Accomplishments

I ran my first 5K this morning, right around 32:30. I started somewhere around 40 seconds after the clock began, but I have to wait until tomorrow to get my official chip time.

In total, I walked for maybe 10-15 seconds, and it wasn't until well after mile 2. I'm really really proud of myself for that, and for finishing well under my expected time of 35 minutes.

And now I'm going to nap and be lazy for the rest of the day! :)

EDIT- My chip time was posted, I came in at 30:52! WAY under my expected time. Yayness.

Equality = Important. But it'll have to wait.

I've seen events popping up on Facebook regarding protests of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act. The following is text from the upcoming Boston protest:

On Saturday January 10th, Join the Impact is calling on Obama to repeal DOMA and to fulfill his campaign promise for LGBTQ equality. We will take to the street once again to demand what we deserve.

People will be gathering in cities across the country at 1:30 pm (EST) to rally for the repeal of the discriminatory Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Thanks to this law, same sex married couples in Massachusetts are excluded from over 1,100 federal rights.

In addition to repealing DOMA, Obama needs to fulfill all of his promises. We need a trans-inclusive Employee Non-Discrimination Act to ensure sure that no one is fired from their job because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. We need comprehensive hate crimes legislation, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and dedication to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Let me first say that I do not agree with the principles of DOMA, but I understand that the controversy is really over the definition of the word "marriage." I think that everyone should have the same rights, regardless of sexual preference. However, that's not what this post is about.

Obama will not be inaugurated for another ten days by the time this protest rolls around. I understand the desire to not want to be forgotten, but aren't there much more pressing issues right now than trying to determine a valid definition of marriage? Do we really want his first issue in office to be attempting to tackle what has been a struggle for many years already? No, there are higher priorities at the moment. Millions of people are losing their jobs and their homes. Those people are straight, gay, married, single, with children, grandparents, able-bodied, ill, disabled, etc.

To be completely honest, it wouldn't surprise me if Obama wasn't able to do much (or anything) surrounding the issue of same-sex marriage in his first years. That doesn't mean he has forgotten about those people. It means it's not a concern that will affect the lives of the country's majority. It's still an important issue, but it's my belief that it will fall lower on the list of priorities.

I think Obama is about to face more criticism than we could ever imagine. Everyone he has promised hope and change to will be clamoring for him to address them first. And that just can't happen. It's impossible. And the issues he does immediately address will probably not show results within one or even two years, and that's with the country easily adopting a shift in mentality (which is also a dim possibility).

So yes, Obama's promise to fight for LGBT rights is an important one, and I think he'll do all he can to address the problems. But there will have to be a lot of patience for the answers.

Concrete Roads and Concrete Goals

Over the past few days, Boston has been hit with varying combinations of snow, rain, and hail. Never really one single type at any time. Because of this, I nixed my run this morning. I'm especially antsy about canceling my runs now because I have a 5K lined up for February 1st: the Marathon Sports Super Sunday 5K. With about a month and a half to go, and me never having run an official 5K, I need to get in all the work I can. And unfortunately, the campus gym is already closed until the spring semester, so I have no choice but to run outdoors. Stupid New England weather. I don't want to be running in the darkness of 6am only to slip on black ice and be mauled by a car at Mass Ave.

Back to the 5K, though... I'm really excited for it. And not just because I get a Nike Dri-FIT shirt and running gloves as one of the first 500 registrants, or even because of the free Legal Sea Food clam chowder afterwards. Its given me something concrete to strive for, unlike other times I've tried training in the past. Without any hard-set goal, I easily fell off course of my training. Not this time. And the perks of the race aren't bad either.

In a slightly related note, I've been looking in to getting a Road ID bracelet. Does anyone else use them? It's only $20, so it's not a huge expense. Any opinions on them?

Foundlost

On my way to work today, I passed these notecards:



Fun coincidence or MassArt-istic statement? I'm not sure, but I enjoyed it.

Today in Photos

Hello, world!

I decided to take a few photos as my afternoon went on. Won't you join me? If you do, I'll feel so happy. Not as happy as Michael Ian Black, though.


I didn't take any photos of the morning. It mostly consisted of me hunching over a sewing machine, then doing my usual Sunday grocery shopping. Home by noon, my day kicked into full gear.

First, I got my crock pot dinner going: sausages, peppers, and onions slow cooked in a winter ale. Yummmm. While that started, I put together the first of my cookie dough batches; cream cheese sugar cookies. I rolled it out into some saran wrap, and it's chilling in the fridge overnight. After that, I worked on my gingerbread dough (oh my goodness I love my mixer).


To make things better, I used this lovely molasses:


BLACKSTRAP! This dough is also wrapped and chilling in my fridge. I'm so excited to bake these.

Then I went on to my make-and-bake chocolate chip peppermint cookies. Ghirardelli cocoa powder, don't make me beg!


The recipe made 50 cookies, but there are only 48 left. I mean, I had to try one. And as I was putting them away, one broke in half... and you can't put that with the rest! I was forced to eat it. *Sigh* the things I do for baking.

I spent the next few hours wrapping almost all of my gifts. And of course, putting them under my little tree.


Food time! I love crock pot recipes. They take about 10 minutes to prep, and you can go about your business all day, and dinner is ready when you want to eat. Splendiferous!


I'm exhausted and need some sleep before my run in the morning. I'll end it all with a photo of what I'm pretty sure is David Wain and Michael Showalter staring directly at my chest.

The Power of One

Sometimes, a caring comment from just one person can make things seem a lot better.

Tonight, I discovered that I was not going to be hired back to a job I loved dearly. I was crushed, to say the least. As I left to head home, I tried to hide my face. One guy that I've seen around campus but don't really know stopped me and asked if everything was alright. I smiled and said yes and moved on my way. He asked once more to be sure, and flashed a smile before continuing on his way. I nodded and we parted ways. Something in those brief ~10 seconds really picked me up. It seemed genuine, and gave me a little boost that I needed.

Don't be afraid to show compassion towards a stranger. You might just make their day.

Success in Failure

Two days ago, I held an Open House for my office. We opened up a partition wall that separates our lab area from the lobby of a residence hall, and offered things like hot cocoa and hot cider, while having program information available from our employees.

After three hours, it was an attendance nightmare. There were hardly any people that physically entered the lab area, and it was an incredibly slow morning. And yet, I was overjoyed at the end results.

The point of the event was not to bring people in to the office. That was a side perk. Our office is located on the first floor street side of a residence hall that opened back in September 2005. The aforementioned partition wall was built so that our office's lab area could open up to the rest of the community, and small extracurricular classes could be held there. There's only one problem: before this event, the wall has only been open once since the building opened. The end result? Students don't know we're here. They don't know there's something on the other side of that wall. Aside from Housing, we are the only office not located on the academic campus, and it hurts us a bit.

So when the wall opened up for the second time ever on Tuesday morning, passersby did countless double-takes, and made comments like "Woah, they tore the wall down!" "Wasn't there a wall there this morning?" and "Wow, what's going on over there?" There were even a few gawkers that stood there for about half a minute, trying to figure out what was going on before heading off to class. The point is this: our office got attention. We utilized a (literally) built-in feature that should be utilized on a regular basis. We made a statement by opening ourselves up.

If this were a corporate function, yeah, I would have failed. I might have been reprimanded or even fired. But my coworkers all congratulated me. They understood what just happened, and what possibilities have presented themselves for the future.

In failure, there are always successes. It just depends on what you're looking for.

Treadmills lie.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been doing most of my running on treadmills. The average distance I put on those is nothing impressive. However, seeing as I'm at home for purposes of turkey today, I decided to do my run outdoors. I mapped out an area by my house that would be about two miles, I figured I could cut it down if needed. And off I went.

This was a wonderful mistake. I'll touch on the mistake part first. Once again, I ran into the dilemma of having no winter running gear. So being outside for half an hour in 37°F weather proved challenging, to say the least. The wonderful part, though? I hit those two miles with time to spare, and I finished off my run at 2.5 miles. I went half a mile more than I thought I'd be able to go. To those seasoned runners, it's like 'big whoop.' But I'm dancing inside right now. Once I hit the point on my street that was 2 miles and I realized that I was only halfway through my last run, I got this burst of happiness and adrenaline that took me on a new addition to my route. My desire for winter running gear has increased even more.

All that being said, I feel much better about the upcoming feast this afternoon. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Making progress

I finished week 3 of c25k this week, and I'm feeling much more confident about my running. Although, I did poorly on the lunch end of things this week. I forgot to buy cold cuts during my usual weekend shopping trip, and mostly brought leftovers or bought lunch. Whoops.

I'm starting to dread the upcoming weeks of running. You see, right now I do all of my running on a treadmill at a gym on campus. One major reason for that being my lack of decent winter running gear. I actually walked home from the gym last night in shorts and it was 37°. Damn. Anyway, that gym is going to close within three weeks due to the end of the semester. If I'm going to continue running, it'll have to be outside, and I'll have to get the right gear. I priced out some Nike items, and they cost $Texas. So if anyone out there knows of another good site for quality winter gear, I'm all ears (or eyes, in this case).

I found a new brand of yogurt tonight, Rachel's. It's definitely ranks high on the eccentric scale of foods with their flavors like Kiwi Passionfruit Lime and Peach Green Tea. I gave a few a go since they were on sale. Right now I'm enjoying Plum Honey Lavender and it's pretty good. I know, you're probably thinking "Uh, lavender?" but lavender and honey go really well together, especially in tea cookies. And it's not a strong floral flavor, just a slight hint that you probably won't even catch unless you're really thinking about it. I also have the Vanilla Chai flavor in my fridge, the one that first caught my eye. I'm excited for that one.

Speaking of food, this Thursday marks the start of the month of big eating. Which brings me back to the first topic, running. And running outdoors. Mmm, yogurt.

Pre-New Year's Resolution

I was entering future appointments into my iCal, and noticed that my last week of the c25k program falls during the last few days of 2008. I will be entering the new year with the ability to run a 5k like nothin'. I guess it's a bit like a pre-new year's resolution. A "presolution," if I may.

Hey 2009-

I know you're still 51 days away, but I'm going to be ready for you when the clock strikes midnight. Boo. Ya.

-Kera