Physical hardships

My body is having a rough week. My foot is still aching from the marathon producing a limp in any journey ranging over 70 yards or so. I burn myself with sugar not once but two times throughout the workweek (sweet, sweet pain) and then again while cooking at home yesterday. While hanging out with Alex the other day I got a splinter, through my sock and into my foot. Are you for real?! And yesterday, I bought a hole punch which not only broke on it's first use but also pinched a little bit of my hand in the act of breaking, adding insult to injury.

It looks like I won't be running another race in a couple of weeks which sucks! My muscles feel great. I want to run. I just want my foot to feel better so I can run. I'm going for a sports injury massage tomorrow. Please let it help. Working six days a week this week unless someone gets excited about picking up for me. That would be great. I don't think that standing for 6 hours at a time is doing my foot any favors although it does my mind some favors because the opposite is feeling lazy sitting around all day which is THE PITS.

How do you cope with injury. I've never been physically incapable of running. I don't know what to do. At least I can still bike but the rains have come so that is not nearly so fun anymore. Time to suck it up and get that pool pass.

Train Fat

I went for a 15 minute run today and it was one of the hardest runs that I've done in a good long while. I see you, thinking "15 minutes, that's nothing". and not even a week ago, I would have agreed. That was before I gained all of this train fat from sitting on the train for just over three days in a row. That's over 72 hours of straight sitting people. My body is not used to moving anymore. Fortunately, I'll be hitting up a "Poor Man's Yoga" class this evening as well. So, hopefully we can get things back into working order. 

This train ride was a strange'un. In some ways I expect a cross country train to be filled with antiquity loving, beautiful hipsters, all wearing retro shoes and sunglasses. Besides followers of the scene, I expected patient, elderly travelers who drink their fill of overpriced wine in their sleeper cars and romance one another like they've just fallen in love. Suffice to say, my expectations were not met. 

This cross country train was all business. At least on the first leg of my journey, most of the people that I encountered were either coming or going to Wilson, ND. There were men going there with guaranteed jobs working where the oil is being drilled. There were people rushing there in hopes of getting jobs pertaining to the oil boom and there was at least one person who was commuting to Wilson to work as a waitress. Word on the tracks is, there's so much money to be had in North Dakota that people can afford to buy cars after working for only a few months. People are getting jobs as drivers, station builders, and  pipe layers. even gas station workers are supposedly getting about $18.oo an hour in Wilson. 

It's a strange thing to become an accidental part of a migrating flock. I felt like we were doing something that Americans have been doing forever. In the past we were going to pan gold, or to pick fruit. Instead, of heading west, Now we were heading to the center to drill oil. Luckily, the first leg of the train wasn't overly crowded so it wasn't hard to come by sleep and a good stretch during this bit of migration.

The second leg, from Chicago. was far more crowded and less migratory. By that leg, I was over trains and ready to get home and take a shower. Now, if you read my last post, you know that I am home with Mamaw and my older sister, clean showered and ready to do some yoga.

Here are a few pictures from the journey.

We actually did get to leave the train sometimes. Here on layover in Chicago 

Blue skies and sunshine are a magical thing coming from Portland in the winter 

 A bit of fencing at the Milwaukee station.

In the flat brown stretch. There was a lot of this. 

Frozen River

Every once and a while the flat lands gave us some busted dumpsters, buildings, and cars.

Snow in a way that we never see it in Portland.

Road Running: a recycling of topics

Recently, I've had a lot of time on my hands so I've really been stepping up my exercise game. I'm on my third day running this week and I've already gotten a yoga class out of the way too. It's so invigorating to be getting in shape and exercising on a regular basis. I got so caught up in all the daily exercise, I almost forgot that I have an actual, planned 5k on Sunday. Luckily, they send out reminder emails or I might have missed it. Actually, it's on my google calendar so I would have gotten a reminder email from google about 15 minutes before the race was set to start (maybe I should update my alert preferences).

Besides that I've also been updating/practicing some basic math which I've mostly forgotten. I'm starting with the really basic stuff but, hopefully once I've got things solidly remembered I can move up into slightly harder stuff. If you are looking to learn something for free online I have to recommend the Khan Academy. You can learn all kinds of subjects there. I'm also looking into re-upping on my Spanish knowledge and have signed up for an account on livemocha.com but I so far am a little intimidated by trying to remember and learn another language so I'm sticking with the math.

I've got another week of near freedom coming up in which I will be volunteering with at least 2 maybe 3 different organizations (That would be a personal high for me). With one of them I think I'm even going to get free breakfast and lunch. Who said being underemployed is a bad thing?

After these 2 weeks it'll be back to the grind for a while which will be good for the money situation but, maybe, bad for my math and Spanish skills.

Later kids

The Big City

This past week I visited San Francisco. I spent some good time with the little sis, and some sweet but fleeting moments with the elder of us kids too. I went on an impromptu date, ate so much delicious food, checked out downtown Oakland, and spent a few nights with a good friend from back in school. I also got to see a bunch of cool things and experience what a beautiful city San Francisco was.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

The sisters in front of the "golden" gate bridge

Delicious pastry I couldn't resist eating a bit of before photographing.

The view from Buena Vista park (you can kinda see the bridge in the distance)

A buena vista park bench

Coit Tower, where I met my impromptu date

A mural of naked people I stumbled upon

A "yellow tree" with yellow leaves walking away from the famous part of Lombard St.

Don't park here, I guess

The Tenderloin area had awesome murals

Mural in the Tenderloin

Same mural

The kind of close together housing that I miss about Richmond

A shop sign on Haight Ashbury

A carousel in The Golden Gate Park

Store in Haight Ashbury

I think this is a eucalyptis log

Plant in Golden Gate Park (everything grows there)

One kind of San Francisco architecture.

The view from some famous pier where there are sea lions

Giant Yoda statue made out of Legos

I'm about to turn in for the night. Trying to wake up and go to a morning Yoga class tomorrow. We'll see if that happens. Trying to be productive with my free time these days.

Cavities

So, many of you may know that I had to get 1,000 cavities filled over the past couple of weeks. Luckily, the worst is behind me. I just have one more redo to go. Plus, I think I'm going to need them to smooth one of my newest ones down because it's got a bit of an edge to it.

It's weird to be anesthetized. The whole time they were working and for the next five hours I felt like the left side of my face was made up of paint filled water balloons. A very crafty clown made that half of my face I must say. Too convoluted of a balloon animal reference?

I am now up to flossing my teeth twice a day and consider brushing after every meal but it turns out I eat a lot of lunches at work so that probably won't work. I'll do what I can.

Outside of oral heath I've been trying to work my sorry butt back into shape as well. I've been running with my roomie's friend Dan who is my neighbor as well as with another roomie's friend who needed a running buddy. I'm starting to get so excited about a few races. Up and coming I have a Holiday 5k. It would have been a half marathon but I got too sick and behind in training so I transferred to the 5k. But, more excitingly, I'm going to be back home for the Ukrops Monument Ave. 10k which is totally my favorite race ever! I think I'm going to try to train for a half marathon that is a week before it and then run the 10k as a recovery race. It'll be so nice to see Richmond through the eyes of a runner again too. I also, snuck in a yoga class today. The bonus of not working a whole lot is you can, cook, clean, exercise and still have time for books and TV.

But, now I'm going to settle into bed seeing as I do have work tomorrow at 7:30.

Shows

This past week I've been making a distinct effort to stay busy- to get out at night and to really embrace the beautiful weather that we're having while we have it. It can be so easy to sit on your lazy butt all day after you get off work because, of course, sitting down can feel so good after 7 or 8 hours of standing. Here's what I've been up to most recently.

Friday: Went to see my friend Kristopher's band, Perfect Look, play for the first time. A small side note might be made that today my ears are still ringing from listening to the two bands that played before them. Earplugs are a definite must.

Saturday: Got out to see a band of fellows that I've had a serious of crushes or dates on called And, And, And. They played a good show but who really blew me away that evening was a band called Death Songs. A really serious name but a really impressive band.

Sunday I just went to see Patagonia Rising, a movie about damning these two rivers in Patagonia that Stephanie's friend had made. I crashed pretty early after that which was good since Monday turned out to be a really long day.

Then, yesterday, Monday, I went out to see Perfect look again and got to see this super fun Japanese band called M.O.T.O. and that was really rad.

Tonight, there may be dinner with friends and a cheap draft beer at $2 beer nights but no deafening shows for me. Tomorrow, I go out to see a band that I may have mentioned here before My Autumn's Done Come who have recently changed their name to just Autumn's Done Come. So, it's going to continue to be a happening week.

evening activities

You know, I am actually starting to love my job.

The two biggest reasons (besides actually working) that I'm so happy with it are as follows: Every day, I'm done by4 at the very, very latest and sometimes I'm done as early as 2. I'm pretty happy with most of the people that I interact with at work these days.

This early end time though is really my favorite thing. The reason being that I still have time after work to chill for a minute before I get into anything else and I don't get so worn out that I don't enjoy participating in evening activities.

This week, for instance, I've done something fun on every night. Sunday I went to a house show at which my friend's band was playing. Monday, my roomie had a bunch of people over for his birthday and I celebrated with them. Tuesday, I went out to get cheap brews and hang out with my friend Marika, and Wednesday I went climbing with my roomie Sean. It's only Thursday, and I feel like I've done as much as I would do in a usual week. Tonight, I'm taking off but Friday there's another show which I should be able to go to for free. We'll see how that turns out.

Hope you all are staying busy!

32 hours

Yesterday, our internet went out.

It was out from when I woke up to listen to Stephanie's radio show (at 7 am) to at least when i went to bed at 12pm. I didn't check it again until I came home from work this afternoon. So, I went a whole 32 hours with no internet. Which, it turns out was a challenge. I don't know how Stephanie does it in Paonia. Shout out to that.

I did get some good reading done, a run in, a friend date, some collage material cut out, and a collage made. So, a pretty good anti web day anyways.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to update for you all though. So, I'm relieved things have settled on that front.

Other than that, I've started campaigning for higher pay where I work. I don't know how that will go but I figure it can't go too poorly. Plus, as a host there, I do a lot that a server is getting tipped for plus way more to keep the restaurant running smoothly. So, I figure the hosts should get tipped out a little bit, at least.

One more day of work before the job search/rest of the week begins. Some highlights that you're almost sure to hear more about are:

HIKES!

DINNERS!

and JOBS!

Get excited.

Getting Social (plus crepes)

Look at what I made!! Cheesy Crepes, Sautéed kale, and heirloom tomato slices. Delicious. You can tell by my obsession with food that I am still not totally flourishing on the social front but good news on that note. Things are getting better.

That's right. I'm on my way to no longer lonely. This week I made a serious effort to be proactive about my social situation so.

Monday, I had coffee with a potential friend. A friend of my friend Amber (thanks lady for the connection). It was a good meet up. We talked for hours and I think that he was very sympathetic to my social plight.

Tuesday, tonight, I went to a $3 movie with my friend Cory. He just moved here too and stayed in the Hostel with me. So, we're kind of in the same situation.

Wednesday, tomorrow night, I have no plans.

Thursday night I'm going to go to a track where the Oregon Road Runners Club has people meet to do workouts. It will be good to meet some other runners.

Friday I'm volunteer setting up wedding dresses for a program called Brides against Breast Cancer. It is only a couple hours but it will take me to a totally new part of town and that will be exciting. Plus, I'll get to meet some fellow volunteers and hang up pretty wedding dresses. What could be bad about that?

Saturday and Sunday I work and will be in contact with other employees of the restaurant at which I now work.

This adventure is becoming less lonesome bit by little bit.