Glass half full

Yesterday I met the half-way mark in my marathon training: 13 glorious, unforgiving miles!

The night before my run I stayed awake until 3 a.m., painting part of a mural at Denison's coffee shop and drinking beer with friends. I didn't plan on running the next day, but agreed with C that we should do our long run on Saturday since we had time. My late night really undermined my running--I was dehydrated and had trouble getting into a good stride. I managed to complete 135 minutes of running but decided that until I run a marathon, I'm not going to drink any alcohol. Maybe after a few months of no beer, I'll lose the habit of buying it or drinking socially. I hope to replace beer with homemade juice full of vitamins and antioxidants!

FYI, here's what I painted on Friday:


Good life go!

Exorcise

As the days have been getting colder I've been motivated to make an effort to not drive my car when I can get to a particular place efficiently by walking, biking, running, or skating. My drive could be fueled by a combination of an increasing desire to rebel against winter (since so much time this season is spent indoors) and live up to a New Year's Resolution I've unofficially set for myself (that is: drive less). I can't take all the credit: C and I have both decided to make a concerted effort to car-less-ly transport ourselves to places nearby. Within 2 miles of our house you'll find: 4 grocery stores, the recreation center, 2 hardware stores, 3 coffee shops, a public library (with a Starbucks in it), 2 bike shops, 2 tattoo parlors, a high school track, a skate park, a skate shop, a shoe repair shop, a post office, [a college campus], a farmers' market, numerous parks, and myriad restaurants, including 2 Paneras, 2 Chipotles, a Graeters, and the best Chinese restaurant in the Western Hemisphere, Lucky House.

C has been a huge inspiration to exercise...regularly? How about, "relatively frequently." For the past couple of years I've been resistant, but after she annihilated the Athens Marathon (Athens, Ohio) last spring, I realized how amazing exercise can make you feel. More specifically, it became clear to me that running is a powerful ability that I strongly admire. I will admit that I've not been interested in doing push-ups, and most days I can't muster up the desire to lift a weight. However, more and more I look forward to runs on my training schedule. In my mind I'm racing toward a goal, and at the end of the tunnel I will be rewarded. I hope I can keep this up for the rest of my life.

Running, biking, walking, skating--why should these things make me feel good? Maybe it's endorphines (possibly anandamide). I think I've been enjoying them because they are ways to realize my potential and be a responsible human and citizen, all at the same time.

C is a great teammate. I might not be excited about living room curtains and she might not be happy about watching another skate video, again. BUT we both support each other's efforts and most times we both step up to the plate, with minimal fuss, to push forward, side by side. She is teaching me a ton about myself and about relationships. I hope I'm teaching her some good stuff too.

Good Fashion - Part I: The Endangered Thrift Store Experience

One of my guilty pleasures is my relatively high attention to and fascination with fashion trends. I may not be very well versed in the subject of fashion history, the details of design, or the obscurities of haute couture, but I've been developing an arsenal of opinions about popular fashion and shopping culture. This is my first installment of writings about fashion and I hope to uncover a place for fashion within the good life (or my good life, as it were).
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Vintage patterns, clashing colors, gaudy accessories, and the unparalleled comfort of distressed textiles. At one time these words described the coveted treasures of another man's trash: the trophy thrift store purchase. Rare finds and unique combinations of clothing and accessories allow one to construct a fashion identity that separated him or her not only from their mainstream counterparts but also fellow thrift-store creatives. This experience is quickly being replaced. In the past decade, many clothing chains have discovered that sand-blasted denim and tattered fabrics (though mass produced) are loaded, not only with comfort, but with imagery of hard-work, utility, and freedom, to say the least.

Two particular stores have mastered mimicry of the thrift store experience: Forever Twenty-One and Urban Outfitters. Forever Twenty-One offers disorderly racks of clothing with retro color palettes, funky patterns, and unconventional style. They sell seasonal selections of accessories to be paired with their latest mix-and-match outfits. Urban Outfitters pools together brand-name urban-wear, approved retro styles, and have upped the ante by featuring vintage home furnishings. Hordes of angstful, teenage, suburbanites flock to these stores to feed their need to construct an anti-pop identity. The mass produced image is sold/the "identity" is bought.

What is wrong with this transaction? I strongly believe that youth who crave alternative lifestyles should seek out authentic experiences that challenge mainstream culture. The thrift store experience involves a hunt, local knowledge, and discriminating taste. It involves creativity, imagination, and effort. Thrift stores offer at least one inherent benefit, too: by recycling clothing and furniture, unwanted stuff is diverted from the waste stream. This also allows consumption of used materials, rather than new, and dilutes the exploitation of natural resources. Suspend your distaste of materialism and set voluntary simplicity to the side: we can't deny that identity is at least partly a social construction. The thrift store is an essential tool for sub-cultures.
Chains like F21 and U.O. don't need to necessarily replace thrift stores; currently, the two factions coexist. If nothing else, this entry has reminded me to be more creative when amending my wardrobe.

Homage to the New Year

As you may have guessed, "Frequent and regular updating of my blog," is not high up on my list of New Year's Resolutions. I'm considering amending the name to "Several Weeks Later In The Good Life..." Any thoughts?
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Cheers to a great and satisfying holiday vacation filled with family, good tasting food, and too many bite-sized chocolates. C and I each crafted neon colored stockings from felt, which were placed near the 12" tree with care... Mom and Dad Love brought us a living Christmas tree (Norway spruce!) to be planted in the yard--haven't figured out a suitable location, but the frozen ground has afforded us some time to keep thinking.
New Year's Eve dinner was enjoyed with friends & family at a terrific (and patient) restaurant called Lemongrass in downtown Columbus. Later, Allison O., C, and I used bikes and a skateboard as transportation to attend the first annual "ball launch" in uptown Westerville to ring in 2008 and celebrate the town's 150th birthday, simultaneously. On New Year's Day, C fixed a terrific dinner of pork tenderloin, sauerkraut, sweet potatoes, and asparagus, for tradition's sake and good luck for the two of us plus C's sister and her fiance(herein referred to as J&M).
I won't get into my expanding list of resolutions, but I've identified some short term goals that I'm excited about. I say "expanding" but I need to write them down, else the abyss I call my short term memory will continue to dissipate them as quickly as I think of new ones. Maybe I will write a list for my next post--Stay tuned!
Ok. Go see Juno and see if the soundtrack doesn't melt your heart forever.