42 pairs of jeans please

last night I lived 300 days in my fictional life.

I became a struggling artist in a matter of minutes. I broke willow charcoal, drew a foot, drew a face that Nick offered me $7,000 for saying "You can buy as many pairs of jeans as you want with that money", quit while I was ahead, and then proceeded to go on tour with my band. we played a couple gigs before it was time for a break and I continued my solo tour as a drummer. finished up in Rio de Janeiro and moved on to London, then Paris, and stopped before our Chicago concert because frankly, I was tired.

a foot, a face, and two continents later and I'm dreaming of drum beat combinations.. my right foot tapping with restless bass drum syndrome.

this is my life in fiction. it's so much more exciting don't you think?

Michael and me

I visited Michaels Arts and Crafts store today to scratch an itch I have had for the past week. an itch that, left unscratched would have fallen in to my "wanted to do but never did" chapter of my life. well, I scratched it.

I plowed my way through the land of fake roses and lilies and bushells of unscented lavender forests; past the falling yarn boulders and the old moth ball blank-staring women shopping methodically; through the valley of forgotten frames with no fake people fake-smiling for the fake families... to find charcoal waiting patiently for me, hanging politely from their little hooks.

I plucked two, and moved on to my future sketch pads.

have I ever done this before? no. I have no idea what I'm doing. but I have confidence in myself that I'll figure it out as I go along. "but charcoal drawing is haaard" you say. well, stuff it. I am competent and determined. I can figure things out without explanation; without instruction. the only thing I could use help on is what to attempt to draw first. I should have asked the old checker lady for her advice but, I pictured myself aging a couple of years whilst listening to her stories if I so much as asked her what her favorite color was. so I declined from that option.

fruit bowl here I come.

cheers to me!

it's hard to believe it has been almost a week now since my 10k. I know you all must be wondering about the results (because I have just received SO many inquiries - hint of sarcasm). well I did it. I was coughing, congested, with tons of pressure in my right ear and I got myself out of bed and on the trail in the cold morning. even more unbelievable was the fact that Nick was out there too with me that early.

Aly was amazing. she held my water for me, stuck with me the entire time, told me minimal inspirational things, asked me whenever I needed water. and despite a total of 20 secs of walking in order to spit water, I did the entire thing. the furthest I had run before that, was only 4.8 miles. and that was weeks prior. to go from that, to 6.2 made me feel so proud of myself. and then it was all over. and I had to pack for my trip to NY. and my run was pretty much forgotten by everyone.

I haven't gone on a run since then (6 days ago). I was in NY for 4 nights and gave myself a nice bruised instep from all the walking. it goes from invisible, to excruciating pain very easily. I broke in to a jog today whilst running to my mom's desk to give her some cash for her lunch (how often does a daughter get asked by her mom to borrow some money?) and pain shot up from the bottom of my foot, up the side of my leg and I showed up at her desk with a limp and a grimace - thus making her feel extreme guilt. as much

as my body craves a good run after my NY trip (I ate pretty healthy, I was just off schedule and thus feeling very funky) my foot can't handle a 10 foot jaunt right now. I am even concerned for my upcoming Napa trip - I don't believe wine can hide the pain. but I'm willing to test that theory.

hold it up to the light, swirl it, smell it, sip it. it's good.

trooper my butt

3 days before my 10k and I think I'm getting sick. there has been someone at work who has been phlegm coughing and spitting at his desk for weeks but, still came in to work illusioned by the fact he thought he was being a trooper. well, how about NEGLIGENT. everyone who's cubicle he has coughed in is now feeling the consequences of a "trooper".

not only do I now fear pushing through my 10k with a thick cough but also being stuck on a plane and on my short vacation to NY with the trooper sickness.

well, whether this turns in to the real thing or just a minor inconvenience I plan on most certainly running my race this Saturday. unless I achieve flu status by then, I will be up and running.

I am taking today off of exercise as my body is beginning soreness and in combination with the weird stuff going on in my head, a bowl of soup from Whole Foods sounds too good to be true right now.

my challenge for tomorrow?

i think i'll be ok

so thanks to the Super Bowl and me not wanting to watch it but then changing my mind, I wasn't able to run my Lark Ave. run this past weekend. that made me a little scared about my upcoming 10k. so yesterday, I ran with a friend over at the hilly Rancho San Antonio again. we got in a little under 3 miles but it was very easy. thus today, I have a renewed faith in my body and the 10k that is in 4 days. I will go to my spinning class today which always gives me a good challenge as well as a good sweat, and then push myself on a 4.5 mile run tomorrow. with a shorter run on Thursday just for good measure. and a nice pleasant bowl of angel hair on Friday night.

leading right up to my bright and early 6.2 miles Saturday morning. the longest run I've done recently was about 4.8 miles. as much as I would have liked to get in a 10k distance at some point prior to my 10k race, most training programs don't encourage that, and I believe that knowing I can put back 4.8 will help greatly when pushing for 6.2.

that and remembering what Aly, Bryon, and Mitch have all told me and helped me with so much over the past couple of months. I'll get through it.

here is the basic route I ran yesterday.. just subtract half a mile and it is accurate.