"I'm an extraordinary machine"

Ok I'm gonna brag. And I'll admit I give people grief (silently and in my own head of course) when they brag. I don't care how much weight you've lost (I actually do and I'm jealous) or how far you can run (once again, jealous) or how much you enjoy your work out (super envious on that point). So it's been really odd for me to be on the other side of that for once. I'll be damned if I turn into one of those people who only talks about their exercises but I just HAD to come on here and tell the world that I am OFFICIALLY a runner! Like I mentioned last entry, my family and I have signed up for Bay to Breakers (this is so NSFW for the love of God, but you should absolutely do a google image search for Bay to Breakers if you're at home). So I've been training and following a plan Ed made up for me. You must understand, when I've 'run' in the past, it went something like this: walk for five minutes, and then run one minute and then walk one minute for about 30-40 minutes. This is not an ideal way to run a race. I don't know what got into me, but when Ed gave me my assignment, I said okay. And proceeded to run for 20+ minutes a day straight. No break. No slowing down. I've dreamed about running like this for so long...

The sheer freedom of lacing up your sneakers and just going somewhere from your own strength and determination... it's exhilarating! (Anyone else think of that ad they pitched in What Women Want? Mel Gibson will forever be associated with peaceful women's running) It's also appealing in that it's just one long meditation. An extended assignment in focus and clarity of thought. In her new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling (from The Office) talks about using elaborate revenge fantasies to get her through exercises. Turns out I like envisioning scenes from musicals, tv shows and books in great detail. If I start thinking about the fact that I'm working out or traveling or any thought at all about my actions I immediately start to feel exhausted and weak. So I just keep on trucking. I'm also kind of a baby in terms of working out without music... It's just so alien and barbaric that one would workout without any kind of distraction... But I've been doing that too. As much as I enjoy my scenes in my head, I've started testing out just being quiet and running. And that's not been awful either!

Ok that's enough exercise talk. I just wanted to tell the world how ecstatic I am to run finally. It's like learning how to do a cartwheel or something! (I have no idea how to do a cartwheel but since I've always wanted to do one and they look like so much fun, I imagine it's the best feeling in the world)

In other news, I'm plugging away at my reading challenge. The whole Game of Thrones series really slows me down, but I love it. I'll probably love it more when the show comes on again. I also picked up another book that really got me, Discovery of Witches, which is a trilogy, and has all that lovely romance and vampire-witch relations that I can never get enough of. I'm truly a sucker for vampires at the end of the day.

And! I've officially tried my hand at canning. It wasn't as hard or complicated as I thought. It WAS as messy as I was worried it would be. I have yet to taste my strawberry jam, but fingers crossed it's delicious. It's hard not to be delicious with bright berries and a metric ton of sugar added. 

Strawberry Jam! Hopefully edible...

Enjoying the day in Mountain View

I feel as if maybe in the first few months out here, I really kind of stalled. I just was dragging my feet and refusing to tackle all these dreams I had... maybe for fear of failure or because I was still bummed about moving? I still very dearly miss MD, my friends and family. But... I believe I'm finally seeing this as home? At least as in, this is Ed and I's space here. Our little corner of the world where we can and play with crazy cats and make potato bins (yeah, I'll post about that craziness next time), and I can address things I've always wanted to do, or just do better. It's a nice feeling :)

Cabernet flight at Savvy Cellars

Also one last little programming note - today is my stepmom's bday, and she and Dad are in Hawaii. I would like to express my happy birthday wishes to her along with a heaping dose of jealousy that we are not in Hawaii as well, snorkeling with dolphins, turtles and who knows what else :) Happy Birthday Debbie!

Brunch at Louis'