Young whippersnappers!

So today a friend sent me this article from the NYT about how tattoos are now becoming more mainstream and that body art that was once seen as "edgy," like tats on the face, hands and neck as well as body piercings, are now becoming more accepted in society.

And all I have to say is Bah! Humbug! You kids don't know who lucky you are. When I got body art done the first time it was a secret hidden thing that you had to be in the know about.

And now you can get it at the mall.

Kids these days... :)

Running two days in a row.

Because of some family obligations this week I had to do two of my Couch to 5k workouts back to back. Ran yesterday and today. In my last post I was worried how that would work out.

It actually worked pretty well. I completed the workout with no problems and didn't even feel any extra tiredness. I did feel it in one of my knees and I did feel a bit stiff after sitting on the couch tonight but I don't think it is anything that some pain reliever tonight before bed won't fix.

So YAY for me. 

'cause I roll like that.

As a part of the Couch to 5k program Ive been using the tracks from Podrunner. The tracks are what I guess you'd call techno and while the music is ok and the beat does help to keep me on track I really like that run\walk portions are demarcated clearly with a set of rising and descending tones.

That way no looking at a watch to figure out if I have to run or walk -- the podcast tells me when.

So far I have completed the second of the third week's workout. Due to some family obligations I will probably also run again tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about that since I've been giving myself a day or two between workouts to keep from hurting myself.

But I guess tomorrow will tell me if I am making progress or not.

Wish me luck!

Arrgh!

Today has not been a good day and I'm not sure why. Do you ever have one of the days when you seem to get up on the wrong side of the bed? Nothing much happened and yet I found myself feeling frustrated and angry all day. I at least was able to do my sitting meditation but that wasn't an easy time tonight either. And when I got home I discovered a billing mistake, I think, from my doctor.

Well like Scarlett said "Tomorrow is another day!"

And so good night!

You gotta have friends.

I'm not a person who has lots of friends. I know lots of people but I don't really think of those folks as friends I think of them more as acquaintances. I know folks from work and various personal interests. But I only have a couple of folks that I feel like I can call on for help or support.

In the last year or so I've been working on cultivating my female friendships with women who will support me when I need it.

So far I've found my new friends to be just what I needed.

I swear I'm not one of the Kennedys!

My family has a joke that we are just like the Kennedy family -- we are so well known in our hometown that no matter where we go we run into people we know. But it has actually spread far from our town for me.

When I got married I told my husband about this phenomena and I think he didn't really believe me. But he now knows its true. No matter where we go if there is a crowd we are likely to meet someone I know, sometimes he does too, but it is more likely me. Now I know this might be true of other folks as well but I've ever had someone mention it as a regular experience.

So today pretty much at random we went to a local, small-town Ren Faire. We found out about the Faire by accident and it was in a location we've never been to before. And who did we see but the wife of someone we know from Star Trek fandom.

As they say the proof is in the pudding...

Make mine veggie!

As I've mentioned I've been doing meditation and some reading on Buddhism. Without me even noticing I began to feel that eating meat is somehow wrong. Now I have no problem with others eating it but I began to notice that when I had a choice I wasn't eating meat. I've only had fish or shrimp in the last two weeks.

Today I had my first veggie burger. It was OK if you didn't expect it to taste anything like meat.

Will I not eat meat again? Who knows but for now:

MAKE MINE VEGGIE!

So about this running thing...

I'm now on my second week of the Couch to 5k program. This is my third week running since I repeated the first week to allow a friend to start the program with me. We can't run together because of our schedules we are supporting each other.

So far so good. There are even a variety of podcasts to support the program so you can find music that is paced to the program to run to. 

I don't feel any stronger but it is still early and from when I did do a good amount of exercising I know that the differences can be fairly subtle. 

My routine is to run when I get home after work. I get up at 6 am so I just really couldn't run in the mornings or at least I feel that way. :)

But so far the program is working well for me -- no injuries and I'm actually doing some running. :)

Wow, I guess this stuff kinda works.

So today was a kind of tense day at work. A bit of a dust-up with two co-workers at our staff meeting. While some folks at the meeting thought I was being "attacked" I sure didn't feel that way. Now I don't now if meditation helped me through this or if I was just not paying attention. I'm thinking it was the former and not the latter. :)

More about MBSR.

So as I said in my last post I took part in a MBSR program last spring. MBSR stands for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. The core of MBSR is mindfulness meditation. Its easy to do but hard to explain the benefits.

What you really do is sit, in a chair or on a meditation cushion, and pay attention. You pay attention to your breathing. You let any thoughts, feelings, emotions, or bodily sensations flit through your consciousness.  If you have trouble with your breathing, say because you have sinus problems or something, you pay attention to something else like the feeling of your feet in your shoes or your toes. What you are trying to do is BE HERE NOW and not get caught up in events of the past or of the future.

I meditate twice a day in the morning, on the train!, and at night before bed.

the benefits for me have been a more calm relationship with my husband. (Even the sex is better!) 

So have a seat and breathe!

"If you don't mind, it don't matter."

Due to some overwhelming stress at work and some difficulties at home I took part in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program in April of '08.

After the class I decided to continue formal meditation practice. Now I go and sit, meditate, for an hour each Monday evening at a local Buddhist center.

The process has been subtle but rewarding. I am not as stressed at home or at work as before. My personal relationships -- especially my relationship with my husband-- have improved greatly.

Not that I don't have my bad days with sudden bouts of anger or negative feelings but MBSR has helped give me a bit of breathing space to deal with what is going with me and my relating to others.

I'll talk more about this in my next post I think.

Hello, hello...is this thing on?

I'm actually not sure why I wanted to start a blog. I guess because all the cool kids are doing it? I think that I have something to say and I guess this is the best way/place to say it rather than the essays I keep writing in my head. 

There will be more later. The things that are most interesting to me now are: 

Training using the Couch to 5k program.

Our rescue cats.

Mindfulness meditation.

More about each of those, and me, in a bit.