Run, Forrest, run.

I've never considered myself a runner. Sure, I did the occasional run in elementary (creamed 'em), and even did cross country in junior high but that's as far as my running history goes. This summer, however, I decided to pick it up again. Then I decided about a month ago that I was going to train for and run the Salt Lake City Marathon next year. I downloaded this training schedule, and so far it's been pretty sweet. It's been really interesting to figure out how my body works when I run. I've learned that 3 miles is where my lungs really start to hate life. I've had asthma for about 10 years now...and to say the least it's been very frustrating. But I'm determined not to let it kick my butt. As of right now it's difficult to gauge just how well I'll be able to run the whole 26.2 miles, so I'm going to train for the full marathon the next 3-4 months, and then decide if I'll do the full or half. Next week I'll be doing the City Creek Cold Turkey 6k, woohoo!

the anthropologist

As if I needed another reason to love Anthropologie.

They've created a website that brings together some really inspirational people and highlights their work and creative processes. I am loving David Eustace's documentation of his three-week road trip with his sixteen year old daughter. The photographs and sweet letters are so real.

"We may not see it every day but life assures it is always there. Our skies may not always be blue, but our clouds are equally necessary to give us the balance we need."

-David

Click on the pictures to jump to the anthropologist...look around, it will make your heart warm.

at work today

We'd just opened, not 15 minutes earlier, when the day got off to a great start. My coworker and I were up front doing pretty much nothing (surfing the internet). No one was in the lobby, so the silence was palpable. Out of nowhere, our supervisor walks in back and asks another coworker, "SO, how was the rave on friday?!" We started laughing, probably out of delirium (it was just after 9 am, people. Alertness was not a reality). Coworker turns to me and says "That is so 1995."

oof

I think my heart just stopped.

(click on pic for the link)

these days are ours

Oh, heyyy.

(photo by Anniken Slette Hannevik)

It's been a while, friends...

Life has a funny way of turning inside out

and consequently making each day feel so surreal.

But all is well.

Different, but well.

I wanted to share a bit of loveliness with you today. Isn't that picture gorgeous?

If only I lived close to the ocean. What I wouldn't give...

Here's a quote from Jesh de Rox, an amazing photographer I've been following for a while now. He has such beautiful thoughts:

"you are where you are.

and it is a lovely place to begin. even if it's painful, even if it's not where you saw yourself 10 years ago, or 10 months, or 10 days. it's lovely because it's what you have, and what you have is so much more than so many others are gifted with... more than you often give yourself credit for.

imagine yourself on a map. are you limited as to which direction you can go? certainly there are circumstances of terrain that may provide greater ease or challenge, but the vital truth is and will always remain that any direction is available to you. even if it's a direction you've never gone before, even if it contains unknowable obstacles... the power of choice rests or rises with you.

it is one thing to sit upon the sidelines of life and bemoan your fate, and it is another entirely to shake yourself free of mentally-cobwebbed ideas and start moving."

So...it really is that simple.

I'm ready.

Hello Friends.

Well, some big changes are headed my way. I'm working on a new blog and hope to get it up and running soon. I'm going to start a new photography project this month, if I can get it planned thoroughly enough. I'm really excited about it...I'll keep you updated. The concept behind it certainly isn't new, but it will be a very meaningful and revealing project. And quite possibly the biggest (and long-awaited) change is that Alex will be coming home tomorrow. Excitement. Nervousness. My brain might explode. Wish me luck.

xoxo (it's a shame that nowadays saying "ex oh ex oh" is inextricably tied to Gossip Girl)

happy eternity

AT WORK TODAY:

Old man with an obnoxiously huge cowboy hat walks in. We call him Happy Eternity, because every time you tell him to have a good day, he always says "You have a happy eternity." Anyway, I had to stand up to grab something while he was still at my window. As I'm walking back he goes "Well! Aren't you a tall drink of water!"

...I laugh and say thanks. Meanwhile the woman standing in line behind him starts laughing. I'm glad I'm not the only who finds this awesome (aka awkward).

I tell him to sign something.

Happy Eternity: "Anything for you! Do you know that song?"

Me: "Nope."

Happy Eternity: (FULL. ON. SINGING.) "Anything for youuu, I'd do anything for youuu..."

(All the while, I'm trying my hardest not to laugh, but it's not working. And that lady is still laughing. I don't even know if that's a real song, but he's got pretty good vibrato, so I'll let it slide.)

Me: "That's...a nice song. Thanks."

He goes on to say some other nice things, I tell him to have a good day and of course --

"You have a happy eternity."

...I'm working on it buddy.