Sarah's visit and a running update

It's come to my attention that I've neglected this little blog for a while. Perhaps I'm nervous that I gave the address to so many family members who will only want running updates that I'm not posting regular updates too. Perhaps I'm nervous for certain family members (read: Mom, Dad, or anyone who would report back to them) to have too much information about my day to day life. Not that I'm doing anything bad up here. I've just become accustom to a certain level of privacy.

Last weekend, Sarah came to town. And ran me from pillar to post. No, seriously, I had a great weekend. I was feeling lonely for out of town people for a while, although the friends who live up here take good care of me. I haven't seem Mom and Dad since Christmas, and anyone from my family since February. We had great weather the whole weekend.

I was so worn out by the end of the weekend, it took me most of the week to recover and so I did not run very much. Luckily it was a "step down" week for Marathon training. Thursday the people I run with surprised me with balloons, coffee, and an awesome birthday cake that was drenched in butter (my favorite ingredient) at the end of the run. About half way into the run, two of them took off and one stayed back with me. I kept thinking, "what is wrong with me, why can't I keep up with them?" And then I had to stop and walk for other reasons. After Beth and Jenna sprinted to Beth's house and came back with balloons, I understood and felt a little better about my speed abilities.

Today was my first run with the Bolder Options marathon team. We started running at 8am this morning. It was hot. So hot that we unanimously agreed to meet earlier next week. Fortunately, next week we're running along the river and should enjoy more shade than Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles affords.

So how did Sarah entertain me while she was here?

First, I made her someone else decided we should get up at 5:30am to go running at 6:00am on Saturday morning. It was actually a beautiful run around Lake Nokomis. We saw some great shore birds around the lake. Afterwords, I figured I should give Sarah coffee as a peace offering.

Then Sarah decided it would be fun if I wore my hair down for the day. The three of us (Sarah, me, and my hair) went over to Lock and Dam 1 for some sight seeing and pictures. It was a gorgeous day. My hair did not stay down for long by the way.


Then we went over to the Como Zoo and Conservatory. The Conservatory was nice but the zoo was mildly crowded with screaming children. Maybe they weren't screaming. Maybe they were just happy and running around. I don't have kids so I don't understand all their movement and noise. I've been told it's harmless.

By that point, Sarah and I decided it was too hot to do much else. We had some Pho for lunch and then sat around the pool all afternoon. We took a brief walk around Lake Nokomis at sunset (yes, it really is that pretty right here in the city). Then we went to the Riverview for a movie that night.

The next day, Kelly and I took Sarah to Maria's for breakfast. Yum. Corn pancakes. Then I had to take Sarah for the obligatory trip to the Mall of America that is required for all out-of-town visitors to the Twin Cities. I tried to convince Sarah those shoes were "her", but in real life they look like they belong on a comic book character. I couldn't try them on because I surely would have fallen down.

Sunday we went to Bar Abilene for dinner for food with our Margaritas. After someone made guacamole right at our table and we ate, we went next door to watch the new Star Trek movie. That may be my favorite of all the Star Trek movies and that's really saying something. (The one with the whales is pretty good too.)

Monday morning, Amanda met us at Longfellow Grill for breakfast lunch, some meal or other. Then we took Sarah back to the airport and sent her on her way. I understand this week she may be at a wedding showing off the tan we got at the pool.

I'm back in a big way

I spent the greater part of this week feeling like I was going to die. I wasn't sick, I was just sooooo tired. I just kept waking up late, working, coming home and sleeping. Notice how there was no running? I did too. A couple different people pointed out that I was probably anemic and that I should eat red meat. I'll keep that in mind the next time I feel this way.

Wednesday, I finally felt mostly alive so I went for a semi-long run at the Y. I did six miles of sprints and then went another mile just for fun. Then I got in the pool and swam laps. I love the pool.

Yesterday I was unable to run because we had a birthday party (yes, at 5:30am) instead. I got in to work just after the party at 6:40am.

Today, I went for a run around Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha. I had a sweet view of this ginormous blue heron sleeping on top of the railing on the dock. Sweet. When I got back, I hooked up my iPod to download both runs and found out my little iPod and I have traveled over 1,000 miles together. Cool.

And the world's newest half-marathon finisher is...

I'm trying to figure out how I can get away with wearing my half-marathon shirt and medal to work tomorrow. Sadly, I don't think I can pull it off.

I was really nervous about the half-marathon. The longest I've really run is about 11.5 miles. The last time I tried to do a long run before today, I was less than successful. I was really afraid that I was going to finish with a really slow time which was going to mean I was going to have to do a lot more work to prepare for the marathon.

Team Ortho is pretty well known, at least around here. One of the things they do is have pace groups. The slowest advertised pace group for the marathon was 11:27 miles for a goal of 5hrs. I didn't think I could run that fast for a half-marathon, so I was bummed. But when I got to the starting line today, there was a pacer for 12:00 miles. Sweet! I'd like to take this moment to thank Kristen, you were a great pacer for the first 9 miles of the race.

In my pace group I met a few people who were running the half-marathon so I ran the last few miles with them. (Thanks here to Dan and Sandy. It was nice to meet you both!)

My favorite thing about training for the marathon and doing all this stuff along the way is that I'm continually reminded that it's not possible to run alone: even if I'm the only one in the race, all of you who've taken an interest in this are with me.

Today, Jenna and Beth cheered (really loud) for me at mile 9 and then after the turn around, gave me sour patch kids, water, and helped me up one of the hills by running with me. (I really can't say enough about how helpful that was. It meant a lot that you were there.) And then, I knew after they "dropped me off" at the water stop, I knew I only had less than a 5k to go to see Amanda and Kelly who were waiting at the finish line for me. (Oddly, they had food for me too.)

The course, mostly along the West River Parkway, is gorgeous. For those of you who don't live around here, the course runs right along the Mississippi River. The catch: it's not flat. Coming out of downtown, the course goes down hill, and then up hill for a mile. The nice thing is that we had that long down hill with just a mile or two to go. But then, that's right, we had to go back up in the last half mile. Wow. Check out the map and elevation chart here. I was so happy to see the finish line. And all those people cheering for me (well for everyone, but mostly me). I believe you can check results at the main web site. My bib number is 4985.


After the race, Amanda and Kelly treated me to an awesome breakfast of carbs Corn Pancakes at Maria's.

I came home and got in my pool. My presence was also required at the YWCA (one last visit to get my discount for good behavior) so I sat in their hot tub too. Now I'm sitting here thanking all of you. I seriously couldn't do this alone and I'm grateful for all of your support.

When it got warmer, running got harder

The thing about Minneapolis, for those of you who don't live here, is that was have awesome running weather for much of the year. And then the weather gets like it is now, and I loose all sense of reason and running ability.

I'd been up to 10 miles before the weather turned hot and humid. Today, I thought I was going to die after running about 7. I technically made it 10. I walked the last 3. So, that was my last long run before the half marathon on Sunday. We'll see if I do any better in race conditions.

It's a little bit discouraging to suddenly not be able to run. But I haven't lost all hope yet. I think I'll try some mid distance runs to build my stamina back up. I'm sure by August, (when I will no doubt be waking up at 5am to run), I'll have this heat thing licked. Then I'll spend all of October and November trying to teach my body to stop sweating so I can run outside in the winter without fear of loosing limbs.

Memorial Day Weekend was a pretty chill weekend for me. I laid around the house, ran a little, and laid around some more. I actually only have a 3 day week ahead of me too. I have Friday off. I plan on picking up my race packet down town that day and resting up for Sunday. Which means more chilling to bring in the month of June.

A Covert Reminder of High School

Some of you reading this will know I went to Walnut Hills, a very unusual high school. I took several advanced placement courses there, including AP English. Another person who went to my school was the son of cartoonist Jim Borgman. Mr Borgman, among other things has a comic strip called "Zits" about a high school student. He has said that he does get ideas for the strip from his own family, including his son. And it took me no time at all to take the reference in this strip, seen here on May 19. Know why? Because I had almost this same exact assignment as part of my AP English Class.



I think mine was "literary analysis of the minor characters in Huck Finn", but it was no less ridiculous for a 25 page paper. Thanks again Ms Mahin, I'm just happy I didn't have to take English when I got to college.

Still running

I'm am still running. And the donations for Bolder Options are still coming in. Thanks to all who have donated or are about to make a donation. My long runs are at 10 miles. I can't believe I run this far. I really can't believe there will be a time when I do more than one run per week that long.

I'm also still having bed bug issues. Or maybe not. It's not entirely clear.

Friday morning, I woke up with several bites on my arm that could only have been from bed bugs. (B@st$rds!) It was way too early in the morning so I freaked out but I didn't have a whole lot of energy to put into it. Instead I went next door to feed my neighbors cat. I put the old cat food down the garbage disposal which promptly backed up and flooded the sink. (It's too early in the morning for this.) It took several minutes of me staring at the sink, turning the disposal on and off, staring at the sink, imagining my neighbors reaction to a sink full of old cat food and water, staring at the sink, trying the regular side of the sink, thinking of how to fix this, and staring at the sink. Finally, I decided I had to reach into the disposal (it was off, calm down) to feel what was clogging it up.

Yeah, the cat food clogged up the collar of the disposal so nothing could get down it. Once I loosened the gunk, we were all good. That just left me with several bites on my arm. I ignored them and went to my 7:30am meeting. (I told you it was early.) When I got back home I called our property manager.

Has anyone ever had their apartment inspected? For bed bugs? Repeatedly? There is no privacy. There are no secrets. Those stains on the carpet or sheets? That stuff you keep under your bed because you don't want to think about it? Underwear drawer? It's all fair game. For the number of guys messing with my bed and rifling through my underwear, I should be much happier. Well, the first inspection which took about fifteen minutes didn't find any bugs. So they called the exterminators while I went to work.

The exterminators had to peel back my carpet from the wall to find the bugs. It's not clear exactly which wall it was. And they sprayed. And I have no further information. It's been five days. Nothing. I washed my bed clothes (for the billionth time) but haven't done anything else. I'm not sure if I have to. Remember all the work I had to do the first time? For now, I'm ignoring the issue. I'm sure I'll keep you informed as updates become available.

Linkfest

For those of you that are new to the blog, Welcome and for the returners and long time readers, as always, great to see you. From time to time, I like to let you know what I've seen on the internet. It's important because some of it probably reminds me of you.

• Hulu is one of my favorite websites right now. I have very few cable channels and hardly ever watch live TV anyway. I go to this site to catch up on my favorite shows, especially the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Well, Hulu has been in the news recently. First, the CEO Answered Freakonomics reader questions but deftly avoided telling me if they're going to release an application for the iPhone. And the follow up, Hulu bows to the whims of cable. If you've never been to Hulu the articles won't be as interesting but it's a site you should check out as soon as you're done reading my post. If you know Hulu, read the articles.


• I was checking the local news and saw this story about rescuing wild animals which reminded me of Beth. She accidentally told her kids that they could keep a wild bunny as a pet if they caught one. I never heard how that turned out.


• Almost all of use know someone who had high cholesterol and went on the Cheerio diet to lower it. Turns out the FDA wants Cheerios to be an over the county med. And the follow up, leave Cheerios alone and focus on all those other stupid supplements that don't actually work.


• For those of you who are runners or exercise like crazy, turns out if you exercise regularly, you don't need to take vitamins, or you should pick your evil. Diabetes or cancer?


• This comic was made for me.


• This map was made for Sarah. Aren't your potholes filled by now? The swerving can be really exciting. It becomes like muscle memory at some point. And then I get thrown off when the holes are filled in.


• And in closing, Don't robo-call a senator. I too have gotten a few (billion) phone calls from this service. It's such a funky number that I always know to ignore it. I'm ready for someone to get them to stop calling me. If you watch the news, every few days you'll see they called someone else they shouldn't have. I think there was a governor who was called too. Oops.

My Runs are Entering Double Digit Mileage

To the runners (or those with similar knowledge) reading this blog:
1. Please explain gel packs to me. Is this something that I would like? At what distance do I need to start taking gel packs with me in addition to water?
2. Please explain a "hydration strategy" for long runs. How much water should I be drinking when I stop? How often should I stop for water or Gatorade? Is there a frequency that's too often to stop for liquids?

I ran 10 miles this morning. I ran from my house, around Lake Harriet, (quickly becoming one of my favorite lakes for the view of the sailboats, band shell and downtown Minneapolis), and back home. If you're in town here, Minnehaha Parkway and Minnehaha Creek and pleasantly and surprsingly green. The trees are coming out. And the wild violets are in such full bloom they look like a carpet in some spots. For those of you not in Minneapolis, this is my running route.

Lake Harriet Bandshell. Photo from here.

The first time I ran it, I made it to the lake and around part of it before suffering, um, distress. I walked the rest of the way. The second time I definitely made it around the lake before I started walking. Eventually I started adding miles to the run home, first running to Nicollet, then to the expressway, then to a little farther. Today I ran all the way back to Chicago Ave and then ran intervals (this is how I add miles to the long run) the rest of the way.

Today, at the Portland Ave stoplight another runner and I were waiting to cross the street. She turned to me and said, "you must be doing a long run, I saw you running when I was taking my daughter to school." Sweet!

I just purchased a Fuel Belt after getting thirsty on my runs, needing calories on my runs, and seeing a lot of other runners with this particular product. (Although Amazon only had them in black. I'm feeling like I missed out.) After one run, I'm prepared to declare the thing a winner. I read the reviews pretty carefully before I bought it and they were all pretty much right. The belt is tight (it's not too small, it's supposed to be that way) but doesn't rub on clothing. Two hands are required to get the bottles out of and into the belt, but I'm always walking while I'm drinking so it's not inconvenient. The bottles do not leak. It's very nice to have both juice (I didn't have any Gatorade today) and regular water on a run. I could tell having fluids while I'm running makes a big difference. I felt better during the run and not as tired when I stopped.

A beautiful day at the park

Today, the first Sunday in May, was the annual MayDay parade at Powderhorn Park. The first year I lived in Minnesota, it was snowing on the day of the parade. Most of the time, it's nice weather like this. The theme this year had to do with finding richness in nature (since we can't seem to locate it in our economy). In that vain there were several "piggy bank" pig floats. We all joked that the floats were clearly conceptualized before the H1N1 influenza (yes, that means Swine Flue) outbreak. Talk about unlucky timing.
For those of you in Minnesota who've never been (why?), and those of you not in Minnesota, the parade does not have a corporate sponsor. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater is the main sponsor with some help from the Park Board and neighborhood associations. It's also used as a way to welcome Spring (yes, Spring just started here) to Minnesota. So, between the puppets and the actors and all the symbolism of spring and life, the parade and festival tends to gather a rather, um, eclectic crowd. Want proof?

Proof 1: The guy wearing a turtle shell around his neck. (Is it odd that I know that's a red-eared-slider shell?)

Proof 2: The guy in the pink hat. (Yes, that is a dude.) I wonder if this is a friend of Kathleen's (who I did not see) with the whole Easter Bonnet thing. I'll have to see if I can find his picture on her page.

Proof 3: In all fairness, this guy was on the "Sun God" (if you'd been to the parade, you'd know what I'm talking about) float and so does not look this way all the time (probably).

Proof 4: Also, I believe this had some role in the parade. Up close, it looks like a lot of ties. (I missed the symbolism because I didn't see it in the parade earlier.)

Proof 5: Cutest. Thing. Ever. (Look at the size of that phone...)

Liz, where have you been?

Where have I been? The short answer to that question is under the weather. I went in to work on Friday and was sent home after the first meeting of the day. I didn't fight it. I came back, drank ten gallons of liquids and slept all day.

On Thursday morning, I learned it's much harder to run with a cold than I expected. Thursday morning I ran with Robin and Heather. Beth thought it would be fun to wrench her back out earlier in the week apparently and so was unable to join us. Robin and Heather said I started out too fast (I find that hard to believe), but by the end of the run, I nearly thought I was going to die. While it may have had something to do with the speed at which we started, I think it also had a lot to do with a cold doing nasty things to my airways.

Obviously I skipped running on Friday. I did go for a four mile run today. I think I mentioned last week, but it's fun that I can think, "oh, hold on, I'll be right over, I just need to run 4 miles first". This is the first time in my life I've ever felt like that. It feels great. (Amanda, thanks again for deciding to run a 5k one summer).

On the news I was seeing that this is the Flying Pig weekend in Cincinnati. There's another marathon I'd like to run. I am trying to figure out if I could do long runs in the winter up here so I'd be trained to run it next year. Ha, just think. I could run the Cincinnati marathon in the beginning of May and come back to Minneapolis and run the Minneapolis Team Ortho marathon at the end of May next year. (I just want to point out, there was a time not so long ago when I had trouble believing I was going to finish just one marathon. Now I believe it at least enough that I've started planning for marathons after that. Wow.)

In other news, I helped Kelly and Eric move this weekend. And by helped I mean cleaned up mice poop in addition to other things. I love their new house. Especially the basement which is ginormous. It even has a cave. (Neither Kelly nor I love the cave. If it had a lot more light it would be ok, but then it wouldn't be a cave.) Also, the May Day parade is tomorrow. It's only a few blocks from my house so some people from work are coming here to park. (Why yes, I will spend the rest of the evening making sure my condo is clean just in case they actually come inside.)

I'm not sure if people have started to receive the letters I sent out Wednesday night, but if you have and that's what lead you to the blog today, Welcome and Come back often!

A new dawn may be starting sooner than I think

Well, I've done the unthinkable. Possibly not unthinkable, but at the very least, ill-advised. I mailed a letter today to all of my friends and family, and some loose acquaintances who asked to be included (thank you) giving an update on my progress raising money for Bolder Options. (Look at the sidebar on the right...) If you're reading this blog, there's probably a letter headed your way in the mail (unless you're moving this weekend, in which case it will be hand delivered). Once you get it you'll see that I included my blog address on the letter and invited people to check her for updates on the whole "Liz Trains for a Marathon" bit.

Some of you reading this blog may not have received this letter. And I may not have even asked for your support yet. To anyone in this category, just because I know how to get to your house doesn't mean I know your address. (It's ridiculous, I know. And, I'm including in that, people I've known since the year I moved to Minnesota.) Also, I have until September to raise this money. So I'm sure I'm still planning on asking for your support. But you can always leave a comment here on the blog or shoot me an email reminding me that I have your support and you're an awesome friend.

Now, why is a thank-you, update, come check out my blog letter ill-advised? Well everyone got that letter. And I'm including my parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, and even an old professor. So I think I'm going to have to broaden the scope of the little blog here, and possibly adjust the content slightly, just in case the viewing audience does grow. For those of you who don't have your own blog, think of friending your parents on Facebook. That's what I've just done here. (Hi Mom and Dad, glad to have you!)

Since the letters won't get mailed until tomorrow morning, I'm going to do one last linkfest with wise-guy comments my current audience will appreciate.

We'll start with news that rocks:

• Most of you know I live in the congressional district that elected the first Muslim congressman. (It's Minneapolis. We elected Al Franken too.) My representative's name is Keith Ellison and we're pretty happy with him here. Before he was elected, he did a lot of work on the north side of Minneapolis (read: the poor, drug-infested, gang-infested, all-but-forgotten part of Minneapolis), including some environmental work, which you don't see a whole lot, even in Minneapolis. Congressman Ellison was arrested this week while trying to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur. Someone said to me, "oh, that'll hurt his chances for re-election". It really won't. (I haven't checked, but I'll bet his approval rating actually went up.) The genocide in Darfur is a serious issue that often gets swept to the side. Thanks for doing your best to keep it front and center.


• Also, in the slightly-more-liberal-than-Minnesota state of Iowa (wow, whoever thought that's how we'd describe Iowa), same sex marriage licenses are now being issued without any problems. It's not lost on me that Iowa is the first state in the country to hold caucuses for the presidential elections, even before New Hampshire has their primaries. I used to hate that (think we'd have ethanol if it wasn't for Iowa going first?) but now I'm excited to see how President Obama and any potential presidential candidates speak to the issue of gay marriage.

Next up: headlines that rock:

• Honest, when I first saw this headline I thought it was a story from The Onion but apparently it's for real. I was sad to hear the bear died too.


• And Awesome sports headlines that don't require knowledge of sports to be funny. A slightly dirty mind always helps though.

Like I was going to have a post and not talk about the Swine Flu:

• First, get the real information on this one. In Minnesota there's a couple suspected cases (in a little town called Cold Spring, not in the Twin Cities, but they won't be confirmed until testing by the CDC is complete). All my friends and family in New York, you guys stay healthy and I'll be thinking about you.


• Once you have the facts, a little laughter never hurt. I love this one because I actually take some of the references. (Not all of them. I guess I'm not a true geek yet. Sorry.)

Like to cook?

• I tend to make some things from scratch. Especially chicken broth once Mark taught me how ridiculously easy it is to do (thanks again). Someone (who is either related to Martha Stewart or has too much time on their hands) decided to see if it's better to make various other foodstuffs from scratch or suck it up and buy them. My favorite is the granola thing. Also, Mark taught me to make some awesome pineapple-coconut marmalade jar of yum one time. I think I'd need a refresher before I made my own but wow was it good.


• This is self explanatory. I've never done a bacon-cone. Amanda and I have woven bacon, baked it, added potatoes and ranch dressing on top of the bacon-mat and then rolled it up like a tortilla and that was pretty damn good. I can imagine this is equally awesome.


• If you're not having a heart attack thinking about the bacon mat and the bacon cone, then you're probably healthy enough to have a nice mouse full of coffee (computer mouse, not live mouse, ewwww).

And a bit of randomness to end on:

• Speaking of friending your parents on Facebook.... Some of you probably know this, but I'm new to Facebook as you also know so I appreciate the tip.


• Also, in what is a surprise to exactly no one reading this...
  

  You Are a Ponytail

  You are energetic, laid back, and a lot of fun. You are ready for whatever life throws at you. Your idea of style is looking presentable. You prefer simple, well fitting, and neat clothes. At your best, you are productive, inspiring, and full of live. You love to be active. At your worst, you are hyperactive and frenzied. Sometimes it's hard for you to calm down.

172 days until.... Liz Trains for a Marathon

I think maybe I'll just count down the days until the marathon rather than counting my training weeks. In the mean time, I've achieved a new milestone: two weeks in a row of running five days a week. Technically this next week I can run four days instead of five. I can also forgo the long run. Not sure if I will though. Because at the end of May, I'll be running the Team Ortho Half Marathon. (And today Amanda volunteered to haul me up to the starting line at 7:00 in the morning.) And I just signed up to be a member of a 12 person relay team for the Great River Relay. How fun does that look? Each member runs three legs of the relay. How long is each leg? Check out the runner chart. I badly do not want to be runner number 5. It doesn't look like 2 would be much fun either. I'm really excited for the thing in August. Almost as excited as I am about the marathon.

Many of my friends who gave donations to Bolder Options have now said that someone from the agency has called to thank them for their support. I also thank you for your support. It feels like you're with me when I'm out running all over Minneapolis and St. Paul. I don't think anyone could run a marathon alone really.

The most productive thing I did all day

There's this game on Facebook called "Word Challenge", very similar to this game incase you can't find the one on Facebook. When the game gives me my score, it says, "you have the verbal ability of an......" and for a while it was saying "POET" and it looked like that was the highest verbal ability possible.

Not so much it turns out.

I just learned something new

Apparently, the trackpad cover on my MacBook can get so dirty it needs to be replaced. I'm having trouble deciding what kind of cover I'd like to replace it with. There's lots of them with designs, or I can upload my own design. Or I can go to the store and buy a white one and actually have it soon.
Too. Many. Options.

Funny news from around the web

I woke up bright and early today. Actually, I woke up so early it was not bright but dark. I ran with Beth and some other runners who go much faster than me. It's nice to have a new challenge. I think after running with them for a while, I'd like to be able to run a 5k in under 30:00. We ran 4 miles at about 1:00/mile faster than I usually run. It was hard to keep up with them at the end, but I think if I keep going back and running with them I'll get the hang of it.

I'm sitting outside and I'd swear my neighbors have a bald cat sitting out on their balcony. Not like the ones that don't have hair, but one that's supposed to have hair and doesn't.

Anyways, I've seen some ridiculous (meaning both funny and safe for work) stuff on the web lately that I wanted to share.

I have no idea where I found this one. I think it was on Yahoo News somewhere. It belongs on the FailBlog.


This one can be found on Overheard in Minneapolis. At first it appears to be a stupid thing to say, but it's actually so on the nose that it's hilarious.

I woke up and I was down one fish

I woke up this morning and there was only one fish swimming around in the tank. It took a full five minutes to find the other one. It was obviously dead and had mysteriously fell right in the middle of the fake plant. I actually had to pull the plant out of the water to pull the little fish out.

I'm not quite sure what to do for my little fish. I've read guppies are schooling fish and I should get more. But I was thinking I'd wait a while and make sure it was the fish that died and not the owner that killed it.

After I flushed the little fish (good think I hadn't picked a name yet), I went for a run. A nice long run. I ran 8 miles, just running, and then did intervals for the ninth mile. I'm getting closer to that nice 13 mile mark that I'd like to hit by the end of May.

It's possible I am a runner

Yesterday Beth drug me around Lake Calhoun faster than my body has ever moved in my life. (Thanks for that, I had fun by the way.) And this morning I ran 6 miles more or less.

It was sometime yesterday, or possibly the day before, that I started actually thinking I could run a marathon. And then I started thinking about all the marathons I could run. There's one in Cincinnati that would be fun. Plus at some point I do want to run the Twin Cities Marathon. I feel like that's the one that got all of this started.

I read this book once, (well a few times now) that said, whenever reality meets your highest thoughts about yourself a new and grander view of yourself is suddenly open to you. And in that way we never stop growing and getting better. That's how I'm feeling about running right now. I am finally starting to believe that I can regularly run 5 days a week. And I'm even contemplating the Half-Marathon at the end of May. (I should register for that pretty soon.)

I think this week I'm going to try to start running more with Beth so I can learn to go faster.

Funniest thing I've ever seen...

Most of you know my love for the Colbert Report. I usually wind up watching shows on Hulu instead of watching them live. And that allows me to rewind. So I can watch my new favorite moment ever. It comes around 17:45 of the show while Steven is talking to a guest and asks an unintended, unfortunate, and hilarious question. The discussion is basically safe for work, although I don't recommend sitting around watching TV while you're on the clock. Just saying...

Sunday Linkfest

• The scariest headline ever?. Could be.


• Ever wanted to blow up a squirrel? My family has certainly experienced this urge. I think that if anyone else tried this they'd be arrested under animal cruelty laws.


• There's been a lot in the news recently about President Obama's decision to release memos from President Bush authorizing torture. But this is perhaps the dumbest thing I've ever read. Do they just want to nail the people who did the torturing and forget about the people who ordered it? Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should have known better here and allowing something to go on when you know it's wrong makes you wrong too. But I'd rather the US and the UN spent their time and resources going after the people who were elected to uphold the constitution and our agreements to the UN and pulled this crap instead. ::Steps down from soap box::


• For Amanda legal drugs with crazy side effects. For reasons passing all human understanding, my favorite drug,Lariam didn't make the list.


• Speaking of health care, did you know we pay a boatload more for our health care than in other developed nations and it's not really as good?. I did, but I went to school a long time to learn that.


• And, most disturbing of all, a medical ethicist in the UK has said that those who are senile have a duty to die. Where's that soap box? The point of life, I think, is to see whatever comes along as a gift. My grandma and grandpa both had dementia in varying stages and I watched my mom take care of them for several years before they died. And that experience gave me my career. Once I heard a man with early stage dementia talk about forgetting how to do things and he said, "now I just get to let everyone care for me and love me". Dementia isn't a blessing or a curse. It's what it is. How we can we get to show love and strength in ourselves and our families unless something like dementia comes along that requires us to show all of our love and all of our strength and the best of who we are?

Go Fish!

As I mentioned before I set up my fish tank on Thursday. Amanda actually got me the tank for Christmas. But I was sadly unable to set it up for a while due to recurring issues with bed bugs. (The filter has to be unplugged and the tank covered during any bed bug spray.)




As you can see, it's a small tank (read: beginner). Amanda taught me that one inch of fish needs a whole gallon of water to live in. So I chose two small guppies (both boys, I'm in favor of family planning here) to live in the tank.


It was a bit of an adventure to get them relocated. First the PetCo bag sprung a leak. Then I realized I don't own a fish net. (How to get them from the bag into the tank without dumping water from Tank A into Tank B?) I did a little internet research, and a fast operation to keep the bag from leaking all over the living room. And the fish were relocated after about 20 minutes of living half in a pitcher and half in the bag.

I haven't named them yet but I have a couple of ideas. I'm considering auctioning off naming rights to my fish as part of my marathon fund raising efforts. The only rules are it has to be a name (and the meaning of the name) that I can say to my mentee and to my parents without blushing.

Here's my ideas:
Winter and Sprinter
Yuppy and Puppy the Guppies
Max and Albert
Merle and Earl
Hawkeye and Buckeye

Any votes? Any write-ins?

Amanda got me a fish tank, I got some sun

I ran today. It was kind of nice to not be cold when I stopped running. Although I tried not to relish it too much because it won't be long and I'll be hot, even when I'm not running. I'm assuming that's where I got most of the sun on my little red face.

Then Amanda took me out fish shopping. I got a cool fish tank, some nice rocks and a fake plant for the fish to hide. The tank is settling in for a day or two before I go to purchase the fish. For fish people my tank is small some I'm going to get two boy guppies. No girl guppies. The tank can only hold two fish. (Amanda, I did take pictures but it's too late to upload them now. It's too late for you to look at them too.)

After we bought fish things, Amanda took me over to DQ for an ice cream and more sitting in the sun. It was actually really nice and relaxing. And the ice cream was good too.

In the evening I went to meet what have now been dubbed "the running mates". I met the people with whom I'll be training and fund raising for Bolder Options. It looks like it will be a fun group. I told Amanda it's weird to do things with people my own age. People who talk about Facebook. None of my colleagues even know what that is. Almost all the people I work with have kids my age. It's like I don't know how to be a 27 year old anymore. (That's right. Don't hate me.)

And then Amanda talked me into running a half marathon in May. (I still don't know what I was thinking on that one.) I'll keep you updated on the running and the fund raising.

Oh, the joys of random holidays

Last week I worked 3 days. This week: same thing. (Don't hate me.) It's Passover and we take time off for that.

When I walked in the office yesterday, two of my co-workers meant well and it led to an hilarious conversation:
Co-worker 1: Happy Easter
Liz: Thanks, but I don't celebrate Easter
Co-worker 1: Why not?
Liz: I'm not Christian?
Co-worker 1: What are you?
Liz: I don't know, nothing I guess.
Co-worker 1: You have to be something.
Co-worker 2: You could almost be Jewish.
Well ok, thanks for welcoming me into the club.

Running is going well so far this week. I'm trying to do all my running on weekdays so I can take Saturday off. I'm planning on running the Oy Vey 5k (no, seriously) on Sunday and I want a day to rest before I do.

Tomorrow or Thursday I'm hoping for another nice long run around Lake Harriet (my newest favorite lake in Minneapolis). I ran 5 miles this morning. Last night I did 4 miles on the elliptical at under 10:00 miles the entire time. (Seriously, that's insane.)

It's saturday and I feel like ish, and this post is not about politics

It's not totally unexpected that I feel this way. And no, it's not related to alcohol. But that's an idea for next time. As I was poking around on the web today, I found this headline, and the artwork here is important. For the non-Minnesotan readers, that's the governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty.



Possible GOP Contender? I'm not even going to descend into politics here. I just don't want a presidential candidate from my state when I work in the capital city, live in the biggest city in the state, and my condo is only a few miles from the airport. I just don't want to deal with the logistics.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: No one knows what week it is anymore

I've lost count of the weeks of training. I got off my weeks schedule here in March anyways. But I'm slowly getting it back together. Today, in honor of my 4 day weekend, I ran 8.5 miles. Yeah me. Now, the real test will be how far I run in the next couple of days. But at this point, I only need one run that far a week so it's fine.

After I ran I went back to sleep for a couple hours. (Like I was going to do anything else after running that far.) Once I woke up, I ate a little food. I was surprisingly not hungry until just now when I ate what had to be four meals in one. It's ok, I did run a really far this morning.

After I had a little snack, I went over to soak in the hot tub at the Y. It's almost worth paying the membership just for the hot tub. I'm also going to have to remember that for this summer when I want to run outside but I need to get in my eight visits per month so I get the discount.

I went grocery shopping. (Kelly, I'm assuming a 5lb bag of potatoes is enough for whomever shows up on Sunday.) I got bacon. I got other stuff too but obviously, I'm most excited about the bacon.

Tomorrow, Amanda and I are going to get fish for my fish tank after we eat at Maria's. (After I run around a lake and earn my two corn pancakes.)

Gotta love these headlines

It seems as though there's not much to report in my life. Most of my life has been taken up with work which has been busier than normal while we prepare for two three day weeks in a row. It's Passover. (You know you want to work at a Jewish agency too. Don't be jealous.) I'm still running which is having it's ups (accidentally running to Lake Harriet last week) and downs (not running today because I was tired, how lame is that?). Although, when I was running on that path and came up this little tiny hill and saw Lake Harriet at the last minute, I never felt more like a runner. I never felt happier either.

In the mean time, the headlines as of late (and some of the actual stories) are just too good:

• Chia-Obama no longer sold at Walgreens. You'd think it's from The Onion, especially with the part about the "Happy Chia Obama" and "Determined Chia Obama". But no. It's a real story.


• How did America's most famous (and maligned) Mom pay for the medical procedures that led to the birth of octuplets? By working a ton of overtime as a psychiatric technician. Oh, the ironies abound.


• This article just pissed me off because they don't know what they're talking about. And I just wanted you all to know that it's wrong. Where did it go wrong? FTA (emphasis mine):

  The term “OCD” has recently displaced “anal” in contemporary slang as a way of describing people who are more than usually meticulous, pernickety or pedantic – the sort of people who are never satisfied unless things are just right. If this reflected a greater understanding of obsessive compulsive disorder, it might be no bad thing. In fact, it has simply increased the degree of misunderstanding by confusing two different conditions with almost the same name. “Anal” people do not usually have OCD at all; they simply have an obsessive compulsive personality type, meaning they’re a bit fussy. People with OCD, in contrast, are suffering from a serious anxiety disorder that greatly impinges on their lives.

  Here's the thing. There is actually a diagnosable disorder called "Obsessive Personality Disorder" and you don't have it just by being anal. This article is not clear and that annoys me. I just wanted you to know.


• A couple of articles I find interesting (and possibly no one else will). First, It's impossible to buy a stick shift anymore. So sad. Even at my young age, it was like a rite to learn how to drive a stick. And, Who the heck still doesn't have a Facebook account?. I feel your pain.


• There's possible new diagnostic testing for both Alzheimer's Disease (would you really want to know ahead of time?) and Schizophrenia. Ok seriously, I thought the mask was right side out at first. Back to the Alzheimer's thing, it actually is important to know as early as possible because the Alzheimer's meds work better the earlier they are given in the course of the disease.


• For some reason, people think everyone on welfare is on drugs and they are going to test that theory. It's not true by the way. Stop being mad at people for having less than you do.


• And speaking of drugs, decriminalization of drugs is something I've been a fan of for a long time. It takes the money and the danger out of the business. And it's worked in Portugal for several years.

Saturday Linkfest

Well, I'm a little tired from my run yesterday. I made it all the way to Lake Harriet, and about half way around it. I actually wasn't super tired but was facing another kind of distress that made me stop. By the way, the water is turned off in all the buildings at Lake Harriet. Sucks.

Today I walked around Lake Nokomis. Not sure if the water's off but the lake is thawed. Lake Harriet still has a fairly huge ice cap on it. I'm still pretty sore from yesterday. I can only imagine how this is going to feel after a marathon.

In the mean time, here's some great things to know more about:

• This past week has been filled with some great and surprising headlines out of Washington. First, they expanded the AmeriCorps program and gave the first increase in the education award in, well, ever. And now they're lifting some travel restrictions to Cuba. That was out of the blue. But very cool.


• Since the bedbugs, I've been wanting to re-do my closet. How cool would this be?.


• This made me think of Amanda and Kelly who either own or covet one of these things. It also made me think of work which has promised to be more laptop friendly in the near future.


• And this one it totally for Amanda: Watch Surgery on YouTube. Just don't tell me anything about the amputation one ok.

A whole post for Amanda's comment yesterday..

So yesterday, I provided this link and some commentary on it. Actually it was probably earlier this week and not yesterday, but stick with the point. Then Amanda read my blog post and commented.

And I was thinking about her comment. (Because I do care.) I still don't like the way the article is written, specifically the stuff about mental illness and chemical abuse. Here's my thoughts:

• The ER employee in question from Amanda's comment is a surgical technician and anyone requiring surgical care costs a lot of money.


• Since surgery is expensive, it requires fewer visits to rack up a $1,000,000 bill. Although it is still quite impressive.


• The article said 9 patients made 2,678 visits to the ER, and the average ER visit is $1000.


• $3,000,000 divided by 2,678 is $1,120


• The average cost for these people was only slightly higher than the average cost per visit of the general population so we can assume they aren't having too many surgeries.


• 2,678 divided by nine is approximately 298 visits per person.


• 298 visits in six years is roughly one visit per week. What the hell? Were they ever admitted or did they just go home and come back?


• If there's any other way to get medical care other than an Emergency Room, it's almost always my choice. I'm assuming that's true of the general population who like to wait 20 minutes for the doctor in a quiet waiting room rather than 2 hours in an ER with a puking kid and a drunk guy.
  


• Since the people in this study are accessing medical care in the ER every week, it's reasonable to ask if there is anywhere else for the to access such care.

So, I go back to my original point. Minnesota ranks 10th in the country in doctors per capita. Texas ranks 42nd. (Yes I'm a nerd. Check here.) It would be interesting to see how many visits the top nine ER users in Minnesota have made and what their costs were. Maybe we could help Texas. Or maybe every state has 9 people who go to the ER all the time and we shouldn't focus on them when looking at how to make services more cost effective. Maybe we should start with a group that's easier to serve, like people who go to the ER frequently but would go to a clinic if they had one.

A brief linkfest before bed

• Most of you know my fondness for bacon but No. Just.. no.
• Congress finally realized that the AmeriCorps education award needed to raised and that the whole program should be expanded. Thanks to both congress and President Obama for that one because it's a great program. (I should know, I did it twice.) Also really cool that the ed award can go to kids or grand kids. I think it's a great idea.
• One more sure sign of the apocalypse. Is this like when Napster changed?
• At first, when I read this headline I was horrified, and then I thought, "oh, yeah, I could see that". But I don't think the way the article talks about mental illness or chemical addiction is too helpful. It'd also be interesting to know what they plan on doing about it and if other urban areas have similar problems. Minneapolis and St Paul have so many other clinics that this kind of usage seems unlikely out of too many people.
• Best "April Fool's" site I've ever seen. The joke would be if it's real.
• Most of us have seen that, "if the earth were only 100 people..." video from a while ago. Here's the update. The thing about the internet and computers totally does not surprise me. I wonder what the percentage is in the US for computer owners. ::Looks around:: Anyone?
• And, finally, Yet another reason to be proud of Minneapolis (and St. Paul).

Maybe I should be a teacher like Kelly

Reasons:
1. My mentee woke me up (on my day off) so I could take her to school. It was also her birthday. Happy sweet sixteen!

2. This website. I want to be a teacher just so I can get exams like that to grade. Seriously, if the site is blocked at work, go home and look at it. Somewhere you can laugh out loud. A lot.

my day in pictures

It turns out, I worked too much last week and my boss told me not to come in tomorrow. Sweet. In honor of that, I spent some time tonight trying to improve my score on this word game on Facebook. (Who knew I was this competitive?)

I got two high scores on the game:


A poet huh?


Later on, I was on the web and saw the cutest picture ever (original here). Awwww.

A brief link fest with oddly colored butter

First off, I did run today. Five miles of sprinting was hard this morning for some reason. Actually, the first 2.5 miles was hard. Work, well I worked basically a full day extra last week and my boss told me I had to take it this week. So work has been kind of busy. But it was good today.

And now

• Do you know a kid who has ADD? (Besides me!) Well, let them fidget. They're doing it because it helps. I chew gum instead of moving the rest of my body for this very reason.


• For the bloggers out there, 10 html tags I'd like to see used in your next post. I don't know why I saved this bookmark to show you really. I must have thought some of the tags were neat. I always used "strike" instead of "ins" and "del" to cross things out. Maybe that was it.


• And finally, 11 things you should never do to food except for mash potatoes which can come from naturally purple or blue potatoes and are fine. But seriously, pink? Ewww.
  

Running is going...

Well, it's not today or yesterday. But I'm realizing exactly how much stress from my job impacts my wanting to run at all. And I think that will make me run a whole lot more.

Today, I came home and took a nap after work.

Work was ok today actually. I had sort of a flurry of work to do at the end of the day, but it was a good thing that happened that made me have to do all that work so it was worth it.

Tomorrow, I plan on running. Someone, please check on me and give me crap if I don't. And if applicable, remind me that you gave a generous amount of money to Bolder Options so that I could run even more and I should show my gratitude by keeping up my end of the bargain.

Now, I think I'm going to have something resembling dinner (although not quite that in depth) and then go to bed for real.

Hey Liz! How are y.... is that a waterfall coming from under your kitchen sink?

Why yes, yes it is a waterfall coming from under my kitchen sink. The good news is that the waterfall only falls when the water is on. So far. Also, one of my neighbors is a handy man. I just gave him the key to my unit. I'm hopeful he'll fix it tomorrow while I'm at work.

I was just thinking, "gosh, it'll be so nice to be done with bed bugs" and then I realized that it never ends. All of you who own houses or condos understand this concept. Your house knows when you've just fixed something and you want to be done for a while. And that's when it breaks something else.

Actually, I've been pretty fortunate in the stuff not working category. Amanda helped me fix one sink. (Really she did it and I just watched.) I just don't have the energy for this one. Also, there were the light switches that I replaced myself, at least one of them. And there was all the painting (pictured here and here plus a bonus video of Amanda "helping").

God, condo, don't get any ideas for anything else. I'll give you a nice new closet and then we are done for a while.

In other news, I ran this morning. I didn't quite make it seven miles but I made it over six, signaling that stress reduction has worked on at least some level. I also went to my very first Seder. Thanks to my boss for inviting me. I learned a lot. And not what I thought I would learn about.

Now, I will go to bed and picture a fully functional kitchen for the the next day.

Running and stress: Also not a good mix

I had a really rough day yesterday. You can go here to see how I feel about personality disorders.

Yesterday involved a medical transport hold. And another hospitalization. And I realized I've been watching way too much ER lately.

After work my mentee and I hung out and wrote her resume. Then she played around on her MySpace page. (I seriously do not understand...) I almost fell asleep. (Did I mention I did all these hospitalization things on about 4 hours of sleep?)

Today, I tried running, but I wasn't really feeling it. The walk I took instead was quite relaxing. I'll try the running thing tomorrow. Right now I just realized I have to go grocery shopping.

Liz, it's 11:40pm. How come you're writing and not, you know, asleep?

Well, it's been quite a day. There's no better way to start the day than how I did it. I woke up and ran (yeah me) and then did something really fun at work. And it all went down hill from there. Let's just say I ran into more than one person with a personality disorder today. (For more information about personality disorders, check out the links here and here.)

At the end of the day I went over to Bolder Options to raise money for them. My fundraising goal is $4,000. In exchange for that, they will teach me to run a marathon. Plus they will be able to continue to mentor many teens in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

At this time I'd like to thank the following people for allowing me to call them and ask for support (even though most of you don't read this blog)

Amanda
Kelly
Mom and Dad
Mike and Linda
Aunt Barb and Uncle Tom
Uncle Dave
Erin and Matt
Mark and Irmghard
Aunt Terri
Aunt Joan and Uncle Joe
Marge
Alyssa
Chris
Bonnie
Liz
Sarah (dude, answer your phone)
Sona
Jenny and Doug
Aunt Elaine
Jenny's Parents (Monica and .... it's not that bad, I always call them Mom and Dad)

I feel like there are more people who should be included on this list. But I can't get to my paper list right now to check. Why not? Because my apartment is somewhat packed up so my unit can get sprayed as a protection against bed bugs yet again. (Remember the first time my unit got sprayed?. What about the second time?. Yeah, I remember them both too.)

Only tomorrow, in addition to my unit getting sprayed, the unit above mine is getting heat treated. The temperature in that unit will be raised to 140* or so and kept there for several hours. No word on what that's going to do to the stuff in my unit but I've taken the pictures off the wall and put them on the floor (what? heat rises), same with the photos and electronics. Also, I'll be taking the laptop to work tomorrow. I wish we had wireless there. It would make my joy complete.

Supposedly someone else is going to "prepare" my unit, but I took that to mean, "we'll move stuff away from the walls for you" so I still did a whole bunch to get ready for them.

Tomorrow I'm working for 12 hours. (Not my idea.) But at least I'll be out of here while they're spraying and heating and spraying and heating.

This week has actually been a little interesting because I'm having a lot of long days. Monday night I went to a Shiva (a definition for the Gentiles), tonight and Thursday night I'm volunteering at Bolder Options and tomorrow I'm working forever. Friday I think I'm only going to work a few hours. Then I'm going to help a teenager write a resume. It should be fun, she has a lot of neat stuff to put on it. Then I'm going to sleep forever. After I unpack.

An updated on this word game

Earlier last week, Amanda and Kelly got me addicted to introduced me to this word game on Facebook that I've obviously been playing frequently. If you've never played before, or don't have Facebook, at the end of each round, it compares your apparent vocabulary level with that of different professions.

A little while ago, I reached the verbal ability of a lawyer. I thought the caption over the girls head was hilarious and eerily familiar. That's exactly how I felt about becoming an attorney.


Today, I reached the verbal ability of a journalist. Which is cool because my Aunt Terri is a journalist. (Although, I can't tell if she's really serious about keeping up a blog.) This one's for you Aunt Terri.

An unexpected side effect of all the packing and unpacking

As a result of all this packing and unpacking, I cannot find my ibuprofen. Who looses that?

How are things going in the land of bugs? I think my apartment has to get sprayed again. On Wednesday. Have they officially told me yet? No, but I ran into a neighbor. There are still bugs in two units that I know of and possibly a third unit.

How goes the land of the runners? I'm starting to raise money for Bolder Options tonight. As part of their annual call-a-thon. (I'm not sure that's what it's really called.) So, if you read this blog, expect a call from me asking you to donate to Bolder Options to help me run a marathon to support at risk youth. It'll be tonight, Tuesday or Thursday.

I thought of one more place to look for drugs. I'll be off now.

Baseball is meant to be played... indoors

I just saw a Twins commercial saying, "reserve your seat in the sun". Ha. You wish it's going to be in the sun. It's March. The low today was -9*. (I guess you can figure out how I voted on the levy.) You know the average temperature in April is in the 40*s right?

In other news:

• I was reading about 24 diseases that are freaky and generally don't make my blood pressure drop. Amanda, I thought of you.



• Do you live in a big city? With lots of new Americans? See where they all came from before they were Americans.



• One of my favorite time killers websites is turning one year old.



• And, Which TV feuds have entertained you over the years? My vote is for Jon Stewart and Crossfire, although it was pretty entertaining to watch Jon Stewart rail on the guy from CNBC too.

A linkfest post

Last night Amanda and Kelly fed me way too much food and alcohol went out to dinner with me during the beginnings of Blizzard March '09. (My car didn't have any ice to scrape off by the way.)

Somewhere during the evening of debauchery, Amanda and Kelly starting comparing notes on Netbooks. I think if I were still in school, I'd want one too. Since I'm not in school the little buggers make no sense to me. But I pointed out the rumor that Apple will release a netbook this year. Amanda and Kelly discussed the merits of such a product and were reticent, but I just want to point out, it will probably have a touch screen.

::Steps up onto soap box::
Also, for some reason Minneapolis is all of the sudden indignant about prostitution and Johns. I can identify with the story of the girl walking to the, well, for me it was always the bus stop. I've also spent a lot of time on a restorative justice panel that hears cases of men who were arrested for solicitation.

That said, when Mayor Rybak is looking for stuff to cut from the city budget, I suggest cutting the website where people can go look up Johns by picture. (Who cares?) Second, quit prosecuting everyone. Restorative justice is the better option because it takes up way fewer resources and has a lower recidivism rate than traditional prosecution. Plus, in the program I serve, Johns have to come and volunteer in the neighborhood that was "victimized" by their crime. That helps a neighborhood much more than putting someone in jail or making them pay a fine and sending them to probation.

It's prostitution. It's Lake Street. Put the money you would have spent prosecuting these men from the suburbs and actually invest in Lake Street. It's a better use of the money and will help Minneapolis more in the long run.
::Steps down from soap box now::

I just had a really weird dream

And I'm only half awake right now, so this might be a little like those "blogging while drunk" posts. Anyways, at first I was in an operating room while these other doctors were helping an old white guy. For some reason a guy shot the white guy while he was sitting up in his hospital bed. But the shooter didn't mean to hit him. Then the shooter started shooting at whoever he did mean to hit. And the doctors did all this surgery on the old guy. I definitely wanted him to live and didn't like that he was shot.

Then suddenly, I was the one who had to have an operation. It was something about my heart but they had to go through my back. There were two doctors. The young doctor was really cute and I definitely had a crush on him. Anyways, it was emergency surgery, so they just started getting me ready and then they had to lay me there while the anesthesia took effect. Which is not my usual experience with anesthesia which knocks me out in seconds. I admonished them to "poke hard" to make sure I was asleep.

While they were waiting for me to fall asleep, I kicked some girl off the head of my bed so I could lay down. Then the doctors asked me who I wanted as an anesthesiologist. They both wanted someone different and I yelled at them for even asking right then. But then I worried that they didn't get who they wanted and they might not do as good of a job. And then I started worrying about having surgery. You'd think it would have happened sooner. And then I remembered what Amanda said about catheters in surgery so I started imagining that being put in, Oh good, I have to pee anyway, and then I started remembering all these stories about people who hear the surgeon when they're asleep, and hear what they're saying. And then I started thinking about sleeping, and how I'd just wake up in a minute and not know what happened and there would be wonderful drugs. And then I started thinking about trusting god during all the time in between.

And then my alarm went off. And now I don't know how people ever get on the table for surgery.

In support of runing, and I feel like a cowboy

A while ago at my job, we started serving people under a whole new funding stream to us. New to us as well as the funders themselves. I kept telling my supervisor that learning this new funding stream and continuing to serve our clients was going to be like an adventure. I told her it would be like cowboys riding through the desert, avoiding bullets and little cacti and holding on to our hats.

Today, I learned to file an answer to a complaint and summons. And that cowboy feeling is back. It's kind of exciting but I'll be glad when it's over.

I ran 5 miles today. Well, I did 5 miles of sprints but I count that as the full five miles. So, one day down this week and four to go. I think I just have to go back a few weeks on my marathon schedule and do shorter distances. I just have to accept that if I'm running inside, 5 miles is probably my limit and that's ok.

A marathon update

Training for a marathon is much harder than I thought. Running long distances is not my problem. The issue seems to be running five days a week. I'm not sure how much the problem is living in Minnesota where it's icy right now, and how much I just let that be an excuse.

It's possible my marathon goals have changed slightly. On Thursday I made it to a meeting at Bolder Options. Those of you who see me regularly know I want to train for a marathon with other people since I've never done it before. I'd thought about the American Cancer Society since they have a team running in the Twin Cities Marathon every year. But then I found out about the destination marathon Bolder Options does every year. Since I know them, I decided I'd rather work on their behalf. (For those of you who don't know, I was a mentor for them. My mentee and I graduated the year-long program last Thursday. Go us!)

Someone said that if you have a rather lofty fund raising goal and a goal of training for the marathon, the marathon training becomes the easier of the two. Good, I'm ready for something to make this easier.

Here's the change in my plans: Instead of running the Twin Cities Marathon, I am now training to run a marathon in Amsterdam and raise money for Bolder Options. So, if you're reading this blog, I'll be asking you to make a contribution to Bolder Options. Thanks in advance.

What else happened this week? I decided to actually go out for once: Last night Amanda took me out dancing (not just me, a whole bunch of people). My favorite part of the evening involved the phrase, "THIS IS NOT A HALLWAY". We were actually sober by that point. There really wasn't a whole lot of alcohol involved last night. My other favorite part of the evening involved someone trying to get me to smoke, "oh just once" as they inhaled, coughed repeatedly and made a face comparable to the bitter beer face, and then took another drag and did it again. And after two drags, couldn't take anymore.

Today, I've been laying on the couch. All day. I'm considering getting off the couch. But it never seems like the thing to do.

Running and audiobooks: Not a good mix

I like running. I like listening to audiobooks (still often referred to as "books on tape"). I thought, "hey, I have to run about a bazillion hours this morning, I'll listen to a book instead of music". No. Just, no. Apparently, it doesn't work like that. My brain got tired of paying attention to running and paying close enough attention to follow the story somewhere in my fourth mile. So I ran sprints and walked to finish up my time.

About 20 minutes before I was done (I know because I was watching the clock at this point), a guy started talking to me. (Calm down, I'm pretty sure he's married.) He noticed I'd been on the track for over an hour. (Hey, thanks for noticing.) So I walked with him the last little while. I'd seen him at the gym before. He said he likes to lift weights and doesn't like to run very far because it makes him too skinny. (Insert your own rude remark here.) He turned out to be a computer tech from India (insert your own stereotype here). We talked about India and how crowded everything is, especially compared to Minnesota. He said it didn't bother him when the gym was crowded (thank you, New Year's Resolution joiners for being done by the way) at the start of the year because it felt more like home. There's a new way to look at things.

Yesterday, well most days last week I did not run. I did get to the gym one of the days to do the elliptical. That was when I realized the New Year's Resolution folks had stopped clogging up the gym so much.

Looking at the running I did in Florida compared to the very next week here, I finally realized how hard it is to train in Minnesota in the winter. It really impacts my running, mostly the distances I would run, more than I realized. I miss those eight mile runs. That was a good way to wake up. Hopefully we'll be done with this snow and crap soon and I'll be able to run outside to my hearts content.