Back Injury

I’m back to blogging about running. I am inspired by other running bloggers plus I recently injured my back again and have been sidelined from exercising for several weeks now. I finally got desperate enough to go to a chiropractor (I’ve always been distrustful of them). The first thing he told me is that my left leg is shorter than my right resulting in this weird twisty thing that happens when I run, which is most likely the cause of all the back problems I have had.

Anyway, I am already feeling better after last night’s adjustment, but I still had to take some pain meds this morning. I am REALLY hoping that after tonight’s appointment I can run this weekend. I am going absolutely and completely nutso not exercising. AND to make it worse I have been feeling so crummy that I’ve been turning to food.

So today I am going back to very strict calorie counting and attempting to have a more positive attitude about the whole situation.

Lack of Motivation

I am feeling incredibly unmotivated lately. Is unmotivated even a word? Well, whatever, it is now. I’m unmotivated in EVERY aspect of my life too. School, exercise, work, blogging, etc etc. See! I’m even unmotivated when it comes to listing what it is I’m unmotivated towards.

The point is I need to get back on track. This whole sitting in front of the tv snacking for hours on end must STOP.

What do you all do to get your butts in gear? OR if you want to be lazy like me go ahead and peruse this hipster puppy tumblr I stumbled upon this morning: http://hipsterpuppies.tumblr.com/. OR take this color career test: http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/. Which just happens to be the second career test I’ve taken in the past two months that says I should be a secretary.

She could talk to dolphins!!

I’m part of a book club and several months ago somebody picked Twilight as our book of the month. We try and choose a variety: some classics, nonfiction, modern fiction, etc. Anyway, somebody decided to throw mindless fiction in there. Not that I really have a problem with that because it was an easy read and I had a good time making fun of it and the movie, which we watched as a group while drinking red wine. I also enjoyed reading parts out loud to Chuckles forcing him to leave the room therefore leaving the couch all to myself. Jackpot.

We ended up getting into a discussion about what romantic books/movies we were overly obsessed with when we were teenagers. Of course, the typical answer for somebody my age is Titanic, but I only saw Titanic once and could barely follow the plot thanks to the incredibly annoying girl sitting in front of me who was crying so hard she had hiccups.

So here’s my confession: my obsession was with a book called The Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engel. Here is how I described it to my friends: “ It’s about a teenage girl on her summer vacation who can communicate with dolphins and there are three different guys fighting over her: the college guy, the rich guy, and the boy next door. AND she’s NERDY.”

Of course, my friends were doubtful about the whole talking to dolphins aspect of it, but I’m telling you it was AWESOME. Apparently, there was a whole other story line about her grandpa dying and, well, actually, death seems to be a theme in the book. But I completely overlooked the boring death parts for the BOYS. AND it was apparently made into a TV movie starring Mischa Barton. I’m kicking myself for missing that one.

Did anyone else have a similar Twilight obsession when they were a teenager?

My Poor, Ugly, Deformed Feet

I didn’t run as many miles this past week because I have midterms coming up, but I am still working out regularly. I am encountering a problem though. I am getting HUGE calluses on the sides of my big toes. Everything I have read on this says that I am wearing the wrong size shoe. This BLOWS because it’s not like I have a money tree in my back yard and can buy a brand new pair of running shoes when the ones I’m wearing now are only six months old.

The calluses only really hurt when I wear high heels, but I wear high heels ALL THE TIME! There is no way I am going to let running interfere with my shoe hobby. No. Way. Not to mention the calluses are making my feet look even more deformed than they already are (Chuckles has always been creeped out by my long toes)…so I need to get this fixed before summer comes. I would feel way too guilty getting a pedicure right now – nobody should have to touch my feet.

There is a place by Green Lake called Jock and Jill that I want to check out because they analyze you while you run to determine exactly what shoes you should be wearing, which is apparently what I need. Anyway, if I have any extra time in the next month or, for that matter, money just lying around just dying to be spent I’ll be heading to Jock and Jill to be told what shoes I should be wearing.

Anorexia Pisses Me OFF

I feel like I am finally back in the swing of things. School is starting to really pick up and I have been working out almost every day. I ran a total of 15 miles over the weekend with a long run of 9 miles on Sunday, which felt really good even when it started raining when I only had 3 miles left. I am aiming for over 20 miles this week, which will be a record for me, but hopefully become a more regular occurrence.

On a related note I feel the need to say that this whole running thing I’ve got going on has nothing to do with me wanting to lose weight. I am really happy with my body right now. I went to a Postsecret event a couple weeks ago (which was fantastic) and was reminded, thanks to all the anorexic postcards, of some friends in college who were anorexic and my own unhealthy obsession with my weight, aka my weird idea that a size four wasn’t small enough. None of us ate healthy food or worked out – the whole focus was on how little we could eat. I lived on coffee and cereal.

I may have gained weight since my college days, but I’m so much healthier that it’s hard to be down about it. I think it is so important that we support each other and always remember that we’re all different. I remember in school once we were getting our fat percentage tested and the skinniest girl in the class had the highest percentage. Doesn’t that just scream at you that we as a society are focusing on the wrong things?! That we should be focusing on blood pressure, cholesterol, etc instead of what size jeans you fit into it?

I had a friend who was in and out of hospitals for anorexia so this is a very touchy subject for me. Not to mention that my high school nurse and I knew each other well thanks to the number of times that I was called into her office and forced to eat saltines and drink juice. I just have one final thought, which is that I feel 1,000 times better about myself when I finish 9 miles at a strong pace than I ever did when I put a bikini on and could count all my ribs. So, yeah, I’m going to get off my soapbox now. I hope everybody had a fabulous weekend!

What I want right now

Work has been kicking my butt lately hence the lack of posting. Also, for probably the first time in my life I’m having trouble sleeping so I’m a thousand times more tired than I usually am. However, I have been keeping up with my running. But really there’s nothing that exciting to report...AND I have nothing to write about here. I started to write about the baby fever that is taking over my life, but it was a really lame post. So instead I’ll do another post of things I WANT. No, NEED.

First, while I am usually not a fan of exposed zippers I love how it makes this simple black skirt more interesting and sexy.

Second, I have always wanted a pair of Tory Burch shoes. Actually, Tory Burch anything would be welcomed, but I especially love these bronze wedges.


Lastly, I really need a new purse and I keep saying I’ll get a black or brown, but I love this sunny yellow purse. It would just brighten up any outfit!


If only I was made of money.

More Evidence That I Should Drop Out Of School

To continue with my earlier post I forced Chuckles to take the same personality test I did. Funnily enough we’re practically complete opposites AND his profile clearly said, “You should not marry a career woman.” So. Can you use an MBA degree as a housewife?

Anyway, I finally signed up for my half marathon! I’m excited right now simply because I can’t believe I’m actually following through with something and now that I’ve spent the money on it I HAVE to run it. Good thing I’ll be successful with this resolution because I already have missed several days on my Project 365 resolution. I’m just not very creative when it comes to photo composition, which is one of the reasons I chose the resolution…but I’m having a hard time with it. Oh well, hopefully I’ll get better. Running, on the other hand, has been going well. I went for an 8 miler on Saturday and it felt fabulous – much better than the week before. I think it was either the speedwork I did during the week…or the huge plate of pasta I downed the night before.

Born in the Wrong Decade

One of the classes I am taking this quarter is Management of People. One of the first we things we had to do was take a personality test – the Myer Briggs test to be exact. I’ve taken this before but couldn’t quite remember much about it other than that I was introverted (Shocker!).

Halfway through the seventy question test I just wanted to scrawl across the test, “You guessed it! I HATE PEOPLE! Happy Now?” However, the perfectionist in me would never purposely fail at test…even if it is only a personality test.

After I took the test and scored it I found that on the Judging-Perception scale I am very very much on the Judging side. Not judging in the sense that those shoes you’re wearing are hideous…although I am judging in that sense too. But in Myer Briggs test it refers to something completely different. In my case when it comes right down to it it means that I need the next 5 years of my life planned out in excruciating detail. This tendency of mine drives my fiancé mad and he is always telling me I do not need to plan so far ahead and blah blah blah. The point is it’s a big part of my personality and there is NOTHING I can do to change it…or something like that. My personality description also said that I would most likely marry an alcoholic (no joke) so when I informed Chuckles that I was justified in my planning the next ten years of our lives he replied that it was time he started drinking more, which is fine by me as long as he doesn’t lose his job because, apparently, I am also meant to be a housewife. Time to start popping out babies! Screw school!

In other news, I haven't done any running since Tuesday, but I did do yoga on Tuesday and my arms are still sore. I plan on running 4 miles when I get home tonight, which will make for a very long day, but I'm not going to let that stop me.

Sea of Love

I feel like I am finally back on the healthy wagon. I ran a total of 12 miles this weekend. They were difficult, but felt good. I blame the difficulty on how windy it was outside – it really is hard to run up a steep hill against the wind.

I also did some speedwork last night at the gym, which is quickly turning into my favorite workout. I used to dread it, but now I really look forward to it. I like it because it is easy to convince myself that I can run fast when I only have to do it for a mile at a time. I also watched the end of the UNC basketball game while I ran, which really made the time fly by.

I also started keeping track of everything I eat again, which I pretty much stopped doing for the month of December. School starts up again this week so I’m glad I got back into my routine before it started otherwise I never would have.

I’m alternately pumped and depressed that school’s starting again. I’m pumped because I don’t really have another long break until August, which is when I am getting married and that means that the next 8 months will just fly by. On the other hand, I have eight months of school with no break, which means I will be Burnt Out by the end of it. My plan of attack is to take it day by day by day. I almost wish I had some more wedding planning to do for something to look forward to, but knowing that I was going to be busy I already took care of most everything. We have to register this month, but after that all that’s left is little stuff like making the favors and…well, that’s pretty much it.

I’ve even finished my favorite part of the planning: the playlist. We are having a very intimate wedding, less than 30 people, so no band or dj, which gives me complete control over the music. As a music fanatic I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was hoping that it would take me the whole year of our engagement to fiddle with it, but it’s only taken me six months. I also thought it would take me forever to settle on what song I wanted to walk down the aisle too…but I actually decided pretty quickly on that:



Here’s the song that we will walk back down to the aisle to:



This was the second runner up for the processional song:



Do you have a favorite love song that was or will be featured in your wedding?

New Year's Resolutions

I was going to write a post about how I never make resolutions and then, out of curiosity, I looked at my blog archives from last January and, apparently, I made several resolutions last year. The good news is I succeeded at one of them, which was to run more. But the other two were huge failures (be organized and be more adventurous with fashion). I’m not even going to attempt being organized this year – it’s a lost cause. So here are my resolutions for 2010 that I hopefully will not immediately forget about.

Run a half marathon. Since running was my only successful resolution of 2009 why not continue with it for 2010? I plan on signing up for the race next week and seriously start training this weekend. I’m actually excited for this. I’ve always wanted to be able to run a half marathon and, more than that, be the type of person that would run a half marathon. Now I am that person! I just have to keep reminding myself how wonderful it will feel to cross that finish line. Along the same lines I want to diversify my fitness routine. Try swimming more and take more classes at the gym.

Project 365. I got a fancy new camera last January and I haven’t been very lax about using it. My goal this year is to become a better photographer and I figured the best way to go about this would be with lots of practice. With all that practice I’m sure to get better at composition and lighting. So I plan on taking at least one picture every day. Obviously, to succeed at this resolution I will need to get in the habit of carrying my camera with me everywhere and also uploading my pics once a week. I also think it will be fun to look at the pictures next year as a way of reviewing 2010.

Career Decision. This isn’t so much a resolution as a MUST DO. I have to start interviewing next fall so I really need to figure out what kind of job I want and what kind of company I want to work for. I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it because it has been weighing heavily on my mind lately.

I am really really looking forward to 2010. Mainly because I’m getting married. Did you hear me? I’M GETTING MARRIED. I’ve been engaged for six months and yet I still feel the need to shout that every time I say it. Here’s to a fabulous 2010 – Happy new years!

Motivation for the new year

Then last night I went to the gym to run a 4-miler on the treadmill. The first mile went great. Then the second mile I started to get shin splints and stomach cramps all at once. Two things that rarely happen to me. I kept pausing the treadmill to stretch and drink water, but nothing was helping. So I quit at mile 2. I have NEVER quit a run early before. I felt shitty about it all night. I should have at least walked the other 2 miles. Oh well, time to start over and forget about it.

Luckily, Runner’s World posted an article today about how to stay motivated so I decided to write down my favorite ones from the article here so I can refer back to it when I need a little extra push (some I tweaked slightly to fit me personally).

Create a blog. I’m already doing this! This is all about publicly declaring your goals to create accountability for yourself. In that vein, I fully plan on running 4 miles tomorrow and 8 miles on Friday.

Forget the watch. I have become way too attached to my Garmin. I can’t even imagine running without it. But I found on a 10 miler I did a week ago that when I didn’t look at it constantly and actually relaxed I ran at a faster pace. So I need to become more relaxed and start making running fun again. On a related note, I think this is partly what went wrong last night – I was pushing myself too hard and if I had just slowed down I’m sure I would’ve finished the 4 miles.

Sign up now. Signing up for a 5k is how I originally motivated myself to start running. I’m very competitive so this always helps me. I really need to sign up for the Seattle Rock n Roll half before I chicken out or they sell out. I signed on to do it a couple weeks ago and then got sticker shock when I saw how expensive it was. But now I have Christmas money so I NEED to get on that. I know that’ll get me off my ass. The fear of failure really is the ultimate motivator.

Think Fast. Runner’s World’s suggestion here was to run the first half of your run slow and then run the second half fast. I definitely need to try some runs like this because so often I don’t pace myself very well and am dying on the second half of the run. It would be a nice change of pace to have extra energy at the end of the run.

Download new music. I know if Kesha’s song Tick Tock came on my iPod as I was running my pace would increase. Or promise yourself that if you go for your run you can purchase that song you just can’t get enough of when you get back.

Remind yourself. It always helps me to remind myself how far I’ve come both mentally and physically since I started running regularly. I may not be at the weight I want to be at, but I am proud of my body because I know what it’s capable of. I love my legs now even if they are ridiculously short because I know how strong they are. I always make a point of thinking about how confident and great I feel when I finish a run.

Treat yourself. When I am having an especially hard time getting my ass out the door I promise myself a treat when I get back. Chocolate milk is the best treat because it’s good to drink after a run and who doesn’t love it?

Honeymoon Bikini. This is the obvious one. Swimsuit season is just around the corner. I’ll be on a honeymoon this summer and I fully intend to look hot while on it. I plan on hanging a pic of my dream swimsuit in my office to serve as a constant reminder.

Don’t Pause. This is a big one for me. I need to just jump out of bed and go for a run – I tend to give myself too much time to talk myself out of it.

No Regret. My mantra: You’ll regret it big time if you don’t run and laze around on the couch instead.

Try New Trails. Change up your route. I think I’ll try the park across the street (I don’t know why I haven’t run there yet…) and Green Lake would be a big treat for me (great people watching).

What motivates you to get out the door and get your ass in gear?

For Brandy

We interrupt the regular blog program for a very important message from the amazing Brandy. Please read it and think about it. If you feel so inclined, please copy and paste the below post onto your own blog to spread the word and keep the good karma, thoughts and prayers flowing.

My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He's a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He's the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He's the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He's a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He's made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He's listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He's recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He's the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I'm overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren't sure what's happening. He'll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what's going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as 'brandy's hot awesome dude'). If you don't pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven't seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I'm throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn't a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It's just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven't already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

Turns Out I'm Illiterate

I was thinking last week that I wanted to start having more posts about cooking on here. I love to cook and am always trying new recipes so I thought I could share with the three readers I have what recipes work and what don’t.

So this weekend as I went on a baking frenzy and in the back of my mind was the thought of what recipe could I blog about. The first difficulty I encountered was taking pictures of the steps. I don’t know how the Pioneer Woman does it! It must take her ages to cook when she has to take pictures of every step.

The other difficulty was that everything I made was a disaster…well, mostly everything. First, I made cookies called Oatmeal Scotchies on Saturday. When I read the part of the recipe where it called for one cup of butter in my head I read 1 stick of butter. I didn’t catch my mistake until after the cookies were out of the oven and finished and then had an epiphany where I realized it was supposed to be TWO sticks of butter. Oopsies! Chuckles has assured me they taste fine despite the lack of butter. I personally am not a fan of oatmeal cookies so I am not a trusty source for an unbiased opinion so I really don’t know if they’re ok...people seem to be eating them. But the point is I can’t be trusted to give advice on cooking.

Then on Sunday I made Deep Chocolate Cheesecake Bars. The first step was to melt an entire bag of chocolate chips. Then it said beat cream cheese and sugar. So I beat the cream cheese and sugar with the chocolate. Big Mistake. The chocolate was supposed to be added later – I think it really messed up the consistency. It was a bitch to mix that’s for sure. It seems to be ok, but I’ve only had one so I am reserving judgment on those until later when I can pawn them off on unsuspecting family members.

Finally, tonight we are going to a potluck and I was going to make a pear, bleu cheese, and walnut salad for it. I always make candied walnuts because (do I really have to explain?) candied walnuts are always better than toasted walnuts. I decided to try a new recipe for it because the last ones I made weren’t pretty enough for me. Sure they tasted good, but they just didn’t look like it – I wanted them to be shinier. So I made them from a new recipe that had glowing reviews and poured them on some wax paper to cool and when I went to put them in a container later they were completely stuck to the paper. So obviously I fucked up and the worst part is I have no idea where! But they sure are shiny…

So if I were to do cooking posts on here they would all most likely be a lesson in what NOT to do. My coworker told me not to stress about it because I have been very tired and stressed and therefore flaky lately and that is why I can do nothing right. My reaction to this flakiness has been to drink four times the amount of caffeine than I normally do, which, unfortunately, is only making the situation worse…oh well, only 3 more days til Christmas.

Do NOT mess with my sleep!

I was reading an article on Runners World the other day about how people find time in their busy lives to workout. I am a total sucker for articles like this because I often find myself in the mindset that I am too busy to do anything and then I read these articles and realize that my life is a piece of cake compared to these other people. For example, there was one woman who had four young children and worked full time and to get her runs in she would get up at 4:30 in the morning!! Isn’t that the

So I thought why can’t I get up at 5:30 in the morning to work out on those days when I have work and then school afterwards? Anybody who knows me knows that I love love loooooove to sleep in. In fact, I will outright YELL at you if you try to get me up earlier than I need to. I might even hit you. Who am I kidding? I would definitely hit you. Maybe even with brass knuckles.

So I immediately threw that idea out the window and decided that a much more reasonable strategy would be to stay up late and go for a run. The problem is next week staying up late to work out just isn’t an option. So I am entertaining the possibility of getting up early.

I have basically given up on the idea that I will be able to run on Christmas Eve or Christmas and the fact that I even thought about running on those days makes me think that I am quite possibly losing my mind.

Anywhoodle, I have decided that my goal is to work out at least 2 days next week. What with multiple birthday and Christmas parties I think it will be quite the challenge. AND to fulfill it I will HAVE to get my ass out of bed early one morning. Hopefully nobody will get hurt in the process.

In case you’re wondering why I am posting so much about my boring exercise routine it’s because I have found that it motivates me to keep at it when I blog about it. Basically I take motivation wherever I can find it and go with it.

Give me the biggest omelet you got

I ran my first 10K this weekend. It was Saturday morning and I spent Friday night at a Christmas party at a winery in Woodinville. I assured myself going in that I would leave early and only have one glass of wine. That didn’t so much happen. The wine was just so tasty!

I eventually made it home just after 10 pm and downed some water and ibuprofen. Luckily, I didn’t feel that horrible the next morning and my running buddy, Linda, and I ran the 10k no problem. I really wanted to finish in under an hour and we ended up finishing at 1 hr and 33 seconds. I blame this on the fact that I failed to double knot my shoelaces so we had to stop twice for me to tie my shoes. I easily wasted thirty seconds there.

Our pace was pretty good for the first half – we were consistently under a 9:30 pace (pretty freakin’ good for me). Of course this meant that I really struggled during the last two miles. I kept thinking this is just NEVER going to end. Our average pace for the last three miles was probably more like 9:45.

Anyway, I’m really glad I did it even if it was below freezing out. Afterwards we met a college friend of mine for a delicious brunch at a place called Wild Wheat in Kent. I had the biggest bacon omelet EVER. It was absolutely insane. Anywhoodle, I’m already looking for my next race!

Why Must I Be a Poor Student?

I’ve been window shopping all morning on the interwebs, which is alternating making me happy to look at all the pretty clothes and sad that I have no money to buy any of them, but a girl can dream right? So I thought why not make everybody suffer with me! I have a Christmas party this Friday and while I will wear some old dress or skirt I’ve had for years here’s what I wish I was wearing:

I LOVE this Octopus bracelet from Anthropologie. Of course, it is way over my jewelry budget at $198, but I think you could wear it with a simple LBD and black shoes and it would make the whole outfit interesting instantly. I love fun accessories for that reason alone.

I think this 7 for all Mankind Asymmetrical dress would be perfect for holiday parties – Simple with just a little bit of embellishment on the shoulder. I would definitely wear a skinny black belt around the waist to give it a bit of shape.

And to complete it a pair of simple black pumps by Michael Antonio with a ruffle along the edge. Surprisingly, these are affordable at $50, but they don’t have my size. (My bank account is grateful.)

Well, that’s my dream outfit for this Friday night. What are you lusting after this holiday season?

Some Rambling Nonsense

I filled out my class evaluations today and for the first time since I started graduate school I gave both my professors glowing reviews. They were both interesting and explained everything clearly, not to mention, managed to make two subjects that had the potential to be excruciatingly boring fascinating. Because of this I am almost sad to see this quarter end for you never know what kind of nightmares I’ll have to deal with next quarter.

I say almost sad because I have never had so much reading assigned before and, therefore, have never been so behind before. That and when I turned in my legal paper rough draft I was told it needed “extensive rewording” which gave me heart palpitations because I don’t handle criticism well.

It also makes me nervous because, while normally I’d be looking forward to a leisurely break this break will be the complete opposite of leisurely thanks to Christmas and wedding planning and my life is only going to get more busy in the next nine months. On the positive side this means they’ll go by fast, which is good because I am very impatient and ready to get married.

I am also looking forward to getting back to training and exercising more regularly. I get so caught up in studying for finals because I’m crazy and think that anything less than 100% is a big fat FAILURE that everything else in my life has to take a backseat for those two last weeks in the quarter. So starting the 13^th I am going to start seriously training for my half marathon and I really can’t wait!

I wish I could make time this weekend to run because the temperature here took a severe and sudden drop this week and I would like to get some experience running in the freezing cold before my race on the 12^th. Unfortunately, I am afraid that 10K will be my first attempt at running in the snow. So at this point I am just hoping I am able to run it. I asked Chuckles to get me some runner’s cleats just in case it’s really icy.

Well…those are my rambling thoughts for the day. It’s pretty representative of how all over the place my head is lately.

Trying to be a runner

I’ve been running regularly for over a year now and have seen a lot of improvement in my speed and form and yet I still don’t feel like I belong to the “runner’s club”. I read other running blogs and runners world forums and feel pathetic that I have yet to run even a half-marathon.

Of course, I know this shouldn’t bother me at all because everybody has to start somewhere. Regardless, when I see other runners out on my run I always feel my pace speed up a little as I try to prove myself.

I went on two runs this past weekend in an attempt to burn off the Thanksgiving calories and they were difficult, painful runs. It was quite possibly the amount of booze I drank on Thursday or the biting wind, but by the last mile of my nine mile run on Friday I was barely able to walk.

And (I warn you – this might be TMI) it was also difficult to run because there was a distinct possibility that I might shit my pants. I know I am not the only one that has this problem on long runs and the best advice I have found on runners’ forums is “Run near toilets”. Great. Advice.

Anyway, as I was walking up the hill toward my car a girl was running towards me with a runner’s belt, skinny runner’s body, and judging eyes. Yes, Judging Eyes. Because I was walking. It took all my willpower not to yell, “It’s because I don’t want to shit my pants! Lay Off Lady!” Yeah, take that.

I'm Thankful for Wine

I rarely use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to think about what I’m thankful for. Instead, I see it as an opportunity to eat a helluva lot of food and sit in front of the TV all day and while this year really isn’t that much different, as in I’m still going to eat a lot, there were reminders about why I am thankful for many things in my life.

First, I was reading Postsecret on Monday and there was one secret that stood out to me:

It made me so grateful that I have such a great support system around me - a great family, friends, and fiancé. I just can’t imagine going through life all by myself.

Then yesterday on my way to the gym after work I was listening to an NPR story about soldiers coming home and how a family whose son had died was at the homecoming anyways as some sort of closure and they were sobbing. So I was sobbing, of course. I got some weird looks when I got to the gym from my body pump instructor who said hi to me and then quickly walked away because it was so painfully obvious that I had been crying. It was Awkward and if it hadn’t been Thanksgiving week I would have skipped.

But, seriously, I am so blessed with my wonderful parents, my bossy big sister (I’ve grown to love the bossiness about her…especially as she takes over wedding planning) and her family, and my amazing fiancé.

Also, I’m thankful for my ability to walk forever in heels. I think I was born to wear heels. Thank god because it makes up for my short legs, which I am NOT thankful for. Although, I am thankful I can run on them.

Ok…I’ll stop now. What are YOU thankful for? Mashed potatoes? Booze? Larry David?

Hooker Boots

So I really like the idea of thigh-high boots, but, at the same time, am unsure how you pull them off without looking like a hooker ala Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I suspect that they only way to wear them is over leggings or skinny jeans. Neither of which I wear because I feel like they only look good on girls who are a size 2. Although…I’ve been tempted to get some leggings lately, but I would always wear them with a dress (as if that somehow makes it ok).

I think in the pics below that Hayden Panettiere and Cameron Diaz really pull them off, but is it just because they’re hot celebs?! Or can a nobody pull them off? If so, how?

And, it has to be said, they look incredibly difficult to get on and off so would I end up wearing them constantly? To bed? In the shower? Not to mention, what if they’re so tight they cut off circulation to my legs? So, what are your thoughts on thigh-highs?