07.02.09
Paris calls out
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of our return to the States, leaving our year in Paris behind. It’s a small coincidence that it would be on June 30 then that I had a strong reminder of our time there.
Flash back to March 2003 – Not a year out of college, I return to France with my mom and my friend Sara to visit Paris and Montpellier. One day at Place de la Tertre in Montmartre, a small oil painting catches my eye, and like many tourists before me, I haggle with the artist until we find a price we can agree on. At the time, it was a big expenditure for me at almost $60. But I loved the sepia-toned scene that was so Parisian, and yet not explicitly in Paris (no Eiffel Tower, or other recognizable monuments). I handed over my euros (or was it still francs at the time? euros, I think) and have never regretted it.
I found a small metal easel to display my painting on, and it graced my apartment in Dunn Loring, then the one Allen and I shared in Rosslyn, then our condo for two years. When we moved to the house in DC, I packed it up very carefully and put it in a safe place.
Now I don’t mean that I put it somewhere safe. I mean, I put it in a safe place. And you know what that means? I put it in a safe place means that I put it somewhere so safe and so hidden, that it would be safe even from me for a very long time. When anything valuable of mine goes missing, I know immediately that I put it in a safe place. (Another recent example: my aunt gave me cash to put towards framing these two beautiful lace doilies made by my grandfather’s mother and my grandmother’s sister. And do you know where that cash is now? I don’t either. I put it in a safe place.) And that painting was no exception. I put it in a safe place in August 2006, I moved everything, and I didn’t see that painting again…until yesterday.
(The painting’s safe place? A Harry & David pear box that I felt compelled to save because of the beautiful pattern. It has been in plain sight near the washing machine for months. It’s a miracle that I didn’t throw it and my beautiful painting away.)
Small enough coincidence that I would find the painting again a year after we moved away, but I wouldn’t think a single thing of it if there weren’t a bigger coincidence lying within. When I pulled that little painting out of its safe place, I suddenly knew exactly where in Paris it was. I’d never thought much about it before – pretty stone bridge, typical Parisian apartment buildings, the Seine, the trees – it was just Paris. But yesterday, on the anniversary of moving back from Paris, I found that painting, and I saw the Seine with Pont Marie stretching above it towards Rue des Deux Ponts and the first few buildings on Quai d’Anjou to the left there, where another inch of canvas would have revealed our Ile Saint Louis apartment.
To end my little reminiscence, I will share some pictures.
Here is my painting from Place de Tertre:
Here is a picture that Allen took of Pont Marie, facing away from our apartment:
For a view of Pont Marie facing towards our apartment, where you can see the shape of the buildings across Rue des Deux Ponts, click here.
06.30.09
Here’s to a long summer!
It’s the first day of my summer vacation!
School got out on June 19, but I opted to do a summer project to earn some extra money for yoga. I started going to yoga again at the Ashtanga Yoga Center in DC – must read back in my infrequent posts to see if I mentioned that already, but I don’t think that I did. It’s a bit of a drive at 25 minutes to Tenleytown, but definitely worth it to continue Ashtanga, and I really like the instructors. I took the (financial? commitment?) leap and paid for unlimited morning Mysore classes, too, so I’ve been going almost daily since June 15. Mysore classes refer to the style of teaching/practicing in Mysore, India, where you attend and self-practice under the guidance of an instructor who adjusts your postures and adds new ones to your practice as you memories the sequence. There are people in my classes who are far more practiced and those who have far less experience as well. It actually makes me very comfortable, and I feel refreshed and energized for the day when I go to Mysore in the morning. (Thank goodness, because it’s certainly hard for me to leave the house at 6:45 am or earlier.)
I haven’t forgotten my running, though I’ve done it a little less of late. Instead of running 3 times a week, I’m going once or twice. However, last week I went three times between Sunday and Saturday, including running the Potomac River Running Twilight Festival Four-Miler in Ashburn on Saturday evening. I had my usual goal – keep running the whole time. Once I got underway, I also amused myself with a secondary goal of running it in under 45 minutes, but I wouldn’t have been disappointed if I hadn’t achieved that goal. But I was successful in both! I ran a very steady four miles, with my average pace for the first two miles at 10:49 minutes/mile, and my average pace overall at 11:09 minutes/mile, and I finished in (do the math) 44:36. As a testament to my steadiness, I was able to sprint the last 50 meters or so, and I felt great doing it. There was great swag at this race – not only did I get an awesome orange technical t-shirt and a $1 off at Robek’s coupon in my race packet, but all runners got a free burrito and drink afterwards (and a beer, which I gave away). There were free massages, a moon bounce for kids, and post-race snacks and drinks courtesy of Wegman’s. Fancy! It about made up for the heat, serious lack of shade on the course, and of course for the “scenery” of Ashburn.
We’re back to painting the house (no, we’re not done yet), so that’s part of what I’ll be spending my first day of vacation doing. Most recently we had painted the ceiling and trim in our bedroom, leaving the walls a mess and in need of the blue gray that will soon go up. But we decided yesterday to start in on the small bedroom first, which is a light (to me) green-blue color. I’ll be working on the ceiling in there and the guest bathroom today, then moving to the trim, then the wall colors. Allen decided that we could pick a new paint color for the hallway (yellow since about six months ago, and I haven’t come around to liking it yet), rather than spend another $50 on the last gallon of Benjamin Moore paint we’d need to finish the upstairs part of the hallway. I was overjoyed to hear that we didn’t need to wait a couple of years to declare the color a failure and repaint. (And yes, we could spend the money to try sample patches first. But at least 4 out of 5 times, if not 9 out of 10, I’m happy with the color I pick on the first try. So I’m cheap and risky.)
There is a limit to what we’ll get done this week though because on Saturday we leave for a week in St. John. Allen’s parents built a house down there, which they rent for 10 months of the year and visit for two. They’ll be down there for the whole month; we’re just there Saturday through Friday.
Enough with the blogging for now – hopefully I’ll have more time to post now that it’s summer – but it’s time to get to that painting.
06.10.09
Haikus about exercise
It’s dangerous when
I get these ideas of
Writing differently.
Here’s news on running:
I haven’t been going much.
It’s all yoga’s fault.
I tried two places -
Both Ashtanga studios
Like the Paris one.
Definitely liked
Ashtanga Yoga Center
Better of the two.
Meanwhile there’s been rain.
It really affects my runs.
Activity drops.
The problem is that
June 27 I’ll run
my first four-miler.
Humidity makes
Me less able to run well.
Can I do four miles?
To add insult to
injury, my Nike plus
iPod broke today.
Either way what is
most important is I like
to move it, move it!
Wet and wild
Two more 50 word updates, on a theme of water:
Kindergarten water day! I spent over an hour today splashing, squirting, and throwing water balloons at kindergarteners. (”You can only throw it at my feet! At my feet! Ow!” – That was me, by the way, not the kindergarteners.) No kindergarteners were harmed in the making of this blog post.
It’s been raining almost daily here. We got new patio furniture on Memorial Day weekend, but the cushions take forever to dry. The basement at the DC house is leaking, and yes, that’s where my brother lives. On the upside, the grass is green. And the thunderstorms have been spectacular.
06.09.09
Updates in 50 words or less
I have this idea to catch up a bit: 50 words or less for each update.
On Sunday evening, we had a mini family reunion between Christy (daughter of the sister of my great grandmother) and Bud (of Truth or Consequences, NM, totally worth the word count) and Alan, Megan, Allen, and me. We met at Tonic and enjoyed our first meeting (after the age of 6).
That was exactly 50 words, for your information, and I probably spent more time counting words than writing it.
On May 16, Alan graduated from Catholic University with his masters. The ceremony was fun, but the best part was our four-person photo shoot around Catholic’s campus. Or maybe it was his masters sleeves. (Or maybe the low word count. Word.)
More soon…
05.14.09
I was sitting here with the blog open, but…
The choice right now is blog post or getting a run in. I’m going with the run.
05.10.09
3 X 5K: Three 5K races in three weeks
I didn’t intend to run three 5K races in three weeks.
I signed up for the first one to set a specific date to meet my 5K training goal. The GW Parkway Classic 5K was on April 26, at the end of 7 weeks of training. But the Couch to 5K training program I was following would take 9 weeks. When Regina asked if I wanted to do one of the Crystal City 5K Fridays, I signed up for the one on Friday, May 1, thinking that if I couldn’t run the whole 5K on April 26, I’d have another chance a week later. Then somewhere in between the training and the 5Ks, Regina and Ryan suggested the Pacers Running Festival 5K, which was 1) mostly downhill, and 2) in Arlington. I signed up for that one too, not thinking really hard about where these actually fell on a calendar.
To get to the starting line of the GW Parkway Classic 5K in time for the 8 am start, we had to drive to the finish in Alexandria and then take a shuttle that ran between 6:15 and 7:15 am. I was a disorganized mess the night before, going to bed near midnight after pinning on my bib and looking up the race course. Allen and I woke up and groggily showered, and at 6 am, Ryan and Sheila (one of the other teachers) arrived to carpool to Alexandria together. Then, of course, we ended up standing around for at least 45 minutes, waiting for the race to start. The field was full of runners, so we were separated almost immediately. The first mile went by quickly; the second had a few inclines. By the third mile, I was more than ready to be done, but I kept moving. I could see the finish ahead, but it seemed to get further and further away as I ran. Curse my faulty depth perception! People on the side of the road were cheering – I was glad that my first race was a bigger one that drew a crowd. Finally, I could tell I was in the home stretch, and I picked up the pace. I am finding that I like to run a little faster when I’m almost done, to show myself that there’s a little more in me. I crossed the finish line in 31:49 and immediately felt nauseous. It passed quickly though, and a few seconds later, I was cheering on Allen as he crossed the finish line himself.
I met my goal for that first race, which was to run the whole 5K without stopping or walking. I guess my goal for the second one, the next Friday, was: do it again. This time I was actually running with Regina and her friend Becky. And I had shed my cotton yoga pants for some actual running shorts in the meantime, so I wore those with my GW Parkway Classic dryfit shirt – I looked a bit more like a runner. The Crystal City 5K Friday field was much more spacious, so it was a comfortable run, if not quite as scenic. It was also entirely flat. We finished in 35:00, which I consider a success in that I ran for 35 minutes straight! It’s a far cry from the first week where running for 60 seconds was a chore. Regina and the others went to Noodles and Company for buy-one-get-one meals afterwards (yay for race discounts!), while I ran off to go bowling with Allen, Alan, Megan, Spencer, and Sunee. (I need to get into a training program for bowling, but that’s another story.)
Between Friday, May 1 and today I managed to avoid running again. Really, it rained from Monday to Thursday, and I was lazy on the other days. Shame. But I looked forward to this morning’s 5K at the Pacers Running Festival. Ryan and I were running together; Regina was there with her mom, walking for Mother’s Day. Allen dropped Ryan and me off, and he and Katie went to Rosslyn to wait for us and cheer us on. The field was open enough for me to keep up with Ryan (he’d finished less than 2 minutes ahead in the Parkway Classic, so I thought I might keep up), though he ran ahead a couple of times, and I caught up on the downhills, which were hurting his knee. (The entire first mile and a half – a little more even - was primarily downhill.) When we started out, the slope made us feel like we were flying; I thought it felt a little dangerous, like maybe I was actually just running too fast. And indeed, we were running fast. Allen and Katie were surprised to see us as soon as they did at the 1.5 mile point, and they clapped and waved. When we reached the bottom of the hill and started onto the parkway (we meet again, parkway), Ryan stopped to walk for a bit, and I continued jogging, though at a considerably slower pace. The next mile was like a strange relay, with Ryan walking while I jogged ahead, and then Ryan starting to jog and easily passing me, and then I’d pull ahead while he walked again. When I could tell we were within the last half mile, I thought I’d pick up the pace again to catch up to Ryan, or at least cross the finish in a good run. I started to speed up, and a wave of nausea hit hard. (”Okay, body, I see I have been pushing you a bit hard in this race.”) I slowed way down, as slow as I could go and still look like I might be jogging. It was at this point that I passed a group of onlookers yelling, “You’re almost there! PUSH IT! Push it to the end!” I felt like it took five minutes to pass them. (And also, I was pushing it. I was pushing that feeling that I was going to puke far, far down in my mind.) But as I rounded the last bend, I found a final burst of strength (seeing the timer seems to do that to a person), and I ran through the finish in 28:29. That, in case you are doing math in your head, is a 9:10 minute mile. (Kill me now.) Ryan finished a whopping 25 seconds earlier, but I’m fairly confident that I couldn’t have moved much faster than I did. (The vomiting would have probably slowed me down.) What a treat to have Allen, with Katie on his shoulders, waiting at the finish line, with both of them clapping and woo-hooing away.
So. Three 5Ks in three weeks. I’d say I’ve met my running goals. Ask me if I’m doing one next week. No, really though, my next race will either be the 5K Race for the Cure, if Rebecca comes up to do it, or a 4-miler in Reston at the end of June. Got to keep on moving if this body’s going to run a 10K in the fall. (Did I mention that I think I’ll train for a 10K now? Stay tuned.)
04.24.09
A banner week for my health
This is going to be a good week, with three major health milestones for me.
Exhibit A:
In two days, I run my first 5K, the George Washington Parkway Classic. I’m trying not think about how early I will need to get up. Instead, I’m thinking how I’m going to keep running, for just about 35 minutes, an okay pace, and then I’ll have done it. That’s it, right?
This all started when one of my coworkers asked who would be interested in training for a 5K or 10 miler for this upcoming race. Within a couple weeks, our combined groups were some 15 strong. Cheryl, the mastermind behind the running groups, took over the schedule for the 10 miler training. I suggested the Couch to 5K that Allen and I had tried a few years ago. (During that training, I was completely derailed by strep. This time I’ve had strep twice in the 7 weeks I’ve been running, and I’m still going.) The 5K training became a run/walk group. We started running just 60 seconds at a time, alternating with walking. Last week, I ran 3 miles on the treadmill on Wednesday, and then 3 miles outside on Friday. I’ll admit it – I cried a little after I finished that.
Sunday is the big day. I’ve been under the weather this week (see Exhibit C) and haven’t run at all, but I plan on getting limber with a short run tomorrow and then resting and drinking plenty of water. And then – watch me go!
Exhibit B:
I’ll keep this one short because it’s not just toot my own horn day here. (But maybe it is.) My second health milestone this week is that I expect to end April with a 25 pound loss since January 1. I’ve been doing Weight Watchers fairly diligently, and it has been rewarding me with a lost pants size and dropping pounds. The most satisfying and revolting part of this process has been buying meat at the supermarket and mentally calculating how many tenderloins I have lost.
Exhibit C:
This health milestone is more of a “first,” and it’s a mixed bag. Would you believe that I have strep throat again? If you check out my last post about strep throat (er, my last post period), please do note the date. When I started recognizing the symptoms on Monday, I was incredulous that I could have strep throat twice within a month. And it’s not that it never went away; the antibiotics seemed to work last time. Mercifully, this case was mild – the advantage being that it wasn’t as painful but the disadvantage being that I had to wait for a throat culture to go to the lab and back and thus not get antibiotics until Thursday. I’m on them now though, and I’m resting up for that race on Sunday. So, along with my other health milestones, I chalk up two cases of strep within a month’s time, but that also means two confirmed positive test results to show the ear-nose-throat specialist so I can be tonsil free in 2009!
Now, off to bed, and no more electronics for the night because I’m trying to get better sleep…but that’s a health story for another day.
03.29.09
Same old story
Conversation between me and my dad:
Dad: Your brother is dissing you on his blog.
Me: What? Let me look at that.
Dad: He’s talking about how you haven’t posted since Obama was inaugurated.
Me: I just posted today! But I didn’t see his post first. I get these emails from grandma saying she misses my blog too. I mean, I was going to write about my strep throat, but…
Dad: Yeah, that’s not even news.
Me: I know. My whole blog is going to be about strep throat.*
Dad: Yeah. Save it. Count it.
*Note here and here. And yes, I’m going to finally see about getting my tonsils out.
03.28.09
Brandi Carlile is ten feet tall.
I’m having trouble writing about Brandi Carlile’s Thursday night show at the Birchmere because I can’t quite figure out which words to use to make you feel the energy and awe like I did. I bought the tickets as a birthday present for Allen, and we were both looking forward to it, but neither of us anticipated just how good it would be.
However good Brandi sounds on her albums, she’s unreal in person. Her voice is uniquely rich and deep but so natural at the same time that you’re not sure how she – or anyone – can be producing a sound like that. But lest you let the microphones and the showmanship fool you into thinking that somehow it’s just an elaborate illusion, Brandi also stepped out from behind the mic and sang one of the songs from her new album unplugged. (So then you just know that you can’t believe your ears or your eyes.)
Every bit of the show was a treat. Gregory Alan Isakov opened, and about four songs in, he asked Brandi Carlile to join him on stage. You’re sitting there thinking, “This guy is pretty good. He’s got a good voice.” Then Brandi Carlile opens her mouth to sing along with him, and you’re blown away. All the while, she’s chatting with the audience about how much she loves Gregory Alan Isakov’s music, and he’s making charmingly nervous self-deprecating jokes about pleading to be taken along on tour. Their interactions with each other and the audience were refreshingly normal.
When Brandi Carlile came back out with her band – the twins managing to look cute and tough at the same time with their matching hats and their tattoos on lean arms – she led the audience along with her easy conversation and her powerful singing. She regaled us with several songs from her upcoming album (which I am itching for now) and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the band’s relationship.
At one point she told a story about taping the new album, where the twins had to sing into the same mic about an inch from each other, and they alternated cussing each other out and singing angelically. Then one of the engineers said, “Those ladies are so good!” Then they all started the song, and as the twins began to sing their part, people in the audience started to laugh, and then more people started to laugh, until Brandi herself started laughing and had to stop singing.
They wrapped up the show with a rousing rendition of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison, and followed it up with a double encore – one song with the band, and one with just Brandi.
I think Allen liked his birthday present.
