Again, And Now For Something Completely Different; The Best of Craigslist!

A little humour goes a long way and let me just give you one lil' Craigs' list story amids the 'Best of...' :

Title; To The Man In The Motorized Wheelchair

You have restored my faith in humanity.

Lamentably, I work in the Lloyd District, and the largest assortment of food offerings in one place is, in fact, that true testament to the Portland Ghetto zeitgeist, The Lloyd Centre Mall. As I was walking toward the down escalator near the cinemas, having procured my foodstuffs, I noted a group of kids in front of me that should, undoubtedly, have been sitting in class in their middle school and were probably reveling in their shared truancy. As they walked, you came zipping around into their path in a motorized wheelchair like the place was the Portland International Raceway.

The quartet of young punks either did not notice or did not care enough to cede the right of way. That did not seem to phase you. No—you plowed right into the middle of them slammed to a stop, and grouchily shouted something akin to, ‘Jesus Christ! Move, motherfucker!’ out of your toothless maw.

I assure you that the profanity was utterly delicious.

Then you shoved down on that chair’s joystick and took off at a speed that indicated that the world had damned well better move for you.

The kids looked on in disbelief. I think on some level they were too flabbergasted to be offended.

Is it wrong that the cockles of my dark little heart just warmed at you schooling those young punks? And is it wrong that I then thought of myself in my old age shouting at kids to get off my lawn? There is hope. There are young punks a-plenty, and it is my most fervent wish that I get to plow down as many as my heart desires when I’m flying around the mall, my colostomy bag blazing like a standard.

Sir, I salute you. Huzzah!

For more of Craigs' 'quirky' and sometimes 'offensive' posts (sexual, religious etc)..Check out the rest of the best.

Which one was your favourite?

Trail of Lights 5K finished! Phew!!

The big Zilker tree, if you stand underneath when it's lit and look up, talk about psychedelic man!




I am in the back, to my left is James (from my Club Chronicle Challenge)in front of him, looking sideways is Christine (my non profit compadre, we're crossing our fingers). The other three ladies I know from the training but not their names except for Jeanette who's next to Christine.


Yesterday, the race was set to start at 6pm. At around 3, I was hungry for protein and made myself a broiled salmon with sauteed vegetables. I had James drop me off around 5sh and found a few people from Team Zen. It was much warmer than expected too. As last year's event was cold and people were wearing hats and mittens, this year's events the speedo 'santas' were probably the most comfortable. And you know, there were people dressed up for instance the couple dressed up as two Christmas present boxes, a guy with lights wrapped around him, the speedo santas (benefitting the non profit Out Youth, services for young gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender and 'questioning' youths from 12-19)and naturally, the beautiful light displays in the park. HowEVER...as I was running and fighting fatigue and feeling parched (breathing through my mouth, I know, it's not good but this being my first 'RUNNING' running event, I had to figure things out..)I did not want to be bothered in reaching into my fanny pack for my camera. I was trying to make TIME!

Close to the starting line





Going through the entrance of the trail of lights, it was a long arched lit up part with all the red, green and other colours. Man it was psychedelic! There was such a throng in the beginning before we even got into the actual trail (the race starts a mile beforehand) that it was easy to run more because you couldn't even get to a faster pace. Which suited me fine because I do just a very paced jog. If you speedwalk well you could keep up with me easily! lol

James, soaked to the bone but he did it! I took this after the 3mile mark when I backed out to see where he was. He was the only one on our Club Chronicle team that had to walk it.




Anyhow, I took some pictures before the race and afterwards. Unfortunately, I did not get shots of all my team mates (was too exhausted and exhillerated after the race) and the lights on the trail but I'll try to be better next time. I'll bring my camera to the next training so you can get an idea of our Team Zen group. Erin from the Chronicle was out to cheer us on (remember the contest??)

Adam Weisberg, owner of the Zen restaurents here in Austin is our sponsor and every Saturday morning for 8am, he gets there and provides 'Tokyo breakfast' for those who want it after the training. I never do because when I eat brown rice, I eat it with something saucy plus I'm not good with the spice that comes with it. Also, like last night when Adam sauteed Chicken teriyaki, I totally don't feel like eating after a workout. Saturday mornings, I relax and drink coffee while some of the others eat and we just chat. Last night, I had some water (there wasn't enough water for some reason) and that's it. When I got home I ate a tuna sandwhich.
Cassandra from my team with her boyfriend who supported her by coming out and joining her (and to think I told 'my' James that I didn't want him to run with me "It's my time to shine, no way!")

Another one of Cassandra in case she thinks the other picture didn't look good enough. She's pretty photogenic so she'll look good regardless!

I felt really proud of myself. I raced what I thought was a 34minute race. It was not a timed event, then I thought I did it in 37minutes, but now I figured I did it in 43 minutes and 43 seconds! Well ha! Still good!

I will definitely have to do a timed event next. No ifs and buts about that. It's good to get your first running race out of the way. What would I do different next time?

Next time, I'd rather run in the morning than in the evening. Plenty of time during the day to re-hydrate and feed your face with much needed protein! Also, training a known trail gives you a different and easier perspective on how far you've been running. They had big mile markers out during the race, but it's still difficult to pace yourself. I think you might need to acquire a built-in navigational 'feel' of sorts that you can only get through experience. Also, eating a good protein meal a few hours beforehand helps. Naturally, being the nervous nelly that I am, it 'affects' my stomach. Where other people eat, I don't. Or can't rather.

NOW I feel more committed to eat not necessarily 'right' but the right way for working out. After a long yak with my sister in law, I figured I might like to get a heart monitor. That, plus finding someone to help me with personalized cross training exercises and/or core body exercises. I'm pretty weak with all that. A light bulb went off, and I think today I finally figured out what it would take to be committed for training. Of course, Adam's offer really helped!

Tonight's the night!

Trail of Lights 5K


The last couple of months have been more hectic than expected what with the flooring changes etc. being out of the house longer than planned. Plus the two grantwriting courses I've been taking are much more work than anticipated. And I'm only half way!

This morning we did have a workout although supposedly not as hard. Well, I'm kinda tired and would like to nap. HowEVER...with my husband and kids being out of the house, I can just see myself finally falling asleep only to be rudely awoken by the brood storming into the house looking for me!

The Trail of Lights will start at 6:30pm but we have to be there for 5:30pm. I'll be sure to bring my camera and will post some pictures tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Voting started!

Trail of Lights 5K, Austin Texas

Well, next week is the Trail of Lights 5K and the voting has started! If you are inclined to vote for yours truly, by all means! Here is the link to the Austin Chronicle Club Chronicle Challenge. Apparently, it's one vote per email so if you have more than one email and you have nothing better to do..go for it!

I managed to jog/walk 2 miles in 29 minutes yesterday. Of course the full 5K would be 3.1 miles but still! I used to be able to walk 5K in about 50 minutes to an hour so regardless...it'll be an improvement to my time.

I know I need to update you guys but right now, I'm 'it' in the mom/dad tag team.

Please vote, even though I'm not gungho on winning. If anyone else strikes you as vote-worthy, by all means. I'm going to use the Chronicle blog platform (which we will not have for much longer) for recruiting assistance in setting up support for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
To be continued...