Of Black Toenails and Shin Splints

Hair's where it's at

Yeah, that (^^^) was totally the name of a 1990s-era hair salon, right?

There's a woman at the fitness center where I work out who has adorably cute, short hair. It's bouncy and has that rare quality of not looking like she dipped it in oil after a long run. I've seen it go no further than the top of her ears, but it always looks adorable. I want to ask her how she manages to look so polished, but I'm afraid she'll see sweaty me and say "There's no hope for you."

And then I get tempted to cut my hair at that length, and then I remember that I can't stand running when my hair is super short because it's constantly falling in my face. I'm at an impasse with my running - I'm not running as much or as hard as I'd like - and I don't need anything else, no matter how trivial, derailing me from running.

It also doesn't help that I bear a striking resemblence to Deputy Trudy Wiegel when my hair is super short.

But anyway, short hairstyles - I covet them! I had an adorable haircut my senior year of high school. It was short and edgy, and I felt ready to take on the world. I haven't had a haircut like that since that time, despite NUMEROUS attempts. I hate that my hair has just about given up and seems ok with being "acceptable," but there's not much more I can really do about it.

And then I look online and see a really cute bob that I think I can handle. (Minus the pink highlights, of course.) Usually, my go-to haircut is "Dried with a bit of something resembling a style," so I'll need to break out the straightening cream big time for this, but I also think it would be worthwhile.

Anyway, I need to make an appointment, and I'm getting a new 'do for the holidays. Anyone else getting a new hairstyle? What do you recommend?

The things I used to do

Before I headed off to college, my parents gave me a nifty alarm clock radio that included a CD player programmable to cue up a particular song when the alarm went off.

This was considered cutting-edge because, after all, it was still the 1990s. (I still have the alarm clock, by the way, although somehwere along the way it's lost its "playability" on the CD front.)

ANYWAY! I was running cross-country my freshman year, and thought I'd be the uber-runner. Which meant I woke up to this song every single morning.

 

 

I'm frankly amazed my first roommate never killed me.

Relic from the past

I was in high school in the mid- to late-1990s, when scrunchies could be worn unironically and were considered an integral part of my school's cross-country uniform.

Running round-up: Week whatever

Haven't done the running round-up in a while, but let's have at it, shall we?

• There once was a woman named Amber Miller, who ran the Chicago Marathon. Oh, and she was 38 weeks pregnant and went into labor and delivered right after the race. That's amazing, but let's move on to the next big "OMG" running moment - Fauja Singh, who is *100* and ran the Toronto Marathon. Big applause, here. No, seriously, that's awesome. I hope I'm still alive at 100, let alone running marathons.
• So, did Todd Richards live-tweet during the Chicago Marathon? Yes, yes, he did. I can barely run and talk, so this is kind of cool.
• Patrick Wagstrom ran the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9, then decided on a whim to run another marathon a week later. Yeesh. Dude, stay  home this weekend!
• I know Disney does a half-marathon, but I had no idea they had one that A) includes FOOD and WINE, and b) is at night. How cool is that? Heather from Run Faster, Mommy? You have yourself a cool life.

Friday Flick: Three Men and a Baby

Let's try something cheery, shall we?

I've been on an '80s movie kick lately, and I recently watched Three Men and a Baby. Guys, what the heck? HOW did Spock wind up directing this movie? There is hardly anything remotely plausible about this piece. The mom just leaves baby Mary with Ted Danson's character without even so much as making sure someone's home to take the baby? I can barely take the garbage out without knowing exactly where my kids are, and this woman is just leaving the baby in front of a NYC apartment like it's no big deal.

(If my dad is reading this blog post, he's probably thinking "It's just a movie, Megan.")

Spoiler! The guys take in the baby and let the mom live in the apartment. If this movie was made today, the premise would have turned into "An inside look at DCFS." Right?

But enough about the plot; let's talk about Tom Selleck's character, who is a runner. We see him chatting up women on his runs (because let's face it - he's basically the only guy on earth who can successfully ask a woman out on a date while sweat is pouring out of his skin), and his running enables him to chase down some baddies on a drug deal gone bad in a subplot that's totally unnecessary and detracts from the charm of the movie.

What's interesting to me is that I totally buy Selleck as a runner. You know when you watch some films where the character is supposed to be a runner, but you can't buy the actor running to the mailbox, let alone embarking on a 10-mile jaunt? ("The Big Chill" and Jared Leto as "Pre" come to mind.) I actually see Selleck as a runner, and Google tells me that he was in pretty good shape at the time of the movie because of Magnum PI. So that's cool and lends a bit of authenticity in a film that's sadly lacking it.

(Selleck's Wikipedia entry also suggests he's a libertarian, making me wonder if he is the 1980s version of Ron Swanson.)

It's just too bad the movie didn't take the running a step further and have Selleck's character (an architect, who presumably added a pull-out bar so everyone can push Mary's stroller in the last scene) design a jogging stroller well before it became a "thing."

The entire aspect of Selleck's-character-as-a-runner takes up a total of about 10 minutes, tops, of the movie, so I can see why it's not included in the canon of running movies. But definitely check it out, if only to see Tom Selleck running around NYC.