Post by brittanydyan
December 31, 2009 at 12:40 am
Will has a half finished blog post in the hopper, and I’m betting that it won’t make it to publication by Thursday at midnight. Which means…this might be our final post of 2009 and of the decade, a decade some are calling the worst decade ever. Unfortunately, this post will not be a thoughtful, retrospective piece on the past year or the decade. While that seems like a good idea right now as I’m writing, I just wanted to quickly post some comments and pictures updating the readership on our mundane lives. Perhaps a more introspective post will follow, but I doubt it. I’m on vacation, which means I’m trying not to think.
And so, the update: We headed down to Georgia on Christmas Eve and spent the weekend with my parents in Lawrenceville. We headed to Thomaston on Monday night and arrived just in time to see an underwhelming first half of the Georgia/Texas A&M game at the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl. Good thing for us the second half was slightly more electrifying (no thanks to Joe Cox, good riddance), and the Bulldogs pulled out a sizable victory.
After a six-month hiatus from the south, we have also made an effort to see many of our friends across the state, which has meant quite a bit of travel. We caught up with friends in Atlanta on two occasions and look forward to seeing more in Savannah this week. And, no trip to Georgia would be complete without a visit or two to Athens. We’ll see Will’s grandma today, who lives in adjacent Winterville and then swing by a UGA basketball game (also likely to be underwhelming) where Spike will be the highlight. The week will end with the annual Fowler family gathering in Gibson.
So, with all of that on the horizon, I promise more pictures to come. But, here are a few that tell a story of the past few days.
I took a brief trip to Philadelphia last week in order to see Mal whose flight had been canceled due to the snow storm. We had a nice time catching up and being touristy.
Mom opening up a present on Christmas morning. I think it’s pajama pants.
And, Dad does the same while Twister the cat reclines.
The former roomies (Deena, Heather, Melissa & myself) of apartment 728 dine at Melissa’s house in Atlanta.
Will snaps a shot of the very exotic (but very dim-witted) Twister in front of the tree.
I dig into some hummus and pita as Will captures the deep fried tofu goodness of the Golden Bowl at the Grit.
Post by brittanydyan
December 19, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Although the semester is not nearly as stressful as past semesters (i.e. no more final taking and paper deadlines), I still have plenty of my own research at which to chip away. And yet, I’m taking time from my “busy” day on campus to blog. I have plenty to do, but as the campus slows down, it’s hard for me to keep up with my normal work pace. And, so the past few days I have tried to maintain a nice balance of work and fun/relaxation.
The 12 dates of Christmas, as mentioned in earlier blogs, have helped bring in some fun. We headed to the Alamo Mexican Restaurant in Riverdale for one of our dates on Monday night. We have been in search of good Mexican food ever since we moved here. One sign of a good Mexican restaurant = white queso dip. Every place we’ve been to thus far has yellow queso. I’m not sure why, and it’s not bad…it’s just not the queso we love. Wherefore art thou white queso dip?
Besides another strike out on cheese dip, the food was yummy and reasonably priced. The place was pretty much empty which was eerie but also nice and quiet.
We spent two nights this week devoted to making Christmas cookies. Anybody who knows my mom knows that she is the holiday cookie making queen. Some might say she goes overboard. However, her mother, my grandmother, also devoted much time to Christmas baking, so the tradition is there, it’s fun, and it’s yummy. While mom has been known to make nearly a dozen cookie recipes per season, she gives nearly all of them away. They make great gifts and are easy to take to parties and such.
So, Will and I tackled two recipes in order to uphold the tradition, and we’d promised these cookies for our community group Christmas party (which has been canceled due to Snowpocalypse 2009). Ever since it looked probable that the party would not happen (about 24 hours ago), we’ve, together, eaten about a dozen cookies. Eek.
So, here are some pics of our efforts. They turned out pretty good, which bumped up my kitchen-self-esteem. I am a poor, impatient cook, so I normally stick to baking. Sometimes this strategy pans out and sometimes it doesn’t. Happily for us, this was win.
Post by Will
December 18, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Disclaimer: As with most of my posts, as most dear readers are aware of, I like to break up my writing in pieces. Meaning, I will hardly ever sit down and write and be done in one session. If the narrative seems disjointed or if a thought starts and suddenly stops, well, that is where I probably took a break. It gets worse when I come within paragraphs and try to add, which was the case today.
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This past Sunday was a culmination of a lot of pain, tears, sweat, and love. And I’m not even talking about the Jingle All the Way 10K.
It is not secret I have been mentally battling with getting back on track with running ever since what will forever be immortalized as the Summer of the Toe. I have known ever since we started training for the Marine Corp Marathon 10K (2008 edition) that running takes every bit of mental exertion as physical ability. Actually, I find that the psyche, fortitude, and resolve need to be stronger than the body.
Running is such a cerebral activity. It has its highs and it has its lows. I felt like I experienced more lows than highs this past fall. The only major injuries I have suffered to my physical body have been pulling my MCL to a near tear and then tearing the ligament in my left ring finger (you can actually still see a remnant of a suture right below the surface of my skin).
Compared to the medical history of some people I know, I feel like I have had a pretty clean sheet. Take the rest of my immediate family for instance. They’ve broken limbs multiple times, suffered from extreme back spasms, passed numerous kidney stones, battled foot problems (i.e. plantar fasciitis), etc.
This summer changed it all. I can not believe the transformation my toe went through (Brittany and I were reviewing, much to her disgust, the progression of my infection) in the past five to six months. I lost a lot of muscle mass in my leg being restrained to static positions for a good month (more on this later). I had to use crutches. I had to ride in a wheelchair through Hartsfield-Jackson. I have greater empathy and respect for people with physical disabilities. Not only was this ordeal physically corroding, but it brought down my frame of mind (I’m not so sure it made me irrational but it might have to some very small degree).
Early on in my recovery process, I was sure I was going to be able to recoup in time and be able to train for the Baltimore Half Marathon. Looking back now, it is to a degree of great comedy to reflect on my mindset. Seriously? Run double the distance you have been running the past year coming off a somewhat serious surgical procedure? Needless to say, I deferred my bib to 2010.
More detrimental is the mental setback I had. I could not even string together two miles without having to stop multiple times for walks. Instead of taking any steps forward, I felt like I was going backwards.
During runs, I feel like my head is in either in one of two places; one being focused on the actually running (form, posture, breathing, rhythm, etc.) and the other being on other things. First, it is almost impossible not to be in the first place. But, after you achieve whatever your internal benchmarks are, it is almost as hard not to slip into the second place.
I find that running lends time to reflect. Throughout my training runs I have felt strongly that this process of training and racing is so linked to our life process. Granted, you could turn almost anything into a metaphor but this one really hits home as it reflected the physical duress and mental trauma I had to overcome. It’s like one long crawl that you endure with success and failure. It’s how your run the race, not if you win or not (Lord knows I’m never going to win one of these races) that really imparts on your legacy, however big or small that is.
Where would I be without a partner in this mess? Brittany has been a constant source and even balance of encouragement and a firm hand in regards to putting myself back into the reality of the situation. Yes, I should continue to train on a consistent basis but the improvement is going to be slow. I was fooling myself to think I was going to be able to resume where I left off. I guess I can chalk this up to being (somewhat) youthful, brash, and dumb.
