Happy 2013!

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Sorry for the delay in posts!  I've been unusually busy ironing out running groups, volunteering, visiting family and, well, Netflix.

2012 comes to a close today and that seriously slipped my mind because unemployment for me means that all of the days kind of run together. Since the last six months of 2012 has been mediocre at best, good riddance! 

  

Don’t get me wrong, there were some fabulous bright spots like:

• Running the Peachtree Roadrace and visiting some of my favorite law school friends in Atlanta
•  Moving to a city I love and now living in a great place with a cool roomie in an awesome neighborhood
• Running the Hana Relay in Maui with some (but not all) of my favorite Wellesley friends
• Visiting friends in NY (city and Long Island)
• Friends’ weddings, engagements, positive bar results, pregnancies and new babies 
• Thrifty fashion accomplishments: D&G gold lace dress ($90), Theory silk tank ($2), DVF tank top ($8) that I purchased at Clothes Encounters of a Second Kind. 
• Successfully poached eggs and made hollandaise for the first time ever for Latkes Benedict (infra)!   
• Received two Au Bon Pain coupons after (for a free sandwich/salad AND soda) complaining to them about messing up a sandwich order when I traveled to the Sixth Ring of Hell (ie Port Authority) for Thanksgiving

For the most part though, I’ve spent the past six months wondering what happens when my savings finally run out and I have no employment (next month!), where I can get some awesome lengua tacos in DC and why I bothered to go to law school anyway (because I’ve always wanted to be a public interest attorney but maybe I should have just gotten that Masters in English/MFA like Professor Emeritus Finkelpearl suggested.  He made this comment after telling me I was “very bright” but not working to my potential regarding a particular analysis in 17^th Century Literature.  I admit to being somewhat lazy for that paper.  Ever read one of John Donne’s elegies? No? Don’t).

Anyway, now is the time to make resolutions and I shall share them with you, my nearest and dearest.

  

   1. Run more.  I’ve been averaging about four days a week and would like to bump that up to five.  It has gotten a little more challenging because it is getting colder but, thankfully, my dad bought me another pair of cold weather tights for Christmas: Saucony’sWomen's Omni LX Tight II.  I’ve run in them twice and they held up to CT cold so DC should be no sweat.  They are warm, comfortable and actually long enough, which is sweet. I now have TWO pairs of running tights. Yes. Two! I feel like a Rockerfeller.  Sadly, I only FEEL like the offspring of a millionaire oil tycoon.  I would like to resolve to run a race a month, but that cost money.  Has no one ever heard of a free fun run in the DC metro area?!

2. Eat Better. Now, some people are stress eaters, I am not.  My appetite dips lower than Freak Nasty when I am stressed, depressed or anxious.  Being unemployed with no end in sight provides the perfect platform for a constant, low-level buzz of depression, stress and anxiety that messes with my appetite.  Consequently, my eating habits are all messed up and my meals are poorly balanced.  I made Latkes Benedict the day before a cholesterol test for Pete’s sake! (It was delicious and my cholesterol is "excellent" according to my doctor).  

 

      So, I resolve to eat better, more frequent, more balanced meals.

If your News Years resolution is to lose weight, I can tell you from personal experience that being unemployed, moving to a walkable city and running in order to stave off a mental breakdown have all worked really well for me!  I wouldn’t recommend it, but I do fit into my Lund era jeans again!

3. Stay in Touch.  I make this resolution every year.  I think I can count this blog in my efforts. 

S    4. Slow my roll.  So the top definition of Slow Your Roll in Urban Dictionary says: 

Term used to inform a homie that he's getting outta control and he might want to shut the hell up before he gets beat the hell up.

"Yo dawg, you better slow your roll fool."

That’s not exacttttttly what I mean.  As homies go, I don’t run my mouth that much.  No one has every threatened to beat me “the hell up.”  I guess that’s a good thing… I much prefer part one of the second most popular definition:

1. Slow Down. Be Calm.
2. Slow down your game. Stop coming on so strong to a female.

             

1. "Slow your roll homie, I'm tryin' to relax up in this mutha."

 2. "You'd better slow your roll junior player, you'll just get shutdown down out going like that." 

I need to calm down, relax, embrace que sera sera.  I don’t want to be the homie preventing    

people from relaxing in this mutha! 

On a side note, I loathe the use of “female.” No one ever uses “male.”  I certainly don’t tell my friends, “So this male walked up to me and stroked my face from temple to chin” (True story, happened in Havana and I was so flustered I conjugated “tocar” wrong when I yelled  

at him not to touch me.  Commands are tricky!).

  

        5. Buy Less Clothing.  This is not a problem now since I am broke, but I am going to try to buy fewer new clothes and more second hand clothing.  I've always been a thrift and consignment store shopper and I prefer natural fibers so I've never been a Forever 21 person, but this book Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, has definitely made me more conscientious about my shopping habits.  I highly recommend the book, by the way.

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year celebration and here’s to 2013 being better than 2012!