Hi, My Name is Dora

Some days, I wonder. Really, I do. I wonder about the mysteries of life. I wonder what I need to do. I wonder why I do the things I do... or don't do. And I wonder, especially lately, how I forget some things.

For EXAMPLE -- I was chaperoning at a Stake Youth event for church a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of a new thing. I hadn't chaperoned before. And I was a little flustered with all these young teens in my car. That was new too. And I was driving somewhere I'd never been before. And maybe it'd been a long week (we'll just say it was). Well we got there. All the girls got out and enjoyed the hamburgers and got ready for the pool party. I sat down and started to chat with one of my fellow YW leaders, Debbie. Momentarily, she left me. Moments after that, my cell phone rang.

Debbie: "Sharon?"
Sharon: "Yeah."
Debbie: "Did you know you left your car running?"
Sharon: "Are you serious?"
Debbie: "Yeah. It's running."
Sharon: "No."
Debbie: "Yeah. It's totally running. Do you want me to take your keys out and bring them to you."
Sharon: "Um... Yes?"

So I don't think I've ever done that before. I wonder how on earth I did it. There's a certain method, a kind of ritual, we each have to systematically park, get out of, and leave a car. I do it every day.... multiple times. And for me, that ritual usually entails important steps, such as turning off the engine, taking the keys out of the ignition and locking the door behind me as I leave. I skipped ALL of those steps. It's a wonder I was able to make it OUT of the car, all things considered. I mean, really!

But like I said, it was just that once. Right? I was totally out of my element. I was thrown off! No big deal.

Well, maybe. But then something else happened:

A few weeks ago, Ben and I went to go see the last Harry Potter. I love Harry Potter. I've read the whole series. Only once, of course, but I enjoyed that one time with each book immensely like a gorging addict. After we saw this last Harry Potter movie, Ben (who has not read the books) asked me how it all ends. And I thought. And then I thought some more. Then I replied I didn't know. He assailed me for being a liar. How could I refuse to tell him!?! Keep him in the dark?! How cruel could I be?!? But I protested to his accusations and stated over and over again, as honestly as I could, that I couldn't remember at all how it ended. I remember enjoying reading the last book. But I couldn't remember for the life me how the story went. Odd. I HAD read it, after all. You'd think I'd remember SOMETHING.

To remedy this problem, this week I went back and I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is a rare thing for me to do. It's normally hard for me to have patience with rereading a book because I am so familiar with the sentences. I just end up breezing over the whole thing because I pretty much know it already and thus have a general policy to not read books twice. But since I had this unmistakable case of amnesia in regards to this particular book, I made an exception. Even so, I had a sneaking suspicion it would all come back to me as I went through the chapters, just like reconnecting with an old friend.

I Couldn't have been more wrong. SHOCKING! The whole book ending was totally shocking ALL OVER AGAIN, as I'm sure it was shocking to me the first time. It was just like th first time (though I can't really remember that either. Go figure)! I couldn't believe I'd forgotten that story! Those twists! That's crazy. I'm crazy.

Thus, I wonder some days. As I pondered over these to recent mental mishaps, I remembered seeing Finding Nemo on TV a couple weeks ago. Ah, Dora. Now there's a character I suddenly find myself able to truly identify with.

Top Ten Reasons To Be a Big Banker

10. People want to give you their money.

9. As you recite your self-affirmations each morning, you can say with conviction, "You are too big to fail." The government agrees with you.

8. Sheryl Crowe will play at your business party.

7. You just bought Hugh Heffner's house on the cheap and surprise, surprise, the price tag came with a bonus package of 3 playmates, included with purchase.

6. Your employer promises you bonuses without you having to do anything at all. You can even do them harm, and they will still give you the money.

5. The government will also give you lots of money to do whatever you want with, and will then feign "frustration" later at their "surprising" inability to tell you how to use it.

4. Getting sued is no big deal. It turns out, settling for $15 million isn't so bad when you're subtracting it from $4 billion.

3. If you should feel animosity and hatred from the entire US population, you can always buy a small country of your own to rule and move there.

2. If your branch down-sizes, you can always go to Plan B -- a hot new seminar series -- how Bernie got away with it for so long, and how you can too.

1. Shareholders have an inability to discern the difference between being a top talent and being overpaid, but think that both are good, thus ensuring that you will never have to go to Plan B.

Banks are poopy. I want my money back.

Weekly Word, "Albatross"

Albatross
Function: noun
Definitions:
1) any of a family (Diomedeidae) of large web-footed seabirds that have long slender wings, are excellent gliders, and include the largest seabirds
2) a : something that causes persistent deep concern or anxiety b : something that greatly hinders accomplishment: encumbrance

I read this in an article that was describing how home mortgages may now seem to their owners. Oh, this poor, sad little economy. In the middle of all this, it makes me kinda grateful I never had much to lose. You can't lose what you don't have.

Can anybody think of a more inspiring, or at least funny, way of using that word? I like it. But I prefer not to dwell on it in its current context. Help a sister out, will ya?

When "Just Do It" Doesn't Get It Done

I know you're all dying to know how it's going with the whole running gig. Ok, so you're not. Too bad. It's my blog. Mine and Jefita's, I mean.

Well, I've been up and down and all around -- literally and figuratively. My last blog post on running was coming after a high of just having completed a 10.5 mile long run without having stopped. Nike's mantra was working for me. I told myself I would do it, I tried and I conquered.

Unfortunately, the mantra became nothing more than a gimmick the next week. I'd set out to increase my miles to 13. To my disappointment, I only got to 10.5. And I walked part of it. Not only did I not improve, but I did worse. Sad? To say the least. I felt pretty discouraged and as I surmised, discouragement is totally toxic. If I couldn't "Just Do It", how was I going to get it done?

Well, the next couple weeks I didn't train so hard. Not all because of discouragement -- I had a family reunion the week after that run. I did run once, but I really thought better of it on most days and decided I was going to primarily vacation and visit with my family (the least I could do since they flew in from Europe and the West Coast and Ben & I drove 15 stinking hours just so we could all be in the same place for a while). So I didn't do much running. The week after that I got myself to the gym, but I only ran once and did cross training instead on the other days. My legs felt so tired still. And I didn't do a long run on the weekend. I didn't want to. I wasn't motivated. As I sat back and nursed my fatigued legs and my hurt pride, I was thinking of post-poning my marathon entry till the next year. Or maybe I'd just do a 1/2 marathon again....

Well, I've been mulling it over. And I talked to a few fellow runners. And I got some advice. And I learned/remembered a few things. 1) We all have good weeks and bad weeks. Just because I had one, terrible, long run doesn't mean I'm finished. Who knew?! 2) I need to run fewer freaking hills!!! for peat sakes. I really am going up and down on every road all the time. They are huge and they are everywhere around our neighborhood. And they are so unforgiving. A lovely friend from my church, Maura, recommended a nice stretch of road that is good, long and totally flat just 1 1/2 miles away from my home.

So I decided I could give it another go. However, I did a few things differently. After all, failing once was bad enough. If I failed to run 13 miles twice, it was going to be a rough blow. I had to give myself as much room for success as possible.

1) I divided to conquer -- Ok, I didn't really plan this. It just kinda worked out this way. But we can pretend it was all part of my brilliant training scheme. I was invited to run with some friends in a local 5k, so I did. But I ran it kinda fast because I'm kinda stupid and very competitive. It's great for race times, but not so good if you want to run long. So I did that in the am and when I got done, I could feel that my legs needed to rest before I did more. So I tried for the other 10 miles around 6pm that night.

2) I got rid of the a majority of the hills and worked that new fabulous flat road into my route. It was so HEAVENLY. I LOVE jogging on flat ground. I'd all but forgotten how nice, friendly and easy it is.

3) I skipped cross-training that week. I needed all my energy for the task at hand.

Well, it worked. I did it. Granted, it was in portions. But it WAS within 24 hours. That's a start. So maybe I haven't given up yet.

Another thing I'm rethinking -- all this cross-training. Ok, I was only working it in like once a week. But I think it wears me out a little too much. I might go back to just running 3x's a week and calling it good.

As you can see, training is proving to be a little trickier than I thought. Truth be told, I am not an energizer bunny. I wear out. SO, as I play around with this crazy marathon idea, I'll let you know how it goes.