Random Friday Facts!
October 30th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
In the spirit of Friday, I thought I’d give you five fun, random facts about me.
Or maybe I am running late today and this is all I have time for??? Hmm..
Anyway! Let’s get to it!
1) I am a diehard fan of Sex and the City. Actually, diehard doesn’t do it justice. I think the show is brilliant, the writers are brilliant, and SJP is a talented, beautiful woman despite what anyone says. Many people already know of my obsession (told you I have an addictive personality) but if you have ever had more than a few conversations with me, chances are you’ve heard me say, “This is just like the episode of Sex and the City where….remember that?” as if everyone watches the show like I do. (Really, they should). Want to see how much I love it?
Yes, that is in my house. We made it for a SATC meets Breakfast at Tiffany’s housewarming party, and it just stuck.
2.) Despite my love of movies, I have not seen many American classics like “The Godfather,” “Rocky” (any of them), “Annie Hall,” “Casablanca,” “Gone with the Wind” and I have not watched many of the ’90s cult classics in entirety like “Dumb and Dumber,” “Black Sheep,” etc. I would love to make it a mission to start watching these, I just never seem to find the time. Maybe I should get NetFlix after all…
3.) From birth to 25 I have lived in four major cities (Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia – some very briefly) and one small, small town. I am most certainly a country girl at heart, city girl by dream. Right now, I could not move to a small town, nor could I ever return permanately to my hometown, but I credit a lot of my solid qualities to growing up there. I would love to live in New York City some time in my life, even if just for six months. I went there for the first time last fall and I fell in love. I could not wipe the smile off my face the whole time, and despite terrible weather, I sat on the roof of my tour bus (the only one besides the tour guide!) in a drenched poncho,camera in hand, enjoying every minute of it.
4.) Growing up, I collected anything that had on it or was an actual cow. I had figurines, little tins, stuffed animals, a journal, stationary – you name it. I don’t know where all of it went to be honest, but for several years that was the way to my heart.
5.) My former boss told me one of the reasons she hired me is that I am very loyal and when I build close relationships, I keep them for a lifetime. She was right and I feel very blessed to have special friends from all over the country and different times of my life.
I wish I could put pictures of everyone special up. If you’re not here, there will be a time and place for you!
Happy Friday, I know mine will be now!
Help me, help myself
October 29th, 2009 § 5 Comments
So let’s just get something out on the table: I have somewhat of an addictive personality. I can get slightly obsessed overly quick. Over the past few years, it’s ranged from many things – most of them not exactly what you’d call the best habits. There was a time I smoked. Not like a chimney, mind you, but I still did. I turned to it when I drank. I turned to it when I was stressed. Bored. When I wanted to fit in. Stand out. Trust me, I always found a reason. I am proud to say that is a part of my past for once and all now. It’s a hard habit to kick, and it’s hard to admit publicly to some people who I know will be disappointed. But, it’s over and the moral of telling that is to prove the point of my addictive personality.
When I stopped smoking prior to “once and for all,” I picked up shopping. Having lived by the mecca of shopping malls in King of Prussia, this was bad. I got myself and my best friend Chase Visa in a lot of trouble there. When I moved back to Pittsburgh, the shopping eased up a little, but my old habit came back. Once I kicked it again (“once and for all”), I found the best new addiction: running. Now, when stress hits me, I want to run, not smoke.
I’ll admit, in the middle of my training for the 5K, I took a drag of a friend’s cigarette (I don’t know what I was thinking) and I coughed like a 15-year-old trying it for the first time. Do you know what that means? VICTORY!
So, what other addictions has The Twenty-Fifth Year faced? Well, in the years leading up to this pivotal one, a big one was coffee. Starbucks coffee to be exact.
Now, I know this java isn’t the mecca of all that is good in coffee land. It’s a bit bitter. Burnt, some say. But it’s EVERYWHERE. It’s convenient. And it’s expensive. I know what you’re thinking, “Duh! It’s like 4 bucks!” Yeah, I know. Because I spent that every day for months on end in Philly. It became a part of my morning routine. Get off the train, grab a latte from the super cute barista who always remembered me and was so, so happy at 8 a.m. (probably an evil ploy to get 20-something female return customers like myself) and get on with my day. THEN one day I figured out I was giving 100 big ones to Starbucks a month! And that’s when I decided the addiction had to end. I invested in some store-bought creamer and called it a day.
My garbage can at work in Philly? Maybe..
When I started my current job, I started to get sucked back into the Starbucks Black Hole. I mean there’s one in the building I work in AND outside. Cmon, two within a few hundred yards Starbucks people? Did I mention I work in the BOONIES? We were always making SB runs, and then I looked at my checkbook and saw too many java deductions. Back to the home-brewed I go.
Now, I save Starbucks as a special occasion and usually get it once a week. Maybe when I am running late, or need a little perk, or when I look at my checkbook and feel I deserve a reward 
And now, with the holiday season around the corner, I know I will tempted by SB’s Peppermint Mocha – aka the stuff I live for the other 10 months of the year.
But never fear bank account – I have refuge!
It’s like the people at Coffee Mate heard my desperate cries of a need for intervention! When I saw this at my grocery store, I freaked. Like I-just-won-$5,000-a-week-for-life-on-this-scratch-off-lottery-ticket-at-the-dirty 7-Eleven-after-the-worst-day-of-my-life-freak-out. I immediately bought seventeen two. This is literally liquid crack. I checked it out and these suckers expire in March 2010 (gross?) so I plan to stock up in December. If $3 a bottle can save me $300 then I am all in.
What are your addictions? How did you stage an intervention with yourself? Do you love Starbucks too??
Old City, New Run
October 11th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Hello All! I’ve had a pair of really great weekends that have totally jump started my mood. As I mentioned in my last post, I was back in Philly last weekend. As many of you know, I lived in the City of Brotherly Love for about a year and a half after I graduated from college. I moved there to take my first job as a writer.
I learned so much doing that job and I grew and gained so many great experiences and insight and just an overall sense of self. I also sacrificed a lot and wore my body to the core working as much as I did. Why I am here and not there anymore is irrelevant – what matters is the place this City has in my heart.
I’ve returned twice since I moved away almost exactly a year ago. Each time was spent predominantly outside the City in the King of Prussia area where I lived. My most recent return was spent entirely in Philly and just as I predicted, I was flooded with nostalgia and I was so happy to be back.
Despite a late arrival and bed time Friday, I was up around 8:00 a.m. Saturday practically bouncing out of bed with excitement. The trip was pretty much a spur of the moment decision for me but once I knew I was going, I told myself no matter what, I would go running through the City one, if not both, mornings. I geared up and ran about 20 blocks from our hotel on Front Street to City Hall. The streets were packed with tourists – but of course I didn’t mind. I was so pumped to be running a new “course” just taking in all the sights and sounds I once took for granted.
I was pretty happy to start my day off right. The rest of the afternoon we wandered around South Street before returning to the hotel to go to the Pink concert, which was the whole point of the trip!
There is much debate about where to get the “best” Philly cheesesteak – in my opinion it’s Jim’s on Fourth and South. No matter what, if it’s your first time, you have to get the cheese wiz! It’s just not authentic otherwise.
I wish I could say I ran Sunday morning as well, but I had a little too much fun at the concert
This week I’ll continue training for the Thanksgiving Race! I am going to run outside for as long as my lungs and my body can tolerate it – another stadium loop tomorrow!
A new challenge
October 5th, 2009 § 2 Comments
Well something else I have learned since turning 25? I am still a pretty big procrastinator. While I would love to write every day, I find myself not jumping into the habit right off the bat. That being said, please bear with my spontaneity as we go!
So I left off with the event that sparred all of this. Let me continue!
Over the last few years, I have drifted in and out of having an interest in fitness. When I was living outside Philadelphia working as a writer/server I didn’t exactly have ample time to hit the gym. But there was one golden month or so that I did, religiously, following a work out plan my cousin constructed for me. Paired with a diet change to clean food and mostly natural and organic, I shed 10 pounds. I was ecstatic. Then I went on a little vacation to Nashville and when I came back I lost most of that motivation. I can’t point my finger at a good reason why, I just stopped caring so much (and um, socializing more).
Fast forward about a year, and I got into it again. I wasn’t super serious, though. I switched jobs and my mind was everywhere with adjustments. I tried the old plan that was successful before and it just didn’t pan out the way I wanted to. At that point, I was doing 20 minutes of the Galloway method on the treadmill, barely able to run for more than a minute at a time.
I can’t exactly pinpoint when or why, but all of a sudden something changed. I decided to run and make it mean something. I got serious again. For the next 7 weeks I trained hard. I ran four or more days a week, I hit the outdoor trails, I pushed myself.
Then I made a profound statement.
“I really need to go to the dentist soon. Yeah, I need to get on that.”
Enter excruciating tooth pain. On Labor Day weekend. When my parents were packing up my childhood home and moving 1,000 miles south to Texas.
To make a long, long story short, I ended up spending my last day in my hometown in the Emergency Room for three hours. I was completely drugged up when I said my goodbyes (had a DD!) and ended up back in the ER two nights later with swelling up my whole face that belongs in some medical journal. What I was suffering from was an abscessed tooth that infected me up to my sinuses and took nearly everything out of me and shaved 10 days off my training.
When I got back to it, I was hesitant about running. While I was upset I had missed out on precious time, I was scared I was going to do something to hurt myself even more. It took a couple of easy paced work outs, but when I started running again, I did the unthinkable – I ran a whole mile without stopping. I had never, not once in my life, done that. I just kept setting a goal with time, then once I surpassed it, I thought, “well, why stop there? Now I’ll shoot for this..” By the time I knew it, 1.0 miles was behind me and I had done something I never could have imagined.
For about three days prior to the race while I rested my legs and body, my nerves kicked in. It rained. I worried. When Sunday rolled around, I rushed to get ready and we headed down to the start. The rain continued and we stretched and waited, stretched and waited.
Finally, we lined up and the gun went off. We weaved our way from the back of the pack and ran the first mile strong downhill through University of Pittsburgh and Carlow College’s campuses. We stopped once between each mile and pulled each other through when the other was struggling. As soon as we turned the corner to Point State Park, I hit my wall. I felt like throwing up. I didn’t care that there were people everywhere. I ripped off my headphones – the music was making me sick. Carrie looked back, grabbed my arm and said, “No!” Thank goodness for that pull. We neared the finish line, passing her family and as we crossed, she grabbed my hand and we finished with our arms up high. It was quite a moment.
I was pretty bummed when I saw the clock as we finished at 41 minutes. I totally forgot that our chip time would be different coming from the back of the pack. When we got the heads up the times were posted and that we came in under 40 minutes, I was back on cloud nine – a runner’s high second wind if you will. The rest of the day consisted of sleeping and eating.
Since then, I have given myself a bit of a break and only run twice – just this Saturday I ran through Center City Philadelphia – what a great morning – and found myself easily tired and winded.
The solution to my sluggishness lies in me signing up for another race, which I plan to do this week. The 5 mile Turkey Trot in Austin, TX is on Thanksgiving morning around the University of Texas campus. This is definitely a step up for me, and I am once again nervous, but the nerves are a good thing! I’m starting to get serious…..tomorrow morning! For real, there will be no procrastinating when it comes to this!
