Whoever Thought to Do THAT?

My daughter and her best friend brought home some Oreos from the store today, but they weren't regular old Oreos.  They were "Fireworks" Oreos.  Someone got the idea to mix generic "Pop Rocks" candies into the creamy white filling.  They were interesting and tasted good, although I think I still prefer good old Double-Stuf.

This got me to thinking about how many times I've thought, "Whoever thought of doing THAT?"

Here are a few others that immediately come to mind:

Lobster.  I always say it must have been a very hungry person who took a look at that creature and thought, "I wonder what THAT tastes like!"

Snow Downhill Mountain Biking.  Every time I see this extreme sport, I wonder how it evolved.  Was a mountain biker no longer challenged by plain, steep trails or slopes?

Ribbon Acrobatics.  I love watching these incredible athletes/artists as much as anyone.  Still, who got the idea "let's tie a ribbon really high up there and tie the other end to me and I'll see what I can do!"

Chili/Dark Chocolate bars (yummy, BTW)
Hot sauce or ketchup on scrambled eggs  (I now always eat my eggs with hot sauce!)
Freestyle skiing (This I will never do)
American Ninja Warrior  (Nor this)

We also see all kinds of examples of "whatever made someone think to do that" that didn't turn out so well.  The pictures and videos go viral and people get a big laugh out of them (although it's never funny if someone got seriously hurt.)

It would never have occurred to me to put Pop Rocks into Oreo stuffing.  My lack of vision may be the reason I am not an entrepreneur or a multi-millionaire.  (However, it could also be one reason I am still alive.)

Have you ever wondered what made someone think to do a particular thing?  Please share, if you like!

May we all make good food and exercise choices today, whether conventional, unusual, or extreme.  (No Firework Oreos or Ribbon Acrobatics are in my plan today.)

I Feel Good?

I just looked up the results from yesterday's 10K.  One neat thing the local running shop (which times the events) does now is provide a link to video footage of your finish.  It links directly to the time you come in, so you don't even have to search for yourself.  Here I am:

Jeanne's 10K finish

Notice the song playing?  James Brown's "I Feel Good."

I said in my blog yesterday how hard I had to work to keep that 8:02-minute mile pace for 6+ miles.  As I approached the finish line, I remember laughing silently to myself, thinking, "This is the wrong song for me!  I don't feel good!"  I was very glad to cross that finish line.

What you can't see from the race finish footage is what we look like after leaving the chip mat finish area.  I stopped, bent over, and just BREATHED.  I took deep breaths and blew them out slowly and my heart rate came down.  Within 20-30 seconds, I felt much better and started looking around for other people I know.

The fact that I was able to recover so quickly from my exertion means that, even at the very finish, I didn't feel bad.  I often ask myself when I'm working hard, "Do I feel bad or do I just feel tired?"  It's okay to feel tired!  But there's a "good" tired and a "bad" tired.

Some things I assess when I'm running:
Do I have a side stitch?  (If yes - slow down or walk a while)
Do I have goosebumps when I'm hot?  (If yes - slow down a LOT, walk, drink fluids, dump water on yourself - you could have heat exhaustion and be on your way to something worse)
Am I lightheaded or dizzy?  (If yes - stop and rest!!)

There are probably more things to consider that I hope you will share in the comments.

Here's a "before" and "after" picture.  I'm sure you can tell which is which, but what strikes me is that in both of them, I look like I FEEL GOOD!!!!  (da na na na na na na!)

Explore Your Limits

On Easter afternoon, I offered to take my daughter hiking to a popular spot just off the Blue Ridge Parkway called The Devil's Marbleyard.

It's a little over a mile hike up to the Marbleyard.  If you're in reasonably good shape, the hike is not bad at all.  Once you get to the Marbleyard, however, it's no longer a hike.  It's a "scramble" up the boulders.  However, "scramble" is a relative term.  For someone like me, who doesn't like climbing or unsure footing, this was a real test of my limits.

My daughter has always been a climber and just bloop, bloop, bloop, scampered up the rocks.  She had to keep waiting for me.  I probably looked like a strange creature as I slowly, methodically crawled/hauled myself up, using my arms and legs and sometimes even my rear end.  Once I caught up to my daughter, off she'd go again, often on just two legs.

After a good 30-45 minutes (I'm guessing) of climbing, I realized my arms were starting to ache a bit.  Since I have a concert in a month and I've just recovered from a stress fracture and tendinitis, I knew I had reached my limit.  However, my daughter was doing great and I knew she wanted to get to the top for the breathtaking view.

It was hard to let my 15-year-old daughter continue to climb on her own, but I did.  She was out of my sight for quite a while, but she texted me from time to time to let me know she was fine.  There were a few other climbers there, so it was good to know she wasn't alone up there.  Plus, I figured at her age, she is probably just as capable as I am - or even more so - of taking care of herself.  She knew to choose her route carefully and to keep an eye out for snakes.

Everyone's got their limits.

My grandmother would never have even taken my mother to the Marbleyard.  In my mind, I could hear her saying to me, "Have you got brains????"

My mother would have hiked to the Marbleyard with me, but I doubt would have ever scrambled up the boulders.  And I *really* doubt she would have let me go on alone, especially in the pre-digital age.

I continued to push our family's limits by taking my daughter there and going as far as I could.  I recognized my own limit but allowed my daughter to find hers.  I am really proud that she made it to the top.  That girl's got real potential to do anything she wants, and I can't wait to see where life takes her.

May we all continue to explore our limits and reach our full potential!

Here's a few pictures.  The first one is where I stopped about a third of the way up.  If you look carefully, you can see my daughter a little above the center of the picture, wearing a blue shirt.

Here's the selfie she took from the top.

The Devil's Marbleyard

If you check out this link, it will take you to AllTrails.com where you will see a map and many pictures.  The pictures do not do it justice.  You cannot imagine the size of the boulders and the hillside.  If you ever visit the Natural Bridge area of Blue Ridge Mountains and you enjoy a good climb, this is definitely one of those "must-do" hikes with a big payoff at the end.  I just wouldn't recommend it during or after a rain, as the rocks can be quite slippery.  I am sure I will try it again sometime!

An Unexpected Easter Egg Hunt!

I struggled a bit with motivation getting out to run today, but about 4 PM, I finally got in the car and drove over to the elementary school to walk and run around the track.  As I was walking my warmup, something in the grass caught my eye.  It was an Easter egg.  I picked it up.  Then I noticed another.  I picked it up, too.  Then another, and another...

Soon I had six plastic Easter eggs.  As I walked back to my car with these eggs, I noticed a small pile of open, empty Easter eggs under a bench.  I figured that since yesterday (Friday) was the last day of school before Spring Break, the elementary school must have held an Easter egg hunt and these were the ones that the kids missed.  I grabbed a grocery bag out of my trunk before heading back over to the track, in case there were any more.  I mean, hey, the sun was only going to melt the candy inside, right?  And the first time a mower hit them, what a mess of plastic pieces that would be!

Every time I circled the track, I found a few more eggs.  Most of them were at the edge of the track on the far side of the field, and a few were by the marching band's equipment trailer (again, far from the school.)  I felt just like a six-year-old.  It was so much fun wondering if I might find just one more treasure!

I can't remember when I last had that much fun walking a warmup.  The fun feeling lasted throughout my 6-mile run, as you can see.  May we always exercise with the enthusiasm and energy of a child at an Easter Egg Hunt!

Enthusiasm and Energy - Through New Eyes

About seventeen years ago, while I was attending a baby shower, the hostess passed around some index cards on which we were each to write some parenting advice for the new mother-to-be.  I tried to think of a useful tip that she hadn't probably already read in some book or magazine, and I came up empty.  So instead, I thought about being a parent in general and what is wonderful about it.  I wrote:

"The best thing about being a mother is getting to experience everything again for the first time through your children's eyes.  May their enthusiasm for this brand new world be energizing!"

Although it's been a long time since my children were small, I still experience those moments with them.  Recently, my daughter (the "baby," at 15) and I hiked up a local mountain called Sharp Top.  I even posted about it in a blog - "You Have Reached the Top of the Mountain."  I'll link to it at the end.  This wasn't my daughter's first trip up the mountain, but every time we go, she is so excited.  It seems always we see or notice something new, and even though I've seen the magnificent view from the summit many times, sharing it with her makes it even more special.

I got to share another new experience with her last week.  My son's high school Wind Symphony was invited to play at Carnegie Hall.  I wasn't planning to go, but at the last minute - literally, the band had already left on the train hours earlier - I thought to myself, "WHY am I not in New York???"  I asked my daughter, "Would you like to go to New York?"  Well, of course her face completely lit up and she replied, "YES!"  Eighteen hours later, we were on a train heading north for her first ever trip to NYC.

As soon as we emerged from Penn Station onto 34th Street, my daughter took a selfie with the Empire State Building in the background.  Doesn't this make you smile, too?

We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon and had a day and a half to see as much as we could of the city before my son's 8 PM performance the next evening.

She got to experience the tiny rooms of NYC.

First, we went to Rockefeller Center.

Then to the Top of the Rock!

Times Square at night.

The next morning, in a city of over 8 million people, we unexpectedly ran into my son and his band. Amazing.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.

We found our famous "Friends'" apartment building on the corner of Grove & Bedford streets.

You have to eat pizza at least once in New York.  I think this was somewhere on 8th Avenue, north of Times Square.

She got to meet my high school friend Darius, a Broadway actor, currently in the Book of Mormon.

Waiting for another train.

Carnegie Hall!!!  Although every pianist imagines what it would be like to perform here, somehow I think it was an even better feeling seeing my son performing up there in the trumpet section.

Believe it or not, that's not all we did.  We also shopped in Times Square, toured St. Patrick's Cathedral, ate 3 times in Hell's Kitchen (Thai and 2 different bakeries), watched the Today Show being filmed, went to the top of One World Observatory (World Trade Center), ate at the Dead Rabbit in the Financial District, saw the Wall Street Bull & the little defiant girl, saw the NYC Vietnam Memorial (that I didn't even know existed), walked through Central Park, and did a quick tour of the Museum of Natural History.  Whew, I think that's it.

I posted photos on Facebook every step of the way.  Native New Yorkers, including my mother, Brooklyn_Born, were impressed at how much we managed to pack in.  When I look back on it, even I kind of step back and go, "Wow, that *was* a lot," although it didn't seem tiring or rushed at all.  Part of that is probably due to the fact that I'm in good physical shape, but I think the other part of it was the enthusiasm and energy of my daughter.

The enthusiasm of a newbie is contagious, wherever we are.  We want to share it.  Meeting new friends, even if they're not newbies, is equally rejuvenating.  New people and perspectives help us all stay energized.

I think this is why SparkPeople is such a successful site.  In spite of any changes that may occur, the fact is we are all connecting with new friends and newbies every day.  You can't help but be motivated by that.  Personally, I get my "daily spark" from reading blogs, and have been really excited to see a lot of new people featured lately.  

When you find a particular blog that sparks you, please be sure to click "I liked this blog!" so it might reach a wider audience.  Enthusiasm and energy through new eyes and new friends encourages us to experience new things and achieve our dreams!

My older blog:  You Have Reached the Top of the Mountain!

Someone's Gotta Be Last!

I ran a unique kind of race on March 11th.  It's a Predict-Your-Time 4-miler.  You guess what how time it will take you to walk or run it, and the race director writes your name on a big chart.  The race clock starts ticking DOWN starting at 70 minutes.  When your time rolls around, off you go.  You can't wear a watch or timing device.  The idea is that if everyone ran a perfect race, we'd all finish at exactly the same time... 0:00.

Turnout was quite low this year, probably because of the weather - cold and windy.  Only 12 people showed up to run.  They give prizes to the top 10 people who finish closest to 0:00.  They were giving away high school cross country shirts this year that I thought were quite cool.  So my chances were pretty darn good to get one.

Since it was so cold and the wind cut right through my tights, I stayed in the church social hall until it was my turn.  I talked with some of the mothers of the cross country kids.  Suddenly the former race director came in and said, "Jeannie!  What are you doing?  Trying to give everyone a 20 minute head start?"

"What??" I exclaimed.  "Did I miss my start time??"

"Um, yeah!!! By quite a lot!"

I looked at the clock and it was at 29 minutes!  I should have left 10 minutes earlier.

Even in my fittest days, I could not have run this hilly 4-miler course in 29 minutes.  So I decided I would just run normally and see how close I'd finish to +10:00, which would mean a perfectly predicted pace for me.

I wound up running faster than I thought and finished at +8:25.  So that was good news to me, that I did better than I thought I could.  But it still put me in absolutely last place, by quite a bit, being off by over 8 minutes.

If you ever visit running forums or boards and read race reports, you might see the acronym "DFL."  I was DFL.  The D stands for "dead" and the L stands for "last."  I think you can figure out what the F stands for.  Obviously, whoever coined that term didn't like being last.

So I was DFL.  So I didn't get a T-shirt.  But you know what?  I was absolutely fine finishing last.  Somebody's got to be last.  There's nothing wrong with it.  I had a wonderful run and it was a beautiful day.  I was thankful that I was physically able to be out there.  I think we need to put a positive spin on the runners' acronym.  How about: "Delightedly, Fabulously Last!"

Ordinary People

This blog isn't about anything health-related.  It's just something funny I remembered as I went through photos on my hard drive.

Last summer, I was with my husband in the elevator of the Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, headed down to the first floor, on our way to attend the finals of the Cliburn Amateur Piano Competition.  Since I hadn't made the cut for the final six, I hadn't had to rehearse with the Fort Worth Symphony the day before.  So we spent that day doing other things in the area.

The elevator stopped and a man and woman got in.  The man turned to me and said, "I really enjoyed your performances."  I thanked him and then asked, "Are you going to the finals tonight?"

His reply was, "I'm conducting the concert."

😳

Of course, I had seen his bio and photo in the Cliburn competition booklet, but I guess I hadn't committed it to memory.  I was so embarrassed!  I think I covered pretty well, saying, "Oh my gosh, of COURSE you are.  I can't believe I didn't recognize you!"  He was very gracious and we chatted all the way to the concert hall, where my husband took my picture with him.

Then a few months later, I was surfing randomly on the Internet, and who should pop up in an entertainment story but this man.  Oh my gosh, not only is he a Julliard-trained conductor... but he's a Julliard-trained actor and has been on a bunch of TV shows, including Criminal Minds, where he plays the character "Steven Walker."  He was also "Harry" in the movie La La Land.

Am I uninformed regarding the entertainment world or what?  I laughed at my ignorance.  Not only didn't I realize he was the conductor, but I didn't know he was on TV.  I had been in the presence of a pretty famous actor and I had no idea.

We've all heard it said, "They're regular people just like you and me" or "They also put their pants on one leg at a time."  In that elevator, he seemed just like anybody else.

So here's my picture with the actor, Damon Gupton, although at the time I thought he was simply "the maestro."

Love the Seagulls!

You know how much I hate the cold.  Well, I'm here to tell you to forget Punxsutawney Phil's forecast this year!  6 more weeks of winter?  Nope, I disagree.  And it's all because of the seagulls.

I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and look what I found!

This doesn't begin to show how many were actually here.

You might wonder, "Are those mountains in the background?"  Why yes, they are.  We live in Central Virginia in the shadow of the Blue Ridge.  Those mountains are 15 minutes away.  So you might wonder why we've got seagulls here.  I've wondered that, myself.

I've heard they live at Smith Mountain Lake in the warmer months.  My parents live at the lake, but I don't think I've ever seen the gulls when visiting their house.  Maybe they prefer more touristy locations where people feed them.  I have no idea.

In any case, when I see the seagulls in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, it makes me feel like Spring is just around the corner.

So here's hoping for an early Spring!