An ode to a sports bra.

I wrote this post for Fleet Feet Chicago, my running store and home-away-from home.

Because sometimes, you just decide to pen a break up letter to your tired-and-worn sports bra. And then publish it for the whole entire internet to read.

(Sidebar and pro tip, ladies: Go to you local running store and when you're getting fitted for new shoes, get fitted for a new sports bra. And if you've been doing hard-core workouts in yours for more than a year, consider investing in a new one. Don't make the girls sad.)

New header

Apropos of nothing, I decided to play around with a new header for the blog. I'm torn on whether it's perfectly me or perfectly a 15-year-old. There's an above-average chance that it's somehow both. (Reader users, click over to check it out.)

Ferrous Wheel

Image via ThinkGeek.com

How is it possible that I *don't* own this tshirt? ThinkGeek.com, I think I love you.

Liquid Awesome

My wonderful friend Margaret surprised me at church today with a present. It's a lavender running shirt from One More Mile, which means it comes with a hearty side of fab.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!

I've been meaning to do a post on running gear (because isn't that exciting!? No? Oh.), but I thought I'd post pictures of my super-sassy awesome shirt and show you a few more of my favorites by One More Mile. (The first time I encountered this company, I saw a woman wearing one of their tanks that said: "This IS my race pace." After that, it was love at first sight. Seriously, check out their website and show them some love. This is not a paid endorsement, I just dig awesome.)

Dear God: Please let there be someone behind me to read this.

Who moved the finish line?

I know, I know. I'm almost there.

I'm not slow; I'm just getting my money's worth from the entry fee.

I thought they said "rum."

You can thank me now for making you look faster.

WTF! Where's the finish?

So tell me, is there anything sporty like this that entertains you? Any great slogans you love?

Gorgeous

My current brain worm.



Doesn't this line just give you chills? "And promise not to promise any more." Sigh. Perfect winter song.

Craft Porn.

Ok, ok. It's not porn. Hold your horses.

Instead, this is a super-awesome compilation of 100 of the best crafty-type tutorials posted in 2010 from around the interwebs. If you're a reader of the big craft blogs, you'll have already seen some of these, but others were new to me. And, of course, totally drool-worthy.

Big props to The Long Thread, which has been compiling its annual Top 100 list for three years now.

Happy crafting.

Love. Love. Love.

Written by Katie at Y our Courageous Life and posted on Kind Over Matter.

Awesome sentiment, don't you think?

Wise words

"You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it."

As tweeted today by Paulo Coelho.

Logging off? Confessions of a...

Confession: I'm an Internet addict. I tweet. I Facebook. I check email within 30 seconds of its arrival. I use AIM. Gchat. The office internal IM system. Hell, I don't even think about going to the store without my phone and its ability to offer insta-Google. Why would I? You never know when there could be a produce crisis and I may suddenly really need to know the difference between kale and Italian kale.

I've been thinking a lot about how wired I am and how it fuels distraction in my life, in part because I just finished reading A.J. Jacobs' latest book, "The Guinea Pig Diaries." In one chapter he spends a month doing nothing but "unitasking" because he says we've multitasked ourselves away from our ability to focus.

In the 18th century, there were things like "attention athletes" who spent hours and days focusing on ONE THING and one thing only.

"Oh, to be born in the golden age of attention," he writes. "When Lincoln and Douglas could have three-hour debates, or the faithful could pray without ceasing for four hours. When people would look at a painting for an afternoon. Paintings! They're like TV, but they don't move."

Today, though, the average U.S. student gives up working on a complicated math problem after only 9.5 minutes. (Because he writes it better than I ever will, I'll keep quoting.) Jacobs says the "culture of distraction changes the way we think." It, literally, reroutes our brain, which makes us anything but the brightest, happiest, conscious people we wish we were.

So, what the hell happened to us? Turns out we basically started screwing ourselves out of the ability to focus sometime around the Industrial Revolution. That's when, as Jacobs says, "we began to fetishize speed and equate quickness with intelligence."

Personally, I can barely sit in silence without my mind suddenly doing the mental equivalent of crunking. Prayer? OMG. Try to find time to sit and quietly reflect? Pashaw. Ride the bus and just focus singularly on the beauty of Lake Michigan? Such effing effort. That's when my brain suddenly decides it MUST comes up with an 8-point plan on how to clean my floorboards. Floorboards, people! Right! This! Very! Second! (This is hysterical because, well, a solid 80 percent of the time you can't even SEE my floorboards, what with the giant mountain of clothes everywhere. But that's beside the point. Or maybe it IS the point.) Hell, I can't even talk on the phone without doing something else: emailing, typing, cleaning, lounging in a bubble bath, walking the dog, cooking dinner, driving my car. I do, however, draw the line at toilet talking. Because, I'm sure you REALLY wanted to know that.

My point... my point... where was I? Oh, right. Yes. Focus. Technology.

In essence, we've (and me, specifically here) somehow acquired this cultural ADD and then proceeded to magnify it with our increasingly wired lifestyle.

I know I do.

Once a few years ago when I was felled by a particularly violent stomach flu, I spent the night crouched on the floor of the bathroom holding on to my Blackberry so I could tweet and text my woe. In between heaving.

Sure, I was never a Focus McFocuserson. Hell, Currer Bell once nearly kicked me out of a Zen meditation group because I couldn't stop fidgeting. But I swear, with each passing day it feels like it's harder and harder to do one thing -- and do it well from start to finish without interruptions

Do you feel that way, too?

All of this is swirling around in my brain today while I was a) at work; b) at lunch; c) riding the L; d) trying on my FABULOUS new prescription sunglasses; e) did I mention they were fabulous; f) basking in the sun on the ride home; g) walking the mutt dog; h) watching 2 episodes of NCIS while eating dinner and sorting fabric scraps and mocking SATC2 for simply existing.

Yet somehow, in the midst of all the noise of my mind, I came across this: 8 reporters at The Washington Post tried to unplug for a week. They nearly lost their minds. Then they wrote about it.

Think about it: no e-mail. No iPhone. No quick Googling. No YouTube to see the latest Greyson Chance video. I don't think I could it. A full-on wired hiatus. A technological Sabbath.

It makes my busy brain hurt to think about.

I wonder if I could even go a day. Could you? I wonder how I could become better at quieting my my monkey mind that bounces all around like a 3-year-old riding the wave of a raging sugar high.

I guess what I'm saying is this. My name is Noodles. I'm wired. And I'm an addict. And I bet you are too.

Image found here.

In which music gets stuck in my head

Today was The Day Of The Brainworm. Some people, like, say, you, might try to get rid of the brainworm by listening to another song. I try to drown the brainworm. By listening to the tune over. And over. And over again.

This is to explain why I listened to this song no less than three dozen times while sitting in the office today doing work.



Laugh all you want, but COM'N! Who didn't L-O-V-E Sister Act? And OMG, nuns! Rocking out in Latin. Fact: I had "mater ad mater inter marata" in my head all morning while dancing in my chair. Oh ... my high school Latin teach would have been so proud.

Of course, Hail, Holy Queen was only one of the morning songs. Since Spring has, however fleetingly, decided to make an appearance in Chicago, I decided to skip one of my morning buses and walk across the Loop. It was before 7 a.m. and the sun was rising and birds were chirping and it was just effing stunning. And then, somehow, this popped into my head. And stayed there.



For the record, there were so many good versions of this on YouTube. I liked this because, I'm presuming that since it's an Italian choir, they don't speak English. I love the idea of American gospel music (something of which I admit I know nothing about) going overseas. Plus, I dig the soloist.

And finally, since apparently I have churchy music on the brain, my afternoon musical moment came after Holy Week services, where the final hymn was "What Wondrous Love Is This." No offense to the organ player and all, but it's my experience that bluegrass makes almost all spirituals better. Judge for yourself.

I'm taking requests!

So, it appears some of you hearted my fancy pants Scrabble pieces picture of my word of the year. I'm happy to make you one of your very own! Just drop me a comment and make sure I have a way to reach you by e-mail. (And let me know if you want B&W, color or both and if you want an "I will" added.)



Lookie, I already made one for the always fab, Ms. H!



All I ask in return is you do something all nice-like to someone else in the next week. Pay it forward, ya know?

Happy 2010, y'all! I'm flipping '09 the bird. Catch you crazies next year!!

A Thanksgiving Challenge

Who: You
What: A challenge to blog about 'thanks' each day this week.
When: Starting today.
Why: Because Thanksgiving is an important reminder of all we need to take a moment and be reminded of what we have and be thankful for it.
How: In a method of your choice.

Here's the deal ... Each day this week, I'll be blogging about "thanks." It might be something about which I'm thankful. (Grammar is only one thing.) A story about thanks. Something related to the noun. Each post will be published by midnight. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to do the same on your own respective blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc.

Being thankful on Thanksgiving is great. But take a moment to be thankful on other days, too. And let your inspiration flow.

Ready? Set? GO!

ADDENDUM: If you lack the forum for this, I'll gladly accept guest posts.
ADDENDUM Part Deux: Thanks doesn't have to just be words. Maybe you're visual? JPEGS etc. also suffice!

Sites I L-O-V-E.

I'm a girl obsessed with my Google reader. I keep adding new sites, favoriting things I want to get back to, e-mailing links to friends. In between meeting you guys (virtually as it may be), getting referrals from friends, finding cool links on blogs I like, it's just ... well, awesome!

So, I thought I'd take a few minutes and pass along links to some of my most-loved blogs. It's by no means inclusive. Some are names you've heard of (The Pioneer Woman, anyone?) and some might be new. But take a few minutes and click on over. And maybe you'll add some to your reader, too. You can thank me later.

Overheard in the Newsroom: Journalists are dark. But damn, if this isn't The Funniest Shit Ever.

The Pioneer Woman: Five words to sum up this gem: Food Porn With Hot Cowboys. I'll add a sixth word: swoon.

Kind Over Matter: Like Prozac for your soul. With happy pictures.

Zooborns: I have spent entirely too much time cooing at pictures of baby animals and trying to figure out which one best personifies me.

Whip Up and U Create: Such great crafttacular round ups.

Modge Podge Rocks: Because sometimes you just feel compelled to glue shit.

Bakerella, My Boyfriend Dated a Chef, & Smitten Kitchen: OMG. Cake.

Oh Fransson & Film in the Fridge: I drool over their quilts and covet their fabric stashes.

Operation Beautiful: Because we are! But sometimes, we need strangers to remind us.

Latitude: My former co-worker helped start a newspaper in Montana. He makes me want to R-U-N-N-O-F-T to the mountains because of his pictures.

The Modern Gal: I'd be remiss if I didn't give this lady a shout out. She's a real life bestie and inspired me to start this. She also kicks ass in a variety of major ways.

A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words

Big ups to Design is Mine for posting these yesterday, which caused a tremendous amount of uncaffeinated giggles when I woke up this a.m. Couldn't have said it better myself.








Art work is from Carolyn Alexander's "Haughty Bitches."

Still feeling feisty and full of venom? Check out this virtual voodoo doll. Not that, uh, you know, I'd ever use such a thing. Or be able to tell you authoritatively that the virtual staple gun is a fabulous option. Right. :-)

Seriously?

Someone found my blog by Googling the phrase "people with pool noodles in their butt."

Um, seriously? Who Googles that? How does that situation even happen? And what did you think when you found my little bloggy blog? Disappointed much? God knows if that's what I was researching, I'd be a wee bit peeved.

Although, um, for the sake of science, I did have to Google the phrase myself just to see where I fell in the lineup. I made it through three pages before I got bored.

Awesome.