Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Month: May 2009

Communication – Then and Now

This, which is a very fine read on it’s own got me thinking, but on a slightly different subject.  It’s something that I’ve discussed with friends on some levels, but I’d like to put it out to the internet as well.  As we’ve become more technologically inclined, levels of communication have definitely changed and evolved from 15 years ago.

Case in point: when I was 15 years old, the options available to me to communicate with someone was to either see them in person, call them, stick a note in their locker, or write them a letter and mail it.  Considering most of my friends and I went to the same school, it wasn’t much trouble to see someone in person if I wanted to speak with them.  Most of the people I took time to communicate or share with were at least close acquaintances that knew me pretty well.  It was pretty typical to spend a good amount of time that I was not hanging out with one or a group of people either on the phone with a local friend, on the phone with a friend from Chi-town, where I used to live, or writing a personal letter to them.

Fast forward to college, around 10 years ago (Did I really say that?  I am getting so old).  My time was a bit more in demand then trying to do school, work, and theatre, and the internets had become a presence in my life, so the breakdown was a little different.  The most important people got alone time – usually meals or coffee or whatnot.  This was pretty much only for my best friends and boyfriend at the time.  Then, there was group interaction – going out to a party or hanging out with a group at coffee or whatnot.  There were still phone calls and texts, but usually dedicated to the same people that were on the “alone time” level unless they were super short utilitarian ones (making plans to go out, asking a quick question, etc).   I had pretty much stopped writing letters in favor of emails.  At that time, they were still usually personal ones, I didn’t graduate to the bulk “here’s how I’m doing” letters for another few years.  This is also about the time in my life where my friends weren’t only back in Chicago or near me – people had scattered to many different towns and places.

Now, I’ve got friends even more scattered.  I’ve got people I could consider good friends in Chicago, San Diego, Reno, New York, Denver, LA, Portland, Phoenix, Lexington, and I’m sure quite a few other places I’m forgetting.  Seeing them face to face is right out.  I wish I could take that many vacations per year, but yeah, totally not happening.  I wish I could be better about calling these people on the phone to chat and catch up, but the only people I ever call are my parents.  I used to send out nice long personal emails, but I don’t even have time for that anymore.

Beyond the group of local friends I see on a weekly/monthly basis and my parents, my answer to anyone that wants to stay in touch is not my phone number and address, but first my facebook and twitter info, and second my IM and email address.  I have been lucky to have met a seriously large amount of cool people in my life and I’ve always wanted to keep in touch with as many of them as I can.  The disconnect is between my want and my level of effort – I just don’t have the time and energy to spend on the phone catching up or out to dinner with a different old friend each night.  I guess it would be different if I lived in the same area all my life, but I’ve been a midwesterner, a desert gambler gal, an attitude-clad so-cal-ian, and now a southern hippie.  I’ve not traveled like some of the army brat folks I know, but I’ve been around.

I am in love with sites like Facebook/Twitter/Live Journal/etc – as well as the ability to have my own blog.  I think it’s super keen to be able to tell everyone at once today that “Leah is feeling rebellious.  Eff you, I won’t do what you tell me.  Ok, I probably will but I’ll grumble about it.”  And past coworkers, friends from middle school, former gymnastics teammates, and current friends of friends can comment about how dorky I truly am.  It helps to feel close to people who there is no way you could keep in touch with otherwise.  Some folks I’ve actually become close to *because* of the sites, people who were acquaintences but feel more like friends now.  It’s like back when I played MMOs, but with less 2am corpse runs and 6 hour raids.  Bonus!

I’m sure you can argue the downsides, but I’m not really feeling that right now.  I’m just happy that I can know what everyone’s doing and what’s one everyone’s mind whenever they feel like sharing.

What do you think about communication nowadays?  Hate that a personal message for some people is a text?  Love that you can meet and keep in touch with people over the intertubes?

Half Marathon Training, Between Week 5 and 6

If you’ve been following me here this shouldn’t be any surprise, but for the rest of you and for my posterity, here is how last week went:

Monday: 4 mile run and weights at the gym

Check, and check.   Run was good, I’m really liking the morning run.  Weights at the gym SUCKED, I had a headache and it just kept getting worse, plus the gym was so crowded I had to stalk each machine I wanted.  However, I got through it, and I don’t regret pushing through.

Tuesday: yoga and 7×400 track sprints (walk/jog to the track, run 1 lap at a little under 5k pace, jog one lap, repeat 6 more times, then jog/walk home)

Check and not check (right away at least).   This afternoon – happy hour happened.  I skipped my run.  But – I made up for it and did it on Saturday morning so it wasn’t slacking per se, just rescheduling!

Wednesday: DDR and yoga

Check and check.  Was feeling a little rough from the night before, but I got through it.

Thursday: 4 mile run and weights at home

Check and check.  Zliten joined me for both of these!  Poor guy says he’ s still sore from my weights workout.  I told him he didn’t HAVE to keep up with me, but did he listen? Noooo…

Friday: 7 mile run

Check.  I was almost late to work because I got out a bit late, but I did it.  Longest run ever.  First time eating during a run (I probably didn’t have to until I got to the 8 miler, but wanted to practice early).  Luna watermelon moons are yummy!  Believe it or not though, it took some coordination to eat and run.  And I really wanted some water after.  I’m definitely packing the camelback this week.

Saturday: Rest!

Not Check, but on purpose.  I had to make up the intervals from Tuesday and it was actually pretty nice to do them on a weekend morning, watching the kiddies play soccer.  Since we didn’t do an epic ride this week, it was also good to have some activity over the weekend.  I don’t comprehend 2 days of butt-sitting anymore.

Sunday: Rest.

Check.  After derby day festivities, I enjoyed doing a whole lot of nothing.

Total week 4 mileage (running):  19 (plus about a mile of walking)

Week 6 already?  After this week, I’m halfway there?  Crazy…

Monday: 4 mile run and weights at home

Tuesday: yoga and 40 minute tempo run (ouch – that’s 30 mins straight at a breakneck pace)

Wednesday: yoga and 40 mins of DDR

Thursday: 4 mile run and weights at the gym

Friday: 8 mile run

Weekend: Vegas, baby!  Regular training will resume next Wednesday. 🙂

Things I learned last week:

1.  It helps put into perspective how entirely crazy you are when you watch someone else try to rock your workout with you.  Running 4 miles in the morning and doing my weight workout at night is just another Monday or Thursday to me, but seeing Zliten try to get through it opens my eyes how crazy I am – and how much I’ve progressed in the last few years!  Hopefully he will keep at it and be totally crazy with me!

2.  I really missed biking this weekend.  I guess I’m just used to the level of activity I’m getting.  I felt almost a little lazy ONLY doing my running training.

3.  Eating and running takes coordination!  It took me about a mile total to eat the package of moons because I had to get it out of the package, chew it thoroughly and slowly, and swallow it carefully while still breathing properly.  Also – still trying to figure out what to do with them.  In the bra felt funny, in the pants was slipping, so I just held it in my hands but that was annoying.  Maybe I need to designate one outfit my long run outfit and sew a little pocket somewhere?

4.  I am definitely feeling a change this last week in difficulty.  This is hard stuff!  I’m almost up to 20 mile weeks, which is about double what I was running before I started this.  Next week is going to start being really rough though – everything jumps up a little bit and I don’t have any really easy days anymore.  I’m feeling a little intimidated by what the plan has me doing over the next few weeks, but all I can do is get out there and put one foot in front of the other and see how far I can go.  I think I have it in me.

5.  I went into this process really concerned about doing exactly what training I was supposed to do on the proper day.  I’ve gotten a bit lacksidasical about it.  I hope that ends up being ok – though I’m pretty sure as long as I make sure to keep increasing my distance on the long run each week and accumulate some mileage other than that I’ll be fine.

What’s everyone else’s plan for the week?

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