Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Best Intentions

I was going to go running tonight, I really was. I went Tuesday in the most horrible weather because I knew I wasn't going to be home at a reasonable hour on Wednesday to go running. But I figured today and tomorrow I could go again. Until it started snowing this morning, and it STILL hasn't stopped. It's a damn winter wonderland out there. I heard on the radio today - the only time I got in my car today cuz I decided after that it was better to walk anywhere I needed to go the weather was too scary for driving - I heard that some places are going to get a half a foot of snow. I thought that might be over-exaggeration, but now, I dunno. I do know that it doesn't matter how many inches it is, I'm not going running in that.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

For Lack of a Descriptive Title

For reasons I won't post here, I've been thinking a lot about high school. Really, it's been on my brain since New Years, but tonight as I drove that familiar-but-always-astonishing route down Lakeshore Drive and out of the city these thoughts have returned. I wish I could more succinctly put my thoughts together, but even after a whole commute home it still hasn't come to me. It's about high school, but it just as much is wrapped up in ideas of identity and change.

How much can someone really change? What characteristics of one's personality are unchangeable? In eight years, how much has changed? And if you are still around the same people, is it really possible to change? This is just a theory, and I'll use "I statements" to keep this from being overly symbolic or metaphorical or for anyone thinking I'm talking about anyone in particular, because I swear to goodness I am not, but: if I am always around the same people, won't they always expect the same results from me? If I have changed, is it possible for friends and family to expect that, or will they want you to act as you always did? And reversely, do I feel the need to act the same around those people, do I fall into the same role because that's what I expect of myself when I'm around them? How am I to change? Do you have to go some where else completely to re-invent yourself? And if you do, what do you do when you return? And again, can you really change who you are emotionally and mentally at your core in the first place? New places or new faces, aren't I the same neurotic mess no matter how much I try to deny/change that?

We must change, we must. I know it. I know I am not the same person I was eight years ago. And people all around me keep showing me that they are not the same as they were eight years ago either. But there are some things that seem unshakeable, and why are some things so changeable and some are unshakeable?

This is the journalist/philosopher (my major and minor in college - my degree being something I did not have eight years ago) in me - always asking questions.

Ending on a high school note - I have to give a shout out to Dashboard Confessional - nobody gets high school emo angst like them/him - who helped keep the momentum from the Rock Band jam going. I needed something I could keep playing the drums/steering wheel on as well as scream along to and Dashboard Confessional was the closest thing on my ipod that filled that need (Kings of Leon was a close second, but I don't know all the words to those albums yet.) Another shout out to Strategic Consonants, a up and coming Chicago band that is truly hot and talented. And if you've made it this far - wow, good for you! Night.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

back on again

so I took a week off of running - some said it got to -25 degrees at times last week, and that's just too cold to go running, even by my standards.
Why tonight I decided to join the band-wagon again, who knows. Because the weather is terrible: A winter storm warning, winds at 26 - 37 miles per hour, little tiny flakes of snow and ice hitting your face as it whirls around you. For the first time ever I hated my scarf. All these little particles of white ice were stuck to it and then whipped into my face, it was horrible.
Still, I went. It's about two months till my first race, so training must begin!
So:

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
3.0042 miles
14 degrees, feels like -6

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Deflating and Pretending

As I was preparing for my nightly before-bed ritual Tuesday night I sat down on my bed, which suddenly sank really low under me. I own a double-high queen size aero-mattress bed; it turns out there was a small quarter inch hole in the top, and I got really upset because these were the thoughts that came after that realization:

My bed is deflating. I hate that the bed that I own deflates. I am living a life where my bed is deflate-able. This is so sad. When did I buy this? A year ago? Yes, because I was naive enough to take the advice of my now ex-boyfriend, who came up with the idea to buy it. Naive enough to think that the next bed in my life would be bought WITH him. God damn it.

I tried to fix it, but at one o'clock in the morning I was still sinking in my bed, so I gathered up my blankets and moved to the guest room upstairs. ( I spent all day Wednesday trying different things to fix it, including the patches that come with it and did not work. With a little risk-taking with a hot glue gun I had repaired it before bed)

The next day, Wednesday, I'm sitting at a stoplight when the woman in the lane next to me flags me down. I roll down my window and she tells me I have a flat tire. Turns out, she's right. I take into the shop and they tell me they found two nails in it. Not one, but two.
I leave my car at the shop and as my mom picks me up, she notes that things in my life seem to be losing air.
Tell me about it.

It's my 26th birthday tomorrow.
On my 25th, a year ago, I worked that day, and teenage girls made me a microwave pizza with candle in it. I was touched by the pizza thing and all, but over-all, my 25th year wasn't that great.
Which is surprising, because I had really been looking forward to it for most of my life. When my best-friend and I were little I remember we'd play pretend at being 16; because then you could drive. But then we aimed higher, and would play pretend at being 25, because then you'd be able to drive, you'd have a boyfriend, and live in a cool apartment. When I actually did turn 25, I was able to drive, I did have a boyfriend, and an apartment. Also, I had a job. And I was miserable. Just goes to show you, well, goes to show me - you can have everything you always thought you wanted, everything you would pretend to have you can actually have, and you'll still only be pretending to be happy.
As I enter into my 26th year, I can still drive (for the moment), I'm single, I'm living in my parent's basement, and I'm unemployed. I'm extremely stressed about money, and things in my life seem to keep losing air, but I'm hoping that was all about year 25. Year 26 has a whole lot of potential - and I'm not pretending at anything.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

She's Got A Point

A none running blog:

I'm thinking of going off birth control. This is kinda a big decision to me, in that, I have strong feelings that being a responsible potentially sexual active female means you should be on some kind of birth control. And I don't view condoms as birth control. I mean, they are, but I see them more as STD control. He takes care of STD control by using a condom, I take care of birth control by taking a pill. We both do our part.

But to be perfectly honest, the "he" in that equation is purely theoretical at this point. Mostly I'm taking birth control to keep my hormones under control - which doesn't seem to be a plan that's really working - and to cling on to hope that I will need to be responsible and thus be on birth control.

There is no real "need" for me to be on it, and Planned Parenthood ain't as cheap as I think it should be (seriously, they should be able to give that stuff away in my opinion, and I not because I'd like to think I need it, but because other people actually do need it), and it would be interesting to see what would happen to my emotions in a month were they weren't being controlled by a substance.

Here is my real concern with going off the pill though: I have it in my head, probably from some teen magazine I read when I was 17 and years before I actually had sex, that it takes 3 months before birth control (pills) will be at it's most effective. And unless your actually living the Sex and The City life style, which I am not - in many many ways, who knows when they will be having sex next? Let alone if it will be in the next three months! One would like to think, to hope, but who can be certain?

I voiced this last point to my mother today, who had this reply:

"But if you're going to sleep with someone, shouldn't you know them for three months first?"

Got me thinking, the woman has a point....

Friday, January 18, 2008

Excellent

Well, I'm not totally sure how I did it, but I bundled myself up again and went for a run at dusk. Certainly not as windy as yesterday, but still pretty cold. Remarkably, I pushed myself and went further than I've ever gone before; I think. Let's check it out gmap-pedometer and see.... (i'm going to be so mad if it turns out it's not that far...)

Friday January 18, 2008
3.7894 miles
17 degrees F, feels like 2 degrees F

Excellent! Well done me!

It's supposed to drop to below freezing for the weekend, so I'm glad I got this run in (that was pretty much my main motivator in going tonight and not putting it off for tomorrow). Now, I just need to make myself run again on Monday so as not to make the same mistake I did last weekend, which was put it off for too long.

In another news: I called the temp agency, I've got an interview on Monday.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

soooo cooooold

Thursday January 17, 2008
3.3372 miles
"18 degrees F, feels like 0" - weather.com

These miles were especially hard won this afternoon. It is soooo cold outside. I can't believe I even went, let alone went that far. It must have been sheer will, because I didn't just run the course around the high school gaming fields, I ran around the block that holds all those fields. And let me tell you, the wind can ripe across that wide expanse of nothing. Plus my ipod died at the farthest point of the run. I think in the cold it runs out of juice a lot faster.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Back into it and breaking 3

Tuesday January 15, 2008
3.2458 miles

Before today I hadn't run for four days (as you can see from my not having blogged for four days as well). I had to call a friend to ask her to tell me that I should go for a run (thanks Katy). The weather has returned to real winter instead of pretend winter like it was a couple weeks ago, and having fallen off the running wagon I was finding it hard to get back on. But I'm glad I did, because it would only have been worse if I had waited any longer. It was hard for sure for the first mile, but I got into a rhythm and I finally broke over 3 miles. Now, if I can just do it again tomorrow....

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Untitled

Thursday January 10, 2008: 2.8999 miles

A way better run than yesterday morning. Way better.
And I've almost got the perfect running playlist down.

Happy Birthday to the bestest Greer ever! And if you read this: empty your voicemail! I've tried to call you but it's all full and I can't leave you a message! Happy Birthday chica!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Happy Thoughts

Wednesday January 9,2008
2.6396 miles

I didn't run last night, and I had a full day and night starting at noon today, so I broke my routine and ran in the morning today.
It started out as a good morning; I got up, had a great, I dunno what the word is, session? I had a great yoga session? Whatever, doing yoga was great this morning. But then I went for my run.
I don't really like running in the A.M., and here's why
-my body is dehydrated
-my body hasn't had any kind of nutrients yet.
- yes, I could eat breakfast and then run, but then I would have to get up an hour earlier than I would otherwise just so that my body can digest the food before I run. Running right after breakfast or running on no breakfast, either way, my body hates me, and I am unwilling to get up that hour earlier.
Because of these first two reasons, it's all I can do to keep my feet moving.
- I have a hard time focusing. It's still so early in the day that all I'm thinking is "I hate this."
- I know the argument of "But it's so great to have your run out of the way, you can go the rest of the day and not think about it, you've already done it." This is a solid point, however, I think if the run sucks, then what good is it if it's out of the way?

So, tomorrow is back to the evening/night run.


"you are the total package when you are happy Alex."
This was in an email to me a couple days ago, and for some reason the phrase came back to me as I was driving down Lakeshore tonight. I believe it to be true. I am the total package, and I'm the total package when I'm happy. A couple days ago when I read this; my first response was: well, duh. I know that. What I'm trying to do is find someone who can appreciate me when I'm not happy, I don't want to be have to be happy all of the time to be appreciated, to be the total package.
But tonight, I had this thought when the phrase came to me again: God, that's a lot of pressure to put on someone else. I mean, when I'm in a relationship, and I am happy, I can make it work so well. But if I'm unhappy, it's miserable. And that's a lot of pressure to put on that other person, to keep me happy all the time.
And that's the thought. I'm not putting a judgement on it. It just occurred to me for the first time: my happiness is a lot of pressure to put on someone else.
I need to be back in the place where I am responsible for my own happiness.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Damn Girl

Monday January 8, 2007
2.93 miles

The weather is amazing. It's 62 degrees outside! Apparently it hasn't been this warm on this date since before 1900. Of course, there is also a threat of a tornado. I didn't run into any high winds, not even a rain drop. But I did see a lot of lightening on my run.
A special shout out to Justin Timberlake, who on this run got me through my last couple blocks. Just when I was starting to get fatigued, and the voices of those old tired coyotes started howlin in my ears, good 'ol JT comes on my playlist. Instead of only seeing how much farther I had to go, I see Justin in a black convertible car pulling up slow beside me on the street, sticking his head out and singing "Dammmmmmn girl..... You're so finnnneeee."
Silly yes, but it gets me across the finish line.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Run Alex Run

I haven't gone running since I bit the concrete and twisted my ankle, which was before the New Year and over a week ago.

The weather is so mild outside though today, I couldn't put off getting back on the running train any longer. I tried to put it off, I didn't go till 9 pm, but I did go. On my run tonight I had this idea:

I'm going to blog every time I run.
Even if all it that I say is that I went running, and how far I ran, than I will still do it.
A little public self-esteem boost to put it up on the internet.

I'm not really making any New Year's Resolutions this year. I mean, I'd like to eat better, and run more, and drink more water. But I want to do that every day, it hasn't intensified or decreased since the New Year, and I never stick to those resolutions, so I'm not doing them now.
So maybe this can be my resolution: I will blog every time I run.
And you can feel free to leave encouragement!

So, for January 5, 2008:
2.8797 miles

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Re-cap and move on

I've had this blog rolling around in my brain: a re-cap of 2007 type blog. But I can't seem to get myself to sit down and write it. So I'm just going to say this, which is the main point in my mind:

2007 wasn't really all that great.
I mean, there were high-lights, don't get me wrong. Katy and Jason's wedding was by-far the top event and most fun I had all year, most fun ever in a way. It will stand out brightly in my memory always.
And I got to go to Hawaii, for free. It was an amazing place, and the people I was with where great, but it will not stand out brightly, it was a tainted trip. Still, Hawaii for free makes onto the high lights list.
I also got to spend more time with one of my fav people, Greer. Not many people get to live in the same place as one of their best-friends, and I've gotten to do it twice.

So, wedding, hawaii, friends. And then a whole lot of anxiety, fighting, questioning, tears, mixed into that. And not just this summer, I mean, the whole year. There was a whole lot of growth and self-knowledge and all those great things that come out of the not-so-great stuff in life. But still, mixed in with those life-lessons are not-so-great things. So it feels like a toss up.

In the end, what I want to say is: 2007 wasn't really all that great, in fact, beyond the high-lights, I believe I've been quoted as saying it "sucked ass". And I believe that 2008, will be, well, great. (I mean, come on people, it even rhymes!). There's a lot of potential and general up-swing to be had this year, and I can't wait.