mindfulness and missing tickets

seemingly random post: i cannot get over how many things are being benefitted by mindfulness programs. the waisman center houses the center for investigating healthy minds. if you get a chance to peruse their website, i really think that what their doing might blow your mind.

i watched richie give an informal talk yesterday in the psychology department. he presented some results from the intervention that they are doing with very young children (either kindergarteners or preschoolers, i forget which) in the madison schools. essentially, kids spend 90 minutes a week learning techniques associated with mindfulness meditation. there is an adorable video floating around that i haven't been able to relocate that shows teachers saying things to little, upset kids like, "how does your tummy feel when you are this upset?" and then taking them through (simiplified) guided breathing and asking them to recognize the difference ("how does your tummy feel now?"). it's crazy cute. you can also see some of it in this trailer for a documentary that is following some of this work.



anyway, kids who go through this training not only appear to be able to do what is implied in the video - to mitigate some of the harm that can be done by stress (which, hello, couldn't we all write 100 blog posts about how bad stress is for you?) - but they do things like distribute resources (prizes, stickers) more equitably (kids they like, don't like, and/or don't know) and improve control of attention. in adults, we even see physical benefits like improvements in the immune system associated with regular practice of mindfuness meditation. amazing right? it makes me really sad that some of the parents in this california school have already started movements to do away similar types of program (yoga) because they're rooted in Buddhist tradition. it just reminds me - again and again - that it's SO important to find out all we can about things that we don't really know about. and we live in an age where doing so is probably easier than ever.

[don't even get me started on how easy it is not to fall for those hoaxes on facebook. if you know how to copy and paste, you should be googling all of those to see if they are real. end rant.]

plus, how cute is this little thing doing yoga? hello! get on board, fans of adorableness.

however, not wanting to end my post seeming like a grumpy gus, it makes me very excited that the Dali Lama will speak (with Richie and others) here in Madison about some of this work, the differences they're making, and where they might be going next. for some reason, i didn't get my e-mail about the presale and it looks like only the really expensive tickets are left, but i'm hoping something magical happens and i end up getting to go. wouldn't that just be amazing?! i caught a good glimpse of the Pope when i was in Rome. i'd like to add the DL to my list as well. especially when he's talking about science and happiness.

heart = warmed.

oh, neglected blog. . .

it's 3:08 am. i got up to go to the bathroom about an hour ago and have been wide awake ever since. for something like the last 30 minutes, i've been ruminating on how neglected this blog has been. in some ways, it seems a little self-absorbed to have a blog at all. and in many ways, i think i struggle a bit with this blog's identity. i have so many blogs that i like that can be topically summarized in a a word or two. i've got more of a hodgepodge of recipes, wedding, travels, job search, and just general goings on in the life of me. it doesn't seem like a topic that would typically fly. but, i have to say, that it has been a nice way to keep in touch with people who don't live nearby any more. i'm not sure if it's something that will come with us to montana or not.

the last two months have been a whirlwind. i know that i say it all the time, but it really is a bit disturbing how quickly time passes by anymore. i'm back to running three times a week. two with my new running group, one on my own. it's a different group than i was in before, mostly because it is a 10K rather than a 5K training plan. i actually miss the old group, which was much smaller and much more diverse in its participants' ranges of experience, ability, and goals. but i'm learning to adjust. i never claimed to be good with change, after all. dy and kara have both agreed to join me for the goal race, which will be fun. last month, kristi contacted also me about doing a 5K together, which i'm pretty excited about. it will be a fun race and i'm genuinely looking forward to having some 1-on-1 time with her in madison.

matt and i visited one another over our respective spring breaks. both of those weeks went so quickly i can hardly remember what we did. went out for dinner, watched movies, ordered pizza, and got through another wisconsin snowstorm. looked at a lot of potential places to live in bozeman. wondered when we would fit "looking at homes" into our schedules. . .

kassi also paid a visit to madison over her spring break. it may have been the first time that she and i have had some quality alone time together since she's been an adult and it was much appreciated. i tried to show her some of madison's finer points, although it was complicated by some really cold temps. nonetheless, her visit produced this awesome replication of an infamous photo from jamaica. time well spent, i say.

we got word last week, while i was in ohio, that my grant would start this past monday. good news, of course, though so far things don't feel that much different. we'll see if that changes sometime soon. so far, the support staff in the psych department here has made transitioning pretty painless.

now i'm gearing up for a visit from karen, three conferences in the next month, and more pre-move planning.

well, and hopefully some sleep. . .

chicks dig lasers

this conversation actually happened with my doctor, one of the fellows at the UW vision center:

dr: a few days after the surgery, you may find that your eyes are more red than you're used to, you're experiencing dryness. . . or some slight discomfort. . .

me (giggling): because you just shot lasers into them?

dr: . . . uh, yeah. i guess that does seem kind of intuitive, doesn't it?

that's right. i'm signed up for LASIK. i'm giving myself the gift of sight. and i'm really, really excited about it. i've been thinking about it for a while and did a consultation in the fall after UW offered the procedure to its faculty and staff for half the cost. then, when we were in jamaica and i had to ration out my disposable lenses based on whether or not i wanted to take a nap during the afternoon. . . or when we did the rope swing and i came up out of the water trying to dislodge the contact lens that had shifted to the outside of my eye. . .i realized that if we're going to live an active lifestyle (thank you, bozeman!), this will make things immeasurably easier. and far less worrysome.

so, i've been doing some research on how LASIK works. it's actually really interesting. from what i understand, it essentially uses lasers to reshape your cornea. why does that improve vision? well, this is why:

even better, my surgery is going to be blade free. it has something to do with creating the "flap"with lasers and bubbles rather than a blade. this is fine by me. from what i can tell, you can see a lot more of an actual LASIK surgery than you want to on YouTube. i do not want to watch eye surgery on YouTube, but i do think that this one minute cartoon gets the gist of it across.

according to the American Academy of Opthamology and the Eye Surgery Education Council,  approximately 700,000 LASIK surgeries are performed every year. LASIK has the highest patient satisfaction rate (95.4%) of any elective surgery. the majority of patients enjoy 20/20 vision or better post surgery. most LASIK patients are able to return to work the next day, though not for jobs that necessitate high visual acuity (i.e., you're a surgeon).

and if you're paying the price that i'm paying for LASIK vs. what i typically spend on contact lenses and contact lens supplies, the surgery pays for itself well within five years.

i'll need to use drops (antibiotics to fight infection, steroids to help with healing, and lubricating drops for the dryness) for a while. and i'll of course need to be careful about getting things in my eyes early on, but recovery really is supposed to be quick. paula has volunteered to make sure that i'm well taken care of should anything crazy come up. my plan is to have hear take me to the clinic on the 20th, bring me home, and then sleep until i feel better. or until i go back to the doctor the next day.

you'll likely be able to track the speed of my recovery by how quickly i am back on e-mail and facebook.

winter warriors and worriers

i'm about six weeks into my winter running program and i am hungry. this happened in the fall, too, as my body got used to using more and more energy over the weeks. it was a little tough to get going again after a wedding- and job-search-induced "break," but it does feel good to be active again. it feels cold, but it feels good. . .

skaters and hockey players in the park

you know what else i've noticed? there are a lot of people outside here in the winter. even when it's cold, i always see people skating, running, playing in the snow. . . honestly the other day i saw a woman whose dogs were pulling her on a sled. it was like she was having her own little iditarod right here in my neighborhood. but those ducks (yep, those up there in the top picture) are always the happiest beings on my runs. i've been using a new route that takes me under some of the bigger streets here and it goes right along that river. no matter how cold or how windy, those ducks are always out and about, splashing around, and "honking" up a storm. good for them.

running is just one of the things that it getting back into a normal routine now that job search stuff is wrapped/wrapping up. matt and i owe everyone a huge update on that and i promise that it's coming soon. right now it just feels good to be back to work (i've already submitted the revision of my dissertation manuscript for [*hopefully*] publication), and not preparing job talks, trips, etc., etc. i'd forgotten what it feels like when your work responsibilities only include working.

probably we should celebrate by going back to jamaica. :)

side note: if you continue to pay attention to the type of work that i do, you'll hear me talk at some point about stress, life stress, and stress in the lives of children. stress is so, so bad for us. however, there are some pretty amazing strides being made as of late (though some of them have taken a hit based on stereotypes :/ ). anyway. . . this article from the new york times got passed along to me yesterday and i thought it was really interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?smid=pl-share

as you might imagine, i have had a few worrisome things on my mind lately. and as my mom will attest, i worried a lot about tests in school. (not so much basic skills tests, but more the other ones). now, we should all remain cognizant one gene will never be "the answer" to anything (well, almost never), but it's an interesting way to get an understanding of how these things work. obviously nobody is going to worry or not worry because of dopamine, but at least we're getting a better idea of what the system is (think "i feel sick" vs. "i have a massive headache that i can feel right behind my eyeball" see how one gives you a much better idea of what's going on/what might be wrong?). and, after about one page of reading, you'll probably know where you fall on the dopamine-clearing scale. . . 

wisco-winter wonderland

i had started a whole post in my head about my concern regarding people's extremist attitudes lately (really - all guns or no guns? we speak as though those are our only options?) and the shocking lack of informed rhetoric on important hotbutton topics (if your google works like my google, when you type in "gun control options," you don't see one reputable source). however, i don't think that this blog is ready for such serious topics yet. nor am i ready to be quite that vulnerable on the internet, so i'll keep it light.

and by light, i mean 19.5" deep.

did you guys see that winter got here just in time to celebrate its official first day? this was the first snowstorm that matt and i weathered together (pun TOTALLY intended)! matt was in madison december 14-21. he had a temp of 103 degrees just before he left, so we kept things pretty low key in hopes of helping him recover before we head to jamaica. but we did make sure to have our date night and get the needed groceries before we bunkered down on wednesday to watch the storm roll in.

and in it came.

it never seemed to be snowing all that much, but suddenly things were covered in a way that they hadn't been since last winter. we didn't notice until we left the house today, but my neighborhood is decorated with snowpeople of all shapes and sizes. clearly not everyone adopted our "stay inside unless you really HAVE to go out" strategy of coping with the storm. it kind of reminds me of that crazy rainstorm over the summer. i thought i was miserable getting so wet until i realized that there were bunches of people playing outside and having fun. i know that i hate being cold. and i know that shoveling snow and scraping windows gets really old. but i do like these little reminders that make you stop and wonder, "why do i complain so much about this again?" because when someone is building a snowperson with charcoal eyes, an oversized scarf, and a flower pot for a hat, it sort of suggests that things aren't quite as dire as they may seem! :)

plus, a fresh coat of snow makes things look really fresh and pretty.

that being said, i was feeling really, REALLY pouty about finding my car looking like this (see photo on right) when it was time to take matt to the milwaukee airport today. the only saving grace for me was knowing that i was lucky to have matt around. because if he'd taken the bus (as per our plan b), i would've been digging this thing out by myself in the morning.

i'm waiting for one last holiday package to arrive before i head back to iowa (the first one that i ordered, naturally) and then matt and i will resume our efforts to keep the airlines in business. i'm just in for a trip to ohio and the honeymoon adventure. matt is really putting on his frequent flier cap for january.

hopefully we will have enough settled on the job market front so that we can update you on that next month. there is a lot to share.

happy holidays!

Christmasy catchup

want to hear something exciting? earlier this month, my blog got 80 views. 80! in one day! i wish that i had said something funny or intelligent. . .or anything at all. obviously, my travel schedule has meant that there has been very little blogging lately. so, whoever those people were pretty much just got to see old postings and photos. sorry, new friends. i hope you come back. and i hope you leave comments :)

i feel a little bit more like i can breathe now. in the last five weeks, i've been in 11 states and 2 countries. i've been on 19 planes.  i've found a dry cleaner. i know exactly how many days of parking i can pay for until taking a cab is less expensive. i ate duck for the first time. i broke in my new passport. i read three novels (now that we're in de-icing season, you can really spend forever on the ground without access to electronics). i revised a manuscript. i have a newfound appreciation for the importance of amoxicillin. i got some pretty pictures. i got a haircut. i got a dry cleaner. i got some pretty weird pictures (to be shared later). AND i somehow finished my Christmas shopping.

so far my favorite sign from traveling

there is an equally long list of things that i haven't done in the past 43 days. not the least of which is keeping up my running. i think my last good run was at the end of october. i'm supposed to have a "running meeting" with the program director early monday morning. so, we'll see how that goes. i'm not even sure that i have the appropriate winter running attire (actually, there are many things i need before this, but look at how smart this cap is. why have i been trying to fit my ponytail UNDER my cap for all of these years?!). the goal is to be back in shape enough to do a 10K training program in the spring. so, if you're lucky, you'll read me whining about that in just a few short months! :)

belated share from Lacey's wedding

now i'm just hoping to settle in for a few weeks at least. i, of course, have a "to do" list assembled for the rest of the month. and then i suppose i have to get back on a plane and go on my honeymoon. you know. . .hard times.

i am checking off a few things weekend, i hope (including maybe posting some more of the beautiful wedding photos that melissa took). however tonight i'm settled in with an unpacked suitcase, my first quart of apple cider for the season, and either friends reruns or some basketball games (my fantasy team is currently about even [18-20-2] and i'm playing against matt this week. go, my team!) i can't tell you how long i've been waiting for a low-key night like this one. hope everyone else gets a chance to relax this weekend, too.

travel, wedding, travel, travel

i'm making a quick update on what feels more like a 3-day layover in madison rather than time at home. i have two interviews down, two to go, and three "outstanding" phone interviews that i haven't heard back from. i'm trying to keep most of the details off of the interweb just given that you never know who might end up with access to your facebook page, blog, etc. yet, given that that is pretty much all i'm doing lately, that leaves me with little else to comment on.

i am not going to share site-specific stories yet for the aforementioned reasons, but i will share this pic that becca snapped for matt and me at the hilliard-starr wedding last weekend. we had a great time in texas and even put in some QT with the schlegel-hicks clan. it had been far too long since we had seen cole. i am sad to report that i missed what was probably the cutest photo-op of the weekend, which was cole making friends with the flower girl and both of them playing in the dirt at the end of the aisle. however, i did get this video during playtime after some texas bbq. to really get the adorableness, you have to listen for cole's "wheeeeeee" at the top of the slide.

the most perplexing moment came yesterday, i think, when i was waiting in line for the drugs that will supposedly subdue my sinus infection in time for me to fly out again tomorrow (keep fingers crossed about that, please). the target pharmacy was pretty busy and i was waiting in a pool of several people who had gathered. at some point, an older woman approached the counter and got into what turned into a fairly heated argument with the pharmacist. the short of it was that the woman had a prescription for eye drops that was supposed to last her for a month and a half, but was only lasting her about a month. she wanted to get two months worth of drops at a time, which her insurance company wouldn't allow. she was pretty fiesty about it, because she had apparently received two months at a time before (and claimed that is what her doctor wanted) and she wanted the pharmacist to just fix the insurance claims to say that she was picking up her drops at two different dates. the pharmacist kept explaining that they wouldn't do this as it was essentially filing a fraudulent claim. to the pharmacist's credit, she stayed pretty cool throughout the conversation; however, the eye-drop woman kept getting more and more upset, more and more confrontational, and started to claim (and probably believe) that this was all happening because the pharmacy had "screwed up" at some point.

you could tell that all of us who were waiting were getting uncomfortable, feeling sorry for the pharmacist, and were pretty clear that no matter how this eye-drop woman argued or how many insults were hurled, things were not going to work out in her favor. at one point, one of the other women waiting beside me interjected, "lady, you just need to move on."

"stay out of my business," replied eye-drops.

"i don't care about your business," responded the other customer, "but i do care how you treat this woman and the way you're acting is [expletive]."

the two breifly exchanged words and eye-drops eventually huffed away. truthfully, the customer didn't need to resort to her own nasty language, but in her defense, we'd been standing around watching the altercation for close to 25 minutes. and while i wasn't thrilled with her methods, i found myself admiring this other customer for standing up for the pharmacist. and further found myself wondering why i hadn't done something myself. we all saw the same thing unfolding - why had only one of us interjected on behalf of the poor pharmacist, who was holding her own but by the end was simply enduring the customer's insults? it was almost embarrassing, really. i still don't know what it was that kept me from saying anything, but it has made me think a lot over the last day about the extent to which we're really willing to put ourselves on the line to defend someone else from an attack. i'm not sure if other people have found themselves in similar situations. i would like to think that i'd do my part to step forward to help someone who is not necessarily in a position to help themselves. but i didn't. and so now i find myself how to moving forward with resolve to be - not aggressive - but more willing to at least step forward in defense of others. it's just not totally clear to me what my own "tipping point" is as far as being willing and able to step in and lend a hand. maybe this is something other people already know about themselves? or maybe we all continue to struggle with similar things.

anyway, the next few days are another travelpalooza, followed by thanksgiving, followed by more travels. if you're counting, we're heading out for our honeymoon in 47 days. now THAT is a trip that i'm looking forward to!

for the masses: a recipe and a question

what does this even mean?
i feel like this is not the first time that i've been stumped by such a scenario. the perfectly-spaced parallel lines say, "park here. you're welcome anywhere there is an open space." yet, i've also been trained to recognize the yellow curb as strictly prohibiting the presence of my car any any other. (seriously, i ended up with 100% in driver's ed - - you can trust me on this). so, i ask you, what the heck?

please stop sending me mixed messages, neighborhood gas stations! you're hurting my brain. and you make look dumb as i drive really, really slowly through gas station parking lots trying to figure out where i am (and am not) supposed to park.

okay, end tangent.
how about something a gazillion times easier than that?

i realize that some people have instant anxiety about recipes that contain a cream of soup. i get it. it comes out of the can as a a glob that holds its own shape. it doesn't smell like food. and it's not good made as a soup on its own (on this i am also a self-proclaimed expert, as saint mary's served me cream of mushroom soup after my back surgery). however, it's coming on winter here and where i'm from winter is casserole season (affectionally called "hot dishes" if you're from minnesota and "bakes" if you're from pennsylvania. are there more names like this?) and casseroles/hot dishes/bakes almost always contain cream-ofs. so, they don't scare me. and now that i know that i'm supposed to be eating more salt in my diet, i don't even spring for the low sodium selections.

but i can guarantee you that this cream-of-including recipe is delicious. it takes almost no time to assemble, it never turns out wrong, and it always tastes yummy. i got it and about 7,000 taste tests from my mom. bon apetit!

Chicken & Asparagus Casserole

Ingredients:
3/4 pound asparagus spears (12-15)
1 1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 can cream of asparagus soup
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1/3 cup milk

Directions:
1. Trim, cook, and drain asparagus (boiled or steamed, i've done it both ways and they're both fantastic).

2. In a 9" pan, arrange asparagus and chicken.

3. Combine soup and milk.

4. Pour soup and milk mixture into pan over asparagus and chicken. Top with cheese and bread crumbs.

5. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbling.

You can serve over rice, potatoes, noodles, or toast, but it's totally delicious just as is. For real.

pop quiz, hot shot

Q: what do you do when you've officially been married for a week and have *almost* caught up on your sleep?

A: run a 5K in the cold, wind, and rain.
duh.

okay, maybe that's not actually the optimal way to celebrate being married for a full week, but it definitely is what i did. to nobody's surprise more than my own, too, given that when i woke up on saturday morning, i hadn't really gotten a good run in for over a week and this was the forecast:

10 AM start time, of course

yeah.
gross.

post race

but, my friend lauren really wanted to do the run and i'd already paid my registration fee, so i went with her. i actually avoided a lot of the color stations (that stuff is a little tough to breathe through, so if you're thinking about doing a color run, consider ways to cover your eyes and/or mouth) and didn't do the big color throw at the end. the good news is that i survived, my time was slightly better than my time for dam to dam, and since it was a local run with a morning start time, i even had time for a nap in the afternoon.

i'm not even mad at the girl who took this photo from the worst possible angle (top down, people!! always top down!)

i'm glad i did it though. if nothing else, it was pretty rewarding to realize that i'm at least at a place where i can get up and go run three miles if i need to. although i'm clearly going to need some heavier clothes to keep running this winter!!

this week i'm hoping for the same kind of bounce-back at work! :)

it's going to need to be at least 3 times that size

little library along the bike trail

my run this morning, the one that quickly turned from a 3 mile run into a 1.5 mile run (i'm still not convinced that my body isn't trying to be sick), kind of felt like a fail in a lot of ways. however, one success was finally getting a shot of the "little library" that i run past all the time. it's really cute! i really love this whole movement and i wouldn't be surprised if kara tried to get it going in the east suburbs of des moines sometime soon. there are a bunch of them in the willy street neighborhood by my house, and i actually think it makes the whole neighborhood feel more like a small town - where everyone is willing to help each other out. some people are really crafty, too. there is a duplex near the lake that built a little duplex library. it's super cute. the website that i've linked to above also shows some clever creations. cute, right?!

where did all of these hours go?

the countdown on our knot site suggests that we have only 18 days until the wedding. i'm not entirely certain how that is possible. then again, i just sat in silence on the phone for an embarrassingly long time trying to decide what today's date was. it's baffling to me how quickly time is passing.

since the last post, many things have happened. and also, nothing has happened. in my mind very few days have gone by; yet, given that nearly a month has passed, i suspect that they have actually all just melded into one big blur for me. i'll try to disentangle some of that here.

i have "officially" started to mentor for the run group that i participated in during the spring. i only felt able to commit to the wednesday evening runs (which have turned out to be a stretch in and of themselves), but i am happy to be participating. almost everyone who shows up to that group has a hectic life schedule. it's nice to show up for an hour and be somewhere else, doing something fun and beneficial. plus, it reminds me to keep on track with my own running program. i do have another 5K on the horizon, after all (p.s. although i'm sad that i won't be participating in a september run given my "one run a month" trend since june, i think that was a very wise decision. . . ). AND, i get this super cool shirt that identifies me as a mentor. i don't know that i have a lot to offer in terms of running knowledge, but i keep thinking that if my offering of friendship, inclusiveness, and encouragement keeps even one person coming back in the week-to-week, then i will consider my mentorship a success.

matt and i went to another lovely wedding in southern ohio. you'll likely remember it as the weekend that this happened. we were busy enough that i didn't see any of the game; in fact, i knew nothing of the outcome until someone told me at the reception. i do feel a bit bad for the penn state players. and bill o'brien seems like a nice guy. but, as in their run in the dance a few years ago, OU plays the role of the underdog like a champ. and even i have to laugh at these t-shirts. so, true to my slightly unnerving trek from one big10 school to the next, i feel some mixed allegiances.

my first bridal shower went off seemingly without a hitch. i am not sure why my mom and i are both making weird faces in that picture, but i promise that it is not indicative of the event as a whole. it was nice to be home again and to see people i hadn't seen for quite some time. it was all very lovely and matt and i are very excited about and very grateful for all of the gifts that we received.

as an added gift, my wedding ring is back from being resized nearly a whole week early. given that the arrival date originally posed to us was October 3rd, we are considering ourselves lucky. we also feel lucky that we were able to work out a real fiasco with the hotel rooms last week. thankfully, we were alerted to the fact that things seemed to be going awry and matt was able to persist in finding someone knowledgable and figuring out what was actually going on. so, two potentially close calls have been avoided. *phew*

other than that, this week is full of trying to stay caught up (and maybe even get ahead on) work before wedding shenanigans really take full effect. matt is teaching on tuesdays and thursdays. i have one class as a part of my fellowship, one weekly meeting, and am trying fiercely to get things turned in/passed along to collaborators before october hits. so far my proudest moment of the week was turning some of the delicious veggies that my mom sent home with me into a small pizza. though that is mostly because i like few things more than i like pizza.

and just in case all of that is starting to sound a little bit too hectic for you, my dear family and friends, i'll close with a picture i took of the mississippi river during my drive home last weekend. as it turns out, there is an adorable little rest area tucked away on the MN-WI border that screams "photo-op." it was a gorgeous day, and the picture just verifies that everything is starting to look like fall.

weeks went by: part 3

Kassi & Grandma

the grand finale, so to speak, on matt's time in madison was a weekend with my parents and my niece. a mere 72 hours before kassi moved to college, she was here talking with matt and i about financial aid and helping mom and i craft ideas for a wedding guest book and escort cards (more on those projects later).

it is never an enviable task to try to find the few common hours in the schedules of five people and i'm incredibly thankful that we pulled it off. i think by the time that my mom and i were really ready to choose a weekend, we might have only had this one left. and it still involved some fancy scheduling.

we all went miniature golfing and out for dinner once everyone arrived (and post however much time it takes five people who haven't seen each other in a while to get caught up on general life stuff). there is a place here that we discovered when i first moved in that has multiple courses and is pretty fun. for some reason, i got many fewer holes in one this time around. BUT i won a free game at the end and kassi got some fun pictures with some of the characters on the course, so it was all worth it. i mean, have you ever actually seen anything this wonderful? yeah. i thought not.

before: lauren, paula, becky, kara, milo, kristen

matt left only a few days after my parents, and that basically brings us all the way up to last weekend. my friend kara and her husband brian came to madison because kara had agreed to participate in the dirty girl mud run with my me, my friends paula and lauren, and our friend kristen, who we went to central college with, but who i haven't seen in what feels like ages.

kristen and paula on one of the obstacles

this run was an interesting test of my will. what kind of will, i'm uncertain, but it has to do with my longstanding, overwhelming desire to not get dirty. seriously, this dates back to not even liking dirt as a child. or lake water. or grass stains. or walking through puddles. i'm not saying that these things never happened, but they would not have been included on my list of things that were fun. the only exception to this seemed to be our sandbox. i'm not sure why, but that never seemed dirty to me (although if you made the mistake of wearing your shoes in, you were totally screwed). maybe because my dad built it? i'm not sure. but basically everything else that was dirty was something that i didn't like. especially mud.

after: lauren, becky, kara, kristen, paula

fast forward to last weekend. i felt like i had to force myself to get into it on one of the first few obstacles, or i was going to end up being the girl who came to the mud run but tried to stay clean. i need not have worried. i had 3.1 miles of running and obstacles and lots, and lots of mud in front of me. i actually found myself getting into it (apparently i'm quite good at sliding through spreads of mud on my stomach - and thankfully so, because it was about 1,000 times easier than trying to run through it without falling down).

the cleaning up part was pretty much as awful as you would imagine. i *might* still have mud in the corners of my toenails, actually. i probably won't be signing up for another mud run anytime soon, but i had a great group, i actually got a good workout (thanks, all of the weird walls that we had to climb), and it benefitted a great cause. i'm glad that i checked it off of my "to do" list!

the two who didn't lose their glasses: paula & kara

that makes three 5Ks in three months. september is a little full, but i'm already signed up for another color run in october. actually, i may be running a second 5K in october as well. i've been asked to serve as a mentor for the running group that i've been participating in since the spring. part of the structure of the program is that former participants serve as mentors to help and inspire first-time participants. i can't be at every run, obviously, but i'm kind of excited about staying active in the group. and flattered, of course, that they'd ask me to serve such a role. anyway, the point of the group is for the first-time participants to run in a "goal race" at the end of the program. along the way there is a mentor's race as well. i think it sounds like fun.

this almost got my photo-taking privileges revoked

while the details of all of that are getting worked out, i'm prepping for a weekend away with my girls. as a bachelorette/pre-wedding hangout, they've booked some time for us at a cabin on a lake just an hour or so north of madison. i don't remember the last time a bunch of us got to hang out - and it even looks as though we're going to get a beautiful weekend to grill, get some sun, and play outdoor games.

it's been quite a month. i could have sworn that it just started. but at least you haven't had to read about work stories for the last three weeks, right? :)

weeks went by: part 2

so, for the second half of our time together, we had already planned to cash in a groupon that crossed my desk almost immediately after i returned from ohio in july. there is a sport cafe in one of the madison suburbs that was offering what equated to a 2-for-1 kayak rental for half a day. matt has been telling my that i would enjoy kayaking, so this seemed like a perfect excuse to try it out.

as it turns out, he was mostly right.  aside from an afternoon-long fear of falling in the very, very seaweedy water, i really enjoyed myself. i was better balanced than i thought i would be and (perhaps because we were in a lake instead of on a river) my arms weren't as painfully exhausted as i thought they were going to be. i should say that this type of excursion usually is not a lake trip, but because the summer has been so dry, the river won't carry a kayak like it should. in any case, i dare say that we championed lake ripley like real troopers. i would definitely go back. especially if every day was as gorgeous as the one we got.

actually, the majority of the second half of matt's visit was spent in beautiful weather. this was great, because we like to spend time outside. after one fairly productive day, we trekked to the historical union terrace, where you can sit by the lake, have a drink, listen to live music, and just chat with good company. and - because this happens more to matt than to anyone else i have ever met, this little bird basically came and joined us. do you see him sitting on the railing in the picture? our table is pretty much pushed all the way up to where he is perched, but he just sort of flew in and hung out. it was almost reminiscent of the peacock that followed matt around the milwaukee zoo.

true to form, happy hour turned into hungry hour. we headed back to the willy street neighborhood, which is quickly becoming one of our faves. it was a short walk from the lot where i rent a parking space to the blocks and blocks of adorable little eateries. i think we both pretty much knew that we would end up at one of our favorite little pizza joints (they make a spicy pizza sauce). we got to sit outside and take take in both the sun and the yummyness.

actually, you can see the pizza place behind me in that picture, i think. i'm pretty sure that the big red block is where all of the outdoor tables are at. (we walked past it at first like we might eat somewhere else. . . yeah right).

he didn't say anything at the time, but i can tell from this photo that matt was done being amused and ready to eat.

but i couldn't help myself. it was so gorgeous out and i kind of really love this town.

weeks went by: part 1

date night!

today i dropped matt off at the airport in milwaukee and, somewhere on the way home, realized that i had racked up zero updates for the month of august. not due to lack of things to recap so much as lack of moments to recap them.

matt was here for about two weeks. the first week was almost insanely hot. as has been most of the summer. so, we'll call the first part of this trip the "hot part." perhaps needless today, this was the part of the trip focused on indoor activities. although our date night picture was taken out of doors, for example, we were on our way to dinner and a movie. matt had seen a preview for beasts of the southern wild and sent me the trailer below along with an e-mail saying that we should try to see it. not two days later i had a message from the local sundance theater saying that said movie was to be in town during matt's visit. fate? obviously. as suggested by the trailer, the movie was spectacular. gut-wrenching and tear-jerking. but spectacular.



the little girl (whose voice you hear) was phenomenal. i actually still can't believe how great she was given how young she obviously is.

secret ingredient

yummy. . . 

it was actually shortly after matt got here that we headed to chicago to visit with dj and laura. i apparently took no photos of this, but this seems an appropriate time to share the laura-inspired recipe that we made after we got back. since it was still a little warm, we tried to spend a few days cooking using the crock pot. remembering laura making us delicious, italian beef sandwiches, we decided to give a simplified version our own shot. like really simplified. beef broth, roast beef, and spicy giardinera. rumor has it that the giardinera really makes the experience. we haven't ever found it in athens and it seemed not to be available in state college. madison kind of pulled through for us non there. i'm not going going to lie - the hot version is definitely hot. like, "don't-pile-it-on-unless-you're-ready-to-set-your-mouth-on-fire" hot. however, it was also delicious. we don't eat that much red meat at all, but we're definitely having this one again.

and as long as in an "i'm-not-going-to-lie" mood, i'll tell you that i was pretty proud of myself for just happening to have a potato on hand to toast up a tasty side dish. just like a real grown up.

two more things to round out part one of what promises to be a roughly three part saga. first, i forget why, but matt and i definitely made a trip out to dick's sporting goods. i forget what we were looking for and i don't honestly remember if either of us bought anything. but i can tell you that i was pretty ridiculously humored by this mannequin.

holding its own hand.

what is this display supposedly saying, anyway?
and what type of sporting product would it sell to the average consumer?

tough call.
but very funny.

and finally, in addition to delightfully collecting RSVPs for the wedding, we've been getting a good number of invitations to the weddings of others. unfortunately, many of them are right around either the time of our wedding or what will be our honeymoon. what is not unfortunate, however, is that we are still pretty delighted when things come to us addressed like this:

most of our invites actually aren't for formal affairs, but there have been a few that have come addressed to dr. and dr. it's kind of fun still. and it also definitely feels kind of weird. kind of makes me wish we would have added a few "drs" to the invites that we sent out.

sorry, dr. friends. we'll try to step it up a notch with the thank you notes.

so, what did you do tonight?

6:19 finish group run. note that the dropping temps throughout made for an enjoyable trek. appreciate being active. feel good.

6:20 note that the sky is getting very dark and comment out loud that, against all odds, i've never actually run in the rain. weird right?

6:22 hurry to car as wind picks up and sky continues to grow dark. still slightly lament not getting to run in the rain, but begin to head home. at least the drive back is always faster than the rush-hour-timed drive there, right?

6:24 wrong. find myself in a real, actual downpour. traffic is stopped. realize that this ride home is going to take way, way too long.

best use of the stop and go (and red light)

6:29 listen to radio announcer say that the storm is carrying wind gusts of up to 70 mph. wonder if my car can handle said gusts. wondering if my body can handle said gusts should they happen to hit between the time that i am in my car and in my apartment.

6:30 decide probably not. at least on that latter count.

6:34 wonder what will happen if my car doesn't make it through some of the deep, standing water that has gathered at these intersections. continue driving, because it looks even deeper in either direction i might pull off to stop.

6:48 finally arrive at my parking space. verify that there is no umbrella in my car.

6:50 walk the two blocks from my car to my apartment building in torrential downpour. grimace at the water on the sidewalks and the edges of the streets that comes up well over my ankles and is starting to develop into miniature rapids. give up trying to run through it.

6:52 fall a little bit more in love with my neighborhood because at least a dozen people have come outside to actively play in the rain. smile in spite of myself.

6:56 arrive inside apartment completely safe and completely, completely drenched

end of a rainy walk home

the ties that bind (or lack thereof)

ever feel like you're hanging by a thread? i definitely did this week. I was waiting for this strap on by bag to bust all week and leave my stuff scattered around the streets of madison.

so i had to break down (no pun intended) and get a new bag. it's not quite as roomy as the old one, but that's probably for the best. and it really was time, i  suppose.

although true to form, i haven't yet been able to throw the old one away.

"you're eating leaves"

welcome home to me

how on earth is it the middle of june? i swear that nick and sarah just got married - or that we were running dam to dam just a couple of days ago. it just doesn't seem possible that i'm already freaking out about all of the things that i wanted to get done during june that are still solidly on my "to do" list. and now that job applications are lingering in the near future, that's even more sad. . . and scary.

once i made the billion-hour drive home from lawrence, i slept (of course) and then immediately went and got myself both groceries and some flowers. when you return home to an empty apartment, it is super hot, and you are weeks worth of super exhausted, sometimes you just need a little splash of color. don't get me wrong, i still think my tiny little abode here is absolutely adorable. it's even totally bearable on these 90+ degree days thanks to my amazing fiancé. however, if you all wanted to keep me hooked up year round with a bouquet of color, i wouldn't be angry. these just make me smile for some reason, even now as half of the flowers are moving into an "early wilt" stage because it's been so freaking hot and humid this week, it adds a little humor for those of us who also feel like we might melt away at any moment.

i've spent most of the last couple of days trying to get caught up - both at home and at work. monday and wednesday got scheduled as almost entire days of meetings and in the interim, i'm trying to write and get going on some new analyses for whatever my next project is going to be. i did find time, though, to recreate this amazing salad that i had when i was in lawrence. if you can get past the fact that the purple leaves in these mixed greens look brown, you can trust me that it's surprisingly delicious. it was originally one of those things that i thought might not be good as a salad even though i liked all of the constituent parts. thankfully i was wrong. what are the constituent parts, you ask?

mixed greens

a few tomato slices

dried cranberries

slivered almonds

& shaved parmesan cheese

another lawrence delicacy

top it off with some balsamic vinaigrette and you've got yourself something pretty amazing. and nice and fresh for these super hot summer days. thank you, lawrence, for this treat.

i finally got back out to run today (although i had to wait until 8pm, when the temperature finally slipped back below 90). the humidity makes things a bit tough, so i'm making a mental note to keep my inhaler filled. other than that, it's just a matter of learning to deal with being disgustingly sweaty.  bets are still out on whether i'll actually be more comfortable with the heat and humidity first :)

i also went to the salon next door for my first facial today. matt's been giving me a (good-natured) hard time about it, but they're offering all of their skin services at half price (and rumor has it that they will be for a while, as the esthetician is new and is still building up a clientele) and with the wedding approaching i thought, "why not?" i wasn't sure what to expect exactly, but it was pretty wonderful. part gentle massage and part a series of face masks, i found it delightfully relaxing. plus, my skin feels amazingly soft (and actually moisturized, for once). so if any of you lived here, i would send you to taj immediately. PLUS, she actually complemented my skin, affirming yet another way that my 30s are totally better than my 20s. because the 14-year old version of me definitely did NOT see that coming.

p.s. the quote in the title of this post comes from the daughter of my friend kristi, who i met for dinner (along with her family) in wisconsin dells on sunday night. part way through my salad, i looked at samantha and found her giggling at my "meal."
       

Bratwurst and the Beach

matt and i are spending good portions of our afternoons working on grant proposals (submission dates are coming up!), but just to reinforce how ridiculously different our lives are sometimes, i wanted to show you that this was his morning:

and this was my morning:

these are the kinds of things that still make it seem pretty ridiculous that we ever found one another at all. . .

on wisconsin

on lake mendota

i am loving this spring - no wait, SUMMER weather that we are having in madison. matt's been here since last friday and each day has seen temperatures in the upper seventies and lower eighties. luckily for matt, who has spent the majority of each day working in my apartment, there has also been a nice, cool breeze winding through town. we are both working on grants, among other things, right now. yet, we have tried to take advantage of this summer-spring as much as possible. this has meant a lot of windows open, walks, and requests for visiting places with outdoor seating.

the most summery of all of the days was probably wednesday, when i had a meeting that ran so late, it was clear that i was not going to make it to the wednesday night run with my 5k training group. instead, matt and i whipped up steak salads a la the schlegel-hicks family. they were absolutely delicious. i might have repeatedly insisted to matt that they tasted like summer. this was followed up by a walk over to one of the lakes (added bonus of living on an isthmus: quick walks to multiple lakes, parks, and gorgeous sunsets). we've been trying to walk if we're going somewhere relatively close - although i've found that my belief that "things are totally walkable if they are within a mile" is not necessarily universal. this means trips to state street, not only for the gorgeous views of the city parks and extra time spent in the beautiful weather, but also because parking really sucks downtown. i can't wait to share it with other visitors (*aHEM*).

sunset on the lake

today we are tying up some loose work ends, tidying up around the apartment, and heading to chicago. i am super excited to finally be meeting hudson. just as was true before we finally met little cole, i was starting to be concerned that hudson would be walking and talking before i finally met him.

drastic change of topic: did everyone see the madness that happened in athens yesterday? we were actually oblivious until my dad texted asking if we had heard about the boulder that crushed a car and house somewhere in athens. luckily, this is not matt's neighborhood.

the first (and almost second) week of 5k training is over and i've been sure to make up any of the runs that i've been missed. each week, there is a monday run that each runner completes on his/her own, a wednesday evening and saturday morning run with the group, and a sunday walk one one's own. my allergies haven't been too terrible yet, most likely because the runs start off with more walking time than running time. it really is my allergies that are main concern: i'm quite certain that my body can run, but not as far as you might think if i can't breathe. weird how that works. the facebook page for the group is here, if you're interested. we are supposed to send in pictures of us running in other places if we miss a practice because we are out of town (NoBo on the go, if you will). i'm not entirely sure that i'll be able to convince matt to get up early tomorrow morning and take a pic of me running in chicago, but we shall see!

ring and wing sauces in savannah

final note: yesterday was an anniversary of sorts for us. we've officially been engaged for a year at this point. i know a lot of people aren't big fans of long engagements, but i think it has been working well for our planning styles. things are coming right along and nobody has had any meltdowns yet :) not only that, we've made huge strides - thanks in large part to our groom - on a few of the things that i thought were going to be the most terrible (blocking hotel rooms and creating gift registries). our knot site says that we have 197 days to go. seems close enough to feel very exciting, but not so close that one needs to start to panic. in any case, it's been quite a year for us and promises to continue to be an adventurous 2012.