Okay, so a friend of mine is going to try this in February, so I thought, hey, why not?
I’m going to attempt to only eat out at local establishments — no chain restaurants — in February. Can I do this? I think I can. I pretty much avoid chains for the most part anyway. Sooo … here I go!
I should maybe attempt to blog about the different places I try, but we’ll see how that goes.
Read about my friend swearing off chain restaurants for a month.
Welll … that’s kind of an overstatement.
I didn’t break the finish line glory or anything, but I got 1st place in my age group (19-24) and 6th place overall in the Capital Striders Capital Pursuit 5K.
yes. 5K.
Don’t look at me like that. I don’t normally do short distance, but instead of sitting at home and sleeping I thought I’d rather be out running. Or at least on Friday I decided that on Sunday I’d rather be running than sleeping. When I got to Sunday I realized I was mistaken.
BUT I did it. And I did it well.
I forced myself out of bed and decided I was going to run it to accomplish something and not try to go too hardcore into it. So I made myself a killer playlist of 25 minutes’ worth of power songs, suited up and went out.
I had no idea how to start this thing and I was afraid of starting too fast (which I did) but I allowed myself to slow down in the middle a bit so I could go balls-to-the-wall in the end.
Did I mention there was what looked like a 9-year-old kid in front of me? As in, I’m getting beat by a 9-year-old and I have a side cramp and OHMYGOD I want to go back to bed.
But, I powered through. I ran a flipping marathon. There’s no way I was going to let this kid beat me.
He did.
Not by much.
Anyway, I did set out to at least run this thing in under 26 minutes. I was near the end and hadn’t checked the time on my iPod (it psyches me out, so I don’t if I’m racing). I saw the clock and it looked like it said “24-somethingorother”.
Crap. I’m not going to make it. Screw you 9-year-old. I’ll catch you later. I’m slowing down.
BUT WAIT. That’s not a 4. That’s a 1! How the —
*sprint*
Somehow I didn’t quite beat the kid, but I made it to the finish in 22:08 (official time was 22:21 I believe, iPod thinks it took me 24 minutes).
22 minutes. TWENTY TWO??! Wow.
Not lightening speed or anything, but that is pretty fast. For me especially.
So I grab a banana (since I like those now), a bagel bite and some Gatorade, and get in line to be stretched out by the local med students.
WHY did I never take advantage of the stretchage before? Wow. Does wonders.
Anyway, I noticed they were posting the results so I took a peek. I usually fall somewhere in the middle so I started looking on page 4 or so. Nope. That was the 30-minute range. Okay … page 2? Page ONE? Wow. Sixth?!
Granted, I did not run the “real” race. But still. This is a HUGE accomplishment.
AND I got first in my age division. Not going to happen again considering in less than 2 weeks I’m going to be 25, which puts me in the 25-35 age range (ie. where a lot of the elites fall).
In case you’re curious, I’ve included the graph of the race (note that it drops off after I finish b/c I had to jog around the block to get my iPod to think I was done).
I’m participating in Market Day this month (as usual) and a really cool show called Relish The Hellish — on THE SAME DAY!
What was I thinking?
Fortunately, I didn’t have to make a whole lot of new stuff for these shows, so I’m not quite at the level of insanity where I’m tearing my hair out yet. (I did chop it all off though!)
Anyway, here are the details of the two shows:
Once again, here comes another art show where the weird are most welcome. Quickly gaining an awesome customer base, these art shows reflect the talent of folks who you wouldn’t ordinarily see in a Gallery around town.
Butch Von Dreaux is making another trek all the way from Louisiana to be here and Spookshow Pinups has been added to the list of amazing artists as well!
D. Ryan Allen will be there again showing all of his amazing work from zombie sketches to kid’s coloring books for the macabre.
In addition to the fine arts folks, we will also have all kinds of goodies like hand-made leather wallets, re-structured clothing, creepy dolls, hand-bags, pillows and everything else in between.
SATANIMALS will also be unveiling a new line of horror inspired pillows.. the first being an amazing SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA pillow!
This is not just your average art show. Pretentious art snobs are discouraged from coming. Although, it is fun to see them stick their nose in the air and turn on their heels when they see Gregg Bensink’s table of amazing goodies.
Attendees can enter the raffle to win numerous prizes including: original artwork from each of the artists, gift certificates for tattoos up to $100 as well as gift certificates to some local businesses including: Best Place Ever, ZZZ Records, Cup O’ Kryptonite and The Beauty Parlor!
The Raffle is at 9PM and you MUST be present to win!!
——–
I’m participating in another craft show on the 29th of this month (yes, that’s 2 in one day!). This one is completely different than anything I’ve done before and it seems to be MY kind of people!
Here’s the details taken from Satanimals’ website:
Once again, here comes another art show where the weird are most welcome. Quickly gaining an awesome customer base, these art shows reflect the talent of folks who you wouldn’t ordinarily see in a Gallery around town.
Butch Von Dreaux is making another trek all the way from Louisiana to be here and Spookshow Pinups has been added to the list of amazing artists as well!
D. Ryan Allen will be there again showing all of his amazing work from zombie sketches to kid’s coloring books for the macabre.
In addition to the fine arts folks, we will also have all kinds of goodies like hand-made leather wallets, re-structured clothing, creepy dolls, hand-bags, pillows and everything else in between.
SATANIMALS will also be unveiling a new line of horror inspired pillows.. the first being an amazing SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA pillow!
This is not just your average art show. Pretentious art snobs are discouraged from coming. Although, it is fun to see them stick their nose in the air and turn on their heels when they see Gregg Bensink’s table of amazing goodies.
Attendees can enter the raffle to win numerous prizes including: original artwork from each of the artists, gift certificates for tattoos up to $100 as well as gift certificates to some local businesses including: Best Place Ever, ZZZ Records, Cup O’ Kryptonite and The Beauty Parlor!
The Raffle is at 9PM and you MUST be present to win!!
————
In case you were wondering, I’m on the poster — credited as “toDIYfor” since I’m going to be selling my rock/punk/dark stuff.
I’m super excited for this show! I’ll finally get to meet Sew Zinski and it sounds like there’s free beer all around. Sounds like a great craft show to me!
I got this awesome clock from UrbanPosture today. UrbanPosture is comprised of a couple of local creative people who I met recently through Market Day. I follow one of the minds behind UrbanPosture, Leslie, on her blog. Leslie hosts D.I.Y. Nights at the local coffee shop, Mars Cafe. Their offerings are eco-friendly (which is a huge plus for me!) and absolutely adorable!
Without further ado, here is my new clock!
It fits perfectly with the theme I’m trying to get going in my apartment. I’m planning to go through a lot of my “decor” (which is mainly junk I’ve collected over the years) and take it to good will or sell off some of it (ie. my Care Bears!). I’m going to focus on pinks/purples/grays/silvers/browns/neutrals and have more of a natural/organic feel. Hopefully. Maybe. Someday. Either way, this awesome clock is a start.
Also — I love how it fits in so perfectly with my blog theme I’ve got going here. 
EDIT: Here’s a photo of my new clock in its new home! 
My mom tried to tell me that Eugene, OR has just as bad of weather as we do. So I’m conducting an experiment.
Every Monday I’m going to take a screenshot of the 5-day forecast from both places and post it. Could be a terrible winter here vs. an unseasonably warm one there…but I’m going to check it out anyway.
Des Moines: 0 Eugene: 1
