Lemons = Lemonade

Maybe I'm just rationalizing and sugar coating things to make myself feel better, but we've just recently had a life reorganization and one instantaneous impact is that it's forcing me to fulfill my Samhain resolution of "drastically reducing my soda intake". That being that I've gone straight to no soda at ALL. Cool. Not as hard as I had imagined. I've also gone back to drinking tea as a healthful flavored alternative to water. My head is less fuzzy & I'm concentrating better, so.... : ) Yeah, it's all good.

Run Like Hell & Samhain Resolutions

After much craziness with preparing for a party, cooking, cleaning, and making my fairy costume, and then other festivities like the Dupont High Heel race in the mix, on Friday, Oct. 30 J & I boarded a plane for Cincinnati. : )


The Cincinnati trip was planned about 6 months ago as a great excuse to see my friend Alex and to commemorate the event that set my running interest in motion exactly two years ago... The Cincinnati Run Like Hell!


We arrived at Cincinnati almost on time, everything went surprisingly smoothly. Got into town, managed not to get lost on the way to our stay-place for the weekend, met up with Alex, got dinner at a super cute cafe called What's for Dinner? and managed to hit the race packet pick up. J & I dropped Alex off to take care of his rental property that he owns in Cincinnati and while he was busy, J & I occupied ourselves with the Cincinnati Art Museum, which was fantastic. The Damascus Room was quite possibly our favorite part, but I always like that sort of thing. J, on the other hand, really liked the intricate victorian "tourist" table. We went back to our stay-place and got ready for the race, with Alex joining us at the last minute.

Off to the Run Like Hell. The traffic stunk, but once we got parked and situated, the atmosphere was very festive and excited. I wore my costume that I specifically designed to be pretty, runable, and going along with the theme of running "barefoot" - I was an autumn fairy, complete with fully boned 18th century stays and gorgeous (IMHO) wings. The wind that night caused a small problem with my wings since the support system was not very robust, so they caught the wind & got blown every which way including into other people and over my head. Anyway, we joined thr group of runners lining up, with me trying to minimize the incidence of my wings hitting other crowd-members, and at about 7:30 PM, we were off. The course was fun, and it started off downhill. During this stretch, I saw a crazy group of 3 guys, two of whom were screaming and running wildy from a third dressed as Jason (who I later found out was truly named Jason). The next stretch was uphill.... a looooong uphill. I mapped it and I think there was a 180ft elevation gain over the course of a mile, so it was long. Please be aware that all the races I've done (all in DC) have had a max elevation change of 40 ft. and most have been completely flat. I was NOT prepared. I made a honorable go of it though since I made it the whole way up the hill, and only walked a little bit once I got back down to the bottom. Half of the hill was into and through a graveyard and that was totally awesome. Did I forget to mention it was a nighttime run partly through a graveyard??? : ) Anyway, the graveyard bit was pretty fun. Nice atmosphere. Well, as I was going back down the hill, I started getting a stitch in my side - result of breathing rhythm thrown off by constricted breathing and trying to figure out how to deal with a hill in progress. I went on, ignoring it until it refused to be ignored any longer. Egads! It let me know it's displeasure with a vengeance and there was nothing to do but walk/run for about 0.25-0.5 mile or so. Grrr. Very frustrating. Anyway, I made it to the end, making good time for the last 0.2 mi. and had a grand time at the post party. It was fun, as always, to mingle and discuss each other's costumes and Alex & I got a lot of questions (as usual) about our Vibran FiveFingers. There was music and free food & drinks, so J & I got to try a Cincinnati delicacy called Goetta which Alex described as "the parts of the pig you wouldn't normally eat, ground up with oats and made into a patty." Absolutely winning description, but as with Haggis, I ended up being pleasantly surprised - it was good! Also, it tasted disturbingly like a Gardenburger Original Patty - a substitution mistake you do NOT want to make when feeding vegetarians! : ) Anyway, a good time seemed to be had by all and then we stumbled home & passed out. Thankfully it didn't rain on us for more than 5 minutes and it was a balmy 64 degrees.

The best part of the weekend, of course, was getting to hang out with Alex and meeting Emily & Tom and their two dogs. It's always the most fun to see a new place with a deignated tour guide, especially if that person has lived there. It's like getting a rosey colored glimpse into their "everyday" lives - seeing their favorite places and local haunts.

Saturday morning, Alex took us for breakfast at Findlay Market - Cincinnati's old farmer's market - and we got AMAZING waffles and crepes from Taste of Belgium. I have to admit that I think Belgian accents are even more fun to listen to than french ones.... *swoons * Next, we dropped him off for an appointment and were going to make our way to the observatory, but got sidetracked at a Blockbuster Going out of Business Sale and at Walgreens. By the time Alex called to get picked up from his appointment, I had acquired several Miziyaki Films, Some Like it Hot, and a 8 in. diameter, orange squishy ball with an interior LED flasher - the latter provided much entertainment throughout the day. : ) After retrieving Alex, we did make our way to the Observatory and found: that they had not removed Pluto from their display of the distance between planets, that the human-powered sun dial really does work (when the sun's out) and came across a deer grazing in the meadow. Next we went up to Ault Park and took in the view. Lastly, we headed up to the Fox & Hound in Mason, OH to watch the PSU game. During half-time, Alex & I ducked out, with squishy ball in tow, to check out the surrounding sights. We hit up the local Walmart, checked out the current movie listings at the Regal, hit Borders to look for the Marge Simpson issue of Playboy and came out sans magazine, but with the addition of half-priced, flashing, fuzzy bat deeley-boppers (and I had thought we made that term up.... nope, it's legit according to wikipedia). Life is good. Unfortunately, all the activity from the weeks leading up to this resulted in me being tired & worn out & really not in the mood to don my costume and mingle with hundreds of people that I didn't know. Weird! Huh?

The trip finished off with a morning Brunch at another neighborhood waffle shop (which I can't remember the name of) with Alex's friend Amanda and a peak at a very unique house right across the street. Finally, we were off to the airport and on our way home.

Samhain Resolutions (my goals for this year):

• eat 1 new vegetable every week or every other week
• run a 10K comfortably
• be able to do a pull-up
• drastically reduce my soda intake (I only drink diet, so it's more a matter of weaning off caffiene & chemicals)
• become a certified Exuberant Animal trainer
• Continue to maintain my current weight-loss.

Nature Girl and 2009 Recap

I just found this article on MSNBC today: Looking at Nature Makes you Nicer. Cool. I've known for a while that I'm at my happiest when I'm around trees & rocks & water. In fact, when we first moved to the DC area, I started suffering from a Nature deficit - I found that I had to go run out and find a small naturey park and spend some time out there. It's like a reset button. I need it. This year has been wonderful because I've been pushing to be outside more. Getting more sunlight is good, sure, but also explore outdoor exercising opportunities, since I've always been prone to thinking exercise sucks. Sailing was wonderful because it really centered me and felt really primal, just shutting my mind off, listening to the water and paying very close attention to the wind on my skin (I was using that more than visual cues to tell wind direction). There was something very basic about being totally dependent on the weather, wind & water to get where you need to be. I've also been busy exploring all the parks I can find in the area as I figured out my need for trees to keep me interested in running. I'd like to become one of the Running People, but I don't think I'll ever free up enough time in my schedule for that. Now here's the rub. I live near a city, in a pretty densely suburban area, and I think I might currently have more actual access to nature than in rural Pennsylvania. Huh? That's right. This past weekend I went to visit my parents who live about 30 miles +/- southwest of Pittsburgh. The whole area is either farms or suburban developments that used to be farms. I figured I'd find a place to go for a run since there's so much more nature around there. Boy, was I ever wrong. There weren't really any parks within a 20 minute driving radius, other than recreation parks that are open fields and baseball diamonds. Though there were hills and trees and forests all around, they are all owned by someone, and not available for common use. (DON'T get me started on my rant about how Scotland was awesome because of their Land Access Rights... you have rights to go onto, use, pass through, and play on any land even if you don't own it as long as you leave it in the same condition you entered and the owners have a responsibility to maintain access to their land by providing gates or steps over fences.) It disturbed me to realize that in a rural area, full of natural beauty, one does not easily have access to it and that we only seem to regularly get access to it if you live in an area where it seems to be hard to come by and thereby requiring setting aside "nature reserves" and etc. Seems kind of wonky and messed up to me. That's just my thought for the day.

Also, for the record, I now have David Bowie's Version of "Nature Boy" running through my head on repeat.

So I figured it was time to evaluate my Samhain resolutions from last year. All in all, I think I did OK on the stuff that really mattered. I sucked at wearing more hats. I decided not to do the Boo!10K, but am training up for the Jingle All the Way 10K in the beginning of December, so that one kinda worked out. I JUST got a dentist appointment (next Tuesday argh!) because I realized I was running out of time. I ditched those last 10 lbs and toned relatively well. I got better at balancing work, play, relaxation and social, but it was at the expense of housekeeping, so I think I still have a bit to work on there, and I've been much better about the eating better and cooking more part in the past few months. An upward trend is what we're looking for. I kinda let the clothing business slide, but that's because I've kinda let the sewing slide, did a cost benefit analysis on the stress levels that would ensue and started going another direction with trying to figure out how to work on a health and mobility career. Now I'm pursuing certification for Exuberant Animal and things seem to be working out, so we'll see how it goes. : ) I'm pretty pleased. Now to just figure out what to resolve to do this coming year....

Figuring Stuff Out

I've been figuring some stuff out and it's feeling really good. I had a "mental" week last week... I got some info early in the week that shed a lot of light on a problem that I've had for going on 2 years now, and it led to a lot of emotional ups & downs while I processed & figured stuff out. In the end, I'm feeling soooo much better, but it led me to figure some other things out as well. For instance, my shoulders started knotting up about 2 weeks ago. I know it was stress related. No matter what, I could not get them to relax out. Then I went mental, and that exacerbated it. Finally, I gave up & went for my first real massage yesterday - it's worth the money to me to get it worked out & relaxed now before I have a 7 hour drive and a maybe stressful/maybe not weekend. Anyway, that worked out he kinks & loosened up my neck and it was wonderful, but today I am noticing that my shoulders are so used to being knotted up that they are trying to revert to that. I'm having to fight my own body today and it's very weird. I keep noticing my shoulders wanting to hunch up near my ears and etc.... Secondly, I discovered, or made the connection rather, that my worst "Mental" days the past month have been days where I am excruciatingly tired. I KNOW I don't handle lack of sleep well... If I stay up too late I get psycho & depressed. Cast parties in Highschool, while theoretically fun, were when I usually scared myself the most by getting into unreasonable paranoias and depression. Needless to say that when I put 2 and 2 together, it made a whole BUNCH of sense that my "depressed" feeling days were when I had gone too long without good sleep. The result of this realization is that I've set myself a goal of trying to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night. It's a mid-year resolution? Well, anyway, out of the past 3 days, I've succeeded twice in 3 nights. Not too bad to start.... AND I've been feeling GREAT!!! (even though the weather's sucked & been rainy & I think I'm starting to get mouldy...) If all I need to do to be happier & healthier is to eat better and sleep enough, well DAMN!

Ah, lastly, Joy-of-joys! I can finally have that Peanut Butter Milkshake!!!!!!!!!! I made & have maintained my goal weight for at least a week! Woot! I will officially stop dieting now. I will still track what I eat to manage and maintain what I've done. I will be doing more Rock Climbing soon and keeping up with my running hopefully, so if you see me getting any skinnier from this point (doubtful), it'll only be due to toning. Well, Cheers, everyone!

Resolutions Addendum

Alrighty. With picking up my new resolutions, I've been thinking about health in general. It's kinda scary. There are so many harmful or potentially harmful products out there. I am really starting to consider all of the potential impacts of the pervasive use of plastics. Sometime this past year, studies came out showing that polycarbonate leeches stuff into the water and food stored in it and some such. Then with all of the melamine stuff coming out of China recently, my happy little dream world of "I'm sure no one would sell me something that can harm me or cause long term effects" has been shattered. As a result, last spring I stopped using my favorite Polycarbonate water bottle. (on a side note, I've also been considering ditching those ziplock/glad food containers in favor of the pyrex ones with lids... dunno.) Why is it my favorite? - the lid. It has this flip-top lid where you press a button and the lid flips open and then it has this perfect sipping portion and then you just swing it closed again and it locks. The main advantage is that it keeps the drinking area covered and therefor clean during one of my inevitable Kluzt moments when I drop it in a big pile of mulch or whatever. You can also open & close it one-handed for easy use while driving. This lid is CRITICAL for me. Then last May, Jonah's cousins came down and introduced me to "Smart Water" - which has electrolytes added for anyone who doesn't know. I really liked that idea. I'm kinda a camel in that I go a long time without drinking, and then drink a lot all at once. I probably am constantly teetering on the brink of minor dehydration. I need to change that. So anyway, whenever I feel dehydrated I now grab a smart water. Then that turned into grabbing a smart water on my way to work - every morning. Then the piles of water bottles to be recycled and the thought of money wasted has been seeming like a big waste. It really is a big waste. Yesterday, I was motoring around Target looking for a thermos or a reasonable facsimile thereof and GLORY BE! I found my old polycarbonate water bottle now made in stainless steel (like this but with the same lid as the original)! Praise whatever!!!! Now I can have my water, save money, hopefully not die from it (the bottle was made in China... should I be worried?), AND have no moral dilemmas about undue waste. *does a little dance*

Also, I picked up a stainless steel 24 oz. vacuum mug so that I can make tea and take it with me on trips. I think I still need a full scale thermos, but eh. I'm a fan of tea. I love tea. It's a great soda substitute, especially if you get a flavored type. Today's tea of the day: Republic of Tea 'Wild Blueberry' (Fine Black Tea with Sweet Blueberries) So my plan for a WHILE now has been to get a mug or thermos, make tea & then take it with me on road trips because you can barely ever get good tea in convenience stores (the only one I've found that's decent if you actually like tea is Gold Peak Unsweetened).

Addendums to Resolutions:

• drink my own water
• increase tea intake/decrease soda intake
• limit soda intake to lunch only
• start to moisturize more regularly

This week I've done pretty well on parts of my resolutions and not so well on others. J's been out of town on business travel and so I've been pretty good about exercising since it is all my own schedule. I have not been so good about cooking in since I'm the only one and haven't really stayed in. Last night I went to a place called Mackey's because they have a Guinness Steak & Mushroom pie (I tooooootally miss steak & ale pies from Scotland). It was good, but not the same AT ALL. *sigh * I'd also say I'll be better about cooking in next week, but it'll be T-giving and the only night we'll be home is Monday. Maybe I'll cook Monday? Dunno.

Funny self-deprecating story of the day: this is why I claim only to be a physicist-poser... So I get that new stainless steel water bottle and this morning I fill it with Brita water from the fridge. I go to grab the bottle and come away SHOCKED at how cold it is... anyone with a physics degree SHOULD expect that. It's metal, & metal is not an insulator. *hangs head in shame * Mental note... new sewing project will be to make a fabric coozie for my water bottle.

Samhain Resolutions & Halloween 2008 Wrap-up

Last year, I accidentally made Samhain resolutions. By accidentally, I mean that I made a plan and it came like a shot out of the dark via random coincidence and it all happened right around the beginning of November (right after Samhain). As a result, I decided retroactively that I had Samhain resolutions. Now, the one really nice thing about using the Celtic New Year, as I've mentioned before, is that you can make a plan to eat healthier BEFORE all the opportunities to gorge... hence you can realize "hey, I should have at least a glimmer of self-restraint" and thereby you do not have as much "making up for it" to do later.



I think this is a grand idea. I spent a lot of time the past two weeks trying to THINK of new resolutions and I wasn't having any luck. Luckily, the shot out of the dark came again this year. So here we goooooooooooo.......!!!!

1. Start a small side business making custom clothing - market to the local DC metro area, tap Etsy, and diversify. You want it? I'll make it. Costumes, period-inspired everydaywear, steampunk. You got it!


2. Cook more and eat more veggies. I miss cooking. I say my excuse is we don't have enough time. BS! I am a culinary wizard and need to get off my lazy ass & just hit the grocery every day. Expect to see more random concoctions like the Salmon Salad appear - if I really liked it, I'll share.


3. Train up for the Boo! Run 10K in October.


4. Do more work on trying to figure out how to balance work, play, relaxation, and social. I still suck at it.


5. Find a dentist


6. Work on those last 10 lbs and maybe toning more.



7. Wear more hats.

Now as far as Halloween goes... we had fun as always, but the much-anticipated DC101 Party, which always has awesome costumes because they offer a several thousand dollar grand prize, was a total bust. I think I'm done with it. Maybe all the people who make the normally fantastic costumes have caught on that they weren't going to get anywhere because it's always something pop-culture that wins. Maybe they realized this and went elsewhere. Maybe they were all in a Halloween funky like I was this year and didn't decide to do much. All I know is that they weren't really there. J & I were Sweeney Todd & Mrs. Lovett as planned. Lori reappeared as her sshett-ghost. Our friend Adi came out and made himself Charlie Brown using black duct tape on a yellow shirt & Jenn was an asian masseuse and Wilson pulled out his mad-1-hour costume skillz and came as Toadstool from Super Mario Brothers. It was fun hanging with friends, but the party sucked and a guy in a white button down shirt and a brown vest who called his costume "McLovin'" (from the movie Superbad) won the $3K. I am peeved. For $3K the giant Dildo that someone MADE should have gotten the prize at least (Rabbit dildo was 2nd runner up). So anyway, the verdict is that I should have made plans to just stay at Greg & Jessie's because it was more fun eventhough I Greg didn't make it home before I had to leave. Stupid work.

Yeah, I don't know what was wrong, but I was in some weird halloween funk this year. Never got my decorations out. Never even put fall leaves on the door.... weird. Huh.... Maybe I'll dig out the ceramic fruit for T-giving and make some effort. Dunno.

Samhain 2007 to 2008

I have no idea how many people know this, but I inadvertantly deided to celebrate Samhain (ancient celtic New Year ~ Nov 1) last year and made some Samhain resolutions. I would recommend that EVERYONE do it! The main benefit: you make resolutions to be better about what you eat right BEFORE the major binging holidays and they're so new that it helps you be good around all those cookies and candies and turkey and stuffing and.... *drools on self *



So last year (don't know if it's Samhain 2007 or 2008) I made the following resolutions:

1. Improve myself, healthwise


2. Take less of other's issues onto my own shoulders (kinda relates to 1 if you think about mental health)


3. Get off my ass & make some friends, or try to be better about those that I already have (relates also to mental health)


4. Start doing the things that I like to do again


5. Find social outlets where I fit


6. Eat better (relates to #1)


7. Conduct experiment to see if I can enjoy running

For #1, there were a lot of sub-resolutions... exercise more, get a physical, find a primary Care physician, go to the dentist, get my weight in check or lose some (most preferable), and get myself into a better mental state through improving my lifestyle.

I think I've done pretty well so far... I did get a physical and a PCP, I've done a greater variety of exercise, I've found dance groups, I've lost 45 lbs., I'm in better cardio shape & I think I've built some muscle? I'm doing more things that I want to do instead of just going along with what everyone else is doing. I think I'm happier? Who knows. Happiness is hard to quantify, especially when work is stressful. I HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO A DENTIST.... someone please, PLEASE harass me into doing it. I need to go, I know I need to... I just... don't... waaannnnttt... to. Ack!

For #2, I've been distancing myself from the problems of others and have kinda stopped trying to solve them for them.

For #3, I 'bought' a friend on Craigslist and that has been quite nice. I've also made more of an effort to call & hang out with the girls that I already knew, but kinda sat back and waited for something to happen. One person or the other needs to make a move for a friendship to go anywhere. So I've actively worked on countering my paranoia of rejection and started making the first move. hoorah! I've also been trying to reestablish old friendships and make the most of current long-distance ones. Facebook has helped since I can't bring myself to pick up the telephone. One thing I still need to work on is to not be so afraid of the social stigma of a married woman going off & getting herself guy friends to hang with. I used to hang out with guys all the time in college. J doesn't care. The only thing that's holding me back really is the stigma. That damn stigma held me back from just calling my friend Matt up to hang out & now he's gone & I'll never get the chance again. Must change this.

Regarding #4, I think this year has been a success. I've been to a lot of odd movies at the Arlington Drafthouse. I've also gotten involved with some 18th century dance that ends up combining my love of costuming and dressing up with dancing and it only requires a twice a year or so commitment. Additionally, I found a vintage dance group that meets once a month, so once a month I get to go do a kick-your-knickers-up Polka and other fun things. I've been doing more sewing and I've been going to fewer events that I don't like - I used to go because "someone else wanted to go".

For #5, please check out the comment about Vintage dance in #4 and I also got in with a group of girls my age through 18th century dance and we all are a little ga-ga over regency stuff. So darn comfy!

Number 6, as of April I started in on The Daily Plate and I've lost 45 lbs and am eating sooo many more fruits and veggies that I'm quite proud. I'd say it's been a success eventhough I do occasionally fall back into my meat & potatoes only thing. I'll have to be on TDP forever, I think.

The running is a semi-success. I enjoy it to a point. The fact of the matter is that I eventually get bored. I can't really keep my attention on it for more than 30 mins and I need a significant number of rocks & trees around to keep me interested. But, hey! I think I will try to work my way up to a 10 K by this time next year though. What do you think?

Now, I really should start thinking up a new list of Samhain resolutions for this coming year. Once again, the eating better & less sweets will be a part of it. But what else... hmmmm.....