Amazing Vampire Movie

I saw a movie called "Let the Right One In" today, and it's an amazing movie!! It has a lot of parallels to "Twilight," but in my opinion it's waay better. It's in Swedish, and it's really bloody, and the acting and plot are just incredible. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. If you're into vampire movies, I would definitely recommend it...again, "Twilight" can't even compare with it.

I ran on a treadmill for the first time in maybe a year today, since it was basically zero˚F outside,, and it was pure torture! I managed to do 7 miles within about an hour, but it was incredibly mind-numbing, even though I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean at the same time. I actually cannot wait to suit up and run out in the cold again tomorrow, since it's going to be in the luxurious twenties.

I am beginning to feel the onset of boredness, and I hate it. I'm used to going somewhere right when break starts, so it feels strange to just while away the days on the internet, playing videogames, or even reading a book. I wish I could get out more and hang out with people, but it's often so hard to find a convenient time for everyone. I've also noticed that there are all these great restaurants in my neighborhood I just never get a chance to eat at, because no one ever comes to the northside! It's unfortunate. I did go out with some people to see that movie today though, so I guess I can't really complain too much about things to do.

Cold Days

I suppose it's about time I update this thing, even though I'm pretty sure no one reads it.

It's gotten really really cold lately, but I've managed to keep up the running! I'm really happy about that. I got another pair of warmer running tights at Fleet Feet the other day, and when I layer that with my other pair, I can run in sub-freezing weather quite comfortably. Today I ran in 14˚F weather, and despite some loss of traction due to the residual snow and ice, it wasn't that bad at all! Ah, to be a runner is to defy the elements. I'm starting to get kind of sore from just doing LSD (long, slow, distance for you non-runners haha), despite all the literature I've read that advocate so strongly about just building up a base and not doing any intervals between cross country and track. I still do some core and weights, but honestly, I felt better when some of these long runs were interspersed with some speedwork too. Speaking of which, I got my medal in the mail today for getting 3rd place in my age group in the 8k Turkey Trot I did on Thanksgiving! I was actually pretty excited about that. I'm also thinking of doing another 8k this coming Saturday, but I'm not sure if I would do so well given the current conditions. I have to say I like racing that distance though...in general, I think I like longer rather than shorter distances. I think I might try doing a half-marathon over the summer...but before that, there's track season! And hopefully I can make it to State again.

In other news, I don't think I've ever been more swamped with homework in my life(or at least stressed by it)! :-( Besides running, I've just been studying all weekend, and I'm still not prepared for the multitude of exams this week! I just have to keep reminding myself that it's just two more weeks, and then freedom.

On a random side note, I definitely need a hobby.

Hello!

I haven't posted in so long...school has just been killing me lately. I thought at first that taking so many classes was a bad decision, but I think I am adjusting to it and starting to enjoy them more.

Cross country is probably the only thing that's keeping me going so far. I've actually been having a really good season, considering this is my first. I got second place at our regionals meet on Saturday, and the girls team got first place with a perfect score of 15 (winning the first five places)! Granted there wasn't much competition, but it was still exciting. That means we're going to sectionals this weekend, which should be a little more challenging, but I'm looking forward to it.

I don't know what I'm going to do over the winter in terms of staying in shape. It was frigid outside during practice today, and at one point it actually started snowing. I can't stand the cold! I can't imagine how I'm going to manage to keep running through the winter - and I generally abhor treadmills. Well I managed last year, somehow, so I guess I will just end up toughing it out. But it's going to be hard, that's for sure.

I've finally started practicing piano regularly, now that I'm getting more into the flow of school. Still, I find myself shirking all other activities, besides running and piano, in order to do my homework and study. That is, any prospects of a social life appear dim. The sad thing is, despite all the time I spend on work, I feel like I barely get by on the skin of my teeth! I kind of want to do some other extracurricular activities though, like community service or some club or whatnot at school, just to break the monotony.

I better get back to that homework...

Life

Work. Run. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

I miss free time...

First Week Back

The first week of school was probably as busy and hectic as it possibly could be. I definitely saw this coming because of the classes I signed up for, but that didn't make them any less crazy. I know I'm only going to get more homework from now on though, so I just hope I can manage my time wisely enough to keep up with the classes I'm in.

I am seriously considering dropping soccer, as it seems to be more of a waste of time and energy than anything else right now. I went to practice this Wednesday after going to cross country practice, and I could barely move my legs. So basically what happens is I'm too sore to properly sprint for soccer, and then I'm too sore from trying to sprint in soccer to run in cross country very well. Plus, soccer practice is probably twice as long as cross country's and half as productive. We didn't even do anything for the first 45 minutes of soccer practice, because there weren't any fields on the lakefront that were open, so we just kind of stood around. And then the rest of the time, we just did passing drills/half-hearted three-person scrimmages. It's kind of frustrating. I would rather not have any soccer and be able to do nice, long runs on the weekend and properly recover, because in the current situation my legs don't really get any sort of break. If they hadn't both been cancelled, I would have had a cross country meet yesterday and then a soccer game today, which I'm not sure I would have been able to manage. Quite frankly, I would rather just spend all of my time focusing on running. It's not that I don't like soccer, it's just that I don't like it when it coincides with my running.

Today I got up before the crack of dawn to volunteer at the Chicago Half Marathon. It was fun, despite the weather, which was lashing rain. There were between ten and fifteen thousand people there, which was pretty crazy. I helped with the gatorade/water stations at the finish line, which got pretty insane when the majority of the runners were finishing, which also happened to be when the wind and rain started getting more severe. I was so cold that by the time I got home, I noticed my lips were a deep blue! The last time I was that visibly cold was when I went bodyboarding in Ireland, haha.

Today I may see the Dark Knight in Imax with my aunt and uncle from Canada who are in town (who also ran the Half Marathon with my dad), then we are going out to dinner someplace. That's all assuming I get my homework done, which I have quite a bit of...

Impending Doom

School starts tomorrow. My time is going to be sapped into a black hole before I know it. No more time for leisure reading in bed, no more time to watch Scrubs online, no more time to go and see movies, no more time to really do anything for pleasure...and almost certainly no more time to blog. :-\ We will see how it goes though.

Well, I guess I get what I ask for. Last night I ate at Sushi Para Tu, and probably ate half my body weight in sushi. It was very good though - I hadn't had sushi in so long. I also watched Vantage Point last night, which is a pretty good movie despite all the negative reviews I've read of it. Very fast-paced and intense.

I also had a soccer game today in Oak Park, which was the first of the season for our team. We ended up winning 3-0, which was awesome. I can't say I played very well though, and I might have been one of the only forwards who did not score. I just don't know how well soccer and cross country compliment each other - I've definitely lost much of my touch for the ball, and my sprinting leaves much to be desired. But if I didn't play soccer, I wouldn't be sprinting at all, so I guess I can't complain. It's a fun game, but it comes with its own kind of aches and pains, being a contact sport. I'm still hurting a bit from running straight into a girl today. I don't really know what happened, just that I could barely walk right afterwards from the pain in my elbow and thigh. It's all part of the game though, I guess.

I also went to a cross country dinner at a teammate's house today. The house was both gorgeous and ginormous, and the food was good too. I was as delightfully awkward as ever.

Funnily enough, I think I am dreading the social aspect of school more than the academic part of it. I haven't talked to so many people in so long, and I fell out of touch with so many people over the summer...now I'm going to half to get over that awkward stage with people. I'm not looking forward to that. Well maybe I'll get to know some other people this year as well from my new classes.

Running, Etc.

Yesterday I went to cross country practice and ran with the guys for our run, which was a little over 5 miles. I was super hungry from the outset, since I didn't really have breakfast - our practices are at 9:15 which I consider too early to eat a proper breakfast, yet late enough for me to be starving. So I was pretty tired at the beginning of the run, but by the end my legs were pretty sore. I think it was good to pick up the pace though, since I don't think I push myself hard enough when I run alone. I did 8 miles this morning, and the lakefront was super crowded! There was also a 5k Fun Run going on, and it was all I could do to contain myself from diving into the tents and stealing shirts, food, and water. Oh well, they're fun to see anyway. I also ran into Julia running with her dad, and a coach from school as well. It was pretty cool.

Yesterday afternoon I also biked downtown and got a new watch, a pair of shoes, and some jeans. Shopping has become so arduous, and the fact that I did it alone only proves how solitary I've become! I always feel bad when I'm actually shopping for stuff I need and other people are there though, because it seems like they get pretty bored.

I also biked to soccer practice today, which was pretty much a joke as usual. It's a bit sad when I enjoy the bike ride to practice more than practice itself. We did get these awesome Puma uniforms though, and we have a game tomorrow, so hopefully that will go well.

I really miss good food...we haven't gone out to eat in ages, and the food in my house is not always the most appetizing. I would definitely cook if I could, but whenever I find cool recipes that I want to try, I realize that we don't have half the ingredients they require. Maybe I should just go out and buy a ton, and cook up a storm one day...on another thought, I've taken quite a liking to figs lately.

Starting Anew

Wow - it's been a very long time since I last kept a blog. In retrospect, I probably should have started this at the beginning of summer, but better late than never. I don't think this blog will really have a "theme" per se, it will probably just consist of whatever I want to put on it. I initially considered making it a running blog, but I didn't want to get too obsessive. That doesn't necessarily mean I won't talk about it though.

This past summer has been far more productive than most. For most of June and the start of July, I took driver's ed at Parker with a bunch of mostly super snobby and obnoxious kids. My days would consist of running anywhere from 6-10 miles in the morning, maybe playing some Rock Band, reading some books, going to driver's ed, doing homework from the class, and not much else.

After I finished with that, I went to Hawaii for a soccer tournament in the beginning of July. It was pretty enjoyable, but for the fact that my soccer team was teeming with cliques. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that we did rather poorly in the tournament, but I enjoyed Hawaii itself. I did some running there, along with some mountain biking, swimming, snorkeling (with wild dolphins!), and surfing. The local cuisine was pretty good too.



About a week after getting back from Hawaii, I took a three-week AP Chemistry course at the Center for Talent Development (CTD) at Northwestern University in Evanston. It was rigorous, to say the least. Grueling, actually. But lots of fun - I made some awesome friends, and was more socially active than I think I've been this entire past school year. I managed to get up at 6 there to run every morning too, sometimes on less than 4 hours of sleep - I can't even imagine how I did it. I'm getting 8+ hours a night now, and still feel tired. Running definitely energizes me though, once I get out there. The food was pretty good there too. I pretty much stuffed my face there and ate more than I ever have in a while. I guess CTD represented many extremes for me...academically, socially, and nutritionally. There was this especially delectable frozen yogurt place that I frequented called Red Mango as well...good times. Mostly I miss the people there though.

The day after I came back from CTD I went to San Francisco. I had found out about a week into CTD that my grandfather was no longer eating or drinking and that my sister and mom had already gone to see him. He passed away the day before my dad and I left for San Francisco, which was unfortunate...but it was good to see the whole family altogether for the first time in a while once I got there. I hung out with some of my genius Chinese cousins too, which was a lot of fun. And had an abundance of Chinese food. Running was pretty hard there, since it was quite hilly, but the weather was ideal.

After San Francisco, I went to Ireland with my sister to see the other half of my family. We have a cottage there, and I pretty much consider that part of Ireland to be my second home. This time, since our parents didn't come, we stayed with our cousins at their house. They OWN a horse and a pony, which they keep at few hundred yards down their road, and are considering buying a third one. I spent my days there running (once again quite tough and hilly, but I consider myself lucky not to have been rained on even once - remember, this is Ireland, arguably the rainiest country in the world), horseback riding, mountain climbing, fishing, playing with my cousins, having tea, and the like. It was exactly the relaxing and pleasurable experience I've come to expect each summer. I don't consider my summers to be quite complete unless I've visited there.


Now school is about to start. I don't really know how to feel about that. I've spent the past few weeks mainly going to cross country practice and biking. After buying a new bike in June to go to soccer practices, I've started biking everywhere I can. It's not only really fun to zip through the city streets at nearly the same speed as cars, but I find that I can get to so many places as well. It's also supposed to complement running really well, which is a definite plus. Since I have found that we tend to run far less in cross country practice than I do on my own, I get really restless and find biking is a good way for me to get out all that pent up energy. At one point I was considering doing two-a-days with running, but decided not to overdo it. The last thing I want is to go overkill with running.

School starts next week, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. For some reason, last year I managed to all but entirely sacrifice my social life for academics. It worked; I did better in school than I ever have in the past, but it was merely through dint of excessive work. I'm not sure I want to go through that again, but I don't know if I can really find a balance. I was quite social at CTD, but my grades showed it as well.

Hopefully I will have more to write about here soon.