Transitions.

girls

I’m tired.

I always talk about how I will never complain about being MIA on the blog, which is perhaps as bad (or worse) as actually complaining about “being MIA.” (While I too feel the urge to apologize my way out of a pretty silent week in the blogosphere, I simultaneously find it self-indulgent that we all somewhat subconsciously seem to think that the blog world will be sad when we prioritize the real world over it for a few weeks… or days… or hours. Real world should always come first.)

But the “Real World” has been coming on MUCH too strong for me these days. As evidenced by the blog silence. (Readies herself for self-indulgent rant about coldhearted corporations): I haven’t had internet in my apartment since I moved in. I was supposed to get it over a week ago, but when it didn’t come I contacted AT&T and was told that my order had been canceled. By who, they couldn’t tell me. But now I had to wait another week minimum. And they then “replaced my order”, with an order I found out soon thereafter was twice as much as my original order. Basically, six customer service people later, I still don’t have internet, and I’m at my office at 8PM just to break the blog silence when all I really want to do is hang out in my apartment. Plus, I don’t have cell reception at home. Literally. I can get and send texts sometimes, but I cannot receive or make a call (or check NextBus in the morning until I leave the house, which kind of defeats the point). I can buy an AT&T MicroCell for a cool $150, but not until I have internet. The circular problem continues. I am really sick of not being able to make phone calls or do work. Plus I have to work at night sometimes which has already resulted in being at the office at 9PM. I am really sick of being disconnected—it was fun in Africa but it is SO not fun in San Francisco.

End Rant.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. Cathartic, seriously. I want to blog, all the time, but I just haven’t been able to. I have reviews and giveaways to post and a ton of stuff backed up and I just can’t right now. Powerless feeling.

The last month has really been a learning experience in terms of how precious time is. At UCLA, I was running around constantly. In Africa, I had too much time. Way too much. But I also learned what was important to me to fill out that time: time with friends, time with God, cooking and exercising. Eight hours of sleep. My favorite things.

How am I doing in SF? There’s time, but how to spread it out is the challenge. Friends are great. I have been able to see a lot of buddies and feel very socially stimulated. Great. But everything else? My daily quiet times with God that I was doing a great time maintaining while bored and unemployed have flown out the window. My 6 days a week of intense exercise has flown out the window in exchange for fattening happy hour appetizers and beer. Speaking of cooking, I’m a self-proclaimed foodie who loves to cook. I moved into my apartment 16 days ago. Today I cooked the first thing in my apartment. Check it out:

Yes, that is the first thing I have “cooked” in 16 days. What the hell have I been eating?? I don’t even know! Protein and clif bars for meal after meal after meal. Overpriced food near my office for lunch. I couldn’t even tell you what I’ve been eating. That is terrifying. My health is so, so important to me and it affects my energy so much, and I don’t even know what I have been putting into my mouth. I feel sluggish and gross.

Exercising every day has become something of a dream. It doesn’t happen. It’s going to happen today, but it comes as a sacrifice. Instead of going home and having a night in and cooking a nutritious dinner, I gorged myself on chips and salsa at happy hour for “dinner” and will go at the gym to workout at 9, get home at 11, shower and get into bed only to wake up at 5:30am so I can run before work.

Maybe this weekend I can relax. Maybe this Christmas.

My to-do list grows, from inconsequential things such as “print pictures!” to bigger-deal things like bills, cussing out AT&T reps and attempting to defer graduate school admissions. I just found out I got into the London School of Economics, and also into George Washington University and American University and got generous fellowship offers at both schools. I’m not going. I belong here. Though the instability and current dreamlike status of this new life I’m just trying to figure out how to get into, like trying to zip up a dress that just doesn’t quite fit, leaves me somewhat confused and overwhelmed by the world. I want to fully experience it, I want to feel like I LIVE here, that I’m not just passing through like a wisp of San Francisco fog, that gives way to the sunny day and leaves you wondering if it was ever really there.

I’ve been back in America for three months now and what a transition it has been. Sometimes it seems like I have been gone for forever, when I’m able to charge a pack of gum on my credit card and walk into one big store and know that it has everything. But yet remnants of Africa persist, when I don’t bring my ID out to the bars, when I think of words in Portuguese first, when I leave voicemails festering for weeks because I forget I have it and it truthfully kind of scares me, when I start thinking about leaving around the time that I was supposed to already be there, when I used to be punctual.

I love my job and the people that I work with, but it too sometimes leaves me feeling in a daze. Everything is so big, so new. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know, and it leaves my mind aching as I try as hard as I can to find my place.

Instead of spending my, well, second actual weekend in my apartment, I went to LA. I was in the airport for as many hours as I spent sleeping. I saw friends, both best friends and friendly faces that I hadn’t seen in three years. It’s weird, these moments, when your past life interjects into your present, a welcome interruption, yet leaves you feeling confused. LA is still home, but is it? San Francisco, Sacramento, LA, Africa… these places all have a part of me. But none of them are me. I can exist happily in many places, but I don’t feel I’ve truly found my niche, or hit my peak in life. I’m okay with that. The best truly is yet to come.

LA reminded me of something though. That no matter where you are in life, your best friends are going to be there. It’s okay if you saw them yesterday or five years ago.

I ran 20 miles on Sunday for marathon training. I’ve made it this far without a rainy day, narrowly escaping on my 18-miler last week. No more. 14 rainy miles later, I saw the sun. I ran through all the old spots—brentwood, santa monica, venice beach, marina del rey. When I moved out of this city I wasn’t a runner. Now I am. It’s nice to see change. Marathon training does give you that. My first “long run” for training was 7 miles. This one was 20. It was easier than the first.

The run was cold but easy. I wanted to run longer just because, but I had a friend to meet up with, and that was more important.

More important.

I’m tired right now. I’m not blogging. I’m not sleeping enough. I’m not spending enough time journaling or reflecting or in prayer. I’m not cooking or eating as healthfully as I normally do. I’m not balanced, that constant quest for the perfect in-between that never seems attainable.

I haven’t found that right now. But what I’ve realized is that sometimes other things are more important.

You need to make time for yourself, true. And prioritize your time. But sometimes you need to go to brunch three times in thirty-six hours and declare it a great success.

Despite everything going on right now, there is one thing I can say right now:

I am unspeakably happy.

Tired, poorly nourished, and overworked/underrested aside, there is something beautiful about a new chapter in life. Sometimes it’s more important to ride the wave, even if it’s unbalanced, even if you’re tired, even if you don’t have time for everything you wished you did.

[source storypeople.com]

There’s a quote I heard that said,

“everything changed the moment she realized there was exactly enough time for everything that was important in her life.”

I don’t know if I fully agree with that—I’d love a few more hours in the day—but the point remains. Time is precious. Use it wisely. Even if that means using it unwisely.

I’ll be in and out in my period of disconnection. But I love you all.

Courtney

What do you spend your time on? What do you wish you had more time for?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
  • A Week in the Life

    IMG_1325

    Hey y’all!

    First, thank you so much for the kind comments on my half-marathon recap. It really meant a lot to read all those! It was definitely an awesome race for me and something to hold onto as I have less-desirable races and runs (see below). I did get two race pictures back–do you like either of these? I can’t decide.

    So this week was a bit crazy–I had SO much I wanted to post about, being my first week actually living for real real in SF and doing fun things and whatnot, but I actually still don’t have internet in my apartment. Tragic.

    On top of no internet, I also have no cell reception. Not once in a week have I successfully had a conversation on my cell phone inside this apartment. Luckily I can send and receive texts the majority of the time, but even that is touch and go. I can purchase an AT&T microcell which will help, but that’s $150 and not a possibility until I have internet.

    It’s basically like Africa, but worse because there I USUALLY had service and occasionally had internet.

    Suffice it to say, blogging has so not been happening and that’s a bummer, but hey. I still love the blog, I’m still here, and I’ll have internet in five days. All is well with the world. And now I have like a bajillion things to catch up on, so easier blogging for me.

    A few highlights (and lowlights):

    The weather for most of the week looked like this:

    Add it to the morning darkness due to the clocks changing, and the overall attitude for the first few days was pretty much misery. I was more concerned, however, for my long run this weekend, with straight rain forecasted for every hour on the 48-hour weekend tab, with a smattering of “thunderstorms” and “heavy wind advisory” on the side.

    Somehow, it DIDN’T really rain up here today–blessing for me, but sorry about it, LA marathon folks. So despite wearing UnderArmor, a waterproof jacket and carrying a hat, I stayed more or less dry while I matched my PDR with an 18-mile run through San Francisco, primarily through the Golden Gate Park, up a huge hill to some lookout point, and then back down PCH (here known as “The Great Highway,” which I adore) and around in some circles until I arrived, several hours later, soaked with sweat.

    I felt pretty crappy and very, verrrrrry slow today but at least I got to know some more parts of SF, and it didn’t rain on me, and plus I got some pictures.

    I ran 18.1 miles, took in 310 calories during the run <– this needs to be upped. I had more gu but by the end of my run I didn’t want to eat it at ALL. But that is, in my opinion, NOT sufficient when you’re burning as many calories as I usually eat in a day ish. Need to figure that out.

    Speaking of the Great Highway, some NOT-SO-great news in that department came out on Friday: apparently with heavy rains, a part of the road in between Carmel and Big Sur washed out.

    This is right in the middle of the (former) Big Sur Marathon course.

    My marathon!! ** shakes fist in uncontrollable anger **

    So the course is now an out-and-back. Which means 12+ miles on significantly rolling hills, PLUS the added mental difficulty (for me personally) of an out-and-back where each person passing me reminds me that I am very, VERY far behind (oh, you’re at mile 20 and I’m at mile 6, yay!). Okay, this isn’t about comparison, I’m running to finish, but I am very, very nervous about this. At least I have several weeks to get used to the idea.

    And to run HILLS. I have been training for ten weeks now and TOTALLY neglecting this. The next six weeks is officially Big Booty Hill Bootcamp. Don’t ask me why I chose that name.

    Hills. YAY! (real reaction: throws up into bushes)

    So what else happened this week, hmmm let’s see.

    I have subsisted on protein bars and little else, thanks to an empty refrigerator, no time and a not-completely-stocked kitchen. Today I have food in the fridge for the first time!

    I still ate a clif bar for breakfast and some nuts and a Greek yogurt for dinner, but now there’s a salad and bananas there. Baby steps.

    I complained about NOT getting my expensive Wall Street Journal every day this week (only ONCE), and then the paper came with this note:

    I felt so horrible that I will never complain again even if my expensive paper which I very much enjoy reading keeps getting stolen. Darn it. I even feel bad for complaining now, even though it’s totally not my fault that someone is stealing the paper I am paying for.

    Oh here’s a fun fact. I have gone out to get food in SF several times in the last couple weeks. Somehow I end up at a Thai restaurant EVERY TIME. I love Thai, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Must make other food choices.

    And of course by “fun fact” I mean “by reading this blog you agree to be subject to my random thoughts and word explosions.” Sorry bout it.

    A highlight of my weekend was getting to take a Master class with the founder of Zumba, Beto Perez, and his team (including several famous Zumba staffers and also the amazing woman who taught my instructor class!) It was about 2+ hours of Zumba and overall it was epic (and sweaty). It was really small for a class with Beto, so I even got to meet him afterwards. ZUMBA SUCCESS!

    Note to self/blog world: I NEED to try to get on a sub list for Zumba. My full-time job is really demanding schedule-wise but I could probably pick up a few classes, and more importantly because it makes me happy.

    Oh and I ate Turkish food. (If you didn’t know, I’m Turkish.) Reconnecting with the motherland. Win.

    It’s only a bit after 10 as I’m writing this, but I felt like I could have fallen asleep HOURS ago. Time to hit Publish and sign off for the evening.

    Tomorrow is a new, busy day.

    What was a highlight or lowlight of your week?

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
  • My Amazing Race (and New Place)!

    DSC_0167

    So yesterday was Kind of A Big Deal.

    In the hullabaloo of moving to San Francisco, running has taken a backseat.  Compared to the first six weeks of training, weeks 7, 8, and 9 ghave been poor.  Two measly midweek runs, no longer than 6 miles, eating unhealthy, insufficient sleep, booze, stress, two long runs (a horrendous 15er and a pretty good 17er) and this brings me to Saturday night. I drove home Friday night, spent Saturday going into massive credit card debt at Target and IKEA, got home exhausted around 7pm, tried to pack, and eventually plopped myself down in front of the tv with several slices of greasy pizza and a few gin and tonics.

    Did I mention I was running a half marathon in the morning? Yeah. Whoops.

    So I hadn’t really had the half on my radar much with the other Big Life Stuff going on—so the Shamrock’n Half Marathon was, in my mind, a little workout I had to knock out during Moving Weekend. Wow, I am making a lot of random things Proper Nouns today. Anyways, my race “plan” consisted of the following steps:

    1. Show up.
    2. Run.
    3. Go home.

    That was seriously it. Of course I forgot about daylight savings too, so by the time I fell into bed exhausted around 11:30pm, I was due to get up in less than five hours. Nice plan.

    I got up kind of in a daze. I have never raced a half before (or anything but a 5K/10K and even then just a handful of those) so I didn’t know what to expect. I made a peanut butter banana sandwich because it seemed appropriate.

    It was dark and cold. I took a picture of me when I walked outside just to make a point.

    Yup. So I was tired and grumpy but a little excited to participate with 5,500 other people and especially because of those 5,500 bibs I had randomly been assigned #11. My lucky number! Who randomly gets their lucky number? This girl. Good omen.

    I got down to Raley Field and parked—still dark. In fact, the sun was just breaking not long before the race started.

    I did the normal stuff, waiting out intense portapotty lines, tying and retying my shoes, making sure my GU was easily accessible, doing awkward leg swinging stretches that could have hospitalized and unfortunate soul who got in my way. Regular stuff.

    I was in wave 1, under 9:30min/mile, which was a joke because I don’t run that fast, but it was nice because a lot of people run/walk shamrock’n so there are just three waves: 9.30/under, 9.30-11, and 11+. Easy. I mingled with all the SUPER INTENSE runners at the front trying to look disaffected and confident like I was actually going to run with the 1:40 pace group. In fact, my goal was 2:15. I am really proud to keep it at 10s for a long run and I figured that’d be fine.

    Then we were off! Unlike bigger races, shamrock’n had less than 2k people per wave and I was actually able to jog right out of the gate! (Perhaps being almost in the front helped.) At mile 2, the intense runners got really pissed because due to some horrendous lack of coordination on the city’s part, the light rail ran right through the marathon, stopping it completely for like a minute! I just laughed because I didn’t really care about a time. I don’t race. I waddle with purpose.

    I felt like I was jogging kind of slow and then I looked down at the 5k and it said 26 minutes. What? That is way fast for me. I figured it was wrong because my GPS was clearly wrong (it said I was at mile 3 a whole half song before I was) but that didn’t mean the time wasn’t working.

    At the five mile mark I saw I was at 44 minutes. This is when my jaw ACTUALLY dropped and I swore. See, I run ten minute miles on a good day. Up until this point of my marathon training, I had run 220+ miles and the FASTEST one of those miles was 8:57. And I had just run five consecutive miles FASTER than that straight out of the gate in a 13 mile race. Idiot. This is why people say to do a half during your marathon training. Stupid adrenaline.

    I figured I’d bonk soon. I thought I slowed at mile 6 when I was sucking down chocolate gu like nobody’s business, but at mile 9 I was still running in the 8:50s pace. At that point I realized I could DO THIS!

    Pause. When I say “this” I mean run a sub-2 hour. I am training for big sur marathon on May 1st just to finish, and I just signed up for the SF half at the end of july thinking I would maybe set a speed goal of sub-2 but the idea terrified me. But here I was at mile 9 and on pace. I realized I was going to go for it.

    I have never been so terrified in my life.

    Miles 9 and 10 went by. I started to really hurt. I was completely wasted. Passing the 11 mile marker parts of my body were going numb. I was more heaving than breathing, and I probably looked like a crazed animal. (sexy mental picture, no?) A little into mile 11 I started thinking I wasn’t going to make it. I hadn’t had enough water, just my one bottle in my hand and five little cups of water along the course. I hadn’t trained for this pace. I grabbed my other gu like it would somehow save me. At this point I was still running but getting legitimately nervous about collapsing on the side of the road and not getting back up. Press on.

    Somewhere in mile 12 I had the thought: THIS is what this all is about. Despite the 200+ miles I’ve logged in the recent weeks, I had never RUN before. I had jogged, slowly, steadily. I had finished 13, 15, 17 mile runs without really being tired save a little soreness. I’d never felt what it felt like to try so hard that at some point death starts to seem more attractive and your legs feel like they’re being ripped apart. THIS is what it’s about. If I can get through this, 26 miles at (what seems like) half the pace is nothing.

    I can’t believe I didn’t faint in that last mile but I crossed the finish line at Raley Field in 1:58:14.

    I had run a sub-2 without even planning for it!

    In that race, I set a training PR for the mile (by over a minute), for the 5K (by two minutes), for the 10K (by six minutes) and for the half-marathon (by SEVENTEEN MINUTES). I placed 21st in my age group out of 172 people.

    The best part that I thought I was going to be celebrating alone but then when I texted my parents and best friends to tell them I finished, my dad responded that he was in the stadium! He’d come to see me! He got to see me grab my free beer before 10AM (I only had a few sips of it because I would have been too wasted to drive home, but it was free and I was getting the damn beer.) He was also kind enough to take the very unattractive but very happy photos of me to capture the moment.

    The coolest thing about this race was the lessons it taught me. One, I AM CAPABLE.

    I did something I didn’t think I could do. Two, and equally important, with running, you cannot compare yourself to other people. You can only try to defy your own expectations. I was elated over a 1:58. Other bloggers would cry over that failure of a time. I was probably a lot happier than some of the people rolling in at 1:35 and probably a lot LESS proud and happy than the determineds heading in at 2:45. It’s all relative. What matters most is how it makes you feel.

    I am not naturally inclined to be a runner. It is hard for me. I could run ten marathons and constantly be training, and there are tons of people out there who could just sign up for a marathon on a whim and beat me by an hour. It’s just how it is. I can choose to feel defeated by that and wish I was faster or better, or I can focus on what matters: I am getting better. I can do things that I think I can’t. And that is much more important than any time on a clock.

    After my Amazing Race I had a small project: pack my life and move to San Francisco. I wish I was kidding. Yes, the same day. I posted some pictures in my last entry of my empty apartment. It’s still pretty bare and totally a work in progress, but here’s the difference one evening can make:

    I’m here for my new life. I can’t wait to get my furniture and get internet (I’m at a café on Haight Street right now just to post this!) but I’m trying to enjoy the process with the whole resettling thing. Accept that things take time and progress happens when you’re not looking.

    And honestly, I’m just REALLY trying not to think about how my legs still feel like they are going to fall off and I’m supposed to run on San Francisco hills tomorrow.

    But here goes.

    How was your weekend? What’s something that you used to think you could never do, but then you proved yourself wrong?


  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
  • Hope

    hope-1

    I’m feeling introspective at the moment, kindly indulge me.

    This is my apartment.

    It’s empty, bare. But this is not sad. Rather, it feels full of possibilities and infinite promise.

    Three months ago, I was overseas, finishing up my 27th month abroad after a whirlwind tour of Peace Corps duty in Mozambique. I was excited, anxious, and hopeful for the future that was yet to come.

    Three weeks ago, I was starting to get my act together to embark on a crazy journey, starting a new job in a new city with very little forethought or time to process what was happening. I was excited, anxious, and hopeful for the future that was yet to come.

    Right now, I’m packing up my clutter that has defined the last 19 days of transient life on a couch, a transition period which ends tonight.

    Tomorrow I am going home for a race and shopping, and three days from now, I am moving in to this little piece of San Francisco that I can call mine.

    Life can change right in front of your eyes sometimes. All of a sudden, you’re in a place that just one month ago you never could have imagined you’d be in. And yet somehow amidst the chaos things seem clear.

    Joseph Campbell said that sometimes we must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. I’m still trying to keep my head above water figuring out what’s going on, but recognize that my focus on the future and what I sometimes see as the right ‘plans’ can hinder me from experiencing what’s right there in front of me.

    It’s crazy to think back on the whirlwind of the last three months and crazier to wonder about the next three. But I’m learning to enjoy the process. And I truly believe–and chose to hope--that the best is yet to come.


  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
  • Thailand Tuesday: Phuket and Phi Phi in Pictures

    DSC00817

    Happy Thailand Tuesday! Yes, this is yet another “weekly feature” to make it to week, um, two. Yay for me, right? If you missed the first Thailand Tuesday, I posted about thai cooking class and a recipe, so check that one out.

    Yesterday I wrote a mini-post about exercise vs. sleep. When it comes down to it, which would you choose? If you’re reading this, I’d really appreciate some more opinions on that. It’s really interesting to see how everyone figures out their own routines.

    I’m going to try to heed the advice of the exercise vs. sleep debate and get to bed at a decent hour tonight, so that tomorrow’s 5am wakeup to run won’t seem quite so early. In order to make that happen, this post will be, from here on out, wordless.

    Pictures from Phuket and Koh Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee, fyi) from my trip. Slowly but surely, they appear.

    Have a great night/morning, everybody.

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share
  • Exercise vs. Sleep.

    n8treadmill

    So this is going to be short but I want to call for some opinions.

    The thing that has been on my mind for the last 14 days since I joined the world of the working has been “sleep vs. exercise.” In a heartbeat, I went from exercising intensely 6+ days a week to twice/thrice a week half-assed and could you pass the donuts please. After Saturday’s 17-miler, I took Sunday off and was determined to start off Marathon Training Part II (which began today) with a bang.

    One problem. I had to be at work for something at 8. Meaning I should be in at 7:30. Meaning I should leave home slash couch at 6:30. Meaning I need to get back from the gym at 5:30. Meaning I need to get there at 4:20. Meaning I need to get up at 4am to work out for one hour in the morning.

    4am came… and went. And instead of fully committing to sleeping in til six, I proceeded to hit my snooze button from 5:15 every five minutes until six, when I not only rolled out of bed in a huge rush, but also not well rested at all. I went to bed right before midnight, I slept badly, and I yawned my way through the day, feeling embarassed.

    Tomorrow I HAVE to do this. And I can get up at 5… maybe. But here’s the thing. 8 hours I’m happy. 7 hours I’m okay, but wish I had more. 6 hours I am NOT happy. I am too old for this. After I finish this entry and brush my teeth and have a little quiet time, it’s 11:30. 5.5 hours later I wake up. I either run and want to die all day or I don’t and want to die all day because I skipped three days in a row and I’m-training-for-a-marathon-you-idiot.

    Just now I googled “exercise vs sleep” and I was shocked at how much came up! I guess it’s a common issue. We’re tired people. Exercise wakes you up, yes, but where is the line?

    How do you ever decide which one is more important?

    I’m working on adding little exercise into my day. The 70+ steps  take out of the subway due to my swearing off people-movers definitely gets my heart rate up but… that’s about 70 seconds of exercise. It hardly counts (although such changes are valuable). I obviously need to get to bed earlier, but I am still trying to figure out my schedule and my life. Once I get more proficient at work hopefully I will be able to get more work done more quickly, but that’s a while off.

    Until then the question remains. I’m training for a marathon so this is a little different–I HAVE to run. But at what price? How do you balance everything?

    I’m curious, if anyone is out there reading this: how do you choose? When it comes down to losing sleep or losing a workout, which do you skip?

    This is my first post pretty much ever (well, in months and months) without pictures. Thanks for understanding. I promise tomorrow will have some awesome ones.

    I cut this short so I can get an extra half hour of snooze. That’s worth the no pictures for now.

    Maybe just this one.

  • SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

    Share