Moleskine weekly planner

When I was in high school and college I used those spiral bound weekly planners for both my assignments and occasional notes. Somewhere along the way I decided to separate the schoolwork from everything else. And now years later I'm much more interested in the everything else than whether today is the 14th anniversary of a chemistry test I took.

I've lamented that I always wish that I blogged more but it can be hard to record each day without it all being mundane. Thus returns our friend the weekly planner, and to really do it up nice I've upgraded to the Moleskine version. I actually found and purchased this version way back in August at Book People in Austin. I hadn't seen one before in stores and couldn't bear to put it down. I had just recovered my college renditions of these while packing and so many memories came with them.

I bought the full size version since it will most likely live on my nightstand, but they come in pocket, large and extra large sizes as well as soft and hard cover. All the possibilities are at your fingertips in their online catalog. I would ask Barnes & Noble if they can order the one you want if they don't have it in stock.

It doesn't take much. Just a few lines to remind you if that was the day you stubbed your toe, bought a dog, cried all day, went on a trip, had a massive headache. I can't wait for 2009 to get back into the swing of it!

Millions of words in the palm of my hand

It's a good day when the cars never leave the driveway but you feel like you got a ton of stuff done. I vacuumed/swept, did all my laundry (empty hampers! can I get an AMEN?), found a home for the 8452 spools of embroidery thread in my sewing room, helped my mother put up new curtains and made turkey hash for dinner. I also re-read a book this weekend. I'm not a re-reader. Life is short and with so many great books out there still left unread, I can't waste time going back and reading something a second time! But I borrowed Curtis' Kindle over the weekend to see how I would like it and he had Stephen King's Dark Tower series there just calling my name. I really enjoyed the series the first time but it's been awhile and I wanted to see if it still held its charm for me.

The first book isn't that long, but it's been a long time since I've finished a book in two days so that's saying something. I read the Godfather in a single day as a teenager but lately most books I read take me weeks months to finish.

I really enjoyed the Kindle and soon got over it's 1990s styling. It's not back-lit so it didn't strain my eyes. I also liked that I could change the font size on the fly while reading. I was a 3 on a scale of 1-6 most of the time but while lying in bed fighting off sleepiness I cranked it up all the way to 6. Instead of pages, it has locations (basically a longer number that indicates how far along you are in the work), but regardless of font size my location is the same as yours in the same book so we can reference them.

You can highlight passages you want to remember and even send them to yourself as "clippings". You can look up any words in the built-in dictionary (something I always say I'll do while reading a paper book but never do) and you can add your own notes in the "margin" as well. The best feature, though, is on Saturday mornings when Rich wants to keep sleeping while using me as a body pillow I can extract one arm enough to hold the Kindle whereas a paperback would have never survived. It's ironic that the paper book I'm reading right now isn't available on Kindle, so I'll have to soldier through that one. But I really do believe I'll read more with a Kindle than with paper books.

Rich says he likes the feel, smell and heft of a book in his hands. He likes seeing them on his shelves as momentos of the experience he had with them. But for me even if it's a book I love (like Gunslinger) I just see it taking up a lot of space in our house versus a few megabytes on a hard drive somewhere. I compare it to when we used to keep all our CDs out on shelves to play. It was nice to browse them or for visitors to come over and peruse our music tastes. But the cases busted and we lost part of the box sets in the house somewhere and if we scratched one in the car, it was a total loss. Now everything is in iTunes and streamed throughout the house or my iPhone. Now I'm annoyed if I get a CD in a case because I have to figure out where I'm going to store it after I get it on iTunes and backed up.

The one advantage of a hard copy is it's a lot easier to share with others. Our paperback Stephen King books we can dole out to all our friends, but I can't mail you my Kindle and keep reading on my own. I can only imagine my back would have been much happier in school if I had the complete works of Shakespeare in a 10 ounce package versus the SpineTwister 9000 tomb I carried around.

Starts with a single step

I waited until this morning to try my first outing as part of the Couch to 5K program. Because Mollie was being Super Spastic Dog of Doom, I decided she could come along. I bundled up in my gloves, hat and headphones and we headed out the door. The program starts out with a five minute warm up. I had downloaded the MP3 files from Robert Ullrey, figuring it would be helpful to have the queues from him instead of trying to time myself while also dealing with the dog. Robert has a very mellow voice and he calmly narrates your entire workout with a catchy techno backdrop.

We got to our first 60 second running and after some instructions Robert blurted out "Ready? Go!". I had to remind the dog that we were jogging and not SPRINTING for 60 seconds, but she eventually acquiesced. Robert told us it was time to slow back to our brisk walk and it was hard to believe the 60 seconds were over already. I admit, I was happy to go back to walking for the moment, but this workout seemed like it was going to be a piece of cake. I was already wondering if I could have just skipped to Week Two.

Robert signaled for the second 60 second run and I decided to run but not go all out like the first time. We still had a long ways to go. This time the running didn't come as easy, but I was determined that this workout wasn't going to get the best of me. I'm strong. I'm relatively fit. I can do this. Robert congratulated me on my second interval done and I realized I had a tiny stitch in my side so I was just as happy to take the break. I welcomed the slower pace.

Robert warned to keep myself "loose" and kicked off another 60 second interval, or so he claimed. I swear those 60 seconds felt like an hour. My side still hurt and I wanted to quit. Had it not been for Robert and the promise of just 60 agonizing seconds, I would have quit. I couldn't wait for the 90 second "brisk walk" to hold my side and mosey along like a wounded antelope.

Those 90 seconds flew by and Robert said it was time to run again (and that I was doing great). Mollie was more than happy to oblige, but I wanted nothing to do with this. As I got 15 seconds into the run, I was cursing with every exhale. Fuck the dog with her long legs and happy smile. Fuck this running idea. Fuck these new shoes. Fuck you, Robert Ullney. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. With each stride the techno beat kept going and I was mad as all get out, but I trudged on. Robert and the dog weren't worried.

The next two intervals were pretty much the same, Robert telling me how great I was doing and reminding me to stay "loose", the dog bouncing along as fast as my pace would let her and looking pretty "loose" herself, and me heaving but obediently putting one foot in front of another. My heart was pounding and I idly contemplated if it could come out of my chest on its own like that scene from Indiana Jones.

At that point, the dog and I turned a corner in the neighborhood and it was finally time to rest again. Robert told me I should be feeling the effects of my run (boy howdy was I) but I shouldn't be tired or out of breath. I realized I wasn't feeling as horrible as I was five minutes before. The stitch was still there, but it wasn't the stabbing pain anymore. I was starting to get the hang of this whole running thing. I was still cursing but it was more of a good natured "shit, man" and lacked the venom of before.

We continued on throughout the neighborhood and it got a little easier. I was getting more tired, but my body was putting up less of a fight to the whole concept and Robert continued telling me how it would be tough but I could do it. He had faith in me and the dog made it look easy. Right about the time I started to wonder how many more of these we'd have to do, he announced we were on our last interval so I should "go for it." I pulled my hat down, loosened the dog's leash and took off.

Holy shit what was I thinking? I'm going to fall over in a heap and the dog is going to drag me into the gutter. I'll have to use the last of my breathe to call Rich to retrieve me. Robert told me it was my last 20 seconds, though, and that I could make it. I grimaced and ran the longest 20 seconds of my life.

And then it was all over. Suddenly we were listening to new age music and Robert was telling me it was time for my five minute cool down. I felt bad saying all those horrible things about him when he had so much faith in me all along. I calmly walked my last five minutes toward the house and finished my workout perfectly at the corner of our yard.

When I tracked it on Google maps, I had done 2.16 miles. By the time I got in the house, I was feeling pretty good. Maybe I would enjoy this after all, or at least not loathe it. I'm not sure if I'll ever run a thousand miles, but this first single step didn't kill me and we'll see if it gets better or worse by Monday.