Editions of Me

  a nearly-finished sweater I'm not going to lie, friends. Things have been rough for me, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I've been stuck in a feedback loop of stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, and feeling sick (not Covid, so far), culminating in me taking a few days off in a row because at some point, something has to give. I've been throwing myself into arts and crafts, as a way to deal with it all. I'm still knitting a ton, but I've also been taking art classes through Domestika and sewing courses through Sew Liberated , and journaling, and also, I even made pho for myself yesterday, for the first time in a really long time. There is something restorative in the act of creating something (or planning to create something, as I'm still waiting on new sewing supplies and figuring out how to stash-bust).  But it has to be creating something from a place of peace---I know that lots of artisans and crafters enjoy turning their passions into their work, but fo...

I've been running again! I stopped running after my last marathon. Having developed osteoarthritis after a knee injury (from roller derby, not running), I had trouble running without pain after all that training, due to the weight I gained back after my weekly mileage dramatically decreased (because my body needed a break from that intensity) and the fact that I got more seriously into powerlifting (my knee can handle running OR it can handle squatting extremely heavy weights, but not both). So for a while, I convinced myself that I would never be able to run again.  Last year, while I was pregnant, I suddenly found myself bit by the running bug again, which is funny because when I WAS heavily into running, I needed a constantly full calendar of races to stay motivated, and right now, races are a rare thing because of the, you know, worldwide panna cotta that we've been living in. But all of a sudden, I just really wanted to RUN. I didn't, because I was heavily pregnant and...

Plus some updates about training/fitness. CW: This post will talk about weight loss and disordered eating habits/thoughts. If that might be triggering to you, please proceed with caution or opt out of reading this entirely <3

 (Wow, I'm great at promising to post regularly, and then just not posting. I need to stop announcing things.) A year ago today (March 13th) was the last day of school before everything closed down for the pandemic. At the time, we didn't know what the future would hold, so at first, we were like, "Okay, double-long spring break. That's cool, I guess!"  And then we just never came back from it. Our extended spring break turned into online supplementary learning (it was only a year ago, and I can't remember any of the official names or acronyms we used last spring) where we couldn't move forward with curriculum and could only assign bonus work that students wouldn't be held accountable for missing. Then the bonus work turned into Real Work That Will Affect their Grades for just a hot minute until we received notice that students grades would default to whatever they were as of March 13th, and that they would count as P/F only, and that students could co...

This isn't going to be much of a post, because I haven't not trained this week, but I did want to impart my take-away to you:  Prioritize sleep. Wellness isn't just a fancy spa mask and a yoga class. Those are nice, but they're still doing  something, and sometimes what you need is to not  do anything.  I haven't trained this week because I've been dealing with some major insomnia, and my personal rule has always been that if I didn't sleep enough (under 6 hours) or sleep well, then I wouldn't allow myself to work out. Of course, in a week like this, it means that I have gone several days without training or anything, but as they say, you can't pour from an empty cup. And this up is DRY, my friends. But just so I'm not leaving things on a sad note, I do want to share that I bought myself a new pair of running shoes, and I'm planning to get (very slowly) back into running. It may be weeks, even months, before I actually start doing more than a...

I've been super excited about the influx of new makeup brands lately at Target, especially since they are designated as "Clean at Target" (though YMMV when it comes to the label "clean"). One of them is a brand called Jason Wu Beauty , by a Taiwanese-Canadian artist/designer of that name. (Sorry, I don't know anything about him. I had to google that.)  His collection looks to be lots of neutral, natural tones, in an assortment of products for all over the face, but not enough to do a full face. (Like, I see tinted primers, but no actual foundation or concealer?)  After watching some other reviews on YouTube, my interest was piqued, and I decided the first thing that I really wanted to pick up, actually, was his eyeshadow palette in Matte Agave, as the only all-matte palette in his line. I've been in search of an clean-beauty all matte palette that would function really well as a collection of base shades, because I'm very into wearing my highlighters...

 Ayooooo! You know how I started doing "Makeup Monday" posts? I chose that name with the full intention of adding other themed days into my repertoire, but gradually, because jumping into blogging multiple days per week is... a lot. I had to work up to it. So thus, we begin Fitness Fridays. This will just be a weekly check-in about my health and fitness--a little progress report of what I've done for the week. To begin with, both of the gyms that I called home closed this year.  Now, full disclosure: I hadn't been lifting much at all this past year due to being pregnant, and then when gyms had to close due to the pandemic, I definitely was trying to get some workouts in at home. And then both gyms (not at the same time) have permanently closed. I was already in the process of putting together a garage gym anyway, because I was too apprehensive about working out at a gym, but my long-term plan was to train in person when the time came for me to start competing again.  ...