– This Jezebel article on makeup’s meaning is sort of bad news for people like me, who enjoy wearing lots of makeup in dramatic shades. Sorry, but the minimalist bare-faced look just isn’t for me.
And now, I will post a recap of my very first marathon!! You may remember last year I ran the half marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival and hoping that this year I would be one of the people with the “full” sign on their back. Many miles later, with a lot of blood and sweat along the way, it happened. (I do have photographic evidence of the blood and sweat but decided to spare you and not post it.) Interestingly, I also ended up wearing the same shirt I wore to the half last year.
I was so nervous I ended up running faster than I normally do, but I had no idea until I checked the Runkeeper app on my phone around mile 6. I thought it was wrong and just ignored it. But when I got to the halfway point I saw the husband (and the great sign he made for me!) and he told me I had in fact been going faster than usual. I was so happy to see him.
That photo was taken through the sign he made for me – in the shape of Jeero, Museum Advisory Committee member and my official coach.
The next half was rough…lots of hills and I got really tired around mile 16. Fortunately the last 3 miles or so are mostly downhill or flat. Here I am heading towards the sweet sweet finish line.
I was so happy my parents and mother-in-law came to see me cross the finish line! My mom kept saying she couldn’t believe I did it. I understood since I couldn’t believe it either! Plus, my mom remembers all those years of me struggling through gym class and her having to call the gym teachers to beg them not to give me a failing grade…and now I run marathons.
I have to admit, I was kind of terrified for the next 24 hours or so. I was really nervous before the race and fine during it, but once I finished I was afraid I would keel over from exhaustion, that I had pushed myself too hard, that my body couldn’t handle a full marathon and that my heart would just stop. I was more or less on the verge of a panic attack till the next day, when I figured that if I had made it through the night I was probably in the clear. Odd, but I guess if you’re as wound up as I am it made sense to worry about such a thing. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t worry about everything in the whole wide world!
Some observations and fun facts:
Best sign I saw while running (besides the husband’s, of course): “Run, Omar’s comin’!” So perfect for Baltimore.
Craziest thing I saw: a guy in a Dunkin’ Donuts costume who was also running the full marathon. I have absolutely no idea how he managed to run the entire time being dressed as an enormous coffee cup.
Number of people wearing Lululemon, including me: 5.
Number of people wearing Under Armour: 26,995 (there were about 27,000 runners total.)
Worst stretch: between miles 16 and 19, where it was pretty much all uphill. I ended up walking most of those 3 miles.
Best stretch: Besides the few yards to the finish line, the best part was around miles 5 and 6 because a. it was downhill and b. part of my regular training route. Running along a familiar street helped ease the nerves.
Post-race meal(s) – slice of pepperoni pizza about 2 hours after I got back from the race; then a cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg, french fries and an ice cream sundae with bananas (need that potassium!) and peanut butter sauce. Then the next morning I went to brunch, which included migas, home fries and 2 mimosas. It’s safe to say I ate back all the calories I burned and many more. Oops.
Despite the drizzly, humid weather I had a good time. I was pleasantly surprised that there were still so many spectators out on the course by the time I finished, and like last year the race was well-organized with plenty of volunteers. Also, I had a super secret time goal and I beat it by 4 minutes, so I was really happy with that (dare I say I was proud of it?). Finally, for all the kids who made fun of me in gym class, the teachers who berated me for being weak and slow and uncoordinated, to them I say:
EAT IT WITH A FORK!!
I’m still slow and uncoordinated, but I’ve got enough stamina and just enough coordination to put one foot in front of the other for 26.2 miles. So they can take their stupid jock worship and silly Presidential Fitness tests and stick ’em where the sun don’t shine.
Barring injury, I plan on running more marathons…just 1 or 2 per year and definitely no ultras, but I want to run more and get faster.
– 'Tis Girl Scout cookie season, and this year they've started taking credit cards. God help me – as someone who rarely carries cash, the only thing prohibiting me previously from buying dozens of boxes of cookies was the lack of credit card capability.
– Vote for the ugliest shoes of all time at Shoewawa. Warning: it's going to be harder than you think!
– Finally, posts have been short here at the Museum and things might be quiet for the next week as I make the final preparations for the special exhibition. Here's a peek of the mock-up of the displays I'm working on.
Can you guess what the theme is now? I gave a little hint a few weeks ago, but I think now it's clear! 😉
This week's links.
– I'd love to see this exhibition celebrating Revlon's 80th anniversary. Too bad it's in London.
– Oof. Australia-based beauty brand Illamasqua misses the mark with their latest ad campaign featuring a model in blackface. Why, why?
– Add this to the list of ridiculously expensive luxury beauty items: Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura ruby-encrusted false eyelashes, which retail for approximately $1,500. And the lash glue isn't even included!
– On the local front, today is Holiday Heap, the Charm City Craft Mafia's annual holiday show. I was sad to miss it as I was visiting my parents for the weekend, but I took along Zeke, one of our Cotton Monster staff members (Cotton Monster is a favorite Craft Mafia vendor of mine). Speaking of which, I was pleased to see this shout-out to Cotton Monster.
– While he was visiting the parents, Zeke and a couple of Museum advisory committee members managed to suss out a pan of my dad's famous "junk squares", so named because they're filled with sugary junk (graham cracker crumbs, shredded coconut, raisins, chocolate chips, almonds, all held together with a can of sweetened condensed milk).
As you can imagine the entire pan was gone within 2 minutes. They love sweets so!
How was your week?
This week's links (a little late because I was out of town). By the way, did you like the first installment of the Museum's new Color Connections series?
– I was pleased to see this slideshow devoted to palettes at Art Info, but I think they could have added information for each piece. All of these are either pieces I already own or will own soon.
– Finally, I was up in NYC for a wedding this weekend. It was lovely, but I don't think we had nearly as good a time as Sailor Babo, whom we took to first outpost of Ladurée in the States. A full post on his adventure will be forthcoming over at Postcards from Sailor Babo.
I have a crazy busy week coming up and since I was away I had no time to prepare posts in advance, so I will be taking this week off from blogging. But I will be back next week with some fall goodies so check back then. 🙂
Greetings. It was a fairly quiet week so I was able to put some posts together…it's always fits and starts here! Here are some things that caught my eye this week.
– I found this amazing blog, The Beheld, which focuses on the bigger concepts of beauty and the industry in general. This is not to say that I will no longer be putting up any similarly-themed posts, as one of the goals of the Museum is to present a more thoughtful and academic view of makeup, but I do I feel as though mine won't be nearly as insightful as those of the author! It's great to see a blog fully devoted to these issues.
– Jersey Shore is back! Woot! Can't wait to see what havoc the guidos and guidettes wreak in Florence, although I am a bit jealous they got to go.
– On the local/90s nostalgia front, the radio station I listened to all the time in college is back on the air! I almost fell over when I saw a commercial for HFS and just about died when I actually tuned in to listen…all my 90s faves were back!
– Finally, I am attending a mojito-themed bridal shower today and I was so thrilled to bring some goodies with me! I made mint chocolate brownies with peppermint patties, super minty ice cream (the secret to making it super minty instead of mildly minty is to add 2 tsp. of mint extract to the custard in addition to infusing the milk and cream with mint leaves!), lime sea salt chocolate chunk cookies (first time making these and they were delish – tangy and sweet and slightly salty all at once) and mojito cupcakes. I even got a Cupcake Courier to transport them all. After all that baking I was too exhausted to take pics, but I did manage to get pictures of the 2-sided cupcake flags my husband made:
Cute, eh? I do hope I get invited to more parties just so I can bring desserts! Better yet, it would be great if I could plan an entire thing. Maybe for fall I'll have a gathering of some kind. 🙂
Links from this week and last, plus a recap of my first marathon. 🙂 
