Despair

At 630am; this is what despair looks like.  For a picture of hope, go here

A ray of hope

This winter in Minnesota - this is what hope looks like

Why is there so much snow?

This morning I got two filling in my teeth.  Boo.  This afternoon I spent doing laundry and cleaning.  (I'm still not finished but I thought I'd take a break.)  One of the 'clean up' jobs I hadn't done was unload photos from my phone and camera.

Yes - the snow piles are as tall as my car

They actually started plowing later this year; last year it was all 'get your car out of here at the crack of dawn'.  This is better.

It's sunny, yet so cold

You can't see the sun dogs in this picture; they were present, I assure you.  What is a sun dog?

Looking down an alley after a run; look at the size of those snow piles!

Me after a run around the lake.  See that snow drift behind my head?  Just saying.

One more picture of the snow

The mountain of laundry I did today since it snowed, was way too cold to run, and I didn't want to anyway on account of my mouth.

What I wish I was doing; probably will be later!

Music Update

I know one thing the crazy pills (it's not actually pills) don't fix.  I went for a run today and I was all "oh, I can go my normal seven mile route from home, no driving to the lake..."  About 3 miles into the run I got sick the way I have on so many other runs.  Luckily I was at the lake which had accommodations for my ailments.  I could've really gone the whole seven after that but I got too cold from stopping so I turned around and came home.  This is going to be the last outside run for a while. I have enjoyed this brief respite of warmth.

The weather today - awesome for running and even less humidity than yesterday

The weather for the rest of the week - several days of booo!

I wound up 'running' about five miles. I can barely remember how to get up hills. Was it always this hard? My legs hate me. It comes from not running outside for a while. And it comes from all you people who haven't shoveled your sidewalks. (Thanks for the awesome workout.)

Tomorrow I have to get two fillings. Double boo. I have just updated my running playlist. Here's some of the newest songs to grace my iPod.

• Cake - The Distance, a song I first discovered thanks to this Ragnar Las Vegas video.
• Acrade Fire - Sprawl (Mountains beyond mountains). Sorry I couldn't find a better music video; this song rocks.
• Janelle Monae - Tightrope. I'd never seen the video before. I love the dancing.
• Laura Izibor - Shine
• Katy Perry - Firework. Thanks to Katy Perry for having so many songs on my play list.

Crazy pills...

In honor of January being done (thank the lord), the weather here was as close to freezing as we've been in quite a long time.  And yes, humidity is still an issue when the air temperature is this cold.  I know from what I speak.

I finally got outside and went for a run at my happy place, all covered in snow.  The path was so well groomed I actually didn't even wear yak trax.  I can't decide if that was a mistake or not.  I did feel weird to run and have my feet actually touch the ground.

Running has been a little rough this winter and not just because of the cold temperatures and record breaking snow fall.

My doctor decided that I shouldn't routinely be in so much pain that I have to miss work.  So for the next little while I am a chemistry set while she sees if she can get me to not hurt quite as bad.  I've also heard the first month of side effects are the worst and I'm hoping it's true.  Side effects so far include no appetite, cray hypoglycemia (thanks in part to the no appetite), less energy (how do I have less than the energy required to sit on the couch all day?) and less interest in my hobbies.  That last one is notable because usually the week I'm on my period is the week I take off running.  Instead this is the first time in a while I've wanted to run.

On the plus side, the doc's pain control recommendation is 800mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours.  Oh my wow does that ever work.  So I don't care about anything but at least I'm not in too much pain.

Why is the alcohol so far away? (A Beer will fix this, part 2)

See Part 1 if it helps.

Work is okay except for the parts that aren't.  That's what beer is fixing.  It's to the point I just emailed my dad and begged him to let me come home for a weekend.

On the up side, I did get on the elliptical tonight; first time I've run in over a week.  That felt good.  (In case you missed it, I had a fever for like five days in a row this weekend.  There was no exercise.  It sucked.)  My lungs and heart seemed to know what to do.  My muscles hate me and are burning (in a 'feel the burn - wait - what the hell were you thinking?!?' kind of way)

Now I'm talking to a friend on facebook and wishing my parents would wake up in the middle of the night just to check their email for me.

We just need to...

"We just need to extend the number of days before we freak out when Liz has a fever".

Advice from my nurse when I pointed out this whole "low grade fever for several days" thing has happened to me before.

Awesome Monday

Monday was pretty good (once I bailed on the runners and slept late; sorry, I hope you had a good run).

Stayed the full 10 hours at work.  Trust me, this is a good thing.  I'll tell you why at about 2pm on Thursday.

New episode of House which I found hysterically funny.  I'm not a parent, but seriously, who hasn't wanted to paint their kids toys with sriracha sauce and use it as a teachable moment?

Quick trip to the gym for a good behavior attendance check in.

Laundry - done!

New episode of Castle.  I have no idea how I found this series but I freaking love it.  It's like Star Trek meets NYPD Blue.  I know right?  But it's such a good show.

Jesse Ventura is suing the TSA for sexual harassment.  I think he's doing this for my own personal entertainment.  Thank goodness we found someone with enough money and free time to do this thing right.

And just before bed: Jay Leno's headlines.

A serious case of Cabin Fever

Quick, anyone - when's the last time I ran?  I think Wednesday night I went running at my happy place.  Thursday I got a hair cut.
Friday I found out I need two fillings and then walked at the gym and talked with a guy who'd run Ragnar the first year I did.  Friday the real temperature low was -13*.  No one knows about the wind chill because we were too scared to ask.

Winter sucks!

Saturday and today I basically stayed in my condo.  And was a hermit.  I'm reminded by reading posts from last February and March that it actually gets worse before it gets better.  Because when this stuff melts it makes this huge puddles (that look like small lakes) that make obstacles in my path for several weeks.

Winter is even more ridiculous when 9* counts as a milder temperature

Tomorrow, with the assumption that the temperature will at least be a positive digit, the girls are planning a run and I am planning to join them.  My yak trax finally gave up; a small piece of rubber that holds the strap on broke.  I ordered a new pair from Amazon and did duct tape surgery on the current pair, hoping they'll work tomorrow and all the way 'till the new ones come. 

January running crazies

Four day weekend: Awesome.
Four days of dreading returning to work today: Not so awesome.

Thankfully I have good friends (and their dogs who are going to get up and need a walk anyways) to get me through.  There was a spirited debate amongst us on Facebook last night about running this morning.  Ultimately only me and Beth decided to give it a try.  (Seriously, Beth has this dog that always gets up at 5am.  It's one of the best things to happen for my training in a long time.)

Winter blows!

I agreed to run this morning in the mildly bitter cold because I'd already seen the low temperatures for the rest of the week and knew there was no way in the world I'd be running then.  (The low was 9* today.)

At 5am I woke up and facebooked Beth for a moment on the merits of not running.  (At 5am and 9* everything can be an excuse not to run.)  Ultimately I found my pants and my work ethic and headed out the door.

I got to St Paul and Beth tried to head out her door.  Only to fail.  (I can't go out the back door, there's 56" of snow back there that we haven't shoveled.)  It brought up an interesting opportunity for some ingenuity and a big opening talk about possible winter evacuation routes from the home.

Eventually Beth got out and tried to kill me on the run *ahem* we had a great run.  Happily neither one of us fell down this time.  The run started with the words, "it's not *that* cold" followed by "I can't feel my face".  All was well when we were moving.   I swear I got hypothermia in the car on the way home.  (Any runner who's run and then got in the car all sweaty afterwords knows exactly what I'm talking about.)

Work was pretty rough.  I went out for Chiptole for lunch and to call my mommy (yes, work was that rough) and lost my keys.  Which sucked.  But opened up the possibility of the best moment of the entire day: the sweet Barnes N Noble lady who helped me find the keys again.  Relief is quite a powerful feeling.

Oh, sweet, 15* isn't that cold

The St Paul ladies invited me for a bonus Friday run (I suspect they looked at the weather from the rest of  today and the weekend and wanted to squeeze one more in) and I totally took them up on the offer.

So at 5am I was getting out of bed, yelling at my alarm clock and being generally amazed that I slept as well as I did.  (Those 3 ibuprofen I took sure did something.)

The line of the day goes to miss Beth who declared towards the end of the run that she was really glad she came out.  (We are too!)  To show her joy, she face planted *ahem*, leaped body and face first into the snow on the sidewalk in front of her.  And then showed us all her great sense of humor. 

The snow out there, wow.  Running is tough.  I think by the time the snow melts (looking like about May now) my calves will double in size.  After that one really big storm most of the snow has come and inch or so at a time.  Which means some homeowners (you know who you are) are all 'well, that's not even enough to shovel really'.  It adds up and gets uneven and thick.  Sometimes we look like we're drunk just trying to get through it.  For an approximation of the effect, try running through quicksand.  Good luck.

After running I got down to the business of my first Friday 'chore and errands' day.  I'm supposedly working a 4 day week now (more on that in a second) so I'm reserving Friday for all kinds of stuff.  Today on my list was

• Get new wiper blades - per usual, the universe provided a little man to help me change them
• Bank to cash check - the people at Wells Fargo on Lake Street are super nice.
• Go to the YWCA for just for the good behavior attendance thing - it's 1030am and the parking lot is full.  Oh, the January gym crazies.
• Target for a storage container, pepsi and gum -  well hello Lake Street Target.  It's been so long since I've visited you. It actually looked pretty nice in there and at 1030 on a Friday, no screaming kids.  Win for me.
• Good Will - because that stuff just had to go
• The Co-op - to get food for Christmas dinner on Sunday with my pooky bear and miss herself who is now a cat lady
• The liquor store - same reason as the co-op plus it's supposed to snow this weekend so I'm planning ahead

After that, I did actually have to work for a few hours.  I had something unexpected happen at work yesterday.  After said experience, I stopped working and saved the rest for later.

Now I'm sitting on my couch, not having to work again until Tuesday and ready for this next 'snow storm' and 'cold snap' we're supposed to get.

I $%*&ing hate this $%#@ing day

Let the catharsis begin.

5:00am: shutup shutup stopmakingthatnoise muh directed in the general direction of my alarm clock followed by getting out of bed and gearing up for a run.
5:30am Runners on Ice 2: Dashing through the Snow.  Thank goodness for Beth.  Running was the best part of my day.  (Dude, I hope your dog is feeling, um, better.)
7:15am Working from home begins.  Yeah, I started that early, you'd think I'd have more hours in today.
8:45am Run to the clinic to pick up my contact lenses.  Pay for said lenses.  Walk off without them. You have got to be kidding me!
9:30am Working - the social work student did an excellent job with the home visit
12:00pm Team meeting - I think it was ok, I was still thinking about the previous visit during most of the meeting...
1:30pm Prepare to facilitate a strategic planning session for a collaborative of several agencies across the metro.  (Not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to this.)
2:00pm-4:00pm Facilitate said strategic planning.  I  am exhausted.
5:00ish Try to print the letters of recommendation my teeanger asked me for 24hours ago.  My printer picks this exact $%#* moment to stop working or run out of ink or whatever.  Troubleshooting ensues.
5:30pm Head over to Office Max in Minneapolis rushour traffic.  I am in the seventh level of hell.  Driving anywhere in Minneapolis is ridiculous right now because roads are about half their normal width.  It sucks up and down.  Office Max can refill my ink cartridges.  Sweet!
6:00ish Get home.  Printer still thinks there's no black ink in the cartridge.  More troubleshooting ensues.  It still doesn't work.  *#$^ off I say.
7:00pm -ish Head back over to the office with my teenager to print off recommendation letters.  I nearly bit my kids head off when she put in her iPod head phones.  (I will turn this car around and print your letters a different day if you can't stand to be in the car with me and have a conversation...)  Poor thing, it'd been a rough day for both of us.
8:00pm and beyond I finally got home and abandoned the idea of working anymore tonight.  I was feeling like I had a lot to get done because I'm trying to work all my hours in 4 days (and it's more hours than I expected when the whole '4 day' thing started so I'm even more confused).  I talked to Amanda for a while and heard about school.  I also emailed her and my Pooky Bear about Sunday when we have our belated Christmas.  I'm still trying to decide if running or sleeping tomorrow morning would be the better course of action.

Holy abs batman!

After having such a good run on Wednesday morning (Happy Birthday to you!), I decided for an encore performance with the St Paul runners.  I normally only go over there once a week because it's far to drive and early to get up in the morning.  But this week I started working all my hours in four work days instead of five so getting up earlier was good.  Plus I knew I wouldn't exercise by myself.  (Thank you again for running me up and down the street!)

Before - yes, I do run with a reflective vest.  You should wear one too!

After - notice how my hat has turned to frost?  I noticed, particularly on my ears, too!

Thursday was a long work day but at the end I was all "hello 3-day weekend, how shall I fill my time?" Turns out, Olive Garden with a teenager and then a movie and bottle of wine with Amanda on the torture rack.

Amanda convinced me I needed to sleep on the torture rack so we could get breakfast the next day. (Really, I didn't even have that much wine, I can go home and sleep in a normal bed.) I'm glad I stayed because my coffee cup at the Uptowner was always full and the eggs Benedict rocked.

After that I went to the gym. I decided it was going to be a walking day and listened to an hilarious episode of Car Talk (the one where the lady's AC vents are dispensing dog food). I actually did have to go to work, but it was only for a short time for a retirement party. It was really fun to hear some of my Russian-speaking colleagues tell their stories about moving to this country and a nice time to visit.

Saturday morning I woke up early and got pastries Happy Birthday to you! and headed over to a pilates class at this women's home studio in St Paul. Some of the St Paul runners got there early and took a class with one of our own as a birthday surprise. I was assured that I'd be sore after.

We then headed back to Heather's house for lattes courtesy of her husband (who, coincidentally, had stopped to get pastries at the exact same place I went). Sorry John, we'll coordinate better next time.

Sunday morning I got up and thought, 'oh, yeah, I can feel my abs but it's kind of a pleasant soreness'. Then I tried to put my pants on.

I learned an important lesson about the January gym crazies too. I thought it would be awful and miserable and packed at the gym. I got there around 9am and found the lot about 60% full, waaay fewer cars than what I'd imagined. I hopped right on an elliptical and had a great workout. An hour later, heading back out to my car I realized that the lot was totally full and streets around the gym were filling up fast. Note to self - Sunday at the gym is not awful as long as I arrive by 9am.

Then I headed out to breakfast at Maria's (mmmm, corn pancakes) with a friend and later today I'm going to see The King's Speech.

Weather prediction antics

Yesterday I was talking to some friends about running this morning.  Yes, we are that crazy.  The discussion revolved around the temperature at the time we would be running.  I always look at the low temperature for the night because that's about what it is when we run.  I checked some websites and had an hilarious experience.

The low is supposed to be -23* tonight?  That can't be right!  By the way, no freaking way would we have run.

The -23* must have been a typo because when I checked back a while later the low was predicted to be -8*, much closer to the -10* we'd originally expected.

Actual temperature when I woke up -2*, but I woke up late because we didn't run.

LINFKEST Sunday

• Why do I sound funny when I talk? Turns out, there's about no way I could've avoided it.  When I go to see my parents and then come back to Minnesota, I notice words creeping into my vocabulary like "y'all" and the uber-plural "all y'all".
• What achievements does your state boast?.  Biggest mall in the USA, yeah baby, right down the street from me.
• I guess alcohol should play a larger role in marathon training!  SWEET!
• And finally, haven't we all been there:
  
  

Is 8pm too early for bed

This winter has been rough so far.  The hardest part for me is getting out of bed.  Usually if I can get out of bed and get the day started, I do okay.  Sadly, usually getting out of bed feels like physical torture.  This morning, to provide encouragement, I got up at 5am and headed over to run with the St Paul ladies.  (Okay, seriously, all I have to do is show up over there and things will be good, just go, running with them always turns out well...)

I'm not sure if I'm loosing my mind or really just need more sleep in the winter because it's 8pm and I'm ready to go to bed.  (Hey, it's dark outside already, why not?)  Also, I have a tendency to wear this hat all the time, inside or out because it's soft and I like it.  Just like a pair of wool socks.  Is that something I should worry about?

In which I reflect freely on the weather and the gym crazies

While I'm sitting here waiting for the next episode of Castle to start (I love this show!) let me just say: Brrr.  I checked the weather and got this rather discouraging news:

My choices tomorrow are to get up at 5am and head out with some awesome running partners or to get up slightly later and head to the gym and run around the track.

Oh the gym, let's talk about that for a moment. January is the month of the all the new year's resolution crazies to join. They're not crazy in the eccentric, or wild, or rude (mostly they're pretty nice), it's more the sheer number of them. So January is a tough month at the gym and I will only go in the morning to avoid the wildness.

I got kind of discouraged because I wanted to go to the gym this morning but I didn't sleep well last night. Instead of running I let myself sleep in 'till 8:30 or so. I think I need to man up, go to the gym and get in the groove. Then I can use running with the awesome ladies as a reward. (Oh yes, 4 miles in the ice and snow at 5:30am in the sub-freezing temperatures is a reward compared to being at the gym. Maybe it's the company?)

Why is it so cold outside?

It's been a pretty cold new year so far.  Today I went for a run around Lake Nokomis with Beth.  Remember that time we went running and I broke her.  She pretty much came in that condition today.  (I hope you feel better!)

This shirt is a Christmas present from my mommy!

Total YakTrax day.  It was super icy.

We took one lap around the lake.  The funniest exchange was

Beth: We could go for a second lap.

Me: Not at this pace we can't.

It was really cold.  All that Cincinnati running in the 30* air, and the gym time in the 70* air has really ruined me.  I'm not sure if this means I should go to the gym more or suck it up and run outside more.  I'll have to contemplate that.

Goodbye 2010 - best wishes

I get the impression that 2010 was a really rough year for some of my friends.  Looking back, it was pretty good to me.  Here's how it went:

• January started out jumping in a really cold lake.  All of January was pretty cold if I remember correctly.
• February involved lots of snow.  By the end of the month, I'd gone about stir crazy trying to figure out how to run outside.  But look at the pictures from that day.  Fantastic isn't it?
• March was an exciting month because I met my newest neighbor, Chef Zack.  He's not really a chef, and he's not the newest neighbor anymore.  But it's one of the better stories from the whole year.
• April welcomed a new Chipotle to town, and apparently brought proof that I am all powerful.  (If I can make a Chipotle appear out of nothing, a 5 hour marathon should be no problem right?)
• May brought me back home to run a half-marathon with a friend of mine.  I had a blast.  Although, possibly the best part of the trip was seeing my cousin Luke.
• June was the month another cousin got married and I got my first taste of Texas.  I had a really nice time.  To all those who say St Paul was put together by drunk Irishmen and Cincinnati makes even less sense, I say try to find your way in Austin.
• July is apparently when I got around to getting a year better.  That can't be right.
• August was apparently the month I traveled.  I think I planned it that way because I knew about my caseload.  There was a nice weekend in the greater Chicago-land area with family; a fantastic trip to Brooklyn to see Mark, Irmghard and Blueberry, a a 200-mile running trip along the Mighty Mississippi River with 11 of my closest friends (and we are close after that), and the Great Minnesota Get-together.
• September Mom and Dad came up for a visit.  Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 - with the best pictures.  We also had our last apple trip at the current orchard; we'll have to find a new one next year or start a new tradition.
• October the month of running: Twin Cities Marathon is a freaking blast.  Who knows if I'll do it next year; I was thinking about the Minneapolis Marathon but we'll see.  For some reason, the marathon wasn't enough and I ran a half-marathon at the end of the month, easily my best race all year.
• November had another fun race, what I'm now calling the snow-man race.  And then, it got cold and I had Thanksgiving in Indiana.
• December was just a month long build up to Christmas vacation.  The month did involve a boatload of snow.  And more just keeps coming.  Also happy birthday to Amanda.

Here's how my past few years have gone 2009, 2008, and 2007. 

Christmas vacation - Going home!

Ohmugosh whatimizzit?  That's how all of today has been.

I woke up to a buzzing cell phone (I miss my fancy alarm clock) and headed to the basement to get my clothes.  (Win for having clean clothes to take home!)  Then Dad made Mom and I breakfast.  Bonus for him not cooking me fake bacon (what's the point of that really?). 

Dad dropped me off at the airport shortly before 10am for an 11:10am flight (are you sure that's enough time).  TSA did have a body scanner in use but they decided I didn't look suspicious enough and sent me through the normal metal detector.

I arrived at the gate in plenty of time and went about entertaining myself with all my technologies.  Paramount in my entertainment were the camera on my cell phone, several episodes of my new favorite show, Castle, and some songs including Beggar's Prayer, Everybody Loves Me, The End (Pearl Jam), and Angel Dance. 

Watch as many many men try to fix the plane before we leave...

Finally onboard

CVG was a ghost town

That's right: Cincinnati Ohio's airport is in Kentucky.  Don't let it freak you out.

Midway through my entertainment the chaos started.  "They need more nitrogen on the plane, you can't board yet".  Then, "we'll take off half hour late" which turned into 1230.  At 1230 the plane wasn't ready to take off so they gave us all meal vouchers and told us to come back in an hour.  A little after 130pm the plane finally took off.  I was sitting next to a really cute guy but he was a smoker and really frustrated about having blown all of his connections so I didn't chat him up really.  Sorry.

Once I got into town I was pleasantly surprised that the snowfall was about how I'd left it.  (You know they had a Snow Emergency here on Christmas day.)  Bonnie came and got me from the airport and ferried me home.  I slept on the couch for a while before making myself dinner.  I'm thinking now I'll sleep in my bed.  I have two doctor appointments (same clinic, ease of scheduling) in the morning and then I'm heading to the office.  Who knows what I'll get into there.