itunes withdrawal

Waah. Our hard drive crashed and we lost a bunch of pictures, documents, and music that will cost hundreds of dollars, like 500 bucks, to recover in a special "clean room."

Speaking of which, if anyone knows of a good hard drive recovery place that's cheaper than this, I'm all ears.

I didn't have any of my favorite itunes saved on my ipod because I had just on that very same day uploaded a new audiobook to my ipod at work which reset my ipod. HUMBUG!!!

It's kind of a good thing I've gotten used to running without my rock 'n roll and beaty-beats but it's a major bummer when I want my "wakey wakey" playlist in the morning and it's not there.

Boo to that.

Want my tunes.

A recent letter to my missionary brother

Hey Elder!

Thanks for your email last week. It's always great to hear from you. I'll keep this email short since I know you don't have a lot of time.

Cam and Allie's wedding was really fun. It was a great day. Cam's family was really nice and his dad and brothers offered to help clean up after the reception, which was nice. Mom's cake bites were awesome! Me and Liz and Mark all helped gather presents from the guests and put them in one place. We also took care of decorating Cam and Allie's car. :) Mwah ha ha. Mark and Clint sprayed Cam's car with silly string and me and Liz wrote all over it and tied streamers to it everywhere. Dad wrote on the windshield "Cam loves Kobe" and "Kobe stinks" or something like that. We took a bunch of pictures by your cardboard cut-out, too. Haha.

Anyway, phew! They're married now. We all had dinner at Mom and Dad's last night and played badminton and it was fun to see how the family's growing. It'll be really fun when you get home Kenny. You'll love Cam and Mark - they're great and the family has gotten even funner with them in it. Cam and Allie actually left Mom and Dad's house before me and Clint, which was weird but kinda nice. Clint and I are used to being the only ones who have to drive there and then leave so it was kinda nice to feel like we're not the only ones who leave at the end of the night.

Now we're all getting excited for Liz and Mark. I'll probably do Liz's hair and makeup this Saturday for her bridals.

Clint and I babysat for Clint's brother Brian and wife Annie this last week. They went to Denver to get away for a couple days and we babysat their 3 kids from Friday night at about 6 pm until Saturday at 4 pm when their parents got back. We had Avie, 7, Eliza, 4, and Maxwell, 1. So it was kinda a handful to keep them happy and fed and get their nap times and diaper changes and what not. But I think the kids had fun. They love to play with Clint. And I think we handled them ok. :) I had fun coloring with Avie and holding Maxwell in the pool (we went swimming for a little bit).

Anyway, we're still working hard at our jobs and our callings and running and what not. Clint surprised me this morning by waking up early, almost at the same time as me. I still get up at 5 am on most days. We went for a 4-mile run together and I just tried to keep up with Clint even though I was tired. It was nice to have a running buddy. I've actually discovered that I really like being outside in the mornings and hearing the birds chirp and seeing the sun rise. I never thought I'd EVER be such an early morning person, but there ya go. I guess I am now!

Oh, by the way, I added another movie to your "must-see" list: Men In Black 3. Me and Clint really liked it. It had some good action and it was funny. I bet you'll like it. :)

Well, I WAS trying to keep the email short but I had one more thing to tell you about. On Sunday I helped teach a lesson to all the combined young women about keeping personal records. Mom gave me a bunch of records and stories, including Great Grandma Spencer, Claron Spencer, and a few more all the way back to Daniel Spencer, our ancestor who knew the prophet Joseph and trekked across the plains to good old SLC. I'm going to Trek in memory of him next week. NEXT WEEK! Gah, oh my gosh, Trek is NEXT WEEK ALREADY! We still have so much to do. But anyway, I shared some stories of my ancestors with the YW and encouraged them to find some inspirational stories and keep good personal records of themselves. I think it went pretty good. I found some cool stories of our ancestors so I was pretty thrilled that the lesson started me looking into it.

Phew! Sorry this email got so long! I hope you can print it out and read it.

We just really love you Kenny and keep you in our prayers. Take care. :)

Love,

Sam (and Clint)

Our latest run

We ran the Salt Lake City Half Marathon, and these were some of our best pics (trust me, I look like I'm dying in most of the others)(and yes, these photos are snatched from the website without paying ludicrous prices for "de-proofed" digital copies):

I barely beat my PR from last year coming in at about 1:54:30 and Clint came in somewhere around 1:42. That fasty pants.

Sometimes, I feel like a slob after a race and I totally forget about being a runner for weeks or even months, but this time... not so. I felt a little fired up about doing better and getting faster. It was a rough training season for me with several colds, knee pain and therapist visits, and some other emotional issues. I was a fighter, but... I'm ready to do better.

Meet me at the Halloween Half marathon in Provo on October 27th if you think it sounds KILLER to run down a beautiful canyon dressed in whatever crazy runner costume you've always wanted to run in. I'm thinking of turning a Disney princess into a runner or possibly Sally Skellington! Prices go up May 1 and then again in August, I think.

when writers know

I think writers know they have a story when they can't NOT write it. I mean, when they think about it all the time (even while they're working at some other job) and all they want to do is keep writing down the scene that's running through their head. Or multiple scenes. I cannot write down scenes fast enough, yet when I finish writing one, I look at the clock and somehow hours have passed. It's quite joyerrific. I'm excited.

update on the office fish tank

Remember how creepy the office fish tank is? I posted about it here.

Well, it has since been a little de-creepified. It actually looks nicer and more professional now, with completed wood finishings and a clean area surrounding it.

However, it is still a source of morbid occurrences during the day.

The owner (or the assistant) always announces when he's about to feed the fish and we all rush out to the tank like it's some sort of show. 'Cause it is. 

He dumps in the "feeder fish," which are usually little shrimps or goldfish, and the other fish all dive in like a regular feeding frenzy!

It's crazy. One fish always goes straight for the goldfish's eyes and gets them sometimes too. The puffer fish likes to gnaw a goldfish in half and gulp down sections at a time. This blind eel sort of squirms about and shoots its head around like a snake trying to catch food.

Some people took to naming the puffer fish after one of the other copywriters. I'm not sure why, but they'll point their fingers and say "Look at Scott - he's so aggressive today!" And people laugh.

And we all stand around, gasping and hooting at the fish like it's a gladiator arena.

Ten or so minutes later, we ho-hum back to our cubicles. La-te-da, back to work.

It wakes you right up if it happens to be after lunch. At least, you hope it happens after, and not right before.

a poem about (sort of) running

You know I will post a poem on my blog ONLY if I feel like it's rather good. As an insecure writer, 90% of my poems are doomed to the obscurity of archived Word doc files that will never see public space on the web.

Anyway, I started writing this poem the other day and it turned into a sort of deep reflection on how running is like exercising faith.

what doesn't kill

so many ways to live,

to walk –

and I choose to run

the ground of this earth,

leaving pieces of me behind –

scraps

of a fighter –

drops of blood,  pools of tears –

making me stronger.

doubt doesn't kill, doesn't

stop the run

through desperate days –

I still search

and listen

and check my pulse

to pounding feet, the sad song

of rain,

my own gasps of air –

and God –

You still there?

not dying,

not dying– not me,

but something else

I pass on the road –

hope –

but I can't rest to hold it yet.

miles stretching, beckoning,

telling me how strong,

promising more strength

I don't want –

I could stop and drown

in rain's cold grip –

or run and risk

a road of scattered parts,

pieces of me

left in a rush.

so many ways to run,

to pound

away swelling grief –

either continue the race

to forget,

or stop and feel

the full storm of

what I run from.

This road doesn't kill –

so I ask what it builds.

no answer, not yet.

where to run,

how fast to go –

even these are not my choice.

not mine.

I follow the road.

At last a snow day!

...and finally the pictures.

Wow, it has really been that long since I've posted pics on the good old bloggy blog! Time's been sort of speeding by in a blaze of driving to and from Provo.

I wanted to post some pictures of our snowshoeing/sledding adventure (a couple weeks ago now) just because it's such a novel occasion for this (until now) snowless year!

Shelly was recently in town (Hi Shell!) so Clint and I and Tyler went with her up to Dog Lake to play in the pretty, sparkly snowflakes. Mm-hm, it was GORGEOUS.

(Shelly - I think I still need to email or facebook the pictures to you!)

I’m sorry if you love office fish tanks…

But I have to say that the fish tank at my office is downright creepy. It’s not just because of the odd-looking fish and the shark with snake-like eyes.

I was recently hired at a start-up (sorta) marketing business and they recently changed  locations. This doesn’t mean that they had a lot to transport.

There is virtually no wall art or plant life to be found anywhere on the floor of this building, and yet there is this huge humming aquarium stationed in the main “reception” area (which makes up a significant area of the total office space on this floor.) The isolated fish house is surrounded by cardboard boxes scribbled hurriedly with black marker, and the inner digestive tracts of the aquarium are a jumble of exposed pipes beneath the main watery habitat.

I halfway expect the shark in the aquarium to hiss at me as I walk by. It doesn’t help that most of the fish follow you with a slow-blinking stare as you pass. (Shudder.)

In other words, it’s not creepy in a cool way. It’s not like some mystical, unearthly display of creatures arranged aesthetically for shock value or as a tourist attraction.

It’s more like a small business owner’s eccentric attempt at appearing reputable or even (spare me) medical.

If you were to simply walk in the door, you wouldn’t expect to see a team of highly productive and smart-alecky copywriters in the next room – oh no. You’d expect to hear the crazed snickering of a dentist as an unnaturally loud drill buzzes dangerously to life somewhere you can’t see and someone else starts wailing.

I know you’re asking that question right now, and the answer is:

No.  No, I definitely could not ever have stopped at plain old ‘creepy.’ It’s me.

how to - hopefully - fix runner's knee

My particular brand of "runner's knee" syndrome was not your typical outer-side-of-the-knee pain. It was on the inner knee. And I think I have diagnosed the problem

Well, my physical therapist diagnosed it.

I've been running and working out with this deep ache in my left knee for a while now, and even tried resting from running for the entire month of January before jumping back into my half marathon training, only to discover that the knee pain was still there.

I finally saw a physical therapist. Apparently my hips are not the strongest - especially the lift hip - which has gradually been allowing my left knee to turn slightly inward as I run. The idea is that increasing hip strength prevents runner's knee by keeping your hip, knee, and ankle in proper alignment as you stride.

So I am now officially doing special hip exercises every day to strengthen my hip and - hopefully - stop straining my knee so that the pain can go away.

There are 3 exercises total. I'm sure I could find a way to post visually appealing pictures of them if anyone's interested.

Good news: I can still keep training for my half marathon as long as I keep treadmill miles to a minimum and make up the mileage with elliptical time. Can do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tempo run today that needs to be taken care of!

Operation: Morning Person

So far it's going well. My new job, I mean. I usually work from about 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. And the commute is 45 minutes each way. I've downloaded some audiobooks that keep me entertained in my car. And... I have decided to finally force myself to become something that I have never been, nor have I ever thought I would voluntarily become:

a Morning Person.

You see, waiting to exercise until after getting home from work was just too late. It didn't leave me any time in the evening to clean up, make dinner, maybe watch a TV show with Clint, get in some writing, and get ready for bed. It just didn't. So my new daily schedule looks like this.

• 5 a.m. - alarm goes off. I sleepily slap on gym clothes that I laid out in the bathroom the night before.
• 5:15 ish - workout at the gym
• 6:30 ish - arrive home from the gym, depending on length of workout, number of miles, or whatever. Shower and eat breakfast.
• 7:15-7:30 ish - leave for work. Traffic's not bad and the sun comes up.
• 8:00 a.m. or so - arrive at work and spend another day trying to be a confident copywriter.
• 4:30 p.m. ish - leave work. Traffic's filled in a little but still mostly smooth.
  
• 5:15 ish - arrive home. Ahhh.

Then I have time for grocery runs, making dinner, getting to Young Women's at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, or working on my story (which has taken a serious hit of neglect the past week or so).

• 10-10:30 p.m. - bed time.

So, yes, I am running low on sleep. Just like my gas tank is now routinely running low on gas. I'm feeling deeply connected to my Dodge Neon these days.

On a brighter note, I think I may just become hooked on this Morning Person thing. The first day I forced myself to drive to the gym when it felt like the middle of the night, I was encouraged by 2 very significant signs (redundancy intended).

If you know me, you know that I am not a superstitious person. And I do not believe in coincidences. And there are some things that happen in this world that simply defy all reason. And there are some things I feel so intrinsically passionate about, that I might just be a little insane about them.

These were the signs during the 5 o'clock hour as I for the first time revved up my car and faced down the dark and lonely road:

#1: There was a big, I mean freaking huge, yellow full moon shining right through the driver's window.
#2: U2's "With or Without You" was playing on the radio - on the very last station my radio was set to the last time I turned it off.

I kid you not! I am dead serious. Those 2 very things happened at the same moment! Full moon frenzy and U2 delirium both rose up to energize me on my first morning as a voluntary morning person. It was insane, people.

Also in the "fortunately" category: I am continually refreshed to see that there is a surprisingly plentiful slew of crazies at the gym at the same time as me. I feel like I joined a secret organization or something.