Spring Running

My running lately hasn’t really been all that great, but somehow last week I got back in the swing.

I did three of my four runs (One I couldn’t do because treadmill was taken at gym, but I substituted with 45 minutes on the elliptical.).

However, the cool thing was I actually ran my three miler at a consistent pace with under ten minute miles. Next, I went out today for my thirteen miler and ran consistent miles for the whole time with 11:30 as the average. It felt good and I realized that I think I am ready to sign up for the half marathon race at the end of April as a check-in for marathon at end of May.

Today, I am going to do something different with my running. C and I are taking the kiddos to the bike path. Duffer will “ride” with C, while Little “runs” with me.  Finally, she is old enough to go in the Bob and come along for the ride!

It is funny what a couple good runs, a race on the horizon, and a new piece of running will do for your motivation!

Can’t wait to get out there today!

Wordless Wednesday

Peekaboo!

Three Things Thursday

1.  I haven’t written anything in almost a year, but I after a marathon last fall and a baby this summer I am back!

2.  My Garmin arrived in the mail yesterday and I CANNOT wait to start running and using it — hell maybe I will actually keep better track of miles.  Since starting running at age 22, I have NOT done a good job.  I can’t even tell you my PRs at this point for my races in exact time.  Now is the time to be accountable.

3.  Rumor on the street from Duffer is when his grandparents come to visit he will poop on the potty.  They arrive today.  Odds?

3:37 a.m.

Once upon a time it was 1:29 a.m. and my little duffer had woke me up with his snarfuls and inability to sleep.  Fast forward two hours and you have now.  I worked hard to try and fall back to sleep, but I kept worrying that the duffer would wake back up again and I’d be dancing to my Grammy Award winning made up songs.  Now, I am just waiting for the idea of sleep to creep back into my brain.  But, while awake, I might a well write since I don’t tend to have a lot of time to do that usually.

The other day before presenting to the school board about communication I sat around the table with some educators having a meal and nervously waiting for our time to present.  The woman next to me with a young son like me was talking about her holiday plans.  Side note, I’ve now realized that from December 1st to December 24th the only conversation people want to have (especially when you have a small child) is what are you doing for holidays?  I am guessing from December 26th until mid-January the conversation focuses on what you actually did.  This woman did get into all the details, but implied from her tone and whatnot that she had a doozy of Thanksgiving with her in-laws in Massachusetts.

My immediate (and to all those who know me) obvious response was have you seen Home for the Holidays? No.  She had not.  So, of course, I recommended it.  I am thinking she will appreciate it.  I mean how can you not appreciate Holly Hunter, as the pathetic protagonist, who has lost her job and is heading home to thanksgiving sans her daughter (played by Claire Danes — pre-My So Called Life) who she finds out is planning to have sex with her boyfriend after she has lost her nice winter jacket and is forced to wear this horrendous jacket her mother just happens to have in the car.  Oh, and I forgot her trying to kiss her not at all attractive boss after he fires her.  Charles Durning as her dad.  Anne Bancroft as her mom.  Robert Downey Jr. as her gay brother who just lives to make life horrible for her perfect sister and husband (the woman I know from other stuff — she is a total character actor and Steve Guttenberg as the husband).  Throw in Dylan McDermott as Robert Downey Jr.’s friend and you’ve got a complete holiday filled with well, holiday goodness.  A must see at any holiday time (Easter, Valentine’s Day — who cares — it’s hilarious!).

In that same vein, what are other good non-syrupy holiday movies?  Forget Miracle on 34th Street or It’s a Wonderful Life – what are the real holiday movies that make you laugh, etc.?

Over Thanksgiving, we saw Four Christmases — Vince Vaughn & Reese Witherspoon — not bad — some good laughs and one-liners.

A Christmas Story — always a good one.  I believe my husband even showed it to a math class once for what reason I can’t tell you, but it is quoted regularly in our house.

I know there are more, but strangely at 3:54 a.m. I beginning to get tired.  So to throw it out to the void — What is your favorite holiday movie and more importantly WHY?

Response to Poem

At a conference today, I did a quick write to this Billy Collins’ poem.

Yesterday at our friend’s house you became a boy.  In the crisp, brown leaves you left behind the baby and leapt forward with only a leaf in hand.

Balancing you look straight through me as if not making eye contact will make that moment last longer.  Your tiny hand in mine you take off running–as if walking is not an option–toward the rock I think is too hard, too sharp, too tall and you climb over the roughness to the top watching the world around you.  Yelling and giggling at pine tree dancing above your head, you are transitioning like the trees around us to the next season.

Total first draft (please excuse any grammar, usage, mechanics issues), but it made me realize that my little duffer is growing up.

Bittersweet.

Past Lives

It’s funny how music makes us think about our past lives.  Just this week, my mom posted a video of Mel Carter singing “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” on her Facebook page.  Now, I was nowhere even a thought of being alive when this song was popular, but it held a great deal of importance for my mom and her sister.  So much so, that some time in my middle school years, much to my sister and I’s chagrin they actually belted it out at full blast in the car.  How do I remember — the music.  Music transcends time and brings you back to a time when you were a different version of you.  I’m pretty sure it was in our brown Suburu (I’m talking crap color not that nice champagne color people try to pass off nowadays).  I’m pretty sure thankfully I was out of my feathered hair/mullet phase that possessed me during my early middle school years (sorry K for the bad hair advice).  Sidebar: Looking back on that haircut, my sister and I may have been attempting to join the band Winger or take David Spade’s job in Joe Dirt — you choose.  It was after the deer incident, but before B went to Greece.  I know if I listen to that song again I can find all the details I have forgotten and bring it back like it was yesterday.  That my friends is the beauty of music.  Two days ago, I felt I needed to have the song “American Pie” on my I-Pod.  I couldn’t explain why for the moment, but then I remembered back to freshman year in college and a group of friends getting ready for Saturday nights on the town and how perfectly the song worked out that you could sing-a-long and shower in the time allotted.  I think since I reconnected with some of those friends that song and memory came back.  I can see dorm rooms, Tang, the climb to the fourth floor, and belting that song out at the top of our lungs.  Of course, somehow all my friends were part of the chorus at school and well, I’m pretty sure I had flunked out of that a long time ago.  Thank goodness they carried my off-tune self.  Of course, the funny thing about memories — you can relive them in your mind, but when you try and attempt a shower in the 8:37 that American Pie is with an 11-month-old baby you get as far as “Now for ten years we’ve been on our own…”  Not even halfway through the song.  Ah, to be young again.  Well, here’s to new songs and new memories AND my topic for this year’s NaNoWriMo Project.  I will use songs to write about memories and stories from life.  50,000 words — who knows how many songs or memories, but I’m ready.  Are you?

NaNoWriMo

Again, it creeps up on us — the month of November.  Lots of great events happen in this month including my sister’s birthday, a childhood friend’s birthday, and my son’s birthday.  All that aside, it is also National Novel Writing Month.  So, in the insanity that is my life I am actually thinking about doing it.  Not because I think I will actually finish a novel (50,000 words) in 30 days but because it will get me back writing.  I miss writing.  This year, however, I am not going to write fiction.  Instead, I think I will work on some non-fiction.  Doesn’t matter what you write — as long as you are writing!  So, are you up to the challenge?

What John Lennon Said…

“Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”

Today, I am home with the little duffer as he hopefully kicks the viral infection he has had all week.  My goal is he rests up so completely he DOES NOT get the pneumonia that one of his friends has at school.  We were on chicken pox watch last night, which was interesting because I did not know that if one contracts it they have to be out of school for seven days.  Who knew???  I had almost prepared to be out of school because then that guarantees that it won’t happen.

Right now, he and the dogs are napping so I have a moment for me.  It is funny what kids will do to you.  In years past, I would be totally stressed that I couldn’t go to work and like eight million things aren’t getting done, but now I realize there are more important things (don’t tell my school I said that).

In addition, I realized the true power of saying NO this week.  I was asked to do something professionally related that to me seemed like if I turned it down would be the end of the world, but to do it would mean taking time that I don’t have away from my family on weekends and evenings SO I said no.  And truth be told, once I said no I felt empowered to be in control of my life and that it is okay not to always be a people pleaser.

In regards to books, I have slowed down a little bit, but I am reading the new Carlos Ruiz Zafron novel whenever I get a minute.  It is one of those books that you don’t want to read too fast because if it is anything like Shadows of the Wind then I won’t want it to end and I will be sad when it does.  I reread the short story “Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen because a student was writing a paper.  Very gothic.  Lots to read into.

It has been a little hard to read this week because it is premiere week for TV shows.  Of course, I totally forgot to DVR Bones and Fringe so now I need to figure out how to get a hold of those so my husband doesn’t disown me.

Happy Fall!

Karma

Yesterday, we decided to have a fun day.  We went to Julie/Julia at the Mom’s Matinee. Despite not finishing the book, the movie was cute.  I say cute because anything Nora Ephron does is just that (think Sleepless in Seattle).  During the movie, which is a place where moms can take their babies and not have to worry about crying, there was one kid who just screamed.  Not cried, but screamed for almost the entire movie.  For the first half of the movie, I felt empathy considering my baby isn’t really a screamer (more on that later), but by the second half the tension headache I had arrived at the movie with was full blown and I was on pins and needles.  Driving away from the theater, I did make a comment to my husband about the baby’s screaming, but tried to feel compassion for the mom who probably just wanted some air conditioning and a a little entertainment.  Little did I know, I would be experiencing something very similar only at midnight and beyond.

Little duffer has had a cold since Tuesday, but somehow last night was the worst.  He work himself up at 9:30 and didn’t settle down until almost 1 a.m.  Plus, on top of that, I managed to get his cold so I couldn’t breathe.  It was worse than all those nights without sleep at the beginning of my child’s birth.  At least, I could breathe, read books, and watch bad t.v  I needed to catch up on even if I was delirious from having no sleep.  This time around he just wouldn’t settle and it involved lots of walking (I couldn’t put him down — talk about mama strength — he weighs 26 pounds), a car ride, and eventually taking the car seat out of the car so he could sleep in it.  Finally, we had some reprieve at 2ish until 5ish.

In the a.m., he didn’t really get any better and had a fever so inevitably he earned himself a doctor’s appointment.  Secretly, I think he likes visiting with his doctor, but he was just plain miserable so we needed something to make him feel better.  However, I admit I went to my hair appointment while my husband (the saint that he is) took the little duffer to the doctor.  No worries because I spent the entire hair appointment so stuffed up that I thought my head might imploded.  In addition, my hair dresser accidently drank my latte and then had to run in the back room to gargle so he wouldn’t end up miserable during a fun weekend away.  Great, I instill salt-water gargling in folk (at least I don’t instill vomiting).

All in all, the verdict for the little duffer — double ear infection.  No wonder he was upset.  Now, he is on the pink stuff and Tylenol as needed.  He is slightly better, but not really himself yet, which is okay because I am thoroughly not myself either.  Today, I can breathe, but now my cold has moved to my chest so I sound like I have a smoker’s cough and feel like someone hit me with an eighteen wheeler.  Good thing, little duffer has decided to take a nap so I can have a couple cups of coffee to help jump start my day to be a powerhouse or maybe just able to carry the 26 pounder to the car for a little shopping (after all — it is tax free day in Vermont!).

To Facebook or Not to Facebook, That is the Question.

Yesterday while trying to figure out how to keep in touch with a close friend who is moving to NYC, it came up that the Shutterfly site I had created to house our family’s pictures was actually only housing my son’s pictures.  When the friend asked if I was on Facebook (which I am but only so I can see the pictures of my son at his daycare provider’s site), I said no, but you can check out our Shutterfly account to see what is going on.  Our friend then told me he only scanned that site because really it was all about baby and there is only so much baby you really need to know about unless you are a parent or other member of family (i.e. grandparent, etc.).  This I completely understand.  I then said well, you can read my Twitter account or my blog, but then I realized I was doing it.

Finding anyway to do social networking without actually joining Facebook full-time.  I know I have my reasons for why I don’t want to be a full-time member, but now that I use my mom’s Facebook password so I can see my sister’s and best friend’s sites for pictures, etc. I am beginning to think I am lame.  Before, I blamed not wanting my entire life out on the Internet, but now there seem to be so many privacy blocky things that the odds of that are slim.  In addition, it appears that if you don’t want to friend someone you just let it sit there and they don’t know that you are avoiding them.  Not that I am an avoider at all.

Now, I am totally confused.  It is a little like getting another tattoo.  I think that I want one, but am not completely sure.  If I go for it, it is on my body forever.  If I fully embrace Facebook, whatever comes from that site is there forever.  Right now, forever still seems like a really long time.