youre the shit and im knee deep in it

hello!

my post title today is from the frightened rabbit song i have been listening to on repeat all week. seriously, LISTEN to that band. they are amazing! i am hoping to see them when they come thru sf in may.

last week i posted about my half marathon entry i have for the oakland marathon on sunday. while i completely value the comments about trying to run it and just getting the race in, i am opting out. my ankle still phantomly hurts, and to be fair....i think i just want to sleep in on sunday and not risk hurting myself. maybe its totally lame, but its my decision and im sticking to it. plus - i found someone on craigslist who wants to buy my bib, so he can use it and i can use the money. maybe for some brunch sunday morning when im NOT running!

ive got some good news and some bad news. bad news first, of course...

bad news: i havent gone to the gym this week, and will not be going until probably saturday

good news: i have had exciting social plans every day! monday and tuesday i grabbed drinks with B (yes, the boy who lets me borrow his truck and also works at a restaurant with an excellent bar 2 blocks from my apt. gooooooood arrangement if you ask me!). today im going to burma superstar for dinner. im going with a friend of a friend who i hit it off with last week on st pattys - making girlfriends is tough but exciting! its always fun for some girl talk time. and tomorrow, im supposed to meet ANOTHER newly acquainted friend for drinks...and then its friday, when i am heading to zeitgeist to do some outside drinking with a crew of people.

im not trying to be braggy or anything about my social events planned for the week. its just really exciting, because this is one of the first times since moving here that my social calendar is really happening. 24 hour fitness is always there for me, and i am sure it will be ok with me taking some time off to be a social little lady.

in other musical news....i just gave peasant's "shady retreat" album enough listens to hear how great it is. its my new fall asleep to it music.

have a good night all!

on the dock of the bay

my favorite friend who was at sxsw came back this morning, so i picked him up at the airport. now, i dont have a car, but like all smart city folk, i zipcar.

but this friend (lets call him B) does have a car. a big truck, in fact. and when he went to work today, he parked in front of my apt and handed me the keys. in exchange for picking him up from the airport, i got a car to use all day! wahoo!

so i did two major things - i went to target and i went on a run. both were wonderful.

i havent been to target since june when i still lived in chicago. can you imagine 8.5 months without target? how am i alive?

i picked up a lot of stuff but most notably:


a pink clock for my kitchen for $16


mmmm how do these eggs taste so much better than any other chocolate i can find?
(please ignore how backwards/upside down/sideways this picture is. i dont feel like dealing with fixing it. lets pretend its artistic)

after target i made some yummy rice krispy treats (which im currently consuming) and headed out on a run. when someone lends you their car, i say go run somewhere good. like crissy field!

running towards the golden gate bridge at sunset made this lady pretty happy. not the best run ever (im still getting used to 4 miles being a challenge and not a piece of cake) but it was a pretty run, and a peaceful run, and that counts for something.

i stole a frightened rabbit cd out of B's truck i'm listening to right now. so far, so good. i'm especially enjoying good arms vs bad arms a lot.

oh! and just as i wrote how i liked THAT song, i heard some amazing lyrics in another song.

"these trousers seem to love your floor"

but its a mellow song, so it sounds cool, not like a sleezy pick up line like it does when i typed it out above.
ok, time for some more sophie's world reading and bed. early breakfast tomorrow morning at farmer brown's.

oh oh bring your hips to me

for the last few months, i have been listening to my favorite artists and diving deep into their discographies. joe purdy, emmy the great, midlake and the avett brothers have rules my ears. yes - when im not running or at the gym, im all about the folksy soul. one dear friend with awful musical taste(which doesnt extend much beyond phish. yuck) refers to this music as rug munching music, which i dont think really nice.

anyways....i have been loving whats been in my ears, but it hasnt been anything too new or exciting. well well my friends - things have changed.

i bought the thao with the get down stay down album "know better learn faster" back in december, but i never really got into it for some reason. i finally gave it the listening it deserved, and my oh my. it is GOOD. i have been listening to "when we swam" on repeat alllll daaaaaay.

listen to it! listen!



dont you love it?

mmmm. so. good.

not only am i head over heels for that ENTIRE album, i am also reading an incredible book. "sophie's world" by Jostein Gaarder. its an introduction to philosophy, through the eyes of a 12 year girl who gets mysterious philosophical letters in the mail. i have a love/hate relationship with philosophy. i love it, but it truly does literally make my head hurt. a few years ago my life was ruined for a few months when i had a meltdown about perception and reality. if you pretend something doesnt exist, does it still exist?

people have been telling me i would like "sophie's world" for a few years but for whatever reason i havent gotten around to reading it. yesterday i passed a book store with a cart of used books outside (which i never pass without looking through), and found it for $4. SOLD. and now i cant put it down.

ok, bed time for this lady. im gonna put on some midlake and imagine im at the midlake show like my friends are at SXSW.

oh what a beautiful morning oh what a beautiful day

a long, long time ago, i thought i wanted to run another marathon. and i thought signing up would make me start training.

so i signed up for the oakland marathon.

but then i realized than i would not be ready to run 26.2 by the time of the race, so i dropped down to the half marathon.

the race is in 2 weeks, and i haven't run more than 4 or 5 miles since i moved to san francisco in july.

so - what to do? i have an entry to the oakland half marathon. half of me wants to just do it - run, walk, and crawl to get myself to the finish line. it should humble me, and it will make me appreciate how awesome i was when i ran the 5 halfs i have completed.

but, i sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago, so maybe i shouldn't push it.

what do you think? do i run it? or, if you are in the sf bay area, should i give you my entry?

let me know.

ps. its gorgeous outside and this makes me think nothing can go wrong

pps. i just made up excuses to skip a work baby shower. things like that make me so incredibly uncomfortable. am i bad at being a woman if i cant ooh and aah over baby clothes for more than 5 minutes?

i guess its spring, i didnt know, its always 75 with no melting snow...

wow.

its march.

i havent blogged since july.

this is just plain embarrassing.

i noticed this while my good buddy nicole linked me in her wonderful blog.

"nicole has another friend maria? who runs? and has a blog?"

oh. thats me. and i've been incredibly remiss about blogging.

so if anyone still has the link to this blog in their google reader - my humble apologies. its been a crazy few months.

to summarize my life since july -

-i moved two more times (within SF)
-i sprained my ankle
-i started seeing a trainer
-i became obsessed with kickboxing
-i am apparently incapable of running more than 4 miles at a time
-i am eating crazy healthy (yay san francisco! yay CSA!)
-i went on an incomprehensible number of AWFUL dates
-i watched all 5 seasons of LOST in 1 month
-i started cooking. a lot. for myself. and anyone i can coerce into coming over

i think that gives you a good idea of what i have been up to.

but there is not enough running on that list. i think back to when i was running a lot, and it was awesome. i live in a gorgeous city that has a rockin running culture - and i so have not be taking advantage of it. so maybe blogging more will get me back into it? we will see.

its also incredibly likely that this will become a music blog. which is something you should consider getting really excited about. because i have really been getting into the concert scene here, and i've met some people who are really plugged into the music scene. they are lucky enough to be going to SXSW, so upon their return i am sure i will have lots to share with you.

but until then.....

listen to some midlake. they are so incredible. dont run to them - put them on when you are day dreaming about camping. or when you are doing the dishes. or when you are laying around all hungover like reading magazines. this is what i do. i saw them play a show at great american music hall two weeks ago and it was the most magical evening i have had in months.

and my oh my do they have the sexiest beards around.