Recent Revelations

Since I've got all this free time on my hands, I've finally been doing things that I've said I always wanted to do.  Nothing too exciting or spectacular, but I wish I had made more time to do this when I had less free time becuase it would have made every boring moment in my life much more better.

1) Reading for pleasure:  Since I've been out of school, I've read at least 10 books for pleasure, which was probably more than I read over the entire course of college.  My usual excuse was that I had so much to read for classes that reading anything would make my mind explode, but I think it probably would have allowed me to put life into perspective.  At the very least, it certainly would have sparked my imagination. 

Recommendations from this reading cycle include Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day and Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life. 

2) Discovering new music:  I always, always say I want to do this, but find it easier to pop on iTunes than go to a music store and pick out something new, interesting, or obscure.  I've recently fallen in love with Pandora Radio and subsequently have discovered several new bands as a result. 

Recommendations for this listening cycle include The National, Band of Horses, Joni Mitchell, The Sea and Cake, Nick Drake, and Delta Spirit.

3) Trying new foods: I went to Hodad's in OB today and had a sloppy yet totally delicious cheeseburger and fries.  The atmosphere was super cool -- beachy and surf bum-ish office breaktime kind of place.  I'd always heard it was amazing but never found the time to get down there and actually check it outt  I'm looking to try out Ethiopian food in San Diego for my next venture.  Anyone interested in coming along? :)

4) Exercising:  I used to be a pretty avid runner in high school, participating on varsity cross country and track.  I was at a point where I could run 10 miles without even thinking about it, and I totally took my fitness for granted.  As college came, I definitely put on the freshman 15 plus some.  I found it easy to make excuses for doing school work over going to the school's gym and subsequently fell out of shape.  Because of all my new found free time, I've decided that I'm going to run a half marathon in March.  It's going to be awesome -- the course is in Hollywood, so we get to run past old actors homes and movie backdrops.  Getting back into running has been hard, but I've already noticed a change in fitness after doing this for just a week.  I enlisted a friend to train with me, so I'll have even more motivation, but it makes me really excited to get back into shape and to be proud of my physical abilty once again.

Active Discussion

Anon • May 20th 2012

Chris Jack • November 25th 2008 • Reply
I remember my Pandora phase.

Swimming is good for staying in shape, thats something I really want to do more.

Katy • November 26th 2008 • Reply
Haha, hopefully its not a phase for me, although I think they're selections get pretty repetitive after a while. We'll see how long I last.

I agree, swimming is a great total workout. I've always had much stronger legs than arms so its been hard for me. If thats something you like, you should definitely get out and do it -- it feels so nice after a workout. It may be small, but it's an accomplishment :)