Friday night adventures: "In Wonderland"

Despite the fact that we did not celebrate the big V-day for a variety of reasons (nice use of double "v" there), such as grading quizzes and someone taking an art class and two people not really seeing each other that day, our Friday night more than made up for an overblown, commercialized and fabricated tribute to love and romance.  Can you tell how I feel about the whole day?  I certainly don't mean to be a total cynic, but I'm skeptical.  Not about chocolate, wine and flowers, but people (corporations - oh, wait, corporations ARE people now thanks to the US Supreme Court ruling) telling that I'm either supposed to give them or receive them on a certain day.

Back to last night which was not, fortunately, a forced romantic holiday.  It was, however, Friday and the perfect reason to venture out of our usual local haunts.  We braved crowds and traffic and found our way to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art).  My parents gave us a membership for Christmas this year, and this was the first moment that we could to take advantage of our new membership status.  One major advantage of the membership is that we can spend as much or as little time as we want.  Last night, our main purpose was to see the exhibit "In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States". And see it we did!  I thought that it might be packed like the Tim Burton exhibit we saw over the summer, but fortunately it was super calm and we could take our time and really enjoy the art we saw (or enjoy the art that we liked).  It was well organized - great information and well laid-out.  I definitely liked some of the art but not all of it, which seems pretty standard.  I was, however, excited that they had quite a few works by Remedios Varo.  She's a Spanish painter who left the "madre patria" after Franco took over in '39.  I saw an extensive exhibit of her work when I was in Mexico City back in 94 (long time ago!).
These were two of the works on exhibit - the first one is called "Creation of the Birds" and the second is "Woman Leaving Psychoanalyst".  I like to imagine that she is carrying the head of the analyst, or of her father?!

There were plenty of paintings by Frida and some other women artists.  The photographs by Lee Miller, who was Man Ray's assistant but became an accomplished photographer on her own, were pretty great too.

This, however, was not my favorite:

Don't even ask me what this is...

After that exhibit, we also spent some time wandering around the California Design exhibit which we both loved, of course.  It is strange because I certainly still feel like an interloper here in Southern CA, someone who is just visiting (for a few years), and this exhibit perhaps reminded me why I feel like a visitor in such a glamorous place in terms of the "American experience".  I don't think that I'm expressing this very well, but so much in the exhibit was familiar from movies and my sense of America in the 40's, 50's and 60's, but this is certainly not a reality that I've ever personally lived, I've just experienced it through film and TV.  So, that brings me back to California.  Some of my favorite items from the exhibit - the Airstreamer and a nice little surfboard. Both are so Californian!

By the time we wandered through these two exhibits, museum headache had started to take hold (or it was a hunger headache), and we decided to leave in search of food.  Our first choice, Plan A, was way too busy at 7:30 pm on a Friday night.  The second choice, Chi Dynasty in Los Feliz, was pretty slammed but they had a few two-tops, so we sat down with no problems.  It was quite fun to be back at Chi Dynasty - it literally had been years or at least a year and a half since our last visit.  What I like about Chi, in addition to their food, is that they also make great drinks.  I had a St. Germaine cocktail that was awesome.  The dining experience as a whole was not amazing, mainly because there was a table of loud, shrill girls (heavily-made-up 20-somethings) sitting next to us, and their conversation made my ear hurt.  But the food hit the spot, and it was good for us to leave our usual restaurant haunts!

Sad to say, by the time we arrived home, I was ready for bed - apparently  an exciting night on the town for us ends at 9:00 pm!

Drinking leads to the Mt. Wilson trail (again!)

A pattern seems to have emerged - meet certain friends for drinks at Amigo's in Pasadena, drink a potent margarita that makes my lips go numb while my mind latches on to crazy suggestions, and then somehow find myself in the quaint little town of Sierra Madre, CA in order to 'conquer' the Mt. Wilson trail.  Just like back in May, right? This morning, however, was just a practice run to work up to the 2012 Mt. Wilson Trail Race.  Last year, I ran it illegally, my first and only bandit run to this day.  I plan on running it as a legitimate participant this year!

But back to this practice run.  Our margarita-drinking friend is a trail running fiend and has been running the trail on a regular basis since November, and he threw out the proposal last night - meet up at 10:00 and run 4.3 miles up, up, up, with a gain of 2100 feet.  When we arrived at Sierra Madre this morning, I confess that for a brief moment I hoped that our friend would have forgotten about the idea he proposed.  No such luck!  Before we started the climb, I felt just like I did on race day last year - pretty damn nervous, almost scared, which seems silly because I knew that I could turn around or stop or walk at any time.  However, the trail is a beast and intimidates me psychologically as well as physically!  We started in town, climbing up a steep hill that leads to the trail, and then we were on the trail.  It was a pretty perfect day, overcast but not cold, and everything was still green, flowers blooming even, unlike the trees and brush in May which have already turned golden.  Rob took off at a strong pace, leaving Michael and me trailing along behind.  I hoped to make it at least 2-3 miles up the trail and then turn around when Rob was on the downhill.  However, when we met up (he going down, I still trudging up), he told me that I was almost at the turn-around point and encouraged me to continue.  So, I did, in his company! And then we headed down, soon meeting up with Michael who was also close to the "top" (not the officially summit but our turnaround point), so we all three headed back up to the turnaround.  Finally, we committed ourselves to the long run down the hill - or mountain.  I always forget how the downhill presents its own set of challenges, different from the uphill trudge.  It is faster but not necessarily 'easier' as I have to pay close attention to my footing and at times can't look beyond the next step for fear of falling off the side of the mountain. On this occasion, I probably would have walked a bit more on the downhill, but it was chilly at the top, and I had to keep running to stay warm!

We made it back to the car around 12:00, put on more clothes, grabbed some food and bragged about our run.  Okay, no bragging rights.  We (I) mainly moaned and groaned as we talked about the challenge of Mt. Wilson and how humbling it is!  However, there was a general sense of contentment that we actually survived the entire 4.3 miles up the mountain through a combination of running, walking, shuffling and gasping.  I admit that it wasn't pretty, but we all made it!

Before we departed, we made plans to do the run all over again in March.  Craziness must be contagious.

Stinkday

*Updated with correct grammar!

Today, being Wednesday, is commonly known as "Humpday".  I have named this particular Wednesday, however, "STINK" day because of a very unfortunate encounter between this creature:

And this one:

(Nice tongue, I know)

Yep, I let Gus out this morning to go pee, and when I went to let him in, I thought I saw him tugging on some black thing in the corner of our yard.  The entire neighborhood has been smelling like skunk, so I knew, pretty much immediately, that he had been fooling around with a skunk.  As he ran towards the house, freaked out, I had the good sense to close the door on his face.  Not before, however, a good whiff of the skunk stink filled my nostrils and made me want to puke.  

Seriously, I have never in my whole life smelled something so awful.  And my dog now smelled awful.  And I needed to go to work in 30 minutes, so how was I going to deal with this?

Oh, yeah, that's when I woke up Michael exclaiming "FUCK, Michael, FUCK, I can't believe this, FUCK".  We washed him, threw him in the pool, washed him again, and then put him on a lead outside.  Gus, meanwhile, was shaking and had also proceeded to puke all over the back door (dry-heaving, we suppose).  I didn't blame him - I felt like throwing up myself which is why I left the house without eating breakfast or drinking coffee.

The skunk, by the way, was still in our backyard, so Michael called Animal Control who came and took the animal away.  In addition to the skunk, a raccoon also decided to visit our yard.  Honestly?!  What the hell is going on?!

I, meanwhile, went through my day feeling quite sorry for myself.  First of all, I stunk.  I'm not sure if anyone else truly smelled me, but I could not get the memory of the smell out of my mind.  Isn't it strange to think of the connection between smell and memory?  I believe that Proust writes eloquently about taste and memory.  This, unfortunately, was not quite so pleasant as his story because I felt nauseous all day long.  I did, however, use the incident to illicit sympathy from my students.  Isn't that terrible?  Total emotional blackmail.

However, I did gain some important information from one of my students - she said that leaving a can of ground coffee around the parts of the house that smell (because we did have those) would absorb the odor.  I went to the supermercado right after school and cleared out the coffee section.  Actually, I just bought two cans, but she was right and I'm now giving her an A.  Which she already had, but, hey, I like to pretend to bribe students.  

At this point, the victim of Pepe Le Pew is still a bit stinky, but I don't want to puke in his presence, so that's major progress!  He will not, however, be sleeping in our room.  Pobrecito - it's been a rough day for all of us.

January review

Happy end of the month!  A part of me hesitates to produce a "this-is-what-I-did-in-January" report because then it reduces all of the experiences and emotions to a handful of final products.  So, we'll see if I nix this month-in-review thing before I become obsessed with some report to myself.  On the other hand, since I do want to focus more on the triathlon thing, I am interested to see if there are changes from month to month, not so much in my overall performance but in my attitude towards the whole swim, bike, run thing.
I did, however, want to start the 2012 year and an actual training cycle with a different mindset - a bit more serious one - and I also decided that to improve overall, I needed to focus on the bike portion.  My swimming skills aren't super awesome, but in the whopping two triathlons that I've finished, I don't completely suck at the swim.  I do, however, suck in the saddle.  To that end, I have spent plenty of time going to spin classes, but, more importantly, I was in the saddle a whopping FOUR times this month.  Okay, that makes it obvious to anyone that I do not pretend to be a biker chick, but it is about three times more than I rode last year in January, so I'll take it as progress.  Additionally, for each ride, I had a great time and even thought to myself, "I could learn to love this!".
The other change for 2012?  I am determined that I will not suffer an injury (love that I think that I have absolute control over that).  Last year, I endured two months without running, and I would very much like to avoid that happening.  With that in mind, I have resigned myself to being a low-mileage runner.  Not that I am limiting myself to two or three mile runs (nothing wrong with that, by the way), but as a weekly average, I barely break 15 miles and sometimes don't even hit double digits for the week.  As a result of the focus on biking and on not injuring myself from running too much, I am quite convinced that my running game has suffered.  To add to the sense that I'm a failed runner, I haven't even signed up for a running race/event for 2012 which makes me feel totally lame.  At this point, a part of me fears that I will  lose my running mojo and not remember HOW to kick it into gear, and then another part of me realizes that such a fear is complete nonsense.  Sort of nonsense.
At any rate, I am realizing that it is impossible for me to truly balance the swim/bike/run thing and feel content with every single skill set that I do or don't have.  Mainly don't have.
As for not suffering an injury - in addition to lower mileage than makes me truly euphoric, I've committed myself to continue to see the chiropractor, to weights and to pilates!  I'm not 100% that the chiropractor's snaps truly help all of my IT band/joint/problematic body issue(s), but it does make me feel that I am being proactive and I do feel better on runs following visits to him.  Lifting weights hasn't gone too well since I only lifted weights once in January.  Maybe I'll do some tonight?!  I know, however, that I need to continue to do strength-training exercises for my knee.  Finally, I attended my first pilates class in 5 years last week, and the experience was transformative!  I left feeling stretched out, as though my muscles and joints were finally in line.  Mind you, my abs were screaming the next two days, but I really liked the class.  I can't do yoga because so many poses put stress on my knees (I know that it is probably not yoga's fault but my own since yoga is miraculous for everyone - eye roll over here), but pilates rocks!
Two final notes - okay, maybe three.
One other change I wanted to make this year was to connect with a "tri-community" here in Southern CA.  Let me first say that just hearing/reading that phrase sort of makes my skin crawl a bit for a few reasons.  One is that I am still a newbie when it comes to the "tri" thing.  Secondly, community means people and that means that I have to socialize, probably with random strangers, and talk about myself and about them and relate to people that I don't know well.  I don't consider myself a social idiot, but I don't revel in meeting new people.  So, this goal definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone.  However, I met the challenge that I set for myself and joined a facebook group (I hate facebook, but that's an entirely new topic) and have now gone out on two group runs during which I actually spoke to interesting people.  This coming weekend, I am planning/hoping to hook up for a ride.  Now that will be a new experience as I actually ride WITH people!

Shew, that was a lot of talk about my body.  Moving on, one of my other goals for the year is to try out  two new recipes a month, and at least one has to be from one of the many cookbooks that we possess.  I made it until Sunday without meeting this goal, and then I ended up cooking a new chicken dish from Good Meat, a cookbook that I gave Michael for his birthday, and trying out this pumpkin and feta savory muffin recipe.  Both were pretty much successful - the chicken was a cardamon roasted chicken for which we also got to use the mortar and pestle that I gave Michael for his birthday last year (hmm, see a trend?), and the muffins are a healthy snack to eat during the day, packed with butternut squash (not pumpkin for us), kale and feta cheese.  I do feel that they could use a bit more fat in them - maybe I'll add some bacon grease?!

One final note about January - I did have a pretty rockin' birthday and am, so far, enjoying my 40's.  I still don't see myself as middle aged, but I do have to recognize that I'll be there sooner or later!  While it would be rude (I think) to talk too much about presents, I will say that I scored with these two in particular:

A 5-inch Shun Nakiri knife that is one of the most awesome things I've ever used in the kitchen, maybe even out of the kitchen.  I do worry about my fingers though!

Ah, Patagonia sweaters, how do I love thee?  I was given this in bordeaux rather than seaweed (color shown above).  I also think that I should be a Patagonia model.  They clearly haven't discovered my talent!

Rest day: Good for the mind, good for the body

(I randomly changed the name of my blog - we'll see if it sticks!)
I am enjoying my last Sunday of somewhat sustained calm for the next few weeks or months as a new semester gets underway tomorrow and I pick up another class to teach.  While January is not yet over, I am mentally lumping the last two days in with February, which looks to be a pretty crazed month.  That will be in stark contrast to the past few weeks which have given me ample time to nap, eat and drink well, play a lot, and train pretty hard.
On that last note, I must acknowledge that I went from minimal tri training (zero) to over-training.  Perhaps it connects to being a forty-something-female and the sense that I need to do as much as possible soon now at once!?  But I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that I would like to actually RACE, for me, the Wildflower Tri this year, rather than be content to merely finish it.  Since the past two weeks presented me with tons of free time, I decided to fill too much of that time with training hours.  Today, since my body pretty much rebelled on me yesterday after a 2-hour hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, I am taking a very unscheduled day OFF which was supposed to happen on Tuesday.  I had planned to spend part of the morning in the saddle, actually meeting up with a group (gasp!) for a training ride.  The decision to cancel the ride had nothing to do with my fears of meeting random people and looking/feeling inept and had everything to do with the fact that my body felt exhausted, especially my left leg (IT band and shin issues suddenly coming into play).
And so, I made a strategic choice:  Take the day off to focus on resting and on preparing for school tomorrow.  I love that I have to "focus" on resting!
Sometimes, however, I find that it is more challenging to just stop and take a break.  In my ideal world, I would happily (and healthily) balance the demands of work, grade everything my students hand in within 24 hours, while also training something like 2 hours a day.  To add to that, I would eat well and sleep 8 hours every day.  Or, if I couldn't sleep 8 hours, then I could function well on 6 hours of sleep a night.  Oh, and I would have a great relationship with friends, colleagues, students and, obviously, spend quality time with my dogs and husband (does anyone else kind of hate the word "husband"?).  I can live with a certain amount of chaos in my life and don't get too hung up on the idea of a perfect equilibrium in my life, but I've also come to accept that the idea 2+ daily hours of swim/bike/run at this point is completely unrealistic given my life and priorities and physical limitations, like a terrible knee and general joint issues.
On that note, I've had to recognize the obvious:  I am a training wimp.
So, on that note, I'm giving my legs a major break today with lots of time on the sofa as I watch the X-Games (Shaun White is a beast!), lament Nadal's defeat in the Australian Open, and prepare for classes and meetings next week!

A random week

I could very easily get used to my schedule this week which has included sitting around the house grading exams for a bit, then taking a short break (to snack, look at the dogs or let them out and maybe even play with them, waste 10 minutes or so on the interweb like I'm doing now, or do some light housekeeping, like fold laundry), then returning to grading, then taking a longer break to go for a bike ride or to make lunch, then grading more, and then taking another long break...
Maybe not the most productive lifestyle, but it really works.  Now, if only I could find a way to do this all the time!
Okay, that's an impossible dream, so I will bask in the fact that I have a break from my 'real life' this week which has allowed me to definitely switch around my usual schedule.  A few changes from the norm:
- Going out on a Sunday night!  That is something that almost never happens because Sunday is "crunch" time as I cram to prepare for the week, but I discovered that Sunday night is a great night to go out because it is such a low-key evening in most restaurants.

- Working out mid-morning or early afternoon is such a treat.  The pool is set up competition-length, so I can get a more exhausting workout.  Also, biking mid-day, mid-week is super fun and other cyclists seem nicer than the weekend riders.  Maybe that's my imagination?  Finally, I get to attend spin class with Rod, the most awesome spin instructor ever on Friday morning at 8:30 am!

- Along the same theme, trying out a new class.  Somehow, having more mental energy from putzing around all day means that I can push myself to try something new, like Pilates last night.  That was a great experience, and I hope to repeat it soon!

- Taking our dog Milo to the vet for his recent and unexplained weight loss.  Apparently we've had him on a starvation diet since his bloodwork is normal.  Don't I feel like a terrible pet owner?

- Brunch on a Friday morning followed by a pedicure - that plan is in the works for tomorrow.  Can't wait to be a "lady who brunches".  It might actually remind me why I *like* to work, but pretending to be a lady of leisure for a day isn't a bad thing.

The other major positive about the week is that, with the exception of Sunday's splurge (in every way possible), we have returned to a more "normalized" eating pattern.  The past 6 weeks or so have been filled with too many celebrations and vacations, so we ate out more than usual as we celebrated two birthdays and the holidays, traveled to places with good food, and enjoyed socializing with friends and family.  Now, we have no excuses about the lack of time or company or special events, so we are back to preparing meals en casa which is much easier on the pocket book and the waistline.  Hopefully this will not just be the product of a 'random' week but will become the norm again as I return to a more hectic routine starting Monday!

In the meantime, I'm back to grading essays.

Over the threshold

Ah, well, here I am at 40, looking it square in the eye thanks to help from this:

Not a great picture, but the important detail is that there is an ENTIRE bottle of wine in that glass.  Yep, that was one of my many awesome presents (a few others included a good bottle of wine, a bottle of tequila, a 40 oz bottle of Mickey's malt liquor) from an extended Friday night happy hour.  Needless to say, on Saturday morning I truly felt Hank Williams Jr.s' line when he sings "Hangovers hurt more than they used to".  At that point, I was still in my 30's, but what's a day or two?
Adding to the mix, Michael and I enjoyed our own celebration on Sunday night at Jar, a very "LA" restaurant in my mind.  That was a major extravagance but well worth it - after all, I'm never going to turn four zero again.  We've been to Jar before, but it had literally been years since our last outing there. I did, however, still remember the Porterhouse steak well from that last visit!  From our experience, there is always an interesting crowd, usually plenty of pretentious Hollywood types or the older-guy-much-younger-woman-couples peppering the restaurant.  This time, we sat between a pair of elderly gentlemen who talked about food and travel the entire meal and a young, super hip but totally silent couple who spent way more time looking at their phone than talking to each other.  Talk about a diverse crowd!  I was really craving a good steak, something that we don't often eat but that this place is known for (I had the porterhouse on my palate, I suppose).  Michael indulged me, and we split an enormous "tomahawk steak" that was cooked and cut on the bone.  I think we surprised our waiter by finishing the entire steak - but it was for two people!  We also split dessert, a butterscotch pudding with salted carmel on top.  I think that it was one of the most memorable desserts that I've had in a very long time.  In fact, the entire meal was pretty awesome - so much so that our waiter even commented to us, "You've just had the perfect meal!".
I think I agree.
Lest one think that all I did was eat, drink and be merry all weekend long, I did log in a spin, swim and a run.  Someone told me that I *had* to run on my birthday, at least 40 minutes, one minute per year.  I ended up with a 50-minute run which felt good (actually, it kind of felt like hell since I started with a crazy uphill for about a mile or longer).  I did feel good afterwards, however!