Neglect

Wow, since discovering Facebook i have so been neglecting this blog!

Workouts have been going exceptionally well. my pace is still around 17 minutes/mile, but that includes warmup walking. The two miles that i jog straight probably run around 16:15/mile. i've been pretty impressed with myself and i feel awesome. Not to mention that i will probably have those 10 Philly pounds gone in another week and be working on the next 40.

i went on the best first date (ever?... no, but close) since arriving in the city last night. We sat and talked for four hours, but i completely botched the kiss at the end. Hopefully that won't land me in the 'Friend Zone' and i can give it another go next time.

Almost initially perfect, this guy not only passes my initial check marks, but also understands my doppler effect bumper sticker. Mom asked, "yeah, but what is he allergic to?" Animals. All of them. But, he did seem optimistic about trying to live with them someday. Enough for me for now, anyway.

Worry not, Sao, my days of giving up pets for men are long gone.


Christmas was a blast. i managed to get my family exactly what they wanted, no (as far as i know) utter failures. Liz loved the scarf i got her, and that was my biggest gamble. Got my brother started on Beck, and my mom loved the Kindle we all pitched in to buy her. Finally found dad the shirt he loved that says "Beer is Good" as well.

Sao did NOT appreciate Stella Rue (Dave and Liz's big dog), and spent the entire break up in the guest bedroom after a very energetic first meeting. She is ecstatic to be home.

i am off tonight to spend New Year's Eve with some new friends and am so excited! Last year's ringing in at Wichita Midcontinent Airport, alone and heartbroken, went so fundamentally against my midnight tradition. But like my family said, it did portend a year of travel and change. i hope this year will portend a year of good friends.

Happy New Year to all of you!!

Some Lofty Goals

On Kate Moon: thanks for satisfying my curiosity, guys! How do i not know her? i just found it doing a YouTube search for Clemson, or Clemson Band, or something like that. The comments were similar to those guys you knew, Ali... something like "so this is what it feels like to fall in love..." And i was so hoping it was Andee or Becky. Oh, well.

And now for some truth and consequences.

Since starting school i haven't been so good with the exercise. The schedule we keep here has been kicking my butt, and i've been getting home at 7 or 8 every night, and in bed by 9, and not wanting to spend my few precious hours of alone time sweating it out in the gym.

But i backslid on a lot of my progress too, gaining back about 10 pounds of the 40 i had lost. And that made me sad, which made me feel less like working out.

i have held off on making this post until i was sure my drive and motivation were back, and after two weeks without missing a workout, and five of those ten pounds back under my shoe rubber, i think i can. i am back to the 17-minute mile (i know that's not very impressive, but it does include up to 10 minutes of non-stop jogging at 4 mph, which i have been unable to do since moving to Kansas over two years ago)

Some rather lofty goals have been swirling around in my head for the last two weeks and i have hesitated to make them public, as that makes them real. But i think i am ready. Any of you runners who want to do any of these with me, i'd be more than happy to make a trip down to DC or even further, particularly for the last one, in order to have people with me when i do it.

1.) By summer of 2010, run a 5K race.
2.) By the end of 2010, run a 10K race.
3.) By the summer of 2011, run a half marathon.
4.) Drive around with one of those oval "13.1" stickers on my car.


i know what you're thinking... where's the marathon, Elle? Yes, yes, i know. It just seems so out there that i can't imagine it yet. And if i can't imagine it, i can't set a realistic goal. Perhaps i will add it once i've made it to the 10K mark.

Ok, own up...

Who WAS this????




Does anyone know?

Those uniforms are from our day, and i certainly remember all of you doing this dance at one time or another... but who got caught spankin' the imaginary partner on ESPN?

Pennsyltucky

In politics, the talking heads say that Pennsylvania is always a swing state because it consists of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.

my brother’s name for this aspect of our state is “Pennsyltucky.”

There are more rural parts of the state than urban, of course. Much of it is covered with trees and rumpled by high (by Eastern standards) mountains. Bill Bryson describes Pennsylvania as the place “where hiking boots go to die.”

But let us not, ever, mistake this rural for the ‘Rural’ that exists in Kansas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico.

i like to take minor roads whenever possible.

In Kansas, this meant heading out of Wichita for ten minutes to find yourself a straight, flat ribbon through miles of farmland. Every now and then you’d come to a town which usually consisted of not much more than an abandoned rail car, a few homes, and a grain elevator.

Here, it takes a lot longer to feel “out on the road.” Most US and PA routes wind through the city, then the suburbs, then the outskirts long enough to make you feel that if you see one more stoplight you’re going to ram somebody out of road rage. And even once it does open up, it’s not a matter of whether you’ll get stuck behind a coal truck, an 18-wheeler, or a camper… it’s only a matter of which one of those you get stuck behind. You kind of have to accept this, and just settle for looking out to the sides of your car rather than ahead.

i miss the openness of Kansas.

But i will say that those little towns that the PA routes go through are much more charming. They all tend to have a square with a traffic rotary directing the two routes that pass through the town around the circle. In the center there’s usually a flagpole flying the US flag, the PA flag, and here in the eastern half of the state, they add the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. In the process of circling, you are bound to be delighted by some little shop or café that you see there and park so you can go in. You are also very likely to find specialty shops that you’d never imagine could survive, but they somehow do. In Paradise, PA, there was a doll shop. In Gettysburg an Irish heritage shop. A cat lovers’ store in Towanda.

As delightful as i have found this, i do miss ghost town hunting. Bluff City will be swirling around in my mind as a venue for a horror novel for years, maybe forever (or until i write it?). Unless i go west again, this part of my life is essentially over. Little towns haven’t died out here.

i wonder what the difference is?

Here are some images of Pennsyltucky:

P.s. - First snow this weekend...! It is beautiful!!! i wish i had had my camera in Pittsburgh. i had gone out there to surprise my mom for her birthday, and didn't bring it because i assumed i'd only be there for 24 hours. Snow had other ideas. The drive home today through the mountains was spectacular.

P.p.s. - No butterflies. Another first (ok, second) date bust since arriving in Philly. Prospect of getting more cats looking very likely.