going thousand miles an hour

To quote a MIA song which is in turn referencing a Jonathan Richmond song, I'm a road runner. 

So, the next three weeks with minimal runs and then a much less metropolitan Marathon than I am used to will be an interesting combination of unusual exercises. Still it will be fun and having this, well run, marathon under my belt feels good. 

I began to think around mile 22 that we are meant to do endurance exercise. Humans are amazing creatures who, I think, benefit from pushing themselves physically as well as mentally. 

I'm on the lookout for new exercise programs. Yoga, biking and swimming are high on my radar. Because, who knows what is next, perhaps a triathlon? 

What are you getting into? How are you planning on staying fit as the leaves change color and the weather grows chilly? 

MIA

So, I've basically been missing in action for the past few weeks. The thing is, that both my phone and my computer went down at the same time. At said time, I entered into a technological void.

In truth, It wasn't that I had no access to the world of technology (I had a borrowable, roomie computer and many people with phones around) but none of that was mine. Soon, I returned to the land of cellular phones but it was not such a quick process to find the right computer. After much deliberation, I have my "new" macbook pro off of the apple refurbished web site. I can only describe it as buttery. Everything is so fluid and beautiful, it makes me wonder how I made it through the two past years without a mac. This, simple and intuitive, design is what I am made to use. I think I'm in love.

So, what has happened in the past couple of weeks? So much... My sister, and most ardent reader, Katelyn, visited and then skipped town. We went to the highest point in Portland, to the famous international rose testing garden (where they breed new types of roses and keep roses from all over the world), to the gorge for a beautiful hike, on many a run and bike ride. We put fall crops in the ground for the garden and we made sun dried tomatoes and harvested a boat load of grapes and asian pears from my back yard. Also, we went on my personal favorite September activity, swift watching.

Now, if you have been reading this blog for some time, then you have already heard of swift watching but if you haven't you can read about it here. Make sure to check out that picture. It is beautiful. Since, I went with Katelyn, I have gone one more time with Alex- the gentleman that I am dating- as well as some friends and coworkers and I plan on going again on Friday. This year, I will get the most out of swift watching.

Outside of that, I have been getting sweet mail from friends and loved ones. Alex went away for a week and sent me three pieces of rad snail mail. Natalie, who lived in house for the month of August, sent a beautiful handmade card, and Rachael sent a sweet postcard from NH. All in all, it's been a good mail week (not to mention I got a computer in the mail).

Work has me by it's talons for the next couple of weeks. Today will be my 9th day at work and I have 5 more days to go before my break on Tuesday but believe you me, Tuesday will be a sweet lazy day.

Running is getting more intense as we prepare for the longest of our pre marathon runs on Saturday. It will be a 20 miler. But, right after that we go into tapering and I am, as of yet, undecided about what will follow the marathon. Maybe a half in December? Maybe for the winter, I will transfer to an indoor exercise program. Back to yoga perhaps... There is plenty of promise about, as the air grows crisp and fall approaches. Anything goes.

Sorry for the helter skelter fashion of this post. I avow to update more concisely and frequently in the near future.

All the best sweet ones.

Home, sweet, spring, home Again

I arrived in Portland yesterday afternoon. Starving and dirty, I was whisked away by my generous and driving friend, Dan to visit the good people of the Habitat for Humanity Restore-which made me feel like I belonged somewhere for sure.

I'll back up a minute and say the moment that I walked into the train station in Portland I was greeted by my friend, and former coworker, Nick, which really, really, made me feel loved and welcome back. I am lucky to have amassed a few people that are willing to go out of their way simply to greet me or who will take time out of their busy schedules, when I come back into town, to grab a drink and be a little silly with me.

Yesterday, I fixed up my bike and bought some potting soil.

Today, I planted the tomato plant that was gifted to me by my friend, Rachael and some baby basil seeds(because everyone knows that basil is meant to be had with tomatoes). I bought my first batch of groceries and went to my first prepaid, yoga class of the month. I walked around and explored the spring with friend Natalie reaffirming the realization that Portland is, truly, a beautiful city.

I'm about to miss the East Coast and all of the good people of the East but I am determined to take advantage of all the freedom  and opportunities that Portland (and current unemployment) allot me. Next up: Bagby Hot Springs.

Trading Up

In the past week both of my parents, independent of one another, told me I looked like a bum. For real, the terms "bum" and "bummy" were used to describe the state of my apparel.

Since I am, in no way, a fan of shopping (except of the online variety for non clothing items), they have been hard pressed to get me looking more middle class some other way.

The compromise that we settled on was that while they were both out working and earning the money to buy their own new clothes, I  stay at home and look through my mom's overstuffed closets and find some things to replace the particularly unseemly contributors to my wardrobe.

I pulled this from an online dictionary so that you all could see the irony in this set up (and possibly the reason that I really am a bum).
bum ¹  (bm)

n.

1. A tramp; a vagrant.

2. A lazy or shiftless person, especially one who seeks to live solely by the support of others.

 Here are a few of the goods:

Burnt orange shirt longish sleeves 

Replaces grey shirt three quarter length sleeves with weird fasteners on them

 Black V-neck Tee with "paint" 

Replaces Grey V-neck that shows every drop of sweet my body releases

 Lace tank top

Replaces 50's diner waitress shirt with ink marks all over it.

 Burnt orange coat dress

Replaces burnt orange "potato bag" sweater dress

White fluffy skirt and Black tank

Replace too large grey tank and nothing

I'm happy with most of my selection and they're happy that I'm trading up to clothes that I can get a real job with. Oh, a real job. That's what I'm supposed to do with my life.

I'm looking forward to my return to Oregon, new stuff or not. Yoga (at multiple studios), Whale watching, Hot springs going, Desert visiting, and $2 beers, all await me. And now that going to Oregon no longer means going back to a place where I have no one I am pretty excited to see all of my friends and housemates (the two are not mutually exclusive).

Shout outs to Mom & Dad for always looking out for me. Shout out to Oregon, I'll see you soon. Shout out to Mamaw, I miss you already.

Restless

I am mad uneasy right now about getting up and going. I can feel the need to move pulling at me but I am torn up by the changes in my life that are about to happen.

I don't know how to give up the lead role in the day to day activities of my Mamaw's life but I am so excited to have freedom for my own day to day activities. I really don't know how I'm going to get over seeing her every day and being such a central part of her existence.

I am really, really hyped about seeing my friends back west but I almost can't bear the idea of leaving my Richmond friends behind.

I love the sights and sounds of a Richmond spring but I am so, so, so, excited to see spring in Portland. To watch my tulips come up, and plant a small garden, is such an exciting prospect. My heart quickens at the idea.

Lately, I've been craving the kind of trust that only people who don't really really need you can put into you.  I want my grandmom to trust that I'll clean up a mess or cook something right or fold something and put it away correctly.

If it's really important that those things happen because you can't do it yourself, it's very hard to trust that someone else will do them to your specifications. It's even harder (if not impossible) to let go of those specifications and let someone do things their way.

And I understand that, because I love to be in control. One of the things that I'm looking forward to upon my return to Portland is having complete control of my diet again. I might go temporarily vegan as a response to all of the meat that I've eaten since I was here. I can't wait to make beans and rice and curry! I haven't taken full advantage of the goodness of east coast beers since I've been here (I just don't have the right kind of free time to get some good beers in me as a general rule). So, I'm even excited to be able to drink beer when I'd like to drink it.

I'm excited for yoga and running regularly. I'm bummed that I have to leave the runner friendly city (and my great runner friends) of Richmond.

I'm saddened to leave any prospects of love that I feel like Richmond offers me and Portland doesn't. Why is that? Why would one city not want me so badly when another does? It's all in my head. Probably.

Restless. Yep, that about sums it up.

Yoga Sadness

Tonight I learned, much to my distress, that my yoga studio was discontinuing their yoga classes. I am deeply saddened as yoga had become a regular part of my week and I felt as though I was really connecting with the instructors at the studio.

Now, it's on to searching for a new and affordable studio. Luckily, living social offers a lot of yoga deals for my area so, I'll be able to search in affordable style.

Wish me luck kiddos.

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.

A day in

Today, most of my goals were goals that kept me inside. Except my first goal which was to get groceries. I walked to the grocery store.

I might add that it's super nice to be able to walk to a nice grocery store again.

I applied to jobs online. I made a collage (I'm trying to make more of those again). I started my book. I did some yoga. I made lunch. I made cookies. I talked to Stephanie on the phone. I made dinner and that's about it. When you spend all of your time at home it sure is easy to make food. Good thing I've got food stamps!

Hope all of you are having as easy a time of achieving your goals as I am having of achieving mine :D.

I'm off to set some more goals for myself now.

Friday!

Well, it doesn't really matter because I'm not actually working M-F. Actually, maybe I should be sad because I have to go to work tomorrow (but I'm not because it's $$)!!

Still! Friday brings exciting things as I am about to go to Brides against Breast Cancer and help set up dresses and such for an expo.

Also, I get to take the little dog that lives at my house out for a walk beforehand. Obviously, my life is full of crazy thrills.

I'm about to start on my dog walking duties but just wanted to check in and let everyone know things are moving right along in Portland, OR.

I've made a new friend named Dennis. Yesterday he showed me around a popular bike/walk ride on the river. I've also found a donation based yoga/running class only a few blocks from my house so both of those things are exciting.

On the job front, I've been turned down for the bank teller position that I applied to as well as a position to be a seasonal card sales person :(. I heard back from a guest house that they will be hiring in December and that I should keep in touch. And I have heard nothing back about the parking garage work, event planning internship, or the office assistant position that I have applied to. Still, my hopes remain high. I will get a job!

Thanks for checking in and until I have more adventures of which to tell.