Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Years Resolutions

Why make limiting resolutions when you can resolve to do more of the things you love to pursue? For me, at least, it's easier to do more than to do less.

A couple posts ago, I wrote about my Chinese sister's funeral. Meimei was a person with an amazingly kind soul and thirst for adventure. She pushed me to do the things I loved to do the most - run, travel, cook, meet new people, learn Chinese, spend time with my family and her own. She was always disappointed by the fact that I had never run a marathon, and, honestly, so was I.

Meimei and Me in Beijing one year ago:



Meimei died of leukemia, an illness that I am sure was a result of China's polluted environment. While I'm glad I didn't train for a marathon in China - where would my lungs be? I know that I can help her live on by training for one now, and hopefully kicking some serious marathon butt in San Diego in early June.

Wish me luck. Here are some photos from one of my first early morning training runs.

From Potrero Hill looking at Twin Peaks just post-sunrise:



Potrero Hill from Glen Park:



The city:



The sunrise from Potrero Hill:

Friday, January 2, 2009

Peanut Butter Conundrum

I went to the grocery store with one objective in mind: to buy a jar of peanut butter. Little did I know that buying peanut butter in this country is an art of the highly mature American consumer. Or so I'd like to think.

HALF the aisle was a monstrous display of peanut butter - crunchy, smooth, reduced fat, salted, unsalted, maple syrup infused, premixed with jelly, organic, not organic, skippy, Jif, Peter Pan, Martha's, pre-swirled with chocolate, and even ... crush it yourself!

I stared at the plethora of peanut butter, examined a few jars of the pre-swirled stuff (amazing!!), paced up and down the pb&j aisle a few more times, then, naturally, pulled out my camera, took a picture, and promptly fled the grocery store.

Mission peanut butter failed.