dentist fears

Weekly Therapy: Wherever you are, be all there.

- Mel

the week:
Finally got my butt back to spinning (and working out in general)! I’m trying to figure out what my workout schedule should be through December — when I then start training for the Gasparilla race(s) challenge in February 2016. I’m super excited about this destination running event, by the way. I need to sit down and figure out my race and training schedule for 2016 overall too.

I woke up on Tuesday morning at, like, 3:30 a.m. and considered staying up and going to a 5:15 a.m. CrossFit session but I found my way back to slumber (and dreaming again that all my hair was falling out, which is a little too close to reality right now). Daylights Savings Time, amiright? To be honest, I don’t know if my training will ever revert back to regular CF. I have a TRX system now at home (that I still need to set up) and maybe I’ll ask for a barbell for Christmas… but I just can’t stomach the $135/month membership fee anymore when I have a YMCA membership and a yoga pass and own enough equipment to get in decent at-home workouts.

weekend:
It only seems life-appropriate to have some dental work done the week after Halloween, right? I’ll also be watching a bit of the WFTDA Championships. I plan to get my first post-marathon run in on Sunday morning too, before my inlaws come out and spend the afternoon with us.

52 books in 52 weeks:
I finished FOUR books this week — I am determined to catch up! And it’s amazing how much time I have to read when the boyfriend is traveling for a week. HA!

#36: Lion of Hollywood: The Life & Legend of Louis B. Mayer — So happy that I kept with this book (it took me a LONG time to finish but it was worth it. Read my Goodreads review.

#37: Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek — great read for anyone who is a runner or likes big, limit-stretching goals. It wasn’t my favorite book about ultramarathons, but I liked it better than Rich Roll’s (and it had much less sponsor endorsements).

#38: Five Weeks in the Amazon by Sean Michael Hayes — well, I just hated this book. But after seeing how quickly I could finish it, I kept with it (hoping that Hayes would become more likable or authentic… and that just didn’t happen). Final thoughts: immature writing and attitude, and what a hypocrite!

#39: Living With a SEAL by Jesse Itzler — I received a Release Day copy of this book from the publisher, and I really enjoy Jesse’s casual writing style. I mean, I read it in two days! His storytelling of training with a Navy SEAL for 31 days was fun and you feel as though he’s one of your closest friends telling you his latest crazy story (and it’s nuts!). He cracked me up more than once! There’s even a tear-out workout page included in the book if you’re so inclined to repeat his insane month-long training schedule.

seven things, seven days:
1. When looking for socks for a Halloween costume, I realized that my ENTIRE collection of derby shorts, tights and socks are GONE (save for one pair of socks and one pair of cat shorts) — likely stored in a bag in the basement and tossed during our sewer backup over the summer. And, well, I’m pretty devastated about it.
2. All things considered, my Halloween costume turned out awesome for thinking of the idea on the day before.
3. My stylist seemingly mitigated my hair breakage problems with a keratin treatment (even if it has the faintest hint of a rose gold color… which is, surprisingly, kind of awesome). But it seriously looks and feels SO much better, and I got a few other products to use as daily/weekly treatments to help protect it.
4. When it’s 70 degrees on a November evening in Pittsburgh, you go have Thai food on Nicky’s patio.
5. “At distances over 2,000 miles, you are negating the benefit that males have due to increased muscle mass and aerobic capacity.” On Longest Hiking Trails: A Woman Finds Equal Footing {via NYTimes}
6. My definition of work-life balance is, simply, that I’m not living to work. But beyond that… it gets a little complicated. More about the assumptions of work-life balance {via APA Center for Organizational Excellence}
7. The things I learned from being an Ironman. SO GOOD. {via The Things I Learned From…}

Weekly Therapy: Spring forward

- Mel

the week:
I hate the time change. I haven’t been able to sleep properly all week, even being purposeful about going to bed at a decent hour and sleeping through three different waking up with my pre-set alarms. And GAWD, isn’t it just the most-draggiest week?

weekend:
Road trip to DC for the Rock n’ Roll series of running events — 5K for me, and my friend Lauren will be running that with me. The rest of the crew will be tackling the half: Chelsea, Steff, and Kelsey. I volunteered for a RnR marathon in Phoenix over a decade ago, but have never participated. It’s a super-fun race environment, the medals are awesome, AND Better Than Ezra at the finish party?! TAKE ALL MY MONEY. Ok, please not all of it.

Also, I think this is my first race since… November? To be honest, I’m a little nervous about my knee. And the rain. SIGH.

52 books in 52 weeks:
#8 A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin: I’m on a female comedienne-author book club kick. I was ALL IN to this book… until the weird chapter about Woz. I didn’t laugh out loud, but overall this one was a fun and juicy read.

#9 Bossypants: by Tina Fey. HILARIOUS, actually laugh out loud. I couldn’t read it in bed because the chuckling would annoy my boyfriend. Definitely recommend!

seven things, seven days:
1. New curtains for the living that I found on Overstock for, like, half of what others are selling linen panels for. Although 1 out of 4 panels they sent was shorter length (even though the package says otherwise). HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!
2. Taxes are done — holy crap, I’m getting a refund this year! After a few years of mostly freelancer income, this is so wonderful.
3. Dentist took two more old silver fillings out this week (a super-fun appointment scheduled before work). While I am happier about the whiter molar smile, OMG did my face really need to be numb until 1 in the afternoon?
4. Obsessed this week with mid-90s punk and alt-rock music. Thanks, YouTube!
5. I really want the opportunity to volunteer (undergrad-style) as part of a Psyching Team this summer for a marathon. Send me leads!
6. Daylight-Saving Time is bad for your relationships {via WSJ}
7. Speaking of your valuable time: is it worth more than money? Finding the balance between time and money {via NYTimes}

RIP, baby teeth. And where’s that darn Tooth Fairy?!

- Mel

Yesterday was the last day with my last baby tooth. This morning, my dentist pulled it.

Getting a tooth pulled is a crazy, weird, anxious and scary experience. Probably one of the most weird occurrences that I can remember in my 35 years. You hear that?! I had a baby tooth for THIRTY-FIVE YEARS. Almost 36, but who’s counting anymore. Around 10 years ago, I lost another of my baby teeth as an adult. And it was equally as terrible of an experience, requiring oral surgery to remove twisty, curved roots that had broken off from the crown and stayed put. This last baby tooth was pulled to make way for the adult tooth that finally made its appearance known by breaking through the gum line (and not pushing the other tooth out of the way, naturally). That former baby tooth had a cavity when I was little; has been broken and filled twice in my adulthood (once, eating pizza for lunch at my part-time coffee shop job; the second, eating Skyline Chili in Cincinnati with a former boyfriend — both incidents reminding me of two very distinct places in my life).

I’m feeling oddly reflective about losing the last part of my youth. Seems silly to think about a deciduous tooth in that regard, no? It was a resilient bugger (proven by the seemingly difficult manner in removing it), but it was a problem tooth too. Decay had once again found its way into the tight spaces between it and its neighbor. If that’s all not a metaphor for lost youth, I don’t know what it.

In my future: the possibility of adult braces. Which… meh.

Maybe I’m not such a grown-up after all.

Weekly Therapy: seeking power and aggression

- Mel

the week:
Seeking: power & aggression. An area of play that I REALLY need to tap into. I feel like I’ve almost got my finger, err hip on it…

weekend:
BOUT WEEKEND! Super stoked that I have a group of friends coming to see me play too. I’ll be skating in TWO BOUTS (travel season home opener and home team season championships!).

Pre-bout, my dad is visiting for lunch. He lives in Ohio, but just so happens to be in town for a performance Saturday night (he’s a musician).

Then, I get to help a good friend celebrate her birthday with mimosa brunch at Doublewide Grill (so good).

seven things, seven days:
1. Received a super-fun care package from Brown Paper Tickets. Thank you!
2. Happy Hour at Ikea — in the kitchen department (seriously!)
3. My passport expired last month. THE SADS!
4. This month’s Julep Maven box is total score – and I’m absolutely LOVING Lucky!
5. My cleaning ladies never showed for their appointment this week… So. Frustrating. Especially when you wait around the house all day for them to show.
6. Can’t. Stop. Furniture. Shopping. Does this happen to everyone right after interior paint colors change?
7. Super nervous thinking about Monday’s dentist appointment already.