The Color Run

Guess what I'm doing on Saturday morning?  This:

The Color Run! It's a 5k where they douse you with a different paint color every 1k.  You ended up covered in multi-colored day-glo paint.  I'm doing it with a bunch of my crazy wonderful friends, and I'm so excited!  

I even spent yesterday making my own tutu to wear! It's long been a dream of mine to wear a tutu during a race.  You may think that's strange. I'm certainly not a girly-girl.  But something about wearing a tutu while running says to me "I can run this race while wearing a frilly get-up, I am so BA." Anyway, I've long had the tutu-wearing dream and the Color Run seems like the perfect opportunity.

So be sure to come back over the weekend to see the update complete with pictures of my crew at the Charlotte Color Run!

In the mean time, here are some pictures I stole from the Color Run's website.

Til then...stay colorful!

Bridget Jones' Diary

Last night I watched Bridget Jones' Diary with a few friends. It's one of my top three favorite movies and some of them had never seen it before.

If you've never seen it I would, of course, suggest you watch it. It's a circa 2001 classic of a 32-year-old singleton searching for love in a world full of smug marrieds assuming she's a career girl (she's not really. I mean she has a job but is not career-minded) who just won't "settle down." Perhaps a typical romantic comedy, but it's British, set in London and features a funny, loveable and plump heroine with an internal dialogue, so it was above average for me.

I fell in love with this movie when it came out in 2001. Back then I was only 21, a perpetually single college student with a weight problem who didn't really know what do with her career but thought it might be one where I would"fanny about with press releases." (quote from the movie). I identified with Bridget for these reasons, and it's been my favorite movie ever since.

I hadn't actually watched it in years, but it was still my standard answer to the "What's your favorite movie?" question.  Yesterday, I was really excited to share it with my friends, and I was almost giddy laughing at all the funny parts just slightly before they came funny. I was glad to know that I still love it.

But it got me thinking. What if I hadn't made Bridgette a heroine of mine at 21, would things be different now?  'Cause now I'm 32, just like her, and I'm still in the same place, dating-wise and weight-wise. It's like I was growing up to be her.  (I might be slightly ahead, career-wise).

I don't mean this to be a heavy post.  It just made me wonder about who I choose to be my role models and what kind of influence they have over my thoughts and habits.  I'm not saying Bridget Jones was necessarily a bad role model. She's quite funny and sometimes ridiculous, which are always traits I strive to attain.

Who is your role model?  Do you think a favorite movie can influence your life or thoughts?

PS I've had a remarkable Saturday thus far.  I finished a 2nd great book of the week, got caught up on my television from the week, received a remarkable text from my niece and sucessfully ate breakfast at home for the fifth day in a row!

PPS Someone saw I used the word "meta" in this post and asked me what it meant.  I could not explain it and then began to wonder if I really knew what it meant and if not, had I used it correctly? So I looked it up on Urban Dictionary and here is the definition:

A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential. 

"So I just saw this film about these people making a movie, and the movie they were making was about the film industry..."
"Dude, that's so meta. Stop before my brain explodes."

Then I realized I should never have doubted myself, because I have a resplendent and indefatigable vocabulary.

Thankful Things: HOT DOG!

Guys, I'm sure I have lots of things and people to be thankful for today.

But really, I have time to think of none of those wonderful things. Because all I can think about is how thankful I am for this:

Thanks to my friend Cara, I AM LIVING MY DREAM OF BEING DRESSED AS A HOT DOG!

After learning that it was my dream to be a hot dog for Halloween, Cara saw this Hot Dog Hat while she was shopping last weekend and got it for me.  It's beautiful, whimsical and it keeps my head warm. It allows me to be a hot dog without all of the constraints of actually being a hot dog.  It's perfect.  I will wear it everywhere*. Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

With Cara, who found this magnificent treasure.

Guys, I ate a hotdog while wearing a hot dog. So meta.
Also, how jealous is that woman in the background?? So jealous.

Hot Dog Hat from above.  ROCK ON!

I know you can not top the Hot Dog Hat, but you can try. What are you thankful for this week?  Or, if you can't think of anything, you can just tell me how much you love my hat.


*For employment purposes, I will, sadly, not wear the Hot Dog Hat to work.

Then Things I'm Thinking About This Tuesday

1) In four years, I hope I remember, I want to be a volunteer at a polling place.  I think I could have a lot of fun with that.

2) In other voting news, I want to start a tradition of watching this video every election day.


3) Changing the subject, but my dad told me that if I used Vick's Vapo Rub my cold would go away overnight.  I was desperate enough to try it. He was wrong.

4) I ran again yesterday! After two weeks off and with a slight cold, it was not exactly easy, but I did it.

5) I thought I needed new curtains because they were really dusty and I tried to wash them once and they almost fell apart. But yesterday I just vacuumed them with the hose on the vaccuum and voila! they are perfect again.

6) Once Upon a Time is really good this season.

7) I have today off for election day.  Next week is a full week, but then after that is Thanksgiving and only a two-day work week!  Awesome.

8)It's my dream to one day be a hotdog for Halloween.  If any of you see any hotdog costumes on sale, that don't look super cheap, consider buying one for me, please.  I'll totally pay you back.

9) I made non-instant oatmeal this morning. It was just okay.

10) I read a great book this weekend.  Tell the Wolves I'm Home.  I'm not a very adept book reviewer, but there was just something about the way she told this story that made it really great. I wish she had written more books.

Thankful Thursdays: THE RETURN!

One of  the things I missed during my blogger absence was my Thankful Thursdays posts. I mean, how great is it to sit and recap all of the great things in your life on a regular basis?  Answer: so great.
Here's what's got my thankful up this week:

Halloween & Costumes
I love the costume planning and execution. I love the parties. I love the food. I love coming to work in a costume and finding excuses to make deliveries around campus to show off my costume. I love that people know enough now to stop by my office to see what I've come up with this year.

Party hostess Mary Poppins and myself as the U.S. Quarter.

My co-workers

My Church

I've gone through periods in recent years when I've pulled away from my church community and even "shopped around" for a new church (mainly because I live 30 minutes away from church and that drive started to get to me). I realized a few months ago that this was silly.  Good Shepherd is my church home, and I am an important part of the community there.  I think what I've been learning is that church is what you make of it. If you just attend regular service and don't get involved in the ministries, you're missing out on so muc,h and it's no one's fault but your own. I've rededicated myself to attendance and finding new avenues of service at my church.

My Half-Birthday!

It may seem silly, but half birthdays are fun too. Today is mine. Feel free to leave half birthday well wishes in the comments or even send presents! I'm coolio with that.

Halloween Episodes of My Favorite TV Shows

These episodes always have either excellently crafted or extremely clever costumes, which is what Halloween must be like when you have a full writing staff and costume designers at your beck and call. There were a lot of good ones this, year, but I think Nick from the New Girl's Bee Arthur was genius.

Disney is Calling
This week I booked a vacation with my sister and her family of five to go visit Mickey Mouse and all his friends in January. I can't wait to experience Disney with my nieces and nephew!

 

Lots of great things happening this week. What are you thankful for?

Skeered

Last week when I wrote this post, I had come off a great couple weeks of running.  And I was looking to continue it.  So even though I knew I had a crazy busy week coming up, I took time to schedule my running workouts for the coming week and was confident I would follow through.

See, I knew that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I would have absolutely no time to run and probably very little energy.  So, being a proactive sort, I decided I would run Sunday, Thursday and Saturday to still get in three workouts for the week.

Sunday, I completed day one of week five of my C25K program.  I was on track with my plan.  Then Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday hit and I lost all motivation.  To say those three days were busy is an understatement.  They were physically exhausting, as I spent about 10-12 hours each day on my feet and "running"* to and fro.  They were also mentally exhausting and stressful.

Thursday and Friday came and went without running.  I was tired and still a residual sort of busy.  Saturday and Sunday came and I was just plain lazy, so they also went without running.  I felt guilty for not running, but not enough to tie on some shoes, apparently.

But today is Monday. The great "day to get it back on track;" a clean slate.  And yet I didn't run again.
I have no excuses for my behavior today. I was well rested, recovered from my busy week last week.  I did have a lot going on at work, but that's the norm.  Everything I was doing could've waited while I took a gym-lunch break. But I didn't.

I know what it is.  I'm skeeered. I'm afraid of going out there and not being able to do it.  Of losing stamina and mental strength that I've been building up (slowly) this fall. I'm not sure what else, but I do know I'm afraid.

It sounds stupid, but it's the truth. I'd love to pick up with my week five workouts tomorrow. My gym bag is already packed.  But honestly, I don't know if I will. I thought that writing this post would make me feel silly enough about these thoughts that I'd be charged up to run tomorrow.  That's not the case.  I guess I'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

*I use the term "running" here loosely. I was wearing sneakers and did occasionally move at higher than typical speeds, but it should probably be more accurately described as "walking with a purpose."

Singin' and Runnin'

I have been really happy lately.
Like unexpectedly, out of nowhere happy.

Not that I was necessarily unhappy before. But you know, you're living life day to day and life is good, it's fine, but maybe not sunshine-bursting-out-of-you-happiness.

Anyway, I've been thinking about where are all of this happiness is coming from, and I'm blaming two things: singing and running.

I joined the choir at my church last month. I can not explain how much I love singing with this group. Clearly, I've always loved to sing, but this is more than that. Maybe it's partly because it's challenging, partly because it's a beautiful blending of the different voices, partly because it's in praise of the King of Majesty, and partly because it's just fun. I'm not sure why I never joined before, except that I maybe thought choir was for old people. No more of that nonsense thinking. Just happiness and singing.

Second, I've been back on track with running for almost three weeks now. After taking most of the summer off from running and then struggling to stick with my running work outs for a month or two, it feels good to be back. If you've ever read this blog before you might remember that I have sort of a love-hate relationship with running. Let me assure you that putting running as one of the reasons for my bursting happiness does NOT mean that I now love running. On the contrary, I still dread each run, and it is still hard, physically and mentally, for me. Almost every step I take, I'm convincing or tricking myself into continuing to run. But I've been really lucky (?) the last three weeks in that I have completed each work out exactly when I've set out to do it exactly how I've meant to do it. And that sense of accomplishment, combined with the endorphins released while running, have been contributing factors to the happiness.

So that's my current recipe for happiness. What's been making you happy lately?