in honor of the day

Growing up, Halloween was a fun holiday, an excuse to emulate my at-that-moment favorite character or career. Once, I was Esmeralda of the Hunchback of Notre Dame; once, I was a pirate; once, I was a clown. My favorite memories of Halloween are those involving our best friends, who also happened to be our neighbors. Our motley crew of 3 preteen boys, myself, and two toddler girls would visit every lit house in the neighborhood, our chattering parents in tow. Always chivalrous, the boys would brave the trek to the scarier houses, showing us damsels all the spooky parts while we stood in the street, weighing the candy against the creepiness.

When our group was broken up due to military reassignments, Halloween was never the same. Tonight, however, while running through several different neighborhoods in my little town, these buried Halloween memories resurfaced. As I ran, families were gathering their children, neighbors were setting out chairs and fire pits and candy, costumes were being perfected, and entire neighborhoods were preparing to enjoy an evening of candy-collecting, neighbor-chatting, and family-togetherness. As usual, there were a few extra-spooky houses (which I crossed the street to avoid, having no chivalrous male co-runner), there were many houses with pumpkins and candles, and many others with no decorations, simply a smiling neighbor with candy.

Someday, someone should do a photobook about Halloween in small town America.

PS--my contribution to the day: a picture of the creepy white spider that lived between my screen and window. My heroic housemate sprayed him with Raid, so he's dead...and I still refuse to open my window because he died where he lived.

back to doughnuts

Apparently I only get doughnuts in the fall and am thus obsessed with them.

 This little restaurant seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but it's quite the hopping place!

I think the big apple donut out front has quite a bit to with their popularity. Of course, the smaller apple donuts on the inside were much tastier, but unfortunately, I was unable to take a picture of them before their photogenicity was destroyed by the group's desire for fresh hot donuts.

peek into my life

For a blog that has Thursday in its title, perhaps I should have a regular Thursday theme. O faithful readers of whom there are not many, what thinkest thou regarding this idea?

No, really, what do you think my Thursday theme should be? The logical answer would probably be gardening, but let me nix that one right now for 2 reasons. One, it's almost winter and things don't grow in winter. Two (and more importantly), things don't grow for ME. I had a plant once...and then it died. But only after doing this weird mutant thing whereby it grew up an inch, grew two leaves at the top, grew another inch, grew two more leaves at the top while the previous two died off, and continued until it was a good 6 inches tall. Then I forgot to water it for a couple weeks. So gardening = no go.

Green could refer to eco-living, though! Hmm...having just taken out two very full trash bags today, I'm not sure I'm highly qualified to write about green living.

Green with envy? Green as in 'the equator is green year round'? Green as in evergreen trees? Or there's always "Awkward & Awesome Thursdays," though that's not very original.

Eh, for now I'll just give you a peek into my life. I present to you my new favorite snack: corn chips and cottage cheese.

a happy dance

I've been ordering a lot of stuff online recently. There's a new adage about being "too busy to shop," and I think it applies to me. (I also think I might have just made just an adage! Or a cliche. Or maybe a metaphor? Either way, could you attribute it to me? My fame would greatly appreciate it.)

Back to the point, which is that receiving items in the mail is rather quite fun! Especially when the big corporate sender decides to add a little flair to their receipt and provides instructions for a happy dance.

For all you folks making it through hump day, let's do a little celebration: 1, 2, 3-4-5-6. Woo-hoo!

so i entered a contest

The Cherry Blossom Ten Miler has been on my bucket list since 2008, my senior year of college. I missed the deadline that year, I think because it closed by the time I finished class and ran back to my room. Then last year, I tried again, entering the lottery...and proving yet again that I should never gamble.

I've been wavering about entering for 2012. The thought of losing another lottery is disheartening. And with some big life changes coming soon, I wasn't even sure I wanted to commit the training time.

Until I saw an email saying that two runners would be picked as the Cherry Blossom's "Social Media Runners." Two runners get the privilege of documenting their journey, their training, their struggles, their triumphs, their fears, as they inspire and encourage fellow runners to reach the starting line. I decided: I want to run the Ten Miler. And I wanted to enter this contest.

So here's my entry. It's submitted. Now we wait.

I am a normal person trying to survive in our abnormal world--I work 4 jobs (one full-time!), I watch movies multiple nights a week (because we’re too cheap for cable!), I’m looking for just the right person to share my life with (male, smart, rich, and blonde!), and I struggle with finding Saturday night activities that will end in time for my Sunday morning run (Redbox, anyone?). I would be a great social media runner because I am so very normal--I'm not a marathoner, I've proudly completed exactly one half-marathon, and I have never finished in the top 50 in any 5k’s, even the small ones! Like most normal people, I often struggle to maintain the running habit, especially with a life full of work, volunteering, and friendships. I've always wanted to run the Cherry Blossom but I have never won the lottery; in fact, I’m so normal that I’ve never even won a raffle! 

The average Joe (and the average Jane) would relate to me because after all, we are each quite normal, despite individual quirks. We all want to be prettier, smarter, faster, stronger, and better at everything—the question is, can a normal person really overcome the abnormalities of our modern world to succeed at a dream? Can a normal person—one who struggles with witty tweets; who always aims to run more miles than she actually does; who facebooks in the wee hours of the morning; who desires but has yet to reach a meaningful outlet for writing on her blog—really fulfill her four year dream of running the Cherry Blossom? As one of the social media runners for the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler, I would relish the opportunity to inspire others to make real their wildest imaginings. 

Fall doughnuts are the best

Because they include such cool items as "Boston Scream," "Maple Frosted," "Fall Festival," and "Pumpkin."

Too bad trying them all would make me fat.

That's why we only eat them after hiking out to a beautiful fall vantage point.

To view the foliage.

Huh. I mispronounced that word today because I thought it was spelling "foilage." Seeing the proper spelling aids my understanding of why people were laughing at me for saying "foil - age."

Unpasteurized fresh apple cider definitely increases the atmosphere of fall.

And of course, a couple good books don't hurt either.

Go, copy my ideas and enjoy fall. You only have a few weeks left of good "foilage"!