Sunday, March 30, 2014

Subcultures

It still blows my mind how many micro-niches and subcultures there are out there. The most recent of these that has come into my sphere is cloth diapering crazies.

We have been using cloth since birth part time and then full time since about two months.



And it is actually going great (even though we are in a new solid food phase). An added bonus to the cost and environmental benefits has been how cute he looks in a diaper. He can be half dressed but fully stylin'.


Turns out though that there is a black market for limited edition prints and hard to find old styles. Diapers that last from birth to potty training cost about $20 on average but if you have the style from a few years ago it will sell for double or triple or more. A used diaper. For a hundred bucks.

And it goes deeper. Each of the popular brands has a cult following. People trade diapers like baseball cards until they have a full set of the prints released by that brand. I've stumbled into a few Facebook groups but get too freaked out by the fervor. And by the pricing. They all justify the outrageous expense by figuring that they can fleece some other sucker and sell it for what they bought it for. One brand only stocks a certain number of diapers each month and people stalk the website just hoping I get a hold of one. Used versions of some of thee go for hundreds of dollars.

I'm not entirely sure what my point is. I just don't have many people to share my flabbergastedness with. In some ways it makes me question my passion for things. There just isn't anything that I've been in to so deeply. No boy bands, no souvenir collection, no complete set of anything.

I think I'm glad that cloth diapers weren't what sparked that nutso in me but I hope it isn't because I lack passion in general.

Here is the closest I've come to craziness. We didn't need another diaper but my favorite brand released this fun print and I couldn't help it.



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Monday, March 24, 2014

Mercer Island Half 2014

I like this race for a few simple reasons.
1. Timing for it is good cause it makes you start training right away in the new year.
2. It is cheap and well orchestrated.
3. It is pretty cool to circumnavigate the island on foot.



I dislike it for mostly one reason:



So many dang hills!

I did the barest of bare bone training for this one because I have been sick so often this year. But I did get in all of my long runs. Most of them were with my super sweet and adorable run buddy (he did up to seven miles). I also routinely got my main two short weekday runs in thanks to support from my super sweet and adorable husband.

Thanks to this minimal training and my long break from running this year all of my training runs were pretty dang slow.

So I had prepared myself for a slowish time on race day.

I got to the start and had lovely messages of encouragement from friends. I used the bathroom twice and realized i'd left my hat in the car but was too lazy to go back for it.




It was shaping up to be a great day for a run. Pretty chilly but clear and blue skies.

Once I crossed the start line it took me a mile or two to get in the groove but I was surprising myself with a pretty good pace. So then I decided to do something I haven't done in a half before, not worry about the end miles. I usually am worried i'll tire myself out or make my tummy issues bad by going too fast. But yesterday I thought, "fuck it."

So I kept running, up all the freaking hills and was at about a 10min pace for the first nine miles. I think the 10k split was even close to my 10k PR. Then I felt kinda tired and kind of heavy stomached.

I took the cliff shot that they were handing out at mile nine and it helped a bit.

The last two miles of this course SUCK. A very long hill and then lots of rolls until the uphill finish line. That hurt.

My time wasn't a pr but was my second best half time (by 15 seconds).

I felt like crap the rest of the day and ate like a mad woman.

Michael asked me in January what my goals were for this run. I told him I wanted to finish it and have completed training while still losing weight. So I did meet that goal. I am down about ten pounds since the first of the year but still have five or six baby pounds to go. I never got a good handle on weight loss while running and nursing. It was very complicated. So I am glad to turn down the intensity of exercise and focus on my eating habits.

All in all I am really happy with how everything turned out and I could not have asked for better weather for it.


Here are a few pictures of my support crew (not the cat, he did very little)








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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Sad trumpet

So after thirty two years of haircuts by my mom or no haircuts at all I finally hunted down a curly salon and stylist and got my hair cut in November. I thought it was great but it was spendy. So I've been talking myself into going back and , after reviewing a picture from friends' wedding nearly three years ago and admiring my hair, I was going to get a keratin treatment and cut by the nice woman who'd helped me before.

I called the salon and she doesn't work there anymore.




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Friday, March 7, 2014

Survivalist

It sounds a little too much like I'm a doomsday-ist but, thanks to my time as a Red Cross volunteer, I really think it is important to have an emergency kit at home. Now, I am lazy and cheap and forgetful so they haven't always been the most thorough but I've always had at least a small one.

Michael and I got this one as a wedding gift (we registered for it and our only Mormon guests gifted it).



This is pretty damn basic but at least it was something.

When Andrew was born I realized we needed to bump up our game and put together a kit for him.

This was an interesting mental exercise. A baby's physical needs change so amazingly fast. How do you put together a kit that will meet basic baby needs but have it last for a while so that you don't need to keep updating it (cause you won't).

What I came up with is not terribly thorough, takes up a lot of space and is still missing things I think are essential but I actually think it is kinda cool.




We kept our back pack and added a change of pants for Michael and me, an emergency whistle, a few day supply of baby food, a change for Andrew (way too big now but would work in a pinch and hopefully won't be necessary ever). I also threw in a little cat food cause we had it and I thought Michael would be happy to see that.


A few days supply of too big now diapers, wipes, a gallon of baby water, a kids sleeping bag, sundry toiletries, matches and an extra pair of eyeglasses for me.

This could use a lot of things like cash, more water, probably more food but I'm happy to have some semblance of a kit that includes my baby. May it all go to donation because it isn't necessary.

Everything fit into a storage bin and lives near an exit.

Hope all my readers have some sort of kit somewhere they can locate.

This is the end of my PSA Friday.

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