it should have, that he wasn't the only person here who had problems and felt like an outsider. Alice wasn't just the competition, someone whose only purpose in life was to succeed and by doing so subtract from his happiness. She was a person with her own hopes and feelings and history and nightmares. In her own way she was as lost as he was," p67

"When he saw Julia, he searched himself for the old love he used to feel for her. It wasn't gone, but it was a dull, distant ache, still there but healed over - just the shrapnel they couldn't remove," p72

"The entire time he'd been at Brakebills, through First Year, the exams, the whole disaster with Penny, right up until the night he joined the Physical Kids, Quentin had been holding his breath without knowing it. He realized only now that he'd been waiting for Brakebills to vanish around him like a daydream. Even aside from the many and varied laws of thermodynamics that were violated there on a regular basis, it was just too good to be true. It was like Fillory that way. Fillory never lasted forever. Ember and Umber promptly kicked the Chatwins out at the end of every book. Deep down Quentin felt like a tourist who at the end of the day would be herded back onto some dirty, lumbering, snorting tour bus - with ripped vinyl seats and overhead TVs and a stinking toilet - and shipped home, clutching a tacky souvenir postcard and watching as the towers and hedges and peaks and gables of Brakebills dwindled in the rearview mirror. But it hadn't happened. And now he understood. he really got, that it wasn't going to happen. He'd wasted so much time thinking, It's all a dream, and It should have been somebody else, and Nothing lasts forever. It was time he started acting like who he was: a nineteen year old student at a secret college for real, actual magic," p106

"Janet was about as annoying as a person could be and still be your friend, but Quentin was never bored around her. She was passionately loyal, and if she was obnoxious it was only because she was so deeply tender-hearted. It made her easily wounded, and when she was wounded she lashed out. She tortured everybody around her, but only because she was more tortured than anyone," p108

"You just had to get some idea of what matters and what doesn't, and how much, and try not to be scared of the stuff that doesn't. Put it in perspective. Something like that. Or otherwise what was the point? He didn't know if he could explain it to Josh. But maybe he could show him," p133

"It was an amazing outpouring of collective joy. Quentin had forgotten he was capable of that emotion, the way a lost spelunker feels like there was never such a thing as sunlight, that it was just a cruel fiction," p154

"What was he going to do? What exactly? Every ambition he'd ever had in his life had been realized the day he was admitted to Brakebills, and he was struggling to formulate a new one with any kind of practical specificity," p210

"I got my heart's desire, he thought, and there my troubles began," p220

"She always kept a cool head in difficult moments, maybe because she tended to be so out of control so much of the rest of the time," p233

"'What are you, a child? You got confused? Why didn't you just end it, Quentin? You obviously lost interest a long time ago. You really are a child, aren't you? You're obviously not enough of a man to have a real relationship. You're not even enough of a man to end a real relationship. Do I have to do absolutely everything for you? Or you know what it is? You hate yourself so much, you'll hurt anybody who loves you. That's it, isn't it? Just to get even with them for loving you. I never saw that before now.'" p254

Cheers

jamming to this currently.

"Life's too short to be sitting around miserable

People gonna talk whether you doing bad or good, yeah..."

"Oh, let the Jameson* sink in

I drink to that, yeah yeah

Don't let the bastards get you down

Turn it around with another round"

*I prefer Jack myself but I'll let it go.

Quotes from Blessings by Anna Quindlen

"That stayed with her for years, that sketch drawn in a few simple sentences, that idea of a parallel life that might have been hers," p66

"'Stalking,' she said. 'If you want delphiniums you must keep them stalked.' There were still some things of which she was absolutely certain." p130

"At each light he told her to make a wish. A pony. A pink bicycle. A spaniel puppy. 'That's too many wishes,' Lydia had called across the darkening oval at the center of the string of lights, and her father had called back, 'Ah, Lyds, my love, don't ever say that.'" p148

"She realized that lying was easier than telling the truth because it had such nice smooth edges, not jagged with impossibility and inconvenience the way the truth so often was." p151

"'Mother, that happened almost fifty years ago. It's a little late for you to become exercised about it.' She was right, of course. What a soft patina the passage of time gave to everything, at least once one learned to live in the present." p162

Quotes from The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

"And perhaps we are responsible even for the love we feel for our parents. I envied other students back then who had dissociated themselves from their parents and thus from the entire generation of perpetrators, voyeurs, and the willfully blind, accommodators and acceptors, thereby overcoming perhaps not their shame, but at least their suffering because of the shame. But what gave rise to the swaggering self-righteousness I so often encountered among these students? How could one feel guilt and shame, and at the same time parade one's self-righteousness? Was their dissociation of themselves from their parents mere rhetoric: sounds and noise that were supposed to drown out the fact that their love for their parents made them irrevocably complicit in their crimes?" p171

"I decided to write the story of me and Hanna. Since then I've done it many times in my head, each time a little differently, each time with new images, and new strands of action and thought. Thus there are many different stories in addition to the one I have written. The guarantee that the written one is the right one lies in the fact that I wrote it and not the other versions. The written version wanted to be written, the many others did not." p217

Remember that time I had a blog?

Me neither.

Have you listened to "Me & Mrs. Jones" by Michael Buble (Austin...you know how I just said that in my head) lately?

If not, you should.

Really, do it now:

Feeling some Jason Mraz this afternoon

Check these two out:

1) Running live at Java Joe's

2) After an Afternoon live at Java Joe's

Strike that, reverse it

So after Sirius Black I moved on to Padfoot (Paddy for short) and then last night I think I arrived at the final name...I think this pup is meant to be called Mugsy Bones.

What do you think??

I am a bad blogger

But I finally have news worth blogging about...

I adopted a puppy last week! Long story (will post more later + more pictures) but I think I am going to call him Sirius Black. He's about 5 months old.

Woof!

more sick music.

yeah that's right, i said sick and i wasn't being ironic.

you can listen to this while you train for this.

disney princess half marathon. february 2011. DO IT.

or just listen to the music and then come and cheer us on (and by us i only mean me so far, but i'm trying to convince noodle and the mollys, and whoever else will let me convince them, i just figured i'd start with the usual half marathon suspects. i just accidentally typed shuspects and it made me giggle because i thought of "can i have a schmample?").

so who else is coming?

**UPDATED** - paul sent me the music link. paul always sends me the music links. if there is ever a reference to anything on my blog that is pop culture related, it likely came from paul.

that said, paul, you should have been so excited that i'm trying to run a disney race that you would overlook that i missed your h/t.

I've been meaning to tell you about these...

Have you ever had Sister Schubert's rolls before? You get them in the freezer section of your grocery store and they come in a plastic resealable bag (that's one of the options) so you can just take out however many you need and pop them in the oven.

They're delish. Check them out.

Also, when (not if) you come visit me in Baltimore, you will have to try:

1) Berger Cookies (thanks Paul for the suggestion and thanks Katie for buying them for me). Vanilla cookie base with a THICK layer of fudge on top. And I'm not talking about "fudge." I'm talking about FUDGE. For real.

2) Fried Oreos at Stuggy's in Fell's Point. Oreos, dipped in funnel cake batter, fried. Yes.

Do you guys have any favorite products you can get at the grocery store that you'd like to share? Trader Joe's? Whole Foods? Safeway? Giant? I don't think we have Kroger in B'more. I particularly love hearing about store-brand substitutes that are just as good as the more expensive stuff.

Carter sighting!

Just in case you missed my plug of her blog the first time, my friend Carter from UVA (COMM 06) has a blog called The Kitchenette that is just awesome. And recently her blog was mentioned on the Food Network website! How cool is that? Here it is again.

So, this basically means that Bobby Flay and I are married. Pretty sure.

Noodle sighting?

So I have been reading Vogue all day at work (it counts, I work in fashion...kind of) and there's this DKNY ad that I keep seeing and it keeps striking me how much this girl in the ad looks like my friend Annie (Noodle). For those of you who know Annie and care, check this site out, I couldn't get a screen shot to show you because it's like, a slideshow of images, but I'm hoping you'll see immediately which girl I'm talking about. Noodle do you work for DKNY as a model now?!

Again my friends come through in a clutch

Owl websites.

This one courtesy of Meghan Barr.

Way to go, Meghan Barr. You win.

Also, watch this. (harvard sailing team boys will be girls)

And these. (verymarykate)

you're welcome.

Have you read this?

What's up with the twentysomethings?

Please do so.

My favorite thing in this article:

The word pluripotent, which means:

plu·rip·o·tent definition

Pronunciation: /pl u̇ -ˈrip-ət-ənt/
Function: adj
1 : not fixed as to developmental potentialities

Makes ya think.

Hooties!

Like puppy cam, except more feathery.

Third time's the charm...

Final post of the day:

1) I just realized that Step Up, the dance movie with my husband Channing Tatum, was filmed in Baltimore! Or rather, set in Baltimore, I haven't been watching closely enough to see if it was filmed here. But really, I think it's a sign. Of what, not entirely sure. But a sign nonetheless. One funny thing is that Channing Tatum's character is meant to live in a bad part of town, but he lives in Hampden, which, I don't know, maybe that was the ghetto before, but now it's a quirky area where young people live.

2) Molly Laufer, obviously our shared affinity for Fountain Diet Coke + Root Beer + Lemons is another sign that we were meant to get maui'd. Please advise if you will still be visiting home on Sept 29th because that is on my calendar! And in case you won't be able to get on the internet tomorrow when you move back onboard, Happy Birthday! Love you!

3) I went for a run when I came home from work even though it was 90* outside (I ran in the shade to try to minimize the heat and carried a bottle of cold water with me) and then came home, stretched, and took a cool shower. It has been an hour and 15 minutes since I came home and my body is still drenched in a cold sweat. Uncool.

This is going to be a problem

Did I mention that UA has free fountain Diet Coke? And they also have root beer "on tap" so I can make my favorite combination of all time, Diet Coke + Root Beer + Lemons?

Yeah. About that.

Quick update

Michael Phelps lives in my building. Unfortunately I did not learn this by spotting him, I learned it from another PLM (that's what I am)...hmmm. Stalking will ensue.

Good morning, Baltimore

Hello, sorry I haven't posted in a while but as you may have guessed things have been a little bit crazy.

My last day at A&F was July 16th. I just had my exit interview that day which was impersonal (I sat in front of a computer and filled out a survey) and caused me to go a little bit nuts in my opinions (I had intended to be reserved and polite)...I

literally typed the sentence "I believe [so and so] personifies everything that is wrong with this company." I hoped they liked that one.

That evening I had a goodbye bar night at a restaurant downtown called The Little Palace because I am a Princess, clearly. There were many handsome men there. My friend Michelle from my running group was nice enough to come, and she spent the first five minutes commenting on how everyone at A&F was attractive (everyone at my party, at least)

...I guess I hadn't really noticed. We'll see how it compares to UA.

It was really nice and really fun, even though it was bittersweet. The shitty part of the night was that I got my first speeding ticket driving home :-( Believe me, I deserved it, if not for that night then for the past 10 years when I have willfully and gleefully driven recklessly and ticket-free, but it just pissed me off that it was the first time that I got pulled over ever and he gave me the ticket. UNCOOL, OFFICER DOUCHEBAG. That meant that I had to go to court this past Monday to contest the points being applied to my ticket (I didn't contest that I was guilty and deserved to pay the fee, but I contested that I should get points). Lucky for me, they reduced my speed by 21 mph to get me within 5 mph of the speed limit (yeah, I said I deserved it) and gave me no points on my license. Phew. And yes, if you're wondering, I've stopped speeding. Quite as much.

So then the next day I went skydiving with John! I'd always wanted to go, and one day a "Groupon" landed in our e-mail inboxes for 50% off skydiving, so John called and said he wanted to go and we bought the Groupons! So then I knew I had to go within the next year...but we never really planned when we'd go. Once I found out I was leaving Columbus on the 26th, I knew I had to jump out of a plane prior...so we booked our appointments and drove 2 hours away to Middletown, Ohio. We waited quite a while once we arrived and got more and more excited...and then it was our turn and we got all geared up and went up in the air! And what goes up must come down....

I know Lizzy has done it, I don't know if any of the rest of you have...I know Annie hasn't...anyway if you haven't and you're open to it, I HIGHLY recommend that you do it someday. It was an awesome experience, unlike anything else I've ever done in my life. When you're in freefall it really just feels like you're standing outside on a windy day, and then when your chute is opened, it's just like floating down towards the Earth on an amusement park ride or something. Totally awesome. Plus, being strapped to a big burly dude isn't so bad!

After skydiving I spent the next week trying to forget what it was like to work at A&F, reading Grisham novels by the pool, meeting up with people to say bye one last time (I think John was the hardest. We both cried. He said "Why is everyone leaving me?" like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and having panic attacks regarding the move.

Eventually moving day came. The packers arrived promptly at 7 am on Monday and were all done with my apartment by 12:30. My mom and I finished up in the apartment, got some lunch, packed the cars, and were on the road to B'more by 4. I arrived here around 11:30 that night and moved into my temporary housing (see Facebook for pictures, they're too boring to repost here). My mom chose to drive south to McLean instead so that we didn't have to unpack her car that night, and she met me back in B'more the next day.

So, drawing from an e-mail I sent Lizzy earlier this week:

I am living in Fells Point. (please see map for your reference). I have put the little walking guy exactly where I am living - I'm right at the end of the pier. Over down by Boston Street is the area called Canton. It has the Safeway and the local library so I have been there a couple of times. Then down by Light Street on the left side of the map, that's Federal Hill. We went there for lunch today. I am going to work in Locust Point (bottom right) Do you see in the bottom of the red circle where those streets kind of form an "H"? That's where Under Armour is. If I want, I can take a free "Water taxi" from fells point directly across the harbor over to where Under Armour is! It's pretty cool. Otherwise I have to drive all the way around the harbor which would take like 20-30 minutes. I think so far I like Fells Point the most -- young people live in Fells Point, Canton, and Federal Hill, so I'll look at all of them, but I like Fells Point so far. Lots of shops and places to eat. Lots of places to walk, too.

SO. That is life right now. I start work on Monday. I'm pretty nervous. I would like you all to come visit as soon as possible. Please. Thanks.

ALSO - Smolls (and anyone else, if they happen to have information that falls into the following categories) -- where are your favorite restaurants in B'more? Where should I be checking out? Would any of your friends here be willing to share some of the same information with me and not think I'm a creep? xoxoxo

my own personal version of fail blog

this what i saw in the A&F parking lot this morning.
what?

I am feeling a little dramatic

so I am listening to The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert on repeat as I prepare for my move back to the East Coast. See lyrics here.

YOU MUST LOVE THIS.

owls being cute


love.

thanks to el senor soper.

fml

This is what has happened so far today.

I was supposed to be arriving in guatemala in about an hour. Our flight from columbus to houston was delayed an hour. We then took off and got rerouted to memphis where we got more fuel. We missed our connection in houston by 15 minutes.

So then we arrive in houston and one of the designers I'm traveling with says she thinks she has broken her foot. Since we now have 7 hours until our flight, we get a cab to the hospitalN but since our cabbie doesn't know where the hospital is, he decides to take us to an office complex instead. 50 bucks later, we make it to the emergency room where I am currently blogging on my work blackberry from the waiting room.

Less than awesome.

What if...

I recreationally wore an eye patch in order to isolate each eye one at a time and make each eye individually stronger?

It would be this one:

Note to self

Must stop screaming obscenities at fellow drivers/pedestrians while driving. You drive a convertible now. They can most likely hear you.

Oops.

Dry shampoo = new favorite thing

I read about Umberto Dry Clean dry shampoo in Real Simple recently and decided to get it. I used to wash my hair at least 6 times/week (I work out 6 times/week) but then I realized that it was really weakening my hair...so I bought this "Dry shampoo" at Target ($8.99) and I have been using it for the past week or so, and I really like it!

I used to put baby powder in my hair when it was getting a little oily at the roots but I never really felt like that worked all that well. This stuff really works - it adds texture and volume, it absorbs excess oil, and it leaves my hair looking really good. My hair isn't as shiny once the dry shampoo is in, but it doesn't look dirty. Granted, it's basically just spraying powder into your hair, but once you rough your hair up a bit and get the powdery look to go away, it's a great result. Just thought I'd pass along the discovery.

Heh.

how awesome is this?

instructions to make it here. You basically just tack a feather boa to a shirt and then make the feet out of dishwashing gloves! GAHHHHHHHHHH PLEASE make one of your nieces/nephews wear this in October!! Or really, at any point before the age of 5!

T-shirt Quilts?

Has anyone out there ever had a t-shirt quilt made or made a t-shirt quilt themself? I'm looking for something along these lines but I don't know if there is one service that people have used that is more reputable than another...I don't want to send away all my t-shirts and have them come back all mangled and not looking good :-( Ideally I would just do it myself but I'm pretty sure I'd mess that up too and it would take roughly 324 years for me to complete, at which point a t-shirt quilt would be of little use to me. I just have so many UVA/XO/life t-shirts in my closet and they have sentimental value so I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't want to keep them around either because I don't wear them...so I thought a t-shirt quilt would be a good idea...thoughts?

This morning...

I was driving to work and I pulled up behind a truck that had a bunch of new cars on it (you know what I mean? Like when they're driving to the car dealership?) and I found myself wondering, are those cars autobots or decepticons?

Yep.

Is Olivia Newton-John a XO?

Is it just me or is she carrying red & yellow balloons and a white carnation?

Quotes from what I'm currently reading

It'll probably be a little bit before I review this book (Olive Kitteridge) on the book review blog, but I wanted to share these quotes that I've particularly enjoyed so far (I forgot to record page numbers, but they'd be different in every edition anyway):

"'I'll stay with you.' And so they sat. The lamp from the side table threw a dim and serious light throughout the silent room. She took a deep, quiet breath and thought how she did not envy those young girls in the ice cream shop. Behind the bored eyes of the waitresses handing out sundaes there loomed, she knew, great earnestness, great desires, and great disappointments; such confusion lay ahead for them, and (more wearisome) anger; oh, before they were through, they would blame and blame and blame, and then get tired, too,"

"Sometimes, like now, Olive had a sense of just how desperately hard every person in the world was working to get what they needed. For most, it was a sense of safety in the sea of terror that life increasingly became. People thought love would do it, and maybe it did. But even if, thinking of the smoking Ann, it took three different kids with three different fathers, it was never enough, was it?"

"As she stepped out of the school that night, into the wintry air, walking with the talking Henry to their car in the far parking lot, she had the sensation that she had been seen. And she had not even known she'd felt invisible."

Random? Check.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Do you remember when you were little and you thought to yourself, I can't wait to be a grownup so that I can stay up as late as I want and I can eat entire rolls of raw cookie dough and I can...I don't know, do other dumb shit your parents said you couldn't do when you were little? And now you're "grown up" and eating an entire roll of cookie dough makes you sick and you like to be in bed at 10 pm so that you don't feel like crap the next morning? We all know that I may or may not have children, but if I do, I may just let them do all that stupid stuff when they're little and their young bodies can handle the insanity. What do you think? Don't let me babysit your children.
2. Not sure if it's only sold seasonally, but the Apple Spice Bread Mix from Trader Joe's is pretty good. Really easy to make.
3. I liked last Sunday way more than this Sunday. Why? Because it was followed by Sunday part deux, also known as Memorial Day. Sigh.

You probably don't care, BUT...

the book blog has been updated recently - now i'm only behind by 4 books!! :-)

Don't provoke me.

You know those yellow signs that people hang in their car windows that say "Baby on Board"?

Really, it just makes me want to tailgate them.

Someday I'm going to get a sign made that looks just like that sign but says "Babies are the WORST."

...except I'm pretty sure that would lead to my car getting keyed, and since my car IS my baby...hmmm...maybe I need to think this one through more.

I know it's Tuesday, but I think I'm still having a case of the Mondays, which I think is valid considering that yesterday was a holiday.

Really awesome quotes about running

I found this blog today - check it out for really awesome motivational quotes (most specifically related to running).

This was my favorite:
“Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or an antelope – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – African Proverb

I think I'm the lion.

Lyrics I'm liking lately

Just wanted to share with you:
(from "Forever" by Drake, Kanye, Eminem, etc...)

"last name Ever, first name Greatest,
Like a sprained ankle, boy I ain't nothin' to play with"

"life is such a roller coaster, then it drops
but what should I scream for? this is my theme park"

"he's wondering if he should spit this slow,
fuck no, go for broke"

and i know people think it's weird that i listen to so much hip-hop/rap, but i just love the lyrics. i think rappers are better lyricists than other types of musicians (except maybe John Mayer) - I feel like people in other genres of music rely too much on their melodies and don't worry about what their music is actually saying. and i find the messages/themes in rap to be much more motivational than those in other types of music. honestly, a lot of the time, i really don't want to hear about other people being in love. it just makes me want to punch someone or vomit.

yep, happy monday!

So that we can never race "In Memory of" again.

If you don't like it when I get all soap-boxy and emotional and passionate about things, this probably isn't going to be the post for you. Feel free to check back another time.

So after I did the Columbus half marathon on May 1st (and felt like ass) I said I was going to stop racing for a while.

Then I didn't.

I found out the Race for the Cure was on May 15th downtown and I had to do it. I just think it's such an important race, such an important cause - and I knew it would be a great race to experience.

My friend Katie's mother Mary passed away from breast cancer in September of 2001. I ran in memory of her, and when I wrote her name on the paper that I pinned to the back of my shirt, I just felt so...shattered by the whole thing. I don't know anything about cancer research...but I have hope that we're going to see a cure in our lifetime.

I know I've mentioned this before, but my mom had ovarian cancer when I was in high school, and my aunt had breast cancer. They both survived (thank God) - but it means that the chances of me getting either breast or ovarian cancer (or both, really) are greater than those of the average woman. And that scares the hell out of me. But being downtown yesterday with 50,000 other people rallying to support research to find the cure for breast cancer - there was just so much hope and so much joy and spirit there.

Right before they started the race, two trolleys full of survivors drove through the group of participants who had lined up and waved out the windows at everyone. I cried. I kept thinking to myself yesterday, did I want to get up at 6:30 and drive downtown to run 3.1 miles? No. But do I want to wake up in 20 years and have breast cancer without a cure? Hell no. I'm blessed to have the opportunity to be able to do things like that now - I have to do them. There's no other choice.

The race started and everyone took off - there were bands every half mile and it was just such a celebration of survivors more than anything else, and celebration of the hope that we're going to find a cure. One of the bands was a drum line - a bunch of kids from a local high school - and they were so badass. Then - in the last 1/2 mile of the race - two straight city blocks were lined with big tough dudes and their motorcycles, revving the engines. It was. So. Cool. I high fived five of the guys.

I've done four races in the last 3 months and - even counting the two half marathons - this was the most emotional and inspiring. It just left me wanting to go attack life.

As for what attacking life entails, I'm not quite sure yet. But stay tuned. I'm sure it'll be entertaining.

This is way less important than the general message of the race and the experience of the race itself, but I was also proud because I broke 30 minutes for my 5k time - which I know isn't a big deal for some people, but it was for me! I finished in 29:49 according to my sports watch. Official times yet to be posted.

Passionate diatribe over.

In general "Whatever, I do what I want" news:
I'm getting back into riding horses. I used to ride when I was little - a lot. Like, for years. I leased a horse for one summer and was basically a barn rat (when I wasn't being a pool rat). Always there. Hanging out with my horse. I probably didn't smell very good that summer. Anyway a few weeks ago I decided that I missed riding and I looked into local barns to see if I could start taking lessons again - really all I want is access to a horse. So I went for my first lesson back yesterday and it was really fun - it was a gorgeous day (thanks, Ohio for the top-down weather the past couple of days) and I rode a thoroughbred named Oliver. He had a bit of attitude - wasn't really all that into trotting and would stop to walk whenever he damn well pleased, but let's be real, I have a bit of attitude and like to do whatever I want too, so we got along well. We just did a bit of walking and trotting around the outdoor ring and I got my posting rhythm back. Next time, getting back into cantering...and maybe at some point I'll get back into jumping again. All I really want is access to the horse and the barn and a trail - I want to take a horse out once a week or so and just chill the eff out, get away from everything. So. That was cool. I'll take a picture of Oliver next week to show you (or you can see him here).

And I saw the Batmobile driving around Columbus twice yesterday. No joke. I was out in New Albany picking my friend Heather up to go downtown to dinner (we were looking for men. We failed.) and the freaking Batmobile drove by me at a stoplight. My phone was connected to the stereo so I couldn't whip it out and take a picture for evidence. Heather just laughed when I told her that I had seen the Batmobile outside her apartment, but THEN we were sitting at dinner downtown and IT DROVE BY AGAIN. I started screaming and pointing and waving my hands. After she finished having a heart attack Heather turned around and saw it outside. And I was validated. As to why the Batmobile is driving around Columbus...no idea (I just googled Columbus Batmobile and came up with nothing good). This is the version it looked like:


And I'm out.

I am such a proud mama

I was watching Modern Family the other night (as all awesome people do) and lo and behold, what was Haley wearing, but ONE OF MY SKIRTS! She was wearing our awesome printed underlayer denim skirt from Hollister! I was so proud!

I mean, granted, she was wearing it in an episode where she got sloppy drunk, but whatever. See below!!So much pride!

I know I complain about my job (a lot) but it is really satisfying when you see something that you worked really hard on looking cute on someone!

Another conversation between myself and Heather

So I have this totally blinged out case for my iPhone - the entire thing is covered in hot pink rhinestones. I love it. It's hilarious. Not many people get that it's meant to be ironic. But it is.

Anyway I dropped it yesterday and one of the corners of the case cracked off, so now it looks even trashier than it did in the first place, and I have to replace it.

So I went to www.blingblingcases.com (no, i'm not kidding) to look for a new phone cover...and then that led me to www.letscrystalit.com where I could DESIGN MY OWN PHONE COVER. MADE OF CRYSTALS.

So then this happened (via e-mail):
heather: your case should be "B$"...and then have them draw an accurate representation of your face underneath.

me:...in crystal. i'd be winking.

heather: obvi. and there should be a twinkle in your eye (the open one). although that would be hard to represent since your entire face would be made out of crystals.

me: yeah, i mean there would be a twinkle in my FACE. my face would be one giant twinkle.

heather: you are a giant twinkle.

me: that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me

heather: it was supposed to be read as if it was shouted in an angry loud aggressive voice.

me: nope, that's not what happened.

end scene.

It was a Bridget Jones moment.

So I was e-mailing with my high school best friend yesterday and she recommended that I read this book that she was also reading - called In the Meantime by some lady whose name starts with an I. I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment.

So anyway after work yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble (let's be real, I was just looking for an excuse to drive around with the top down on a sunny day in the high 70s) and bought the book. Then I went to CPK and enjoyed dinner alone while reading the first few pages of the book.

And then I realized.

I am a 26 year old single woman who sits at restaurants eating dinner by herself reading self-help books about what you're to do "in the meantime" before you find true love.

And I burst out laughing. GAaaaaaaaaahhhhhHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!

In case you haven't noticed

...which I hope you haven't because it keeps me from looking like a giant idiot...

I have terrible taste in men. Like, awful. I'm just not attracted to good guys. When they're nice people and they treat me well and they show me normal amounts of affection, I get bored and tired of the whole thing and I treat them badly, eventually breaking things off with them in favor of finding the next distraction.

So I'm trying to retrain myself and change my taste and I was wondering - do you think that's possible? Can we CHANGE what we find attractive?

Then I thought about my eating habits - when I was younger I would eat Super Sized value meals at McDonald's (I'm not kidding), sweets all the time, drink at least 1 Coke every day (as Octavio would say, "full fat" Coke, not Diet Coke), and never really think about anything whole grain. All white bread & pasta, all the time. Occasionally I would eat a chicken breast, but even then, it was breaded and coated in butter. At the time, it didn't bother me, but now just thinking about ingesting that kind of crap literally makes me sick - just thinking about it.

As I've grown older and changed my habits, I've stopped eating that kind of stuff - and the thing is, I don't even want to eat it. I mean, sure, occasionally nothing will cure the itch like some McDonald's fries, but generally speaking, I crave veggies, whole grains, water, etc.

Do you think I can change my taste in men too, as all the crap I'm currently ingesting is making me sick?

And if so, HOW?

Food for thought. Pun intended.