Back to the Rink

As I told Valerie last week, I must start moving my butt more than my mouth. So last night I took my butt down to the ice-skating rink for my weekly lesson. I initially took up ice skating when I was five years old. At the time, we conveniently lived only three blocks away from an ice rink. I happily spent nearly every Saturday for the next six years at the ice rink. I wasn’t a truly competitive skater by any means, but I did pretty well for a recreational skater and mastered many different jumps and spins. In my pre-teen years, however, I started to value sleeping in on Saturdays more than skating and eventually quit taking lessons altogether.

Fast forward ten years to my first year of law school. I desperately needed an outlet for the stress that was building up inside of me. Instead of taking the easy way out by choosing sex, drugs or booze like many of my classmates had done, I decided to take up ice-skating again. Yeah, I’m kind of a dork at times :-). I signed up for lessons at a rink near my law school and have been taking lessons on a fairly regular basis since then. I definitely don’t skate as often as I used to while I lived in NorCal though. When I think back to when I was in my best shape ever, I was skating 3-4 times per week. Nowadays I skate at least once a week, but I really should add at least a second weekly session. To that end, my coach and I set some definite goals for the upcoming year: the Adult Silver Moves in the Field test, the ISI Freestyle 4 test and the Adult Silver Freestyle test.

Last night we worked on Silver Moves. I had been off the ice for three weeks due to a yucky cold. After such a long break, it was a killer of a lesson. My coach, Erica, started off by having me push her around the rink as she resisted. I’m 5’4” and squashy. Erica is 5’9” of lean muscle. Can you see where this is headed? I tried to do a full lap around the rink but had to give up at the ¾ mark. Then Erica tried to push me around the rink, which was effortless for her even though I tried to hold my ground as much as I could. After that she had me do drills on all of the Silver Moves except for the eight step mohawk sequence. I was surprised to realize that I finally mastered forward cross stokes. yay! Two test elements mastered, only six more to go. (hey, I’m trying to focus on the positive) My “homework” for the next week is to work on the forward-inside-3 to back-outside-3 sequence. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t topple over. We closed out yesterday’s lesson with edge spirals, which I love. Spirals always give me that quintessential skating feeling --- as if I’m floating through air.

Saturday Recap

Most Saturdays, Eddie and I fight for prime space on the sofa while watching tv and/or napping. This past weekend though, Saturday was a whirlwind of errands, at least for me. Eddie was still in bed when I left the house at 11am. It would be nice if I could accomplish everything locally, but more often than not I need to trek into OC or LA to get whatever it is I’m on a quest for at the moment. This past weekend was no exception. I started off by heading out to Brea to visit the O-family. I see Mrs. O quite frequently throughout the week, but I hadn’t seen Mr. O or Baby O for almost a year. I was blown away by how much Baby O had grown. He lost that baby-faced look and looks like a true toddler now. Baby O’s amazing kitchen counter climbing skills also blew me away. Omg – I didn’t think someone so small could do that. Obviously I don’t spend enough time around small children. Even though having kids isn’t on our agenda for at least a couple years, I don’t mind being around small children, so time passed by rather quickly while I was visiting the Os. Before I knew it I had to be on my way.

My next destination was the reason I initially decided to head out to Brea. I needed to get running shoes so that I could start training for the Nike half-marathon. A Snail’s Pace had been recommended by several of the running Nesties. My sales assistant, Callie, was excellent and didn’t laugh at me once during the fitting process. Believe me, if she had chuckled, she would have been completely justified. The fitting process started with me jogging inside the store while wearing a generic, neutral pair of shoes in order to determine whether or not my feet and ankles pronate. The verdict? I don’t merely pronate, I have *extreme* inner pronation. Perhaps this is why I have such trouble getting deep outside edges when I ice skate? I digress. Anyways, after trying on several different pairs of stability shoes, I ended up with these. They weren’t the prettiest pair, but they felt the best on my feet.

With the shoe issue resolved, it was time to move on to finding a good sports bra. I had done some research beforehand, so I had a good idea of the brand(s) I was looking for. Yes, if you have a chest like mine, you need to do research on undergarments. I was pretty thrilled to see that one of the ones I had been eyeing online was in-stock at the store. Although I pretty much had my mind made up that this was the sports bra for me (it has a 5-barbell rating!), Callie insisted that I try it on just to make sure I could deal with all the hooks. What proceeded to happen in the fitting room was sheer hilarity. I had to literally wrestle “the girls” in there. Then I had to delicately try to hook everything up, lest I stab the girls with the hooks, while trying to keep the girls in place. The girls didn’t like being strapped down and were desperately trying to escape as the hooks were being latched. Too bad Eddie wasn’t with me; I really could have used an extra pair of hands in there. I finally got it completely on, jumped around and confirmed that it does indeed live up to its 5-barbell rating.

After leaving A Snail’s Pace, I briefly pondered heading across the street to the Brea Mall, specifically the handbag department at Nordstrom. Then I looked down at the receipt for the shoes, sports bra, socks and visor I had just purchased and decided that maybe my debit card needed a little rest. So onwards it was to the next destination: a fundraiser car wash in Anaheim. The fundraiser was for the current Delta Sigma Pi pledge class of the CSU-Fullerton chapter. Eddie and I have both been District Directors for chapters in the region for a few years, but this spring I am also serving as the pledge educator for the Fullerton chapter. It’s a position that is usually held by a collegiate member, but to make a long story short the chapter violated certain rules and policies. As a consequence for the chapter, I was asked to take over and oversee the pledge process. It’s been a rocky transition for the pledge class, so it was important for me to go to their fundraiser and show them how much support and encouragement I really do have for them. Plus my car was super dirty (darn birds!). The pledges did a superb job of making my car sparkling again and seemed to be having a lot of fun along the way. Naturally I tipped them very well for their efforts and brought them lots of water and Gatorade since it was about 85 degrees that afternoon.

That concluded the bulk of my errands, but I still had to stop at Trader Joe’s on my way home and pick up a few things for dinner. I have never been able to leave that store without purchasing more items than I had intended to buy while going in to the store. What I intended to buy = butternut squash, milk and greek yogurt. What I ended up buying = the aforementioned plus wine, haricot verts, dog treats, meal replacement bars, a baguette, cereal, beef jerky, chili spiced mango slices and a pizza. Trader Joe’s is like crack to me.

Oh yeah, when I got home Eddie was still half-asleep, sprawled out on the couch, fighting for prime space with the dog.

Midnight = Indigo, not Black

One of the perils of online shopping is that colors do not always translate well on to a computer screen. Case in point, the MARC by Marc Jacobs handbag I had purchased for my birthday. It arrived yesterday. I eagerly took it out of the box, unwrapped it and admired it in my dimly lit living room. It was lovely: sleek, elegant, spacious and very "me". I put it over my shoulder, strutted over to the bedroom mirror and noticed that with the additional lighting in the bedroom, it didn't really look as black as it did out in the living room or as it had on the computer screen last week. Hmph. So I walked outside our condo and saw the truth. The handbag is a deep indigo and not black at all. =(

I did what any girl would do and called my bff to discuss this fashion dilemma. With her unbiased view she made me confront the hard truth. As much as I may love the style and design of the bag, I just won't get enough mileage out of a blue bag to warrant the purchase. So back to ShopBop it will go. The silver lining of all of this? I have to keep shopping for the perfect black bag. These are some of the options I've come up with so far:

1. MARC by Marc Jacobs Posh Turnlock Convertible Clutch
2. MICHAEL Michael Kors Hudson-Downtown Shoulder Bag
3. Kooba Olivia Covertible Clutch

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

So I Lost My Mind .....

..... and signed up to run/walk the Nike Women's Half Marathon. It will be held in San Francisco in mid-October.

Now, if you have known me at all during the past 15 years, then you know I hate to run. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I have gone running since high school:

1. The timed mile run in freshman year gym class.
2. Once with my brother while he was training for his Navy PT test.
3. Once after I got mad at my mom for making a comment about my weight. {Why do moms do this?!?!}

All of these runs had the same end result: pain and misery. I had pretty much made up my mind that I would never be a runner and I was fine with it.

So what made me lose my mind? I blame the Nest. Specifically, there was a group of OC Nesties that recently ran the LA Marathon. Reading about their experiences was awe-inspiring to me. One of the runners from that group started getting a group together for the Nike half-marathon and shortly thereafter I lost my mind. But as it turns out, I had a few good reasons for signing up:

• It would force me to get off of my lazy, rapidly expanding ass and actually do cardio.
• It will likely help me in my mission to lose 25 pounds of post wedding "happy weight" that is actually making me quite sad. =(
• It would (hopefully) expand my social circle.
• It gives me a legit purpose to take time off for a long weekend in San Francisco.
• The finisher's medallion is a Tiffany & Co. necklace. Jewelry is a great motivator.

I had intended to start training last week, using the Couch to 5K program because I am far too out of shape to attempt some of the other half-marathon training programs that are out there. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold and cough, so training is pushed back to next Monday. Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to it. I bought new workout clothes this past weekend and will be getting fitted for a pair of shoes this upcoming weekend.

I'm sure I will be bitching about running shortly, but in the meantime I'm pretty psyched about the whole thing. :-)

My Super Sweet 16th(x2) Birthday

As a card from a friend said, last Thursday was my "All About Me" day, aka my birthday. I have generally always treated my birthday as an "all about me" day: I do (and eat!) whatever I want and just expect everyone else to comply with my demands. Call me a birthday-zilla, but hey, if you can't be bossy on your birthday, then when can you? Unlike a wedding day, your birthday really is all about you.

This year, however, was a little different. I was supposed to start a trial last week with one of the most whack defense attorneys I have ever dealt with. Despondent over the thought of spending my birthday dealing with the whackness, I didn't bother to plan anything celebratory. I told Eddie not to even bother making dinner reservations because I have a history of losing my appetite when I'm in trial. But lo and behold, the trial got continued at the last minute. It might have been the best birthday present ever. My birthday ended up being far more pleasant than I anticipated.

Although the continuance was a good gift, I decided I would need something more tangible and ordered this. It's simple, but was exactly what I needed as my small black Coach purse is starting to really show signs of wear and tear. As a point of reference, that little Coach purse was the purchase that set me off into the wonderful world of designer handbags. I haven't looked back since. What I love about the new purse is that it can be used as a shoulder bag or as a clutch. Also, it's the first Marc Jacobs anything I have purchased. I have always been intimidated by his lines for some irrational reason, so I am happy that I have finally conquered that fear.

After that purchase, the next order of business was to request the day after my birthday, Friday, off. It made more sense to give myself a three day weekend rather than taking Thursday off and needing to come in the next day. One of the perks of working for the government is a rather generous leave policy, so the three day weekend was set in place smoothly. This left me free to eat and drink (pomegranate martinis to be exact) freely on Thursday evening. Since there wasn't enought ime for Eddie to get a reservation at our favorite restaurant, we just went to a local, casual place instead and then went back home to watch "America's Best Dance Crew" on MTV. Age (and the martinis) took their toll and I was asleep on the sofa by 10:30 p.m. Getting old sucks sometimes.

My day off was enjoyed to my fullest slacker potential. I slept in, ate Cap n' Crunch for breakfast, caught up on all our Tivo'd shows and stayed in my pajamas for most of the day. It wasn't a particularly exciting or eventful day, but it made me happy. There's a certain joy I feel being a slacker when everyone else I know is at work. It rocks. :-)

Sharing the love . . . . .

Welcome to my blog-in-progress. :-) Until I get this up and running, check out some of my favorite bloggers. These are the people who have inspired me to start this adventure and improve my writing skills. I can only hope to someday be as articulate, interesting and witty as they are. Enjoy!