The shoe that picks you...

I would like to propose that my running shoe shopping is very much akin to Harry Potter’s wand shopping—mostly in that it is not “shopping” at all, but “matching.” For anyone who is not familiar with Harry Potter, a little background info may be necessary. You see, upon coming of age each new wizard must begin wizardry school and buy a wand (so as to perform magic). This process of finding the right wand is not as simple as perusing the selection and randomly choosing one. Oh, no. That would be far too simple for a future wizard. There must be a magical connection between the wizard and the wand—a flick of the wand in the hand and voila! Sparks! This is how a wizard knows he has found the right wand.

Well, I have learned that the process is not much different in finding running shoes. Talk to any person who has found that “perfect” shoe. They will agree. Today I went to my favorite running shoe store (Runner’s Corner in Orem) to attempt to find that perfect one. I tried on shoe after shoe…starting with Mizuno and moving on to Brooks and Sauconys. Nothing seemed quite right. Then, the sales associate brought out the magic box: K-Swiss K-ona shoes. I slipped my foot into one shoe and it felt like heaven! The weight, width, support, breathability, and color were all perfect. I could feel the magic. With the shoes fasted onto both feet, I set out for a brief jog. It was love at first step. I knew this pair of shoes was the “one.” The K-onas felt like they were part of my foot—an extension of my appendage. It was like the shoe chose me—it was my sole mate.

Now that I’ve found my K-onas, I cannot settle for anything less. I have to have these shoes! I had the store put them on hold for me and I can’t wait to go back and buy them!

The Life of a Fish: My dear friend, you will be missed

Today, my little goldfish died. After three months of a life together, he has left me. I came home from work and he was sitting on the bottom of his jar, unusually still. I thought, "Maybe he is hungry." So I fed him. But he did not move. Not one twitch of a muscle. Only the labored sucking of water through his gaping mouth. Opening and closing. Opening and closing. I thought he might not be hungry, so I left for a few minutes, but when I came back I found him in a somewhat more compromised position. He was beginning to tilt to one side. I thought a change of water might be just what he needed, but as I prepared to change his water I noticed a pile of fish poopies at the bottom of the jar. I remembered that in preparation for death, the body releases all of its waste...the final defecation. That is when I knew that this was the beginning of the end. I tried to will it back to life, to talk it through this tough situation and give it a reason to live. I yelled at it, screaming that it wasn't his time to go, that he was still needed here, that he needed to try to move, to swim, to eat. Alas, all was in vain. My little fishy died at 7:53 pm on January 13, 2010. Now I leave my last words to him in this eulogy.


Eulogy for my little fishy:

People may say that fish are not meant to be pets. All they do is swim around a tank sucking water. I beg to differ. My little fishy was different. He was like family to me, and I was like family to him. This loss has been hard. Some people say money cannot buy love, but I proved those people wrong when I bought my little fishy. I will always remember that blessed sunny afternoon that I bought him. He was the fastest of the bunch, darting this way and that and swimming hard to get away from the net of the Walmart employee who was trying to capture a fish--any fish--for me. Surprisingly enough, that fast swimmer was caught up in the net and became mine to love. I felt bad taking him away from all his little goldfish friends, but I knew that I would give him a better home where he could be happy.

Little fishy felt right at home from the moment I plopped him into his new fishbowl. With the colorful rocks on the bottom to the thriving green plant on the top, my little fishy had his own fishy paradise. He swam around that bowl around and around and around and around. He was so excited to have his own place. We had many good times while he swam in that fishbowl. I remember coming home from work and watching the little fellow fly around in the water. Whenever I fed him he would rush to the top of the fishbowl and pick out the best fish food pellets to eat first. I think beta fish food was his favorite, although I never fed him anything else. Even though some days I forgot to feed little fishy, he never complained. He never was a complainer. He just took everything as it came, good or bad. When I remembered to feed him again, he was so happy. I think I almost saw a smile on his little guppy face once or twice. What a trouper. I never imagined he would die so soon.

Early on after I adopted little fishy I tried to name him, but nothing stuck: Goldie, Thunder, Lightening, Silverback, Horseshoe, Seahorse, Lucky. He was just too good for anything that I could come up with. I know he has been given a good name now in his fishy heaven. He always was too good for this life. I will always remember my little fishy. May his little fishy body rest in peace. Goodbye now little fishy...until we meet again.

Me and My Pa

There comes a time in every person's life when they must step back and look at the progress they've made in life--look at how far they have come and who has helped them get there. I think it only appropriate on this Father's Day to reflect on how much I love my family and how homesick I am (in attempts to invoke some sympathy and possibly get a care-package...j/k).

Although I may cringe at times when someone uses the saying "like father like daughter" in reference to myself, I've come to realize that it wouldn't really be that bad if I turned out like my dad. Okay, so his sense of humor may be somewhat lacking in the "funny" category, but besides that he's a great guy. :D

He's pretty much made me who I am...I mean, I did get half of me genes from him. Maybe that's even a compliment to him since I've turned out so great! (or at least I like to pretend I have) But in all honesty, my father is one of my heroes. His hard-working attitude and faithfulness is an example to me and does not go unnoticed. And even though I may act annoyed when he nags at me to get something done, I know he only does it because he cares about me and wants the best for me.

From the beginning...

To the present...He as always been there for me.

So, to wrap it all up, I really do hope I turn out like my pops. Well, you know, minus the graying hair and receding hairline...and hopefully I can come up with better jokes. But besides that...

Change is good

There comes a time for change in every person's life. May I quote The Byrds (who quote the Bible),

"To everything
Turn, turn, turn
There is a season
Turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven"

This time of change happens to be now for me--the change of graduating and the addition of new responsibilities, change of a new job, change of housing arrangements, and even change of hairstyle (maybe). All these changes, no matter how necessary, are stressful, hard to cope with, and invoke fear. But what is it about change that is so scary? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it fear of being rejected, fear of failure? Or is it just fear of change itself?

This may seem contradictory--that change, which is a good thing, invokes fear--but it is through change that people are made stronger and better. A weight lifter may struggle at first lifting additional weight, but that only helps build muscle. A runner may run out of strength as he heaves through that extra mile, but it builds endurance. So, how can one learn to accept change? First, act. Do something hard. Burst your comfort-zone bubble. Find out what is causing the fear. Is it the fear caused by the unknown or is it caused by something else? I like to make plans. If I don't have everything all planned out, then I feel stressed, unsure of my future, and afraid. As soon as I have planned how I am going to cope with every aspect of the change, I feel more secure and less afraid of the unknown. The unknown is only intimidating because of the fact that it is unknown. Once it has become familiar, the intimidation factor disappears.

If fear prevented everyone from accepting change, then society would be very unproductive. Fear would prevent the future president from taking his stand as the head of this country. It would prevent explorers from discovering that cool new place. It would prevent high school graduates from leaving home to start that new leg of life on their own. It would prevent children from taking that first ride without training wheels. This world is full of the unknown.

So the second step is to stick with it. If it is hard, then good. A quitter never won the Olympics or became the CEO of a company.

And third, learn from it. Part of progressing is looking back and seeing how far you have come. It is seeing what needs to be made better and it is setting goals for the future. You must learn what needs to be improved on or what changes need to be made, then repeat the process and act.

With all this said, I like making goals for myself and I like challenging myself. Sometimes I accomplish all of these goals, other times I don't. The important thing, however, is that I know what I want, that I plan it out, and that I try. Here are my future goals:

Goals for the summer:
1. Move to a different apartment. (this month)
2. Find a full-time job. (ASAP!)
3. Run a marathon. (this summer)

Goals to accomplish over the next few years:
1. Move to a different city or out of state. (this year or next)
2. Complete a Dietetic Internship and become a Registered Dietitian. (next year)
3. Develop a thesis and earn a Master's degree. (next year)
4. Volunteer with a service organization in Central or South America. (sometime)

Who sleeps in these days?

Memorial Day: an excuse to sleep in without feeling guilty (and remember all those who have died in the service of the country, of course).

So what did I do?

Yes, the clock reads 6:20 AM...and this clock is 9 minutes fast.

Let me just preface this with the statement that the human body is an amazing thing. And now I'll just ask...why? All I have to say is that I did not choose to wake up at 5:40, then 6:00, then 6:10. I did my best to lull myself back to sleep and remain motionless until noon. Evidently my body did not agree with my Memorial Day plans.

So what did I do instead? Well, let's just say I have my most creative moments in the wee hours of the morning after getting some power-sleep. I'm sure my roommate will appreciate this burst of creativity. Mainly just the free verse poem and the chant that I wrote to welcome her back to the apartment after she was gone this weekend. (Note: I use "creative" in a very liberal sense.)

Now on to a more important tangent... Beetles are gross. Bugs are creepy. Anything living thing with legs that will move after they are dismembered is utterly and completely disgusting. Spiders are the worst. In fact, the hierarchy of creepy crawly evilness is as follows: Spiders > Cockroaches > Bees > Monster Mosquitoes > Gigantuous Flies > Beetles, etc, etc. If I see one of these super-creepy bugs, I will scream and there is no preventing that.

Despite these fears, I am not a killer. If I must kill, I kill out of necessity and fear for my life. There is a fine line that these little creatures must cross before I will kill them. First, I will kill any spiders that I see. Why? Because they're spiders! I shouldn't even have to answer that question. Second, I will never kill a bee because bees can retaliate and hurt me if I don't kill them in the first attempt. Third, if it is a relatively harmless insect who happened to wander into my presence through pure accident, I most likely will release it back into the wild from whence it came. Fourth, I will always kill flies because they spread disease. Fifth and finally, if I find a bug anywhere in my room...especially in my bed!...it is sooo dead.

This is what happened last night. I found a little beetle trespassing on my bed and I killed that little bugger. I didn't scream. I felt no guilt. Dead and done. Now compare that to the beetle I found crawling on my kitchen floor later that night. I could almost detect innocence as I looked into its 800 eyes, so I set it free. I'm so kind. The end.

Me, a sports fan? Pshaw.

I have never been huge into sports, BUT I did happen to catch the end of the Cleveland-Orlando game tonight. And boy was it a close one! Here's how it went down:

Orlando Magic's Hedo Turkoglu tied up the game with a three-pointer. 48.7 seconds left on the clock. The score...93-93. Then, just when it was apparent that the game was going to go into overtime, Turkoglu pushed his way up to the basket and made the shot for a two point lead for Orlando.
Time on the clock...1 second left!
Time out, Cleveland Cavaliers.
Back in the game with 1 second remaining, the Cavaliers start with the ball, setting up a play for LeBron James.
LeBron gets the ball, takes the shot and swoosh! A three-pointer! From 23 feet from the hoop! His only three-pointer of the game! What a star player.

I was rooting for the Cavaliers.

A little of this, a dash of that

So, what does one do, exactly, after graduating. Well, let me tell you...it's pretty boring. There's a little bit of this and a little bit of that with just a dash of something that might carry a hint of excitement. Oh, and maybe there's some work, too. For now, however, as an unemployed citizen my contribution to society in the form of work is minimal.

Lately, I have been catering to my other interests that I have neglected these last four years.

First, there is building houses. I know what you're thinking...that's an expensive hobby. But really it's not because I only use cards. Unfortunately, I fail at making anything other than one-story houses, since the first cards that I place for the second story send the first level crashing to the floor.

Evidently this was an exception, as there are two distinct levels here. I was not responsible for the second level, though. That's called tag-team. I only built the first level.

Second, there is puzzle-putting-togetherness. I'm actually pretty good at this. And when I say that, I truly am being humble because I'm actually really good. Here is what I have accomplished so far:

1000-piece puzzle #1

1000-piece puzzle #2

Amazingly enough, this second puzzle only took me maybe 12-16 hours to finish. Actually, when I put it that way, it sounds like a long time. So, in other words I finished it over the course of 4 days. Not bad, eh?

Next, I started my own garden. After helping my sister place flowers and plants around her yard, I decided it was about time for me to grow something of my own. Now, owing to the fact that I have no yard you may think this would be an impossibility. Impossible, shmimpossible. No such thing. I proceeded to get pots, dirt, and seeds and...vwallah!...I now have a garden!

I planted scallions in the rectangular pot and marigolds and alyssum in the round pot.

As you can see, my little flowers are already starting to sprout! Pretty soon I'll have a whole forest of flowers outside my apartment!

Finally, I decided that now is the perfect time to start training for a marathon. I think I got a little over-excited to start training, though, because I ran about 34 miles last week:

• Monday - 4 miles
• Tuesday - 4 miles
• Wednesday - 8.5 miles
• Thursday - 4 miles
• Friday - 8.5 miles
• Saturday - 5 miles
  

Well, these are about all the hobbies I have for now. Other than this, it's just job hunting and facing rejection after rejection. Pretty exciting, I know.