Me, 3 weeks after the Boston Marathon. A personal best of 3:28:21, 6000 places ahead of where I was seeded. I thought I’d train like crazy (which I mostly did), PR (which I did), and quit running for a while. Yeah, right.

New challenge: How many of my family and friends can I get to qualify for Boston 2014? Did a local Burns Park 5k the other day to get me back in the spirit, a race my parents dragged my brother to in his middle school pre-running days… Nothing like seeing folks awake early on a Sunday to enjoy the neighborhood, the springtime, and running. I suppose I can’t stop running for a while.

I mean, I knew. But that just nicely reiterates why I need to stop with my not-so-secret relaxation method of painting my nails. (Maybe it’s the toxic fumes that are relaxing me so much?) Okay new Seche Vite polish from my cousin, you’re done! (Or should I at least wait I finish these last bottles before I quit? I hate to be wasteful…) 

1. I came to a new clarity with impulse driven second order differential equations while listening to “protest music” as my dad called it. (It was actually just the awesome song from Les Mis, ‘Can you hear the people sing?‘ that I had going on a very loud repeat…)

2. I ran 23 miles with the PR Fitness group and survived! Then I gorged on chocolate covered caramel corn and watched a GREAT film: The Central Park Five. I openly apologize to those of you next to me at the A2 Film Fest, I tried to keep my sobs to a faint hiccup but ’twas hard. I also developed an infatuation with Ken Burns and can’t stop talking about his “articulate, thoughtful and eloquent commentary”. 

3. STRONG KIDS is going Strong! Here we come final week, and I’m only $200 from my goal! It’s going to happen, I’m highly optimistic.

4. I love basketball, thus March rocks.

5.. I’ve been crafting up a storm. Photographic evidence:

Attempt at beaded stud earrings.

B-day gift!

My glam friendship bracelets. Haha.

“To do anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

I biked 22 miles today along Huron River Drive. It was in the 50s in Michigan today!

I’ve moved from crocheting to beading. My new goods are along the lines of  “glam friendship bracelets”, whatever that means…

And I’ve found my new life theme song: Hopelessly Midwestern. I heard it while at a Mustard’s Retreat concert at the Ark with my dad last night. Awesome sauce.

Still need convincing? Or perhaps you find babbling mesmerizing…

Why should you donate? Here’s my reasoning: I spent many a year at Camp Al-Gon-Quian, and they were amazing formative years that completely shaped me as a person. The Ann Arbor YMCA collects donations all year, but during the month of March a few of us volunteer to really amp up the donations for our most prized programs. Mine is definitely YMCA camps, though obviously listening to MPR’s State of Opportunity has got me rooting for pre-school education programs as well. I would really appreciate if you checked out my story on the YMCA site and considered donating to a truly wonderful program. ONE HUNDRED % of the donations go to programs that help kids, whether its Camp Al-Gon-Quian scholarships, after school care scholarships, Ypsilanti youth programs, Youth Volunteer Corps, or other awesome youth sports and health living activities.

Plus, in line with my current sewing/crocheting/cooking binge, all my donators will receive a hand crafted thank-you, probably edible if you are in the Michigan area!

Here are some photos of my years as staff at Camp AGQ… 

i was some sort of bug. i think. (a serious bug!)

View from my window. #icesnowcombo

2. I have an insane amount of cat photos that have collected on my iphone since returning to Michigan. This gem is from the trip to the vet yesterday. And yes, Chiga went to the vet sans cage. 

Note the open-mouth yowl face.

3. I spend 10% of my day crocheting. I don’t know what has gotten into me. I surely don’t need any more hats, headbands, or scarves, but I can’t seem to stop the madness! In fact, I have crocheted several pieces only to unravel them and try a new pattern. Perhaps this is my SAD coping mechanism.

My wares. #perpetualmotion

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?”
— John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America “

staying optimistic.

I did yoga 3 times this past week. I think my calves have a hardness level between fluorite and quartz, which is not bad considering I rad 22 miles on Saturday. I finished reading A Song of  Fire and Ice Book 5; it required an intensive 12 hour slogg but I had lots of MSG in my system post Chinese New Year so being horizontal and digesting was a-okay with me. (I also saw Silver Linings Playbook – is the origin of “O.K.” really from the “Old Kinderhook Club”?) I’m now reading Six Easy Pieces, a book capturing a few of the novel examples of renowned physicist Richard Feynman. I’m trying to decide if there is some way I can merge my self-instruction of physics with a month long hike in the woods this spring. Describing nature with math and science definitely seem to be an option…

I also really like the style of explanation and lecture that the MIT professor, Walter Lewin, uses in the videos available on MIT’s open courseware. My brother once told me that you get equally wet if you walk slowly in the rain or quickly in the rain (slowly, you are outside longer but less rain is hitting the front of your body at an angle, and quickly you are outside less time but running ‘into’ more rain and thus getting equally wet). My brother was not entirely right. He was probably also 12 years old when he told me this. Prof. Lewin explains how wet one gets walking in the rain, and makes it simple and interesting, too!

Last thoughts on the check-in front: I’m going to stick to a vegetarian and at-times-vegan diet for the next few weeks. I think it would be an extra cleanse for February and I’d like to pay more attention to putting organic, local, and healthy stuff in my body. I was re-inspired after listening to one of my favorite groups live at the Ark! Elephant Revival‘s song ‘Drop of Water’ always gets me thinking of life on the molecular level…

Did my nails for the occasion last weekend. Pork buns. Curry buns. Egg rolls. Hot and sour soup. Sesame eggplant. Roasted brussel sprouts. Onion pancakes. Ginger shrimp. I’m in a multi-day food coma. (And yes, my hand is on book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire, which I then read for 13 hours straight and finished.)