Family Tree

#19.

I never had to do my family tree for school. I think all of my siblings have, but not me. I guess I lucked out. However, this year I wanted to begin building my family tree. I guess as you get older, you wonder more about where you came from. Earlier this year, I worked on compiling names and birthdates, but then got sidetracked with everything else going on in my life.

I finally revisited this about a month ago when a friend recommended myheritage.com for building my tree. And boy was that a great suggestion!

I began immediately filling in all my siblings and parents. I then added aunts, uncles and cousins. Even the kids of some of my cousins. Then I branched out to my grandparents. I emailed some relatives to get birth and death dates. I made some great progress with my maternal grandfather’s branch—thanks to my mom and my aunt Kim.

I still need to work on other branches of the family, especially my dad’s side. I need more generations past my paternal grandparents. Unfortunately, they are both dead, so I need to tap my aunts and uncles for any knowledge they have.

But I do have 113 people in my tree so far. It seems like a lot. But I'm missing a lot of the older generations. I feel like I’m only on the tip of the iceberg. Over the holidays, I will be questioning all my relatives to make this as complete as possible. It’s actually quite a lot of fun to do. This will be an ongoing project for months/years to come.

Bills Bill Bills

I did it. I currently have a zero balance on all my credit cards. Yay! Ooh how amazing it feels. I didn’t have a load of credit card debt, but it was more than it needed to be. During and after college I racked up more than I wished to. I also traveled a lot in 2009, and that didn’t help at all.

Last year, I really made attempt to be more financially responsible and to decrease my credit card dept. This year was going to be it. I was determined to get it down to zero at by the time my birthday rolled around. Well today was pay day and it is done. It was a bit tricky as I had traveled a lot for work in the last ½ of the year and I paid for far too many hotel and dinner bills, but after those expense checks came in, all was right in the world.

Now if only my student loan debt was gone… I guess I need 20 years or however long my repayment plan is before that will happen.

3rd Place

#9.

Well that was my last attempt at a sub-7 pace. Unless I can find a race next weekend. In Morocco. Somehow I doubt that will happen. So I changed my goal. Yup I can do that. It’s my list and I’ll do what I want. It’s actually a better goal and would have made more sense to have included it originally. But hey, better late than never.

I should have put on my list to place top 3 in a race—including age group. Before this year, I think the last time I placed was in a high school track meet. However, there are some people (non-runners) think there's a possibility of me winning a marathon. I really hope they are kidding. Last I checked I wasn't a Kenyon or Paula Radcliffe.

So today I ran a 5k in Prospect Park. Now we all know Prospect Park is hilly. The course wasn't even on the normal route—the road, but on a bunch of walkways apparently going to the highest point in Brooklyn.

My first mile was 6:48 and then it went downhill. The 2nd mile was slightly slower and I don't even know how the 3rd went. The volunteers weren't paying attenntion and not directing runners, so I ran extra. Ugh. My time of 26:19 is not correct. Unfortunately I have no idea what it was. Probably somewhere around 3 minutes faster. This will hopefully be corrected tonight. We'll see.

Well I still ended up placing 3rd overall (even though I started in front and only saw one girl pass me) and got 1st in my age group. So yes, I'm changing my goal. And since I am, I technically checked it off when I ran the Geneseo 1/2 on September 4 when I placed 2nd in my age group. However we will go with today and we will go with placing overall—no age groups.

P.S. My camera makes this very cheap plastic trophy look much cooler than it is. But hey, I'll take it.

The Catcher in the Rye

#11.

And I’m done! I read 10 classics this year. I finished The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger about an hour ago. This was another book that I didn’t read in high school, like every other American teenager. It just wasn’t on the list. Although I can see why it possibly wasn’t on the list.

The main character, Holden Caulfied—with a very privileged name of course—is kicked out of another private school and narrates a very strange 48 hours after this event.

He’s all over the place from his private school to New York City, out to bars, meeting up with old friends and making new ‘friends’—and of course calling everyone phony along the way. Throughout the whole book I was questioning his character and whether any of this was reality or all in his head. I was convinced he was lying and making shit up for a good majority of the book. 

At the end I was expecting something big to happen. Whether it was suicide or some freak accident, but it just kind of ended. We know Holden was having some sort of psychotic episode during all of this—clear from the beginning, and is now getting the treatment he needs.

I liked the book. It was a pretty quick read. Various points drove me a bit crazy, but overall I liked it.

Now I can go download and read the Hunger Games! 

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
6. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Speed Dating

#8.

Dating! Argh. I tried. I did. I was very busy with work this year. Traveling a lot and so forth. I swear.

Now I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to squeeze in 11 dates from now to my 30^th. So I signed up for speed dating. I’ve never done it. I convinced my sister to tag along. And I figured it’d be a good story.

I went in with low expectations. We had a glass of wine before we started our ‘dates’. 14 in total.  We spent 8 minutes apiece chatting. A lot of ‘What do you do for a living?’ and ‘What do you do for fun?’. For some reason, there were a lot of international guys and I’m almost positive a couple of gay ones.

I didn’t meet my future husband. Not sure if I’ll even put in my ‘picks’. Maybe I’ll do this again. Maybe.

To Kill a Mockingbird

#11.

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Only one more book to go! Everyone told me this was a good one to read. For some reason, this book never came up in any of my English classes in high school or college. I remember most of the books I read, and I have also read a ton of books outside of class. But I definitely don't recall this one.

I really liked it. I think it gives a really good perspective of what I imagine it was like in the South during the 1930s and the racial injustices that were happening. This is a time period and area that I’m not familiar with at all, so it makes it even more interesting. Although I did find myself getting angry at various points. A lot of the themes still resonate today. I thought the reference to Hitler and Jewish people was interesting to include in a book about African Americans in the South. But it’s all the same prejudice.

It’s unbelievable that people still continue to try to ban this book, especially since it uses the word nigger and talks about rape. People may not like it, but children shouldn't be sheltered, but educated.

On a lighter note before I get too riled up, it was nice to read another classic that took place in my own country. There are too many European classics...

Last one to go—The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger!

1.        Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

2.        Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

3.        A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

4.        Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

5.        Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

6.        Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

7.        Animal Farm by George Orwell

8.        The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexendre Dumas

9.        To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10.    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

4th Attempt

#9.

So today I attempted #9 again. This is only my 4^th race this year that’s shorter than a ½ marathon. And I figured 12 days off after running a marathon was fine, so I signed up for the HoBOOken 5k with my sister Alysia. I haven’t run since the marathon, so I figured my legs would be nice and rested. I also figured it’d be a nice, flat course along the waterfront in Hoboken. And it would be October, so not terribly hot weather. All good factors.

But yet again, no luck. I guess running a 5k less than 2 weeks after running a marathon wasn’t the best idea. Oh and I drank about ¾ of a bottle of wine last night at dinner with a college friend. Oh and a Nor’easter came through this morning. Awesome.

A couple of days ago the weather forecast wasn’t looking good. And it didn't change... actually got worse—rainy, windy, and 40s with the temperature dropping. We got to Hoboken this morning and got our race stuff, with 45 minutes to spare. Now where to go to stay dry and warm? Why, the 24-hour CVS of course.

We headed back to the course a few minutes before, where we started with Slim Goodbody, Pocahontas, and Where's Waldo. The first mile was a good pace at 7:04. I went out a bit fast, but I was cold and my legs just wanted to run. In the 2^nd mile, it was getting colder, rainier and windier. I think the Hudson River just wanted to dump on us.

I slowed down a bit on the 3^rd mile and knew I wasn’t going to hit my goal of a 7 minute pace. My legs were just not happy with me. Oh well. Just finishing strong was now the plan. At the finish, my watch came in at exactly 23 minutes, a pace of 7:24. Not too terrible, but I can do better. The official results aren’t up yet, but I obviously didn’t make it. I’ve got a couple of more attempts over the next few weeks. Hopefully they go a bit better than today.

Now time to relax a bit before I go out and celebrate a white Halloween.