Blown away

[click for photo album]

1. Our loft apartment for the next 5 days, 2. Crown Fountain, 3. Shedd Aquarium, 4. With Dada, 5. Sophie's first bacon!, 6. Mini paleontologists , 7. Beautiful brides, 8. Sophie & Uncle Han :), 9. Beginning of the 4-hour solo drive back to Ann Arbor

And we're back from our Windy City vacation and it was wonderful. We all had a blast of a time and it was beautifully memorable for a whole host of reasons. We have always loved Chicago and even though Sophie's been there two other times (once when she was 8 months old and the other when she was 14 months), this is the first time she will probably remember any of the things we've seen or done.

One of her favorite books has always been Good Night Chicago (that we bought during one of those earlier trips) and ever since we knew we were taking this holiday, Jude and I have been highlighting to Sophie the different things in the book we would be doing with her. We brought the book around with us throughout the trip and whenever we were someplace highlighted in there (like the aquarium, or Millennium Park, or a Cubs game), we'd whip it out and show her the page. I think having a pictorial checklist of sorts was particularly exciting for her :)

Some highlights:
1) Thanks to airbnb.com, we scored a bright, airy, eclectic, and beautiful loft apartment in the city (with internet and parking included) for a fraction of what it would cost to stay in a hotel. The location was unbeatable and we were always just five to ten minutes away from anywhere we wanted to go.

2) Just like the children in her book, Sophie wanted to walk bare feet in the waters of the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park. We did, and she was thrilled.

3) Sophie loves sea creatures. Always has. And there was no way we were going to miss out on the Shedd Aquarium. I cannot describe to you how happy she was all day that day. All she could talk about was the dolphins, and jellyfish, and seahorses she saw, the beluga whales in their huge pools, and the aquatic show that just awed her so completely. You would not have found a happier two-year-old that day.

4) Sophie attended her first baseball game, at a good 'ole traditional ballpark no less! Complete with baseball cap and ballpark hotdog. The Cubs were playing the L.A. Dodgers and although we didn't stay for the whole game (it got too cold), it was definitely quite an experience for Sophie. She even got an official "My First Game" certificate from the folks at Wrigley Field to commemorate the event!

5) Sophie's first taste of bacon (at nana). 'Nuff said- it was an important day :)

6) Another highlight was definitely the dinosaur exhibit at the Chicago Children's Museum. Designed to be a faux excavation site, the children could pretend to be mini paleontologists digging for dinosaur bones. Sophie took the task very seriously and was determined to "dig" up at least the dinosaur's tail before she would leave the exhibit.

7) The main reason we were in Chicago was to celebrate the wedding of our good friends, Libby and Naomi. It was a beautiful ceremony and there was much happy crying all round. Sophie remembers them fondly from when they visited us last year, and so she's been looking forward to the wedding for a long time (mostly because so she could wear her sparkly purple sneakers). They are two of our favorite people in the world and we're just so happy that we could share in their special day.

8) By sheer coincidence, my uncle happened to be in Chicago for a food convention. Sophie and I met up with him for a delicious brunch at sola and it so nice to be able to catch up with family even if it was only for a couple of hours.

9) Jude left for a conference early yesterday morning so I had to drive back to Ann Arbor with Sophie on my own. Let's just say, it was exhausting being engaging, answering questions, telling stories, and singing songs, all the while trying to maintain a 75mph speed limit and keeping a safe distance from the car in front of you... For four hours. Thank god for Sirius satellite radio, the Muppets soundtrack, and a venti Pike Place coffee from Starbucks.

The hot stuff

Alright Birkam Yoga, bring it on.
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

It was like running the half-marathon all over again. Except in 90 minutes. And in a hot room with 30 other people breathing heavily along with you. By the end of it, I felt light-headed, a little nauseous, and I couldn't speak (I did call Jude to try telling him about it immediately after but ask him, I could barely string a sentence together...)

I went for my first Bikram Yoga class today.

Up until a couple of months before Sophie was born, I practiced yoga for two and a half years and loved it. Loved what it did to my energy levels, how it helped my running, and with just my all round sense of well-being. But when Sophie came along and having to juggle writing the dissertation, research work, taking care of her, and just chores in general, working out (and yoga) fell to the wayside.

Then earlier this week, LivingSocial (a Groupon-like company that offers daily deals) featured 10 sessions at the Ann Arbor Bikram Yoga studio for $20 and I bought it in a flash. I'd never done Bikram before but an old friend of mine, Shirlyn (those of you reading in Singapore may know her and her music), is a certified Bikram yoga instructor and has been waxing lyrical about what a life-changing practice it is. I was really looking forward to it and to how I wanted it to snap me out of this winter lethargy I've been feeling.

Oh god, in Jude's words as I walked through the door after class this morning, "You look like you just got your as* handed to you..." I'm not going to lie. It was HARD. Getting used to the temperature is one thing, sustaining the poses in that temperature is something else. I'm used to Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga where poses flow dynamically into each other, giving you a cardio workout as well as some good stretching. But in Bikram, holding the static poses works your heart just as much, if not more because of the heated room. I've never perspired as much in 90 minutes as I did today and my giant towel was soaked through once I was done.

But as exhausted as I am (I actually had to take a short nap to recover), I'm also exhilarated and invigorated. And challenged. One of the things I loved (and still love) about yoga is how acutely aware of my body I become- my posture, alignment, breathing, reach, strength, etc, and I find that kind of self-awareness very calming. Plus it's all me- the poses don't rely on machines or weights- it's what my body is capable of and comfortable doing at that moment. Every yoga session is a challenge. How much further can I stretch? How much longer can I hold this position?

I have 9 more sessions to go and I'm determined to be feel a little less pummeled with each class. My body needs to first remember all the things it used to be able to do when I practiced yoga more regularly, and then it needs to get used to the whole heated room thing.

And then maybe it'll realize that I'm working hard to be good to it and wasn't trying to torture it into submission this morning...

2010 New Year resolutions

1) Eat more vegetables (I think I've made this resolution every year since I was 12).
2) Get a jogging stroller and re-start some kind of running routine (The last time I ran was a week after I completed the Half. These days, workout is rocking a 5-month old to sleep).
3) Not freak out when Season 1 of Glee and the entire series of Lost ends in May. I may be inconsolable.
4) Be better about bringing our own bags to the store, recycling, and taking the bus.
5) Not hoard library books.
6) Practice yoga again. Mommy-baby yoga :)
7) Finish writing my dissertation (Please self, please...).
8) Love this little person with everything my soul can muster.

25 Random Things About Me

Because I've been tagged too many times on Facebook to not do this...

1. I'm making this list because I'm clearly bad at resisting peer pressure: "But mom, all the cool kids are doing it!..."
2. My favorite fruit is the mango.
3. I love Oasis even though Jude thinks they're the ah bengs of Brit rock.
4. I have no wisdom teeth. The dentist took them all out when I got braces at twelve.
5. Accord to a personality assessment report, my literary counterparts are either Hero in Much Ado About Nothing or Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series.
6. I haven't had a sip of caffeinated coffee in the past month.
7. I make a pretty mean roast chicken.
8. If I had to choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it'll have to be sushi.
9. Jude and I first bonded over The Virgin Suicides- the novel, not the movie.
10. I never buy bottled water unless we're traveling.
11. I've met and spoken to (sort of...) two of my favorite writers, Nick Hornby and Salman Rushdie.
12. I've seen four of my favorite bands live- U2, Coldplay, Broken Social Scene, and Death Cab for Cutie.
13. I sleep on the right side of the bed. Even when I'm sleeping alone.
14. One of the best decisions I made last year was to take my running more seriously.
15. I don't eat carrots unless they're too difficult to remove, like in spring rolls or coleslaw.
16. 1999 was my favorite year in movies because it gave us The Matrix, Iron Giant, Fight Club, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, American Beauty, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
17. My favorite color could be green, orange or lavender, depending on my mood and the context.
18. I look more like my mom than my dad.
19. I'm shortsighted like my dad. My mom has perfect vision.
20. When I was six, I danced in my kindergarten "graduation" ceremony. The song was "Morning Has Broken" and I was a purple orchid.
21. My first Hollywood crush was Ke Huy Quan, the little boy in Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom and The Goonies.
22. The first car I ever drove was my dad's silver Mitsubishi Galant.
23. My favorite TV day is Wednesdays because it has Lost at 9pm and Top Chef at 10pm.
24. I love polka dots.
25. I hate celery.

I completed the Detroit half marathon

And it was awesome!!... :)

1. My official time, 2. Steak and eggs for brunch!, 3. Jenn and Serene, 4. Relieved after the race, 5. Team Tortoise!!, 6. Serene reaching the finishing line, 7. My bib with the Team Tortoise mascot, 8. Our room at the MGM , 9. My bib and t-shirt

Radio on the TV

It was a weekend pretty much defined by This American Life. Jude and I finally finished watching Season 1 of the TV series on DVD and today, on my last long run before the Half, I thought it might be interesting to listen to podcasts of the radio show to see if it'll be better than just random mixes of music of 2 hours. And it was. For the most part.

On the one hand, because you're listening to the stories so intently and because you somehow get emotionally invested in these people- as one invariably does every time you watch or listen to the show- your mind doesn't think about the pain and tedium of the run as much. But on the other, precisely because you're so focused on the pain and pleasures of these ordinary folk, and their simple, funny, poignant predicaments that could have so easily been yours, you find yourself wanting to laugh or even cry along, and that's hard to do when you're hot, sweaty and at Mile 7 of an 11-mile run. Like at the story of the mom who had to make a life-changing decision on behalf of her Down Syndrome daughter, or the dad whose six-year-old son wanted him to “pinky promise, to seriously and forever promise,” that he and his partner will always love each other and stay together. At so many points during the three shows I listened to, my body hurt from literally- as in physically- choking back tears or stifling laughter. All this while running.

I adore Ira Glass- me, and every other NPR-listening woman who wants him as their radio boyfriend. But really, the show- TV or radio- is about stories. Stories we tell ourselves, stories we have to tell other people. Or just stories we need to hear so we know we're not the only crazy, fallible, lovable, and human people out there. Two of our recent favorites and absolute must-listens, #328: What I Learned from Television and #339: Break-Up.

This American Life? Is that that show by those hipster know-it-alls who talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?
-Summer (Rachel Bilson), The O.C.

10 miles. Really...

Today's 10-mile run
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

So two weeks to the Half. Sundays are my long-run days so today, for some motivation, Jenn and I did a 10-mile (16km) together (although it probably was a tad more because of a slight detour we took at the Arb). The route seemed doable and Jenn and I braced ourselves for what we knew was going to be a brutal hill in the middle of the Arb. But there's going to be a mile-long uphill across the bridge to Canada at the beginning of the Half anyway so we figured it was a good idea to include a couple of hills in our training. Thanks to my trusty Nike+iPod thingey (I still don't know how to call it), I managed to track my mileage throughout. And with just one playlist I stick to almost all the time, I end up associating songs and thoughts with certain points along the route, which is kind of what I did today. Basically, you occupy your mind with whatever you can on a 2-hour run...

Mile 1: The run started breezily along- it was a beautiful day to run too, all sunny and cool. Architecture in Helsinki's "The Cemetery" played while Jenn and I talked ourselves into a frenzy about all-you-can-eat crab legs at Metzger's tomorrow. Yes, we run and talk about food. A lot.

Mile 3 or so: Running towards the Arb. Jenn's the faster runner but today, she decided to start off a little slower and that allowed me to speed up to pace her. Which was really good. It helped that "Belleville Rendezvous" from the Les Triplettes de Belleville soundtrack was playing. That song is nothing if not frenetic. Think the Tour de France, but in the middle of Gallup Park.

Mile 5 and 6: Forget music- I could barely hear myself think running up that hill in the Arb. Gnarly, I think, was how Jenn described it. Steep, pebbly, and worse than I expected. I was practically breathless when I reached the top and I haven't been breathless for so long. I hope the uphill to Canada isn't this bad.

Mile 7: Going downhill through the Arb and back on flat land was a breeze after that hill; even running up to the Medical Center was a cinch. Appropriately, Pete Yorn's "Just Another" played as we turned onto Fuller and that was nice and soothing. And then there was "Through the Backyards" (Au Revoir Simone). Sweet... And while they're both not pumped-up songs by any stretch of the imagination, I think the combination of surviving the hill and being more than halfway through the route was kind of euphoric and Jenn and I both sped up a little at this point.

Mile 9: Last leg. We're running back to Gallup Park now. An oldie but goodie, New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" was on and for some reason I think I smiled. I think it had to do with the fact that we ran past a group of people playing softball and I remembered the summer of 2004 when a bunch of us went down in history as probably the worst softball team ever to play in Ann Arbor. We lost almost every game but we brought watermelons for the umpires and we were nice to our opponents. We sucked at softball but everyone loved us :) Oh, and then there was R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming." A favorite :) More smiling.

Mile 10: Ok. Home-stretch. My legs are hurting- my knees specifically- and all I can remember is Coldplay's "Spies" and "Trouble" and that awesome video. That first album, Parachutes, is still the band's best one- every single track is a gem. And while they've had good songs since then, as a whole, as Nic Harcourt of Morning Becomes Eclectic writes in Music Lust, that was one of the greatest First Albums ever made. And yup, pain still there...

So we're finally done. It's 1.30pm and I feel really good- aching knees and all. We've been officially running for 2 hours, 2 minutes and 48 seconds. We're of course starving since the only thing I've had since I woke up was a banana, and we did just burn 1287 calories. Hunger is a very powerful thing, people, and Jenn came up with the inspired idea to get pancakes at Northside Grill. I was never so happy at the prospect of pancakes :) And so pancakes it was. Plus eggs, bacon and sausages too! We so totally earned it :)

The BIG Fry-Off

It literally was obscene. We're talking the kind of obscene that's illegal in 42 states and 20 countries. We'd only ever talked about having a fry party but never thought we would actually pull this off. But today, we did. With great aplomb, unplanned coordination, as balanced a menu as the deep-fried circumstances allowed (I mean, we *did* have veggies and dessert), and also a fleeting smidgen of guilt and embarrassment at how much we ate. And all this after the Big House Big Heart run (photos here.) Emilee put it best: "Can I just say how much I LOVE the idea of celebrating something called the "Big Heart Run" by frying a bunch of stuff?"

Things we managed to throw into the turkey fryer:
1. A 2lb prime rib (yes, a WHOLE prime rib)
2. Cheese curds
3. A pound of Italian meatballs
4. 13 scotch eggs (encasing extra-large hard-boiled eggs)- no, restraint was the one thing that was *not* on the menu today
5. 2 large country fried steaks
6. Eggplant strips (they turned out a little like tempura, i.e. delicious! And it allowed us to pretend that we had *some* fiber in our diet today.)
7. 5 giant chicken breasts (brined in buttermilk, so moist, so good, so ummmm-inducing... )
[by this time, people were starting to have that glazed, blank look on their faces- y'know, the blissful kind that comes just before an intense food coma?...]
8. 4lbs of hot wings
9. Handmade onion rings
10. Banana-Nutella and cinnamon brown sugar spring rolls (our contribution- it really worked and was the perfect decadent end to an already heedlessly hedonistic afternoon)

And all this for only nine people. All cooked in one vessel (at different times, obviously, but still, the capacity of that thing is amazing!). And, on top of that, with all the finger-licking goodness that was going on, we completely dispensed with cutlery altogether- why fuss with an extra transfer mechanism when you can just toss piping hot fried food straight into your oesophagus? Ahhhh bliss...

1. An obscene amount of fried food!, 2. Beer-battered onion rings, 3. Banana-nutella spring rolls, 4. Deep-fried eggplant, 5. Cheese curds!, 6. Scotch eggs , 7. Deep-fried prime rib, 8. Scotch eggs, cross-section , 9. Buttermilk-dipped fried chicken

Halfway to the Half

...which also means I'm trained for a quarter marathon, as someone astutely calculated ;)

So it's just under a month to the Detroit Marathon, and I'm only halfway in my training. I'm running the half (for no other reason than it stretches across to Canada over the bridge and under the tunnel, making it the world’s only underwater international mile) so it's actually not too bad. I ran 11.5km today (Jenn and I adapted this route a little) and I figure if I can hit 19km the weekend before the marathon, I should be able to run that last 2km on adrenaline alone, if nothing else. I'm at that stage in my running where the first 3km or so is the hardest and then by the time I'm at 6km, I'm completely zoned-out (or in, depending on how you look at it) and some strange inexplicable force takes over my body until the voice via my iPod+Nike tells me it's time to stop. Yoga has helped my breathing a lot too so I hardly get out of breath which has also helped my recovery heart rate. The only part of my body that isn't faring too well are my legs- specifically my knees. They don't hurt while I'm running- the hours after a long run is when they bother me most. Thanks to Dark Orpheus though, this pose has been helping a lot.

It's easier to get motivated to run now that I'm running almost everyday, although I'm not going to be making marathon-running a personal hobby anytime soon- it's going to hurt too much. I think the reason why I've been drawn to running is the same reason I love yoga- it's all about my body and what it's capable of doing on its own. Every run- like every yoga session- is a challenge. How much further can I run? How much longer can I hold this position? And I actually look forward to the "aloneness" of running- it's some quality Serene-time during which I can think of anything I want- whether it's something I need to concetrate and think hard about, or something I need to get out of my system. I'm beginning to do some of my best thinking- not necessarily academic- as I run and I've come to appreciate that a lot.

So there, Serene Koh, enjoying running. Just a year ago, who would have guessed? ;)

It's done!

1. Half-way mark, 2. Warming up, 3. Coming up that nightmare of a hill, 4. With Molly, Tanya, Will and Baby Lily

I did it! Finished the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run, and in my personal best pace- 5:34min/km. My run time ended up to be 1:10 hr though because there were so many people in front of me at the starting line that I actually started running before crossing the starting line and ended up running an extra kilometer or so (yes, there were that many people ahead of me. Thousands, in fact...) And let's not mention the fact that one thing I didn't account for during training was the fact that someone sitting on the Run committee decided that it would be a good idea to have a hill in the last leg of the race. A steep hill. Like why? What were you thinking? As if running for an hour continuously isn't enough of a challenge for me... I almost passed out after that hill, which I guess slowed me down a little too. But whatever the case may be, I'm just glad I completed and in fairly decent time too :) My feet are killing me right now though, and my toes- for some reason- have been mangled into a blistery mess, but with that is a perverse sense of self-satisfaction which makes the pain worth it.

I completed a 10K-run last week during a training run, but running today was really different. For one, running in a large group is a huge motivation- I tried not to let the people running by affect me but I suspect that that had a large part to play in me running my best time, just me subconsciously trying to keep up. Then there are the strangers cheering you on everywhere, meeting up with friends who were just there to soak up the invigorating atmosphere, those couple of guys playing music for us on their front porch as we ran by, and most importantly, your wonderful friends who were either cheering for you along the way (thank you Rick, Emilee and Ursus for coming!) or screaming your name as you approached the finishing line (Serena and Liz so rock!). And of course, there's Jude who woke up crazy early this morning to accompany me to the run, taking pictures along the way, and being my all-round awesome one-man cheering team :)

I think I'm going to keep up the running routine just because I know it's doing my body good and I don't want all that training to go to waste. Like my sister suggested, maybe a 10K run every one to two weeks just to challenge my body a little, but apart from that, I think I'll go back to 4-mile (6.5K) runs three times a week. Any more or longer and my toes might really just give up on me and fall off... ;)

Symbiosis

It's 4 days to the Ann Arbor-Dexter run and Serene Koh ran her first ever 10K today! Yup, that's right, I rock... :) 57:02 minutes, 678 calories and 5:41 minutes/km. Not shabby at all if I should say so myself. And I figured if I can do this in the 3pm hot sun, I can do on a cool Sunday morning. I wasn't planning on running the full 10K today really, but by the time I got to 9.5K, I was like, I've come so far, what's another 500m? And so I did. I'm planning one more run on Friday- which may or may not be another 10K- and I should be ready for Sunday. Under an hour. That's all I'm aiming for.

It's amazing, really, what your body can do when you apply yourself to a task- who knew 6 weeks ago that my body's capable of running continuously for more than 45 minutes? Like my dad says, it's all about slowly increasingly the mileage. If you can do 6K, you can do 7K. If you can do 7K, 8K's a cinch, etc... The other thing that has really helped me is yoga. It's made me a better breather (yes, there *is* such a thing), and as a result, a stronger runner. It's also strengthened my calves and quads (those warrior poses kick major ass!) which really helps too. I've come to look forward to yoga a lot, and it's become more than just about toning muscles in places I didn't know I had muscles to tone in the first place. In that hour of sustained concentration and focus, I become acutely aware of my body and its different dimensions- my posture, alignment, breathing, reach, strength, center, etc, and I find that kind of self-awareness very calming. Plus it's all me- the poses don't rely on machines or weights- it's what my body is capable of and comfortable doing at that moment. I'm not into the more spiritual aspects of yoga (although I love that my instructor sings her ohms) but I have to admit that as tough as it sometimes is (beads of sweat dripping onto my yoga mat probably indicates a fairly decent workout), the deep burn that comes with yoga is actually kinda of cathartic, "cleansing", if you will- both mentally and physiologically- and that's something I find deeply alluring. The fact that my running helps my yoga (it builds the stamina I need to maintain those sustained downward dogs) as much as yoga is helping my running just makes it all the more perfect.

Namaste :)

"Run, Serene, run..."

Last month, I signed up for the annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Run coming up in June. For a while now, I've wanted to train for a marathon- a little inspired by my dad, sis and best friend who've all done competitive races. I figured this is the fittest I'll probably be in my life and if I don't at least start trying to challenging myself a little more now, it's never going to happen. But being the wuss that I am, I thought I'll go easy on myself by registering for the 5K and see how that goes before trying something longer. Running the distance wasn't the challenge- I run close to that on my regular runs already anyway- doing it under 25 minutes is, or so I told myself. So I've been pushing myself a little harder everyday I run and I've made some progress, but there's just this threshold at about 5:10/K that I just can't seem to break. Plus the nerves in my feet have been tingling painfully these past weeks after every run, not to mention the fact that I almost passed out from running three days in a row yesterday...

And then I spoke with my dear best friend on the phone and she mentioned that perhaps the pain has something to do with the fact that really, at our age, our body can only be pushed that far before it retaliates. Not that we're old, but because I haven't run at those speeds till last month, and so my body's just not used to the "abuse", so to speak. That in the long run- pun fully intended- it might be more beneficial to run long distances slowly, than short distances fast- less wear and tear on the joints, muscles, and nerves.

And so, despite an (un)healthy amount of uncertainty about whether or not I can actually complete the race and some anxiety over having enough time from now till June 1 to train properly, I transfered my registration from the 5K to the 10K race. Like my friend, Stella, said, why do anything half-assed? If I'm going to run, I'm going to *run*. I've planned my first non-stop 6K for tomorrow. I'm also closing my eyes, saying (actually, whimpering, more like it...) a prayer, and crossing and fingers- let's hope I don't come to regret this... ;)

Clash of the not-so Titans...

[Picture from the Associated Press]

**Update: We won!!!

I'm not a football fan- I don't even understand the game still- but believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's game against Notre Dame. Jude and I are not going but we'll definitely be keeping tabs on the score. Testimony to how fascinating I'm finding all of this- not so much the game itself- but how Michigan's struggling to keep up its image as the "sacred caretaker of college football", I actually followed the score online for the Oregon game last week (and watched the crushing 39- 7 loss in slow motion so to speak), and for the first time ever, read the sports section of the NYT to see how our fall from glory was being received by the wider press. Sadly, words like "massacre", "a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle falling apart" and "humiliation" were used liberally. This scathing report by the Detroit Free Press seems to suggest that there are more than a few people out there who see this all as "delicious payback" for years of proud- and some say, exploitative- dominance by the two teams.

A winless Michigan facing a winless Notre Dame for the first time provides irrefutable evidence that God has a sense of humor.
- Drew Sharp, The Detroit Free Press

LiveSTRONGer

I can't feel my thighs, or my butt... No actually, I take that back. I can feel them- a lot. Because the entire length of my leg from my hips to my calves is aching to high heaven right now. Just getting up from the couch took so much effort I audibly groaned just to go to the fridge to get water.

Jude and I took our bikes out for the first time this year. Bill & Jolie- who we met via Libby- were going to bike into Ypsilanti and asked us to come along. It was yet another beautifully blue day and we needed little nudging to abandon everything to spend the day out :) These guys have been doing this for the past 7 years and know exactly the prettiest, most scenic route to take. Jude and I biked from our place to meet them at Gallup Park (about 2 miles or so), and then we all rode into Ypsi together (this leg is more or less 6 miles). The motivation for everyone apparently was that we were going to end up at the Corner Brewery where you would replenish all the calories lost with beer and cheese :)

This was the longest bike ride we've done- 16 miles (26km) in total- and honestly, I couldn't have gone on any longer even if someone paid me to- I don't know which would have given way first, my back, my butt, or my breathing. I have a feeling things are going to hurt even more tomorrow, which is why I've been icing my knee (just in case), and trying hard to massage my legs when I can. They feel so much like jello I can't even bring myself to get a glass of water because I don't want to have to maneuver down the stairs to the kitchen...

"Take me out to the ball game..."

Guess who went to her first baseball game today? :) Rick, Emilee, Rick's friend, Michael, Libby, Jude and I trooped up to Lansing today to watch the Lansing Lugnuts play the Beloit Snappers at Oldsmobile Park. I don't get the game much (what I know, I know from playing softball a couple of summers ago, and even that's not much at all...), but it was just a gorgeous day to be sitting out in the sun with thousands of other people, stuffing ourselves silly with greasy, overpriced food. I am convinced that spring just passed us over and summer's here already, because everyone was in their shorts and tank-tops, Emilee busted out her sunscreen, and there were definite "roast" casualties ;)

Anyways, we had fun just soaking in the wonderful atmosphere- parents and kids everywhere, the cheering fans, the overstuffed mascot (whom we really empathized with in this weather), and the all-round infectiously good cheer. Sitting there watching the game, eating hotdogs and listening to the Van Morrison and the Beach Boys that was playing, I could just imagine that I was experiencing the quintessential all-American Sunday.

In the end, we didn't stay for the whole game- and the Lugnuts lost- but all of us had a great time, and this girl is definitely looking forward to her next baseball game where she puts on another 895 calories for $19 while listening to The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup" and getting delectably roasted by the sun :)

[Photos here.]

Pop! goes my knee...

I had blogged here about how having my little Nike+iPod transmitter has been nothing short of an absolute lifesaver in terms of motivating me to run. I've been keeping up the running regiment, and coupled with the strength and breathing I got from yoga, I was feeling really good about my exercise routine in general.

But about a month ago, my left knee started bugging me. It wasn't like I was in pain or anything, but it would hurt every time I walked up or down the stairs. I figured it was just a slight strain that would go away eventually. And I was hoping that the week off from exercising when I was in Chicago might help. But at the gym yesterday, I really felt the pain and I knew something wasn't right.

So I went to the doctor's today and without even taking an x-ray, he told me that my left kneecap had become misaligned and is now inflamed. Ok, it sounds nastier than it really is (I hope...) and he said it was good that I went to him today. A couple more weeks without attention and he would have had to put me through physiotherapy. He gave me a knee sleeve that I now have to wear all the time except when I sleep, some anti-inflammatory drugs, 20-minute ice-pack treaments three times a day, and I'm not allowed to run for the next 10 days. I can still use the elliptical machine which might help actually, and I have to work on strengthening the quad muscles along my thighs so that they can better support my knee.

I'm a little bummed that I won't be able to keep up the gym routine for a while, but can I confess that deep-down, I'm actually a little proud of this injury? For the longest time, I had never been an active person and as I always maintain, exercise is pure necessity, little pleasure; but precisely because of that, it's also kinda cool that I've been disciplined enough in my regime to have actually gotten injured from it. It's embarrassing how terribly self-indulgent this sounds... Jude says I should think of it as some kind of battle scar :) I won't go as far to say that I'll miss running, but I'll definitely miss the guilt-free munching and snacking that I heedlessly indulge in after a good workout! :)

What a weekend...

The collage pretty much captures our entire "oh-boy-the-sun-is-finally-out" weekend: we dug deep into our souls and discovered our closet hard-rocker alter-egos, got in touch with our lost youth by watching the preternaturally youthful Matthew Broderick, and went curling in Windsor, where my head made cracking contact with the ice, which explains my throbbing head and aching neck as we speak.

1) Libby had us over to play Guitar Hero on Friday night. I have to confess that I was initially more than a tad bit wary, but let's just say that whatever skepticism I had dissipated with those first stirring notes of "Sweet Child of Mine" :) I so own Guns 'n Roses!... All I have to do now is to make sure my husband doesn't surreptitiously run out and buy us a set of our own, in which case we can both kiss finishing our dissertations goodbye... (See Libby's photos of us melting faces here.)

2) Instead of doing our taxes as we had planned on Saturday, we ended up watching Ferris Bueller on Bravo instead. It was my first time watching the whole thing from beginning to end, and although it's a little dated (alright, culottes are so not ok...), there's something about the exuberance of the movie and its enduring theme that's still so endearing after all these years. Save Ferris!

3) Rachael and her friends from work organized a trip to Windsor to do some curling (photos here). Until her first email, I had no clue what that was at all. I knew it had nothing to do with hair that's for sure... In a nutshell, it's a cross between ice-hockey, bowling and pool maybe (See Wikipedia entry here.) It was really fun, and definitely harder than it looks. Jude swore to no longer laugh when he sees people play it on TV- it's hard, and a little funny initially when it looked like we were all vigorously spring-cleaning the rink...

What is less funny was when I slipped while chasing a rock. Apparently I landed on my butt, and because all the actions you would have otherwise taken to regain your balance as you fall don't really apply when you're standing on ice (and with one shoe taped no less), I promptly fell backwards and hit my head on the rink hard, as in "the-whole-rink-stopped-playing" hard. It hurt really bad and I wanted to cry, but was too embarrassed to. I did feel bad that everyone had to stop playing and crowd over me. And strangers came up and asked me if I was ok... I was a little nauseous I think and woozy for a while but several ice-packs helped and so did a really strong Cuban coffee at Vincente's (I keep telling you, coffee is the universal elixir people...). The bump on my head's subsided now but the whole base of my neck's all stiff and aching. Jude's worried I might have a mild concussion, so we're going to the doctor's for a check-up tomorrow.

We'll definitely go curling again, except next time, please remind me to wear a hat :)

Like a virgin...

Our virgin sledding experience!
Originally uploaded by jyew.

Hah! I bet you must thought this was going to be some salaciously exciting post didn't you? Tsk tsk... get your minds out of the gutter people! Nothing salacious about what we did today unless winter, snow and hurtling on a sled somehow rings your secret bell... ;) Yup, Jude and I went sledding today- our first winter sport of any kind! (erm... does sledding count as a sport??) Thanks to Eric and Amy for inviting us, and their wonderful company together with the Cooneys, we had a blast of a time!

And the weather was just perfect too- not unbearably cold, and just as we were making our way to the little park behind the Cook's, it started to snow, and not slushy, eeky snow; pretty, fluffy snow. According to Dan, the best kind of snow to sled (this is the correct verb right?) in is freshly powdered snow; that way, as you're hurtling downhill, you get the full blast of the snow in your face, your hair, your nostrils, even your teeth!

Jude and I are now hooked! I think we're going to get our own sled tomorrow (are the verb and the noun the same spelling?), or better still, our own sleds- one for the each of us. We've yet to completely understand the physics behind this whole sledding thing, but ergonomics, aerodynamics, and trajectory appear to be key factors. Also sledding on your back and sledding on your tummy are apparently two very different experiences.

Man... I can't wait to find out!

Ouch...

How is it that at 30, I'm still discovering muscles I never thought I had? Namely in the neck, arms and thighs. I'm sitting down right now and my legs are quivering... Yup, I had my first yoga class today. It's been something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and since I'm finally done with coursework (yay!!) and have a little more time this semester, I figured this is about as good a time as any. Besides I know of people who attribute their success getting into grad school entirely on the focus and concentration yoga afforded them. I'm taking both my precandidacy exams this semester- I'm going to need as much of that mojo as I can get.

So anyway, back to the yoga. It's a form of yoga called Ashtanga Yoga, probably one of the oldest forms of yoga although it's enjoying recent popularity because celebrities like Madonna and Janet Jackson swear by it. It's very much focused on deep breathing, balance and posture. The breathing part I can do (although I think many of us ended up sounding a little like Darth Vader...); the balance and posture part... ok, not so much. The instructor hardly needed to tell me that yoga is all about concentration and focus- there really isn't very much else you can think about when you're trying your darndest to balance while holding one leg 90 degrees straight in front of you while bending to touch that raised foot (Don't ask me if I could do it, I'm not answering you!... )

I do have to say though that there is something perversely relaxing about that hour, in spite of the ridiculous amount of effort it took to contort myself into these fantastical postures. The focus helps, the stretching is amazing, and even though your entire sphere of movement is confined to only that 24 in x 68 in area of the mat, your body is getting some intensely cathartic workout.

The last time I did any yoga was about four years ago when Jude and I attended a class together. After that, we couldn't bend our legs for days, and my shoulders were so sore I couldn't carry anything on my back. Right now, there're aches and sores here and there, but I think I'll only start feeling any real pain tomorrow. The good thing is that the workout really helps generate heat throughout your body (I was perspiring so much from just standing still), which is a great thing in winter.

I'm not sure yet about the whole enhancing my clarity of thought thing- I'll let you know in April. For now, my body's beginning to feel the ache and I think the lingering jetlag isn't helping. Thank god this it's only once a week- any more than that and I don't think I'll be able to even crawl out of bed in the morning...

The end zone

Watching the game was supposed to be stress-relief for both Jude and I. Isn't sports supposed to be relaxing and fun? Shouldn't it allow you to take a break from the frantic cardiac palpitations that already plague the other 15 waking hours of a grad student's life? Apparently not- those three hours were instead nail-bitingly, nerve-wreckingly anxiety-ridden. Everytime we thought Michigan had control of the game, Ohio came back with an even better play, and in the end, it seemed clear that the Buckeyes were the better team (or so I was told of course- I just cheered whenever everyone else was squealing, and dutifully boo-ed on command...). With 19 seconds left to the game, we resigned ourselves to second place with a infinitesimally narrow score of 39- 42. And this was despite a momentarily euphoric touchdown in the last 2 minutes... :(

I can see how supporting a professional sport- even at the college level can consume you. It was intoxicating enough even without quite understanding what was going on. Kinda like when my family used to watch soccer when Singapore was still in the Malaysia Cup (the intoxicating part I mean, not the lack of understanding...). So Mr. Petersen, I think I might just take up your suggestion and read Don DeLillo's End Zone over the vacation. I could be convinced about this whole American football thing... :)