How I Discovered My Love for Hot Pink

I really wish I could find the picture that inspired me to try painting again - because my version turned out so differently that what I was originally aiming for. The painting (and now that I think about it, it could have been some abstract wallpaper) had these really vivid colors and the stripes were funnel shaped all the way across the canvas. While I think that description is inadequate at best, here is my interpretation without further ado:

Anyone who has been to my house knows that I'm not afraid of color. Lots and lots of bright, vivid, in-your-face color. So far when I try to paint with all of that color by the time I'm done with it I think it's the most hideous thing I've ever seen - that's what happened to this one. In fact it took me two days of stewing over what I needed to do to fix it before I just threw on some black... honestly I can't say that I really like this one, but I like aspects of it. Like the hot pink - I want to put that on everything. Seriously, who knew?

I'm happy to report there was no crying with this one, but Parrish & I did have a great time coming up with ridiculous ideas for what the painting meant. Most of the time Parrish & I think that the meanings the artists come up with are a little pretentious... maybe we're being pretentious in thinking they're pretentious, I don't know. Anyway, one of my favorite was something about how it symbolized man's evolution away from their animal instincts, but mostly because Parrish thought I was being absolutely serious when I told him that. You should have seen the look on his face. *snicker*

I've already got another canvas lined up - this one is quite a bit smaller so I think my next challenge is to limit the number of colors I use. Hot pink here I come!

Painting, and bunnies, and lists (oh my)

This atrocious piece of art that's assaulting your senses on the left is a culmination of years of talking my dear husband's ear off about how I would love to try to paint... and well he finally made me do it. Also, Sonja inspired me with her Wine & Design painting, and I think we all know that if Sonja jumps off a bridge I'd jump to (I'm such a sheep). I've been far too intimidated to actually try painting but this weekend was essentially a do or die situation. And I say "do or die" because after 45 minutes of giggling, pouting, psyching myself out, and essentially just screwing around in front of a white canvas Parrish was going to kill me if I didn't at least try it. For those of you who think it's too dark - it actually started out as a hot pink flower, turned into lots of random bright colors, and morphed into this blue black thingy you see now after a rather large rum & coke. And yes, there *may* have been some tears involved so Parrish just decided to call it art therapy. I'm surprised he didn't try to drown me in acrylics.

Today I just got restless after sitting around all day watching TV -- yes, it was one of those days -- so I got out and walked. Dusk has always been my favorite time of day, something about the way the sky looks, the cicadas are all humming, and I was lucky enough to run into this rabbit just chilling in the neighbors front yard like a cat -- I swear he said "'Sup?" the first time I walked by. The second time I wanted to get a closer look but had this vision of the Rabbit of Caerbannog in Monty Python & the Holy Grail taking out all those knights so I kept my distance.

Anyway, by my 4th lap the rabbit was gone, and I had started thinking about all the reasons I like to exercise, and I made a ton of lists in my head about why I should do it on a daily basis, and yadda yadda yadda and now of course I can't remember a darn thing. I guess you could say the #1 reason I like exercising is that it clears my head, which is no easy feat let me tell you. They all would've made a great blog post, but I'm completely stumped as to why, if exercise does so many positive things for me, then WHY can't I get motivated to do it on a regular basis?

Today: walked 4 laps - 2.4 miles

Wussy dumbbells, biking, and mental health days

That's right, go ahead and laugh. Those are baby blue 3 lb weights... and they've been kicking my arse. One of the things I've been uber self conscious about is my lack of arm strength lately. It's not that I want to look like a body builder, but when I point at things, my triceps should NOT jiggle. Ever. I realize that weak upper body strength is one of those things that girls are just saddled with compared to men, but it doesn't mean that I have to accept it... and that's how I ended up with this wussy looking dumbbells. I'm hoping to move up to the 5 lb one soon; at least they are purple.

Anyway, this week has been a banner week, not only for myself, but for Parrish too. Here's what we've done:

Monday

Parrish has been riding a mile in the morning and a mile in the evening after I get home. I'm pretty proud of him! We went to a park that is relatively close to my house and biked around their 1/3 mile path. I ended up doing 2 miles and I get extra credit for getting whistled at while doing it. And for not running over the walkers - they do NOT like to get out of the way.

Tuesday

Parrish did 2 1-mile bike rides and he's feeling pretty good about that. I had my usual running date with Sonja and we walked the entire 2.5 miles loop. What can I say, we had some stuff to talk about.

Wednesday

Parrish went riding with a friend of his and ended up doing a 5-mile loop. My legs hurt just thinking about it. I took the day off because really - I exercise to live, not live to exercise.

Thursday

This morning I decided to jump on the treadmill with the wussy blue 3 lb dumbbells and did my interval walking workout. I was going to be good and do three sets of 10 curls while I was walking but I spaced out and I ended up just doing as many curls as I could in the first 15 mins. My arms are killing me but hopefully that will pay off eventually.

The best part of this week is that I took today & tomorrow off of work, and I'm hoping to get some more riding time in. And go to the beach. And do some shopping. Just having a couple of mental health days makes me feel so much LESS stressed out it's unbelievable. The great news is that yes, I woke up at 530 am today but it wasn't because I was dwelling about work. I really want to carry that throughout the rest of my weekend - keep your fingers crossed.

Bikes!

Yesterday Parrish & I decided to brave Craigslist and look for a couple of reasonably priced bikes for a couple of less-than-serious people who just want to relive a little of their childhood... and somehow manage to lose 20 lbs in the process (more on that later, so quit screaming at the screen that I don't need to lose 20 blah blah blah).

We ended up meeting this guy named John who likes to acquire bikes and sell them as a hobby. This dude is passionate about two things - fixing bikes, and his 4 cockatoos, the latter which I found a smidgen creepy but that's neither here nor there. He was super nice, and changed all four of Parrish's brake pads at no extra charge, and we got two pretty decent bikes for cheap. And by decent, I mean they are probably Wal-mart specials, but they'll work. I'm so thrilled with mine and I'm trying to name her but I haven't come up with anything yet.

Parrish has recently decided that he needs to be healthier and I am so proud of his decision to start exercising on a regular basis. He wants to lose 20 lbs but he's pretty realistic about how long that's going to take and what we have to do to get him there.

Since we don't have helmets yet, we decided to ride the loop and Parrish made it a little over a mile which is fantastic. I managed 2.4 miles and I'm pretty sure I almost died. It was so much fun though and I'm glad I got talked into getting a bike. Dare I say it... I think I like it better than running! It was something new and fun and while it was HARD I feel really good about what I did - I'm sweaty as hell, my quads burn, and I can't walk up stairs but it felt GREAT.

Does anyone know about bike gears? She's an 18-speed and I have 3 gears on the left hand and 6 on the right... but I'm not sure what the difference is between the two sides? Help!

Small Victories & Solo Runs

For the last year or for however long it's been since I've started trying to workout on a regular basis and I've tried to get Parrish to work out with me. It's only taken me a year - but ladies & gentlemen Parrish has walked with me. TWICE. *dances a jig*


I swear I am so excited -- I HATE having to exercise by myself. It's so boring and my motivation is just about nil about halfway through. Oh yea, and it's good for Parrish to exercise too blah blah blah ;)


Seriously, he's working really hard and I have to give him props. The last time he walked it was 3 loops around our sub division and the neighboring one, which is a little over two miles. Not bad for an old man with bad knees. Naturally, trying to keep it up has been a struggle for both of us - getting up at 5 am is rough, especially when he's been at school until 7-8 every night.


Sonja & I have been walking our loop at work twice a week, and today I got motivated and went for a "run" by myself. It would've been less depressing if my coworkers hadn't driven by me while I was walking. I did pretty well considering, I can run almost the entire first half mile, so I'm pretty proud of that. Another small victory right? I hope by the end of the year to be able to run most of the loop continuously, but right now I'm just proud that I'm getting out there.

Walking is so... pedestrian

I have to admit, I am a running snob. It doesn't matter that I'll never relive my glory days of a 6 minute mile or that honestly I have no desire to run farther than a 5k. It's for old ladies, the very pregnant, or for the nonathletic. It's for freaking mall-walkers people. I don't count myself in any of those categories and ever since I injured my foot, it's the only thing I've been able to do. Can you see me in the picture below - because apparently that's my fate.

Okay, so I'm over-reacting here (and I'm not actually in the picture) but I hate not being able to run, even if it's only a few hundred feet. Luckily for me, daylight savings has hit and Sonja & I have been walking all over our new route, so I'm not sitting inside dwelling on my injury. It's 2.5 miles and we get to go through this nice little park & a really nice neighborhood to get back to the main road. Both times it's taken about an hour to do the entire loop so while we aren't exactly speed-walking we get a good workout in. Not to mention some much needed girl-time!




My foot has been feeling pretty good this week so I tried a little run today to test things out and I was able to run a full 6 minutes on it without incident. You can imagine my relief - I'd given up my heels lately and between the flat shoes and the walking I've been feeling ancient. I'm baaaaccckkk!!!

X-rays, Insomnia, and Daylight Savings

Today starts a much needed 3-day weekend and I high-tailed it to the doc to get my foot checked out. It's been a week since the initial injury, and it still hurts, although admittedly not as bad. I mainly wanted to go to get checked out for a stress fracture - since it didn't swell I knew it wasn't broken but you never know, right? The x-ray place is right next door to my general practitioner (who looks just like my uncle, it's a little scary) and it was the most depressing waiting room I've been in - no plants, no bright paintings, no TV. Anyway, I was in and out in about 15 minutes so it didn't completely kill my will to live. I didn't think I was going to get the results until Monday, however the doc was nice enough to put me out of my misery - no stress fractures YAY! Treatment is back to the usual - heat/ice/Advil & time. Blerg.


While I was there I decided to talk to my doc about my current bought with insomnia I've been having - I can get to sleep just fine, it's just that I wake up at some ungodly hour (today it was 2:30 am) and I can't shut off my brain. She pretty much told me to cut back on caffeine intake, told me to take Benedryl, and gave me a handout. Gotta loved doctors in a hurry.


Anyway, I'm reading this handout and I'm violating all of these suggestions to get a good night sleep. My favorite (and I quote): "Put your worries away when you go to bed". No shit?! I feel good about tonight though - I only had 1 caffienated beverage before noon, managed not to take a nap during Alice in Wonderland (which was close), and stocked up on Benedryl just in case this turns into an ongoing thing. Tonight this is going to be me:






This Sunday starts Daylight Savings Time, and I'm excited to get back out on the road with Sonja. I think we're going to start walking until my foot gets better, but I really missed the girl time!