jon stewart leans in

Gabe watches a DVRed Daily Show every morning and the one we watched this morning was super interesting, especially after reading Lean In. Jon Stewart says a lot of things that Sheryl Sandberg says, but in a more compelling and hilarious (obviously) way. He discusses the sexism in politics, particularly in regards to children (Hilary Clinton becoming a grandmother will interfere with her political ambitions!) and emotions (a woman crying is crazy, a man crying is endearing and patriotic). 

We usually tune out once it gets to the interview part of the show (I know, we're so cultured and interested) but I kept watching; Jon Stewart interviews Senator Elizabeth Warren and touches on sexism in the Senate. I like how she says that ignoring the battle over women's issues is one way to deal with them; I agree, I feel that sometimes even acknowledging the debate adds to the problems. She also talks about how the Senate only had one tiny women's bathroom and they are just now renovating it and expanding it. You can watch the full episode here.

race recap: corvallis half marathon

We did it! 

The TL;DR version is that we finished in 2:44:54 (definitely not a PR by any means) and I verged on the brink of heat stroke, but I am still super proud of how we did, conquering the Oregon hills and running the whole thing together. 

This was Gabe's first half marathon and my third, but I haven't consistently ran in about a year and a half. I also had an obscene time adjusting to running on hills; moving from Indiana terrain to Oregon terrain was not friendly. Gabe and I trained together which was a perfect balance; I helped slow him down so he didn't burn out on long runs (I mean, he's 6'3" and I'm 5'1", I'm fine with admitting that he's way faster than me) and he pushed me and motivated me. 

I was constantly checking the 10 day forecast leading up to the race and was really worried. As much as Oregon weather bums me out, it is usually perfect for running; the drizzle and clouds keep it cool and comfortable. The day of the race ended up being sunny (not even partly) and a high of 77. A gorgeous day, but not gorgeous for racing. I knew I'd have to take care to not overheat, especially since the race started at 9:30 (which is weirdly late for race standards) with the sun out in full force.

I usually only drink water when I fuel in races, but considering I was sweating profusely after half a mile, we decided to walk through every water station, every two miles, and drink at least a half a cup of water. This definitely impacted our overall time but I'm fine with that, because it kept me feeling okay (let's be real, I never felt GREAT until we finished) and our running pace stayed consistently between 11:30-12:00 per mile the entire time. We still finished with some serious salt deposits all over our arms (that can happen when you run and are sweating too much and losing electrolytes) but save for that extra long walk break around mile 8.5 (1:40 in the graph below), I never felt in danger of overheating.

There's also the problem of the hills. Not multiple hills necessarily, but the whole first 8.5 miles were uphill. No joke.

Rude. Also, I'm obsessed with the data that Map My Run outputs; it's so interesting to see how our pace changes over the run. You can see our walking breaks really clearly above, but how our running pace stayed pretty consistent even running uphill.

It's weird because I know that this time is not a great half marathon time; we placed around 1000/1400 runners, and I know both of us have it in us to run so much faster. It's a little disorienting to race in Oregon because everyone is so much faster here than I'm used to. But still, I've never been prouder after a half. I was so proud of Gabe for finishing his first, and I was so proud of myself for pushing through the heat and the hills. It was really cheesy and fun to run the race together; we crossed the finish line holding hands (barf, I know). 

lately...

feeling... Too busy to blog lately, clearly. Oops. 

listening to... RAC featuring Penguin Prison - Hollywood. Okay, a year ago I was full-on OBSESSED with this song. The group (RAC) just came out with a new CD and this song was on it, so I am re-obsessed. I also really love the rest of the CD, even though it's pretty different than what I usually listen to. You might recognize Let Go from commercials.

painting... my nails with Essie's Chubby Cheeks. It's the most perfect coral, and trust me, I've been searching.

watching... Orphan Black. I jumped on the bandwagon. I haven't been this excited about a new show since binge-watching Breaking Bad last fall. It's an interesting mix of sci-fi, drama and comedy, and I'm so amazed that one actress plays all of those characters.

browsing... 

• Our Year of No Sugar. Relevant to my recent attempts to reduce my sugar intake. 
• The United States of Bros. I fully support the overuse of the term bro, and the categorization of types of bros.
• 10 Things Happy People Don't Believe.
• 75 Thoughts Every Runner Has While Out for a Run. I want to resist this latest inane genre of Buzzfeed articles... but this is so true.
• The Geography of Small Talk. 

trying...to be more mindful. Lately I've been feeling so much pressure to go go go and get stuff done, and I constantly feel completely removed from the moment. I've always struggled with mindfulness (don't we all?) but with the coming of spring weather and actual sunshine (the sun DOES exist in Oregon?!) I want to take time to slow down and relax.

lolling... at the Space Jam table read. I honestly don't even know if I've seen Space Jam in its entirety, but I can still appreciate this. Seth Green doing Bugs Bunny kills me.

around the interwebs

• Graph TV: I love quantifying any information ever, so I spent way too long graphing every TV show I've ever heard of at Graph TV, which graphs the IMDB rating of each episode of a show along with a linear correlation for each season.

PLL is going downhill?! say it ain't so. (it is, though.)

• Advantages of Eating Cookies: We all know I don't need too much of a reason to eat a cookie, but I really liked this: Why You Should Eat That Cookie.
• CATS: I'm a cat lady through and through and found this way too entertaining.

• What Kind of Stressed Are You?: We're all stressed, but it's hard to know how to fix it unless we know what type of stress it is. I found this quiz interesting and realized I could let myself off the hook a bit since I've gone through so many big life changes in the past year.
• Hollywood Coincidences: This is so ironic and made even funnier by how well-presented the video is.

april goals

I'm the most type A ever when it comes to list making and goal setting. If I were asked my weakness if a job interview, I'd say it's that it's difficult for me to work without a plan; it's really hard for me to be productive if I don't have a set idea of what I want to tackle. I usually have several lists going at once: a to-do list for my day, a list of tasks to accomplish for the week, a set of goals for the term/season, and of course, "resolutions" for the year.

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Honestly, I obsess more over writing the lists than I do over  referencing or following them; I find that once I create a plan, that's enough for me to set it in my brain what I want to accomplish and then sort of will it into motion. 

Here are my goals for April:

• Complete half marathon. When I first started training for the Corvallis Half Marathon (on April 13th! agh), I wanted to PR. But then I actually got into training and remembered I hadn't run consistently for more than a year and had never run anywhere this hilly. Now, I just want to finish the race, and feel good about the run.
• Read 2 books. One of my 2014 resolutions was to read more and I've been doing pretty well at it; this month I hope to finish two books, maybe I Wrote This for You or The Magicians and I want to finish The Willpower Instinct.
• Try a new restaurant. We've lived in Corvallis for too long and eaten at mostly the same few places. There are some surprisingly good restaurants here, so I'm hoping to try somewhere new this month.

• Clean out my closet. Now that you know how anal I am, it shouldn't surprise you that I love me some spring cleaning. Especially after downgrading from a walk-in closet in my last apartment, I desperately need to purge clothes I don't need. I've been loving using Poshmark to sell my cast-offs.
• Start a project for my research statement. I start applying for faculty positions this fall (!!) which seems far away, but I need to start preparing a research statement, which is what I plan to do for research once I'm a professor. I want to start a project now that will relate to my research described in my statement, so I can easily segway from my current experience to a plan for the future.

window(s) shopping: blush

I've always been adverse to wearing pink (well, maybe not always, I probably loved it when I was little and loved all things girlie and Barbie). The few items I have that are remotely pink-ish, maybe coral or mauve, I know look good with my coloring, but I think I just have a hard time embracing something that can easily look bubblegum. So I was kind of surprised when lately, I've been craving things of the "blush" variety: soft, romantic pink but definitely not bubblegum.

maxi | blouse | skirt | sandals | bomber jacket | motorcycle jacket

It all started with the maxi dress on the left - this girl loves a good cheap-y maxi dress. I also like the idea of edgier pieces, like the leather skirt or moto jacket, or more masculine pieces, like the bomber jacket, to offset the girlie-ness of the color. 

what's cookin'

During finals week in college, I basically survived on peanut butter sandwiches, BTB quesadillas and Garden Salsa Sun Chips. The class that I was co-instructing just wrapped up and it was almost like I was a student again, relying way too much takeout and eating out. Although my tastes have matured a bit; now my go-to  junk food is a Yumm bowl. I actually just started reading the Willpower Instinct and it says that willpower can be "used up;" by expending so much willpower on studying and working hard, we no longer have enough left to will ourselves to eat healthily and cook (there's a lot more in that book that's super interesting, but that's another post for another time.)

Regardless, I still managed to make some good eats lately:

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• Hawaiian Pulled Pork Nachos. Clearly the last pulled pork success inspired me, and I made these nachos. The actual creation was definitely a NAILED IT! Pinterest fail moment, but they were so good.
• Thai Chicken Soup. I am on a mission to cook good Thai food, but although this soup was good (I used red curry paste instead of green, though) it just doesn't measure up to my favorite takeout.
• Pineapple Cashew Fried Rice. Okay, this was a Thai(ish) recipe that was actually big success. It still didn't taste like takeout, but was definitely the best fried rice I've ever made.
• Slow Cooker Apple Cider Pulled Pork. SO GOOD. And it made tons, so we ate it in all sort of leftover forms for a week (pulled pork tacos FTW.)
• Crispy Honey Lemon Chicken. I've made this a few times; a super easy, crispy fried-but-not-heavy chicken.