Today was WINDY!

This is me walking to work this morning. The big flat plastic Gristedes bag might as well have been a sail, it tried to carry me away!

Training for the 5k

So I just finished my second day of training for a 5k! At the end of January I'm flying to Vegas for Kendall Tenney's 8th Annual 5k 'Run for a Wish'! I am very excited... I may have attended this run once before... and I may have walked the 1 mile fun walk instead of running the 5k... and everyone might have thought I was a wimp... so this year I'm making up for it!

I have been inspired for this run by three people:
*Firstly, Kendall Tenney, who also happens to be my bro-in-law and all around awesome guy...

*Secondly, my sister and twin Shelby Greer... if she's going to do it, you bet I'm going to do it too! What's better than one skinny twin? TWO!


*And lastly, Brittney Cramer, without whom I would not have been able to tell my roommates I was going "Wogging" tonight.


I've never particularly enjoyed anything about running, but these past two days have been very nice! I can already feel the endorphins (I've always thought that word looks like dolphins) I can already feel the dolphins! They are happy little things, and they make me feel good. A good reason why you should run too. :)

Beauty

The full article is much better, but if you're short on time, read below:

In January of '07 a man walked into a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six classical pieces for 43 minutes. During that time, over a thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After the man had played for three minutes, a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in his case and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

One who tried to listen was a 3 year old boy. His mother tugged him along, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. His mother deftly moved her body between the boy and the violinist, cutting off her son's line of sight. The child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 43 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.17. Between each piece of music there was silence. No one applauded him, nor was there any recognition.

Only one person in the entire crowd knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces of music ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.00 each.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a commonplace setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent or beauty in an unexpected context? How many other things are we missing?

Don't Stop The Music

Why didn't I know about Rihanna? I LOVE HER. I took that itunes gift card I won, and got on itunes last night and went a little crazy... in a good way! I don't know a lot about music, so I just started clicking on the "Top Songs" section (in addition to giving Jon a call) and found, to my excitement, that there IS a lot of great music out there these days!!! I don't have many chances to listen to the radio, and when I'm home (as I was over the last two weeks) I couldn't find any station that didn't play 90's music, blah. MY WHOLE LIFE HAS CHANGED. Here is a list of the music I added to my collection. Any suggestions on other music I might also enjoy??

EAT ME

I grabbed a left over chocolate from Christmas, unwrapped it, and almost took a bite when I noticed what it actually looked like! Isn't it cute? I thought, if he could talk, he would smile and say "Eat me!" :) So I did (along with a couple of his brothers...)

It's the little things...

Welcome home to me!

I just got back to NY this morning from over two weeks in Sacramento. Here's some pics from the trip!

Dad and baby Maverick taking a nap... precious!
Mom with cute baby Conner!
My Grandma's...

Me and Grandpa...

While at home I made a couple acquisitions... check me out!
Motion sickness wrist bands:
I tested these out this morning on my taxi ride home from the airport... they work great! (and yes, I realize I'm a nerd... but at least I'm a "no longer sick in taxi's" nerd! I love these things!)

Plus, I finally got a new cell phone! I upgraded from the "duct tape to hold the battery on" model to the "slides real cool but accidentally sends texts before I'm done writing them" model. I think I just need to get used to the new buttons.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this clip to my sisters Shelby and Courtney... because sometimes you come to a fork in the road, and all you can find is a ladle!

Get Smart!

Why I didn't see this movie until last night, I have no idea... but it was hilarious.
This scene cracks me up: