Showing posts with label nerd alert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nerd alert. Show all posts
November 2, 2012

Friday Favorites... Mostly

Today seems a good study in opposites:

Things That Are My Favorite:
 -- I won an NPR contest! Pretty excited to get my new shirt... and for the nerdy bragging rights that I figure must come along with such an epic win. 
 -- Speaking of nerds (were we?), I signed up this week for a coursera class. I've been wanting to try one for a while now, and when I saw that this one is taught by a professor who 1. teaches at our hometown university (can I come to office hours?), 2. co-wrote two of the books I read in my own college courses, and 3. served as the head of the 9/11 Commission and some other pretty cool stuff (check him out here), I knew I had to do it. Of course, this is one of the longer classes (15 weeks) and doesn't even offer a certificate at this point, but I figure I'll give it a try and if I can keep up, I'll sign up for a few more. I'm not subscribing to the idea that this will be anything more than a line on my resume that most people will give a puzzled look, so it's definitely more for my enjoyment than anything else right now. Ambitious? Crazy? I have until January to decide.
 -- I kicked some serious tail (my own, specifically) at the gym this week. My speed seems to be sneaking back up on me, and oh, how I've missed it.
 -- A certain someone is going to be coming home sometime next week. Next. Week. Meaning another someone has a LOT of work to do this weekend to get the house ready....
That's right, our cozy little family of three is about to become a rambunctious, fur-laden family of four... or three and one very pissed off cat. Can't wait!

Things That Are Most Definitely NOT My Favorite:
 -- My car seems to have three wheels in the grave... and it's rolling. Poor hubs decided he'd drive it to drill this weekend, and ended up on the side of the road as it spewed smoke and oil everywhere at 7:30 this morning. It's always fun to start a Friday with an "emergency" text, right?
I've had this lovely scrap of metal since college, and it was my dad's before that, so the darn thing is almost like a family member. After several pricy repairs recently and several more semi-critical amenities that have ceased to work (heat, air conditioning, turn signal... ugh), I think it's finally time to throw it a little party and send it off to wherever cars go to retire (don't tell me that's just a junkyard. It's not pretty when someone cries over a car.) On the plus side, that means that very soon I will have a fully functional car again, and boy am I looking forward to a little bit of warm air on the way to the gym in the mornings. I just have to find one with a great sound system to drown out that pesky sound of my wallet wailing....
Happy Friday, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg

July 15, 2011

I Confess...

It's Friday again (can someone explain to me how that happened, please?) and despite an abundance of favorite things that I could tell you about (the-most-amazing-pumpkin-bread-in-the-world and this video being the leading contenders this week), my sleepy brain is feeling a little over-honest. It would be a shame to waste all of this candid truth, so I figured it might be time for a few confessions from a rather... trying week. Try your hardest not to Oh, just go ahead and judge. I probably would too.

 -- In the past week, I have eaten an entire box of wheat thins in 24 hours and a whole loaf of the afore-mentioned pumpkin bread in two days. I've been a little hungry. My mid-section is less than pleased with me (and I with it). Someone please hide the baked goods.
 -- Twice this week I have fallen asleep before 9 pm. Sad but oh-so necessary. I blame the cat -- one look at him all curled up and snoozing (his preferred pastime approximately 23.5 hours out of the day) makes me start to nod off myself.
 -- Wednesday I went for a run around my local college campus. I knew it was going to storm, but I was determined to sweat out a few quick miles outside (and head back to finish the rest on a treadmill, if I had to). When it did start to drip, I headed back for my car, and about half a mile out disaster struck. My left foot landed wrong, my ankle rolled, and before you can say "graceful" I was skidding across the pavement on my hands and knees. Ouch doesn't really describe it. Even though there was no one around, I was incredibly embarrassed and my first response was to spring back up and announce (to no one in particular) "Oh, shit. I'm okay, I'm okay.... yep I'm fine." Except I wasn't. I had blood streaming from both knees (not an exaggeration, sadly), my palms were stinging like crazy, my cell phone was several feet away, having bounced down the road (thankfully it survived), and my ankle was in definite pain. With great effort I collected myself, hobbled a few feet, tried in vain to wipe the blood off my legs, got my hands all bloody instead, waited at a stoplight forever while the rain picked up and drivers shot me pitying looks, and tried to jog but quickly returned to walking when my ankle made it clear that running would not be a choice. By the time I got back to my car, I was a soggy, limping, bleeding mess. I called my dear husband expecting to leave him a voicemail, and burst into tears when he actually answered. It was definitely not a good afternoon for my pride.
 -- I spent the rest of Wednesday evening and most of Thursday in misery, sure that my ankle was going to take forever to heal and ruin the rest of my half-marathon training and generally end my life. I felt like such a cliche: I had never loved running so much until I lost it. I was actually shocked at how depressed I was not to be able to run Thursday morning, even though my brain had been begging for a rest day anyway. So yesterday afternoon, I did something that I knew I shouldn't. Despite the a lingering twinge in my ankle, despite the fact that my shoes were still soaking wet from the rain on Wednesday, despite the mega-sized band-aids flapping from my oozing knees like a 7 year old, I went to the gym. I told myself I'd start slowly and see how it went, but before I knew it I'd jumped from the bike to the elliptical and right back onto the treadmill. Luckily, I made it through two miles with no pain (and another four this morning), so I think my fears were (for once) unfounded. And that new-found love for running? Sure, I'm happy to get back out on the road again, but I'm already dreading having to drag myself out of bed early tomorrow for a run. Cured!
 -- I am making no effort to hide that I am super-excited to see a movie that is coming out this weekend..... and no, it's not the one that you're thinking. I'm just dying with anticipation to see these guys:
I am a huge and unapologetic 23 year old Winnie the Pooh fan. I fell in love at the ripe age of one month, when I received my first stuffed animal of the "silly old bear." Since then, I've amassed countless stuffed Poohs (including one in a baseball uniform), donkeys, piglets, and unnaturally-upright tigers, and as a toddler child young adult until I got married, I always fell asleep with a yellow bear tucked in my arms. I watched the tv show (the original show, with the real voices and animation and none of this awful D*sney Channel stuff) every weekend with my dad and read all the books several times. My love for the bear and his friends has grown with me: in the past two years each of my parents gave me wooden signs with quotations from the book, one of which makes me cry every time I read it. Just a few months ago, I purchased four handmade greeting cards with similarly heartwarming Pooh quotes, and because I can't bear to send them off, I'm going to frame them. It's been a long love affair, and I am so thrilled that this movie will return the characters to their original drawings and (with a few exceptions) voices. No offense, Mr. Potter, but this weekend, I'll be spending a few hours with my very favorite bear. (Also, I'm pretty sure that going to see the new HP movie without Dan would be grounds for divorce.)
I think that may be enough honesty for one week. Have a lovely weekend, dear readers!

   Love,

    Meg


March 25, 2011

Friday Favorites

It's that time again, girls and boys! And thank goodness, because there were several moments this week that I thought the weekend might not ever get here. Here we are, though, and I am ever so grateful! These are just a few things that I am celebrating this week...



Nerd alert: I am completely addicted to NPR. It is usually on in my car (much to Dan's chagrin) and I also listen to NPR podcasts pretty often while I run. It's my favorite way to keep up with the news and I learn something new literally everyday. I can't count how many conversations in a week I contribute to by saying "Well I heard on NPR the other day...." I especially love Car Talk, even though I have no interest in cars whatsoever -- those guys keep me laughing through a whole hour of running and I'm sure that the people around me think I'm crazy. Also, don't tell my co-workers, but I cry almost every Friday morning on my way to work: I'm always in the car when they play the weekly StoryCorps and I swear I tear up at practically every little interview.




I love me some cashews, so when we were at Target recently and I saw honey roasted cashews on sale, I knew I had to try them. Oh goodness, these things are addictive. How did I not discover them before? I have the container on my desk at work and it takes an incredible amount of willpower not to eat them by the handful.

I picked up this cute little bowl at Pier 1 this week (full disclosure: I was actually shopping for birthday presents for my mother and best friend. It was on sale though!) Apparently I have a thing for bowls, and when I got home and tried to find a home for this one, I realized that I have amassed quite a collection of cute bowls of varying shapes and sizes. Do they stage interventions for that kind of thing?

Ok, so I googled "drinks with friends" and, amidst the pictures of sloshed 20-somethings waving their Solo cups, found this gem. I couldn't pass it up! Technically, this favorite is left over from last week, when I met up with an old friend of Dan's (and mine, since I've known her) for drinks and dinner. She is such a sweetheart and since most of my college friends live in other towns or states, it was so great to spend some time just catching up and talking with her. The cat is cute, but sometimes human interaction is just necessary, you know?
Can you hear the celebrating from where you are? As of this morning's run, I have officially made it 100 miles this year. To the seasoned runner, 100 miles sounds more like 2-3 weeks, but as a beginner who is trying doggedly to convince myself to like running and stick with it, this is a pretty huge milestone. Especially considering the knee pain that kept me from running for several weeks in January/February. At the rate I've been running recently (4 times a week-ish), though, my next "century" should go faster and, I hope, easier. By this summer, I hope to be ready for a few road races that have been on my radar but I've been too nervous to sign up for yet. This weekend, however, I know one thing for sure -- I'm celebrating my first 100 with ice cream!
I hope that you all have wonderful, exciting weekends lined up. Dan and I are heading to see my bestie and her boyfriend tomorrow, and I can't wait! It's been several weeks and I'm really excited to catch up with her. Then Sunday I'm hoping to get a few wedding-related items checked off of my to-do list!
Happy weekend, everyone!


    Love,

    Meg
 

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