who lets the dog sleep in the bed?

Oh, that's right -- I do!!  There was some report that came out recently about how you're not supposed to let your pets sleep in your bed because you'll get fleas and all kinds of other nasty stuff, but that's a bunch of phooey.  Plus, my dog doesn't have fleas, so I'm not really worried right now.

Claudius has a little routine every night.  He spends the night lounging on the couch or in his chair, and then when it's time for bed, I go and get ready and then I come back into the living room and say, "Let's go!", at which point he grabs himself a Milk Bone (or a cookie, as we like to call it) and RUNS off to the bedroom, up his stairs (yes, he has his own set of stairs to get on the bed), and waits.

In the morning, he also has a routine.  He sleeps on top of the covers all night, and mostly away from me (no snuggling or anything), but in the morning, when he first wakes up, he comes over to me and nudges the edge of the comforter with his nose, which is code for, "LET ME IN!".  I lift up the covers and he wiggles his way underneath and curls up next to me.  One of my favorite times of the day, and one of the reasons why I have such a hard time getting up in the morning (aside from general laziness, of course).

Sometimes the world is just too much.  Sometimes I wish I could just bury my face in bed and hide from life!

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bring on the crankiness

Tomorrow I'm starting a three-day, all-liquid cleanse.  This should pretty interesting stuff.

This is my first cleanse, and I've already prepared Marek for the inevitable crankiness that is about to descend about our apartment, due to my inability to eat WHATEVER I WANT for the next three days.

Especially because I just received FOUR boxes of Voortman's Tea Ring Sugar Cookies in the apartment, calling my name...

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lazy weekend

This weekend was pretty lazy for us.  We both had a lot of work work to get done, so we decided to send Claudius to daycare on Saturday so we could have the day to work interruption-free...which didn't exactly go as planned, since we headed down to the movie theatre to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (short review: decent film, entertaining, Pirates franchise feels a bit played out, and the easter egg is not worth the stay).

After that we headed over for some lunch at Chop't, which was pretty tasty.  I only ate half my salad (mesclun, carrots, corn, red onions, quinoa, and kalamata olives), plus I had saved myself a pain au chocolate from Le Pain Quotidien that morning, so I had a very nice meal for later on in the day.  We went back home and just did boring stuff around the house - I scanned some important papers and then tried to do work (unsuccessfully, I might add) and watched the Preakness Stakes.  That brought us to about 6:45 PM, and then well...I fell asleep.

And I slept until about 8:30/9:00 the next morning, which was kind of nice.  We got up and grabbed breakfast at this little place near us.  I was proud of myself for ordering healthy for once (egg white omelette (only ate half) with fresh fruit salad instead of hash browns, and NO side of bacon).  The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, trying to do work (again, mostly in vain), reading a bit, and forcing myself to stay up past 9 PM (mostly successful there).

Think...as boring as this was to read, think about how even more boringer (THAT'S A WORD) our weekend was. :)

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You've got mail!

I really love Crane & Co.  Sometimes I go on their website and pick out all kinds of fancy stationery (and ummm, maybe wedding stuff) and imagine all the pretty papers and cards and envelopes I would treat myself to if I had a ton of money and people to send stuff to. 

From the time I was 7 until about the time I was in college, I had a penpal, and we exchanged handwritten letters for years.  I still have all of them in a shoebox at my parents' house.  Handwritten letters and correspondence have sort of gone by the wayside nowadays, with e-mail, texts, and all that other fancy stuff, but there's something really nice about getting a handwritten note, especially in the mail.

I scored a nice deal on some stationery from Crane & Co. thanks to Marek and some Buy With Me vouchers.  I went on a nice little shopping spree, and not long after, some nice boxes showed up with some crisp, paper goodies just for me.  Below is just a peak of my haul (the other ones were personalized and arrived later).

So now I've got a big huge box of stationery and a HUGE roll of first-class stamps, so here's where you come in.  I'd love to send you a handwritten note - whether we've ever met in person or not, just drop me a line (comment here, message me on Twitter - get in touch with me somehow) and let me know how to get in touch with you.  Then I'll get your address and send you a nice little letter in the mail (something to look forward to besides catalogs, junk mail, and bills!).  :)

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OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon: race recap

Whoops, I realized I still "owe" "you" (myself) a recap of the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon... and now you see why we just call it the Mini.

Okay, so the race was at 7:30 AM, which means I set my alarm for 5:30 AM - 15 minutes to hit snooze and try to wake up, another 15 minutes to get into the shower (I was given strict instructions that someone else would be taking his shower at 6 AM), and then about 45 minutes to try to get everything out of my body, if you know what I mean.  (I know, TMI, sorry.)

Around 6:45ish we headed out to the corrals.  I made one last attempt at the bathroom, in vain, and yes, this would come back to haunt me later.  (The nice thing about long training runs is you at least teach your body how to hold it with minimal discomfort.)  Around 7:30, after some fireworks, we were off.  I started 1:45 off the gun time this year, which was the closest I've ever started, so that was very exciting.  This is because I was in Corral D, which was for people who had requested and provided proof for preferred seeding (aka, had finished a half marathon in under 2.5 hours in the previous year).

I knew what my goal pace was (10 minutes/mile), which would have had me finish at 2:11, but I was hoping for 2:10.  I had been training in the Park at about 3 - 5 minutes over that, so I knew it would be a challenge to meet my goal, but luckily the Park is very hilly, and Indianapolis is very flat, so I had that going for me.  Plus I always find that race day gives me a little boost I need to go a bit faster.  That being said, I started off feeling good.

A lot of people go all out at the beginning, going as fast as they can, but I try not to do that.  I just focused on my own pace and how I was feeling, and even though pretty much everyone was passing me, I did my best not to let that bother me, because I was just focused on having a good finish.

I was feeling good heading into the Speedway, which is the best part of the race - I absolutely love running around the Speedway, it's such a unique experience - plus, when you exit the Speedway, you'r already at about mile 9, which means there are "only" 4 miles left to go.  Haha!  I got to the Speedway in record time, too, and around mile 7 or 8, I was only about 30 seconds away from my goal pace, which was pretty exciting.

However, once I exited the Speedway, I could feel myself slowing down, mentally.  I had to go to the bathroom (and I don't like to stop for potty breaks because I lose my momentum), and I could just feel myself getting overwhelmed by how much farther it was.  You'd think that after 9 or 10 miles, another 3 or 4 doesn't seem so bad, but 10 miles is about my limit, I think.  At least I know what to focus on when training for my next half (looooong runs).

Mile 10 was okay, mile 11 was even less okay, and mile 12 was the hardest (like it always is for me).  The last .1 mile is THE WORST for me.  I walked a few times, especially when I was getting some Gatorade and water, but I tried to keep moving and made sure to finish the last .35 miles running and pushing myself to finish strong.  It didn't feel like I finished strong since I did do some walking, but I finished with a new personal and course best, so I cannot be unhappy about that.

Mini Course Times

2011 - 2:14:28 (10:16 pace) {Brickyard at 1:18:13, 10M at 1:41:29}

2010 - 2:29:07 (11:23 pace) {5M at 58:53, 10M at 1:55:16}

2009 - 2:51:37 (13:06 pace) {5M at 1:00:38, 10M at 2:08:49}

Overall Half Marathon Times

2011 Mini Marathon - 2:14:28 (10:16 pace) {Brickyard at 1:18:13, 10M at 1:41:29}

2011 Hyannis Half Marathon - 2:19:38 (10:40 pace)

2010 Boston Half Marathon - 2:19:33 (10:40 pace) {5M at 53:55, 10M at 1:46:26}

2010 Mini Marathon - 2:29:07 (11:23 pace) {5M at 58:53, 10M at 1:55:16}

2009 Mini Marathon - 2:51:37 (13:06 pace) {5M at 1:00:38, 10M at 2:08:49}

Marek had also signed up for some tracking updates, which was a new thing this year.  He got an e-mail three times during the race (Brickyard, 10M, and finish points), which he showed me later.  My parents were getting the same e-mails, and that actually helped keep me motivated, too - knowing that they were following along.  According to the e-mails, I was at a 9:13 minute/mile pace when I entered the Brickyard, which is the fastest I've ever gone, so I'm incredibly excited about that.  I also wasn't dying when I entered the Brickyard, so now I know I can go faster.

I'm taking a couple weeks off and then training starts again for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Chicago, which should also be pretty flat (and hopefully not too hot!).  I'll be shooting for 2:10/2:11 for that half, and I'll be busting my butt this summer to make sure that goal happens, and I've already set my sights on a sub-2:00 for next year's Mini (which I signed up for as soon as this one was over, naturally)!

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one good, one bad

One Bad Thing
I read a lot of blogs.  A LOT of blogs.  I like almost all of them, but there are a couple things that really irk me when reading blogs.  Since I'm only allowed to pick one (since this is "One Bad Thing", and not "Eight Million Bad Things"), I'll go with this one.  I really, really, really cannot stand when the majority of pictures posted on a person's blog are of them making this bizarre faces - gaping at this, wide-eyed and buggy, pouting sad faces, opening their mouths wide to jam in a butt-ton of food, etc. - faces that they probably do not make in real life, but are just made for the sole purpose of being in a picture to post on a blog... to show what, exactly?  That you have a face made of rubber?  My personal favorites are the ones where every other picture is some variation of an O-face... just saying.

One Good Thing
Now on to the good thing.  Again, I can only pick one, so I'm going to pick this one.

On Sunday night, we went to dinner with my parents, brother, aunt, and brother's friend.  My brother is about 7 years younger than I am, as is his friend.  At one point in the dinner, my mother made a comment about my age, saying how old I am, and my brother's friend's jaw just dropped.  He said he thought I was only a year or so older than my brother.  Ummm, MAJOR SCORE.  And yes, I am still riding high on the fact that I can still trick peeps into thinking that I just graduated from college.  That feeling will NEVER get old.  Thanks, Brother's Friend.

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Post-a-day failure

So I've now failed - AGAIN! - at posting every single day.  I actually had posts set up for last Thursday and Friday, but I guess they got sucked into that black hole as part of the whole Blogger SNAFU, which I was aware of, but didn't really think about.

I was away for the weekend, and didn't get any posts pre-written for Saturday or Sunday, and didn't feel like blogging while I was away, soooo yeah.

Instead of giving myself a hard time over missing a post and failing at my goal, I'll just start over each time I skip one, so we're back to square one.  Today starts another attempt at 30/31 straight days of posting. :)

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a little something polarizing

I stumbled across a blog this morning that is dedicated to kvetching about tips in the food service industry.  I'm actually not sure what its name is, but we'll just call it 15 Percent.  The author appears to be a delivery guy in New York City.

Personally, I think people in the food service industry place too much importance on the tip as a right and not as an incentive.  (And before you get all upset because I don't know what I'm talking about, I worked at a restaurant for a number of months in college.)

When I go out to a restaurant, I always assume that I'm going to tip 20%.  I always start at 20% as a base, and base that 20% off the total amount, including tax.  I like to think that this is pretty generous.  So starting at 20%, I then dock some tip if the service is bad - and it has to be actual bad service, not just a kitchen mess-up or a busy night.

In general, I try not to tip less than 20%.  Sometimes I'll tip 15% if the service is not very good, and I have on occasion had such bad service that I've left no tip.  I have not, however, ever left the worst tip (at least according to my Nana), which is 1 penny (this shows the server that you didn't forget to leave a tip, but are leaving them the least amount possible).

My issue with servers, and blogs like this, is that tips are designed to be incentives for good service.  To be a good, attentive server.  Food servers like to complain about how little money they make, but in a lot of places, it's the law that your employer is supposed to make up the difference between your hourly wage and the minimum wage if you don't make that in tips.  It's not my issue if you a) don't know this and b) your employer doesn't follow it.

Secondly, not all food servers are poor.  I used to work at a restaurant where working on the weekends was extremely competitive because busboys alone could bring home $200 on a Saturday night shift.  Even working a 10-hour shift, that's $20/hour, well above minimum wage.  And like I said - those were just busboys, whose $200 for a Saturday night represented a percentage of the servers' total tips, so imagine what they were bringing home.

Thirdly, when we start establishing 20% as the "base minimum" for a tip (as 15 Percent wants us to do), then where does it stop?  Does that mean I start tipping 25% for good service and 30% for great service?  Sure, I've been known to tip up to 30% for really great service (and really big parties, regardless of service), but the "standard" used to be around 15%, with 20% for good service.

Fourthly, blogs like 15 Percent increase the blame on the customer.  Maybe it's not that the customer is horrible and cheap - maybe it's because you provided horrible service!  But in a culture where we're constantly shifting blame, this isn't surprising.

Lastly, and probably Marek's favorite point, is that a lot of people in the food service have no concept of what tips as percentages actually look like.  Let's say I buy a coffee at Starbucks for $2.25.  A lot of people think I should just dump my 75 cents in the tip cup, but why should I?  Besides the fact that workers at Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) make minimum wage, that's a 33% tip.  For what?  Pouring me a cup of coffee, putting a lid on it, and sliding it across the counter?  (And, if you're at Starbucks, being a pretentious douche while you're at it.)

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Hoteling in style

During the trip to Indy, Airport Chris was nice enough to let me share a room with him, and he booked us at a nice, shiny new hotel (literally), and because he travels a lot, we had access to the Executive Lounge which, if you have never been to one, you should figure out how to get up there, because it is pretty awesome.

View from our room, looking out over the city.  Sun was just starting to go down, and this would look way more awesome without the camera reflection, but OH WELL.

View from the Executive Lounge.

View the other way.  Look at Lucas Oil Stadium on the right!!!

The restaurant downstairs had some cute desserts that I THINK were for Mother's Day.  My friend and I wanted to take some, but we weren't sure if they were up for grabs (I saw people eating them later, so looks like we lost out on that!).

Cute little Tabasco sauce and mini jam jar in the Executive Lounge, because I am an Executive Lounge noob and like to gawk at all the goodies.  And maybe take them home with me.  MAYBE.

Check out how often people in the Executive Lounge get to eat!  Breakfast, Grab & Go, Hors d'oeuvres, Desserts, and Drinks.  And all for free!  And not to mention all the REGULAR free food and free internet they get!

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Indy fun

I was really sad to leave Indianapolis (like always), so I'm going to spend the rest of the week blogging about it.  Here are some of the phone pics I took in Indy.  I will show you some of the regular camera pics I took tomorrow.  :)

What a nice sign!

Of course I made a trip (or two) to the Colts Pro Shop at the mall. 

Nighttime view from our hotel room.

Hotel is so fancy that it even has the city printed on its little lotions.

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Blisters and running rewards

Check out my super duper awesome blisters I got from running this weekend!  I could feel the one on my right foot (your left, in the picture below) creeping up with a few miles left to go, so that was tons of fun.  I also made the mistake of popping both blisters before I got in the shower.  Rookie move!  Now I'm walking funny on my right foot and my right leg hurts.  Total win, all around, right?

But here's something that makes those blisters (and the inner thigh and upper under arm chafing, YUCK) all worthwhile: the Voortman's Tea Ring Sugar Cookies that the St. Francis Hospital (I think it's them) gives out to the runners after the race.  These are my favorite immediate-post-race treat (I have many favorite post-race treats), and when I was in line this year, I totally asked the girl to give me "a lot".  She gave me 6, and I savored every single one of them!

Here's my favorite fast-food post-race treat.  A nice #1 combo from Chick-Fil-A, and they were nice enough to give me a heart-shaped chicken this year to show me how much they love me, hahaha.  After I was done getting cleaned up and relaxing for a few, it was off to the mall for some chicken, waffle fries, and lemonade, YUM YUM.

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11

Eleven years ago today started just like any other day.

Eleven years ago today, I got up and went to school.

Eleven years ago today, I sat for the AP Calculus test.

Eleven years ago today, I was totally broken inside.

Eleven years ago today, I went to the hospital.

Eleven years ago today, I was admitted to the psychiatric ward.

Eleven years ago today, I finally got the help I needed.

Eleven years ago today, I started down the long road to recovery.

Eleven years ago today, everything changed.

*****

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.

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Time for a run

Today is one of the days I look forward to the most every year - the annual OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis!  This is my third year running it, and I am so, so excited!  (By the time this is published, I'll hopefully be more than halfway finished.)

I got into running when I was reading up about my future hometown, Indianapolis, on Wikipedia.  One of the little tidbits they mentioned was that Indianapolis is home the largest half marathon in the country.  So I figured I would make it a goal of mine to run that half marathon.

When I first thought about signing up (Summer 2008), I could not even run a mile.  Seriously.  When I was in sixth grade, we had to run a mile as part of the Presidential Fitness Challenge (or something like that).  Kids in my class were finishing in 6 minutes!  I didn't even get to finish, because I ran out of time.  I think I walked about three-quarters of a mile, and then they made me stop because I was taking too long.

I pretended to join the track team for literally a day in high school.  I think that was mostly because I wanted some sweet, sweet Umbro shorts though.  I showed up for track practice and they told us just to go run.  I went home instead.

So I'm not exactly what you'd call a natural runner.  I have to work at it, sometimes very hard.

But I stuck with it, and the girl who almost 3 years ago couldn't even run a mile is about to run 13.1 today, for the fifth time.  Not too shabby, I'd say.

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I love you, Indianapolis.

I'm headed to my favorite city in the entire country today - INDIANAPOLIS!  A nice little three-day weekend for me in the Midwest.  Throw in some running, some friends, some fun sights and sounds, and some yummy food, all in my future hometown?  Woo hoo!

Certain people like to tease me for my love of Indianapolis, but what's not to love!

This awesome girl lives there!  We've been friends since college and I just love her!

I make friends at the airport there!
(Okay, one friend, but he's now practically a best friend, so that's like multiple friends, right?)

I get to run a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and run RIGHT ON THE BRICKS!

I get to eat really delicious food at one my favorite restaurants.

No post about Indianapolis would be complete without a picture of my #1.

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Claudius's Easter treat

We had ham for Easter.  In years past, my Dad has given the hambone to Claudius.  This year was no different.  I threw that meaty sucker into a Ziploc bag and dragged it all the way back to New York with me.

Claudius gets to gnaw at the bone for a little while at a time, and he really enjoys it.  MEAT!!!!

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Easter weekend

I used to live really close to my parents' house - a quick 5 to 10 minute drive, depending on the traffic.  A couple of the apartments we lived in were within walking distance.  I liked that.  Of course now we live far, far away, which has been good and bad.  I think we've become a lot closer, but it's harder to seem then whenever I want.

I had always planned on going home for Easter; it never really crossed my mind not to go home.  When I went to book my tickets, I saw that they were double what I normally pay to go home, and the timing would be close for the trip back (since we would be eating dinner and all).  My parents were nice enough to help me out and pay for some of my ticket, so I went home and spent Easter with them, my grandparents, my aunt, and a bunch of my cousins. 

On Thursday when I got home, my Mom and I picked up the Easter ham and then she took me grocery shopping.  She got me some salad stuff, but more importantly, some Larabars!!!  I was on my last Larabar and wanted to stock up on some, so thanks Mom!!  Friday afternoon after work we went and got manicures together and then took my grandparents grocery shopping (living the life, I'm telling you).  We also took them to dinner and then went to Good Friday mass (see?  Told you.)

Saturday was rainy and I was feeling lazy so I did a short 3-mile run on the treadmill and then loafed around until it was time for dinner and church.  I did finally get to watch National Treasure, which I enjoyed very much.  Easter Vigil mass was LONG (five readings!), but when I got home, there was a chocolate Easter bunny waiting for me on my pillow!!  Wahoo!  (Thanks Mom :)).

I spent Easter morning with Jack McCoy, har har, aka, I went to the gym with my mom and aunt (there were a LOT of people there).  I went to run and preemptively burn off the delicious cheesy broccoli casserole that I knew was coming my way, and "Law & Order" was on, which was all kinds of awesome because I am seriously addicted to that show.  

Easter was a nice day, so since I can't show you any of the pictures I took of my family, here are some pictures from my parents' gardens.

There was an olive with a stem still on it in the can of olives!  How cool!

I can show you this picture of me and my cousin.  He is the brother of my cousin who came to visit me in NYC.  He goes to school out here on the East Coast, so I get to see him a lot more than I used to, as he comes to some family dinners for the holidays.

(I was wearing a cute dress for Easter, but had changed at this point into more comfortable clothes for traveling!)

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NYC visitors

We have been really fortunate since we moved to have had plenty of visitors (relatively speaking).  When we lived in Massachusetts, we hardly had any visitors, and in almost 5 years in various apartments, I think we had 2 or 3 unique visitors and about 3 or 4 overnight stays.  In our seven or so months in NYC, we've already had a whole handful of people crashing on our couch, Aerobed, and even kitchen floor once!

I love having visitors!  It's nice to get to see friends and family.  A couple weekends ago, my cousin came to visit us.  His girlfriend was visiting (from France!!), and they came down and did some sightseeing.  It was really nice to see them.  My cousin is originally from San Francisco, so I didn't get to see him a whole lot when we were growing up, and his girlfriend is super, super nice.  We had a really nice weekend.

Claudius was mostly good for the weekend, but he couldn't resist showing his true (vicious) colors when we were taking some group pictures. :)

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Our weekend in pictures

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