I'm a little bit late to the party....

....seeing as it's kind of winter instead of fall right now.  It's pretty much winter, guys.  But even though it's no longer the correct season I'm still gonna do this quiz I found on Cutting Out Carbs.  Because I like quizzes!  And I like autumn.  So here we go:

Apple picking or pumpkin picking?

I haven't done either in a while but I think I'm gonna have to go with apple picking.  I just think you get more out of the experience.  I mean, how many pumpkins are you really going to get, right?  Probably just one.  And they pretty much all look the same.  But when you go apple picking there are usually a couple of different types to choose from, and you can get a BILLION and it's totally fine, AND there's usually cider and doughnuts!  It's hard to beat.

Favorite apple recipe?

I love to put chopped apples into my oatmeal, along with cinnamon and ginger.  There's also a brie and apple crepe at the Paris Creperie in Brookline, MA that is delicious.

Favorite pumpkin recipe?

Source

There is a restaurant in Cambridge, MA called Helmand that serves a dish called kaddo.  It's sweetened baked pumpkin served with a garlic yogurt sauce and a tomato meat sauce, and it is the best thing on the planet.  It's the only dish I've ever ordered from that restaurant, and I crave it constantly.

Favorite soup recipe:

Every year for Christmas breakfast and dinner, my mother makes homemade tomato soup.  I have no idea what recipe she uses (she might have made it up, actually) but it's amazing.  I think she puts goat milk in it, which sounds weird but I promise it's really good.  A lot of people think it's really strange that we have soup for breakfast, but that's our tradition and we love it.  I remember one year my mom only made enough soup for breakfast because for some weird, misguided reason she thought people wouldn't want to have it again for dinner.  There for serious was almost a riot.  

Football: on TV or at the stadium?

So, I don't care about football.  Neither my undergraduate (George Washington University) or graduate (Boston University) schools had football teams so I have no obligatory school spirit connections.  I don't understand the rules, and I find the game incredibly boring.  For the sake of providing an answer to this question I'll say on TV, just because at home there are more options for entertaining myself while a game is on, like reading a book.  Or leaving the room.

Favorite football team to cheer for?

"Cheer" is a strong word.  Let's say it's the team with the colors I like the best.  Moving on...

Daylight savings time: love it or hate it?

We actually don't do daylight savings time out here in Hawaii, but I generally do enjoy having that extra hour of sleep on the first day.

How do your workouts change in the fall?

If I've been running I usually stop when it gets cold out.  Of course, that's not an issue out here but I'm kind of over running at the moment so I've stopped anyway.  Other than that, most of my workouts take place indoors so the changing seasons ain't no thang.

Any fashion essentials for fall weather?

I wish I had all of these.  Source.

Oh my goodness, I love sweaters and leather boots in such a way.  I was so sad that I couldn't bring any of my fall stuff to Hawaii with me.  As you can imagine, my family on the east coast thinks I'm crazy ("This is what you're complaining about?  You're sad that you live in Hawaii because you couldn't bring any of your sweaters?  Your life is SO hard, tell me more about the terrible weather in Hawaii...."  I know, okay?  I know).  But really, I will be very excited when I get to live somewhere with seasons again.  And it doesn't help that the stores out here still sell sweaters and boots and scarves, so there's all this stuff for me to gaze at longingly but not buy.

Do your meals change as the weather changes?

You know, I was going to say yes, but then I realized that regardless of the high temperatures out here I have oatmeal and hot coffee for breakfast every day anyway, and I've been making chili like it's my job (I've been using this recipe, which is the bomb).  Similarly,  when I lived on the east coast I would eat ice cream and watermelon through the winter.  So, I guess the real answer is no they don't.  However, even though the weather didn't change, when October rolled around it was time for me to start eating all the pumpkin-flavored things.  So that's something, I guess.

Favorite fall dessert?

Trader Joe's gingerbread cake with whipped cream on top.  When I lived in DC I would have that for my birthday.  I really wanted some this year but there's no TJ's out here!

Best thing about fall?

Halloween!  It's my favorite holiday.  I love dressing up, and as far as I can remember I've never been the same thing twice (possibly when I was younger, but not in recent memory, at least).  Halloween is also a great time to get skeleton-themed items, which as an anthropologist I can totally display all year long :-).

Worst thing about fall?

The way all the bugs say, "Oh, it's cold!  Better move into the house with you..."  Not a fan.

Best thing that will happen in Fall 2012?

Well, since fall is pretty much over I think I can say that in my opinion the best thing to happen was the outcome of the elections in November.  In the days leading up to the big day I was seriously scared that Mittens would take it, and I was so relieved when Obama finally pulled ahead.  

Okay, so that's it!  Now you know all about what I think of autumn things and other vital information.  Good times.  

It Wasn't ALL Bad!

My birthday loot!  We're using the poinsettia since we don't have a tree.  The gift that's still wrapped is what my parents sent Kevin for Christmas.  I don't know what it is!

The other thing I did on Sunday was turn 25!  Quarter of a century!  I’m almost like a grown up now, isn’t that weird?  It’s crazy times.

My family had mailed me a box filled with goodies and some Christmas decorations a couple of days earlier, but it came with strict instructions that the wrapped packages inside weren’t to be opened until the 9^th (or the 25th  in Kevin's case).  I got home from the marathon at about 3 in the afternoon, and pretty much the first thing I did was call my parents and unwrap my presents.  Here’s what I got:

My mom gave me these super-cute earrings she had found at a craft fair over the summer.

The first pair is little monkey faces, and the second one is bees.  I love them!

My dad got me this awesome t-shirt.  I had actually seen this shirt on a different website but hadn’t mentioned to anyone that I wanted it, so it’s totally cool that my dad knew to get it for me! 

Get it?!  I love bone jokes in such a way :p.

Finally, my brother got me a DVD of Friends with Benefits.  I saw this in theaters when it came out and LOVED it.  I’m always impressed with JT’s acting skills.

Even after my less-than-stellar marathon performance I still got to have my birthday dinner of choice, AKA the Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell.  I probably should have taken a picture, but I just shoved it in my face instead.  And before anyone says anything, I know that this food item is neither Mexican nor pizza.  No one goes to Taco Bell because they want some Mexican food; we go because we want some delicious.  My birthday Taco Bell trip is also pretty much the one time that I’ll break my no-soda rule (I feel like I haven’t mentioned this before, so I’ll do it now: I don’t drink soda.) so that I can have their Baja Blast Mountain Dew, which is the best.  I also got the caramel apple empanada, which is so incredibly delicious and I wish I could eat one every day.

The one small snag came at the “birthday cake” portion of the evening.  Since I was so sore I could barely move I asked Kevin to go out and get our Taco Bell, and on his way home I asked him to stop at Whole Foods and get me a birthday dessert from their bakery section.  He called me from the store to let me know what my options were, and I decided on the chocolate mousse tart.  This would have been lovely and perfect, except that Kevin didn’t realize until he got home that the tart was vegan and made out of tofu.

While I have certainly heard many wonderful things about the benefits of eating a vegan diet, I have to say I have zero interest in it.  I have even less of an interest in eating so-called “junk food” made out of tofu and non-dairy cream cheese on my birthday.  I had a small bite, and honestly it tasted fine, but I had pretty much decided that I wasn’t going to like it before we even opened the package.  Kevin ended up eating it, which was fine because I had my empanada and a pint of Hagen Daaz strawberry ice cream in the freezer.   

On Wednesday, my pal Nikki from work brought me in a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.   Normally we could stop right there and it would be all good in the hood, but this particular cake was kicked up a notch by the fact that it was shaped like a skull:

And also because of Nikki's artistic knife placement.  Pretty awesome, right?!

So, all in all, my marathon-induced weep fest aside, it was a pretty good birthday :).

I Did It! Sort of.

The shell necklace is actually what we were given as our Finisher's Medal, which was pretty cool.  As you'll probably gather when you keep reading, this picture was actually taken a couple of days after the marathon.  There weren't a whole lot of smiley faces happening on Race Day.

So, last Sunday was the 2012 Honolulu Marathon.  I’m just going to start out by saying it didn’t go at all the way I had wanted it to and I’m glad that it’s over.  20 out of 26.2 miles came with a lot of tears and anger and depression, and even though I did finish, I’m still not quite proud of myself.

I’m a terrible blogger and didn’t post about it, but in November I sprained the Medial Collateral Ligament on my left knee.  While my doctor told me that I could probably still run the marathon, what this meant was I pretty much missed my last month of training to give myself time to heal.  During my earlier training I had gotten up to 16 miles, and I thought that this combined with race-day adrenaline would carry me through.  However, looking back I don’t think I was really prepared.

Everything started out pretty much okay.  I was definitely going slower than I normally would have, but I was trying to be conscious of my knees.  Things went pretty smoothly this way right up until mile 6, when I got an inexplicable pain in my right hip.  This got steadily worse until I could only run for about 30 seconds at a time before the pain was too much and I had to stop and walk.

There isn’t really a word for how disappointed I felt when I realized that the rest of the marathon wasn’t going to go the way I had hoped.  Even though I had told pretty much anyone who would listen that I knew I was going to be slower this time around, and that I was going to take it easy, and walk instead of run if my knees started hurting, I didn’t actually believe that I would really have to do these things.  It was a huge letdown when I finally had to force myself to accept that I was going to walk the majority of the race.  From mile 6 to mile 16 I did still try to run, mostly by telling myself that the pain didn’t matter and that I could make it.  Eventually, however, the pain was too much and I walked the last 10 miles.

I had approached Marathon Day with the mindset that as long as my knees were better I would be okay to run.  On Sunday morning my knees WERE better, but I still ended up not being able to run the course, and I just felt like this was incredibly unfair.  The hip pain was completely new; I had never had any problems with that joint during my training, so I couldn’t understand why it was happening.  I felt like I was weak, and that my body had betrayed me.

At this point my hip hurt while I was walking as well, and muscle soreness had started to set into my legs.  Every step was a struggle, but there was nothing I could do except keep going.  Even then, I didn’t feel like I had a right to my soreness, because I was just walking.  There were so many times that I wanted to give up, and I was so angry with myself for not being able to complete the race the way that I had wanted to.  I didn’t feel like I deserved my Finisher’s medal, or the Taco Bell I had planned to eat that evening.  I’m the kind of person who doesn’t really like to do things that they can’t do well, and I felt like I had failed.  I told myself multiple times that deciding to do this marathon was a TERRIBLE idea and that I was NEVER going to do it again!

Almost everyone I’ve spoken to since has told me that finishing at all is a big accomplishment and something I should be proud of.  During the race, I overheard another racer say, “There are only three things to keep in mind: 1) Finish. 2) Don’t get hurt. 3) Don’t be last.  If you do those three things, you’ve won.”  This makes sense and I guess it’s true, but it’s definitely taken me a couple of days to come around to it.  I feel like I put in a lot of work to make sure I’d be ready for race day, and I didn’t really get anything back.  I got the pain but none of the glory.  Even though I finished, the way I see it I didn’t have much of a choice.  My car was parked at the finish line, and if I wanted to go home (and I SO wanted to just go home) I had to get there.

I am working on changing my mindset, though.  I think that someday I will be able to look at this experience and see something good in it – probably something real cheesy about pushing forward when all you want to do is collapse, or how you can get through anything if you just take it one step at a time, or something like that.  In hindsight, I probably could very well have gone up to one of the first aid tents, told the medical services people that my leg hurt too much to go on, and had them drive me to the finish line.  In all honesty, I did think about doing this once or twice.  But I didn’t do it, and I suppose that says something, right?

At the Marathon Expo the day before the race, I got this necklace:

The pendant is made by a company called I Declare! in case anyone is interested.

I had bought it to kind of be a symbol of strength to help me get through the marathon.  When I got home on Sunday afternoon, I took it off immediately and put it away.  On Monday morning, though, I put it back on and I’ve continued to wear it so far.  Even though Race Day didn’t turn out the way I had wanted, I’m trying not to be so hard on myself about it.  I guess the charm can still symbolize strength, just a different kind than I had originally meant.