Thirty-five years

July 23, 1977
East LA

November 27, 2011 (my mom would’t let me take a photo today)
Disneyland

Like any kid, I’m fascinated by my parents’ wedding photos. I used to love studying them for the differences and trying to figure out who was who.

I still love them these days, but I’m more appreciative of the fact that 35 years later I still have numerous photos of them being adorable, cute and loving towards each other.

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. Thanks for showing me it’s not just about the day, but the lifelong commitment beginning on that day.

Familia, Fotos

Early summer in photos

It’s time for an Instagram photo dump.

Sean is excited about The Dark Knight Rises. Can you spot the bat signal?

I joked with my cousins and sister that I’d make them wear these shoes for the wedding. I’m not a fan of TOMS shoes, neither are they.

I’ve been walking past Royce Hall for 14 years and yet this view doesn’t get old (UCLA p/v). I still don’t think I’ve found all the discrepancies between both halves. It looks symetrical but it’s not.

If Spiderman was really this round, I doubt he’d be very agile. Have you seen the latest Spiderman flick? I checked it out with Sean and enjoyed it, but couldn’t wait to hear his critiques afterward. He knows his stuff when it comes to comic books and superheroes (and a lot of other things, too). I find his geekiness quite attractive.

Probably because the average wedding costs over $25,000.

I got off the bus last Monday to see this a block from my apartment. It’s rather troubling considering I run/walk through there often. I don’t know what happened, but shortly after I crossed the ambulance arrived. I hope she was okay.

My ride on the recently opened Expo line a few weeks ago felt like something out of a Kanye video. The guy in the bear mask was with a few other people who were filming and photographing him.

Sean on his birthday. Lots of people celebrated by taking the day off, barbequing and blowing things up.

This was my worried look while following elections results coming in from Mexico.

I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach for work. It was pretty neat, but not as cool as the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I missed the sea turtles.

My family threw a big party complete with mariachi and birria (of course) to celebrate Mamá Toni’s 90th birthday. She even got a birthday greeting from the President and First Lady. I’m lucky I’ve been able to spend lots of time with my grandparents and gotten to know them.

Minel turned two recently. According to my cousin, he’s fully embraced the terrible part of those years.

My sister invited me on a hike in the Angeles National Forest with her and my mom. We started off at Chantry Flats (entering from Arcadia) and then did an easy 4 mile loop.

Boda

T-minus two months

Two months. That number worries me despite the fact that wedding planning has been pretty smooth so far. Sure, I fret about the numbers, but overall the decisions on the big stuff have been pretty easy.

From here on out Sean and I will need to make a lot of decisions about the small things. How will I wear my hair? What will the cupcakes look like? How will we structure the day? Where will we take pictures following the ceremony? The last one is a headache. I’ll explain later.

We’ve been getting a lot done lately:

We received our invitations two weeks ago. Over the next couple of days we updated the mailing list, printed labels and spent several hours stuffing envelopes and applying labels and stamps. We decided to keep it simple and leave off a second envelope and a separate enclosure for information on accommodations. We printed that on the back of the invite.

I love the final product (looks better in person and not with my bad kitchen lighting). Noma did an amazing job both designing the invitations and being the contact person with the printer. She helped us find an affordable printer and even got us a discount.

We hand delivered some local invitations on the 4th and placed the bulk of them in the mail on Thursday. My parents and grandparents delivered more by hand on visits to family. By Monday, we began to receive our first reply cards. We’ve had a couple of surprises, but most of the yeses were expected as were the few nos.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do with the cake or cupcakes. Mainly, I needed to decide if I was going to use a custom-made cupcake stand my mom borrowed from a friend, Mrs. G. The five-tiered cupcake stand was made for Mrs. G’s son’s wedding in 2009. It holds up to 300 cupcakes and a small cake on top. I liked the stand, but insisted that we change the damask pattern. It’s nice, but doesn’t fit our colors. Last week, my mom and I went shopping in Downtown LA’s garment district. We found navy blue fabric and an appropriate trim.

My mom finally chose a dress. (Not this one.) She looked for a couple of months and went to several stores. She’s easily the pickiest member of the bridal party. We found a dress during our downtown shopping trip.

Our two flower girls and ring bearer are set. I still need to choose dresses and accessories for the girls.

Sean and I took advantage of BevMo’s wine sale. We might have missed it if not for a reminder from my brother. We ordered online and picked it up in a rental from U-Haul. It’s currently being stored at my parents’ house. After buying 21 boxes of wine, Sean said he could understand why some couples might do a cash bar or have a dry wedding. Sort of. He doesn’t believe in dry weddings or cash bars. At least we got a great deal. Half the bottles we purchased cost us a nickel.

We still need to buy beer, water and other non-alcoholic drinks.

In the works. I’ve been to a couple friends’ weddings where they forego the traditional limousine in favor of a “bomb” (restored cars from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s). I love this look and think the backdrop of a beautiful old car would be great for some photos. I’ve found a car club that does rentals, but need to officially book them. Sean has looked in to booking transportation for the wedding party and out of town guests. The best price we’ve found came from a company referred to by friends.

I feel like we’ve done a lot recently, but know there’s many more items on our to-do list. At least my mom and sister have a bit more free time during the summer.

Cambios

New Rules of Lifting for Women Stage 1 progress

I can’t do a push-up. No, I don’t mean the modified kind where you drop down on your knees, but the kind I’d need to do if I was in the military. Let’s pause for a moment so I can hang my head in shame.

Six weeks ago, I would’ve felt no shame admitting this. However, that was before a strength training plan designed to get me to “lift heavy” and build muscle.

I completed stage one of the The New Rules of Lifting for Women (NROLW) last Saturday with the second of the bonus workouts. Stage one consists of two alternating workouts, A and B, done 8 times each. From workout 1 to workout 8, I grew much stronger and looked forward to each workout. I was excited to get back in the gym, put on my gloves and make more notations in my makeshift workout journal. Overall, I’m happy with my progress (see below for numbers), but there are a couple downsides.

The good stuff:
I’m definitely stronger and lifting heavy (for me).

I can see and feel the muscle growing in my arms, legs, back, etc. If I flex, I actually have something to show.

The workouts don’t take long. If I didn’t have to wait for any equipment, I could get a warm-up and workout done in 45 minutes or less.

I really like protein shakes and look forward to them after a workout. I use the CytoSport vanilla whey protein from Costco.

Downsides:
I’d feel stronger if I could actually do more than one or two push-ups. My 30 degree angled push-ups against a bench are pretty weak.

My gym is not that big. When crowded, it took me a few minutes to find the dumbbells I needed or I had to wait for someone else to finish with them. Sometimes I couldn’t find what I needed and lifted lighter than capable (in that case I added reps). The NROLW book offers at-home modifications, but I preferred the gym.

I’ve gained weight and some of my clothes fit tighter especially in the upper body. That purple dress was not that tight last time I wore it 9 months ago. My brother and Sean say the extra pounds are muscle. I’d like to believe them, but it’s still messes with my head to see the numbers on the scale go up when I’ve been working out almost every single day. To be fair, the book offers a meal plan with recipes, but I haven’t used them or tried cutting calories (not recommended in the book). Otherwise, the main difference in my diet is adding the protein shakes.

I don’t feel like I’m working my “problem areas” enough. The workouts are designed to work major muscle groups and not focus on something like just triceps or butt. I’d like to add in some specific tricep moves to help tone up my jiggly arms.

Workout A
Squats: I did these at home with 10# dumbbells. I probably started too light since I worked up to 85# on the squat rack. For the bonus workout with as many reps as possible without rest, I did 31 squats with original start weight of 10# dumbbells.

Push-ups: I started with a modified 45 degree push-up against my kitchen table. The authors don’t want you on your knees so they suggest wall push-ups, 45 degree push-ups, 30 degree and then flat. As you get stronger, you should drop down lower. Around workout 5, I dropped to 30 degrees; those are tough. Bonus workout: 21 push-ups (45 degree).

Seated rows: I began with 8 or 10# dumbbells at home (bent over), but won’t count those. I tried 30# in the gym, that was too easy. My real start was 40 and I worked up to 75. I could barely complete 7 (of 8) reps with 75#. The weights on the row machine increase from 60 to 75, and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find the small 5# weights. Bonus workout: 17 rows at 50# (forgot I started lighter).

Step-ups: I left these out of the initial workout, because I misread what was included. My start was 10# and I worked up to 25# (fewer reps, more sets). My only adjustment to the difficulty was the dumbbells. I might start with a higher step for stage 2. Bonus workout: 50 with 8# (again, forgot I started with 10#).

Prone jackknifes: I left these out too, since you do alternating sets with step-ups. I worked up from 8 to being able to complete a full set of 15. I probably should have done them on the same size stability ball every time for a better measure of my improvement. Bonus workout: 20 jackknifes.

Workout B
Deadlift: I started out just lifting the 45# bar. I worked up to 75#. Bonus workout: 31 deadlifts at 45#.

Shoulder press: 10 to 15# dumbbells. I could have lifted a couple pounds more than 15, but the dumbbells go from 15 to 20 and the 20 were too heavy for me to do a full set. Bonus workout: 20 with 10# dumbbells.

Wide-grip lat pull-pown: Started at 30, found that was too easy so 40 would be my initial baseline. I worked up to 60#. Bonus workout: 31 reps with 40#.

Lunges: Started with 10# dumbbells, went up to 20#. These left me really sore initially and I even had to cut out reps or a set in the first workouts because they were painful. I did one workout without weights to not aggravate my glutes. Bonus workout: 21 lunges with 10#.

Swiss-ball crunch: The first workout called for 8 reps, I did 15 for one set, 8 for the next. I later made them tougher by holding a 10# plate and did 25 reps. Bonus workout: 50 crunches (no weight).

Corriendo

Runner’s World running streak recap

Prior to joining the Runner’s World summer running streak, I had never run more than 4 or 5 days in a row. I didn’t feel any need to go out every single day. I like my rest days. And more than that, I don’t want to have to wash my long hair daily.

That changed from Memorial Day through Sean’s birthday, also known as Independence Day/Fourth of July. I was looking for a way to come back from my post marathon slump when I’d been putting up 50 and 25 miles total for April and May, respectively.

The rules of the running streak were easy enough: run at least one mile for the 38 day stretch between the two holidays.

I didn’t find the challenge tough to follow, but that’s probably because I did the minimum half the time, especially in the last ten days or so.

General observations:

1. My neighborhood is generally safe enough for short late night runs. (Of course I say this with a sample size of one and a few late night runs.)
I’ve always been a night runner, but had never pushed it past 9-10ish. If it got late and I didn’t get my run in, oh well. That wasn’t an option if I wanted to keep up with the streak. I could’ve gone to the gym, but that would’ve added more time and didn’t really seem worth it for a mile or two.

The first time I went out after 11 pm was after a Dodger game. I did it a few more times after parties or when the day was too busy.

I took precautions for my late night runs. I went out for only a mile to keep it short and close, took my phone, stayed on well-lit streets and let Sean know where I’d be. Once I took out the family dog, VR. The only odd thing that happened was getting startled by a dog’s barking and almost tripping on the sidewalk.

2. The treadmill is okay for short runs and warm-ups.
There’s really no reason for me to rely on a treadmill. I can understand that if it’s very hot, but summer in west LA is generally nice. If I was a day/morning runner, I’d consider taking it indoors since I want to avoid sunburns and odd running tans this summer.

3. Short runs are okay on off days from New Rules of Lifting for Women workouts, but not in the first week.
I would’ve preferred resting on the off days from the first few NROLW workouts. After the initial week or two, I wasn’t really sore anymore, but my legs did feel heavy and I tired easily.

4. I’d consider another running streak challenge, but only if it doesn’t coincide with marathon or half marathon training.
If I’m doing long runs or speed training, I’d definitely like to have the following day off. Additionally, I like the flexibility of being able to move a run from Tuesday to Wednesday if needed. Last, the time commitment to a running streak isn’t much compared to all the long runs.

5. Night running in summer really gets in the way of a social life.
There’s so much going on in the evenings, but I ignored it because I had to run every evening after work.

Running streak by the numbers:
61.4 miles for the 38 days, not much I know
15.2 treadmill miles, done as a warm-up for NROLW workouts
9 runs after 9 pm, 1 was lit up by Fourth of July fireworks
4 runs after 11 pm, (I procrastinate, just a little)
18 runs that were just one mile
4 miles = long run (done once)
1 downhill mile run during a hike with my mom and sister in the Angeles National Forest
1 mile run after eating and drinking way too much at Mamá Toni’s 90th birthday part