Developments

It's been a while, right? Living in a foreign country sure provides a lot of blog content. Being a normal American who goes to work every day and perhaps meets up with friends once week doesn't really make for an interesting blog.

Since my last post (January 2nd), some things have happened. I had a day off of work. Adam and I watched the Golden Globes and laughed. Adam and I celebrated our one year anniversary.

And oh yeah.

We got engaged.

We had planned to go out to dinner the night before our anniversary (I didn't have to work that day), so we went out to a wonderful restaurant and lived it up like we were rich people. It was threatening ice and snow and I admitted to Adam that I'd probably have to go home early. Instead, Adam insisted I stay at his place, telling me he had written a song for me. He got out his guitar while I sat down on the couch, and he sang me a song that led up to him getting on one knee and proposing. And I cried.

That was January 16th, and our lives have suddenly turned into a frenzy of wedding planning. We are getting married in June, and with my mom only in town for a limited amount of time (she has to travel back and forth to Mexico), we've gotten an amazing amount of things down for only being engaged for 4 weeks!

So what else can I say? I am planning a fun wedding, and more importantly I am marrying the most wonderful man I could have ever hoped for. Life is sweet.

Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas around these parts. My brother's family came in for the weekend, and we celebrated Christmas Eve with some members of our extended family (and a couple of friends). Manfriend makes great In-n-Out style burgers and he was commissioned to create them for our Christmas Eve get together.

We had a great time just hanging out, eating, and enjoying each others' company.

On Christmas morning, we woke up (the girls and I first, as we were sharing a room), and opened presents.

This is what I look like in the morning. I'm sorry. (That's my 12k shirt!)

After opening presents, we went over to the house my cousins were renting, and had brunch. And karaoke. Karaoke on Christmas? I guess there's a first for everything, but it certainly was worth it to see my brother and sister-in-law bust out "Bohemian Rhapsody", with my cousin Scott doing backup and my mom laughing hysterically.

Manfriend and I took off from that party and headed to Washington to visit his family for a few days, which was nice and relaxing. There aren't too many exciting pictures from that, except we did take a nice portrait before we left.

Happy New Year!!

Little Ranter

Rant on, sister.

Hugo

Disclaimer: I never read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and I didn't know much about the story at all. I should have read it, considering when it came out I was still in the teaching world, but, I did not.

If Martin Scorsese is directing a film, you just go to see it. A huge departure from his other movies, Hugo focuses on an orphan boy who lives in a Paris train station, and struggles to stay hidden. He holds close a treasure his father found, and is determined to keep it and fix it, as his father always wanted to do. A run-in with a shop owner changes everything for Hugo and he has to fight to keep what is his. Fortunately, a beautiful, intricate story unfolds.

We went to see the movie in 3D. This wasn't our intention but was our only choice for an evening showing at this particular theater. The 3D didn't seem to add much to the visuals, other than some cool clock gears here and there.

However, the visuals were stunning in their own right - the costumes and the scenery added an incredible depth to the story. And the story was good. I felt it was a little long, or lagging in some places, but the scenery and the acting made up for it. I also thought that the story felt incredibly original and a nice break from many of the kids' movies that are out today.

12k Race (wherein I want to die)

Well, it happened.

I ran that 12k yesterday.

A pretty good way to sum it up is to say that in the middle of the race I thought to myself, "I hate races. I'm never running another race again." And then at the end of the race I thought, "hey, that was okay".

The 12ks of Christmas race was held in Kirkland, Washington. I was encouraged to come run the race by Stevie, Adam's sister. She started running last winter, and has run a few races. I imagined that signing up for a 12k would help motivate me to get back into the running shape I was in before.

When signing up for the race, I mentioned to Stevie, "I should check out the elevation map on this thing", knowing that hills and inclines are not my best friends. Stevie replied, "Kirkland's flat!" Aha! Okay! Spoken just like somebody who knows what they are talking about.

Except she lied to me, and by the time I was already chugging up the second huge hill I was mentally shaking a fist at her. Unfortunately, she was long gone, in front of me.

The first half was brutal. Absolutely brutal. We realized after we arrived at the race that there was a larger hill at the very beginning. We thought this was doable: attack that hill and then the rest had to be downhill or flat. So, so wrong.

Instead, there were big hills for almost the entire first half of the race. And like Stevie commented after the race, you would get down with a hill, level out, and then go up another hill.

I made fairly good time during the first mile and a half (about a 9 minute mile), and that gave me a good head start, but those hills really did a number on me. I even had to stop and walk 2 times, and I've never walked in a race before.

Fortunately, there were downhills, and I made good time at the end of the race. My official time was 1:17:33, which makes for an average of 10:25 miles. I can't help but think that that's not bad for having walked a couple times, and for those stupid hills.

I also can't help but think what my time would have been had the course been flat. Grrr...

Adam snapped this picture of me at the end of the race.

 And this picture of Stevie and I in our post-race eating frenzy. No, I do not know why I'm making that face.

23 1/2 hours

I found this video on Mark Remy's blog at Runnersworld.com . I think it's great, not just because the drawings are great (they are) or the presentation is interesting (it is), but because of the message (which is not just about running).

Czech it out!

Stuck

Child door locks are great. They work effectively about 98.8% of the time (estimate). Every time a little child tries to escape from my car when another car whizzes by is another chance for those child door locks to save her life. Also, it's fun to laugh under my breath when they try to get out and they mutter "what... ?"

But today... today. I had parked the car at a funny angle when I dropped the oldest off at school, and the car parked next to us was really close. To avoid scratching up their car (and my car door) while trying to buckle in the little one, I devised a plan. The plan was to go down as such:

1) open door, hold door
2) let little one crawl in
3) shut her door
4) let her settle herself in her seat (as she MUST MUST MUST do every day, no matter what)
5) go around to other backseat door
6) lean over
7) buckle little one

This was a great plan. I felt confident. 

I slowly started step number 6 when I realized that I needed to get a little closer in order to buckle her carseat  buckle. And just as I crawled in, and the door latched behind me, I realized - child safety locks. The door had not completely shut, but it was latched, and although I wished with all my might that it would open, it would not.

Commence crawling over front seats, which, incidentally, is not easy to do in a small sedan, nor on a steep incline.

Muppets

I don't usually write about movies on my blog, as I usually don't have much to say besides "I loved it!" or "It was terrible!" A great movie reviewer, I am not.

However, I would like to take this minute to say that Manfriend and I saw The Muppets on Sunday, and it was awesome. We, as two fully grown adults, sat there smiling and laughing the entire time.

As an added emphasis on how great this movie is: I did not grow up watching the Muppets. I'm not sure why. I remember Muppet Babies, but not the regular Muppets show or Muppets movies. Still, I thought it was a fantastic movie. So much so, that when I got home I e-mailed my sister in law to ask if my nieces had seen it yet. And when I got to work yesterday, I gushed about it. A good time, that movie is.

A Running Week

Last week I decided I had to get serious about my running. Of course, this doesn't usually happy two weeks before a race, but in this instance, it did. After my 8-mile run, I did 3 easy miles on Monday. On Wednesday I did 4 miles, but did fartleks (short spurts of fast running, followed by easy running) for 2 of those miles. The fartleks helped so much, as on Friday I did 5 miles, and made awesome time. Okay, not awesome, but incredibly improved, and I was able to hold it for 5 miles.

On Sunday I set out to do 9 miles. I only ended up doing 8.75, but I stuck it out. I did not get euphoria, I did not feel super great, but I did it. This week I'm taking it easy and will probably run some fartleks tomorrow (Wednesday), an easy run on Friday, and the race is on Sunday.

I'm pretty nervous for Sunday, as I have no idea what my timing will be like at all, but I'm excited to run a race again.

Running on Autopilot

Well, that felt good.

I went into my run this morning thinking (knowing?) it would be a complete dud. As I continue to lengthen my long runs every Sunday, I assume that each one will be harder than the last. It's nice when it doesn't work out like that. Last week's 7-miler saw me counting everything (miles, minutes, paces), out of desperation for it to be over.

I had a girls night last night with my bestie, Steph. We ate Korean bbq, and then afterward got candy, soda, and sat down to watch Bridesmaids on DVD. I knew that was a bad idea the night before a long run, but I did it anyway. I dreaded my run this morning, thinking I would be uncomfortable, tired, and cranky the entire time.

Not so. I ran out to the 4 mile mark, turned around, and felt completely fine. After a while I realized I was on autopilot. I had found a sweet spot of a pace (although much too slow, in my opinion), and felt the flow. It was actually fairly amazing that it felt this good. I had only run about 7 miles in total this week, and I thought that would have hurt my run. Instead, I felt great, breezing through the run.

While I do believe that it is sometimes beneficial to monitor the many facets of running, doing it on autopilot proved this morning's run fun.

Euphoria

It's easy to forget how wonderful running can feel. The last 8 (!!) months have found me dreading running. Since September I've started to get back into it, and under the pressure of having signed up to run a 12k in December, I've been pushing up my long runs in order that I might even cross the finish line. Chalk me up for 7 miles today, the my longest run since February.

Today on my run I was counting every digit imaginable - miles run, miles to go, paces, average pace, and imagining where my turnaround point was (it was much further than I anticipated). It was a great morning for a long run - no rain, and perfect temperature: cold enough to keep me cool the entire time, but not too cold that I was wishing for a jacket. A few weeks ago I went all out and bought tight capris - a running item I have never before even dared to wear.

This morning I got a little inkling of remembering what it's like to run those long miles. I flashed back to those weekends in Mexico, leading up to my half marathon, and remembering the high I felt after finishing 8, 9, or 10 mile runs. I'm hoping that euphoria feeling will accompany me next weekend as I try to complete 8 miles. We'll see!

Road Trip!

I had a few days off from work, so Manfriend and I decided to head down to Southern Oregon to visit my brother's family. Living 5 hours from my nieces is much better than living in another country, so I have to take advantage of that and see them when I can! They are 8 and almost 6. Kids are fun at all ages, but it's great to have them reading and so interactive with Manfriend and I. The girls (and my brother and sister in law) met in May when we all went to Disneyland together, but haven't spent any time together since, so this was a good chance for everyone to get to know each other better.

I made my sister in law show me how she makes cinnamon rolls, because every time I try to make them I fail. Fail with a capital F.

While Rinda and I were making cinnamon rolls, Manfriend played team Boggle with the girls.

Wow. That's the extent of my pictures from the trip. We did a scavenger hunt for the girls, who in turn made a scavenger hunt for Manfriend and I  - and executed it perfectly. I can barely put together a scavenger hunt without confusing myself, and these girls totally nailed it. We all went out for pizza together one night, and got doughnuts the next morning.

Pizza Party

In case I haven't mentioned it enough, my manfriend loves pizza. He writes reviews for an online food community. He makes his own. He has friends who own pizza places. He's... obsessed.

But, I will say, he makes one super-fine-delicious Sicilian pizza. This is pizza baked on a cookie sheet that has an edge. Manfriend covers the homemade dough with freshly made sauce, four cheeses, and fresh basil. It's... yum.

So I've been bragging about it, and anytime you brag about a pizza aficionado making his own pizza, it means people want some. A couple weeks ago Manfriend slaved away in the kitchen to make pizza for my mom and some family friends.

Also, I'd just like to say that my Manfriend looks great in an apron.

Nike Running Watch

Someone actually reads my blog. You know who that someone is? My manfriend. Months ago I wrote about how awesome the new Nike+ running watch was. He paid attention.

He recently bought me one for my birthday. This is an actual Nike running watch on my hand. That's right, I own one.

This is the first GPS running watch I've ever owned, and I'm so excited. It comes at the perfect time - just when I'm getting up my motivation for building up my running endurance. Manfriend's sister has challenged me to run a 12k with her right before Christmas. Time to get my rear in gear!

I had some issues setting up the watch to connect to my computer. After reading around online I was concerned that the watch would have to go back - the reviews are not great. However, I ran a quick .3 on Wednesday and it mapped it perfectly.

I was concerned that on a longer run, it wouldn't map the miles correctly. However, I did 4.3 miles yesterday morning (my longest in... a long time), and it was correct. After restarting my computer and fiddling around a little bit, I got the connection to work. So far - so good!

Oklahoma!

Live theater isn't an obsession of mine. I know some people who live for live theater. I grew up in a musical household, and on classics like The Sound of Music. I was taken to see the Nutcracker and Porgy and Bess as a child. I enjoyed the plays produced at my tiny college.

It's really not until I'm in the theater that I remember how much I love it. It's not until the dance sequences start that I get goosebumps. I haven't spent much time going to theaters because, well, they cost money. However, I had a great treat from my mom this last weekend when she took me to see Portland Center Stage's "Oklahoma!"

The music was wonderful, the singing was great, the actors top-notch. It was fun to revisit a classic that I had seen many times before, because in seeing it again after many years away I was able to laugh anew at some wonderful comedy. This was all presented with a fantastic new twist: an all-black cast. Most people are surprised to hear that, but it was both intriguing and fun to read the director's note, which stated that he could not find anything in the script that would exclude African Americans from that possibility. Further in his research he found that there were numerous all-black towns in the Oklahoma territory, making it completely plausible for the story.

OKLAHOMA! TRAILER from Portland Center Stage on Vimeo.
It was a spectacular take on an old classic that even presented many of the songs in a new light, sung by characters who were most likely freed slaves, not only bent on personal freedom, but also the optimism of  a new land.

Motivation

Getting back into running hasn't been easy. The gym stifled me - the heat inside was too much, and I was frustrated because I never felt I could last like I could outside. Out on the trail I can last at least 30 minutes, if not more, yet in the gym I feel like I could pass out at 12. Because it's fall and the weather is cooler, I've decided to run outside to build up my stamina. I've been using the gym for other machines on days when I'm not running.

If you ever need motivation, I've got one for you: On my way from work to the gym this morning I saw elite marathoner Shalane Flanagan out for her morning run. If that can't get your rear in gear, I don't know what can.

Sun

Yesterday morning I ran around like crazy at my job. There were fussy girls and it took me forever to get the youngest one out the door. I started laundry, cleaned up their kitchen, and finally was able to head out the door. I came to my own house, started some laundry, and changed into my running clothes in record time. I raced over to the trail in my car, got out, attached my ipod, and just as I began to run, the sun came out. And everything was good.

Janae is having a giveaway - a pair of shoes!

Life As I Know It

A full-time job leaves one pretty busy.

Well, the truth is that I am not all that busy, but I am gone from home a lot, and that makes me feel busy. I leave every morning at about 6:50am and work until 7pm. I have a very large break in the middle of my day, and since I live pretty far from work, I spend my break time going to the gym, and then eating lunch and reading at Manfriend's apartment.

What could I possibly be doing that leaves me with this much time (which is, at its most, 5 hours)? I am a nanny.

I looked for office jobs. I am not sure I want to be a teacher anymore, and I wouldn't be able to find a job anyway, with the way budget cuts are working out these days. I'm also not sure I would even want to teach a classroom of 35 children (which is what a lot of classrooms are at these days). When looking for office jobs I realized that the salary I could make on my zero office experience was crazy low. I'm not beyond working for little money - I've certainly done it before, with much more stress. But, when the opportunity of a nanny job came up, with a lot more pay - I had to take the dive. First, I had to ask my mom if she would think any less of me for being a nanny. Being a nanny is not a respected profession. Being a professional babysitter is not met with a reaction of  "oh, cool". Well, maybe it's met with "Oh, cool", if the person is trying to act not surprised by your low goals.

But, the thing is that with my resume of a human development and education degree, my years working with children both in and out of the classroom, and my ease with kids - being a nanny just fits. Sure, it ain't glamorous, but it's a job. And, I'll be the first to say - a pretty good deal.

I work for a busy family who recently moved to Portland after the mom took a job here. The dad is still looking for a job. They have two girls, C who is 4 1/2 and H who is 2 1/2. C is a sweet, precocious, assertive, and active girl. H is an ornery, stubborn, and temper tantrum-filled crazy girl, but when she smiles, it's pretty sweet. The girls actually BOTH go to school during the day. I help get them ready in the morning and take them to school. I pick them both up in the afternoon at different times, do an activity, make dinner, do baths. I do their laundry and their dishes, and walk their dog. Sometimes I think "What am I doing?" Most of the time I think "This is a pretty sweet gig."

I have just finished my second week of working with the family, and things are coming around. There are still cries for mommy and daddy. There are still temper tantrums. There are still very difficult discussions about dinner choices - but we're coming around. This afternoon, as I picked up H from daycare, she ran to me with open arms, a first. She actually let me carry her. C has started protesting when I leave at night. Things are looking up.

I cannot deny that this has been a gift from God. I remember sitting in my room in Mexico, looking at this job opening and thinking "Should I?" I called the nanny placement agency when I got back to Oregon, had two interviews, and the job was mine, and I know they had their choice of nannies. I'm extremely grateful for this job - I could have been searching forever, and instead I have a great job. Also, big huge thanks to my brother who is letting me borrow his car (without which, I wouldn't be able to have this job).

Books: American Wife

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sometimes I just want to read a book that is fun, interesting, and easy to read. I've found fun books and easy to read books, and even books that are fun and easy to read. Or maybe even just interesting. I was expecting perhaps fun and easy to read when I picked up American Wife. Sittenfeld's last book, Prep, was basically just about the social lives of students at a boarding school. Reading it, I felt like I was reading a gossip magazine. American Wife, though, surprised me. It's quite obvious that Sittenfeld expanded her storytelling abilities. Not only was it a good read, it was thought-provoking and entertaining.

American Wife is a novel based on the life events of Laura Bush. Well, I think Sittenfeld would say that no, it's based on a compilation of many different first ladies, however the really large events mirror Laura Bush's life. What really propels this book is the lead character's compelling introspectives and personal anecdotes on life in the limelight. It feels weird to say this, but I now see politicians differently. As a country we've put our politicians on a pedastal - perhaps not a glowing pedastal, but a pedastal nonetheless, where we expect them to be the perfect image of Americans. The private thoughts, worries, and ideas that we never see would indeed surprise us.

All in all, American Wife is a great story. It is told by a great storyteller, and I look forward to Sittenfeld's next book with anticipation.