Taking my lunch to work

It is 10 o’clock in the morning and I have eaten 90% of the lunch I brought with me. I’ve always been like that. I ate breakfast, then I got to work and ate dessert with my coffee. Then I wiped out the leftover black bean & corn salad in a mason jar. Now the only reason I haven’t heated up and finished off the sweet potato soup is because it is still frozen.

I got on a kick making all sorts of food and freezing it in the past month or so. Now I have all sorts of things to choose from. I had gotten a big package of cheap “steak” from the store and threw it in the fridge to marinate for too long awhile then popped them in the freezer. I took one out yesterday and because it marinated too long awhile, it is sort of salty. Too salty to eat straight up, so I made the most amazing tacos to date. I cooked up the meat until it was just pink in the center (this was more a happy accident than a strategy as I fail am not good at cooking meat to order), heated up corn tortillas, swiped sour cream in thon tortillas, piled on the black bean and corn salad and three strips of meat. All this was washed down with one Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat beer.

I had to restrain myself, but was only successful in the beer department. I ate all the tortillas I had left in the package.

I have ribs in the freezer and I think that’s next up although my Better Idea Department is loudly proclaiming that this is a project for the weekend.

Yesterday I finished off my favorite food: chutney. I had no more than a teaspoon left in the jar, but I got another jar as a birthday present. So naturally it was time to let go of the last vestiges of what I had so there was an appropriate excuse to open the new jar. I dug out what was there for an English muffin with PB, then I dug out the rest with my spoon. And then? You’ve probably guessed by now that I stuck my finger in the jar and licked as much as I could before throwing the jar in the dishwasher. It’s a nice jar. The woman we met at the 5k on Sunday does something with her husband and kids: they keep all the safety pins from their bibs in a glass jar. I think I may do that with this jar. The safety pins need a place to live anyway, right?

I counted up and I need 36 pins to put in my jar. That means in just one year I have done 9 events. How cool am I?

Don’t answer that.

Setting goals and reaching them

Early last week, I set a goal of running an entire 5k event without walking. Several days later, I accomplished it. I must be winning at life these days. I thought I would be mostly by myself (among hundreds of runners) at this race on Sunday morning, but I was wrong. I met up with several friends, which made things fabulous. Cindy was there to hold my jacket and take photos and be generally encouraging. She is very good at this stuff! Here I am right before the race starts. I am not sure if I am laughing or talking or what I'm doing. It looks a little like I've been hit or the wind is blowing me backwards and throwing open my jacket - oh, the excitement! It's like a docu-drama, my life.

John is a co-worker and the instigator of a lot of smack talk event registrations. He is the reason I am standing in the chilly weather on a Sunday morning when I should be at church. I set this goal for the next 12 months and within minutes, I got an email saying, "Hey, are you running in the Capital Pursuit this weekend?"

Being the cheeky competitor I am, I legged it to the registration table and threw down my double sawbuck for a chance to prove myself to...um, well, mostly just to myself. I do realize, people, that no one is keeping score but me.

Here we are at the beginning of the race. John later wrote, "I wonder if the 0800 me knew how the rest of the day me was going to feel?" And I could relate. I spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake. I met up with friends, made a new friend (I don't remember her name!), got to watch the children's race and cheered in the 10-mile runners. Then I walked 2 blocks and went to mass. I don't think anyone noticed, but I almost fell asleep toward the end. Twice.

In this photo, they've just announced the release of a pack of wild and hungry tigers, lions, monkeys, housecats and elephants one block behind us.

I am smiling in this photo, which was taken by Cindy, my professional photographer. Aren't these photos great? If I had taken this, I assure you it would be blurry and useless. My mom noticed that I smile a lot in these photos. Sure, I have some nervous energy but I'm also pretty happy. I never thought I would do this sort of thing. I get up early, I walk, I run, I swim. I'm unidentifiable. Just this morning, I was browsing for a programmer on Careerbuilder and I came across this bullet point (not kidding) in a resume out of Seattle. I think it sums up self, so I did the old copy & paste to share with all of you:

I learned that I have excellent personal skills.

Mind you, it doesn't say I have excellent interpersonal skills. Just personal skills. And I assure you, I make this promise to you, I really mean it when I say my personal skills rock. My skills are so personal you're probably unaware of them, so I want a t-shirt or a cake that shouts the news to the world.

Nature Notes Thursday

Visit Michelle at the lovely Nature Notes Thursday Meme for beautiful photos of the world around us.

This week saw the beginning of autumn, which is a pleasant time of year. On the last day of summer we got rain after more than a month without, so although it is only a cell phone photo, here is a photo from my ride to work that makes it looks like I live in a small farm town even though I live in a huge suburb of Des Moines.

You could hear the lawn, shrubs, flowers and trees gulping great swallows of water like a kid coming off the biggest slide at the water park.

At work this week and last I have seen outside my office window a hummingbird and two herons. Again...suburbs of Des Moines. I love my office window. I once had a job candidate who said he hated his last job because they stuck him in a cubicle. He joked about my window, which spans the width of my office. We always had something to say when we worked on his job search and at Christmas that year I came back from lunch to a gift bag on my desk. The card said, "To Caron" and inside was a package of Windex wipes.

I knew exactly who left that for me!

I want to include this on Nature Notes Thursday. I saw something on another web site and I followed the link to a social networking site, which I do not want to participate in. But I like the premise: Grace in small things/Waging a battle against embitterment since 2008. They just list small things for which they are grateful. I will keep in "nature" in nature. (I crack myself up)

Grace in small things
1. Rain
2. Garbanzo beans
3. Rhubarb
4. Herons
5. Windows

What have I been doing?

I have been taking swimming lessons this week. Tonight's lesson was good and I learned what I was already doing properly (hooray!) and practicing what I either needed to do better (breathing) or needed to learn (frog kick - what's that called? the one with the backstroke). And sleeping. I've been trying to sleep.

I've also been thinking of blog posts that wouldn't put you all to sleep. Let's see...(checking inventory) Yes, all the topics are just about me. Me and walking, me and goal setting, me and a bucket list I didn't know I had, me and competition, me and learning new things.

Is there anything going on in the world that doesn't involve me? Clearly not.

Also, I registered today for a fast, flat 5K through downtown Des Moines on Sunday morning. I'll miss church, but I realized on Monday that I really want to set a goal of running an entire 5k without walking. I decided to do it in the next 12 months. So this weekend, right? Set a goal and get on it. We'll see how it goes.

Funny thing about mottos. I said they usually come to me and they do. I usually have a moment like this...Ah ha! That happened today. I was reading something online from the golden days of radio and a quote from an old show struck me as funny, "Time is a minor drawback."

More later in the week on why that will be this weekend's motto even though it is just 5k and not a marathon. I'm sure you'll be breathless with anticipation, so I thought I would draw it out.

(insert clever seque of your own choosing, please) (I couldn't come up with one)

Oh, my swimming class: I am getting something extra from the class. There are only two of us who know how to swim. The other ones? They are really learning the basics and it is so exciting to see them get better in one class. This one woman, Lucy, is from Kenya. She is not afraid of the water and she seems a positive person. Tonight she swam the short length of the pool (from side to side) and I was so freaking excited!!! So was she and rightly so.

Another woman was there for the first class, but she didn't show up tonight. I hope she comes back. She really did learn something in the first class, but she fretted and repeatedly said "I can't" and it seemed to sum up the old thing teachers and coaches and parents will tell kids - that if you think you can't, you're probably right.

Three people in my class said of me to the teacher "She makes it look easy" and other related comments. Although tonight's class didn't hurt my ego, it did kick me in the upper back like an angry mule. Now that I am actually swimming the freestyle, I think I need to crawl into bed and whimper for a few hours. Nothing like deep, aching and lasting pain for staying humble.

USAF marathon, part 2

This Wright Brothers type bi-plane flew over the course all morning over Huffman Prairie, which is where the Wright Brothers got some flying work done. Very historic!

The Northrup Grumman Global Hawk was the marathon mascot. Doesn't it look like a flying whale? The guy from Northrup Grumman who gave a speech at the marathon pasta dinner was funny and gave a very enjoyable speech. He joked that he couldn't get permission to get a Global Hawk flyover, but at 60,000 feet, we probably would have missed it anyway!

This is me straight off the shuttle bus and cold.

After the pasta dinner, the museum was open. I noticed something I hadn't seen before and that's saying something since I got to the National Air Force Museum pretty much once a year. The added a hangar devoted to the Cold War. It's interesting and the DEFCON stuff is on the floor. That's me in a skirt by DEFCON 5.

Heh heh.

At the dinner, Dave McGillivray spoke. Did I already tell you that? His story is very interesting. He is the race director of the Boston Marathon.

I see now I could have cropped and fixed a few of these photos, but it is late and I am tired. I had my first swimming lesson today and I learned a few things, so it was a good experience.

The first marathon post

Here I am inside the National Air Force Museum. It was cold outside, but then I would be cold if it was 70 degrees with a breeze. The traffic getting on base was c.r.a.z.y. because they were letting one car at a time through the gate. I'm pretty excited here having just gotten out of the girls' room, which of course all of you know had a line formed halfway to the Wright Brother's bike shop. In this photo, please note my Goodwill pink velour jacket with stain. Very warm. This came in handy. I kept it for quite awhile after I took it off for just in case because last year I discarded my hat too soon.

This photo isn't very big, but if you look in the center of the picture, I'm right behind the guy in the orange t-shirt. Close up, you can see that I am either sucking on my teeth, biting my lip or talking to myself (I do that) (a lot), so I sort of look like I don't have a chin.

I have a photo of me crossing the finish line, but the one I downloaded isn't the right one. If any of you have experience with Blogger, you may understand why (but I don't) it isn't easy to insert a photo into this pre-planned post. So imagine, if you will, a very excited me running over the finish line! When you see the next photo, you will understand that although you are missing the excitement!, you are missing precious little else. Runners don't look that good when they're done running and pasty white girls look a little worse for the wear:

But I am very excited and that shows. I am wearing my medal, as evidenced by the blue ribbon around my neck that says airforce.com. I am also wearing a towel, a long one that says SAVE THE DATE for next year's marathon (I'd really like to plan on it) and I am wearing one of those metallic blankets. Last year, after my 26.2 mile hike, I didn't keep that on long enough and I almost passed out. I kept it on for quite some time on Saturday and although I was sweating underneath it, I felt cool and calm. Moments after the photo above, though, I did have to sit down immediately because my brain said, "Hey stoopid, sit down NOW" and so having learned a few lessons in the past year, I sat down crossed legged and leaned over my ankles. Bliss. Then I got up and tried to drink the Nesquick. They are fabulous sponsors and I dearly love sponsors who help make these expensive events get off the ground (Air Force...off the ground...clever). Chocolate milk is my favorite recovery drink after I drink water. But Nesquick just doesn't taste like chocolate milk to me. I ate a banana, which is just the smart thing to do even if you don't like bananas. I didn't get any pizza. That's a pizza van in the background. Lots of pizza. Pizza has never sounded so disgusting to me as it did Saturday morning.

I have a few other photos and some general information about the marathon for tomorrow. I think it is interesting. But naturally tonight I am still reveling in my fabulousity. I think people expect you to get over yourself pretty quickly, so thanks for letting me fabulous for awhile longer.

I did it!

I did the half in less than three hours! Details later.