Pictures from Hurricane Irene

Brady dealing with the storm the way he deals with most things.

Brady and Casey after Casey had a sedative to keep her from freaking out over the thunder.

The only bad thing that happened was that I woke up with no power and unable to make coffee.  I am particularly dim before I've had coffee and completely unable to cope with life.  Trying to figure out how to boil water without the use of the electric stove was a bit of a challenge.  Thankfully S pointed out the only attempt that worked or I'd probably have burned the house down by now and still wouldn't have had a cup!

There's candles in the coffee can.  It didn't get hot enough to boil.

This one was set up outside but I didn't get a picture of it then because I accidentally lit the whole camp stove on fire and had to pull out the propane and run away:

This was what I used for attempt #2.  Epic failure.

Attempt #3.

Attempt #3  It took forever but finally worked!

Finally able to deal with the aftermath.

 

Stickin' it out!

The dogs, the birds and I are staying put.  I feel like there is some project I've been putting off that I could totally do if the electricity goes out but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.  So, to keep myself entertained I'll be reading, giving myself a pedicure, writing... err... what the hell did people do to entertain themselves before electricity?  Maybe that's why everyone got married and had lots of babies?  Just to decrease the chances they'd ever wind up in their house alone with nothing to do.  Hmmm...

The Bucket

I am prepared  :)



I am kicking myself for yesterday's post!

So apparently Hurricane Irene is going to hit us and apparently it will be bad.  I can't help but feel like I tempted fate yesterday when I said that we never get hurricanes.  Oh!  And I live in an evacuation zone.  Yay!

Thankfully, S & J have offered to come get me and the dogs if we need to evacuate.  My folks will be away for the week so I'm REALLY hoping that nothing bad happens to the house.  (Yes, I'm probably over reacting with being so nervous, but seriously, when was the last time people in NYC had to think about evacuating because of a storm?)

Tonight's To-Do list:
Pack a Go Bag
Pack a doggie Go Bag
Rustle up some candles and flashlights
Prepare to remove any valuables from the basement that may be ruined by a flood
Put together a FuckIt Bucket for waiting out the storm, including:
          Reese's PB cups
          M&Ms
          Chips
          Maybe some Hostess cakes...

Oy!

Rrrruummmbbbbbllle

I know that the only damage from the quake yesterday was to the facades of a few buildings in DC and along the coast.  I know that it was not "the big one".  Nonetheless, I was terrified.  I do not handle stuff like this well.  Part of the reason living in NYC is so nice is because we don't get any real natural disasters.  Sure, every now and then we get the tail end of a hurricane or the occasional blizzard.  We even get tornadoes on rare occasion.  The thing is, we never get them with the force that other places do.  It's nice.  It's safe.  Having the ground shake is unacceptable! 

Sorry, I just had to get that out.

So I'm trying to get in to see some condos in Bed Stuy this week.  There are a few of them in one building on the A train side of the neighborhood.  It's supposed to be more happening over there and it's the furthest from the projects of any place I've seen so far.  The condos are small 350-390 square feet.  The two that I'm interested in have a backyard.  I'm kind of really excited about the idea of moving into such a petite place.  I'll really have to be creative about the layout, the furniture and storage.  Granted, I may see the building and nix it for various reasons, but for now, I'm letting myself be excited.

Ran today.  Same as yesterday.  Nothing new on that front.  I can't wait to be able to get my elliptical out of storage so I can alternate running days with elipting days...

Okay this post is rambling and going nowhere....

Mini Goal

I went to get dressed this morning and noticed that almost every shirt I own is black or white.  Mostly black.  Mostly tee shirts and slightly-nicer that tee shirts.  My wardrobe has become extremely boring and monochromatic.  Also, half the stuff I own I've owned for years.  I'd write about how long I've had every single piece of clothing that I'm wearing right now is, except it's really that embarrassing.

I've decided that I meed to revamp my style and replace the stuff that's either worn out, out of date or I'm just plain bored of.  My goal is to add color and get out of my comfort zone.  I definitely need to start by getting a new fall jacket, new sneakers and a pair of flats.  I really need to see if someone will take the ride out to the Lord and Taylor outlet or to Jersey Gardens.  I need some big stores with sale clothes.

Oh!  I went for a run this morning.  Five reps.  The fourth and fifth were hard and I could have used my inhaler but I can't find it.  I'm going to work on five reps until that's a bit easier. 

Excuses, excuses!

I haven't run since Friday morning.  I slept too late over the weekend and this morning I wanted to cry when my alarm clock went off.  I couldn't sleep at all last night.  I was fully prepared to push through it and make myself get up this morning but I realized I had to choose between hating myself all day because I didn't go for a run or hating myself all day because I'm so tired I'm just wasting space at the office.  I chose to hate myself for not running.  At least I'll start my work week out on the right foot.

I may go for a run after work.  I've been looking forward to running all weekend.  I think I'm going to start trying to push myself.  Last week, I did three reps per run.  This week, I'm going to try for six.  If it's too much, I'll cut back, but I want to start feeling like I'm making some progress.  At least, if I have to cut back, I'll know what my current limit is and be able to work on increasing it.

I went and saw two condos on Linden Blvd this weekend.  The neighborhood was okay.  Nothing to write home about.  The condos were big but plain.  Boring.  The building was a pre war tenement.  It had 52 units.  The rooms were big but the kitchen and bathroom came off as an after-thought.  The windows were functional, not pretty.  It was very true to the time that it was built.  That said, I saw ways that it could be modernized but it just didn't grab me.

I took a ride around my prospective new neighborhoods on Saturday.  I totally ruled out the Crown Heights condo.  The one that has the park right in front of it.  The block was a little scary at night time.  S & J thought the Linden Blvd place wasn't safe but I actually felt more comfortable there than any other place I looked.  Nonetheless, it didn't grab me so I'm not so concerned.  The original Bed Stuy condo, the one right by the Marcy Houses, actually seemed to be the best.  Don't get me wrong, a few blocks away seemed scary but that particular block and a few blocks around it seemed okay.  I think I may try to spend some more time around there so I can get a feel for if I could live there.

I have another place to see this week.  Maybe two.  We'll see....

Nothing new

It's a little same old same old today.  I went for my run this morning.  I'm happy that I got my three runs in this week.  Next week I'm either going to try adding a minute to each run interval or add another interval.  I'm not sure, yet.

Nothing really special planned for this weekend.  Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get a run in in the morning and then take Brady to the dog park in downtown Brooklyn.  He needs to brush up on being social with other dogs.

He's been getting aggressive lately and I'm not happy about it.  Last weekend he growled at Wiley the Pit Bull.  It worries me, but I think I found the cause.  Jerry the Geriatric Half Beagle will not leave him alone.  Every time Brady is on the same floor of the house as Jerry, Jerry comes over to try and dominate Brady.  Jerry just whines and whines and pushes Brady around.  Brady rolls over and shows his belly, lays down, runs away, ignores him, etc but Jerry won't let up.  Don't get me wrong, Brady is no angel and he'll try to put his paws on Jerry's head or steal his bed, but he's not fixated on Jerry the way Jerry is on him.  At any rate, the other day, I noticed that the second Jerry comes over now, Brady starts growling and his hackles go up.  He's not showing his teeth but his mouth is open and it's aggressive.  I really don't want him to learn to be aggressive with other dogs, so I'm trying to keep them separated now. 

Tomorrow night, I'm going to drive around the neighborhoods I'm looking in with S & J.  I need to map out a route for us.  Hopefully I'll be able to line up a few more open houses for this Sunday and we'll be able to drive by them, too.  (My realtor made it sound like she's out of places to send me.  She'll "update me as she can".  Three places!  That's it!  So, I'm going to see what I can find on my own.)  Then we'll be taking the puppies to the bar with us.  It should be fun.

Okay, goals for this weekend:
Go to at least one open house.
Not to get drunk at the bar with the dogs.
Not to go completely off my healthy eating plan.

Attainable, I think.  We'll see.

Update:  I have two open houses to go to in Lefferts Gardens this weekend!  One is in my price range and one is a little above.  How come my realtor didn't send me these???  One of them, she sent me a listing for another condo in the same building back in February when I thought I'd have another 40K... hmmm...

Lesson learned

Adidas!  How appropriate!

Yesterday I was having a bad day before I even left the house to go to work.  I stopped at the store on my way to the train station and bought a pack of cigarettes.  I knew I didn't want to start smoking again, but I figured one day wouldn't hurt.  I'm still on the patch.  I still have at least five weeks more to go on it.  Therefore, if I smoke now, I won't be stoking the physical dependence and I have enough time left on the patch to deal with the habitual dependence.  Right?

It kind of sucked because at the time, I didn't see that I was falling right into one of my biggest traps with smoking.  I always think I can just have one/one day/ one week and I always think that when I'm emotionally stressed out.  The truth is, that's always how I start smoking again, therefore I can't have "just one".

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I was already justifying, and looking forward to, finishing the pack today.  My mouth was watering, looking forward to my morning cigarette.  The one perk of leaving the house in the morning.  How I've missed that.  Then I thought about how I'd wake up... how I'd wake up at five to go running... how could I go running if I'm going to be smoking... how could I be smoking if I'm going to be running...  These things are absolutely mutually exclusive.  I took a moment to think about which I wanted more.  I chose to run.

As I left my house this morning I thought, okay it was one day.  Seven cigarettes.  No biggie.  I'm back on track today.  Then I started running.  It hurt.  I was more winded today than I've been since I started.  One day and already this change.  I did my three reps but I was counting down the seconds.  It was harder and it was not enjoyable.

Lesson learned.  One day makes a difference.  No more excuses.  No more false starts.  I want to be healthy.  I want to breath and to run.  I want to get fit.  I am done.

Grumpy

I'm not having a good day so to cheer me up, here's the cutest baby and sweetest puppy:

Okay, they made me smile.

Have a good day!

Waking up is hard to do...

Sorry for the cheesy title to this post.  I'm suffering from lack of sleep...

So this morning at 5:00 my alarm clock went off.  It was time to run.  I hit snooze and listened to see if I could hear rain.  I didn't.  5:05 it went off again.  I hit snooze, listened for rain, reasoned with myself, "Okay, it might be raining even if I can't hear it.  Besides, I went to bed late last night, I'm too tired to wake up and run."  5:10 it started to chime that my snooze was over.  I checked the weather on my phone and sure enough, it said it was cloudy - not raining.  I realized that I was just making excuses not to wake up.  BUT if I didn't wake up and run, I'd regret it the rest of the day.  So, dragged my ass out of bed, proud of my commitment and will power. 



It's too early for pictures!

 Brady didn't share my sentiment and refused to make eye contact with me until he saw me putting on my running shoes and realized that he wasn't expected to get out of bed, yet.

I left the house a little late, but psyched to try out my new watch.

It looks a lot more bad ass online when it's attached to some sporty dude's wrist and you can see that it's called "Timex IRONMAN".

I didn't have time to walk to the park, run around the park and walk home, so I started my run from my corner.  I upped my run time today to three intervals.  Two minutes running, one walking in each.  That got me just to the entrance of the park and down the block, instead of going in. 

I was quite happy with myself and feeling very smug about the whole thing until I saw a group of runners who had obviously been at it for more than 8 minutes.  Hahaha!  Someday if I stick with it!  Maybe I'll even be able to run to the park, enter and do a lap and the run home. 

It's good to have goals, right?

Yawn...

I went to see two apartments this weekend in Crown Heights. They were both in the same building but one was a duplex and the other was a one bedroom. The apartments were beautiful but I wasn't crazy about the location. Down the block and across the street was the Albany Houses and directly out front of the building was a small park/playground area. On the one hand, there's no through traffic on the block. On the other hand, it's probably full of people at night, which I'm not so thrilled about with the projects being so close.  I'm not explaining the street properly, so here's a pic:

That's the street.  The building is the one in the middle on the top. 
hmmm it doesn't look like there's a roof deck...

The apartments were both beautiful. One brick wall, a small bedroom and largish living room/kitchen area. The duplex had a largish downstairs room, an extra bathroom and a small outside area in the air shaft. The one bedroom had a larger living room because it lacked stairs and an extra closet. I'll try to post a video of the 1BR if I can figure out how.

I would have absolutely loved these two condos except that the realtor was terrible! Granted she was covering for someone else and there were a lot of people at the open house, but she kept pointing out all the bad things about the place. Like, the terrible lack of closets, the difficulty of finding a spot for a TV in the duplex, and the ugliness and lack of light of the small out door space. It was weird. She also mentioned that there was something on the roof but didn't offer to show us. I saw a closet marked "Storage" in a common hallway and opened it briefly to find some luggage and such inside but she didn't mention anything about storage to us. You would think that if a place didn't have adequate closets, you'd make it a point to mention any additional storage space, but no.

I'm going to keep looking (if my realtor ever gets her act together!) but I did really like the place for a number of reasons. I want to check out the neighborhood more, check what my commute would be like, etc. Also, I'm not sure if I like it more than the place in Bed-Stuy that I liked.

On another note, I obviously wasn't able to run this morning, which sucks. I'm hoping that we get a few rain-free days this week so I can get back out there. I bought a really bad ass looking interval watch that I'm dying to try and I don't want to lose any progress I may have already made. (Yes, I know it's only been a week but still)

This weeks game plan: Set up more places to see this weekend. At least three runs. Get a hair cut and have a good chat with my stylist about highlights. Set a date to start driving lessons.

This is kind of pathetic.

No running today :( I think I pulled something in my hip. It hurt a little after running yesterday. Now it's stiff and tight. Advil and a day to relax. I've told myself not to wear heels today either but I have dinner plans so we'll have to see...

It's kind of pathetic that I could hurt myself running for less than five minutes. I'm going to file it away under "Reasons to Not Start Smoking Again." I'm in my 20's, I should be in better shape that this.

Okay, once I feel better I'll be back out there. I will be in better shape in my 30's than I was in my 20's.

This is me at 5:15 about to leave the house. Can you tell I'm not a morning person?

Meh

I didn't go running this morning :( My leg hurts like something is in the wrong place. I'm hoping it feels better by tomorrow. I'm a creature of habit and if running doesn't become a habit, it'll just fall by the wayside.

So, I'm thinking of getting one of these dogs:



She'll be huge, able to protect me and extremely intimidating. The breed is also sweet with children and small pets, extremely intuitive and do surprisingly well in apartments.

Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!

^That's the sound of how I look running.

I ran again today! It was much the same as yesterday, 2 minutes running, 1 walking, 2 minutes running. My breathing didn't bother me as much as it did yesterday but after I stopped, I was a little bit asthmatic. Hopefully that will get better as time goes on. So far, I don't hate it. I like getting up early, Brady likes being able to sleep in, and I start the day out feeling healthy.

A brief update on the condo-hunt: I found out the one that I saw and loved over the weekend, the front-runner, was two blocks south of the Marcy Projects. Not south two blocks and over a block or two, even. Nope! It shared a cross street. SO, the hunt continues. I asked my realtor to expand the search to include Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Lefferts Gardens and a few places in Queens.

Open houses and running

I went to three open houses in Bed Stuy this weekend.

I saw one place that I loved but the part of the neighborhood it was in was right in the middle of the projects. It was a 1BR with 1.5 bath. It was huge and beautiful. I could see all of my stuff fitting in it SO nicely. However, I felt uncomfortable in the neighborhood in the middle of the day on a Sunday, so no.

The next place was in a beautiful building with tons of amenities. The neighborhood was happening, it had lots of financial perks, and a communal rooftop balcony. Unfortunately, it was tiny. Like really, really tiny. I wouldn't be able to fit my a couch, a TV, a murphy bed and my elliptical in it, much less my pottery wheel, Brady's stuff, a sewing machine, etc. IF the storage units were included instead of for sale in the building, I might still have considered it.

The clear front-runner was a 1BR with exposed brick walls, a galley kitchen with tons of cabinets. a built in bookshelf and high ceilings. I wasn't expecting to like the apartment. I was going to see it just cause I could, but I wound up really liking it. The only down side is that I'm really unsure of the neighborhood over there. If I walked to one corner, it looked kind if ghetto. If I walked to the other corner it looked kind of nice. I know the whole neighborhood is on the rise so any of these three would be a good investment, but I still have to live there until that happens.

Decisions decisions... I'm going to have my sister drive me around the neighborhood and that specific block after dark. I want to see what the park is like and what the neighborhood in general is like once the sun goes down. I may ask to go back and take another look at it.

In the mean time, I'm planning to let my realtor know that I want to keep looking and I want to expand our search to include other neighborhoods.

On a different note, I started running this morning. I was able to do two minutes, walk one minute and run the last two, sprinting the last 15 seconds. I think I could have kept going but I couldn't get my breathing to a good rhythm and I don't want to push myself too hard a wind up hating the whole experience. Baby steps.

Kicks

My new running shoes.

Brady making up his mind about them.


My feet are big and my doggie is little.

Running begins Monday.

Yes, the format of this post sucks. Blogger hates me right now and after an hour and a half, this is the best I could do.

Achieve the Dream #5

Yesterday, I talked to someone wonderful. Someone who wanted to help me. The call was unexpected. The news was unexpected. I couldn't believe how everything fell into place.

Yesterday, everything turned out better than expected. The fact that I am single worked to my advantage. The fact that I have one income and the level it's at, worked to my advantage. Yesterday, all the things that had been holding me back turned out to be the best things I had going.

I got my pre-qual.

Thinking of Running - #4

Originally my plan was to quit smoking now, start running in the spring and get back on my elliptical (which is currently in storage) sometime in between. My logic was that I'd have a few months to regain some lung function and have the elliptical to help get my stamina up. But now I'm thinking of starting sooner. Like as-soon-as-I-can-order-a-pair-of-running-shoes-sooner.

I think it would be good to have something to do instead of smoking and something that I'd get better at the more I didn't smoke. A big part of the reason I didn't want to start right away was the fact that I was afraid I'd embarrass myself. As a smoker, if I tried to exercise, I'd wind up red faced, sweating profusely, and trying to catch my breath for about twice as long as I'd actually worked out. It was gross and embarrassing. It went on for far too long. I was a child the last time I could really do anything mildly strenuous. It's time that changed. I don't want to bring that into my 30's.

So, my game plan is to get to the park before work, when it's less crowded. If I wake up at five, I should have enough time to walk to the park, run for five minutes (my first goal), walk home, walk Brady (who is unfortunately too small to run with me) and get ready for work. If I like running and decide to stick with it and progress, I'll switch to a night time routine as I get more confident. In the mean time, I'll have to switch to decaf after breakfast and be in bed by 10.

But will I stick with it? Who knows! The point is that I try. I will stick it out until I reach my first goal. Is my first goal too much? Too little? I have no idea! I'll see. Maybe I'll only be able to run for two minutes and then walk or trot or hobble the next three. Maybe I'll be able to push myself to the full five minutes in the first week. Unlikely, but who knows? The point is that I try. If I hate it, I'll find something else. The only thing I'll lose is the cost of my sneakers.

Motivating factors:
My current daily routine: 218 calories burned = one hour of walking (3.5mph)
With running: 223 calories burned = 26 minutes of running (5mph)
Time saved 34 minutes. Plus, I'll be able to wear heels (#30 - dress more fashionably on a day to day basis) to work again (rather than walking shoes), I'll be toning more and getting my lung function back. Maybe I'll even like it so much, I'll join a group which will help me be more social (#29).

Wish me luck!

Monday...

So, today I’m feeling a little less than super motivated. I went out for my birthday over the weekend and might have had a little too much to drink. Spent yesterday sleeping off a hang over but even today I’m still kind of blah.

So, I think it’s a good day to work on positivity (#27).

I have wonderful friends and a great family.
I have a good job.
My doggie loves me.