5.8

A 5.8 earthquake just hit - with it's epicenter too close to our home. Fortunately we were on the freeway and I only thought sometime was wrong with my tires. When I got off the freeway and saw everyone outside of their houses and buildings I knew it was something other than my tires.

Oh. I was hoping to leave CA with no earthquake experiences. I'm not a fan.

Still, another earthquake today happened today - it was actually much smaller and less damaging on a world scale. It happened in our family. Eric's work has decided, given the economy, not to promote the people it had scheduled to promote...including Eric. They will do the promotions at the end of the year. Which is still wonderful - but not what we were told and expecting. Eric's already been doing his new job - and will still do it since people now know to call him.

Oh. I thought this roller coaster ride was over. I'm not a fan.

Sinful

The boys and I are headed to Vegas to have a sinful time!  Ok, no boozing, gambling or any of the other myriad of sins you can gleefully encounter in Vegas - we're just going to have a sinfully good time meeting baby Addie.  

In related news - my posts have been slow and rather blah lately.  Hopefully after the upcoming wedding I'll have more time, increased energy, and writing skills.  

Armed

Today, during our wonderful walk of the city, I realized something. A double-standard it seems.

A man in front of us was holding his female companion's arm.

I was holding Eric's arm.

For some reason as I stared at the man's hand holding on to the back of her arm I found myself offended that he would hold onto her that way.

It took me a couple of blocks to get over his gesture and then several more blocks to realize that I had been holding Eric's arm in almost the exact same position.

Why did it seem to me that the same hand grip I had for balance and connection was somehow his way of expressing of control?

Family Blog

We've changed a bit on our family blog - namely the blog host - and because of that several people who had our blog in their reader lost their feed.  Even though the name did not change, the RSS Feed did, so reenter our blog name to make sure it's feeding.

So if you read our family blog, make sure you update your blog so that you can catch-up on our family!  I have MUCH posting to catch up on but that won't occur until after San Fran!

Bennionland Adventures

And if you are reading my blog for the first time - you should be warned that it's like me. Sometimes a little random, sometimes a little long-winded, sometimes funny, and sometimes brutally honest.  Considered yourself welcomed - and warned :)

Rice-A-Roni

They are lying.

The real San Francisco treat has nothing to do with Rice-A-Roni!  It's having my breakfast while sitting at the computer over looking Chinatown and the Financial District from my window.

I rose at 7:00am (which was a feat in itself given the night of "business bar hopping" that occurred last night) and watched as the city greeted it's day.  For a while the streets were flooded with men and women in business wear trudging from the subway, buses, and near-by sweet condos to work. 

From here I can see a park in Chinatown where a group of about 15 women did some sort of playground exercising before starting their Tai Chi.  A man in his office across the way from him has waved several times - maybe he's worried I am going to jump.  Not likely.  The fact that I am sitting, perched on the desk which is shoved up against the window, staring out at the city from 24 floors up is amazing.  

What a way to start my 30th year.  I have done so many things in just one night of being here that I haven't done in my whole previous 29.  Not all of them are sinful either!  Like getting up this morning and walking down to the Chinese market to get milk for my breakfast.  Then having a ten minute conversation with the adorable old man behind the counter who wanted to explain why their fresh oranges and mangoes were so much better than the banana I was looking for.  

Eric is here for a conference - which holds absolutely no appeal.  Still I am going to whip out my former marketing skills and head down there later to keep him company.  Let's see how many pumps I can sell!!   He is done tomorrow afternoon and we'll have a great time wandering the city together.

What a treat to be here.  

Pyschaw

That is the closest spelling to the sound I am making with my mouth.

See, I ran my mile in 9.27 today.  With little change in my energy out-take.  According to the experts that exist in the WWW a good mile is 6-8 minutes.  A great one being 5 minutes.  I think I can get to the good level.  

So pyschaw to that other post.  

(And no TJ, there will be no Jonas Brothers.  If only you were close enough so I could slap you.)

Thank you Miley Cyrus!

Or is it Hannah Montana?  It's rare that someone admits so readily to having two personalities and I've never quite sure which one to address.

You might think my 'Thank you' is really going to be another pissy tirade about the naive Miley taking risque pictures when she should appreciate her role as a teen role model.

Actually the biggest issue I have with this picture is that she looks like a vampire at best and the Joker at worst.  

That's besides the point.  I do owe Miley/Hannah a thank you.   Last week I hit a personal milestone.  Many of you know that I've been making a pilgrimage to the local gym every day for the last eight months in an effort to make peace with myself.   While I've gone every day (minus a few when the kids were sick) I haven't seen the results I expected.   So it's been really hard to continue with my quest.

And then last week I tried something new.  Running.  I have never been a runner.  Between my asthma and the 'I can't do it' thoughts that run through my head I have just stayed away from it. I think the last time I ran a mile was in junior high.

So, knowing that I tend to move with the music, I thought 'What if I put on a song that I always rock out to, set it to repeat, and see how long I can make it.'   And that's where Miley comes in.  I love (yes, even at almost 30 years old) the song Rockstar.  It's the only song I know of hers and I happened to hear it at the gym one day and had to download it.

The song is 2.54 minutes.  I listened to it five times and before I knew it I had run a full mile - under 11 minutes!

And yesterday I tried it again!  This time I ran the mile in 10.03 minutes!

It has changed my perspective.  Maybe I haven't lost the weight I wanted to (yet).  Maybe I am not the size I wanted to be (yet).  Still, I have done something that I never thought I could do.   It's now got me inspired to try and drop that time over the next few months.

Thanks Miley.  Now I'm a Rockstar!