Blog? What Blog?

You'd think I forgot that I had a blog or something. It's been a few weeks.

Here is a quick update:

 - I'm up to eight miles and $1700 with nine weeks to go until the San Diego Half Marathon. My friends and family have been so supportive and generous... I am a lucky girl. I just signed the recommitment paperwork today, so it's official! One of my favorite parts of this whole running thing has been watching other people get motivated. A couple of coworkers who do not usually run want to start! I have signed up for 5Ks and the Army Ten-Miler with beginners because they have seen that my goal has motivated me to get better.


 - My wonderful husband, Levi, has been asked to speak at the i2 America's User Conference. He teaches a link analysis class to the military, and the main software that he uses is called Analyst's Notebook and was created by i2. They want him to speak about intelligence professionals learning to use this product to catch bad guys. He will be giving a 50-minute presentation on Tuesday, April 6th. I am so proud of him! You can see his name on their website here: http://i2registration2010.gmrmarketing.com/agenda2010.aspx

- Levi's class has been requested by a unit at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, so we will be traveling there in July. Since he does not have an assistant instructor right now, it looks like I will get paid to fly to Hawaii and help him out! I think we will stay for nine or ten days and take advantage of the free flights.

That is about it for now. Thanks for reading!

Snow Days

It has been a snowy February in the DC area. We had a storm on Saturday, February 6th that gave us about 24 inches. We had another storm on Tuesday, February 9th that gave us another 11 inches. We were buried all week and almost everything was closed. We were able to make it into work for a few hours before it started snowing on Tuesday, and again on Friday. I did not know cabin fever until I spent almost an entire week in the house!

You would think that I would have seen it as an opportunity to get things done. I cleaned the house a few times, ran on my neighbor's treadmill once, and did an iota of homework. Besides that, it was the laziest week that I have ever had. When the roads were clear and we were allowed to go out into the world, I was still scrambling to get homework done before the due date. The Snow Week also would have been a good time for me to get sick. No, I even put that off until it was good weather.

One day the electricity went out in our neighborhood for twelve hours. It wasn't so bad during the daylight hours. I could still cook on our gas stove. By nightfall it was starting to get cold in the house so we joined our neighbors around a firepit in the Brown's backyard. We had a little wind-up radio set on a classic rock station, and we sat around and talked for hours.

Another day we walked to our favorite Peruvian chicken restaurant for lunch because the roads were too bad to drive. Everyone was walking in the road since the sidewalks were covered with snow and ice. It was a sunny, cold day, and everyone in the neighborhood needed to get out of the house. There were families walking down the middle of the street pulling kids on sleds to the grocery store and walking their dogs in the knee-deep snow.

During the snow days Levi and I played board games together and with our neighbors. We cooked and baked and watched movies and took naps. It was a forced vacation in our house. As happy as I am to be free again, we really had a lot of fun trying to think of things to do.

Always on the Defensive

It's no secret that I tend to get defensive when I am criticized. I don't accept constructive criticism from loved ones very well. I can take it from coworkers and supervisors, only because I will wait until I am at home to get defensive about it.

In my defense (ha ha), after I step back and think about things I am a perfectly pleasant person again. I just need a chance to see the big picture, understand that I am blowing things out of proportion and that criticism does not mean that the criticizer thinks I am always wrong/terrible at my job/ugly/stupid/mean.

I think that, to an extent, this is fairly normal human behavior. Mine just seems to go a little farther because I happen to work with my husband. I love almost every aspect of this arrangement. Seriously, it is fantastic 97% of the time.

The 1% that I do not always love is when I want to leave work and Levi doesn't, or when he wants to leave but I want to finish something, but we have to drive together because we carpool. That is not a big deal and is very rare. Plus he is really accommodating in situations like that. (I am a little more impatient.) Other couples say that they would not be able to spend that much time with each other, but that is not a problem for us.

The 2% that is sometimes an issue is this defensiveness issue. When I complete a project at work and a coworker makes a suggestion, I have no problem taking that suggestion and either implementing it or "taking it into consideration," which means mentally telling them to go to hell and deleting their email.

However, when Levi makes a suggestion about my work I get defensive and want to rip his head off. Let me be perfectly clear that he is a smart man and makes very valid comments and suggestions. This is my own weird personality flaw showing itself to the world. I mean, I don't even understand it myself. What do I want him to do? Only give me praise? If he really thinks that something can be done in a more efficient manner, he should definitely tell me, just like he would tell anyone else in the office.

I know that I can't simply stop being defensive overnight. So the first step of my stop-being-an-idiot process is to keep it under wraps. When Levi says, "that looks great, but you should probably include blah blah blah in paragraph five," I need to keep my lips firmly closed, nod my head, and walk away. I can be defensive in my head for the next two hours if I want to, but he will not know it.

If I can accomplish that for a week or so, my next step will be to verbally acknowledge his suggestion. No agreeing or disagreeing, just repeating it back to him without using a bratty tone. Um... let's see if I can get through step one first.

Check out my Team in Training Fundraising Website!

Like I said in my previous post, I registered for the San Diego 1/2 marathon yesterday through Team in Training. Last night they sent me a link to my fundraising website!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/rnr10/calilee

Commitment Officially Made

This morning I faxed in my paperwork to join Team in Training (TNT) for the San Diego Rock 'n Roll 1/2 marathon on June 6th. The kickoff party is this Saturday, so pretty soon I'll have a training team and an honored teammate and a training schedule. I am so excited to really get into this. I am even more excited for it to warm up outside so I can run on something other than a treadmill without wanting to die.

Speaking of running, I hit 5 1/2 miles on Saturday, which is another record for me. I enjoy building up mileage a little each weekend. The 3 mile runs during the week are nice, but I don't walk away feeling like I am Superwoman. Doing better at each distance run, however, definitely gives me that feeling. Let's see how long it takes me to Superwoman it all the way up to 13.

Now that my registration paperwork is turned in, TNT will create a fundraising website for me within the next few days. My fundraising (aka badgering, begging, guilting, etc.) will be starting very soon. I plan to hit up family, friends, Facebook friends, coworkers, my neighbors, people in the neighborhood I grew up in, my mom's coworkers, my friends' parents, and everyone else I can possibly think of. Get ready with your checkbook. :)

Party Like You Are Eight Years Old

There are a few holidays each year that usually end up being kind of a let down. My birthday is one of them, because it is on New Year's Day. The night before is almost always a great time, but no one wants to do anything on January 1st. I opened all of my gifts at Christmas, everything is closed, movies are sold out, it's cold outside, and hangovers abound. Generally not the best day.

Another disappointing one is Valentine's Day. I really don't know many adults who love, or even like, February 14. We are all obligated to spend money on each other and find creative gifts. It is a pain to take your significant other out because the restaurants are packed. Really, Valentine's Day hasn't been fun since we made cardboard mailboxes and took home class name lists and made cards for everyone and stuffed our favorite candy in the envelope. You always put more candy in the envelope for your best friends and that cute boy in your class. Those were the days!

I decided to bring that back this year. On Saturday, February 13 we are going to have a Valentine's Day party, grade school style. All of our friends should use the creative side of their brain and decorate a box, then bring cards for everyone (including candy, of course). I'll make food and cupcakes and buy a few bottles of champagne.

If this party ends up being a good time, maybe we can make it a tradition. Kind of like my new birthday brunch tradition to make January 1st a little better.

52 Adventures

My friend Aline introduced me to a blog called The Year of 52 Adventures (http://yearof52adventures.com/). A woman named Kimberly started a blog challenging people to have an adventure every week in 2010 and write about it. We are three weeks in and the blog is already very entertaining and exciting.

It is impossible to read something like that and not want to try it out myself. I am a little late, but last night I started making a list of all of the things that I would like to do this year. I don't want to plan out all of my weeks, because I am hoping that some of my adventures will be spontaneous and unexpected.

I have been keeping up with the year so far without even really trying. For the first three weeks of my year of adventures, I:

Ran 5 miles for the first time
Went to a ballroom class
Ate fondue

So far, my plans for the next 49 weeks consist of big, medium and small plans for adventure. Keep in mind, all of these adventures will be firsts for me. Hence the "adventure" part.

Bake a cake
Sew a quilt top
Take a cooking class
Run 10 miles
Run a 1/2 marathon
Go to New Orleans
Go to Six Flags in New Jersey
Graduate from college

I am open to suggestions! I would also love to hear any of your lists if you decide to participate in the 52 weeks of adventures.