first off…i’m not one to judge…because the age old example of one finger pointing out with 3 pointing back definitely rings true in my life.

however “black friday” is frightening. i am always up for saving money…but to what extent? i read an interesting quote about it today:

16% more people will be heading out to the stores to do their holiday shopping.

That’s good news for our flailing economy and to have 57 million people buying crap they don’t really need would certainly boost some moral in retail.

let us all make a deal to NOT buy crap we don’t need.

tonight is the night.

12:01 AM

i am not sure where my love for all things black and orange began…but it was in full swing this year…i love, love, love to decorate for halloween.

here is a view of our living room coming in from the front door:

living room from a different angle:

dining room:

dining room angle 2:

kitchen window:

bathroom 1:

bathroom 2:

maybe i am not as fashion forward as i thought…

i would never ever sleep in this bed. it even scares me to look at it.

i would feel motion sickness or that austin powers was lurking underneath…

jasen and i were having a conversation today about some good friends who are going through an extremely difficult time. even using the word “difficult” offers a disservice to their situation. everyday i feel like i hear something else being thrown at them. reaching my breaking point, i finally uttered out loud, “enough already, God! move on to someone else.”

not having the right words for people who are hurting is hard. we all want to bring comfort by saying, “it will get better.” but maybe it won’t get better. i have to believe that there is beauty in this world, and all things are created in a reflection much bigger than you or i.

when i was driving home from the gym i heard this song. i hope it brings comfort.

The Heart Of Life
John Mayer

I hate to see you cry
Lying there in that position
There’s things you need to hear
So turn off your tears and listen

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won’t all go away, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

You know it’s nothing new
Bad news never had good timing
Then the circle of your friends
Will defend the silver lining

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won’t all go away, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
Fear is a friend who’s misunderstood
But I know the heart of life is good

I know it’s good

We’re in repair, we’re not together but we’re getting there.

claire and i had a halloween party this weekend full of fun and food. (what else do you need?)

some yummy treats:

spooky pizza

spooky drink

spooky twilight cake i wish we had.

also many famous folks stopped by for a bit:

including taylor swift and interrupting kanye west:

bono and bjork:

little red riding hood:

pam, taylor and medusa:

and kanye’s shoes.

there was so much more, but our camera decided to give up the ghost (quite literally), and we were unable to capture it all. i will try and swipe some more pictures to post…

but the outcome was quite great:

until next year…

this is long overdue…but better late than never.

which was fitting since i was really slow with my time this race. more on that later.

it is always a great time to head to san fran…we love it so. but first things first.

cupcakes. and teacake bake shop is one of our favorites. just look at that yumminess.

and the cupcake is not bad either.

when we arrived, we headed over to the nike women’s expo for some freebies and such. i was able to meet my hero, kara goucher and american hero, joan benoit samuelson. they were so kind to let a crazed fan take a picture with them.

we also met coach jay who is the voice in your ear for most of nike+ activities. if you use nike+ you have most likely heard him before.

at the expo i was able to see my nike+ mini on the big screen! when i showed that i used nike+ on my run the next day… i was awarded with an itunes gift card. which jasen immediately swiped from me.

after the estrogen and expo we headed over to niketown in union square and took a picture of the runners wall. my name is on there. trust me.

i picked out my final outfit for the big day:

cute, right?

after some pasta and a good nights sleep, we were up and out the door by 6:15. union square was all a blaze of crazy people. i refer “crazy people” to the goo guzzling pre run runners who are mostly there to make you second guess if you are doing what you are supposed to.

here i am at the starting line.

i lined up somewhere in the middle with the other 10s of thousands anxious runners. at the starting gun they blared “single ladies” and it was fun to feed off the momentum. but then it slowly wore off after i waited 10 minutes to actually start herding moving.

the first 5 miles were awesome through downtown and the embarcadero. then came the hills. since it was such a shock to my system…i should have stopped and taken pictures of the beautiful scenery…but instead i forced myself up these mountains with my lungs and legs screaming the whole way.

by mile 11…i was ready to punch someone in the face.

but you keep going and finish…

and sometimes you get a tiffanys necklace handed to you by a fireman in a tux.

it was a fun experience but the hardest race i have ever faced. i was trained physically but i really let the hills get to me mentally. Which is never good since i believe running is at least 75% mental training.

it was my last 1/2 of the year. what is next? CIM december 6th. i AM crazy.

this is what your legs look like after running 18 miles on the river trail.

this is what i assume your legs look like after 26.2 miles:

wish me luck. i will need it.

i had the following question on a test today:

(circle the correct letter for the word that has the same meaning to the word in italics.)

an imaginary friend

a. best
b. kind
c. real
d. make-believe

(answer is d)

a large percentage of my class circled (a) best.

should i be concerned?

jasen and i went up to apple hill today to enjoy fall. we love to eat so of course we did our research of what was good. (thanks to some facebook help from friends.)

a great ending at vaneli’s coffee in eldrado hills on our way home.

or maybe needs to be napping.

september has blown by in a whirlwind. which is fine by me since i can’t wait to put up my halloween decorations. i peeked in the boxes a week ago and forgot about all the goodies i bought on sale after halloween last year. warm fuzzies of excitement shoot down my spine as i think of it.

i can hold out for one more day.

october is a crazy month full of fun. half marathon in san francisco, u2 in vegas, monterey/carmel field trip and a pumpkin carving halloween party.

i have been doing some reading about the nike women’s half/full marathon in october. it may be in competition with the disney half. i hear there is a chocolate station at mile 11. you read that right…CHOCOLATE STATION. plus firefighters in tuxes hand you a little necklace at the finish line.

you know…if you are into that stuff.