kristen fleming

It’s been quite some time since I last posted anything. 

Updates include:

1. New Apt - Jay and I have a garden apt now, complete with, well, a garden! It’s been an amazing experience thus far although I’m a bit terrified of the hundreds of cicada holes in our backyard. Brood 2 - AHH!

2. New Job - still at RH - but started a new exciting job in digital biz dev - loving it thus far.

3. Murphy is coming…- Sarah Murphy returns to Brooklyn in just a few days! I am SOOO excited to have my buddy back!

4. Marathon is ON this year! November 3rd, 2013! Bring it!

Speaking of the marathon this week marks my 1st week of a 26 week training regime.  This week will consist of 4 days of running, two days of rest and one cross training day.  The longest run this week will be 3 miles; the running of which I am curious to see how I fare since I have basically taken the winter off from running.  I’m terribly excited to get back into “marathon” shape and am really looking forward to getting back into the having a stricter workout schedule for myself.  I feel like Hurricane Sandy threw a wrench in my marathon awesomeness - not just in the training/canceling of the marathon but more so in the pounds I subsequently packed on while being stuck in my apartment for a week.

funny run.

I run funny.  

This fact was originally pointed out to me on the basketball court in high school. (I know - that’s a lot of years of running without having anyone tell me that I looked like a weirdo)! 

It was Ms. Franz (my gym teacher and Upper Dublin High School’s trainer extraordinaire) who told me that I might want to consider correcting my form since my funny running had led me to having some back problems.  She took me to the school track and had me do a bunch of loops and pointed out all the things that I was doing incorrectly.  I ran bent over at a weird angle.  I allowed my ankles to roll in on themselves.  I ran - or clomped - along - “heel striking” as thought that were my X-Men mutant superhero power; (all fear HEEL STRIKER!!!).  And of course I held my elbows out at weird angles as though I wanted to make sure anyone who passed me received a gift of a pointy elbow in the face as retaliation (and in case it isn’t clear - I was definitely passed - frequently).  

But being primarily a basketball player and not really having to run SUPER long distances at a time, I let my Ms. Franz lessons fall by the wayside.  Because, HEY!, it was okay to throw the ole elbows out on the court. And my back didn’t hurt THAT much.  And “HEEL STRIKER,” is kind of a cool name.

But as I have been psyching myself up to run the NYC Marathon, I’ve been reading about correct running form, and good lord has it been a simply eye-opening inspiring journey thus far.  I will devote a post in the near future to the amazingness that was Born to Run, but first, having just returned from my first “longer” run, I’m inclined to discuss how my attempts as running correctly have gone thus far.

So here it is!!!

My legs hurt. And I ran 5 miles (correctly).

from then on i was run(ing).

(as in “ING” Marathon - get it?)

26 weeks to train.

26.2 miles to run.

$3,000 to raise for Team Boomer.

Things I’ve done:

Became a member of Team Boomer

planned 26 weeks worth of training

purchased digital watch for timing/training

Started reading “Born to Run” - um - it’s amazing - HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Things I need to do:

buy sneakers - my old green ones are dead - they got me thru the NYC 1/2 marathon, but now they are dead…:( rest in peace, green sneaks.

sign up for other races so I don’t suck

blog about my progress on a regular basis

Set-up fundraising page and START RAISING!!!  Reach out to dad for help since he’s agreed to be my awesome campaign manager. Yay, DAD!

I’m going to go buy some sneakers now. peace out!

dramatic.

I had every intention of writing a beautiful prolific blog post about death and dying. But every time I started writing I became too emotional and scared to continue.  Because I am afraid of dying.  I am afraid of being alone.  And most importantly, I came to the following revelation; I think Steve Jobs might be kind of a jerk. Yeah, I said it.  But wait - there’s more.  Looking for inspiration, I stumbled upon this quote from an address he gave to Stanford’s graduating class in 2005:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

Wait… SERIOUSLY?!  That’s what you decided to talk about at a commencement speech, Steve? You’re the guy who created Apple - and this was the best you could come up with?  Way to scare the shit out of everyone. These kids are all about to start their grown up lives and guess what - you were TOTALLY dramatic and you probably caused some of them cry in their bed later that night.  Way to go, Steve. 

If you wanted to talk to them about death, you should have just quoted Peter Pan - now this guy knows what he’s talking about, and in fact makes it seem quite thrilling:

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”

Thank you, Peter.  You made me feel better about life and subsequently death.  And Steve, I forgive you.  

Now I have to go plug in my iPhone before it dies.

cat story.

I don’t have one.

But my yoga instructor does.  At the beginning of class today she told us a story of how she came upon her cat yowling because one of it’s claws had gotten stuck in the pad of it’s little foot.  Poor cat.  It screamed and yelled until yoga teacher pulled the claw out and the cat just stopped… looked at her… yawned… and laid down at yoga teacher’s feet.

What was interesting to me about this story was that yoga teacher drew a parallel of the cat’s behavior to our own human behavior.  Oftentimes we only see our pain, our limitations, our obstacles, the stupid claw in our foot, and not the solution.  Yes, this was a pretty basic parallel to draw, but it was when yoga teacher started talking about how oftentimes there is no physical claw, how we instead create a fictional one in our own minds… and it stands in the way between our reality and our true selves.

I create scenarios in my mind all the time. Oops. Call it daydreaming, creative imagination, lucid dreaming (well-not really the last one), but what it is, in reality, is a facade.  It’s fake.  And I hate fake.  So I have to be cognizant of not allowing myself to create fictional pain.  If anything I have to sink my “claws” into reality and hold on for dear life.  Because I don’t want to start yowling like yoga teacher’s cat. I want to be more like yoga teacher… intelligent enough to solve cat’s problem by drawing the claw out of the pad, but even more so, by being insightful enough to draw a parallel that has me, yoga student, thinking about it all day.

So I’ll try it.  Tomorrow.  All of the fictional claws disappear. No more self imposed yowling. Also, cats are stupid.  It got it’s own claw stuck in it’s foot. Come on!

Strike.

Last evening, after eating a delicious salad and having my standard (and necessary) glass of red wine, I was in bed casually flipping through Food Network Magazine (just received that day!).  Interspersing my page flips were enthusiastic utterances such as, “We should try making Matzoh Ball Soup!” and “I LOVE carrot cake - let’s make some!” and “Boy! Does that roast chicken look awesome.” My initial plan was to make it to the very end of the magazine, finally allowing it to drop to the floor as I drifted off to sleep.  And things were going along as planned…

That is, until I saw me.

In the magazine.

On page 160.

Looking more like a spaz than I care to admit.

My adrenaline spiked. I was both exhilarated and appalled.  Granted this was not the first time I have seen myself in a photo unexpectedly.  Last year, my bangs, and half of my face (yes, with mouth agape) was featured in the New York Times (in the corner of a photo taken at Book Expo America).  It was mostly my bangs though.

But this was a horse of a different color.  As you can see, I look sort of crazy.  Like I am going to eat either Anne Burrell, one of my friends standing nearby, or the bowling ball.

I had no choice but to bring the magazine to work to show everyone.  How could I not? This was a big moment for me.  Mainly because it’s hysterical.  Who else has had something similar happen to them? (answer: only the friends in that photo with me - yes, the normal looking ones).  Why did my parents give me a subscription to FNM?   Who at FNM laughed aloud as they said, “Yes! that one.  Definitely. Use that one in the big photo slot - it’s perfect” (or whatever professional term they use that sounds better than “big photo slot”). And most importantly, why did I choose to make that face… at the camera… when the picture was being taken? 

Fast forward 12 hours.  I have a boss who has stated that they are retiring “The Tebow,” in lieu of doing, “The Kristen,” and yes, he made “my face” at me several times over the course of the day. I have by far the most successful post I’ve ever had on facebook after posting the photo. Ever. And my mom is convinced that I’m going to be famous.

And through all of this hilarious triumph, I feel like I need to be honest about something.   In truth, I am a terrible bowler.  There it is.  I am awful at bowling.  But I’m really great at making faces.

Too much pressure

I have been putting too much pressure on myself to create an amazing first blog post.

Well… this is it.  First post. Done. Now pressure (though self-imposed) is off and I can just be brilliant (and I mean that in the British sense).