Take your workout outside: Part I

Now that spring has sprung, you may be thinking about getting out of the gym and taking off for a walk or a run where the scenery changes, and the cool air on your face isn't from a noisy fan. Please do! Being outside is one of the reasons I love to run (and hike, and go to the beach, and kayak...), and it comes with some great benefits: vitamin D and that fresh air your mom always insisted you needed more of, for starters, not to mention the fact that it's free!

But there are some rules of the road you need to be aware of - namely that what applies to cars generally also applies to people - and since learning them the hard way from cranky cyclists and speed demon runners can be off-putting (not to mention embarrassing and a little scary!), take note before you take to the trail:

1. Slower-moving vehicles, stay to the right. Just like in a car, faster runners, cyclists and walkers will pass you on the left, so keep to the right unless you're the one doing the passing. And when you do pass, throw a quick glance over your shoulder to make sure there's no one even faster behind you (you don't want to veer out in front of a cyclist who was about to zoom past you!). If you're exercising with a group, don't walk/run/cycle more than two abreast - it blocks the way for others, it slows your collective reaction time and it's just rude to anyone else out there with you.
   
2. Keep it clean. Despite the thousands of paper cups you've seen runners discard during races, throwing anything on the ground is not a habit to get into. Races, since they're sponsored and generally very organized, despite the apparent pandemonium, have clean-up crews that make sure no litter remains on the ground after the race is over. Trails do not, and they don't even get the weekly street sweeper pass that regular roads do. I've found myself picking up energy food/gel wrappers on the trail the past few weeks (some of which specifically ask consumers not to litter!), because I know otherwise they'll end up in the river, in birds' nests or in squirrels' mouths. It's like backpacking: take out whatever you bring in, or dispose of it properly somewhere along the way!
   
3. Mind your manners. Since people don't have rearview mirrors, it's common courtesy to alert someone when you're going to pass them - it also lets them know to move to the right, if they haven't already. You'll hear a lot of "On your left!" and "Passing!" from cyclists, or sometimes just the ding of a bell. I usually say thanks, or lift a hand to acknowledge I've heard them, because I appreciate it - the cyclists who don't make the effort and whiz past three inches from my elbow when there's an entire lane open next to me drive me nuts (approaching bikes aren't audible the way cars and panting runners or walkers are, especially not if there's vehicular traffic nearby). Runners can use the same expression, although usually the sound of your shoes is enough of a warning. When off the trail and approaching pedestrians wandering around the middle of the sidewalk, I say "Coming up on your left!" to give them a chance to move out of the way. (Sometimes it doesn't work and they just stop to turn around and give me a surprised look, but at least then they're stationary.)
4. Leave the music at home. Say what?! I know, I know, iPods are the greatest accessory invented since running shoes, but they're best left for gym workouts. If you have music turned up loud enough to hear it over your feet and your breathing, you're much less likely to hear approaching athletes - or attackers, on the less pleasant side of things. You're also far less likely to be the recipient of the courtesy described in #3, since if people see headphones or earbud wires, they'll often assume you won't hear them anyway and decide to save their breath. That said, a lot of people use them anyway, although I never do.
   
5. Be visible. Reflective surfaces and LEDs are your friend, especially if you're out early or late in the day. My birthday present from my mom was a bright greenish-yellow neon windbreaker that's water-resistant and has reflective strips at the shoulders and back. The thing all but glows and I love it, because I can see people wearing similar gear from a quarter mile or more away, so I know it keeps me visible, even before sunrise or after sunset. I also have a neon armband with a flashing LED embedded in it from my brother and sister-in-law that's great when I know I'm going to be running in the dark - the LED is an extra layer of visibility that's particularly good at alerting fast-moving cyclists (and cars, when I'm crossing streets) to my whereabouts.
   
6. Protect yourself. This is a big one, and covers a number of areas. At the most basic level, it means don't forget you're outside. Eye and skin protection are a must, and are more important the longer you're going to be out. On another level, this one means be aware of your surroundings, which is part of why #4 is a good idea. Especially if you're out early in the morning or after sunset, when there aren't as many people around, you need to keep your eyes and ears open for suspicious activity. Unfortunate as it is, some criminals think athletes - especially lone women - are easy prey. The experts all recommend carrying some form of identification - Road ID is a good one that comes in several different forms, and which I keep meaning to buy. I'm not great at that particular safety tip and often forget to take an ID with me, but when I do think of it, I usually stick my SmarTrip (Metro card) in a pocket or waistband. It's registered to me, so if I'm unconscious someone can look up the card number and find out who I am, and it's also emergency transportation back home if I need it.
7. Hydrate! If you're exercising, you need water. Period. Until you know your body well enough to be absolutely confident in saying, "Oh, it's only x miles, I can rehydrate when I get back," take a bottle with you. There are all kinds of contraptions to make it less of a hassle, from fuel belts to hip packs to hand-helds. I know I'm fine without water for eight miles or less (six or less in hot weather or if I'm not feeling 100%), but on long runs of 10 miles or more I take at least a sip per mile - and I've had ample time to figure out what my body needs.
   

Those are the high points for someone just getting started on an outside exercise plan - more specific tips to follow! Like any fitness routine, the best rule of thumb for making sure you stick with it is to follow your ideal schedule to the letter for at least three weeks (relying on the general wisdom that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit) before skipping or shortening a workout, no matter what.

If you've rarely or never exercised outside before, you may hate it initially (I definitely missed the gym, at first), but give it at least those three weeks before you run back inside for good. Some people just aren't "outdoorsy" and will always prefer working out indoors, some people love outdoor workouts from the start and some will become converts after several tries. Give it a chance, and find out what makes you feel best.

Twittering (or is it Tweeting?) for Change

I think we all know that social media is addictive. Facebook is the college student's "time suck" and constant distraction. LinkedIn is full of questions on a myriad of topics, all just waiting to be answered. Care2 and Change.org offer endless opportunities for doing good with the click of a button, whether it's saving several square feet of natural resources or discussing ways to effect change in a certain area of social justice.

And then there's Twitter. Twitter, which is basically a global discussion of everything under the sun, being carried out 24/7/365 (that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year in the shorthand of text-speak).

I've had a Twitter account for almost a year (twitter.com/jessalynp), but have only "tweeted" 29 times, mostly because I get so overwhelmed by everything I've missed whenever I log in that I close the window again without doing anything other than crossing my eyes at the page. Today though, I read a great post from Heather Mansfield over at Change.org's Nonprofits 2.0 on how non-profits can use Twitter, and have vowed to dedicate a few minutes a day to tweeting...at least professionally.

On a personal level, all of the everyday mumbo-jumbo that's tweeted, most of which is irrelevant by the time I get home and actually read it, frustrates me more than anything else. Yeah, it's great to keep up with what people are doing and there are some people whose tweets I have sent to my phone as text messages so I can stay up-to-date on their lives in real time, but I'd really rather take five minutes to read and/or send an email than read about someone's day in such an impersonal manner. Backwards. In 140 character bursts.

For non-profits though, I think Twitter can be an invaluable resource.

The standard method of contacting members has, for decades, been direct mail, which works amazingly well but usually takes at least six weeks to get written, printed and mailed. This means the information in direct mail letters has to be fairly generic, otherwise it runs the risk of being completely outdated by the time members receive it. And getting members to respond in a way that's timely and meaningful both to them and to the organization they support is difficult.

A few years ago, non-profits began emailing, which is great - it takes hours instead of weeks to respond to something that's happened and members can express their opinions much more easily, through online petitions, emails to political leaders, etc. But members' responses are still fairly limited to whatever channel the non-profit has open to them at any given time, and non-profits often struggle to stay current in a world that's become used to the 24-hour news cycle.

With Twitter, a 140 character post from Washington about a bill hitting the floor in Topeka or a court decision handed down by the 9th Circuit can get people thinking and RTing (ReTweeting - basically the "RE:" of Twitter) from Honolulu to Tokyo: What will a moment of silence mean for students in Kansas public schools? Should there be one? And why exactly is it okay for that giant cross to sit on public land? ...or is it okay at all?

With a non-profit's followers responding more or less instantly (and the non-profit hopefully replying in return, when a response is applicable), non-profits and their members can engage in real time. They can discuss not only the outcome of situations relevant to their missions but how to influence those outcomes before they take place - and how to move forward after the fact.

In a world that deals in sound bites and tag lines, Twitter might just become the non-profit sector's best friend, and the 21st century tool it needs to effect change, or at the very least to start a discussion about it.

Marriage - who decides?

I've been trying to stay out of the marriage/Prop. 8 debate, at least in the blogosphere, for two reasons:

1. It's an issue people can get very ugly about, and while I enjoy a good political debate, virulent hatred makes me uncomfortable.
2. I don't live in California anymore.

This article in the San Francisco Chronicle changed my mind (since I don't visit their website regularly, it took me awhile to see the article, published last Friday) - on #2 because as a state Supreme Court case, the decision on Proposition 8 will create precedent and thus its impact will extend more concretely beyond California's borders, and on #1 because some things are too important to avoid just because it's more comfortable to do so. So I'm climbing up on my soapbox.

Unsurprisingly, given where I grew up, this is an issue I've been aware of since middle school, and on which my personal opinion has evolved over the years. I started out, at 12 or 13, hesitant to have an opinion, in the "I'm not a member of the LGBT community, can't I just stay out of this?" vein. Then, briefly, and I felt guilty about it even at the time, I thought civil unions were the way to go: "Marriage is a religious institution, after all, and aren't a lot of religions at odds with being gay?" After that, I threw up my hands and went back to not knowing what to think, although I was 100% sure that the LGBT community (and let me emphasize the T part of that acronym, because it's a subsection of the community that's overlooked appallingly often) should have the same rights as married couples - in regard to taxes, next-of-kin, custody, etc. - regardless of what a formal union was called.

That last part has become the focus of my opinion as it stands today: equal rights are a necessity. Not only for the LGBT community, but for our society, which continues to find things to divide itself over rather than focusing on the fact that we're all people, we're all Americans and if we'd just accept that human beings don't come from cookie cutter molds and move past that to see the similarities beneath the surface, most of us would probably get along pretty well.

Personally, I don't think the government should be involved in marriage at all. Marriage is a religious institution, and who religious leaders marry should be a decision of individual religious communities, whether their faith tradition chooses to make such a decision on a global level, a local one or on a case-by-case basis. As far as the government is concerned, whether or not people are married shouldn't matter - whether or not they're committed to one another for the purposes of our society should.

So really, a civil union is all the government should be granting or getting involved with, and any two people who want to commit their lives to one another should be able to enter into one, in my opinion. No restrictions other than basic ones such as age and familial relationship (brother and sister...still not such a great idea, sorry!) should even enter into the government's consideration. Our society isn't geared toward single people - in fact, it can make life pretty difficult for them, financially - and if the government focuses on what will make for the most productive society in the long run, as governments are supposed to do, they'll have to recognize that more formally united couples means a more productive, healthier United States.

Leaving the decision about marriage up to individual religious institutions doesn't make the problem go away - there are bitter debates among clergy and lay people within religious traditions and even within individual congregations about the sanctity of marriage and what exactly it means in today's world. (And then there's the question, "What about people who don't adhere to any religion?" I'd say entering into marriage, a union traditionally believed to be blessed by a deity of some kind through the proxy of a religious leader, doesn't make much sense if you don't believe in the deity and you'd probably be more comfortable with a civil union anyway. But maybe that's just me.)

There are religious traditions that flat-out reject the LGBT community, which I think is bigoted and short-sighted (and hypocritical, in Christian traditions, but that's another topic), and which cause a great deal of pain to the LGBT people who were raised in and would like to be adherent to them. And there are religious traditions that welcome everyone with open arms, regardless of their differences from "the norm." That isn't fair to those who don't fit into their faith tradition's mold, but it's also not a battle the government can (or should, at any rate) fight - each tradition needs to evolve in their own time and on their own terms, not when and how they're told to do so by a legislature or a court.

Doesn't religion adhering to the dictates of government about a religious institution breach our freedom of religion? And doesn't a religious institution being adopted by the government interfere with freedom from religion? Both freedoms are written into the Constitution, and shouldn't that be the answer, as far as the government is concerned?

Recipe Corner: Disappearing Brownies

In college, I was the brownie baker. Birthday? The brownies outside your door were from me. Party in the lounge for the Super Bowl? I was the one dashing in and out of the hall kitchen, starting a new batch every time my single baking pan was free of the last one. Granted at that point I was just adding chocolate chips to Betty Crocker mixes, but they were still a hit.

Now that I have a real kitchen, stocked with actual baking essentials, I prefer to start from scratch, which I did this weekend - after the cruel, ridiculously early adjustment to Daylight Savings Time (which, at this latitude, means the sun doesn't rise until almost 7:30 - ugh), I figured everyone was due for a sweet treat on Monday. One of my co-workers asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd post it here as well. The name of the recipe is also co-worker inspired, since these brownies never last long. In fact, the first time I brought them in, I don't think I even got one after lunch...

Warning: While I don't mind the occasional sacrifice for healthfulness, I hate doing anything halfway when it comes to baked goods, so these are very chocolate-y and very sweet.

Disappearing Brownies
Servings: ~24, depending on how you cut them
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: ~20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy. As long as you have all the ingredients, can mix and set a timer, they'll be a hit!

Ingredients*:
1 cup SmartBalance 50/50 (or margarine, or butter)
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Egg Beaters (that's the equivalent of 4 eggs)
1 cup all-purpose flour**
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I've made the same recipe with sweetened cocoa powder when I've realized I'm out of unsweetened halfway through the recipe, and it doesn't push them into the "Yuck! Too sweet!" zone.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
chocolate chips to taste

*This halves easily if you'd rather make an 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" pan.
**You might also try these with half (or more) whole wheat flour - I haven't tried it, but I think I will next time - and experiment with some brown sugar rather than all white.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Add the vanilla and beat in the eggs (substitute).
4. Pour in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; stir wet and dry ingredients until well-blended. (Real bakers will tell you to mix all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then blend the dry mixture with the wet - I'm too lazy, hate doing more dishes than absolutely necessary and have never noticed a difference anyway. I dump all the dry ingredients on top of the wet mixture, stir them together a bit on top first, then just mix away.)
5. Stir in chocolate chips to taste. (I think I use about 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup, but you could easily use 12 oz. without it being too much.)
6. Pour evenly into a 9" x 13" pan (I line mine with parchment paper sprayed with Pam - again, cutting down on unnecessary scrubbing.).
7. Sprinkle chocolate chips across the top if desired.
8. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350°F (this depends on your oven - mine is electric and runs very hot), or until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let cool before cutting.
9. Enjoy!...and only share if you want to. (Also in this vein: don't forget to lick the bowl and eat a handful of chocolate chips out of the bag!)

What are your brownie baking secrets, or favorite treats?

Introducing: Nala!

It's official, I've met the love of my life: sweet, always happy to see me, affectionate, well-behaved and just generally adorable, she's everything I've been hoping for. Meet Nala, the newest addition to the Pinneo family:


I adopted her from the Washington Humane Society's Georgia Avenue shelter on Friday, and, coming from a family of dog-lovers, have spent the last five days adjusting to living with a cat and panicking six times a day that I'm doing something wrong. Thank goodness for Gina and my mom! Soon-to-be-Dr. Gina has been fielding my frantic emails while laughing at me for being "such a new mom" and my own mom, who was in town over the weekend for a belated birthday visit, was a huge help getting Nala settled in.

The general consensus is that Nala is adorable. She runs to the door whenever she hears the key in the lock and meows in greeting as I open it. (And after one heart-stopping experience when she darted out into the hallway - but came right back in when I crouched down and called her! - she seems content to stay inside my apartment.) She stretches out her front leg and paw when she wants to be petted, putting me in mind of a little kid reaching for an adult and saying "Up!" And whenever I'm not in the immediate vicinity, she comes looking for me every few minutes, tilting her head and meowing at me before going back to whatever she was doing, as if to say, "Okay, just checking!"

Like every shelter animal, Nala has a story: she's six years old, and spent five years with a family who adopted her from another shelter. Her "dad" recently developed an allergy to cats and at the end of November, they decided they couldn't keep her anymore. So she spent three months in the shelter, until I went in to look at another cat I was thinking of adopting and fell in love with her instead.

I grew up with purebred Chocolate Labs - big, goofy dogs with lots of energy and hearts of gold - bought from the breeder when they were puppies, so adopting a pet from a shelter was a different experience for me. The second I walked in, I wanted to scoop up half the animals there and take them home with me because they looked so sad - and the next time I'm looking for a pet, I'll definitely adopt one in need of a good home, like Nala.

If you're looking for a new member of the family, I highly recommend using petfinder.com to see animals available for adoption in your area (and thanks to Gina for sending me there!). Everyone from the Humane Society to the smaller, local rescue groups seem to use it, and the postings often give you the direct contact information of the person fostering each animal.

Any reputable adoption program will spay or neuter all animals before you can take them home, ensure that they're up-to-date on shots and vaccinations and some even offer to microchip them for a lower fee than you'd pay in a vet's office.

I'm thrilled to finally be living with a pet again, and I couldn't have found a better companion than Nala. If you're looking for a pet, please adopt one - there are hundreds of thousands of homeless pets languishing in shelters throughout the country, and they need the loving home you can offer. (And, if you're in the D.C. area and thinking about getting a dog, check out Brody at WHS - scroll to the bottom of the page - I can tell you he's every bit as big-hearted and eager-to-please as he is cute!)

Leader of The PACK

What's better than puppies and kittens? Not much! (Maybe kids, but it's a tough call.)

A friend of mine just completely made my day by sending me a link to one of the best ideas for a volunteer opportunity I've ever heard of: The PACK, a recent project of the Washington Humane Society.

According to WHS' website, "The PACK (People & Animal Cardio Klub), consists of a group of volunteers who regularly meet at local parks to run with adoptable shelter dogs from either of WHS's two Adoption Centers." The dogs wear bright orange vests that say "Adopt Me" and many of their two-legged pals wear Washington Humane Society t-shirts.

They run every other Saturday in areas that are popular with locals on the weekends, so the dogs get maximum visibility along with their exercise. Check out WHS' web page about the program, or read "Running With the PACK," a blog post by a WHS/The PACK volunteer.

I don't know about you, but to me this sounds like an amazingly rewarding opportunity for everyone involved: dog lovers (like me!) who otherwise may not have the opportunity to do so can interact with a great bunch of dogs, the local population gets some exposure to the great pets who need homes in their area, and most importantly, dogs get the exercise they need and the attention and affection they deserve.

My training schedule (yes, I'm at it again) may not allow me to do too many runs with this group before mid-summer, but I've emailed AsktheTrainer@washhumane.org for more information, and hope to get involved soon. In my book, Washington Humane Society is the leader of the pack (Laugh at me for my terrible pun/80s music reference, but I couldn't pass it up. Obviously, given the title of the post...) in creative volunteer opportunities that do good in more ways than one.

The Changing of the Guard

The idea of replacing their parents in the workforce, of a societal "changing of the guard," isn't one that generally occurs to children. They play, learn and dream of being astronauts, dancers, rock stars, doctors and marine biologists, thinking of Mom and Dad as one of their most rock-steady constants, perhaps hearing them sigh over getting older but not fully understanding the eventual switch that will take place: one day, they'll wake up and be the ones rushing around, throwing lunch(es) together, coordinating gym shoes and work clothes and scheduling meetings, while their parents will have the luxury of deciding what they want to do that day, where they want to play and with whom.

One of the oddest sensations of becoming an independent adult has been watching that switch take place and strangest of all, being aware of it. My dad's taken up new hobbies to fill his time in retirement as I've given up old ones, sacrifices to the 40-hour work week and its commute in exchange for a salary, benefits and financial self-sufficiency. My mom used to marvel at the number of books I read in the time it took her to get through one, as she struggled to read a few pages in bed at night before succumbing to the exhaustion of working a stressful full-time job, running herd on me and managing a household. Now when she tells me what she's reading, I rarely have anything to add to the conversation - I'm still only halfway through the same books I was the last time we talked about reading.

The thing that initially made me aware of these changes, ridiculous as it sounds, was my caffeine intake. My mom's not much of a coffee person, but she had a Diet Coke at her elbow most hours of the day when I was growing up, and stopped worrying about buying it "Caffeine Free" once I was in my teens and drinking caffeinated beverages with my friends anyway. I scolded her about not drinking enough milk, which I downed by the gallon, and ingesting too much caffeine, as well as carbonation that would make her more susceptible to the osteoporosis that whittled my grandmother down from 5'1" to somewhere around 4'6".

With the exception of my hellishly over-scheduled sophomore year in college and the summer of sleepy caffeine-withdrawal headaches that followed it, I've never found caffeine to be a necessary part of my day. I'm still not physically addicted to it (anymore), but there are days I find myself detouring to Au Bon Pain on my way in to the office, needing a cup of coffee to wake me up, or dashing out for an over-sized bottle of Diet Coke at lunch to extend my morning workout energy kick into the afternoon. There have even been a couple of days when, succumbing to the demands of a muddled brain and a need to be fully functioning, I've done both.

My mom, on the other hand, has stopped buying Diet Coke for herself altogether and drinks milk with her lunch everyday. (My dad, however, is a four-shots-a-day guy (espresso), and guzzles Diet Coke the way I do water - and he's not about to volunteer to break the habit!)

It's this kind of daily minutiae that occasionally make me blink in surprise and realize that I'm now the one wrapped up in the world of work - the ups, the downs, the stress - even though somewhere in my head, "the working world" still means my parents, not me, a distinction reinforced by memories of work-related dinner conversation going back as far as I can remember.

I don't usually think about being an adult, because without a mortgage, car payments (thank goodness for the Metro!) or any insurance premiums other than the annual minimum on my apartment, I don't usually feel like one. My post-college 20s up to this point occasionally feel something like a second round of early adolescence: a little awkward, with one foot still in college, trying to figure out how to be an adult and who, exactly, the adult version of Jessalyn Pinneo is. It can be frustrating, uncomfortable, stressful and confusing, but the reward of discovering who I am and making my own way is more than worth it.

Meditation in Motion

Ever since I started doing pilates a few years ago, I've been telling myself I should try yoga, because finding that centered calm that's supposed to come with it would probably be really good for me. (I've only tried meditation once, and given that I was 16 at the time and at the height of teenage angst, you probably don't need me to tell you that it didn't go very well.) But when I even think about actually trying to meditate, or holding a yoga pose for an extended period of time, I get antsy, and start to think about all of the productive things I could do instead, which makes relaxation all but impossible.

Exercise has been my way of clearing my mind since my freshman year of college. It warms my muscles, and post-workout stretching gets out the kinks. It gives me a chance to let my mind wander while still doing something I think of as productive, and I almost always end a workout feeling energized, relaxed and happy. When running, my "zone" is usually when I stop thinking about running and just do it, my body involved in the physical aspects of the exercise and my brain off on some other tangent. But in the last seven or eight months, that's started to change.

I was running one morning last summer - I think it was a 16 or 18-miler - and about halfway through, my vision changed. I was focused on the road, but it was slightly blurred around the edges, and it felt as though my visual as well as my mental focus was suddenly much more internal than external. My initial reaction was, "Okay, this is weird..." but I gradually realized that it felt good. I was more tuned in to my body than usual, and felt no compulsion to think about anything - I was running, and focusing on the feeling of each stride was enough.

I've started clicking into this zone more and more often since then, and have come to really enjoy feeling that sudden shift in my vision. It's accompanied by a mentality of "Enough messing around, let's get down to work and run, kid!" My stride lengthens, my muscles seem to stretch further and I'm flooded with a feeling of heady strength that has me bearing down and picking up speed without even thinking about it. The giddy glee of a runner's high bounces around in my blood, but it's coated with a layer of calm that tamps it down and directs all of my energy into that steady focus that pushes me further, faster.

I call it my "runner's zen," since it seems to be just that - a sort of active calm, almost a meditative state, from what little I know of them, but one that directs relaxation into power of movement. It's not something I can trigger at will yet, but I'm able to hold onto it a little longer each time it happens - yesterday, it lasted for the final two miles of my 8-miler, and felt absolutely amazing. Until then I'd just been jogging along - feeling good, but taking my time - when all of a sudden, almost exactly as I hit mile six, my visual and mental focus turned inward, my stride stretched out and my pace picked up.

It's a great feeling, and is as close as I've ever felt to flying. That centered focus is an intense and powerful tool, and one I hope I can learn to use and control as I continue my training. But for the moment, I'm happy just to revel in my runner's zen every time I manage to slip into it - I may not be much for sitting still long enough to meditate, but if I can meditate on the go, this seems like a great way to do it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day, for no other reason than that it never fails to makes me smile. Yes, I'm well aware that it's a day-long cliché that was more or less invented by Hallmark, and from which florists, chocolatiers, high-end restaurants and jewelers make a killing, along with the zillion other reasons people use to hate it. But in my mind, a day that's all about love can't be that bad. (I know, my hippy side is showing again.)

I didn't actually do anything valentines-y today since Metro, in all their wisdom, decided to make it extremely difficult for anyone to use the blue and yellow lines to get into the city this weekend. But two of my girlfriends and I had a girls' night yesterday, and I had a blast.

We met up for happy hour - at Ella's, for those of you in D.C. - and I brought them both roses, just to be cliché. (I had intended to bring yellow ones, for friendship and as a throwback to the "Happy Just Because Day!" that I created in college - a random day when I ran around taping single yellow roses to my friends' doors, usually when we were all stressed out about midterms or finals. But no one was selling anything but red roses, so I made do with those.) After a carafe or two of (delicious!) sangria, we made our way to a table for dinner, and caught up on work and love lives over spinach salad and a couple of pizzas.

Two of us decided to make a night of it, grabbed some popcorn and went to see He's Just Not That Into You (I know, I know, could we be anymore a portrait of the stereotypical single girl?), which I thought was very cute, and had some hilarious moments and great lines. I don't care how much the critics hate it, it hits so many aspects of life for both couples and singles dead-on that you can't help but laugh and nod in agreement with the characters. Ginnifer Goodwin's Gigi was my favorite overall, although Drew Barrymore's Mary had my favorite line, and Jennifer Aniston's Beth and Ben Affleck's Neil were my favorite couple.

I spent the Metro ride home talking politics with another single 20-something, and considered the evening pretty perfect.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day, too! Any highlights, or valentine suggestions for singles or couples in the future?

Update: Becoming a winter runner

One of my early posts was about my goal to become a winter runner, and since it's now February, which is usually one of Washington's most wintry months, I thought I'd post a progress update.

I haven't been able to run as much as I'd like, since it's dark until just before I leave for work in the morning and gets dark again before I get home in the evening, and running on an unlit trail in the dark isn't safe in any weather. So during the week, I've been making do with the gym. But I've gotten out most weekends to do between 7 and 10 miles, and when I was at my parents', my mom and I ran whenever we could (that's us above, post-run, with our friend the snowman melting off to the right).

I just got back from a 7-miler in this morning's 40-degree sunshine, and I have to say that it felt positively balmy after the cold snap that lasted through most of January and kept the weather in the 20s or lower most days. The sun was out, and with the wind at only about 10mph, I had my sweatshirt and gloves off and my sleeves pushed up past my elbows before I'd hit the two-mile mark.

It wasn't my best 7-miler, or even one of my better ones. Between the bone-chilling, windy cold, a surplus of translation work and being sick, this was my first outdoor run in almost a month (yikes) - the longest I've gone without running in nearly a year. Despite feeling something like a rusty old bike, it felt good to be out, getting my heart and my legs pumping and watching the sun sparkle off the surface of the Potomac.

One winter definitely hasn't transformed me into one of those runners who get out and run whatever the weather - in the dark, in sub-20-degree weather, in rain and sleet. (Although I did run while it was snowing once! Completely unintentionally - I was a half mile out when it started, and decided I might as well tough it out for another 7.5. Lesson learned: snow stings just like sand does when it hits your eyes, but on the plus side, it melts afterward.)

But it has toughened me up - my "no way, no how" temperature is about 30 now, an improvement of at least 15 degrees. And I find myself resenting the gym more and more as the winter goes on, revving the elliptical machine up to 85rpm and wishing I were outside, so I could get a real workout. In short, I feel like I've had the best first season of being a winter runner I could've hoped for. I'm looking forward to spring, but knowing I won't dash back inside at the first sign of winter weather this fall feels pretty good too.

Survival of the whiniest?

What exactly is $1 trillion dollars? Every time I read that number, I flash back to Dr. Evil's maniacal laugh and signature pinky-to-the-corner-of-the-mouth look in the first Austin Powers movie as he's demanding what he thinks is an exorbitant amount of money from the U.S. government, only to discover that $1 million has become laughably little while he's been out in space. CNN's Christine Romans' analysis of what exactly a trillion-dollar debt means is eye-opening, and a little scary.

Economics is admittedly not one of my strongest subjects (The four classes of it I had to take between high school and college were 585 of my least-enjoyably spent hours ever.), but isn't "rescuing" failing companies sort of counter to the whole idea of a free market economy in a capitalistic society? Isn't the point that the economy and its consumers choose the businesses that succeed through supply and demand, a sort of Darwinism of economics - survival of he who can afford to stay open?

I don't pretend to understand all the details of last year's bailout or the stimulus package currently being debated by the Senate, but what I do know is that it's making me very nervous about the likelihood of my being able to buy a house a few years down the road, or get reasonable loans for grad school. And on a societal level, it kind of makes me want to cross my arms and pout. Why do the automakers get help? It's been obvious for more than a decade that combustible engines are on their way out, but they've been dragging their feet on switching to a type of car that will, in the end, cost the consumer less and may actually sell more in the long run. Why does the financial industry get "rescued?" They seriously messed up in a myriad of ways and spent so much money to do so, it boggles the mind. Then they messed up some more with the money the government gave them to fix it.

So we're doing all of this to prevent companies who made mistakes from suffering the logical consequences of their actions...why, exactly? I know, I know, so the American economy doesn't completely collapse on itself. It still feels wrong, from where I'm standing. And kind of like we're rewarding economic failures for having failed - and then whining about the reality check.

I don't want more tax breaks and I don't need a stimulus check - I pay my taxes without complaint, expect everyone else, individuals and businesses alike, to do the same and all I ask is that if I've paid too much, I get it back sometime in the first half of the following year. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? What are we really hoping to accomplish, in the long run, by throwing unfathomably large sums of money at businesses and people who have become notorious for financial mismanagement? And what have they done to demonstrate that they're trustworthy enough (I know, what an old-fashioned concept that is!) to deserve it?

The "25 Things" Thing

Okay, for those of you who aren't on Facebook or don't check it very often, this is sort of the new, social-networking equivalent of a chain letter. (And actually kind of similar to my second post.) In middle school and high school, extensive surveys with completely random questions (from "What's your favorite flavor ice cream?" to "Do you believe in ghosts?") are more popular and - at least in my time (it's depressing that I can say that in all seriousness...) - got sent around to everyone's email lists and often generated rumors about who had a crush on whom, or who might be dating or start dating soon or have recently broken up without telling anyone.

The deal with this Facebook version is that you write 25 things about yourself, covering whatever topics you want, then tag 25 people (including anyone who tagged you - 'tagging' is basically putting them on a list of people you want to read what you're posting), who are all supposed to then do the same.

There's no real point to it, but it's fun - thinking of 25 things about yourself that everyone doesn't already know can be challenging, especially if you talk as much as I do! So consider yourselves tagged, and do with this (your answers, not mine!) what you will: post it on your blog, email it around, go around the dinner table and think of things you may not ordinarily tell your family about yourself or each other...or don't do anything at all, it's up to you!

1. "I hate peas." Not really, but I do love the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. It might be an addiction.
2. If I could move to a French-speaking country (or a handful of European countries) tomorrow, with a job or scholarship lined up and none of the hassle of visas, shots, moving things and getting rid of furniture, I would do it in a heartbeat. I have no idea whether or not I'd want to stay forever, since I love the U.S., but I'd definitely enjoy a few more years of living in another culture that feels like home.
3. I'm something of a hermit. Put me someplace comfortable with books I like, a computer and/or writing implements, and creative things to do (musical instruments, things for knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, etc.) and I would be perfectly happy for at least a week. Probably a month.
4. But, I also love spending time with my friends. In a perfect world, I would spend every evening at a café, à la française, with a group of friends and talk for hours.
5. I can't stand the idea of someone not having a positive opinion of me. Whenever I'm afraid someone might think poorly of me, I get really flustered and guilty (I never said it was logical!), and am upset until I can figure out a way to prove to them I'm a good/productive/whatever-positive-adjective-applies person. This makes teaching nerve-wracking for at least the first half of the semester.
6. I'm really surprised whenever someone pays me a compliment, and my knee-jerk reaction is to deny whatever positive thing they've said (again, not logical). I've been getting better about it in the last few months, but it's still difficult for me to take a compliment.
7. I would love to live in the same metropolitan area as my family. Our family is small but has generally been very spread out, geographically, and I think being able to do something ordinary like drop by for Sunday lunch or to lend a movie would be amazing.
8. Books are my addiction. Don't get me wrong, I like clothes and shoes too, but books are less expensive, give you more and last longer. Plus, bookstores are usually fairly quiet, and no one cares how long you spend browsing. Department stores echo, boutiques usually blast headache-inducing music and salespeople try to hurry you along every five minutes.
9. I want kids, I don't feel like my life would be complete if I didn't have or adopt kids at some point, but I'm not totally sold on the idea of getting married. I think it's a wonderful institution and works amazingly well for couples who genuinely love one another and have solid pre-marital relationships as well as well-established individual identities (of whom I'm lucky enough to know several who've been married for years, and some who are getting married in the next few), but I also think far too many people get married because they're afraid of being alone or think it's just what you do once you've gotten to a certain point in your life or in a relationship.
10. I hate being sick, and am usually convinced I can ward off illness with willpower alone. I deny that I actually am sick until I've gotten to the point where I can't possibly stand another minute without medicine, then I take the medicine and go back to trying to pretend I'm not sick. By the time I admit that I'm sick, I'm usually carrying a box of tissues and a cup of tea around with me everywhere I go. (This weekend and yesterday being a case-in-point. Ick.)
11. I can take a ridiculously long time to make decisions and often overanalyze to the extreme, but once I've definitively made up my mind, I'm completely convinced I've made the right choice.
12. In the same vein...I'm very, very stubborn. About just about everything.
13. I hate, hate, hate, HATE hot, humid weather (tough luck for 3 or 4 months of the year in DC, right?). I dislike temperature extremes of any kind, spoiled child of the Southern California beaches that I am, but if I have to deviate from 65 degrees and sunny and it involves humidity, I usually prefer 20 degrees colder to 20 degrees warmer. At least when I'm cold, wearing sweaters and drinking hot things can make me warm. Although take away the humidity, and you can flip that. (N.B.: My body gets a little more used to gross DC summer every year, and this past summer didn't actually bother me that much - in part because it was pretty mild - so I may have changed my mind about this by next winter. We'll see.)
14. Totally at odds with my hermit side... I love talking to people. It stems from being a people person and generally interested in what makes them tick, and is why I actually enjoyed waitressing, particularly in cocktail (that's the tables near the bar, for the uninitiated), because people who sit there tend to be in less of a hurry and are often happy to engage in conversation with total strangers.
15. As a direct result of that, I'm one of those people who can't mind their own business and will answer a question I overhear in someone else's conversation if no one who's part of it can (like, "How many more stops to the Smithsonian?", "What's the deal with the changing of the guard at Arlington?", "Why are there so many people on the Metro at 5pm??", "Do you think the weather will be better tomorrow?").
16. I'm a culture junkie, and I mean that in the broadest sense of the word. Plunk me down in the middle of a city or town and I'll happily wander around, people-watching and absorbing the feel of life there for as long as you'll let me.
17. The first thing I do when I go somewhere new (if it's up to me) is go for a long walk and soak up the sights and sounds of wherever I am. Actually, that doesn't apply only to new places. I walk more or less the same route through Paris right after I get there, whether it's been a month or several years since the last time, just because it feels like Paris, and I love it. And I do the same thing in Manhattan Beach whenever I'm there.
18. The second thing I do when I go somewhere new is usually decide that I'd love to live there for awhile. So far, the list includes Paris, Arles (even though I can't pronounce it convenablement), New York, Seattle, Victoria (B.C.), Prague, London, San Francisco, Monterey... I think the logic behind that is that during the #17 wanderings I end up falling in love with wherever I am, and want to feel like I belong there.
19. I was really shy as a little kid (ex: it took me more than two years of attempts to actually join the K-3 kids' choir at church, because I didn't really know anyone and it terrified me), and still have random moments of inexplicable shyness.
20. Dating completely baffles me and I'm terrible at it, except for the talking to people part.
21. I desperately want a dog, but don't live in a big enough apartment to have one, or know enough about where I'm going to be for the next few years to be able to think about getting one yet.
22. My favorite thing about living somewhere with four actual seasons is seeing daffodils (and cherry trees!) bloom in the spring.
23. Inconsiderate/oblivious people are my pet peeve, and it drives me nuts that there are exponentially more of them in large metropolitan areas than there are in small towns. You'd think living practically on top of each other would induce politeness, because everyone deals with large groups of people on a regular basis. Instead, it makes people more self-centered and prone to stepping on one another, not holding doors, cutting people off, ignoring people who clearly need help, etc.
24. When I cry for an extended period of time, my eyes get really intensely blue. If they were that color all the time, without the crying, it'd be awesome.
25. This thing took me a ridiculously long time to finish. Possibly because some of my answers were much more involved than was necessary...