Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Capitol Hill Classic

I just signed up for my first race of the year, the Capitol Hill Classic 10K on May 22nd. I'm looking forward to it already! I even decided to go ahead and buy a ChampionChip, figuring that it would just be good incentive for me to keep signing up for races (to recoup the cost in chip fees, don't you know).

The last ~ and only ~ race I ran was the Leesburg 10K last year, on August 8th, before I hurt my ankle. My pace that day was 12:02. I'll really feel that I've finally come all the way back, if I can equal or exceed that pace this time.

Oh goody goody goody goody goody.

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Monday, March 28, 2005

Make it Stop

Oh god, make it stop!

The rain.
The gloominess.
The tedium.

Let there be sunlight! Let there be cherry blossoms!

Enough of this rope weather.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

I love Red Bull

Red Bull is the nectar of the gods. Specifically, sugar-free Red Bull is ambrosia.

Not because of how it tastes. Mind you, I genuinely like it, but it's definitely a weird, acquired-type taste.

No, Red Bull is a very sip of eternity, one that keeps the office drone from slipping into a fog of oblivion in the middle of the afternoon. Today, I was seconds away from putting my head down on my desktop like a child in kindergarten, and falling into a drool-sodden coma of exhaustion. Instead, I went to my local CVS, bought and rapidly consumed a sugar-free Red Bull, and I tell ya, I'm a new woman.

Great stuff. Turn the camera on and I'll gladly give a testimonial.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Losing It

Senility approacheth apace.

For example, I can't seem to eat without wearing my food. Someday, I won't notice.

Today I looked frantically for my keys at work. Had I left them in the bathroom? NO. Had they fallen out of a pocket somehow? (Doomed.)

...Of course I found them. Eventually. In the desk drawer where I'd carefully placed them for safe-keeping.

And then there was the rubberband. The one I use to stylishly keep my little leather datebook closed. One minute it was there. The next minute: gone. I looked high and low. I was baffled, I tell you, baffled.

I gave up. I replaced the old green rubberband with a new green rubberband. I wondered if the old rubberband was now happily frolicking in the same limbo dimension where single socks go from the laundry.

Until just now. When I looked down to see what was tickling my right wrist...

Yep. Come and get me now, 'cause it's only going to get worse.

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Completely Insane Person

Okay, I just had to mention this. I just saw a guy ~ ultra marathoner Dean Karnazes ~ tonight on Letterman who ran 262 continuous miles (awake 3 consecutive nights). That's ten marathons in a row, if you're counting. Now he's training up to run 300 (miles, not marathons).

He's got that lean runner look; he must eat constantly to fuel the machine. He actually told a story about calling on his cell phone to have pizza delivered to him as he's running down the road.

What I want to know is: how can his joints possibly tolerate that level of abuse?

Me? Well, since I started again, I've gone about 55 miles. And I'm damned proud of it too.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2005

A visit with Gulnaz

Gulnaz

The lovely and charming Gulnaz is making another of her frequent visits to DC this week, on her Spring Break (oh, if only it actually were Spring!). She got her hair cut in Georgetown and then swung up Wisconsin in her spiffy new Celica to treat me to a late lunch.

Some people are just easy and fun to be around. Gulnaz is one of them. That, and apparently a kick-ass academic as well.

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Random Walk

spaghetti on floor

This is what happens when you vigorously remove what you believe to be an UNOPENED box of spaghetti from a shelf above your head.

Curiously enough, the spaghetti-free half-moon "shadow" on the left is in front of the refrigerator, not where I was standing at the time.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Sociological Observation

Want to have a scintillating conversation with an intelligent group of women? Want to laugh and think at the same time? Just check... ask if your companions read and enjoy science fiction. Ask them about their favorites. If they have opinions and favorites, you've struck pay dirt. This, I think, is no coincidence.

I had dinner the other night with Abbie, Jocelyn, Liz, and Molly ~ and it was a great time.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

NAMI Again

I'm working part-time at NAMI again. I think it's likely to be a relatively short gig, so I'm definitely still looking for the Real Job (TM) that's out there for me, somewhere.

At the moment, the schedule is Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a third day each week TBD. Like, for example, this week it's today.

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Monday, March 07, 2005

Darkest Before the Dawn?

I had an appointment this morning at ten, so I carefully set my alarm clock for 8 am to ensure that I'd be up and out in a timely fashion. When you routinely stay up 'til two or three in the morning, this is a sensible precaution.

When the alarm went off this morning, I was still incredibly sleepy and tired. I was cranky because it was still rather dark out, and isn't spring supposed to be just around the corner? It was forecast to be nice today, not cloudy and grim. I dragged myself to the shower and threw on some clothes.

Maybe I'll have time for a cup of coffee and a newspaper browse before I head out, I soothed myself...

And then the radio said something like, "It's 6:52 and traffic is moving smoothly on the outer ring of the beltway."

Say WHAT???

I look at the clock, which clearly says 8:52.

The pipes in my building are relatively quiet, and there's not a lot of the usual morning clomping and stomping coming from upstairs. The truth dawns on me in a slow agony.

I look out the window, and the lightening gloom. It hasn't been overcast, it's been dark.

Somehow, last night, as I was setting the alarm, I also managed to set my clock time ahead a couple of hours. My exhaustion is legitimate ~ that's two hours' less sleep than I originally planned.

The morning suddenly stretches ahead of me, filled with unexpected swaths of unscheduled emptiness. It's too late to go back to bed; I've showered and dressed already.

So I'm up, and I've had my grapefruit-pear-lime-ginger juice and my very strong coffee. I've read the newspaper. And I still have an hour to go before I need to leave.

God, I hate mornings.

picture of me with haircut

Friday, March 04, 2005

Apparently, I'm 30

Fatal confirmation of the wide disparity between my chronological and psychological ages: What age do you act?

Oh grow up, says I to myself.
Make me, I says back.

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