30 Day Challenge: The Bored With This Edition

Story of my life.  I just get bored.  It happens all the time to me.  I get a bee in my bonnet about something, go whole hog and then get bored or lose interest.  Thank God this doesn't apply to my marriage!  I don't know what I was thinking about this 30 Day Challenge thingy.  I mean, for real.  Who am I kidding?  Actually, I might have finished it if it were even remotely interesting, which it is not.  You can read this as "I never bothered reading the complete 30 day topics ahead of time before I decided to do it".  Did I also mention how lazy I am?  I'm gonna cut straight to the chase; I'm cleaning up the rest of this mess in one fell swoop. 

9. How important you think education is:  Totally
10. Put your music player on shuffle and write the first ten songs that play: Don't feel like it (there' that lazy thing again, damn it!)
11. Your Family:  Well, it depends which members you are talking about.
12. Five guys/girls you find attractive:

GUYS:  Calvin, Snoopy, Hobbes, Charlie Brown, Linus
GIRLS:  Snow White, Mulan, Laura Croft (NOT Angelina), Lucy, Sally

13. Your opinion about your body and how comfortable you are with it: Meh
14. What you wore today: I wore out my welcome.
15. Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality:  Gemini/Yes, so my husband tells me.
16. Something you always think "what if. . ." about:  I ate this giant bag of M&Ms
17. Something that you are proud of:  My ability to reduce this list to something meaningless (like it needed my help).
18. A problem you have had: This list.
19. Five items you lust after: chewed up Barbie feet, bits of string, scraps of paper, a crust of bread, broken bits of cheese.
20. Your fears: lake monsters, blue hair, frosted green eyeshadow, saggy boobs.
21. How you hope your future will be like: calm
22. Your Academics: OVER!
23. Something that you miss: bunny slippers
24. Five words/phrases that make you laugh: 5?  Really?  words OR phrases?  You ask too much.
25. Something you are currently worrying about:  what's for lunch.
26. Things that you like/dislike about yourself:  I like/dislike myself.
27. A quote you try to live by: "I like maxims that don't encourage behavior modification." ~Calvin
28. Somewhere you would like to move or visit: I'd like to move to the other side of the couch, but there is a 5 year old blocking my access.
29. Five weird things that you like:  You're asking now?
30. One thing you are excited for:  Christmas sweaters!


There, done!

Happy Thanksgiving!

NYC Marathon and 30 Day Challenge: Day 8

Because Day 8 of the 30 Day Challenge has been hanging over my head forever, I'll keep it simple....

Day 8:  What you ate today.

Answer:  Food ( I know, lame, but I am just not that inspired.  I think I need to come up with my own list.  I'm fickle like that).

As you may or may not know, I had to defer the NYC Marathon until next year due to Achilles issues.  I still went to watch.....and drink beer.  My friend's idea of drowning my sorrows.  It worked.  

Christoper Niemann is an artist/blogger for the NY Times and I have featured his work before.  He is too damn clever for his own good, but this time he went over the top.  He sketched his way through the NYC Marathon.  He tweeted live illustrations along the entire route of the race.  Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.  He has summed up his tweets in a blog post here.  I hope you enjoy it, it's good stuff!

Just a teaser.

So...You Want To Be An Artist?

My 30 Day Challenge has gone off the rails for a bit, but I promise to get back to it (I know.  You have been on pins and needles, breathless with anticipation).  In the meanwhile, a fellow artist friend of mine sent this to me.  I remember seeing this when it aired a million years ago.  I was a huge SNL fan back when it was still good (Kristen Wiig, being the exception).  This is sooooooooo true.

Where Have I Been

Honestly, nowhere.  Right here doing the thing that is my life at the moment.  As I'm sure I have mentioned I am out of the NYC Marathon which is this Sunday due to Achilles issues (it also means I am out of the Tough Mudder; not sure which I am more upset about).  My good friends have arranged to watch the race at a pub on the race route, beer in hand, to wash away my misery.  If you can't be healthy and run the race, you might as well be drunk.  Ok, maybe not that extreme, but I have a babysitter just in case.  The answer to that equation is no running.

My staph infection is finally healed.  The one that was caused by my bike helmet.  Yes, I ordered new padding which is back ordered, but will arrive in time for it to be too cold to ride outside.  It has been a long process of healing and it is something that I did not take seriously enough when it first appeared.  I am now overly vigilant when I see a cut on myself or my son.  Staph is no fun.  The answer to this equation is that there has been no swimming and biking due to the infection.  

Staph time line.  Note my use of my non makeup Avatar look on 10/8-10/10.  Anyone know any good scar healing cream?

Essentially the sport of triathlon has rejected my ass.  It's a lonely feeling and is going to be a long road back filled with much soul searching.  I haven't trained much at all.  Mostly due to the injury and infection and then partially due to tons of work that needed to be done for the NY Tabletop Show where I hoped to sell designs and make contacts; both of which I managed to do, although I wish I had sold more.  I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to prepare, but all things considered it went ok.  Next time should be more productive for me.  However, this preparation also interfered with any kind of training; I needed to focus on my work.  It's hard getting back on the horse.  I'll do it, but I need some separation.  Coach Michelle sensed this too.  It is amazing how intuitive she is and how well she can read between the lines.  As a result I am on a 'do whatever I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing it' training plan.  Anything else is too much stress for me at the moment.  If I have a plan in front of me I feel obligated to fulfill it to the best of my ability and anything less is failure, including not being able to do it at all.  Looking at my TP calendar is just depressing and stressful lately.  I did manage to get off my ass today and do this (felt good to almost feel like I was dying):

 

This weekend we also had a close family member who was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure.  It is unclear what will happen there, but the prognosis is not good.  Is 2011 over yet?

Some cleaner and brighter news.  I finally managed to get the funk out of my workout clothes from a summer of sweat and stink.  I'll admit it, my shit was getting nasty.  I tried treating with vinegar; no luck.  It tried ammonia with limited success.  Finally I just took all my stuff, dumped it in the kitchen sink full of warm water and then added a 1/4 cup of bleach.  There was enough bleach to kill all the nasty, musty, sweaty smelling stuff, but not enough to effect the color of any of my garments. Afterward I  ran everything through the wash and it all came out smelling fabulous.  The next time I used them there was non of that funk.  Mind you, I have no outdoor place to hang things in the sun.  I do rinse everything right after I work out and hang it in the bathroom to dry, but drying stuff in the bathroom in summer only makes matters worse as there is little ventilation in there.  Just thought I would share, since I really can't afford to go out and buy all new stuff. 

That's it in a nutshell.