Guess who's back...

Remember me?

I hardly remember myself.

I haven’t written a post on here since May 25.  In that time--just over six months--I’ve switched departments at my job, rejoiced in my cousin’s successful kidney transplant, held my best friend’s first child, and oh yes, one more thing. 

I got married. 

Photo by Brienne Michelle Photography

That was kind of a big deal.

So, after all that, I'm back.

Back, but in many ways, a completely different person.

I've never been more overwhelmed by generosity than through this whole wedding process. And nothing is more humbling than committing to love someone for the rest of your life in front of all the people you care about most in this world. 

As much as the last six months has been an absolute whirlwind for me and so much of my life is a new and wonderful journey, I'm also ready to settle in and get back to enjoying the interests I had before the wedding. You know, before I had to make decisions about what I wanted the napkins to look like on the guest tables. What I really missed most through the last six months was writing (I missed my sanity too, but that's a entirely different situation). I knew something had to give until the wedding madness was over.

So now I'm back, and the Concession Stand Blog is back. I'm looking forward to writing more about sports and food. You will also see a lot more stories about my own life. Being a newlywed will be an adventure worth writing about, especially with my husband involved (anyone that knows him is emphatically nodding their heads right now). 

 Here's hoping you'll come along.

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True heroes

Sometimes, I think our view of a heroic act can be rather slim.


We picture members of the military, or firemen, and there's good reason for that. They perform heroic acts daily.

But this week, maybe more than any other in my life, I have been reminded that heroism comes in endless forms.

Like yesterday, when I was rushing to my train on my way home from work, and saw a purse that had been left on the sidewalk. I didn't know what to do, because no one was around to ask if they had dropped it. Suddenly, a man came rushing by me, picked up the purse, and ran to an old lady pushing her walker across the intersection. He didn't have to take the time to stop. It was small, but incredibly heroric.

Or a co-worker, who by knowing something was terribly wrong on Friday, ended up giving birth to her baby two months early, but she likely saved the baby's life, and her own. Or the mother of my best friend from elementary school, getting a double masectomy this past week and totally rocking her fight against breast cancer.

For me, the heroic act of the week goes to my aunt, who today is giving one of her kidneys to her son, my phenomenal cousin Kurt, who is just 17.

He has a kidney disease called cystinosis and today, we hope, will change everything for the better for him. He'll have to lay low all summer, but he should be feeling better than he ever has come fall, just in time for his senior year of high school.

The way Kurt handles his disease on a daily basis is no less heroic than my aunt's wonderful display of motherly love.

He never, ever complains. The thing about that is, in 17 years of life, he has almost never felt good physically. A cold can wipe him out for days. He's had multiple surgeries, on everything from his esophagus to his ankles.

Even about this major surgery, he doesn't appear apprehensive. On Sunday, he joked about being worried that with his mom's kidney inside him, he'll hear her voice in his head no matter where he is for the rest of his life. Teenagers.

Kurt was not blessed with fully functioning kidneys, but he was blessed with an endless supply of optimism and contagious laughter.

He was also blessed with a sister Claire who has spent countless hours in the hospital with him and who, although a year younger, may be his fiercest protector. And a dad, Paul, who would do anything, absolutely anything, for him.

That's four heroes in one family.

This week has served as a reminder to me that heroes are among us everyday, in big ways and small. This week reminded me of a line from a Disney movie (not surprinsgly since I know most of them by heart), Hercules, when Zeus says to his son, "A hero is not measured by the size of his strength, but the strength of his heart."

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From madness to letdown

 I just figured now was the time for the Northern Iowa logo. When else would I use it?

Come March, I have this tradition.

It consists solely of embarrassing myself with my NCAA Tournament bracket.

With the first weekend of the NCAA Touranment down, I’m still in the 95th percentile, which sounds like I’ve got this all figured out. And you know, I probably should. For a few years, I was paid to be a sportswriter. That should help.

But it always ends up like it did two years ago, when I filled out a bracket on facebook, which was stupid, because then anyone could see my bracket futility. Mine was so bad that year, I received the following message on facebook from another sportswriter friend of mine:

“I just wanted to let you know that you are the only friend I have on facebook whose bracket is worse than mine.”

Neat.

This year, my first weekend went great, but, since I had Kansas and Georgetown meeting up in the Final Four, I’m very aware that it’s not going to turn out well.

Actually, that’s how I feel about this tournament from this point on.

The first weekend was incredible, with upsets and buzzer beaters all over the place. It even involved Northern Iowa beating Kansas, which is a sentence I never thought I’d ever need to put together in my lifetime. I haven’t enjoyed a tournament this much in years.

What makes for a phenomenal first weekend however, can lead to a lackluster second weekend.

At least, that’s my fear this year.

Upsets are what make the first weekend so much fun. No one expects to see Ohio dismantle Georgetown (at least, I didn’t, which is why I put the Hoyas in my Final Four). No one even considers St. Mary’s having a chance over Villanova.

So we cheer the underdog and get excited when they improbably win.

But the next weekend, we have matchups where it’s even less likely underdog teams will win. Or at least, this round of top-seed teams won’t underestimate the underdogs because now the top teams know if they don’t take these teams seriously, they’ll get burned.

Here are the seed matchups this time for the Sweet 16:

No. 1 vs. No. 12
No. 2 vs. No. 11
No. 3 vs. No. 10
No. 2 vs. No. 6
No. 5 vs. No. 9
No. 1 vs. No. 5
No. 1 vs. No. 4
No. 2 vs. No. 6

I’m not saying these lower seed teams can’t win. Obviously, these teams can, or we would not be talking about them. But now, it’s the Sweet 16. There aren’t any teams that are sleep walking through these games. At this point, the Final Four looms just one week away. The elite teams aren’t messing around anymore.

In the first weekend, Cinderella teams get through on a little talent, a lot of heart and determination, and capitalizing on the fact that the top seeds thought they could take it easy and still win.

Now, it’s more about talent and coaching. And that’s when the big boys start to win out.

I just hope I’m wrong.

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Tales of a Running Hater Part VI: The Stitch Edition

This week, I’m starting to feel it.

Week 4 of the Couch-to-5k program has come, and the length time of the running intervals are starting to get longer.

In my mind, and from my athletic background, running for five minutes straight is nothing. But, it’s been awhile since I was in any sort of running shape, so this week was the first of the program I really felt that it was starting to push my limits. Not that my limits are impressive. At all. 

The interval set was run for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, run for 5 minutes, walk for 2 minutes and complete two sets.

In day 1, in the first five minute run, I got a cramp in my side. I worked it out and was fine for the rest of the run. On day 2, another cramp came and this time it lasted through most of the second set. It never hurt to the point that it forced me stop, but it did affect my speed on the last five minute run; I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted in the final couple of minutes.

So I looked up some info on cramps (or stitches, as they’re sometimes called) to hopefully avoid that problem tomorrow when I run day 3.

I read two articles to help me, one on WebMD and one on Cool Running and both said it’s more a breathing problem than anything else. If you learn nothing else from me in this life, remember that shallow breathing is bad. You can get stitches by simply not breathing deep enough. If you start breathing properly, a lot of times the stitch will go away.

When you get a cramp, it’s best to just slow down, even to a walk if necessary, until the stitch goes away. It usually won’t take too long to subside. 

There can be other contributing factors, like being dehydrated or eating too much before going on a run. Good breathing seems to be the key.

I’m coming up on the halfway point of this program, and I’m really glad I started it. As I mentioned in the previous Couch-to-5k posts (you can click here if you want to read them), I have never enjoyed running, but I wanted to challenge myself.

At first, I was struggling to stay motivated to do the runs. But now, I actually (gulp) look forward to run days. I can’t tell you how much better I feel on days I run. Even from start to finish of the run, my body feels drastically improved.

So, look out. I’m actually starting to enjoy this. Sort of.

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Sexual misconduct and sports

It’s something I don’t understand.

When a female accuses someone of sexual misconduct — especially when a female accuses a famous person or professional athlete on such charges — it seems like people immediately want to think, “She’s just a gold digger.”

I don’t have any personal experience in the matter, fortunately (both in getting raped or wanting to hook up with professional athletes. Once you've covered them on a daily basis, believe me, you wouldn't want to either). But, as a woman, I feel compelled to say something in light of this most recent Ben Roethlisberger situation.

Now of course, I don’t know what happened last week between Roethlisberger and the woman who is making the claims against him. So it’s possible the Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback will be found not guilty on all charges if this goes to trial. I’m not just talking about his situation specifically.

But, just look at the language in the media when a sexual misconduct situation arises. Maybe it started earlier than this, but the first time I remembering hearing it was the Kobe Bryant rape case, and that’s the phrase “Kobe’s accuser.” Or, Ben Roethlisberger’s accuser. It’s such a negative word. The phrase seems to completely separate Bryant or Roethlisberger from any involvement in the situation. Accuser makes it sound like some crazy person in the Salem witch trials getting up and screaming, “She’s a witch!” at some random person they don't even know.

In my mind, when I hear “possible victim” vs. “accuser”? it makes quite a difference in how I am going to view the person.

What if it was flipped? What if stories would say, “Possible rapist Kobe Bryant”? Or, “possible rapist Ben Roethlisberger”? Well, that’s not saying they committed the crime, so the media outlets are covered from any libel problems. But it puts Bryant or Roethlisberger in a negative light before all the facts are out. I think it’s important to be fair to both sides while the situation is being sorted out and the language used often doesn't do that.

It also frustrates me when people say (again, not just in these two situations specifically) “well, she put herself in that situation. It’s her fault.”Well yes, maybe some of these women were out at nightclubs, and maybe, they were hoping for attention from star athletes. Maybe, they were even hoping to hook up. But, if these women got in that situation, and at any point voiced that they were uncomfortable with what was happening, the other person needs to listen and stop.

It doesn’t matter who the person is, or what their profession is, or even how many people they’ve slept with. Everyone should have the chance to say, “hey, this makes me uncomfortable and I want to stop.” Sleeping around or wanting to hook up with athletes doesn’t make you are immune from getting raped.

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My Denver Surprise

 

I was dropping a bombshell on my brother and sister-in-law the first night I was here visiting them in Denver.

Or… so I thought.

“Bryan and I are talking about getting married,” I said, my eyes locked on anything but my brother and sister-in-law in the Cheesecake Factory on that Saturday night.

If you know me, you know this is an extraordinary statement. I’ve dated my fair share of fellows, and most of the time it ended with me fleeing in panic when things started to get serious.

So, the fact that Bryan and I had talked about getting married, AND the fact that I could verbalize that to another human being (in this case TWO human beings) is probably all you need to know about my feelings for Bryan.

My bro and sister-in-law were excited by this announcement, to say the least.

Five days later, after working a long week with my brother (I’m here to help him out on some projects at his work), we had Friday off, and my sister-in-law was off too. We were going to do some sightseeing.

Or… so I thought.

One of the cool places Travis had mentioned was Sloan’s Lake. Our plan was to go to lunch and then head out for some more tourist-type stuff.

Travis told me to dress nice; the place we were going to lunch was kinda fancy.

While we were driving, Sloan’s Lake appeared on the left.

“This is the lake I was talking about Mandy,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” I said.

And it was. The lake was beautiful; frozen over, with a view of downtown Denver to one side.

So beautiful, in fact, that Travis got impulsive.

Or… so I thought.

“You know what? Why don’t we just get out right now? Do you have your camera? We can take some photos. It’s a perfect day.”

“Yeah sure, that sounds good,” I said.

And it was a perfect day. Well, for Denver anyway. Perfect for this girl is 70 degrees by the beach. But this is Denver in February. So somewhere in the 40s with clear skies and sunshine is perfect. The sun felt warm when we got out of the car and walked around, stepping on chunks of melted ice and snow.

We came to a beautiful bridge. Travis took my camera and told me to stand a certain way. Emily made me turn my back to one entrance of the bridge, and then my brother started snapping photos of the two of us.

Or… so I thought.

Unbeknownst to me, he had the camera on the video function to record what happened next.

While Travis was “taking pictures” I saw a person coming over the bridge out of the corner of my eye. Emily stepped away from me and when I turned to see who it was, I realized that person looked pretty familiar.

It was Bryan. My Bryan. My Bryan who had talked to me on the phone the night before from Los Angeles.

Or... so I thought.

I — being a graceful and soft-spoken lady at all times — shouted something like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” about three octaves higher than I thought possible. You know, in a good, completely stunned sort of way.

I barely got those words out of my mouth, and he was down on one knee. On one knee with a white box. On one knee with a white box that contained something rather shiny.

“I love you very much,” he said.

And um, I honestly don’t remember the rest because I think I was rather close to going into shock. But you know, those are the only words I need to remember.

I assume he said something like, “Will you marry me?” because of the whole ring-and-on-one-knee situation, and also because at some point I remember saying something eloquent like, “Yes. Yes. My answer is yes.”

But mostly, I was stunned that it was all happening.

I think I was stunned because I really wasn’t sure it would ever happen for me. In my mind, the chances that anyone would come around that would make my life so much better, or fill it with so much laughter and happiness seemed slim to none.

Or… so I thought.

 

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Rocky Mountain Hi

If you have been wondering where I have been the last few days here is my answer…

Clearly, not in Los Angeles. I have been in beautiful Denver, Colorado since Saturday and hanging with two of my favorite people in the world, my brother and my sister-in-law.

Personally, I’m a girl who doesn’t like when the temperature drops under 70, but after three days of it looking like this here in Denver...

I was thrilled when they said it would be 40 today.

I don’t even know myself anymore.

This is a trip that’s a lot of work and some play for me, so I just wanted to do a quick photo post while I had the chance.

And, since we couldn’t go without mentioning something sports related, I took this on Tuesday:

Invesco Field is just a short walk from my brother’s office, where I’m helping him with a few projects at his job. It’s been so much fun.

But don’t you worry, there’s a food post coming. My trip happens to coincide with Denver during Restaurant Week (!!!!) and on Sunday, I had one of the most phenomenal meals I’ve ever had.

It involves meat. Lots of meat. 

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Tales of Running Hater Part IV: This is the Remix Edition

Week Two: The REMIX of the Couch to 5k program is well on its way.

I had stated in last week’s post that I was re-doing the second week, because due to an illness, I didn't complete Week Two. I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied at the end of this program if I cut corners. Thus, the REMIX.

Week Two is really pretty easy for me. The program is six intervals of running for 90 seconds, and each one is followed by two minutes of walking. The 30 minutes goes by in a flash.

My goal is to always run a little faster on each interval. I also do one of the intervals on an incline to challenge myself a little more.

As much as I complain about running (you can read my whining here) I always feel so much better after I run. It gives me more energy throughout my entire day. I’m not ready to say I like running yet…we are definitely not on those terms at this point. But I will say I’m warming up to the idea.

I am also excited scared because for the next two weeks, my Couch to 5k will be taking place in Denver. I am visiting my bro and sister-in-law and so I will have to run in two situations that are completely foreign to me: high altitude and snow.

It will definitely be an adventure for this snow-phobic (who am I kidding? Anything-below-70 degrees-phobic) Los Angeles girl. Any Denver runners out there have some good advice for me?  I have the feeling I am going to need it.

If you are running in Denver next week and you see a girl in her mid-20s in a parka, laying on the sidewalk panting for breath in an embarrassing, pathetic sort of way, say hi. That will probably be me after running 200 yards down the street.

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Tales of a running hater part III: Slacker Edition

 

Nope, I haven't put these on in a week. 

Well, that didn’t last long.

Two weeks ago, I was all gung ho. At least, about as gung ho as you can be when you don’t like what you are about to take on.

In this post here, I discussed that despite my hatred of running, I was going to get more serious about doing it on a regular schedule. I picked the program, Couch to 5k. I downloaded a super helpful podcast of the program that would play music, as well as tell me when to start and stop. I joined the facebook fanpage even! Don’t I sound seriously into it?

It took me a week and a half to ruin my streak of keeping with the program.

Impressive, I know.

See, I didn’t just stop because of laziness. I came down with a cold and suddenly my weekend got super busy. I only ran two out of the three scheduled days.

But in a turn of events that is quite different from the normal me, I am sticking with it. If this nine-week program takes me 20 weeks to complete, so be it. My New Years resolution, after all, is “finish what you start.”

My first thought after missing a day was, “well, I’ll just start on the third week Monday. I ran two out of the three days this week. That’s enough.”

It made me feel like a slacker; like I was completely incapable of sticking to anything. All the people that actually enjoy running would be ashamed. And I know and love some of those running enjoyers, as a one-year member of my high school’s cross country team. It only took me one season (it took a lot less than that, but I stuck it out to the end) to realize that running 10 miles a day is not my idea of a good time.

Also, I had read a story last week of a girl who continued to run while having cancer and going through chemotherapy.

So, um, yeah. What was my lame excuse again?

So, we’re going to give it another go, starting on Monday. Couch to 5k Week 2, the REMIX!

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Over the river and through the woods...

A couple of years ago, while a friend was over at my parents’ house with me, he grabbed some candy out of one of our candy bowls. Yes, one of our candy bowls.

“I don’t know anyone else who has bowls of candy out at their house,” he said.

I was in shock. I would even go as far as saying I was flabbergasted. Yes, I was. Flabbergasted.

“What?!” I said. “I know lots of people that do.”

After some thought on the subject, I realized the list of people I knew that had bowls of candy at their house looked like this:

1. My grandma

2. My mom

3. My aunts

It honestly never occurred to me that this might not be the norm. I thought it was just something everyone did, but really, it’s just a result of my Grandma’s sweet tooth, which rivals just about anyone else’s in human history. Which apparently, is genetic.

Today, at the last minute, I hopped in my car and drove out to where my grandparents live, which is a little over an hour from me. I don’t get to see them nearly as much as I’d like. They are two of my favorite people in the world and whenever I go, I basically eat and laugh at their funny stories.

What’s better than eating and laughing? Nothing, except eating and laughing with my grandparents.

Here is what I found upon arrival at their house today (in addition to the photo at the top of this post):

I try to eat healthy, I really do.

Once I step into Grandma’s house though, my self control, my rules, my waistline, all of it goes flying out the window.

My grandpa picked up TWO boxes of See's Candies earlier in the week, each weighing more than a pound.

My grandpa told me, “I asked grandma if I could try one of hers” (this is her box):

“She said, ‘well, I’ll trade you.’”

This is my grandpa’s box:

Within two hours of being here, I’d eaten fresh tamales, peanut M & Ms, and one piece from each of their See's boxes.

But that’s the beauty of going to Grandma’s house.

The rules are different. My Grandma would be the first to tell you.

And Grandma's rules are the only rules I care about.

Especially this rule, expressed eloquently by my cousin last year when she was in fifth grade.

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Tales of a running hater: Part II

                                 Running isn't fun. Downloading podcasts on your new iPod is.

 Week 2 of the Couch-to-5k program has come.

Or more specifically, as I’ve seen on the Couch-to-5k facebook fan page I just joined, W2D2. People refer to where they are in the program by week and day. So in the interest of solidarity with my 40,000 new facebook friends, I’ll do it too.

As mentioned in my first post about the program (you can read it here), running and I are not BFFs.

Not even close.

But so far, the Couch-to-5k program has been exactly what I was looking for.

First, it’s free. You don’t have to sign up for anything. I’m a writer; needless to say, free is good.

Mostly though, it works for me because the program is 30 minutes long, three times a week. Much of my dislike of running is more dread than anything else. The idea of spending everyday doing long runs holds about as much interest for me as making a visit to the DMV. This program makes you feel like you can get in decent running shape (which is all I want) with 90 minutes a week. That, I can get on board with.

At this point, the workouts are pretty easy. This week, you run six intervals at 90 seconds apiece, and in between each of those you walk for two minutes. Doing intervals at this point helps too; running can be monotonous for me, but this helps break it up.

So obviously, “running” is pretty relative. I didn’t push it too hard on Monday, but went a little harder on the running sections today. As each running interval comes, I try to run it a little faster. By the sixth and final one today, I was probably running at about 90 percent of my full speed.

The podcast I use to help me through it is great too. It’s nice to not worry about looking at a watch to see when your interval is up. The podcast by Robert Ullrey I found on iTunes keeps track of all for me, playing upbeat music and telling me when to start and stop. 

It feels good now, but I’m wondering how long that will last. I’m sure by Week 6 I’ll be missing these 90 second intervals.

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Tales of a running hater: Part I

I don't have a picture of me running (thankfully), so my shoes are all you get. 

If running were on facebook, we would not be friends.

Running in a soccer game? Sure. Hustling from first to second base? I’m fine with that. Otherwise, running is not high on my list; unless that list is, “Things I don’t like doing.”

Use the words “running” and “Amanda” in the same sentence to any of the girls I played club or high school soccer with, and immediate laughter would ensue.

Running and I just don’t see eye to eye, despite my efforts to see the good in it. One agonizing sophomore year of high school, I even ran on the cross country team. The people on the team were wonderful; you really won’t find better people in sports than those who run cross country. But when the coaches would casually say on race day, “run a mile warm up before the race and a mile cool down after,” I could not imagine they were actually serious about that. That probably explains why I never did it (if you ever read this Coach DeLong, I’m sorry).

I made up this motto during my time on the team: “it’s good to suck and it sucks to be good” (it’s weird, I don’t get any calls to be a motivational speaker).The better you were, the more you ran, so why would I want to be good?

In spite of all of this, I started a running program this week. My resolution for 2010 is simply, “finish what you start,” because I tend to get started on projects or books or working out and not stick with it. Writing about it once a week, I hope, will help me stay on track.

I needed a program that was simple and something that wouldn’t be too much torture. So, I did what any self-respecting person would do in my situation: turned to iTunes.

The “Couch to 5k” running program started by Cool Running seemed to be the best choice (even though I don’t happen to agree that running is cool). There is no specific 5k race I’m training for or anything, but I just want to be in shape enough to where I could run about three miles and not look and feel like I just completed some ultra marathon. It’s only three days a week, and about 30 minutes a run. I think I can handle that. My days to run will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Robert Ullrey created a podcast for the program with music mixes to use while completing the runs, which are a really helpful.

Tomorrow is my last run of this week, and it’s been OK so far. I haven’t hated it, which is a step in the right direction.

Maybe, just maybe, running and I can be friends.

I make no guarantees. 

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Lessons from Haiti

I have been so moved by this country’s incredible generosity in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

For all the complaining people do about America (inside and out of it) I feel like few other countries rise to the occasion like we do. OK, I’ll admit that’s biased. But I think as Americans, we realize that no matter what we have or don’t have, we possess so much more than people around the world.

Still, it’s hasn’t been a fun stretch here for Americans. Many have lost jobs or been forced to move out of their homes. There’s little extra money lying around to spend even on ourselves or our families, but still, we did our best and gave what we had to help people in Haiti. People donating just $10 via texting have raised millions for the Red Cross to bring aid to the devastated country.

It’s strange how the worst of times seem to bring out the best in people. I certainly don’t want bad, catastrophic events happening all over the place, but I wish the world could maintain this approach at all times, good and bad. When something bad happens that we don’t expect, we all seem to look around and say, “Hey, nothing else matters right now except for the fact that we need to help each other get through this.”

Really, it’s how we should always behave. We all come from different places. Not all of us agree on healthcare or gay marriage or religion or politics. But under that all, we are all humans. There can be no better reason as to why we should treat each other with respect.

So while I wish this horrible earthquake never happened, I do hope we learn something from it. I hope we remember that if former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama can unite for common cause, anyone can.  I hope we remember to help people in need, not just when something catastrophic happens. I hope we remember that even when we feel like we can’t do any more, we usually can.

For anyone who has courageously flown down to Haiti to help in the relief efforts, anyone who has donated money or supplies, or to anyone who has simply offered up a prayer, thank you.

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