Runamuck Post

All evidence to the contrary, I usually have a topic in mind for a post. However, my head is filled with many thoughts today, all of which are competing for the top honor of blog post. None are worthy of the honor in and of themselves, so for the sake of stopping the chaos of my mind, todays post will be a proverbial purge of topics,ideas, and photos. I feel better already!

Snow Pictures!

I live on a golf course, but I don't play golf, and hardly ever run on it because it is one hilly mofo. I occasionally do strides on the driving range, but for the most part these well-groomed hills are ignored. I'm going to have to re-think this approach after the fun time I had with my son last week. The snow presented a perfect opportunity to romp and play and dabble in the occult, while still getting in some semblance of a run.



Look, mom, I can draw in the snow!



Two days later the Pentagram was still visible from the road.
Thank god he didn't write his name, too.



The thing with snow covered hills is that with all that whiteness, you lose your depth perception. So we'd find ourselves running full speed ahead one moment, and face planted the next. This is a good look for me. Don'tcha think? Skelator meets Jaws.

Boys On The Run - Back In Business February 18

This will be our 4th season on Boys On The Run at Weaverville Elementary School. I always look forward to the 1st week because we hold a T-Shirt design contest. The winning design is turned into our Season T-Shirt. We get them in time for our race, and even though we don't have a shirt for many weeks, the boys like that they get a custom shirt. Something to flaunt in the face of their arch-nemesis- Girls On The Run!

Here are some pics from Season's past...










Self-Talk

I have a key workout planned for later today (3 x 1.5 mile @ Tempo pace, with steady 1/2 mile recovery in between). Not as hard as mixed intervals, but I still psyche myself up for it (can you even believe I would say, "Psyche myself up"? Now that I think about it, it sounds kinda dirty).

Anyways, I find certain phrases, or mantras if you will, helpful in completing harder workouts. My newest one is taken straight from the movie, "Whip It". I love the roller derby coach! He fires up the team, then says, "Go get ya some." I find that so inspiring. It's like, go get ya some...glory, or (insert inspirational adjective here).

I'm gonna take it for a test drive today and see how it works. 2 mile warm up, then... I'm gonna go get me some.

I Can See Clearly Now That I'm Awake, Alert & Fully Alive

It's a good thing I don't read children's books aloud for a living. With all the stress I'm under lately, I'm apt to Snap! Crackle! and Pop!

Lately, even running isn't cutting through the grind of daily life. (And I tallied over 200 miles in January, so that's saying something).

Yesterday, I found myself standing in front of the microwave, holding the milk that is clearly meant for the fridge. I searched frantically for car keys that I swore I just tucked into my purse 2 minutes before. Later, I felt far more angry than I should have about "Amelia" being a total suckfest of a movie. (Zombieland- now, that's a good movie!)


More troubling than all that, however, are the stretches of hours when I find myself on autopilot, going from work to workout to dinner. Not quite tuning into conversations. My body is present and accounted for, but the feeling, thinking, observing parts of myself are vaguely someplace else (Zombieland, perhaps?)

So I, for one, was not a bit surprised to come across a "new" study suggesting that our moods can in fact change the way in which we view the world.

From The Journal of Neuroscience , a study conducted by The University of Toronto provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.

“Good and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see,” says Adam Anderson, a U of T professor of psychology.

“Specifically our study shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision.”

The antidote, so say psychologists, is mindfulness, a concept with roots both in Buddhism and the "be here now" days of the '60s. Mindfulness means paying attention to what's happening right now without brooding over the past, fretting about the future, or making judgments about how you'd prefer the moment to unfold. When you're mindful, you're awake, alert, fully alive.

This capacity to live in the moment, experts are discovering, delivers an astounding array of benefits. The mindful among us enjoy lower levels of stress, more harmonious relationships, better overall health, less fatigue, and higher self-esteem. Their moods are more stable. They're just plain happier.

The takeaway:

-It's the way you see things that matters.
-Shakespeare said 'nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so'. Too true.
-Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.

What The Folk!

Bad days. Everyone has them. The days when the Fates seem intent on testing your resolve to Job-like levels.

Friday was one of those days.

I don't know about you, but when I'm in a really crappy mood, everything around me goes to crap as well. I make sure of it. "Especially machines", I think, as the copier jams. For the second time.

If the poor contraptions somehow manage to withstand being inundated with my bad mojo, I just make them the fall guy anyways: "Hey, Tammy, our scanner is crap! I keep scanning this document and it's not showing up in my email." (Then of course, I fail to tell Tammy that my e-mail viewing window was set to "2 weeks ago").

Friday continued to progress in this fashion, with me spewing evil mojo, and the universe responding in kind. Work overflowed, time constraints tightened, the whole lot of it bottlenecking to the point of implosion. I found myself answering an e-mail while reviewing a contract while talking to my husband on he phone. He says, "We need to switch cars for tonight. Maybe you could meet me around 5:00. Or just come home. What time are you leaving?". What??

I realize I do not know what he's saying. Literally. I'm vaguely aware of an invention called words, and that in his invention, people use something that allows them to communicate, and these somethings are called "words".Yet I don't actually know which words he is using, or in what particular order he is speaking them. Apparently, I had reached the point where my brain had stopped processing.

I eventually made it home.

"If I don't go for a run, it will be very bad", I say grumpily as I sit on the stairs lacing up my shoes. My husband is in the midst of his very own stress fest, worrying about the weather's impact on his event. I hear Charlie Brown's teacher's voice: "Wah wah wah wah wah. Wah wah". I respond, "Yeah, and monkeys could fly out of my butt, but that's probably not gonna happen".

Stress is a funny thing. A huge mountain of it can be disipated with something as small as an off-hand comment that strikes a funny bone. Everything changes.

Leopold and I look at each other, both thinking the same thing: Leave those poor sick moneys alone!

Think About It. Think, Think About It

Children on the streets using guns and knives
Taking drugs and each other’s lives
Killing each other using knives and forks
And calling each other names like dork

There’s people on the street getting diseases from monkeys
Yeah that’s what I said, their getting diseases from monkeys
Whys this happening, please, whose been touching these monkeys
Leave these poor sick monkeys alone
There sick, they’ve got problems enough as it is

A man is lying on the street, some punk has chopped off his head
And I’m the only one who stops to see if he’s dead, aaoohhh
Turns out he’s dead

That’s why I’m singing, Aaaaoooh what is wrong with the world today?
What’s wrong with the world today, *mumbles* never said nothings wrong with it
Uooo, what is wrong with the world today?
Think about it, think about it, think, think about it

Good cops get framed and put into a can
And all the money that we’re making is going to the maaan

What man, whose the man, when’s a man a man, why’s it so hard to be a man
Am I a man? Yes, technically, yes…

Oohh, come on, sont zootka they’re turning kids into slaves
They’re turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers
But what’s the real cost, ‘cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers when you got little kid slaves making them
What are your overheads?

Well, at the end of your life, you are lucky if you die
Sometimes I wonder why I would even try
Why try
I saw a man lying on the street half dead
He had knives and forks sticking out of his leg
He said, Ahh ahh ahh ahhhhhhhhwww
Can somebody get the knife and fork out of my leg, please
Ooh, could somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees
Yeah yeeeahhh
This is where we break it down
This is where we break it down
We’ll break it down
What are they doing, their breaking it down
What do they do, and now their keeping it funky
Just having a funky jam and then we’re going to drop the beat
And then we’ll bring it back *wails* Up
Wah wah wah waaah!

*Both go to town with the wailing*

Then we’ll take it low
Fading out, fading out
We’re talking about the issues, but we’re keeping it funky
We’re fading out, we’re just fading out
Why they getting quiet, they’re just fading out
*monkey noises*
Stop touching that monkey

This is why we love Bret and Jemaine. Also, just look at them. They are so cute.