Yessssss. 2.01 miles/25:43

A little Miike Snow "Animal" to start off a foggy Seattle morning:

Holy eff, what a productive weekend.

Thursday's Yelp event was fun and pretty mellow; I have to say I prefer only having one or two drinks at their soirees these days since a) they're always during the week and b) it's more entertaining to watch other people get buzzed up and do embarrassing things.

All day Friday at work I was sleepy and distracted and decided I would just take a nap as soon as I got home then run afterward. By the time 6 PM rolled around with no nap, I seriously thought about just pushing the run to Saturday. Then I sat in front of my blog being mocked by my nike+ mini for a good 45 minutes before I succumbed to the pressure - I had to run. My pace is off since I experienced a bit of "user error" and pushed the wrong button on my ipod at both the beginning AND end of my run; I can't wait to see what kind of time I can pull off when I start this next week of training and don't bungle my tracking.

Saturday and Sunday were devoted to cleaning my apartment and were a total effin' success. I passed up on a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo to literally hole myself up and watch most of Dexter Season 2, Mad Men Season 1 and a few movies while vacuuming, dusting, doing laundry/dishes, taking items to my storage closet/recycling/garbage, etc. I still have a few small tasks to wrap up, but I finished the weekend off with a long candle-lit bubble bath and a glass of champagne.

Today when I woke up to a fresh and tidy abode it felt really rewarding; now the whole point is to continually keep it clean - something I find much easier to do when I am single. Since the rest of my week is mostly free of any social obligations, I'm going to finish the last few cleaning tasks then focus on enjoying my hobbies (training, learning how to play the guitar) and taking care of a few more projects (washing my car, taking crap to Goodwill, sewing).

I turn twentyFINE in 8 days. I'm going to use this time to make sure that I'm starting the next year of my life (and the last year of my 20s) with a clear head, a comfortable and clean home and a healthy outlook for the future.

Shameless Plug Sunday - Dave Sheely Designs (plastic is the new gold)

I am definitely not the first to find a great deal of humor in the slogan for Dave Sheely Designs :

"Handmade, Industrial-Grade Resin Jewelry That Won't Warp in Sun, Won't Shatter on Impact, Resists Scratches and Will Last Long After You Are Lowered Deep In Your Grave."

They explain: "Unlike the resin that most ring makers use, Dave Sheely Designs rings are cast in industrial urethane. They will not yellow with time, will not become soft or warp in the sun or due to body heat, and they are much stronger than resin. Though of course you won't want to place one on a railroad track as a test, you won't have to worry that the band will shatter or the ring will nick if you actually use your hands. Every piece sold here is handmade, hand-colored, and one-of-a-kind."

I was introduced to Dave's rings through his fantastic wife Mary and can proudly assure you that I personally own two of his rings and will probably be taking a few more to the beyond with me (apparently).

My favorite is similar to the one shown above right, a clear matte ring with a sneaky glow-in-the-dark elephant encapsulated inside.
Dave has many very creative and beautiful themes to his work, including a line with fossils and shells showcased in clear plastic, a line with bold colors and striking shapes shiny and matte, as well as a dreamy set that resemble clouds in many soft hues.

Not only are Dave's rings beautiful, they are quite affordable as well (considering how much time can go into polishing just one piece), typically ranging from $30 to $50. One of these days I will get my paws on a coveted "Esther" ring, inspired by and named after a "fashionista" who convinced him to merge one of his large tiki pendants onto a ring for her to wear.

Recently they expanded into bangles and earrings and I must say that they are just as fun as the rest of his work. Check out his Etsy shop: davesheelydesigns.esty.com and his flickr page here.

Baby steps. 2 miles/25:35

(UPDATE: obviously I am training alone this cycle, but this weekend was a wash so I restarted the schedule at Day 1)

It feels so weird to be doing these 2 mile runs after I spent so many weeks increasing my distances pretty briskly when I was training for the Half... Not to say it's super easy, but it doesn't feel like I am accomplishing as much, I guess (part of this has to be how close I am to logging 100 total miles and how looooong it seems to be taking to get there compared to my last cycle). Thankfully, I can see the physical results almost immediately, I definitely feel the lift in my spirits/energy and my goal for this round of training was to get my pace up so I could set a PR (personal record) for my third go-round at the Jingle Run in December so I'm certainly on track for that.

Wilson is doing better! It appears that he isn't passing blood anymore, though he's still not moving the amounts of urine I had hoped at least there's currently no blockage. We're not out of the woods, but with temporary meds and permanent dietary changes (blargh) I have faith we'll get through it.

Tonight is going to be...interesting. I'm going to my first Yelp event in months and really don't want to have to discuss my newly single status; I really don't have much to say about it other than it didn't work out and I'll be okay and I know he will be too. Unfortunately, to a few select Yelp bitches this will probably mean that I am considered a threat to the men of Yelp again (soooo not true - I am not even on the market). Thankfully at least one of my bffs will be there and if it comes down to it I can spend my time catching up with her while indulging in a few free drinks and be perfectly happy with my evening. I'll be sporting my favorite Dave Sheely Designs ring, some sexy ass shoes and will be doing my best to stay cool-ish for a few hours in a warehouse in Georgetown - considering the past week, it could be a hell of a lot worse.

When it rains, it pours, but then a sunny day will eventually follow.

Things can't always work out the way you'd like them to, such as in the case with B and I. It's been good, it's been rough and it's just not meant to be for us. It didn't end as I had hoped or expected, but things like this rarely do.

It's had a pretty rocky beginning, but today is the day I turn the page and start the next chapter of my life (thanks for the analogy, Miss Lora). I'm broke after last night's trip to the vet, I've got a sick kitty at home and will probably be doing laundry daily for the next week to try to keep up with his accidents and have yet another ex who decided now was the best time to get back in touch with me...Double Yoo Tee EFF, Cosmos? I'm taking it as a clear sign to step back for a minute and get happy and healthy again. For myself. By myself.

Thankfully, I am supremely adept at perseverance in the face of adversity. I look at it this way:

1) Wilson is a great cat, and pays back every penny I expend with his cuddling skills and that cute coo that gets me every time.

2) Being single again means that I will have abundant time to focus on my 5k training and side gigs. Maybe I can finally teach myself to play my guitar and get my orchids to bloom.

3) I may not be going to Disney Land, but that doesn't mean my vacation is blown - I've got a new car and free gas and I'm sure something will work out.

4) I can catch up on Dexter and never have to watch another Top Chef ever again. Amen and hallelujah.

Weekend O' FAIL.

That right over there is Vitamin Water in the Revive flavor. It's a taste I have become very familiar with in the past week and that is totally saving my ass today.

Man, my weekend sucked. So badly, I don't even want to think about it anymore. Suffice it to say, when you skip all your runs and plans with friends and spend a good chunk of your Sunday crying alone or on the phone to your Mother (which happens on an average of twice a year) it has probably not been an awesome few days.

Okay, I take part of that back - Friday was the suck, but I was pretty productive at home on Saturday and having a decent day cleaning and reorganzing until I realized that my cat Wilson was camping out in the litter box for extended amounts of time trying to pee and then decided that if he couldn't do it there, my freshly cleaned bedding was the next best option. Right before I wanted to go to sleep. No bueno. But I can't get mad at this face, even when he's grumpy.

B wasn't feeling well, but wanted to try to make up for Friday so he asked if he could come make me breakfast in bed on Sunday morning - who is going to say no to that?

Instead of the typical bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns he brought me my favorites: fancy cheeses, a baguette, grapes and champagne. Unfortunately, he was obviously sick and seemed pretty miserable so it was really hard to enjoy the morning. Add to that Wilson's problems and B's fretting over them (Wilson loves him some B even though B is allergic and I think it's quietly mutual) and I was quickly getting stressed out. We hit Petco to pick up some urinary supplements for Wilson and the afternoon went downhill from there, culminating in my phone call to the Madre after B left.
_{(Honestly, I wish more people had a relationship with their parents like I have with Ma - I get so sad when I talk to friends and they tell me they practically hate their parental units. It's really a shame.)}

The rest of my day consisted of the following: tears, pizza delivery, bad movies and general sullenness.

Cut to today: I'm tired despite getting plenty of sleep, still puffy from crying and not 100% back to my "holy crap, my life is blessed" self.
That being said, Wilson peed in the catbox this morning and happily munched down more supplements before I left for work so I'm hoping that tonight won't call for a trip to the vet (fingers crossed). Also, I got good news on an ongoing side project that had stalled, had an idea at work that earned me kudos from one of the vendors I was working with, and the day passed fairly fast so I'm home early enough to catch up on Hung, do more laundry and hopefully a little Yoga to get my spirits further lifted.

I'm determined not to have an entire Week O' FAIL, dammit.

Shameless Plug Sunday - Estrella Soaps!

Look at these soaps, people.

Each one is like a little piece of ridiculously awesome smelling art. And they aren't even that little, really.

B and I came across Estrella Soaps at Urban Craft Uprising and since then I have developed a fast addiction to their Almond soap...And their Peppermint Oatmeal soap...And I am currently perusing their website trying to narrow down my order to 3 or 4 out of 29 amazing scents (including Pink Grapefruit, Chamomile Lavender, Cinnamon Clove, and Lemon Poppy Seed). Yes, I am that addicted.

I typically have two prerequisites for soap - that it smell good and that it get me clean. Estrella soaps are two for two AND they are local, made in small batches with high quality natural ingredients, not to mention vegan! $5 gets you a nice big chunk of happiness without a lot of guilt.

Get clean, smell good, be nice to the planet and yourself. http://www.estrellasoap.com/

(This post is the first in my series of Shameless Plug Sundays where I will profile products/places/things I love. Vendors/proprietors/etc. may be my friends, they may be complete strangers, but the bottom line will be that I love what ever they have to offer and think at the very least they are worth some props in my little part of the blogosphere.)

It's a start! 2.02 miles/26:09

I don't understand how it could have been so easy to forget how much I enjoy running. Like, really really enjoy.

Okaaaaay, maybe I can - the last 3 miles of the Rock N Roll Half were practically excruciating; mentally and physically it took everything I had to finish the race. As a matter of fact, during training last night I finally lost the nail from the black toenail I acquired from that run. That was lovely.
:-/

Today the delicious feel of slightly fatigued and tightened muscles is making me smile.

I ended up having to run alone (which was no shocker to me) since B ordered his shoes online and won't receive them until probably early next week. If at that point they are the wrong size or something else comes up I'm going to have to restart the schedule, but at least I'll have three extra runs under my belt. *shrug*

It was in the mid 80s and I had essentially already talked myself into going to bed and waking up early to hold out for those lower morning temperatures (shyeah right - I am so not a morning person) when I got the hint of a second wind for the day. It felt cooler outside my apartment than in, so I jumped into my running gear and went for it. It wasn't as easy as I had hoped it would be, but it sure wasn't as hard as the very first run I did for the Half training.

I'm not too sore or worn out and I'm actually super tempted to supplement my running with a bit of yoga tonight since I definitely need to work on my core. Either way, I think I'll warm up some spaghetti leftovers, bake up some Texas Toast, catch up on Weeds and do some dishes.

Oh, hello Motivation! So nice to see you again.

Some things never change/don't call me Aly.

The day after a friendly, albeit odd message exchange on Yelp with an ex from about a year and a half ago (in which he repeatedly asked me to dinner and then ended up "mistakenly" blocking me from replying to his messages) this conversation occured via email:

From: Jesse Rock
To: alysonholic
Sent: Aug 18, 2009 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: It's doing it to me too. No idea why.
Allison. What fuck doing?

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:10 AM, alysonoholic wrote:
It's Alyson. Do you even remember my last name?

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:19:23
No, but I apparently miss-spelled the fuck out of your first name. Geezus I'm an idiot. I was just going over "glorious results of a misspent youth". Lol. You're "wordy". I also don't have your phone number anymore.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:20 AM, alysonoholic wrote:
Don't be jealous that it's more entertaining then your blog. And it's mostly just big fonts.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Jesse Rock wrote:
My blog is a repository of photographs that I took with my phone (pre-Blackberry. I still haven't figured this shit out).

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:03:46
So, uh. Number?

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:04 PM, alysonoholic wrote:
Awww, you haven't changed at all! Which is exactly why I think we should stick with non-phone communication for now.

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:17:47
I'm guessing it's more don't want sk84 to know you're having this conversation, but that's just guessing.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:21 PM, alysonoholic wrote:
You guess wrong. I love this guy. A lot. He treats me very well. And he is is fully aware of the situation. I don't consider this to be anything I would need to hide from him and he isn't threatened at all.
So....No number for now.

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:30:45
I thrive on consistency. I'm starving.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:33 PM, alysonoholic wrote:
Then you should have Val_{(his ex-fiancee)}somewhere waiting in the wings, right? I have to assume her threshold for your BS must be infinitely higher than mine.
Give Luciano's a break already.

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:51:48
Listen: I take full responsibility for being an asshole. That's who I was, I'm not proud of it and if I could take it back I would. Believe me, most of my life right now is back-tracking. It's not fun but I made my bed and now I have to deal with it. You didn't get the best of me because I was fresh out of an engagement. I apologize. I was hurt, angry and didn't think women were good for me.
You were sweet to me Ally and I wasn't sweet back. You did nothing to deserve my wrath, and I feel ridiculous when I look back on it (although I did make you delicious Salmon).

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:03 PM, alysonoholic wrote:
I appreciate the apology.

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:10:13
Let me take you to dinner.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 1:16 PM, alysonoholic wrote:
No.
If you're interested in pursuing a friendship I won't shoot that down and would consider meeting up with you at some point in the future, but no half assed apology is going to change the shitty things you said or did to me. I can be nice, but there's not much else to be done when you've destroyed someone's trust and respect.

From: Jesse Rock Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:37:34
Wow. That, ummm. That totally blows my "is a bj out of the question" question out of the water.


Yes folks, that is just how classy the majority of my exes are.

Everything hits at once.

It's very rare that I have days that I find myself bored out of my mind; I actually have always been quite independent and as an only child can easily find ways to entertain myself. Lucky me - most of the time I am not afforded the option, such as in the case of the next few days.

Tonight is Bitch Feed (weekly/semi-monthly dinner party with some of the most amazing women I know and our GBF) and I have to hit the door running once I leave work to insure that I can have a dish ready by 7 PM. Tomorrow, training resumes and considering it will most likely be ridiculously hot in Seattle, I'll be hitting the grocery store and killing some time tidying up before it cools down enough to hit the pavement.

Though the rest of my week seems mostly free, I can think of business I need to take care of, errands I have to run and people I need to visit...On top of that I have a million things buzzing through my head this week (crazy exes coming out of the woodwork, birthday presents for Ma, impending road trip, side business issues). Just contemplating trying to tackle all the things I want to accomplish gives me a headache and makes me yearn for a vacation.

Well, guess what lovelies? I'm going to Disney Land!
_{Okay, so I have 6 weeks and my own birthday to contend with before we're on our way, but dammit - I'm ready.}

How to repair your weekend after a sh*tty Friday:

Well, maybe you just don't, but you can try real hard.

I feel completely foolish (or as I prefer to say: retarded), since after my lovely blog entry somehow B and I managed to get in a ridiculous fight and I stomped out after getting totally fed up with his crap. Not to say my threshold can't be pretty low sometimes, but when a girl is PMSing, of course she's probably going to be a little more testy - can I get an "amen?"

Anywhoo, so my Friday night was kind of blown but my friends were determined not to let me grump through the entire weekend. Thankfully, sleeping in Saturday morning was a definite mood-booster, then Saturday afternoon (for a long overdue brunch) I met up at Mecca with one of my gorgeous and sassy bffs. Over cheap mimosas and hashbrowns we vented our frustrations for a few hours, then I took her home so she could get ready to see her beloved Yankees play at Safeco. My "gay boyfriend" and I had made plans to hang out on Saturday afternoon, but I had some difficulty getting ahold of him so I just set to cleaning my apartment again. Annnnnnd once again stalled at the kitchen. So, I headed for the store to pick up a frozen pizza and some salad and prepared for a quiet evening alone.

Early Saturday evening my hard-partyin' homo woke up and called to confirm that we were still a go for a night of hanging out, so after first floating the option of a raincheck, I told him if he could handle the mess and a spicy chicken supreme pizza I was still up to host. Bless his little unicorn & rainbow filled-heart, he rode the bus all the way to/from West Seattle from the Central District to hang out with my pouting ass. He's a Cancer, like B, so it's always nice to get his perspective when I'm having problems communicating effectively with someone who is clearly more sensitive than I am. This time he had some strong opinions for me, but thank goodness I didn't have to spend my Saturday evening alone watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Either way, those crazy bitches make me want to shop, so when Sunday rolled around and brought with it some of the worst cramps EVER, it was clearly time for some girly time and good ol' retail therapy. Unfortunately, I don't work with a budget as large as theirs, so when I feel the need I don't head for Louis Vuitton or Chanel - I head for Marshall's. After failing to find that one perfect pair of shoes to cheer me up, I settled on some cute new panties (black, in honor of "that time of the month"). Honestly, I couldn't spend much time on my feet without a pretty good amount of pain radiating from my uteral area (side note: yes, sometimes I just make words up as I go for entertainment value), so only $20 into damaging my pocketbook I had to head home for a muscle relaxer. I gave myself a pedicure, enjoyed the sunset, scooped up the kitties and crawled into bed to call it an early night.

Was anything fixed? No. Not at all.
Did I enjoy a weekend similar to those I used to love so much in my single days? Yes. That I did.
Did I miss my boyfriend anyway? Duh. And I bet now he's wondering about those cute new panties.

Ain't that the truth?

I’ve had a lot of failed relationships. Plennnnnty. I failed with nice guys, assholes, crazy boys and boring boys. In some instances I tried my hardest, in others I know I was a total pain in the ass.

These days, stories of the myriad of ways B spoils the hell out of me typically inspire twinges of jealousy from my girlfriends (and some of my best gays too), and we both generally feel really lucky. He’s my partner in crime, one of my biggest supporters and one of my best friends. And to be totally honest, sometimes he drives me up the wall, and I know conversely he occasionally feels the same way.

My favorite coworker (and the only other chick who works in the office full time) has been dating her boyfriend for a few years now, and in the past 3 that she and I have worked together she’s heard of all of my dating escapades and obviously been there from the beginning with B. We’ve both seen each other’s tears and anger and ultimately, the happiness that these boys have brought us. She’s talked me down when I’m riled up; I do my best to raise her spirits when she’s down. We share our “boys are dumb” days and I know I take a bit of joy from those days when she shares a story of something sweet he did for her. Her strength in some really tough spots in their relationship has inspired me and sometimes gives me a damn good reason to put myself in check when I may be a little unreasonable.

We’ve come to the obvious conclusion together that our boys just think completely differently than us in so many ways. SO VERY MANY. Oy. Today is just “one of those days” for she and I (and honestly, I feel like she deals with a lot more than I do), but then that “yay, I’m not the only one” feeling settles in and I realize that there are people all over the planet who are in this very same struggle to be with another person. The circumstances, the sexes, the locations may be different, but the goal is the same.

So - we laugh, we cry, we throw our hands up in exasperation, we swoon; we pray that we learn and grow enough to make it through this crazy thing the kids like to call love and that our dudes share that same dedication and desire. What else can you do?

"I'm bakin' cookies muthaf*cker - whatchoo think about that?"

Cooler nights have returned to Seattle and before we briefly head back into the upper 80s again next week (right as we're beginning our training - wheeeee), I'm going to take the opportunity to do some baking. Ahhh, the way of the kitchen - you clean it and the next moment/meal it's dirty all over again.

I'm thinking tonight should be cookie night and that means I need to play my cooking-makin' theme song.

The Mighty Delaware crack my shit up.

No, my apartment was not hit by a bomb.

Today I realized I am tired of being a lazy bum. My apartment is a mess, my car needs to be washed and I really just need to get back into the mindset of being more active in general. During training for the Half Marathon, even if I was sore or injured I would find myself tidying my apartment and organizing to kill some time before my evening run; now I’ve gotten into a routine where (when I am home) I end up watching my favorite shows or getting sucked into my favorite blogs and end up spending most of the evening on the couch.

Tonight I buckle down.

First step – clean the casa. Since my training will only call for 3 pretty short (considering the mileage I did put in for the Half) runs a week, the plan is to supplement a few days with yoga or pilates or some other form of cross training at home, which is not fun to do in an untidy living room. Also, I’m going to need my kitchen in tip top shape since I’ll actually be cooking for myself again, my bathroom spotless for the times that I may need a bath to soothe my muscles, and my bedroom needs to be a GD sanctuary for those nights when I need the best sleep I can get.

It’s going to take me a few days, but by the end of the week I am determined to have my place sparkle . The ipod is charged, Weeds and Hung are queued up, and the rain is giving me the perfect excuse (for now) to stay in – consider the mess tackled.

My cottage cheese needs bacon salt.

I sit here on a Monday morning – a morning where I chose cottage cheese to eat instead of the bagel with cream cheese or greasy (lovely) breakfast sandwich that I have become so fond of from the deli next door. The “why?” behind this denial of delicious food in my face will become easier to understand over the next few weeks, but here is the back story to give you a better idea of where it started:

A number of months ago, and just weeks before I started dating my current boyfriend, I started training for the Seattle Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I had recently given up cigarettes and thought that it would be a grand idea to start getting in better shape overall – when I heard about the Inaugural RnR race it immediately struck me as something that sounded challenging and fun….And who doesn’t love being one of the first to do something, right?
You’ll hear very few excuses from me past this point, but let’s just say I didn’t prepare for the man of my dreams to be a smoking skater dude who is also a total foodie/amazing cook and incredibly fun to laze around with so when I fell off the training bandwagon I fell hard.

In the end, the race was incredibly difficult but it felt amazing to finish even if my time was practically abysmal. My boyfriend (who we will call “B” for the purposes of this blog), was totally supportive throughout, even spending the day driving near the course with my Madre trying to track my progress throughout the run and take pictures of me.

Apparently, in those months he watched me “prepare,” he was also somehow bitten by the running bug and now instead of just volunteering himself as a skater companion, he has been talking about buying some shoes and hitting the sidewalks with me. Being the loving and crazy girlfriend that I am, I’ve held him to his word and next payday we find him some shoes; next week we start our Couch to 5k training (hey, I’d like to think there’s more “love” than “crazy” in my equation – I’m not trying to kill the poor dude.)

So, though I doubt this blog will be a linear description of our training I have a feeling that our progress and the inevitable escapades will be fodder for a quite few interesting posts and that, dear reader, is where this all begins - bagel-less me, sitting here on a Monday morning wondering what I have gotten myself into.