faint gray lines

30B430 Progress Update #9

Samantha — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:17:04 +0000

Short but sweet. Things we have done since last I wrote:

30 Before 30:

~~Replace Stephen’s car~~
~~Make a 101 things in 1001 days list~~

Things I’ll have completed in the next month:

Attend 5 writing- or book-related events (2/5)
Visit 5 museums (2/5)
Complete 5 craft projects (3/5)

Things I’m making progress on:

Complete 5 races (3/5)
Attend one networking event per month (10/15)
Finish novel
Pay off our student loans

Things I gotta get a move on:

Run 5K in under 30 minutes
Go to the gym 5 days a week for three months (0/60)
Cook one new recipe/fortnight (21/31)
Renew my passport
Learn to play a song on my guitar

Just Another Friday Night

Samantha — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:32:26 +0000

We had a long chat last night, after joining friends to hoist a pole saw to bring down all but one of the red Solo cup necklaces hanging from Musica, about what is worth being angry over. It is one thing, he said, to be angry at people for hurting us, but another to be irritated at people for hurting themselves with their selfishness or hypocrisy or … whatever the spiritual malady that fouls a mood but leaves no bruise on the skin or heart.

It takes quite a bit of practice to meet someone’s sanctimonious attitude with a genuine “bless your heart.” It takes more to quell anguish over spilled-out kindnesses that would never be measured out in spoonfuls to you. It takes more to calm a temper after a pronouncement that doesn’t take into account any other circumstances, support system, life. It’s a lot easier to remove your body from a toxic situation than it is your mind.

But it’s worth working on, so I’m going to, right alongside him.

Counting Sheep

Samantha — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:53:33 +0000

I’ve tried a number of tactics over the last few weeks, trying to fall asleep early enough to get up and work out when the gym first opens. Nothing doing, so far. So far, I’m still falling asleep around midnight, whether I’ve just stumbled into bed or tossed and turned since the sun slipped beneath the horizon. And I still don’t feel entirely human until after coffee if I rise any earlier than 6:45 a.m.

I’ve cut out caffeine after lunch. Some days I’ve gone without it save for the cup of black coffee I pick up from the nearby shop right before my commute.

I practice good sleep hygiene. I only drink wine on Friday or Saturday. We don’t keep a television in the bedroom. I read briefly from whatever is current on my Kindle before sleep. I do the same things to get ready for bed each night: brush my teeth, pop in my nightguard, wash my face with the hippie soap that makes my skin dry until I slather on moisturizer, and strap my Fitbit to my wrist.

Is there a way to reprogram a circadian rhythm? I haven’t found one yet.

So In Love With This

Samantha — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:46:31 +0000

A Brief Programming Note

Samantha — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:16:30 +0000

The craft of writing hasn’t been the problem. Whatever block I’ve had in the past, where a paragraph required a painstaking hour, has lifted. The problem has been what, exactly to say. But I have been thinking about that old story about the man who kept praying to be saved from a flood while refusing earthly assistance, only to be admonished by God for refusing the boat, the helicopter … what if I have been refusing my own nudge along to the next thing because I refuse to hear anything that is not in the set list I’ve jotted down?

So, yeah.

Anyway, the really interesting stuff around these parts is in the right sidebar. I’ve been keeping up with about 85% of my best internet reading by bookmarking it on my Delicious account. If you miss the social features of Google Reader (and what voracious reader doesn’t?), that’s how you can keep up with all the things I used to just click “share” on.

30B430 Progress Update #8

Samantha — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:15:08 +0000

30 Before 30:

~~Attend 5 first-run films at the Belcourt (5/5)~~
Visit 5 museums (2/5)

It was a mostly slow week. I took my lunch to work every day, and that helped with watching my diet, which will be more and more important as I prepare for my first half-marathon.

I mean, surely, if I’m training to run 13.1 miles, I’ll be able to run three miles straight before then?

On Monday we headed to Chattanooga for a day trip which included a trip to the aquarium, getting my face chapped by whipping wind walking along the riverfront by the Trail of Tears monument, being flabbergasted about the historical markers just living in people’s yards on Missionary Ridge, and having the worst time finding what seems to be the only on-ramp to I-24 in the city (twice!).

This afternoon I took in a documentary.

Rutherford B. Hayes is My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Samantha — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:17:55 +0000

- from (where else?) a tumblr called “My Daguerrotype Boyfriend”

Tapering

Samantha — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:15:07 +0000

I guess it’s to be expected that, after the endorphin rush of finally attaining a goal, there is eventually a tapering off to normal that seems, relative to the recent high, to be a crevasse. I seem to have wedged myself into this metaphor today, both figuratively and literally.

There is a lot of “okay, what now?” going on in this head, not unlike a runner bent over, her hands on her knees, gulping a few mouthfuls of air past the finish line, convinced she could keep running for miles while forgetting her feet are covered in blisters.

And as much as it would be easy to drown this out by adding more projects to my already full plate – Project 365? Training for the half-marathon? – I think I need to dig into this and figure it out for once.

30B430 Progress Update #7

Samantha — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:05:33 +0000

30 Before 30:

Attend one networking event per month (8/15)
Complete 5 races (3/5)
Attend 5 writing- or book-related events (2/5)

Making progress, slowly but surely. I’m signed up for two of the remaining three writing-related events.

Complete 5 craft projects (1/5)

It’s not a matter of not knowing what to do, but having the time to do it. I need to sew four cloth napkins into a table runner, turn tiles into drink coasters, find a picture frame to spray paint to turn into a funky corkboard, and upcycle plain votive holders into faux mercury glass.

Develop a comprehensive guide to ease transitions between DCYD executive boards

As my term as treasurer draws to a close, this becomes more and more pressing. I need to start an outline in January.

~~Design my own holiday cards~~

They were so cute! See?

Use my Southwest credit before it expires
Visit 5 museums (1/5)

Just when I thought we might not end up using our flights, circumstances worked out. We’ll be venturing to Chicago one weekend soon. That should take care of the museum bit!

~~Change jobs~~
Pay off our student loans

So, yeah. I don’t talk about current jobs on my personal blog, and I give it at least a year after leaving a job before I’ll discuss it. So not a lot to talk about here. Needless to say that this was the first thing I put on my 30 Before 30 list (as a “classified” goal). I am much, much happier now. And not just because we are so close to having our student loans paid off that I catch myself holding my breath over it.

Goals that aren’t going so well

Run 5K in under 30 minutes
Go to the gym 5 days a week for three months (0/60)
Cook one new recipe/fortnight (21/31)
Learn to play a song on my guitar

Common thread on these? Endurance. I won’t run a 5K in less than thirty minutes if I don’t go to the gym frequently for an extended period of time. I won’t cook new recipes if I just hobble in on heels and choose a bowl of cereal for dinner over better eating habits. And I won’t learn to play guitar well enough to play a song if I sit there with the guitar in my lap, imagining smashing it rockstar style because my hands can’t contort themselves into chords and sightreading activates my fingers like they’re on a piano.

So. Yeah. I gave myself a break while getting in the swing of a new routine, and that break’s end is just so perfectly timed with the New Year’s Resolutioners’ return to the gym. On one hand, I applaud anyone for trying to improve themselves, arbitrary timeline or not. On the other, all I can imagine is the one woman who peddled so. slowly. on the recumbent bike while sipping her GLASS of Coke a few Januarys ago at the apartment complex workout room.

30B430 Progress Update #6

Samantha — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:45:19 +0000

30 Before 30:

Attend one networking event per month (7/15)
Complete 5 races (2/5)
~~Go on an art crawl~~
Attend 5 first-run films at the Belcourt (4/5)

We were signed up for a race Saturday morning, but just couldn’t make it. We did, however, get out to the First Saturday Art Crawl downtown and to Being Elmo at the Belcourt. On Thursday, we stopped by the Centresource mixer. Progress.

Go to the gym 5 days a week for three months (20/60)

I took the last week off after I fell at the post office. Somehow I managed to get this far in life without catching on that flip-flops + rain = falling. Thanks to yoga (tree pose!), it took me a while to lose my balance enough to actually fall, and when I did I fell pretty evenly on the tops of both shins.

The whole point of this item was to demonstrate to myself how much better I feel when exercise is an integral part of my life, and continuing to pick up where I left off doesn’t meet that goal, so this odometer’s getting rolled back. My sunrise yoga class starts up again this week and Stephen’s doing some traveling for work, so that bodes well on that front.

~~Read one book/fortnight (31/31)~~

Maybe I should have been more ambitious with this one!

Bossypants, by Tina Fey
Poke the Box, by Seth Godin
The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk
Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy
Enchantment, by Guy Kawasaki
Veins, by Drew
All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross
Bad mother : a chronicle of maternal crimes, minor calamities, and occasional moments of grace by Ayelet Waldman
Manhood for amateurs : the pleasures and regrets of a husband, father, and son by Michael Chabon
The end of everything by Megan Abbott
The political brain by Drew Westen
Changing the Script by Daniel Schultz
The pale king : an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
The Tent by Margaret Atwood
Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman
The leftovers / Tom Perrotta
Complete Book of Women’s Running by Dagny Scott Barrios
Brandwashed : tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy / Martin Lindstrom
Make Meetings Matter by Charlie Hawkins
What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? A Guide to What Matters Most by Martin Thielen
Buy In by John P. Kotter
Generous Justice by Timothy Keller
The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
A Place to Come To by Robert Penn Warren
Self-Promotion for Introverts by Nancy Ancowitz
Born to run : a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen / Christopher McDougall