Fancy Feet

Says my brother in his favorite I-know-what's-best-for-your-running tone, "Oh, you will definitely just want the plain black ones."

My response:

Don't they just make you think of walking barefoot.........in SPACE?

He also told me that I shouldn't wear them out in public.

Yeah right! I can barely make it out of Banana Republic without making up some excuse to wear the clothes out of the store. "I'm sorry, I spilled coffee on my other shirt. Can I just wear this out?" "I'm wearing this to an event in 30 minutes and I just need to pull the tag off so you can scan it. Do you think you can get the security tag off even if I have the pants on?"

With far fewer obstacles involved with shoes, there was no question what I would do. I wore my shiny new Vibrams out of the store and while I was getting groceries. I have silly funky shoes, and guess what: I want everyone to know about them. They are awesome, and they feel great to walk in, which I was not expecting. I have not run in them yet, because I haven't run since I got them. The pain in my 3rd metatarsal WILL NOT GO AWAY. I think I must have some sort of bruising that is just taking a while to heal. Today will make 3 full days with no exercise. I'm dyin' here, Jerry! I will give an easy run a shot tomorrow. I think I will leave my shoes on until then!

PS: Special shout out to my mom who made the purchasing of the Vibrams possible, along with a pair of new black skinnies. (My high school students will know what I'm talking about.)

Done with the DQ

Last night, my husband and I skipped town to go to Arkansas. GREAT choice. It's like 75 degrees and negative 5% humidity. Unfortunately, it does not look like I'm going to get to run in it. My foot is still being weird. Booooooooo.

The drive to Arkansas is not all that bad- only a little over seven hours. But what really makes the drive special is our regular stop to eat really horrible food that I can only justify eating on a road trip. It's the one perk of driving all that way and should be kept as a sacred tradition. I can only assume that I must have violated some covenant to reap the punishment I received over the next 30 minutes.

We stopped at Wendy's, and for some reason, I thought "Hey, I'll just order a salad." Big mistake. We first went inside, and saw that the line was way too long, so we opted for drive through just in time for a Suburban full of people to pull in front of us and order what must have been a hundred dollars worth of food off the value menu. We.....waited.....for...ever. Finally, we got our food and went on our way. A mile at a time, I started realizing all that had gone wrong with our order. No ketchup. No Salt. Four chicken nuggets instead of five. Wrong salad. BLT Cobb instead of Apple Pecan. But they didn't even get the BLT Cobb right itself. They left the bacon off! They left off the single most important ingredient! And of course it tasted ridiculous with the pomegranate vinaigrette. That's what I get for trying to be health conscious on a road trip.

I said out loud to myself, "The only thing that can make this okay is if I get a blizzard from Dairy Queen," just as we happened to pass a DQ. I was so stunned at the Kismet of it all that the only reaction I could come up with was to point and shout incoherently. That's what Blizzards do to me.

I thought my husband knew me well enough to understand that "eeeeeee! eeeeeeeee!" means "Hey, babe, do you mind if we stop at that Dairy Queen?" but apparently he thought it meant "Swerve or we'll die!" Oops. We somehow made it into the parking lot unscathed.

We pulled up to the speaker and waited......waited some more......."hello? Hello???" When we got to the window we noticed that the cashier had taken her headset off. No big deal. It's not like that's your only job or anything.

Husband asks: "So are you guys not taking orders at the speaker?"

DQ Girl: "Yes, we are."

Husband: Confusedly, "Oh, um, we tried to order back there, but I guess you didn't hear?"

DQ Girl: "Okay." Silence.

Husband: "Well, I guess we'll get a heath and butterfinger blizzard."

DQ Girl: Says nothing and goes to the blizzard machine where three other high school girls are helping each other make one blizzard at a time. This must be the DQ business model, because I have never made it out of one in under 20 minutes.

Blizzard in hand, I think that everything has been made right. I have control of my life. People are inherently good. All's well that ends well. Until I take a bite and realize that she put chocolate syrup in my ice cream.

THE HORROR! THE HORROR!

Cure for a Broken Foot

Irritated at foot. Still hurting and starting to bruise a little bit. Hence, no running tonight or tomorrow. Check again on Saturday. To make myself feel better, I watched part of 17 Again. Ashamed. Mission accomplished all the same.

Good night, Zac.

Ho Hum Hump Day

I knew it was going to be a rough day when I woke up this morning at 5:28 and hit snooze, only to hear the alarm go off 15 seconds later. STUPID alarm app! It's not supposed to go off again for ten minutes! Except that it had been ten minutes. I never fall back asleep when I hit snooze. I may lay there and worry about the fact that I have to get up in 10 minutes, and then be so mad that I spent 10 minutes worrying instead of sleeping that I hit snooze two more times, but I never actually go back to sleep. That is another one of those little habits that makes me all the more endearing to my husband. He can get over it. His first class on MWF isn't until 1:00 PM. Who lives like that????

My coffee this morning never quite got me past the friendly zombie state and by my 2:45 meeting, I couldn't finish a sentence because I would yawn in the middle and then forget what I was talking about pre-yawn. Completely worthless by 4:00, I collapsed on the couch when I got home about 4:30 and slept for an hour. FAIL! I hate naps, and now I have taken two in three days. Naps are for lazy college girls who OD on cheetos and peanut butter after a taxing 9:00AM class. UGH!

The nap did help a little though. I managed to get my butt up when the hubster lured me off the couch with the promise of some Pei Wei. I actually cleaned a little and had a good run. 4 miles at a 9:20 pace and one mile of easy jog. The top of my foot was noticeably in pain by the end. I'm not going to get angry till I see what some ice and a day out of heels does.

Oh, and I decided, that I'm applying to grad schools. Not that I'm going for sure, but I will be applying. Done.

Music for Runners #2

I have an absolute gem for you.

If this does not make you want to get out in the streets and dance for miles, then you just weren't meant to run. Of course, it also reminds me of some ironical music that might be playing while a serial killer slashes people to death in a horror flick. You can't help but think that this dude is about to lose it at any second.

Ran 4 miles after a nap this evening. Yes, a nap. Monday mornings really aren't so bad, because I wake up with all the optimism of a new week. Tralalala! Going to get so much done! This is the week I will wake up early every day! I will prepare beautiful lesson plans! Tralalala!

Monday evenings, however, are the armpit of the week. Not a single good tv show, the week isn't even close to being half over, I'm tired because my sleep schedule has been so jacked up by sleeping later on the weekends, and the only thing I have to look forward to is Tuesday. Goody.

I kind of just have to shut my eyes and fight through to Wednesday night when life is good again. Here's to Thursday! I'll see you soon!

Day of Rest and Confusion

No running today. I had a very taxing afternoon of doing grad school research and chatting on facebook with a friend.

I'm waiting for a sign to tell me what to do about grad school. On one hand, I have been wanting to get the heck out of H-town pretty much since I moved here. I would love to move somewhere that actually has a hill or tree that hasn't been artificially created by a landscaper and an average temperature less similar to purgatory's. I finally know what I really want my masters in.

On the other hand, I lovelovelove my job, and the places I want to move are generally expensive. The hubster will have his JD at the end of this year, but even that's not a guarantee these days.

But OHHHHH the running on the west coast, in Colorado, in Utah. If we are going to live somewhere impractical, it's pretty much now or never. ughhh. Someone tell me what to do.

11 Down

I thought I had learned my lesson. Alarm clock rang at 6:30 this morning, just as I had instructed it to. Unfortunately, I did not follow the instructions so well. I got up around 7:30, which is respectable for the first Saturday of the school year. That would have been fine- nice, even - if I had left right after breakfast. It was so nice outside and would have made for an excellent run. Instead, I did this for three hours:

Beasley forced me to stay on the couch and snuggle with him. Who am I to resist his little face? Beasley also insisted that I eat cinnamon roles for breakfast, and then give some to him. Curse his Jedi mind tricks! He waves his little paw in the air, and suddenly I am subject to his every whim, further proof that I am not ready to have kids anywhere in the near future. If I can't ward off the manipulative powers of a dog, I don't think I can handle a toddler.

9 out of 11 miles weren't too terrible this morning, but mile 6 and mile 11 were about as miserable as any I have encountered so far. Mile 6 included nausea, hunger, extreme heat, little shade, and a weird bit of knee pain. I'm pretty sure I can thank Pillsbury's lack of complex carbs and general nutrition for that one. And of course, Beasley, who forced me to eat the cinnamon roles in the first place. He's trying to sabotage my running because he doesn't like to go in his crate when I go out.

Mile 11 was really just about fatigue. Whatever- I'm not going to apologize for being tired after 10 miles in 90 degree weather. It was what it was. At that point, I was a mile away from my apartment and in no mood to walk a 12th mile. So naturally, I called Adam, and after I threatened to destroy the X-box, he decided that he would come pick me up just to be sweet. This is why I love him. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and pretty good. Not a bad Saturday.