why I've been MIA

Hello!  I'm here!  I haven't disappeared into a vat of bacon grease or anything, just had a busy week.  I started teaching my summer class, which meets Monday through Thursday, and I've been working in the evenings as well.  The good thing about my schedule is that it works really well to get to the gym on campus as soon as I finish teaching.  I've been doing some upper body weight machines and spending a little time on the treadmill.  As much as I did actually appreciate training for the Broad Street Run, it's so much more enjoyable to run shorter distances and do other things.  Yesterday I did get up to three miles, the longest I've done since the run, and it actually felt good.

The other reason I haven't posted in the last week is because...(OMG, so embarassing, seriously, I'm trying to screw up my courage but this is SO LAME) I've been reading the Twilight books.  Nonstop.  For the last week.

Here's the thing, and by the way the rest of this post will have nothing to do with fattie-related stuff.  Anyway, I'm in grad school STUDYING LITERATURE.  I read heavy, excellent shit all day long.  For so many reasons, these vampire crack books are problematic--poorly written, uncomfortable messages to send to teenagers, etc.  (Like, hey, your boyfriend stalks you!  He must lurve you super hardcore!  Go get married!)  But I don't care.  It's kind of like how, after eating beans and veggies for a month, you can eat some pizza and not feel guilty.  

Anyway, one of the reasons I mention this is because if you too have read these books and been unable to put them down, check out these hiLARious recaps.  I was reading them last night and giggling uncontrollably, wishing I had someone to share them with.  

That's all.  I'll be weighing in again Monday, and I will get back to posting about things other than sparkly vampires.

wicked behavior

Betcha think I'm going to confess to eating a deep fried twinkie or drinking half my weight in beer...but no!  Instead I am going to confess to being totally, deeply lame.

I like musicals.  Broadway musicals.

Wait!  Hear me out!  I also like indie music and foreign films and serious literature and I'm SO over impressionist art!  I have some standards!

But I do enjoy my Rent CDs.  

I've often thought recently, while running away on the treadmill like a hamster, with my ipod on shuffle, that it would be nice if I could watch TV AND listen to music at the same time.  The plotline of a TV show combined with the beat of the music would keep me running for hours, I'm sure.  But for all the gadgetry Apple puts into its little mp3 player, I don't believe there's a "watch Alias with subtitles while listening to Beyonce" function.

And then it occurred to me: musicals.  Musicals have a plotline AND a beat!  They might keep my mind interested as well as my feet pounding!  So today I tested it out, on my first "long run" of the 10 mile training program.  I needed to run 4 miles, so I synced my Wicked CD onto my ipod and it was AMAZING.  The first 1.6 miles absolutely flew by.  Then I accidentally hit the stop button on the treadmill and had to curse myself out and do the math to figure out how much further I had to go while desperately jabbing the "quick start" button so as not to lose my momentum.  It definitely decreased the momentum, but I kept going.

The only problem was my need to make jazz hands during any particularly soaring musical moments.  Oh Elphaba.  I'M going to fly, defying gravity, dammit!