Many days!

I'm sorry, I'm failing at this thing...

Monday, 1/31
Swam 650 m

Wednesday, 2/1
Ran 5K for the first time in 3 months! Time, 34 minutes.

Sunday, 2/5
Ran another 5K (a Superbowl race!) with Molly.
Time: 32 minutes. What whaaaaaaaat

January 23

Ran 1 mile.

Overhead lift 3 x 12
deep knee bends 3 x 12

That was it :( On the mornings the meter won't let me stay for more than an hour. so that sucks.

However, I stepped on the scale today and I've lost some weight. Which is something to be happy about.

A New kind of pain

I missed a day in here. Last Friday, I swam 600 m, freestyle and butterfly.

Yesterday, I finally ran for the first time in over a month.
Today, I am sore.

1/21/12
Warmed up 10 minutes arc trainer
Abdominal workout (to 12 each)

Lifting @ 15 lbs:
Overhead press 3x12
Rows 3x12
Tricep overhead 3x12
Calf raises 3x20
Bicep curls 3x12

Ran 2 K

It's going to be a rough road, but I can do this.

Kristen out.

I SWAM A MILE!!!! Okay, 1700 meters. Shit. I had the math wrong in my head. But that's okay.

Anyway:
Freestyle Warm up x 100
Pull x 200
Kick x 200
Freestyle 1200

Sad attempt at running, unsuccessful due to tight muscles.

Abdominal workout - 240 crunches, 20 leg raises.

Good Lord, an update

I've decided to turn this thing into a training blog. So it's not really worth reading, sorry folks!

1/6/12 (really? 12?)
20 minutes wind trainer
fire hydrant (3x 15 reps)
bicep curls (10 lbs, 3x 15 reps)

Blink.Blink.Blink.

I still don't know what to write.

I love NPR. It's probably the best thing to happen to the media, ever. It's got just the right angle in most ways, and the amount of classical music that appears is just so perfect. Right now, I'm listening to an interview with Leonard Cohen and Russell Brand (two separate ones)! They are brilliant! Thank you, listeners like you.

Hey, Susannah!

Don't you cry for me!

I've a come from alabama, with a banjo on my knee.

I'll update soon, I promised Andy I would.

And so this is Christmas...

And what have you done?

There is much to discuss, and I think this time I'm actually going to go through with it.

Violence. We have become desensitized to it *tips hat to the media*, but when we actually see it, it's still shocking. It was two days after the world seemed to gather itself together and think about peace as a viable option. Because of a freaking holiday that doesn't even belong in December. If we put it where it belonged, then June would be the month.

Anyway, I know the Israelis and the Palestines don't celebrate Christmas. Obviously. But really? Does this kind of horrible stuff have to keep happening? It seems like the Israelis are a bunch of whiny teenagers rebelling against their parents for trivial reasons. Because that's what it is. I'm not saying religion isn't important, but I swear I've never seen anything in any version of the Bible that talks about violence as a solution. To anything. Even the self-mutilation and flagellation that used to occur so prominently in the Church. I mean, geez, hundreds of years of persecution and blood have been shed over this book. It's a book! Anyway.....it's incredibly depressing. Haven't people figured out there are easier ways of resolving problems?

It's unbelievably distressing to live in this world today. I am so ashamed to be a part of the ME generation. It makes me so angry. But then I think....I DO have my own laptop. and an iPod. and a cell phone.

But I have books, and I love them to death. Thank God for other people's words and stories. Thank God for tactility!! Sometimes I have to wonder if things are real or if we are truly just connected through fiber optics. What's so bad about sending someone a letter? Hand-written? Ten years ago that was how it went! And what happened to sitting around and shooting the shit with your family and friends? What happened to campfires and geezus, what happened to childhood? Why am I the last generation to have non-battery operated toys growing up? That's terrible!! And why is it alienating when a child doesn't have television or fancy toys? Why are books looked upon with disdain? And why do we always look forward? There's nothing wrong with looking backward, listening to stories of those who know of past and pain. If I could, I would do nothing but listen all the time. I'd be a full-time listener of people's stories, lives, music, legacies, and wonder how I can do the same thing. I always gaze in wonder at the generation that is dying right now: People 100 years old. Can you imagine all the change they have seen? It must have been incredible, two depressions, foreign wars and all their effects, assassinations, honest people, hostage crises, and then the smack of the technological revolution. Hits them in the last years of life.

Everyone is selfish now. Nobody does favors anymore-you gotta expect something in return.

Nobody gets the value of just sitting around and talking. And listening. We are taught that death is a part of life but too many people take life for granted. I won't have it.

Sigh. Disillusioned. I often wish I had been born at a different time in history, but I can't go wishing for something that abstract. I have to deal in the present and think about how to make it better.

Life could be different in 1 year.

I am quitting everything I know to be true - school - and concentrating on becoming a good player. No. A Great Player.

I am shedding the layers that keep me back, or make me who I am, and I will build myself a new shell.

That is all.

I had a nightmare last night that i was being stalked.....by a vacuum cleaner.

Wow!!!!!!!

I forgot what kind of things make me happy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_CWM3EFCFc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FN6hGuUvsM&feature=related

My Body, Myself

Watching all these medical drama whatever shows (Scrubs, House, Grey's Anatomy) really makes me thankful for my own health. I mean they really make it seem like everyone's going to drop dead of life-threatening illnesses, and thank God that isn't the truth. Woohoo!

BY the way...are people this unable to keep it in their pants in real life? CHRIST, no wonder people are getting all pregnant and STD-ish all the time. They get all horny watching Patrick Dempsey nail Meredith what's-her-face...haha. right. Anyway.

Peace out.

I just had a sleepless night, for no apparent reason to me, except perhaps that I was trying to go to bed 12 hours after I woke up. Even so.....dayum.

Gonna need coffee.

Come lovely and soothing death

Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate death.

Prais'd be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love - But praise! praise! praise!
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.

Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee - I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Approach, strong Deliveress!
When it is so - when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, 
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.

From me to thee glad serenades,
Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee - adornments and feastings for thee;
And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread sky, are fitting,
And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.

The night, in silence, under many a star;
The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose voice I know; 
And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil'd Death,
And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.

Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!
Over the rising and sinking waves - over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide;
Over the dense-pack'd cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways, 
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!

-Walt Whitman

I love Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3...holy god the end of the second movement is gorgeous

I finally found out what the words mean.

Je m'baladais sur l'avenue le coeur ouvert à l'inconnu
J'avais envie de dire bonjour à n'importe qui
N'importe qui et ce fut toi, je t'ai dit n'importe quoi
Il suffisait de te parler, pour t'apprivoiser

Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées

Tu m'as dit "J'ai rendez-vous dans un sous-sol avec des fous
Qui vivent la guitare à la main, du soir au matin"
Alors je t'ai accompagnée, on a chanté, on a dansé
Et l'on n'a même pas pensé à s'embrasser

Hier soir deux inconnus et ce matin sur l'avenue
Deux amoureux tout étourdis par la longue nuit
Et de l'Étoile à la Concorde, un orchestre à mille cordes
Tous les oiseaux du point du jour chantent l'amour

a meaningful conversation....just to say I told you so someday.

me: you know....i've been wondering for years now when we will undergo a social reform
hmmm
and it seems as though it's on our doorstep
like prohibition

rob: YEAH
i was wondering that too

me: we got upset about all our travesties and such

rob: i think you are right
its like ready to errupt
i totally agree
exactly

Michelle, ma belle

Wow.

I finally watched Michelle's speech from the other night (I fell asleep the first time around). It was very moving. I don't think I've ever actually sat through an entire political speech. I tried watching the last State of the Union Address last year. God, that was awful.

Michelle is so graceful, and eloquent...it's true that behind every great man, there is a great woman. If you read his book, you'll know what I mean. It's amazing that someone has finally stepped forward to say "I have faith in this country and I am proud of what we can do." I have never felt so incredibly inspired by anyone....any normal person.

Go on.....watch it again.

http://www.barackobama.com/tv/

Celebrate normalcy and values!!!!!!!!

and delicious burritos!