The Fourth

Marathon training report - I'm up to 4.2 miles. Heh. Ran it this morning, thinking it would help get me energized for the week. Instead, I'm hungry and tired. Grrr.. I know I can do a 12 miler at this point. Just finding the right weather conditions for marathon training has been challenging. It's always too hot. I figured out that it's actually nicer to run in the evenings, because it gets cooler, the later it gets. In the mornings, you get to a certain distance, and you just can't run anymore, because it gets so damn hot. I need a team to train with. I wonder how much of my needs are stemmed from being on a swim team for almost a decade. I would've never gone to the pool by myself. And while I was on TNT, it was really hard to motivate to run unless it was a scheduled run, and I was expected to pick people up.

I'm so not discipline. Probably need to work on that.

The weekend was nice. Ni flew in for a few days. We spent the 4th on the beach, soaked in the sun, and watched four sets of fireworks with our feet buried in the sand. It was actually a pretty good 4th - weather was perfect, and it was fun to be surrounded by new friends, Justin and my sister. Quite relaxing, indeed.

Holiday Photos

This one captures it all. YaYa (my parent's puppy) staring up at her much anticipated Xmas present - a stuffed hot pink squeaky platypus - presented by my dad. Over the next few days, she will hardly leave the playpus' alone as she tries to puncture it with her tiny chihuahua teeth. More photos from the holidays here.

New Year, WTF?

I feel like 2008 kind of crept up. I wasn't prepared. Did I even complete my 2007 resolutions? What were they even? It's the 4th day at work, and the holidays are already a blur. I just remember nearly passing out from an overly stuffed stomach after gorging at the Wynn Buffet. In fact, I think that's all I did over the holidays: over stuff myself and pass out. Oh, we did play a few rounds of Wii golf/bowling. My sister was overly giddy with the Rayman Raving Rabbits game.

Anyways it's the new year and I'm feeling very unprepared, unorganized. New to LA. new foods, new friends (sorta - more of a mish mash of new and old), new traffic patterns, new attitudes. I haven't gone to the gym in about a month, and the holiday stuffing is finally taking its toll on my mid-section. That's when you know the 30s have hit.

So I guess to start my list of resolutions is to get back my life back back in order.

• Unpack (we only have a few boxes left).
  
• Get WiFi (sad how dependent I am on the internet. Free Wi-Fi doesn't seem to be the "in" thing around here so my Starbucks T-Mobile subscription charges are quickly adding up.)
  
• Renew my Canadian Passport. 10 week process. Would really like to go on my honeymoon outside of the states, so a passport is essential.
  
• Learn to surf. I am so close to the beach now.
  
• Read
  
• Run (planning on trying to get in to the NYC marathon again - please join me)
  
• Get on top of work. This will prove difficult considering no one else sleeps.
  
• Start up photography again - that is - if I have a life outside of work.
  
• Someone last weekend brought up ultimate. Perhaps.
  
• Learn a language? This may also prove difficult.
  
• Perhaps become a puppy owner. I'd be overjoyed.
  
• And as I mentioned, go on a honeymoon. We had planned to go to Costa Rica, but the hulu opportunity took precedence, so...
  

That sums it up. According to Chinese numerology, this should be a very profitable year, so we'll see how that goes. If so, real estate may be in the future :)

Anyhow enough blabbing. I leave you with a makeover. Not of myself, but of some guy getting made up as Johnny Depp. I'm not sure why I find this show (TVGuide's Look A Like), so amusing but I do (I like the Hills too - that may explain some things). Brought to you by Hulu :)

Observing Cyber Christmas

In the year's past, I've often complained about fighting the crowds the week before Xmas, trying to find last minute stocking stuffers and what not.. This year's been different. We're in a new city, a little timid to fight a whole new crop of Xmas shoppers, and frankly we just haven't had time. All my shopping this year has taken place on my alma-mater, Amazon.com.

The interesting thing to note is that my shopping behavior on the internet is wildly different. I study each item ad nauseum... reading all the reviews, checking on ebay for different options, etc. And my purchases are less random. When I shop, I usually just grab stuff on the way out for stock stuffers, uttering to myself "ooh this is cute. ooh she'll like that". There's less of that in cyber shopping. Every movement towards the shopping cart is heavily calculated. Makes for less random shopping.

I can't say which one I enjoy more. I love having the reviews to scout out the best brand/product. I also like the challenge of finding it cheaper ( I am Chinese afterall ) and I worry about availability less. But cyber shopping, I've noticed, feels more like a task - like I have to get through a checklist. There's less of the Christmas spirit feel behind each purchases, even though, ultimately the gift gets presented the same way, in colorful wrapping under a Xmas tree.

Happy V Day!

introducing YAYA!

justin and yaya (you may need to click the image to see her).




yaya and i (pay no attention to my hair - it was pretty greasy that day )

If I don't run 45 miles in January, then I will...

I have such a love/hate relationship with Nike as you may have read on my yelp review on buying the new Nike Ipod Sportkit. Yesterday I was a lover of Nike. Along with 150 other runners, we marched into an already crowded Niketown to claim our free long sleeve dri-fit resolution t-shirts as we all signed up to be part of the Nike Run Club. So do I feel like a hypocrite? Nah! I do want to run and running in big crowds only motivates me to go further... I also feel safe and I want a pace leader so I don't slack. And I'm also cheap, so I don't want to pay for it, because I don't think it should cost more than a pair of good running shoes to enjoy running. Because of all that, Nike rocks. They rock even more in that they motivate and inspire women to run ( by co-sponsoring the Nike Women's Marathon with Tiffany's and Running World, and providing atleast 6 months of training) and coming up with well groomed trails all around the city for the participants.

So on my long sleeve dri-fit it says 'If I don't run 45 miles, then I will..." and I haven't filled in the rest of my resolution. I thought about giving up chocolate for 2 months, or sweets until my wedding, or running 75 miles in Feb. All of them sound painful don't they? And so goes the rest of my resolutions for 2007. I haven't made up my mind on them yet and I still have a list of to-do's before I turn 30 (which is evidently this year).

When I'm ready to post them, I will. But I wanted to write and say Happy Holidays. I still have yet to see snow (Tahoe trip next week. Woohoo!) so it's hard for me to believe that the holiday season has already come and gone.

Oh and the big news over the holidays. My parents finally got a new pup, named YAYA. I'll post pics later.