Time with Lucas

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending a lot of one on one time with my nephew, Lucas. We had so much fun and I was delighted to be able to spend so much time together. We went to a nearby park, ran around the backyard, played with his trains, sang songs, read plenty of books and a whole lot more.

Here are a few fun pictures that I snapped with my phone:

LA Marathon Recap!

"If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience another life... run a marathon." -Emil Zatopek

My head has been full of mixed feelings about the Marathon so it's taken me a long time to write this particular post. I loved the experience and I hated the experience. It was amazing and it was awful. I enjoyed every second of it and I despised every second of it. There were moments of sheer bliss and moments of sheer agony. I can say for certain that I wouldn't trade those almost 6 hours back for anything in the world. The marathon pushed me more mentally and physically then I've ever been pushed before in my life.

Honestly, the first 20 miles went by fairly smoothly and the only complaint I had was the torrential downpour that we were constantly being hit with. Yes, folks, even in Los Angeles, it rains. Actually, this particular day, it didn't rain, it flooded! I've never seen rain like this here ever and long-time LA residents were shocked by it too. So, of course my clothes were soaking wet, my shoes and socks and everything else were wet. My poor hands were so frozen the entire run that they became numb and I think that they were beginning to turn blue even! At the finish line lots of people were being treated for Hypothermia.

Ok, back to the running part, so like I was saying, the first 20 miles weren't miserable and then I hit that "wall" that I've heard people talk about but haven't encountered myself. It was a serious wall alright. Everything that I've heard about the "wall" is correct and it's terrible. It's hard to explain exactly what it felt like... I felt like it took everything I had in me to take each step forward. I didn't have much more in me. I just kept saying to myself, "Only 6 more miles, only 6 more short miles." But those 6 miles were the longest miles of my life!!! I slowed way down and walked a bit more and slowed my running pace as well. One of my roommate's friends who ran the Marathon as well summed it up best, "the first 20 miles were easy; the last six, longer and more tortuous than the preceding 20!"

By mile 23, everything was hurting! I took out my phone during a rare dry moment out there and saw that my sister had called several times so I called her back. She asked me where I was and I told her that I had 3 miles to go. She then asked how I felt and I lost it. I began crying and just blubbered out, "not good". I'm not sure if it was hearing her voice and knowing that she was at the finish line waiting for me or that I wasn't going to be a quitter at mile 23, but I pushed through all the pain I was experiencing and crossed that finish line in just under 6 hours! I am proud to report that I was #14,038 out of 20,000 runners.

Here I am before the Marathon started:


After the Marathon:


Post-Marathon champagne my roommate got me! Yay!


As of today, I'm feeling much better and will probably be able to stop taking so much Aspirin soon. It still hurts to get up if I've been sitting for a long time but definitely not as much as Monday and yesterday. Now, the only thing really annoying me is that my iPod is still out of commission. Sadly, it got too wet on the run and will probably never be resuscitated. : (

So, have I inspired any of you to run a Marathon now?! Not sure if I'll run another one but there definitely is a part of me that wants to run one in better weather. We'll see.....

Tomorrow is the LA Marathon!!!

Tomorrow I will be running the LA Marathon. That's 26.2 miles.

Wow!

This is a huge deal for me. I'm borderline freaking out/super excited and thrilled. I've been training hard for over 6 months and before that I was training for a Half-Marathon. So I honestly don't think that I could have prepared my body more for these 26.2 miles. 26.2 miles!!!!! Now, I just need to work on my brain. I know that around mile 15, I'll probably have to dig deep down in myself and find those reserves that we all have. The reserves that will move my legs and I'll just switch to auto-pilot and stop feeling whatever pain has set in. The endorphins will surely have kicked in and my mind will take over the driver seat. Or perhaps, I'll be feeling great and won't have any problems at all. That's really what I'm hoping for.

Here is a really cool YouTube video that shows a 3D map of the LA Marathon course that I'll be running. This definitely gets me pumped up! We go through just about all the neighborhoods here in LA. I'll have to take mental notes throughout the run to blog about later! Ha! We'll see if I can manage that.....

Here's a great quote that I just found that definitely inspires me: "The race, the marathon, is a renewal of belief in one's self and the ultimate expression of confidence that you have created the foundation that enables you to go the distance."

Woo hoo!! Stay tuned tomorrow or possibly later on in the week for all the Marathon details. In the meantime, wish me luck!!!!

She Taught Me How to Love

This week's Mama Kat's Writers Workshop writing prompt that I chose was 2) 10 Things my mother taught me.

My mom and I were extremely close. Sometimes I have trouble breathing because I miss her so much. She and my father were taken too soon from this life and I certainly was not finished learning from either of them. Well, are we ever really finished learning from our parents?

Back on my mom's birthday in November, I wrote the following piece and I think it fits perfectly with this week's writing assignment. There may not be 10 exact things that my mother taught me but honestly, I wouldn't be able to pick just 10 things she taught me.


Today would have been my mom's 62nd birthday. My mom, Kathi, was my favorite person in the whole world. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, then I'm sure you know that I talk about her a lot. For those new followers, let me just tell you that my mom was my best friend. It's incredibly difficult going through life without her and I honestly don't know how I've gotten this far without my mom.

I know a lot of daughters don't feel this way about their moms so I know that my relationship with my mom was rare. I wish that I had really sat her down and told her how much that meant to me. For some reason, we didn't have too many serious conversations. I still would like to think that she knew how I felt. I could tell her anything. Seriously, anything. She never judged and never criticized. She just got it. I always felt comfortable divulging intimate details about my personal life to her, well, of course not e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

I've been keeping a journal since my parents died. Lately, I haven't really been writing in it like I should. Well, the week they died, my sister and I made two lists of things that made us think of our mom and dad.

Here is what was on our mom's list: bubble baths, The Temptations, anything easy listening, Twizzlers, scrapbooking, Singapore Slips, beach novels that she would never remember reading but really did, trips to a Tucson, AZ salon(Gadabout), Monopoly (she collected different editions from all over the world), daily trivia, stencil letters, awful singing but she still had fun, Christmas ornaments (we had one from every country we had ever been to on our Christmas tree), she wanted to be a translator for the UN, colorful and sometimes cheap jewelry, diet cherry coke, her amazing chocolate chip cookies, party mix, the best lasagna ever, getting sucked into any and every TV show that I made her watch with me, hugs, painful goodbyes always made her cry, Clementine(a stuffed monkey from Build a Bear), wandering in grocery stores and Target forever, magazines, comfort food, very smart, held hands during takeoff, loved children, reading aloud, movies, teaching stores, colorful pens, surprise presents, happy tears, big red apples, nose kisses, she dyed her hair since I can remember, always willing to do anything to help someone out and she has the power to make you feel like everything was going to be ok. Of course, there's so much more, but that's my list so far.

❤ Above everything else, I learned how to love from my mom. ❤

Fashion Show

It was a another typical Tuesday night...

My roommate Gina and I attended yet another star studded amazing Fashion Show in downtown LA. Uh, NOT!!! We never ever do things like this! In fact, it was my very first fashion show ever and let me tell you, I felt so Sex and the City! For the ladies that watch Sex and the City, they'll know exactly what this means.

It was for an LA line of vintage inspired cocktail dresses called Stop Staring. It was "founded on the idea of timeless and classic dresses, and rockabilly clothing, Stop Staring! is inspired by silver screen glamour icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford." The dresses are beautiful and look great on absolutely every body type.

Before the fashion show started, there was a very cool red carpet that we posed on for a bit. There was even a wax Lady Gaga there! Of course we had to take a picture with her!


Guess who was there?! Bridget from "Girls Next Door"!!



Here are a few pictures from the show itself. These were some of my favorite outfits.


There was even an awesome 40's style Andrew Sisters type girl group, The Swing Dolls.


Here I am posing before the fashion show started. So much fun!

Yes, I Google Myself

I'm not sure exactly why I do this but once or twice a year, I Google myself. I guess I just want to see if there is anything out there with my name on it on the internet. Come on, I'm sure you've all done it a time or two as well.

Well, I just did and thankfully I did NOT find myself..even by page # 10 of Google, I did see plenty of other interesting Leah A's out there. It's a little disturbing and slightly creepy that there are so many women out there in the world with my name. Wonder how many Leah A's there really are... So, just tonight, I saw a pretty well known photographer, a few doctors, a minister, a wrestling manager, a teacher, a real estate agent, a fiber artist and sadly even a little 3 year old baby that passed away in September. I even found a blog dedicated to this guy's love of a girl with my name! It's literally all about her and the fact that he can never be more than her friend. And yes, trust me, it's not about me! Wouldn't that be hilarious if it was though?! : )

So, when was the last time you googled yourself? Go ahead, you know you want to check it now.

Tasty Soup Tuesday

Last Friday night, my roommate Swati and I were feeling adventurous in the kitchen so we decided to make dinner together and by make, I mean that we didn't quickly throw something into the microwave. No, we actually used the stove AND the oven AND the blender even too! Haha! Swati had the genius idea of using her frozen spinach to make renown food journalist's Mark Bittman's super easy Creamy Spinach Soup. When I say easy, I really mean EASY!
Check out the simple recipe below:

Creamy Spinach Soup

Put 1 chopped onion, 2 peeled garlic cloves, 3 cups water and salt and pepper in a pot over high heat. Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until the onion is tender, about 10 minutes. Add 10 ounces chopped spinach and 1/2 cup parsley leaves; cook until the spinach is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 cup Greek-style yogurt and purée. Garnish: A spoonful of Greek-style yogurt and chopped parsley.

Swati is lovin' our soup!

Two other easy similar recipes:

Squash-and-Ginger Soup
Substitute 1 tablespoon minced ginger for the garlic and 4 cups chopped butternut squash for the spinach (it will take longer to soften). Skip the parsley and substitute half-and-half or cream for the yogurt. Garnish: A spoonful of cream.

Curried Cauliflower Soup
Substitute 1 tablespoon minced ginger for the garlic, 2 cups cauliflower florets for the spinach (they will take longer to soften), 1 tablespoon curry powder for the parsley and coconut milk for the yogurt. Garnish: Chopped cilantro.

For more on these recipes go to this New York Times Page.

To go with the soup, we also made breaded Parmesan Tilapia fish, green beans and Parmesan couscous! Yummy!