Welcome Back, Chums!

Well, hello, you. It’s been awhile. It’s all my fault, I know. I’ve been terrible at keeping in touch. Life has been, well, LIFE, and it was easy for me to put all this on the back burner (or, you know, take it off the stove entirely and stick it in the random cupboard that you never open). But for 2015 and, more importantly, my 30th year, I want to get back in the habits of regular chats with y’all.

In the past year, my life has gone through some pretty major and mostly awesome changes: I finished school (FINALLY!), and I started working in my chosen field (fucking FINALLY [not that I spent a lot of time looking for a job or anything; I found a paying gig within 3 months of graduating, but I’ve known what I wanted to do since I was 16, and nearly half my life is a long time to wait]). I recently turned 30, which is way more exciting than distressing. And have we talked since I ran my first (four) half marathon(s)? And I realized that I don’t like running for that long? I still enjoy running for shorter periods of time, and though 2014 was all about slacking off when it came to running, I want to make it more of a priority in 2015, especially now as I’m starting to establish a routine with work.

I’m also trying, as you can tell, trying to write more often. Primarily, that it going to take place on my book review blog: Amy Says Read This, and, ps, all my social media happenings have migrated over to @amysaysREAD as well (Instagram [be prepared for a LOT of cat pictures] and Twitter). I’ve got almost two months of posts scheduled over there, which sounds pretty impressive, but is really just drafts that I had written AAAAAGES ago but never cleaned up and posted. My goal is to post 1-2 book reviews a week, and to help keep me on track, I’ve signed up for the Cannonball Read 7, which is like an online “race” to read and review 52 books this year. Hopefully, this will help me get into a regular review writing habit and just generally exercise my writing muscles.

I’ve also signed up for #writeandrun31, the purpose of which, as the name implies, is to write and run for 31 consecutive days. My 31 days started on 5th, and my daily goals for writing and running are pretty small: spend a minimum of 20 minutes a day working on my blogs and run a minimum of one mile or 20 minutes of other activity at home, if I’m not feeling up to a run. I realized after making this commitment to myself that I’m going on vacation for two weeks later this month, so this is going to be more challenging than it might normally be, but if I can do it then, I have no excuses for the rest of the year. And I’m signed up for a 5 mile race in March, so I really gotta get to it.

My only other big resolution for this year is to be a bit more discriminating with my reading. I get in this cycle of feeling like I need to EVERYTHING, so I check out everything from the library and then I, surprise, surprise, don’t have enough time to actually read everything, and I have spent so much time the past year or two thinking about what I’m going to read next and how I’m going to juggle all the books I have checked out from the library and just feeling a general anxiety about this obsessive need to read everything ever, omg. And this year, I am releasing myself from that. I’m going to force myself to just effing RELAX about the library books. I don’t know if I can stop myself from checking out so many of them, but I am going to make an effort to not have so many out at any given time. And I’m going to focus more on reading the ones I want to read rather than the ones that are next due at the library, which gives me permission to re-read old favorites and, oh yeah, the entire bookshelf full of books I have purchased and never read because I always have library due dates looming.

At any rate, dear friends, I’m hoping to post over here more often in the coming year.

I Met Neil Gaiman! He Was Great!

Feller and I made the trek into the city last Friday night to attend Neil Gaiman’s Last US Signing Tour. He’s one of my favorite authors and pretty much the only person in the world for whom I would sit around for five hours to get something signed. We got there just as the doors were opening, and, somewhat as I was expecting, the line to get in stretched down the block. Thankfully, we still got some pretty decent seats.

When he walked onstage around 715, he looked pretty much the way one expects Neil Gaiman to look: all in black with hair that goes in every direction. When he started speaking, I was somewhat surprised to learn that in real life, he sounds exactly the way he does in interviews and audiobooks and the like. I find his voice very soothing and absolutely ideal for telling stories. I told Feller that he reminds me of a cozy granpaw, who you love tucking you into bed because he’s got THE BEST stories.

He read to us from his new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. The excerpt was delightful and witty, and I am looking forward sitting down and reading it myself. I’m also going to be downloading the audiobook, which he narrates. As I said, his voice is soothing, and he has a delightful cadence and inflection reading the story. (It doesn’t hurt that the audiobook is less than six hours long, which will provide me a nice break from the 43 hour long audiobook to which I am currently listening.) I was actually a little surprised at how short this book for adults is, clocking in at 181 pages, but it’s also a relief. I have so many other books in my To Read pile, that the prospect of adding a tome is not thrilling.

After the reading, he answered some questions and then read a bit from the children’s book he has coming out in September, Fortunately, The Milk, which sounds utterly wonderful. Following that, the signing begun. Feller and I were on the far side of the lower level, so we didn’t even get close to the stage until nearly 11. Feller was wonderful throughout, especially since he doesn’t love Gaiman as much as I do and was there primarily as my Book Mule (they only allowed each person two signatures).

When we finally got up there, Neil was warm and personable. He joked about Amy!, who comes with her own exclamation point, said that now he was really excited about my name, too, and went back to the “Amy and Feller” inscription to add an exclamation point when I asked him. He signed my copy of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader “Bats Wishes” and drew a little moon on our copy of Ocean. He told the audience beforehand to just ask for a hug if we wanted/needed one. After Feller and I got our somewhat creepy hover picture behind him (as he wasn’t pausing in the signing for pictures), I asked and received a warm, wonderful hug that just cemented his place in my heart at Best Author Ever.

It was just such a phenomenal evening. Almost exactly what I expected but perfectly delightful nonetheless. It was one of those times when you meet your hero, a person you admire greatly, and they don’t disappoint you. He was just as warm and funny as I could have ever imagined, and I’m so glad I had this experience.

Roll On, You Wild Western Windblown Band

I have just, as of this writing at 1.22 am, come home from an amazing concert. I don’t really go to a lot of concerts, partly because I’m too cheap for big shows, I’m too particular for small shows and partly because I never have anyone to go with. But there are a handful of bands for whom I will make the trek into the city by myself without complaint. Tonight was one of those nights. No, no one you’ve ever heard of, but two of my favorites, Micky and the Motorcars and Reckless Kelly.

You know how when you’re at a concert, and your favorite bands are playing your favorite songs, and the energy is really high and the vibe really great, and you’ve got a nice smooth buzz from the beers you just drank, and you’re making new friends with the girls standing next to you, and you’d like some random dude to hit on you despite the fact that you’re married (but they don’t) and, man it’s practically the best concert experience you’ve ever had? That was tonight. It was fucking magical, nearly. I want to experience the feelings and highs and rush and music that I felt tonight every day. Every damn day.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t last, that wonderful, magical feeling, but I know that this will be a night I look back on with gratitude and awe. Everything aligned tonight for just the absolute best possible show I could have hoped for. And not even the drunk-ass lady rubbing her fake boobs all over me could have ruined it.

Running Highs and Lows

One of my resolution sfor 2013 is to run one race per month, and so far, I am officially signed up for all but four months worth of races, two or three of which I already know what I’ll be doing. In fact, I’ll be running the Bay Breeze 10K on Saturday.

The inspiration for my resolution, however, is the fact that I signed up for a half marathon training program, like a crazy person. And NOW, I’m signed up for five different half marathons this year, like a REALLY crazy person. And I have eleven and a half weeks before my first of them. When I put it that way, I’m fucking terrified. I feel super unprepared, even though I am reminding myself that that is plenty of time to get from where I am now to where I need to be to get myself across a 13.1 mile finish line. If I’m diligent.

Here’s where I admit that thus far? I haven’t been diligent about my training. I have INTENTIONS to be diligent and exercise. I packed my running clothes when we visited my family for Christmas, without touching them once. I packed them again when we went to Cozumel. I even ran twice while we were on vacation in Mexico. In the humid, humid Mexican sea air along the beach and in the tiny, no air circulating fitness center after midnight with my shirt covering the timer on the treadmill, until one of our fellow divers told us that exercise 12 hours after diving can lead to The Bends. But even when I’m at home, I’m not great about following a regular fitness regiment, let alone a fairly structured training program.

With 11 weeks before my first 13.1 mile race, it’s time to get fucking serious about this shit.

I only ran once last week, and it was a pretty good one: 7.84 km in 1 hour, 4 minutes. Not bad, and I felt totally badass afterwards.

When I ran this week, I started the run badly. During my five minute warm up WALK, I was asking myself why I was doing this crazy, hard thing. And then I wondered if I really, REALLY, did I REALLY want to run a half marathon? Is that something I REALLY wanted or just something to do to satisfy my inner “I’m better than you” smug bastard? Thankfully, I also realized that EVEN IF I don’t want anything to do with a half marathon, it’s too damn bad because I’m signed up for five non-refundable races. That are as EXPENSIVE as HELL. So I ran. And had a shit run. I couldn’t make it through my first 18 minute stretch of running without a walk break, and I ended up giving up and turning around before the halfway point. I. was. DONE.

Thankfully, that shitty run reminded me of how much fucking WORK I need to do. It was the kick in the butt I need to really start focusing on training and crosstraining and getting shit done. The fact that my work pants, always a little tight, are noticeably loose on me now (despite my best efforts over the weekend to shove every food ever into my face) doesn’t hurt either. I don’t want to lose that momentum, and I don’t want to want to cry anything but tears of joy and accomplishment after I finish my first half marathon.

Onward.

Cozumel, Day 1

Feller and I landed in Cozumel yesterday, after what felt like forever traveling. The afternoon was full of napping and recovering from a Flying Hangover (and a cold, on Feller’s part), but we registered for all the diving we’re going to be doing through Scuba Club Cozumel (for which we got an AMAZING deal). We think we’re going to do a little shore dive from right outside our hotel room this afternoon just to re-acclimate ourselves with diving and the gear and everything.

We’re staying in a cool room with tiled floors and matching red, orange and purple striped curtains and bedspread. The curtains give the entire room a warm, rosy glow when the sun shines through them. The resort provides all of our meals, and so far, the food has been muy delicioso. I had AMAZING enchiladas con mole con pollo upon our arrival, which I hope sets the tone for the entire trip: amazing food, amazing experiences. AND they brought us dinner when we almost slept through it! THEY BROUGHT US FOOD!!

We’ve also signed up to do a couple of non diving day excursions. Somehow, we got corralled into talking to some tour guide guy at the airport, and he talked us into signing up with him. Feller’s a bit EEEHHH about it, and told me as we were walking away that we had just gotten “salesman’ed,” which is 100% correct. But I also feel like that we’re getting a pretty good deal, and that a couple of days of not diving will be fun. One of my favorite parts of Hawaii was the rainforest tour that we took, so I am optimistic. We’ll be spending one day touring Cozumel in a car, checking out Chankanaab National Park, a tequila factory tour, and Punta Sur. On another day, we’ll take a ferry to the mainland to have breakfast at Xcaret and taking a tour of Mayan ruins at Tulum.

Our trip is jam packed full of stuff, with all the diving and other tours, but we’re both just so excited. We’re both recovering from post-Christmas colds, so hopefully, we’ll be totally healthy and ready to go for the rest of the trip. Being here, really, finally, after two years of no real breaks in day to day life, feels a little surreal right now, but oh so wonderful. I stepped outside our room last night, after everyone else in the resort seemed to be asleep, and listened to the ocean hitting the pier just a few steps from our door and marveled that THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. I don’t even have the words to tell you how happy I am to be here and how I already feel relaxed and peaceful and how, despite our full schedule, I know we’ll have plenty of downtime and feel so much better when we come back home.