It’s New Years Eve! Even though I failed to update regularly, I’m pleased to say that I definitely went over my goal of 100 hours of art this year. Well over. Here are some pictures of some of the stuff I accomplished this year!
This was actually a project for work – hence the text. This is not something I would have ever done on my own!
True to form, I haven’t updated this blog since June 🙂
But, I wanted to write out the progress I have made since my original C25k post back in May. I was just getting ready to start the Couch to 5k interval training program. In reality, after that first jog, I didn’t actually start the running program until mid-June. I did it with a friend of mine. I would run the first two workouts of each week on my own, and we would run the third together on Thursday evenings. It was great, because in order to keep up with him, I really needed to do those other two workouts on my own – I couldn’t just wing it! So we did that for 9 weeks, and we “graduated” the program in August. That month, we both ran our very first 5k race!
It was hot, sticky, dusty and all around miserable, and took me around 40 minutes to finish. I was disappointed because in practice, I averaged about 11-12 minute miles, and I was convinced that I would have finished in under 35 minutes. Oh well! I decided that I wouldn’t be discouraged, and I was going to do at least one race every month as a motivator!
So in September, I signed up for another 5k in a park. This was a road race, rather than a trail race, which I am much more comfortable with. The temperature was around 60, which is pretty perfect, and I ran it in just over 31 minutes! I averaged about a 10 minute mile!
October came, and so did the race I was the most nervous about, but also the most excited. It was time for the Six Flags Zombie Fright Run 5k! For anyone who doesn’t know what that is, it’s a 5k run combined with an obstacle course and flag football. You start off with three flags, which zombies throughout the course chase you and try to steal. There aren’t just zombies chasing you though; there are zombies chasing you through water, over walls, under ropes, you name it! Unfortunately, a large stack of hay bales and one zombie claimed me as victim – I ended up re-injuring my knee. Luckily (and stupidly), it was cold enough out (around 30 degrees) and I was wading through waste-deep freezing water so that the swelling in my knee was kept to a minimum, and with the help of my friend and my knee brace I was able to finish the race and even keep jogging parts of it! I paid for the next couples days though when I discovered I could hardly walk.
That set me back, since I couldn’t run for at least two weeks after that incident. So I gave myself plenty of time, and my next race was a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning! That was a cold one, but I ran it in about 32 minutes and didn’t feel too badly about stuffing my face later that day.
A week and a half later was a Hot Chocolate run, and the race sold out with 5500 participants! I ran it in just over 31 minutes and beat about 1200 people 🙂
To sum it up, running has been going well! For the first time in my life, I actually LIKE running, and I am already signed up for a St. Patrick’s Day 10k (6.2 miles). My goal in 2013 is to run a minimum of 500 miles, and potentially a lot more, and to get my 5k time down to 28 minutes. I am also signed up for Warrior Dash in September! Eek!
Onwards!
P.S. I did end up getting a pair of Vibram Bikilas – they’re WONDERFUL! Best shoes I have ever run in! I will be getting another pair in the spring since I’ve worn my current pair down pretty good!
Yesterday was the first day of summer, and I realized how much music I have been listening to this year, especially with Spotify and the 10k miles of driving I’ve done. Here’s what I have been listening to this spring! No reasoning, no reviews, just a list.
15. NeedtoBreathe – The Reckoning
14. fun. – Some Nights
13. Sigur Ros – Valtari
12. Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing
11. Caravan Palace – Caravan Palace
10. Imagine Dragons – Continued Silence EP
9. Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
8. Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix
7. The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You
6. Ben Rector – Into The Morning
5. mewithoutYou – Ten Stories
4. The Shins – Port of Morrow
3. M83 – Saturdays=Youth
2. M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
1. Of Monsters and Men – My Head is an Animal
Can’t decide on a paint color or wallpaper? Grab a marker and go to town. That’s what British artist Charlotte Mann does for a living – and it’s awesome.
In light of my recent “get in shape” kick, I thought now would be the perfect time to attempt running again! I went for my first jog in probably 5 years (since my knee injury) this morning. My knee was only slightly wobbly – I was happy about that, especially since I was not wearing a knee brace. Even though I’ve lost a decent amount of weight this past year, I’m still very out of shape, so I am starting slow. I was never a good runner to begin with, my shortest mile time being around 8.5min. I’m just not built for it. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try!
So I am going to attempt a Couch 2 5k program (C25K) to get myself back on track. I got up at 5:45, splashed some cold water on my face, laced up my sneaks and was out the door by 5:55 (this is VERY impressive for me!). I decided to run for time instead of distance, so at least 3x a week, more if possible, I am going to train a minimum of 30 minutes. Today was the first workout, so I just wanted to test the waters a bit rather than jump right into the interval training in the program. I was able to jog 1/2 mile without stopping, which may not sound like much, but it was better than I expected. I walked for 1-2 minutes, and jogged the second 1/2 mile. Less than a 15 minute workout, but I was pleased nonetheless, especially since I wasn’t sure what to expect from my knee. I’m going to keep track of my miles run, too. Because I like tracking things 🙂 And hopefully come fall I will be ready to run my first 5k since high school!
Part of me really wants to get a pair of these… 
They just look like they would make running so much more fun!
On a less positive note, I think I might need to get my wisdom teeth (tooth?) out. Yesterday my jaw was aching a little bit on the left side, but I assumed this was because of grinding my teeth (stress habit). This morning however, as I was washing my face, I noticed that the left side of my jaw felt and looked swollen, and was still feeling sore. It feels like a wisdom tooth thing, which isn’t good because I don’t have dental insurance and not much in the way of money to pay for the surgery. I wonder if they will let me pay in monthly installments or something…worth looking into.
I’ve also done 10 more hours of my 100 hours of art project, so I will be posting on that sometime this week!
Here is a quick bullet point summary of the last few weeks:
Which brings me to a quick bullet point summary of what’s to come:
That’s all for now! 🙂
I’ve had this recipe pinned for a while now on Pinterest and have been dying to try it, but didn’t have any vanilla beans. The other day I happened to see some for pretty cheap on Amazon and ordered them after reading the good reviews. So today, I made mini cupcakes! I used Melanie’s recipe from her blog The Sweet Life (there are tons of great recipes on her blog!) Here is the recipe:
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes (recipe from The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes)
yield: 12 cupcakes (or about 36 mini cupcakes)
Ingredients
Directions
Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Beat the butter and shortening on high until smooth and creamy. Scrape the seeds from 1/4 of a vanilla bean; add the seeds and the confectioners sugar to the butter mixture. Start the mixer on low until the sugar starts to incorporate, then beat on medium for about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla extract and beat on high 1-2 minutes, or until smooth and fluffy.
The specks of vanilla look awesome
I made a few regular size cupcakes for my family
I am incredibly self-conscious about eating apples. I am loud, messy and generally very unattractive while attempting to bite something bigger than my fist. I get apple juice dribble down my chin, and if it’s a particularly good apple, all down my arm too, and half the time I take bites that I can’t even completely fit in my mouth, so I chew on the end not hanging out of my mouth until I can shove the rest of it in.
It’s really not pretty.
I don’t look like this: 
I do look like this (only not as cute):
I have a sweet, crispy fuji apple sitting on my desk next to me, begging to be eaten. But I forgot to bring a knife and I’m loathe to mar my coworkers opinion of me. Do you think scissors will work?
EDIT: Crisis averted!! My good friend reminded me through a snarky picture message that I own a pocketknife! (I’m an idiot)
Disclaimer: I am about to justify all of your suspicions regarding my sanity (or lack thereof). I think I am crazy, and it’s okay that you do too.
I think I have experienced what I have until today referred to as a ‘false memory.’ Today I looked up what a False Memory is, and in what must be one of the shortest Wikipedia pages ever, it said simply “False memory refers to the recollection of an event, or the details of an event, that did not occur.”
But that’s not right, because the memory I have is of an event that actually happened and is historically documented, not something that I fabricated and convinced myself is real (like my brother, who swears to this day that I fell out of a tree and broke my leg as a child…this never happened). I actually think that is more common; it’s really not too difficult to convince your mind that something actually happened. But remembering something that did happen that I can’t possibly remember….because I wasn’t alive yet? Is it more of a Phantom Memory (like phantom limb)? That doesn’t really work either, because that implies something more like recalling memories from a previous life (if you believe in that…I don’t) that you no longer are living. What should I call this phenomena? Is it new? Can I name it after myself??? (Would I even want to?!)
I swear this is true. I distinctly remember the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger n January 28, 1986. I remember watching it on live television, rising into the air only to tragically explode a minute later. I remember feeling the shock and sadness of the tragedy and I remember my Mom’s reaction to it, with her hand over her mouth and the quiet “Oh my God.” I remember it in almost as much detail as I do the 9/11 attacks when I was in high school.
How is this possible, since I wasn’t born for another eight months? Even if I had been a newborn, or even a toddler, I would be skeptical about remembering something like this in such detail when I would have been too young to even know what was really happening. The only somewhat logical explanation I can come up with is that somewhere along to line, I watched a TV program about it or something that stuck with me through the years and my mind somehow transformed that knowledge into a memory-format. Do you know what I mean by that? Knowing some facts about an event just feels different than a real memory does, a memory formed by watching something happen live the day it happens as opposed to hearing the facts later on. I learned in school about Jonestown in Guyana, but I don’t have an actual memory of the event occurring. Yet I feel as though I have a memory of the Challenger tragedy. A real memory brought to the front of my mind whenever I see or hear something relating to it.
So am I crazy? Well, I know I’m crazy. I guess I should ask, should I be worried?
P.S. In case you are wondering what made me think of this today, I came across this list of 31 Great Iconic Photos From History, and the Challenger was on there. And I reacted to that photo differently from most of the others because the others are just things I learned, trivial knowledge and not experiences (yes yes I know, I didn’t actually experience the Challenger, but I think by now you know what I mean. I hope).
R.I.P. to the seven crew members who lost their lives aboard the Challenger
I know I do this a lot, but I just have to appreciate the other artists out there in the world that do such incredible work. I can only hope to someday cultivate in myself this kind of creativity and ingenuity.
This particular artist, Carnovsky, has developed a series called RGB. Pulled directly from his website: “RGB’s technique consists in the overlapping of three different images, each one in a primary color. The resulting images from this three level’s superimposition are unexpected and disorienting. The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear. Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three layers.”
It’s amazing!! Check out the website
muddledsoul 