Good-bye, 2008.

Because my schedule is completely booked with fun, VIP parties for New Year's Eve tomorrow night, I might not get to post. Actually, that's a lie. I currently have a 100% free New Year's Eve, with a vague prospect of getting together with people and doing something and maybe eating some food. I like to ring in the new year with style, obviously. 

...In all truth, I'll probably start 2009 by switching between Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and making snide comments about whoever is performing on the MTV New Year's special. I might also drink some champagne and say, "Ew. This is yucky!" 

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my 2009 Resolutions, which are more like guidelines rather than rules. In no particular order:

1. Run a marathon, all things permitting.
2. Be a nicer person and say fewer snarky things. (I always say this and usually fail. Crap.)
3. Continue to work towards overall health in regards to fitness, nutrition, and body image.
4. Do speed work and get faster. 

Okay, so those were mostly running-related in some way and kind of boring. In short, I want to be a nicer, healthier, and faster person...who is also a marathoner.

Yesterday, Mom and I visited with a family friend and her daughter Paula [who I know reads this blog]. She made this cool stew of leftovers--turkey, stuffing, green beans, gravy--you name it! I think it was a Paula Dean recipe, minus the obligatory 15 sticks of butter. (I like beurre, ya'll!) This leftovers concoction is apparently called "Stoup" (Stew+soup?), which makes me laugh. Despite its hilariously unappealing name, stoup is delicious.

 

I shared the Christmas running cheer by presenting Paula with her very own pair of "snot gloves" so she, too, can partake in the joy of crusted mucus on terry cloth. Oooh, the joy!

Today,  I ended up running in the late afternoon because I didn't have my shoes at the boyfriend's house this morning. My right shin is pretty tight when I run, so I should make sure to stretch it well. My fancy Garmin reports that I covered 4.17 miles with a pace of 9:18 minutes/mile. That seems too fast given my perceived rate of exertion, but maybe I am just terrible at guessing how fast I'm going. The boyfriend says I should stop second-guessing the Garmin's accuracy, and given how much those things cost, I should have a little faith in modern technology and in my own physical ability. In that case, hooray! I'm faster than I thought!

Tonight, Mom and I saw Slumdog Millionaire which was really enjoyable. (It's about a kid from the slums of Mumbai whose life experiences lead to his unprecedented success on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.) We were going to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I had been dragging my heels ever since I learned that it is two hours and 48 minutes long. Movies should not be this long; it allows for sloppy editing and self-congratulatory filmmaking. Fortunately, I didn't have anything negative to say about Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, I highly recommend all two hours of it. 

I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve. Don't forget--there is still plenty of time to throw together a fun shin-dig and then invite me! You can most likely find me in Richmond, VA, wearing dirty sweatpants and watching episodes of LOST. 

What are your resolutions for 2009 and how do you plan to ring in the New Year? 

Where have I been? Getting fat.

I apologize for my three-day absence from the blog-o-sphere. I have been shuttling back and forth between my mom's house and the boyfriend's parents' house, so it has been a bit difficult to blog. (I left my laptop in Illinois. Bad decision.) I've been keeping myself busy, so in the interest of time and concision, here is a bullet-style post:

• Christmas was awesome. Mom and I made cheese-biscuits and enjoyed the morning together. Then we went to a late lunch at my aunt's house with the family. Then I spent the evening with the boyfriend and his family. 
• Christmas continued into the 26th when we celebrated with Mom's boyfriend Steve and his family. His step-granddaughter Bella, who is 5 (or 6 or 7. I can't remember.) saw a picture of me in my first 10K. She asked, "Did you win?" I said, "No" and explained that somebody from Africa probably won. 
• I did not run on Christmas day as I had planned. Whoops. I did walk the dog with Mom.
• I got a myriad of lovely presents including a yogurt maker from the boyfriend and the Miss Dior Chérie perfume from my mommy. I smell so pretty, and once I start eating homemade yogurt, my insides will look so pretty too. (Actually, they're still going to look like yucky insides.)
•  I've been running for the past three days, and I've also tried out my new Garmin Forerunner 405. It is awesome, if not a little scary, to have such an advanced piece of instrumentation strapped to my wrist as I huff and puff down the streets. I'm pleased to report (with accuracy to 34 feet) that I have run sub-10:00 miles the past two days. Hurrah! 
• The weather has been in the 60's the last two days. (Is that you, global warming?) Given these unseasonably high temperatures, I've been able to try out my new running skirt, which makes me feel so pretty. Now, I just need to get fast so I can zoom by people in it!
• We hung out with my high school/college friends Tina and her boyfriend Ben last night. Our friend Steggy (Actually, his name is Andrew.) came along too. We watched The House Bunny, which was stupidly hilarious. "The eyes are the nipples of the face!"
• Last night, some shithead kid in the boyfriend's subdivision egged my car while I was driving past. In lieu of getting out and pounding his sorry ass into the pavement, I called the police and then fumed about the evils of entitled children. Kid, in the off chance you read this, if I see you in Salisbury, I will spew out such vile verbal abuse in your direction that your pathetic, pre-teen ears are going to bleed and fall off. Also, the boyfriend is going to sit on your face and hopefully fart on it until the police arrive and serve you a steaming plate of justice.
• Because I ran moderately fast (for me) yesterday, I only did a six-mile "long" run this morning. Oh well. The training program called for five or six miles this week, so at least I'm not behind schedule, right? 
• The boyfriend, his mom, my mom, and my step-mom all went to visit a local Havana Silk Dog breeder to see if they're the breed for us. It was really fun to see eight adorable and hairy little dogs vying for our attention and lap space. That said, I might hold off on a dog until I make good and sure that I can be the most responsible and deserving owner possible. 
• The boyfriend and I finally got around to registering for the Illinois Half-Marathon. We're committed now, baby!
• We also watched the first three episodes of Lost: Season 4. Every year, we buy the past season on DVD and watch from start to finish. I really don't think the show would hold my attention otherwise, but it's a great way to spend winter break.

I think that about catches things up in regards to my recent activity. Except for one minor issue: I cannot stop my bad habit of compulsively snacking (and over-eating). I can tell that I putting on weight, which I worked quite hard to take off this past semester. Obviously, this is a diet-related problem since I am maintaining my usual mileage of about 25 miles per week. I need to concentrate on getting my snacking under control and eating smaller portions. Do you have tips for healthy eating and managing portion sizes or for weight loss/management in general? If so, I'd love to hear them. I am in need of help like whoa! 

Alright, that sounded slightly desperate, so I will take that as a sign that it is time for bed. Have a great night, all!

Starting Christmas early

It's 12:40am, which is technically Christmas morning. However, I don't think it's Christmas until I wake up wide-eyed (READ: bleary-eyed) and race (READ: stumble) down the stairs in search of presents.

Now that I'm older, I've discovered that Christmas Eve is less exciting and more of just a normal day. Since it was a normal day, I went for a run around the city. My route took me by my college roommate Tina's new condo, and I seriously considered stopping and screaming "Tina Chern-face hobag!" until she came out to see me. Fortunately, we were both saved this embarrassment because as I ran by her condo, I happened to see her butt sticking out the passenger side of her car. (Apparently, she was rooting around getting her groceries out of the back seat.) We talked some, and I pretended to stretch by banging my outstretched foot against the pavement a few times. Tina's such a fancy runner now; I wish I could be as fast as she is!

The rest of my run was okay. It was somehow in the high 50's when I went out for my run (Sorry, Dan), but stupidly, I wore plenty of technical gear and capri-length tights. I was fairly sweaty by the time I got back to the house, which the boyfriend made of point of telling me. ("Ew! You're so sweaty. I don't know how you get so sweaty!") Whatever. I smell great after runs, fo' sho'. They should bottle my sweat and make it into a perfume, or rather, an eau de parfum. 

I did some last-minute Christmas shopping for Mom, and then I got my hair cut. I have been talking about this damned haircut for several days now, but I only get it done about twice a year, so it's a big deal. I usually go and ask for something fairly conservative and easy, and somehow, the stylist screws it up. Then I come home and stomp around, yelling about incompetent hairdressers and swearing that I will never get my "f*cking hair" cut ever again.

...Fortunately, this didn't happen today. I had a great stylist who did exactly what I wanted--gave me a good haircut. She also didn't force me into a lot of needlessly chatty conversation, which worked well with my misanthropic demeanor.

Tonight, I had dinner with all my parents: Mom, Dad, stepmom Pat, and Mom's boyfriend Steve. It was good fun with plenty of tasty food. (Fortunately, no Christmas cookies were present.) After dinner, we drove around the city looking at all the pretty Christmas decorations and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. I'm so very lucky to have divorced parents who don't hate each other. It makes holidays much easier and much more enjoyable. 

I'm also very lucky that Dad and Pat read my blog. We exchanged some gifts tonight, and I am the proud new owner of a Garmin and cute running gear. I'm very excited. Thanks, Dad & Pat!

Another really great Christmas gift came via the Interweb tonight: an A- in Old French. Thank goodness. I was seriously thrilled to see that grade considering the quality of my final paper. As they would say in epic poems of the 12th century, cil oisel chantoient lur joie! ("The little birds sang their joy!") And by little, epic demonstrative birds, I really mean myself.

Okay, I better head to bed so Santa will show up. Hopefully, he'll bring me a hammer with lots of tacks. 

 My stinky dog Gryphon and I wish you a very merry (blurry?) Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve!

Bullet-style post!

• Mom and I went to two grocery stores in search of holiday necessities. We got stuck behind an old lady considering all the beef tenderloins, and I ate all the samples in sight.
• I went on a 5+ mile run. It went well, but I got too hot with gloves and a hat on.
• Cousin Rachel came over to make chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious (as always), and hopefully, our family members will enjoy them as presents. 
• Cousin Rachel's boyfriend Daniel and the boyfriend came over to watch Run, Fatboy, Run. (Simon Pegg plays a guy with commitment issues who commits to running a [fictional] marathon as a way to win back his ex-girlfriend.) It was pretty amusing, though it generally made no sense. The boyfriend and I pointed out that the "elites" in the movie marathon were slow and crappy-looking. Oh well, movies can't do everything accurately. Overall, it's a decent movie. There's at least a good fitness montage, which makes everything better. 
• I say this every day over break apparently, but I need to stop snacking and mindlessly eating all the Christmas cookies. I need to eat better and run more. It's an early New Year's resolution!

Speaking of New Year's, everyone else seems to have already planned out their 2009 race schedule. I haven't scoped out the races for the central Illinois area, but I am planning to run:

• the Illinois Half-Marathon on April 11th, 2009! 
  
• I kind of want to run the Monument Avenue 10K, which was the first race I ran. It'd be nice to beat my time (just shy of one hour, 2 minutes) Unfortunately, it's the week before the Half, so I might not want to risk it.
• I'd like to run a full marathon in fall of 2009. It seems like it's about time to make the commitment, but we'll see how the Half goes first. 
• Maybe a 5K, since I've never run one of those. I should probably sign up for one as an incentive to do speed-work and get faster. 

So there are my goals. As for short term goals, it's time to get some sleep! 

Tomorrow, I will attempt to run and then go to my newly rescheduled hair appointment. Then I can show off my new 'do at a small parental gathering. You know--Christmas eve, a time for family...and personal vanity!

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!

Blogging every few days is difficult because I have so much to catch up on!

Yesterday, I ran eight miles with a couple stops to stretch and, uh, breathe. It was disappointing to stop, but I am trying not to let it bother me. It was good to run around the neighborhood. I discovered they're opening a take-out Indian restaurant near my house. I love Indian food, though not right before a run, because it's so spicy! When I worked at an Indian restaurant, the chef once told me that a good vindaloo burns on the way in and on the way out. Isn't that lovely? 

I had been debating doing a shorter Sunday run, but I decided to commit to all eight miles because Sunday night was Hanukkah dinner at my aunt and uncle's house! Cousin Rachel, her boyfriend Daniel, my cousin Josh, his girlfriend Michelle, the boyfriend, and I all went over for delicious Hanukkah food. It was a lot of fun, like a pre-cursor to Christmas gatherings with a neat Jewish twist. (Potato latkes? Yes, please!) It was really great to have a small-ish family gathering and get to talk to the cousins and my aunt and uncle, who are very nice and very funny. Sadly, I left my camera in Illinois, so I don't have any pictures. You're just going to have to take my word that this event actually happened.

Between stuffing my face with delicious holiday food and then committing to doing better, I've been doing Christmas shopping. In years past, I've really enjoyed shopping for Christmas, but grad school apparently has made me into a misanthrope. I hate crowded stores and dealing with people. Actually, I think I'm just stressed about having to do the majority of my shopping in the last few days before Christmas. Mom, who feels more or less the same way about shopping, managed to get a big chunk of it done with me this afternoon, but I had to go back out later and finish up some things. When I finally got home, I was half-frozen and 75% dead. At least we're not in Champaign, where yesterday's high was a whopping 3 degrees. 

Fortunately, I think I'm done with the shopping; tomorrow is cooking! (Cousin Rachel is coming over to bake cookies with me!)

[To answer your question, Dan, I most definitely make cookie monster noises when I eat cookies. In fact, the boyfriend calls me a cookie monster.]

On a random note, my on-sale running skirt came today. Good thing it's going to be several months until I can show off my pasty legs in it! Maybe I'll wear it for the half-marathon, and everyone will say, "Did you just see Tyra Banks run by? She looks hot in that running skirt...and also...weirdly short...and Asian. Hm."

Tonight, I watched "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" with Mom and her boyfriend Steve, who hadn't seen it. I really prefer this version (the Johnny Depp one) to the old one because Willy Wonka doesn't get angry in the new version. Also the lines are funnier, and the Oompa Loompas are ethnic! And most importantly, I am allergic to old movies, so I almost always prefer the new versions of anything. 

While we were watching the movie, my dog Gryphon kept letting off the stinkiest farts imaginable. Apparently, only I am sensitive to the horrible stench that was silently erupting from my dog's derrière, but it was really bad, especially while I was watching a movie about chocolate delectables. I finally told him to go sit in the hallway and complained to Mom that he was gassing us out. She sheepishly admitted that she had fed him all the raw broccoli stalks when she made stir-fry for dinner. Gross.  

Tomorrow's plan is to wrap presents like a mad woman, go for a run, make cookies with Cousin Rachel, and get my hair cut. I'm going to go get started on wrapping now. Wish me luck!

If you give a Mica a cookie...

...she will, without a doubt, DEVOUR IT!

Seriously, I love cookies, and December 21st seems like a perfectly good time to consume them all. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work well with my plan to start 2009 without looking like a giant butterball. Therefore, starting right now, I have to stop eating every Christmas cookie that crosses my path. 

(I'd like to mention that I'm watching Love Actually on Mom's new obscenely large HD TV, and the boyfriend is laughing his ass off at it, particularly the octopus costume.)

In good news, we were really lucky to get out of Illinois yesterday. A lot of the flights were canceled in O'Hare, but ours was only delayed by 25 minutes (which gave me enough time to eat McDonald's vanilla ice cream cone). Thank you, flight gods. The boyfriend's parents were nice enough to drive two+ hours to come get us and his hairy brother (whom they were predicting would look like "hippie Jesus") from the airport and then drive us home in the fog.

To stretch my tight legs this morning, I went on a 4.5 mile run around the boyfriend's neighborhood. It was in the 40's, but I was somehow still chilly all day. (It was apparently in the 20's in Illinois.) I think I'll have to go for a night time run at some point to see all the pretty Christmas lights. Anyway, my run was surprisingly good given that I sat for 90% of yesterday. Hopefully, my winter break will be filled with plenty of good runs as well as holiday cheer!

Then Dad took us to lunch and told us a story about trying to find a Bible...to scare away proselytizers. Yup, Dad, you're the only person I know who'd look for a Bible to spite people. :) Aha!

("That kid's awesome," said the boyfriend about the drumming 10-year-old in the finale of Love Actually.)

 

Apparently, Oxygen (the channel that is showing Love Actually) only got perfume ads to run during the movie. Have you seen the Dior Chérie ad? Sofia Coppola directed it, and she makes Paris look so romantic, airy, and light. (Mwahaha, I know better. I ran all sweaty through these same places!)

...I feel like a fool. I've been duped by the Man into wanting something I haven't even smelled! Maybe I'll go smell it tomorrow...

Ding, dong! The witch is dead! And by "witch", I mean "semester". I finished with everything yesterday morning, which is awesome. It feels unreal to be on winter break finally, with no classes to punch in the face. (Okay, I might have to punch grades in the face once they show up.) I didn't post last night because I was running around packing for my long trip home today. Here's another "bullet style" post:

• There was/is an ice storm in central Illinois, so I'm a bit worried about travel. First, we take a bus to Chicago and then fly out of O'Hare, which will probably be backed up until next Christmas. I'm not concerned about delays because I no classes to worry about, but unfortunately, we're flying into Baltimore where the boyfriend's parents are picking us and his brother up. Hopefully, a delay doesn't screw things up.
  
• THANK YOU so much for your words of encouragement yesterday. The Arabic exam went pretty well, I think. (?) I don't know what it is about Arabic, but they always make us learn the most useless vocabulary. Here are things I can say in Arabic:

1. The economy will improve (God Willing!) under our new president Obama.
2. The Arab world has many problems in regards to its wars, cultural conflicts, and women's rights.
3. I liked roasted chicken.
4. Charles Darwin wrote a theory about evolution. (When we learned this one, our professor went off on a rant about how we are NOT descended from monkeys and that Darwin had made up his theory. Um...)

• My exam was at 8am, so I had to run in the afternoon. I was really considering skipping the run, but then I remembered that I'd left a bag of apples in my office fridge. I didn't want them to rot, so I ran to campus (2 miles from my apartment), threw the apples away, and ran home. It was icy and sandy and snowy on the roads. Ick.
  
• I hosted a French department get-together last night at the apartment with the boyfriend and Dan. We made "puppy chow" (Chex mix with chocolate, butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar) that I ate entirely too much of. It was the perfect start to winter break, even if we all were complaining about the impending ice storm of doom.

Okay, I have to go get ready for my day of travel. Crap. The boyfriend just got into the bathroom first. That's what I get for blogging in the morning.

Thank you all again for reading my blog/writing your own blog/leaving comments. It has helped/distracted me enormously during the end of the semester.

We're done...sort of!

Just my Arabic final and editing my paper to go. THANK GOD!

Exams take a toll on our personal appearances. No joke.

I'll catch up on blogs tomorrow. Mwah!

Punch Linguistics in the face!

It's 2:30am, and I have been working for a long time on a final. My furious scribbling looks like this:


On to happier topics, like the weather! It was quite chilly when I woke up this morning:


Fortunately, I didn't run today because Mondays are off-days. I tried to go to the Monday step aerobics class, but apparently, I'm terrible at catching the bus. I stood at what I thought was the right stop, only to have the bus switch lanes and drive right past me on the other side of the street. Dumb bus. Then I slipped on some ice and fell. (I caught myself, no worries.)

The good news about this cold weather is that I got to pull out my cool unicorn hat that my friend Catherine gave me:

I put on sunglasses...for no reason at all.

I tried two new recipes today: cranberry sauce and black bean soup. Instead of boring you with details, here are pictures and relevant haikus:

I made black bean soup.
It was hot in my tummy.
Much chili powder!

Twelve ounces berries
Ginger, three-fourths cup sugar
Juice of one-half lime.

Beer bread with wheat bran
And some Coors Light from the fridge
Where did that come from?

Seriously, beer bread is stupid-easy to make, so I will share the recipe with you:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 12 oz. beer (Flavor of your choosing)
• A couple tablespoons of wheat bran (optional, but it makes you poop more!)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix briefly. The dough will be lumpy and moist and yeasty-smelling. Grease a 9x13 baking pan and pour the lumpy dough into it. Place this in a cold oven and then turn the heat to 375F. Bake for one hour. (If you want, you can brush butter on the top of the loaf around the 30-minute mark, but I don't do this.)

Okay, time for bed. I hope I dream up the answer to this stupid last question.

POOP on my leeks!

This morning, I had all intentions of going on a relaxing Sunday long run, but I didn't quite make it. In short, I had a pretty bad run. I haven't had a really bad run in a long time, so I got very disheartened and almost broke down and cried in the middle of the sidewalk. (It didn't help that the sky was cloudy and gray and that I was running in the ugliest part of town.) I even had to stop a few times! Here are things that I blame on my sub-par run:

• Running slightly faster than normal yesterday with the training group
• Lots of wind, like gusts around 35mph
• Tired legs from kickboxing yesterday
• Bad attitude
• Ugly scenery

Fortunately, I didn't cry, and I also didn't break down mid-run and buy myself a holiday pie from Perkins restaurant. Wouldn't that have been a sight to behold? A snotty-faced runner crouched on the sidewalk, eating pie and being blown around by the gale-force winds.

I was pretty grouchy about my pathetic five-miler when I got back, but then I watched Food Network and felt better. I also made some really tasty oatmeal with crunchy peanut butter, honey, chopped Craisins, and milk. Sadly, the picture doesn't do it justice:


I spent most of the day putting off my Linguistics take-home by watching television, doing some light apartment cleaning, and picking cheese out of my teeth. (Ew, gross. I know.) Cheese is icky. (But don't worry Dan, I would totally love to host a wine and cheese party with you!)

Eventually, I got off my bum and went with the boyfriend and Dan to Meijer for weekly grocery shopping. We're all leaving on Friday for our respective homes, so the grocery bill was light this week ($35)! After some old lady cut us off in the check-out line, we went to the Scan-Yourself option. I am terrible at scanning my own groceries, usually because I have a ton of produce. This week was no exception, and the prison guard (I mean, check-out supervisor lady) had to come help me twice.

Having finally scanned all of my groceries and sent them unceremoniously down the conveyor belt, I was slightly distressed to hear that ther organic leeks had poop on them! Dan and the boyfriend were standing at the end of the line, huddled over my sad bag of leeks, pointing at what looked like a clump of poop.


We spent a good deal of the car ride home talking about poop on leeks as well as the non-merits of organic groceries. The boyfriend is particularly angry about the pitiful shelf-life of organic bananas. He was also pretty disgusted by the possibility of fecal matter on our produce. Then we giggled for a long time about:

• "leek poops"
• "poop leeks"
  
• "poopy leeks"
• "leeky poops"

...because we are five-years-old. Good news, though! The "poop" was actually clumps of dirt! I even put some on my finger and smelled it.

For dinner, we went to a local Japanese restaurant called Kamakura. It was our first time trying it out, and it seemed to do a good job with its sushi. The idea of sushi in the mid-West cracks me up because we ain't near no oceans! Nevertheless, the boyfriend vouched for the quality of the sushi, and I was pleased to find that they had mochi ice cream. I love mochi ice cream. It is so delicious. (Jordan, shut up about me being such a Korean!)

What's your favorite dessert? I really like ice cream and cake, but I hate cheesecake. The boyfriend likes brownies and cinnamon rolls.

Okay, I think I'm going to give up on looking over my linguistics exam tonight and join the boyfriend on the couch for some Food Network viewing. Seasons eatings, all!

[In other news, my HBBC total is now 22 points. Ugh, I am lagging behind!]

Self-loathing Saturday

The title of today's post is misleading; my day was not entirely consumed by a feeling of self-loathing. I did many productive (non-school) things today.

First, I got myself up at the ass-crack of dawn. Actually, it was 6:45am, but that was early enough to make me feel nauseous as I checked e-mail and ate rice cakes and apples in a half-hearted attempt to wake up. Alright, maybe I felt some self-loathing at this point.

By 8:00am, I was yawning in the midst of the half-marathon training group at the local running store. We did an easy first run today: a one-mile warm-up with three miles at our "goal pace". I ran with the coordinator/mentor Jan, who maintained a 10-minute pace, which is more or less my goal. Jan is a really amazing person; she went to the Olympics for field hockey and started running in the 9th grade, which makes her a pioneer of women's running. She qualified for Boston, but pregnancy got in the way of running it. And also, she knows Katherine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.

The 10-minute pace felt good. I felt like I was running with more effort than usual, but I didn't have any difficulty. Also, there was a ton of wind. I think my body just needs to learn what it feels like to set a pace. Unfortunately, I'm still plagued by a tout petit pain in my left arch. Jan suggested an ibuprofen and icing regimen, so I'll start that tomorrow...once I get ice and ibuprofen.

After the run, I came home and collapsed in front of Food Network. Then I went to kickboxing class with Jessica and Dan, which was quite challenging...like every week. Sadly, this was my last Saturday kickboxing class of the semester. I guess I'll just have to jab and punch in my room at home over break.

Now onto the true self-loathing. I convinced my dear friend Sean to go see Twilight with me, even though I didn't even like the four abhorrent and terribly-written books. As for the film adaptation, I'm a sucker for being spoon-fed media by the Man, particularly escapist fantasies. (High School Musical 3, anyone?)

Not to belabor any points made already by more eloquent people, but Twilight sends a terrible message to young girls. Not that I go scouting out popular media for themes of female subjugation, but Stephenie Meyer apparently took a page out of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and employs the subtlety of a sledge hammer. The main character is a whiney, one-dimensional girl who spends 80% of the four books babbling incoherently about how she is not worthy of her equally one-dimensional vampire boyfriend.

Also of note: there is a distinct lack of sexy sex, which is what I was expecting from a series about hot vampires who sparkle in the sunlight, have infinite amounts of money, and pleasant body odor. In fact, the third and fourth books center around the theme of abstinence until marriage and then, my favorite topic of all: teen pregnancy. Awesome. What's not to love about that?

...so, suffice to say, I had an internal struggle as I bought tickets to see Twilight. Fortunately, the movie doesn't allow any of the characters to develop, so we are saved the incessant whining of the protagonist and are instead served a steaming hot plate of stilted dialogue. Sean found the movie equally amusing, which made up for the 12-year-old behind me who loudly pointed out every discrepancy between the book and the movie.

I think my favorite part of Twilight is that the characters always look constipated and/or EXTREMELY PENSIVE:


There are plans for an unfortunate sequel, so I decided to come home and practice my intense faces:


I'd make a pretty excellent vampire obviously. And I don't loathe myself for seeing Twilight. I'm just going to run extra hard tomorrow to cleanse my system of it. :)

Old French: Bad for personal hygiene.

The Old French exam is done. What a glorious freakin' day! I put off posting last night because I wanted to get to bed early (and because I was stomping around the apartment in a huff that I forgot to deliver Julie's birthday cookies), so tonight's post is super happy! The exam was difficult, but more importantly, it is over, and I didn't blank on any questions. It must have been the Harvard shirt that I wore for good luck:


This morning, I was in such a rush to get to the office by 9:30 to study, I think that I somehow forgot to brush my teeth. I'm not entirely sure that I forgot, but I spent most of the bus ride blowing air into my face, trying to smell my own breath. Fortunately, my other office-mate (the non-Julie one) Jenny had gum to save me. Thanks, Jenny (not that you read this) for being so on top of things!

Speaking of Julie, she liked the cookies than Dan and I made. (They were chocolate chip! Mmm!) Who doesn't like cookies with two sticks of butter?


She even wrote us a nice "thank you" e-mail:

Thanks for the cookies, there are delicious, i loved them! I hope you have not screwed up your old french exam! I want feedbacks!:-) See u Julie

After the exam was over today, I went insane and babbled to everyone I could find in the hallway and had a dance party in one of the other offices.

When I got home, I tried my new recipe of the week: Rachel Ray shepherd's pie minus two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil. The recipe makes a freakin' truckload of shepherd's pie. I thought it was odd that with 2.5-lbs. of sweet potato and 2-lbs. of ground turkey, the yield was four servings. I won't be trying one of her recipes again, mostly because I am morally opposed to Rachel Ray and her abrasive voice.

I forgot to take a "before" picture. That dish looks terrible,
but it was fairly tasty, I swear.

We have a ton of leftovers. Feel free to come over for decent shepherd's pie.

(The boyfriend wants everyone to see that he is wearing his cool house slippers with his boxers.)

On Thursday, to recap:

• I bought a running skirt for $12! Good thing I won't be able to wear it for another four months.
  
• My total so far for the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge is a whopping nine points. Aha.
  
• I went with the boyfriend to the Physics department 14th annual talent show. Words cannot describe it, or as we say in Old French: "Ne puet le dire de boche" (or something equally nonsensical and confusing.)
• I ran four miles in the morning, and my quads took back the three minutes that I shaved off my faster run on Wednesday. Crap.
  
• My hat got streaks of condensation again:

Tomorrow is our first training run for the Half training program. The coordinators sent out an e-mail saying that we will be doing a "goal pace" run of 2-3 miles. I don't know what kind of goal pace to set. It is unrealistic to shoot for sub-2 hours, so maybe I'll aim for under 2:10. The coordinators also said that they will be handing out our first schedule to cover the next four weeks. There are apparently two: three or four days per week. I think I'll probably take the four-day schedule and continue running five days per week, since it has been working for me. Any thoughts?

Sadly, I didn't get to see Twilight tonight because Rachel Ray's damn recipe took much longer than 30 minutes. I watched a lot of TV. After that, I watched a lot of music videos and marveled at how strong Beyoncé and Britney Spears' thighs are. Yeah, I'm a creeper. Hopefully, I can see the movie tomorrow...

Sorry that this didn't make a whole lot of sense. What can I say? OLD FRENCH IS OVER!

Cookies > Studying

I didn't post last night because I was up late talking to my carbon copy, aka Dan:


Last night, after we revised some translations for the Old French exam on Friday with Rebecca, Dan and I went to Meijer (everyone's favorite non-Walmart box store) to buy cookie supplies. Also, Dan bought chicken nuggets, a Snickers, Skittles, and cream of chicken soup. Anyway, Julie, my office mate, had a birthday celebration last night, which sadly, we could not attend. In lieu of fête-ing with her, we made her delicious chocolate chip cookies containing two sticks of butter. We also gave some to the boyfriend who is sore from playing broomball with his department-mates.

I've had a theory brewing for awhile that Dan and I are, more or less, the same person. After driving us to Meijer and observing our ADD, compulsive shopping tendencies, the boyfriend validated the authenticity of my theory. Here are just a few ways in which Dan and I are similar:

• We like chocolate with almonds. ("Ew, no. False!" says the boyfriend.)
• We both went straight from undergrad to grad school, which many people say is a bad idea.
  
• If we had to pick, Asian would be our favorite type of food.
• We exercise compulsively (Okay, Dan moreso than me.) and monitor things like body fat percentage. (This isn't really that unique, but in the eyes of the department, we are sportif/sportive!)
  
• We get distressed if our baked good turn out unaesthetically pleasing.
• We are clearly both hilarious, attractive super-geniuses. A-duh!

I was seriously worried that before I came here that I wouldn't make any friends in the department. Fortunately, the department is awesome, and there are a lot of really fun and cool people. And not only have I made friends, I found myself. Here's to you, Dan!

In other news, yesterday was the last day of class. Hurrah...now, exams. Boo.

Also, I ran for the first time in two days yesterday. My arch still feels odd, but I'm going to try to run on it again since my stride isn't affected. In good news, I tried to run faster and shaved three minutes off my 5-mile time. That gives me hope that I can get down to below 10-minute miles for the half-marathon. Sunday is the first group training run, and we're going to work on "goal pace" runs. Whoops, I already did one.

I'm going to go run and study for Old French tomorrow. (TERRIFIED.) More posting later!

Presents!

I feel terrible that I have taken two days off from running in a row. Normally, I try not to let this sort of thing happen, but it seemed like my body was sending warning signals my way. Hopefully, my sedentary behavior will pay off tomorrow with a pain-free arch during my morning run.

I got packages today, which always makes me super-happy. First, when I got home from my last linguistics class of the semester, I had a big box waiting outside the apartment door. It was my Christmas present from Ashley:

It's a doormat made to look like the finish line of a race. (A race on astro-turf, apparently.) This present means a lot to me because Ashley doesn't approve of running at all, ever, in any circumstances. Generally, when I discuss running with her, she reminds me that marathoners poop on themselves. So thanks, Ashley, for approving of my hobby enough to send me a related Christmas present! I didn't put it outside the apartment for fear of someone ganking it, but now, it's sitting right inside the door where we keep our running shoes! Perfect!

I went to the UPS center at 4:30 to pick up my second package. First, though, I had to wait in line while a couple brought in 67 identically-wrapped boxes of peanut brittle. Oh, the holidays. Anyway, this package was my pair of YakTrax to review, though our snow and ice is MIA at the moment. I'm still pretty amazed that anyone at all values my opinion and judgment since I obviously live in la-la land and fake-world (=grad school). In lieu of going for a run in these babies to try them out, I took pictures:

The package looks like a book.

I noted the French. It says "orteils", which means "toes".

I didn't have my shoes handy, so I pretended to be
Hannibal Lecter à la Silence of the Lambs instead.

They also sent free socks. The pink ones are for post-running relaxation. Yay!

Also, I studied for the Old French exam tonight with Dan and Rebecca and adequately frightened myself for Friday's inevitable brain massacre. Oh, goodness. Fortunately, Dan made tater tots, which made everything (even insane 12th century French poetry involving bird lime and molted birds of prey) much better.

Okay, I'm going to go to bed. Last day of class tomorrow, hurray!

Forget December.

As planned, I took this morning off from running, which ended up being a lucky coincidence. Apparently, there was a thin layer of ice on the roads and sidewalks, which made walking and driving difficult. Fortunately, it was warm today--a steamy 41 degrees! My foot still feels funny to walk on, so we'll see how my run goes tomorrow. Oh, great: there's a 100% chance of rain. Maybe I'll take two days to rest poor Mr. Foot.

(Med. student friends, meaning you Sam, any advice for pain in my arch? Am I dying, doctor?)

Predictably, I spent most of the afternoon worrying about the Old French paper and after it was turned in, I focused my attention on the exam on Friday. I really need to leave this class behind me. It's bringing me down, man! The paper is now officially out of my hands, which feels great/frightning. I came home and celebrated by watching three episodes of MTV's Made, which actually made me feel sad and awkward inside.

I did go to Barnes & Noble tonight to buy Christmas cards (er, holiday cards) and the new issue of Runner's World. I should probably just get a subscription instead of paying cover price each month. Anyway, I wanted to get the Edward Gorey Christmas cards, but they were pretty pricey. Thus, I settled for Winnie the Pooh. I'm really excited to send out cards this year. The boyfriend doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm.

Wow! Good news: I just learned how to flip the image on PhotoBooth.

Consider that my Christmas card to you! And if you'd like a real, snail-mail card, please send me your address.

In regards to my goal of cooking one new dish a week, I was sorely tempted to buy a new cookbook tonight. I stopped myself because we already have approximately six bajillion-trillion cookbooks in the apartment, and I rarely use them. When it comes to cooking, I think I'm ADD and need shiny pictures of how the final product should turn out. Text-only books, like the majority of mine, fail to capture my short attention span. Anyway, I'm starting to read Nigella Lawson's How to Eat, which my aunt gave me last year. Ideally, I'll develop some kitchen literacy and learn to use new ingredients. (Chez Micha and Harifon, you can have any meat you want as long as it is boneless, skinless chicken breast or ground beef.)

Alright, I'm off to go muster up plenty of holiday sentiment for my cards. Good night!

I feel light as a feather!

Long story short, my Old French paper is [as] done [as it will be]. I refuse to look over it again lest I find a glaring typo. Instead of boring you with the details, here is an excerpt email thread between me and a classmate who shall remain anonymous:

Anonymous Friend:
"Are you doing 10 full pages of commentary or just like 7 ish + a translation. I can specifically remember walking out of class one day and have her saying that we could include our translation in the 10 pages; but she never said it again after that.

O M F G, I HATE THIS SHIT."

Mica:
"I am heading towards 10 full pages of commentary, which is actually 10
full pages of brain poo-poo. Seriously, I have two pages of
introduction (where I babble liberally about the "tâche du
traducteur") and then some more BS where I talk about the implications
of using one definition over another. To get out the full 10, I am
spending the last 2.5 pages talking about "procédés de traduction" and
how they apply to Old/Modern French.

I don't remember her saying that we could include the
translation in the 10 pages, but I believe you. (Which sucks since
I've spent so long on these last three pages). I decided to go for all
10 because the sample papers seemed to have that much commentary.

If you want to do seven though, I think you should. I bet your paper
is really good and makes plenty of insightful comments in less space.
I'm serious, for real.

UGHGHGAFJDS;AFJDSLA;FJDAS;. Have you done the translation for tomorrow?

After I'm done, I might go insane and run to your house and force you
to make tatertot casserole, in which we can jointly drown our sorrows."

Welcome to my life as a grad student. I am pathetic.

Anyway...

Yesterday, I ran my requisite Saturday four-miler around the country club and then went to kickboxing class with Jessica, Liz, and Dan. I continued in my general trend of uncoordinated flailing, much to my chagrin, and today, I am quite sore.

...The rest of the afternoon was spent in the library...

In funny news, I am endlessly amused by the fact that our electricity bill comes to "Harifon and Micha." I remember clearly spelling out our names over the phone to the power company, but apparently, when faced with the choice between "F" and "S", the phone operator chose the former.

This morning, it was quite cold (3 degrees F) when I woke up. I waited until it was a balmy 8 degrees to go for my run. The boyfriend convinced me that I didn't need any sort of jacket, so I pranced out the door in a long-sleeved wicking shirt with a t-shirt overtop, tights, hat, and gloves. Apparently, this was not enough clothing. Two-thirds into my run, I realized, "Oh shit. I am really cold." and immediately starting worrying that I was getting frost-bite or having a cold-induced stroke (which I don't think exists). Fortunately, I had Ashley's giant Christmas playlist (4+ hours) to keep me going. I covered 8.25 miles, and by the end, my left arch was acting up again. It isn't sharp pain that makes me alter my stride, but it's bothersome nonetheless. I maintain my hypothesis that I strained something in my foot while slipping on an icy patch since subsequent slipping has induced pain. Monday is an off day, but I might take two and hope it clears up.

To celebrate the end of my Old French paper, I said that I would buy something for myself. Honestly, finishing the paper is reward enough, but I may still use it as an excuse to be a shameless consumer whore. Do you ever buy yourself anything around Christmas?

Nevertheless (or Néanmoins, as I just wrote approximately 24890328490327582 times in my paper), I began my Christmas shopping by ordering online. Even though I still have a lot to do in the next two weeks (CRAP! Old French final on Friday!), I can finally acknowledge that it is Christmas season!

I was waiting until I finished my paper to share this holiday picture with you. It seriously never gets old:

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas!

And to liven up this post a bit, here's a PSA that I was in when I was 11, in which I touted the benefits of five fruits and vegetables per day:

Time to buckle down.

Okay, today was mostly uninteresting, so I'm going to do a "bullet-style" post, with bold points for ADD readers.

• It was cold today, like windchill of -1 when I woke up. I proceeded to eat warm oatmeal and wish my left arch were better.
  
• I went to lunch with a friend in the Physics department today and got to see her fancy experiment sample. It looked like computer guts. She explained what it was, and I kind of got it. Mostly, I nodded and smiled because in my experience, that is a great way of showing that you are interested and pretending that you understand.
• Only three more days of class left, which is broken down as follows: 1 Arabic, 2 French structure, 1 Old French, 1 Linguistics.
  
• While in the library today doing research for Old French, I discovered that all my classmates are worried about the paper. Good thing that I am not the only one. Big sigh of relief.
  
• My goal for the coming weeks is to cook one new dish each week so as to improve and expand upon my culinary repertoire. Also, I'd like to be able to post pictures of the tasty food I make like all the cool food bloggers.
• I was looking through my iPhoto library today and came across this picture of me and my friend Catherine from second year of college, when we used to run late at night. Coincidentally, this picture was taken EXACTLY three years ago, to the day. Do you like the cool headband that I ganked from my mom?
  

Ah...memories.

Okay, I have to go to bed. I'm sorry that this post isn't very interesting. Hopefully, things will be looking up tomorrow.

My hips don't lie...or do they?

I would like to start out this post by a scientific assessment of our weather today: IT IS COLD AS BALLS.


My run was quite chilly this morning. When I got back, the boyfriend got a kick out of my hat, which apparently had streaks of condensed water from the heat radiating off of my hot head. (I'm a hot-head, get it?) It must have been all that grad student thinking that I was doing on my run...

Good thing tomorrow is a day off. It is going to be quite chilly in the morning, but more importantly, I need to rest my foot. Today, I started getting pain in my left arch (back towards the heel). Because I am a hypochondriac, I immediately envisioned the worst possible situation: plantar fasciitis. Fortunately, I was able to reel in my thoughts of sinews collapsing in my arch and logically hypothesize that my feet have been doing extra work this week to compensate for slippery surfaces and ice patches all over the sidewalk. I think the slipping changes my step and pulls things in directions they don't want to go. I guess I could ice my foot like I did the last time this happened a few years ago. But why go buy a bag of ice and a bucket when I can just go stand barefoot in the ice bucket that is now my life?

Any advice for arch pain? I'm sure one of you marathoners has had arch pain. Please let your infinite wisdom rain down upon me and my inexperienced arches!

Tonight, we had our kick-off meeting for the Half Marathon training program. It was pretty fun to see all the locals who are coming out to run either the half or the full. The running community seems really excited to host the innaugural marathon, and I'm really excited to be a part of it. The online information made the program sound really hardcore; it said you had to be able to run at least 6 miles by Dec. 13 and have participated in a few 10K's and 5K's. Apparently, that's not true, and the program has lots of beginning runners. I'm excited to be a little "ahead of the curve" so I won't be intimidated as we venture into longer distances.

I also met a really nice fellow university student who asked if we could carpool. She's training for the full, which will be her first marathon. It made me wish that I were running the full, but I think I'll see how the winter is before I commit to 20-milers in sub-0 weather.

We had a few speakers tonight about dressing for winter running. Apparently, some kind of spikes in your shoes is essential for running on the icy roads here in the winter. They also suggested a face-guard (like a ski mask), which I can't quite imagine myself in. I might get a gaiter for my neck and just keep layering. (Note to self: buy more technical long-sleeved shirts.) This winter will be quite an adventure, but as Jack Black said in School of Rock:

You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.

...and that is what I intend to do...sort of.

Runner's World posted today on body fat as an index of overall health. I have one of those impedence scales, which I use to generally monitor my range, but I'm considering taking advantage of the university's health center and getting a real test done. (I think it's the one where you get pinched!) Anyway, RW suggests measuring waist circumference instead of body fat percentage as an indicator of health. There are directions for measuring around your iliac crest, which I determined to be my hip bones. Well, according to the test, I am above the healthy range and should be experiencing health risks associated with high stores of abdominal fat. Aw, hellz no! I don't think so. So, Shakira, your hips may not lie, but mine certainly do.

[Good news! I worked on my Old French paper today by going to the Modern Languages and Literatures library and doing more research for my translation. I plan on going back to the library for the next three days and cranking out that paper. Ahhhh, and then I will probably celebrate by buying myself a pre-Christmas present and going to see "Twilight".]

Oh! While I was home over Thanksgiving break, Mom was nice enough to order me some snow boots to keep my footies warm during a central IL winter. They came in the mail today! I tried them on and promptly clomped all over the apartment, pretending to be a Victoria's Secret model. (I watched the Fashion Show last night, I won't lie.)

(My resemblance to VS Angel Miranda Kerr is uncanny.)

So, Mom, if you're reading this, thanks for my boots. They're very nice, and I think they look cool! (Okay, not with boxers...) Sorry I didn't call to tell you, but it was late by the time I got home.

Alright, bye! Stay warm, everyone!

"Lots of Tacks"

Look! Dad sent me the one picture that proves I was actually running, and not just goofing around, during the race:


I'm not quite sure what step-mom Pat is doing, but I'm going to assume that she's telling everyone that we are "number 1". (Actually, number 898.)

My morning 5.55-miler was fairly difficult today because there were many ice patches all over Champaign. I had to teeter and totter my way around the residential areas (=most of my run), and sometimes, I had to stop and walk. Oh well, I'd rather walk a few steps than bust my head open on the concrete.

The kick-off event for the Illinois Half Marathon Training program is this Thursday at the local running store. I'm very excited about the kick-off party, even though it will be taking away precious minutes from my pre-finals work time.

We hope many of you can join us for this Thursday's Kickoff at Body n' Sole. Jed, Van, Randy, Rob, and the gang will give us the low-down on shoes and tell us how to dress for running in the winter. There will be goodies for everyone---to eat and to take away! (Emphasis added)

That sounds like my kind of party---snacks and swag!

The coordinator just sent out a questionnaire for the 23 participants to fill out. It asks for my training so far and my comfortable pace-per-mile running pace. I don't really know my pace-per-mile, but I guess it hovers between 10 and 10:30. It also asks how many days I can realistically commit to training. I'm going to say five, but I guess I could do six. Five seems good, right? What do all you marathoners do?

I went to the last Korean lunch of the semester today with James. There was kimchi fried rice and mandu (dumplings). James said that he used to eat kimchi fried rice every day for breakfast during high school, and consequently, he got fat. Good thing he had mandatory Korean military service to whip him into shape! I think I'll stick to my oatmeal, thank you. Anyway, he told me that he really wants to get a pair of "tight pants", like the ones I'm wearing my picture. That has to be one of the most unflattering photos of me ever, but he just thought it was great because my "tight pants" are so "fashionable". Aha! Fortunately, he wants his very own pair of "tight pants" for running, not for everyday use.

Ugh, I'm not being as productive as I hoped about this Old French paper. I did go to the English library today though to consult the Anglo-Norman dictionary for words in my translation. I keep thinking that these incremental bits of work will make the final 10-page paper easier to write, but I don't think I'm doing nearly enough. Oh well, it's something. ENOUGH OF THAT.

Here's proof that I'm not being productive enough. I started listening to Christmas songs tonight, one of which was "Up on the Housetop", the Gene Autry version. Every year, I am amused to hear him sing about Little Bill's Christmas presents, which include "a whip that cracks" and best of all, a hammer "with lots of tacks". Poor Little Bill. Little Nell gets a dolly that can open and shut its eyes! Little Bill just get tacks, which are only fun for so long...

Anyway, the boyfriend shares my enthusiasm for this verse of the song, so we sat dancing to it for awhile. Fortunately, the audio uploaded with the video so you can share in the joy of "lots of tacks!"

Tomorrow, my goal is to do at least some kind of run in the morning, when it is supposed to be cold and rainy. Maybe I'll run before Step class, which I missed last week. THEN I WILL WORK ON THIS PAPER. RAWWWRR!

First run-around in the snow.

Before I forget, I'd like to join the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge hosted by Run to Finish, but for some reason, I couldn't access the comment form for the post. Thus, consider this my official entrance application/notification.



After a semi-relaxing Thanksgiving break, it's good to be back in Central Illinois. I guess. It's very cold, and it's snowing "a lot" (by Virginia standards) And, of course, today was back to the scholastic grind, complete with a girl in my French linguistics class enlightening all of us about her "nic[otine] fix." Related to questions of indirect requests and linguistic politeness? Perhaps.

Anyway, I apologize in advance for freaking out about the end of semester. My current to-do list on my desk looks like this:

• ARAB405 paper (DONE)
• ARAB405 presentation (DONE)
• ARAB405 Final (12/18)
• FR416 paper (due during Finals period)
• FR416 presentation (12/8 or so)
• FR416 Final (12/17)
• FR531 paper (due 12/8) <--YIKES
• FR531 Final (12/12) <--YIKES
• LING400 take-home Final (due 12/19)

Looks like I'll be working right up until the very last day of Finals, but fortunately, the Old French paper and exam are relatively early. I have also temporarily quelled some of my fears about the paper by going to speak to the professor today, who encouraged me to "have fun with it". HAVE FUN, DAMMIT! Unfortunately, I interpreted this to mean "Don't worry about the paper until Tuesday!"


Hopefully, running will keep me sane, and heart-burn-/shingles-free for the next two weeks. I really hate walking around in the winter, but I enjoy winter running. Today, it was pretty blowy and snowy in the morning (winds gusting to 28mph), so I got to wear all the essentials: long tights, thermal shirt, jacket, new hat, snot-wiping gloves. The snow made for really pretty running, but the wind made for snowflakes-in-my-eyes. I also realized that for the first time in my life, I'm going to have to actually run through periods of snow and ice, which may or may not involve treacherous sidewalks and roads. This morning's five-miler was a little rough. The sidewalks weren't too icey, but I could feel myself compensating for the snow on the ground. Also, I don't think that two days of sitting on a train did anything good for my legs, so I finished a bit slower than normal today.

Has anyone heard of/used YakTrax? I saw them on someone's blog, and I'm intrigued by the idea of snow-chains for your feet. I'm also wary of weird, rip-off products, so I'd like to get some opinions before I give them a try.

To compensate for my lack of interesting things tonight, I will end with a Facebook wall post from James about my new profile picture (my glamorous Turkey Trot picture):

Mica!!!
This is James.
How have u been???? How was ur thanksgiving break? I miss u!!!kkk
First of all, I should say your profile picture is awesome! Is that you r doing marathon?Hey can we meet tomorrow?
Let's go Korean lunch together and starts tutoirng at 2:30 as always.
Have good night!

Aww, that warms my frozen heart. (P.S. If you're on Facebook, friend me! All the cool kids are doing it!)

Finally, I'm curious as to how so many bloggers get to test or review running products from companies. Is there a list I should get myself on? Should I be shamelessly promoting myself as a semi-media-literate consumer and fairly avid runner/eater? Do I just need to spread the word about this stunningly witty and visually interesting blog? What is the secret to this magic?

A triumphant return to the blog-o-sphere.

Warning: This may be a long post, punctuated with possibly uninteresting photos.

After a 32-hour commute from Richmond, VA to Champaign, IL, I am finally back to a speedy Internet connection and a responsive computer. It's time for blogging and reading blogs, which is good because I was going through withdrawal!

So, starting back where I left off: The Turkey Trot 10K!

The race was at the University of Richmond campus, which has some fairly large hills, a lake with an ornamental pagoda, and apparently, some curious waterfowl. Fortunately, I calmed my nerves by promising to run with my step-mom Pat, which guaranteed me a running buddy. (The last time I ran a race by myrself, I cried. It was great.) The race actually went really well; I would dare to say that it was my best race ever, though my slowest time. (1:12:09 Gun Time) Pat and I started out towards the back of the line, and when we approached the first hill, I braced myself for agony. I was pleasantly surprised that I could run it and all the subsequent hills without difficulty. In fact, I jabbered the whole way about ANYTHING THAT POPPED INTO MY HEAD and unintentionally forced Pat to respond with "uh-huh" and "yeah...mmm" throughout the race. For the first five minutes, I ran screaming, "Tina Chern!!!" hoping in vain that my former roommate would hear me and come running (a-duh) to the sound of my voice. No such luck, but before the first mile, she had sprinted past us after being hung-up at the porto-potties before the gun went off.

My dad was nice/restless enough to walk around the course and meet us at various points to take pictures. A couple of times, we surprised him, and he ended up getting good action shots. (Dad--please send me the photo where I look like I'm running. I need proof that I didn't just stand in place with my eyes closed.) Here's a good one:

The race was four days ago, so I've forgotten the minor details. Most importantly, I felt great during and after the race, which has never happened before. (Must have been all that kickboxing on Saturday mornings.) Pat kept saying, "You can go ahead! You'd be faster without me!", but I think it was really gratifying to finish a race comfortably instead of killing myself and feeling like a failure. At the end of the race, when we rounded the final corner, the boyfriend and Tina were already on the sides cheering us on. I felt so good that I did a bell-kick, but sadly, we didn't get a photo of that. Instead, here are some ones of us in the parking lot, post-race:

^^"The Asian girls"=Me & Tina (with her mom in the background)^^

After the race, the boyfriend and I went to my mom's house to get ready for our TWO Thanksgiving meals. Per tradition, Mom and I watched as much as we could of the Macy's Day parade, which is always rather awkward. (Pop-starlets singing on floats with anthropomorphic snowflakes? Bring it on!) Then we watched the AKC Dog Show, where I always pretend to be a connoisseur of purebred dogs and get really incensed about the "Best in Breed" choices. This year was particularly important because I'm scouting out for a dog that I'd like to own. Though I love French Bulldogs, I am struck by the impracticality of having an unnatural dog riddled with genetic defects. Therefore, I'm looking into a Havanese.

Our first Thanksgiving meal was at the boyfriend's uncle's house. His aunt is Vietnamese so there was plenty of tasty Vietnamese food and lots of Vietnamese chatter that I couldn't understand from her side of the family. I ended up playing with his really cute cousin, talking to the English-speakers, and stuffing myself with fruit and cake. Sadly, no one had a camera, so I felt too awkward to document my first time celebrating Thanksgiving with the boyfriend and his family. (In the past, we've done it separately.)

The second meal was at my aunt and uncle's house, about 45 minutes away from the first event. We got there in time to socialize and be subjects of Dad's photo journaling:

^^Part of the fam-fam, getting ready to eat^^

^^Skater cousin Josh and his girlfriend, Michele^^

^^My uncle (second from right) told us not to smile, so we didn't.^^

^^Cousin Rachel!^^

Cousin Rachel is a vegetarian, very petite, and remarkably in control of her appetite. Hence, her plate looked like this:


Though I'd already had one (albeit small-ish) meal, mine looked like this:


Naturally, after eating, I curled up on the floor in a blanket and looked like this: (Much to the alarm of my family members.)


And then I convinced the boyfriend to get some of this:

...so I could have some.

Ugh, I was so full. Though I managed to Pile On the Miles (83.22)for Bobbi's Challenge, I don't think anything could have saved me from my Thanksgiving eating. But enough about that.

On Friday, after a "recovery" run of three miles and a lovely, home-cooked meal with my mom, the boyfriend and I went to a soirée at roommate Tina's swanky new condo. (Conveniently, it is really close to my house.) Several of my high school friends were there, and it was great to hear what everyone was doing (and not doing) four years later. And read Fail Blog.

On Saturday morning, we began our long journey home from Richmond. We first took the train from Richmond to D.C., where we had a three-hour layover in beautiful Union Station. Fortunately, we were allowed access to the "Acela lounge" for first-class/sleeper-car passengers. It had a place to drop bags, pre-boarding privileges, free snacks and drinks, newspapers, comfy seating, television, Christmas decorations, and even a perplexing bowl of tiny rocks:

On our long leg of the trip (D.C. to Chicago), we had a roomette, which lived up to its pleasingly diminutive name: it is actually a tiny room that somehow converts itself into a two-bed affair. For example, here I am next to the "closet":


Being in first class is AWESOME. Our meals were included, as was "turn down" service for our room, coffee and juice, a shower, etc. Not to mention that somehow, despite Amtrak's consistent lateness, this leg of the trip arrived ten minutes early into Chicago's Union Station. I am tempted to shell out the extra dough for future long train trips. I just feel so special!

Sadly, our eight-hour layover in Chicago was not as fun. The weather was miserable (cold rain/snow and wind), so we barely ventured outside of the station. I ended up sitting and reading the entire time, so I got through In Defense of Food and French Women Don't Get Fat.

The former is very eye-opening and interesting. The latter is somewhat eye-opening but mostly irritating. I can see how the lifestyle described by the book would keep French women from getting fat, but it would also keep them from getting very fit either. Also, the book encourages getting the freshest and most expensive ingredients known to man, and on a grad student budget, that is not happening. Oh well, I will try to ignore the frustrating parts and utilize the helpful bits (like drinking lots of water and savoring good food). It's not like someone's holding a gun to my head and demanding that I import the finest French peaches.

When we finally arrived in Champaign, we were greeted by the first real snowfall of the season, which we promptly had to scrape off the car so that we could go to Meijer and buy horrifically un-organic and non-French groceries (Quelle horreur!).



I have decided against decorating for Christmas yet because I have so much to do in the coming weeks. (Blog entries may suffer.) I am more worried about the end of the semester than I have been in a very long time, so I'd rather not enjoy the Christmas season before I am in the clear. That said, please keep posting about your Christmas preparations; it may motivate me to finish my freakin' Old French paper ASAP!

On that note, I have got to get some sleep. Sleeper cars are nice, but not as nice as a big, comfy bed!