National Readathon Day!!!

YOU GUYS. Penguin Random House, Goodreads, Mashable and the National Book Foundation are starting a NATIONAL READATHON DAY. I cannot even begin to describe to you the amount of joy with which this fills my heart. A whole day. For READING. (Or, as I like to call it, Tuesday.)

So I’ve actually heard of libraries organizing readathons before, and I always thought it was a cool idea, and maybe a good way to promote reading for pleasure. And the other day, as I was tootling about the internet, I came across the link to a national readathon! How exciting! I immediately decided that I would be dragging Feller along with me because he likes to read, too, and what better way could we possibly spend an afternoon together?

Upon further inspection, I discovered that the readathon, in the true fashion of all -athons everywhere, is meant not just for sheer joy of reading all afternoon, but to promote and raise funds for the National Book Foundation, who bring us the National Book Award and a variety of programs designed to promote literacy in the US and help instill a love of reading in people. And who can’t get behind a group that brings attention to authors such as Jacqueline Woodson (winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Young Adult) and Ursula K. Le Guin (recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution and who gave a kick ass acceptance speech).

So, if you feel like supporting our readathon, and we would LOVE to have it!, click on the logo down below, which will take you to our donation page. I’ve set our goal as $100, but it would also be great to surpass that!

And if you’re interested in participating in the readathon yourself, there are venues hosting readathons all over the country, but you can also read from the comfort of your favorite reading spot. Just read along with us on January 24th, from noon-4pm!

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.

Amy’s Awesomeness Project

Yesterday, UPS brought my Resolutions Chart for tracking Amy’s 2012 Awesomeness Project. I haven’t filled it out yet, as yesterday evening was fulling of cooking. I know, right? I COOKED. For the first time since Feller and I moved in together. But it was for a good cause; we visited some new parents for dinner, and it was fun to feed them.

Anyways, I’m done with work at 1030 tomorrow morning, and after that, it’s chart filling out time! My resolutions range from firm, precise things, such as gym and running three times a week and having a weekly game night with Feller, to more nebulous ideas, like “make time for music”, as I adore listening to it but haven’t been, and “be a better girlfriend.”

I also want to spend this year focusing on friendships and new experiences and meeting people. I want to spend my time doing more interesting, fun things than just sitting around watching tv all the time. I want to finish lingering knitting projects and work on my spinning. I’m going to blog regularly and send mail to friends and family.

I’m going to be a better student and a better housekeeper and stay on top of the dishes by washing them as we use them. Imagine that! It’s FASTER that way. And easier. And my kitchen stays CLEAN.

I’m going to find little ways to make my life easier and better and more full.

2011 Wrap Up

Well, I was sort of on the ball and had this written on New Year’s Eve, but our internet was totes broken until … now-ish.

The school semester wrapped up really nicely. At the beginning of the semester, I thought I might try for straight A’s, but then I got LAAAAAAZY. And I also forgot until a couple of weeks before classes ended that the Library & Information Sciences school has an annoyingly effed up grading scale, so in order to even get a grade high enough to get credit for the classes, I needed an 88%, which is really, REALLY HIGH, guys. So then I spent two weeks worrying about whether or not I participated enough in the online discussions, which by the way, are UTTER bullshit, and then came the final projects. As I told one of my friends, my intention was to three quarter ass my three final projects, and I think I managed that pretty successfully. One of the assignments was WAAAAY too short (all three actually, but I think it only mattered in one case), which I am pretty sure brought my grade down significantly. I didn’t look at the teacher’s comments on the paper because once classes were over, I pretty much stopped going online for anything significant amount of time. All this to say, really, that I ended up with a B and B+ in my two classes this semester, which is exactly what I needed to not ever have to take either of these classes again. Mission accomplished! On to next semester, which holds another required course and a class all about GRAPHIC NOVELS. AWESOME.

I’m not super into making resolutions for the new year, but it is such a good time for reflection and thinking about how one wants to improve oneself. In 2012, I’ve only got three Ways in which to Be More Awesome. Or at least, I’ve only thought about three things on which I want to focus.

1. I am only reading books already on my Goodreads “to read” list. I rarely get to mark books off that list because I get so distracted by all the other shiny, happy books at the library, and I really would like to whittle it down some. Of course, since deciding this, I have been frantically adding ALL THE BOOKS to my To Read list, you know, just in case. And so it has doubled in length in the past few weeks from 250-ish books to 500-ish. Just trying to keep my options open. Though, now that we’re four days into the year, and I’m already thinking about how I’ll break my To Read List Rule, this is going to be more of a guideline than a firm rule. My focus is more intentional reading rather than just picking up random books; that strategy has often worked for me, but, for this year at least, I don’t want random books to take away from the books that I KNOW I want to read. Does that make any sense?

Additionally, Feller gave me a Kindle Touch for Christmas (!!! love it), and I’ve been scouring Amazon for cheap ass books that I might want to read. I have added about 40 books to my Kindle since Christmas, and the most I’ve paid for any of them is five bucks. Most were ninety nine cents, so I’ve got about half a year’s worth of reading just sitting my Kindle waiting for me. And once I decide how I’m using various gift cards, I’ll probably have a few more books.

2. I am super getting serious, for realz, seriously, about getting in shape. I always say I hate to put a number on it, but then I just end up slacking off and getting nowhere, so here it is, officially, I am going to run three times a week. Feller and I are going to the gym together three times a week. I would also like to take at least three fitness classes at the gym per week, but I’m a bit more flexible on that. Ultimately, I want to lose forty pounds. I remember being at that weight for about five minutes in 2007, and it was nice.

3. Imma start going to church again. I haven’t in ages, and I miss it.

4. I just thought of another thing! Number four is knitting goals: I am going to knit at least one pair of socks, of real socks, not just the baby practice socks, from Cat Bordhi’s sock book. I am going to start working on my sock yarn leftover blanket, either this beekeeper quilt or this mitered squares blanket. I am going to finish that damn Medallion Travel Bag.

5. Oh also, I’m TOTALLY going to write more often.

So, there we go. 2011 was an awesome year. Feller and I went on a great vacation, I quit a job I hated, got a job I love, started school AGAIN. I’m hella looking forward to 2012. I really think it can only bring even better and brighter things.