amo avēs

buy him here (get me one too!)

Some of my favorites.

CHICKADEE 

 BLUEBIRD

GOLDFINCH


BLUE JAY

 ALBATROSS
(Rime of the Ancient Mariner fan!!)

PEREGRINE FALCON

FIERCE PEREGRINE FALCON

RED CARDINAL

(my favorite of all)

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A completely unnecessary something pretty to be used as motivation

Trust me, I will look much happier in this skirt

I have been a member of RueLaLa, Gilt, etc., for awhile, but rarely buy things from them.  (I bought a Vera Wang Lavender Label skirt from RueLaLa once, but I will probably end up selling it because I have decided I don't really like it.)  I finally made my first Gilt purchase this past weekend - this gorgeous Cynthia Rowley skirt that was love at first sight, just in time for spring!

Visions of this will be dancing in my head this morning, when I'm dying inside around mile 11 or 12

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WANT!!

Isn't this the cutest!  Unfortunately, it's from a company out of the UK, and they don't ship internationally.  :(

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Chicago (booked!) + race outlook + good running song + iTunes hatred

I love the Midwest.  I'm not sure if I love it more than Massachusetts, but it's a very, very close second.  As you all know, I especially love Indianapolis and Indiana.  I have some family in Chicago, so for the past couple years we have been stopping over in Chicago for a day or two on our way to Indianapolis.  It's nice to get to see family and friends, and it's a lot of fun to explore a new city.

On my list of things to do before I turn "24" is to visit my cousin and friends in Chicago.  I'm assuming that Marek and I will be making our way to Indianapolis in the fall for some football (pleasenolockoutpleasenolockoutpleasenolockoutpleasenolockout!), Chick-Fil-A, and a Peyton Manning 2012 calendar, but I thought it would be nice to go for a girls' weekend/visit that wasn't just a quick stopover on the way to another city.  So my cousin and I both signed up to run the Chicago Rock N Roll Half Marathon "together", and I'm happily Chicago-bound in the middle of August.

I say "together" because we're both running, we'll likely start together and see each other at the finish line, but we won't actually run together.  I've run 2 half marathons with with Marek, and I don't like running with other people.  All the half marathons I'm running this year I'm running "together" with someone, but not with them.

The Hyannis half marathon is this weekend.  It has the potential to be very, very rough.  I have been slacking just a bit in the training department, and my last two long runs (8 and 9 miles, respectively) have been cut short thanks to injuries.  I had to stop the 8-mile run due to a real bad pain in my hip, and I had to stop the 9-mile run due to what I believe is IT Band Syndrome.

Now I know there's those of you out there who might think I should just scrap the whole race, but I'm still going.  My weekly runs have been fine.  The hip thing has happened before (and I have a theory why), and I think the IT Band thing is a result of running lots of hills and running on lots of curves in the Park.  I'm not expecting to have these issues in Hyannis.  I'm also not expecting to hit my goal time (have been tracking 2-5 minutes over my goal), but I'm okay with that.

After Hyannis, I have two solid months to train for the Mini in Indianapolis.  This is my favorite half to run (so far).  The weather is usually very mild, and the course is mostly flat.  It was the first half marathon I ever ran in one of my favorite cities, so it's special to me.

Then I have about 3.5 months to train for Chicago.  The nice thing about Chicago is it's pretty flat.  The bad thing about the Chicago race is that it's in the middle of August, so it's probably going to be nice and GROSS outside.  Luckily it has a 6:30 AM start time (both pro and con).  Food reward after this race will be pizza or hot dog!

The last half marathon on the schedule for this year is the Boston half.  This one I'm not registered for yet (registration will open in the summer), but I'm hoping to run it again this year.

I discovered the song "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele yesterday (click here for the video if it doesn't work below), and it was instant love.  What a great song!

Naturally I wanted it on my iPod for this weekend, and OF COURSE iTunes was being difficult.  A couple of months ago, I cleaned off my laptop to prepare it to be upgraded to Windows 7.  That involved deauthorizing my account for that iTunes, which means that now it doesn't recognize my iPod shuffle, and the only option to get the song on my iPod was to erase my entire iPod library and start from scratch.

I'm not sure who designed that, but it's a pretty big design flaw to me!  Luckily Marek told me that other programs, namely Winamp (hello, college days!), lets you add things to your iPod without wiping it out, so crisis averted!!  Of course now iTunes doesn't recognize my iPod at all, and now wants to restore it back to factory settings...  

Minus 10 million points for Apple.

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Thoughts from Claudius

This blog needs more pictures of our resident canine companion!

I am normally a picture-taking fiend.  I LOVE to take pictures (must be the Asian in me), especially of the dog.  Lately he's just been sleeping a lot and acting the diva, but I finally whipped out my camera this past weekend and pestered him by taking about a million pictures of him.

Dogs are very perceptive, and our dog shows in his face what he's thinking a lot.  Watch this progression of pictures I snapped throughout the night.

First, he is just napping.  Happy to have his picture taken by the paparazzi, and very obliging.

Now he thinks maybe if he gives me a kiss/pays attention to me, I will go away and leave him alone.  Stupid paps. 

Giving up and just posing, hoping I'll leave him alone after.  (I did...for a little while.) 

Now he's curled up, ready to sleep.  Sulking a little bit, too, I think. 

Would be sleeping if it weren't for the human taking so many pictures of him right up in his face. 

He heard a noise outside the bedroom.  He figures if he stares at the door for awhile, maybe I'll get bored and leave him alone. 

*SIGH*  Why won't she just leave me alone???

So over it.  If I ignore her and pretend she's not there, hopefully she will just go over to her side of the bed.

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Another two off the list!

This weekend I was able to cross two more things off my 52 in 23* list!  I have now completed 10 of the 52 things, so am just under 20% completed...once I get to that 20% the US federal government will consider my list substantially completed (a policy debate geek joke...I'm sorry).

ANYWAY, here's what I did:

• #22 overall, #4 under books: Read a non-fiction book.  I really like fiction books, but I've been trying to read more nonfiction.  That means I usually gravitate towards history.  I read Mark Kurlansky's book Cod, which was all right.  His book Salt came very highly recommended, so I was saving that for after I read Cod.  Hopefully Salt will be better.
• #49 overall, #11 under other: Get a pedicure.  A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to meet up on Saturday to get a pedicure together and I was all for it.  The only downside was I had just given myself the runner's toenail trim, and my poor little nails were wicked short.  Still, I'd been thinking of getting my nails done in a bright pink color for awhile, and so here they are!

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I really can't even believe this (Boston accent musings)

Despite growing up in Eastern Massachusetts, I am not cursed blessed with the Boston "accent".  Now, a tangent: it's not just an accent - it's technically a dialect.  Here's some of the Boston dialect markers that pop up for me.

This is called a bubbler.  In school, you'd ask if you could go get a drink at the bubbler.  (Wikipedia says people in Wisconsin call it this, too, so what up Wisconsin!)

This is a carriage.  When I went to school in Western Mass, I started calling it a cart, but it's really a carriage.

This, on the car, which tells you which way the car is turning - a turn signal? - is called a blinker.  (My parents also raised me to call it a directional.)  Because it blinks, get it?

What you call rubber bands are called elastics.  This is a hair elastic, but I don't even usually say the "hair" part.  It's just an elastic.  I need to keep these pencils together - I use an elastic.  I need to put my hair in a ponytail - where's my elastic.

Aside from the lexicon, I do have some other traits - I do add Rs where they don't belong, but not too much. I am PROUD to have the cot-caught merger - these words are pronounced the same (there's no way to show you the different pronunciations without the IPA, but yuck to the other pronunciation)!!!  I don't drop my Rs though, but my mom does, and I love it!

So yesterday I was watching TV, and they were showing what you should have in your "kitchen crock" - you know, that container that you use to store your most frequently used kitchen tools.  (My "crock" is a giant souvenir cup from Transformers, hahaha!)  I was taking notes because I wanted to remember what things should be in the container.

And I can't even believe what I wrote.  And I didn't type it just once, but TWICE.  I don't even know what to say.

there is no r in the word spatula...

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Weekend in DC (or: karaoke, a birthday, and a TRASHCAN)

A couple weeks ago I headed down to DC for a fun-filled weekend.  It is starting to feel like a... 4th home (behind Massachusetts, Indianapolis, and New York).  I'm at least semi-learning my way around, which is always a plus.  At the very least I can sort of navigate the Metro system (unless I have to get to Union Station...note to self: that is not the same as Metro Center), and I can navigate from the two apartments I usually stay in.  Baby steps.

So I took the train down on Thursday afternoon (thankfully no Quiet Car issues this time), and Kate met me at the train station, and we headed back to her apartment.  We grabbed some Mexican dinner at this yummy place near her, where we polished off a pitcher of mango margaritas between the two of us.  So good.  Oh, and it was her birthday, yay!  Happy birthday to Kate!

After dinner, we headed over to Dupont Circle for some KARAOKE!  This was on Kate's bucket list of things to do before she turns 30, and we had a really fun time.  This super skinny guy bought us some sake shots, and we made friends with these guys from Georgetown.  They said they thought we were 24, which was awesome.  I'm totally friends with all of them on Facebook too!  And it makes me feel really old to be "friends" with people who graduated from high school 9 years after I did...

The karaoke bar wasn't too full, so we got our pick of songs, and sang some with the Georgetown boys.

After they left, we made some more friends, with some Canadian guys who said they were visiting for some conference or something.  They were pretty cool, and if all goes well, I'll totally have someone to visit in the Yukon!  So cool.  They were nice and took some pictures of us singing "Piano Man", too.

Here's Kate singing a song with one of them.  It was a very fun time!  Can't wait to go again!

On Friday night I got dinner with Airport Chris.  We went to get dinner at a Greek place, because he is determined that I should "live outside my comfort zone".  Haven't decided if this is a good thing or a bad thing yet.  After dinner, which took 2+ hours because I talked the whole time and am also the slowest eater in the entire world, we met up with Airport Greg at his friend's party.  I wasn't totally psyched about going at first (always get nervous around new people, especially a whole bunch of people I don't know), but it was fun.  More living outside my comfort zone I guess.  There were a couple people there I'd met before (besides Chris and Greg), so that helped.  And then there was this other guy there who looked like someone I thought I might have known (you know what I mean, right?), so that kept me occupied for awhile, trying to figure out who he was and if I knew him.

Obligatory serious face picture

After the party we went to some bar for a little bit.  Group picture with my favorite guys in DC!  Judging from the pictures on my camera, we attempted to take many, but I refuse to post ones I think I look bad in, so this is all you get.  Plus a girl was giving me bunny ears in a few that came out okay.  :(  Need to start taking group pictures when I am sober and not at the end of the night and/or in a bar.

On Saturday morning I met up with some lovely J.Crew blogging friends for brunch at the Tabard Inn, where I ate way too many donuts (is that even possible?).  We had a really great time.  Cousin Kate came with us, and was nice enough to snap this group picture for us.  Ummm, at least I know not to wear this combination of clothes again, yuck!

Saturday night we went out with Kate's friends to celebrate her birthday.  We went all over DC Chinatown and had a lot of fun.  I was cool and drank root beer and Shirley Temples all night (living on the edge, I know).  Here's a picture of me and Freddie, who made someone take this picture by saying, "Hey, take a picture of me and my midget!", and now he calls me Midget as a nickname.  :)

My cousin's friend, me (duh), and cousin Kate.

Here's a bunch of the group, minus the birthday girl.  My cousin's friend said this is our group Christmas card. If you're looking for a hairdresser or a graphic/web design person, there's one of each in this group!

Sunday morning I got breakfast with Airport Chris at Luna Grill.  I may have way overcalculated what time we had to meet up, but at least there was no line, so breakfast was quick... or at least as quick as it can be when you're eating with me.

Now, let me tell you the trashcan story.  When I was visiting Airport Chris and Greg back in the fall, I was surprised that they didn't have a trashcan in their bathroom.  I mean, who doesn't have a trashcan in the bathroom!?  Airport Chris said there's already a trashcan in the bathroom, aka the toilet.  Being a girl, this doesn't always work for me.  So I gave him a hard time about not having a trashcan then, and again when we were out at dinner this time.

We went back to their apartment after dinner to drop off some leftovers (leftover baclava, which I FORGOT, giant, giant tears), and I asked him again if they got a trashcan.  I was mostly joking because he said they didn't have one, but when I went into the bathroom, GUESS WHAT WAS THERE!!!!!!!

 picture courtesy of Airport Chris, because I didn't take my own picture of the now infamous trashcan

How exciting!  I was totally ecstatic (still am)!  When we saw Greg later, that was one of the first things I said to him: "You got a trashcan in the bathroom!!!!"  Seriously, it's the little things in life.

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Love: on Valentine's Day

When I was growing up, Valentine's Day wasn't just about significant others (because you know, I was all cool and had a preschool boyfriend who I'm friends with on Facebook thankyouverymuch) - my parents and family really treated it as a special day for you and everyone you loved - including family and friends.  Marek and I don't do much to celebrate Valentine's day (going to dinner tomorrow, and I received my surprise early present last week!), so I'm going to talk about something a little different today.

Today I could wax poetical about love and romance and all that stuff, but instead I'm going to tell you about something called The Overnight.

The Overnight is a night-long walk, from dusk until dawn, and is held to raise awareness of suicide (and raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention), an issue that is extremely close to my heart and so important to me.

It was held in Boston last year, and will be in New York City this year.  I really wanted to participate last year, but I was scared off by the strict fundraising rules, and I am not comfortable hitting people up for money, even if it is for a good cause.  I was excited to see that it was in NYC this year, and that I'd have another opportunity to participate, but I unfortunately already have plans this year on that date.

However, I would ask you to consider checking out their website and making a donation to a walker, volunteering, or helping spread the word.

Too often, suicide and many of the mental illnesses that often accompany it fall victim to a society that treats it as something to be embarrassed or ashamed of, and that is a shame.  People grappling with those disorders most commonly associated with suicide and with thoughts of suicide themselves need support and love more than anything else.

I came across this quote once:

Nobody really knows how much anyone else is hurting.  We could be standing next to someone who is completely broken and we'd never know it.

For people who are struggling and seriously contemplating suicide, especially those who are struggling silently, letting them know that you are thinking of them, that you love them, and they are important to you can go a long way.

Maybe you have people in your life like this - maybe you know it, maybe you don't - or maybe you don't.  But I think it would be great if we make Valentine's Day about letting people know we love them - and not just about romance.  It could do a lot of good, in more ways than one.

Links:
The Overnight
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

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Things that Got Me Through the Week

Can I tell you, this has been a rough week. But in the spirit of Friday and the weekend, I'm sharing some things with you that helped get me through the week.

This song, coming up on my iPod on my run home.  Okay, maybe I skipped ahead to it, but still.  I love finishing my run to this song.


This song, on my iPod in the house all day long, while I'm working. I LOVE this song. It's a little long, but I think it's so incredibly beautiful. It has such a haunting quality to it. Love, love, love. If you have the time, please check it out.


(If you're a little more time conscious and can't spare the almost-20 minutes (which is a shame - find the time), then the song was also featured in Master and Commander, so here's the slightly pared down version of the most stirring part.)


THE X-MEN FIRST CLASS TRAILER DROPPED YESTERDAY. So my love for all things Transformers (seriously, I was lying in bed the other night and reading Twitter or doing something or other, and everything other thing I read brought a Transformers quote to mind. I might have a problem, but I think we all already knew that) is well documented, but I'm also a huge X-Men fan.  No, I have not read the comics, but I did watch the cartoon a little when I was kid.  Unlike a lot of people, I liked X-Men 3, and I'm very excited about this movie.


I am going to bake some blondies this weekend. And then I will probably eat all of them myself because Marek doesn't like blondies, but clearly he's the one who's losing out here, because blondies are AWESOME.  I don't know what kind of weirdo doesn't like blondies.

Marek got me this super cool purple phone.  I tweeted that I would get an iPhone if someone bought me this I wanted one, so he surprised me and ordered it for me - in purple, too, hooray!  Now I just need people to call me.  I don't really like talking on the phone, but this thing is so fun!  And I don't have to get an iPhone, phew.

This little fatso.  He's been at daycare for the past two days, so I've gotten a much-needed reprieve from his guilty eyes, longing stares, weary sighs, and BEGGING for the past couple days.  I do miss him when it's time to take a break and I need a hug though.

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Things to hate, things to like: February 8th edition

The top two things that made my hater shortlist today.

• I really, really love playing the "Is it poop or mud?" guessing game when I'm running.  Totally disgusting.
• I spell my name/call myself "Jenn".  Not "Jen".  Not "Jennifer".  JENN.  J-E-N-N.
  Here was Marek's suggestion for combating this problem:
  

  you should change your email signature to Jen*N* and make the second N like bright pink and huge

  Maybe I will do this.
  

And here are some things that I am loving today.

• I basically stopped watching the Super Bowl after this commercial came on.  The other trailers for this movie kind of suck so far.  (And if you're a hater who doesn't like Transformers, go away.)  June 30th - all day Transformers party at my apartment, with back-to-back viewing of Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  You're ALL invited. 

• My iPod.  I still have an iPod Mini (ancestor of the iPod Nano I guess), and because Apple thinks it's really cool to wipe out your iPod whenever you associate it to a new computer, it's chock-full of old songs and hasn't been updated in at least a year.  Lately it's been doing an awesome job with the shuffling of songs.
• Marek got us tickets to see Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in March.  I cannot wait.
• I got to work until 11 PM last night, and get to work until 9 PM tonight.  Oh wait.  Wrong section.

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Happy birthday, cousin!

When I was a kid, I thought my cousin was pretty much the coolest guy ever (tie right up there with my Dad and grandfathers), and luckily he's still pretty cool now!

He and I are 7 (I think?  I honestly don't know) years apart, and we saw each other occasionally when we were kids.  Now that we are older, we are a lot closer, which is nice.  He's also married a really lovely lady and they have the cutest little boy, who happens to think I'm cool.  :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, J!  :)

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