Well, the bad news is that in March and probably April (already, gah!), I will have defaulted on my savings goals. The good news is that I will be stylin' - some of it will be reinforcing my running goals and the others, just fanning my vanity, ha. Here's what I bought recently.
I just discovered Oiselle a few weeks ago on theclymb.com and was compelled to check out their website to get an idea of how the fits were. I have been obsessed ever since! This is a fun "Stripey" shirt with thumbholes. I've already taken it for several runs and while it's a bit large, it works perfectly for those 30 degree runs! Unfortunately for my "wish list," it's gotten obese with all the Oiselle "wants" I've added.
Stella McCartney for adidas, the Ready to Dance gym bag.
Oh yes. I had been eyeing this baby for several months, obsessively stalking it as the lion hunts the gazelle. Or, the poor graduate student swarms the website every day, waiting for the price to drop within her budget... Finally, after months of waiting, I decided to just take the plunge since the price wasn't budging below 50% off full retail value.
Kate Spade Charlotte Street Sylvie handbag.
Oh my gosh... Once the floodgates opened, they could not be contained! Another closely coveted item, I wanted this purchase (FRV at $398) to drop below $200 and I kept watching it, hoping it would... But it never did. Finally, it just disappeared from the site and I thought that was it. But then a few days ago, I was just browsing the site randomly and saw it reappear! At that point, I decided I would just get it. And now I wait for its arrival tomorrow...
And for the literary geek in me...
The Flannery O'Connor anthology by Library of America: I decided to take the plunge on this, as I'm following Yale Professor of English Hungerford's set of online lectures on Modern American Literature, one which features "Wise Blood," and with my own Classic Literature book club in the mist of reading the set of short stories "A Good Man is Hard to Find," this purchase seemed economically reasonable. As an avid [paperback] book collector, I
never gave credence to hardcovers, but this book is BEAUTIFUL.
Truly, a lovely, lovely book. I will be on the lookout for more Library of America editions in the future. Highly recommended to fellow book worms!
Richard Wright's loosely autobiographical, Black Boy: So what was the impetus for this random book selection? Well, since graduate school, I've let my literary analytic go to waste. After a book club meeting that I thought was interesting, but more resembled an instance of the blind leading the blind just grasping in the darkness, I hungered for the expert analysis of someone who knew books! A fellow book club member suggested an online lecture for interpretation of our Cervantes selection and that's where I discovered more online lectures and finally, wa la! Professor Hungerford's set of lectures. I must say that this was a surprisingly quick read. Wright is amazing - a one of a kind man, who is a minority even among minorities. He was always individualistic and evaluating of life and social norms such that he would never fit in. It's as Hungerford characterizes the book - one driven by an "identity" plot, where we have the protagonist who does not fit among any of the identities he holds membership to, and herein the struggle creates the story. As a result, I have Native Son sitting on my night stand, queued up on the precariously high stack of books that I must read sometime soon.
At Large and at Small, Anne Fadiman. Erudite, obscure in her geeky loves, witty, delightfully elitist. I love her writing. Set of essays that celebrates many random things like her and her brother's love for collecting insects, their shared love of ice cream, her fascination with Charles Lamb and Coleridge, and her defense of night owl ways. (Thank you! Why must we be made to feel guilty by all normal early riser, early sleepers?!) It was a total bargain buy, which made me smile and need to get it at once.
Finally, "Mostly Harmless". Ah, prolific economists in my field. This somehow led to me searching up Thomas Strauss' info and then stumbling upon a syllabus for his class on poverty, human resources, and economic development. The funny thing is that this syllabus is 32 pages long! It now goes on the bucket list of things to read to really know my field. Also has me thinking about where I'd like to end up by the end of all of this... Anyway, the book is an accessible application of major studies in research design and econometrics. It reads quite easily compared to other texts, is cheap, and functions well as a refresher to all that I've forgotten! After recommendations by someone in my field, spotting Lauren reading it, and finally, Jade!, it was time to get it myself.
There are more, and I will update as they arrive. But it hasn't been a good couple of months for my wallet, also because of the fact that I decided to pull the trigger on a bunch of races I had been considering! One, the Anthem Half Marathon during St. Patty's weekend that Amanda, Erin, and I decided
not to run. There went $95, down the hole... But I guess my foot was in bad condition at the time, so it was justified...
The hunger to run
Here is a meaningful quote that really hits home after this past month of dealing with my navicular tendon and knee injury. From Runner's World:
My injury was
devastating. But I decided I wouldn't feed negative thoughts. I was
going to surround myself with positive people, imagine the best
outcomes, and bathe myself in awesomeness.
Lauren Fleshman, two-time U.S. 5-K champion, after an IT injury forced her to refocus her 2012 Olympic Trials goals
How true - if only I could have adopted that kind of attitude after all this time. Gosh, I still remember the morning I got in a fight with John after coming back from the bad 16 mile run... I was bawling because I felt this training was ruined and my goal of hitting a marathon this April was ruined. In many ways, it was all true. But it took me a month to believe it was ok. I will do a marathon this summer or fall, and I will be stronger when I do it. Which brings me to my next discussion...
George and Sierra have been lobbying for me to do the Grandfather Mountain Marathon. I gotta say, I mapped out the course after assiduously following the turn-by-turn instructions on the website... I think they don't call it "One of America's toughest marathons" for nothing... Am I crazy enough to do this? But on another hand, I love our running group and I want to continue with them after this training session!
And finally, Cherry Blossom 10 miler is coming up this weekend! I am just insane enough to do a slow and steady long run with Tamara the day before the race. I'm not really concerned about the race, actually. But it might be stupid of me to cram in a 14 miler right before a ~5 hour drive to DC and then do a 7:30 am 10 miler the next day... and the ~5 hour drive back. That
might constitute insanity.
Race bucket list:
Boston Marathon, Chicago, Gansett!, Big Sur
