what i wore in 1986
I was a big nerd. From the dawn of 1977 (dawn meaning September) until about 2 seconds ago. I actually JUST got cool. It’s awesome.
My nerdiness had many origins.
Like bad haircuts.
And my belief that I could get the big swooping wave out of your bangs if you just had bangs. I didn’t know about curling irons or hairspray.
Strong desire to fit in, but secret worship of weirdness.
Not good at sports. Played the cello instead.
General chubbiness…
Combined with not having the right clothes.
Mostly my mom bought my clothes. And in her hippy, earth goddess sort of way, she didn’t give a rat’s ass about fashion. Thus, I could rarely convince her to buy me the right clothes and instead, I had not-quite-right jeans and t-shirts that weren’t “oversized,” but too big.
So when 80’s fashion starts coming back, I can appreciate it. Not because of my own closets of yore, but because of the girls of E. B. Aycock Junior High, who I stared at with a pitiful little cast of jealousy and admiration.
Lately, though, it seems like what’s coming back in style isn’t the cool stuff from back in the day, but the nerd bomber things I used to wear.
For example, if the cool stuff from the 80’s were coming back, we’d be seeing this:
Which is an acid washed mini jean skirt, a thing I desired greatly. Instead, I had a skirt like this one below. Chambray.
Guess which one you can now find for $98 at Madewell?
Filed under Maggie's closet
Faster
I ran a 5k race on the Fourth of July. The same one as last year.
I feel a bit sorry for the lady who wrote that post. She was so sad about doing that race. And yeah, I’m still pretty hard on myself for being such a Slowbedon, but I definitely don’t feel quite as despondent as that post was anymore.
So the latest 5K? It was still slow. But you know what’s neat-o? I completed the race in six minutes and 23 seconds faster than I did last year. I finished this one in 32:04, which still hasn’t broken the magical 30 minute mark, but it’s a helluva lot closer than 38:33.
And you know what else? In the year between that first 5k and this one, I have run 2 other 5ks, one 10k and a half marathon.
I still want to be faster, but with the perspective that a whole year can give, I can say that I have surely come a long way.
Filed under Running, the bitch goddess
I craft!
My friend Nina had a wrap bracelet. I coveted it.
Then I saw some lovely ones in a shop in Hawaii. My coveting went up a notch. But not $170 worth of covet.
Maggie Makes made one.
And I decided that I would do it. Despite my utter lack of crafting experience or know-how.
I summoned the craftiest lady I know. We went to a bead store and agonized over the weird selection of largely cat-lady flavored geegunk. They didn’t have the little metal beads we wanted, so we settled on semi-precious stones. Then, we read some instructions and just had at it.
And I’m totally pleased with the result! I ordered some more beads online and I think I will make another one!
Filed under Nifty things
bicycle dress
This dress is one of those things that didn’t quite fit when I bought it. Gapping at the bosom, as is the bane of my existence.
But then I lot a bit of poundage and the buttons, they did close!
And Yet.
It was clearly too big in other, unflattering ways. Like, I can pull the fabric out to the sides about 3 inches away from my body on either side under my armpits.
But even though it fits like a fool in her mammy’s clothes, I make do with a belt and the inherent delight in a dress with a bicycle print.
Behold! Ginormous bosom! And Bicycles!
Filed under Maggie's closet
one of those days
Yesterday, there was this baby. She was born at 5 pm in Texas. Her parents are an old boyfriend of mine, circa 2003, and the woman he was engaged to and broke up with before he met me (and then went back to after we broke up). Weird, I know.
This old boyfriend is the only other one that I’ve lived with besides David. We were together for a little over three years. Nice guy, but it was good for it to be over.
I know I’m not alone in this thinking… that we can breakup and I can feel like it’s the good and right thing, but you should probably never date anyone ever again, because no one could ever really be as uniquely spectacular as I am.
So I have little snarky thoughts about him and the girlfriend that used to be and that was then the girlfriend that is, again. And then I had that glug feeling when Facebook told me she was pregnant. And yesterday, the baby was born.
A few hours later, I’m sitting on the couch having “a talk” about these flaws in my existing relationship. The one that I am always thinking is so great. The one that just hit the 3 year mark on Sunday. So seriously, Universe? Fart on you.
Filed under Dating
up my alley
the quality mending co bowling bag
Totally impractical. Definitely couldn’t fit a novel and my lunch.
But I have a funny feeling inside that maybe I love this bag.
Filed under Nifty things
Bay to Breakers
Because I’m still trying to catch up from my time of slackery, here is what happend on May 15.
Me, David, Vinny, and Nina
Here we are at the 100th annual Bay to Breakers foot race, a 7 mile course across San Francisco. We’re dressed as the ballerinas from Black Swan, which was such an awesome idea, that lots of other people had the same one! Also, some people just couldn’t decide, and so they were naked.
Filed under Running, the bitch goddess, Up to Stuff
Presidential fitness
I’ve been on this one-mile run kick.
It originated out of mope over my slow running times and not really knowing how to work on improving those. So I thought I would just see if I could manage 10 minute miling, but just for 1 mile. To my great satisfaction, I did it.
And then it became my Monday night ritual before Body Pump… the one mile treadmill test.
The first couple of times, I wasn’t really sure that I had truly given it my all; was that the absolute fastest that I could go? But I didn’t know what sort of time I should be shooting before, so I just continued to shave ten or fifteen seconds off my time each week.
Until I got into the 8 minute range. There was an 8:38. Then 8:28 the next week. And 8:21. A two week break while I was in Hawaii, and then just last week I hit 8:10.
I’m not really sure what a good time for a mile is. I know that KERF did a run the other day and the second mile in her 5K was 8:09. Which felt a bit like the interwebs pulling a face at me and going “neener neener neener.” So my single mile in 8 minutes and 10 seconds isn’t record breaking. But it is really fast for me. And it has gotten to the point that it is just really hard and I’m not sure that I can pull a better time just by seeing if I can.
I tried, though, last night. And, well… it was not awesome. I was about 3 minutes into an 8 minute even pace and it just started to suck. Despite all the little voices convincing me that 5 minutes was nothing and that I could totally power through, I slugged out and slowed down to a walk. I caught my breath a bit and then picked up the pace again, fluctuating all over the place trying to figure out how to just finish this one out. Finished in 8:58. So, a bit of a set back.
Maybe now I know that running a mile somewhere around 8:15 to 8:30 is a good challenging pace for me and I should just try to do that a couple of times without trying to shave off seconds every week. Or maybe now I need to see what running 2 miles at 10 minutes per mile feels like.
Because I do really really want to break that 30 minute 5k mark one of these days!
Yeah, and meanwhile, 1/2 marathon training continues, for my second scheduled half of 2011 (or the second one of EVER), on July 31. So my runs are mostly focused on easy paces over longer distances, which means that I’m sort of cheating with all of these little one mile tests for myself.
Does it sound like I’m obsessing much? I feel a little ridiculous myself, I have to admit. I sure spend an awful lot of time thinking about running and reviewing my training schedule and washing an unholy amount of workout clothing for someone who really isn’t very good at it.
So let’s just be grateful for blogs, where I can babble away to my hearts content, and for David’s, who are also interested in running (albeit much better at it than I am) and happy to discuss it all with me at length.
Filed under Running, the bitch goddess
Can you tip a canoe?
I had a capade on Saturday.
First, I ran 9 miles. All kinds of it-took-forever, but no records made on this day. Still. 9 miles. Shrug I may, but it’s not something to sniff at.
And then it was time to prepare for our outing. We had an hour to get ready, before a friend was showing up to get a ride with us. David was in the shower when the doorbell rang. I answered the door with no pants on, and that’s after making her wait about 90 seconds longer than is normal for door answering. Suffice it to say, we weren’t entirely ready and there was a bit of a scramble.
We drove out to a vineyard, met up with 2 more of the ensemble cast and drank a bottle of wine.
And then to Lucky’s supermarket to meet up with the remaining cast and crew, where we procured 3 different bags of Ruffles, more wine and sandwiches for all.
We are ready!
Destination: Russian River
Purpose: To canoe down it
The canoe people make us sign away our lives. They give us some waterproof bags. They drive us away to some location up river.
At said location, a dude tells us some how-to’s and do-nots. I half way listen. We clamber into 4 canoes, 3 with 2 people and 1 with 3 people. I volunteer to be the steerer and sit in the back of my and David’s canoe. We head out.
The very first little bit is a narrow part with some pretty quick moving water. The How-To dude told us to stay away from the shore in that part. Which is what we immediately did not do.
Straight for the shoreline and its trees we went. My steering prowess had no effect.
How-To dude also told us to duck forward under tree branches, not back. I, of course, leaned back under them.
We proceeded to be stuck in the trees, with too many branches to go forward and a current far too fast to try and paddle backwards. And then, for no reason in particular, we just tipped out and the canoe started to fill with water.
We’ve been in the boat for probably about 90 seconds and already we are fail!
Also fail? Those waterproof bags. I bet they probably work just fine, but really only if you close them up. Which we did not. Consequently, 3 sandwiches and 2 iPhones became sodden. The Ruffles potato chips were fine.
After that, we were pretty golden. No more tipping. For us, anyway. 2 of the other canoe friends tipped later, but our tipping was the most awesome.
Also, despite wearing 85 SPF sunblock (yes, 85!), I got sunburned. Not horribly, but enough. But man, if I’m going to get sunburned, could I at least do so in such a way as to even out some of the stupid-ass tan lines from my last bout, puh-lease? Somehow, I managed to reinforce my freckly arms and chest, without evening out the bits at the tops of my shoulders. Next time, I am totally just going nekkid.
Filed under Up to Stuff
margaret edith 
