You can do what you want -- the opportunity's on

Harold and Maude is on TV right now, and even though I'm in the next room, it makes me happy just to know it is there.

So it's not Sunday, but for some reason lately my Sundays have been too busy for blogging. Imagine that! I'm just catching up as catch can. And what the eff does that phrase mean anyway?

I mentioned in my last post about my move to Belhaven. Wahoo! It's official! I paid a large sum of money to make it so. And now the cleaning/packing begins. Reinforcing my decision to leave, I come home often to the sound of my neighbor's really loud music. Her speakers must be right on the other side of my wall, so I can hear every beat and basically every word the singer or rapper is saying. Since I figured out how to rig up my Ipod to play in the house, I have been launching a Battle of the Loud Music whenever I can. They blast "party blues"* and bad hip hop/R&B**, I hit them with the Pixies and the Beastie Boys' "The Maestro." But then Feist comes along and totally crashes the party. Eh, I've got a little more than 30 days!



*I tried to find a link to a definition for you, but it is elusive. If you've ever heard "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter, this is a prime example of "party blues." Party blues is not really blues-y in the traditional sense of the word, and it is almost always, ALWAYS, about sex. There is a local radio station that used to play this type of music at 7 in the morning. Never was there more of a hilarious way to wake up!

**I have nothing at all against hip hop and R&B, but I am picky about what I listen to in that genre. My all-time, top five favorite hip hop artists are: 1. Tribe Called Quest 2. Digital Underground 3. Biggie Smalls 4. Common 5. (obviously) The Beastie Boys. Yes most of that is old school, but I have not found a lot these days to match the music I grew up with. With the exception of Common, he rocks!

I ran two 5Ks in the last two weeks, and got a "PR" which is "personal record" in the first one! I ran about an 11:27 mile, which is ca-razy because I thought I was still shuffling along at 13:00+ per mile. I don't know how it happened, but I am not complaining! YAY progress! I did have to walk a little both weekends, but I ran more than I walked, and it is slowly but surely getting easier. My clothes are also fitting better, but I still haven't really lost any weight. I am going to just keep on keeping on, but I really hope to see some results in another month or so. I realized recently that I've only been back at it for a couple of months. My friend K. said it took her about 6 months to really start dropping the pounds, so that makes me feel better!

I've been reading my friend QB's zine, "Letters to Mr. Konigsberg," and I have to say that I am really enjoying it so far! If you are a Woody Allen fan, and even if you aren't, you should get a copy. I've only seen Annie Hall (and I love it), but I still get a lot of what QB is saying. I also realize two things about my friend:

1. He is way smarter than me. But I already knew that.
2. He uses the "F" word a lot more on paper than he does in real life. Unless he's just being polite around me! Ha!

I am lucky enough to be part of QB and my friend Anna's wedding the weekend after Turkey Day, and I am really looking forward to it. There was a time in my life, not-so-long-ago, that I was going to kill someone if I had to be in another wedding. But now that some time has passed, I am really looking forward to this, if nothing else because my dress and my shoes are FABULOUS and I spent very little money on the outfit. Plus QB and Anna are one of my fave couples of all time!

Lastly, and I have to get to bed after this, but I would totally read the book in the #1 spot at the bottom of this page.

Re-normalizing

So this past weekend was our biggest fundraising event for work. Starting, oh, about last Tuesday, we (meaning the three people in our office including me) began the huge task of lifting a lot of boxes, stuffing goody bags and registration packets, picking up large vehicles, picking up loads of groceries and supplies, and general running around. By the end of the weekend, I was so tired and delirious that nothing but sleep would satisfy me. But it really was worth it. The event is a huge bike tour (as in bicycles), and it is a lot of fun in spite of the work. I get to meet a lot of people, mostly professionals, that I might not otherwise get to meet, and some riders of the male persuasion don't even look half-bad in all that spandex.

Having said that, I have come to the conclusion that, at least for now, cycling is too expensive and complicated a sport for me. I love to ride bikes and I think I could get into it if I really tried, but for now I'll stick with running. All you need to run is a good pair of shoes and decent clothing. Oh and I can't run without my Ipod, but that's about it. Bicycles are expensive and so is the maintenance, not to mention all the fancy clothing and safety gear. I do want to get a hybrid bike for tooling around town though. There is a new group that has just formed - Jackson Bike Advocates - I am on their mailing list even though I do not own a bike right now. I am all for bike safety, bike lanes and more bike-friendliness all around. I am hoping that I will be able to bike to the grocery store and other local necessities when I move to Belhaven.

Oh yeah, did I mention I am moving to Belhaven?

It's been in the works for a while, and it just so happens a good friend of mine is moving out of her cute little place in December, which worked out great for me time-wise. So by Christmas I should be in my new home. It is right where I want to be in Belhaven, very close to where many of my friends live, and it has a screened porch!! That is the biggest draw to me. I can't wait to sit out on my porch with Sally and watch the neighbors go by, or just enjoy the fresh air. I won't know what to do with myself!

It will also be really nice to have a place I don't mind inviting people over to. Where I live now is so tiny and pretty ghetto - I am just about embarrassed to have people over here anymore because the neighborhood seems to be getting worse and worse. It's time for me to move on up, anyway. I have lived in tiny apartments for 6 years, and while the new place is not gargantuan, it is more spacious and definitely in a more desirable location. I will finally be able to call myself a Jacksonian for real!! I'm not thrilled to think about the car tag prices and such, but otherwise I'm ecstatic. I forsee a big house party after the first of the year!



Random interruption: there is a person that I come in contact with on a regular basis who looks just like Granny Squid from Squidbillies:


"How is it that a person can look like a squid?" you might ask. Well I have no idea, but she does. It took me a while to figure it out, but she is the spitting image of that elderly squid.




I am doing another 5K this weekend, and I hope my performance will be a tad bit better than the last one I ran! The weather is looking a lot cooler (but really, anything is cooler than 100), and although I am not quite running 3 miles comfortably yet, I am prepared for the walk breaks and just hope to finish with a tiny shred of dignity stuck to my shoe. Next weekend I am walking another 5K with Sally - this one is for ARF so I really wanted to bring the doggie out to play. After that I am taking a break from races for a bit to continue training. I wanted to do the St. Jude 5K in Memphis, but it is the same weekend that I will be moving, so I don't know that I can do both at the same time and still keep my sanity. It makes me sad because some of my friends that I have not seen in a long time were going to do it and it would be a chance to hang out with them. But I just don't see any other way to make it all happen.

Other than my apparent new obsession with running and work stuff, there isn't much time for anything else in my life. The BF gets his first paycheck soon and he's taking me to eat massive amounts of sushi, and I can't wait. The fair is in town and I hope to get my fill of greasy food by the end of this week, rain be damned. And I still have no idea what I will do for Halloween or what I will be, but I hope to spend at least part of it with my niece, as I have done the past couple of years. This year she will actually be able to walk around and get her own loot!

That's about it. I'm going to go try to catch up on my sleep, and hopefully it will stop feeling like midnight all the time in a few more days.

Big Fat Ass Blog Update

I told you it was coming. That is, if we have talked about my blog lately. Otherwise, SURPRISE SURPRISE!! I'm updating my blog.


I feel terrible for leaving you hanging back in June, but since then I suppose life has just gotten totally out of hand, plus I have had some writing-for-money to do, and that leaves very little time for writing-for-the-hell-of-it.

Since we last met, I have visited Portland, Oregon, ran my first 5K, played guitar and sang at the same time in front of people at Chick Ball, hurt myself, read many books, went to the beach with a 2 year old, experienced some major changes at work, including the loss of a dear friend. Here in order, are some highlights and not-so-great things from the 2nd half of my summer:



1. O Portland, my Portland

I am slowly making my way around the country to all the hip/big cities. So far I have been to Boston, DC, Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville, NOLA, Dallas, Houston, Austin, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Denver, and San Diego. But adding Portland turns my list on its ear. Besides Austin, I’d say Portland is one of the coolest cities I’ve ever visited, and I’d go back in a heartbeat. My friend Leigh, who used to live here in Jacktown, moved to Portland about a year ago and had been begging me to come visit ever since. I combined this trip with my Vegas trip, so once our conference was done, I hopped a plane to Portland and was there in no time. The downside of the trip was that I had a cold that I think I got from the dry Vegas air, but otherwise we had a great time. We did have some rain the first full day I was there, which Leigh swore was uncommon by this time of year, but I was not so sure. I had purposely planned to visit in the summer so as to avoid the rainy season. But we just laughed it off and kept going.


We had been doing some shopping and had lunch at the Grilled Cheese Grill, which is a grilled cheese restaurant where you can eat your lunch on a converted school bus. It was sooo delicious, and so awesome. Portland is full of quirky restaurants and foodie havens, particularly little food carts all over the place and lots of organic, locally grown goodness. I had what might have been the best zucchini bread I’ve ever tasted at a coffee shop. And I bought some Dave’s Killer Bread at the farmer’s market on Saturday, which was really some of the best bread I’ve ever had. Leigh joked that her sister had the same remarks about the food in Portland, but it’s true – food just tastes better there. Sure, we have delicious food here in the South, too, but I didn’t eat anything bad while I was in P-town for sure.

Probably the most fun night was when we went to an open house for a new dance troupe that had just acquired a cool warehouse for their practice space. The troupe did some dancing for us and it reminded me of Cirque du Soleil – there was free booze at this event, and after several drinks we were allowed to try out some of the props that the dancers use. Probably not the best idea, but it was a great time! After that, we went to see Viva Voce at a place called the Wonder Ballroom, and they were fantastic. One of my new favorite bands for 2009. THEN, to top the whole night off, and because we were all pretty drunk, we stopped at Voo Doo Donuts for some of the yummiest treats I’ve ever had. I am still thinking about that chocolate-covered, raspberry-filled voodoo man.


Portland is beautiful and artsy, liberal and green – I could totally live there in another phase of my life. It was hard to come back to the Bible Belt, back to the 120-degree heat (we slept with the windows open every night during my visit), but while I was in Vegas and PDX, Jubilee JAM happened here, among other things, and I really missed home as I read everyone’s updates on Facebook. So ultimately, Mississippi is home, and while it’s easy to be yourself in Portland because it’s so accepting and embracing of different types of people, it’s also really hard to stand out. I expressed this thought to Leigh after being there for a couple of days – I realized that a “preppy” in an oxford shirt and khakis would probably stand out more than anyone else in Portland. Here in Jackson, we have breathing room for all of our weirdos, and I kind of like that.

2. Can't I just get a sticker that says, "3.2"?

So before I became a runner (which I still don't feel like I'm qualified to say), I kept seeing these "13.1" and "26.2" stickers on the back of people's vehicles and wondered WTF was up? Between the BF and I we finally figured out it was the length of half- and full marathons, and these were people who have completed one or many. Good for them! Seriously, now that I have started running I totally admire anyone who can run that long and not because a large animal is chasing them.

That being said, I don't know whether or not I will ever join their ranks. I ran my first 5K on June 27 of this year, at the Tomato Festival in my hometown of Crystal Springs. After kind of half-ass training with the Couch-to-5K program (I started out with C25K, then just sorta took off on my own until I was running 30 minutes or so straight.), I ran 3 miles a couple of times before the 5K, and I thought I was ready. But that first 5K totally kicked my ass. Not to make excuses, and yes I did finish and NO I was not the very last runner, but there were a few factors weighing against me. First, it was hot as hell, and that is no lie. We were experiencing a major heatwave, so that even at 8am it was already 90+ degrees with a heat index of a billion. Second, whoever designed the Tomato Fest route must be a glutton for punishment, or at least they like to watch other people suffer. The longest stretch of the route was uphill both ways (no lie) on black pavement in the broad sunlight. I thought I was going to stroke out. Third, I was recovering from my desert cold, and still had chest congestion, which did not help my breathing. And Fourth, because I had been sick and out of town and whatnot, I had not been able to train as much in the days leading up to the race.

So, wahh wahh poor me. At least I did it, and rather than give up on running all together, I decided to continue my training and not do any more races until the weather cooled off. I knew that WellsFest would be at the end of September, so I made that my goal.

Then, a couple weeks later, this happened:

See that nice, normal-looking foot on the right? See how the one on the left looks as if it has been stung by an entire hive of bees?

Thankfully I was not stung, but I did nearly break my foot. This was somewhere around the first or second week of July, and even now the top of my foot is still a little sensitive. I was rushing out to meet some friends on a wet evening and slipped on my wooden steps, dragging my poor foot underneath me the whole way down. It really is a wonder I could walk at all. So, as you can imagine, there was no running or any sort of physical activity for a few weeks. Even swimming hurt. Talk about a total letdown. The reason I decided to pick up running in the first place was to try to lose weight and keep it off, and here I was injured and unable to do anything, much less run.

Once the swelling and pain went down enough that I felt brave enough to try on my tennis shoes, I decided to start training again. This time I found some podcasts to help me with the C25K, and it has made a real difference. I had already been back into running for a couple of weeks, so I started with week 5 (C25K is a 9-week program). The guy who did these podcasts does a great job, letting you know when to run and when to walk, and the music is upbeat techno-esque music that is a good tempo for running. Admittedly, I miss my music, but I can return to it once my training is over. I'm now about to start week 7 (I repeated weeks 5 and 6), and I ran 25 minutes straight for the first time since before my injury yesterday. Yippee!

As for WellsFest, I did participate, but I did not run. I decided I would walk, and walk as fast as I could. I was so incredibly sore afterward, but my time was not bad! I walked at a pace of 13:31 per mile which I think is pretty good considering I probably run slower than that right now. One of my friends said, "Why don't you just focus on speedwalking?" But that kind of hurt my feelings because I really do want to run, and I enjoy running. It just doesn't sound the same to say, "I'm going to go for a speedwalk." No. Unless I become impaired to a point where I can't run, I want to try. I am painfully slow now, I know that. But I am also still overweight and still training. So I hope over the next year I can really work on my speed. I am going to run my next 5K in a couple of weeks, and I already know I may do more walking than I want to, but that is ok. At the very least, I'm getting off my ass, and that is a huge accomplishment!

I am going to end this post here and start a new one because this is getting incredibly long! Stay tuned for #3.

Big-Ass Blog Update Part 1

There is just no way I can catch you up on everything that I've been up to in the last month in one blog post, so I'm splitting this bad boy up!!

I've started keeping notes for myself when I think of something to blog about, and it's been so long I have a few notes now, so here is what I wanted to talk about as of several weeks ago:

1. The movie "Taken" with Liam Neeson. If you haven't seen it, and you're in the mood to see some pure-D ass kicking, check it out. This movie is basically what my mom thinks is going to happen to me every time I leave the house, and then Liam just totally kicks ass and kills nearly everyone for an hour and a half.

2. I went to a Magnolia Roller Vixens bout a few weeks ago to watch my friend Dawn, from WAPT, and my friend Donna, from the JFP, have a skate-off. It was a lot of fun, and just reinforced my desire to strap on some skates again one of these days. I don't have time for roller derby, but I just want to skate around a rink a few times for fun. Also, my sister and I watched the movie "Roller Boogie," which that Of Montreal video I posted a while back is set to a clip from that movie, and it is my new favorite cheesy '70s film!! It has everything: short shorts, tube socks, roller skates, feathered hair, disco and Linda Blair!

3. I am willing to describe myself as a Foodie. I blame the BF, he is the ultimate Foodie and he totally turned me into one too, what with his gourmet cooking and fancy recipe books and whatnot. So I'm not very picky about what I eat, although I have a few caveats: I don't like olives, mushrooms (although things cooked with mushroom are usually tasty), oranges (but I like orange juice), pineapple or grapefruit (it's texture for all but pineapple - I just plain don't like pineapple at all), licorice, okra or radishes. Everything else in the food world is pretty much up for grabs, but there is another exception that has more to do with preparation rather than the actual ingredients.

During the holidays a few years ago, the BF invited me to dinner at his parents' house. His mom is an excellent cook, so I expected great food of course. And it was, but the first course took me by surprise. It was tomato aspic, and it was something I just could not swallow. She served it with sour cream and caviar on top, and I thought I just might hurl right there at the table. I like tomato, I like sour cream and caviar, but in my humble opinion, jello should never, EVER be savory! I can't even think of a good use for it, unlike Bloody Marys, which I also don't like -- they would make a terrific marinade. So I had to politely decline from finishing my aspic.

Cold soup is another item I can't wrap my brain around. As with the Bloody Mary, I'd marinate some lamb in gazpacho or pour it over a salad. But to just sip it out of a cup? GROSS.

----------------



















So I spent some time in Vegas a couple weeks ago, both for work and for fun. The first day or so I spent by the pool with some coworkers, soaking up rays and enjoying fruity adult beverages. There were nice ladies walking by every few minutes to see if anyone needed a cocktail, and I couldn't help but wonder - what would it be like to put on a bathing suit for work every day? Would it get old? How much sunblock would you go through each week? These are questions that I had.

Another question: Does Carrot Top have a girlfriend? And if so, who the hell would date him? I dare say there aren't too many other people in the world as annoying as him.

I'm pretty tired of Vegas actually, this having been my third time to visit there in almost as many years. But I had a good time with my fun coworkers and I even won a President's award, which was awesome! I even got a 2-mile run in on the treadmill while I was there. As for the rest of the week, well... tune in later. That will be part 2! It's bedtime for me now.

Run to the hills!

Run for your lives!!

I had an awesome playlist for my run today:

Let's Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire
Club Thing - Yoav
Get on the Good Foot - James Brown
Reckoner - Radiohead
The Distance - Cake
Rock With You - Michael Jackson

I've decided to stop running on the street for now and start running at a track so's I can listen to my Ipod without worry of being mowed down by a Mack truck or a soccer mom. It's amazing how music can be so motivating. I am running further and more often than I was before. I really think I will be ready for a 5K by at least May if I keep this up!

It's Crossroads Film Fest time again, and although I won't be here for part of the weekend, I am really excited nonetheless. I just think it's so cool that Jackson has a film festival as competitive as and as comparable to those found in bigger states or even in Europe. I got to preview a few of the films for the JFP, and I was really impressed with what I saw. The feature-length film I previewed was a documentary, a genre for which I am a total sucker. Some people are into horror movies, some are the romantic-comedy type, but give me a documentary and I am a happy camper. It can be about plastic wrap, I don't care - I will be riveted. I just haven't seen a documentary yet that didn't grab me. There must be something about documentary filmmakers - they know how to make the ordinary seem so much more interesting. Of course some topics are totally interesting... this particular film I saw was about a punk band in the UK where 3/5 of the band had developmental disabilities, and I think that's pretty interesting. But even if it was about parsnip farming, I'd watch it.

It's almost April, which means it's almost May, which means my BDAY is coming up soon. I have this awesome group of friends made up of many Taureans like myself, and we are planning a giant space-jump party since there are so many birthdays. I'm excited about that, but I'm also still pining to have my skating party that I didn't get to have for my 30th birthday. I have heard that the two remaining skating rinks in town aren't keen on adult birthday parties, but I may check into it, anyway. The only problem I have is that I would want to be able to drink for my party, and I'm pretty sure drinking and skating do not go hand in hand. But I am working on a soundtrack, nonetheless. Today I stumbled upon a whole slew of old-school roller rink songs on Itunes. Wonder if I can dig out those white skates with the pink wheels?

Seriously - this is what my birthday could look like:



I'm pretty sure the reason everybody was so skinny in the '70s is directly related to roller skating and blow. Probably in reverse order. So maybe skating and beer wouldn't be so bad after all?

Homestawww... Wunnnawwww...

One of my all time, top five favorite cartoons on earth is Homestar Runner. The lovable armless, lisping fellow gets me every time. You should go check him out, and really you need to just watch everything on that site. I have, and I still can't get enough.

I am trying to be like Homestar and become a "Wunnaww" myself. (That's "runner" for you lazy people who won't go hear him say it that way.) I have decided to try this couch-to-5K thing. Allegedly, I can be ready for a 5K in 2 months. I'd like to do the WellsFest 5K, but that's only a month or so from now, so that may not work. But fall is 5K season, so I'm sure there will be another one just around the bend.

Sally has been my running partner since she came to live with me a month or so ago. She has a lot of energy, so it helps for us to get up early (6am, YIKES, Iamnotamorningperson) and walk/run about a mile every day. Unfortunately for Sally, she had to have her lady bits removed last week, so that meant a week of rest time. The first few days were fine, she was out of it anyway, but by the 3rd day or so she was bouncing around the house and looking at me as if to say, "What's the deal? Why aren't we running?"

Finally, she got her stitches out today and we will hit the road in the morning. I have enjoyed sleeping in these last few days -- especially with the wetness from Hurricane Fay -- but my midsection is expanding rapidly, so it's up at 6am and lace up the shoes time again. It is good for me. It will make me skinny and hot. I will keep telling myself this.