Sunday QuoteDay

I found this quote recently on a blog and I instantly fell in love with it:

"Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. It's hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well, and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art. Speaking with your heart to the hearts of others." -Unknown

My Feet

This post is for The Red Dress Club's writing assignment, Red Writing Hood. This week's prompt was to write a short piece, either fiction or non-fiction, about something ugly - and find the beauty in it.

While running has done some awesome things for my body, there are a few bad things it has done to me as well.

This might be total over share but my feet have been looking pretty awful lately. We are talking never-ending blisters that refuse to heal completely, rough and cracked heels, dry peeling skin pretty much all over and basically just a general overall ugly appearance. Then, sadly, last week, I lost my first toe nail. Yep, I now no longer have a second toe nail on my left foot! I never thought I would be saying that. Who loses a toe nail?! Apparently, this is totally normal to runners! Geesh! Needless to say I haven't had a pedicure in months and stopped caring about painting my toe nails awhile ago. Why bother?

My feet DON'T look quite this bad but you get the idea.


Don't get me wrong though. I take care of my feet when I go on long runs. I wear proper sneakers, and thanks to my sister, I wear fancy shmancy socks. I apply the amazing Blister Block and Vaseline, baby powder and then I even put on mole skin on the hot spots of my feet in order to prevent blisters. Even though I take all these preventative measures, after a long run, I still manage to grimace when I take my shoes and socks off. After 10 miles, everything starts to suffer a little bit.

Despite this long list of negative characteristics of my feet, I still manage to think they are amazing. I find immense beauty in the fact that I have run countless miles on these feet. In the past two years, they have gotten me through two Half-Marathons, a 60 mile long walk, many short and long training runs, including a few 20 milers and next Sunday a Full-Marathon. For that I'll always be grateful to them. Perhaps, like the roughness of a persons hands show you how much they work with them, you can tell a lot about a person just from their feet. This sounds like something Forrest Gump said, right? Well, if this is true, then you can surely see that I've been using my feet a lot lately.

I'm thankful that these ugly feet have not given up on me and haven't given me any real pain or serious discomfort. I suppose beauty is pain though, right? Maybe that's why so many things in life can be considered ugly or painful and beautiful at the same time. My feet most certainly follow along with that thought. My feet may be ugly right now but they are also incredibly beautiful too.

Speechless

This week's Mama Kat's Writing Assignment that I chose was 1.) Write about a time a friend left you speechless.

It was the first year anniversary of my parents death. Looking back on the day now I can't even remember exactly what I did. It's all a blur to me. For some reason I wasn't with my sister. Thankfully, we now promise to always try to be together on this date but this October 15th, we were not.

All I remember about the day was getting a call from the office of my apartment building letting me know that there was a package waiting for me downstairs in the mail room. I was shocked. I wasn't expecting anything. I quickly went to retrieve it and rushed back up to apartment to open it.

It was a large square heavy box with no return address but my address had been handwritten and I could definitely recognize the handwriting. It was from my friend Tracy. I slowly opened it and could immediately tell that it was some kind of a scrapbook. It had a beautiful butterfly on the cover and if you know me at all, then you'll know that I love butterflies. As I began turning the pages, I realized that not only was it from Tracy but several of my other close girl friends too.


They had all contributed a page or two to this beautiful scrapbook. Each page was full of pictures of my friends and I together, collages of magazine cutouts of things they knew I liked, thoughtful poems and friendship quotes and sweet letters. So many memories of these cherished friendships filled this scrapbook.



Tears formed in my eyes as I scanned the pages and began reading the letters tucked into the clear covers around each page. I was left utterly speechless. No one had ever done something so incredibly kind for me in my life and I didn't know what to say. It had been such a hard day for me and knowing that I would have to endure many more year anniversaries of my parents deaths felt impossible. Just as I was feeling my lowest and most alone in the world, this heartfelt gift arrived and I suddenly didn't feel so alone anymore.

Wordless Wednesdays

This post is for Wordless Wednesdays. I just got this beautiful picture in the mail from my dear friend Courtney for my birthday. It's amazing, right? It combines two things I love, fashion and butterflies! I think it's a stunning picture! Don't you?

27 and a Day

Well, yesterday was my birthday and I turned the ripe old age of 27!

Yep, I am now officially in my late 20's...cue the daunting scary music! YIKES! Despite my fear of turning 27, I had a very sweet day and I'm delighted to say that I no longer enter this year with trepidation but with a sense of hope and excitement. I feel wiser, more self-aware, confident and even more mature then I've felt on previous birthdays. I've had some incredible experiences as a 26 year old and I plan on continuing in that tradition with even more gusto. Once again, this birthday I was reminded of just how lucky and fortunate I am to have such amazing people at my side.

My friend Emily sent me these beautiful flowers!!

I love that on birthdays you hear from friends you haven't talk to in months and months, but suddenly, the big birthday rolls around and they know what to do. : ) I might also add that my Facebook wall was seriously blowing up! I thought it was going to explode from all the sweet birthday messages. I am definitely not complaining about that at all. I loved every single wall posting!

So what exactly did I do for my birthday yesterday? I started it by running just over 5 miles on the treadmill at the Gym! Woo! Go me! It felt amazing after being in Vegas all last weekend and not doing any kind of physical activity at all. After leaving the gym, I headed to a somewhat deserted beach near Santa Monica. Harmed with sunscreen, my swimsuit and iPod, I was ready to relax and get some sun. Sadly, this beach excursion only lasted about an hour since the wind was just too much for me and I ended up shivering at the beach instead! Haha! By the last 20 minutes, I was curled up in my beach blanket cursing my grand plans of spending the day at the beach! Oh well! As my roommate said, "at least I got out there and tried it".

Before it got windy and cold!

Next, I headed to the glorious infamous cupcake shop in Beverly Hills, Sprinkles. I purchased one sweet delicious red velvet cupcake. If you haven't tried these $3.50 cupcakes then you are seriously missing out my friend. I know it's ridiculous to spend that much on one cupcake but they are just so good. And I've done extensive cupcake research so trust me on this if you haven't had the pleasure of trying one of these for yourself. On the weekends, there is a huge line out the door down the street to get into this place but thankfully, yesterday was a Monday so I was in and out very quickly.

YUM!!

Later at night I had a very nice dinner with my roommate Gina and her mom. We had to rush through it a little bit since I had plans to sing karaoke in Korea Town with a group of friends and I had reserved a private room for us. I had a blast! Everyone got up and sang and seemed to really enjoy themselves and let loose. I can't think of one song that I wish we would have covered....well, i was a little disappointed they didn't have "Shoop" by Salt 'n' Pepa.. haha

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night:

Wordless Wednesdays

I had such a wonderful weekend visitor all the way from Wyoming, my dear close friend, Emily. We had an amazing time just being together and reminiscing. Saying goodbye to her this morning was hard and I fear that it will be awhile before we see each other again.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Project Smile-February

I finally decided to join Project Smile this month. I learned about it through my sister's blog and she discovered it through Alicia's blog at A Beautiful Mess. The challenge is to find something to smile about every single day of the month. I did exactly that for the month of February!
Here we happily go:

1st- Sharing a big glass of red wine with my roommate after a long day of nannying.
2nd- My sister and Lucas come to LA to visit me! I am smiles all day long!
3rd- An interesting and thoughtful conversation between four intelligent women, myself included.
4th- I got so much accomplished today!
5th- Pre-Marathon jitters are the best
6th- I rocked my 2nd Half-Marathon ever! I'm super excited now for my Full Marathon next month!
7th- Being able to sit in front of the TV with my lap top for hours and actually get a lot done!
8th- A bajillion things at the 99cent store for $10 bucks!
9th- A nice long hike on a beautiful sunny LA day.
10th- I found 6 music job openings and applied for them all in under an hour.
11th- Morning yoga outside! Need I say more?
12- I ran 20 miles and didn't die afterwards!
13- Several hours of fun at the beach with my roommates and friends.
14- A sweet night with new and old friends celebrating desserts and Valentines Day and not being depressed at all that we are single! : )
15- An intense workout at the gym that left me drenched with sweat and completely out of breath.
16- A sweet visit with my sister and nephew in Orange County.
17- I went to a thoughtful and interesting lecture on sex in downtown Los Angeles with new and old LA friends.
18- Today I'm happy that I allowed myself to cry tears of sadness. It had been awhile and I obviously needed it.
19- A totally rad 80's Prom Birthday Party in Newport Beach.
20- A very lazy day spent watching several movies in bed
21- I applied to 6 amazing jobs! Wish me luck!
22- I did Bikram Yoga again today for the first time in about a year and it felt amazing!
23- I got an awesome job interview lined up for Monday!
24- Not only did I take a Bikram Yoga class but I also ran 3 miles! Damn, this feels good!
25- I got my hair trimmed and colored black!! And my BFF from high school arrived to visit me for a few days! : ) I couldn't be happier today!
26- My sister, nephew and best friend and I spent the afternoon together! How perfect is that?!
27- Having a margarita with my BFF in Santa Monica by the ocean celebrating her birthday!
28- So many things to smile about today: A leisure hike and brunch with Emily followed by my awesome interview and a relaxing night together too.