Carina's Running Career

Resting

2012-02-10T11:35:00.000-06:00

My ortho's PA is worried that since the pain is pretty much right on my ankle bone, I may be headed toward a stress fracture. I'm allowed to walk as long as there's no pain, and run w/o weights for a week. And he suggested I do bleachers. Ugh. He's really good because he addresses injuries while trying very hard not to compromise your fitness. He said bleachers would be good for strengthening my quads but with less impact on my ankle.

He thinks giving it a rest for a week or two will be all I need to do. Whew. He said I can ice and take tylenol, but the important thing is really to let it recover.

So I'm walking tomorrow and then maybe taking off Sunday.

As for the rest of the week, how conveeeeeenient that I have to lay off right before Mardi Gras, where I plan to eat and drink until I feel ill on at least one of the days! Haha. Guess it lines up pretty well -- now I won't have to wake up and try to run off the indulgences, doctor's orders!

Sore or Injured?

2012-02-09T09:44:00.001-06:00

Something is wonky in my left ankle and I can't tell if it's something to worry about or not.

I ran last night, 5 miles at the social run. I planned on going very slow and easy. I was running without any weight. While I'd think that running without weight would make me run faster than I used to because I'm getting stronger with the weight, that is not the case. My body is adapting to a slower stride and pace, and it's slowing me down whether I wear the weight or not.

Anyway, Wednesday nights are my one run each week without the weight. So I ran the first 2 miles pretty easy, and then I had volunteered to lead the group going 5 miles, so when we got to the water stop at 2, I called out to see who there wanted to do 5, and several people joined in to run out another half mile. But since those people were already hanging out at the 2 mile water stop, that meant that they were running faster than my friend and I were. So we picked up the pace and ran a fairly quick 3 more miles.

By about mile 4, I was having some pain on the inside of my left ankle. But I never fell or rolled it or anything, so I have no idea why.

I was able to finish up the run, and went out for Mexican food and beer with a bunch of people and pretty much forgot all about my ankle.

This morning I could feel it when I woke up, but I went to my group run anyway. It was 5 miles and at a very easy pace, so I figured I'd be okay.

I could feel my ankle in less than a quarter mile after the start, but it never got too painful. I was able to finish the 5 miles feeling alright, and I got home and iced it for a little while.

By the time I got to work though, I could feel something wonky in there.

The odd thing is that at boot camp yesterday, we did a lot of exercises in the side plank position. We were doing one-armed presses, and we were doing something where you're in a side plank and you just raise and lower your hips (if you're looking at the exercise, if you're doing it, it's more like moving your hips side to side). Several years ago, something in my ankle or calf hurt a lot and I blamed it on those side plank exercises.

It's the only thing I can think to blame. I really hope that's what's causing the pain, because I would expect that kind of soreness to go away in a few days, as opposed to a real injury, which would be quite inconvenient!

Either way, I think I'm going to opt for a rest day tomorrow, and maybe on Sunday as well. I haven't taken a day completely off in a couple weeks, and yesterday was a double workout (boot camp in the morning, social run in the evening), so maybe this is just a little warning sign, my body waving a caution flag.

I'll honor it!

Just to be safe, I made an appointment with my ortho's PA for tomorrow morning...

Nothing to Report

2012-02-08T07:42:00.000-06:00

Just don't have much to write about, and haven't for a few days.

Work is work. I've felt completely buried for the last couple weeks, and that's kind of a beat-down. But as of yesterday, things are a bit more under control. I have two major headache cases to work on today, but if I could actually make progress on them (as opposed to getting derailed on some emergencies...), I'd be thrilled.

I'm stoked for vacation next week, though it's not really vacation. We're going to visit our best friends (separately, first going to see his best friend for a couple days, then mine for a couple days) for Mardi Gras. But I'm not taking vacation, so I'm going to be working during the day each weekday. In some ways, that will work out very well. First, hopefully, I can work on a few long-standing projects without distraction and really make some major headway. Second, since during the week we'll be seeing hubby's buddy, it will give them some time together. I am assuming his wife will be working too. I've only met her once before and she was very distracted that week (they had a friend of hers in town and he didn't speak more than about a dozen words of English and was very demanding, so she was translating and explaining constantly). It'll be nice to get to hang out with her more. But I have to get a lot of work done too!

Part of my blah or quiet feeling may be this weekend, looming large on my radar.

Saturday is going to be almost wholly consumed walking. I am going to attempt to walk 27 miles, the longest amount of time on my feet in my entire life probably -- even counting days in Europe or something where I tend to walk almost constantly. I am planning to start at 6 a.m. and I won't be done until about 3, maybe later. Yikes! I'm nervous about what to eat and when, and I'm still trying to nail down the schedule with friends so I won't be walking alone.

Sunday is going to be a group run for 8 miles if my feet survive the day Saturday. But after the run, life is going to suck. I have to find a dress for Mardi Gras. I have two possibilities (one worn before), but I'm not even sure either will fit. I need to try them on this morning (remember what I said Monday about procrastinating on tasks I don't like??), but I have a feeling I'm going to be stuck shopping on Sunday. Ugh. And then packing so I'm ready to go. I want to finish the packing on Sunday so that Monday night I can watch the Bachelor, and Tuesday night we can do whatever we decide to do for Valentine's Day.

And did I mention that last week Wed night at the social run I found out that one of my favorite occasional running buddies is moving away at the end of Feb? It stinks. He's a fun guy, always game for a run followed by a beer. My husband jokes that this guy only runs alone or with beautiful women, never with guys, which is a funny observation. So I told him I'd cancel my plans for tonight so we could run together again, then our last run will be 2 weeks from now -- since we're on vacation next week. I hate when people I like move away, even if they're pursuing great opportunities. And he's moving somewhere I'm not inclined to visit, and I already have a cousin there, so it's not like it's a bonus free place to stay. Sigh. Life keeps going, I'll make new running friends, sigh...

So that's a whole lot of nothing exciting in my world!

FMM: Habits

2012-02-06T07:54:00.002-06:00

I had another very active weekend.

Friday we went to lunch at the sculpture museum here for an alumni event for my grad school, then I had a decent afternoon of working from home (super-productive morning), and we got ready for a dinner party. Second dinner party of the year. We had a couple over and they brought their son who was about 10-12. And we had a friend of mine over, though he left around 11, having just flown back from Rio yesterday and still having a lot of jet lag. But among the 5 adults, we somehow drank 4 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of beer. Yikes!

That alone was enough to make me want to spend hours outside Saturday doing something active!

Saturday we dropped off my car because my anti-lock brake light has been coming on. From there, we headed out to suburban hell. But there's a big lake out there with trails. I was seriously feeling repulsed on some levels -- all these people in all these cars, parking in all these parking lots for all these chain stores. It was kind of disgusting. I have no idea what my problem was. I guess I sometimes forget that Dallas has all that. We live really close to downtown and we have a little bubble of about 10-15 miles in any direction from our house and we very rarely go outside of that unless we're going to the airport. Heck, I tend to stay within a much smaller radius than that -- I go a couple miles south to downtown to workout, about 5 miles north from our house to go to work, a couple miles north from our house to run, and we usually go out in our neighborhood, but occasionally will head about 10-15 miles north or a couple miles south. It was just very blah until we got to the lake. And even at the lake, hiking on the trails. You'd be walking and hear a car horn or a plane overhead. Ugh.

I'll have to post later about our first day of walking on trails. We both survived but one of us fell. And it wasn't me. I rolled my ankle, but not badly. But I learned that I am a lot less balanced wearing my pack. I'm glad I'm spending some time practicing.

After about 10k of walking, we went out for lunch in the burbs to wait until my car was done, then came home to nap and clean. Then yesterday I went running (wearing the vest) with my half-marathon training group. I really should have added a few more miles on to that so I'll be ready for the marathon distance, but oh well. But post-run, we had a running friend's belated birthday breakfast celebration, then I spent most of the day working on learning Chinese and organizing some random things in the house (bottom of the china hutch and the linens drawer). Nice weekend. Didn't do anything special for the superbowl -- actually watched very little of it. Usually I like the commercials, but they weren't doing anything for me, so we ended up watching a DVR'd episode of Southland. I'm so glad hubby isn't a sports junkie -- it would work if I was too, but I'm just not.

So, since it's Monday, figured I'd do another Friend Making Monday topic post.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Habits

Are you proactive, or do you procrastinate? It depends on what it is, but for something I don't want to do, I procrastinate though I'm always trying to change my ways. One of my least favorite work-tasks is reviewing (and approving or rejecting charges on) invoices from defense counsel we hire to defend suits in various states. I don't mind this on 99% of my cases, but exactly 3 attorneys always seem to have problems. Bills are way too high, blowing budgets, etc. And when I have one of those invoices where I know I'm going to have to reject a bunch of charges and send an email explaining why this isn't acceptable, I put it off as long as I can. I'm trying to be better about just doing it, but it's hard...

Do you eat breakfast everyday? If so, what’s a typical meal like? Yes, twice! I eat a granola bar before I workout, then for my official breakfast (a couple hours later), I make a sandwich with a whole wheat English muffin, two veggie breakfast sausage patties and a piece of cheese, and then I drink a smoothie made of spinach, frozen fruit and soy milk -- and during the week I remember to take my vitamins with breakfast usually.

How much time do you spend watching TV on an average day? There's really only 1 show I'm watching right now (The Bachelor), so that's 2 hours per week, but I DVR it so it's a bit less than 2 hours. I also usually watch about 5 minutes around 5 a.m. while trying to confirm the weather before I go exercise. But I also usually turn the TV on in the morning as soon as I get home from working out and don't turn it off until I leave for work. I don't really watch, but it's on in the background. So my answer is probably that the TV is turned on for about 2.5 hours per day here on average (about 1.5 in the morning, and about 1 in the evening).

Do you talk on the phone, or do you prefer e-mail and/or text messages? It depends. For work, I always prefer email -- I like having the documentation. With hubby, we usually text during the day if we need to communicate about something. With friends who don't live nearby, I'd say the phone. With friends who do live nearby, I like email to set up logistics and most conversations happen in person.

Do you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening? Morning every day (though sometimes I'll take off on Friday, Saturday or Monday) no matter what. During a yoga challenge, evenings too. But now that I'm on a yoga break, I'd say I work out about 2 nights per week too -- usually running with friends. I should add in a few more walks or something too, but oh well. Afternoon exercise is only on the weekends in the winter (and that replaces a morning workout).

Do you take time for yourself regularly? If so, how do you spend that time? I guess most everything I do is for me -- working, working out, socializing, cooking, reading, volunteering. No one makes me do any of that, I like my job and want to pay bills and buy things and travel and retire. I am pretty happy with how I spend a vast majority of my time. I guess sometimes I'll do things that hubby wants me to do, but that's usually something I want to do too. I'm struggling to think of something (other than maybe cleaning), that I've done lately that really wasn't something I wanted to do.

How often do you make your bed? The rule in our house is whoever gets up last makes the bed, so that means I make it every Sun, Mon, Tues, and sometimes on the other days, it just depends on hubby's work and workout schedule. It usually ends up being that I'm up first on Thursdays, but I tend to sleep later most days.

Do you plan meals? If so, how far in advance? About once a week when I make the grocery list, I try to plan 1-2 dinners for the week (and hopefully enough to yield leftovers), and then we're fairly flexible about what night we'll eat it. Usually my choices are 1 crockpot meal, so we eat that whatever day I have time in the morning, and sometimes I'll make 1 more elaborate weekend meal. And Sat nights are usually pasta with red sauce -- carb-load tradition. The exception is if we're entertaining, when I always plan the entire meal usually about 2 weeks in advance.

Do you wake up at the same time everyday? No, but I wake up at the same time on the same day each week. So every Tues and Thurs, I get up at 4:42. And every Sunday I get up at 4:55. And every Mon, Wed, Fri, I get up at 5:00. Saturdays are the only day that vary -- around 6 if I have a race, around 5 if I'm doing a long walk, around 8 or 9 if there's nothing in particular planned.

How often do you brush your teeth? In the morning at some point, and then before bed sometimes depending on what I ate and how tired I am. Once a day is a given, but beyond that, no guarantees.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to go to alltheweigh.com and link up in the comments!

Yoga's End

2012-02-01T11:32:00.002-06:00

The bottom line is that I felt like over the last couple weeks I basically had to choose what I wanted more: yoga or sex. That's not a good place to be. There just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day.

Seriously, this is an example of my time from last week Tuesday:

3:30 roll over as hubby's alarm goes off
4:15 roll over again as I hear the front door close as hubby leaves to go running
4:40 alarm to wake up
5:00 leave the house
5:15 start running with friends
[5:30 hubby leaves house for work]
6:45 get back home
6:45 breakfast, reading blogs, watching the news, showering, making lunch, getting ready for work
8:45 get to work
8:45 work all day, lunch at my desk with internet amusement or more work
5:45 change into yoga clothes, back to work for a bit longer
6:05 leave the office
6:20 arrive at yoga
6:30 yoga class
8:10 leave yoga studio
8:20 arrive home
8:20 make and scarf down dinner
8:45 shower
9:00 into bed exhausted, hubby already asleep

Ugh. So I had already kind of decided that when my month of yoga ended at the end of January, maybe I'd take a little break. I was barely seeing my husband and he was NOT happy about the 30 day challenge. I guess I should be glad he wants to be with me. Unfortunately, his schedule doesn't work for him to go to yoga with me often, but that wouldn't have helped -- his complaint was that we weren't seeing each other and talking enough.

I once read a post on a blog about how much Ironman training interferes with your relationships and sex life. I think a yoga challenge is probably a smaller version of that -- only a month, and not quite as many hours a day, but if you do the yoga in addition to a regular workout schedule, that's about 3 hours per day spent working out or driving to/from workouts.

I'm proud of myself for doing the 30 day challenge. I started Dec. 28 and officially ended Jan. 28 -- 30 classes in 31 days. I missed Dec. 29 and Jan. 6, but I did a double on my last day, Jan. 28. And of course I went on Jan. 29 too, just to round out the weekend, but that was it.

I already miss it so much, but oh, I like having more time at night too.

I feel like I'm already becoming less flexible, feeling more bloated, more stressed. But maybe that's all in my imagination. Yesterday was a stressful day at work, and probably would have been, even if I'd had yoga at night.

I feel like I made a lot of progress in the second month of doing Bikram almost daily. There were several postures where I felt like I wasn't even close in my first class, and then after two months, there was a major difference. If you know Bikram, these are the postures where I think I improved the most -- standing head to knee, standing separate leg stretching, triangle, toe stand, wind-removing, locust, and fixed firm. But I don't know if the names for the postures are the same at every studio.

I think I was proudest of fixed firm. In the first class, I thought it was ridiculous. I was not even close to having my hips on the floor, and I couldn't get close to going all the way back. Within a few classes, I could go back and get my shoulders on the floor. But the big breakthrough for me, believe it or not, was in the second set of my very last class -- my hips touched the floor while I was sitting up for the very first time. My hips had grazed the floor a few times while I was laying back, but they'd never been on the floor at the outset until the very last time. Crazy! It was like my body knew I wanted to do it right once.

Second proudest was probably standing separate leg stretching -- my forehead touched the floor solidly for the first time about a week before my last class. If you saw me do it, it wouldn't be so impressive -- my legs had to be about a mile apart for me to get that low, but I was happy to have done it.

In terms of benefits to doing it almost daily for 30 days:

No unintended pregnancies (haha, but seriously, in light of that birth control pill recall that was announced today, thank god there wasn't much time for sex!)

No illness the entire time -- and usually I get at least one cold in January, but nothing this year (it's also warmer though, so who knows about causation)

Sat up straighter at work (I noticed this) and better posture in general

No injuries while running, hard to say if this was because of yoga or not, but having just gotten going with the weighted running, I'm happy to be injury-free

Reduced soreness from strenuous exercise -- did yoga after the San Antonio marathon and after my first 18 mile weighted walk, both events that could have knocked me on my @ss for a few days, and I really think it helped

Better eating -- oddly enough, after class I'd be starving, but I never wanted to eat garbage then, just whole and healthy foods

Felt thinner, leaner, more toned. Didn't take measurements, and weight just seemed to be water weight, but I felt good!

Calmer. No joke. Hubby had a car accident during my last week of yoga, while I was in class, and when I finally spoke to him, he was surprised at how I reacted. The accident was unquestionably his fault. And I wrote before about how unsympathetic he was when I had my accident on Christmas day -- he actually said to me something to the effect of there being no such thing as an accident, just bad driving. And in my case he was right, I was driving too fast for conditions. And in his case, he was following too closely and made an unsafe lane change. Not an accident at all, just bad driving. And I think during non-yoga time, I probably would have given him some crap about it, but I just didn't. I've barely thought about it.

There you have it! 30 day challenge complete. I'd like to keep doing yoga about once a week, but I have to come up with a plan for that. Not sure how it will work since our Bikram studio doesn't have a good sporadic attendance plan. I may just pay for the regular months and not use it much, but I hate doing that because I'm cheap. I may try to do yoga at home. I may try other studios. But for this week, I'm just going to enjoy having a normal evening life again. Monday night I hung out at home after getting to work late. Last night hubby and I went out to dinner. Tonight is my return to the social run -- it's that time of year again, a bunch of social group runs leading up to my favorite 5k of the year (St. Pat's). Tomorrow night is Italian conversation group. Friday night we're having a dinner party at home. Saturday I'm taking my car in and hubby and I are going to try to walk/run on some trails (my very first time). Ahhh....

Work Sadness

2012-01-31T13:53:00.001-06:00

Man, first my Grandma, and now another downer post. Sorry. I'm still a generally happy person, just encountering sadness lately.

I don't want to talk specifically about work, but my husband and I have both noticed in the last week the saddest trend -- many adult victims of sexual violence have a history of being victims of sexual violence.

I'm dealing with an adult woman who is the victim of a recent sexual assault. Sad. But I just found out that she was first raped at age 7. I mentioned this to hubby and he said he was surprised I'd never noticed that before. I guess it's less that I hadn't noticed it, but more that I hadn't thought about it. He said he sees it all the time -- adult victims who've been victimized before.

It's such a horrible cycle. Some people are victimized again and again. I wonder what causes that. I would assume it has to be outside factors (it's not that these people (women) are particularly beautiful or anything), but is it? Do victims somehow subconsciously put themselves in positions to be victimized again? Are they more willing to tolerate that behavior? Does it all relate to economics? How can the cycle end? Or better yet, how can the cycle never begin? I just don't understand, and sometimes I remember to thank my lucky stars that I've never been victimized like that.

The statistics about domestic violence and sexual assault are scary of course, as pretty much everyone knows. I once had a relatively minor "domestic" incident with the guy I was dating when I was in high school -- we broke up immediately afterward and though I missed him, I knew better than to ever go back to him after that had happened. And the incident was really minor -- a shove, no injury resulted or anything, but I knew enough to walk away. And I guess technically I've probably been verbally or emotionally abused by some ex-boyfriend, but it seems that lots of juvenile relationships end with ugly things being said. I wouldn't count that, at least it's nothing compared to the physical sexual violence some women suffer, often beginning well before adulthood.

But I really wonder how this keeps happening. Is it common that someone is victimized repeatedly (meaning as a child, and then in a wholly unrelated incident(s) as an adult)? Or is it just that most the adult victims I encounter have this pattern? And for the few child victims I encounter (very rare), does this mean they are essentially doomed to a life of being victimized? Is it just women victimized as children who continue to be victimized while men victimized as children instead become victimizers? Why do these patterns persist?

Sad. I wish I could fix the world.

One of my ideas if I ever rule the world is to run criminal DNA checks on every single corpse so we can at least close down some open cases, though it's too late for justice. If only there were some way to stop these sad victimization cycles too.

FMM: Make-up Favorites

2012-01-30T07:43:00.000-06:00

I still have a heavy heart from the sad news this weekend, and it doesn't help that I'm sore for 4.5 hours of hot yoga on Sat and Sun, plus the half-marathon on Saturday. So I'm just feeling kind of blah. But it’s time for FMM! And I was surprised to see that this week’s topic is courtesy of Bella, perhaps the blog I've read the longest. If you haven't already, check out her blog,http://bellaonthebeach.wordpress.com/.

FMM: Makeup Favorites

Do you wear makeup everyday? If I'm going to work I do. I tend to skip it on days I'm working from home or weekends, unless we're going out to dinner or something. But all I usually wear is eyeliner, lipliner and lipstick. Almost never wear anything else. I wish I were confident and pretty enough to skip it all every day.
Does your routine change if you’re going out with friends/on a date/to a party? If it's something formal or a wedding, I put a bit more time into it and I actually wear mascara and stuff. But for just going out with friends, I stick with my usual routine -- eyeliner, lipliner, lipstick.
Are you loyal to one brand, or do you use different brands for different things? Different brands for different things. I think it's Revlon eyeliner and lipliner, and then I wear two lipsticks most days -- Mary Kay and Trish McAvoy.
Do you wear primer/concealer? If so, what’s your favorite kind? No.
What’s your favorite brand of foundation? Don't really have one.
Do you use blush and/or bronzer? If so, what’s your favorite kind? No, don't usually wear either. I have Trish blush that I'll wear on the rare occasion I use it -- about 4 times a year maybe...
Do you wear eye shadow/eye liner? If so, what’s your favorite kind? Revlon eyeliner seems to last the longest of the pencils, and I don't usually take the time to do liquid.
What’s your favorite kind of mascara? Lancome, and I wear this maybe more like once a month, but it's still pretty rare.
Lipstick? Lip gloss? Both? Favorite? Lipstick most days -- as I said, Mary Kay underneath, Trish on top. And I wear tons of chapstick -- whenever I'm working out and before bed.
Do you wear nail polish regularly? If so, share a few of your favorite brands/colors. No. I usually get pedicures in the summer, but I get very lazy in the winter. As for finger nails, I usually only have them done when I'm in a wedding.
How do you remove your makeup at the end of the day? Uh-oh. No, it usually fades off and doesn't seem to be there by the time I leave work, so I just don't bother. I go through phases where I try to be good about taking it off at night, but I'm usually just exhausted and I'm lucky to get my contacts out.
Do you feel prettier when you’re wearing makeup? I suppose, but I probably feel most confident while working out or right afterward, and no make-up then. I have fairly complicated feelings about make-up, and think it's better to be happy with yourself the way you are, which makes me not want to wear make-up. But I give in, and wear it all the time. Peer pressure. I wish no one wore it.
Do you have any beauty tips that you could pass along? No, I'm excited to read other responses to get some tips. I guess my best tip is lots of water and lots of sweat -- makes your skin better, which always makes make-up look better, and maybe less necessary.

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions! Don’t forget to say hi to Bella and a few other bloggers! And also be sure to come back and leave a link to your FMM post in the comments! Happy Monday friends!

Sadly Memorable Half Marathon

2012-01-28T13:18:00.001-06:00

This morning was a half marathon out at the lake where I run pretty regularly, and I decided to do it with my local bestie and wear my pack with the 35 pound vest inside.

She said she'd stay with me no matter what, but I worried that we wouldn't finish within the time limit. The course closes after 3.5 hours, which is about a 16 min/mile pace.

Last weekend, when I did my long walk with the pack (9 miles), followed by a long walk with the vest (9 miles), my average pace was slower than that. Actually, I don't think I had any sub-16 miles.

But today I thought I would try to jog some. It was going to be my first time jogging with the pack, so I wanted to be careful. Bestie was on board and we decided we'd start running/jogging each mile, go for as long as it felt okay, then walk the remainder of the mile, and start running again at the next mile marker.

We basically followed our plan. There were a couple places where the water stop was right by the mile marker, so we would delay our run until we finished our waters, but we did it.

I was shocked at how well it went. For the first several miles, we basically ran about half a mile, then walked the rest. There were probably a couple in there where we only ran .3 or .4 and then walked, but mostly we were around .5.

But by about mile 5, we were picking it up. The pace on the running was slowing down a little, but the runs were getting longer. We would be running about .7 every time.

We finally got to mile 12 and we started our run, and we just didn't stop. There was a monster hill at the end (coincidentally, a monster downhill right at the start, which was how we hatched the run/walk plan, b/c I wanted to take advantage of that downhill!). We hit mile 13 on the hill and kept right on going.

It was awesome! I don't think my mood was particularly good, but my bestie can talk! I got confused about the math a couple times, which is rare for me during a run, but it worked out and we even finished with a little bit of a cushion on the time.

I'm hurting. Muscles are all fine, sore as expected. But major pain in my lower back. Chafing type pain. Since I had guessed we'd be walking a lot, I decided to wear pants because it was cold (well, Dallas cold) and windy. Well, good plan in terms of temps, but overall, poor planning. I didn't think about what might happen wearing these particular pants with the backpack. There was a tiny little zipper pocket on the back. Right where the bottom of the pack's frame hit my lower back. Ugh. It seemed to rub me raw. I was afraid there wouldn't be any skin left when I finished and my entire upper @ss would be a bloody mess. Bestie looked at it afterward and said there was no broken skin but a very wide and long welt (I'm guessing 3x8 inches). It will kill when I take a shower, which I'm going to postpone as long as humanly possible (oh, my poor husband!).

But I finished and was so excited to have done 13.1 miles with the pack. And doing it with a friend made it so much fun. We crack ourselves up.

Unfortunately, as soon as I got home, I looked at my phone. Lots of missed calls. Hubby and Dad. Hubby had actually called Bestie while she was driving us home b/c he wanted to make sure we were okay and had finished the race. And since it was race day and it had been many hours since we talked, I wasn't surprised to see those missed calls. But Dad? Calling at 8:15 on a weekend morning? Probably not good.

Indeed, Dad was calling to tell me Grandma had died at 2:30 this morning.

She had been doing okay physically, but she's had Alzheimer's for the last few years and it was hard. She forgot almost everything, even during the course of a short conversation. So I know she's in a better place, and she had a long full life. But it's sad. Oddly memorable half marathon.

Not sure if we're going home for the funeral. Will have to talk to my boss and look at flights. Sigh. Not what I want to be doing, but I guess it was inevitable. Sigh...

Actually, updating later, I forgot that there aren't any funerals up there in the winter! Can't bury anyone in solid ground. So I'll probably wait until whenever they have the service in the spring to go home. Wishing I could have been there to see her again though, and wishing I could be there now to hug my family and reminisce with them.

Break in the Yoga Streak

2012-01-27T13:00:00.000-06:00

I knew it was coming, but yesterday finally ended my yoga streak. I had gone every single day, beginning on Saturday, January 7, until Wednesday, January 25.

And then yesterday, I got up in the morning for a short run with my group, went to work and worked all day, then went out with colleagues to dinner. And drank and ate way too much.

No yoga.

We went to Del Frisco's for dinner. Sometimes it's tough being a vegetarian when everyone seems to think steak restaurants are all the rage. At some of my fave steak places, they have amazing veggie sides.

Nothing at Del Frisco's wowed me. The asparagus comes with almonds on it, so I couldn't eat that. I got a baked potato that was very average. The mushrooms were fairly blah. The whipped potatoes were pretty good. The lobster mac and cheese (without the lobster of course) was probably the best thing, but it was a little runnier than I would have liked.

But aside from the meal, I was really happy with my appetizer (asparagus tempura), my salad (wedge with blue cheese, no bacon), my dessert (lemon layer cake, still have some left-over for an afternoon treat today), and my drinks (a raspberry martini, followed by an off-menu pineapple martini, followed by a blackberry ginger martini, followed by lots of good red wine).

So after all that food, it ended up being a late night, so I skipped boot camp this morning in favor of sleep, and I've been insanely productive today while working from home, despite taking a couple hours off in the morning to go to grandparents and godparents day at my godson's preschool.

But I miss yoga. I feel bloated, swollen, heavy, and tired. Usually the opposite of how I feel when I'm getting my regular dose of yoga.

This is the last week of yoga though for a while, so I should get used to it I guess. Either way, looking forward to this afternoon's class!

Frustration

2012-01-25T13:41:00.013-06:00

Frustrating attempt to do something good today.

Blood drive at work, so I went to donate. I'm a "universal donor" so I really should give more often.

I was a little nervous about having to list where I'd travelled outside the US and Canada in the last 3 years, particularly since Turkey and Russia are on that list and I didn't know if either of those would cause problems.

Turns out it's fine to give blood if you've recently been to Russia, I didn't even have to identify the cities we visited to have it clear (but in Greece and Turkey I did).

I'm not completely clear on Greece. A trip to Athens allows you to still donate, but Fira, Thira, Santorini wasn't listed (I couldn't remember what the island's name was in English! I think Santorini, and I think Fira is Greek and Thira is Italian, but either way, I checked all three, not listed). So I told the woman who was screening me that I thought it would count as "Ionian Islands" and you're clear to give blood if you've been there.

And it's fine to give blood if you've recently been to Turkey, or at least Istanbul -- since I had to indicate where, presumably the whole country isn't clear.

So I was all set. Good BP, good hemoglobin. Selected my donation arm, survived the stick, blood started flowing. I tried to do some reading for work.

They came to mess with the needle a couple times and just said they'd let me go, even though it was slow. I wouldn't be setting any donation speed records. No big deal.

So I sat, squeezed the ball, sat, squeezed the ball. Eventually it turns out my blood clotted in the needle so I gave less than a full unit and they had to pitch it.

Turns out if you donate less than the full unit, all that you donate is garbage. And once the blood has stopped flowing, they can't just hook you back up to the bag to finish filling it using a different vein or arm or something.

Useless. I should have asked if they could try pumping it back into me, or, just to freak them out, since I read Twilight last year, I should have asked if I could just have it to drink. But really, I wish they could have just made a small incision on my belly and poured it back in.

Major frustration. I am planning to end my yoga streak tonight that I started Jan. 7 (since I have a work dinner tomorrow night and can't attend yoga anyway), and now I'm probably going to have a crappy class because they took blood but not enough for it to be of any use to them. I could handle a crappy yoga class if at least I felt like I had done something to help someone else. But it was all for naught.

And now I don't think I can give again for about 4 years, since we're planning to go to China in the fall and two of the cities we're visiting aren't on the "clear" list.

But after this wasted effort, sadly, I'm not really inclined to do it again even when I'm cleared again.

My Most Active Weekend Ever

2012-01-24T07:18:00.005-06:00

My body is aching but I feel so good! I can't believe how much stuff I did this past weekend.

Friday I started with boot camp, followed immediately by 90 mins of yoga. Then a day of work, volunteering for a race at a running store, and then more work, going out to dinner with friends (and their INCREDIBLY poorly behaved but cute and bilingual kids). Seriously, their 3 year old probably speaks Italian at about my level, and he also knows some Arabic and English of course. We ate pizza with them and then went out for fro-yo.

Saturday morning I was up dark and early for my first walk with my pack. I decided to put the weighted vest into the pack and carry it that way. So I was actually carrying more than 35 pounds.

It hurt. The plan was to walk 18 miles with the pack (and then I'll do 27 miles on two other Saturdays closer to the marathon). Yikes. Not a brilliant decision on my part, especially since Saturday was my absolute first time wearing the pack.

I've gotten lots of experience wearing my vest that weighs 35 pounds. I've been running with it and have gotten up to running a 10k without stopping while wearing it. And I'm certainly a lot slower than running without a vest, but I'm not as slow as I expected. I'd guess it slows me down about 2-3 minutes (more 3 than 2) per mile. But the vest is fairly well distributed, and after I got used to it, it hasn't been so bad.

The pack is tough. It doesn't have a waist or a chest strap, just one strap over each shoulder (typical military issue). My shoulders hurt so much, and my lower back hurt too. The pack kind of hit my lower back/upper butt the whole time.

Our local lake is just over 9 miles around, so I was able to swing by my car once in the middle. I started off walking with a friend, then dropped her at her car and picked up another friend who'd been dropped off there. Walked with her for about 5 or 6 more miles, then she got picked up and my hubby got dropped off. He walked with me for several more miles, including the point where I hit my car.

There was just no way I could walk another 9 miles with the pack, so he helped me take the pack off and I put the vest on instead. It felt better, but by then I was already getting pretty tired of walking. It had been hours. Usually if you run around the lake, it goes so fast, but walking is a whole different story.

Hubby and I kept walking, then my local bestie met us. We all walked together, and along the way, another friend, her husband and their 2 kids came to a park at the lake to say hi as we walked by, so we got to stop and chat with them a little. Then we walked to hubby's car and left him there, then we walked another couple miles and picked up another friend, and the 3 of us finished it off.

By the last few miles, I was sore and feeling silly. We were laughing a lot and both of them did a great job of distracting me from the task at hand. We sat down for my 5th break and as we sat, my favorite running coach of all time happened to run past, so she stopped and chatted with us for a long time. I had a lot of trouble when I got back up. Mostly my feet. It felt like the bottoms of my feet were blistering or chafing.

But we made it! 18 miles and change. Way more hours than I've ever been on my feet before. Slower than even my slowest marathon. Not a single bit of running and not a single step alone.

I got home and put my feet up for a while. Hubby made me lunch and I scarfed it down and napped a little.

Then, though I really wasn't sure about it, I went to yoga. It was another tough class for me -- mostly because it hurt so much to stand on my feet. I ended up sitting out 2 postures completely (triangle and one of the spine series). And I took it easy in a lot of the others, but I did it. Another 90 minutes of exercise.

I got home and fell asleep in the bathtub before 8:00, I was completely exhausted. Thankfully I guess I don't live alone so he woke me up before I drowned.

Then Sunday morning I was planning to run with my group for 6 miles with the vest, and then head over to a 5k race and do that with the vest too. Another 9 miles.

I woke up and thought there was just no way. I considered just sleeping in, figuring they could run without me. But part of a running group is that everyone shows up.

So I dragged myself up. Still had some pain on the bottoms of my feet when I was walking on carpet (hard floors were fine), and the back of one of my knees hurt (biceps femoris area). But nothing too bad, just sore and stiff.

Like a somewhat sane person, I decided to run the 6 miles with the group without the vest. Whew! Old me would have put on the vest and soldiered through, possibly injuring myself. Running without the vest felt much better. I haven't run without the vest in so long that it felt strange. I wouldn't say it was easy though, even though I ran at my "with vest" slower pace.

By the time I was done with 6 miles, I was glad I'd gone for the run, but there was absolutely no way I was going to head out to do a 5k afterward. Not even a chance.

Instead I went home, chilled for a little while, and then went for yoga again. My feet were still a little sore, but I basically did everything that I'd normally do.

And then planted myself back on couch Sunday at noon and that was it. I didn't think I was ever going to move again.

Those 30 hours were intense in terms of exercise! 18 miles walking, 6 miles running, and 3 hours of heated yoga. Holy crap! Who am I??

Thrilled to have gotten 9 miles with the pack over the weekend, and 9 more miles with the vest. When I walk again in 3 weeks, I'm going to try to wear the pack for 2 loops and then wear the vest for the third one. And when I do my third and final walk, I'll try to wear the pack the whole time. And hopefully I'll have a waist strap that alleviates some of the pain.

And thrilled to have continued the yoga streak. I've now gone every single day since Jan. 7. Not a ton, but not bad. I am definitely taking a day off of yoga this week Thurs. since I have a work dinner that night and am running with friends in the morning (and it's not Friday so I can't do yoga right afterward and then just work from home while I'm a sweaty mess).

I think that counts as my most active weekend ever. Even on weekends where I've done a marathon, it's still not that many hours of activity. I suppose when I did the MS150 bike rides in high school (my whole family participated, my parents took turns pulling my little brothers in a biking stroller thing), I was technically active for more hours. We'd usually do the century loop on the first day (100 miles), then ride 70 the next day. And I never rode particularly fast, so I guess that was probably technically more hours of activity over 2 days than I did this past weekend, but this weekend wins for my adult life!

Crazy to think that I'll have a couple more weekends before the marathon where I'll actually do even more. It's like my weekend days are being converted into really long exercise days and nothing else except the occasional movie on TV and load of laundry. Wow! Who'd have thunk it?...

FMM: Short Answers

2012-01-23T08:26:00.002-06:00

My weekend was crazy busy with physical activity and I'm still kind of worn out. So why not do a Friend Making Monday again?!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Short Answers

1. Mac or PC? I use PCs at work, so that's what I'm most comfortable using I guess. But it's not a strong preference.

2. Do you paint your own nails? Only in a pinch -- if they're painted and one has chipped or something. I'll occasionally do my own toenails, but I actually just haven't been into polish for the last few years. I had fills when we got married and I still notice in wedding photos how downright awesome my hands look, so maybe at one point I'll get back into having them done regularly.

3. Beach or mountains? I guess it would be cheating to say both or either since the whole point is to choose. I guess I'd go with beach right now. The town in Italy where we got engaged and married and where we want to live one day is on the beach and it's wonderful. But right now, I'd settle for pretty much any beach (or any mountain, but I didn't say that).

4. What’s the title of the book you’re currently reading? I'm almost always reading several books at once. But since one of my resolutions was to keep track of my reading, I need to be keeping a list. I'm reading two fiction books right now, which is weird for me. The Drop, by Michael Connellly, b/c he's my husband's favorite author and he loved the book and wanted me to read it. And Ursula Under, by Ingrid Hill, b/c it was a book club selection, but I didn't finish on time because I wasn't into it. But it's a very intriguing way of writing (it's kind of a modern story, but it keeps tracing back to this child's ancestors and telling parts of their stories, like someone in the 1600s who passes through a town and impregnates the innkeeper's daughter, and that child has a child who has a child who has a child, etc., all leading up to one of this little girl's parents -- very fun to think about!). And for non-fiction, I'm reading some language books on learning Chinese, but those kind of don't count in my mind for some reason. My main non-fiction is re-reading Tears in the Darkness, by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman, in preparation for the marathon (a Bataan Death March story).

5. Do you dance? Not really, but I'd love to learn. We always dance at weddings and my husband is so much better than I am. I love it, love it, love it, but am just not good at it.

6. CNN or Fox News? If I had to choose between those two, CNN, but I can't remember the last time I watched it. Way too much commentary, and too much coverage of the "missing white woman of the week." I usually watch EuroNews or RAI (though I still don't understand all of it). I like international news coverage much more. I sometimes watch the English-language Chinese station now too (preparing for our trip) and despite the fact that I'd watched about 2 hours of the Today Show and before that had vaguely listened to CNN while hubby was watching it, the Chinese station was the most coverage I heard of the first day with the new Egyptian Parliament, something I'd consider real news. US media is so frustrating.

7. Do you ride a bicycle? No, I don't have one right now. I really want to get one next year I think, or maybe the following year. It would be fun to have as an alternative to running.

8. Do you get a yearly flu shot? Yes, mostly just since my employer and hubby's offer them. And I hate being sick so much. My husband comes into contact with the general public, so he could bring all kinds of stuff home.

9. Best movie you’ve seen in 2012? The only ones we've watched have been Netflix -- Incendies (highly recommend) and Bridesmaids (way overrated, waste of time). I guess we've watched some movies on TV too, mostly Lifetime since I had control of the remote, though hubby was completely hooked on the Drew Peterson Story -- so bad!!

10. Do you prefer to workout at home or at the gym? Uh, why is this the question? What about neither, meaning working out outside? I would choose an outdoor workout (running or boot camp) over an indoor workout at home or the gym 360 days out of the year! But I guess the whole point is to choose one of the two options offered, so I'll go with the gym. While a dreadmill is insanely boring, things like rowing machines, a basketball court, racquetball courts, a pool, and weight machines (though I prefer body weight exercises) are a nice change of pace for those 5 days a year I would not prefer to work out outside. At home I never seem to get in as good a workout as outside or at the gym.

11. Last airport you were in? Haha, isn't this a trick question? Of course it's everyone's home airport (unless they flew somewhere and never came home, or drove home or something). Haha. Since that's probably not what the question meant, the last airport I was in besides my local one (DFW) was General Mitchell Airport (Milwaukee) when I left there after being home for Christmas. I will have to read other people's answers to this one to see if anyone is as literal as I am.

12. Married or single? Married just over 1,000 days.

13. iPhone or Android? iPhone

14. Do you prefer to be in pictures or taking pictures? Taking pictures. I think I answered this one before.

15. Favorite brand of sneakers? I run in Brooks. Usually the Glycerine.

16. Do you like snow? I love it for up to 5 days in a year around Christmas only if I don't have to drive in it. Hate driving in it (see posts about wrecking a car on Christmas this year), hate working out in it, hate when it gets all dirty, but really love a few days of it. I like it if I'm skiing too, but I haven't gone skiing in so long.

17. Do you have/want to have kids? No. Just not right for my life.

18. Summer or Winter? Hmm... this is tough. Most of my life the easy answer was summer. But now that I live in Texas, summers are a little warm to really be comfortable, so that's make me grow to love fall since that's more like what I think of as summer weather (and now that I'm out of school, summers aren't quite so much fun). But I'll still go with summer if I have to choose.

19. Do you know how to swim? Not really. I can get by for a short distance, and I'm pretty much okay on my back, but I don't know proper form and I don't really swim for exercise (though I know it's one of the best non-running fitness activities there is), but if there's a beer on a raft in a lake, I can make it out to the raft.

20. Do you prefer to shop in store or online? Neither really. I guess for clothes for myself I'd say in stores, for gifts for other people, I'd say online. Though I'm considering renting a dress for the Mardi Gras ball this year -- scary, since I like seeing how things actually look on me and this will require just taking a leap of faith that it will fit and look okay. We'll see.

Now it’s your turn. Post your own answers and share on the blog alltheweigh.com.

All before 10 a.m.

2012-01-20T10:11:00.000-06:00

I think I mentioned at the end of August that I was going to start working from home on Fridays. There have been several weeks it hasn't completely worked out and I've had to go into the office -- either for a meeting or because of internet issues at home.

But we finally got new internet service this week and it's so much better. So today I'm taking full advantage and basically have had my dream morning.

We got up as always and went to boot camp. I wake up at 5 to be there and ready to work out at 5:30. Hubby takes way longer to get ready so he gets up at 4:15.

Since he's off today, we got to ride together to camp. Good class, solid workout, not as much running as I usually like, but good.

Class ended at 6:30 and we came home to reorganize a little. I got my computer set up, pulled up the documents I'll likely use today, checked emails, etc. And I reorganized a little too.

We were back out the door by 7:10 and at the yoga studio by 7:20 for the 7:30 class. And it was a small class (guess most people can't be finishing yoga at 9 on a weekday), so there was lots of personal attention. I've had a couple experiences where I've felt some pain in my left calf on a couple standing postures, so the instructor paid special attention to make sure I was doing it correctly. Hubby is only on his third class, so he was also given some guidance, and it was his best class ever. He's really improving (in some ways that means trying to do less, but doing it better, before he was trying to be like one of those class stars instead of building a solid foundation, but he's getting it now).

At 9:00, class was done, and we were back home and I was sitting down to work by 9:30. Ahh, what a lovely Friday! I'm going to have to make myself shower at some point, since I'm volunteering at lunch today to help with a local race that benefits an animal shelter, but until then, I can just work and relax. I like my job so much!

Guest Post, not really

2012-01-18T13:48:00.000-06:00

Grammatical errors have frustrated me from a very young age. I remember elementary school teachers sending home letters with me in which there was a typo. First my mom would find it and laugh about it, question why she wasn't home-schooling us, etc. Then as the years went on, I'd find it, laugh about it, show it to my mom, and listen to her laugh about it.

Because I am not a nice person, I keep old photo Christmas cards on my fridge when some idiot attempts to make his or her family's last name plural by using an apostrophe and an "s". So the fridge is current pictures of everyone, and also years of pictures of those who don't seem to understand plurals.

That's probably my favorite grammar error, but I don't discriminate. At work last week I was reading something where the guy wrote: I've "never" been "employed."

Is it possible to read that without having a funny intonation on "never" and "employed." And is it possible to read that without wondering what exactly he was trying to imply by using the quotes? Was he an independent contractor in a prior life?

However, I rarely think to photograph the errors, so the amusement is fleeting. I was proud of myself for thinking to snap a pic of one recently, and I actually submitted it to a site that makes me chuckle, Apostropheabuse.com.

Here's a link to my post: http://www.apostropheabuse.com/2012/01/justice-for-one-of-its-own.html.

Enjoy...

Yoga Struggle

2012-01-17T07:59:00.001-06:00

I went ahead and signed up for a 30 day yoga challenge, which technically started for me just before New Year's. Our studio here seems to really encourage doing a challenge and they have big group starting dates several times per year.

The 30 day challenge is a little different this year because they're letting you miss up to one day per week. That has worked well for me. I started it on a Wednesday and then had to miss the very next day because of work chaos (that I'm trying to forget), but got back to it on Friday and went straight through the following Thursday. Then I missed Friday because of a dinner party we were hosting and had to be ready for, but I was back on Saturday. And I have gone every single day since Saturday, Jan. 7.

Yesterday marked my tenth straight class I think.

And it was perhaps my toughest? It was taught by the female half of the couple who own the studio, and I really like her. She seems so happy and friendly in a very sincere way.

But somehow I wasn't feeling it. I actually sat out the first set of an entire posture, and I thought about doing it several other times.

I almost never sit one out completely. Even if it's something I can't completely do, I try to at least get into step one. And if I can't get to step one, I at least bend toward step one.

But last night I just sat down on my mat and watched for a while. Sigh.

Our instructor mentioned during class that if you're doing the challenge, you have to make sure you're replacing electrolytes. Maybe that's my problem? I haven't thought about that at all. While my heart rate definitely goes up for several seconds in a row many, many times during class, my overall heart rate for the entire 90 minutes, the average, isn't high -- more on pace with a walk, than a fitness class or a run. But I am certainly sweating a lot in yoga. So maybe there's something to the electrolyte replacement idea. Usually I get some when I'm running and afterward, but since my running pace is so much slower now, I don't feel like I need Gatorade or anything like that, so I'm more inclined to drink water.

Last night when I got home, I made sure I had a G2 with my quiche and hopefully that will help.

If nothing else, I'm planning to take a day off on Thursday (when our Italian conversation class will be starting back up), so maybe that will get me back in my groove.

By the way, ever since I saw the movie Idiocracy (incredibly stupid but, surprisingly enough, made a few good points), I can't help but laugh in my mind when I hear anything about needing electrolytes.

FMM: Health and Fitness tips

2012-01-16T15:47:00.002-06:00

Since my brain is slow at getting into gear today, figured I'd do this week's Friend-Making Monday.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Weight-Loss Tips

I'm not a good person to ask about this since I'm not in weight loss mode (don't get me wrong, I'd love to lose weight, but I'm just more focused on being healthy). But this is what I've got in terms of my healthy habits:

Fitness/Exercise Habits

Having friends or spouse with whom I work out 6 days per week. I know they're counting on me to be there.
Having a fitness goal I am working toward for most months of the year. There are occasionally weeks or even a month after meeting a goal (like post-marathon), where I temporarily am just running for fun or something, but I'm most motivated to get in my workouts when I'm working toward something over the course of several months.
Getting in about an hour per day of activity, with maybe one rest day per week. No excuses for weather, schedule or fatigue usually. Occasional excuses if I'm really, really sick but even then I usually remind myself that sweating it out might help. For my hour per day goal, I don't count walking, yoga or stretching time because my heart rate pretty low for most of that.
Including strength training in my activity at least 3 days per week.

Dietary Habits

Not eating meat. While it's possible to be an unhealthy vegetarian, I think it helps to make healthy choices when you immediately rule out all the meat options at a restaurant for example.
Eating organic fruits and vegetables almost always. More costly, but I think much better for my health. Plus, organic has the bonus of tasting better, making me want more fruits and veggies.
Bringing my own lunch to work.
Having Greek yogurt with fruit, honey and/or granola for dessert on the average night where I want dessert.
Not snacking after dinner.
Not eating out very often.
Not drinking alcohol at home (though I occasionally break this rule, such as when we have guests, or a glass of wine every few weeks maybe)
Saying goodbye to fettucini alfredo at restaurants. Man, I love it but that stuff is bad for you! I was shocked when I figured out how bad.
Adding extra activity to my schedule when I feel like I've been in an unhealthy eating stretch.
Not doing my own grocery shopping. I'm more tempted to buy junk food than my husband is. Since he shops, we just don't have it in the house. I make a list with what I want for meals, etc., and he buys it, but there's no impulse buying. And even if I put Pringles on the list, I don't think he'd buy them for me.
Drinking mostly water all the time. Some espresso and a fruit/veg/milk smoothie in the morning, but other than that, usually all water, all day. Sometimes one soda on the weekend, but not much else.
Pretty much never eating fast food.

Lifestyle/Other Habits

Weighing myself most days and keeping track of it in writing twice a year (New Year's and my birthday).
Not buying a lot of new clothes means I want my existing wardrobe to fit. It would be hard for me to gradually move to bigger clothes without noticing it. I mostly just hate shopping for clothes, but a function of that is that I count on what I have to fit me.
Having a supportive family. Hubby goes to bed early with me so we can both get up early to work out. When we're visiting our folks, we get to tag along with them to their gyms. My brothers can be convinced to do some race with me every few years.
Living somewhere that I can work out outside almost every day. I don't do well with long periods of working out indoors (I tend to quit doing it after a while, a week at Christmas is fine, but a month would turn into a month of slacking), so I'm lucky to live somewhere with good weather most of the year (very warm on summer mornings, and we definitely have some cold mornings in the winter, but it's usually manageable). And I'm lucky to live in an area that isn't high crime. I'm sure stuff happens, but I'm not so paranoid that I wouldn't be able to head out my front door anytime between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. to go for a solo run if I were so inclined. I'd be a little more nervous between about 10 and 5, but I'd probably still do it if for some reason I wanted or needed to, there's just never much want or need on my part!

Those are my good habits. Glad I don't have to list my bad habits! I think that list would be just as long if not longer...

The Hair Knows...

2012-01-13T09:29:00.000-06:00

I wonder if I'm the only one with this experience.

I have a hairdresser that I adore. I think this is common. I had a friend who used to live here in Dallas who had a hairdresser she'd gotten attached to in DC. Fortunately, she used to go back to DC a few times a year, and would always get her hair cut while she was there.

Mine happens to be in Italy. For several years now, whenever we're in Italy, I get my haircut (same guy who did my hair for our wedding too).

The issue is that I delay getting a new cut after I'm back in the US for as long as I can. I last had my hair cut in April when we were in Italy for Easter. It's always a great cut, and it always grows out nicely. I think he knows I need that because whenever I get to Italy, I show up with shaggy hair that should have been cut months earlier, but I'd been holding out until we got to Italy.

Well, right now, I am hopefully between trips to Italy for the longest it will ever be in my life. We were there in April 2011 and I won't be back there until September 2013. Because I want to combine our big annual trips with marathons for this year and next year, our annual trip is being moved to the fall. This fall, China, including the Beijing marathon. Next fall, Germany and Italy, including the Berlin marathon.

There is just no way I can wait until October 2013 to get my hair cut again.

Really, there is no way I should have waited as long as I have to get it cut.

It has been looking like it really needs a cut for several months now. So I gave in and made an appointment for Saturday.

And sure enough, since I made the appointment on Monday, I've had probably the best hair week I've had in months.

It's like my hair knows it's about to be cut off and it's saying, "please don't make me go, please don't cut me off, I'll be good, I'll be beautiful and shiny and cooperative, please??"

Sigh. And I'm considering giving in.

Not really, but my appointment is at 1 and I just don't think that will work well in my schedule. I have a 10k race in the morning at 8:30, so I won't even be back home before 10:30 probably. That leaves me with only 3 yoga options -- noon, 4, and 6. I don't want to 6 so I can be home for dinner instead. 4 would work, but who wants to get a haircut and then get it all sweaty and nasty at yoga? So I'd like to go to yoga at noon, shower, and then get my hair cut afterward, but I don't think there are any appointments left later in the afternoon.

So my locks my be spared for another week. I swear though, it's like my hair knew what was coming.

My Spring Marathon Training Plan

2012-01-12T07:21:00.000-06:00

Today was my first morning with my new half-marathon training group. There still might be some changes in the next couple weeks if people move groups, but so far, so good. But since I'm only doing a half-marathon program, I realized I need to supplement my training in a big way so I'll be ready for a full.

Since I'm doing all this training (except when it rains I think) while carrying 35 pounds, it will be at a slow pace and I'm not going to follow a traditional plan to get ready for a marathon.

Usually for a marathon, I'd want about 4-6 runs at 18 miles or longer. And I'd want about 7-10 (or more) weeks where my mileage is at 40 miles or higher.

For this race, I'm planning to go up to 18 miles on one occasion. Most weeks will be 30ish miles. And I'm planning to go to 27 miles on 2-3 occasions. Haha. Sounds crazy, no?

My bestie here suggested that if I really think this race is going to take me about 8-9 hours to finish (that would put me in the middle of the pack basically), I need to practice being on my feet for 8-9 hours several times.

So my plan is to pick three Saturdays and spend all day each one of them walking around our local lake. I'm starting next weekend (1-21), and then I'll do another walk 3 weeks later, and a final one 3 weeks after that.

I won't be able to wear my weighted vest for the marathon (instead you have to carry a rucksack or backpack with the 35 pounds), so I'm going to use the walks to practice carrying my race day pack (which I have yet to purchase).

Each loop of our lake is 9 miles, so I figure if I walk 3 loops, that will be good practice for all that time on my feet.

On the first Saturday (next weekend), I may start with just 2 loops so that I don't overdo it.

Besides my 3 long walks, I'll also do the half-marathon training runs (2 weekdays and long on the weekend), and I think I'm going to do a practice half-marathon with running and walking in a couple weeks.

The final element to my training that I want to add is some practice doing trail walking or hiking. Ugh. So many of my friends have gotten really into trail running after meeting their Boston goals, but it just hasn't ever appealed to me that much.

First, I like being able to run from home. For me, I'd have to drive to get to a trail, and in some ways that defeats the purpose.

Second, I'm not very coordinated, and I think I'm likely to fall on trails. Pretty much everyone I know (or every whose blog I read!) who runs on trails seems to fall pretty regularly. And I'm a wimp. I don't like falling. I've fallen twice on roads. Once was when a friend was too close behind me and caught the heel of my shoe. Once was attempting to stop and not paying enough attention to a pothole. But keep in mind that is falling twice after thousands of miles (and many years) of road running.

Third, I'm not a big nature person really. I like city life. I like looking at people while I run. I don't mind looking at nature, but I really don't like bugs or wild animals that are particularly threatening. I can't imagine encountering something like a coyote on a run here (though I'm sure it could happen), I'm actually much more afraid of things like snakes. Like many runners, I'm nervous of dogs in the city, and they're usually on leashes or behind fences. I can't imagine encountering an unleashed dog on a trail. I'd probably have a heart attack in panic, even if it was a completely friendly animal.

But multiple reviews of this marathon mention a "sand pit" where you're going for miles in deep sand, and the reviewers have recommended more trail practic, so I need to add it.

I only have a couple other weekend days that aren't full with my day-long walks, or some other commitment (vacation, seminar, etc.), so I guess I need to fill them up with some trails. I don't even know where to begin, but I know I have lots of friends I can ask.

I know I should walk the trails while carrying my 35 pounds, but I have a feeling that is going to make me even more unbalanced and injury-prone. Ugh... I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into. I suppose if I skip trails altogether, it wouldn't be the end of the world, I'd probably survive the race, but it just wouldn't be smart.

So I guess in early Feb and mid-March I have a couple free days where I can drive out to walk some trails.

That leaves one big element of training untouched -- hills. The marathon climbs over 1000 feet in less than 5 miles. Unfortunately, living in Dallas, there is just no way to prepare for that. And no way to prepare while we're out of town either since we're not going anywhere hilly. I guess I will practice running some hill repeats here, but I'm just going to have to wing that. Count on my strength training to get me through.

Sometimes the more I think about this race, the less excited I get. I think I should go back to reading some more books about the Bataan Death March to get inspired -- to remind myself why I want to do this race.

Evening at Home ... Not

2012-01-11T07:04:00.000-06:00

Given the storms yesterday morning and my decision to skip my run and do early yoga instead, I was all excited about coming home to actually have dinner with hubby on a weeknight. That pretty much never happens during yoga month. We can have dinner together on Saturdays and Sundays if I make time during the day to go to yoga, but I'm never home before 8:20 or so on weeknights. And he tries to go get ready for bed by 8:30, so it's tough.

As I said, the big downside for me to yoga is that it severely cuts into my time with him.

I like spending time together. I once made a list of the characteristics I wanted in Mr. Right. With a friend's advice, I wrote "not a golfer." Her husband golfed and spent most of his weekends doing that instead of being with her. So since I like hubby, I actually want to spend time with him.

We have a special anniversary coming up this week (1,000 days of marriage!) and I thought it would be nice to surprise him at home tonight by skipping yoga at night by having gone in the morning.

Fail.

Surprises don't work well for us.

My yoga class goes 6:30 to 8, so I usually leave work by 6:10 at the latest to make it. I figured I'd split my free time tonight. Work later than usual, but still be home earlier than usual.

I planned to leave the office around 7, and I was just a bit later than that. Still would put me home an hour earlier than with class.

So imagine my surprise when I came home to an empty garage!

I gave in and called him to tell him that I was home to surprise him. Silly of me to think he'd be here waiting for me. Turns out he'd also taken the opportunity to work late, and then he went to the grocery store where he decided to eat a solo dinner before getting the stuff on our mid-week list.

Bah. So he didn't even get home until after 8. I had to eat solo, since he'd been eating when I called, and we still barely got to see each other.

Guess that will teach me to attempt a surprise! Oh well. At least I got to catch up on half an hour of lo scapolo (The Bachelor).

This morning we went to boot camp together and tonight the plan is yoga together, so at least I'll physically have eyes on him for a few hours today, though of course there's not really any chance to talk at boot camp and no talking allowed at yoga...

Return to Yoga

2012-01-10T09:52:00.000-06:00

So I started back to yoga about 2 weeks ago and figured it was time for an update.

My first class back went surprisingly well. The two times the instructor said my name, it was immediately preceded by "Nice". That was great. I was tight in unexpected places. When we move to the floor, the first exercise involves pulling your knee up to your shoulder. It used to be one of my favorites, one of the easier postures. But since my return, it was tougher. M y hamstrings are just so tight. Anyway, it's finally starting to get easier now after about 2 weeks of almost daily classes.

I think I started class on December 27 or 28. I missed the class on Thursday of that week as I wrote, because of technical headaches at work. Then I missed this past Friday because we went to boot camp in the morning and then I worked all day and got ready for our dinner party. But not bad -- missing about one day per week om average. That was about what I missed before, though in November I had a class once a week that necessitated missing yoga, and that class doesn't start until later in January, but I'm still averaging the same.
I'm having the same issues with timing that I had during my November month of yoga -- namely, I'm basically never at home and awake, leaving little time to organize, to relax, and to talk to my husband.

Thus, in some ways today is perfect. It stormed like crazy here last night. Enough to wake us both up for a while. This morning was supposed to be our first group training run for spring marathons and halves. As a group leader, I was supposed to get to our running store early, at 5:00. Woke up at 4:30 and I felt like a kid again.

I checked my email on my phone (akin to watching a scrolling list of school districts on the tv) and got the "class canceled" message. Sadly, just like all those years ago, it made me jump for joy. That makes no sense because I really like running and I'm ready for this training season to get underway. But there's just something about seeing any kind of class that I attend being cancelled for weather and I can't help but be excited.

My first instinct was to go back to bed. I reset my alarm for 6:45. That would have been two more hours of sleep! I got back in bed. But then my mind was going. If I got up and got moving, I could go to morning yoga and actually get home in time for dinner tonight! We could hang out, go to bed at a reasonable hour, I could work a bit later than when I have to go to yoga and get some stuff done.

So I hauled my big butt back out of bed and went to yoga. My least favorite instructor. Her name is a color, a shade of blue-green. Ugh. Just like Saturday when I came with hubby for his first class and had the only other instructor I don't like. But the other "least favorite" instructor was so nice to my husband that day, and so friendly afterward, that I've decided I like her. That left just the blue-green instructor in "least favorite" instructor status.

And while my class this morning was not good when it comes to flexibility (guess I'm really tight in the mornings!) or balance, it was good in that blue-green didn't get under my skin. I thought she did a great job. So now there aren't any instructors left that I don't like!

As for yoga in general, I'm enjoying feeling the flexibility, the muscle definition, the craving for healthier foods, the calmness, the focus, but when the month ends, it will also be nice to get back to a regular workout schedule with only one workout per day! Having some free time.

FMM: Getting to Know You

2012-01-09T16:45:00.001-06:00

Since it's Monday and I am waiting for a phone call back (and why would I want to start a new project while I wait??), I thought I'd do this week's Friend Making Monday post, just for kicks. A double post today for no good reason!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Getting To Know You

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday? This past Saturday was perfect -- a 10k race in the morning with hubby and my bestie. Then lunch with 2 other couples and their kids (not sure kids are included in the ideal Saturday, but they were all relatively well-behaved for most of the time), then home for a nap (probably should have been cleaning, but that's what Sundays are for!), then yoga with hubby at our nearby Bikram studio, then a great dinner and early to bed so I can be well-rested to meet my Sunday running group dark and early. Though lazy Saturdays where I do none of the above and just watch movies or read are good once in a while too!

2) List your top three favorite TV shows. Ugh -- the Bachelor (I hate to say it, and every year I say I won't watch again, but then I do). Law & Order SVU (though I'm not loving this season, I still watch). Southland (new season on TNT soon). Not very exciting. I don't love TV. If I'm home alone, I'm likely to watch a Law & Order marathon, or put on movies all day (Lifetime or a regular movie channel) and just leave it.

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them? Definitely take them. I love taking pictures.

4) Why do you blog? I like sharing my thoughts and holding myself accountable to whoever may be reading. It's also a good place for me to vent and to plan as needed. And it's a fun way to look back on my life and see what has changed and what hasn't. I was just looking back at last January and remembered how miserably sick I got several times last winter and just reminded my hubby to be glad we hadn't been hit with it this year. A major difference from last winter's non-stop cold/infection.

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly. Facebook. My local running store's page (for a race schedule and for training schedules). That may be it other than work-related sites and blogs. Wow, that's not exciting at all.

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be? I'm not a Twitter person, so I'll just pick someone famous and living -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I highly doubt she tweets though.

7) List a few of your favorite snacks. Popcorn, grapes, apples, pretzels, granola bars, Pringles, wasabi peas.

8 ) Do you have a pet? If so, what kind? No. Allergic to dander and to responsibility! Haha.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without? My car, my phone, my running shoes. I was going to say my house, but that's probably too broad. Also in the running were my contact lenses and a sports bra.

10) What’s your favorite drink? I'm a water drinker. Beyond water for non-alcoholic, I like diet root beer. In terms of alcohol, I guess I'd go with red wine, though it completely depends on my mood and what the drink list looks like. Just had a lite margarita last week that I loved so much, it turned into several lite margaritas, so it destroyed the "light" factor.

11) Do you enjoy cooking? Very much. And I like baking too.

12) Do you have children? No, see above regarding allergy to responsibility.

13) What are your favorite hobbies? Running, yoga, working out, reading, traveling (and travel planning), jigsaw puzzles, board games.

14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing? For me it kind of depends on the day and the circumstances. Generally I'm pretty outgoing.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change? I guess I'd be more patient. But maybe my impatience has led me to where I am now in my life and career, and I can't really complain about that. Oh, I'd also like to make myself faster.

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress? Don't really have one. Matthew McConaughey (sp??? too lazy to look) is cute, but he's made some bad movies. Guess I would pick Don Cheadle or Marlon Brando.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week? The week just started, but since this question comes on a Monday, I guess it means the coolest thing so far. Either timing new runners at the track on Sunday morning, or going to a yoga class filled with newbies on Sunday night. My day Sunday was all about being there to support people in new-to-them fitness endeavors!

18) Do you live near your family or far from them? Very close to my husband, but we're both far from our parents, siblings and extended family.

19) List three of your talents. Proofreading, seeing/arguing the other side, being efficient.

20) What is your greatest attribute? I'm reliable and loyal. I guess that's two. So reliable.

Now it’s your turn to share your answers. You can go back to alltheweigh.com and link up in the comments! Happy Monday!

Best Weekend of the Year?

2012-01-09T08:07:00.000-06:00

I hope that title isn't true, but it might be. Maybe the rest of 2012 will all be downhill now. Haha, if that's the case, so be it. The weekend was awesome.

I managed to get a better headcount by going ahead and calling a couple people who hadn't emailed me. As of mid-afternoon, we were at 14 with 2 no responses, and then by early evening, down to 12 plus the 2 non responses because one woman who'd confirmed was sick. We realized there was no way we could get 12 adults comfortably around our dining room table, so we had to bring up the kitchen table from the garage and put both leaves in both tables.

That left us with the dilemma of how to set up the two tables -- I really wanted one long table, but didn't know how that would fit, so I assumed we'd have to have a "kids' table" in the living room. Ugh. I really didn't want to split up the group.

We decided to rearrange our entire living room. Did I mention that my family believes in the 12 days of Christmas, so our tree stays up through Epiphany? That meant the second floor was already pretty crowded. We moved a couch up against the wall (usually the couch is in the middle of the room, splitting it into two rooms essentially). That let us basically have one long table running almost the length of the room. We had to angle it a little but there was still enough room to walk around it.

The biggest disaster occurred at about 6:20. I'd told people to come at 6:30 and hubby and I were WAY behind schedule. We'd basically set the table and done all the prep chopping, but we were in the process of assembling the eggplant parmesan and the lasagna.

Hubby added mozzarella to the eggplant as I was dividing up the lasagna noodles and toppings. I put the first layer in the dish and went to the fridge to get the rest of the mozzarella and ... surprise! ... no mozzarella! I knew for a fact I'd put 1.5 pounds of mozz on the grocery list, and .5 pounds parm, but somehow hubby wasn't paying much attention and reversed the cheeses.

I wanted to scream! A bad day to have skipped yoga I guess! I seriously thought I was going to lose my $hit. I've told him that grocery shopping needs 100% accuracy when he does it the week of a dinner party. So 10 minutes before guests were due to arrive, all cooking came to a halt while he went back to the store.

I was really frustrated. I think I've mentioned this before. I have this fantasy about having a dinner party. I make something like lasagna early in the afternoon, and get the table set, and get everything else set up. The dishwasher is empty except for maybe one cutting board or something, and the sink is empty too. I'm sitting on the couch drinking a glass of wine, and we're listening to music and chatting when the doorbell rings as the first guest arrives. Well, no fantasy coming true Friday night.

The doorbell rang, there was a lasagna with only the very bottom level assembled. I hadn't set up any appetizer, we didn't have drinks ready, the kitchen was a disaster -- full dishwasher that I'd just started to run, full sink with all that didn't fit in the dishwasher. Stress! But like I said, all good friends, so I was a bit less concerned than I usually might be about wanting everything to be perfect.

Hubby eventually got back from the grocery store. He was still in his sweats so he basically yelled upstairs hello to everyone, threw the cheese up the stairs at me, and changed clothes while I got back to work on the lasagna.

But after that, it all came together. People showed up, mingled, seemed to like our house. Dinner was great -- everyone seemed to like the two entrees except one person who might not have liked the lasagna. When we were scraping plates at the end of the night to load the dishwasher, I was so surprised to see the one bit of lasanga that hadn't really been eaten. We took up plates for everyone at the table and just passed them around b/c the pans were too hot. So everyone had a roughly equal size of eggplant parm and lasagna. Usually out of 14 people, I'd assume at least 3 or 4 wouldn't have liked one of the two things. But no, just the one bit of lasagna remained, which I took as a good sign.

We had dessert and coffee and people stayed well past midnight. Then we spent about 30 minutes unloading and reloading the dishwasher, then we decided to leave the rest for the next day.

Continuing our awesome weekend on Saturday morning, we got up to run a 10k. We were both exhausted, but you gotta do what you gotta do! It was my first race wearing my weight vest. Hubby didn't end up finishing because he had an upset stomach. My race went much better than planned. My bestie ran with me to keep me company and that alone made it a lot of fun. Lots of people were asking about the vest, and I ended up being very happy with our overall pace. I felt pretty good the whole time. Though when I finally took off the vest and went to get a cup of water, I felt like jumping and dancing, I suddenly felt so light!

The race had more logistical difficulties than perhaps any race I've ever done (they were trying a new timing system and short-staffed, leading to a double collossal fail), but it didn't bother me too much since I wasn't planning to get any PR anyway with the extra 35 pound vest.

But the late race start meant we had to hurry home afterward for a quick shower, then we went with our neighbors and two other very good friends and all 3 of the kids to the local Italian club for an Epiphany celebration for the kids -- the Epiphany witch, a big Italian tradition, more important than Santa, came to visit all the kids. All 3 kids were fairly shy and spent most of the time coloring, but it was still a fun lunch and nice to spend the time with all of them, plus some other friends that we met there.

After the Epiphany lunch, we came home. The plan was to undecorate the tree but we opted for a nap instead.

After a quick nap, we went to yoga. Hubby's first time. I was really wondering what he'd think. He is insanely not flexible. Like imagine someone who's really not flexible, and then think of someone even less flexible. The instructor noticed, but couched her comments nicely. She said something like he should just reach upward since he was "too muscly" to be able to get biceps and ears touching when we had to reach our hands overhead. That made him blush! But he stuck it out for the entire class and did a great job. He tried everything at least once and I was suprised at the end to hear how much he enjoyed it. Enough that he signed up for an entire month!

So our schedules will only let us go to yoga about 3-4 times per week together max, and I really think more than once a week is unlikely, but those times will be fun.

We crashed hard Saturday night and both slept like babies. He had to work on Sunday, and I had the first morning of our running training program.

I think about 20 people asked me about my vest. Someone said I should make a sign, and they were right! People seemed to either tell me I was crazy or to be impressed by the undertaking. I wish it wasn't so noticeable. Since my pace is slowing down so much with the vest, I'm running with a lot of beginners. And I'm well aware how hard it is to train for a marathon or even a half when you're not wearing a weighted vest, I don't want to undermine that. I am coaching a group again, and I really want to make sure there's not too much focus on the vest and more focus on their great undertaking and eventually the accomplishment.

I spent the rest of Sunday working and being lazy and watching movies. I finally watched Bridesmaids, and aside from the Milwaukee connection, I wasn't really that impressed with it. Sure, parts were funny, but I was expecting so much more from several people who'd really raved about it. Oh well.

Then last night was yoga again with 2 more newbies -- my local bestie and her sister. It was actually the lululemon free class, and it was insanely crowded. Crazy. Like an inch between mats and the room full to capacity. I've been in some very crowded bikram classes before, but this topped the cake. It was a lot of fun to share the class with them, and I think we'll do it again later this month.

So all-in-all, an amazing weekend. From 6:45 Friday night to 6:45 Saturday night might be among my favorite 24 period of 2012. And the 24 hours that followed that were also pretty amazing.

Italian Stereotypes

2012-01-06T06:45:00.001-06:00

My resolution about entertaining at home gets underway for the year tonight. And we are going to have a very full house.

We don't have a particularly spacious home -- I think it's about 2,000 square feet, but it's spread over 3 levels. So the first floor is garage, laundry, guest bedroom, guest bathroom and hubby's closet and the entryway. Second floor is kitchen, pantry, half bath, and then a big open space that is split into living room and dining room (and there's a little porch off the living room). Third floor is a bigger porch, our room, bathroom, and my closet.

Our dining room table has never had more than 10 people around it. And we've only done 10 people twice I think -- once for book club, and once last year at Thanksgiving (and then 3 of the people were little kids). It's cozy, even with both leaves in the table.

We only have 6 dining room chairs, so we'll have to bring up chairs from the garage that go with the kitchen table that we have stored there.

I don't have a headcount for tonight, which is really stressing me out.

Typical Italians, right?! The main stereotype I have about Italians is a love of food and company (unfortunately, I think the second stereotype that I and many others have is not a positive one). For tonight's dinner party, we are hosting a bunch of friends from our Italian conversation group from several years ago. One woman who was in the class has moved to Sweden with her husband (we actually got to go visit them in 2010), and she is back in town for a month around Christmas.

We thought it would be fun to get the old gang together to visit with her and her husband, and since I'm organizing it and didn't want to ask someone else to host it, it's at our place. We could have gone out, which is actually what we've done for all our reunions over the last few years, but I really have wanted to have all of these people over for dinner, anyway, so this is the perfect excuse.

What I didn't count on though was that it might be more people than we can easily accommodate. Our head count is at 10 for sure. And there are 7 others that haven't responded, but being Italian, I'm guessing they're coming as well.

I need to decide in the next hour if we should go ahead and bring the entire kitchen table up from the garage and set it up in the living room -- that would allow a lot more space, particularly if we add a leaf or two to it.

If it's just the 10 of us, I'd rather all be at one table. And if it's 12, I think we could squeeze in. But if it's 14 or 16, I think we're better off with a second table.

The more I think about it, I don't think we have enough chairs! We have 6 dining room chairs, and I think we have 6 kitchen chairs. Guess hubby will be going over to the neighbors' place after lunch and seeing if we can borrow all 4 of their kitchen chairs!

I guess I'd better set it all up just to be safe. Wow. This is going to be a colossal undertaking. Thankfully they're all good friends so I don't care too much if it's not perfect. I wanted to do some of this set up last night, but we went out to dinner with one of hubby's co-workers and his wife, and then to see a play with them (Diary of Anne Frank, it was really good).

So now it all must be done today -- and I have to work today! And I have to go in to the office because one of my favorite attorneys from Colorado that I retain for all our lawsuits there is going to be in town and we're going to out to lunch with her.

And I have to cook. Making a shiitake-zucchini lasagna and eggplant parmesan, and a spinach-artichoke dip to start. And then other people are bringing another appetizer, a salad and a dessert. So that at least won't be too daunting.

But I definitely need to stop writing and get busy!!

102 Steps...

2012-01-05T08:45:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday was my first day on my resolution to take the stairs at work. And today it really sunk in, to the point where I was counting steps.

102 steps. That not really so bad. I didn't count the place where I go down one curb step and then up one curb step.

I think this might be easier next month, but I'll keep at it. Next month hopefully I won't have to lug quite as much stuff with me every morning.

Usually I have my lunch and my purse, which are heavy enough. I need to switch purses soon. I'm carrying one right now that I got as a gift from my folks. It's by a company called Big Buddha and it looks like leather but is made out of veggie-friendly materials.

I tried to find a pic online, but no luck after a minute of searching. Anyway, I like it a lot, but it is so big that it's really hard to find anything inside of it. I may switch back to my standby Vera Bradley purse that I love. I'm not at all a "purse" person. I mean, I always carry one, but I'm not very fashion-conscious or trendy. I usually like Coach purses, but my favorite is a little too small and a little too springy to carry right now. But my Vera Bradley was a gift from my bro and sister-in-law a couple years ago and it's just the right size and it's brown and simple.

Anyway, right now I'm also carrying my yoga change-of-clothes bag. Back when I first started my month of yoga in November, I posted a packing list, and I've got it down to a science now. Little things like remembering a comb to go with the elastic to pull back my hair are a given. And I leave the bag with my towel in the car, so I only bring the clothes change bag into work (and then I can put my jewelry in it and keep it secure in my trunk).

But that's still a lot of stuff to carry up 102 flights, especially adding the bulk of a winter coat.

But so far so good on that resolution! And I've been integrating 4 Chinese words/phrases into my daily vocabulary -- how are you, where, what, why. And today I'm going to add "how many".

Update on the Garmin Woes

2012-01-04T06:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I wrote about how I was going to have to make the dreaded call to customer service for Garmin, because my watch would tell me it was fully charged, then minutes later have zero battery left.

It wasn't as painful as I expected! When I called, after the irrating four or so menus I had to go through to get into the right hold line, they said my anticipated hold time would be 30-35 minutes.

It was actually a bit less! And since I had already done the software update, the guy (who spoke English well and was nice and helpful!) said I'd have to return my watch and I'd have another one in 6-10 business days from when they receive my old one.

Ugh. 2 weeks is a long time to go without a running watch, especially when I've registered for races this weekend and next weekend.

But then he told me about the expedited return policy. Basically, they ship me a new watch TODAY and charge my credit card for the watch, then when they get my old watch back, within a few days, they credit the charge back to my card.

Score! So I'm going to swing by my running buddy's UPS store after work tonight on my way to yoga, and ship mine back, and I should have a new one by Friday probably.

Which means I'll be able to time my first weighted race on Saturday. I'm doing a 10k and wearing my 35 pound vest. It will be interesting if nothing else. I'm going to be out there for a looong time. Oh well. Better get used to it!

Garmin Woes

2012-01-03T07:47:00.000-06:00

I'm dreading one of the tasks on my "to do" list today -- calling Garmin customer support. I had always been an old school running watch person, but almost exactly a year ago, I was finally made aware of the importance and benefits of heart rate training.

Since in order to train that way I needed a heart rate monitor, I figured I'd finally suck it up and buy a garmin.

There was a big shipping fiasco (I got a package that wasn't mine, marked with an order number only one off of mine and looking very similar to mine b/c of poor printing), and I eventually got it, though later than planned.

And now I pretty much always run with it. But lately it's been really acting up.

I'll charge it all night, put it on in the morning and wear it for about 5-30 minutes until I'm ready to start running (and during that time, I just leave it in the regular mode where it shows the time of day). I'm finally ready to go, head outside and get ready to start it up, and the watch is either completely dead or it gives multiple low battery warnings and then dies. So I go put it back on the charger, and it immediately says it's 100% charged again. It makes no sense.

And ugh, I'm going to have to spend how long sorting it out. I need to do it today because the warranty has to be almost up sometime in the next 2 weeks. I am just wondering how many minutes it will take... I'm game for 30 minutes, but I'm worried it is going to be much longer. I'm trying to be a pessimist and brace myself for the worst. If it's just a few minutes, I'll be thrilled.

Oh well, it's a year for me of getting it done. Not procrastinating, just doing it. As soon as I get to the office...

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-02T04:55:00.002-06:00

I think I'm ready to commit on the things I'd like to do in 2012 to make it the year that I think it can be (and just in case those Mayans were right, some of this is stuff I've wanted to do for a long time). Twelve resolutions (plus my off-the-record career and financial ones). Possibly in order of importance, which is cool. If I succeed on the first several, I'd consider it a good year.

1. Complete my first (and likely last) weighted marathon. I'm aiming to run the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon on March 25 in New Mexico.

2. Travel to one new-to-me country. The current plan is that the country will be China and this will happen in October, but if things change, I still want to go somewhere new in 2012 -- I need to keep broadening my horizons and experiencing new cultures.

3. Stairs at work going up every Tues-Wed-Thurs that I'm in the office and it's not raining. I am on the fifth floor, and the parking garage adds one more flight. I'd love to try to do it on Mondays too, but with working from home on Fridays, sometimes I'm really loaded down with my laptop and too much other stuff on Mondays. So Mondays I'll play it by ear, but Tues-Wed-Thurs, game on. And if it's raining, then I'll take the stairs from the first floor instead of from the parking garage (I think the stairwell is outside). But this resolution doesn't go into effect until Jan. 5 (since I need to make sure I know where I'm going and my co-worker to show me isn't back in the office until Jan. 4).

4. A 10k or shorter PR. A little more flexible than last year's resolution to get a 5k PR. I could very easily get an 8k PR, but there aren't tons of 8k races around here, and that wouldn't really be fair since my 8k time is from 2007. But most of my other PRs in that distance range (5k, 4m, 5m, 10k) will take some real work to beat. I'd also like an 8 mile and 15k PR, but that's just getting greedy.

5. Entertaining at home. Again. At least 6 occasions feeding friends with home-cooked food. At least 3 of those occasions must include people who haven't been part of this resolution last year or the year before. I think we're going to have two parties -- one next week for some friends who live in Sweden now and are back visiting, and one in April for the anniversary of our rehearsal dinner.

6. Yoga. One month of heated yoga, and then yoga at home once a week minimum or 48 times in the year (not counting the month of yoga in January). I think it's relaxing and good for me. It may help me be more patient, more fit, more calm.

7. Emptying our magazine rack. This should be so easy, but I want to actually flip through everything that's in there before throwing it away. I'm down to two magazine subscriptions in 2012 -- Vegetarian Times (a Christmas gift from my brother and his new wife), and a Texas running one.

8. Finish our wedding scrapbook. We've been married since April 2009, and my memories of the day aren't getting any fresher. I'd love to make progress on some other photo albums, but the wedding scrapbook is most important to me.

9. More quality time with my two female best friends. One lives in Virginia but I am planning to see her more this year, and I'd like to call more too. And one lives here in town. She had a tough year last year and we didn't get to spend as much time together, and I miss her terribly. Whether we spend the time running, going for ice cream, working on puzzles, watching bad tv, doing yoga, whatever, I just want to spend the hours together.

10. Maintaining a list of the books I read this year and reading at least 20 books. I used to read so much more, and now I just feel exhausted when I fall into bed, but I need to add it in somewhere since I enjoy it. I'm torn as to whether I should count books that are currently in-progress (I think I'm reading about 3 right now). I think I will. An incentive to finish them.

11. Learning at least 100 Mandarin Chinese characters. One of the blogs I enjoy reading, AlmostFearless, had this statistic recently: Full fluency is 3000 characters, but with 100 characters, you're already 42% fluent. That would be lovely! If I could get to 200 characters, I'd be at 55%. Now I'm no Joseph Needham, and I know it will be tough, but I would think I could learn 100 characters in 10 months. Maybe. I hope. It will be fun to try! If you don't click on the link, 1500 characters is 94% fluent, so it's really diminishing returns at some point.

12. Closet purge continued. Alter or donate most things that do not fit. I might try that old trick of turning all my hangers backwards to see what I actually wear, but I think I do wear most of the clothes. It's just more than I need. How many black tops does one person need for example?

2012 Resolutions ... Still Pondering

2012-01-01T04:21:00.001-06:00

Another year lies ahead and I need to have some plans, goals and resolutions to hopefully make it a productive, happy, healthy and successful year.

I've pondered about a billion options. Some of my ideas:

Flossing?

Medical power of attorney and living wills and wills for both of us?

Try eating at a dozen new-to-me Dallas restaurants? We don’t eat out tons any more, and I tend to default to old favorites, but I should branch out more.

Running all of the best races (aka my faves) in Dallas?

Some kind of professional development resolution could work. Arguing before a court of appeals (even less likely in my current job than it was in my prior jobs), being the point person on a new project or different level, whatever.

Financial ones are always good. Paying off debt, increasing savings, increasing yield, reducing costs, diversifying, making more of an effort to make moral investments (choosing companies I believe in) whatever.

Reading more fiction? I read tons of non-fiction but am thinking about making an effort to read some good fiction next year.

Cutting out or down caffeine?

Eating vegan X days per week? I'm thinking of starting with 1.

Spending X hours per week or month doing charity work? More time spend helping those in need. Charity time, not just money.

Learning or practicing a previously learned foreign language?

Working out with heavier weights?

PR goals are always good too. Marathon PR in 2012 is unlikely, but I may work on 4m, 5m, 10k, 15k.

Working out with heavier weights?

Taking the stairs whenever available?

Weekly phone calls specifically to nieces/nephew?

Weekly phone calls to faraway friends?

Incorporate more glitter into my life. Literally. Glitter. That stuff was so awesome when I was little, why don't I play with it every day now? Or at least every week.

Something on the spiritual side? Prayer, bible, going to church, whatever. I’ve been doing a lot of yoga recently, but maybe something more substantive.

Thorough evaluation of our insurance needs? Life, disability, but also renters/homeowners with property inventory, valuation and all.

Decluttering and organizing is always good, would have to quantify this somehow.

Try a new sport or a new organized team sport?

Meeting more neighbors?

Something for the environment or greater good like starting some kind of recycling program at home or work?

Committing to mentoring, even just email mentoring (there's a program for that here) someone in high school, college, or even law school (less mentoring, more talking about what you do, diff options, etc.)?

Donating blood?

Hmm, what about something relating to email in-box contents? Like having it down to 1 screen at one point during the month? Mine sometimes is out of control w/ messages that need attention and it's nice to get it to a manageable level on a regular basis.

That's just proof that I'm taking this seriously. Hence no list of resolutions quite yet. Soon.

2011 Resolutions Review

2011-12-31T16:18:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year, time to look back and see what we did or did not get done in 2011, and to make plans for 2012.

Here's a link to my original resolutions, with some description of each and some explanation of why I chose it, or what it meant to me.

1. Italian at home (evenings on the second floor (where the kitchen and living room are)).

Result: Big resolution failure. We did well through about February, but I had a job interview and then an offer, and hubby and I had lots to discuss about those big life changes. So marital communication took priority over Italian practice. But there's really no good excuse for why we never picked it back up. Maybe I was just lazy. Maybe I'm frustrated that my husband speaks so much better than I do -- and it's hard for me to be taught by him. The good aspects of this resolution though were that all year we continued to attend an Italian conversation class (the class where we actually met), so at least I spent 1.5 hours speaking or listening to Italian most weeks. And when hubby is watching the news at home, he frequently watches RAI, so maybe it's seeping into my consciousness a bit? When we were in Italy, I'd say our communication level was average. It's always tough though, no matter how much we study, because most of his family speaks dialect, which is frustrating.

2. Follow at least one ambitious marathon training program to the best of my ability (with this eventually leading to a marathon PR in 2011, either in the spring or the fall or both).

Result: Success! I trained very hard last spring and ended up with a PR in Boston by a few minutes -- fast enough to requalify to run Boston next year, which was nice, though I don't plan on running it again anytime soon. I did not train as hard for my fall marathon (San Antonio) and in some ways, it showed in my results. But I'm torn, because I think the horrible weather would have doomed me even if I'd had the best training of my life, so maybe it's best that I didn't waste the effort? Hard to say.

3. Log at least 1400 miles of running.

Result: Success! And I'm actually over 1700 miles! That's a big increase for me. 2009 = 1284 miles. 2010 = 1400 miles (just over). 2011 = 1700 miles and change. Wow.

4. Attain a new 5k PR.

Result: Failure. Getting the soleus injury in August kind of derailed my plans, but it's hard to lay the blame there completely. It's very hard to train for distance and speed at the same time, and my 5k PR is already near the top of my ability I think, so this was an ambitious goal, though technically, I only want to break it by 2 seconds. This resolution may reappear on my 2012 resolutions list, though possibly in a modified form.

5. Entertaining at home -- similar resolution to last year's in terms of quantity, goal is to host several people we did not host last year.

Result: Success! We had several dinner parties, one brunch party (actually, that was just my party, hubby was working), and then several nights where we cooked for just another couple. I think I broke bread with at least 24 different people in our home in 2011 (not counting book club) for formal meals. That's awesome and I love it. I may make this a resolution for the third year in a row now.

6. Flossing five days per week.

Result: Failure. Just didn't happen. I think I flossed more than usual, but I wasn't close to five days per week. My dentist will no doubt be very disappointed in me.

7. Operation: Fit-Closet (moving toward having everything in my closet fit me and be things I wear).

Result: Partial success. I got about 10 skirts altered, and I picked out 10 pairs of pants and 1 dress that I'd like to have done, but instead of doing them, I gained some weight in Italy and haven't lost it yet. And I don't want to have them altered until I do. But my closet organization is pretty good, I did well at varying my outfits at work, and I wear most of what is in my closet. But I need to purge as I have so much more than I need.

8. Book Research.

Result: Failure. I guess I made some progress in 2011, but there the research process can be never-ending, and I've devoted less time to research given work, yoga, and all the other things that I spent time doing this year. The big step in 2011 was probably when I changed jobs I got the research a bit more organized, rearranging emails and setting up folders, etc.

So there you have it, my 8 published resolutions reviewed. A mixed bag. But I had some unpublished ones that even out the score a little -- particularly the job change and some financial ones. So I'd say it was a 50/50 year. No complaints here! I think I'm ending the year marginally healthier and happier than I started it, so that's a good year in my book.

It will probably take a few more days to come up with my 2012 list, but I'm giving it some thought. I love resolutions, so I don't want to take them lightly.

The Problem with Evening Workouts

2011-12-30T10:24:00.000-06:00

I mentioned that I started up another month of yoga on Wednesday night. And when I thought about it, I was thinking that I might be able to go for 3 weeks every single day. That's a huge commitment, but when I did my last month of yoga, I had a commitment on Thursday nights (and something else Thursday mornings (running) and during the day (work)) so I had to miss one day per week. But my Thursday night commitment won't begin this year until Jan. 19.

I was psyched to go to class last night at 6:30.

I'd been having computer problems at work. The IT had told me last week that he needed an hour or so to fix it, so I said, sure, Tues or Wed of this past week. He never came to my office on Tuesday. So I emailed Wed. and he basically said "tomorrow."

Then yesterday he said it was going to take too long and it would be next week. Well, I've been very frustrated not to have this particular program working on my computer, so I asked if I could start the process myself and then he could fix it in less time.

He basically said I had to remove all these programs and then reinstall them. So at 3:30 or so yesterday, I started doing that. I had to reboot after each program was removed. It took a while. At 4:20, all the programs were off and he'd said to reinstall.

He didn't say from where, and of course he'd left for the day.

Lovely.

Eventually, using someone else's computer, I was told to download from microsoft.com. Well, after downloading 2 of the 4 replacements, I ran into problems that stopped the process in its tracks (something about needing to turn on or off windows features, but of course it didn't tell me whether they should be ON or OFF, which would be useful).

As the hours crept by, I changed into yoga clothes in my office, knowing I needed to be out the door by about 6:10 to make it to the 6:30 class.

At 6:00, I realized the computer wasn't going to be fixed (the IT guy kept emailing to my co-worker's email, but wouldn't pick up the phone to call me, so she had to keep bringing me his non-sensical messages). I started to shut down my computer to go to yoga.

Installing update 1 of 6. Do not power off or unplug computer.

And of course, I needed to do exactly that since it was Thursday and I work from home on Fridays.

And then the IT guy called when it was on update 4 of 6. And it at that point was already after 6:15.

Finally the updates ended, the IT guy said he'd try to talk me through it this morning, and I shoved my computer into my bag and bolted for yoga.

Fortunately not much traffic on the highway since so many people are off this week. I exited at 6:28, and figured I had about 4 more minutes to get there.

But there was an accident of course and the road was down from 3 lanes to 1. I parked and ran in at 6:38 and it was too late to join the class.

Argh! I wanted to yell, scream and cry in frustration -- can you tell I really needed that yoga class??!! I was so pissed. I'd wasted hours at work doing the IT guy's job for him, and then after all that, I'd missed the thing I wanted to do most that day.

Sure, I'd done my morning run and gotten in a workout, but since I have morning workout plans, and I can't leave work for 2 hours during the day, the only option for yoga is at night.

And as with any evening workout plan, it's far more easily derailed than a morning workout.

For probably 2 marathon training seasons, I ran at night. One season was almost all my weekday runs on a treadmill (which left me ill-prepared for the marathon), and the other season I at least ran outside, but it was in the evening. And I usually was able to make most of the runs, but there were some where other things got in the way -- getting caught at work, getting caught in traffic, having another commitment that seemed more important, etc.

In the morning, I just don't have that many excuses. No one else seems to want my time at 5 a.m. And if the weather is completely atrocious, there is always the option of trying to wait until the evening (though that's rare, I use a weather-related excuse to delay or cancel a workout maybe once a year on average).

When I count on doing some class in the evening, if I miss it for whatever reason, the chance to do it that day is completely gone. At least with running, if I'm a few minutes late, I can just run solo or something, but with a class, if I'm late, that's it. No more chances until tomorrow.

So my lovely yoga streak ends with a single day.

I will go today. I actually only have to work a half day, and I started very early (wanted to catch the IT guy before he got distracted), so I'm already almost done. My plan is to eat a nice big early lunch, then go see War Horse with hubby and our neighbors in the afternoon, and then I'll let my neighbors bring hubby home and I'll go straight to yoga after the movie (I'll just wear my yoga clothes underneath or have them with me).

I'll survive. Missing one day of course is no big deal. It just pissed me off. Especially since I risked life and limb trying to get there on time, and I felt like it was things out of my control that prevented me from making it.

If only I could do it all before work -- go to boot camp, go for a run, go for 90 minutes of yoga -- but that would hardly leave me in any condition to work all day, plus trying to do too much so close together would likely mean poor performance across the board.

Just venting today!

Feeling Like I'm 90

2011-12-29T11:02:00.000-06:00

My body is hurting right now, but I'm trying to tell myself it's in a good way.

Last week Sunday, I did my longest weighted run so far -- 3.1 miles, and then I followed it up with a couple more miles of walk/run. My total distance was 5.7 miles. Quite exciting.

Last week Monday, per usual, went to boot camp. It included about 1.5 miles of (unweighted) running. Average workout. Felt fine afterward.

Last week Tuesday, a run day as usual. I slept in a little because I was w/o running buddies that day. I went 3.5 miles total (weighted), and I tried doing run/walk intervals of 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking. I think there was one mile that was downhill so I skipped the walk interval and just ran the 9 minutes straight, but then took the next walk break.

Then last week Tuesday, we flew home in the early evening.

And there was pretty much no exercise the entire time I was home. I went for a walk one day with some of my family and the dog, but I think it was less than 2 miles and it wasn't a strenuous pace or anything (I walk here in Dallas with my next door neighbor all the time and she walks fast, so it's strenuous walking).

Flew home on Monday and on the plane, knowing I'd land around 4:30, I fully intended to see if my husband would join me for a long walk -- like 5 miles or something. But then I landed in Dallas and it was raining and I'd checked luggage and of course it took about 45 minutes to show up, then by the time we got home, it was wet and late enough that I had no interest in walking.

But Tuesday morning I tried to jump back into my routine. 2.5 weighted miles, running the whole time. I was winded. Felt out of shape.

Yesterday I went to boot camp in the morning and it was tough.

It was an indoor camp. We basically warmed up, then started a pyramid -- there were 6 exercises, 60 reps each, to do in 6 minutes (of course no one finished), then running 6 laps (not full size track laps, just mini-laps) in 3 minutes.

The 6 exercises were weighted shoulder press, weighted jump squats (or weighted calf raises for me, I don't like jumping with weights), weighted tricep extensions, weighed split squats, weighted push-up rows, and the "super cherry pickers" (like a burpee but with no push up and with a knee tuck on the jump).

After the first set of 60 reps of each in 6 mins, followed by 6 laps, we dropped the first exercise completely (so started with jump squats), dropped the reps down to 50 and the time to 5 mins, then 5 laps in 2:30. Then we dropped the prior first exercise (so started with triceps), dropped the reps to 40, time to 4 mins, laps to 4 in 2:00. You get the idea.

It was tough but not killer. Felt good.

Then last night I jumped back into another month of yoga. First class back in nearly a month! The heat felt somewhat overwhelming -- I thought I might pass out on about three separate occasions. But I felt like I managed pretty well.

This morning I did another weighted run, this time with hubby. We ran and walked about half a mile, then ran 4 miles, then ran and walked another half mile or so.

And now I feel like I can barely move. Boot camp and yoga have completely caught up with me and I have the delayed onset muscle soreness that I love and hate at the same time.

Typing and working is nice since I barely have to move at all.

It's crazy how out of shape my body seems to get after just 6 days with no activity. I can't imagine that's normal?

Either way, it's going to be a long road back to my routine where working out 6 or so days a week usually feels fine and I'm rarely excessively sore.

Hopefully the month of yoga will help again too!

The White/Blue Christmas

2011-12-28T06:27:00.001-06:00

This year's trip home for the holidays was more of a mix of positive and negative than it has ever been.

We flew up north on Tuesday night, so I was back in the W-I for nearly a week. Lots of time with family, but also some changes -- and I'm notoriously bad with change. Once, for no apparent reason, my family decided to shift where we all sat at the kitchen table for our meals. I think I was in about 7th or 8th grade. I started sitting down at the table more than half an hour before dinner and refusing to get up just so I could ensure I got "my" original seat. I hated my "new" seat and was very angry I'd had to endure a meal sitting there. And interestingly, I still revert to the same seat position at our family table (though it's a new house (formerly our lake house used only for vacations) and a new table -- if you look at the positioning of the table in relation to the windows, I still take my 7th grade seat.

So the plan was to spend Tuesday night and Wednesday in Milwaukee -- hoping to visit my baby brother and his wife, definitely visiting my next youngest brother and his wife and their kids, finishing shopping, wrapping all the gifts we bought, brought or shipped, visiting my grandfather, going out for ice cream.

Thursday the plan was to leave Milwaukee shortly after lunch (sometime between 12 and 2), drive north about 4-5 hours to my folks' place (formerly the lake house), enjoy dinner cooked by my mom.

Friday we'd hang out up there, doing things like going for walks, finishing any remaining wrapping, visiting at home, playing board games, baking cookies, etc.

Saturday my husband was to fly back to Dallas, and I was to spend the day hanging out at home with my family, having dinner at home, then going to church with family Christmas Eve at 9.

Sunday's routine is gifts at home in the morning, followed by an awesome brunch, then I leave sometime between 12 and 2 and drive to Milwaukee for another family Christmas celebration, the highlight of which is Santa's visit to the house (especially for my nieces and nephew because they're the best kids in the world so Santa comes by after his rounds when he's on his way back to the North Pole).

Then Monday was to be a day of packing up, relaxing, more time with nieces and nephew, and then flying back to Dallas.

Anyway, it seemed the trip this year was a big mix of positive White Christmas things and bummer Blue Christmas things. For example:

White Christmas: Home from Tuesday through Monday.

Blue Christmas: I had to work remotely Wed all day, Thurs all day, and half-day on Friday.

White Christmas: At least I have a job where I can work remotely!

Blue Christmas: When contemplating things I wanted to do, I neglected to factor in the fact that I was working -- and I really was working. That meant that my husband and I never went to visit my grandpa together, my husband had to wrap some family gifts, some shopping was cut short, I didn't get to work out, and I only got to go to my favorite ice cream place once (I usually go at least twice).

White Christmas: Husband helped by wrapping all my nieces' and nephew's and brother and sister-in-law's gifts so we could take them to their house Wednesday night.

Blue Christmas: My baby brother and his new wife didn't come home for Christmas and I didn't get to see them at all -- they went to see her family instead, and it made me incredibly sad. I will be so very unhappy if they see her family again next year for Christmas.

White Christmas: The temps were milder than usual (highs into the 20s or 30s).

Blue Christmas: It was still cold! I'm a warm weather person.

White Christmas: We had a white Christmas. Not tons of snow on the ground, but it was thoroughly covered.

Blue Christmas: Of course I had a car accident in the freshest snow.

White Christmas: Wednesday night we went to my favorite frozen custard place BEFORE we ate dinner. That's my kind of meal! We actually ended up getting Chipotle for dinner and taking it home because we'd been in a hurry to get to my brother's house before the kids went to bed (again, I was working all day, so we were rushed) and then we went for ice cream before they closed, and Chipotle right as they were closing.

Blue Christmas: It was too late and we were too full after dinner on Tuesday to hit up my favorite frozen custard place.

White Christmas: Husband agreed to drive us up north on Thursday so I could work in the car.

Blue Christmas: Husband listened to me when I said we should wait until we were out of the city to get gas, and then we didn't see a gas station and we ran out of gas on the side of the road. Husband was pissed at himself for listening to me. We called 911 (there was no exit in sight), were transferred to a wrecker service that came out with 5 gallons of gas 20 minutes and $100 later.

White Christmas: We had cell phones to call for help! 12 years ago, we would have been trying to flag down traffic on the very busy high speed road, or we would have been walking to an exit miles away. And I didn't have tennis shoes with me (I keep spare pairs at all the houses I regularly visit, but that meant none in my luggage). And better yet, our phones have maps so we were able to say exactly where we were for help to come.

Double White Christmas: I can afford $100 emergency gas. 12 or more years ago, as a student, that would have struck me as a huge expense.

Blue Christmas: Risk my folks would eat without us because of the delay in getting fuel.

White Christmas: My mom held dinner just for us, though it was very inconvenient for them because they had to get up very early for work on Friday.

Blue Christmas: I drank a lot at dinner and had a bit of a headache on Friday.

Double Blue Christmas: Because we arrived so late, we had to unload the car in the dark and someone (not me!), turned on the dome light in the truck and left it on. So dead battery on Friday morning!

White Christmas: We had no where to go on Friday by car, we had jumper cables, and my folks saw the light on so we knew to charge it up.

Double White Christmas: I got a lot of work done during my half-day on Friday.

Blue Christmas: Again, too many other things planned for the day since I forgot how long work would take.

White Christmas: I got all my wrapping done on Friday after work.

Blue Christmas: I also had to wrap all the gifts TO my mom from my step-dad, so it took longer than expected and I didn't get to go outside for a walk with hubby while it was light out.

White Christmas: Hubby got to walk a bit and I joined him at dusk, and though we couldn't really take any pictures, it was fun and cold time together.

Blue Christmas: Hubby had to work on Christmas, and he had to fly back to Dallas early on Christmas Eve because of a general lack of flights. He left the house at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

White Christmas: My step-dad drove hubby the 2 hours to the airport and came back alone so that I could sleep in and enjoy the day with family.

Blue Christmas: Hubby missed out on all our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions. I know, I know, I know that someone has to work on Christmas. People still have accidents, people still have heart attacks and croak, people still fight and try to kill each other or themselves, and someone has to be there to help them. But why can't it be someone other than my husband when we have to travel so far for Christmas with my family?

White Christmas: He hasn't had to work a Christmas since 2005, so we've been in Wisconsin for all the others, and next year he will hopefully get it off.

Blue Christmas: I cried at Christmas Eve church because I missed him so much. I was wondering if maybe I should have gone home with him instead (though that would have meant I spent Christmas completely alone, while he worked all day).

White Christmas: I was with my family for Christmas. We played games, walked in the snow, cooked, ate, drank, exchanged gifts, and made merry.

Blue Christmas: Baby brother not home for any of this.

White Christmas: I got lots of cool stuff. Among other things, a new shirt for work, my favorite kind of shampoo (Philosophy), a new Vera Bradley wristlet, a road ID for my shoe while running, a subscription to Vegetarian Times, some travel things (reusable bottles, a packable backpack), a special necklace to commemorate my Boston marathon this past year, a jigsaw puzzle, cookies and baked goods from my mom, a gift card for clothes, Netflix, a new immersion blender (mine melted or somehow broke this year), a few ornaments, an awesome vegetarian slow cooker cookbook, a scarf, a lightweight running jacket, home use yoga cards, and a juice pack for my phone.

Blue Christmas: Hard to see a downside to the gifts... I guess because of the blender and shampoo, I had to pay to check a bag to fly home. But no real blue Christmas aspect.

White Christmas: Everyone seemed to like what we got them.

Blue Christmas: Hubby didn't get to see all their reactions.

White Christmas: I was able to film little clips and send them to him while he was working.

Blue Christmas: Since there's not service where my folks live, I'm worried we may have an out of control cell phone bill on its way!

White Christmas: We had my favorite Christmas Day brunch -- creamed chipped beef on toast (well, creamed chipped vegetarian sausage for me), eggnog, fruit salad, bran muffins, and stollen, my mom's German Christmas bread.

Blue Christmas: My stomach didn't hold as much food as I hoped. I wished I could have just kept eating all of that!

White Christmas: I got my stuff packed up, said goodbye, and set out for the drive to Milwaukee even a little early -- I try to leave between 12 and 2, and I left at about 1:50.

Blue Christmas: The car accident.

White Christmas: There were no other cars involved and no police involved. Just me, some damaged trees, and the damaged vehicle.

Blue Christmas: The damage was severe enough the car couldn't be driven to Milwaukee that night. A local mechanic checked it out yesterday and confirmed that the a/c unit punctured the radiator and there is a hole in the radiator and it is cracked.

White Christmas: I was close to home when it happened so family could come rescue me quickly and no Christmas day towing service had to be called.

Blue Christmas: Digging and pulling me out of a snow bank was not how anyone in my family wanted to spend Christmas afternoon.

White Christmas: I didn't get hurt.

Blue Christmas: The car did, and it has no comprehensive insurance, and it was my fault for driving too fast on unsafe roads in a vehicle I don't know well.

White Christmas: I was able to hitch a ride about 5 hours later than planned to Milwaukee with my middle little brother and his wife.

Blue Christmas: I missed Christmas night traditions with my next youngest brother and his family and all of my Milwaukee family.

White Christmas: Since the accident was near home, rather than being stuck on some random roadside, I was able to wait at home until my brother was ready to drive after Christmas dinner.

Blue Christmas: Since my mom hadn't expected me to be home, it was not a vegetarian-friendly meal. Goose and sauerkraut soup with meat.

White Christmas: The potato dumplings, sweet-and-sour cabbage and black forest cake (German Christmas theme this year!) were all vegetarian and delicious.

Blue Christmas: Didn't get to Milwaukee until long after Santa was gone, arrived just before midnight.

White Christmas: My dad waited up for me and my stepmom got up and we exchanged gifts at midnight.

Blue Christmas: Among my gifts was not a new radiator! Haha.

White Christmas: I got to go to my grandpa's house on Monday morning to give him his presents and spend some time with him.

Blue Christmas: Hubby didn't get to see Grandpa at all this year, and while he's still sharp as a tack and doing well physically, he's getting older and is having some random problems (currently it's knee issues).

White Christmas: I got to go see my nieces and nephew for a while on Monday before flying back to Dallas.

Blue Christmas: The extra time with the kids meant I didn't get to make my planned last stop for a second (or ideally, it would have been my third) frozen custard.

White Christmas: Hubby left work on Monday a couple hours early to pick me up at the airport, and I'm now safely home and driving in dry snow-less conditions in my little Beemer with no front end damage!

Blue Christmas: I have to figure out what to do with the truck in Wisconsin, how best to get it into drivable condition and back to Milwaukee and then permanently repaired.

White Christmas: The car can likely be repaired and I can likely afford it.

Wanted to end on a positive note there!

New Radiator for Christmas?

2011-12-27T08:06:00.001-06:00

So my Christmas Day car accident didn't seem too awful to me at first.

I was driving alone and going too fast for the conditions obviously. I was driving pretty slowly I thought, but there was fresh snow and I went through an S curve and after the first turn, I had no control. I tried steering but nothing was happening. I tried tapping the brake, but nothing.

Next thing I knew, I was headed straight for some trees. I hit the trees on the left side of the road pretty much head-on and then the back end of the car spun around behind me and into the ditch.

The car was still running but I turned it off and called for help. My family came to attempt to get the car out, but I knew it wasn't looking good.

I had gotten out and walked around a little -- and I could see some green fluid on the snow. NOT GOOD.

My brother tried to rock the car out, going back and forth, but nothing happened, even in four-wheel drive. So my bro stayed with me and the others went back home to get shovels.

The nice thing is that even though the area is very rural, and it was Christmas Day, four cars came by and all asked if they could help. My brother and I were joking that we should have asked the guy in the Prius to tow us out. Haha. But surprisingly, one car went by without stopping or saying anything.

So the next step was to try to shovel it out. We shoveled a path backward and forward, and put down carpet and mats by the back tires, which were spinning. It turns out that the back passenger side tire was really in a hole and there was nothing it could catch on.

We tied it up to a family Dodge Ram and tried to tow it out backward ("we" is used loosely, my bro's wife and I just stood on the side of the road and watched).

First attempt, the tow rope came untied from my truck.

Second attempt, the tires on the Ram started spinning (it was snowy and icy), and then the tires caught and the tow rope snapped in the middle.

At this point it wasn't looking good.

Fortunately, there is a tub in the back of the truck with a hitch and a bunch of ropes, but they're all old. So for the third attempt we tried a thick braided boat rope.

I had very little hope -- those ropes really don't age well.

But it worked! The truck came out of the snow bank and we picked up all the pieces of my bumper that we could find in the snow. But as I walked looking for pieces, there was still a decent amount of green snow. Coolant or antifreeze leaking or spilling. One is expensive, one is not a problem at all. We just had to figure out which it was -- a leak or a spill.

My brother drove the truck home, so it was drivable, and we decided to park it and leave it sit for a while to see how much green fluid ended up on the snow when it was parked.

More leaking. If it was just overflow from being tipped so far onto its side when I wrecked, that overflow should have been gone. So enough fluid to suggest it's a real problem.

I won't know until later today probably, but I think I likely cracked the radiator.

If the hood hadn't buckled so much, maybe I could have driven it back to Milwaukee and just topped it off with antifreeze or coolant frequently along the drive. But I was worried that if we pried the hood open, we wouldn't be able to securely close it. And then it could have gone flying up somewhere along the 5 hour drive and no doubt resulted in a serious injury accident. And there was also the risk that the leak would be too much and I wouldn't have enough fluid and I'd end up stranded somewhere along the 5 hour drive with no one around to help -- and needing an expensive Christmas night professional tow.

While (or because) the truck is old (94), and for about the last 10 years, I put maybe 700 miles per YEAR on it (pretty much only drive it in Wisconsin, about 3 weeks per year at the absolute most), of course there was no comprehensive insurance on it -- just collision.

So it looks like I'll be buying a new radiator! UGH! My folks will drive it somewhere up there to have it checked out, then hopefully I'll be able to talk some family member into driving it down to Milwaukee (where it's kept while I'm in Texas) and get the remainder of the body damage fixed there by my family.

A million "it could have been worse" scenarios, but of course it could have been better! Ugh. Really, really sucks. My husband always says there's really no such thing as an accident, just bad driving. And in this case, it was clearly my fault. Should have been going slower. I could just kick myself. Argh!

What Color Christmas?

2011-12-26T09:39:00.001-06:00

Not sure if this Christmas is best described as white or blue? A photo of each. Yikes on the blue Christmas. It could have been much worse of course, I walked away.

Finally...

2011-12-20T13:51:00.000-06:00

Some lyrics for a change. Well, modified lyrics.

I'm sittin' in the airway station, got a ticket for my destination

On a tour of work demands, my suitcase and iphone in hand

And every stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band
Homeward bound, I officially am homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts escapin', home, where my music's playin'

Home, where my mama's waitin' patiently for me

Every day's an endless stream of case files and magazines

And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories

And every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be

Homeward bound, I officially am homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts escapin', home, where my music's playin'

Home, where my mama is waitin' patiently for me

Tonight I'll sing my songs again, I'll play the game and not pretend

And all my words come back to me, read back by brothers in mimicry
Like happiness and harmony, I've now got someone to comfort me

Homeward bound, I officially am homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts escapin', home, where my music's playin'
Home, where my mama is waitin' patiently for me

Homeward bound, I officially am homeward bound

Home, where my thoughts escapin', home, where my music's playin'

Home, where my mama is waitin' patiently for me

Woo-hoo! It was either that or that "Mama I'm Coming Home" by Ozzy Osbourne. Figured Paul Simon was a bit more my style. I'm officially homeward bound. Hubby is bundled up. I'm bursting at the seams with excitement!

FMM: Have You Ever?

2011-12-19T13:07:00.002-06:00

I'm so far behind on writing on the blog now -- I loved doing the WEVerb series, but I'm hopelessly behind! Just feels so busy. I spent the weekend baking, wrapping and packing. And I still need to do some shopping after we fly home tomorrow night! Yikes.

People seem to get so irritated about how early stores start promoting the holidays, but in some ways, I kind of like it. It gets me in gear. Otherwise the weekend before Christmas sneaks up and it's like this one was! I much prefer years that all my shopping is done way in advance.

Anway, since it's Monday...

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links, too, so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic.

FMM: Have You Ever?

1. …traveled outside of your home country? If so, where? Hmm, it's hard for me to remember the last year I didn't leave the US for a vacation. I looooove to travel and I infinitely prefer travelling outside the US. I've been to most of Europe from Sweden, Finland, Poland and Russia, down to Spain, Greece, Malta, Bosnia and Turkey (the big holes in Europe for me are Portugal, Ireland, Norway, and some of "Eastern" Europe). Italy is by far our most frequent destination. In terms of the Americas (did you know Italians learn that North and South America are a single continent? Italians only believe there are 5 continents!), I've been to Canada, Mexico, some of the islands, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Brazil -- so lots more to see down south! In terms of Africa, only Kenya and Tanzania so far -- lots more to see there. In Asia, lots of the basics -- Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore (but of course the glaring hole is Mainland China (which we should be visiting in less than a year!, and India, which we should visit within the next few years). And then I've missed Australia completely. Someday...

2. …performed on stage in front of at least 1,000 people? If so, share some details! Nope. Spelling bees in junior high weren't really performances and in any event, less than 1,000 people. Graduation and bar swearing-ins don't count as performances either. I was interviewed (using the term loosely) on MSNBC once, but that's not a stage performance.

3. …watched an episode of Jersey Shore? No. Don't watch tons of TV.

4. …baked a cake from scratch? If so, what’s your specialty? Yes. Cheesecake is probably my best.

5. …worked in a grocery store? No.

6. …dated someone who was your best friend first? Not my best friend, but hubby was a very good (but strictly platonic) friend for about a year before we started dating.

7. …made a difference in someone’s life during Christmas? Not enough! There's an angel tree thing here that I usually do, but the last few years I haven't worked at an office where they do it and I prefer to avoid the mall, so I haven't done it. I should do that again though!

8. …been on TV? See above regarding my MSNBC appearance. Sometime in fall 98 or spring 99. Oh, and I've picked myself out in marathon coverage of both the San Antonio marahon in 2009 and the local marathon. But just out of a crowd. Not sure I even really waved at the cameras...

9. …had cosmetic surgery? No, though I'm not opposed to it.

10. …learned a second language? If so, what else do you speak? I speak Italian fluently, and I minored in French in college so I'd say I understand it fairly well but struggle to speak it now. I know little phrases in lots of languages from living in Dallas (where Spanish is useful) or from our travels (my favorite was "I'd like to speak with" in Russian, which is one of the most awesome sounding expressions ever), and I'm hoping to get to a very, very basic level of making myself understood in Chinese in the next 10 months!

Now it’s your turn. Feel free to post your own answers and then go to her blog and link up in the comments. Happy Monday!

Ethical Issue on a Gift

2011-12-15T12:09:00.001-06:00

Direct plea to you for advice on the best way to make a request of someone giving me a gift.

I've mentioned that I love my new job. One of the cool things is that they have a quarterly birthday cake. I love cake. I showed up to my first one, and couldn't eat cake because the cake had nuts (and I have a nut allergy). The woman who ordered the cake said she'd get one with no nuts the next time.

I went to the second cake party this summer. Nuts again! She'd forgotten. Totally no big deal. I do not expect anyone to keep track of my allergies (or even my dietary preferences) except me, and to a lesser extent my husband, my brothers, my mother (actually, my parents in general, but especially my mom). And as my parents get older, even my mom could conceivably get a pass if she forgot now.

Really, my fatal allergy, my problem.

And yes, nuts induce a full-on anaphylactic reaction. First my breathing gets tough, then my tongue swells, and then, hopefully not until I'm already at the hospital, my throat usually swells shut. On one occasion, I wasn't at the hospital yet when my throat closed, though my last memory was hearing the sirens and thinking the ambulance would be there soon.

Well, one of my coworkers with whom I had an instant connection is this guy, let's call him Jim. He loves reading the same kind of books I do -- we had a huge discussion within a few days of meeting about economic policy when it somehow came out in conversation that I was reading Lords of Finance, which I actually I reviewed on this blog. He loves WWII, history, conspiracies, running, etc. Lots of the same things I do. Awesome and instant connection. Jim is my kind of guy.

Ntatually then, with his interest in running (he did several marathons when he was younger), when I decided it would be fun to get a company team together for the local marathon's relay that was held a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted him to be on the team.

Jim and I probably chat about once a week or so, sometimes long, rambling conversations. We don't actually work in the same area, so we have no need to talk, just a desire. He's so interesting and fun to talk to. He actually happened to meet my husband about a month ago when Jim stopped by my office late in the day one day to say hi and my husband was here hanging out after he'd finished work so we could head home together. Jim and my husband completely hit it off. My husband was actually kind of peeved when I pulled him out the door so we could go home because he was having so much fun talking to Jim.

I told Jim we'd have to double date sometime. After the marathon relay, I had my work running team (plus spouses, and a bunch of my running friends) over to my house for a post-race brunch. Oh yeah, still need to write that race report...

That brunch was the first time I met Jim's wife. She and I ended up sitting next to each other during brunch, andm no surprise here, she is probably equally awesome to him. A great couple. Hence the plan to double date. I love talking to both of them. Hubby loves talking to Jim (and hasn't met his wife but is sure to like her too).

Well, anyway, getting to the point, at the first cake party, Jim realized I wasn't partaking in the cake and asked why. I told him I had a nut allergy. I don't recall there being any further discussion with him on the subject. That was that. And that was that in about March 2011. And then in June 2011, but I don't remember if we even discussed it then (at the second party where I couldn't eat cake).

Oh, as an aside, at the third cake party, maybe in September, there was a nut-free cake that I enjoyed.

A couple months ago, Jim appeared in my office with a small cookie tin with my name on the lid. He said his wife had made carrot cake for the office (sitting in the break room), but it contained nuts, so she'd made a special nut-free one just for me.

WOW!

After he left my office, I waited as long as possible to eat it -- telling myself I just had to wait until noon, and then it would be okay. My mom never really let me eat dessert in the morning growing up, so I try to stick to that rule as much as possible now.

Finally, when I deemed it to be an acceptable hour, I opened the tin and there was a mini-bundt shaped carrot cake. Topped with cream cheese frosting. Possibly my favorite frosting of all time. Topped with coconut.

Uh-oh. I don't eat coconut. I'm not entirely sure whether I'm allergic to it or not, but I've never eaten it in my life and my reaction to nuts is sufficiently severe that it's not worth trying it. I've thought about going to an allergist to be tested specifically for coconut (I know I have an allergy to peanuts AND all nuts), but it's one of those "someday" things. I don't know if coconut is even a nut really, but since nuts aren't my only allergy, there's still at least some likelihood that I could be allergic to it (I actually have a bunch of allergies, but only a handful are still of the life-threatening variety, the others have diminished to intolerances as I've aged (some mild swelling of my tongue sometimes, but not enough to worry about it)).

Well, the day he brought me that cake, I picked off every morsel of coconut and scraped off the very top layer of frosting to be sure it was safe. And then I ate the entire mini cake. And it was, indeed, one of the best cakes I've eaten in my life. He mentioned that she grates tons of carrots, uses oil instead of butter maybe, some other secrets, whatever. It was divine. I thanked him profusely but I didn't mention the coconut. I actually considered going to HR to see if I could get Jim's home address so that I could send her a thank-you note (this was before I'd even met her).

Today he came to my office bearing another personal nut-free carrot cake. With coconut, again. I will again scrape and enjoy.

My question is, is there any tactful way to somehow indicate that any future carrot cakes (no expectation there will be any, just if there should be...) would be preferred coconut-free?

It's clear that it would be no harder for her to make it coconut-free than making me my own nut-free version. In fact, it would be even easier. All she does is sprinkle toasted coconut over the frosting, so it would actually save her a step.

I'm insanely grateful for the thought and time she takes to even make me a special one. And I'm insanely grateful for the delicious cake. And I of course would never expect that she would go to such lengths to be so nice as to make a special one just for me ever again. But if she does, is there any way to tastefully ask that it be without coconut?

Definitely don't want to offend her, to seem ingrateful, or to "look a gift horse in the mouth." So I'm really uncertain as to whether to say anything. And I'm also not sure if it's too late to say anything now that I've gotten TWO (so maybe it would have been okay after the first, but not now?). What do you think?

For your enjoyment, here is a photo of the one I got today, still with a lot of coconut on it. And here is a photo of my office trashcan showing how much I've already scraped off...

And edited to add a picture of the already-mostly-consumed-before-2:00 office cake she made.

And edited to add a pic post-coconut removal.

....

WEVerb11: Breathe

2011-12-14T16:13:00.002-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#14: Breathe.How did you make space + peace for yourself in 2011?

Contributed by Megan [everlastingpresent.com]

The easiest answer of course is yoga. One odd change I noticed was that I liked quiet time long after yoga. Usually I listen to audio books in my car. I don't drive much (my commute to work is exactly 5 miles each way, and my commute to boot camp or my usual running meeting point is less than that), but even for just 10 minutes a day, I'd rather listen to a book than listen to music. I'm not a musical person in general, but I especially hate the radio. I don't enjoy talk radio much and the innane commentary on the music stations just makes me angry, and of course I don't like commercials, so I'm not even wild about Pandora. For some reason, audio books seem to be my favorite listening choice while driving.

But not after yoga. Instead, I just wanted the silence. Listening to the woosh of the air (though I don't think I put the top down at all in November), listening to the hum of the engine, the sound of the tires, etc. And then when I got home to eat dinner alone since hubby couldn't really wait to eat that late, instead of flipping on the tv, which is my usual habit when eating alone, I just wanted to sit quietly. And when hubby was still awake when I got home and came downstairs to chat, I whsipered and wanted him to whisper. I was definitely attempting to cultivate that inner peace. It's tough for me. I feel like I'm not a calm, peaceful person. Happy, yes, and very at peace with my life, but not calm or peaceful by a long shot. I feel like I'm always going, thinking, doing. Even when I'm still, I feel like my mind isn't.

Particularly since I changed jobs this year, which I feel gives me even less quiet time to read blogs, think, be still, I think in general there was less breathing, calmness, stillness, peacefulness in my life this year, apart from the one month of yoga. But I wouldn't have it any other way, honestly.

WEVerb11: Read

2011-12-14T07:37:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#13: Read. What article or book changed your outlook on an issue or life?
Contributed by Melinda [www.palindromeathome.com]

I'm not sure this technically fits as changing my outlook on an issue or life, but I'm going to have to choose Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

I've always been interested in WWII and have read tons and tons of non-fiction books on the subject, particularly Pacific Theatre books. But the different thing about this book was the running aspect. That was an interesting hook and of course makes you think about the war and the resulting lost opportunities, lives lost and broken, etc.

I don't want to say too much about it because I hate when people tell me too much about a book I haven't read, but it's the story of a runner who enlists at the start of WWII and ends up as a POW. Some people avoid reading much nonfiction because they imagine it like a textbook (not to say I don't like textbook type books), but this isn't one. It's like reading someone's life story, with factual background attached and bits pulled together from related life stories.

I have been in a book club for nearly a decade. Mostly female attorneys, with maybe a couple non-lawyers but who are lawyer spouses where we worked with the husband but liked the wife. Anyway, we each choose the book to read for the month we host, and Unbroken was my pick this year. They're fairly used to my choosing WWII non-fiction about half the time (books I remember picking are Escape from the Deep (yes, another book about the Tang, but much better than most!, by Kershaw, one of my faves), Ghost Soldiers (one of my fave books of all time), and The Zookeeper's Wife (war in Europe)), but I will say that this one was one of the biggest hits.

I think reading a lot of history, particularly war books, gives a valuable perspective to thinking about modern values and struggles. It never fails to shock me how little understanding of history a vast majority of people have. WWII just happens to be my primary area of interest, though I think I have a long list of secondary areas!

Unbroken. My advice: read it if you haven't. Highly recommended. After all, it's my pick of the year, and I read a lot!

Unpleasant Taste of Parenthood

2011-12-13T15:32:00.001-06:00

So I'm dragging today after a quite unpleasant night. Unpleasant for me, horrifying, nerve-wracking, distressing, terrifying for others.

I ended up working kind of late last night. I was actually pretty much shutting down programs on my computer around 6:45 when I called my husband to get his status. He's usually done with work right around 6, and usually home before 6:30 and he usually calls me on his way. But I hadn't heard from him. He said he was in the middle of something and was going to stay at work to finish it up, another half-hour to an hour.

My response was "perfect." I had plenty more to do, so I decided I'd just keep on working. Well, then I realized our company is rolling over to a new benefits system, so all that open enrollment stuff has to be done over on the new system. I usually skip open enrollment since I don't use the health insurance here (I'm on hubby's now, but that may change next year and we may each get our own). But I had to do a W4, all my personal info, life insurance, supplemental life, accidental death and dismemberment, and long-term and short-term disability elections.

That meant I had to get my brother's SSN since he's the secondary beneficiary on my stuff, and just a hole bunch of other crap like that. Navigating a new website, trying to compare what I had on the old plan, etc.

Finally around 7:35 hubby was on his way home, and I shut it down and went home. It was close to 8 when we got home, so we both made quick separate dinners (I had leftover spanish rice and some frozen taquitos (garbage), he made a mix of tuna, tomatoes and onions). And then we made dessert (greek yogurt with fruit, honey, granola), and pretty much went straight to bed.

My plan was to be up around 5-something to run 2 miles with my vest on, and then to meet my next-door neighbor to walk a few miles and still be home by 7 to get to work.

Hubby's plan was to be up at 3:45, go for a solo run, and get to work around 6 to start working (!! yikes!!).

So going upstairs to get ready for bed at 9 was already later than we'd like (plus time to brush teeth, lay out workout clothes, etc.). I was out cold before 10, and I think he was too.

Phone call on the land line at 11:45. That's NEVER good news.

Hubby read the caller ID and I told him who it was (friend using her work cell phone). He answered and I could kind of hear, but she wasn't making sense really and neither was he. It was almost like they were both asleep.

I grabbed the phone and I realized she was crying hysterically. I couldn't understand what she wanted, except that something was wrong with her son (my godson, who just turned 3 a couple months ago). Finally I was able to elicit that he wasn't moving and couldn't talk, and she was at the hospital with him, and she wanted me to go to her house to stay with her daughter so that her husband could come to the hospital.

I was dressed and out the door in less than 3 minutes, and probably set a personal land speed record driving to their house, and her hubby barely said a word to me. He basically said he'd put out blankets, their daughter was sleeping and hopefully would keep sleeping, help myself to the fridge and the remote, and he was out the door. Clearly panicked.

I texted for a while with my friend and found out her son had been gotten sick twice the night before and during the second episode, had some kind of seizure. His father was holding him up near the toilet, and suddenly he shook and went limp and became unresponsive and glassy-eyed, so they called 911. And then my godson had another seizure either with her in the ambulance or at the hospital.

As the hours ticked by, she let me know the Cat scan appeared normal, so likely no tumor in his brain. The x-ray of his lungs showed only a mild viral infection. They were getting ready to do a spinal tap. They had no explanation. My thought (though I didn't want to say it out loud to her and make her panic), was meningitis.

So of course I thought that meant I should probably set my cell phone alarm to go off about every 15 minutes in case I fell asleep so I could get up and check on their daughter to make sure she was sleeping, breathing, and not vomitting. As a non-parent, I was very certain I didn't want one to go down on my watch! And I was thinking if it was meningitis, there was a chance she'd have it too.

She was fine every time I checked on her, and my friend's husband came home around 5 when their son had finally become somewhat coherent.

Now as the day has gone on, he seems to be okay. Thery're doing an EEG and then releasing him today, and saying they are treating it like a febrile seizure, but since he didn't have a fever, that's not what it actually was. She's going to have emergency meds at home in case it happens again. She said he still has some trouble on the right side of his body, but they said he should be fine within another 24 hours.

What a major stress! I can only imagine how scared and panicked my friend was. I'll gladly yawn through the day today and be happy I could help in the smallest way. But right now, I'm glad I don't have kids and don't have to worry about stuff like that. I get my solid slight about 360 nights per year (and for the most part, those remaining 5 nights are my own fault). My life is pretty much just the way I want it, few crises, few illnesses, mostly filled with things I want to do... Selfish but true. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

Random tired thoughts today...

WEVerb11: Thrive

2011-12-12T07:49:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#12: Thrive. What was your healthiest habit of 2011? What would you like to change or do differently in 2012?

Contributed by Tonya [life-accomplished.com]

This one is tough for me mostly because I didn't really start or change any healthy habits in 2011. I started most of my current "healthy habits" several years ago. I'd say I got into running and exercise in 2003 or 2004, and then I got into cross training in 2007, and then I cleaned up my eating a lot in 2008. Some of the people I run with are people I've run with since about 2006. Lots of my best friends are running buddies. Heck, one of my bridesmaids was someone I met while running and with whom I would say I still spend the majority of our time together while running.

So I guess to answer this question, I'm going to have to say my healthiest habit of 2011 was the month of yoga. I'd never made such a serious yoga committment before. And while I said yoga probably wasn't a sustainable habit for me (working out for a minimum of 2.5 hours per day seemed to leave little time for anything else, including meaningful conversations with my husband or later nights at work), it was certainly a healthy habit while I did it. I came home to eat dinner (usually alone) but after 90 minutes at 105 degrees, I wanted something light and healthy for dinner, and I certainly had no interest in alcohol. I ate lots of quiche and salads in November.

But my healthiest habit in general is definitely running! Having my friends to meet ensures that I get up well before the crack of dawn, get out there and get it done, push myself when I sometimes want to quit. And then doing all that running usually helps me worry less about eating crap and just generally feel more balanced and happier.

In terms of change in 2012, I guess I want to run less with my running buddies! Haha. I know running weighted will slow me down (though I actually had two pretty solid miles yesterday), which will mean I won't be able to keep up with my friends. But I can make new friends at my new pace, whatever that may be. And maybe my former running buddies can just be my drinking buddies for 2012 (at least the first half, hopefully I'll be back strong after Bataan). I'd also like to do another month of yoga. Not sure what else I'd like to do differently next year. I guess those two things are good enough!

WEVerb11: Try

2011-12-11T09:06:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#11: What 12 new things do you want to do/accomplish in 2012?

I am not ready to make my resolutions yet, so I'm not sure how to answer this one without doing that. In terms of things that will be resolutions, two of them jump to mind as fitting for this:

1. I want to run and/or walk the Bataan Memorial Death March marathon in March while carrying 35 pounds. So far, I have run 1 mile and walked 2 in one day wearing the vest (the attempt before that was .75 miles running and 1.5 walking). That means I have a lot of work to do in the next few months to be ready for an entire marathon in a few months. I am aiming to get to 3 miles running straight, and then it's going to be a lot of walking. I'd like to be up to at least 2.5 miles before I leave to go home for Christmas...

2. I want to run the Beijing Marathon. Easier said than done. First, the marathon I believe will be in mid- to late-October, but of course there is no date posted yet; apprarently people in China aren't quite so concerned with planning their lives and travels 10 months in advance. Second, since there's no date, I can't ask my brother to plan his fall wedding around it, so I have to cross my fingers that those two days don't conflict. Third, I have to overcome all the hurdles similar to the first -- I have to get through the registration process, have a plane ticket and be on a flight that gets me to Beijing on time, figure out how to expo and get myself to a start and a finish line in not only a foreign country, but a foreign country where I haven't the slightest ability to read or understand the most basic things, and I have to make it though smog that scares my lungs.

But after those couple things, I'm at a loss. I know there will be at least one other running resolution. The rest probably won't be related, but like I said, I'm just not at the point where I want to make my resolutions yet. It's something I always start thinking about this time of year, but I'm not usually ready to write them down until after Christmas, and sometimes even a week or two after New Year's. Oops! But definitely not ready on Dec. 11. So this Weverb post is a flop for me... Sorry!

WEVerb11: Create

2011-12-10T16:32:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#10: Share a creative project you undertook this year (art, writing, DIY, cooking, home decoration, crafts, photography … whatever comes to mind). How do you use your creativity to express yourself?

Contributed by Tara http://twowishes.comandeileenhttp//www.mynameiseileen.com/

Um... I'm not exactly a creative person. I guess the most creative project I undertook this year was adding some text and photos and mementos to our wedding scrapbook. The friend who came to Italy and did our ceremony translation into Italian for us (we brought my parents' priest to do the service and he only speaks English, though he did do the nuptial blessing in both languages) gave us a wedding scrapbook as a gift. And I've been very slowly working on it. I've got the big box with a bunch of stuff sitting under one of our dining room chairs so I can pull it out whenever I want, but since I worked on it for a few weekends many months ago, I pretty much haven't gotten back to it. Since this spring will be our third anniversary, I really need to get to it!

I guess the blog is kind of creative, but since I write about my life, it's not exactly creative like writing fiction or something. And I definitely take tons of photos, but they aren't really artistic or creative, it's just a way for me to hope I'll always be able to remember some of the places I've been and events in my life. So yeah, I don't think this is a good prompt for me. I don't think lawyers in general are particularly creative types, and I'm probably less creative than the average lawyer. Oh well!

WEverb11: Appreciate

2011-12-09T16:49:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#9: In which moment did you find yourself flooded with gratitude? How will you rally around gratitude in 2012?

Contributed by Megan http://everlastingpresent.com/

I don't know what to say about this one. There's no particular moment that stands out to me -- I wonder if there really is for most people (unless it's one of those landmark moments like the minute your spouse wakes up from a coma or you get a remission announcement from your doctor or something).

There were of course millions of moments I felt overwhelmed with gratitude.

Every time I really listen to a single friend complain about a date flop or an inability to find someone she (or he) wants to date, or to a friend who is in the process of divorce, I'm grateful for feeling secure with my husband.

Every time I work on a miserable case at work, I think how lucky I am to have never been the victim of a sexual assault, or any other abuse really (though wow, I really got spanked hard once for fighting with my brother!).

Every time I think or talk about our vacation plans and trips for the next year, or for past years, I think about how grateful I am to have gotten to have the experiences I did, to have the nature or nurture to be interested in seeing new places, to have the great travel buddy I found in my husband, and to have the discipline to make the choices in how we allocate time and money resources in our lives to make our travels possible.

Every time I watch news coverage of a major natural disaster or people in extreme poverty, I'm grateful for being born in America at the time I was and to the family I was. I can't say I never wanted for anything as a child, but I never wanted for anything I needed (Cabbage Patch kids didn't count as something I needed, and I did get one, just a year later than everyone else).

Every time I finish I race, I'm grateful I can run. That's a lie. Every time I PR in a race is true, but not every race. After a crash and burn race, I'm usually too busy beating myself up to be grateful I got to do it.

Every time I actually look at the amount of (diminishing!) debt I have, I'm grateful for a steady income that lets me do things like make mortgage payments.

Every time I'm around my family, I think how lucky I am that we all get along so well and that everyone is healthy and happy. My brothers have married some amazingly wonderful, fun, sweet and smart women who really make them happy and who I enjoy being around too.

I guess if I have to pick one moment, it was October 15, very close to midnight. I was scurrying around trying to get all my brothers, their wives (and one fiancee), their kids, and my folks together to take one big family picture. We'd taken several at the church, but the kids weren't there, and they weren't on my camera, so I wouldn't get to look back at it anytime I want. So my family was exasperated with me I'm sure, I'm always the one who likes taking way more pictures than anyone wants (but of course they all want to see them and then thank me later). But sure enough, we all got together right next to the bar. A kid I used to babysit when he was little took the picture with my camera, and standing there smiling with all the people I love the most was one of those moments of overwhelming gratitude.

Not sure how to answer the second part of the question -- I'd like to do more charity work in 2012, but I'm not entirely sure that will be a resolution or something I'll commit to. Instead I guess the best way for me to "rally around gratitude" is to keep blogging -- it's a good way to recognize the many wonderful moments that comprise my life (and the $hitty moments too, but that's all part of the game!).

WEVerb: Choose

2011-12-08T08:10:00.000-06:00

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.
Slowly but surely, I'm getting on the WEverb bandwagon. Still not at the point where I can use the hashtags or insert badges, but here's today's topic:

#8: Choose

What was the biggest choice you made in 2011? What caused you to choose what you chose?

Contributed by Melissahttp://www.53blonde.com

Ah, this one is easy for me! The biggest choice was on Valentine's Day when I got an offer for my current job and decided to accept it.

I'd left my last job early that day (you know, Valentine's Day, trying to go home and change into something pretty for dinner). I heard my cell ringing but couldn't get to it in time. Pulled into a gas station (I seriously have this entire thing frozen in my mind, I can picture exactly where I stopped my car, what the sky looked like, etc.). I listened to the voicemail from the VP with whom I'd interviewed and he asked me to call him back. So I did. He was there (having worked at a big firm before, I didn't get at all freaked out by the fact that this guy was still at work at almost 7:00 on Valentine's Day) and he offered me the job. I already had a good feel for salary and benefits since we'd discussed before. I knew right away I was going to accept, but of course I wanted to discuss with hubby. Well, by Tuesday morning, I'd made the call to accept the new job and given my notice.

As for what caused me to choose, well, it was complicated. Let's just say I was NOT loving my last job. As a lawyer, I worked first at a very big firm doing insanely interesting work, getting paid very well, and working absolutely insane hours. I couldn't stand the hours. It left me with no life outside of work. Way too many all-nighters, and looking at the more senior people, those jobs where my career path was supposed to lead, it didn't look any better. Few people really seemed happy, and absolutely none of them had a life I wanted. So I jumped ship, following a colleague to the opposite of the big firm -- a very very small firm. With that came boring unchallenging work, a pay cut, and better, livable hours. And in a very small office, some major drama and some absolutely horrendous personalities. The office manager was very young and initially I thought above all of it, and then it broke my heart one day to hear she'd said something very not nice about me behind my back. I was done with it then. It was just a matter of time until I could find the right fit elsewhere, I was checked out. I couldn't stand that drama, but even without that, the work just wasn't interesting or challenging.

When I interviewed for this job, I was insanely excited. I'd done a couple other interviews and gotten one other job offer, but I didn't want to leave just to leave, I wanted to leave to go somewhere I really wanted to work. The other offer just wasn't the job of my dreams. This might be. The list of things I don't like about my new job is short -- of course I'd love more vacation (first and foremost). I wish there were an on-site gym or even just a shower facility -- the office is about 5 miles from my house and it would be awesome to be able to run there or run home sometimes. Wouldn't say no if they quintupled my salary, but I can't really complain because I feel well-compensated. There were a couple other complaints (a constantly running water fountain really irked me, and I missed having a phone timer), but those have been remedied already! But really, the work is so interesting (though some cases are disturbing, that's part of what makes it so interesting), the work is challenging, my co-workers are awesome, the office is located fairly close to my house (and in my house on Fridays!), the pay is good, there is vacation, the support is good, the resources are good, the work is steady. I LOVE IT!

The best indicator that this was a good choice for me -- one of my least favorite job tasks now is something that used to be the best part of my job before -- online legal research. It's fun and interesting to me, but now there are so many things I like doing even more! Far and away the best choice I made in 2011.

WEverb 11 day 6: Travel

2011-12-07T08:09:00.001-06:00

So last year one of the blogs I've read the longest, Bella's, did monthly posts in December called Reverb (I think that's a label I used on my posts, so you can see examples if you want). It was a fun series of daily prompts. After reading her first post or two, I jumped on the bandwagon and did the posts as well. I got behind a couple times, but I would catch up on older posts when I had time.

Well, with a new job this year, an intense yoga month in November that made me far less prepared for the holidays than I usually am, and probably more blogs that I now enjoy reading, I've had less time to write this year. But I still read Bella's blog, so I saw that though there wasn't Reverb this year, there's something similar called WEverb.

Today I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon, but the prompt on the website is actually yesterday's prompt (or I read a post on the topic yesterday). But since it's one of my favorite topics, I'll go with it!

As you know, we love to travel. Our big spring trip this year was to Boston (for the marathon), then on to Italy and Paris. In Italy, we first went to Pizzo, then Lamezia, then we drove to Lecce (and did a day trip to Santa Maria de Leuca and to Gallipoli), then we flew to Paris to wrap up the trip.

Very tough to say the favorite part of the trip.

The marathon was insanely awesome (I already reviewed it). It is possibly my favorite marathon, possibly because it took me many attempts to get fast enough to qualify. The marathon happened to be on our second anniversary, so we had a fabulous celebration dinner.

I also loved Easter lunch in Italy with my husband's family. The food was possibly the best meal I've ever eaten in my entire life. And sitting around the table with hubby's aunt (who wasn't well this year), uncle, and many cousins and some cousins' kids, laughing, struggling to understand them when they spoke in dialect, and conversing to the best of my ability (helped by wine). Ah, what a day. I felt dangerously like I would hurl if anyone touched me or if I bumped into something the rest of the day, but so worth it!

And I would put the day in Paris that we ate crepes, went up the Eiffel Tower, wandered along the Seine, found an adorable cozy restaurant for dinner, and then hiked the steps to Sacre Coeur as one of my favorite memories of all time.

So all 3 of those landmark events were on our trip this year -- favorite though? I guess I'm going to say Paris. But tough call.

Our other travel for the year was mostly for family weddings -- Detroit (a little jaunt to Canada), and Milwaukee, ah yes, my brothers picked lovely wedding cities. Haha. They were still both wonderful events and I loved the family time. And there was last month's trip to San Antonio for the marathon, which was a fun visit with a friend. But I'd put a night in Paris with hubby and no one else as my favorite part of my 2011 travels.

And for the final part of the question (wait, why would they limit a question about next year's travels to people who didn't travel in 2011? that doesn't make any sense!), 2012 travel plans. I think there will of course be our 1 big annual trip, and 2 running trips and 2 family/friends trips.

First, a friends trip -- Mardi Gras in Mobile in February with my bestie. Hubby doesn't love going (he thinks the whole clan/society thing is creepy, elitist and racist), but I adore the time with her. She has two little kids now (twins), so it will no doubt be calmer than years past (well, Mobile is always calm and sedate compared to New Orleans). Still should be a fun long weekend.

Second, a running trip -- White Sands, New Mexico in March, probably solo. Hubby probably won't join me because a couple days after this marathon, he's going to Italy without me. But I am finally going to do the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon. With weight. That means I will (hopefully) be carrying 35 pounds throughout the race -- a very small amount of pain to commemorate the sacrifice of all those men in Bataan. Fortunately, if I stop running or walking to rest for a few minutes and take off my pack, no one will behead me. I think it will be one of my most difficult undertakings ever. Hubby actually is far from convinced I will succeed. But we shall see...

Then a long, hot summer in Dallas with no trips.

Third, another running trip POSSIBLY in August to run H2C in Oregon. This is so tentative. Just yesterday (12-6-11), I was invited to run on a Hood to Coast relay team by a former colleague. You go from Mt Hood to the coast, 197 miles, over 2 days, running 3 legs of a relay, less than 20 miles total per runner. I'd love to do that race someday, and given that all I'd have to pay for is airfare and hotel, it seems like this would be the perfect year to do it. It's hard to get in because the race fills up fast, and this team is already in. I'm leaning toward doing it, but planning to call a couple friends who've done it before in the next couple days to pick their brains.

Fourth, a family trip -- brother's wedding in Milwaukee in September. Love the family time, especially since given the other 2012 travels planned, I don't see a lot of time visiting with them before this wedding.

Fifth, our big annual trip. The plan is to go to China in October. We'd like to do Beijing (I actually want to run the marathon there, but, FRUSTRATION, though the marathon is only 10 months away, they haven't announced the date (or even whether there will be a marathon) and the website is useless, just 2011 info), then go to Xian, then to Chongqing, then to Yichang, then end up the trip in Shanghai. I'm nervous about the trip -- logistics of the marathon, logistics of everything else, language, food, etc., but it's somewhere I've wanted to go for so long and I think it will be interesting, informative, memorable and beautiful.

Oh, and then of course trip 6 -- home for Christmas.

I guess we'll have to squeeze in a trip to Pittsburgh during the year too to see hubby's parents. He'll see them in March and April around the Italy trip, but maybe we can make it out there together in the summer or fall.

Travel. Where did you travel this year? What was your favorite part? If you didn’t get to travel, where do you want to go next year?

Yoga Weeks 3 and 4

2011-12-06T14:30:00.000-06:00

So my final update from my month of yoga... Sorry for the lack of notes toward the end.

Friday, 11-18, class 12, aka: The BREAKTHROUGH. Best class yet. Domenic was the instructor and all of a sudden, it all seemed to click. There were several postures where I felt like I hadn't even been close and I was staying in step 1 -- and on a vast majority of them on Friday, I went to step 2!

Saturday, 11-19, class 13. No notes from this class so can't have been too memorable...

Sunday, 11-20, class 14. Domenic again, nothing notable.

Monday, 11-21, class 15, new-to-me instructor Karen. She was very cheerful and friendly and I liked her. I had lots of trouble "being present." Big week at work next week and it was on my mind a lot. I felt like the class went fairly well in terms of what I could accomplish, but whenever we were supposed to lie still, I found myself making mental lists of the first things I wanted to do the next morning when I got to work. It was like the instructor could read my mind. When we moved from the standing series to the floor series (about the halfway point), we lay there calmly for about 2 minutes. She kept telling us to relax everything, to sink into the floor, to relax even our eyes and our jaws. She said something like if you're having trouble focusing your mind, focus instead on your breathing. And I could do that for about 2-3 breaths, then it was remembering something else to do at work. The good news is though, I asked for some tips afterward about how to fix this AND on Tuesday morning I remembered all that I'd wanted to do and got it done! Score!

Tuesday, 11-22, class 16, new-to-me maybe instructor David or Daniel. I might have had him before. Crowded class and I walked in right before we started, so I was way at the back. Not so balanced, and didn't feel very energetic. I actually considered sitting out a couple postures, but I didn't. We sang happy birthday during each set of the triangle posture to someone in the class. That was really funny.

Wed., 11-23, class 17. No notes, not very full.

Fri., 11-25, class 18. No notes, again, didn't feel very flexible.

Sat., 11-26, class 19. No notes, average class.

Sun., 11-27, class 20. Went to the 8:00 a.m. class -- right after my last group run before the White Rock marathon next weekend. We had a short taper run, only 9 miles, and it was very cold out. Crazy cold for Dallas. Like on par with the lowest temperatures we generally see in a year. So going to hot yoga afterward sounded perfect. We had a little post-run party so I ate one mini red velvet cupcake, and I had some fruit -- and yuck. Not good at yoga. The strangest thing about this class was my lack of sweat. I know the sequence of postures well -- first a breathing exercise (two sets), then side stretches to each side, then backward bending, then forward bending, then back to each side, another backward, and another forward. Usually on the first forward bend, I can see the sweat on my calves and on my feet. And usually on the second, it is beginning to drip off me. This time I basically went through the entire first half of class without sweating or feeling warm. I wonder if I was just too cold from the run? Either way, it freaked me out a little. But by the time we were laying down for the floor series, I'd started sweating and that made me feel a little more normal. I don't think I'll go straight from a weekend distance run (even if it's only 9 miles) directly to yoga again. Not only was there the lack of sweat, it was also a little nerve-wracking trying to make sure I'd brought everything I needed for both exercise sessions, to make sure I was running the right pace to be done in time, and most of all, it was my least flexible class. Maybe I just didn't have enough leg strength, but my balance was off and I found myself falling out of almost all the postures I tried, and there were some where I didn't really try. Disappointing class.

Mon., 11-28, class 21. No notes, nothing remarkable.

Wed., 11-30, class 22. New to me instructor Julie. Who proceeded to cough throughout class. It was awful. At one point, we went into the bow pose on the floor. You lay on your stomach and reach back for your legs. When you have your legs, the instructor tells you to hold on and kick. Well, we grabbed our legs, there was no "kick" cue, just a coughing fit, then she said to come out. So we had to do that posture a total of 3 times instead of the usual 2. I think I'm lucky to have a job where I can usually go if I'm sick -- I work in my own office, so I can just shut my door and minimize the time I spend at my secretary's desk or in the halls or colleagues' offices. My husband doesn't have a job where he do a competent job when he's sick, so when he's sick, he stays home. I think yoga teachers should be in that latter category -- if you're sick, get someone else to teach your class instead of hacking away and making us paranoid about germs thriving in 105 degrees. It was also the complete opposite of relaxing or calming to listen to her coughing. And just so you know, I had another reason why I didn't like her -- it was weird, but she almost seemed cliquish. She kept talking about how she hadn't practiced in a week and someone in the class had watched her cat or something, and asking how mutual acquaintances were, etc. I'm sure most the instructors know some of the students very well, but no other instructor has every made it seem like such a clique, and so exclusive. When she said she'd be teaching again tomorrow, that was almost enough for me to decide to skip what I planned to be my final class.

Thurs., Dec. 1, class 23. Last class of the month. I went in the morning (no group run because of the taper), and I worried I'd have the only other instructor I don't like too much -- the unsolicited advice one from a couple weeks ago. Or that I'd have Julie from the night before. But I didn't. It was Dave again, and he gave me some good tips, and it was a pretty good class.

I went ahead and paid for another month, but the good thing is that you have 30 days to activate the month, so I may wait until after I'm back here from Christmas to start the month so that I won't be out of town at all. I'd hate to activate my month and then miss a week of it for traveling home. But one of my good friends is starting her month in the next week or so, and it might be fun to go with her.

In the nearly week since I've stopped, I think I might feel a little more stressed and definitely more bloated. It was nice feeling like so much sweat poured out of me each day. I miss it and think doing one more month will be fun.

I don't think I'll continue after that month though. It's just too time-consuming. I feel like when I'm doing it, that all I do is workout in the morning, work all day, yoga at night, then sleep. I was barely seeing my husband at all, and nothing was getting done at home. That's particularly incompatible with Christmastime, when I need to be wrapping and working on writing cards in the evenings, but it's also incompatible with having a communication-filled marriage, which is kind of necessary I think. Yoga put us on very different schedules. I didn't want to give up my morning routine (boot camp with hubby (but we can't really talk there) and running with my buddies). I have to spend the day at work in order to, you know, pay the mortgage (and pay for yoga and running and the rest of life), and that pretty much leaves the 6:30 p.m. class as the only weekday option for me. So I'd get home at 8:15ish, and hubby was already heading to bed then, since he gets up so early. I'd still have to eat dinner and shower.

Very time-consuming, and certainly worth it to me to do in the short-term, but not something I would like to do long-term because it's just not a high enough priority to displace something else I commit time to.

I feel like I worked a part-time job for the month of November that basically took an extra 15-20 hours every week away from being at home. Tough! But like I said, if I had more free time, I loved it and would keep it up.

Now my question is how much fitness and flexibility I will lose by going about a month without doing it??!! I guess I'll see when I go back next week or, more likely, Dec. 26.

FMM: I AM...

2011-12-05T12:39:00.000-06:00

I'm going to have to do a long post soon about our local marathon yesterday (best described as buckets of cold rain), my relay team, and my attempt to host a post-race party (let's say "fail").

But today, I just want to write something and then focus on my work. Why I don't just work, I can't say -- mabye a blog post will let me focus on something else for a while, then I can put my whole mind into work.

Enter ready-made topic! Friend-Making Mondays.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
FMM: I am…

1. I am good at… proof-reading (though this blog is not a good example), committing to plans that I make (exercise-wise, socially, whatever, I'm very reliable).

2. I am happy when… I feel like my life is in balance -- filling my days with interesting and somewhat-frantic work; exercising -- ideally running, lifting and yoga, sometimes all three in one day; eating food that I enjoy; spending time with family and friends. I feel like happy is my word of the year this year -- mostly because of my job change this year. What a difference those 50ish hours per week make!
3. I am working on…learning to speak a bit of Chinese, and running (or jogging) while wearing weights.
4. I am interested in…traveling primarily!
5. I am always… aware of when and where our next big vacation will be.
6. I am enjoying… getting ready for Christmas. Need more time, but I still enjoy it.
7. I am in… love with a husband who is sweeter to me than I deserve.
8. I am reading… lots of things: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do; Eclipse (Twilight series); and Ursula Under.
9. I am concerned about… my March marathon plans and how I will be prepared to run my first marathon while carrying weight.
10. I am looking forward to… it all! From an awesome dinner this weekend, to holiday baking next weekend, to going home for Christmas, to coming back to Dallas for an exciting 2012.
Now it’s your turn! If you answer, post a link to your responses on the alltheweigh.com blog. Now back to work for me!

Food Coma

2011-12-01T10:29:00.000-06:00

So my night of conflicting plans on Tuesday went as well as could be expected. My dinner with work team was a lot of fun, strengthened connections, and included tons of great food and drink. Unfortunately it lasted much longer than I'd expected. I knew a late night was in store when we hadn't even ordered entrees by 8:00. I finally left the restaurant around 10:30, so of course hubby and baby brother were long since done with dinner. I called my brother and found out hubby had gone to bed and my bro and his coworker were at the bar on our block, so I went out to meet them.

That of course meant a very late night for me (considering I usually go to bed shamefully early b/c I get up so early). So no boot camp yesterday morning!

I spent the whole day feeling fairly bloated, full and hung-over. Going to yoga last night was definitely a good plan, and I went back this morning for my final class of the month of yoga. I'll have to do a full post later.

Anyway, thought I'd share a couple pics of first, my veggie plate (au gratin potatoes, grilled jumbo asparagus, mac and cheese, and mushrooms), and then of my way too big dessert (cheesecake, planning to eat the rest of it this afternoon!).

Yum. This is why the period of time between Thanksgiving and New Year's pretty much destroys my plans to eat healthily... Oh, but it's so much fun! And the extra hours of exercise are 100% worth it, since even exercise seems to have a holiday feel -- one of the post-yoga evening events I'm looking forward to the most is an annual run with some running buddies to check out the pretty lights on the houses!

Conflicting Plans

2011-11-29T07:50:00.000-06:00

Tis the season to want to do more than there is time to do I suppose.

But this year is a little weird for me. Specifically, there are 3 nights with multiple events and I wish I could clone myself and do it all.

Tonight my baby brother is going to be in town. I want so much to go out to dinner with him and my hubby and just get some quality time together. I saw him in October at my other brother's wedding (and of course lots of time in July at his wedding), and I'll see him next month at Christmas, but a night with just the three of us would be awesome.

But tonight is one of the very few work dinners I need to attend all year. I was hoping, hoping, hoping it would be set for any night other than the night my brother is in town, but of course that's not how it worked. I know the work dinner will be tasty food, fun company, and a good time, but it won't hold a candle to some time with my brother.

My usual rule for conflicting plans is to do whatever was on my calendar first, but this work dinner was planned late in the day on the day that my brother bought his plane ticket (after clearing the date with me that morning), and it's an exception to the rule. Brother dinner was planned first, but trumped by work sadly...

So my solution tonight is work dinner eaten quickly (but I'm staying for dessert for sure, this restaurant has my absolute favorite restaurant cheesecake in the world), and then I'll go meet hubby and bro for a drink. He's staying with us, so maybe I'll just stay up late catching up, and depending on his work and mine, maybe we can do a workout, breakfast and/or lunch together on Wednesday.

But oddly enough, I have two more nights like this in the next week or so.

Wednesday, Dec. 7 is my work Christmas party, which we're attending (spouses are invited) and I'm looking forward to (I've heard some crazy fun stories!). But that night is also my law school alumni happy hour -- I really like that group of people and I make a big effort to go to all their happy hours that I can since we're a smallish group. AND my running buddies are having a post-marathon happy hour celebration that night. Because of the time of the work party, it's not possible to do more than 1 event, so the work holiday party is where I'll be, but again, I wish those happy hours were say Monday and Tuesday of that week instead.

And then Friday, Dec. 9, we are going out for an awesome dinner with one of my law school friends and his new-ish wife (I think they're 9 mos married now). And by awesome dinner, I mean AWESOME as in we are trying to use up the balance on his work expense account for the year. That means we'll be attempting to blow $2,000 on dinner for the 4 of us at one of the best restaurants in town. That's some good wine and food! I am happy that's on our calendar, but it would be nice if the other things for that night could have fallen on other nights. One of our friends is having a holiday costume party -- not normally up our alley, but the "costumes" are to dress as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Too funny! If only his party were Saturday night instead of Friday... And of course that same night is also a dance performance (followed by dinner) done by my husband's best friend's youngest son (his godson's younger brother). It would be so much fun to attend that, if only it were on Thursday...

So lots of fun plans, unfortunately I only get to do 3 fun events instead of all 8 -- just because all 8 are scheduled over the same 3 days. If only people would consult my personal calendar before planning their lives and fun events! Hahaha! Sigh...

We're also skipping hubby's work party this year, which is on Sunday afternoon (odd), because it's the day of the big local marathon and we're going to have an open house/brunch for all my running friends. That will be awesome -- lots of baking to do!

FMM: Holiday Shopping

2011-11-28T07:47:00.002-06:00

Going back to work today for the start of a very busy week -- major evaluation of case files, and the one colleague who shares my case load is out while her mother is very ill. Yikes! But the days off were nice, though I did do some emailing and stuff to help take a bit of the load off today.

I figured it was a good idea to choose a ready-made topic since it's Monday!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/2011/11/friend-makin-mondays-dating/www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Friend Makin’ Mondays: Holiday Shopping

Do you like to shop? Not really. My clothing is fairly old b/c I really hate buying new stuff. I'll even have stuff altered when needed to avoid having to shop again. It just takes so long to buy clothes and I hate it. And I've delegated grocery shopping to my husband, so I don't have to shop much at all, except around the holidays.
Have you started shopping for Christmas gifts yet? Yes, I enjoy the holidays A LOT more when I've started shopping well before Thanksgiving. If I have time today, I'll do some cyber Monday shopping!
Did you shop on Black Friday? If so, what did you buy? Nope. I went to yoga in the morning and we spent most of the day doing some major cleaning around the house. Like pulling everything out of our walk-in pantry to reorganize and scrub the floor, etc. Then Saturday we did our holiday decorating, and Sunday we went to see friends. We had dinner out on Fri and Sat, and lunch out on Sunday, but no shopping all weekend.
List a few of your favorite stores. Container Store! I have too much stuff and I always like putting it in smaller boxes for some reason. Also like Crate & Barrel, Nordstroms and Nieman's I suppose. I like Coach and Sephora too. And of course my fave local running store. But I'm really not a big shopper.
What is the last thing you purchased for yourself (food and drinks excluded?) I went ahead and paid for another month of heated yoga on Saturday! I can't even remember before that. Probably gas for my car? I bought a weighted vest for working out about a week ago. And I did shop for myself in Sept or Oct and I got a red skirt (which I popped a button off of the first day I wore it, and is now in line to either get the button sewn on by me or taken somewhere else to get it sewn on, and this is unlikely to happen anytime soon) and a green short-sleeved top. I will purchase more holiday cards soon.
Do you prefer to shop in-store or online? Online for gifts, in-store for clothing for myself. It's too hard to find clothes that look good on me and fit well online. Plus I like to feel the fabrics...
If you could purchase one thing that you don’t need at all for yourself today, what would it be? Well, my purchase of choice is almost always airline tickets -- next trip will be Mardi Gras, then for the marathon at the end of March, then China in the fall. That's probably why I don't like to shop much -- I'd rather save the money for travel. But in terms of buying something for immediate consumption, today I'd buy some awesome dress for work and some yoga shorts for tonight (I've been wearing running shorts).
Does your significant other shop with you? Do they love it/hate it? Since I don't really shop much, no he doesn't really go with me I don't think, though he has before and he hasn't complained. I think if I were a frequent shopper, he might not enjoy it, but since it's rare, he's a good sport when I ask.
Do you shop at thrift stores? I did in grad school, but I think I feel too guilty to do it now. If 15% of Americans are relying on food stamps to feed themselves and their families, I feel like I need to be donating to thrift stores and not shopping there. I'm in a very fortunate place in my life and of course I don't want to waste money, but I've thought of thrift stores as being designed to help those in need, and I can't say I'm in need.
When you’re holiday shopping, do you make lists? Kind of. I'll write down ideas as they come to me (usually well before the holidays), and I'll write down what I've already purchased, but basically I just keep lists in my head or have the lists people give me.

If you want to participate, answer the questions above and post a link to your answers on alltheweigh.com.

Consubstantial Changes!

2011-11-27T14:47:00.000-06:00

Wow, new mass!

We don't go to Catholic mass together very often. First, I'm Episcopalian (hubby is Catholic). Second, hubby works most Sundays. Third, my running group does long runs on Sunday mornings. Fourth, hubby is more like a recovering Catholic -- not very into it.

That all means I go to Episcopalian services occasionally and Catholic services rarely. Hubby goes with me to occasional Episcopalian services (like Christmas Eve with my family).

Well, in the U.S.

When we're in Italy, we go to Catholic services pretty much every day if we can't find a way out of it! Haha. I think we even went twice in one day when we were there this past spring.

But this weekend was special. First, I don't mind going to Catholic services even though I'm Episcopalian, I'd just never do it alone. Second, hubby was off today. Third, we only had a 9 mile run on the schedule this morning, and then I went straight to 90 minutes of yoga and I was home before 10 and mass wasn't until 12. And fourth, hubby said yesterday that he was willing to go to mass in the morning as long as we went to the English (Catholic) service at the cathedral.

It was quite amusing therefore to be at my first English language Catholic service in quite some time and to hear most people be almost as "close but not quite" as I am. Lots of the words are the same in an Episcopal church, but with the new mass today, they changed just enough that I was still off, but so was everyone else.

Consubstantial.

And also with your Spirit.

I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.

Hahaha. They were all lost with me and hubby was floored -- he still remembers when they did it in Latin (he was young at the change, but you know, that stuff sticks sometimes).

Not sure when we'll go back -- we're having a party next weekend after the marathon at our house (or if he's working, I'm having the party alone for my running buddies). And then after that, he'll probably be back at work on Sunday mornings, but at least we were there for the first one!

Overly Tired

2011-11-23T07:47:00.000-06:00

I'm dragging today but for good reason. Happily, I had an insanely busy and interesting day at work yesterday (I got over the morning brain fade). We've got a big case review next week Monday through Wednesday (inconveniently, right while my baby brother will be visiting for work, and I'd like to have free evenings to finish up my month of yoga). With that on the horizon, I've been working hard to make sure all my files are in ship-shape. That means I feel like I start working the second I walk in the door and I barely even look up until about 2 or 3 when I am absolutely starving and I finally drag myself away to heat up lunch. I've started bringing double water to my office so I don't have to get up to refill quite so often! Crazy, but I absolutely love it. My boss said I didn't need to actually go through each and every one of my cases but by that point, I was about 75% done and I thought it's probably good to go through them all in depth at least once a year. I've got several that are inactive -- like a lawsuit that was never served, or one where we've been dismissed but are monitoring the ongoing litigation against co-defendants, etc.

Anyway, despite the chaos, I managed to make it to yoga last night, arriving just as the class was starting (yoga post coming in the next few days). Went through my 90 minute class and headed home at about 8:15. Starving, soaking wet with sweat, tired, thirsty. And I saw a missed call from my next-door neighbors. Called them back and found out -- we have neighbors!

They live in Dallas part-time (I've posted about them before, among my fave people in the world; last year, we visited them in the other two places where they divide their year -- outside of Detroit, and in Puglia, Italy). They were supposed to get back to Dallas on Monday (and they're staying here through early March, when they'll head to Italy through early May, then Michigan for most of the summer I think). But our weather was terrible on Monday, major rainstorms, and their lights weren't on when I got home from yoga.

So since they were home, I called hubby (already getting ready for bed at 8:15, yes, our life is lame) and told him to get dressed so we could go visit. They were fairly disgusted that I arrived in wet yoga clothes, and after we talked for about half an hour, I decided to run home to microwave some leftover quiche and grab my favorite blanket and bring it all over to their place to eat dinner under my blanket while we talked some more.

Hubby and I both adore them, and life seems so much more fun when they're here. They came back to Dallas in July with us (after we went to see them in Michigan when we were there for my baby brother's wedding), and then back to Michigan in August, so it's been months.

I already have a million things I want to ask her to do with me -- helping me bake for a post-marathon party after White Rock, helping me bake cookies for my co-workers, going to an art exhibit in Fort Worth with me (Caravaggio, one of my all-time faves), walking with me as I attempt to get used to wearing my 35-pound weighted vest to be ready for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon in March, and just generally hanging out. Tons of nights sitting in each others' living rooms, having several conversations going at once, etc.

I'm very thankful that they happened to move in right next door, that I happened to meet them, and best of all, that she still has her Italian accent -- which prompted me to ask where she was from instead of just getting her name and waving hello for years! Very fortuitous indeed!

But now that they're back, I have to avoid getting carried away. As much fun as it might be to sit there talking until 10 at night, when I have to come home, shower and fall asleep after that, it means 5:00 a.m. comes way too early. Discipline. Isn't that supposed to be improving with yoga???!!! Well, we'll have months to soak up their company now. Woo-hoo!

Early Morning Brain Fade

2011-11-22T07:44:00.000-06:00

I actually have two concrete examples today of what I think of as early morning brain fade. I'm happy to say that only one of the two examples is me, proving that this happens to many people.

I've mentioned before that I run with a group of friends a few mornings a week. Well, this morning the schedules were a little weird so I knew there wouldn't be many people -- sure enough, just me and this guy Bryan. We haven't run together for very long, but he's a lot of fun to run with. Insanely sweet and funny. I suppose if I had been bad when I started high school, he's technically young enough to be my son. And that's almost the best way to describe him. He's training for his first marathon, so he has lots of questions, some things I wouldn't have even guessed he didn't know. He's fast and a very strong runner. He's also at the point where he just got out of school and hasn't yet made any career decisions. Working retail, living in an apartment with his older brother, single and enjoy going out (very cute I think, though in a kid way, like he could be 16 or something). In so many ways, it's like his life is just beginning.

Well, today, we're running and talking about random stuff. We hadn't run together much since my marathon so I told him about that, and we were just talking about his upcoming trip with his brother, etc.

I have noticed it before while running, but sometimes when it's so early, not only do I have the weirdest conversations with my running friends, sometimes, it's like we have a collective brain fade. And today I managed to remember both of them to share.

First, we were running, Bryan on my left and a car was approaching, so we moved further to the left and somehow he got in front of me. With most of the guys I run with, no big deal, but like I said, in some ways it's like he could be my kid. Maybe it's since he's more like a baby runner, so I just figured it was smarter for me to be in front of him. Plus I was wearing a new jacket this morning. So I sped up, passed him, and ran in front of him until the car passed us. Afterward, we were side-by-side again, and I said something like, "I thought it was a good idea to be up front because my new jacket is ... reflecty." Yep, reflecty, my word of the day.

So then several miles later, we were talking about his upcoming marathon (White Rock next weekend!). I asked if he knew what he was going to wear, he said yes. I asked if he had his fueling plan worked out and he said he was planning to carry two gu packets and then he'd take the one offered on the course. He said something like that was all he could really carry anyway. You know, unless he stapled them to his shorts or something. So I was like, "well, or pin them, you could pin them to your shorts. You know, with safety pins? That's what I do." He said something like, "hmm, I don't know how that would work, the wooden ones?" After many more minutes of telling him that yes, I think it works well to safety pin the very top of a gu packet to my shorts and then peel it off as needed, and eventually we figured out that when I said safety pin, he was picturing those big wooden clothes pins. Despite the fact I'd said safety pins about 5 times in the course of the conversation.

So there you have it, my examples of the morning haze that seems to hang over me until about 7 a.m. I would like to say that I'm just sleep-deprived because of my month of yoga experiment, but no, I feel like that pretty much on any run that starts before about 5:30 or 6 a.m. Oh well, fortunately it seems to happen to most of my friends too and we all know what we mean -- or when we don't, eventually we figure it out...

FMM: Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T07:47:00.001-06:00

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Thanksgiving Plans

What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? Does your family have traditions? If so, share them…(I know that some of you live outside of the US so feel free to fill us in on other holiday traditions!)

Usually the favorite part of my Thanksgiving day is our local race in the morning. We have a huge 8 mile Turkey Trot. The last couple years I've actually been able to go really fast (well, fast for me), and there's no better way to start the day than with a PR! It's a weird highlight to the day, but I feel like it sets me up so well for the day ahead -- I eat and drink whatever I want; and after a morning with my running friends, I feel warm, happy, loved and usually proud of myself.

We usually get there early and hang out with a bunch of my running friends for a while, do an annual group picture, run the race, then hang out some more in the parking lot, drinking beer and usually someone brings some kind of holiday bread (last year I think it was cranberry bread, which was different and so good).

The race goes through downtown and can kind of be a mess. Since it's so big (35-40k people!), there are tons of walkers, strollers and dogs, which makes it tough if you want to run hard, but even with that frustration and possible slow-down, it's an amazingly fun race. The first year I ran it, I was near some guy for a mile or two who was encouraging everyone to shout out some of the best things they were going to be eating that day. And there are always people in Santa and turkey costumes, which is fun. For me, it feels like the official start to the holiday season.

Anyway, after the race, we usually we go home and most years we have friends over for the meal. Last year, my cousin and his family joined us since they'd just come to Dallas to have a baby who needed surgery shortly after he was born, but this year their baby is doing well and they're all staying in Oklahoma, and we've just avoided making plans this year for some reason.

So yeah, we'll just be making dinner this year for our little family of two. Maybe the first year ever it will be just the two of us? Can't quite remember each year off the top of my head, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is a first.

Menu planning is still in progress (hubby is thinking it would be fun to go out, but I love having all the leftovers...). I want my usual faves -- stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash with peas, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, and maybe some kind of corn casserole or just corn. I also like it when we have olives on the side. For dessert I might try making apple dumplings this year, not sure...

The day after, we put up and decorate our tree, and I might start working on cards and wrapping. We are either going out with one of hubby's fave co-workers and his wife, or we're having them over here for dinner.

Low key Sat and Sun too. I'll do my training group's final taper run (10 miles) on Sunday before White Rock, and I'm hoping to go to yoga on Fri, Sat and Sun.

I'm excited about all of it! And I'm thrilled that we're not going to have to travel at all (beyond driving 2-3 miles downtown for the Turkey Trot and back home). Hopefully it will be a cozy and quiet day together! We've tried going home before, but the chaos of the travel makes it less fun for us than staying home. And we've gone to friends' houses before, but I prefer hosting -- love control of the menu -- and am looking forward to it being low-key this year.

Yoga Week 2

2011-11-17T07:28:00.000-06:00

So November is my month of yoga. I had no way of knowing it would be good practice to spend hours in a room heated to 105 to be prepared for San Antonio's marathon day weather conditions! Anyway, I tried to take notes after class most days over the last week or so.

Tuesday, 11-8-11. Binny. The little female instructor from Australia is named Binny. This is now my third class with her as the instructor. She tends to say the same things in each class, but I think most instructors do. Definitely the most crowded class I've been to. About 70 people? The room was packed. But oddly, it didn't seem as hot -- I wonder if they lowered the temp figuring that all the people in there would drive the temperature up? First time going into the bridge position.

Wed., 11-9-11. Domenick again. Now my third class with him. I had a first-timer directly behind me, so that made me nervous. Both because I knew he was watching me to see how to do things, and because when I was trying to focus in the mirror on myself to stay steady and hold my balance, I'd see him bouncing around behind me. He was very inflexible -- reminded me of how I imagine my husband would be. I think I mentioned that Monday night for the first time I got into this bridge position once (on the second try). Well, Wed. night I did it again on both tries. We started off putting our hands on our ankles while we were kneeling, then we lower down onto our elbows and then evetually put our heads on the floor and elbows over our heads. Wed night I went right into it as he was still trying to figure out if he could reach his ankles. Then the instructor said to lower down, the new guy saw me, and he just laughed. If only he knew that I almost laugh at myself -- that it was only my second time ever to make it all the way down. Another good class. Didn't seem as hot, but I had to take one extra water break. But still did the whole class, just had trouble balancing a lot of the time, possibly because I kept noticing that guy in the mirror and his struggles.

Thurs., 11-10-11, day off.

Fri., 11-11-11, first morning class ever, class 9. Since I skipped boot camp to give myself a pre-marathon break, I decided to do morning yoga. I missed it on Thursday. My spine felt all tight and weird. Much better post-yoga. The class was definitely the smallest I've been to, and started at 5:30. I counted people -- 32. And way less than most classes, so I'd guess the average evening class size is about 50. Smaller class meant way more personal attention. I had kind of thought I was improving, but on even the second posture this morning, I was personally corrected twice by name. Oops! I love that -- lots I can do to improve, so it really helps me to hear what I'm doing wrong or what I can do better. I feel like I'm getting a lot more familiar with the routine. Especially in the second half of class, I pretty much know the order of all the postures and how close I am to the end. It felt great, though there weren't any posture breakthroughs for me. Followed my head and an instructor's directions to take it easy right before the race. Got some unsolicited advice from someone in the class afterward on how I can do better. I wonder if she might own the studio? If so, maybe she invented or opened it just so she'd have an excuse to wear itty bitty shorts and show off how flexible she is. Anyway, kind of irritated me partially because I didn't know what pose she was trying to tell me I was doing wrong, and mostly b/c she was talking to me in the room after class, and I just wanted some quiet time and she seemed kind of loud (and louder still in the locker room after I left the room and she was asking me how long I'd been coming, which classes I usually went to, why mornings were so much better, etc.). I just wanted quiet. And I didn't really want to talk. Just some peace.

Sat., Sun., off and in San Antonio, going through my 26.2 mile "fun run".

Mon., 11-14-11. The goal they give you at the beginning is 10 classes in 10 days, and if you can't do that, 10 classes in 14 days. Well, this was class number 10 and day number 14. Mission accomplished. Domenic was the instructor again. I told him before class that I wasn't sure it was a good idea to be there as I was only about 30 hours post-marathon (and having trouble walking). He said it was a good idea and it would help a lot. During the class, he actually asked who all had run the half or full over the weekend and I was the only person (in a class of probably 60) to raise my hand. He said they'd had several earlier in the day, and even a couple the night before who had already flown back. Well, in terms of movement, maybe my worst class ever, or maybe just even with my second class. My legs ached. I tried very hard to take it easy, but there are so many poses it seems where you keep your back upright and kind of squat down, like into a seated position. Here I'm in agony trying to sit down on my bed. My process of sitting is actually more like knowing whatever (bed, chair, toilet) is under me and then just falling. No chance I could sit in an invisible chair in yoga because my falling technique would have landed me on the floor. I wasn't close to the bridge or tons of other postures where I thought I'd made the tiniest bit of progress. But it did feel good and my legs were maybe a bit looser. But then class ended and I had to get to my car. Yoga studio on the second floor of a strip mall, no elevator in sight. I made it down the first half of the stairs to the landing, with very slow progress, asking people who came behind me to just pass me. I got to the landing and wondered if maybe I could just camp there for a couple days until my legs felt better, then go down the rest of the stairs on Thursday or something. A guy walked past me and asked if I'd run the marathon, and I said yes. He offered me his shoulders to help down the stairs. Faced with the prospect of spending 48 hours on the landing waiting for my legs to loosen up, I accepted. He grabbed my mat, bag and water bottle and got in front of me. I grabbed his shoulders, practically put all of my weight on him and followed him down. I couldn't help the cursing that happened -- my legs hurt, but I think he counts now as maybe the kindest soul I've ever met. My husband will take me down the stairs like that all the time after a race (we live in a 3 story, and I have overly sensitive quads), but you know, he's stuck with me forever and will have to wait 3 hours for me to go down the stairs alone, have to worry about my falling, and listen to my endless b!tching, so it's kind of smart for him to offer me his shoulders (nice, appreciated, I get it, but still kind of like a duty in some ways). This guy, however, had truly no reason to help me but he did anyway. Maybe yoga is becoming one of my favorite things in the world.

Tues., 11-15, day off. Walked in the morning, as I already posted, and went to a running friend's party at night. Part of me wished I'd been able to go to yoga.

Wed., 11-16, class 11.

Funny thing is, Bella left a comment on my last yoga report about how one of the benefits of doing posts recapping classes is that I'd be able to identify instructors I liked or didn't like. In my mind, I thought, hmm, all the instructors kind of seem the same, I mean, I like all of them just fine, I'll probably just keep going whenever it fits in my schedule and whoever teaches, teaches.

Again, back to Wed. New-to-me instructor. 5:30 a.m. class (still not quite ready to go back to boot camp, quads feeling better, but another day away is probably good). Surprise, instructor is Ms. Unsolicited Advice from last week's morning class! Way too loud, too much talking, esp. for a morning class. And since I don't completely know what I'm doing, I still listen to instructions pretty closely, and she mixed up her right and left and some other words a few times. Very confusing. Smallish class, again about 30-35 people. She wanted everyone to move forward the way she liked us. She said to be patient and know that all her corrections came from love. This was also the first time I ate right before a class (not much dinner at the party last night, starving in the morning, and also just generally used to making myself eat something before working out). So was it the granola bar or the "loving" corrections that kind of made me want to puke? Hmm... She did say I did well in one, and she gave me some very good corrections several other times (not as irritating as I feared), but definitely not an instructor I'd be seeking out to have again. Fortunately, planning to start back to my full morning routine on Thurs -- running and boot camp! Anyway, some of my flexibility is getting back to where it was before the race. I made it back into the bridge (woo!), managed to do lots of the "seated on invisible chair" poses, etc. Legs are definitely getting back to normal.

Today, Thurs., 11-17-11. Day off. Yoga does not fit into my Thursday schedule. Instead I ran easy at the track today. Legs felt fine, but I am smarter than to attempt any actual speed so soon after 26.2. So I jogged in lane 7 at the track and waited until my weekday buds were done with their mile repeats, then we all cooled down together. Yoga blitz starts tomorrow, and I will hopefully go every day Fri - Wed, off on Thanksgiving (race!), then another blitz through the end of the month -- but the last few days might be derailed by some evening work obligations and a visit from my baby brother.

Road to Recovery

2011-11-15T17:17:00.000-06:00

This morning I elected to sleep in a bit and go for a walk instead of attempting to meet my buddies to run. My legs just weren't up for it.

I woke up about an hour later than I usually would on a Tuesday (getting up at 5:45 instead of 4:45). Threw on some shorts, a regular bra, a cotton t-shirt, socks and shoes. I added my heart rate monitor and watch, and I used a new "sweaty band" in my hair to keep it out of my face. Didn't even bother to put my hair in a ponytail. And I set off for a walk.

I'm actually a big believer in recovery plans. A coach I had years ago convinced me of the importance of following a plan. It's easy to just feel like you're done, and plant your butt on the couch for a week (or 5). Since I'm usually sore, I feel like I'd have a really good excuse to do that.

But most recovery plans help you feel better sooner than just sitting around. And since I have 2 more fairly big races (an 8-miler on Thanksgiving, and a 5-mile relay leg during our local marathon), sitting on the couch isn't a good plan for me.

So my plan today had 3 miles on it -- walking or running. Most recovery plans seem to be similar in that regard. They don't care at all about pace, they don't care at all whether you're running or walking, it's just that you're out there moving.

I set off for my 3 mile walk. And wouldn't you know it, within a mile, I wanted to run.

So yes, I was that woman who looks like an idiot out there on the trail -- running with my hair down, my chest fairly unsupported, my cotton t-shirt getting soaked. Oops!

Since it was actually fairly uncomfortable to run b/c of my hair, my chest and my shirt dampness, I didn't run much, but it wasn't my legs holding me back, which was nice.

By running, I actually mean jogging slowly, but it felt so much better than I expected. Particularly since my quads are still really sore. I can feel it whenever I try to stand up or lower myself down (particularly to a toilet, which is way lower than my bed or my desk chair), and when I go down stairs.

It's good to know my legs will be coming back.

There was one other major comfort factor -- I looked at the marathon results online today for my division. Out of hundreds of women in my age group, exactly TWO qualified for Boston. YIKES! I didn't need to qualify since I can use my Boston time from April (but I'm actually not running Boston in 2012 or 2013), but it was shocking to see how few people (and by that I mean two) qualified. Usually at a race, there are at least dozens, even in an age group with only a few hundred people.

The weather was clearly bad enough to bring everyone down.

But that doesn't mean I'm not still pissed at the San Antonio weather gods!!

Not Fun "Fun Run" (aka RNR San Antonio marathon race review)

2011-11-14T11:21:00.001-06:00

The year I ran the Chicago marathon and they cancelled it midway through the race, the police helicopters were flying over the course making the announcement, and what they said is: "the marathon has been cancelled; participants are instructed to walk toward the finish; buses are being dispersed; again the marathon is cancelled, it is a fun run."

And I remember how not fun that "fun run" was (of course, I was already past mile 20, so I didn't have far to go to the finish).

Well, the Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon 2011 was a similar not fun "fun run" for me. It was just over 80 degrees when I finished, one person died right after finishing, overall, the race reminded me a lot of that Chicago 2007 disaster, but at least it wasn't cancelled midway through.

It was low to mid 60s at the start and foggy because it was so humid. Ugh. But with the cloud cover, I decided to start off on pace and hold it as long as I could. As always, the RNR races have lots of corrals, and at least among the front ones, most of them are pretty good -- it means when you start running, almost everyone around you is going the same pace, so there's minimal weaving. Except there were a few women in my corral who clearly were planning to finish the half in what was the marathon goal time for the rest of us -- as soon as our corral was released, they started off at a very slow shuffle and I heard several people say not so nice things to them -- they really were completely in the wrong corral and should not have done that.

I made it about 5k before I started to slow down. The first few miles were fairly ugly -- running under some highway and stuff before getting to the Alamo, which was really cool.

This course has the full and the half run together through about mile 10.5, then the halfers turn to finish, and the full goes on.

As always, completely disheartening. I saw the numbers in the paper today -- almost 24,000 runners, just over 19,000 of them doing the half. So along the course at mile 6, spectators are shouting things like "almost halfway."

Count that as reason # 4,831 why I prefer races like Boston, Marine Corps, NY, St. George, etc. (heck, even Chicago) where it is just the full marathon running the course.

I get that the half is a popular distance and RNR is all about making money, but it makes for a less fun marathon experience.

By mile 8, I was doing the math in my head to figure out what my finish time would be if I just walked the rest of the race.

And I was seriously considering turning off with the half marathon people. When we got to the split, it seemed like everyone around me (even some people with full marathon bibs), turned to do the half, and very few of us continued on.

Have I mentioned this course kind of sucks? The first few miles are ugly, then there are some pretty good miles basically from the Alamo to the halfway mark (though you're basically just running down "main street usa" filled with chain businesses and some fairly sketchy tire stores, etc.). A couple neighborhood miles that are good, but after about halfway, it's pretty ugly. At one point we were running past a refinery for about half a mile it seemed. Are you kidding me? Just hideous. There was a good section of the full that was near the missions and it was a bit like running in a park (albeit a park with little shade).

But overall, very blah course (and keep in mind, this was my third year running the full in SA, so I was prepared for it).

I took a bathroom break just after the halfway mark, and it pretty much went downhill from there. The sun was out in full force, and it was getting so hot.

There were more hills than I remembered in the second half, including one awful section where you run about half a mile down this 5-6 lane road (Military Road), and then u-turn and run back up it -- of course no shade anywhere to be found. One more example of the poor course choice.

I basically kept running the entire time. I walked a couple water stops, and I think I took an old-school walk break during mile 22.

I had worn my brand new shoes, and fortunately that worked out well.

But I was barely moving it seemed from about mile 20 on. Very, very slow, surrounded by people moving at similar paces.

We linked back up with the half course just before mile 24, and that was also disheartening. At that point, there is a stream of walkers to your left, and it just looks so much easier.

If I'm honest with myself, given the weather particularly, I probably deserved my crappy finish time. My training this season was pretty lackluster. When I pulled my soleus, I cut my mileage and cross-training down a lot. When my soleus healed, I never picked it back up the way I should have. I was carrying a few extra pounds on race day.

But wow, given the weather, I'm so glad I hadn't worked my @ss off in training, just to see it all go down in flames...

Tons of people missed their goal times by a long shot. I was pretty bummed for most of the day on Sunday, but feeling better about it today.

My quads are still pretty stiff, but nothing really hurts as in injured-hurt. The good news is that I will probably be ready to run in the next day or two (unlike after a marathon where I actually run race pace for more than 3 miles, when I'm sore for about a week).

I'll add a picture of the medal in a second. As with most RNR races, it was pretty good.

The shirts are okay -- pretty much just like the RNR Dallas shirts. So for everyone who didn't do both races, I'd say either shirt is good. For people who did both, lucky you, you know have two almost identical shirts. It was nice that the shirts weren't unisex. The shirt is black, technical material, with grey, aqua and pink on the design (yes, just like RNR Dallas).

I don't understand why RNR tries to get people to run multiple events they produce in different cities, but would still have the shirts so similar for 2 races close to each other in the same year. Duh people...

We got dropped off at the start, so I don't know if the major shuttle problems they experienced in the past happened again.

Port-a-potties and start line logistics were pretty good. They needed more TP in each porta-potty, and the corral numbers weren't enforced at all, but most people (except the 3 half women in our corral) were able to follow the basic directions and were able to put themselves where they belonged.

The course was ugly, though the elevation profile isn't really too bad.

The finish line was fairly poor. No protein available for finishers. You were given water, a bottle of cytomax, fruit (apples, bananas), corn chips (off-brand Fritos), and bagels.

The finish line concert was also disappointing. Vince Neil, and the music was good, but he didn't play anywhere near as long as promised. The show was supposed to go 11:30-12:30 (which already meant anyone finishing the marathon in over 4:45 would miss the entire thing), but he was done playing before 12:10 and really only seemed to do a few songs.

And of course the walk back to downtown from the finish line was long and painful. At least at the Dallas race, they have parking at the finish.

I heard they ran out of Cytomax at the water stops for everyone in corrals 19-35, which is inexcusable in my mind. This was an expensive race, run by a for-profit company that manages probably 15-20 half marathons and fulls in a year, and the weather forecast for Sunday was already very clear last weekend -- it was already predicted to be in the 80s, they can't blame any last second weather change for this failure.

So my third RNR San Antonio marathon, and possibly my last. I think realistically, they should drop the marathon option here and just make it a big half. And someone else should have a San Antonio marathon, and just the marathon.

It will definitely be the last RNR SA that I try to race. May just do it as a fun run to see my SA friend, etc. but not a good marathon choice. The weather is just too unpredictable. Decent in 08, hot in 09, decent in 10 (or so I heard) and hot in 11. When we got to the car (after the short concert and the very long walk), it was 86 and there were tons of people still running. What could be more miserable? Ugh.

But that's marathon number 14 in the books for me. At least it's over...

No Mileage Report

2011-11-11T10:02:00.000-06:00

I feel like the day or so before a marathon, I usually do a post recapping my weekly mileage over the training season. It's to remind myself how hard I've worked and to give myself a bit of confidence. I did a post like this last year before I got my first Boston-qualifying (BQ) race time at Twin Cities. And I did that post earlier this year before I ran Boston and got my "re-Q". I would go back and count how many weeks I had mileage in the low 30s, in the upper 30s, in the low 40s, in the upper 40s, and even into the 50s when I trained for Boston.

But there doesn't seem to be much point this year. When I hurt my calf, I reduced me running to 3 days a week. That kept my mileage frequently in the 30s, but even when my calf healed, I didn't pick it back up to my usual 4-6 days of running per week. My mileage never really increased as it should have. Why not? Who knows? I was a little afraid of reinjuring it, but I was also just lazy. It was fun to sleep in on Saturdays, and just do boot camp on the other days. The other big issue is that when my calf was hurt, I gave myself permission to slack at boot camp. I did very little cardio and I think lost a lot of fitness over those few weeks.

Likely I will pay on Sunday. The predicted high is 85, and I think it's going to be ugly. I suppose the upside is that even if I'd worked my @ss off and done tons of high mileage weeks and lots of speedwork, it still would have been ugly weather and the race likely would have been even more disappointing for me. At least my expectations aren't high!

There are a few people I've been running with almost every day I've run this season. One is this guy who's training for his first marathon. He trained once before but got injured after his first 16 miler, but he's doing great this year and I'm super excited for him. He's ALMOST young enough to be my kid -- I guess if I'd had him when I was about 13, but he's younger than my baby brother and really seems like a kid to me. Just out of school, figuring out the job thing, etc. The other morning, he asked me what my goal time was for San Antonio. I told him that was a very personal question. Why not just ask me what I weigh or how many guys I've hooked up with! He laughed and said he didn't know it was so personal. So we made a deal (this was before I knew the forecast) that if I accurately predicted my finish time w/in 2 minutes either way, he'd pace me in a 5k (he's fast!). We didn't figure out what happened if I don't finish w/in 2 minutes, but I think it will involve my doing some baking for him.

I went ahead and predicted my finish time at a very slight PR (about 2 minutes).

Now that I've seen the weather, I think all bets are off. I don't even know if it would be smart to start at that pace, maybe I'm better off running the whole thing at an easy pace.

Oh well, we'll see how it goes I guess, how I feel, how hot it actually is at the start, etc.

I'm considering making what also could be a potentially huge mistake. I might wear brand new shoes. I wear the same brand and style always (Brooks Glycerine). I bought a new pair not that long ago to wear during the race and I realized they've moved into the next year of the shoes. They should structurally be the same as what I'm used to wearing, but every once in a while, there will be a change -- 50/50 on whether that change will be for the better or for the worse for me.

I bought those shoes and planned to do a couple test runs in them, but somehow never seemed to have time. The shoes were up in their box in my closet, and when I was getting ready to run, I was on the first floor and usually in a hurry. So I haven't tried them out yet. Hmm... I really wish I had b/c the last couple runs in my current shoes I really started to get the "time for new shoes" feeling. These shoes (the pair that I've been wearing) were my brand new shoes for Boston, and they carried me through the bulk of this training season (all my long runs, and maybe about 1/3 of my weekday runs). So they're due to be retired. But when? Retired now or retired after 26 more miles on Sunday?

Risk it and wear brand new shoes? Or risk it by wearing safe but worn out shoes? Aye, I just don't know...

This weekend is going to be interesting...

Track Coach

2011-11-10T07:27:00.000-06:00

Since I'm deep into my pre-marathon taper, which means sharply reduced mileage, I didn't want to run with my group this morning. My schedule said 0 miles, theirs was 2 miles easy, 5 repeats of 1000 meters w/ 200 meters recovery, and then 2 more miles easy.

So I decided to just head to the track and be a track coach.

I learned that I have NO idea how to dress to be outside and not moving when it's 45 degrees. When I'm running in that weather, I usually would choose shorts and a lighter long sleeve top. Maybe gloves, maybe an ear-warmer band. It would be cold for the few minutes of standing around before I started, but I'd warm up right away. But if you're not running, it's a lot different.

I guess maybe if I were a sports fan and tailgated or watched games in that weather, I would have been better prepared. I went with a pair of stretchy pants, thick socks, old gym shoes, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a fleece, and a light jacket, and a ball cap and gloves. I almost went with a stocking cap, but I thought a ball cap looked more like a real coach.

I had an amazing track coach a few years ago (think NCAA 5k champ, female with a 5k time in the low 16-minute range!). She's definitely one of my all-time favorite running coaches (she would actually win the title if I had to pick one favorite, but I usually count my fave marathon coach separately). She would log all our times, shout tips at us, encourage us to push harder, pace us in races. She's amazing and still one of my fave people. She ran professionally for a while, coached, and now works for a shoe company but she doesn't race often anymore.

I loaded up a bag of gatorade and water, grabbed a clipboard and a stopwatch, and kicked myself again for not asking my husband to bring a whistle home for me to use. He's out of town right now and actually has a whistle, but it's at work.

So I drove to the track and called times for them. And recorded their times so they'll be able to look back on their training some day and think how fast/slow they were back on 11-10-11.

Not a bad morning actually!

Cooking Weekend

2011-11-09T06:58:00.002-06:00

Maybe it was the lower mileage this weekend, maybe it's the fact that they say fall is coming (it's been crazy warm the last few days, but we did have a few cold mornings, and I know more cold ones are ahead), maybe it's just boredom with what I've been eating. Or most likely, it was the desire to have something tasty, nutritious and quick to reheat after weeknight yoga, which ends at 8, and gets me home by 8:20ish -- and I still need to shower before I can go to bed. And since I wake up at or before 5 every day, I want to get to bed asap when I get home, which means a strong need for something quick to eat.

So this past weekend, I made a quiche one night (broccoli mushroom, only my second quiche ever, and quite delicious), and then the next night I made a curried lentil dish (tried and true recipe we both enjoy).

Can't remember where I got the recipes, but if you enlarge the photos, they may be legible. You know it's a sign of a good recipe when it has a major wine stain all over the page...

Anyway, a "last remaining quiche slice" pic, the lentil dish cooking, the recipes, and a fridge pic for some reason -- but of course I didn't have the lentil leftovers in the fridge yet, so it doesn't look as well-stocked for the week as it is.

Yoga Update, 6 classes in 7 days

2011-11-08T08:24:00.001-06:00

So before I forget, I need to record some of my yoga observations based on the last week -- a total of 6 classes in 7 days.

Tues., 11-1-11: First class. Instructor was this tiny Asian woman named Bitty or Bitsy or something like that. The class felt warm and seemed to last a long time, but it wasn't too bad. No one left the class but it seemed a few people sat down at various points.

Wed., 11-2-11: Second class. No recollection of who was the instructor, maybe a middle-aged guy? Class was awful. Seemed about twice as long as the day before and I had less than half the flexibility I had the day before. Smallest class I've been in. Maybe 20-25 of us? I didn't count.

Thurs., off day. Holy cow, I was so sore. Particularly my back, but also my sides and my shoulders. But lots and lots of tightness in my back.

Fri., 11-4-11: Third class. Not sure who the instructor was, possibly a younger guy (Domenick). Best class yet. I feel like I'm getting a little better and it's not quite so hot. I notice the triangle pose that I can already do better than I did in my other 2 classes. First class where a neighbor irritates me. She's wearing lots of jewelry, she's about 2 steps behind everyone else all the time, and she can't just be still -- even when she lays still, she's drumming her fingers or something.

Sat., 11-5-11: Fourth class. First repeat with an instructor (Bitty/Bitsy again). I'm starting to feel better and thinking I can do some things I can't. For example, there's one pose where we stand on one leg and grab our other foot underneath, using all 10 fingers. The standing leg is supposed to be locked, then you kick your bent leg forward. When you're done kicking, your legs are at a 90-degree angle from each other and both straight out. Then, when both legs are straight, you pull your elbows and head down over the raised straight leg. Well, I'm not even close to that stage, but on Sunday, I thought maybe I could at least try to kick forward. Nope. Bitty said I wasn't there yet, and it was better to stay with my knee bent hanging than to kick before I was able to lock my standing leg. I appreciated the feedback a lot. It's really hard sometimes to know what you're doing right or wrong. There are 20-40 people in each class. Oh, and I'm irritated by another person -- this is a loud guy near me breathing heavily out of his mouth (you're supposed to breathe through your nose calmly).

Sun., 11-6-11: Fifth class. New-to-me instructor, a woman whose name I don't remember. Middle-aged and gave lots of tips for beginners. First class that might have ended a tiny bit earlier than I expected. Bitty was actually attending the class, so that was awesome because there was someone I knew I could watch as an example. An older bigger guy was in the back of the class and the instructor was teasing him a little about having asked if there were paramedics on sight. But everyone in the class seemed to do a really good job.

Mon., 11-7-11: Sixth class and wrapping up my first week. Domenick again (I hadn't caught his name the first time). First class where someone got so dizzy she fell down. But the instructor was so calm. He had her lay there for a while and kept class going at the same time. He brought her a drink and next thing I knew, she was participating again. Instructor gave me specific instructions about the triangle pose, and that helped. There were two big landmarks in the class. First, at some point after we'd moved to the floor portion, I realized I was able to basically count how many and which postures we had left. Second, I actually got very briefly into the bridge position on our second attempt. That was exciting!

And after last night's class, it was raining (not frequent here) and I was overwhelmed by the desire to just be in the rain. I feel like I never just stand in the rain and enjoy it -- either I'm hurrying out of it, or I'm stuck running in it. This time I just wanted to stand and walk in it. But since the yoga place is a few miles from my house, and it was late and time to eat, shower and get to bed, I settled for soaking up a couple minutes of glorious rain in the parking lot of a large grocery store (next to the yoga place). Not exactly a zen moment, but probably the closest I've gotten since I started.

So after a week, I think I lost some weight but our scale battery died in the last few days (probably because I was jumping on about 6 times per day).

I feel like I can actually see a change in my body, specifically in my abs. You do lots of stuff while sucking your stomach in, which isn't something I'd spent much time doing, now it feels more comfortable.

I think my posture is actually improving. I notice lots of times when I'm sitting and I don't feel like my spine is straight.

I think I'm spending a bit more time reflecting and more quiet time. I can't quiet my mind in class yet. I definitely focus when we're doing the postures, but when we're supposed to lay still and absorb the benefits, my mind wanders in non-yoga ways -- thinking about things to do, work, people around me, whatever.

The heat isn't quite as tough, but it's still hot and does not feel easy. I just don't feel like I'm suffocating anymore.

I feel like I have a decent grasp of the postures, what's coming next, what I can do at my peak (and I try to get to that point earlier and start from there), what good form is.

My plan is to go again today and tomorrow, take Thursday off and see how I feel, then MAYBE go on Friday. It will just depend. If I go, I'll try to take it very easy since I don't want anything to hurt before the marathon.

I'm definitely enjoying it, just very time-consuming. I forgot to add in the laundy time and the packing bags time. Definitely eating over 2 hours per day.

FMM: Dating

2011-11-07T08:27:00.000-06:00

I had a good but not overly exciting weekend. Feels like all I really did was yoga, but there was other stuff -- worked a water stop for a half marathon, did some cooking, did my last long run. Shall post later since all that will take some thought. Instead today I thought it would be fun to have my topic chosen for me. Cue FMM.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
FMM: Dating

What is your current relationship status? (Be as specific as you’d like to be!)
Married just over 2.5 years, living in sin for several years before that, total time together from first date is almost 6.5 years.  Broke up once while dating for just under 24 hours (but don't even ask how miserable I was during that time).

List a few qualities that you look for in a significant other.
When I felt like I was in a dead-end relationship, I actually made a checklist. I was in my late 20s, I somehow felt like everyone else around me was in a happy relationship (totally untrue, but it was my perception). The checklist ranged from serious things like an interest in travel, trustworthy, caring, active, and affectionate, to things that I called "bonus points" like being either a vegetarian or veg-friendly (but also being a bug killer (or better yet, a bug catch-and-releaser)), having a strong connection to his family, and sharing a similar political view. Oddly enough, on my "must" list was the item "dances at weddings." Sure, it was a flexible requirement (if I my husband hadn't been able-bodied when I met him, it wouldn't have been a deal-breaker), but it embodies something I love so much about my husband's personality -- he wants to get out there, to have fun, to enjoy life. I love that we dance at weddings, though I wish I had even the slightest sense of rhythm or that my dancing skill level even kind of approached his (don't suggest dance lessons, I've tried, he did them with his ex, which is why he's such a great dancer, but he has no interest in doing them again).

If you could choose to date one character in TV or film, who would you choose? And which characteristics are most appealing?
That's really tough.  The husband in Life is Beautiful maybe. I love how he treasured his wife and valued his family so much.

How long should you date before becoming exclusive?
For us, I think we dated about 3.5 months before becoming exclusive. It obviously depends on the couple, but for both of us, I think it was good that we both had dating histories. I actually in some ways noticed early in our relationship that the fact that my husband had been married and divorced before probably benefitted our relationship. The first tough time (conflict) we had, my inclination was much more to walk away and not deal with it -- because in a casual relationship, you can do that. My husband had the sense to say, we're in this for the long haul, it's not just going to go away, how best can we work through this... Wow...

What are your thoughts on public displays of affection?
Haha. This is where the few (2?) (Carrie? Kathleen?) who know me in real life would laugh. Actually, Carrie only knows me and not my husband. I'd say we're fairly affectionate in public but never mushy. I'm happy to just hold hands or do a quick peck and hug. But I know for a fact that many of our friends do not see us that way and think we're completely mushy. Oops. Lots of people say things like, oh, you're still in the newlywed phase, or oh, you guys are just so cute and cuddly. Can't help it.  We did one of those pre-marital classes and one of the things they talked about was identifying your "love language." Mine was 100% gifts of service. If he wants to show he loves me, he can clean the kitchen.  That stuff really gets straight to my heart. For him, it's verbal and physical -- he loves being told he's loved, and loves physical touches, even just sitting with our legs touching, or putting my arm around him, or my hand on his arm, I notice that he notices and I want to make him know how loved he is.

Do you kiss on the first date?
We did! And I'm sure he did with other people before me, and I did too.

Biggest turn-off?
I hate the cocky, argumentative, know-it-all personality, especially when it comes to abstract topics. Makes me want to run in the other direction.

What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
I always hate this question. Obviously, unless you're blind, I think the first thing you notice about the opposite sex is the fact that they ARE the opposite sex. You get a sense of build, age and race. Those are the first things I notice, and I don't know how someone can claim to notice a smile before noticing if the guy is 100 pounds or 500 pounds, or if the guy is 12 or 80. When I was single, if he was age-appropriate and even somewhat attractive, I also used to notice pretty quickly if they were wearing a wedding ring!

How long do you/did you wait before becoming intimate?
TMI for the blog... but I'm okay with saying that we didn't wait until we were married. Definitely works for some people, but not so much so for us.

Describe your dream date.
Tough call. I love picnics with outdoor movies, I love sometimes getting dressed up and going to nice restaurants. I love active dates like running, yoga, kayaking, etc. I love fireworks. I love going out in our neighborhood. It's really tough to think of a single dream date. Since we don't have kids, we don't have to worry about doing "date nights" or something else that people who don't have time to be together often do, so we get to do lots of different "dates" all the time. My favorite this year was probably the night in Paris where we found a restaurant in Montmartre and then after dinner listened to street performers and walked up to Sacre Couer and just sat together up there talking for forever it seemed.

And there you go, a fun blog topic that let me respond instead of starting from scratch. If you want to play, go to alltheweigh.com and link to your answers.

Yoga Packing List

2011-11-04T08:32:00.001-05:00

So I did heated yoga on Tues and Wed nights, and I planned to take off last night anyway, but it was a lucky coincidence because I was SORE.

I'm planning to get back to it this afternoon (work from home on Fridays meant early start for me today, and I skipped boot camp to get some extra rest and recovery), and I'm hoping to go every single day through Wednesday, then skip next Thurs again. I'll see how I feel to decide if I go on Friday, then I fly out of town Sat morning for the marathon.

More for my benefit, after having forgotten a few key items each night, here is what I need to pack:

One empty bag with zippered pocket -- I'm using my new Vera Bradley bag for this that all the bridesmaids got in the wedding a couple weeks ago. This is for my work clothes and shoes and my jewelry and it goes from my office into my trunk. Then I never have to mess with it. You're not supposed to wear jewelry in class, but I leave my wedding ring on. But no engagement ring, no necklace, and now having thought very recently about nearly losing those items, I know I have to have a secure place to put them while I'm in class. No sense putting them in the locker room, trunk is a much better bet.

Yoga mat. Forgot this the first day. D'er...

Beach sized towel to put over mat. Oh, and I need a new one each day. It reeks afterward.

Hand-towel

Water bottle filled to the very brim and icy cold.

Ideally the towels and water bottle are in another bag.

Bag with yoga clothes -- running shorts, sports bra, shirt to wear over. But I've learned not to wear the shirt in class. I'm insanely self-conscious, but I truly can believe no one is looking at me. Way too warm to wear a shirt.

Comb, elastic and maybe barrette -- forgot all of this the first day.

Flip-flops to wear to and from car.

Sweatshirt to put on afterward for drive home. Even if it's 75 out when I'm done with class, it feels cold after 105. And when it was like in the 40s Wed night, it really is cold!

Bikram swipe card to use before class.

Extra cold water bottle in car to drink afterward.

If I can remember all of that stuff today, I think I'll be setting myself up for success. For the first couple days, I wasn't doing separate bags, and it was hard to change in the bathroom at work and jam my work clothes back into the bag I was getting clothes out of, and then bringing all that into the studio seemed pointless. A separate bag that can stay in my trunk is the way to go.

So far all I can say is that I'm sore and I've lost weight. Almost back to where I think I was about a week after Boston -- still should go down from there, but at least I'm in the ballpark. Obviously I don't think it's real weight loss, though I suppose a pound or two could be. It's got to be just water weight from sweating profusely for 3 hours so far. But as I mentioned, not so hungry afterward, so less food at night means maybe a little bit of real weight loss.

I was starving in class on Wed night and felt nauseous several times. I need to make sure I eat before class. With running less than 10 miles, I can usually eat a granola bar and be fine. And my stomach's good even if I finish chewing that granola bar about 30 seconds before I start running. For longer runs, I need more calories, but I still don't need a ton of time to digest it. But with yoga, I could see how that could be different. They recommend eating about 2 hours before class. I think having something like an apple would be perfect, and maybe even an hour before class, but I have to eat something within 2 hours of the start of class. Lesson learned.

Anyway, Wed night when I got home though, after being starving in class, I wasn't really hungry, but hubby had texted me that he left my dinner on the counter. It was a big plate with wild grain rice, steamed baby carrots, and steamed zucchini and green bell peppers. I looked at it and wasn't enthused. I kind of wanted a cold salad. And a small one. This was way too much food. But I cleaned my plate and it was insanely delicious.

I definitely this weekend need to come up with a plan for after yoga eating that will carry me through the next couple weeks. I can't rely on hubby to make dinner for me since he'll be out of town some of the days next week, and plus it's not really fair to expect that.

If only I could laminate this packing list and attach it to my wrist or something.

NYC double?

2011-11-03T08:22:00.000-05:00

Apparently there's talk of running the NYC marathon at some point in the future twice, a race on Saturday and another on Sunday, because the demand is there. When I ran NY in 2005? 2006? 2004?, it was the biggest marathon ever. But it was only around 40,000 runners, so it's since been beaten.

So I hate to post something someone else wrote, but this blurb was short and it really made me laugh -- some opposition to the two day running of NY.

Here's the link if you want to click over: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/11/new_york_city_marathon_two_days.php

Otherwise, if you're as lazy as I am sometimes with clicking, here's the post by Jen Doll:

Marathons! Here's the thing. We do not get them. No, we don't get them at all. First of all, is it really healthy to force your body to move that far, for that long? Isn't "nipple chafing" a sure sign that you're doing too much? But, fine, we respect your right to run for a long time and then wrap yourself in a shiny, robot-esque, heat-sealing blanket afterward. We respect your right to consume strange untasty gels out of miniature packets. We respect your right to wear those horrible shoes that make your feet look like fingers. We respect it! You are better than us, and we know it. But! We must draw the line at making the New York City Marathon a two-day event as opposed to a one-dayer. We simply do not have enough strength in our upper arms to hand out bananas for that long!

The Daily News reports that despite our personal beliefs about marathons, a lot of people really like them, and the largest such race in the world, the New York City Marathon (this Sunday! Buy some bananas!) just keeps getting bigger. The race's organizers are considering making it a two-day event that could allow for 100,000 runners. Oh joy.

"We could run on Saturday and Sunday," said Mary Wittenberg, race director and president of the New York Road Runners. "The demand is there. When I started (in 1998), there was a feeling that the marathon absolutely can't grow anymore. But I don't think growth is capped. People desperately want to run this race."

Hence, there have been "initial discussions" about the idea of a two-dayer, which would require a traffic shutdown of the route for the entire weekend, making it, at this point, a bit of a far off idea, most likely. But, we have to say, making a marathon LONGER is so very marathon. You guys are nothing if not consistent!

47,000 runners will run this Sunday's race, compared to the 45,350 that ran last year. We'll be cheering you on from our couch, where we've collapsed from the effort of thinking about what we should wear to the gym.

By the way, there's a new mobile app for tracking people who run, which we like because, you know, anything that makes our lives easier.

Definitely a funny post worth sharing. It does suck when there's a race in your hood that you're not running and it screws up your travel plans for the day!

November Yoga

2011-11-02T08:25:00.000-05:00

Big news in my workout world.

A couple months ago, a friend and I both bought a one-month Bikram yoga groupon. We planned to start originally in September when I got back from my now sister-in-law's bachelorette party, but something came up. Then we were going to start right when I got back from my brother's wedding a couple weeks ago, but in that month in between, my friend started having major knee problems and decided she wasn't going to be able to run the half in San Antonio in 10 days and she actually had surgery a couple weeks ago to repair her miniscus, which was torn. So she's now planning to start her one month in mid-November, but I didn't want to wait that long, so I started mine last night.

I am hoping that it will help me build some strength and flexibility in the next week and a half before my marathon. I am hoping it will help me with heat acclimation in case I have a hot marathon day on November 13. I am hoping it will help me beyond my race with calming my mind and relaxing myself, maybe going to a deeper level.

And honestly, I'm also hoping it will help me to drop a few pounds before the race. I've written before about how I gained some weight this spring after I ran Boston and we went to Italy for vacation for a couple weeks. The combo of eating tons and not doing intense training meant I packed on a few. And then I got back to reality, and the pounds just kind of stayed. It's been driving me crazy. I generally eat pretty healthy foods, but even when I'm only at about 30 miles per week, I seem to be fairly ravenous a lot of the time and I justify treat foods by thinking about how many miles I ran or something. Either way, the pounds have stayed, and there was some cool statistic in Runner's World several years ago about how many seconds per mile in a marathon each pound costs you. I wish I could find it again...

I've done Bikram Yoga a couple times before, but never very often. I went with several friends probably 7 or 8 years ago several times. But then I had a bad experience. We were all out one night and planned to go to yoga in the morning. I was drinking and they thought there was no way I'd go. But I don't break plans that I've made if it's at all humanly possible to keep them, so I showed up for yoga in the morning. Hung over. Reeking of alcohol apparently. And of course, within half an hour, it was all coming back up. It was awful. And then I didn't go back for a long time. Adam was in town visiting me about 4-5 years ago and we went to 3 classes in a row, but that was it. And I guess I went to a single class last year on Labor Day weekend.

But I bought the groupon, and here we go.

It's a huge change in my schedule, since I'll still keep working out in the morning. It's just going to mean not much of a social life at night. They recommend you go as often as possible for 10 days to 2 weeks. So I went last night, will plan to go tonight, skipping Thurs, then I'll try to go Fri-Wed each day, skip Thurs again, and then maybe go next Fri, skip Sat and Sun (out of town for the marathon), then just see how I feel when I get back to town after the race.

But seriously, it's going to be very time-consuming and necessitate a major schedule shift for the month. Each class is 90 minutes. That's the class. There's also getting dressed, getting there early enough to get parked and get a space in the room, and of course getting some clothes on afterward, getting home, and showering. The room for the class is heated (maybe air conditioned in the summer!) to 105 degrees. So while occasionally if I take it easy at boot camp, I can get by without a shower, or without washing my hair, I was completely soaked after the class last night and not showering was not an option. So if I go to class 5-6 times per week as I plan (skipping Thursdays for sure, maybe one other day as needed), that's 7.5-9 hours of exercise in class, plus about at least 5-6 more hours of getting ready and cleaning up, that means that basically I've said for the month of November, I need to find about 12-15 hours of free time per week to do this. Wow. It will be a combination of trying to shorten my days at work a little and spending less time at home in the evenings. I warned hubby this was coming, but I can already tell it will be hard to see him less. But we can do anything for a month -- and maybe I can convince him to try a class with me at some point!

This is going to put my actual workout time at about 17 hours per week -- insane! Well, insane for me, I know lots of people work out more than that, but that's way more than I currently do. I have 3 hours a week of bootcamp, about 3 hours of weekday running, and about 3 hours of weekend running, and now let's call it 8 hours a week of yoga. Holy cow! And that's still keeping my mileage and number of running days reduced, trying to avoid any calf probs before the race. Imagine if I were following my full running schedule -- I'd be close to 20 hours a week of exercise time!

I noticed I was hungry after class last night when I got home, but not a lot of stuff sounded good to me. What I really wanted was a big salad, but I was too tired when I got home to make one. Instead I heated up some leftover spinach-artichoke dip and spread it on an English muffin. Once it gets to be the weekend, maybe I'll try to prepare some salad stuff in advance for dinners next week when I get home.

So between a decreased appetite, being alcohol free for the next couple weeks, and adding about 90 minutes more of activity most days of the week, I'm hoping to lose a few pounds before next week Sunday, meaning less @ss to drag 26.2 miles over San Antonio... Let's hope this works! It will be fun, and quite consuming, to try.

The first class last night was pretty good. Of the 26 postures, there were a couple where the instructor must have seen enough of a lack of flexibility to ask me afterward if I was a runner. That's not a compliment in yoga! It just means I'm insanely inflexible and tight on the bottom half of my body -- so inflexible that it was apparent to the instructor despite there being about 35 other people in the class. Ooops. The heat didn't bother me too much though -- I'm always very well-hydrated, and I think I like being warm more than some people do. I managed to do the whole class (though like I said, sometimes I couldn't do the whole pose -- for example, there's one where you stand on one leg, interlace your fingers under the other foot (knee to chest), and then you kick that foot forward -- uh, no. I just stood there trying to balance on the one leg while holding the other, but no kicking). I noticed a couple other first-timers and some who may be veterans who had to sit down at various times during the class and missed some of the poses, but I didn't have to do that at any point. I didn't see anyone wearing a watch, but I really wish I'd been able to wear my heart rate monitor. Just so curious to see what kind of numbers I'd be getting.

So here we go. Wonder what I'll say about it on December 1!

A Halloween Day Miracle!

2011-11-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

So I didn't even post about what I realized Sunday night. It was just too awful to even type out. Plus there's still a slight concern my husband could read this blog whenever he wants.

Sunday I had a 15 mile run (I was supposed to include 6 miles of race pace, but wasn't feeling it, so I did 15 easy with my group), then went to breakfast with my local bestie (the one whose sister passed away just over a week ago) and another friend (want to make sure my bestie is feeling lots of love these days), and then came home for a very very fast shower and wardrobe change, then went to my godson's third birthday party -- stayed there most of the afternoon, came home, made a cake for work and ended up missing book club in favor of finishing the cake and hitting the hay early.

That was when I realized my problem. I took off my earrings as I was getting ready for bed, but I wasn't wearing my necklace.

Instant flashback to earlier in the day. I was done running and stretching at about 8:30, home from breakfast around 9:45, then it was a rush to get ready. I had to wrap his birthday gift, and I really needed to get laundry started. I'd showered and then went to wrap the gift with wet hair so it could air dry a little. Then back to getting ready, and grabbed my earrings and necklace as I left our bedroom. I was also carrying a laundry basket and I remember very clearly that my necklace slipped in the handle a little. Anyway, got the laundry into the washer, grabbed the gift, and got in the car. I remember setting my necklace, earrings, and phone in my lap, and putting his gift in the front seat. Pulled out of the driveway around 10:55 for an 11:00 party -- no big deal, but I was supposed to help with one of the games, so I was irritated with myself for running late. Intended to put the jewelry on at red lights along the way.

Got to the party as other friends were pulling up. It was a huge party in my friends' back yard. About 20+ kids and 50+ adults! Big bounce house (no weight limit, so I got in while the kids were eating and it was so much fun, but completely exhausting), lots of games, and I already posted about the pizza (and of course there was cake too!). Party ended around 1, but I stayed until about 4 with my friends' parents and the godfather while we watched the birthday boy open gifts and we just socialized.

Then I went back to my car, went home, laundry, cake, started a movie, etc. Got ready for bed, no necklace. Mild panic.

This has actually happened to me once before. With this necklace. I put it in my lap to put on in the car, and it somehow fell through my legs and I then found it in the driver's seat of my car.

And of course in January I posted about how I thought I lost my engagement ring in January. That freaked me out. And I learned some lessons -- first, insurance! second, I just wear it all the time now, no more taking it off, even for boot camp.

This necklace is also very special. The first gift I ever got from my husband, a diamond necklace I got for Christmas the first year we were dating. (Incidentally, before he knew I'm not really a diamond person and have kind of strong feelings about the subject, but I still completely love it and I wear it about 4-5 days per week.)

So as to not have to own up to it, I just went to bed Sunday night, then basically did everything I could yesterday morning to search my car, short of pulling the driver's seat all the way out. Nothing. On my drive to work, I called my friend's husband and asked if he'd mind having the kids play in the street that day and look for it (he and my friend both just had knee surgery, so they can't really get down and do it). All day long it was on my mind, and he never called me back, so I was assuming the worst.

After work, I went straight to their house to take the kids trick-or-treating, which is our tradition. As soon as I walked in the door to their house, the kids were talking to me about the necklace. They'd clearly spent some time searching and they didn't find it sadly. I tried to put it aside, but as we were trick-or-treating, I was trying to decide what to do. I'd basically decided I'd spend Tuesday morning crawling all over their street searching, then I'd possibly look for replacements online instead of telling my husband. I hated the thought of telling him I'd been so careless with something he gave me that is so special to me.

We trick-or-treated until the kids were too spooked. Two scary houses where people jumped out at the kids was too much and after the second house where it happened, the kids just wouldn't go up to the door anymore. So we went back to the house and we all tore into the candy. Oops. Well, after a few pieces, my friend wanted to go back to their neighborhood party (her husband was doing some online file organization or something that he was enjoying way too much). So I said I'd go with her, and her daughter wanted to do more trick-or-treating. At the last moment, her son did too, so we headed out and hit her next door neighbor's house first. We spent several minutes talking to him and as we were walking back out to the street, I somehow saw a glint in the street. My eyes had already moved away, but I looked back and it was still there. I ran out, and sure enough, it was my necklace! The kids said they hadn't looked that far up the street.

My fault. I told him I was about 2 car lengths past their sidewalk, but it was more like 4 or 5. And I could see why he wouldn't want the kids searching in the street there -- they live in a culdesac, but I was parked closer to the main street, so there was a certain risk of a car coming up on them fast where I was parked.

So I got my Halloween Day miracle! And again, my lesson is learned -- jewelry on before I leave the house. If I'm running so late I need to put it on in the car, I just won't wear any and will leave it at home. I'm again feeling very, very lucky...

Pizza Overload

2011-10-31T13:35:00.000-05:00

My husband and I decided to clean up our eats in a big way Jan. 1, 2008, and we've generally stayed in that pattern ever since. We both mix it up and eat different stuff in different quantities when on vacation (like eating til we feel sick on Easter in Italy, eating dessert every day, eating pizza almost every day), but generally at home, we pretty much stick to our routine.

My job probably has slightly more free sweets than my last job did, but it's still not overly frequent.

One of the bigger restrictions on our healthier eating plan has been to limit pizza to once a month. That's more my husband's limitation than mine, but he really, really loves pizza. So generally I stick with pizza about once a month too, but I don't put the month's pizza day on my calendar the same way he does. And sometimes I'll eat one of those Lean Cuisine pizzas for lunch, or very rarely, get pizza elsewhere besides on our monthly pizza night.

Oh, and he/we eat pizza a lot on vacation. We love trying new pizzas (or pide, as it was called in Istanbul).

Anyway, for October's pizza, we went out to a place in Milwaukee for lunch on hubby's bday.

And then this past Friday night, we had a little dinner party at home and decided to do make-your-own pizzas on the grill. The dough recipe made 8 individual pizzas, but there were only 4 of us for dinner -- we each ate one, then the guys split another one.

That left us with 3 leftover pizzas. Hubby tried to make one for lunch on Saturday but spilled it into the grill, so then he made another one, leaving us with a single remaining dough.

Sunday was my godson's third birthday party -- and pizza was served for lunch. So I ate my third pizza serving for the month of October yesterday.

Then I was home Sunday night and we decided to have the last pizza for dinner, plus monster huge salads. So I consumed pizza for a fourth time for the month. And I thought I was in the clear.

But today is Halloween of course and my office is really, really into it, so there was pizza for lunch. And I ate it. FIVE PIZZA MEALS in October! And my plan is one per month! Oops. No wonder I'm going into the San Antonio marathon a bit heavier than I've been the other couple years I've run it.

As of today, the marathon is officially less than 2 weeks away. But tonight is trick-or-treating with my godson and his sister, and tomorrow is probably leftover sweets. But Wednesday I'll be back on track and that should give me 10 days of good eats (and no alcohol) before the race. Better than nothing I guess!

BTW, I decided to go as "Aurora" today -- our office theme is Disney. Who knew Sleeping Beauty had a first name? When did that happen? Or does she actually have that name in the movie? I have no recollection of it... Anyway, I'm mostly telling people that I'm sleeping beauty, and not using the name Aurora.

Quiet Saturday

2011-10-29T17:20:00.001-05:00

I wanted to go run today, but it just didn't happen. Instead I made some major closet-cleaning progress, which is huge for me. I pulled out about a dozen t-shirts and one dress to donate, threw out a couple pairs of shoes. But the big accomplishment was pulling out all my sleeveless tops and moving them to the upper rack of the closet.

This is going to be insanely boring, but all I have the inclination to write about for some reason.

I should post pictures (that could make it mildly interesting) but I'm too lazy to go get my camera and go back upstairs.

Basically, if you walk in my closet, straight back is a dresser that comes up to about mid-chest height. Top drawer is mostly bras and random stuff (cassette tapes!?!, etc.), second drawer is underwear and slips, third drawer isn't very deep and it's just socks, fourth drawer is running clothes for the top half of my body but short-sleeve or sleeveless only (long sleeves are elsewhere), and the bottom drawer is shorts -- running and regular. On top of the dresser are some folded sweaters and sweatshirts.

Then the right side of the closet has two hanging racks. The lower one is all my pants and skirts. The uppper one is all my tops other than t-shirts. And at the back of that rack, near the dresser, which is basically inaccessible is a drop down hanger with all the sheets for the bed and some beach towels.

Then the left side of the closet is hanging around shoulder height. Mostly dresses toward the front, then ideally a big gap, then all t-shirts toward the back half of the closet, and my wedding dress at the very back. Then above that, way up at the ceiling (so inaccessible without stepping on something), is another hanging rack that's half-height. I have a bunch of t-shirts that I don't really wear but am keeping for one reason or another, another bunch of tops I don't really wear (some don't really fit, some are just special occasions, travel, whatever), and then the rest of the space is pants and skirts that I need to get altered, and a hanging rack that hubby keeps some stuff on.

Well, that big gap that should be there on the left side is supposed to be where I hang dry cleaning before it gets put away, and where I set out all my outfits for the week ahead. And there's a chair in the closet where ideally (though it's never happened), I'd set out my workout clothes for the week ahead.

Basically the left side of my closet was completely jammed full. For no good reason. Between being out of town two weekends ago, and then being sad for my friend and sick last weekend, I just hadn't gotten organized lately. So I put away all the clothes that were jamming up the left side. Then I realized the right side was just too tightly packed.

So I went to the top left rack and pulled out some stuff that I don't need to keep. And then I pulled from the upper right all my sleeveless tops (except a couple that are only worn as layers), and moved them to the upper left. So happy to have that done!

I should head up now and set out some outfits for the week, then I'd really be on the ball!

But now the day has mostly slipped away from me (I managed to organize my recipe book a bit). I may still try to do it, but I want to make a decent dinner and take some over to my local bestie's house for her and her husband -- I don't have a great way of helping someone with a death other than hugging and cooking.

Anyway, I love weekend days like this sometimes!

Updated: phone call from my bro just back from almost 2 weeks of Hawaiian honeymoon, so I figured I'd go upstairs and pick outfits while we were in the phone, then took some pics when we got off.

So, from outside looking straight back, upper left, lower left, lower right, upper right. Realistically, I should get rid of about 30% more at least. At least. I need nowhere near so much stuff.

Fascinating...

2011-10-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

I don't write much about work, but I am working on a case now that is absolutely fascinating. There has been so much exciting stuff happening in the last day or so. The basics are that some police departments and others are seeking reimbursement for some expenses. Well just before I started eating lunch today, I finally got documents relating to what they're asking be repaid and it completely floored me. It presents about a million legal questions (some of which undoubtedly have no real answers because this is an obscure statute).

I took these documents to my supervisor and basically said, can I go full-time on this case for the next month?! I love it so much! He laughing said of course I could b/c the numbers would justify it. I know realistically that I can't just neglect my other cases, but this one just makes me want to start working and never stop!

I can't help but think how different this feels from where I was a year ago. Or 5 years ago. Or 10 years ago. This is my third job as a lawyer -- first a big firm, then a small firm, and now here. And I love it so much more. At the big firm, I got some really interesting cases, but the lifestyle as a whole was such a beat-down. At the small firm, there was a huge sacrifice in terms of the quality of work but I had a much better lifestyle (to me, it's no coincidence that my husband didn't propose while I was still at a big firm). And now I've found the perfect balance. Cases I love, amazing colleagues, great hours, etc. It was completely worth paying my dues for more than 10 years after law school to end up here.

So with that, I think I'm done eating lunch and will dive into esoteric reimbursement statutes and maybe do some eminent domain research!

Heavy Heart

2011-10-26T07:48:00.000-05:00

Aye, it has been a long few days, starting Friday afternoon.

We've known for some time that my local bestie's younger sister Kelly was sick. But Friday I got a message that my friend was on her way to Kelly's in Nacogdoches (not sure of the spelling, a town about 3ish hours from Dallas). And she was on her way because it was "time."

And then later on Friday, I found out that Kelly had passed away. 29 years old, leaving behind a husband and young daughter (who is her spitting image), her loving parents, and two sisters. And as I've seen, many friends, colleagues, students, etc.

I spent most of the day Saturday on the couch -- half the time crying, half the time napping. Hubby and I had finally gone to an urgent care place Saturday morning, admitting that we were both very sick. We got steroid shots in our "hips" (meaning upper @ss), and antibiotics. As of today, Wednesday, the combo appears to be working. Hubby feels much better, and I also feel better, though it's harder to tell b/c there are still so many tears, and that seems to make my head and nose and lungs feel worse.

I did my LONG run on Sunday. 22 disasterous miles. I was bummed that it went so badly and hubby said, really, you spent all day yesterday on the couch being sad and sick, were you honestly expecting a good run? He was right. I was okay through about mile 16, and I had a friend meet me for the last 6, and we slowed down a lot. We saw a guy who needed emergency medical attention. I offered my CPR skills, but there was already another doctor who'd been out running or biking and had stopped. One of my other running friends sprinted ahead to direct the fire truck that was clearly lost. After that excitement, I slowed down a lot. It was a slow jog the last 4 miles, but at least I got the 22 done.

Then I got lucky at work and managed to have a case settle out from under me, so I was in the car and headed for Nacagdoches.

They had a visitation on Monday night. Open casket, which I'm not to used to. That was hard and I really wish I hadn't seen her. I was better off keeping my last memory intact. I didn't know her very well, I was really there for my friend and her family. Monday night we all went out to a bar. Drinking, laughing, sharing memories. We went back to the hotel, I was staying with my friend, her husband, and her baby sister (Kelly was the middle of the three), and her little sister really broke down. It broke my heart. I wish so badly I could ease their pain, or better yet, have done something so they never had to deal with this in the first place. The funeral yesterday was heart-breaking. After that, we went to the cemetary, and then to a lunch at the church. Then I drove home.

One odd story from my drive home. I was in a hurry and not paying enough attention while driving too fast so I got pulled over. Thankfully, I got a warning and I was so careful the rest of the way. Anyway, on Friday, Kelly's husband's parents and Kelly's own parents all were speeding toward Nac when they got the calls that it was time. Hours apart, both sets of parents got pulled over by the same state trooper. First, it was her husband's parents. They told him what was happening, their daughter-in-law was dying. Then hours later, Kelly's parents got stopped and told the trooper they were getting to Nac as fast as they could because their daughter was dying. He said he'd already heard that story that day, that a daughter-in-law was dying in Nac. Kelly's parents asked if the last name of the family he'd stopped was X, and the trooper confirmed. The good news is, even with the stops, everyone made it. Kelly's parents, both of her sisters, her husband, her daughter, and her in-laws were all there in her final hours.

But I keep coming back to it all being so unfair. She died of lung cancer, but as a young non-smoker, it wasn't caught until it had spread to her bones (it was hip pain that finally led to the bone scan that resulted in the diagnosis just over a year ago). The priest said things about her going to heaven and not being alone, but it echoed in my heart. I believe all that for someone who's older, but at 29, who is waiting for her in heaven (you know, besides Jesus and all that)? Everyone close to her is still here. She's just too young. I'm glad she's not in pain anymore, but she's left such a hole behind her. I wonder how her husband will get by with their 4 year old daughter. Will her parents get through this? I don't want to get into the details, but my family knows all too well how hard it is to survive the loss of a child, even an adult child. Parents just aren't supposed to bury their children. Kelly's parents are strong, generous, loving people, but I hope they're able to lean on others and get through this. In some ways, having had the time to prepare, and losing their daughter to cancer, it may be easier in that there's no blame, but I just can't fathom how hard this is for them. And it made me so glad Kelly's parents had three daughters -- my bestie lost her sister, but she has another sister to lean on. And of course a husband who loves her, and lots and lots of friends (including me) who will help however we can, but I just don't know how. I told hubby I want to make some meals to take over for dinner, but I wish there was more I could do.

It's just so unfair.

Still Alive, just under the weather...

2011-10-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

We had an absolutely amazing trip to Milwaukee. We didn't end up doing the fun stuff in Chicago that I'd planned for my hubby's bday b/c it was a rainy day and he was in the mood to lay low and nap a lot, but we still had so much fun.

We did the wedding charity event (packing meals to send to Haiti), a big family dinner on the night of hubby's bday, lots and lots of time with family, a run from the home where I lived after I was born to the home where my dad lived after he was born (where my grandpa still lives!), a bridal party mass mani/pedi, a bridal luncheon, a rehearsal, a rehearsal dinner, a wedding day beautifying, the wedding, the reception, a bar, lots of frozen custard, and lots more.

Of course the trip meant lots and lots of time with my insanely fun and adorable nieces and nephew, and several hours on airplanes.

So which do I blame now that I'm officially sick?

Being the non-breeder that I am, I have to blame the kids. They're just such germ magnets (though of course none of them seemed remotely ill). Couldn't be just the time of year I always get sick. Must be the kids...

Anyway, I started feeling it on Tuesday, and ended up skipping my workout on Wed. I ran yesterday, b/c it was the first speed session of the season and my marathon day is coming up FAST, but it was at the track, and there's no easier place to run with friends and still be able to sit out a little if necessary than the track. I ended up running the repeats (just a little slower than I should have), and maybe it flushed some of the sickness out of my head.

I'm working from home today, and I went to boot camp this morning, and I think I still have a lower lung capacity, a bit of a runny nose, and now it hurts when I cough (waaaayyy too many ab exercises this morning), but maybe I'll make it through this.

Just in time I hope -- I have my one and only very long training run of the season on Sunday and I really need for it to go well!

Anyway, just a quick update to say I'm alive, and my brother is married off and happily honeymooning in Hawaii right now (where I heard they had an earthquake yesterday or the day before). All's well, just a bit sick...

Wedding Festivities Begin

2011-10-12T06:07:00.003-05:00

We fly north in a couple short hours! I’m actually pretty much ready to go right now, just finishing up breakfast and waiting for hubby to finish packing. He’s been working like crazy lately and last night I dragged him to dinner with a former colleague, so it ended up being a late night starting to pack last night for him, and now a very busy morning. I’m hoping to leave for the airport by 6:30 or so.

Today after we land, I am going to have to spend most of the day working remotely (again, that whole “used all my vacation days for Italy in the spring” thing). Hopefully though my nieces and nephew will either come by the house or we’ll be able to go visit them at some point. No idea what the plan is for tonight for dinner, probably will involve my next youngest brother and his family though. And I really want to go out for dessert – my favorite frozen custard place in the world is in Milwaukee. Supposedly it’s the place that served as the inspiration for the place in Happy Days, but I don’t really get it – this place doesn’t have any interior space open to the public, just short lines for custard, then everyone hangs around the parking lot eating. There are even lines most of the time in the winter. It’s just crazy, but it’s so good. When you’re ordering, the choices are vanilla, chocolate or the flavor of the day, but they have more choices if you buy a pint to take home, but I’ve actually never done that. I’m an old school “4 dips in a cone” kind of gal when it comes to Leon’s custard. I’ve done 5 dips occasionally, but I have to be honest with myself – I got to visit this place for custard just over a month ago. I am trying to reserve 5 dips for times when it’s been more than 6 months since I’ve had any. Haha.

Tomorrow is hubby’s bday, so I’m using a personal day at work (the veep I report to approved this, he just said I’d better hope I don’t get sick!). Assuming the weather is good, this is our plan (I hope he doesn’t suddenly decide to start reading the blog today!): we’ll get up and run locally – I’d love to run to my grandpa’s house again. Then we’ll drive to Chicago after morning rush hour should be dying down. Then we’re going to take one of the architectural boat tours on the river. Then I’m planning a pizza lunch but not sure where yet. Pizza is hubby’s favorite food, but he likes traditional Italian style pizza. Not exactly Chicago-style. I keep thinking he just hasn’t tried the right Chicago pizza yet, but he just might be old enough to actually know what he likes. Anyway, my primary choices are Lou Malnati’s or Gino’s East. After lunch, I’d like to go to Millennium Park b/c hubby has never actually seen the bean as far as I know. From there, we’ll head to Navy Pier for their Oktoberfest celebration, then we’ll drive back to Milwaukee. Hopefully we’ll be on the road heading north by 4:00 and we won’t hit too much traffic.

That’s going to be a very busy day, but the evening will be busy too. We’re going to the wedding charity event that night – they have arranged for all of the wedding party, family, out of town guests who have arrived, etc., to do a meal-packing thing. The goal is to pack 216 meals in 90 minutes, and then the meals are sent to Haiti. After the meal-packing, we’re going to dinner at a famous Milwaukee restaurant that serves Serbian food. Hubby has never been there, and I haven’t been since after my aunt’s funeral in 2002, so I’m really looking forward to it. We have reservations for 12, which will be quite the crowd. Some brothers with their wives/fiancées, folks, bride’s parents, bride’s brother, etc. I’m excited for hubby to open what I got him. Besides the two things he really wanted (running sunglasses and an audio book), I made him a photo book from our second anniversary trip in the spring (Boston, Italy, Paris). I think he’ll love it.

Friday is going to be interesting – lots of wedding events, but I’ve only taken 2 hours of personal time. So I’m going to have to get up early and get cracking! I’m planning to go for a morning run with the bride, then work for a few hours, then I’m meeting the bride and all the other bridesmaids for pedicures at 11, then we’re going to lunch. Then I guess I’m going to try to work for a couple more hours, and then the rehearsal is at 4:15. Yikes! Rehearsal dinner afterward of course, which will be wonderful since that will be the first chance for me to see some of my uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.

Saturday morning I’m hoping to get one more run in, then I’ll head to the hotel for hair and make-up and to get dressed. I tried on my dress last weekend and it still fit, so that’s a relief. It is strapless (navy blue with like a crepe layer over it), and it has a built-in bra, but I didn’t feel too secure in it, so I had my favorite strapless bra sewn into the dress and then I’ll be able to carefully rip out the stitches afterward so I still have the same bra for the next time I wear something strapless (pretty much never). The wedding is at 2, then pictures, then the reception.

Sunday we’re going to brunch with my family I think, then there’s an open house for the newlyweds at a historical society home, which should be really nice. Then we’ll fly back to Dallas around 5:00, and likely won’t be seeing my family again until Christmas.

I’m so excited for this wedding, and I’m very nervous that I’m going to be too emotional. I am probably closer to this brother than to any of my other brothers, and I know his fiancée better than I’ve known my sisters-in-law, so this wedding has been a long time coming. I want them to be happy forever, and I’m just so excited for them!!

Okay, time to go nag hubby. I want to leave in about 20 minutes!!

Sorry, had this all written and tried to post this morning, but not sure it worked. It was early...

Trip to the Texas State Fair

2011-10-11T06:31:00.000-05:00

So the weekend before last, we made our annual trip to the state fair. I shudder to think about what all I ate. There is always a fried food competition that is voted on before the fair opens, and when I go, I like to make a point of trying all the vegetarian, non-nut, non-banana entries. As much pain as it might wreak on my intestines and arteries, I love the fair.

We went to see a few shows -- a marionette show, a horse training show, and a Cirque Shanghai show (acrobatics, like most Cirque shows). They were all really awesome.

A few shots from the shows:

The Cirque show was crazy and amazing. Those people are so strong, balanced and talented, it was shocking.

And of course we got to see lots of animals, a fair staple:

Can you tell I really liked the pigs? They were so cute, even that huge one. Why I don't eat pork in a single photo. And I've heard pigs are smarter than dogs!

And we also saw dancers of various kinds:

And we rode the big feris wheel, called the Texas Star, which always yields a great view of downtown Dallas:

And we went to the Hall of State, which had a special Texas exhibit, but all I photographed besides the entrance were the cool murals, and some minutes from the Republic of Texas constitutional convention:

And we spent some time checking out the Dallas "mounties":

And one of the highlights for me, the butter sculpture (and yes, it's exactly as the name implies -- a sculpture kept in a special cold enclosure made entirely of butter):

And of course that leads to fried butter, my all-time favorite fair food in Texas. Only 4 bites all year, but probably enough to stop up my arteries eventually. Thankfully I've only discovered fried butter the last few years, so I probably have a few more decades of enjoying it before it causes me to croak:

And some other fried foods that I sampled (or photographed the signs for):

Hubby is not a vegetarian (though he doesn't really eat beef or pork), but he said he wasn't even mildly tempted by that fried chicken skin advertised above.

This is the fried autumn pumpkin pie (a new fried food this year that I tried):

And back to more signs:

The fried upside down pineapple cake (another new entry this year that I tried):

And the fried bubblegum (winner for most creative fried food this year, which I tried):

Overall, the three new fried things I tried this year (the fried pumpkin pie, the fried pineapple upside down cake, and the fried bubblegum), I wasn't too impressed with any of them. The pie and cake were good, but not particularly special, so not something I'd seek out to eat next year. The bubblegum was downright disgusting -- the center was basically a fried marshmallow. I'd heard it was too sweet but I didn't believe it, thinking nothing is ever too sweet for me!, but yikes, they were right. Way too sweet. Not good at all. Yet somehow I ate all 3 bites. Never again.

The fried butter remains my favorite and I can't see anything beating it anytime soon.

But another year, another set of fun fair memories...

FMM: Taboo Topics

2011-10-10T07:47:00.000-05:00

It's Monday and since I had a chance to post about my run on time yesterday, I'm going to do another Friend Making Monday.

Now it’s time for FMM! If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
FMM: 8 Taboo Topics

How often do you read/watch the news? Way too rarely. I got frustrated many years ago feeling like the political establishment was controlling too much of what was reported, and I've been less interested ever since. I watch the local news for a few minutes most mornings, and then the today show (though I hate the new host), while I read blogs and get ready for work in the morning. In the evenings if we're home, we record BBC news and will watch that sometimes, or we'll watch the Italian equivalent to CNN, RAI international, or occasionally Euro News if we want something in English and have already watched the recorded BBC broadcast. I rarely read the news.

What is your opinion on beauty pageants? Aren't they called scholarship contests? Haha. I've watched Toddlers & Tiaras a few times. Sad as it is, society seems to be very superficial, so it makes sense that there would be beauty pageants. But of course I've never been in one or really known anyone who competed, so I guess it's hard to say. It seems very fake, but that's not much different than flipping through a magazine or something.

Would you date/marry someone who has different religious views than you? Probably not. Initially, before I was married, I think I would have said yes, but the more time I spend in this relationship, the more I realize it's very important to me to be on the same basic page. I think a different denomination isn't a big deal (actually, hubby is Catholic and I'm Episcopalian, so I know the diff denomination doesn't bother me), but I think it would be hard for me to be with someone who really was an Atheist, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. Though I sometimes wonder if I could be a Buddhist. I don't know enough about it, but I know my views about the needless killing and eating of animals could make me more open to that. But bottom line is if I'd dated and really fallen in love with someone who was a completely different religion, I don't think it would have worked for me unless one of us converted. Odd, since I don't consider myself a super-religious person and I am very uncomfortable with Jesus talk in most situations. I grew up thinking religious beliefs were fairly private, fine to discuss with your family, or at church, but not something you really talk about outside those circumstances (though anyone seeing your life should be able to tell).

Do you follow politics? I follow it, but I lost a lot of interest in 1996 when I was living in Italy and excitedly watched a debate between Clinton and Dole on tv b/c it was not dubbed into Italian. I had been so passionate about politics until then, and it was like a sea change had occurred while I lived in Italy. They were having elections there too, and I couldn't help but feel like those elections mattered a lot. There are really different parties there, from a far right Alleanza Nazionale, to the far left Rifondazione Comunista. Suddenly I felt like it didn't really matter if Clinton or Dole won, not much was really going to change in the US. In some ways I guess that's a good thing, the whole stability and balance of power thing, but it made me care a lot less. I still hate political arguments and I hide or unfriend people who strike me as narrow-minded and opinionated on facebook.

How often do you talk about sex in your daily life and/or on your blog? Pretty often in my daily life, but that's more in the context of work -- rape or sexual harassment. And it seems to come up with running friends fairly often, and of course with my husband you know, at night. But I don't think I've ever talked about it on the blog, and it's not something I discuss with friends too often, at least not in a serious context.

Does it make you uncomfortable when someone asks you about your salary/income? Does it ever happen? Oh my yes! I hate it! And my husband isn't even mildly offended and I think brings it up and discusses it way too casually with people. It drives me crazy and is something I wish he wouldn't do, but we just grew up differently. In my family, it wasn't until I was doing college applications that I actually found out our family income, and even then, my mom told me it was not something I was supposed to ever discuss outside "the family." I pretty much hate talking about money.

Do you tag friends and family in pictures that you post on FB, or do you seek permission first? If it's a flattering picture, I tag friends, unless it shows alcohol or swimwear. I don't think I've ever asked permission -- if it's not flattering and I post it for some reason, I don't tag it. And if there's alcohol or swimwear, I just won't tag it. Even though most my friends are well into their 30s, just don't want it to look unprofessional for anyone.

Can you be friends with people who have opposing views on ‘taboo’ topics? Yes, definitely. I can always untag myself in pictures, change the subject, etc. Even if I found out one of my friends was a former Ms. Texas or something, I don't think it would really matter. But I also don't find that many of my closest friends have diametrically opposed political views, and I don't have any good friends who are a different religion completely (different denominations, but not tons of diversity here, though I would guess I know a few Atheists, and I know some really preachy Jesus people). I do have lots of friends who are news junkies though -- including my husband -- he's the reason we record BBC and watch RAI news.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to link up in the comments of the alltheweigh.com blog!