I miss you TJ.

At the Y-M-C-A!

As I begin my second semester of graduate school, I came to the realization that I have no hobbies... unless you count watching endless seasons TV shows on DVD. Anyway, since the Turkey Trot 5K was so successful *cough cough*, I decided to go with the lifetime sport of running. I've always been horrible at running, but I found the perfect solution to this problem: sign up for a training course with lots of other people who are horrible at running.

Yes, the YMCA actually has a 10K training course and after attending the orientation session, I think I'm in for 10 weeks of pure entertainment. Everyone else at the meeting seemed to be 40+ and mostly there to lose weight. In fact, no one besides myself seemed even the slightest bit concerned about the running aspect of the course. One lady even found it necessary to share with us her weight and was inquiring in front of the whole group what she should be eating and how many calories she could expect to burn.
Our instructor/"coach" then told her a story about how he ran 3 marathons within 2 weeks and actually ended up gaining 7 pounds. She didn't like that.

Anyway, our first group run is Saturday at 8:30AM. Can't wait to see what I'm up against...

Turkey Trot

Earlier this year, the GOALden girls and I sat down and wrote down some short-term goals we wanted to accomplish. One of mine was to get into an exercise routine. Of course I knew upon writing this goal that it would probably never amount to much. Exercise and I have a spotty relationship. We often go through a honeymoon period about twice a year where we fall deeply in love. Then that love usually wears off and we take a little cooling off period. We see other people. But, we always seem to get back together eventually.

Anyway, being that I knew that I wouldn't follow through on this vague goal, I made a second goal- to run in the Turkey Trot this year. So to torture myself, I decided to run the 3 miles without any sort of pre-training. Instead, I signed up for the event and hoped that my body would just kick into gear. I overestimated my level of fitness... about 2 minutes into the run, I got a side cramp.

Not to worry, I decided to keep going. I decided my body was punishing me for not exercising in advance, and I didn't blame it. So I continued running and even made it all the way to mile 2 before the "I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die." mantra entered into my head. At that point there was a water station up ahead, so we slowed to a walk. As we reached the water station, a small boy thrusts a cup of water towards me. Half of it spilled on my long-sleeve t-shirt, but I was already numb enough to ignore this minor detail.

After swigging down the water, my trusty running partner motivated me to actually finish the run... (Actually the only way she got me to run was by pointing out that we were going downhill.)

Anyway, I finished the race, which didn't seem so bad after I crossed the finish line. I'm thinking that a new honeymoon period is upon us... I'll keep you updated on our relationship status.

Brunswick Stew Festival

Who would have thought that there could be so much excitement surrounding stew?

Today I ventured out into downtown Richmond to attend the 9th Annual Brunswick Stew Festival. Partly because I like Brunswick Stew, partly because I felt like it could be a good conversational topic in the near future. You never know when you will be trapped in an awkward conversation, and pulling out the "let me tell you about this stew festival I went to the other weekend" card is sure to save you.

Anyway, I must say that I really didn't prepare well at all for the BS Fest. First of all, eating breakfast put me at a real disadvantage. After my fourth sampling of stew, I was completely full. I felt cheated, seeing as I could not truly judge the best stew seeing as I didn't have the full ability to compare all the teams. Despite the limitations set by my stomach, I did enjoy some tasty stew from the likes of the Red, White and Blue Stew Crew, the Red Oak Stew Crew, the Northerneck Rednecks, and All Stewed Up Catering.

Richmond is really starting to grow on me.

NaNoWriMo

November is the official National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I've decided to write a book. The requirements are that you begin writing on Nov. 1 and you pass the finish line of 50,000 words by midnight Nov. 30. Don't worry. I'm not naive enough to think that anything other than a jumble of messed up thoughts and characters will come out of this, but yet I am still excited.

The past few months I have spent all of my time in an environment that requires creativity on a deadline. This has been one of the most challenging aspects of my assignments. Usually I spend half of my time on the "I can't do this" train. After hours of pacing around my room, pulling out my hair, and frantically searching the web for any source of inspiration, I usually hit a breaking point. I sit on my bed and cry. And, somehow, after all evidence of this minor breakdown fades and my face returns back to its normal non-splotchy form- I reach that optimal "I can do this" state. I don't know why I need to go through this cycle, but it has sort of inserted itself as my creative routine. However, I've decided that this creative routine is something that I can combat, like my public speaking anxiety or my fear of driving [no need to get into the details on those, but lets just say they are improving!]

Anyway, my way of combating the gray cloud that follows me around during those creative deadlines is to write a book. Yes, simple, and somewhat disconnected I know, but I have extreme faith that this will help.

First of all, this is creativity that will not be judged. My book represents a space where I can write whatever I want and not fear what other people think. I'm not writing for my professor or my classmates. I'm not writing for my friend, my roommate, or my mom or dad. This month I'm writing for me.

If I want to write a sappy love story, I will. If I want to insert a character that is undeniably similar to myself, I will. If I want to use a excess amount of adjectives to describe an amazingly perfect, phenomenal, extraordinary scene, I will. This book has the potential to be the worst collection of thoughts to ever hit the page- and therein lies the beauty of this undertaking.

I am a super tween.

Disney owns me. Not only did they get me to spend the $9.50 to go see High School Musical 3, but they had me considering going back to see it a second time as I was leaving the theater.

My favorite parts of the movie include:
1. Zac Efron shirtless
2. Zac Efron in his treehouse
3. Mini Zac Effron
4. Zac Efron in a tux
5. Manly Zac Efron in a junkyard
6. Zac Efron in the rain

I think you get the picture.

GOALden Girls.

This weekend I went home. I needed to leave the Brandcenter bubble and take a mental health day. So I did. What a great decision. I came back with a sense of PERSPECTIVE and so RE ENERGIZED that its scary. How did all of this happen? Well, I have great friends, who are just as nerdy as me.

After dinner Saturday night, while most of our peers were probably out at bars, we decided to form the GOALden Girls. Don't worry, I take full responsibility for this horrible pun, but I love it and therefore will continue to use it. Anyway, we sat down at the kitchen table and all wrote out our SMART goals.

What are SMART goals, you ask? They are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Basically they are the exact opposite of the life list that I wrote out a few years ago that contains vague goals such as "stop worrying, be social, be optimistic" and of course my favorite, "embrace the frizz." What can I say, I was an amateur goal writer.

So lets take a closer look:

Things not on my list include: saving the world, losing weight, climbing Mt. Everest, transforming into a socialite

Things on my list include: remove "can't" from vocabulary, drink 1 Nalgene a day, get out of bed after 2nd alarm


BABY STEPS. I think I've just discovered life's secret formula: Everything important, you learn as an infant.