Checking in

Making my every-six-months stop here at my blog to see how things are going. All seems quiet on the blog front...

Random updates from my world:

(1) My social life is still active on Facebook, though I did go through and delete all the friends who I didn't really know. Amazingly, that was only about 25 people.

(2) We are thinking of buying a house. Well, we have gone one step further than that and have given notice to our apartment complex that we're moving out at the end of July. This is SO exciting to me. And so scary, too. How will we know which house to pick? There are so many choices! But it will be nice to have a home that feels more permanent. Maybe I'll even decorate (ha!).

(3) We went to our first Roller Derby meet. We stood rink-side and it was awesome! We are so thankful for our friends who introduced us to this sport. I want to go again. Have you gone? It's a big time in Nashville! Sell-out crowds! Does anyone want to go roller skating with me? I promise not to slam you.

(4) I'm suffering from running injuries. It's totally annoying. I feel a million years old. I went to see an awesome doctor and it got a little better, but not completely better. Staying healthy as a runner seems to be a lot of work.

(5) I did a tiny bit of HTML work on my church website. Tricky, but hilariously fun. But not fun enough to do more. One time was all I needed to feel a great sense of accomplishment. I am still congratulating myself.

(6) We're really into playing Settlers of Catan. We are joking that we need to have two kids so that we can play this game all the time without needing to have people over. It's that addicting! People might have kids to flesh out their home team!

(7) I have a new job. Sadly, my sweet boss left our company and my position was eliminated. Happily, a new position was found for me. I am amazingly thankful and having a blast learning all sorts of new things (and new acronyms!).

(8) Summer is here. We haven't planned any vacations. It's weird. What will we do? Where will we go? Must. Have. Summer. Fun.

(9) I have an iphone, and I love it. I read lots of books on it and can't believe how much I love an ebook. Never thought I would. Proved myself wrong (again).

(10) Sparkly Wednesday is still a phenomenon. We have a group on Facebook. It's 200-members strong. Join the sparkle-ution!

(10+1) I am so proud of myself for coming up with a new screen name based on my initials: LMR. My new screen name is Elemar (for the slow among us, El = L, em = M, ar = R). I also thought of LMKR = Elemkayar, but that's long and looks like an abbreviation for Elementary Kayaker. Try it with your initials! It's fun!

I have had flashes of blog ideas in my head. What else is new? But I haven't sat down to flesh them out yet. What else is new? The ten-plus-one-point update is a start. Hope you're well. Much love. Miss you.

Me, a marathon-runner?

This past Sunday, my husband and I completed our very first full marathon (that's 26.2 miles for those of you who aren't familiar with this type of thing) in San Antonio, TX. We finished it in around 6 hours and 15 minutes.

If you know us or met us, I don't think you'd ever believe we could or would run a marathon (though a nun I met recently said I have "a runner's body" -- she was being SO generous! I didn't think nuns were supposed to lie. ). Les was an asthmatic kid who often spent at least part of the exciting Christmas season in the hospital getting help-me-breathe-again steroid shots, and I was a "bookish" girl, more interested in reading and letter-writing than running around outside. Yet, somehow we found ourselves on a marathon course, running, running, and finally finishing.

As I stood in my corral, waiting to start my very first marathon, I felt remarkably calm. My past race experiences have not been as good, leading me to say more than once that I love the training much more than the actual racing. I generally get too wound up during the pre-race wait in the corrals and want to bust a move and pass everyone once we start. Then I get annoyed when my husband insists on sticking to our 145-155 heart rate pace, and I spend a few miles feeling grumpily frustrated, like a dog straining at a leash. Because this was the longest distance I've ever run (ever!), I think I found it easier to sit back and pace myself and just enjoy the race as it progressed along. I was very aware of the possibility of running out of gas around mile 20, and wanted to save enough energy to make it across the finish line!

We had our ipods with us in case musical motivation was needed, but only listened to them for about a mile total -- the rest of the time we chatted with each other or looked at the scenery or the other racers or the supportive friends and family members along the sidelines (favorite signs I saw: "I thought you said 2.62 miles!" and "My feet hurt because I'm kicking so much ass!"). We were running at a slow pace, so we were able to enjoy the race more than some who are trying to finish in a certain time. That was a great way to experience our first marathon, and I would recommend it to all first-timers.

Overall, I found that the experience was somewhat emotional (though some would say I'm just an emotional person overall). Running a marathon is the only thing I've ever really worked hard for in my entire life, and as the miles passed easily beneath my feet, I began to realize how much all the work and time and planning and training was really paying off. It was the first time that I felt that I could see the effort = results equation in full-effect. By mile 21 (the longest distance we'd run prior to this was 20 miles, so getting past that point was a big deal!), I really had a feeling of accomplishment and awe. By that point it seemed real to me that we were actually going to complete a whole marathon. Us. Really.

We had started training in earnest with our great trainer Terry Coker at the end of May. Before that, we had honored our New Year's resolution to get in better shape and had been steadily training for April's Music City 1/2 Marathon on our own. We had gone from "couch-potato-ness" to being able to run five miles by the half marathon. Although we had made good progress on our own, training with Terry really made a huge difference for us because he kept us from overdoing it and helped us build our stamina slowly and carefully. During our training, we had the same challenges and difficulties that most runners face -- cold weather, hot weather, busy schedules, various body aches, illness, lack of energy, boredom, etc. -- but we managed to power through all of that and stay on track. Somehow we also managed to develop the mental stamina to settle down and just run till the race was done. As a person who loves to get something done quickly and move on to the next thing, the development of any kind of mental stamina still seems like something purely magical to me, but it was real and it was there when I needed it.

One of my favorite parts of any race is seeing all the encouragement that comes from the sidelines. It's a faith-restoring experience for me. You see spectators who are playing cow-bells, holding hand-made signs, crying, yelling, and jumping up and down as their runners go by. You'll see the same people in multiple locations along the course because they've moved from one spot to another to give maximum encouragement. Then there are the spectators who don't seem to know anyone in the race, but have just come out to cheer random people on (sometimes they even hand out treats at the end of their driveway or play music from their cars to encourage us all to keep up the pace). Those are my favorites! Being encouraged by someone you've never met, someone who just saw you running by and thought, "That girl needs a shout-out!" makes me feel that there is so much good in the world and in humanity. The opportunity to be a great cheerleader is the one thing that would keep me from being a runner! It just looks like so much fun and I know how much it's appreciated by the people running by.

Around mile 22, I began to feel that the whole thing was over too quickly. My husband lost his stamina around mile 23, so he walked the rest of the way and I jogged alongside him to the finish line (I tried to walk, but my muscles weren't able to adapt to the pace and workout change, so I had to keep on running). That helped stretch out the last few miles, but I still felt that the time went by too fast.

We don't have our next marathon scheduled yet, but there is definitely another marathon in our future! I think I've got the marathon bug!

Missing my blog!

I haven't blogged for forever, but I do think of blogging and miss it from time to time, so I thought I would stop by and say hello.

At the moment, I'm distracted by the instant gratification of social interaction on Facebook and Twitter. You put something out there and people respond, sometimes immediately. It's a much easier way to share photos (in albums! imagine!) and you can keep up with lots of people all at once. It seems more effective than email, text messaging, and blogging. I've reconnected with people I haven't talked to in years and am getting caught up on all their missing history. I have friends who are pretty spotty with emails, calls, and letters, but are pretty consistent with Facebook. It's opened my whole world and made distances between me and my friends seem almost non-existent. I never thought it would happen, but I guess I'm a web 2.0 convert!

It's not that blogging doesn't have it's own appeal, however. Write a long note on Facebook and see if anyone comments on it. Generally, none of us have the attention span to read through a whole multi-paragraph note with such a tempting buffet of interactions just one click away. If you have something longer and more thought-out or thought-provoking to say, a blog still seems to be the place to do it.

Of course, this brings up the questions: "But is anyone reading your blog anyway?" and "If no one is reading it, does it matter to you?" and "If it does matter to you, is there any way to get more of a connection with people?"

I feel like communication and social interaction is in a really bizarre state right now and no one really knows which direction it will take. Will people who feel they need more human interaction start going to open mic nights instead of posting stuff on their blogs? Will people revert back to mailing letters because it feels more authentic than sending an email or "poking" someone on Facebook? Will we start putting limits on the amount of updating we're doing online because we suddenly wake up one morning and think, "Who cares that I'm brewing coffee? I'm spending so much time telling people what I'm doing that I am not really even doing anything!"

And what would encourage me to start blogging again? I feel like I have things to say, but I don't feel like I have the time to sit down and write it all out. Could I be less wordy and more frequent? Could I just throw stuff up here and not agonize about spelling, punctuation, or content? Is less more? Or is less just less? And does it really matter? Maybe I shouldn't even be thinking about stuff like this.

Such is life in the modern age. Strangely, I love it.

Get Your Sparkle On!

For the past year or so, I have been participating a weekly, self-created holiday known as "Sparkly Wednesdays." On SW I wear at least one obviously sparkly thing, although something shiny (like silver shoes) can be substituted for something that actually "sparkles" in a bejeweled kind of way.

It began accidentally. I don't have a lot of clothes and so I tend to wear the same things in a regular sort of rhythm. Mondays I dress up a bit because I'm usually in staff meetings with VPs. Tuesdays I usually wear a long skirt so I don't have to shave my legs again in the summer (sad excuse, but true). Thursdays tend to moving down the path to casual Fridays, so I wear linen pants or something relaxed. And Fridays are "jeans day" at work so (of course!) I wear jeans.

Wednesday had nothing to define it. So, probably out of boredom, I found myself wearing something bright or fun or interesting. For me, "fun" is frequently defined as "sparkly." Because I usually wear black or other somber tones, these sparkly outfits would stick out and people felt compelled to comment -- "Wow! That's some shirt!" I began to notice that I was usually getting comments about my outfits on Wednesdays, so when people would comment, I started to respond cheerfully with "Well, it IS Sparkly Wednesday!" After a while, the idea just stuck and the official, weekly holiday was born.

It seems to be catching on. People have started to wear sparkles on Wednesdays around the office and will come over and show me their outfits for my approval. I have told a few friends about it outside the office and they've seemed interested in participating from afar. I've been meaning to start up a group on Facebook where people can post photos of their sparkly awesomeness. Slowly, but surely, it is building momentum. Come sparkle with us!

Hot for Hockey

Just a post to let everyone know that the Nashville Predators are really looking great this year! If you haven't been to a game yet this season, go for it!

I've been to the first two regular-season games. So far (and I do realize that it's only two games' worth of observation) I have been really impressed by their energy, their passing skills, and their defense around their own net. These are three things that I've thought they needed to improve upon in the past years (note that "shoot the puck!" isn't one of my three) and I'm so glad to see how well they're doing.

I have to admit that I was pretty nervous about this year. We got rid of some star players and I was wondering how the leftover guys and any new guys they might sign would do. The leftover guys would have to step up their game and be able to handle a lot more ice time and the new guys would have to try and gel with their new team. I really thought this season was going to start out rough... but get better as the year went on. Hopefully.

So, I was thrilled to see how great the team looked right out of the gate! It looks like our guys from last year are ready to show their stuff with their additional ice time, and I feel like our new guys are really trying to make a name for themselves with their new fan base.

Players I like so far, based on the two games I've seen: Zanon (a.k.a., Shotty McBlockblock), Legwand (he is looking GREAT this year!), Arnott (I've always liked him and am happy to see him get more ice time and recognition), Gelinas (I think he'll bring a lot to our team this year), and Radulov (loved him last year, too -- he's really working for it!).

Also, Mason looks like a total stud out there. I was nervous based on the pre-season stuff I had heard, but he pulled it all together for the regular-season games and looks at least as good as Vokoun. I am so excited for him!

Les and I will probably buy a 13-game pack. Les travels so much and so randomly that it's hard plan ahead and find games that we know he'll be home for. We've bought our tickets opportunistically so far and will probably continue to do that for a lot of the games. But we are loving all the excitement of having a team that's doing great and looking good, despite their off-season drama (I think Barry Trotz looks like he has aged 10 years over the summer)!

Nintendo DS Addiction

As if I needed another technological addiction, Les has gotten me hooked on playing Brain Age and Brain Age II on his Nintendo DS. The games are a series of training sessions designed to develop various parts of your brain, followed by a test that tells you what age your brain is functioning at. There's a lot of math and counting, but also some word stuff like reading aloud or unscrambling rotating letters. The games also have a Sudoku feature (I think I never fully understood Sudoku until I tried it electronically) and a "relaxing" game that's similar to Tetris.

Aside from tracking your own progress in the training games from day-to-day, you can also compare yourself to others who are playing on the same memory card, and that adds a fun level of competition. It's been interesting to see how Les is good at some training games (he's waaaay better than I am at the syllable count and rock-paper-scissors) and how I am good at others (I am better at the word blend and calendar count training).

The game also has little side "conversation-starters" -- both of you draw a firetruck and then can compare drawings, for instance. Les and I have had fun noticing that his drawings always have some kind of action going on in them, whereas mine seem to be a still-life of some sort (boy - girl differences?); and that I usually draw things facing to the left, whereas he faces everything to the right.

It seems that our brain age levels vary from day to day. Les's lowest brain age has been 21 (that's 17 years younger than his actual brain age, for those who are keeping track!) and my lowest brain age has been 26 (not as dramatic a difference from my actual brain age, but still good).

The only bad thing is that I don't get to practice up when he's on the road because he takes the Nintendo DS with him. The interesting thing is that he seems to be a lot "younger" when he's NOT around me. He says I make him "stupid with love." I just think he can focus more. But "stupid with love" is a cute idea!

Officially on vacation!

Greetings from Seattle! It has been quite a long day, but I wanted to post a quick update on our vacation while I wait for the Tylenol PM (known as "mother's little helper" -- even if I'm not a mother) to kick in, ensuring me a very good night's rest tonight! I don't know how often we'll have internet access on this trip, so I thought I had better take advantage of it while I can.

We left home at 3:30 a.m. today and have been up for 20 hours so far, with a long night's rest of four hours last night to keep us going. Needless to say, we've gone beyond tired into "punchy" and we're all being silly and goofy but have a tendency to fall asleep randomly mid-sentence. It's actually a lot of fun, and it's totally different to be really, really tired when you don't have to get up and go to work the next morning. All we have to do tomorrow is get on our tour bus at 9 a.m., ride to Vancouver, BC, and then get onto our Celebrity cruise ship. Should be easy, even if we're half-asleep.

To that end, we decided to see a bit of Seattle today instead of caving into our urge to take a five-hour nap this afternoon. We rented a car and then took Les's mom and his aunt and uncle downtown, stopping to get our National Parks Passports stamped at the Klondike Gold Rush site. The NP site was really well-done, but we didn't have too much time to spend there because Les couldn't find parking and was circling the block. The NP site is right near the Seahawks stadium and parking was $30 everywhere because there was a game that evening (love you, Matty!).

We then got a call from the other half of the family (we met up with three relatives who live locally) and we went up to the top of the Space Needle. The floor of the observation deck actually slopes downward toward the edge so that rainwater can drain off it easily, but it also gives you the impression that you're drawn uncontrollably towards the ledge of a very tall building. It's a bit unnerving, especially if you are afraid of heights. We had a very clear day (we saw four different mountain peaks on the plane ride in!) so we really got to see a lot of the city from the top of Space Needle.

For dinner, the party-of-13 family all went to Old Spaghetti Factory, where my parents treated us to dinner.

As Les's Aunt Dolores said, "We've had such an adventure today and we haven't even started cruising yet!"

It was a great day and we're looking forward to a good night's rest and a great day tomorrow.

p.s. It is SUNNY in Seattle -- how awesome is that? And the weather is about 75 degrees. We are in heaven!

What you really wear

I won't go into too much detail about this link because I'm referencing a blog post by someone I don't know that Les posted on his Facebook page, and I'm so far removed from this idea being in any way connected to me that I don't want to take any credit even finding it. All I did was think this blog post was great enough to post it here so that some of you could enjoy it.

Follow this link and you'll be connected to a blog called 43 folders. The post I've linked to is about determining what clothes in your closet you really do wear and what clothes you don't. It's aimed at simplifying your life and clearing out clutter. These are concepts I love, but don't necessarily practice, so I try to put myself in the way of exposure to these types of ideas as frequently as possible in the hope that they'll sink in and I'll start being more zen, less cluttered, and more practical.