My canceled flight & some blog recs

SML (“Screw my luck…trying to avoid cursing : ):  Chicago has had amazing weather for the majority of the winter so far, and the one weekend I am traveling, we get snow and sleet and my flight is canceled.  Booooo.  Of all the flights leaving for Boston today, mine was the only one canceled (I picked the earliest flight because it was the cheapest), and all the other flights are full.  I was aware of this last night, but figured I would still give it my all, get to the airport early, and compete for a spot on standby.

I figured I have nothing to lose….I brought stuff with me to work on, so it doesn’t matter whether I do it here or somewhere else.  And, if I don’t feel like working…well… somehow I always feel completely justified and less guilty about spending time reading junk magazines when at the airport : ).  Oh wait…who am I kidding, I never feel guilty about reading celebrity gossip news and watching junk reality tv ; )

Favorite part of waiting at the airport? Hanging out by the magazines and catching up on all of my celebrity gossip : )

Keep your fingers crossed that some other poor person misses the next flight to Boston so that I can take their spot.  Heh.

So, in addition to enjoying reading celebrity gossip, I also love reading other peoples blogs.   I just love reading about other people’s thoughts, reflections, advice, etc.  Some posts I find comforting because I can totally relate, some posts open up my eyes to different perspectives and experiences of others from which I can learn, some give me great ideas about fitness and health, and some just make me laugh and lighten up my day.   So, I thought I’d share with you a few good posts I read recently that I enjoyed:

Skinny Runner is a phenomenal runner who is confident and not afraid to state her opinions on things, even if it strikes controversy (which, I personally don’t understand why it does).  I don’t know how the girl does it but she pretty much runs a marathon every single weekend and seems to run 10 miles every other day of the week, and when I say “run,” I mean RUN…she pulled off   a 3:14 marathon one weekend, followed by a half the next weekend, then a 3:27 marathon, followed by an ultra (30 miles) the next weekend, followed by another 3:14 this past weekend (yes, I’ve done some stalking), and you thought I was crazy!

Clearly I am not the only one in awe of how much, how often, and how fast she runs, because she wrote a post the other day addressing this question, which I thought was really well-written:   How to run a lot of miles.

Lesisms is written by a man who states that:  After decades of sleepwalking through life, I’ve finally woken up and realised the greatest dreams are achieved with open eyes and a conscious mind…I

I’m new to Lesisms blog, but I really like his writing…very introspective, well-thought out, and intelligent.    He shared a post recently about self-criticism:  With friends like these….

An excerpt:

Imagine if you had a friend who was always putting you down? If you’d known that person through childhood, but as you grew, they had become more and more hostile towards you?

 

They’d tell you you were too fat, or too thin… that your face or body was just the wrong shape… that your nose was too big, or your eyes were too close together or too wide apart… that you were ugly…

 

You wouldn’t accept this sort of treatment, would you?

 

Strange, then, that we accept such sustained criticism and destructive negativity from ourselves – truly the one person in the world who is always with us, and who we should be able to rely on at all times.

 

Are you friends with yourself?

I can totally relate to this, because I so often am the biggest critic and judge of myself.  This is good sometimes…driving me to continually challenge and improve myself, but other times it does more harm than good…

And finally, Gina is one of my friends from a college.  We share a lot in common:  ex-figure skaters, current running addicts, and healthy living nuts.   Gina keeps a blog recapping every marathon she does as she attempts to run one in every state…. But it’s more than just that, it’s also a reflection on her journey through life.  I really enjoyed her latest recap on Marathon #16 in Austin, discussing how she’s at a point of transormation in her life:

Excerpt:

As a teen and in my early twenties I battled with the “I’m not good enough/no one likes me” interpretation of many situations. In sports, at school, in social circles, I always seemed to come up just short of what I thought was cool or acceptable. Stop before you feel bad for me though, because what came of this is a girl who built a foundation on hard work, motivation and acceptance.

I think we all experience this, at least I know I do on continual basis!  We (speaking for myself at least) so often hold these ideals in our head of what we want our life to look like:  success with hobbies/athletics, satisfying and well-paying career, starting a family, active social life, etc.   But the truth is, I don’t know if we ever reach that point where perfection occurs in all areas of our life.  Life is a constant state of transition for me… learning how to balance career, hobbies, and love/fam/friends.   Sometimes I feel on top of things, other times I feel I’ve dug myself in a big hole and can’t find my way out.  But I guess that is how life is supposed to be…always evolving, transforming, growing…nothing is static, and all we can do is keep trying and learning from our experiences.  One of my favorite quotes:  Life is change, growth is optional, choose wisely.

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Sorry, this sorta ended up being a long post!  It’s just that I have so much time to kill at the airport waiting and hoping I get on this next flight!  On a side note, remember I how recently addressed my hellish shoe shopping experience?  Well, to hold me off for awhile, I brought two of my worn out black pairs of shoes to my favorite show repair shop, and for relatively little money, I now pretty much have two brand new pairs of shoes!!

What my shoes looked like before:

Looked like crap, plus, the heel was completely worn down to the nail.

Heel was worn down to the nail in these also, plus, the soles were falling off.

Like brand new!!

Tags: blogs, reflection, running, self growth, self-criticism