Tough Week

Posted on May 23, 2011 by

I had a difficult week last week, which is unfortunate, but that is the way life goes.

The first problem I had was on Tuesday morning. I was in bed with my laptop. I had only been awake for a little bit and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. All of a sudden, it seemed like the sound of rain falling had gotten louder. In fact, it sounded almost as if it were raining inside of my apartment.

It was raining inside of my apartment.

I have a small storage area next to my bed in which I keep a lot of things that I don’t use every  day. The space is very strange..sort of sunk into the wall. We believe it may’ve been the site of a trundle-bed back when the building was originally built. I live in an old Victorian, and it was really common for Victorians to have murphy beds. We believe that in my studio’s case, it may’ve been a trundle. Anyway, there is no bed in there these days. Just my junk.

My next-door neighbor moved out at the beginning of May, so the landlord had some cleaning  people coming to spruce up the place. I share a wall with the next apartment’s bathroom. In their zealous cleaning attempt, they caused the great flood of 2011. When I realized what was going on, I leaped out of bed and ran next door, barefoot and in pajamas to tell them to stop. They didn’t speak English. I sort of half ass understand Spanish, but my ability to construct a sentence, especially in times of crisis is greatly limited. I just kept gesturing and saying “STOP!!!” a lot. Finally the lady I was talking to got one of her co-workers to come over who kind of spoke English and she apologized. I thanked her and went back to my apartment. I was in here for 5 minutes before it started AGAIN. I ran back over and repeated the same scene.

When the water finally stopped flowing, I assessed the damage:

Awesome.

Not.

Luckily most things that I keep in that area are stored in plastic crates and were protected. There were a few casualties though. I had stashed some Cooking Light magazines and a few instruction manuals under there. Also the Wii box got pretty wet (don’t worry..the Wii was on the other side of the room at the time). The items that took the most abuse where my spare external HDs. The one on the right side had been in that box, which essentially disintegrated when I attempted to open it. The one on the left didn’t even have a box. I’m not sure if either of them work anymore. I plan on checking, but I wanted to give them the opportunity to dry out.

Aside from my own property damage, there was also some damage to my unit:

Even after I cleaned the walls and floor, there was still staining. You can essentially see where my storage boxes had been sitting. Going to have to make sure to send this picture off to the landlord so I don’t get charged upon moving out..

After that drama was over and I had my first cup of coffee, my next problem began.

I noticed that my cat, Cosie, was acting strangely. She wasn’t eating for starters. Secondly, she kept pacing in and out of the litter box. She would pee, and then leave, then go back and strain. I was concerned about her, so I tried to feed her a little human food (chicken salad). She ate a couple of bites, but wasn’t too interested. She was spending a lot more time than usual lying around and her eyes didn’t look very good. I was concerned, but I decided to watch her for another day.

When Wednesday came around and she still refused to eat and the litter box behavior continued, I got scared. I went to the pet store and got some senior cat nutrition supplement (kind of like Ensure, but for cats). She drank a few sips, and then sat back down. The only time she really seemed to get active was to go pace around the litter box, or to lick her behind. You see, she was licking a lot more than usual…when paired with the other symptoms, I did not feel good about Cosie’s state at all. That evening I called a 24 hour vet, explained the symptoms and asked if she should come in. They said I could bring her in right away if I wanted to, but it was a very busy night. I decided to make a 9am urgent care appointment, and hope that she would start eating again in the morning on her own and she wouldn’t have to go in.

The next morning came and she still looked pretty bad and eating still wasn’t on her to-do list. I packed her up in her carrier (her least favorite thing ever) and had Peter, my co-worker, drop me off at the vet on his way to work.

To be honest, I think I reacted to taking Cosie to the vet worse than she reacted to being crated. Historically, whenever we have had older animals who have gotten sick and had to be taken into the vet, the result has always been the same: They got put down. So the immediate thought that came to me when I realized I was going to have to take my 14-year-old cat to the vet was that she wasn’t coming home with me. As irrational as it was, I cried for half of Wednesday. I had hoped that my early tears would spare me from acting like an idiot at the vet, but no such luck. As soon as I sat down to fill out the paperwork I started sobbing again. Then I got better. Then we went into an exam room and it started again:

Vet: “Hi. I’m Dr. ____”

Alexa: *shakes hand, starts hysterically crying* “I don’t do well with pet illness….”

Vet: “Okay…”

As the appointment went on, I improved. The vet examined Cosie and said that off the back he couldn’t figure out what exactly was wrong. He said there were a few ways we could go about testing her for a diagnosis. Having heard me explain that Cosie hadn’t been to the vet since she ripped her paw open and needed stitches about 10 years ago, he suggested that he go get print outs of the two plans so I would understand the cost involved. When he returned, he presented me with a $321 plan and a $730 plan. We discussed the options and decided to go with the $321 plan, with the understanding that we could add-on additional tests if needed.

So for $321, Cosie got her annual exam, a senior wellness exam (blood panels, urine tests, etc.), a shot of anti-nausea medication (to hopefully induce hunger) and some IV fluids to rehydrate her. Then we went home to wait, as the results wouldn’t be ready until Friday. On the bright side, once home, Cosie dove into some food I put down and seemed a little better. Still sick, for sure, but more herself.

On Friday at work, I received the news. Cosie has feline hyperthyroidism. He cautioned me that though he could see no other problems, the hyperthyroidism could be masking issues. So the plan is to medicate Cosie, then have her come back in after 3-4 weeks and check her levels to see how she is doing. He also still wasn’t sure about why she was licking so much, so he asked me to bring her back in (for free) when I came to pick up the pills. He said he didn’t see something he normally checks in his notes, so he wanted to check her anal glands (yeah, I know. ick.) before we start running other tests at additional cost to me.

So after butt poking and pill popping, Cosie seems much more herself. Eating plenty, using the litter box the normal amount and licking far less than she was earlier in the week. I have to give her a pill once a day for the first week, and then every 12 hours from then on. My sister is totally lucking out. She’s going to be staying at my place, cat sitting while I am in Reno celebrating my birthday this week…she only has to administer one pill! Trust me, the fewer the better…Cosie does NOT like pills!

While I am not excited about the new expense or the idea of trying to get Cosie to take her medicine, I am glad that she is doing so much better. I realize that being 14, Cosie is probably in her last 5 years of life, and that I will have to lose her at some point, but I’m glad that point wasn’t this week. I’ve had my kitty since I was 15 years old. She is the best.

Posted in cats, life | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Mother’s Day Marina Green 5K Recap

Posted on May 16, 2011 by

I’m fairly remiss in recapping last week’s 5K. To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about my performance, so I’ve been avoiding it.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t do a horrible job, or anything, but as I am sure you all know, when you fall short of what you hope to achieve, it is mentally annoying.

Prior to May 8th, I had been doing a decent job of getting in a couple of strength training sessions a week as well as a couple of runs. Despite only having had my routine in place for a few weeks, I already felt stronger and was quickly becoming a believer in how much strength training improves your running skills. With just a little extra attention to my muscles, I was finding running to be a little easier…and even more enjoyable.

The DSE Mother’s Day Marina Green 5K was the perfect chance to PR. I had run the course during my first race last September. It was all flat and I really felt confident that I could do well. I should have known things were going to be a little off for me that morning just based on the fact that I couldn’t even find the start line right away. I had assumed that the “Mother’s Day Marina Green 5K” would have the same start as the “Marina Green 5K” that I had run with DSE in September. When I got there, however, I realized very quickly that I was mistaken. I whipped out the old iPhone and lo and behold….the start line was over where the St. Patrick’s Day 5K had been. Like nearly a mile away.

Good job, Alexa, good job.

Not to worry…I got there in plenty of time to register and listen to all of the pre-race announcements.

Note my marathoner co-worker in the blue/yellow tank and black beanie. He is really fast. Just thought you should know.

After all of the usual pre-race talk, we headed over to the start line. Despite my location mix up, I was still feeling pretty good. I was wearing my new Nike hoodie and had my discounted runner’s water bottle. I was totally ready to kick some 5K ass.

The first mile went very well. I completed it in 10:07, which for me is pretty fast. My pace is usually closer to 11 minutes, so I was definitely on the path to PRdom. Unfortunately, as mile 2 got going, I started to get a bad side stitch. My standard pre-race breakfast of peanut butter and banana toast was fighting back. I took a little walk break and chugged some water (with Strawberry Lemonade Nuun). That of course, didn’t help matters…chugging fluids while running is kind of a bad idea. At the time, however, I was more focussed on the stitch. It pretty much took the second mile to sort out the pain and water sloshy-ness. For the third mile, I rebounded, but I had lost a lot of time. To top it off, I was now running my last mile directly into the wind. I was running strong, but really, my pace is no match for a good strong gust off of the Golden Gate.

I crossed the finish line with the time of 33:54. I was disappointed. Although it wasn’t my slowest 5K time or anything, it was slower than the first time I had run Marina Green (same course, btw…just different start/finish location).

After the race I decided to walk home, which is a nearly 4 mile walk. Since I work down at the waterfront, I am pretty used to it though. I just sort of went on auto pilot and let my feet carry me on home.

Well, until I hit the Civic Center area, that is.

That is when I get hit with a crazy thought.

The thought to run Hayes Street Hill.

“Hayes Street Hell” is pretty much the most difficult part of the Bay To Breakers route, and coincidentally, is on my way home. I knew that in a week I was going to be expected to run up Hayes when I took part in my very first Bay to Breakers race. While I had walked up the hill many times, I had never run it and for some reason, I decided that trying it after running a 5K and walking nearly 4 miles was a good idea.

So I did.

I thought I was going to die when I finally got to the top, but I did in fact get there.

It would probably be rather crude to admit that the entire time I ran it I was chanting, “Make this hill your b*tch, Alexa, make it your B*tch!” in my head.

So I won’t admit that.

*cough*

As I hobbled back to my apartment, I just reminded myself that on May 15th when I met that hill again, I at least would have the knowledge that I could do it.

And knowing, is half the battle.

Coming Up: Bay to Breakers Expo and the 100th Running of the Bay to Breakers Recap.

Do you beat yourself up over missing out on time goals, or are you more zen about the whole racing experience?

Posted in running | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

The Happiness Project

Posted on May 4, 2011 by

Until recently, I couldn’t ever really recall a time in life when I had ever felt “happy”. Sure, there were happy moments. Time spent with friends. Holidays. Maybe a special event that had happened at school. However beyond a handful of isolated events, I couldn’t really recall an extended period of happiness. Extended periods of depression, embarrassment, misery and anxiety I could recall.

Happiness? Not so much.

But I wanted to be happy.

Prior to weight loss I assumed that all of my unhappy feelings stemmed directly from my weight. Therefore, I was shocked and dismayed to lose a significant amount of weight and still not be happy. Sure, I was much happIER, but was I really happy? I still was nervous about my appearance, sad I wasn’t making any moves to change the direction of my career and I felt like I never had time to do anything. Then again, since losing weight I had more confidence, was able to do more things that I enjoyed and had moved out on my own.

I wasn’t happy, nor was I unhappy. I was just sort of there.

I shouldn’t really be using the past tense for that last part…as that’s how I’ve been feeling over the last few months. This is why I started trying to get my Spark back, organize my inbox and set up a calendar. I didn’t exactly realize it when I started, but I was in fact initializing my own version of a “happiness project”.

When these ideas started floating around in my head, I had only heard of this book in passing and frankly, I had no idea what it was about. The title, however, stuck in my head and when I was facing the question, “What should I do with this Barnes and Noble Groupon?”, I decided to pick it up.

And I am really glad I did.

As it turns out, author Gretchen Rubin was having similar thoughts about happiness several years ago. She decided to spend a year trying to make herself happier within her own parameters, if you will. She didn’t want to completely change who she was to be happy, but rather she wanted to figure out what would make the person she already is happier. She wanted to “Be Gretchen”.

She broke the project up, each month tackling a new subject that she thought was fundamental to her own happiness. Some of the particular subjects she chose didn’t exactly pertain to my life, yet I found them all equally interesting and insightful. Sure, I’m not married, nor do I have children, but reading about how she wanted to change the way she interacted with her husband and children provided ideas that could be used in any relationship. The entire book just really made me understand how the way I choose to perceive certain happenings in my life have a direct effect on my happiness:

Am I choosing to be pissed off all day because my co-worker does something annoying at work? I mean, I’m the one sitting in a huff all day…who’s fault is it really?

Obviously, it’s my fault! I can’t control what other people do, but I can control what I do. And I should.

One of the big areas where I am really at fault was something that Rubin touched on during the month of November, during which she was trying to “Keep a Contented Heart”. One way she decided to do such is to focus on cultivating good manners. One set of manners she realized needed to be refined was her manners of conversation:

I was a ‘topper’: ‘You think you had a crazy morning, let me tell you about my morning.’ I was a ‘deflater‘: ‘You liked that movie? I thought it was kind of boring.’ (Rubin, p 266)

Cough. Sputter. Look away.

This is one of my most unattractive behaviors. I actually have tried to curb it somewhat, and I’ve gotten much better at holding my tongue, except in two situations:

1) The other party is otherwise getting on my nerves and I am having a difficult time keeping up appearances.

2) The other party is also a supreme topper and/or deflater.  (Hello competitive streak!)

God help us both if the other party is a combination of 1 AND 2.

Thing is, when I go into these conversations, I never actually mean to be so caustic. Often times I did think the movie was boring…or I really did think my morning was worse. I feel like I’m lying to the other party if I’m not honest about it, and therefore can’t think of any reason why I should say otherwise or bite my tongue. But then, I see how upset I make the other person and the reason becomes painfully obvious. It goes all the way back to childhood and things your mother probably told you:

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Amen, sister.

The book also gives you tips on how you might go about your own “happiness project”, reminding you that everyone’s project will look different, but nearly everyone can benefit from one. I don’t know if I will ultimately start an official happiness project, but I really do feel better and more conscious since I read the book. There is food for thought and I’m going to keep chewing away at it.

Starting with how I plan on reacting to this:

       

“OMG! COSIE! STOP IT!!!! ARGHHHH!”

*deep breath*

You’re a silly cat. Go ahead. Enjoy my chilled Brita filtered water, you deserve it.

Additional Reading:

The Happiness Project Blog

Have you ever attempted a “Happiness Project”?

Posted in books | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Speedy Gonzalez

Posted on May 3, 2011 by

Someone fell off the face of the blogosphere, eh?

(Wow. Did I really just say “blogosphere”? Ick.)

For the last week I have been dying to post, but unfortunately, my life was taken over by a new house guest. An unwelcome house guest.

  

Um. Ewwww.

Recently when I was going through the kitchen drawer that contained my dry goods, I noticed that some of the bags had holes. At first, I thought they had just ripped open accidentally, but as I dug deeper, I found the above. Yep. Speedy Gonzalez had paid a visit to my apartment, and I was totally unhappy about the fact.

(Source)

That’s right, Speedy, I’m talking about YOU.

I’ve never really lived in a place where I had a rodent problem, and frankly, given the fact that I have cats, I didn’t think I ever would. As it turns out, my cats only have eyes for Fancy Feast.

Fail.

So when faced with this new problem in my life, the first thing I did was to go on Twitter and panic. Obviously. I mean, what else would one do?

After a few more creeped out tweets, I conjured up the strength to go into the kitchen and clean out the drawers in my kitchen built-in. I pretty much had to get rid of all of the food I had, which really bummed me out. I also was sad about my KitKats. I’ve always planned to make a separate post about them, but the long and the short of it is that Japan makes crazy KitKats, I love trying all of the flavors and every time Maya comes home from Japan, she brings me all of the seasonal flavors that they’ve had in her area since she last visited. The mouse only ate a few of them, but I was still pretty grossed out.

Although I threw everything out back on April 20th, I didn’t actually work myself up to finding a solution until last week. I was walking around Japantown after a dentist appointment and I noticed that they had put in a Daiso Japan at the Miyako Mall. I’ve been to the Daiso at Serramonte, but I had never been to the new locations in the city. I decided to just stop in and browse.

Daiso is a very popular Hiyaku-en chain (100 yen shop…the equivalent of a $1 store) in Japan. Here stateside, most everything you will find in a Daiso costs $1.50. There are certain items that might cost $3-$6, but they are in the minority. As far as products, they sort of sell everything. Dishware. Glasses. Aprons. Cleaning Supplies. Candy. Soap. Fabric. Cards. Organizational Supplies. Pens. Pots. Chopsticks. CD cases. Screwdrivers. Toys. You name it, there is probably a cheapish version of it being sold at Daiso.

Of course it didn’t take me long to find what I needed: Mouse-proof kitchen supplies.

I had been wanting an expensive set of tupperware to keep the dry goods in, but I am pretty broke. When I walked into Daiso, I realized I could mouse-proof my kitchen for much less. So I sort of bought $30 worth of items.

(Then I went back later in the week to the Market St. location and bought more.)

 

These guys were the main items used to sort everything out. Plastic trays and plastic locking containers. The larger plastic containers cost $3/each, but I thought it was worth it.

I also bought a cutting board. Completely unrelated, but I just wanted to share.

I was pretty zonked out from carrying all of that home on foot, so when I got home I only really had time to organize the drawers.

Cooking utensils, measuring cups, eight zillion plastic spatulas and a set of J “Wake Up! Mother F*cker” chopsticks. What? YOU don’t have a set of profane chopsticks in the same drawer as your heart-shaped measuring cups?

Spices, pea protein powder, ground chia (the mouse ate the non-ground variety I had on hand..), Biscoff spread, etc.)

Wax paper, plastic wrap, tin foil, zip lock bags, coffee filters, pot holders, magic bullet.

Seeing my drawers all organized filled me with immense pleasure. You see, for the two years I’ve been living here, I’ve just been dumping things in there. The utensil drawer also had pot holders, tin foil and all sorts of other garbage inside. I could never find anything and I just about died of embarrassment when my friend opened it when looking for a bottle opener. I yelled, “NO! NOT IN THERE!”

I didn’t want him to know what a slob I am.

The other drawers had been equally as messy. This new organization made me feel very calm….but not as calm as when I finally got this cabinet done:

Tupperware (containers in the left bin, lids on the right), toaster, mixing bowl, pots, strainers, frying pans, cheese grater, scale, etc.

This picture cannot convey to you the joy that comes with seeing this cabinet organized. You see, much like that top drawer, this cabinet had just been a nightmare of tupperware thrown EVERYWHERE. Anytime I took something out, everything fell onto the floor and I would start yelling a string of curses that would make a sailor blush. I couldn’t ever find anything either. Now, I know where everything is. So. Awesome.

Lastly, I tackled the top of the built-in unit. Just a few days before, it had been piled high with crap, but now, it looks organized and clean.

You can actually see empty space! I just may faint!

Another really helpful thing I found at Daiso were those green collapsible shelves. As you can see, I’ve used one here on the counter top as well as in my tupperware cabinet. It really helps maximize space and makes organization really easy. I’m considering going back for a few more of these to help in other storage areas of my apartment.

One last thing I found at the store that made me a happy camper:

KitKat protection!

This is a rice storage bin, which I am using to house all of the remaining KitKats. I had been a little hesitant to keep any, as the mouse had been in the bag I had kept them in and the idea kind of skeezed me out. In the end, I decided to go through all of the candy, piece by piece. Any wrappers that looked even remotely chewed or scratched were tossed, whereas the rest were stored in this Fort Knox-like security area. I still feel a little wary, but I ate a cheese KitKat the other day and I’m still alive, so I think it’s okay….

(Yes, you read that correctly. I had cheese flavored KitKats, but those were not the ones that got eaten….)

I am also keeping my cats’ dry food in a rice container.

I have learned several things from this mouse experience.

1) Mice will eat whatever they can. Don’t leave ANYTHING outside of a plastic container.

Remember that picture of my spice drawer? I hadn’t finished washing the plastic ware when I organized that drawer, so I left the turbinado sugar package that the mouse had missed out on before in the drawer, thinking I would put it in a plastic container the next day. The next day, I found the mouse had been back and he still had a sweet tooth.

2) A clean kitchen makes me feel significantly more calm and happy

Often times I wouldn’t want to cook because everything was so jumbled and messy that I would feel overwhelmed. Now, I find it is the opposite. I enjoy going into the kitchen to make something as I know that all of my tools are right at my finger tips. It also makes me want to wash my dishes more often, so that the whole room will feel as clean and organized as my built-in unit. I am feeling encouraged to clean the fridge and the sink area in the near future. Although my kitchen was never really filthy, it was cluttered and certainly hasn’t had a really good scrub down since I moved in.

3) I shouldn’t worry so much about telling my landlord when there is a problem:

I had been really afraid to tell my landlord, as I thought it would reflect poorly on me. I thought it meant I was dirty and they would want to evict me or something. I know that sounds crazy, but after living most of my life in a rent controlled apartment in the Mission district, where the landlord really was trying to get us out, I’m sort of wired like this. In my old apartment, we routinely kept things like plumbing and heating problems, broken windows and pest issues to ourselves.

I did end up telling my building manager, however. All is cool. He told me that other tenants throughout the years have had similar problems. If I wanted regular snap traps, he would be happy to give me some, but he recommended I try out a sonic device that is designed to repel the rodents from the unit.

I decided to pick up a 2-pack from my local hardware store and I have one plugged into a socket in the kitchen and another in my studio’s main room. The sound is at a different frequency than what humans or cats hear, so the felines are good with it. I can hear a slight buzzing sound from the things, but it isn’t a big deal. I don’t know if they actually work, but as the alternative involves seeing dead mice, I am all for this approach.

So far, I haven’t seen evidence of another visit….and I hope it stays that way!

Have you ever dealt with a pest problem in your home?

Posted in life | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Japanese and David Sedaris

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

Wow. I have never received so many search hits:

  • when i run fitbit doesn’t catch all my steps
  • do fitbits break
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  • 2 fitbits in house
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  • how to dry out a fitbit that went through washer

Clearly I hit on a topic that people were interested in when I posted about my positive experience with Fitbit Customer service and with the device itself. I am overjoyed to have provided information to those who were in need.

I am also overjoyed at the sheer amount of people who have also managed to wash their fitbits. It makes me feel a little less lame to know that I am in good company…

This post, however, is not about my Fitbit. It is about something else entirely.

My co-worker, Curtis, and I, love musicals and shows. It is something that out of an entire office of employees, only we share. Due to this, we see a lot of musicals together. We’ve seen RENT, In the Heights, Avenue Q, Next to Normal, Rock of Ages, An evening with Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, Beach Blanket Babylon (twice) and we have tickets to see Tales of the City in June. We may have seen other shows as well, but these are all I can think of right now.

Last night was another fun night out, though instead of a musical, we went to see one of our favorite authors, David Sedaris, do a reading at War Memorial Opera House.

Before the reading we had to go to dinner, of course. We have a long history of hitting up a favorite restaurant of ours and overdoing it before shows. It’s always a bad decision. We end up spending the first act of the show focussed on how bloated we feel. Fortunately for us, I happened to spy a Groupon  for 2G Japanese Brasserie a couple of weeks ago. I had never heard of it before, but it was located super close to the opera house and although it happened to share an address with a Max’s location, I thought it might be a welcome change.

And it was!

The food was spectacular. Just extremely flavorful and delicious. My photos are a little off, as I took them with my iPhone, but trust me, the food was anything but.

We each started with a salad. The endive salad had red grapes, apples, caramelized walnuts, blue cheese and a maple cider vinaigrette. Holy yum!

After this, we each decided to order a couple of small plates.

I ordered some kabocha tempura, which was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture before eating one of the two slices that came in the order. Curtis ordered some kind of roll, a Kobe Beef Tsukune (meatball) and both of us ordered that beauty on the left. The asparagus bacon skewer.

OMG.

It was one of the best things I ever ate.

It should be on the Food Network Show.

Seriously.

Although I was getting full, I couldn’t stop myself. We also ordered some gyoza and some edamame to share. The gyoza were excellent, but the edamame were out of this world…sauteed with garlic, truffle oil and butter. So. Delicious.

We enjoyed their food so much that we overspent our Groupon by a little. So worth it though. The food and staff were just phenomenal. We left completely full, but not dying. A great triumph for us.

Then it was on to see David Sedaris.

David Sedaris is sort of my literary hero. His way of telling the everyday in a voice that leaves his audience rolling in the aisles laughing is unbelievable. I’ve read all of his books and there has yet to be even one during which I didn’t find myself laughing out loud. I’ve lost many a bus seat companion due to his wit.

I should send him a Thank You card for that alone.

Sedaris read the title story from his most recent publication, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, as well as several other stories. He also read a few entries from his diaries and did a small question and answer at the end of his reading. Curtis and I had never laughed so hard. As a matter of fact, Curtis was still laughing when I came into work this afternoon, playing clips off of YouTube for his office mates and retelling the jokes from the reading.

Afterwards, there was a book signing. I really wanted to get in line, as I had my copy of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk in my purse. The line, however, was overwhelming, as you would imagine it would be at a venue like War Memorial. I sensed that Curtis didn’t want to wait, so we didn’t. A little sad, but those are the breaks.

Now I leave you with a little bit of Sedaris fun:

 Who is your favorite author?

Posted in books, food, life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Fitbits are NOT Waterproof

Posted on April 21, 2011 by

Last month, I invested in a Fitbit.

A Fitbit is a pedometer….but oh so much more than that. It’s a small device that clips onto your person (preferably somewhere on your torso) and it monitors how much you move using the same type of technology that is used in a Wii-mote. When worn properly, the Fitbit can keep track of how many steps you’ve taken, how many miles you’ve walked and give you an approximation on the amount of calories you’ve burned in a day. In addition, it comes with a wristband that you can wear at night so that you can track how much restful sleep you get. To make it all that much cooler, it comes with a docking station that you can keep plugged into your computer. It syncs your information with the fitbit website wirelessly every fifteen minutes, or whenever you are in range of the station.

Once your information is on the website, you can start to visually see what your activity looks like:

Don’t be alarmed by the crazy amount of calories burned here. I chose my most active day recorded. I mean, think about it: A day when I sat around watching Gilmore Girls re-runs would not be very interesting to look at!

As you can see in this picture, the website shows the calories I burned and ate on March 23rd. It also shows a graph of my active minutes throughout the day. The blue color indicates when I was “lightly active”, the yellow indicates “fairly active” and then the pink lines are when I was “very active”. On 3/23, I went for my “Unofficial 10K” during the afternoon, so that is why I was so active. Following my run, I did laundry, which would be the yellow lines. The blue lines were when I was puttering around the house, watching TV or cooking meals.

There is also a section of the fitbit website where you can track calories. I prefer the nutrition tracker at SparkPeople, however, so I track there, then just enter the amount of calories on Fitbit, so I can see the graphic comparisons against my activity.

Here is another graph for activity. When you look at my activity as a pie chart it doesn’t look so scary. Sure, I burned over 3,000 calories, but I was sitting on my butt in front of the television for over 8 hours as well.

Here is the sleep graph. As you can see, I actually got a lot of sleep that night. This is pretty unusual for me. I typically only get about 6-7 hours of sleep a night, if I’m lucky. Often it is less. This is something I am working on and I enjoy looking at my sleep report the next day. It kind of gives me an idea of what is going on at night.

I had been planning to do this review after a month or two of using the Fitbit, but unfortunately, my own stupidity stood in my way of letting you in on my product review.

Yep. I washed it. Take note everyone: Fitbits are NOT waterproof.

I packed my fitbit in rice and left it there for several days, hoping I could get the moisture out. When I plugged it back in, all I got was the message mentioned above. At first, I was hopeful, as many users report nothing but a blank screen. A couple of days went by, however, and I never got more than that flashing message. I tried resetting the device. Nothing. I was super bummed….$100 investment down the drain after only 2.5 weeks!

But then a couple of days later, someone responded to my tweet!

Could there be hope?

I e-mailed the Fitbit support team. They at first advised me to try the rice trick and then attempt to reset the device. I explained that I had already given this a try. Then they said the nicest thing any support team has ever said to me:

“Hi Alexa,

Ok, sorry that didn’t work for you. We would like to accommodate you with a replacement.“

A replacement? Seriously? I am an idiot and I throw your device into the washing machine (accidentally, of course) and you will replace it?! You people are my new best friends!

The Fitbit support team did take the time to let me know that if I am an idiot and break it again, I will have to pay for a new device myself:

“Hi Alexa,

We really appreciate your business and are going to accommodate you with a replacement Fitbit. In the future, should a Fitbit tracker get lost or damaged because of exposure to water, you will need to purchase a new Fitbit tracker and base station. In exchange for our accommodation, we may ask you to tell us a bit about your experience with Fitbit. We are trying to understand how people use and interact with Fitbit so that we can create a better product. We would also like to hear any other feedback you might have, both positive, negative, and feature requests.”

Seems fair to me!

They were also incredibly quick with replacing it. We e-mailed on Saturday, it was mailed out on Monday and was at my apartment by Tuesday. Admittedly, they are based here in San Francsico, but still, I appreciate the prompt execution.

The new fitbit.

And it charges! Yay!

So I am going to resume my testing out of the fitbit. Based on the couple of weeks I’ve used the product, I would say that I am enjoying it. I like to be able to look down throughout the day and see how active (or inactive) I’ve been. I find that it encourages me to get up and get in a few extra steps and to not skip out on workouts…I mean, as I said above, it’s way more fun to look at graphs that show how awesome you are vs. how lazy you are!

The fitbit is also now teamed up with RunKeeper. I’m not sure of all of the details of that yet, as my fitbit broke right around the time they partnered up. I noticed from my RunKeeper account that my steps are being noted over there. I don’t, however, see my runs that I log with RK on the Fitbit site. Either I am missing something, or that is a feature that hasn’t been enabled yet. In a way, it doesn’t matter, as if I am wearing the fitbit, the calories/steps/miles are being calculated, which is all that matters. Even so, it might be nice to see the run logged as an activity automatically.

Another feature I’d like to see incorporated would be partnerships with SparkPeople and other nutrition tracking sites. Many of us who began our weightloss/healthy living journeys elsewhere are set in our ways as far as what sites we like to use. I would really like it if I could enter my food in at SparkPeople and have it automatically show up on the Fitbit site.

At any rate, the new ‘bit is alive and well, clipped to my pants as I type. I will let you all know how it goes in the future!

Note: In case you missed it, I purchased the initial fitbit with my own money. The replacement fitbit was sent to me for free by the company. I did not ask for them to do this and I cannot promise you that they will send you a free fitbit if you break yours, so please don’t test this theory! All opinions in this review are my own and based on the usage during the life of my original Fitbit.

Do you use any kind of device (Heart Rate Monitor, BodyBugg, Fitbit, Garmin) to help you in your healthy living routines?

Posted in Exercise, life | Tagged | 17 Comments

Another Beach Run

Posted on April 20, 2011 by

Yesterday I went on a run. To be honest, I hadn’t exactly wanted to go, but I was trying to stick to schedule again, and my schedule said I had to.

It was actually a pretty smart thing to do, given the fact that Bay to Breakers is in 3 weeks and I’ve only run over 3 miles 3 times in my life. I need some more quality time with my Brooks and the pavement for sure.

I didn’t have any interest in running my panhandle loop or heading to the Embarcadero, so I decided to do the beach run again. You remember last time, right? Positive experience for sure, so I decided to replicate it.

First I had to walk from my house up to Kezar/the beginning of Lincoln Way.

Despite the gray skies, it was still pretty out. I actually like the winter, but spring is always a welcomed season. Everything feels fresh and new.

And pink. I like pink.

I started running at the corner where Lincoln begins and I ran towards the beach. I was much less satisfied with my run to the beach this time. I felt like I was mentally struggling with it a little bit. As soon as I hit the “30s” avenues, however, it picked up. For some reason, seeing the ocean just makes me so excited that I forget all about how much my legs hurt and I just keep going.

The downward slope at that part of the route doesn’t hurt either.

Once I got to the beach, I paused RunKeeper and took a seat. I can’t ever turn down an opportunity to look at the ocean.

That drop from my feet to sand is a lot longer than you would think. Maybe 7 feet or more. Probably not that big of a deal to jump down into sand, but I am kinda wimpy when it comes to heights…..I climbed down from the other side onto the pavement instead.

There were lots of crazy people out at the beach yesterday, which I found weird given how dreary that day was.

No, no, no. Not me. I’m not that crazy. I’m talking about them….

Um. Guys? It’s like, cold outside. Why on God’s green earth would you want to go out into the ocean?

You couldn’t have paid me to get into that water.

Of course, aside from dipping my feet in, you couldn’t pay me to go out into that water during a heat wave.

***

I postponed heading back home for two reasons:

1) I really like looking at the ocean.

2) Home is slightly uphill. Me no likee. Maybe I should take the N-Judah home instead….

Of course, I didn’t end up taking the bus home. After about 15 minutes of people watching, I started to consider leaving. I went over to the 76 Station to buy a new bottle of water. The guy in there is always really…stern. I took my headphones off when I got to the counter and embarrassingly enough, the silence between me and the mini mart proprietor was being broken by the Jackson 5 singing “ABC”. Awkward. I apologized and said, “Sorry…I can tell you don’t want to be forced into listening to the Jacksons…hahaha..” and paused iTunes. The guy never said anything. Or smiled.

Okay. Whatever. Thanks for the water, guy…

Once I got outside, I dug into my spibelt and realized that I was an idiot. I hadn’t wanted to bring the entire tube of Nuun. I also hadn’t wanted to waste plastic wrap or a baggie on one electrolyte tablet.

Fail.

My speibelt is not waterproof, and apparently, that is a problem.

And yes. I used the sweaty tab anyway. Gross, yet refreshing.

The run home was so much easier than it was the first time I did this route. This really surprised me, given how I struggled during what should’ve been the easy leg of the run. Although I was going uphill, and my legs were on fire (I did a strength training workout on Monday), my mind was clear. I felt reasonably cheerful, glad I had forced myself to get out of my apartment and happy that I had missed stomping on this little lady:

I moved the snail over to the side of the road so she wouldn’t be in the danger zone for any other runners/walkers passing by.

I essentially saved her 3 hours of commute time.

(If you’re wondering about the Russian, it’s an inside joke from high school. I’d like to get into it, including teaching all of you how to properly ask the question, “Do you like snails in your toilet?” по-русский, but really, we’re getting off track…)

I ran back to Haight and Stanyan, slowly but surely, feeling strong and in a good mood. I stopped off at Whole Foods for more chocolate peanut butter, which I think may be the best thing ever invented. Unfortunately, as is Whole Foods’ way, I left with a bag of stuff. I attempted to run home carrying the bag, but after a block or two, I gave up. Running with a bag of groceries isn’t very comfortable.

All in all, an excellent run.

Oh! I forgot to show you something.

I saw these signs at the beach today. I have no recollection of ever having seen them before, but obviously, given the rust, they’ve probably been there for some time.


They’re incredibly helpful. After all, I’d never be smart enough to run AWAY from the ocean when I’ve been alerted to an incoming tsunami. Nope. Without this sign, I’d be a goner….

When you start a workout, is your mental strength to push through best at the start? Or does it improve after you find your groove?

Posted in Exercise, life, running | Tagged , | 4 Comments