‘Marathon’ Category

  1. and miles to go before i sleep

    July 31, 2006 :: 7:40 pm

    I know y’all totally don’t care, but I still have to post my marathon training progress.

    Yesterday I drove over to the gym* to do my 4.5 mile long run (the long runs occur on the weekends, and we’re upping them by 1/2 mile every weekend until the race). I didn’t realize that the gym opened at 11 on Sundays, and it was only 10 a.m. I didn’t want to wait around for an hour and I really didn’t have anything to do in the meantime, so … (yes, you guessed it)… I went running outside instead. In this motherfucking SNAKES ON A PLANE heat. Not having eaten breakfast.

    From my office to the start of the Katy Trail (not named after me, thanks for asking, but it is well marked and flat and wide (somewhat like me)) is 1.5 miles of partial shade, and from there I hopped on the trail and went an additional 3/4 mile before turning around and starting back. Up to that point I’d been feeling pretty good, but shortly after the turnaround I had to stop and walk for a little while. Then about 2/3 of the way back I had to stop and sit down in the shade for a bit, then I walked most of the rest of the way. I think that getting cold chills on a 90 degree day is a sign that you’ve overheated yourself. “I am gonna be SNAKES ON A PLANE if I don’t just walk from here,” I thought, and actually took my own advice.

    You’d think I would have learned my lesson after the last couple of times I decided I could handle running outdoors in Texas in the hottest part of summer. But noooooooo. Give me a few weeks to recover, and some part of my brain begins to tell me that THIS time it will work out fine, go ahead and sweat, you’ll feel great afterwards!

    So anyway. I feel like I kinda screwed up my 4.5 mile weekend run because even though I technically traveled 4.5 miles, not all of it was running.

    However, I have redeemed myself. Today I ran 5 whole miles at the gym, in a row, no stopping, when I only needed to do 3.25. That’s a first in my life. I’m pretty proud of myself.

    * Yes, I drove 7 miles to the gym rather than run on our perfectly good treadmill at home. I think I’ve screwed myself with this treadmill thing. I need to gradually get used to it, say by doing 1 mile runs and then going up from there as I acclimate myself. But I’m not doing 1 mile runs anymore. So running on the treadmill seems like it would be a waste of my time.

    Category Marathon | Tags: | 1 Comment

  2. mile(age)stone

    July 24, 2006 :: 8:29 pm

    MILESTONE!!

    I ran 4.2 miles tonight. That is the farthest I’ve ever run without stopping. 44 minutes, so that translates to… let’s see… about a 10:30 mile. I’m very pleased with that; my goal is not necessarily to run quickly or to decrease my time per mile, but to increase my endurance, even if I’m doing 15 minute miles or whatever. If I can complete the half marathon in under 3 hours, I’ll be very happy.

    I sprinted the last lap and a half to catch up with Brittney, and after slowing to a walk it felt like I was starting to have an asthma attack. It subsided after a few minutes of wheezing. Which reminds me, I should make a doctor’s appointment so she can reassure me that my body will be able to stand up to this crazy training schedule.

    I was supposed to do 4 miles on Saturday (my long run day) but only did 1.5, on the treadmill. Sunday I did an additional 1 mile on the treadmill, then went outside and ran another 1.5. I don’t think that really counts, even though it adds up to 4. I felt really awful about myself all weekend as a result.

    On the treadmill I have been running a 12 minute mile. I don’t know how I will ultimately feel about the treadmill. Right now we have a love-hate relationship. (I hate that I don’t love it.) The most I’ve been able to run on it is 1.5 miles. It feels much more difficult than when I run on regular non-moving ground. I seem to get hotter and sweatier, and I’m really unhappy and my muscles hurt and I tire out quickly and I’m always looking at the mileage gauge. Maybe it’s that I know I can step off of it anytime (with a surprising degree of difficulty; I have trouble balancing). I don’t know what it is. I’m not giving up on it though, ’cause it wasn’t exactly cheap. Maybe I just need to give it time and get used to it and gradually up my mileage on it.

    I’m glad that Doc likes it and is using it regularly. Correction: will be using it regularly in the near future. He made the mistake of walking on it barefoot for half an hour immediately after getting out of a long soak in the tub, and the giant blister on the ball of his foot is the price he’s paying. Poor guy’s been hobbling around since Saturday morning.

    Category Doc, Marathon | Tags: | 2 Comments

  3. Music and marathon progress

    July 20, 2006 :: 9:19 pm

    Ten songs I’m listening to right now:

    1. Mining for Gold (Cowboy Junkies) :: recorded in a church, you can hear the echo
    2. Whistling For His Love (Danielle Dax) :: i had a dream about giant skiing chickens and this song was the soundtrack
    3. Alison (Elvis Costello) :: makes me want to play spades, and i wonder what david nathan is doing these days
    4. Something I Can Never Have (Nine Inch Nails) :: why the hell is this one not available on the iTunes music store?
    5. Life’s What You Make It (Talk Talk) :: life is what you make it
    6. Silent All These Years (Tori Amos) :: i’ve got twenty-five bucks and a cracker, do you think it’s enough to get us there?
    7. October (U2) :: yes, but the music and the lyrics are really more november in my head, somehow
    8. The Unforgettable Fire (U2) :: carnival, the wheels fly and colors spin through alcohol, red wine that punctures the skin
    9. Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World (U2) :: a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle
    10. Plenty (Sarah McLachlan) :: i thought i’d be with you until my dying day

    Kathryn has finished up her classes and is now interning at the massage school. This equals cheap massage for me! I’ve scheduled with her for next Wednesday night. I can’t wait!

    It is fairly easy for me now to run 3.5 miles at a stretch. My last three runs have been 3.5, 3, and 3.5 miles each. So I think that the 4-mile I’m gearing up for this Saturday will not be too difficult. The hardest part is getting into that “zone” thing, where I’ve passed the point where my body’s yelling at me to stop, and everything kind of evens out — the breathing, the heart rate, the muscle fatigue.

    Yvonne tells me about this mythical “runner’s high” where the endorphins kick in and, as she describes it, you get this sense of overall well-being. I don’t think I’ve experienced that yet, because the “balancing point” that I find after about 2 miles doesn’t really feel like that. I bet I’ll feel it when my mileage increases some more.

    The treadmill gets here tomorrow, so I imagine I’ll test it out in the evening and again on Saturday for my four-mile jog. It’s too hot to run at the lake anymore, even early in the morning. The night-time low temperatures have been in the mid-80s for the past week (and well into the triple digits for highs all week — try 107). 85 degree lows + stifling humidity + red-ozone alerts = breathing problems and overheating. I feel bad for the athletes training for the Beijing Olympics.

    Category Marathon, Music | Tags: | 4 Comments

  4. i wanna rock and roll all night, and part of every day

    July 16, 2006 :: 8:35 pm

    I’m severely manic today. I don’t know what the deal is. I’ve got tons and tons and tons of energy, and I feel like I’m flying high, like everything’s falling into place, like I’m getting tons of stuff done, like I can keep going all night. It’s almost like I’ve taken some mood altering substance that’s got me going going going going going. (I didn’t.) You know that feeling where you can almost feel every blood cell in your body zipping along through your veins, like your energy is almost visceral, it’s this THING that you can feel circulating through you and it makes your whole body hum and vibrate? That’s what this feels like, except I’m keeping it perfectly under control, it’s right at that knife edge where it could go too far and suddenly I’d feel like complete shit. I’m keeping it on the knife blade today, all day.

    I’m even typing crazy fast. (And making crazy lots of mistakes, but that’s another story). Even now, at 9:45 p.m., I still feel like I’m cresting on some crazy energy wave, although I can feel it abating a little bit.

    Here is what I’ve done today, in no particular order:

    • Got up at 7.
    • Made a list of money that we owe people, and money that is owed to us for various minor recent things.
    • Assisted on a video shoot for a documentary about kids attending cancer camp.
    • Ate breakfast.
    • Ran errands at Target.
    • Washed all the towels in the house in a strong vinegar soak to get rid of the impending musty smell that I’ve sensed lately.
    • Belled the cat. (That was Doc’s task, actually. Loki’s furious about having to wear a collar … a shiny neon yellow reflective collar with a loud jangly bell. No more stealthy misbehaviour for him. We’re convinced that he knows he’s invisible sometimes.)
    • Finished some work on Debbie’s website.
    • Helped Doc complete 5 invoices to send off to clients.
    • Went through Doc’s database and closed out jobs that needed closing.
    • Entered Doc’s recent expenses into his database.
    • Talked to Arushi for 45 minutes.
    • Ate dinner and drank a Tilburg’s Dutch Brown Ale.
    • Prepared and sent off 3 recipes to Erica, who’s revamping our QFC website and reviving our newsletter from the dead.
    • Collected Molly’s DVDs to mail back to her.
    • Collected a DVD to mail to Joel.
    • Made a list of things to do tomorrow after running.
    • Locked myself (somehow? or was it a cat?) out of my filing cabinet which I purchased at a surplus sale at work and to which I have no key.
    • Took photos of the file cabinet and locking mechanism to take to a locksmith tomorrow.
    • Measured some stuff in the bedroom to try to determine the best place to put the treadmill.
    • Thought about posting some stuff to eBay or craigslist, but didn’t do it.
    • Exported Cover Story to post to my blog and/or Youtube.
    • Ate some cheese and crackers.
    • Made my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.
    • Did the dishes and cleaned all the counters.
    • Cleaned out underneath my bathroom sink, my bathroom drawer, the cabinet above our toilet, and the cabinet in the cat bathroom. Tossed a bunch of old stuff, rearranged some items, consolidated some items, and began putting together an “emergency kit” for work with toothpaste, tampons, eyedrops, floss, sewing kit, deodorant, ibuprofen, etc.
    • Talked to Mom on IM and tried to help her solve a computer problem.
    • Checked out the art of Jose Emroca Flores.
    • Complained about the 107 degree heat this afternoon.
    • Sat here writing this post, fidgeting like I need to get up and do something.

    Things that I did Saturday:

    • Got up at 9.
    • Went to the gym with Doc; ran 3.5 miles while he used the treadmill.
    • Came home, showered, dressed, and ate lunch.
    • Drove to Grapevine to a fitness store, where we bought a treadmill (I probably ran another half mile, this time in my bare feet, testing out the treadmills).
    • Went to the crazy nutty Grapevine outlet mall and walked around for a while. Suprisingly – or perhaps not so surprisingly – found absolutely nothing I wanted to buy. Played a quiet game in my head called “Is America Fatter Than Me?” (answer: Yes.).
    • Made bierocks when we got home (I made the dough; Doc made the filling and assembled them) and cut up fresh veggies for a mini-salad-bar.
    • Watched a mostly useless 2 hour Discovery Channel show about the search for Atlantis, that could have been covered in 15 minutes.
    • I think I did some other stuff but that was 24 hours ago and the mind is not so sharp these days.

    Things I neglected to do this weekend:

    • See Bob while he was in town. I thought we’d get together Saturday night after his trip to Six Flags, but he had to drive back to Lubbock in kind of an emergency that night because the friend that he was with found out his dog died that day back home :(
    • Call Yvonne back in time to get in on the farmers’ market co-op thing for this weekend.
    • Run or walk or bicycle today.
    • Move all our eBay/craigslist stuff to the garage.

    Like you care about any of that! I know, it’s mostly just a list for me to feel proud of myself and wonder how I had the freakin’ energy to accomplish it.

    Last Friday, I had a meeting with Ian. I’m going to be working with him on a project — iTunes U for our university. He seemed quite open to the design assistance that I was offering him; I was initially a little wary that this would turn into some kind of uncomfortable ownership battle over the design. He seemed to like my initial concepts, though. I thought it might be a little strange to talk business with him for an hour, but it wasn’t, really. In a way, I think that having the kind of history with him that I do makes me almost more comfortable working with him than with someone that I don’t know and whose reactions I would have a hard time anticipating. Afterwards, he came and stood in my cubicle for a few minutes and we chatted about various things which I can’t even remember now.

    Friday night Doc and I went to Stout, a very quiet nearly deserted bar on Greenville (how do they stay in business?) and had a few drinks and played pool. Later we went to Yvonne and Nate’s house for a few hours and had some pizza and more drinks with Brittney and Chris.

    I think that I’m done with alcohol for a while, at least until after the marathon. Not that I drink too much or anything; in fact, I only have 1-2 drinks a week at the most. But it’s extra calories that I don’t need. Of course, I’m finishing off my Tilburg’s Dutch Brown from dinner as I type…. and of course this isn’t a hard and fast rule. I’m sure I’ll have a celebratory drink on my 34th birthday.

    We’ve started to ramp up our long-run distances. This weekend was 3.5; next weekend is 4. We’ll do about 1/2 mile more every weekend until a few weeks before the race. I’m concerned that I’m not doing enough strength training and other types of training like stretching or swimming or yoga. I want to run every day because I feel it gives me the most benefit, but I don’t want to run AND do another form of exercise – that’s way too much time. So I really just need to develop a schedule. I was going to yoga Wednesdays and Fridays, but my work schedule’s been kind of messed up the past 2 weeks and I haven’t gone. I think I need to do 3-5 runs a week, 1-2 days of other training, and have one day of rest.

    Category Art, Food, Goals, Marathon, Memories | Tags: | No Comments

  5. more "nobody likes me" dreams

    July 3, 2006 :: 8:28 pm

    Ran 3 point something miles after work today, despite a twinge of nausea and a very strange spaced out feeling that makes me think that there was something funny in the birthday cupcakes at work today.

    I’m not sure how many if any pounds I have dropped, but I feel better physically and my shape is changing into something a bit more pleasing, gradually but I can tell.

    Dreamed the night before last that I was running the trail at White Rock Lake, and we’d gone way past our normal turnaround point, and I realized that we’d run five miles already. The trail went up a hill and ended inside someone’s apartment living room. I recognized many of my friends inside the apartment — Debbie, Kathryn, Ginger, etc. — and realized that it was a party for Kathryn who was getting married, and that I hadn’t been invited. They were kind of finishing up, and there was cake on the table and giftwrap all around the floor, and everyone was dressed fancy and not paying much attention to me. I stood there in my running clothes, sweaty and utterly crushed, and tried to pretend that I wouldn’t have been able to come anyway and I had to get going, had things to do, you know, see you later.

    Category Dreams, Marathon | Tags: | 1 Comment

  6. Katy’s Sunrise Agony

    June 30, 2006 :: 7:35 pm

    Yes, I know, Thursday came and went without an update. I have an excuse though: I was too tired. Wednesday night Brittney came over and we went walking for an hour around the neighborhood (I missed my yoga class because I was in a job interview). I realized how much I miss walking with Britt. We have good conversations.

    I did manage to pry myself out of bed at 5:15 a.m. on Thursday morning, and I met Yvonne at the Bath House at 5:45. Thinking I might need a little something in my stomach for energy, I made half a peanut butter sandwich and tried to eat it when I got to the park while waiting for Yvonne to arrive. I only managed two bites. My tummy doesn’t like to eat that early in the morning.

    The mileage markers around the lake leave a lot to be desired, so we’re not sure how far we went, but we ran for 37 minutes total, so we think that was about 3.5 miles. It was just undarkening outside when we started to run, and still rather cool out — low 70s. We were both pretty out of it and I don’t remember too much of the specifics of our conversation, but thinking back later that afternoon, it seemed like it was so far away and like maybe it was this long strange dream that I had.

    We saw downtown all lit up and reflecting off the lake in the gray-blue dawn light. The sun came up and I have to begrudgingly say that it was very pretty, which is a tough thing for me to admit — I’ll tell the story of why below. I was home by 7, which gave me ample time to shower and wash my hair and dress and I even had time to stop for breakfast before work. Most weekdays I’m not even out of bed until 7:30.

    I am not necessarily opposed to doing an early morning run again. Not every day and maybe not every week even, but it wasn’t as godawful as I was imagining it might be. I was pretty tired all day and took a nap when I got home, but it was really nice to get the run out of the way early in the day.

    I may have mentioned this before, but I’ve always hated seeing the sun rise. I’m definitely a night person by nature, and seeing the sun come up somehow breaks whatever magic the night holds, cheesy as that may sound. Like, “it’s over, the day’s started, time to do normal everyday things now along with the rest of the world.”

    I remember very clearly when this thought first crystallized and clarified in my head — January 21, 1990. I was at a party at Bonnie’s house and we had stayed up all night. She and Ginger and Ian and I were laying on her front lawn in a square, each of our heads on someone else’s stomach, and we’d been laying there for hours in the cold talking and laughing and singing and saying crazy things because we were 17 year olds flying high on sugar and caffeine and we were all so in love with ourselves and each other. It was probably one of the highlights of my life up to that point, largely because super-hot, massively charming (but invariably fickle) red-haired Ian was lying on top of me. And then the sky started to lighten, and everything changed. It was like reality suddenly whacked us in the face with a cold wet dishtowel. The crazy intense lovefriendship we had going on (typical teens!) changed. It was time to get up, go home, and face whatever normal mundane things the next day would hold.

    Maybe now it’s more that sunrise equates to only a little bit of time left to sleep; soon it will be time to peel myself out of bed and go to work or do chores or pay bills or whatever other soul-deadening adult tasks need to be done. I don’t want to see that from the back side.

    Category Friends, Marathon, Memories | Tags: | 1 Comment

  7. excuse me, did you say a.m.?

    June 28, 2006 :: 8:04 pm

    News flash: I think I have lost my mind. I am meeting Yvonne at the lake at 5:45 tomorrow morning to go running.

    Yes, you read that correctly. 5:45 in the A.M. That is the time of day that is also known as Fucking Hell O’Clock. If you know me, you do not need me to tell you how much of a morning person I am not.

    Tune in on Thursday for exciting updates to your morning wake-up show, Katy’s Sunrise Agony.

    Category Marathon | Tags: | No Comments

  8. the weekend

    June 26, 2006 :: 8:57 pm

    Saturday I ran about 3 miles at the lake. I’m never quite sure how far I’m going because the mileage markers leave something to be desired. So I just run it by time, which isn’t of course as accurate. But then again, accuracy is not really my goal. It was very humid Saturday morning so I heated up really fast and had a tough time cooling down, and I had to walk some. Tonight I ran a very easy 3 miles (or so — we lost track and I think we probably went a few extra laps) at the gym. Man, I tell you, air conditioning makes all the difference.

    Saturday night we went to Yvonne’s birthday party at her house. She and Nate cooked dinner (grilled stuff and salads — she makes a mean peanut noodle salad) and made the most massive vat of sangria I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, there was probably 10 gallons of the stuff in a huge octagonal glass jar that sat on ice in their sink. It was Yvonne’s Magical Mystery Sangria. It sneaks up on you! I even ate sangria-soaked watermelon. It wasn’t bad! Walker was freaked out at the sight of me again, but I bribed him with a milk-bone and then we were best friends. I think he must have had a bad experience with a tall or curly-haired woman in his former life as a street puppy.

    Mom and Dad were in town Saturday night but left early Sunday morning, so we didn’t get to see much of them this time. We’re going to Lubbock in August to see Bob graduate and we might go to Houston for a couple of days afterwards just to spend some time with them. This is (knock on wood) their last summer in Houston.

    I feel really bloated and piggy lately. My eating habits have gotten shitty again. Let me rephrase that to take proper personal responsibility: I’ve been shoving lots of bad-for-me food into my cakehole, and I need to do something about it. All this running isn’t going to do me a bit of good if I don’t trim down so I’m not lugging around 30 extra pounds on the marathon.

    Yesterday I went through my desks and threw away a bunch of stuff that I didn’t need anymore. I’m trying to change my packrat tendencies (“but I might need that some day!”) and I tossed out/recycled stuff that I hadn’t used in a few years. I am having severe minimalistic urges lately that directly conflict with my need to save stuff. I’m not sure where this is going to take me.

    Last night was the season premiere of the Venture Brothers (season two). I was dreading that it wouldn’t hold up to the quality of the first season, but it’s looking good so far. Holy shit, it’s Dean Fucking Venture!

    Category Friends, Marathon, TV | Tags: | 2 Comments

  9. crane vs. bridge

    June 13, 2006 :: 2:25 pm

    Tales from the dumbshit files: So this is what I saw on the way to work yesterday. From the picture you might think that it’s just a truck doing road construction, but it is in fact the crane that slammed into and got stuck underneath the bridge yesterday morning. The official story is that the driver raised the crane arm earlier in the morning to check the hydraulics, then forgot to lower it before driving off. Apparently he was arrested at the scene for outstanding warrants.

    Congratulations to Colleen (Kim’s little sister) and her husband Jason on their brand new baby girl, Anna, born this morning. I still can’t believe that Colleen had a baby! She’s perpetually nine years old in my mind, squirting us with water guns. Damn, that makes me feel old.

    Today was a better day than yesterday. I did not injure myself in any way (but hey, the day’s not over yet!) and I ran 3 miles, which is double what I ran last night. My scrapes and scratches hurt like hell. I cleaned up with peroxide last night, and then decided (dumbshit move) to use a bit of rubbing alcohol for good measure. So I poured some onto my scraped-raw knee…. and almost fainted. Holy McFuck, did that ever hurt!

    Lack of protective skin + alcohol = Very Bad Idea.

    Category Dallas, Health, Marathon | Tags: | 1 Comment

  10. cars!

    June 11, 2006 :: 3:22 pm

    I’m kind of embarrassed by my last post. It makes me seem like a whiny baby. I thought about deleting it, but a larger part of me doesn’t really want to, because that wouldn’t be true to myself. I WAS feeling sad and lonely that night, and I don’t want to edit my personal history to make me sound better — to myself or others. I am who I am. I know y’all love me even if I am moody sometimes.

    On Friday I did go running over the lunch hour, as planned. I really liked getting it out of the way in the middle of the day and freeing up my evening, but my energy level did not seem quite as good as it usually is in the late afternoons. Also I wasn’t sure how the timing would work out — getting to the gym, running, showering, and getting back to the office within an hour (it didn’t quite work). I ran 3 miles, although I’d only planned to do 1.5. My legs were really burning and I thought I’d have to stop, but I pushed myself hard to 2.5 miles and by then the pain disappeared, so I went for all 3.

    I think I’ll try it a couple more times and see how my energy is, and if I can streamline the timing somewhat.

    After work I went to Gloria’s with Yvonne, Nate, Jim, Brittney, Chelsea, and also Bill from our office. There was much laughter, sangria, and margaritas all around. I decided to come home afterwards rather than see if anyone wanted to hang out, because I was a little tired from my lunchtime run and the alcohol.

    Saturday was a day of errands — the bank, the shoe store (where I located a pair of black slide sandals nearly identical to my ancient pair whose sole has cracked in half — but they’re MENS shoes, strangely enough; see photo at right but imagine them in black), and the grocery. Central Market sends me these great coupons, usually for things like free meat or $10 off groceries with $40 purchase. So I ended up with a free 1.25 pound sirloin steak (dinner tonight!) and some free blueberries and ice cream. I did not get any exercise in Saturday, but I was intending it to be a day off, so I don’t feel that bad about it.

    Tonight we are going biking around White Rock Lake. Nate and Yvonne plan to join us as well. It’s pretty damn hot out right now (97 degrees) so hopefully it will have cooled off a little in a couple of hours when we meet them. This morning I baked some blueberry lemon corn muffins and this afternoon I baked some buns that are supposed to be similar to the ones served at Schlotzsky’s restaurants. We’ll see about that. Now I’m cooking a mini-meatloaf that I can slice for a sandwich tomorrow.

    We saw “Cars” this morning. It was fantastic! I wasn’t sure how they were going to make an entire feature film about automobiles, but they have that fucking Pixar magic working in their favor. I wonder if Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field is reaching that far?? One of my favorite parts by far is the end credits. Definitely stay all the way through! I won’t spoil it for you by telling you why; all I will say is Monster Trucks Inc.

    “Cars” reminds me a little of one of my all-time favorite “old-style” cartoons — the one about the son of a taxicab who wants to be a racecar.

    Category Deep Thoughts, Food, Marathon, Movies, TV | Tags: | No Comments

  11. sometimes you can’t make it on your own

    June 8, 2006 :: 8:51 pm

    I’m kind of feeling friendless and unloved tonight. I hate this feeling. The rational part of my brain knows it’s not true but that little area is currently being crushed by the part of me that feels depressed and sorry for myself. Sometimes it feels like the world goes on and makes plans without me and I’m being perpetually left behind and left out, never able to catch up. And then little voices whisper “so why even bother, nitwit?” (Maybe you — yes, you — love me anyway… do you? Yes that is a desperate plea for outside affirmation… sad, I know.)

    I know that the little voices are the manifestation of Resistance. I just began reading a really interesting book called “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. In it he discusses the very real force within us all, but especially in creative types, that he calls Resistance, and this is the force that does everything in its power to prevent us from actually fulfilling our life’s purpose. This is why I am a painter who doesn’t paint. But far be it from me to blame some “force” for my problems — I know the force is me. But maybe visualizing it as a “thing” will help me be able to overcome it. I don’t know, I’m not that far into the book yet. We’ll see.

    I took a yoga class this afternoon in lieu of running. i’m really glad, because running seems to be making my muscles very tight, and I think that I really need the yoga to help keep me limber. So far this week I’ve only run 5 miles. Friday at lunch I’m running another 3, because after work I’m going to a happy hour with some friends/colleagues.

    One last random thing: Luxuria Music offers a fantastic (free) iTunes music stream — sophisticated lounge, jazz, swing, retro… great stuff! You can just turn it on all day and listen. I’m feeling hipper already.

    Category Art, Deep Thoughts, Marathon, Music | Tags: | 6 Comments

  12. Good weekend even though I missed NIN/Bauhaus

    June 4, 2006 :: 9:32 pm

    I had a good weekend. Doc and I went out on a “real date” on Friday night (very important for married couples to do this regularly). We got dressed up and went out for Italian food, and saw a late movie (“Art School Confidential,” very enjoyable). I think we need to do something like that at least twice a month. I had such a great time.

    On Saturday morning I went to Kathryn’s office so that she could practice her massage techniques on me (she’s close to getting her certificate). The backs of my legs are usually really sensitive, but she did a fantastic job and it didn’t tickle at all. I think next time I’ll trust her with the bottoms of my feet! She did this really great thing that stretched out a very sore muscle in the back of my legs (probably sore from so much running).

    After lunch, I bought myself a new pair of running shoes that have “motion control” for overpronators. Translation: I tend to walk/run more towards the insides of my feet instead of straight down the middle. These shoes are not exactly fashion statements, but they are supposed to support feet like mine much better than regular shoes. We’ll see, though; I also have extremely high arches, which (together with overpronation) is apparently a rare and strange combination. I may need to get some arch support insoles as well. I took the shoes out for a spin on Saturday afternoon and ran approximately 2 miles in the 95 degree heat, and walked one mile.

    Saturday night Doc and Rich ordered pizza and watched movies on the Man TV, while I went out for margaritas with Yvonne and her sister-in-law Heather. Our original destination was Times Ten Cellars (a wine bar in Lakewood) but they were closed for a private party, so the valets handed out coupons for a free drink next time we were there (sweet!). We wandered over to Matt’s Rancho Martinez instead for margaritas. We had a lot of fun and some really great conversation, ranging from work to race to politics to last names and more.

    Afterwards, we went back to Yvonne’s for more drinks (I just had a diet coke though; had to drive home) and a bit later Nate and his older brother Chris (Heather’s husband) and younger brother Travis came home from the Bauhaus/Nine Inch Nails concert they’d been to. Had I known Bauhaus was playing, I might have gone. This is the first NIN show that I’ve ever missed and I feel kinda sad about that. However, it is June in Texas and the concert was outdoors and my poor 30-something ears just can’t take the absurd volumes that live music is always played at. Nate said that Bauhaus did not play “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” but they almost made up for that by doing “Ziggy Stardust.” NIN opened with “Terrible Lie” and closed with “Head Like a Hole.” Aaargh! I cannot believe that I missed Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor on the same night.

    Come to think of it, though, I’m not sure that anything could possibly eclipse the double bill of David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails from 1995. That was simply an amazing show. (Except maybe the very first time I saw NIN, in 1990 or 1991, at tiny little Deep Ellum Live.)

    I did get to see a photo of Nate from high school, wearing a leather hand-painted Bauhaus jacket.

    On the way to dinner on Friday night, we stopped at a nearby mattress store so that I could try out a TempurPedic bed (that squishy foam stuff). Doc has a “memory foam” pillow and he wanted to eventually get a whole bed because he thinks it’s extremely comfortable. I was under the impression that sleeping on a big chunk of foam would be hot and disagreeable. I laid on a couple of the beds and quickly changed my mind. The beds were on sale (which is apparently rare for that brand) so we took the plunge and bought one, which I feel pretty good about since our current bed is 12 years old and sagging in the middle. I’ve had more back problems than usual lately and I usually wake up stiff and sore in the mornings, and I think it may be partially due to the sagginess (of the mattress, not of me!). Mom and Dad bought me that mattress after I graduated from college and moved into my first apartment, so it’s been around a while.

    The guy at the mattress store told us that a regular mattress will double in weight every ten years due to dust and mites and skin cells and other bodily cast-offs. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I’ve been enjoying telling everybody I can about that fun little fact. :)

    They delivered the bed this morning, and we realized that since it’s a size up from our previous bed, we didn’t have any sheets that would fit. We had to go sheet shopping today, and I had no idea that sheets are so expensive. I’m thinking that we’re going to make due with one set for now.

    After I’m done writing I am going to brush my teeth, get into my jammies, and take that brand new bed for a test drive.

    Category Doc, Marathon, Music | Tags: | 2 Comments

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