What now, bitches?

I reluctantly went for a run today--I've been having trouble finding motivation for about a week--but I'm glad I did, because I accomplished my first goal!!!! Ran that mile like it was nobody's business. And my time wasn't bad for an out of shape non-runner like myself: slightly less than or equal to 9 minutes. I only had my iPod so I don't know a precise time.

It really sucked. I wasn't sure towards the end if I was going to make it, and when I did and stopped to walk I was seeing spots. But I'm so excited. I was worried that I would have to walk the rest of the way home (about half a mile) but I only had to walk a little, and I ran nearly the rest of the way home.

I've never run a mile without stopping. I am awesome.

My next goal is to expand my route a little at a time. The next route I've chosen is 1.8 miles, although I'm questioning the safety of part of it due to the narrow shoulder and heavy traffic. We'll see. In a week or two I'll find a 2 mile route, and from that point I'll run for 30 minutes each time and work on getting further each time.

Now I have to finish the intellectual equivalent of running that mile-read the remainder of the 70 pages for history I need to finish today. Help!

way to live up to the stereotypes, officer!

Nice knees, buddy

So I just got pulled over for the first time in my life. I was driving home from the grocery store, kind of zoning out, and missed the school zone sign. I saw a cop parked on the shoulder at kind of the last minute, slowed down instinctually, and then came upon what I thought was the first school zone sign, so I slowed down to 30. Then I saw that bastard's lights come on.

So I pull over, he comes up and begins lecturing me like a total condescending jackass. The conversation went something like this:

Douche: "You know you're in a school zone, right? And you live around here, so you drive here a lot, right?"

Me: "Yeah, I'm sorry, I was singing along with my music and kind of zoned out."

Douche: "And using your cellphone, right?" (interesting...my cellphone was on my coffee table at home)

Me: "What? No, I really wasn't."

Douche: "Oh, really? It sure looked like you were."

Me: "No, I really wasn't, my cell phone is at home. I never use my phone while I drive." (This is true. I know I don't have the multi-tasking skills, so I don't do it.)

Douche: "Oh, well, what? Do you have an iPod there? I know you had something in your hand" (I did indeed have an ipod, which was on the passenger seat, under my purse, where it had been the entire time I was driving)

Me: "No, I really didn't have anything in my hand, honestly."

He then started hassling me, by making me read aloud the thing on your license about changing your address within 10 days, about how I haven't changed my address through the DMV (my fucking license expires on April 17, what's the point of changing it now?), and then was gleeful when my insurance card was the old one, and made me read the date out loud to him and then asked me what today's date is (we have the new one at home).

I mean, I was apologetic, I wasn't sassing him, I was going 41 mph (1 mile over the speed limit 30 feet before where he was parked) in a 30 mph school zone because I didn't see the sign, which I admitted to the cop was my bad. I was flustered because I don't want a fucking ticket. So why did he need to be such a fucking asshole? I have known a few cops in my life who I really like, (one of my friends is a cop-HI JODI!) but most cops are such total dicks.

He "did me a favor" (his words) by charging me with driving while using a cellphone instead of a moving violation, which, as far as I can tell is to my benefit. I won't get any points on my license (whatever that means). But I got the feeling it was more because he was convinced that I had been using some sort of electronic device. I'm like, if you really want to do me a favor, don't give me a ticket.

closing in on my first goal!

On Thursday I posted that I was stoked to run 4 minutes without stopping for a little walking break. That got me half a mile into my route. Today, I surprised myself by running for nearly 6 minutes without stopping, and getting myself to the 3/4 mile mark! My estimation is that I will reach my goal (running one mile without stopping) at some point next week. Yowza!!

There has to be a life lesson in this somewhere. Like, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO! Or something. I'm not a runner, never have been. Well, actually, I guess I am a runner now. Even in middle school, when I was super active (biking, roller-skating, generally playing outside until the streetlights came on) I was awful at the mile during the presidential fitness test. I would start running, and then less than halfway around one lap on that goddamn track I would start wheezing and have to walk. I got lapped like crazy. Even when I would use an inhaler beforehand, I just sucked. Now I can run the equivalent of 3 laps around that bitch like a pro. Or 12 laps around the indoor gym! I'm awesome!

You'd better believe I'll brag on here immediately when I conquer that mile. Probably immediately after the run, before I take a shower.

greatest runner ever

I went on the most kick-ass run today. I found a new route from my new apartment on Monday (something I'm a little crabby about--I liked my old running route!) and it seems okay. On Tuesday, the combination of gorgeous weather and Salt-N-Pepa on my ipod made me cocky and I decided to run further. This seemed like a mistake as soon as I turned around and started heading home, because I was farther away than I'm used to and had been running at too fast a pace (I couldn't help it--Shoop came on!) so I was really tired. That's the hardest thing about running without Dan there as my coach--it's really hard to reign myself in and slow it down. I run until my breathing starts to get a little uncomfortable, and then I choose a point in the distance where I will take a little walking break, and then my natural instinct is to run as fast as I can to that spot so that I can walk sooner. What I'm learning (slowly. very slowly.) is that if I run slower, I can probably run past that stopping point. So I'm working on it. When I got home from the run, I felt quite proud of myself, so I decided to just run that far from now on.

So anyway, I set out today and found a really good pace, and I ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore. When I took a walking break, I checked my time and saw that I had run for 4 minutes! That may not seem like much to all of you seasoned runners out there, but when I started running, I had to take a break after 30 seconds, so that is huge. And I forgot to use my inhaler before I ran, so I could have potentially run even farther! BUT THAT'S NOT THE BEST PART! I finished the whole run (which is 1.5 miles) in 14 minutes, which averages my time at 9:20/mile. !!! Also, when I was checking the mileage in the car afterwards, I discovered that the point where I stopped after 4 minutes was half a mile. That means I'm the fastest runner in the entire world! I do think that today was kind of a fluke. I have a feeling that when I go out tomorrow, my pace is going to more likely be 10:something. But we'll see.

I wish I hadn't had to take almost 2 weeks off of running, I'd probably be running 2 minutes miles by now :)

It's crazy how much I'm improving. I mean, I couldn't have been much worse to begin with, but I've been running for just under 2 months and I have gotten so much better. Don't get me wrong, it's still hard as hell, and I only love running when I'm not doing it. Like, right now? Love it! And I can't wait to go out tomorrow. But talk to me during the run. There are some freeking awful days where the run is just so miserable. But there are also days like today, where I kick major ass, and a lot of in-between days that aren't so bad. AND I'm halfway to my first goal of running a mile without stopping.

It's never easy

We are all moved in. Despite the week spent lugging boxes up here to "get a head start," this move may have been the hardest we've ever had. And we've moved A LOT.

Our new apartment is about a block away from the ACC Wilton campus, so every time I went to class last week, we stuffed the car full of stuff and dropped it off on the way. Sometimes Dan would stuff the car full of stuff before he came to pick me up and we would bring all of that stuff here, too. We were quite proud of ourselves for doing it the smart way. By Thursday, we had almost everything that we didn't need/could fit in our car in the new apartment. We've always

just moved everything all at once, so we were convinced that on the actual moving day, it was going to be a piece of cake. And then everything went wrong. Here are the top 3 things that

have sucked so far:

dramatization of actual events

1. Dan backed his mom's van into a tree, shattering the back window. After we cleaned out the glass and taped plastic over the window (which took forever), we brought our first load of furniture over. When we got to the new apartment, the back door was jammed. With broken glass. We had to take it to our mechanic, who kindly cleaned it out free of charge (seriously-Union Coachworks has always done us good. The guy spent 30 minutes fixing our door and would not accept payment. If you're looking for a mechanic, I highly, highly recommend them). This was not what I wanted to be doing on moving day.

Artist's rendition of moving day

2. We brought our heavy-ass couch to the new apartment, practically needed a protractor to figure out how to get it trough the front door, and then spent 40 minutes trying to jam it through the living room door. After nearly breaking my hand, it became clear that it wasn't going to fit. We no longer have a couch. RIP most comfortable couch ever.

Actual photo of me when I realized I was trapped in my apartment

3. I lost my keys. They are gone. I searched the car from top to bottom, went back to the old apartment, and looked through every single one of the approx. 1 million boxes and drawers in the new apartment. I don't know where else to look. The last time I saw them, Dan was using them to drive our car on Saturday. I don't know where they ended up after that.

Because of my missing keys, I got locked in my new apartment this morning. When Dan left for work, he locked the deadbolt of the upstairs door from the outside. A little while later, I went to put a note on the downstairs door for the internet guy, and saw that the deadbolt is just a keyhole on this side. I needed my key to open it. This is when I learned that my keys are gone. I had to wait for the owner of the hair salon (that we live above) to come to work and call and ask her to let me out. She laughed a lot. Sigh.

I do like the new apartment a lot, though. During the day we can hear some muffled sounds from downstairs, but it doesn't bother me at all because at night it's totally silent. Ahhhh.