half the distance, twice the fun! maybe.

One of my more hardcore running friends (aka my crazy running friend) invited me to do a half marathon last Tuesday. As I considered it, I thought, when did I become crazy? When did running a half marathon on a whim become a normal idea?

To make a long story short, I decided to go for it. I woke at 4:30 am yesterday to meet people at 5:30 to drive to Rochester together. They were all seasoned runners, and I was the newbie. I ran the race pretty much by myself, and really had no idea what I should expect for a finish time. That said, I was pretty happy when I crossed the line at 2:02:something (official times are still not online! Boo!).

Oh yeah, and then I ran the Milk Run 5k at the State Fair today. But after 13.1 miles, 3.1 is a cakewalk. Fine fine, a cakerun in which my legs felt verrrry tight.

So yes, on my last weekend before going back to work, I woke up at 4:30 on a Saturday, 6:30 on a Saturday, and willingly ran two races. Insane.

In other news, I hurt.

raindrops on roses.

Some of my favorite things this week:

• Homemade pizza. (Although be warned, it sounds impossible but there is such a thing as too much pizza.)
• Colorful umbrellas. (You with the gray umbrella, what are you doing to help society? That's right, nothing! But you, oh you and your yellow flower umbrella, you make me smile.)
• This blog. A song and a picture, every day.
• "Wildcat" - Ratatat. "First Gear" - The Rapture. "Fireworks" - Animal Collective.
• Finding candy in my purse that I forgot I had.
• Being able to sleep comfortably under my comforter.
  

my domestic future.

I think that instead of going back to work on Monday, I should become a housewife. That's really what I am right now, except for that whole husband thing. Let's ignore that little detail, because after I paint this lovely picture I presume the suitors will come a running.

I can cook, and I can bake. I can make you a healthy lunch in a reusable lunch bag, and then have a meal ready when you get home. Nearly everything will be made from scratch, when possible. Cookies? All the time. Now, since I'm not working you will need to make a fair amount of money - all this fresh produce isn't cheap! Unless of course you buy a cute little house in the city and we can fill the backyard with a vegetable garden. Hell, let's get some chickens too.

If I start to get bored or depressed because I feel I have no purpose in life, I can volunteer! Just enough to maintain my sanity, but not so much so I can't attend to keeping our humble abode neat and tidy using only environmentally friendly cleaning products. I also have my sewing and craft projects as a back up career, but that could take some time to get started. In the meantime, you have a hole in your pants! Let me fix that, dear.

Sometime in the future we may wish to bear children or adopt. Perfect! I can make organic baby food and sew jumpers for the little ones. And by this point, I'll probably be bored enough to have taken up knitting. There will be booties, booties all over. As the kids get older, I can bring them around the neighborhood with my jogging stroller. I'll befriend other urban moms and we will have lunch and hopscotch dates.

By the time our young ones are ready to start school, I will have enough anecdotes to write a memoir on housewifery. It will sell many copies and the profits will go into college savings accounts. Doesn't life sound grand?


[Heh, I would probably go insane.]

project!

Summer is melting, melting away and I was feeling guilty for not doing the millions of projects I intended to. It's never too late to start, right? So I made this purse. The pattern is from Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter, which is a cute cute book. I had some trouble with the directions and had to read them about twelve times, but then I figured out I was just overthinking things. (Overly Complicated Sewing doesn't have the same ring to it, y'know?)

One awesome thing about this purse is that it is made completely from scraps, which led me to dig in my fabric scrap box and find tons of other leftover goodies. Next up: napkins! (For the many dinner parties I intend to have...)

don't understand about the weather outside.

This weekend was rainy, cold, and felt oddly like fall. It was a fitting finish to my already depressing week, so I decided to relish in it.

On Saturday I went to the farmer's market, and was faced with the decision: drive, bike, or walk? Driving is lazy, biking is fast but offers no rain protection, and walking would be potentially miserable but at least I'd have an umbrella. I headed out on foot, wearing sandals on my poor blistered feet. It wasn't even raining that hard, but my umbrella was like a shield - I could cry under that thing and no one would be the wiser. For the record, I didn't. (Not that there's many people walking around downtown on a rainy Saturday to notice, anyway.) Instead of crying, I ended up singing with my headphones on the way home. Not quite happy, jumping, singing in the rain, but rather sad and lonely on the streets singing in the rain. And yet, after all of this - the cold feet, the lonely walk, the sagging jeans - I was much happier than earlier in the morning. I thought rain was supposed to be sad?

Then on Sunday my friend and I set out to run. The good news is that it was nice and cool. The bad news is that there was a slight drizzle, and when you have a slight drizzle for 16 miles, well, things get wet. EVERYTHING gets wet. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, just cold. And wet. Did I mention wet? I think my shirts weighed three pounds when I took them off. But at least we could say, "We are now officially hardcore." Oh yeah.

So that's my weather weekend. Is it seriously going to be like this all week? I'm about at my limit here.

skirts! for running!

So, I was emailing a friend about running this weekend and one of the google links on the side was about running skirts. I thought, "skirts? While running??" but was also very intrigued. And this is how I ended up at RunningSkirts.com. Some thoughts that went through my head as I explored:

• "Girly-girl" style? Ah, HELL NO.
• There's a whole side-tab designated for PINK SKIRTS? Oh god.
• Well, okay, let's check out the design.
• Kind of pricey, but HEY! THEY COME WITH POCKETS!
  
• Hmm...skirts in action...oh man, cute girls in cute skirts RUNNING. I must have one.

And thus was the process of my semi-brainwashing. But really it makes sense. I like running. I like skirts. Put them together? RUNNING SKIRTS! Sort of genius.

(It's kind of sad though, that I don't buy anything except food, drinks, and running gear as of late.)

Oh god, now I'm looking at another site and it's so ridiculous. They're telling me to embrace my gorgeous self....by wearing a running skirt. This ends now!

my new friends.

Over a week ago I stopped by the park on my way home from the coffee shop, which I had to leave because it was too freaking cold in there. I planted myself at a shady table and worked on a stolen crossword puzzle and then continued to read my book. The park is close to the Y, and there were a group of kids wandering around having a bbq. It smelled really good.

As I'm reading, a group of boys, carrying plates of food, approached my table (hey, a shady table is prime park real estate) and asked if they could sit there. I said sure, and since my book was boring me I started talking to them, asking them where they went to school, what the camp was like, etc. Before long their counselor calls them back. I say, "Tell him you're not bothering me." They came back, and there was some confusion and I had to assure the counselor that I was cool with the kids.

The boys (who are in middle school) wandered back and forth, and at one point one came back and asked if I wanted a hamburger or hot dog. I took the hot dog and thanked him. He said, "Yeah, I thought it was rude of us to eat in front of you." Then he explained that they were all members of the Gentleman's Club. "Uhh..the what?" I asked innocently, though thinking of things too naughty for boys their age. But it was nothing of the sort, the Gentleman's Club is a club they joined after they passed a test about manners, and the bbq was their prize.

The whole encounter was super charming and made my day. I ran into one boy I was talking with this Monday. He called me "teacher." It almost makes me ready to go back to work.

collapse.

In case you haven't heard, a bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River.

I was at Run n' Fun (in St. Paul) when the news started to break. There was a lot of confusion and disbelief in the store, until we started realizing that this is a big effing deal.

Of course, you know how sometimes you don't realize and you make stupid jokes? It takes some time to hit.

Now all most people can do is sit, watch the news, refresh the news sites, and wait.