Rest: My weekend was awesome. Was yours?

I must say, it really was a WONDERFUL weekend. It was just one of those weekends where everything went well and everyone was in a good mood (besides my allergies.. they were horrible! But I'm trying to look past that little bump in the weekend road). It was my bestie's B-day on Saturday (that's her and me pictured above) but Mr. Wonderful and I were really looking forward to a T-town weekend, so we decided to split the weekend up: half in Tucson, half in Phoenix. What a great idea! The fact that I had a three-day weekend helped things run smoothly. Weekend awesomeness included, but was not limited to: 

• Tucson Street Fair! WAHOO (see pics below). Too bad AZ hit a record seasonal high and we had to trek the streets in 96 degree weather. I'm sorry... isn't it April?! I'm not ready for the heat. I'M NOT READY.
• 6 Mile Tucson run. Oh I just LOVE running in Tucson. Can someone please find me a job in Tucson so I can move there?! Otherwise I'll have to become a hippy, grow a garden, make bad desert art and live in a commune. This is the only way to survive in Tucson. Tempting... but I suppose not realistic.
• Bestie's Birthday party. She turned 24. Lucky her. I'm 25. I'm old. The whole gang showed up. I was drugged up and Benodryl and Sudafed and ended up having a fabulous time being over-enthusiastic and giggly. 
• Babysat my nephew. Have I told you lately how ADORABLE my nephew is? He's quite possibly the cutest kid in America. Heck, maybe even in the world. He's currently working on crawling but seems to be closer to walking than crawling. He can't seem to go forward on his belly. He just starts to scoot backwards... like an army drill in the mud. And then he starts crying because he wishes he was going forward instead of backwards. Then I start laughing. He makes really funny faces when he cries. 
• Relaxed, read blogs, wrote some things and read on my new Nook!

Good weekend huh? I know you're jealous. 

And now.... The Tucson Street Fair Story Board!

There were a ton of people there. So that was cool. And a lot of the art was actually good, so that was cool too. It was about 2 miles of this (exciting picture, I know):

After grabbing some brewskies from some very excited retirees, a large sign caught my eye: 

They had 17 different types of honey.. WHAT?! We tasted about six of them. They were damn good. My favorite flavor was desert wildflower... don't ask me to explain what that tastes like. After selfishly wasting the booth owner's time... I was almost guilted into buying a jar. Luckily Mr. Wonderful pulled me away in the nick of time! He's always good at stepping in when I'm about to make really careless decisions.  One time he had to stop me from buying a car because I felt bad for wasting the sale's guy's time. This really happened. I'm easily persuaded. Anyways, here's the honey (yummy): 

Then I saw a guy wearing shorts with little American flags all over them. I found this to be the corniest, funniest thing I'd ever seen. So I took a picture: 

Do you see the flags?! Even better, was this sign that was supposed to say Cowgirl Up.... do you see the typo? Please tell me you do.. 

 

There were also cool festival people. Can you see him doing fun tricks on a unicycle?!

And decadent and greasy festival food that I somehow restrained myself from eating. 

We ended the day at this booth, which I then found out was the entire reason that Mr. Wonderful's libertarian friend wanted to go to the festival. Apparently, these are a big deal?

Have a happy Monday!

Rest: Is running your outlet?

Don't ask me why, but I love that pic. So, the weekend was by definition, good.  Had a video shoot that went well, Mr. Wonderful came in town and my roomies (a couple), Mr. Wonderful and I had a DECADENT Mexican dinner (I just love me some Los Dos Molinos) and ended the night at a popular bar. Mr. Wonderful and I went thrifting the next day, and I'd say all around it was a pleasant weekend. So why then, did I wake up the next morning feeling perfectly blasé?

I think this lady may be onto something ---> New Dress A Day

If you read her About Me, she will explain how she was feeling creatively stunted and bored and therefore started a shopping/sewing adventure in which she buys a new dress everyday from a garage sale or thrift store, sews and crafts it up, and then rocks it. Not only is her blog pretty dang cool (thank you Jhen for pointing it out on Facebook), but she seems to be at least momentarily healed from the creativity void she was once so troubled by.

I think I feel a bit the same way. As you all know, I'm very excited about the new job, and training for the marathon and all that jazz. Life is a-okay. But I can't help but feeling like I just haven''t been myself lately.  I'm an extremely emotionally driven person, so when I'm not happy with myself it quickly trickles down into every aspect of my life. Bottom line? I haven't been indulging in my creative passions enough. I've been dressing to be more successful, trying to become wittier to be more social, and writing for advertisements, web pages or businesses. I've been making lists and cleaning my house. I've been making plans every night to appease my friends and coworkers. I've been reading books and articles that I think will make me either more successful or more adept in social conversations.  I haven't been doing anything for myself. Even this blog-- I often manipulate my content into what I think my readers want to read.

I actually love the weirdo, irrational, passionate, impulsive other half of me. I'm not sure how, but I must quickly reconcile my two different worlds. Or maybe, like usual, I'm being overly introspective. Maybe many of you find that running is that emotional outlet; that soothing, relaxing part of your life that makes you feel sane. I love running, I really do. But it's just one compartment of my life. It doesn't have a huge impact on who I am. Am I the only one that feels that way?

Toodles!

Rate: My life, confused

** DISCLAIMER: If you have never been to my blog before, don't start here! I usually don't go off on personal rants like I'm about to below. Start somewhere else like here or here. So really, you can skip this post. In fact, everyone can skip this post :)




I try not to make this thing too uber-personal. But I've got something on my mind that I probably won't say to anyone else, so I guess I'll just say it here.


Ever since I can remember I've kind of been the odd ball out. I tried to hang out with the popular kids in middle school, and they would let me into their huddle, but I wouldn't get their jokes and I would say something awkward-- my face would get warm and I'd soon walk away. It's not so much that I was nerd growing up, I was just never quite cool enough either. Story of my life.   My comedic timing has never been very punctual, and I always seem to get lost in my thoughts when I should be listening to the world tick around me. I don't think it's a bad thing-- God forbid I became another plain Jane more concerned with being pretty and likeable than being an individual.


The problem is, I was never quite one of the artsy kids either. I wanted to be artsy. I wanted to be creative, witty and idiosyncratic. But I never lived up to the other kids' genius creativity-- at least in my opinion. However as I've grown older, I've managed to just stick with the "do you" mindset and be content with my slightly out of sink habits. You are what you are so embrace it, right?


Well the point of all this is, I feel like I'm once again in that limbo. The career world brings me closer to the popular people-- the cool huddle-- and I am dying to find success. I know this sounds horrible, but I want to make money, I want to buy cute clothes, I want to make my parents proud and not have to ask them for another dime ever again. I want to buy them a vacation around the world. I want to have a cute house and buy another dog and lay Wii on a big flat screen. Oh God .... I sound like every other typical American. And that is what scares me.


And then there's the other side of the pendulum. My friends and acquaintances write in journals, they find (or take) the best photography, they know all the best bands, they have cute vintage clothing and amazing tattoos, they have houses filled with cheap artwork and magazines. They go to political rallies and concert and live impulsively and passionately.  I want to be like that again, but I don't want to serve tables either. And no, I don't think that this is just a part of growing up, so please don't tell me that. I've heard way too many middle aged men and women contemplate what happened to who they used to be. I don't want to be like them. I guess I just don't feel like myself lately. There's got to be some balance. But balancing takes time, and time is something I don't have. I wish I had more time.  So I've got to figure out how to make both sides of my divided personality happy, and I just don't know how.  I guess this is an oh-so-typical gripe, but life is often pretty typical and trite.


Alright, I'm done complaining. If you made it this far, thank you. I promise I won't bore you with my complaints again for a very, very long time.

Rest: Athletes and artists can be friends

I woke up this morning with a pit in my stomach which probably had to do with the $100 I recklessly blew on food and beer last night. So rather than provide you with a mundane summarization of my Thursday morning drear and lack of motivation to run, I'll instead send you to one of my favorite reads, Interview Magazine, where you can read this lovely interview with Mark Parker, CEO and President of Nike. Please read it.


His poetic drive really inspires me. He flawlessly combines the aesthetic of athletes and artist not only in his shoes and in his Stages collaboration with Lance Armstrong (click here), but also in his entire worldview. Parker states,

"I’m drawn to people who are obsessed, and I guess people who know me have described me that way—a little otaku... it’s that incredible drive and almost single-mindedness that is really impressive. And obviously it doesn’t have to just be in sports. It’s in science and art and music and filmmaking—everywhere.  That’s the connection."

Obsession is exactly what I need. I 'm half way there, I can sense that much. I have obsessed enough to buy the running books, make a training schedule, and stick to it most of the time, but I haven't reached that other level.  That level where all I can think about is running. I'll constantly be reading about it, working on my speed, talking to friends about it, fearlessly making it the center of my life. I haven't even done that with writing and I claim it to be my greatest passion. Is that what makes the greatest great? A single-minded obsession? Or is it possible to be a little less obsessed with a lot of different things?


Ran: 35 minutes, middle ten at fast pace
Drills: Ten minutes
Strength: Ten minutes
Emotions/Thoughts/Concerns: My work out today was exhausting, and it shouldn't have been. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but boy do I need to work on my diet.