Its the most wonderful time of the year

No, silly, not Christmas! My birthday!

I love my birthday, because its the one day of the year that its all about me. Well, and the Nana, seeing as though its her birthday too. But, for argument's sake, we'll say its all about me! Because this may very well be the last birthday I celebrate, as I will soon slip into the realm of thirty somethings, I decided we should do this in style.

Last weekend J & I went to see Wicked. It was wicked good! J was a bit overwhelmed by all the singing, so I had to remind him, "Duh. Its a musical." I also ran a race with my dad. It was technically a 5K, but half of the people went the wrong way, making it more like a 6K. Imagine my surprise when I hit mile 1 at a whopping 14 minutes, after hoping for a 9 minute mile! Luckily, I was not planning on breaking a course record, nor was I planning on qualifying for the Olympics (this time at least) so all was good with the world. We then had dinner & sangria at a fabulous restaurant in RI, kicking off my week of non stop eating!

My birthday itself was lovely, complete with munchkins, sushi, ice cream cake, Mexican & margaritas. I may have technically had 3 desserts that day, but who's counting?! I got lovely presents from J, including earphones that stay in my ears, and windshield washer fluid. So romantic! I also have balloons all over my house. Festive, but it smells like a condom in here, and they make vacuuming a royal pain in the ass!

Tonight I am headed to dinner with friends (more food!) and this weekend is the big Team GDT weekend (yeah, more food). I'll be sure to give a full report, but I'm fairly certain we were the top fundraisers again this year. Go team! After that, I guess its back to the daily grind of watching the Red Sox in the post season and waiting to turn 30. I'm not sure what scares me more!

I Heart Apple

I know Apple has been around forever, its only just recently they have sucked me into their web of all that is good and happy in the world.

It started with the iPod. I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive Becca is the one who owes me $300 for introducing me to this fine piece of machinery. J just shook his head in disbelief as I dragged him to Best Buuy one cold Sunday and rang up an iPod, speakers, car connector, and the Garden State soundtrack for good measure. (This is before we combined our finances, by the way).

I love that iPod. I named him Ipod (pronounced Ih-Pid). I spent countless hours downloading CD after CD, even the crappy ones, just to watch my song count go up. I was amazed at the fact I could listen to 4 days of music without hearing the same song twice.

Then I took it running and dropped it. It didn't break (thanks to its rubber condom-like case I purchased online), but the thought of losing Ipod forever scared me so much, that I went out and bought a Shuffle (creatively named Shufflie -- see a theme?) When I opened the box I was a bit disappointed. What was this tiny plastic thing? How could it store my music? But it didn't fail me! Shufflie stored only my running songs, and, because I don't like to hear the same songs every time I run, the random shuffle was just what I needed in life.

Shufflie and I had a good run together, for a while. Then Apple came out with all these new iPods -- smaller Shuffles! Video iPods! The Nano! I resisted the temptation fairly well.

Until the Nike+ kit arrived.

I was strong for a while. I didn't have Nike shoes, so I couldn't even use the sensor, right? You Are Incorrect! I could buy a little case to velcro to my shoes. Then I signed up for the Boston Marathon, and somehow convinced myself that the $250 I would fork over for the Nano, the Nike+ kit, and the matching red & black armband would greatly help my training. So I bought it (and named it NanoNano, of course).

And it did help my training. It was a miracle! I owe the fact that I finished the Marathon to the people at Apple & Nike! If I had won the race (ha!) I would have thanked them as the officials placed the laurel wreath on my head. Maybe next year.

The kit is great, but I have to admit, it lies. I'm not fast, and would never pretend I am. When I'm on the treadmill, and it says I'm running a 10 minute mile, but the Nano says I'm going anywhere between 9:30 (yay!) and 10:30 (boo!) in a matter of 30 seconds of running. I recently ran a 5 mile race, but when I finished, NanoNano said I had run 4.6 miles. I need to fix that.

I love the Power Song function too. Just hit the button and you're best "pump me up" song comes on to get you through your workout. For a while, mine was "Eye of the Tiger" but I've recently evolved to Avril Levine's "Girlfriend." And there's nothing better than hearing "invisible male voice" say "400 meters to go!" Oh wait, its even nicer when Lance Armstrong congratulates you -- its like he's in my head, man!

Believe it or not, I do not work for Apple. If Steve Jobs is reading this, and he'd like to hire me as a spokesperson, I'm all for it. But I'm gonna need a video iPod as a signing bonus. And an iBook. And and iPhone, for good measure!

As an aside, did you see the slogan for the new iMac? "You can't be too thin. Or too powerful." Truer words have never been spoken.