Slowing Down

It started snowing here Friday night, and didn't stop until yesterday (Saturday) afternnoon, and by then the snow storm had left several inches of snow, plus just a little ice thrown in. It gave me a much needed excuse to spend a Saturday indoors, and it was delightfully restful! We built a fire, we both cooked at different times, we puttered around, we napped. It was all a really nice change of pace! It made me realize that while I'm a low key kind of gal, I don't slow down very often. Well....I don't slow down often at the beginning of the day, anyway. I'm usually eager to get the show on the road at the beginning of each day, which often starts with a workout at the gym or on one of the local trails. This time, I stayed in my jammies for a big chunk of the day, and my mind as well as my body enjoyed permission to power down.

Funny, though, that I started to get a little antsy later in the day, so I popped an exercise DVD into the VCR. It's done by Jillian Michaels of "Biggest Loser" fame, and she's anything but low key! This video is called "30 Day Shred," and it's gotten lots of good reviews on Amazon.com. Well, I decided to try it out, started with the easy level of "Day 1." Man, that was a lot tougher than I expected! I thought I was getting in decent shape...well, I am getting there, but this was a reminder that I'm definitely a work in progress! After I finished the about-20-minute workout, I was bushed! Back to being mellow again! :) I'm not exactly sore today, but let's just say I'm "aware" of my arms!

A Work in Progress

In case you aren't a follower of my running blog, I've been busy working on the "new" me, physically, anyway! I started working with a running coach in mid-December, and have been following her daily workouts since then. Most of our contact has been online, via my workouts and feedback posted on a calendar, by email and by phone. She does live locally, so we've seen each other a couple of times in person, but otherwise I can do the workouts on my own schedule and post how they go, and she provides feedback as needed. I think it's going well so far. In some ways, time will tell, in the improvement of my training and racing times. But already, I feel stronger and am running a litter faster already.

Also, I've started a low carb diet under the care of a physician within the Duke Healthcare system. He's an internist who specializes in bariatrics, but pushes a low carb diet rather than the popular bariatric surgeries. With all the controvery over the Atkins plan, I must admit it feels a little strange trying this, but so far it's working pretty well! I have made progress on the scales just by cutting out the foods I can't have, those made with refined sugar and flour, plus no fruit in this early phase. My weight and my blood sugars have gone down, and that's a help, in and of itself. My pants feel looser too--yay!

One of my favorite things about visiting this doctor is that my body compostion will get tested each time. Between the first and second visits, when I hadn't started the diet yet, my weight increased a little, BUT the percentage of fat in my body had decreased, and the muscle in my body had increased, just in  week's time. I think that was because of the coach-directed workouts I've been doing. Yay!

I'm a "Stuff" Collector

I've been thinking lately about how much "stuff" I have, and pondering the whole quantity vs. quality thing.

One thing I have a problem with is books! I have so many books at home, that the one bookshelf in my home office is double stacked, and they won't all fit, so some are stacked on the floor, other pieces of furniture, you name it.They're everywhere! Some days I love having so many books around, but other days, I'm thinking I should turn off the computer (the TV isn't an issue for me, but the computer is) and read them. Some of the books are keepers--old favorites which are like old friends, or gifts from friends and family that I don't want to part with, but a lot of them are books I haven't read yet. It's time to read them and/or pass them along. Of course, I could get another bookcase, or something like the picture here, which would be tempting in the right room in the right house! And the next picture of a home library, not too shabby either!

But in the mean time, until I have the room for a home library, I need to work on making do with the space I have to work with. Making my home office a more pleasing room to be in is one of my goals for 2010.

A Neat Place for a Day Job (Mine)

Merry Christmas!

It's been a quiet, but very good day here. I found myself remembering Christmases past, and the traditions my family used to have. Being in a relationship with someone from a different religious background who has never celebrated Christmas has made things a bit different for me. One of my realizations, or reminders, today, is that I need to take the lead with creating traditions surrounding Christmas. G.'s family has family and friends over for Hanukkah, but my parents aren't in town for Christmas, so I need to make it happen in future years. I was happy to hear G. say that next year we should have a tree! Yay!

After opening gifts, we did have a very nice Christmas dinner this afternoon at Il Palio at the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill. I would highly recommend it for a special occasion!

The Creative Process of Writing

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had started NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, trying my hand at a lifelong dream of writing a novel for the first time. I'm still at it, currently hovering at just under 32,000 words. It has been a learning experience so far, both about the craft of putting words together on paper, as well as about the discipline of writing toward a goal outside of work for the first time in a long time. Oh, I write emails and blog posts all the time, but a story with characters and conversation and drama, well, it's a different animal altogether.

There have been times in the past three weeks or so that I have looked forward to writing after work, and times when I wanted to read, watch TV, clean the toilet, just about anything else. But every day I've written something toward the goal of finishing this 50,000 word rough draft dream of mine. It has to be finished by midnight on Nov. 30. Well, the rough draft has to be at or beyond the 50K mark. (Big difference!)

Whether or not I ever revisit this (very) rough draft creation of mine, for editing or whatever, the most important things I've learned so far have involved making time for myself, making myself disciplined to do something I have to do because I want to do it that much, and setting boundaries for myself.

Don't Go, Oprah!

Oprah Winfrey announced today on her talk show that she would be wrapping it up in 2011 because the time is right. 25 years at one gig, which is how many seasons Oprah's show will have been on when she wraps up the next season. Wow. Few people stay at one job for 25 years anymore.

I have watched the "Oprah Winfrey Show" on occasion, especially during the summer breaks when I used to be a teacher. Back then, I occasionally taped it when I knew an interesting guest would be on while I was at work. It's been a long time since I've watched the show, but Oprah has become such an influential person in her own right that rarely a month goes by that I haven't been aware of her, whether it's a new book pick for her show's book club, or in the past couple of years, her support for the Obamas.

One of the things I remember about her show is that, while she has had many famous guests on her show, she has also had a number of "regular people" who did out-of-the-ordinary things on as guests on her show. For years now, I've harbored a secret desire to do something inspirational that would land me on the "Oprah Winfrey Show!" Okay, there, I said it. My secret's out. And now, unless I get cracking, it looks like I'll have to keep working on the inspirational bit without the reward of a gig in Oprah's show! Ah, it was a pipe dream anyway. :)

You've Got Mail

In the past couple of weeks, I've rediscovered a website called Postcrossing, which facilitates sending postcards across the globe. People who register on the site initially receive up to five addresses of other people registered on Postcrossing. You mail out your postcard(s), and when the recipients receive and register their newly received postcards, you are able to get additional addresses to mail more postcards. Whenever you request a new address to send a postcard to, you get a unique ID number to write on the card. The person on the other end types in that ID number to indicate receipt.

Although I registered on Postcrossing about three years ago and sent/received a few postcards then, I got busy with other things and forgot about it. I just recently signed back in and decided to send out five more postcard and see that happened. Since then, four of my postcards have been received overseas, and I received two postcards yesterday, one from England and the other from Germany. It was fun to get some non-bill/junk mail in the mailbox, since I keep up with so many people by email, Facebook, and Twitter now.

This newly refound hobby will probably fade away again in time, but for now, in these drearier days of fall (did I mention it's been raining all week thanks to Tropical Storm Ida?!), it's fun looking forward to colorful mail via postcards in my real live mailbox (not the virtual one).

Happy November!

It's been a busy fall so far, and it's not over yet! I love this time of year--for the weather, the fall colors, and all the neat activities going on.

George and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this past week with a fun trip to the North Carolina mountains. We stayed in Boone for the second year in a row, and explored the area for several days. It rained on us the first day, but otherwise the weather was quite nice. The leaves were just past their prime, but still very pretty.

I'm running my second marathon, the Outer Banks Marathon, next Sunday, and am rather nervous about it. I'm going to get to the starting line and see what happens! George has decided to run it with me, which should be a great help! I hope we both make it to the end.

Just today, I've started National Novel Writing Month for the first time! I'm excited about this project, partly because it'll be a great diversion from running, especially as I taper for and recover from the marathon.

First Marathon Complete!

I finished my first marathon, the Triple Lakes Race in Greensboro, NC, last Saturday. The race report is here.

I'm still a bit stiff, so I've signed up for a chair massage at work tomorrow, and am looking forward to that! My knee (which I FELL on) and my blisters are slower to heal than I'd like, but I do feel some improvement.

I'm beginning to feel like doing some of the things I've been neglecting during marathon training and initial recovery, like cleaning at home, sorting through mail, and other domestic things. I still can't stay awake very long to read in bed at night, as I'm still pretty bushed. My body's healing, though, I can feel it. My mind is also on the mend. It took me nearly 11 hours to finish the race, a long time on my legs, AND a long time by myself, where I get downright lonely--and bored out of my skull! The next marathon I'll be running, Outer Banks, is a bigger race, AND it allows headsets. Also, George has decided to run the Outer Banks Marathon with me! (Woohoo!)

I'm eager to recover quickly so I can finish training for the Outer Banks race, where I hope to clock a big improvement!

First Marathon!

I've got my first marathon coming up on Saturday, the Triple Lakes Trail Race in Greensboro! It will be a training run for me, and I'm feeling a combination of excitement and nervousness over the experience! Most of the time I feel like I'm going to nail the distance, but sometimes I think, "What if....?"

I'm trying not to get bogged down in the doubts, so I'm busy getting grocery shopping and errands done (after work) before Saturday, so I can take it easy for the rest of the weekend. I'll be getting to sleep early the next few nights, to boot. (I haven't done a good job of that so far this week! Yikes!)

I haven't written much about my marathon training here, since I have a running blog at Going the Extra Mile. My race report will show up there, probably some time next week.

Busy End to Summer

It's hard to believe it's the end of the last weekend of summer! Wow! Life has been busy, mostly with marathon training, smattered with a couple of recent road races. We also celebrated George's grandfather's 95th birthday in August, which included dinner at the Angus Barn (very nice!).

Running this summer, especially training for the marathon, has taught me a lot about myself. I recently completed a 20 miler, and while my body was wiped out, it was a nice feeling of accomplishment. I'm still pretty slow, so I've been working on speeding up, with some results. It's also been good mental training for "long haul" stuff, as it's been tempting sometimes to quit and make it s shorter run.

I've been trying to read more this summer, though I've discovered recently that I have to take a break from books about running! Thinking about running, training, sleep and nutrition, it's on my mind almost constantly, so I need my reading to be a diversion, something to give my brain a break! Once I have fall racing behind me, one of the books I hope to read is Born to Run.

Speaking of reading, just last week I rediscovered the website Bookcrossing.com, a way to recycle used books and follow a book's travels around the country or the globe. I have so many paperback books at home that I haven't read, so this should be motivation to read them and start "releasing" them! I've already ordered my first batch of bookplates and sticky notes from the BookCrossing store (though it's not necessary to do so), and am looking forward to getting going again with this little project. My BookCrossing profile is here.

Between marathon training, reading, and life in general, I haven't been watching much television this summer, and most of the time, I don't miss it! I'd be surprised if I've watched a total of two hours of TV all summer! Hard to believe. :) Of course, I've spent more time on the computer, some of it doing research on running, genealogy, and other things.

I'm looking forward to fall, for sure. Happy First Day of Fall on Tuesday!

Wiped Out

I have so much to catch up on here, including a weekend with the widest range of activities and emotions I've had in a while! Tonight, though, I feel too exhausted to do it all justice here. For now, I'm going to close down the computer, turn off the apartment lights, and join George (who's already crashed for the night!) in bed. Tomorrow's a new day.

Sweet dreams!

Fun Way to Improve Time Management!

George and I had a small get-together Saturday night, a few friends over to play board games. It was pretty amazing how much we got done around the apartment, between getting things clean, buying groceries and cooking snacks, and taking care of other things (like cleaning the carpet with a machine from the grocery store and replacing burned out lightbulbs), knowing people were coming over. A lot of that we got done after our 10-mile long run Saturday morning! We were pretty exhausted yesterday, but loved recuperating in a clean apartment, with the post-party "glow" of having friends over. We've decided we'd like to have more get-togethers, and hope to have another one next month.

Okay, I Watched It!

I finally saw the movie "Twilight" over the weekend. George and I watched a loaner DVD of the movie together. George hasn't read any of the Twilight books, and he didn't like the movie AT ALL! I've read Twilight and Full Moon, and had mixed feelings about the movie.

Things I Liked About the Movie:
*The greenery was very pretty! I loved the lushness of the forests, and it was fun to recognize Multnomah Falls, which I visited many moons ago.
*Speaking of the set/scenery, I thought the Cullen' house was pretty neat, with all the glass.
*Bella whines much less in the movie than she does in the movie. (Uh, thank goodness!) She also seems less clumsy in the movie.
*I thought the casting was interesting.
*The movie was a Reader's Digest version of the book, with some scenes, issues, and the whining all condensed. Big plus in my book. I thought Twilight (the book) could've ended much sooner than it did.

Things I Didn't like About the Movie:
*It still came across as very "high schooly," especially the dialog. Okay, I KNOW the characters are in high school, but some of the dialog was cheesy, even for high school.
*Edward comes across as pretty darn smug, rather than aloof, to me. Same as the book.
*The movie seemed pretty low-budget for such a highly popular book series.
*Bella's character would come across better if she didn't have to come across as clumsy at all, I think. The times she did stumble in the movie seemed a bit forced. ("Oh, that's right, my character is supposed to be a klutz!") If I didn't know her character was clumsy in the book, I would've thought they'd forgotten to do some editing.
*I don't think the movie really explained Edward's showing up in Bella's room while she slept. Just happened. Still creepy to me, not romantic.

Overall, I'm glad I saw it as a cultural reference, but....*sigh* it didn't make me any more of a Twilight fan. I keep coming back to my feeling of relief over the fact that it took me less time to watch the movie than it did for me to read the book. Like Harry Potter, I'm glad the young adult audience has found another series of thick books to sink their teeth into, but it's been a challenge for this fortysomething to follow suit here.

The Week That Was

Today I went to the TRLN Annual Meeting that I mentioned in last Friday's post, and really enjoyed it! The keynote speaker talked about digital projects; afterward I chose a breakout session that featured two speakers: one who talked more about the future of digital projects in the university setting, and the other who talked about Green IT, or the environmental and university impact of going green with library/campus IT. Both presentations were full of interesting information, BUT the first presenter read a lot from his Power Point presentation. The second presenter did a lot of well organized ad libbing, mostly because he had more colorful images as examples in his Power Point presentation. (Note to self--remember this!)

After the break out session, we went to the yummy buffet lunch, and heard Karla Holloway, a Duke professor and author, speak. She gave a witty talk about her book, which was about reading and how reading has affected people, including writers and blacks. Interesting.

Earlier this week, I gave the book New Moon away to a coworker who'd just finished reading Twilight. I saw her today at the TRLN meeting, and she handed me her Netflix copy of the movie, "Twilight," to watch! Okay, I didn't much like the book, but I continue to be curious about the whole phenomenon, so I'm looking forward to watching the movie! (Thanks, TC!)

Okay, I Caved!

I just pre-ordered the paperback copy of Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight Series, with mixed feelings. I finished Twilight earlier this month, and didn't like it much at all! I finished New Moon over the weekend (I'd already bought it, so I decided to go ahead and read it), and liked it a little better. Now I'm hoping the series will continue to warm up for me. For those of you following the Twilight Series, it looks like I'm in the Team Jacob camp so far.

I continue to be curious about the hold this series has on people. Teenage Bella seems to be at her worst when she's with Edward, vampire extraordinaire: klutzy, whiny, clingly, and dependent. Edward's family seems to accept all of this, and they remind her of her own awkward self at different times throughout the first two books. When Bella befriended Jacob (who turns into a werewolf in New Moon), she became more self-confident and adventurous. That's why I liked New Moon better--Bella became a much more interesting and well-rounded character.

I'm such a horder of books I want to read, that I am beginning to get a little overwhelmed by all the unread possibilities on my bookshelves at home, not to mention my Amazon.com Wishlist and my to-read list on Goodreads.com (there is some duplication between the two lists, but not totally). While many of the books I have at home are personal copies, many are library books (both university and public). I recently decided to start weeding books out a bit, so that I can focus on what I really want to read for a while, and make my home office a more comfortable place to read, write, and relax in the evenings. Recently, I took a few personal books I didn't want to keep to work to share with my colleagues, with the promise that I didn't expect (or even want) to see them again. This afternoon, I returned a bunch of books to the public library that I'd either finished or decided I could read later on down the road. While my bookshelves are still double-stacked when possible, and now-smaller stacks of books still abound elsewhere, my home office is looking more airy, relaxing, and productive. I feel like I have a little more focus.

Meanwhile, I have a total of seven (SEVEN?!) books in various stages of ordering and shipping at Amazon, so I'm hoping to finish up some other books at home before they arrive! Three of those books are released for shipment in August, and another won't arrive until late October, so I'm hopeful that I can make some progress between now and then. Three of the seven will arrive this week, though. I'd better stop writing and go read for a while! :)

No Doesn't Always Mean No

This morning, I realized I'd missed the deadline for signing up for the TRLN Annual Meeting next week. A coworker had asked if I were going, in hopes that we could hang out together. :) I remembered that I'd emailed my boss, asking her if I could attend, and I never heard from her. I was a little bummed with myself that I hadn't followed up with her in time to make the registration deadline. I enjoyed this meeting last year, and had been looking forward to it again. I thought I was out for the count.

I sighed over it for a bit, and vowed to follow up better next year. Then I decided I wasn't ready to give up for this year! I found a contact person on the TRLN website, and asked her if it were possible to at least attend the morning sessions, if not the lunch. As luck would have it, I heard back from her almost immediately saying she could get me in, and that I needed to respond with my breakout session preference, and if I wanted to stay for lunch! Yessss!

So then I tracked down my boss, who said, "Uh, sure! I assumed people would just sign up if they wanted to go!" (This particular meeting is free of charge, and in a nearby city, but it is time offsite and different from the normal work routine, eventhough it is work-related.)

I emailed the TRLN contact back gleefully, happy with myself that I hadn't given up so easily. It's a minor victory, but a nice way to end the work week.

Happy Weekend, all!

Kitchen Fun

One of my goals for this year is to do more cooking, so I decided to try a new recipe from the cookbook 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains. I bought this cookbook in the spring of 2008, and I think this is the first recipe I've tried from it! I decided on the "Brown Rice and Lentils" recipe on p. 329, went to the grocery store, and came back with several goodies!

For starters, I didn't have a large skillet with a matching top! I was also missing the spices cumin and coriander in my spice rack, and I also picked up lentils, fresh cilantro, and fresh scallions.

Here, I sauteed the fresh carrot and small onion (in the first picture) in olive oil, and added the cumin and coriander. Yummy smell already at this point!

Here, I added the uncooked brown rice and lentils, and sauteed a little more. I added four cups of water, put the lid on and brought it to a boil. Then it simmered for 40 minutes.

The scallion and cilantro got mixed in at the end, and the whole enchilada had to sit under a paper towel for five minutes.







And voila! It tastes really good, and the recipe made several servings! Can't wait to have it for lunch this coming week!

125 Days and Counting!

I just checked the website for the Outer Banks Marathon, and it's only 125 days (plus some hours and seconds) away! Wowee! I'm both excited and nervous about it, to be honest. I'm excited because it'll be my first marathon, but I'm nervous because I've been kinda struggling with the long runs lately. I must be patient, and continue to prepare for it. Well rounded training includes good nutrition, hydration, and sleep, as well as exercise.