Do This...Now

1.) Send someone you care about a note. In the mail (save the Postal Service! I hope those who know me are chuckling). Use a stamp (a Forever Stamp if you're a real champ...if you don't know about Forever Stamps you're being duped). Bonus points if you sneak in a "buy 1 box of Wheat Thins get one free" coupon, a lottery ticket, or a Dunkin Donuts gift card.

2.) Leave a nice note (in addition to a nice tip) on a meal receipt for exceptional service. If you have ever been a server, you will know how difficult it is to take the blame for undercooked veggies, ice melting too quickly in a beverage, and of course, the incorrect preparation of a hunk of meat. And even if you have never worked in hospitality services...there's this thing called "being nice and not being an asshole." It's a pretty simple concept.

3.) Sneeze into your elbow. Seriously people. Sneezing into the open air is bad enough, but sneezing into your hands is even worse. Elbow pits, I tell ya! You don't touch anything with those!

4.) FLOSS. Not only is this one of the healthiest habits out there, but I personally do not particularly care to see popcorn kernels and spinach coming out to play in between your teeth. Nor do I want to see you picking at your teeth in a hasty attempt to remove said popcorn kernels and spinach.

5.) Going off of the above...if someone has food in their teeth...TELL THEM (especially if it's me). I obviously shouldn't speak for the entire population, but I for one would appreciate being notified that my smile looks more like a picket fence overgrown with weeds.

6.) Log onto Spotify (if you don't have Spotify, step 1 is download Spotify) and listen to an ENTIRE ALBUM of a band you truly love. Long gone are the days where we appreciated how much thought and care went into creating an album as a story. Those song placements where the ending of one song so flawlessly meshes into the start of the next, and every song has something to offer even if that doesn't mean Top 40 single status...my preliminary recommendations are below (with a song to add a little more flavor):

• Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

The Fear

• Young the Giant -Young the Giant

Cough Syrup

• The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You 

   The Perfect Space

• Local Natives - Gorilla Manor (Their new album "Hummingbird" is amazing too)

Who Knows Who Cares

 

• Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams

Time To Run

• OneRepublic - Native

I Lived

Okay, I could clearly do this all day. Onto the next...

7.) Put Middleswarth BBQ chips on a tuna fish sandwich. Just trust me on this one.

8.) Smile and say hello to someone you pass by even if you forget their name...or don't know them at all. Sharing even the littlest but of positive energy can go a long way. Generating one smile in someone else might be that one thing they needed to successfully hop from the sad side of the fence to the happy side.
 

9.)  Go somewhere and do something with someone you care about. Turn your phone off.

10.) Watch. This.

11.)  Take a mental break. Watch an entire season of something silly like Duck Dynasty on Netflix, eat nothing but snacks, and embrace the inevitable body-shaped imprint on your couch.

12.)  Take more pictures. And not just for Instagram and Facebook's sake, but so you can capture the most fleeting of moments with a plethora of memories behind them. Few things are more smile-inducing than going through old pictures and being exponentially flooded with one memory after another like one of those funky Russian dolls with more Russian dolls inside of them. Ferris Bueller said it best: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

13.) Learn about random things. I recommend doing this via Ze Frank YouTube videos. They are ridonkulous. Two of my favorites (keep in mind, the word "true" is used quite loosely in these...)

 True Facts About The Hedgehog

   True Facts About Morgan Freeman

14.) Document random days with people you love and turn them into holidays for future celebration. Leslie Knope is the queen of this notion.

15.) Give ketchup a chance. It makes everything better. Stop denying the truth, people!

16.) Stop telling me how much you hate Keeping Up With The Kardashians before subsequently detailing every episode.

17.) Please...enough with the "should ofs." Should HAVE. Should have never said "should of" is what you shoulda done.

18.) Go after what you want. No one else will. Sure, honesty and vulnerability are scary and it's there is less risk in sticking to the old the routine, but life is not meant to be monotonous. It's meant to be raw, unfiltered, and meaningful. Don't bop around and wait like this corgi, it won't get you anywhere and you don't have the adorable bouncing ears to make it look cute.

19.)  Admit that Sheetz > Wawa. Admitting it is the first step to recovery.

20.)  Shout it out and release it from the heart.

Run. Gallivant. Savor.

After a brief (okay, a month-ish hiatus), I have returned to the Blogosphere for your viewing pleasure. A lot has happened in the last month or so. I hope you have your...reading...pants on (man, I envisioned that sentence being much cleverer. I got nothin'). My life of late can essentially be broken down into three main themes: Run. Gallivant. Savor.

Run. 

A week ago today, I had the glorious opportunity to visit the City of Champions and reunite with some very dear friends for a nice long run in the sun. The logistics and planning that went into this adventure required the inner Supply Chain monkey in me to come out and play. The weekend did everything in its power to insert stress into the mix, but was inevitably unsuccessful and at the mercy of the monkey. In fact, the weekend really could not have been more of a success. As a good buddy of mine loves to say, "Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?" Why yes, yes I do. 

This is what happens when you don't update your Active online account for a few years.

The biggest wrenches in the logistics plan were as follows:

• The race was cruelly scheduled for a 7am start on a Sunday morning.
• Hotels were filled up by October 2012...for a race in May 2013.
• The race goes straight through the city and crosses 6 bridges...meaning major road closures...and therefore major difficulty getting into the city to park, and out of the city to, well, go home.

To mitigate said wrenches, I decided to stay with the old broski about ten miles north of the city and then meet up with my homies in the morn' at their hotel before the race. Luckily, the plan I eventually settled on (I believe this was plan #6...?) worked flawlessly. I decided to wake up at 4am and drive into the city before anyone else was awake. This solution was ideal for many reasons. First of all, I slept in a comfy bed in a quiet apartment. Secondly, I actually slept. Anyone who knows me at all know that this is near earth-shattering. Thirdly, I had 3 hours to digest an apple, a bagel, and a banana...and 3 hours to wake my ass up. Fourthly, I was able to easily sneak my car in the parking garage below my friends' hotel, a mere 1/2 mile from the start line. BOOM. And, not to mention...the weather was absolutely perfect. A crisp 50 degrees at the start, ample sunshine, slight breeze = big smile the whole way.

**Side note - I have no idea why the font is randomly small, but rest assured it is driving me bananas that I can't change it back. That is all. **

The wonderful Half Marathon crew.

Awaiting the arrival of our badass full marathoners.

My current state of mind.

And THEN...a mere two days after the race, I had one of THOSE runs. One that just transcends time and transports into another realm. It sounds unbelievably cheesy, but it is absolutely real. A run in the most seemingly unpleasant circumstances, where all of those "supposed to be annoying" things line up like planets and cancel each other out. It was a long day at work (and by long I mean not only time consuming, but also straight up soul crushing). It poured all day. The bike path was soaked and filled with craters of water like gravy in mashed taters. It was dark, gloomy, windy and that in-between temperature where long sleeves is too hot and short sleeves is too cold. I got home from work around 6 and normally would have simply gone downstairs to the gym, but after locking my door, I reopened it, tossed my cell phone, iPod, and bag back inside, and decided to just GO. I ran with nothing but my thoughts, the sound of my feet splattering the ground in sync with the pellets of rain, and the unsettled rushing river beside me. It was spectacular.

My inner Forrest Gump is finally returning. And not only in the running sense. The past few months have made me think of so many Forrest Gump quotes that I'm starting to mix them up with my own self-generated thoughts. On the trying days of late, I have found myself thinking, "Sometimes, I guess there just aren't enough rocks." Sometimes it's okay to just throw rocks (imaginary rocks, of course) at whatever is bothering you until you've exhausted your frustrations. Sometimes it's necessary to go for those long runs even when you know you may regret ignoring the impending knee pain and the toenail that is clearly on its last leg. Those things are worth the cleanse and peace of mind that ensue as a result of that run and the internal rock throwing.

On a similar note, "Mama always said you've got to put the past behind you before you can move on" has rung true in a good way recently. A very good way. Gump's Mama was right. And when you reach the other side of said "moving on," whether it be moving on from a bad day at work, a past relationship, a regrettable burrito for lunch...it feels damn good.

And probably the Gump quote I resonate most with on a regular basis, but especially lately: "I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time" And I gotta say, when I look at where I am in terms of what truly matters to me, I like the breeze I'm floating on right now. 

**Side note - Oh hey, the font size has returned to normalcy. THANK GAWD.**

Gallivant.
One thing I have exponentially enjoyed as the years have passed is the chance to gallivant. Wander, traipse, meander...nothing puts me more at peace (with the exception of a good run) than exploring a new place (or the hidden nooks and crannies of a usual place). Some of my fondest memories of this are the irreplaceable summer days in Florence when zig-zagging my way through narrow, maze-like cobblestone streets for hours on end with nothing but my iPod was a daily occurrence.

At the end of April I took my first big trip of the year. Hopped on an aero-plane to Chicago for two days of training. I planned my flight so that I arrived in the city around lunchtime...meaning an entire afternoon and evening to stroll down Michigan Avenue, across the waterways, and along the lake.

The Dark Knight Rises? Where is Bruce Wayne?

I was fortunate enough to have a marvelous crew accompanying me (Team Fluff) to make the roaming even more fulfilling. It was a little funny (and sad) that we were finally reunited in Chicago after a long hiatus of not seeing each other in DC.

Team Fluff

We did a handful of the usual touristy things. Millenium Park, The "Bean" (which is apparently meant to be a cloud?), etc. just because.

And here is what I learned about Chicago whilst in its underbelly:

• Tell me it wasn't deemed the "Windy City" because of the wind all you want. It was friggin' windy and I will forever call it the "Windy City" because it is friggin' windy.
• Deep dish pizza is hereby my favorite pizza. But not because of the oodles of cheese, overflow of toppings, and general pizzalicious flavor...but rather because it is chock full of dough. Which, as a self-proclaimed carbo-holic, is conveniently the only part of pizza I actually enjoy.
• It is frowned upon to admit the above in Chicago (or anywhere, for that matter. I have been scorned many a time for not being a pizza-holic). 
• Eating a smorgasbord of pizza dough after hardly eating all day is not conducive to a good night's sleep.
• The Bean could really use a little cleaning.
  
• Not once while I was in Chicago did I remember that I was in the state of Illinois. Outside of Big Ten sports, I often forget that Illinois exists (same goes for Iowa and Indiana).
• I did not go to the Hancock Tower because the perspective I got from the airplane provided me with a better view...and a complimentary beverage (as opposed to a $20 one).

  

  Chicago, begging to be Instagrammed.

 

Prior to my Chicago adventure, I put on my tourist shoes for a weekend of pre-peak Cherry Blossoming in DC. Something to note: good company can successfully mitigate potential crowd rage (a thing I have developed having resided in this area for almost a year now...it is usually related to the roads and the Metro rails, but venture into the city during the Cherry Blossom Festival and you will anxiously tailgate more slow walkers and accidentally saunter through more photos than you ever thought possible). HOWEVER, it is the one weekend where the Metro is not undergoing ANY track work...so cheers to the small victories!

Fortunately no one walked through my photos...suckers.

My boo, Roxydu5 (yep, former AIM screen name...no shame)

This particular weekend was solid proof that relaxation and exhilaration can, in fact, happily coincide. In addition to checking out the ol' cherries, I also wandered through Old Town, Alexandria (my hood), awkwardly stuffed my face at a shady pizza buffet as it was closing at midnight, and ventured out to the new Union Market in northeast DC. If you've never been, it is absolutely worth checking out on the weekend. Be forewarned, when you get off the Red Line at NoMa, you will undoubtedly think you are in the middle of a sea of abandoned flea markets in Nowhereville, but when you finally happen upon the recently renovated warehouse that is the Union Market, you will be pleasantly surprised and then some.

Not only does this gem boast fine cheeses and wines, delicious brews, an oyster bar, local tastes, and the like...but it also has various stands featuring food truck grub (including the infamous Curbside Cupcakes). Again, good company is a solid plus on this front. And good company I had.

And this conveniently brings me to my final encapsulating thought...

Savor.

All of the aforementioned things (and a handful or unmentioned, but posititively wonderful things that I am electing to keep to myself) have forever (hopefully) imprinted the word savor into my noggin.

I want to savor every run because it is the best form of therapy I have found and also serves as a constant reminder of the basic fact that I can run. I want to savor every "accidental-like breeze" because it could very well be that whole "destiny" thing. Or it could just be a darn good random doohickey that ends up creating a new "destiny" thing. Either way, it matters. I want to savor every place I gallivant through and every person I gallivant with. And I want to savor every upcoming moment, every old moment, and every current moment, because, seriously people! If there is one cliche you should absolutely buy into, it is the fact that LIFE IS SHORT. And life is GOOD. 

So be good, do good, live good.

Lovin' every minute 'cause you make me feel so alive.