HAPPY WEEKEND! hope its hot (and a little bit gangsta)

I know I've said this before, but we don't have air conditioning. So the simple act of sitting on our couch in the evening, turns into actively hating the oppressiveness of all fabrics and the loathing the fact that ceiling fans create more noise than cool air (a worthless ratio).

In order to fight against complaining too much, I relish in the few things that work for me. For example,  I love our ice maker so much sometimes I thank it out loud for its fine service. And since there's no difference between indoors and out, save for a soft breeze, I find I'm venturing more than ever.

This weekend we are embracing the heat by grilling, picnicing, lazying by a river, camping in a tent, and picnicing (again)... consider it a staring contest with mid-July. We still actively hate fabrics but we will not back down!

Here's a picture of us camping two years ago, I'm displaying my best 'beat the heat' resolve

My other favorite way to stare down summer: watch old school rap videos. You know the kind - when a few people start off in bouncy cars, or motorcycles, or some cool vehicle, and then end up at a shindig picnic, or on basketball courts, or chillin with the whole neighborhood on a stoop. There's always group games and short shorts and up-shot camera angels and people sitting on hoods of cars. 

There is ALWAYS good music, and its always wonderfully, visibly, sticky hot. It makes me say "Hell yea! Dr. Dre doesn't need air conditioning, neither do I." 

                                         

                                          

HAPPY hot hot hot summer WEEKEND!

blurbs and books of love

There is company I love called blurb and I feel the need to tell you about it. My friend Lauren first introduced me to it a few years ago and now I'm hooked.

I've used both snapfish and shutterfly before to make a custom photo album (we had one made for our wedding guest book) and they can't compare to the quality you get with blurb books... for the same prices!!  (we made photo books for our parents with wedding pictures and they look better than some professional albums we've seen)

Its a small company and they don't just do photo albums - they do novels, cookbooks, children's books, even mini instagram flip books! Its like a tiny independent printing press.

And the best part is that you can create something and then make it public for others to purchase.... so if you have a stack of family photos and recipes you want to scan and preserve you can do it - then the whole clan can log on to buy it for christmas! (am I the only one blown away by this? its awesome right?) You can also search the site for other people's items, often they have ones sold for charity, and buy them as well.

Its really easy to use - I know because I've written several books with blurb (not necessarily good books but they are books none the less, my friends)

When Neil and I had been dating a year we set the gift limit to $1. Around that time I was encouraged by the concussion professionals to journal or write and keep jogging my memory (also a reason for this blog, by the way). In attempt to both work on my brain and seduce my man, I wrote a book about our year together. I wasn't doing well with chronological order so instead I put it in alphabetical categories. It was an encyclopedia of sorts. My Abilities, our Beliefs, his Characteristics, etc, etc, all the way to Vacations. In a used book store, I found an old, worn book for $1 and pasted the typed pages inside.

When we were dating for two years I felt the desire to continue. Both because I still had a huge crush on him and because we were engaged to be married. So I took that computer file from year one and the new book from year two and converted them into Blurb... easy peasy!

I was so happy with the quality, in year three I continued the pattern and the books got longer - that one being 152 pages. (note: I'm not scrapbooker and I don't make photo albums so I slip in a number of pictures here and there for posterity - which pads the stats, page wise)

The best part about Blurb - a paperback, Orbin original, will only set you back $6.95!!! Granted, my books are only for sale to one guy but the point is still the same, you've got a good deal here.

Moving on from my glowing endorsement for just a second, I have to share that our 2 year wedding anniversary is coming up in about a month and the deadline of Aug 22nd is looming ahead because now it comes with the pressure of completing a novel. I'm happy to do it because I still have that huge crush, but I'm a mere 14 pages into our 4th edition! 

Question: is it cheating to copy and paste parts of an irreverent blog into a book of gushing love and adoration? 

comedy and coffee

ummm yes please, Mr Jerry Seinfeild

I'll look forward to seeing you July 19th

mine that bird

I've been thinking a lot about hope lately.

This video of the 2009 Kentucky Derby is my favorite example these days.

I'm not a huge horse racing enthusiast but I can't help but get swept up in the drama,

watching the impossible materialize...

mine that bird
#8
trailing the entire first half of the race

winner with 50:1 odds

How do you get a bum horse that lost 31 of its last 32 races to win the Kentucky Derby?!?

When they interviewed the jockey after this historic race he simply said:

"I rode him like a good horse"

I've been thinking a lot about hope lately

and I'm considering renaming it blind, stupid, determination.  

50 in 50 by 50: #9 MICHIGAN

I'll remember this as the one where I fell in love with trail running...
also the one where I tripped and fell.

We had been staying a few days with family in the lovely town of Saugatuck, Michigan. This was my first introduction to the state that looks like an oven-mitt (or a big toe, depending) and I must say - I was bowled over!

Saugatuck dock

We decided on our drive home we would squeeze in a race. It was July 4th but we didn't want the typical parade and 5K (sorry Ann Arbor, I'm sure you would have been quaint and patriotic). What we found was anything but typical...

The T-Rex 10 Miler Trail Run and Wimpy 8K in Lowell. It was put on by the Old Farts Running Club so when we arrived to find most of the people looking to be over 70 we were impressed. When we heard a group of them playfully gang up on one guy for running the Wimpy ("hey lay off" he defended "I'm nursing this hamstring and I'm running with my grand daughter"), we were in awe... we had found our future.

The race was held in a beautiful park. I wish I had taken pictures along the trail because it was gorgeous. Here is as best as I can give you - a picture of our course map:

very technical, as you can see.

The few times we weren't in true wooded areas, we were on dirt paths that wrapped around a lake or we were crossing a field. It was decidedly not the Michigan described by eminem. It was breath taking. (mostly for the fact that I was winded).

I paced myself much better on this 8K than my last race and I fought back every urge to prove something and just enjoyed the run. I think that's what makes trail running something so easy to love - it's very liberating. I couldn't directly compare it to my road race times so I didn't think about time. And I had to stumble down the rocky hills and make sharp turns to head back up in horribly ungraceful ways. I had to run like a little kid. (or like Phoebe in friends). Its liberating to know you'll probably get dirty and you'll probably get scratchy shins from the overgrowth on the path. Running has always been messy for me, so with trail running it was easy to fall in love.

Coming to the end, my headaches had spiked (no surprise) and the weather was hot (low 90s and humid). When my brain is all about hurting, its not in the mood for thinking. This turns dodging tree roots and jumping stones into the sort of 'high level' thinking I can't deal with, so my head checks out of the equation and I bite it. Nothing major, just a lot of dirt and a few scrapes. It would be much worse if I didn't have Neil to dust me off and help me get going again.

We finished the race, only to find that Neil's parent's drove to Lowell to cheer us on (which was not exactly on the direct route home). It was a great encouragement and a lot of fun because when we're in other states we rarely have finish line paparazzi and warm hugs.

yikes maybe with that back sweat, we skip the warm hugs and just give thanks for great parents... also for running partners and wooded trails and old farts galore

Oh and I need to mention we got our first finisher's medal - sort of. The entire race we were mocked for running the wimpy 8K (4.97 miles). Our shirts were separate from the T-Rex 10M and they said wimp all over them, on the trail there were arrows and signs everywhere that said "wimps this way" and "repeat after me 'I'm a wimp'", and the 8K finishers got "metals" not medals. So here are our wimpy tire irons:

I'm also awkwardly displaying my extra dirty hands from falling,

because who doesn't trip and land palms first? who?

So that's Michigan! We both said we want to go back and do this one again. I want to run all 10 miles and say defiantly "no one calls ME a wimp and gets away with it!" and Neil wants to take his bike and ride the trails instead of running them. Until next time MI, sleep with one eye open my friend.

The Breakdown

date: 7/4/12

race: T-Rex 10 Miler and Wimpy 8K

location: Lowell, MI

charity: supporting the Old Farts Running Club

time: 55:47

Up Against The Ropes

In a recent podcast of The BS report, Bill Simmons interviews comedian Louis CK about his upcoming season of Louie (a show I love). In this interview Louis CK shares that he is an avid boxing fan, to the point of training and sparring himself.

He says there are a lot of parallels between boxing and life (its a great podcast so I recommend you listen to it all) but there's one metaphor he mentions that I can't help holding onto...

being up against the ropes

source

I've always taken that phrase at popular face value to mean "you're trapped", used interchangeably with "backed into a corner" or "there's no way out"

Starting at about minutes 18 in this interview, Louie begins talking about boxing and he breaks down "against the ropes" in a new way. I won't quote him or try to recreate exactly what he says, instead I'll summarize and tell you what I gather it means for me...

Sometimes there's a point in a fight when fatigue sets in for a boxer - when they can tell their muscles to work but they've been out there so many rounds it just won't compute. At this time they need a break more than anything. Leaning on the ropes doesn't give them full rest but takes some of the load off. It allows them to sit back a bit and pull in some energy.

This is a calculated choice because putting their back to the ropes leaves them vulnerable. They have no where else to go. It means they will have to take more punches and willingly face more pain. But a boxer could lose a fight for fatigue and so its a choice of rest over pain. All of this, so after a short time they can spring back ready to fight anew.

So I'm not sure I have to spell out all the ways this resonates with me but I will... (and I don't hope you're against the ropes but I hope this connects with you too, especially in the sense that I'm speaking clearly here - sometimes I feel jumbled in thought)

When a life circumstance puts you in a position where there is no foreseeable way out you are, as popular phrases say, backed into a corner. And when you are "up against the ropes" like this its almost always perceived as a terrible thing. Even in enlightened Christian circles, people don't handle this position well. I've heard many kind wishes and prayers from people to get me out of this place. Of course. That's nice, because I don't want to be here - but its also telling that no one knows quite what to do with "up against the ropes"

I loved hearing Louis CK explain this reasoning to lean into the ropes. That being stuck in the corner can be okay. Because round after round of fighting does make one weary and sometimes the whole thing can be lost because you're just worn down more than anything. 

I loved hearing this reasoning because sometimes you honestly have to face pain when you're in a dark place and that can be good. 

I loved hearing this because it brought to mind the verse from Matthew 11 when Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." How often is that depicted as a stained glass window, Jesus seated on a smooth stone with arms outstretched, children nestled beside him, sheep lazy in a grassy field? How often have I pleaded that my rest from all this hurt would look like that church window promise, only to lay awake with ice pick headaches?

But it says nothing in that verse about circumstance, only rest. Maybe that's why we have no comfortable answer for people up against the ropes. We want to control circumstance. We focus on seeing the people we love get out of difficult situations, even when there's no way out (even when - and this might be my whole point - maybe getting out is not the only thing that needs remedied)

I think thats why I like this verse all the more now that I can imagine it in knock down, drag out fight - "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest" and it might continue on to say "you may still get punched in the face while it happens, but you will rest. So that painful time is still good, don't hurry through it. You will think you can't make it but I promise the cords at your back will lift you enough, and when you stand again you'll be able to keep going. In fact, you'll be stronger... now get these sheep out of my boxing ring." ~Jesus (paraphrased)

HAPPY WEEKEND! hope its cool

with everything being so hot, here are some things that I think are super cool...

Pretzel Raft (I hear it goes perfectly with a chilled beer)

Yoga Breakdancing - holy what?!

                                      

VW Camper Tent - sleeps four

The Robo Chair

                                             

modern art

and its about time this corn hole assistant was invented (I just need to know if there's a parking lot converter for tailgates)

A throwback of Zealots (for my husband) "you can try but you can't divide the tribe"... sorry team but Lauryn crushes it, the writing was on the wall with this one. 

                                      

finally, Nancy Reagan and Mr. T

Hope you find a way to be cool this weekend and enjoy the summer fun!

"I've got a bad disease"

When I come back from a vacation I need rest. 

I used to feel that way even before I was concussed. I would hurry and pack (leaving a tornado wake of clothes behind) and fill my trips with a bunch of fun activities, then come home with laundry and travel fatigue and a mess to deal with.

Now its enhanced even more because I just can't do all those days of conversation, thinking, and interaction (on top of the usual vacation fun activities). My travel fatigue is exponentially greater.

I don't want to imply that I had a bad time. I had a wonderful trip! My enjoyment of family never wore thin, but by the end of the week, it was nearly impossible for me to interact with strangers. I couldn't be in clamoring coffee shops and I thought mean things at the slow walking families. 

And when everyone wanted to do a wine tasting, I realized the thought of responding to a sommelier about 'how long we're in town' or 'if we can detect the subtle hickory notes' might push me towards aggression. (it wasn't far from this scene in Bottle Rocket when Anthony explains why he went into a mental institution. which is not necessarily comforting)

So I'm taking all morning to say nothing and do nothing and rest from my relaxing vacation.

(that sounds spoiled, I know, but I'm saying it anyway)

Here is a nice soothing song for my kind of concussion recovery day (I've got to take it slow):

Here is an image of the beaches in Michigan (yes Michigan) that I will close my eyes think about.