Archive for December, 2007
Merry Christmas and whatever. This week has sucked. I am loathe to write yet another post about how we’re all sick but hey, surprise! We’re all sick. Actually, Brian is doing much better but Ashok has had a really rough week-stomach flu and now an upper respiratory infection and double ear infections. I personally have only a single ear infection and mild stomach flu so I guess I can’t complain. We were supposed to fly to Atlanta yesterday to see Brian’s grandparents and visit our friends but on the pediatrician’s advice we have postponed everything until tomorrow. Ashok is already feeling better (hooray for modern medicine!) so hopefully we will be ok to fly.
There has been a lot of this:
Here’s hoping that my next post involves less mucous.
December 28th, 2007
Dear Santa,
This has been a rough month for me. I’ve had back to back colds, a couple of low grade fevers and the always exciting pink eye. Then on Friday I barfed all over Mommy’s car and yesterday I barfed on her, Daddy and me on the plane. The doctor says I have stomach flu. I am tired of being sick and would like to stop hurling before our five hour flight to Atlanta on Thursday. Do you think you could set that up?
Also, Mommy wants some bourbon.
Love,
Ashok
December 23rd, 2007
…..I spoke too soon. Just when I thought I had kicked it, this stupid cold smacked me right across the face. The last two days have really sucked, an endless stream of lying in bed, drinking tea and watching Arrested Development on DVD (wait, that doesn’t actually sound half bad…). I am loathe to say that I am finally feeling better for fear that I wake up tomorrow with measles or something equally horrific. At this point, I will be happy if we can all get on the plane to go to my mom’s on Saturday.
By the way, have I mentioned that my son is now walking? Oh yes, he is walking. It happened shortly after Thanksgiving, actually-he went from three or four stumbling steps at a time to three or four feet in about 48 hours. Last night, as I languished in bed upstairs, I could hear lots of footsteps and giggling from downstairs. When I asked Brian what they were doing, he said, “Running.” Great. I’d better start recuperating.
December 20th, 2007
Decent run today-5 miles on trail and paths around the Rose Bowl. I also did manage to do 3 miles on Friday with Ashok in the stroller-he was quite cooperative. I’m still not feeling 100% but at least we’re all finally on the mend over here. Ashok no longer has pink eye, in fact it never got that bad, but now he has a tooth coming in and it is obviously driving him nuts. Poor kid, he has really been miserable these last few days. I’m hoping that sucker pokes its way through soon so he can go back to being his happy-go-lucky little self.
My sister and I had an important discussion today wherein we finalized our list of treats to purchase and bring up to my mom’s house for Christmas. So far, we have:
- peppermint bark that I ordered today from one of my favorite bakeries
- backup peppermint bark from Trader Joe’s
- chocolate covered salted caramels, also from TJ’s
- the ubiquitous Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s
I’m sure we will come up with more before we head up north at the end of the week. After all, one of our favorite activities over the holidays is gorging ourselves to the point of revulsion. Merry Christmas!
This will be a slightly different holiday for us this year. This will be our last trip up to Davis, the town I grew up in, as my mom is getting ready to move down here! It’s no surprise really, both her daughters live in the Los Angeles area and now that her two grandsons are on the scene, it’s kind of a no-brainer. She was very lucky to find a great position teaching part-time so I think it’s going to be great for her. Plus, Ashok will get to grow up with his Ammumma so close-by, I’m really thrilled. My sister and I grew up so far from our grandparents that we never got the opportunity to have them be a part of our everyday lives so it will be nice to see Ashok and Rohan get to experience that. Surely, there will be some adjustments for us all along the way, but we’ll deal with that when we get there.
My goals for this week before heading out of town are to get some speedwork, a hill run, and one good long run in. Oh, and to raid Trader Joe’s of every last piece of holiday candy they have.
December 16th, 2007
Here is how things are going around our household tonight:
- Everyone is sick. Brian has the cold that Ashok is getting over and I am still fighting it off. On top of all of that, Ashok now has pink eye. Joy.
- We were supposed to go to a tree-trimming party tonight but due to the crusty condition of Ashok’s eyes, opted to stay home lest we spread our maladies to the general public.
- Not going to the party meant not passing off that bag of truffles that was sent to me in the mail.
- I am now eating the truffles and can’t believe I ever considered sending them to live with another family.
I am supposed to run with my violinist friend tomorrow morning and am hoping I will be feeling well enough to go. The plan is to take Ashok in the jogging stroller and just go for three miles so, of course he will have to cooperate as well. And, of course, this is all assuming that I don’t wake up with pink eye tomorrow. So many variables, never a good sign.
December 13th, 2007
I did 3.1 miles yesterday and finally felt somewhat normal after a week of truly sucky running. On Sunday, I did 6 miles and dragged my ass through every last one of them. I’m not really sure what’s going on but hopefully it will pass. I have a serious amount of holiday eating to work off and it is still another two weeks until Christmas. Here are yesterday’s splits.
1 - 8:55
2 - 9:07
3 - 8:10
.1 - 0:45
I inspired myself to push a little harder in that last mile by thinking about all those Candy-Cane Joe-Joe’s I ate.
Last night, a good friend of mine took me out for Korean BBQ in Koreatown here in L.A. It was excellent except for the fact that I smelled of cooked meats when I got home. Next week I’m going to take her out and teach her a bit about South Indian food which will surely result in another feeding frenzy. Have I mentioned that I love food?
December 12th, 2007
These cookies are ruining my life: Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s. Someone brought them to a rehearsal last week and I honestly couldn’t stop eating them (of course, I’m not known for my self-control). I love them, I am quickly making my way through a box, and I’m doing it by myself since Brian doesn’t like anything having to do with mint. Hooray for the holidays.
I decided to bail on my 10K today and I think it was the right decision. My right hip was bothering me a bit on my Thursday run and a couple of days off have felt good. I may, however, try to do 8 on the 8th tomorrow (even though it will be the 9th), but we’ll see. I’ve never run 8 miles before and I think I could do it. That sort of challenge appeals to me more right now than a race. At this point, I think I will hold off on races until the New Year. By then I will surely have gone through another 5 or 6 boxes of these cookies and there will be lots to work off.
December 8th, 2007
Brian was in Atlanta for business yesterday so I flew solo with Ashok for the evening. No biggie, I can take him. My plan was to wear him down as much as possible and get him to bed exhausted. It must have worked, because he slept from 8pm last night to 7:10 am! I couldn’t believe it, I was actually in bed past 6:30 in the morning-what a concept. Granted, he did wake up and fuss a bit around 3:45 so it wasn’t the best night’s sleep, but he did go back to sleep fairly quickly. Gotta love that kid.
Punk Rock Ashok sez: I’ll sleep when I want, woman!
After Ashok went to bed last night, I settled in on the couch with some yummy Indian chicken and watched The Namesake. I had been looking forward to seeing this movie since it came out last year, but since we don’t get to the theaters very often anymore, I waited for it to come out on DVD. I really enjoyed it, in fact I was tearing up through most of the movie. It definitely struck a chord for me-an Indian couple who leaves their families behind to move to the States, Indian kids growing up in America feeling alienated and confused about where they fit in-that’s basically my family’s story as well. I had read the book several years ago, and actually didn’t enjoy it as much as other works by the same author, Jhumpa Lahiri. However, the movie really spoke to me.
Running has sort of sucked this week, I’m not sure why. I am supposed to do a 10K in Santa Monica this Saturday but I’m not super motivated to get my ass out there, particulary since it very well may be raining that morning. I may switch and do a 5K at the Rose Bowl instead-that would be less running and less driving, but I’m still not sure. I guess I’ll see how I feel Saturday morning. Maybe I just need a weekend without a race?
December 6th, 2007
I was so tempted to post yesterday, but I forced myself to take a day off on principle. What principle? I have no idea.
My 10K yesterday was HARD. The first half was fine, relatively flat, and I managed to pace myself fairly well since I knew the big hills were coming in the second half. Still, they killed me. These were some bad-ass hills, I know them well since they are right near my house (this was a race benefiting our local high school) but I’ve never run them after already running three miles. I ended up walking a bit on both big hills, but I didn’t feel too bad since just about everyone was walking. I came in at 1:03:09 and I somehow ended up 4th in my age group, but that was only out of 8, so I’m not getting a big head over it.
We got our Christmas tree this weekend and decorated it tonight. This is going to be quite a different experience from last Christmas when Ashok was only 3 months old and couldn’t get into any trouble. After we put the ornaments up, he was so obsessed with all the ball shaped ornaments that he just stood in front of the tree for about twenty minutes, on his shaky little legs, saying “ball, ball” over and over again. I thought his head was going to explode. We purposely put a few non-breakable ornaments lower on the tree so he could take them off and play with them. I’m still trying to decide if that was a good idea or not. Here he is making off with one of my many elephant ornaments:
We have a different sort of angel on top of our tree:
I figure if a Hindu is going to have a Christmas tree, it has to represent both cultures equally. I tried to gently suggest a fake tree this year, but Mr. Christmas, a.k.a. my husband, can’t even fathom the thought of a plastic tree. I guess Ashok will be eating pine needles for the next few weeks. I guess he could use the roughage.
December 2nd, 2007