Sunday, April 9, 2006

About JoJo

I feel like a blog "cheater," but I like these dumb little quizzes so I stole the idea from Annette and Rachel, verbatim.

Robert's playing games at his parent's house (I came home early to get to bed -- will in a moment), but in the meantime . . . have fun getting to know ME (Jocelyn):

Four jobs I have had
1. QC/QA editor at Western Governors University (current job)
2. Assistant editor at Kennedy Center Publications
3. Technical writer at BYU Financial Aid Office
4. Actress/singer at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem (hey, I got paid :)

Four of my favorite movies
1. Sense and Sensibility
2. Little Women
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Anything Disney or Musical (depending on my mood)

Four of my favorite books (besides The Book of Mormon, the Bible, etc.)
1. The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (if you want to find out how much of a geek I am, ask to see my copy of this book sometime . . . you'll get to see LOTS of pretty colors :)
2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
3. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
4. Harry Potter series in general (by J.K. Rowling -- as if you didn't know)

Four of my favorite poems (I'm an English major -- I couldn't resist)
1. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot
2. "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth
3. "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" by W.B. Yeats
4. "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (and five hundred other poems . . . including work by my romantic husband, Robert)

Four of my favorite games
1. Rook (Gibbons rules, of course)
2. Zelda: The Wind Waker (on our Gamecube)
3. Ticket to Ride
4. Settlers of Cataan (though I am yet to win . . . my time IS COMING!!!)

Four places I have lived
1. Newport Beach, CA
2. Farmington, UT
3. Provo, UT
4. London, England, UK

Four places I have been on vacation
1. Ukraine
2. Prague, Czech Republic
3. Paris, France
4. New York City, NY

Four Web sites I visit daily
1. My e-mail (go gmail!)
2. My blog
3. Everyone else's blog (though usually only Rachel and Annette "deliver" anything new)
4. Amazon.com (usually to see if Mario Mix has FINALLY come in yet)

Four of my favorite foods
1. Chocolate
2. Chicken salad from Cafe Rio
3. Italian food
4. Panda Express food

Four places I'd rather be right now
1. Anywhere with Robert :)
2. London, England, UK
3. Broadway (as in, performing)
4. Somewhere new and not in the USA (India, China, Denmark, Bhutan)

Saturday, April 8, 2006

Training Wheels Running

To answer Boo's question (posted on the last blog) . . .

The training is still . . . going. I am approaching the end of my third week now and am doing more interval training-- this time, following the schedule: 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking-- all repeated twice. I run three to four times a week-- this week, four times (assuming I go running after typing this).

A few discoveries from the past few weeks:
  1. Running is kick-your-trash hard. Really, it is. Even though I'm only running intervals-- and 3 minutes is my max longevity so far-- it is still a challenge to just keep pushing through. My body seriously screams "WHAT are you DOING to me?" every time I make it run.
  2. When my body yells at me to stop, my mind yells back stronger . . . keeping me going. This "mind over body" experience is actually quite uplifting and reminds me that I am stronger than I think. At least mentally. :)
  3. When I am done with a run, everything seems clearer, my life seems more at peace, and the many stresses I have seem a lot more manageable. I think this relates back to #2 . Overcoming the difficulty of running teaches me that I can overcome the difficulties of life.
  4. If you can avoid it, do NOT run on an indoor track. It is boring and makes the whole running process a lot harder. This is personal preference of course, but the one day so far that I've run on an indoor track was one of the worst yet. It's a mental thing, of course, but it seems to be a lot easier to run if you can look around and feel the zen of being "one" with nature. However, safety still comes first . . . so I think I can handle running on the indoor track on those few days when I don't have time to run until 9 p.m.
  5. Running is a matter of commitment. I decided to be committed to running the 5k-- so committed that I went to Barnes&Noble and bought myself a running book (The Complete Book of Running for Women by Claire Kowalchik). I highly recommend it. I decided early on that if I'm going to do it, I'll do it all the way-- following the expert advice out there so I avoid burnout and injuries.
In the scheme of things, I've still got my running "training wheels" on, but I'm pretty excited to have gotten this far and I hope to keep pushing until I RUN that 5k . . . and then, run a 10k . . . and then, who knows. (I'm not committing to a marathon. Yet.) (-JoJo)