I ran a quick two miles at about 8:15 per mile. I really didn’t want to, but I knew the guilt would be overwhelming if I skipped
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I ran a quick two miles today at about 8:15 per mile. I really didn’t want to, but I knew the guilt would be overwhelming if I skipped. Silly race…
However, I must brag that today I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping! I always try to finish most of it before Thanksgiving so that I can avoid all those crazy shopping fanatics who insist on a mob mentality approach to shopping. I got mine done in relative peace, and enjoyed finding the perfect gift for each person on my list. Now I can just sit back and relax for the next few weeks! (and run… and run… and run).
Christmas Newsletter
I have a new toy to go with my new MacBook… Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, & PhotoShop! Apparently one of the few perks of paying $35,000 for a masters degree is that you get crazy discounts on software! They were practically paying me to take it off their hands (seriously… I paid $200 for a $1200 package… I’m pumped).
Which can mean only one thing…
It’s time to create my third-annual Christmas Newsletter! If you have never gotten a copy, this is a newsletter unlike any you have ever seen. If you want to be added to my mailing list, shoot me an email with your address.
Front page news
Today I had a story on the front page of the newspaper. Actually, it was on the front page of both Section A and Section B, complete with several pictures. That story represents hours of work behind the scenes, coordinating interviews for the reporter, prepping my folks being interviewed, finding background research… I even had to re-design our Web site so they could link to a certain video (which didn’t exist until I did a quickie online tutorial on how to upload videos… now that’s customer service!). My name may not be on the story, but seeing it there in black and white (with color photos!) makes me a really happy girl. Plus, it makes my boss really happy, which is even better. I do these all the time, but this one I’m framing and hanging in my office… it was that good.
Other than that… I forgot to mention that I ran 5 miles yesterday with an average of 8:30 per mile. I’ve got to hit it hard again tomorrow, and then we’ll run 12 on Friday. Three more weeks and I start my lazy girl workout!
What’s for dinner?
My friends have created a neighborhood dinner club. We all happen to go to the same church and live in the same part of town, so logically this meant we just HAD to create a supper club! It only makes sense, it had to be done.
Tonight we met at Andrea & Sara’s house, and Sara, the best cook in town, made us the most fantastic dinner! It was great… I got to hang out with old friends, and we invited some new folks to join us who just started visiting our church. It was a great picture of what good church outreach should look like… laid back, getting to know each other around the dinner table, and enjoying a good meal together.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. Every day they continued to meet together… they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
–Acts 2:42, 46-47
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves… Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
–Romans 12:10, 12-13
Happy birthday to me
Today is my birthday. The Big 2-8.
It’s also the one-year anniversary of this blog. Here’s the original, written last year.
And here’s a throw-back to another birthday post on the old blog.
I seem to get a bit sentimental on my birthday. But for some reason, not this year. I’m in a pretty good place, one of those transitional spots where I’m on my way somewhere, but not there yet. But as I travel to my next destination, I find myself happy, content, and thankful to be surrounded by some pretty neat people. And surprisingly enough, I don’t feel the least bit introspective. Maybe I’m just too full with chocolate birthday cake to worry about much.
Tonight I had a birthday party… a retro roller-skating party with about 25 friends and family members. It was a real hoot–I promise to post pictures very soon. I felt like a kid again… possibly because I wore a glo-necklace, raced boys on rollerblades, and had my mom there taking pictures. Yep, I may be 28, but that doesn’t mean I have to act like it.
Fa la la la la
It may be a week before Thanksgiving, but it’s never too early to decorate for Christmas. I lit a fire in the fire place, cranked up the Christmas music, baked a home-made molten chocolate cake, and tackled those decorations.
We found Harley the Wonder Schnoodle’s Santa costume when we were unpacking decorations. He absolutely hates this outfit… I suspect because it’s made from cheap polyester, which probably doesn’t feel good on his skin. But when I put it on him, he cowers, sulks, pouts, and gives me mean, hateful looks until I take it off of him. I should probably be more sympathetic, but it’s hilarious to watch, so we pulled out the camera to document his disgust. I don’t know if you can tell from his body language, but my roommate was trying to get him to look at her while she took the photo, and he stubbornly refused. This is Harley’s “I hate you both” look. Isn’t it adorable?
Playing Hookie
I was scheduled to run with a friend tonight, and here’s how the conversation went, via text message, about 30 minutes before our run was scheduled to start:
(Sara)–Brrrr! Are we still running?
(me)–Is it really cold? I haven’t been outside. I feel sick today, we could skip and grab dinner instead.
(Sara)–lol. That was way too easy. My roommate is making chili, come join us!
(me)–Deal!
And that’s how my 1-hour run turned into a 2 1/2 hour dinner with friends… which was so much better than running in the cold wind.
Speedy
Check this out… tonight I ran 4.06 miles in only 36:02 minutes… that’s 8:52/mile. I know this because I bought one of those cool Nike thingy’s that plug into your iPod and tell you how fast/how far you are running. It’s a pretty neat invention!
Last Saturday I ran 10 miles in 1 hour and 56 minutes. For those keeping track, that’s very, VERY slow (it would have been faster if I wasn’t so close to throwing up for the last two miles… fun). I’m shooting for a 10-minute mile at my half-marathon, which means I have a lot of training to do in the next month! And then, after that, I will have a lot of sitting-on-my-couch-eating-ice-cream-and-not-exercising to do. Beginning December 15. Mark your calendar, maybe you can “train” with me.
Sushi Support Group
So a Muslim, a Jew and a Baptist go to a sushi restaurant…
Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? Actually, that was my night–I went out to dinner with a few friends from grad school tonight after class, and we had a BLAST. It was so fun–one girl is a Muslim from Pakistan (but has lived in the US most of her life). Another girl is a Jewish Chilean who has just been in the US for a year. And then there was a girl from Keller… and then me. The blue-eyed blonde girl with freckles from Texas (sometimes don’t you wish you were deliciously exotic? I do!).
I love getting to know people who are nothing like me, but everything like me. I love hearing their stories, breaking down stereotypes and learning what makes them tick. We talked about boys, school, religion, Middle Eastern conflicts, movies, our families, the election… all the stuff normal classmates talk about. And we did it all while eating $3 sushi at a little hole-in-the-wall close to campus.
Experiences like that form some of the good memories that I’ll take away from my grad school experience. It dulls the pain of all of those hours of homework, the social activities I’m forced to sacrifice, and the evenings spent in a classroom with no windows. Because occasionally I get to make a new friend, somebody I would normally never get to know under any other circumstances.
In fact, we’re already planning our next outing… a make-over party! One of the girls is a local television reporter who is a make-up pro… so she’s providing the rest of us with a Sephora make-up tutorial. We may be grown-ups, but we’re never too old to play dress-up. It’s fun to be a girl, even if I’m not deliciously exotic!