Climb Every Mountain

If you had told me a year ago what I would have accomplished by 9:30AM yesterday morning, I never would have believed you. Run 10 miles? In a race? Without stopping? You might as well have told me I was going to discover a time portal to Regency England. It would have been that unfathomable to me. That fictional. You'll notice that on my list of 101 things in 1,001 days, I put a 5K and 10K. I never imagined a desire to run any farther, much less the ability to do so. When I put my name in the lottery for the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler, I thought my chances of getting drawn were pretty slim. But I soon found myself staring slack-jawed at an e-mail saying I was in. Congratulations! Now run 10 miles.

The truest words I've ever heard about running are "the hardest part is getting out the door." That first step out into the cold, that Joker-esque mind game, can be the absolute worst. I hate running on treadmills, so I essentially signed on to a running tour of Baltimore's ugliest weather. As soon as my name was drawn, I started following Hal Higdon's 15K/10-Mile Run novice training program rain or shine, but mostly just bitter cold. 102 miles logged into my beloved Brooks PureCadence later...

My training also revealed a hardcore obsession with purple I can't explain...

And I did it! I did it! I discovered a time portal to Regency England aka crossed the finish line in 1:41:04. What? What?! 10:06 miles? Is this a joke? Am I on candid camera? No! I did that! I did that! Y'all. I can't help it. I'm so ridiculously sore proud. I've always been a Mia Thermopolis. "More of a horseback-riding, wall-climbing, yoga-doing type of girl." But never an athletic girl. And when my friends dragged me kicking and screaming into the freezing night air for a measly two mile run last January, I thought I was going to pass out at the one mile mark. First comes the first step, then comes diligence, then comes the next day where you get yourself out of bed and do it all over again. And before you know it, you're celebrating your ten mile run over brunch with your sweet family and running buddy!

I realize I'm a bit obsessed with the concept at the moment, but... that first step. It's the hardest. And the most important. It'd be so easy to look up at whatever mountain you're facing and lie down at gawk at it instead of taking that first step. But once you take it, you're that much closer to getting acclimated. So take it! Take that step! Lasso the moon! Am I being cheesy enough for you right now? I'm not saying you won't feel like you're going to cry sometime around mile nine. I'm saying you have what it takes to cross the finish line. 

Major thanks to everyone who helped me do just that. To my roommate Erin for helping me train, to my sister Katy for dropping me off at the Washington Monument, to Sarah for running the race with me and cheering me on at that pesky ninth mile, to One Direction for serenading me all over DC, to my sister Emily who couldn't be there but helped motivate me from afar with a just-visualize-Louis-Tomlinson-at-the-finish-line exercise, to my aunt and uncle for driving down from New Jersey with homemade medals for Sarah and me, and to my parents for flying up from Georgia to help me carbo load the night before and give me a hug as soon as I'd burned it all off. You all made this experience a great one; one I'll never forget. So thank you! 

P.S. As for the title, of course I will use any and all opportunities to reference The Sound of Music! Don't you know me at all?!

What's On My Nightstand

• Writing Irresistible Kidlit by Mary Kole. Look what the Easter Bunny brought me! By the way- plot twist!- in this scenario, I am the Easter Bunny. I only recently discovered Mary Kole's blog and am wondering what on earth I did with all my time before. So I've just started chipping away at this and am completely nerding out over every little detail.
• Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot! OPI nail polish. Ok, perhaps the cheesiest nail polish name ever (seriously, where do I apply for that job?), but I always like to go with something loud and obnoxious when I have a race coming up. And how could I not go with pink for the cherry blossoms?
• iPod Shuffle. I can't stand arm bands for my iPhone or main iPod, so this tiny gizmo is a huge life saver! I'm jamming this little sucker full of One Direction to pump me up for my first-ever 10 mile run this weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to have "One Way Or Another" play every ten minutes to help pace myself. Hey, whatever works! Also... eeeeee!!!
• 100 Calorie Jolly Time Popcorn. I don't know what it is, y'all... But I have this weird thing where I've got to have a certain snack with a certain TV show. I've started watching Parenthood (side note: ZOMG CRYING!!!) and this has inexplicably become the go-to snack for it.
• San Antonio Starbucks Mug. Everyone in my family collects the 'you are here' mugs from Starbucks, but we have this rule where you can't get the mug unless you've actually visited the place. My roommate just got back from a trip to Texas and I love Texas and I love these mugs and she just surprised me with this! It's so cute and not the typical city design, so I'm not going to confess the decibel at which I squealed when she pulled this out. Too cute to drink from? Howdy ho, I think so! For tonight at least...

As for lullabies, this week Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors have been singing me to sleep with "Live Forever." I first heard this song when they opened for Needtobreathe at Ram's Head Live last fall and it made quite the impression, I must say!

Well, there you have it! Sweet dreams, moonbeams!

mardi muse: secret boards on Pinterest

This week I'm going to cheat a bit and give you a sneaky peek at one of my secret boards on Pinterest. Unbeknownst to the rest of the pinning world, I've been on a major pinning spree lately. I so wish you could keep more than three secret boards at a time! I'm using all three on different story ideas and could definitely use some more. It seems I've always got a dozen stories knocking their way into each other in my brain and it'd be a nice tool to help organize them a bit more in an easy-access way. Below is a "spoiler free" portion of one of the boards for a story that's been brewing in the back of my mind for two years now:

As you can see, it's somewhat devolved evolved into an elaborate excuse to excessively pin Louis Tomlinson's darling face! Despite not knowing who he was (the horror!) when F's character was first molding together, he's slowly infiltrated his way into much of F's personality and, obviously, looks. I can't imagine how this happened... *cough*

Anyway, these secret boards on Pinterest have been a life saver ever since they were introduced at the end of last year. Whenever I see something that reminds me of this story... Pin! It's wonderful. Plus, as an added bonus, I don't have to publicly acknowledge how often I'm drowning in a sudden tidal wave made entirely of my favorite pixie tyrant prince (always). But the best part of it is that by the time I finally sit down to drag that first draft of the first chapter out of my desk and tackle this story for real, I'm going to have a much clearer picture of everything from what my characters wear to where they hang out and what inspires them, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. I've got lists of these kind of things in notebooks, sure, but it's nice to have a visual to go along with it. It just makes the whole process a bit more lively, engaging, and fun!

If you have any, what sort of things do you use your secret boards for?

P.S. You can follow me on Pinterest here! And I can always use more inspiration, so do share your own if you have one!

101 things in 1,001 days

Now that it's April, I've got my fingers crossed that this months-long creative funk will finally pass. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and my ratty running gloves are tucked away in the back of the drawer where they are to stay until further notice. One thing I'm hoping will help battle this funk is my list of 101 things in 1,001 days. I posted the list on my tumblr in February of last year after reading my friend Whitney's list. I was so inspired! I have until November 22, 2014 to cross everything off and so far I've crossed off 33. Some things are daunting, others are a bit silly, a few I've done before and want to hold myself accountable for doing again, and a handful are downright ridiculous. But what can I do?! I'm stuck with it now!

The best part of making such a personal list so public has been the support. I never would have foreseen that and yet here I am over a year later with relationships that are a bit stronger thanks, in part, to the list. You'd be amazed how excited people are to help you with your mini dreams if you simply voice what they are! Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. That's one of my favorite facts of life and definitely my favorite side effect of sharing this list.

But since I've been subject to that agonizing creative lull recently, I thought I'd share my list here too. Who knows... Maybe you'll have a suggestion as to what I should tackle next!

1. Finish a work of fiction
2. Submit it for publishing
3. Take an art class
4. Go camping for the very first time (better late than never)
5. Learn how to make macarons with Emily and Will 12/28/12
6. Witness the Chincoteague Pony Swim
7. Sing karaoke
8. Run a 5K The Color Run with Katy, Will, Emily, and Sarah in DC 9/9/12
9. Run a 10K
10. Learn how to knit 9/5/12
11. See a musical on Broadway Mamma Mia with Aunt Val, Uncle Bill, and Sarah 2/2/13
12. Host a meal at my house once a month for three months (0/3)
13. Successfully make a soufflé
14. Make 5 things for 5 friends (1/5) for Ali 3/1/13
15. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
16. Attend Baltimore’s French Language Meet Up
17. Plant and maintain a planter box garden
18. Donate blood
19. Read 15 classics (5/15) - Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen 4/12/12, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs 7/6/12, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 7/15/12, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 9/21/12, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 12/20/12
20. Go to a music festival
21. Complete the 365 photo-a-day challenge
22. Go rock-climbing
23. Use my passport to visit a country I’ve never been to before
24. Make an inspirational banner
25. Learn basic Spanish
26. Solidify a writing routine
27. See a movie in the theater by myself The Artist at The Charles Theater 3/5/12
28. Participate in National Novel Writing Month 11/1/12-11/30/12
29. Build a blanket fort on a rainy day 10/30/12
30. Visit 10 museums I've never been to before (3/10) - National Geographic Museum 3/31/12, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History 3/31/12, American Visionary Arts Museum 4/8/12
31. Urban Pirate cruise on the harbor
32. Write a letter or e-mail to an author I admire
33. See Les Mis on stage at the Fox Theatre with Mom 4/28/12
34. Grab a friend and go to Zumba with Sarah 6/26/12
35. Open an Etsy store
36. Make a storyboard for a playlist
37. Buy a flapper dress
38. Knit or crochet a circle scarf 12/14/12
39. Host a tea party
40. Attend a horse race and place a bet
41. Go to a Navy football game with my dad 9/29/12
42. Explore a lighthouse on the coast of Maryland with my mom 8/12/12
43. Go on a trip with my sisters
44. Get a fancy cooking lesson from Chef… I mean Will! 12/30/12
45. Double the length of my quiet time each morning
46. Go tubing
47. Drink a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity in NYC with Sarah and Alison 10/6/12
48. Visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building (and look for Cary Grant)
49. Get a French press thank you Aunt Val and Uncle Bill! 12/25/12
50. Make Aunt Val’s tomato pie without supervision 9/25/12
51. Visit M et Mme Chauchat in Versailles 5/27/12
52. Stand at Point Zéro in Paris and take a picture 5/25/12
53. Have a picnic
54. Give up chocolate for a month
55. Finally buy a pair of boots 9/22/12
56. Kiss in the rain(!)
57. Learn how to poach an egg 11/18/12
58. Try brunch at 10 different restaurants (2/10) - Teavolve 3/18/12, The Hamilton 9/16/12
59. Obtain and wreck a Wreck This Journal (thanks for the gift, cousin Allie!)
    
60. See a classic film in a theater
61. Paint outside
62. Paint something on canvas
63. Bake croissants from scratch
64. Successfully perform a shoulder stand in yoga class 2/29/12
65. Go to the Baltimore Farmers’ Market & Bazaar right when it opens at 7AM with Amy 7/29/12
66. Make a meal only using food bought at a farmer’s market
67. Take an archery lesson (Legolas/Robin Hood complex? Ok yes…)
68. Attend a book festival Baltimore Book Festival 9/28/12
69. Make a dear friend
70. Pay for someone else’s coffee in a drive-thru
71. Watch 1 French film a week for 6 weeks straight (6/6) - Les Émotifs Anonymes 9/12/12, Joueuse 9/17/12, Le Papillon 9/26/12, Potiche 10/4/12, Une femme est une femme 10/11/12, Elle s’appelait Sarah 10/17/12
72. Go to bed by 10PM every night for a week 8/23/12 - 8/30/12
73. Make a donation to a cause I believe in Blood Water Mission 1/1/2013
74. Make a donation to my alma mater 5/20/12
75. Watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day
76. Visit Lancaster, PA
77. Join or start a book club
78. Cook a meal with my grandma 5/12/12
79. Send handwritten notes to friends and family (33/50)
80. Go apple picking
81. Enter a writing competition The Mysterious Undertakings of Mara Dew 8/30/12
82. Send a care package to a soldier I don’t know personally
83. Go to a red carpet premiere (on the sidelines - I’m not that delusional!)
84. Make breakfast al fresco with Uncle Bill 8/5/12
85. Spend a weekend at the beach 8/31/12 - 9/3/12
86. Write a bucket list
87. Make a lamp out of an old-fashioned fire extinguisher (like my mom’s)
88. Go vegetarian for a month
89. Figure out what I want to be when I grow up (ha!)
90. Tour the White House
91. Throw a themed party
92. Eat in an Ethiopian restaurant
93. Try to recreate the scones au nature I had at BAPZ in Toulouse
94. Play paintball
95. Introduce someone to the Dutch market with Sarah 3/2/13
96. Spend the entire day at Boordy Vineyards
97. Go horseback riding
98. Get paid for my writing
99. Sponsor a child
100. Inspire someone else to create their own 101 in 1001 3/6/12 - good luck, Libby!
101. Celebrate completing my 101 in 1001 list!

I've got a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it! How about you? Are you keeping a list of some kind? If not... do!