Monthly Archives: June 2011

Group Fitness Princess

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Every day, the four-year-old wants to color or read books about princesses. Specifically, she wants to read about and color pictures of Disney princesses–not the “bad-ass” ethnic ones like Jasmine and Mulan. No, she likes the hetero-normative stories about damsels in distress comas like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. She also likes to dress up in grubby pink gowns and talk about being a princess.

As I slogged my way through five picture book adaptations of Disney films today, I was struck by how passive the female “protagonists” are. Not that I think Disney is an evil, corrupting influence on today’s youth, but I still think it would be nice if the princesses had dreams other than falling in love with someone they met “in a dream.” (I tried to explain why Mulan is such a good character, but she just replied that Mulan isn’t “really a princess.”)

Thus, I’ve started encouraging the four-year-old to draw things other than princesses…or princesses doing something. “Don’t you think princesses should go on adventures?,” I say, “Wouldn’t it be boring to sit around in a frilly dress all day?”

I don’t think she really gets it, so I’ve also tried to lead by example. Today, while she drew her billionth princess, I drew this:

If you can’t tell, that is yours truly, leading a group fitness class, wearing a princess crown. Everyone is sweating buckets, and a male participant can’t keep up. Please also notice that I made a concerted effort to draw strong-looking legs.

And here comes my announcement:

I’m going to become a group fitness instructor!*

This is actually something that I have been considering for over a year, despite the fact that I don’t regularly attend classes. Fortunately, Dan has really pushed me to pursue this goal, and for my birthday, he, Alejandro, Brian, and Kya gave me the ACE manual and study materials. (Passing that exam gives me certification to do free-style classes that I would choreograph myself.)

In two weeks, I’m going to go for a three-day training for BodyCombat, the Les Mills’ martial arts-based class. Training weekend sounds really intense, so I’m sure I’ll be more nervous as it approaches. Seriously, I just recently managed to get all the way through the abs track without collapsing on the floor….

*This is actually dependent on me passing the training and jumping through a bunch of other certification hoops.

Squats & Lunges

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We’re getting there….

In other news, in the four weeks of the boyfriend’s absence, my evenings have devolved into lusting after the male contenders on The Glee Project (who are five-seven years my junior). It’s all class up in here.

Poop dollar!

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Last week, I found a recipe for Irish soda bread. I was intrigued, so I baked a loaf on Saturday. Having never actually tasted Irish soda bread prior to my own baking, I cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the finished product…which sort of looks like a hamburger:

Still, it was quite tasty!

Later, Jessica invited me as her date to an ice cream social at Small’s apartment. Two kinds of homemade ice cream were served (blackberry walnut and cake batter):

Small bowls? I don’t think so.

Later, we played Cranium. I am pleased to report that Jessica and I won.This is an approximate recreation of how she got me to guess “milking a cow”:

Fueled by ice cream and an ass-ton of fruit, we ran six miles together this morning:

  • 9:28
  • 9:15
  • 9:01
  • 9:05
  • 8:56
  • 9:00

About halfway through the run, Jessica picked up a folded dollar bill lying on the ground. I immediately screamed, “Does it have poop in it?” to which Jessica replied, “No…yes.”

Thus, my friends, Jessica nearly fell victim to the game of poopdollar, in which a dollar is smeared with poo and left on the sidewalk for innocent passersby to encounter. Roommate Tina explained this game to me in college after hearing about it from her boyfriend. Beware of dollars on the sidewalk!

Pepper chicken

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Last night, I went out to dinner with Dan and Alejandro at Golden Harbor, their favorite local Chinese restaurant.

I forgot to take a picture, so here’s what it looked like after I ate too many of the red chili peppers in the pepper chicken:

Yup, that’s pretty much how I feel when I go out with two group fitness instructors.

I would just like to say that work got to me today. I had to stay late, so I came home and stuffed two Chocopies in my mouth. Hellz no! That’s not going to help me show off my muscles!

Also, I ran four miles this morning:

  • 9:54
  • 8:58
  • 8:52
  • 8:29

 

Milky Way Cake

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Last month, I finally read all of Pride and Prejudice, so Amy thought it only fitting that I watch the BBC mini-series with Colin Firth. (I have seen the more recent movie version with Keira Knightley, but I hear that the Mr. Darcy actor isn’t as good.)

And what would movie-watching be without some dessert?

We made Milky Way Cake, which takes a ridiculous number of melted milky way bars:

To be honest, it’s not a very good-looking cake, but it tastes pretty damn good. (I liked it even better after it sat in the refrigerator all night and firmed up.)

The recipe is linked here. Consume at your own risk.

We only made it through half of “Pride & Prejudice.” Oh, Mr. Darcy, I will see you again soon!

Korean family dinner

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Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there in the world, especially to mine!

This morning, I ran four miles with fellow River-to-River teammate Emily:

  • 9:22
  • 9:04
  • 9:02
  • 8:56

This evening, I had a homemade Korean dinner. One of my former students (Seungkook) invited me to have dinner with his family. Since my own dad is out of the country, it was nice to spend time with somebody’s dad.

His wife prepared all kinds of tasty dishes:

Taking advantage of the cool summer evening, we ate out on their back porch. There were a few bugs, but fortunately, his son (Hyunwook) was on “bug duty.” He actually zapped all of the bugs with some kind of electronic bug killer from Korea. Meanwhile, his sister (whose name I didn’t catch) was shy:

However, she wasn’t too shy to devour several of the chocolate chip cookies I made:

Notice the chocolate on her mouth:

One of Seungkook’s coworkers from Korea (who just completed an MBA at OSU) was visiting. He was very charming and told me all about Korean business drinking culture (which sounds terrifying, by the way).

Seungkook’s wife was busy bringing out all sorts of tasty dishes. Still, I managed to get a family shot.

(Still holding a cookie)

I had a new Korean food today: 쥐포 or jwipo. It’s a sweet-ish fish jerky, and it is so good.

(Seungkook’s friend informed me that this is good drinking food.)

To top it off, the family presented me with presents when I left–a phone fob and a pencil case. It was really a wonderful evening, and I’m so thankful that his family was open and warm enough to welcome me into their home. Seungkook said he wants to set up some English tutoring sessions for his kids, so I hope to continue this connection in the future.

Pie & Bike Lessons

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Tonight, Jessica and Aileen came over for a much-needed night of fun, food, and information.

We put my pastry blender (a birthday gift from Jessica) to work right away:

I got hungry, so we went out for Mexican food.

When we came back, I became the apple-slicing slave:

Meanwhile, Jessica cranked out a pretty bitchin’ pie crust:

The sweetened and spiced apples are piled high in the crust and then covered with a delicious crumb topping:

While the pie was baking, Jessica gave us a lesson on how to change a flat tire:

Don’t worry! Bodger learned too:

Finally, it was time to take the pie out of the oven and devour it!

[Not pictured: Sarah B. and Ryan & Jin, Cassandra, Jenna, and Angela who stopped by for some pie and visiting.]

I’m lucky to have such nice friends! Ugh, my stomach feels like it has a bowling ball in it.

Dear Bodger

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It’s kind of hard to do my core workout when you’re on my mat:

No, really. I’m talking to you.

I survived my first week of babysitting full-time. It really stressed me out, and I’ve been going back and forth as to whether I’m really suited for the job. That being said, getting my weekly pay today was pretty sweet. (I buy my happiness with money-dollars!)

Meanwhile, I am still planning to throw myself wholeheartedly into Summer of Fitness endeavors.

Best birth control ever.

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I thought it was a great idea to get a full-time babysitting job this summer.

Today, I came home from work and burst into tears for an hour and a half.

The kids (almost one and four) are not bad, but I need to get a routine down ASAP. Tomorrow, I’m going to start instituting nanny changes: a “rule” list, a protocol for time-out, a daily schedule that we will follow, etc.

I’ve dried my tears, and tomorrow, I will take the first steps to salvaging my summer job and my sanity. I imagine that this is what the parents wanted anyway–a nanny, not a playmate/court jester.

And if I can’t get it right? I’ll kindly resign and then inform the boyfriend that my uterus is closed…permanently.

For now, I’ll leave you with super-attractive photos of my friends.

(Watching hockey)

Our friend Reba was visiting last night, but she requested some degree of anonymity for professional reasons:

Yesterday, after my first day on the job, I went to Dan’s BodyBlitz class. I think I need to engage in some kind of high intensity workout at the end of every day to decompress…

 

 

Mica, the bike-ah

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This morning, the weather behaved itself, so Jessica and I met up for my first ride over 20 miles (and my second “real” ride ever). To avoid traffic, we took off at 7:30am for the outskirts of town. It’s amazing how far you can go on a bike–you can actually go and see places!

I’m pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable biking is. We rode at a moderate pace, but I didn’t feel as winded and exhausted as I would have after an 85-minute run. Plus, I didn’t sweat my face off, and my body didn’t fight me.

According to Jessica’s bike computer, we covered 21.55 miles in 1:24 for an average pace of 15.1 mph. (Max. speed was 20.3mph.) I actually don’t have a sense of what constitutes “good” or “fast” cycling yet, but Jessica says that this is good for my second ride!

When I finished, I tried to take a picture of myself in the parking lot. Then I realized that a car was pulling out of a nearby space and that I was in plain view of the occupants. I was pretty embarrassed to be posing with my bike in the middle of a parking lot, so I made this really apologetic and awkward face at the camera.

Since Jessica rode off to complete a brick workout, I had to draw her in so that you knew she was there. She requested that she be eating cake in my photo. Sorry, Jessica, I kind of made you look like a linebacker…