Archive for Better Me
08.14.06
Posted in Better Me, General at 8:48 pm by Adriene
As you may have noticed, I’ve changed not only my theme, but also my blog title. I had a couple of reasons for doing this. First of all, I’ve changed some since I started blogging, and I figured I needed a new title to convey that. Secondly, I must admit that Brandi’s recent name change gave me the kick in the rear to actually follow through on my idea.
Anyway, for those of you curious as to where the new name came from, it’s from (surprise, surprise) one of my favorite U2 songs, “Drowning Man” (from War). The song is written from the point of view of God speaking to a man who is wrestling with the various things we must deal with as fallen beings, and assuring him that He will be there with the man throughout it all:
Take my hand
You know I’ll be there
If you can
I’ll cross the sky for your love.
For I have promised
For to be with you tonight
And for the time that will come.
Take my hand
You know I’ll be there
If you can
I’ll cross the sky for your love.
And I understand
These winds and tides
This change of times
Won’t drag you away.
Hold on, and hold on tightly.
Hold on, and don’t let go of my love.
The storms will pass, it won’t be long now.
This love will last, this love will last forever.
And take my hand, you know I’ll be there.
If you can I’ll cross the sky for your love.
Give you what I hold dear.
Hold on, hold on tightly.
Hold on, and hold on tightly.
Rise up, rise up with wings like eagles.
You run, you run.
You run and not grow weary.
Hold on, and hold on tightly.
Hold on, hold on tightly
This love, lasts forever.
Now this love lasts forever.
This new title reflects the “winds and tides” that shape our lives, and the journey that we are all on as we try to discover what this thing called life is all about, with God at our side.
I’ll be back soon with more…
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06.11.06
Posted in Better Me, General, My Immaculate Taste in Music at 9:31 pm by Adriene
Well, not so much. I haven’t posted on here in a couple of weeks, so I thought I’d give an update on things.
Last night, we celebrated Sam’s 30th birthday. He’s number four in our “Smug Marrieds” group to hit the big 3-0 (following Jeffy, Margaret, and my dear husband). Amy rented out the private dining room of La Paz as a surprise to Sam, and we ate ourselves silly on the fajita bar and drank a margarita or five each. Afterwards, we all checked into a hotel, and then headed out to Olive’s to enjoy a martini or five. We had planned to go back to the hotel and party even more in the suite that Amy, Sam, Jeremy, and Kara were sharing, but Jeff and I (and Spencer and Lisa) were old and tired and went to sleep instead. Haha. But, in all, we had a nice time. (I’m trying my best to be nice to everyone as they turn thirty, since I know I’m going to be the last in that group to hit it by far! :lol:)
I’m down another clothing size! My weight hasn’t fallen off as fast as it did at first, but at least I know I’m shrinking, or at least it’s moving around. I’m about to hand over most of my 14’s to someone else, since I’m back in 12’s now - that officially means I’m the smallest I’ve been in three years. One more size to go to hit the size I was when Jeff and I got married (five and a half years ago!). 
Keane’s releasing a new CD next week, and I am beyond stoked about it. I’ve heard five of the songs from it, and they’re different than Hopes and Fears, to be sure, but they are still very good. I like to see a band experiment and evolve rather than do a carbon copy of what they know “works” (see also: U2). I’ll probably be posting a review of it here after I get my grubby little hands on it and have a chance to absorb it.
On a similar note, it looks like I’m going to have a fairly dismal Summer Concert Season. (Boo!) I guess I can hold out hope that Keane will tour after they release the CD, but it looks like most of their summer dates are in Europe, with about five US dates in late June/early July. Guess I should hope for a fall tour. Other than that, not much else going on for me, concert-wise. Le sigh.
So, that’s what’s been up with me the past couple of weeks. Not anything earth-shattering, but hey, I guess at this point in life, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have a lull every now and then.
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04.22.06
Posted in Better Me at 11:05 am by Adriene
I ran my first 5K ever today.
A few weeks ago, Jeff decided he was going to do the Pi Mile at Georgia Tech (yes, we’re geeks. The race is named such because it’s approximately 3.14 miles). He hinted that he thought I should do it, but as usual, I grunted something about only running when big hairy things are chasing me, and kind of blew him off. But, then again, I had been running during the week fairly regularly, so why not? Finally, Jeff enlisted Amy to help, and she finally gave me the nudge to go ahead and register.
Anyway, the race started at 8am, but for some reason, we got it in our heads that we needed to be on campus by 7:00, since that’s when registration started (nevermind that you’ve got a full hour to register between when registration opened and the actual start of the race). So, we left La Casa de Holland around 6:15, and got down to campus at around 6:45. Funny how fast you can drive in Atlanta with no traffic!
To kill some time, Jeff and I wandered around the Student Center at Tech. I hate to say it, but I’ve already become one of those people who shows up on campus and says “Whoa, that wasn’t there when I was here.” I thought that didn’t happen til you hit 40. But anyway, I digress.
The skies were a bit menacing at the start. It had poured here all night prior to the race, but was supposed to clear up sometime this morning. I was hoping it would be earlier this morning rather than later. Unfortunately, it was drizzling at the start. Not too bad, though, I can handle it, I thought.
So, the gun goes off. Sam and Jeff were up toward the middle of the pack, with Amy and me in the back, since a) Amy had the stroller carrying Brianna with her, and b) I’m slow as hell. The first part of the race was darn near deceptive. You start out going downhill. I was like “HEY! This is AWESOME! I’m doing GREAT!”
Then reality hit, and you started running up the hill in front of SAC (or whatever they’re calling it these days - they’ve re-named everything on Tech’s campus. In any case, it’s the big building on West Campus where they had the swimming and diving during the 1996 Olympics). Oy. My body immediately told me I had taken the first part WAY too fast. I had to slow down dramatically. Luckily, if you go UP that hill, you have to go down at some point.
At the bottom of the hill, we were close to the end of mile 1. As we passed the chick who was calling out our times (I’m betting you she was born in 1985. Jeez.), she yelled “11:53!” at me. Huh? I haven’t broken 15 in any of my practice runs! Oh God. I’m in trouble.
About this time, the clouds decided to open up and it started POURING. Great. I’ve totally screwed myself in the first mile, and now it’s raining, I thought. Ain’t this just peachy? But, I decided that well, I’ve already gotten this far, don’t start with that negative attitude crap now.
So, I toughed it out as I ran between the CS building and the CE building. I rounded the corner near where the Textiles building used to be (yet another thing they’ve torn down since I left Tech), and climbed the hill between the Architecture building and Beta. This portion of the course was rather flat, so I decided to give myself a break and walk for a little bit. No need wearing myself out too badly. From there, we went around Peters parking deck (AKA - Pete’s Pool - the bottom level ALWAYS floods) and crossed behind Bobby Dodd Stadium. We were close to the end mile 2.
I passed the guy who was calling out our times at the mile 2 mark, and he yelled “28:54!” at me. Yep. I was losing steam. Oh well, I’m still on a decent pace, I thought. Luckily, I had a break where it was downhill for a portion along North Avenue, so I took advantage of that to make up some time. I decided to rest myself until I hit the final turn, because I wanted to run hard on the last part.
As I rounded the turn from Tech Parkway to Ferst Drive, I picked it up. YAY! It’s downhill. So, I booked it. BAD idea. 
The final quarter-mile stretch was uphill. Oh well, why not? I kept it up. My legs were burning (funnily enough, I think my cardio outpaces my leg strength now. That’s exactly opposite from a couple of months ago).
I didn’t want to look at the clock. I knew it had to be at 50+ minutes at this point. Oh well, I thought. At least I’ll beat an hour. Grudgingly, I looked up when I had about a tenth of a mile left.
What? That can’t be right. As much as I dropped off between my first and second miles, I had to be a lot slower on the third. However, I guess I was faster than I thought, because as I crossed the line, 43:38 was on the clock.
Wow. I beat my training pace by a LOT. I was just hoping I would finish in under an hour. If I finished under 45 minutes, I’d be ecstatic. I did it! Jeff was at the finish line with Sam and Amy (who crossed about a minute ahead of me) cheering me on. I felt pretty good, being VERY wet aside.
So yeah, that was my first 5K.
Jeff and Me After the Race.
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04.17.06
Posted in Better Me, My Immaculate Taste in Music at 6:04 pm by Adriene
(Don’t get excited - two posts from me within one day isn’t something that’s going to happen all that often)
In honor of the race I’m running this weekend, I’m looking to load my iPod full of songs that will keep me motivated during the run.
So, here’s where you come in. I need suggestions.
GO!
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04.14.06
Posted in Better Me at 8:54 am by Adriene
So, somehow, Jeff and Amy convinced me to do the Pi Mile next weekend. This will be my very first 5K.
I probably will be horridly slow, but I guess it’ll be good for me.
Now, if I can just convince the little man who continues to beat on my thighs while I’m asleep to stop. I’d like to be able to walk without pain, you know.
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