my green thumb

i was at a garage sale a couple weeks ago and bought two pots for $2.  i thought i'd try to liven up our balcony a little bit and bring in some spring colors.  so today, i am making my first attempt at trying to keep some flowers closer to alive than dead for an extended period of time.

i don't know anything about gardening.  i usually over water things, causing whatever it is to drown.  although, mike and i have somehow managed to keep one houseplant alive, but i think the plant actually refuses to die.  when we moved to our apartment, i swear the plant was on its last leg--leaves super droopy and starting to turn brown--and so i just set it outside to wait for it to die.  mike decided it still had some life to it, watered it, and a couple days later it bounced back.  the plant has fought numerous times for its own life that i feel like i owe it to the plant to keep watering it.  so i do, and it's still alive.

but flowers are a whole other category that i know will require much more tlc than i have offered to my house plant.  we'll see.  

but this is what they look like on day 1.  aren't they pretty?

ugh. running. ugh again.

preface--semi-inspired by whitney's 'lessons i've learned from my dogs' series.  oh how you always one-up me, whit (fist shaking).  coming up with all the good ideas first.  i think this means that i am a terrible blogger.  i must have missed the first day of 'blogging 101' where they teach you it is the cardinal sin of blogging to steal ideas and content from your peers in the blogosphere.  oh well, i love you whitney. and please don't be mad i am stealing borrowing your idea.

well, it's been a not-so-wonderful 115 days since i started working out by way of running.  and in the, maybe, 30 days i've actually put on my work out clothes, laced up my shoes, and walked out my door, i've learned some very important lessons that i thought i'd share with you.

things i've learned in my short time as a runner very slow jogger.

1. you can't go from zero to marathon overnight
   
2. just because you buy all the fancy running gadgets, doesn't make getting up in the morning any easier
   
3. there is a very strong chance that you will see people much older than you or much younger than you running 3x your speed and seem like they are actually enjoying themselves.  as if running can be fun!  who are you people?
   
4. you need to switch it up.  run a new route.  intermingle short distances and long distances.  listen to new music.  change up the scenery.  wear your mp3 armband on the other arm sometimes so you don't end up with one huge tanline on your left arm.
5. running outside is much more fun, but much more difficult.  it's a trade off.
6. daylight savings makes it so much easier to train.  it's too hard to get out of bed in the morning and now i can run after work without feeling like i might be pulled into the bushes at any given moment.
7. every day is different and there are good days and bad days.  some days i feel like i could run forever.  and others i get a side cramp right from the get go and wish i had listened to my instincts and sat on the couch watching friends with a bucket of popcorn.
8. it's important to understand that if you run 4 miles in one direction, you must travel that same distance to get back.
9. when using moleskin padding to cover the same blister that keeps reappearing under the bunion on your right foot, make sure you listen when the directions tell you your feet must be clean for it to stay in place.  that's no funny business.
10. being in shape makes it much easier to push through the pain (sore legs, side aches, feeling like your head is going to explode from overheating) and keep going until you finish the distance you set out to do.
11. while running along the trail by the ocean and listening to panic at the disco's 'nine in the afternoon,' you may repeatedly think the train is about to pass you, but it's not.
12. if you get your head in the game and decide that you are going to run after work without fail, no excuses, you might be rewarded when you are done with a beautiful sunset like this. (oh how i love living near the beach!) 

Lucky # 13.

and above all else, when you hear the train coming, turn your face away from the tracks or you'll be whipped by grains of dirt and sand like you're a camel in a dust storm!  and that's no fun for anyone!

and the cougars came out to play (part 2 of 2)

...continued from march 2, 2009

as we sat at our table, we found ourselves looking at every single person in the room. the guy at the next table was wearing a fancy suit and had a ponytail. one lady was wearing a black, halter, sheath dress with a huge silver embellishment that looked like something you would find at forever 21. one of the guys playing pool looked like he was dressed in designer duds with the top few buttons of his shirt open displaying a (lovely) chain around his neck. a woman of probably 60 was wearing a baby blue sweater with silver threading and a black skirt that was maybe six inches in length and much too short for someone her age. another woman was wearing a strapless corset type dress made from spring green eyelet fabric which was a.) too small and cut her boobs in half, and b.) looked like it belonged on tinkerbell with the way the fabric of the skirt was cut. another guy from across the room looked like he belonged at a biker bar. he was wearing all black and had a leather cowboy hat on. it was quite the eclectic bunch.

but they all had one thing in common. they were all single and ready to mingle.

by about 8:30, the band was finishing setting up and testing their equipment and some background music came on. several people moved to the dance floor and it seemed like every couple dancing didn’t really mesh well together. one guy was all over the dance floor dancing with multiple women at once. he had graying hair and was wearing dockers and a polo shirt—nothing super fancy. but man did he like to dance! his dance moves were so bouncy that his hair, parted perfectly down the middle, flew up and down as he moved. he basically danced circles around all the women on the dance floor trying to win each of their hearts through his interpretation of dance. we also watched the woman with the short skirt and blue sweater gyrate her hips back and forth in a way that made me scared everyone would get an unwelcomed peek at her vajayjay. i felt a little uncomfortable and uneasy, though very amused, watching the antics on the dance floor, but little did i know there would be much, much more.

at 9ish, the band began to play. the band members looked to be in their late 20s and they seemed fairly hip. the lead singer was a girl and i hoped that the band played blues and soul music. i was not even close. it turns out they were a cover band playing everything from santana to bob seger. as the first song started, i realized i’d never seen so many people move so fast to get to the dance floor. it was as if they felt this was their absolute, last opportunity to find love and every single second was of the utmost importance in their search. they danced it out like they meant it.

by this point, mike’s friends arrived and he mingled with them a little bit. work talk. with the music it was hard to hear anyway so i remained in my spectator seat and watched this interesting dating game for the above fifty crowd. i watched as people slowly started to break off into couples on the dance floor. you could tell that there was that initial hesitation as to weather they would fit together. and then there was the occasional awkward moment as one tried to slyly start dancing further and further away from the other one.

the next thing i know i look out around the bar and what was about 50 people when we arrived had quickly turned into 300. i guess this place was voted best singles bar because there were so many to choose from. i swear i saw a guy that looked like samuel l. jackson. he was tall and dark with a khaki colored suit with a collared shirt and a tie. he had glasses and wore a hat the same color as his suit. let me repeat, he wore a hat in a bar slash love lounge (very pimped out, if you ask me). i tried desperately to take a picture, but unfortunately my phone has no flash and it was too dark in the room. sorry kira (kira is my cousin who has a little bit of a samuel l. jackson fetish in that she likes to make her own photos more interesting by photoshopping his face into them as if he were her friend—always cracks me up—and if you knew her, this would totally make sense).

so, after my failed attempt to capture an image of the slj look alike, i noticed something out of the corner of my eye that topped off this wonderful night. it was the icing on the cake. a lovely lady dressed in all black was slowly making her way through the crowd carrying a basket full of long-stemmed roses. and what was she doing with so many flowers, you might ask. well, she was selling them to all the eligible men in the room, of course! a rose that says, “i’m such a sweet, sensitive, caring guy. wanna go home with me?” she should have been caring a small radio with marvin gaye’s “let’s get it on” playing on a loop to top it all off. seriously, my night was complete.

the whole night was just amusing. it seemed so silly to me that all these people put on their best seduction outfits to come to a bar in anaheim hills in hopes of finding their second, third, or fourth love. i know. i know. i shouldn’t be snickering at these people’s seemingly genuine attempts to find someone to spend their time with and maybe fall in love with. but i can’t help it.

after everything i saw, i must say that i had a great night. don’t get me wrong, though, i won’t ever go back. but i had a great night.

the end.

and the cougars came out to play (part 1 of 2)

mike and i had a very amusing evening last week.  it is very unlike us to even consider going out on a weeknight, but with our schedules all out of whack, we used last thursday as an excuse to go out on the town.  we were going to meet up with a couple of mike's friends from work and one of them suggested we go to this restaurant slash lounge slash bar slash music venue in anaheim hills.  all we knew beforehand was that thursdays were the nights that the cougars came out and that this place was voted best singles bar.

the place was called foxfire and when we pulled up, there was a torch-like flame blazing above the restaurant's name on the rooftop.  i thought it was kinda cheesy since the place was called foxFIRE and they put a FIRE on the roof, but whatever.  

there was a bouncer at the door, but thank the heavens we didn't actually have to shell out money to get in this place.  we made it there long before mike's friends so we took a quick lap around the room to see what this place was all about.  it had an old-fashioned feel--as if they used the place as a fine dining brunch establishment by day and moved out all the furniture and turned it into a bar by night.  there was a wooden rectangular bar and a lounge area with oversized maroon chairs.  there were two pool tables with players who seemed like you could find them there any night of the week.  and facing a small dance floor and stage were about twenty cocktail tables.  next task--find an empty one. 

we noticed two semi-available tables at the back.  they were near the pool tables and didn't offer a very good view of the stage and dance floor.  this was a non-issue since we didn't really come to see the band.  table #1 had an empty pool cue case on it.  table #2 had three cocktail napkins and what looked like a half-drunken glass of who knows what.  we decided to sit at table #2 and spent the next few minutes scanning the crowds.

a waitress then greeted us and reported that the table we were sitting at belonged to a group who was out on the patio smoking.  ugh.  she suggested we sit at table #1 with the pool cue case.  she mentioned that it was her friend's case and that he has a really expensive pool cue.  she proceeded to tell us that he'd allow her to sit us there as long as we didn't touch his case.  now i'm not really sure what kind of person thinks that their pool cue case deserves an entire table unto itself, but i wasn't about to accidentally knock it over and find out the hard way.

luckily another table opened up and we found ourselves planted there until we left a few hours later.  

to be continued...