You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2012.
I completed my first half marathon this past weekend! nbd, right? or is it? For some, that is a life goal accomplishment and even deserves a 13.1 mile bumper sticker. For others, its “what lap are you on, this is my second” said by the asshole who passed us at mile 5. For me, I am somewhere in between. I will not be adding any bumper stickers to my car and I will definitely never dishearten anyone on their pace while running any distance.
Post the Broad Street Run, that high that clouds your mind made me forget how much I hate running tricked me, and thus me convincing Heather and Danielle, to pay a ridiculous amount of money to run 13.1 miles. Don’t feel bad for Heather or Danielle though, Heather was 1 month post baby delivery and wanted to lose the baby weight and Danielle was on the same high as me. I stayed on track with a real training guide and was even getting my pace time down with increasing distance… then… we went to China. Enter in *system shock* and an extra month to normalize my body once back in the states. After that, the high was gone and every excuse came out. So, one could say my training for this run was mediocre at best and I was unfortunately not looking forward to running it. However, I couldn’t let my running partners down and I knew I would be “fine” and “able to finish.”
The crowds of cheering and camaraderie at these events are enough to inspire anyone, so getting excited to run isn’t so hard, once your out of the port-o-potty lines. Although, Ben would mostly disagree since he is the starting line chauffeur, car valet, and course support for the whole race. I’m really grateful for the amount of stress he takes off my shoulders race morning and the encouragement he gives me during the race. I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to get as excited pre-start if it wasn’t for him. So where were we, oh yes, I am now excited/nervous to start as we find our corral (and our valet has found his SAG bicycle and us). We crossed the start line to the theme of Rocky, of course, and documented it with this epic photo of me putting my phone in its running case, my bra. Ben got cut off as we followed the course looping around City Hall what I felt like to be 5 times. By mile 5, Danielle picked up her pace as me and Heather reunited with Ben.
For being the “Rock n Roll” half marathon, the bands were far and few between and by mile 8ish I was starting to lose some steam. Ben improvised by playing M83 through his phone as he rode beside me. Crazy brain synapses occurred and it got me to the Falls Bridge. Heather and I walked the last bit of mile 9 to the mile 10 marker with the promise of running the last 5k. Well, we started to run and the mediocre training and lack of endurance caught up to me and I found myself falling back and having to catch back up to my sister twice. The third time it happened was mile 12 on MLK drive and there was no catching back up. With the smells of cars inching their on 76 to my right and no more shaded portions on the course, I was starting to have a meltdown. Ben lent me his hat and told me I looked great. I knew I didn’t and there is photographic evidence (photo 15942134) that I looked like I was going to die. I pushed through and if I would have had any saliva left in my mouth I would have drooled over the IV attached to the runner at the last medical station before the finish.
02:37:18 was my official course time. The words “I never want to do that again” came out of my mouth as water, gatorade, and pretzels were going in. The high was gone… so I thought. The next day it came back as a lesson learned. I am proud of myself that I did accomplish as some consider a life goal achievement; however, 02:37:18 may have been the best I could have done on Septmeber 16, 2012, but I believe I can do better. It does take proper training and nutrition to be truly proud of your official finish time and that PR is yet to be determined. That post race high is at it again….
Side note: I am so proud of both Heather and Danielle and couldn’t have finished without them! Love you two!!
A little preface before I actually start these wedding recaps:
I was never the girl who envisioned her wedding day ever since she was little. I really never thought about my wedding day until my sister was planning her’s in 2009. By that time, Ben and I were together, we already lived together, and we knew we were getting married one day. What I did know about our wedding day was that I wanted the day to scream us, some things traditional with no signs of generic. I kept telling myself that I will create an atmosphere on our day that sets the mood, ambiance, and is as intoxicating as my love for my fiance. If no one else catches the love in the air or appreciates all the detail, I know my senses will be heightened and make the day that much more memorable and fantastic! ….and that I knew we could hand make every single thing that was up charged by 150% because it had “wedding” in front of it. It became quite the recurring challenge of “I am not paying that price, I can totally make that.” And that began the journey of our handmade wedding.
Okay. Let the games begin.
First tab in the wedding inspiration binder: Wedding Stationery.
Once the venue was [finally] picked, the date was set, and after hours of “research,” aka wedding blog stalking and magazine clipping, ideas had to be designed and come to fruition, starting with the Save the Date. Enter in “perfection paralysis”! The save the date had a lot to live up to. It was the first peek into how our wedding day was going to be portrayed. It was also going to determine the look of every paper product that would be produced from our minds thereafter, since everything had to be cohesive. No pressure, right? Oh, how does Ben deal with me?!? Anyway, here’s how our save the dates came to life. (abridged version)
1. Decide on type of save the date: Picture Postcard? Done!
2. Camera + tripod + tandem = DIY photoshoot.
3. Decide on fonts that will be carried on every other piece of paper printed. (Not an easy task!)
4. Ben, photoshop design a mish mosh of all our inspiration pictures and put all the important information about saving a date. Michelle, nitpick about size and spacing.
5. Upload picture to Vistaprint and print 100 postcards FOR FREE! (+14.95 for shipping)
6. Buy 80 paper bag envelopes, one custom address stamper, and lots of stamps.
7. Assemble and send.
And those are what our guests on our ever-changing, ever-expanding list received notifying them to save the date. I thought they were genius and I still love them.
Next up in the wedding stationery suite, the invitations.
Happy Labor Day! Its amazing what a day off of work and a sub 85 degree day can do for an idle blog (well, at least idle from my words). If you have been to our house, you know our “office” is on the third floor of our non central aired house. This room holds our computer, my craft supplies, and a time capsule of our wedding. Yeah, my wedding dress has probably melted in the garment bag that hasn’t been unzipped since October 14, 2011. We are quickly approaching our one year anniversary and I really want to share with you everything that happened between this photo captured blog post
and this
The problem is, I have what I have dubbed “perfection paralysis” (not to be confused with indecisiveness). It reared its ugly head many times during the wedding planning and continues to do so. I know, all I have to do is document what already happened, but I don’t want to miss a detail and if I go out of chronological order my OCD head may explode. So, forgive me, details are going to overlap, I will probably go into more detail than you care, and I am almost a year late. whatevs. I am actually going to start on the first one right after I post this, I swear!
*All photos courtesy of m2 photography!
Mr. and Mrs. Obscene 
