Yay Olympics!

Have any of you been watching the olympics? I’ve been watching it until about midnight each night and have to tear myself away to go to bed. I’m seriously rethinking my decision not to get TiVo. The last two nights have been the synchronized diving, swimming and gymnastics. These are some of my most favorite sports and I LOVE watching the men’s swimming because the Americans are cleaning up! It’s seriously exciting to watch Michael Phelps beat world record after world record.

I also watched  women’s beach volleyball last night. Did anybody even know this was an olympic sport??? What the? Anyway, the American girls (May and Walsh) seriously rocked it. They’ve had 104 wins in a row (if I remember the announcer correctly). How crazy awesome is that?

Also, watching the Chinese perform in diving and gymnastics has been amazing. They make it look so easy.

So, uh, are you looking forward to any parts of the olympics?

 

Overtraining = Super Not Fun

I’ve been training for a half marathon. Being that my last attempt was mediocre at best (since I didn’t train, got only 4 hours of sleep the night before and showed up hungover). So this year I decided to do things differently. I decided I was going to actually train for it. I gave myself 18 weeks to train (I’m currently in week 7), which I thought would give me plenty of time and help me to make it to race day injury free.

I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case. I can barely walk today. I’m pretty sure I have a stress fracture in my right leg, although I’m telling everyone it’s just shin splints so nobody gives me too hard of a time when I still go out for a six-mile run on that practically broken leg.

The pain started midweek last week and has only gotten worse. The good news is that the pain goes away while I’m running. Although I guess that could be bad news because it only encourages me to keep running on it and will probably make the injury worse. I should probably slow my roll, but I was doing so good! I don’t want to stop now. I feel like I’ll have to start over from square one. But I guess if this injury gets worse I really will have to start over. Or worse, I’ll have to forgo the race all together.

I’m super sad about this new development.

On the bright side: I now have a bike and am moving close to the river so I’ll be able to ride/run to my heart’s desire with no interruptions from mean old cars who try to run me over (I actually kicked the car of a lady who nearly ran me over while she was talking on her cell phone this weekend).

I haven’t been up to much else. I’m going to a job interview next week for a position with the school district as a substitute teacher. It’s actually not a “position” per se, but it works fab with my grad schedule and pays really well, so cross your fingers for me on that front.

Oh, and at my new place I planted basil, mint, oregano, cantaloupe, pumpkins, garlic, tomatoes and chili peppers. I’m super excited about that for sure. I wish I had more space (and more money) so I could grow all of the delicious things I love buying from the farmer’s market. When winter hits I think I’m finally going to join a CSA…that is if my cooking habit continues in our new place. Tony’s parent’s kitchen is very conducive to cooking. Hopefully that will be the case in our new place as well.

 

What I’m Reading … and Other Stuff

I finally finished my temp job last week, which is a huge relief because now I don’t have any responsibilities other than watering the lawn and taking Coco for a run. That’s the kind of life I like. I was no good with that temp job anyway: In the four weeks I was there I think I called in sick five times, plus I even had a day off for Memorial Day. I’m just not meant for “real” work.

Speaking of Memorial Day, I just found out that I beat my best time ever on a 5K that day. The week prior I had gotten 34:18 as you may recall, then on Memorial Day I got 34:01. Awesome! I did another 5K this weekend, but I’m not sure what my chip time was yet. My time crossing the finish was 34:49, but my actual time (my chip time) will be lower because it compensates for the time it took me to cross the start line. If you’d like to read more about my running adventures, plus reviews about everything running (energy drinks, training schedules, the joys of BodyGlide), check out this link. Update: I just found out I got 34:01 on this weekend’s 5K too! I’m so stoked that my time is becoming consistent. Now all I want is to break that damn 34-minute time!

Sorry I haven’t been posting on here much. Myspace has been a pain for me to get on lately and is really, really super slow when I’m able to log on. Plus, it erases my blogs half the time so I’ve all but given up on it. (Note to wordpress readers: This was moved over from my myspace blog, therefore the inconsistancy.)

I did want to say something on here for real though, but now I can’t remember what that was.

So, uh, anybody read any good books lately?

I’m reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote at the moment and it’s freaking me out. I’ve had some trouble sleeping at night because Tony is housesitting for his boss and I’m here all alone reading about these two psychopaths that killed four people just for the hell of it. Seriously, it’s upsetting. Really well written though AND I never knew that Capote was, like, the inventor of true crime stories. I’m not really that into true crime novels though because, as stated above, they freak me out. I hate knowing that people are really capable of this kind of stuff, and that they laugh about it. Ick.

Also, I recently read The Pact by Jodi Picoult. Another one that freaked me out because of a child molestation scene. I cannot get it out of my mind. Seriously, there are moments when I wish I could just scrub memories from my brain. I really, really do.

I need a suggestion for a happy book with rainbows and fairies, or something. Seriously. The only way to get this horrible-ness off my mind is to replace it with happy thoughts. Ick. There is a reason I’ve never read Clockwork Orange. Just gotta keep reminding myself of that.

 

News About Me (What else do I write about lately?)

I start my new job tomorrow. Super exciting for sure because it means some cashola for the next couple of weeks.

Also, I’m up to 22 books for the year. You can check out what I’ve read and read the reviews over at The Inside Cover.

Um, let’s see, what else? I ran a 5K this weekend too. It was the Susan G. Komen race for the cure, which I’ll probably never do again – at least not as part of a group. I signed up to do it with my sorority and they were completely unorganized.

The girl in charge forgot our numbers at her dorm room and forgot to mention that I needed to bring $10 for the team shirts, which by the way I was completely horrified by. They said “Stop staring at our chests…” on the front, right over the chest area. And on the back it said “…And start saving them!” Needless to say, I didn’t bother walking all the way back to my car to get $10. I probably would have been less annoyed by this if I hadn’t called the girl TWICE last week to find out about the shirts and numbers situation.

In addition, we had to take a group photo, which was supposed to be done at 7:15 a.m. However, it wasn’t taken until 7:42 because she wanted to wait for all the girls to be there. Again, probably wouldn’t have been as annoyed if A) I hadn’t had to get up at 6 a.m. to get there by 7:15 being that I live in Galt and all and B) The race started at 7:45 a.m. Maybe nobody else was interested in their time for the race, but I certainly was. In case you’re wondering, I only ended up with a 37:18 time. One of my worst times on a 5K, but I have another one next week so hopefully I’ll have some improvements.

Lastly, I have a new post up at The Nervous Breakdown. The ladies at book club already heard this story, but it came up again tonight and I just had to get it off my mind so it’s at TNB.

How about you guys? Anything new and exciting? I know there is, don’t be shy!

 

How ’bout a Race For the Cause?

So, I’m doing the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure next month and I have had at least three people say things like this: They do this race every year. How much money have they raised already and they don’t have a cure? I don’t see the point anymore. It’s probably being wasted on administration instead of being spent on research to cure cancer.

The people who have asked me about this often seem quite upset about it and have sworn off running the race because they’re SO ANGRY that there’s no cure for breast cancer yet.

Well, first off, do you know how much that research costs? Not even the research, but the cost of developing a new medication, which includes all of the trial testing they have to do. Even if they HAVE a cure, they won’t be able to put it on the market for another ten to twenty years while they do trial testing and ensure that taking the medication won’t cause some other fatal disease in the process of curing your breast cancer.

If you want to be mad about something, be mad that we’re spending all of this time and money researching a “cure” for cancer rather than spending it on finding out what CAUSED it in the first place. You want to cure cancer? Stop it from spreading. Stop letting corporations sell us food and products that are hazardous to our health because it’s “convenient.” It doesn’t look so convenient after you’re on chemo or having your breast chopped off, does it?

I would LOVE to participate in a Race For the Cause, but, sadly, that doesn’t exist. Anyway, I’m just out there to get my 5K on. I’m not trying to find a cure for breast cancer. I know they aren’t going to find one until they stop looking under the wrong stones.

P.S. Ran my first 10K of the year today. Finished in 79 minutes. Yeck. Hopefully I’ll improve by the end of the year.

 

Protesting the Olympics?

Photo by R Kent

If you haven’t yet read about the protests going on around the world, following the running of the Olympic torch, you can read about it on just about every news Web site. Today the torch will go through San Francisco, and you can read updates here.

I’ve been talking with Tony’s mom a lot lately about the protests, the Olympics and a possible boycott of China. What we all know is there will be no boycott of China. It would be bad for our already crumbling economy. And what would Americans do without all of their cheap goods? American made? Doesn’t exist anymore. Not on any grand scale anyway. But I love that the U.S. government wants to pretend like they just don’t want to get involved in the political affairs of another country. China has gross human rights violations; the recent flare-ups with Tibet are only a reminder of this.

Personally, I have to say I support the protests going on around the world. If I had a car, I’d have been down in SF today getting my protest on with everyone else. I realize that the protests have nothing really to do with the Olympic Games. Who could hate the Olympic Games? Since I was a kid I’ve been in love with watching the Summer Olympics. But when the Olympic Games committee picked China as this year’s host, they had to know people would start paying attention to China again. In fact, they said part of the reason they picked China was because they wanted China to clean up their act and being on the world stage might force them to do so.

China has been desperately looking for ways to cover up its pollution in the past months because it was worried about a public relations nightmare occuring when people all over the world saw their athletes having to compete in the Olympic Games wearing special masks to keep from getting sick from the polluted air. Now, instead of the environmental public relations nightmare they were expecting, they’ve been faced with something even worse. Most people, it seems, can forgive environmental pollution, but the killing of monks in the street is a little bit more difficult to look past (unless you’re worried about an economic crisis that is already beginning, ahem, George Bush, ahem). And so we have the protests.

Tony’s mom and I differ in opinion about these protests. She thinks it’s horrible that the Olympic Games, something that has always been a unifying event for the world, is being used as a stage for protests against China. While I wish that the Olympic Games hadn’t gotten involved, I feel like there would be no other time to put China on the spot. For the most part it seems like we just let China get away with whatever it wants. I don’t know if it’s because we’re afraid of them (either because they have so many people and could form a larger military presence than us, or because of economic concerns) or if it’s just that our government doesn’t care. All I know, is that the governments of this world aren’t going to do anything, so it’s up to the people of the world to protest. And they may as well do it when they’ll have the biggest audience possible – that being the whole world at the moment.

Am I wrong? What do you think? Maybe I’m thinking about this in weird terms.

Also, R Kent posted an article about the Paris protests on The Nervous Breakdown. Go check it out.

 

Bummer, No Crew For Me

When I was at Sac State I always wanted to join the Women’s Rowing Team, but I never was able to because my school schedule always conflicted with practice times…and the years it didn’t conflict I just couldn’t convince myself to get up at 6 a.m. to go running.

Now that I’m headed back to Sac State I thought I could finally join crew and get my row on. But it doesn’t look like it will happen. I emailed the head coach today and found out that once you start college the NCAA only allows you to compete in sports for 4 years of a 5 year clock. If you take 6 years to finish college you aren’t allowed to join sports that last year, even if you’ve never competed in sports before. SO the only way to compete in sports as a grad student is if you finished undergrad in 4 years and are going directly into grad school. AND you can’t have already competed for 4 years.

I probably would have been way older than the rest of the girls on the team anyway so I guess I should be grateful I didn’t have to embarrass myself but I’m still super sad.

On the plus side, the Aquatic Center offers a summer rowing program, three days a week for only $50 a month. I have to take a beginner class beforehand, which is $95 for a four-day course, but if I can find the money I think I’ll do it. I really just want to row and paying to do it at least gives me the opportunity to quit if I hate it without letting down my whole team.

So, anyone interested in rowing with me this summer?

 

Salon du Chocolat; Rugby Final; and Surprise, surprise

So this weekend is choc full of stuff. I bought tickets to go to the Salon du Chocolat, which pretty much sounds like heaven on earth. It’s a big chocolate festival where all the chocolatiers in Paris come out to show what’s the newest and best in chocolate. FREE SAMPLES are what I’m looking for here. There’s also the famous chocolate fashion show, where the clothes are made out of chocolate. How the designers keep the clothes from melting is beyond me. There will also be singing and dancing and other stuff because, really, the French can’t have a festival, not even a marathon, without big singing and dancing shows. It’s a little weird and uncomfortable for me at some of the events, but in the case of the chocolate festival I don’t think it will be awkward.

Moving on…then we have the Rugby World Cup final between South Africa and England. SO exciting! I’m a bit bummed though because now what will I do? I’ve spent nearly every weekend here sitting in bars watching the rugby. I suppose I can still spend my weekends sitting in bars, but I think I’ll look a bit more like an alcoholic if I don’t have the rugby excuse…

But, and here’s the sad part, it’s going to be a pain to get to these lovely events. Why? Because, SURPRISE!, France is on strike. Maybe some of you don’t know about this, so I’ll tell you: French people love to go on strike. I’m fairly convinced that strikes are staged here as a way to get additional vacation days (even though the French already get 8 weeks paid vacation every year). So anyway, it’s all of the public transit workers who are on strike, which means no metro for me It also means way more traffic so if I take my car then I won’t be able to find parking and it may take hours to get there

Oh, and what I love about the strike is that they scheduled it. They were announcing it on TV and radio for about a week before saying, “Public transit workers will be going on strike beginning Wednesday night at 8 p.m.” Um, couldn’t they have worked out some kind of agreement prior to the strike if they knew the exact time and date of the strike? I’m so confused by this. And this is also why I’m convinced it’s just a ploy to get extra days off.

Anywho, what are you guys up to this weekend???

 

France beat New Zealand??? and other stuff

It’s been awhile since I’ve written, mostly because I haven’t had anything positive to write and I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer when I’m living in Paris. BUT today I have lots of great things to say. It really bothers me that every weekend here is the best weekend EVER and then every weekday sucks balls. I guess that’s what having a real job is always like.

Um, so the non-Debbie Downer stuff:

With all of the odds against them, both England and France won their places in the semi-finals yesterday. I’ve been watching these two teams throughout the Rugby World Cup and they haven’t played spectacularly, but last night the stars were aligned in their favor because they beat out New Zealand and Australia who were the two favorites for making it to the finals. Now the Rugby World Cup is getting really exciting because with two of the top teams out of the running it’s anybody’s games.

And the poor Aussies. They had two penalty kicks in the last ten minutes of the match. Had they made even one of those kicks it would have sealed them in as the winners of the match. Their kicker is not a popular guy this morning. Final score England v. Australia 12-10. Final score France v. New Zealand 20-18. I mean really, these guys pulled out a win by the skin of their teeth.

The most exciting part was the celebration afterward. Everybody was dancing in the streets and singing and cheering and waving French flags well into the early morning. I loved the atmosphere.

Other news….I woke up this morning with a hang over from the Rugby excitement last night and ran a 10K. I think I actually did pretty well too, especially considering the night before. I think my time was something like 75 minutes, although I haven’t gotten the exact time back yet.

I finally have a comforter for my bed! It’s so warm and cozy and makes me feel a million times better. Something about a cozy bed makes home feel much better.

Oh and some pics for you guys. These are pretty much my favorite people in Paris:

(Remi, me, Anthony)

(Me, Daniel)

Super lots of fun. There would have been more pictures but a couple of people are camera shy around here.

 

Running La Parisienne

Today I joined 15,000 other women in running La Parisienne 6K. I haven’t run since the half marathon I did in May so I ran pretty slow, but it felt good to get out there and run again. The race was only for women and it was to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. I didn’t actually sign up though because you have to have some crazy medical form to sign up for a race here in France. I just ran with a bunch of friends instead. Kind of a bummer though because I was the only one without a number and without a medal at the end

There were two other girls who weren’t in this picture.

I really liked this race though because I got to see the sights while also running it. We ran around the Champ de Mars, which is of course famous for the Eiffel Tower in the middle of it. It was a really good run, but a little on the hot side today since the weather has been so nice lately. My time was horrendous at 52.11 minutes. My best 5K time was 35 minutes! What this tells me is I need to get out and start running some more. I’m signing up for a 10K here in October so maybe that will give me some motivation. Anyway, here are some other pictures from the run…

There were a lot of groups running. I especially like this group with the butterfly wings. There was another group dressed as ladybugs that I really liked as well.

There was supposed to be group stretching before the race. It turned out to be a jazzercise session. SO weird.

This came out really blurry because I was running while I took it, but those signs are pictures of Barack Obama and they say “Les Filles Barack” or “Barack’s Girls.” Loved it.

This last one is my favorite picture from the race. Oh, and you can see one of the ladybug girls there.