Hi all!

Thanks so much to those who took my Dori’s Shiny Exercise Survey and entered for a chance to win either a Core Fusion DVD or a Physique 57 DVD!

Some of you took the survey but didn’t comment or email to let me know. If I don’t know who you are, you might not be eligible to win! I can’t announce you by your email address, so please either comment here or email me to let me know you took the survey so you have a chance to win.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, I’d really love it if you did. I’m working on a project and your answers will really help me out. And really, who doesn’t want  Physique 57 or Core Fusion DVD? Those classes are the best!

A few little updates and then I will be on my way:

Tonight is the first night of my Humor Writing class. I can’t help but be very nervous. I tend to take the easy way out and don’t challenge myself often. I do feel that the blog has gotten a little stale and I hope to spice it up and get some more in depth ideas on what kind of writer I am and want to be. I need to be forced to leave my comfort zone. I expect the class sessions to be full of laughs but I am dreading having my writing critiqued by others. I’ll be sure to tweet about how it went.

Reflexology has beaten pancakes as the top search term that gets people to this blog. Congratulations, Reflexology.

I did it! I traded in my Polar F7 for the Polar RSX300 SD. My new Polar comes with a foot pod (and I can add an optional GPS) to track my distance, pace, time, heart rate and more. I chose a foot pod monitor because I heard NYC skyscrapers aren’t the best for GPS systems, although I like that I can add on on if I choose.I played with my new toy last night and worked on setting it up. This morning, I went out to calibrate it. I HATE calibrating! Hated it with my Nike +, hate it with the Polar. There is a small track along my running route, and I know it is 1/8 of a mile, but I don’t know which part. The innermost? Outermost? Middle? I decided not to calibrate there. I didn’t have time to get to another track today (thinking Central Park) but I was so excited to start using my new Polar, so I decided to calibrate on city streets using MayMyRun.com. I got it to tell me what 1.01 miles would be when I realized the Polar only calibrates in kilometers. I went through more trial and error and finally decided that I would run about 1 kilometer — I got Map My Run to tell me that 1.01 K would be from the near corned of 70th street to the far corner of 82nd street.

So I did it. But the thing is . . . I don’t know how confident I am about this. I think it is fine for now but I hope to get to a track this weekend to recalibrate and be sure of my accuracy.I am still figuring out how to work my new HRM and I need to get set up with uploading my workouts to the computer. I also don’t know how to see on the watch screen my average pace and all. I hope to figure that out over the weekend as well. Today’s run was strange because I used the first kilometer to calibrate and then I recorded the rest normally, but I plan to run again on Friday morning and I am excited to run my usual route and see what the Polar says in terms of distance and time!

Speaking of my new Polar, the chest strap it came with is not my size. I have an unusually small and close together ribcage and need the tiniest chest strap they have. The fantastic @ChrisPolarUSA, who helped me with my RSX300 SD decision, responded to my plea for help on Twitter and will be sending me my size strap! Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE Twitter? If you have any questions about heart rate monitors or just want the latest news about Polar, I recommend following him.  I know he has been very helpful to my friend Jen, a PriorfatGirl!

Because I made a wise and safe decision and ordered a Road ID, the company is letting you all receive $1 off your Road ID order. Road ID is crucial for anyone who does any type of outdoor exercise — walking, running, biking, rollerblading, hiking, etc. It contains your contact information, insurance information (if you want), whether you are allergic to medications and your location. To receive $1 off your Road ID, type this code at checkout: ThanksDori548069. The first 20 people to enter the code can receive the discount.

I took advantage of a great flight deal and booked a trip to the Seattles! I am so excited to be going to see my brother and Mallories and the pup Santana from October 29 – November 1. My first request was a breakfast at my favorite breakfast place in the entire world, Portage Bay. They are sustainable and beyond that, have the most amazing breakfast menu I have ever seen. Which includes a trip to the TOPPINGS BAR! I love knowing I would be comfortable eating everything they have their because I share their philosophy about local, organic food. I am also excited to go to my favorite bookstore in the world, Elliot Bay.

Why is my favorite everything in the world located in the Seattles?!

CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THAT PUP!

I bought an Urban Rebounder! It was my very first Craigslist purchase and it came with 2 rebounding DVDs. Not that I know how to set up the DVD player yet (it’s only been a year — HELP!!) but I am excited to be able to have a convenient workout I can do anytime at home. Read the health benefits of rebounding here.

Anyone interested in buying my Regina Spektor tickets from me that I can’t use because of my writing class? Wed, Oct 14 at Radio City in NYC. Let me know!

I thought I figured out how to make spaces between bullets because it worked, but then once I finished typing this blog it unworked. Going into the code and typing in line and paragraph breaks does not work. It worked for a second, what’s with that?! I really would have liked this entry to contain bulletpoints for your reading ease.

Yes, you heard me right! I have not one, not two, but THREE prizes up for grabs. And they are amazing prizes. As you might know, I love me some Lotte Berk-type classes. Core Fusion, Physique 57, etc. They are the only strength training workouts I’ll even do. I am highly addicted to them, I love them, I crave them, I jumped on an online sale to get myself 30 Core Fusion classes at a discounted rate — which I am excited to be using!

And I am very excited to offer three of you a DVD from these classes. Here are the prizes:

1. Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout
2. Core Fusion Body Sculpt
3. Core Fusion Pilates Plus

I have taken classes at both studios and they are AMAZING. You will seriously strengthen and sculpt your body if you stick with these and the time tends to go quickly. I own the Core Fusion DVDs and they are tough but great. And if you have doubts, just look at Kelly Ripa. She is obsessed with Physique 57! Lots of celebrities go to both Core Fusion and Physique 57, which is pretty cool.

I get a good amount of traffic to my blog by people searching Physique 57 and Core Fusion in their search engines. So hopefully you searchers are reading this, because you might get your questions answered if you win.

About the Physique 57 classes and DVD:

Physique 57™ is a focused and proven cardiovascular program of isometric exercises and orthopedic stretches. Physique 57™ tones your seat, abdominals, thighs and arms; strengthens your legs and back; and improves posture to produce a beautiful, sexy body. Our interval training sets use your own body weight for resistance, and through dynamic exercises your muscles are targeted and overloaded to the point of fatigue, then stretched for relief. We call our process Interval Overload – overloading the muscle to create long, lean sexy muscles.

Get rapid results in a few short weeks with the Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout.  DVD features: * Bonus Moves * About Physique 57™ * Client Testimonials

About the Core Fusion classes and DVDs:

Core Fusion® is a Pilates-infused transformational fitness experience allowing you to work from the inside out as it consistently delivers results. This highly publicized mind body class is proven to give you washboard abs, a tighter and higher backside, and a perfectly toned body. This one-hour class fuses the disciplines of Lotte Berk fundamentals, core conditioning, Pilates, and yoga to produce long, lean muscles, a flexible, youthful body and a sense of peace and relaxation.

Experience total body transformation with Core Fusion! Featuring Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito, co-founders of exhale spa’s proprietary class Core Fusion®, the first two DVDs — and Core Fusion™ Pilates Plus and Core Fusion™ Body Sculpt — are segmented into five focused workouts of just 10 minutes each providing you the opportunity to continue exhale’s transformational mind body class experience at home.

You can read more and watch clips of the Core Fusion DVDs here and the Physique 57 DVD here.

Okay, now that all that good stuff is out of the way, I hope you’re curious to find out how you can win one of these babies.

I need help from all of you. I am working on a project and I would love it if you could fill out a quick, 15 question survey for me. It shouldn’t take up more than 5 minutes of your time.

The survey is about one of my favorite topics — exercise. The survey is basically anonymous, but you will find a spot to enter your email address. This is used ONLY to confirm your entry. Otherwise, anyone can comment and tell me they did the survey when really they didn’t, which wouldn’t be fair to those who did. I promise your results will never be tracked back to you.

I will use the random integer generator to choose 3 winners. Each winner will get one DVD. If you have a DVD preference, feel free to let me know in the comments, but be aware that I can’t promise you will get your preference if you win.

You can get more than one entry. Here are the ways to enter:

How to Enter

• Complete this survey:  Dori’s Shiny Exercise Survey (comment to let me know)
• Tweet the survey! Paste the below message into your Twitter status:
  RT @dysterious: Enter for a chance to win a Core Fusion or Physique 57 DVD http://bit.ly/pLjMO
  (You can tweet it one time each day for multiple entries)
• Post a link to this entry in your own blog
• Post a link to this entry as your Facebook status or as a note, and comment or email to let me know!

You have two weeks to get your entries in. I will announce the winners on Tuesday, October 13.

I really appreciate your help with this survey. The more responses I get, the more this will help me out. Thank you!

I thought of a great title and funny first few lines of a blog entry last night in the car, but I was too tired/didn’t think to record the thoughts on my BlackBerry. I smiled to myself about how clever I am! And now I can’t remember what it was. Grrrr. Next time I will be sure to make the effort.

Maybe it had something to do with the 4 miles I ran yesterday in the rain? Or maybe it had to do with the fact that I WAS RECOGNIZED BY A READER IN STARBUCKS?!

Yes, you heard me right! The boy and I arrived at his brother’s too early for dinner last night, so we went into Starbucks to kill some time and because I was thirsty. While waiting for my iced tea to be ready, a girl came up to me and asked if my name is Dori. I said yes, looking at her face and trying to figure out how I know her. And then . . . then she said, “I thought it was you, I read your blog.”

!!!!!!!!!

And it gets better. The reader, Robin, recognized me by my hair! As you might know, I am growing out my japanese straightened hair back to its curly true self. The result is about 4 inches of curl on top and straight hair on the bottom. It makes me constantly self-conscious and it is unusual and it is weird and it is got me recognized!

I could not believe it! It is so strange how I write this blog, assume that people I know from Facebook and bloggers I know and some friends and family read it, and think little else. I rarely think about people who don’t comment actually keeping up with anything I write because in my mind – why would anyone care?

I was on cloud nine after that encounter! I just cannot believe I got recognized! Robin said she almost didn’t say anything — but I am SO happy she did. Sometimes I need a little validation to keep this going, to know people are reading, to know it is making someone’s day slightly more entertaining. And since it has been more difficult lately to get my posts in, this would a great boost of motivation.

AAhhhhhhhhh!!! 

So, back to reality. Thank you for your comments about my hellish 1 mile race. They made me feel much better, and I especially felt great once I got my chip time of 7:46! Going forward, time is not so important. But since I clearly ran this race for time, I will celebrate it and make sure everyone knows how fast I ran a mile.

Speaking of chip times, I mentioned this at the end of my last post but I wanted to say it again as part of a decision I made . . . I realized there was no starting chip time at my first 5K, there was only a mat at the finish — so the time must have actually been less than 28:46 and my pace a little less than 9:16. Additionally, my Nike + iPod has been annoying me with its inaccuracy now that I am becoming more of a “runner.” It told me my pace for the 5th Avenue Mile race – a race that is a confirmed 7:46 pace — was 8:54. That is a big difference! And now that I am running longer Sunday training runs in preparation for my 5 mile race, I am starting to get concerned that I am overtraining; running farther than I should be.

I am recovering from two knee injuries and constant hip pain, and the last thing I need is to overtrain. While my Nike + iPod was a great and inexpensive decision to give me an estimate for my runs, I decided I am ready for accuracy. I currently use a Polar F7 heart rate monitor, although I forgot to put it on for a long run a few weeks ago, didn’t miss it at all, and haven’t worn it since. If I am not going to use my current HRM, and I desperately want one that will accurately track my distance and speed, I decided to take advantage of Polar’s trade in program. This program will allow me to send in my F7 and get a discounted rate off another model. After lots of research on their site, I think I decided on the Polar RS300X sd. Anyone have experience with this one?

This HRM has many appealing functions, including:

• Measures heart rate combined with speed and distance
• An easy start option do you don’t have to scroll around
• Easy data transfer to computer
• Target pace alarms and speed/pace summaries

Polars are known to be much more user friendly than Garmins, and I have to say my Polar F7 is extremely intuitive, which is important to me. I need to call customer service to actually make the trade in happen, so I just wanted to throw this out there before calling. I am VERY excited to have a HRM that will accurately tell me my distance and speed! I don’t trust the Nike + for either of those, especially speed. I have a strong feeling I am faster than it leads me to believe.

My training plan called for 4 miles yesterday, but when I woke up it was rainy and gross. I was sore in my calves and hamstrings from my 1 mile race. I also had a slight hip pain. And I have a major aversion to rain. To the point where I will forego all plans in order to stay home and avoid the rain. So I ate breakfast, and then I ate second breakfast, and I decided to just hop on the elliptical later on. When later on arrived, it looked like the rain had calmed down a little. The thought of being inside the gym made me ill, and I decided to attempt my very first rainy run. Despite the rain, the calf and hamstring and hip pain, despite the fact that I ate 2 breakfasts and would likely suffer a very bad cramp.

I got dressed and put on my visor to keep the rain from my eyes. I told the boy I was going to attempt 4, but might come back sooner because of aches/pains/rains. When I got to the lobby I saw the rain looked worse than I realized. I considered turning back but decided to give it a shot.

As soon as I started running, I felt pretty great! The rain was light and felt refreshing and cool. I did get a left ribcage cramp right away, but I practiced breathing out, lips pursed, on my left foot and it did the trick! At a mile in, my neck started hurting — forgot to do my neck stretches! That pain disappeared as well after about half a mile. At mile 2, my right ribcage cramp started. Forgot to keep up with my breathing after I killed the first cramp! Did my breathing again. Pain went away. Could NOT believe I didn’t get the lower left side food cramp — wow! Maybe I CAN eat and run if I wait a few hours?

Running in the rain was also great because there were hardly any people out on the trail! I felt very free. I ran at a very comfortable pace for me (until I get my new HRM, I don’t know exactly what that pace is!) I forgot to wear my knee sleeves but I didn’t even notice until mile 2! When the Nike said 4 miles, I stopped, although based on my time I believe it was more. This was my second time running this distance and I have to say I loved it again! I finally feel like a runner, being able to run 4 miles and say it was easy! And once again I felt so awesome during this “long” run that I really, truly understood why people love running — because now I am one of them!

And I just ordered a Road ID. It will go around my shoelace and has my name, age, city/state, emergency contact numbers for my mom and the boy, my health insurance number, and information saying I am not allergic to medications. I want to be safe now that I run outside more.

My awesome run made me come home and look into some longer race options for next year. I have a big one in mind but I won’t discuss it just yet.

I’m going to have a GREAT giveaway this week that I am very excited about!

I knew when I got to the half mile marker and the clock said 3 minutes and something seconds that I was going way, way too fast.

Let’s back up a minute.

Last night I went to my friend’s engagement party at a bar in the city. She reserved a private room with its own bartender, how cool! I didn’t get to stay long — and I completely missed seeing Missy — because I had to get home to get a good night’s sleep for the Continental Airlines 5th Avenue Mile today.

My alarm went off at 7:10 am and I got out of bed and make a green juice. Today’s juice contained apple, celery, cucumber and broccoli.I got dressed and stretched. I must say, I thought I looked quite cute!

I had a choice between walking or taking the bus to the race. I had plenty of time, but because I am absolutely insane when it comes to time, I took the bus. I figured it would be better to be early and relaxed than early and stressed. See, even if I walked, I would have been early. Like I said, I am insane when it comes to time.

I got to the race with about an hour until my heat, so I stretched and walked around and tried to find a spot in the sun because it was cold out! I was not envious of all the people in tank tops and shorts. I was content in my capris and running jacket! I kept looking around for Sara and Ashley, two girls I know who were at the race too, but didn’t see either of them.

The first group to race was wheelchair and handbikes. I live right along the NYC Marathon route, and for some reason I’ve only watched the race early on where those are the only people out there! After they went, it was the kids’ heat, ages 8-14. How adorable! I felt so proud of all those kids! I wish I could have raced at that age.

Finally, it was my time for my group, women 15-29. Since I was alone and bored, I was among the first people to line up at the Start line. As a result, I was probably starting a bit further up than was best for me. I kept looking around for Sara, since we were talking on BBM before I left for the race, but she was nowhere to be found! I figured I’d seek her out after.

I got my Nike + iPod ready and before I knew it the gun went off to start the race.

And here is where the problems started.

As I’ve mentioned from my previous races, when I see a finish line, my body sprints. What I didn’t mention is that when a gun fires to signal the start of a race, my body seems to have the same auto response. SPRINT.

NOT GOOD! Not good, not good, not good. I made a glorious playlist of 3 of the same song — Say Hey (I Love You) by Michael Franti (I saw him live at the Counting Crows concert and knew this needed to be my all time favorite running song). When I run and that song comes on, I immediately smile and feel happy and my run becomes more fun and amazing. I am also running at a comfortable pace for me (close to 11 min/mi) and can usually speed up a bit during this song. But today, I barely heard the music.

I took off with the gun and tried to escape the crowd. Why? I don’t need to escape the crowd right away. I can always pick up my speed later on, and anyone who runs knows that it is much easier to increase your speed during a run than it is to maintain a fast speed throughout. And not only did I try and escape the crowd, I separated myself from everyone and moved all the way to the side to run as fast as I can with no one in front of me. Ummm. What did I do!

I guess in my head I knew that I posted for you all the goal I set for myself — 8:50. I didn’t want to come back here and report I didn’t achieve it. But let me tell you, I am not making any more time goals until I am a better runner. Going forward, my goal will be to enjoy myself and have fun and love that my body can run any distance I choose. More on that in a minute.

Anyway, I had this time goal and it was in my head. I felt fine the first few seconds of my insane speedwork, and then I didn’t. Very soon into the run, I felt absolutely awful. I started counting the blocks I had left. The great thing about this course is that it went from 80th street to 60th street, so I always knew exactly how much was left and when you see blocks like this, they go quickly. I really was not feeling well. I was not enjoying my music. I was not feeling happy. I felt pain in my chest and had trouble breathing.

I knew when I got to the half mile marker and the clock said 3 minutes and something seconds that I was going way, way too fast.

I had already slowed down greatly by then, but seeing that time turned my legs to jelly and I felt myself slow down more, as people kept passing me by. I was annoyed with myself because if I just started out at a comfortable pace, I’d have been feeling awesome and maintaining and surpassing my pace. Now, I just wanted the race to be over. I very briefly considered walking off and DQing, but it was only a mile and I was almost there and I knew I could just finish it.

I kept running and when I saw the finish line, I did speed up but I was unable to achieve my usual sprint. I was just too burnt out.

When I ran through the finish line, the time above me (still waiting on official chip time) read 7:52 or 7:53 (Edited to add — scroll to the bottom to see my official chip time!!!). I beat my goal time by almost an entire minute. And I felt awful.

I stopped the very second I could, before I even got to the second time recording pad on the ground. I hoped the first one was good enough to record my time. I simply could not run anymore. I immediately hunched over and tried to figure out how to handle the burning pain radiating in my chest and banging in my ears. My head felt like it was going to explode from the ear pain. I couldn’t stand up straight and I could barely walk. I found myself in a massive sea of girls all trying to get into the park and I needed to escape and lie down and I couldn’t be there a second longer.

Only I forgot that the souvenier was an aluminum water bottle, and I couldn’t understand why I was in such a crowd. Then I heard one girl say to the other “Water bottles are over there — that’s what we wanted!” and in my pain and disorientation, I thought she meant they were passing up the free cups of water sitting on tables for a bottle of spring water. It wasn’t until later on that I realized what they were talking about.

All that mattered was getting home and laying down down. I needed to get out of this sea of people. I grabbed a bagel that they were giving out and escaped the crowd and headed home.

On the other side of the street, I stopped and sat down on the edge of a flower thing. The pain in my chest was unbearable. It was stinging and ringing (if that is possible) and burning and beating and I couldn’t breathe and I felt worse than I ever have. The pain was pounding on my chest. And then I started coughing. Coughs that came from my chest and sounded… well… chesty. Heavy.

What was wrong with me?! Is this something that just happens when you push yourself too hard? Did I run so fast that I . . . got a cold? I don’t get it.

A block later I realized I ate half the bagel. I took a bite at this point and realized it was a chocolate chip bagel! YUM! I can’t believe I ate half of a chocolate chip bagel and didn’t notice the delicious sensations in my mouth. Just goes to show how out of it I was. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor, but I am so curious as to what my max HR was during this rest. I’d guess it was well over 200 BPM.

At that point my chest was still burning but I was able to enjoy my bagel, which showed a great improvement in my condition. The burning, while still bad, was slightly less debilitating. And I was able to better walk. When I got home, I didn’t even feel the immediate need to collapse in bed anymore! The cough did not subside though, and every time I cough or laugh, I feel the burning pain and scratchiness (the boy says it sounds like I have a scratch, which explains the scratchiness I guess). When I breathe in, I feel the scratchiness. And I lost my voice. But the pain is not constant and I am SO thankful for that. It was such a horrible feeling, I hope none of you never have to feel this from running. Running, which is supposed to be fun!

Let’s hope I am never chased by an angry dog because after 7 minutes and 53 seconds, the dog would have his dinner.

As awful as I felt during and after the race, I came out of this experience with a new attitude:

From now on, I will NOT set time goals in races. I will ONLY run to enjoy myself, have fun, love my music, love the scenery. If I am feeling good during race, I can always speed up. But why do I need to prove I am fast when I am brand new to running?! I’ve only been running for  few months. I have plenty of time to naturally become faster. For now, I get the most enjoyment out of my runs when I go very slowy. For my upcoming 5 mile race, I have no goal time. (I used to have one, but I will not share it with you because I don’t want to pressure to achieve it.) I will run slowly. When I see the finish line, I will SPRINT. If I want to speed up during the race, I will. If I don’t think it will make me feel great, I won’t.

I need to give myself time to improve as a runner. My first priority should be challenging myself with distance and learning how to pace myself to get the most out of my run. Speed can come later.

But when all is said and done . . .

I RAN A MILE IN 7:52 or 3-ish!!!!

EDITED TO ADD: Please scroll to the bottom to see my OFFICIAL chip time!

Will post chip time as soon as I get it. I plan to run this race again next year, and I do not plan to PR. I just want to enjoy it — enjoy 5th avenue enjoy the short distance, enjoy my music, feel well enough to stick around after and pick up my souvenier! Speaking of the souvenier . . . my friend Sara who ran the race also volunteered there, and for volunteering she got a second souvenier water bottle — which she generously offered to give to me when I told her I didn’t get one! I am happy to have a souvenier of my race; I deserve it! Thank you, Sara!

To give you all an idea of my run, click here (does Nike not offer the option to embed the pic in here anymore??) and you can see my starting line sprint! Oh and my Nike + recored this as 0.88 miles. I decided I will definitely upgrade my Polar to one that records distance. If I send in my current HRM, I can get about 20% off a new one, so I plan to do this and toss my Nike +! Until then, the Nike + is a nice estimate. Later today, nyrr.org will post more information about the race, including photos and videos. Maybe I’ll have something else to share with you!

As much as this morning’s race sucked, I am happy I did it and learned not to worry about time at this stage in my running experience. I learned that my body does not want to be pushed to do more than it is ready for, and with time my body WILL be ready to run fast.

Now I can look forward to many more fun races! More fun than this one and more fun because I now know how to enjoy myself while running.

Edited to add: I just found out my chip time. I completed the 1 mile race in 7:46!!!!!

7:46! No wonder I hurt so much. I beat my goal time by one minute and 4 seconds. Yet I am happy now. But no more goal times!

(Nike+ sensor says my pace was 8:54… pretty off, huh. I also realized there ws no starting chip time at my first 5K, so the time must have actually been less than 28:46 and my pace a little less than 9:16. Cool.)

For some reason, the most popular search engine search term people are using to get to my blog lately is pancakes. How and why! The most popular used to be a neck on neck race between Chobani yogurt and my name, but somewhere along the way pancakes blew both out of the water. How funny!

Here is a treat for all you pancake searchers:

Mmmmmmm.

So today was my second and FINAL day of jury duty. I have to say, I absolutely loved it.

Things I loved about jury duty:

• Not getting my name called for Day #1′s case
• Getting dismissed at noon on Day #1 and having the rest of the gorgeous summery day free to nap
• Not having to arrive until 10:00 am on Day #2
• Being able to get up at a normal time to run outside instead of insanely early dark time
• Not getting my name called for Day #2′s case (33 names were called!)
• Having more time to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma
• Getting dismissed at 11:45 am on Say #2 and having the rest of the gorgeous summery day free to stop at Bloomingdale’s and get 40 Carrots frozen yogurt for the first and last time this summer (used to have it all the time last year), buy new shoes at a sale price, pick up my mail and some fall clothing, and pick up my Continental Airlines 5th Avenue Mile bib and chip
• Knowing I can’t be called for jury duty again in NY state for another 6 years (As my friend Melanie pointed out, I’ll be in my 30s – eek!)
• Drinking wine at 4:30 pm on a Thursday
• Having more time to blog and rest
• Getting 2 free days off work!

What can I say? I am proud to have completed my civic responsibility and served in the American justice system!

I am getting more and more nervous and excited about my upcoming Humor Writing class. Every now and then I feel a pang that I’m not taking the Memoir Writing class, because most of the stories I have to tell aren’t the funny kind, but then I think about how funny it will be to spend my Wednesdays in an environment of funny and to learn from Sara Barron, author of The Porn (you need to read her book to understand) and challenge myself. They also recommend devoting about 5 hours a week to the assignments which will take away from blogging time — but hopefully I can share my work as blog entries and kill two birds with one stone. I just hope I can think of funny things. And I can always take the 1 day intensive Memoir Class or take the 10 week next semester. Class starts Wednesday!

I am excited (but sad about not being able to go see Regina Spektor on Oct 14 at Radio City — please let me know if you can buy my tickets from me). I have been struggling lately because I know I need to make some major life changes but being that I don’t know exactly what I want — just that I want something different than what I am doing now — I think Humor Writing class is a great place to start. It is new. It is funny. It is sure to be the most fun way to spend 3 hours a week for 10 weeks. And some people tell me my blog is funny, although I don’t see it myself. So I’d like to cultivate that a little more!

Speaking of funny, I found my funny book! I mentioned in a previous post that I used to carry around a little notebook with an Oscar Wilde quote on the front. I tried to write down all the funny things people around me said. It didn’t last long, but maybe I will start it up again. I also thought of some very funny ideas while running this morning! However, I have no recollection at all as to what they were. Boo!

By the way, another great run this morning. 2.2 miles, very slow pace (just where my body should be right now) and I am excited to push myself on Saturday’s 1 mile race. The reason running used to be hard for me (other than the fact that I am new to it) is that I was always pushing myself to go faster than my body wants. Now I push myself to go slow and I have been enjoying myself much more. For Saturday’s race, I set a VERY ambitious goal for myself — 8:50 min — but who knows, maybe I’ll reach it. On my own runs I’ve been trying to slow to around 11 min/miles so that I can feel good for an extended period of time. But for a 1 miler? Who cares how I feel‽ I am giving it all I have. And yes, I just used an interrobang.

So back to my funny book. On the front there is an Oscar Wilde quote that I love:

Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Love it. Except for the fact that I can’t remember most things, which is why I got it in the first place. My biggest regret in my life thus far is that I didn’t keep a journal, especially when I was working on a teen tour. When I have kids I am going to strongly encourage them to keep a journal. Memories are so important.

Here’s one example from the book. I used to work in the English Department at Baruch College while I was pursuing my masters degree there in Corporate Communication. I had a little crush on one of the professors, and this was our encounter one day (FYI his codename was Sasha)

Sasha: Where are the cookies?
Me: I ate them.
Sasha: ALL of them?!

And yes, I had eaten all of them. I will never forget the look of shock on Sasha’s face — although I would have forgotten if I didn’t write this down. It was embarrassing yet funny. And it portrays my love of cookies.

There is more in here (not much more) that is pretty funny, although most of them are “you had to be there” types. What I never wrote down but reallyyyyy wish I had was all the encounters and stories I have about someone very stupid who I know well. I was trying to search old google chat conversations with people to see if I vented on there about this person, but so far I have not found success. Damn AIM and other programs that do not forever save my conversations in easily searchable format for eternity! It is google chat ONLY from now on.

I also brought back a book I had sitting in my apartment called Comedy Writing Secrets and one called Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews, along with two David Sedaris books I have not yet read (but I LOVED the ones I did read). For research. And my friend Phoebe lent me her copy of Waiter Rant: Thanks for the tip – Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (based on this website).

So much to read and no time to read it! If only I had more jury duty . . .