Stress, running, and a picnic

I have not been managing my stress well at all. This weekend I was completely overwhelmed by the things I had to do and I let it get to me. Most contributing to this is an accompanying piece I have to learn, my piano lesson today (which ended up being good), and a test tomorrow. However, I still got in some working out and some rest, which helped. And I had a lot of fun things happen too that I want to share.

I am one of the many who have read Hunger Games recently and I went to the midnight premier on Thursday. I ha never been to a midnight showing and wanted to get one in before I graduate. It was really fun! We got great seats because they let us move to an overflow theater. And I really liked the movie - it was well done.

The most important event this weekend was that I ran my first 5k! It really snuck up on me and I didn't feel prepared at all so I was a bit nervous. I made a playlist that consisted of a lot of eminem, and ran with my sister who is in much better shape than I am. I was aiming to be under 35, as I hadn't trained a lot and was not confident in my stamina. But we crossed the finish line in jut under 28 minutes. I almost hurled at the end, but finishing so well was the best feeling! I am hoping to run the half marathon next year, so I am going to begin to build up my base mileage. Running shoes will hopefully be a viable option soon, but probably not...so that will be interesting. But I am super excited!

After the race instead of taking a nap, I decided to go for a picnic with my roomies and explore the park here in town. It is huge! There are so many hiking and biking trails and we found an excellent picnicking spot. It was lovely.

Then I did homework and that's how I ended the weekend. This week is maybe turning out to be kinda chill. I'm doing some cross-training and am going to hopefully get back in the habit of cooking!

The happy list

Today I would like to share a few things that make me happy:

My ear plugs have a carrying case
Laughing with my roommates
Wheat thins
a moment of awkwardness defeated
humming classical music with a friend over coffee
booking an overseas trip (maybe this should be at the top)
cinnamon gum - it helps with my caffeine headaches!
good parking spots on campus
Chocolate cheerios, or chocolate cereal in general
giant teddy bears
having senior hours a semester early
cancelled classes
symphonies

And yes, this is to avoid writing a long blog post because it's late and I have a quiz tomorrow :)

 

The Joys of Adulthood

Overall, I think being an adult is pretty awesomesauce. But sometimes it can scary or just plain frustrating. Yes, these thoughts are coming from experience.

So yesterday I get a text in the morning from my mom saying there is supposed to be severe weather and to watch for tornadoes. In addition, the weather forecast said there was a 90% chance of rain all day long. Well, it was a good thing I decided not to wear my rainboots because it was sunny all day until after dinner. But come about 9:30 or 10 pm and it starts storming like there's no tomorrow, yikes. Fortunately I have roommates whose commentary on the storm kept us all in good spirits. The sky was lighting up and the thunder was loud and long. And there's just no way to convince my mind that the thunder won't hurt me, haha. See, as a kid, I could go to sleep knowing that my Dad was listening to the weather radio and would wake us and get us to safety if there was a tornado. Well, when you're living on your own the best you can do is hope that the tornado siren wakes you up. And that's not too comforting when you're a deep sleeper. Anyways, I managed to get to sleep and only woke up once at 1:30 to the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard besides the time that lightning struck a tree right outside my dorm. When I woke up this morning it was STILL thundering, sheesh. But all was well and the storm eventually stopped.

Now comes the frustrations of adulthood. My roommate went out to leave this morning and her car was dead. Oh joy. Have any of us jumped a car? No, and I know we sound like such girls. But we have the cables and figured we would get instructions. So I go to move my car next to hers and mine won't start either. I wiggle the battery cable because that usually works and it still didn't start. So now two out of three of our cars are dead. So we have a friend come over and she gave Kris a ride and they later jumped her car with the help of a neighbor. And yes, I eventually got mine to start. But we will both probably be buying batteries pretty soon.

But despite the rough start to the morning, the day was good! I had some good rehearsals and some productive practice time :)

Classical music update

I just got back from a piano concert entitled "Classical Smackdown". It was rather interesting. The pianist, Frederic Chiu, put together a program of music by Prokofiev and Debussy. He paired them up in 4 "rounds" and the point was to see which of each round we enjoyed better. He even gave out ballots and apparently gives this concert often and is tallying up the results. Not only was he a fantastic artist, but I loved the alternation between genres. The music of Debussy and Prokofiev is so different, yet their lives overlapped (Debussy was about 30 years older). Prokofiev has that eastern European coldness that lends itself to excitement and bitter emotion. Debussy explores all the colors and timbres of the piano and is, in my opinion, really beautiful. Because of these differences, it was really hard to decide what I enjoyed more. I somewhat decided that I like listening to Debussy, but I enjoy playing Prokofiev. The process of learning and understanding music like Prokofiev's is rather fun. Hooray!

Parking meters and kale

Ok! Well my "do one crazy thing a day" goal hasn't been 100% successful, but it's been close. I think we covered up to Monday? Tuesday I think was the non-crazy day. I literally think I did nothing yesterday. I seriously don't know where the time goes - my mind has told my body that it is spring break and it needs to rest! Which is a good thing. Rest is super important to me and this week is definitely a week of very intentional rest. Today I did get up and run. I went to this park near where I'm staying and ran! It was adventurous, and fun. I also caught up with some friends for lunch! They were driving through town so we decided to eat at this hippie pizza place, and it was great. I parked at a parking meter and we talked about how we are adults. This whole college life is weird, but I've decided that instead of feeling like I am in a transitional phase I am going to embrace being an adult. I guess junior year does that to you. Crazy crazy.

Okay, running news. I am SO incredibly sore. sheesh. And it's just my ankles and the lower half of my shins. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and popped my ankle three times in a row. Then I stopped, though I felt like I could have popped it more. Also, I am working on changing my stride because I apparently run badly. My friend is a serious runner and worked in a running store for a while and she has been giving me some advice. Anyways, I don't know how to get my feet to do what they are supposed to do, but I guess it just takes time - and probably I should get good running shoes. Though we know I don't have the money for that right now. Maybe barefoot running is the way to go! It's all the rage right now - and free.


Now to end the rambling...maybe. I will leave you with one last thing. Try kale chips!! Haha. Kale is super good for you, and it's kinda yummy! And kale chips are incredibly easy to make, especially if you buy Kale that is already chopped! Take your kale, toss it with some olive oil, spread it on a baking sheet and add some salt and pepper:

Stick it in the oven at 415 for about 15-20 minutes. You want it to be a little crispy but not too burnt. That's it! The kale shrinks up A LOT though. It always is a nice little surprise to see how much it shrinks up. Oh, it doesn't store well, so make what you will eat and don't have any left overs. I threw out a bunch the first time I tried it because it was oh so disgusting the next day. Here's how mine turned out:

Paperclips and biscotti

Spring break. hmmmm. Just those two words make me feel all happy inside. Plus, Bob Marley is playing on my pandora right now - so that helps the mood. Anyways, there's nothing like a little break to get your priorities back in order. My sister and friend who I am with are big health nuts and runners, and are therefore having a superb influence on me. I have already been on a health kick, so these past couple of days have been great. Katelyn loves finding really wacky recipes on pinterest and the blogs that she follows, so we (mostly her) have been experimenting in the kitchen. Last night we had orange cloud pancakes, Saturday we had imitation chick-fil-a sandwiches. I've also enjoyed a few smoothies and some zucchini brownies that were surprisingly really good. You have doubts about the zucchini? Try it, I dare you.

In the three days that I have been here, I have been to the gym twice. And we are going again for yoga tonight (woo!). Not only do I have two girls to pressure me, but I have a 5k coming up in less than 2 weeks that I am trying to get ready for. But today I felt like a real runner because I came home with several blisters. Actually, that probably makes me only a wannabee cuz real runners do fancy things so they don't get blisters. Oh well. And this apartment has probably a hundred issues of running magazines and books, so I plan to maybe learn a thing or two to take back to my roommates :)

Okay, what else have I done over break? Here's my checklist that I plan to expand by one crazy thing every day:
1) get hit on by a 45 yr. old man
2) visit a tattoo parlor. Yep, I went with a friend. No, I didn't get a tattoo - I can't even think about it without getting a little weak at the knees. I totes could pull off a little something, but don't think I ever will.
3) wander downtown by myself and find a nice little place to sit and journal.

Okay, I hope my parents aren't freaking out :) Recipes and other fun things to come!

Starting Anew

I have missed blogging!!!! That is a big statement considering I almost deleted it at the beginning of the semester. These past two weeks have been a little overwhelming. Plus, I just didn't handle them very well. Hence, no blogging. But now I am on spring break, am evaluating life and am starting afresh. What did I do on my first day of break? I woke up and went to he gym. It was glorious. I ran Hard on the treadmill and then did some calisthenics. It was even raining. I don't know about you, but I feel like going to work out on a gloomy day gets extra points, haha.
So, I have a lot of new things that will be showing up on the blog. I am training for a 5k and have honestly gotten hooked on running, so I will be sharing those adventures. I have also been trying new recipes and exploring new stuff in the kitchen. Maybe I'll even make up some of my own stuff to share! And I've really been racking up life lessons recently. My relationship with Christ, my music, even my outlook on life have been growing and who knows if anyone reads this or cares. But since I am so much better at writing things than speaking, I am going to start spicing up this blog of mine. I might even add some fancy features since I have no homework this spring break. Ah! So much suspense.