Entering the Season

Seasons can be pretty meaningful for many people. There are seasons like fall that people enjoy for the cooler weather and falling leaves Then there are other seasons like the season of giving, which can start right around Thanksgiving and end after Christmas. Basically, there are seasons for everything, and right now there is no exception.

We've officially entered what I'd like to call Fat Season.

Fat season is known to many, but most people don't call it that. They call it the Holiday Season, yet a lot of women know it's a time of food, food, and more food.

I'm not saying it's a bad season. Once this season kicks into high gear, it includes time spent with family, fun free time, and happy memories. On the other hand, why do you think so many people make New Year's resolutions to lose weight? Two words: Fat Season.

There's delicious food everywhere, and food is given as gifts for many people. Don't think that people are going to be making healthy food, unless you proclaim to everyone that that's all you want. The truth in that statement is you're probably going to want the junk food, and most people will end up giving it to you anyway.
Yes, I've read the articles. Thanksgiving is only one day, don't make it into a week. You don't have to have food as gifts. We try, and as anyone knows, it's hard. Still, we try. That's all we really can do, right?

I'm not going to deny that there are always roadblocks in the way of healthy eating. Fat season might be a time where it's harder, but you're almost always going to have temptations to behave badly (with your food choices). Fat season is just a little harder.

You might be wondering why my fat season starts so early. That's because that's when the celebrations begin.
Yesterday was my sister's birthday, and there have been many an opportunity to celebrate. Her birthday marks the start of my Fat Season. The week after her birthday comes my birthday, meaning more treats. A week passes, then it's Halloween! My favorite candy in fun sized packaging? Yes please.

The season goes into a bit of a lull, then picks back up just in time for a few birthdays and Thanksgiving. Next of course is Christmas, and you know the time in between that is crazy. Top it off with New Year's, and you've got yourself another Fat Season come and gone. You're welcome.

I love when this celebration season starts, but I'm not looking to celebrate with some pals known as flubber attached to my body. I think I'll challenge Fat Season. I'm not sure what the challenges will be other than not gaining weight, but I'll make them. Hopefully Fat Season won't get to y'all either.

Bring it on, Fat Season.

When does your Fat Season start?

The Trouble With a Lack of Motivation

I don't know how else to put this... but I think I'm becoming a bad student.

There's really only one reason why I think this, and it's because I've been extremely lazy. You see, with all of my classes being basically midterms and finals, it's hard to keep motivated. When you have no assignments, and the professors don't even care if you're there, it feels kind of pointless. I've been wasting a lot of time, simply because I have a lot of time to do nothing. This frustrated feeling from accomplishing nothing? It's not a good look for me.
I'm two chapters behind on my Journalism reading. I need to get some notes from class that the professor went too quickly through online. I'm annoyed that there's
time I could have used to get ahead.

The thing is, I haven't missed any deadlines for turning things in. The first quiz in HPHY I got an 100% on, and I've gotten good grades on both of my EBs. I wrote a fairly decent paper for being a very rough draft in Writing. I've read the chapters for the first four chapters of Journalism, with notes. From that viewpoint, it looks like I'm doing pretty well. Still, while looking back at all of the free time I've had, it just seems crappy.

Yes, I realize I'm the effing annoying kid in class who feels bad when they got a 93 instead of a 95. Sue me. I just hate that feeling of looking back at your day and thinking, "Did I accomplish anything today? No. Well hell."

I suppose I did accomplish one thing today. I rode my bike a little less than 4 miles, got a part of my Halloween costume (!) and rode back. That's something, right?

How do you get yourself motivated when you feel like there's no reason to be?

Double Booking Meetings

Do you ever find yourself in an extremely comfortable position, and you simply don't want to move? Right now, I'm feeling that way about a corner in my room next to the heater and a pillow. Damn the overhead light being so far away.

At times, it feels like all of your priorities are happening at the same time. The rest of the time you're completely free, but when it comes to that specific time, everything has to be happening.

That's how my campus involvement is going. Currently, I've been going to the Alpha Phi Omega meetings and University Film Organization meetings. They are both Wednesday evenings.
Surely, this normally wouldn't be a big deal. However, while at the UFO meeting (yeah), I heard about another club that sounded interesting... with meetings on Wednesday.

I have every other afternoon free. What's the deal with Wednesdays?

Well that's all of what's on my mind for the evening. I just want it to be the weekend so I can sleep.

Do many of your commitments happen on the same days? Or are they nicely spread out?

The Little Green Guy

It's nice to know that this bloated feeling will pass. You know, if I don't continue stuffing my face like a crazy. Or whatever. Geez, I get off track before I even start talking, don't I?

Did I say I received a tree from the race? Yes, yes I did.

This is a Douglas Fir. It is the official state tree of Oregon. I have no idea where to plant it. At first it was alright, sitting in a cool area in my house. However, I started to worry about the life of this tree. How long could it last not being in some soil?

I decided that this little guy needed to be planted, but where? I don't know any good places down here for my little tree to live, there's no place here that's special to me yet. On the other hand, this guy needed to be planted.

Now he's in a cup. In my windowsill. Did I mention that this is a Douglas Fir? Yeah, the stupidity of the situation is understood. It's almost like one of those movies where a person takes in an exotic animal and takes care of them. The situation is adorable until the creature becomes an adult lion/gorilla/bear/elephant/whatever. Except this is a freakin' tree. I cannot keep a tree that will "grow between 80-200 feet tall" in my apartment. My life does not need to become a family friendly film where a crazy woman decides to let a tree grow out of her apartment, letting it take over the whole place.

I can honestly say I did not expect this to become a post about a tree, but here we are. This is becoming a strange week indeed, and it's only Tuesday.

Where should I plant this tree?

So That Happened.

Yesterday, I became one of the 1%. The 1% of the population that has run a marathon.

Now I'm not going to go into some emotional essay about what the whole thing means, or any of that. Really, I'm not sure I feel the emotional storm brewin' like that. Hell, I thought I was going to cry at the end because of how crazy the whole thing was, but that didn't really go through my mind at that moment. So here we go, a recap of my first marathon.

The night of, I was already working on a delightful cold. My forehead was burning up, and was thinking, "Crap, should I even be running? Don't they say it's a bad idea to run with a fever? Oh god."
I started getting ready two times that night, thinking it was time to get up. No, it wasn't at 1:00 AM nor was it at 2:30 AM time to get ready. For some reason, I thought it was.

For the first few miles, things were great. I was feeling good, legs were good, all that jazz. By mile nine, that feeling was starting to go. Weirdly enough, the whole time my legs were fine. It was my stomach that was giving me issues.


This picture of joy is a lie... Sort of.

 For most of the race, I felt really nauseous. I think it was too much sugar the week before? I have no idea. All I know is that it was not a good feeling.

Other than that, things were pretty good. I continuously ran the whole time except for dashing to a bathroom and out. That's probably why at the end of the race, my legs suddenly went, "What the hell have you been doing?" and started aching like crazy. That plus the already upset stomach? Not a good combo. A lady in the bathroom next to me asked if I was okay because I was repeating "Ohgodohgodohgod" over and over again. That's not awkward at all.

Who cares about all of that? I ran a freakin' marathon! Plus, I happened to see some pretty crazy/wonderful/bizarre/cool things. Like:

Before the race seeing all of the people for one.

• Musicians playing everywhere, including a bus blasting the song "I'm Sexy and I Know It", great for getting pumped up
• Some awesome signs, like "Your legs are sore because you're kicking ass-phalt!" and others I can't remember now.
• Justin Bieber running. Well, it looked a lot like him just will a pre-puberty voice.
• People giving out the craziest snacks, including bananas, apples, oranges, skittles, pretzels, candy corn, and beer.
• A random hobo peeing by the side of the course. Told you there were some weird things, it's Portland.

There was a lot to see. It is a big city, after all. I managed to get one mid-running picture on the bridge. Cool thing was, only marathon participants were allowed on it. How exclusive.

The ending shoot was very cool, simply because there was so much stuff. There was a ton of food, but because I felt so sick I didn't want to eat. There was a lot of other stuff though that was super cool. For instance, the Portland marathon finishers get no only a shirt before the race, but they get a shirt afterwards that says " Portland Marathon Finisher" on it. We also received our medals, a medallion, a necklace charm, a rose, and a tree. Yes, a tree. Currently my Douglas Fir is sitting in my house, waiting to be planted. I have no idea where. The other part of the finish included getting a finisher's picture, which I've been waiting for impatiently to be put online.

It was nice that a lot of my family members came out to see me. This came in handy when tired legs wanted a break and had a piggyback ride available.


...Which then stretched out my inner thighs in a hurt so good kind of way. My cousin is a creeper.

 What wasn't so good about a lot of people was too many people freaking out about what to do when all I wanted to do was sit and warm up. Big groups can't decide things very well. What made me sad was that a lot of my friends really didn't seem to care, and it's just because it's an important thing to me. I've been talking about it, but many of my friends didn't even acknowledge it. Except Aaron, who ran it as well. Boy is a beast!

Oh, and I must not forget the swag. Most of my swag came from the race day, but I did get some things at the expo. Mostly magazines. I bought the mug, sticker, and bondiband myself.

Right now, I feel like I should be feeling a lot more special. That might sound weird, but it's a pretty big deal. However, it just feels like it's Monday. No biggie. I just wanted someone to comment on my shirt. (I wore my finisher shirt.)

Something no one ever told me about running a marathon? You get totally bloated afterwards. Or maybe that's just me. At least I don't think it's fat. My stomach feels too full of air for that. I think.

Will I ever do a marathon again? I hope so. What I'd like to do is a marathon for every decade of my life, starting with the teens. Now I've got ten years until I have to do one for my twenties. Perhaps the 50th anniversary? (This was the 40th anniversary)

For now, I just need to crash. I had to stay up late last night to finish homework, and because I was so tired I ended up sobbing about how tired I was when I got to bed. Yeah, I wish I were joking. I was sobbing because I wasn't going to get sleep, which kept me from falling asleep. We can be stupid when we're tired.

Really, all I can say is I can't believe I did that.

Lack of Time

I thought I was going to be able to write a long post tonight. That's not going to happen because I'm an idiot who should have come home a lot earlier than I did. Damn, on the freakin' night I actually need to get eight hours I can't. Yeah. We'll talk later. Bring snacks, we could be here for awhile. Tomorrow, at least.

Tomorrow.

It's happening. In less than 12 hours. Um... so yeah. I went to the expo today, and only got a few little blurry pictures.
How do I feel? Surprisingly calm, incredibly anxious, nervous... yeah. We'll just see what happens. For now... I can't think too much about it.